Hanni and I like to think of ourselves as divas, but I gotta admit – it’s pretty unusual for us to ever appear on television. And it’s very unusual for us to be on TV two days in a row. In fact, that’s never happened before. Until last week, that is. Last Wednesday morning Hanni […]

Earlier this week I got an email from “stage management” of Court Theatre in Chicago. The Hyde Park company is staging the play Wait Until Dark — they were wondering if I’d be willing to come by at rehearsal to, well, you know, show them the ropes. Chicago’s Metromix describes the play like this: A […]

It’s Hanni’s ninth birthday today, and she just received a terrific gift: a message from an iPhone telling us our book won another award! This one comes from the Dog Writers Association of America — Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound won the 2008 DWAA Maxwell Award for Best Picture Book. The iPhone message came […]

I keep track of money by folding each denomination differently. Twenties are folded in half, tens down to three-quarter size. Fives get the end folded into a triangle and singles I just leave be. I have to trust cashiers not to cheat me – I ask them to call out each bill as it’s placed […]

A friend emailed me after last summer’s Democratic National Convention to let me know how much I look like (what was then) the future First Lady. The blog post I wrote about that — titled Do I Look Like Michelle Obama? — garnered many, many replies. Most comments said no. Some weren’t sure what to […]