Jan 8, 2013

As any parent knows, one of the best things about being a parent is getting to ignore your kids. Whether that means parking the kids in front of the TV for a few hours or shipping them off to Grandma’s house for the weekend, there are few sweeter moments in life than when your children’s insatiable need for attention and interaction can be temporarily...

Oct 2, 2012

This is going to be my last post for a while, at least as a regular contributor. But before I ride off into the sunset, I want to leave you with a thought. I’ve recently seen a few things in which people did not have kind things to say about our fair city. And I was reminded of a blog post I read a few months ago about dealing with negative book reviews, in...

Jul 16, 2012

As my regular readers know, I’m a citizen of more than one country, and I have moved around. A lot. It doesn’t take much for me to call a place home. It has often just been the location I’m resting my head for that evening, be it my actual residence, a family member’s home, a friend’s place, or even a hotel room. I’m always hard pressed to answer...

Jun 18, 2012

When my husband Tom and I were contemplating the decision to move to Des Moines (from San Francisco), it seemed like Des Moines was popping up on every “top ten” list imaginable. Of course, the Iowans we knew forwarded these lists to us. I can’t remember each list, but I know among them Des Moines was listed in “Best City for Business,” “Best Places...

Feb 28, 2012

When I started writing my post this week, my intent was to talk about the Des Moines I knew before I left for California, and the Des Moines I’m getting reacquainted with now that I’m back. Certainly a lot has changed, though I would never have called it a bad place to live in the first place. Before I left Iowa, I had lots of family, plenty of friends and...