Category Archives: books

What I Did On My One Day Vacation

As I sit here listening to the clock tick in an otherwise quiet house, I'm marveling at the fact that I took the day off -- most of it, anyway -- and the world didn't end. Aside from being on an island beach somewhere, this day was probably as close to ideal as it could have ...

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The 3rd 40: Day 27

It was a 100% work-free day (with the exception of the time I spent jotting down ideas into an email on my iPhone at the A's game... yes, I have problems). Every Sunday I wake up with the intention of going to kickboxing at 9:00. The problem with that plan is that it interferes with Sunday ...

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The 3rd 40: Days 9 and 10

Wednesday was a magnificent example of flexible scheduling and balance. I was awake before dawn to negotiate contracts and catch up on much-needed accounting work (one of the many, many hats in the freelance wardrobe). I managed to ...

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The 3rd 40: Day 4, 5 and 6

I am sore. I started Thursday's kickboxing class still sore from Tuesday's. Adding another major workout only managed to highlight some additional muscles that I didn't previously know that I'd had. I tried to counteract that with some yoga and stretching, which was a good decision, considering that I was still able to move on Saturday ...

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A Science Geek In a Liberal Arts World (Or is it the other way around?)

In spite of my natural inclinations toward science, math and all things that public school kids deem to be geeky, I somehow ended up as a professional writer and editor. It was as much of a shock to me as it was to anyone. I went to college thinking that I'd be a ...

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Evolving Language

As I was reading this article about how half of the world's languages are in danger of dying out, I started thinking about just how much the English language has changed and evolved, a language spoken by nearly half a billion people every day. I'm not talking about the changes since Shakespeare's ...

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Another 40: Days 22-32

Yes, I've been terrible about following through on the documentation of this 40-day challenge. Since we last spoke, I went on vacation. For anyone who wonders if they should skip the hoopla of the holidays and head for the tropics, my answer is an unequivocal yes. In the course of a week, I read a

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Another 40: Day 21

For the most part, the clients have entered the quiet zone known as Holiday Shutdown. It's a blissful and glorious time, the time where I get to spend multiple days getting organized, closing out the current year and looking ahead to new things. Even though things were quiet today, I found that I was still stuck ...

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Another 40: Days 10 and 11

Is it Friday already? Where did the week go? I went running yesterday morning. It was 38 degrees and cloudy, but I wanted to get out before the forecast hit: rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain. Unfortunately, the rain came earlier than I expected. I got soaked and raced for home, chilled to the bone ...

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Another 40: Days 5 and 6

The weekend comes in one consolidated package. Highlights: A Saturday morning pilates session that left me feeling beautifully stretched out on Saturday and ab-sore on Sunday. Stumbled across four decent $1 finds on the clearance rack at the used book store around the corner. A good phone conversation with my 91-year-old Nana. Made homemade meatballs with ...

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