1. When the kids make a declaration of some sort, I find myself using the same stock responses I heard growing up. The Little Miss will walk over and whine, “Daddy, I’m hungry.” “Hi, Hungry,” I say, “I’m Daddy. Pleased to meetcha.” 2. The kids have a strong tendency to repeat themselves over and over again when they want…
[W]hile reading Michener’s memoir, The World Is My Home, I came across this passage where Michener describes his feelings about the arts, criticism, and how he formed his opinions: I had always had the habit, which I adhered to in my response to the arts, of trying to look or listen with an unprejudiced intellect. For…
[B]oth the Little Man and the Little Miss have been making a repeated request lately. I’ll be in the home office, writing, or something, and one or both will come by and ask, “Dadda, will you put on the ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’ song?” I don’t remember when I…
[T]his morning we took a walk to local farmer’s market. The air was cool and freshened by breeze. All traces of summer’s humidity had vanished. Just last weekend, we were sitting lakeside, enjoying the sun. Today was the first day of 2015 that felt like fall. I snapped this photo as we approached our destination. Fall might not…
[A]nd I still can’t watch the news footage of the World Trade Center smoking, and eventually collapsing. It still seems profoundly surreal. A new building has risen from the ashes, but I still see the ghosts of the old twins when I catch a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline. I think those ghosts live in my…
[W]e have been doing more short, mini-trips lately. Often, these are one day jaunts, like our recent trip to Monticello, or our trip into the mountains of Maryland last weekend. I like these mini-trips. A good experience on such a trip can be completely revitalizing. For Labor Day weekend, we decided at the last minute…
[I]t certainly felt busy, what with the projects I am juggling at the day job taking up so much of my time. But I didn’t realize just how busy August was until I looked at the numbers. RescueTime tells me that I spent nearly 300 hours in August on the computer: More than a third of…
[R]emember when the Little Man was born? It seems like it  was yesterday. Turns out it happened over 6 years ago. This morning, the increasingly Not-So-Little Man set off for 1st grade. First grade is a special milestone, because it is the earliest grade for which I have a pretty clear memory of things. I…
[I]f you are wondering why it has been so quiet here, the reason is pretty simple: I am inundated with day job work. This has been building over the last few months for a variety of reasons, but the main crux is that I am project manager and technical lead on 3 projects, all of which…
[O]n Saturday, on a whim, we drove down to Monticello to visit the home of Thomas Jefferson. One of the many things I like about living in this area is the rich history. We can drive north to battlefields at Gettysburg, or we can drive south and visit the unique home of Thomas Jefferson. So…
[I] lived in L.A. from 1983 – 2002–almost 20 years. I come back to L.A. for work every now and then, and it is always an interesting experience, one that fills me with mixed feelings. A lot of things have changed about L.A., but a lot of things have remained the same. Cities evolve. Santa…
[M]y pal, Fred Kiesche (@FredKiesche) made the following remark on Twitter this morning, @jamietr Figured you were, but you’ve been so quiet in your Sekrit Writing Room I couldn’t be sure. — Fred Kiesche (@FredKiesche) July 17, 2015 and at once I felt guilty for neglecting to post here more frequently. So I figured the…