One of the many cool things about our Threebrock is that the sellers left us with the specs that accompanied the blueprints. While we don’t have the original plans, this document shows how the architect (W. A. Skinner of Holyoke) intended the house to be built.

EMC has a pretty cool employee community. I’m honored to be the current featured employee. Check it out!

Mike and I can literally hang-out in a museum now! Photographic artist Larry Roy asked us to be part of his “American Beauty” project. Check it out at lawrenceroy.com or in exhibition at Noble Hospital in Westfield, Mass.

Who doesn’t love having surgery (without the silly boy-girl drama)? I had a really good experience with my first surgery since little-kid tonsillitis. I opted to use a surgeon out of Cooley-Dickenson Hospital in Northampton where they have a spankin-new surgery wing donated by the man who founded Yankee Candle. It was nice. The whole  Read more »

No, I’m not ordering any really exotic dinner. This being the Year of the Tiger, includes my birthday. Out of curiosity, and forgetting much of what I learned in a college Chinese mythology course, I checked Wikipedia for details. But I did remember that I am a tiger, more specifically a Wood Tiger, but not  Read more »

Today I turn 35 with snow in the overnight forecast and the in-laws in Jamaica. They send a taste of the tropics home… Happy Birthday from Negril, Jamaica! For those who’ve been, Negril, Jamaica is quite nearly paradise. Its Seven-Mile Beach offers amazing people, food and Jamaican hospitality. Right in the center of it all  Read more »

Recently the Fitchburg office of the Honorable John Olver came to the aid of my grieving mother who was facing mounting medical bills following the death of my father. The insurance companies sending those bills seemed to be engaging in predatory practices sending bills my parents hadn’t seen during my father’s four-year fight with cancer.

Spring is approaching (well, it’s already here in college-speak), so now’s the time to explore those spring awakenings. My course, Intro to Online Journalism, is offered through UMassOnline’s award-winning Certificate of Journalism program. Class begins Jan. 19, you can register through Jan. 31.

I have to share this. It’s too freakin’ funny and is totally something Bubbah Jones (Ella, our precious Boston Terrier) would do if we had a pool.

Is the Tooth Fairy real? How about the garbage man? Those questions may seem trivial, but how young children answer them is an important indicator of cognitive development. Keep Santa comin’…