My mother was so deft with a needle.  Living room curtains, my turquoise poodle skirt, an unusual outfit for my Barbie — all spun out of her head into our lives.  Impeccably knit sweaters, bronze sculptures, then on to her calling:  weavings that lend grace where they’re hung.  I’ve written about my mother, who at 95 is now caught in the Alzheimer’s web.  Unfortunately,  my DNA receptors stepped out of the room when the natural transfer of textile talent might have occurred. I forgive myself too quickly when I lose knitting stitches and carry on — head high, results...

I really should have paid better attention to how to make the new television work.  My parents’ main caregiver was gone for the day, and I was so elated over the price I paid for the  replacement, that I never caught on to the ABC’s.  Where’s my old Zenith?  And so, when the new tv was connected to Florida cable, and I was handed two remote controls, I did my best — which just wasn’t quite good enough.  My father looked on, pleased to have a familiar source of entertainment back in his living room, while I studied the controls and, like an astronaut in space for the...

I asked my husband to stop the car immediately.  “I’ve got to know what kind of dog that is,” I blurted out, as we were driving up a hill and an unfamiliar animal came into sight. Definitely part poodle, that much we knew.  Had a soft-coated wheaten terrier jumped the fence?   It was, for the moment, the most adorable dog I’d ever seen and I wanted to know more. “It’s a woodle,” she told us, smiling — and  mentioned that it was more than a handful, too. “A poodle and what else?” And as the appearance of another car made it impossible for...

(copied from an unidentified website targeting house sellers) De-Clutter! People collect an amazing quantity of junk. Consider this: if you haven’t used it in over a year, you probably don’t need it. If you don’t need it, why not donate it or throw it away? Remove all books from bookcases. Hoping to help my friend who’s just put her house on the market, I e-mailed her a link to a website with lots of house-selling pointers. I had a feeling that she might find a new suggestion or two.  She wrote back soon after, politely explaining that the book removal tip wasn’t...

The call came at the end of the day from someone I’d interviewed at a world affairs conference, when I was still writing for Pacific Shipper.  My name must have been collecting dust in her Rolodex — and I could hear her desperation.  Could I possibly feed four visiting Indonesian journalists who were eager to experience a typical American family dinner? They’d eaten less than typical fare in top restaurants across the nation for a week, and now for their last dinner they wanted to see how Americans really ate.  After ignoring emphatic family advice, I decided to make them a very...