Author Archives: JJD
Christmas!
For the first time in, gosh, how many years? I didn’t spend the month of December working around the clock to close a bunch of year-end deals. Instead, I had a great December full of sisterly visits, furniture shopping and — to top it all off — a white Christmas with my sibs and the […]
It’s beginning to look a lot like . . .
THE PARENTS ARE COMING!!! My new house may be exerting a grandbaby-like pull on my parents (they’re coming to visit me for the first time in six years; the second time in ten years), but there are important differences between grandbabies and houses. For example, grandparents don’t normally expect to sleep and eat and bathe […]
Ashley does Seattle
A few weeks ago Alaska Airlines announced a new flight from Kalispell, Montana, to Seattle and starts promoting it with super-cheap round-trip tickets for travel between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My dear sister Ashley, adventurous bargain-hunter that she is, saw the promotion and decided it was time for a siblings weekend in Seattle. Next thing you […]
O, tannenbaum
I don’t have much history with Christmas trees. I grew up loving my mother’s spectacularly lit trees, but since leaving home sixteen years ago (!!) the number of trees I’ve had could probably be counted on one hand. The reasons varied by year: maybe I was a missionary in Belgium, maybe I was living in […]
The House: Curtain’s up!
Happy news for future house guests: You can now bathe without awkwardly drenching the guest bathroom with water and/or traipsing (even more awkwardly) upstairs to the shower in the master bathroom! That’s because I turned this: “Oh, I know,” said the idiot who designed this bathroom, “I’ll design a bathroom where there’s no way to hang […]
The House: Painting begins!
When I bought my new house in early September, I vowed that the first thing I would do would be to repaint the inside. The builder had covered the walls in a warm, creamy white — and if there’s one thing I hate, it’s warm, creamy white walls, because as far as I’m concerned, that’s […]
Birthday weekend with Heather!
Being a twin is the best thing ever. For me, it has meant having one of the smartest, funnest, most talented girls I know in my life since the very beginning. I was about to say that she’s one of my best friends, but that’s not quite right — the bond we have is better, […]
Another Halloween win for Ashley
The nice part about having a sister who’s an evil genius for costumes? She’s there for you when you when you need to win at Halloween. At first I was excited when my friend Dana invited me to her annual “Epic Halloween Party”. For the first time in, like, forever I thought I would […]
The Hike: Autumn color in the Enchantment Lakes
The last time I went on an overnight backpacking trip was, gosh, probably sometime during the year or so after I got my Eagle Scout award. So, early high school, roughly 20 years ago. Since then I’ve hiked, and I’ve camped, but both together? Not until this last weekend. On Wednesday my friend Colin asked […]
The House: Moving Day!
Finally, at long last, and FOR PETE’S SAKE, I moved into my new place today! I technically have another month before I need to be out of my old place, and I had hoped to paint and redo some light fixtures (and maybe trim some more moss?) before moving in, but apparently Lesson No. 1 […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 