Entries in the 'Our Good Life' Category
October 27, 2005
Tam & Shan (a.k.a. The Love Varmint, The Varmint or Clown Boy) whooping it up, Mexico-style in September 2005 at Zac and Rach's wed-dang. Notice the tequila-glazed eyes? The Terrible Tiki shirt? How 'bout the love? Can you feel THE...
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October 28, 2005
My little dog and friend of 14 years died late Tuesday night, curled atop her bed. Despite knowing the day was coming, I find myself unprepared. Molly has been my faithful companion in real life and my ever-present sidekick in...
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October 30, 2005
Fact: Halloween is the best holiday on the planet, bar none. Brilliant costumes. Great friends. Fantastic parties. Perfect weather. No "gottas" or "shouldas" - just "wannas". Plus, there's the candy - and the kids gettin' all jittery and frothy and...
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November 2, 2005
Cafe Chloe, on the corner of 9th and G, may be our new favorite neighborhood restaurant. (Too bad it's not in our neighborhood...) Mike J., friend, surfer, former Cisco dude and future accupuncturist attended the fete, wallowing as we did,...
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November 8, 2005
Meet Jan, better known as Mom. Mom, like most moms, totally rocks. She's one of the most complex, deeply complicated and genuinely sweet people I've ever met. (But don't tell her I said that. She's trying to maintain a certain...
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November 11, 2005
Knowing I'm a morning person, friends often ask why I love being awake at 6 a.m.. They look deep into my eyes, seeking out the crazy, when they ask. This is one of the reasons. I took this picture this...
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November 17, 2005
As we were driving the other morning to get a cup of obscenely expensive coffee, my mom said a wonderful thing to me: "You know what, Tam? I think you two are more in love today than on the...
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November 21, 2005
These are the three biggest reasons I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving that do not involve food. (Unless of course they're really REALLY bad.) Five, maybe six people I know who regularly read this thing are probably falling over in a dead...
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November 26, 2005
The usual day of gluttony, guilt and remote control wrestling ended up a bust. Nope. Instead, it was pretty much a joyful, Norman Rockwellian affair, just a little bit angstier and neurotic and with a lot more volume. Two...
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December 8, 2005
In what amounts to a wild orgy of spending since Sir Squeakalot became co-chairman of finance back in May of 2004, we made two updates to our kitchen: We bought a new range and a new microwave. I didn't give Captain...
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December 12, 2005
(Note: As the title indicates, this is the second of a two-part story. To read things in order, scroll to the entry directly below this. We wouldn't want you to be confused...) Propelled by the paw at my back, I...
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December 18, 2005
It's Friday night. The Varmint and I get off work at 8pm, throw on our party duds and hightail it a half-mile up the hill to a cocktail party at our neighbors' place. We enter, and the house is aroar,...
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December 20, 2005
They say there is the family you live with and then there is the family you choose. "They" forget that there is also the family you've spent so much of your life with that you have no choice but to...
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I have to take a moment to thank the unsung hero of last night, my husband, The Varmint, who valiantly and without heed to his personal welfare cleaned up the bathroom after it was summarily destroyed by... someone. [ For...
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December 24, 2005
A Gaelic blessing for you all this fine evening: Deep peace Of the running wave to you,Deep peace Of the quiet earth to you, Deep peace Of the flowing air to you, Deep peace Of the shining star to you....
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December 29, 2005
You ask anyone who knows him, and they'll have a story about my brother. There's the one where he Sawzall-ed himself out of a skylight hole, Wile E. Coyote-style. There's another where he nailed his hand to a board with...
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January 11, 2006
The Varmint and I are lucky to have some pretty unique friends. We regularly high-five each other that despite the fact we're pushing 40, there are Technicolor characters such as these in our lives - people who can talk about...
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January 18, 2006
I often wake before the sun is up, beating out the morning doves for first song of the day. It is my time. I can do as I please, look and smell my worst: Flyaway hair, Ugg boots and sweats...
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January 24, 2006
The Varmint and I share a desk. A huge, wide useful desk crafted by his handy brother Justin, but just one desk, nonetheless. Our computers are at opposite ends, leaving our backs angled toward one another. This provides us each...
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February 15, 2006
Captured on film Thursday, February 9: Lunch With Gerald (a.k.a. Dex) We ordered almost the same exact thing during my (4 months late) birthday lunch, and I know my dining habits aren't THAT bad - I mean, I kept my...
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March 7, 2006
So, I've been getting hate mail from people because my old reliable daily entry has turned into more of a bi-weekly to when-I-feel-like-it thing. "Are you getting lazy?" they ask. "Are you busy?" Well, yes and yes. But there is...
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March 8, 2006
My Top Five Irrational Pregnancy Fears1. I give birth to a rodent, or some variation with a fur / tail combination. (Varmint + Tam = ????) 2. Varmint Jr. gets the inevitable double-serving of The Nerd Gene and is destined...
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March 9, 2006
Just got a cool email from Monte, my pop-in-law, also known as Father of Varmint. I thought it was pretty interesting and thought I'd share. I'd say it's the kind of familial history many of us long-time Californians share...
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March 17, 2006
Our household is a pretty smooth one. We love hanging out together, rarely argue, never scream, and laugh a lot. The one sore point usually has to do with food. Specifically, quality leftovers or hidden treats. Sweets are a spectacularly...
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March 22, 2006
Welcome, first days of Spring! Oh, how you make us women do crazy, crazy things - such as cut our hair clean off in an enthusiastic spring shearing. Some of us even do it for a good cause. Take Jenny...
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March 29, 2006
Monday, the second contractor came by the house to tell us exactly how much of our hard-earned savings he felt we were going to have to cough up in order to make our postage stamp-sized, two-person home livable with a...
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April 4, 2006
The Varmint and I scurried northward to Santa Barbara for a weekend getaway and family celebration. My little niece Livia was celebrating her first birthday. The party, appropriately, was held at the SB Zoo. Overall the weekend was a good...
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April 13, 2006
It's not everyone's idea of a good time. Heading to a mountain top getaway with three attention mongering kids (ages 1, 3 and 37), an iron-fisted Brazilian, a German shepherd, a rip-snoring Varmint and a gassy pregnant chick may even...
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April 21, 2006
It was sonogram and amniocentesis day today - and we found out the big, Big, BIG news that we're having a girl - and she's looking perfect. Yahoo! It's funny, both sides of the family were exchanging the typical pleasantries,...
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April 29, 2006
One of the best things about being a mom-to-be who's woefully past her prime is that everyone else has done it first. (One of the worst things is that everyone else has done it first, but that's another story.) Everyone...
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April 30, 2006
Progress. Yes, indeedy. Our art studio / storage shed is emerging from a hulking pile of tools and lumber, with great thanks to our good friend Brad, his trusty sidekick Dwayne - and heart-wrenchingly helpful donations of a big, beautiful...
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May 2, 2006
This is the face of the man I love best. And today, he turns 39. This is the guy who makes me laugh so hard I fear incontinence. He's the one that says the right things, does the right thing...
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May 10, 2006
There's a Rockette in my pants, and she's trying to get out. Or a mini Mia Hamm. Having your ass kicked by a six-month-old fetus is enough to give you shivers about the teen years. What sort of spawn am...
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May 13, 2006
Three Generations of McGlathery Boys: 150 Years of Trouble. Image by The Varmint....
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May 22, 2006
Our marriage is two years old today. I believe that means that money can now officially exchange hands and that those that bet against us are officially assed-out. It's been an amazing two years, and the love keeps on growing....
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May 24, 2006
There are those people in your life - we all have them - that mark a sort of milestone era in your personal history. Maybe it was your high school clique, your platoon buddies, a softball team or the summer...
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May 28, 2006
I never got to know my Grandma Betty as well as I would have liked. She died when I was four. As with most of the women in my family, she was not your average shrinking violet. In addition to...
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May 31, 2006
I initially titled this shot "Easy Rider". [Peter Fonda, eat your heart out.] Now, I have to call it Ride of The Hot Dog.Jenny saw the picture, zeroed in on The Varmint's luxurious neck roll and said three words which...
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June 8, 2006
You’ll notice we are no longer calling our backyard structure “The Shed.” That’s because we’ve updated our plans. Our new, far more practical (read: affordable) plan is to skip the garage conversion and make our new building world headquarters for...
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July 2, 2006
Last night, The Varmint and I broke out of our air-conditioned cocoon, and hightailed eastward on a steamy Saturday night for 'The Generic Summer Shindig' at Vince and Lisa's place. Vince is a favorite friend and colleague; Lisa's in the...
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July 6, 2006
Now here's a woman who knows how to spend a dollar. . . Mom gave us our terrific baby gift - a very hip kitchen table from IKEA that we'll be using as a dresser and changing table for the...
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July 13, 2006
Getting my mom to try or in any way shift to something new is nearly impossible. It's not that she's closed-minded - she's more just set in her ways, is painfully shy, and dreads change with the force of a...
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July 18, 2006
Imagine yourself driving home after a long day at work. You're about to pull into your driveway, maybe thinking about that ice-cold beer in the fridge - when you look over and see your next-door neighbors doing this: What would you...
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August 2, 2006
Fact: I loathe baby showers. No, really. Pretty much everything about them. From the horrible little games (The "Sniff the Diaper" Game, anyone?! I'm all for fecal humor, but to waste perfectly good chocolate like that?) to the endless "Awwww!"s...
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August 7, 2006
WELCOME to the APOCALYPSE! Tam and Shan are breeding!That was the opening line on the baby shower invitation. So I guess I should have expected what was coming. The only two activities outside of eating (street-style Mexican tacos) and drinking...
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August 21, 2006
The Varmint returned yesterday, exhausted, stingray welted, bescabbed, aching, sore - and well-pleased with himself, his friends (see pic) and his entire Nicaraguan adventure. After staying up all night sharing pictures and gabbing, we crashed for a few hours, woke up,...
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August 25, 2006
This is the current state of our office. And currently, the state of our life, as well. In a bizarre series of Bad Luck Schleprock Events (which shall remain nameless here), Life has stepped in, its nose in the air,...
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August 29, 2006
Part One: The Move This weekend I cried three different times: Once for feeling overwhelmed and demoralized. Once for feeling like an asshole. And once from laughing so hard I nearly wet myself. The Demoralization Cry was a direct result...
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September 1, 2006
The Big Kaboom As you might imagine, sleeping when you're this pregnant is not easy. I'm not as bad off as Deb of the Microscopic Bladder who, nine months into her gestation, was up approximately 15 to 20 times per...
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October 15, 2006
Just look at what I get to look at everyday: The choicest bit of babyflesh one could ever ask for. Imminently smoochable. Sweet, soft and snuggly. Holy crap, I am loving life. Television seems to have lost its appeal since...
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October 19, 2006
The Varmint to The Baby, as he stands in front of the refrigerator and shows her all of the photographs posted there: "Just look at your daddy. Isn't he just the coolest? Look how stylish your daddy is, you lucky,...
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November 1, 2006
Halloween is usually my favorite holiday, bar none. You can keep the gory flicks, mean tricks, lame-ass allusions to Satan and pernicious badmouthing of pagans. (Seems to me those folks are the ones who really knew how to party...) Nope,...
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November 2, 2006
Last entry, it was rats. This one, we're talking spiders. (Hey, I'm a little late with the Halloween spirit, but trust me, it's there.) Man. Living where we do, and with the enormous tropical and tree-ridden yard we've got, I...
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November 4, 2006
Dear Mom, Now that I have a daughter, a few things have come clear to me. So here it is, the kind of letter moms long to someday receive - especially during their kids' teen years. Notice I'm sending it...
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November 12, 2006
Apparently, the sandman stayed for tea.This is what they mean when they say "Sleep like a baby..." And what wouldn't I give for one night's worth of this brand of sweet, sweet shuteye right about now, eh?...
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November 16, 2006
Call us crazy. Or desperate. But last Tuesday through Friday, The Varmint, Varmint Senior, six-week-old Mak and I packed the extended family wagon chock-full of baggage, bedding and baby gear and vamoosed 8 hours east to Tucson, A-Z for a...
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December 24, 2006
This Christmas Eve morning, a miracle occurred. Not only did I get out of the house baby-less for the second time in two days, but I took my sister-in-law Rachel and my mom to the nail salon. We all got...
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December 25, 2006
It's been a great 2006 for our family. I don't suppose you need to guess about what my favorite gift might be this year. Worth every contraction. Every heave. Every hive. For The Varmint and me, 2006 will always be...
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March 3, 2007
I would like to announce that our killer coffee table is up for sale. And I don't mean 'killer' as in: rad, cool, awesome, or wonderful. I mean 'killer' as in a cold-blooded, shin snapping, knee-crunching, black-and-blue bruise-making coffee table...
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March 9, 2007
Will you look at that fella? With the big eyes and finely-shaped antennae? You just know he's a casanova of the moth world.Too bad he scared the living dookie out of me when I was doing laundry. Of course, that's...
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March 16, 2007
What, you might wonder, would make freakishly busy new parents, their itty bitty baby, and 2/3 of the grandparent contingent travel 400 miles out to Arizona for three days? If you guessed a reunion, a holiday or fun-in-the-sun, you'd be...
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March 17, 2007
Despite being fired for the egregious divets he's carved from countless shins, Bitey lingers on in our house. Bitey, for those of you wondering what the hell I'm talking about, is the name of our current coffee table. Alternatively, Bitey...
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March 23, 2007
Yesterday started off as a good enough day. Singing birds, big rain-filled cotton ball clouds tossed across the sky, and a day of sweet baby and interesting work in front of me. All I needed was some coffee.Getting to the...
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March 24, 2007
It was absolutely beautiful today - cloudless, perfect temperature, flowers in bloom (this is a shot of one of our roses before the frost hit). Convertibles appear from nowhere like rats in a sugar factory on days like this. Jen...
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March 25, 2007
I love this picture....
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April 1, 2007
I am constantly amazed at the volume of crap it takes to raise a kid without going insane - play gyms, toys, chairs, seats, saucers, bouncers, wheelies... People fret about feeding, clothing and educating their rugrats, but few people give...
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April 2, 2007
I would like to hereby announce to the world, that during a work day, less than one minute ago, in our very own offices where a level of professionalism and focused dedication is required - nay, essential - to our...
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May 1, 2007
I always did love rainy days. ...
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May 3, 2007
Yesterday was a big day in Varmintville. Having climbed to the pinnacle of his varmintness, he stood proud and tall, nose into the wind: The Varmint turned 40. Of course, you can only keep your nose into the wind for so...
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May 12, 2007
There are periods of your life that stretch out, seem to go on forever, with you doing the same comfortable routine: A big one is The Work Routine, where you get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch...
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May 13, 2007
Usually, The Varmint and I exist in a happy little cocoon. We hang out with Mak, work out back in our treehouse studio, go for walks with friends. It's not rare for us to stay on our property for a...
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May 16, 2007
It only took a year, but our studio officially has a fresh coat of paint. Adieu, Hardy Panel beige! Hell-o uber-urban camouflage. I took forever to select the palette for this thing, mostly because we plan to use it as...
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May 22, 2007
Not too long ago, back in the Glory Days as The Varmint would call them, I didn't give a rat's patootie about stuff like wedding anniversaries. "It's just another day," I would say. I've since changed my mind and now...
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May 23, 2007
So just yesterday, on our anniversary, I wrote with glee how well things were going. Unfortunately, the Universe was listening in and decided to pee pee on my positivity parade. Not only were we enjoying a wickedly happy marriage, I...
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May 26, 2007
The verdict is in: The computer will live and all of our client files are saved. But it's going to cost $1100 to fix. Ouch. The better news? Since the failure was caused by the G5's liquid cooling system blowing...
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May 27, 2007
No, that doesn't mean The Varmint is 43. It means that this was the third party for him. If that sounds excessive, let it be known that he is still not satisfied."I need more parties," says The Varmint, his mouth...
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June 9, 2007
Way back on our wedding anniversary, May 22nd, the main computer for our design business experienced a meltdown. We took it into the shop, with the result of a good-news, bad-news scenario. The bad news: The coolant sprung a leak...
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June 22, 2007
Having had a couple months of The Universe Smacking Our Asses, I would now like to claim a few small victories. These small accomplishments are proof positive that Murphy's Law occasionally malfunctions:1) Welcome to the Hub: Amidst the mayhem, we...
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September 4, 2007
Dear John,It was really great to see you this past weekend! Thanks for coming down, hanging out and supporting the family through a tough time. You're the best. I'm also glad we managed to find some time to hang out....
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September 8, 2007
Are you one of those people who does better when they have something fun to look forward to? So am I. In the past, that has meant traveling somewhere, exploring a foreign country, backpacking or camping, rock climbing, rafting or...
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September 19, 2007
Fantastic news: The Momster doesn't have cancer. After her rather spectacular coughing up of blood, I would have bet my first born that she wasn't going to dodge that bullet, but I'd have been wrong. She did - once again...
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September 21, 2007
Today was makeover day at Chez Varmint, and today's victim (in keeping with the theme of the last two weeks) was Mom. I figure that after all the crap appointments getting needles in the eye and arms, tubes in the...
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September 27, 2007
For all the squinting and whining about turning 40 in less than a month, I have to say that if I think hard enough, there are some good things about it. One of the biggest is that you see people...
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October 18, 2007
So I'm chatting via email with my good friend Dex, and we get on to one of our regular topics which is Why Do People Own Cats? I'm pro-cat. Dex, not so much. As in, "I don't get it. People...
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December 3, 2007
Like so many locals before us, we've taken a vow: Start treating ourselves to tasty slices of San Diego, just as if we were tourists. I'm not talking about getting into our bikinis in the dead of winter, driving 55...
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January 4, 2008
The Varmint: "Um, babe? There were Kotex on this shopping list."Tam: "And your point?"The Varmint: "Well, I only had, like, two other items on the list."Tam: "Yeah?"The Varmint: "And there were three different kinds of Kotex. [pause] Um, I did...
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February 12, 2008
Our house, such as it is, is located in a charming neighborhood. It's an endearingly quaint little box of about 970 square feet. On the plus side, it has hardwood floors, an angled, tongue-and-groove pine ceiling, large windows that open...
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March 16, 2008
In a move calculated to rid himself of having to break down the container that once housed his designer toilet, our Neighbor to the North presented Makenna with her first official separate residence: a huge cardboard box. The box sat...
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March 27, 2008
Treehuggers, be forewarned: This entry will not have you pleased. I've not quite tumbled to the depths of my Neighbor to the West, with his Sawzall, BMW and moaning ghost of a California Pepper tree that continues to haunt me...
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April 3, 2008
He's a beautiful cat, isn't he? Meet McLovin (formerly known as Siegfried). We were forced to change his name when it became apparent that this cat will do ANYTHING for some lovin' - including dropping off precious gifts. But don't be...
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April 15, 2008
Last night.11pm.Bare feet. Step outside to put out the cat...Feel a cold wetness.Hear a sickening, squirty, crunch-squish.Greetings, mouse carcass #6. I hop to the shower, disinfectant in hand.Way to go, McLovin. ...
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April 24, 2008
Deb called this morning to congratulate me, in that rabble rousing way of hers, that I "had the day off." I snorted before I could stop myself. Still, in a move I can only chalk up to delusional optimism, I...
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April 27, 2008
Last night, friends Christy and Ant came over for a cocktail before we all went out to dinner. They're fantastic hosts, the kind of people who greet you at the door with your favorite cocktail, draw you in to their...
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June 27, 2008
Being designers is like being professional fidgeters. It's really hard to sit still if it something isn't to our iiking. So, after a few months of staring at our new patio in its slabby, gray monochrome conformity, we knew we...
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July 2, 2008
Nearly a year and a half back, when the kid started getting mobile, I was forced to uproot my rose garden. The whole puncturing an eyeball on a rosebush thing trumped that wee hobby. For awhile there, the roses had...
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July 5, 2008
The Varmint: "Could you get a drink ready for Makenna?"Tam: "Already done."The Varmint: "You're one step ahead of me!" Tam: *batting eyelashes* "Naturally."The Varmint: "Only because that's how I like it."Tam: "Ahh. A man who knows his place. So you...
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July 8, 2008
I just received this comment this morning. Since they posted a fake email, I thought I'd just go ahead and reply here...- - - - - - From: driver_on_56@road.comSubject: Comment on One Good LifeDate: July 8, 2008To: tam@onegoodlife.comThere was a...
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July 11, 2008
I’ve decided that as long as you aren’t in pain, Urgent Care isn’t such a bad place to be - as long as you’re well-prepared and the sight of blood doesn’t freak you out. There is excitement. There is people...
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July 20, 2008
So our fabulous architects from Point of Departure, Jason and Dan, gave us this cool 3D model - a rough draft of what our new house would look like. (That's a shot from the 3D model, left.) They chose the...
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July 23, 2008
This is my friend, Micha. She's a super cool chick I've known since my Berlin days. She used to party with rock stars and famous people in Germany; she's been living here in Southern California more than a decade. In...
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July 24, 2008
125,000 people. That's two stadiums full of people, plus a few thousand more. That's more than the population of most small towns in the United States. And that's how many comic book- and super hero-loving freaks hit the pavement in...
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August 2, 2008
Worm farming just sounds disgusting, doesn't it? Like it would be some sort of wiggly, poop-ridden stinkfest - and all for what? A ball of worms? Um, liked 'em when I was five. Not so much now that I'm 40.So...
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November 4, 2008
Deb the Roadkill Skunk, Tam the Day of the Dead Doll and The Varmint as himself.This is how we spent Halloween this year: With friends Deb, Greg, Julie, Ant and Christy at The Kensington Grill, in our costumes having a...
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November 10, 2008
It's spider season here in San Diego, and our jungle bungalow is a mini wild kingdom strung with dewy webs that look like little glass lanterns in the morning. Brightly colored Garden and Orb Weavers take up their giant webs...
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November 13, 2008
Yeah, I'm a little late on this, but I think it's sort of interesting in a 7th grade science experiment kind of way. Here's Jack, our Halloween pumpkin circa 2008, plump and thumpy, freshly carved and in the prime of...
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November 16, 2008
I've been weirdly sick in the last couple of weeks. Weird in that at different turns, my symptoms have included: Frequent burping, sounding like a tranny, choking / gagging and a feeling like my brain was bursting out my skull....
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November 17, 2008
Whatever your politics, this was a night to remember. We had options, go downtown and wait for the balloons to fall?, hit our local pub and hang with the 'hood? - but ended up at Deb and Greg's, having homemade...
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December 16, 2008
December 24, 2008
Happy holidays to you all. However you may feel about this time of year, whether you're a gung-ho season's greetings gal like me, or a bah-humbug pessimist, one thing Christmas provides is perspective. Can you believe it? This is a...
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January 12, 2009
From death to mayhem to illness to explosions to equipment malfunction to mold to accident after accident, things have sucked for our clan these past three months. I don't want to tarry around the universal mischief at work, (for to...
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April 17, 2009
The Varmint took this picture today, in our backyard. Yesterday, we awoke to the cat behaving all sketchy and weird, yowling and stiff-legged, stalking through our backyard planter, and pacing back and forth on our patio. A few minutes later,...
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May 21, 2009
Last week was surgery week - me, with more skin cancer removals, and The Varmint with a much more serious sinus surgery involving anesthesia, nose splints, and the dreaded Schnozz Hammock. This would not have been a fun week, regardless...
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June 28, 2009
Friday, The Varmint and I packed up our wagon and trekked to the LA Convention Center to help one of our favorite clients promote herself at the Dwell On Design conference (and frankly, to do a little of the same)....
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September 3, 2009
With one week left until the baby is due, we've been keeping Makenna busy. On this particular day, we had some extra-special help from her cousin Trajan....
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