Elise Sereni Patkotak

I was at the grocery store the other day. A mother was there with two young children, a boy about 5 and a girl about 7. The boy wanted something. I couldn’t hear what. But I did very clearly hear his mother say that they had already discussed this and he knew the answer was no. Since I was pushing my cart down the aisle behind them, I could hear the little boy arguing the point. Mom remained firm. The young boy then chose to throw a full blown, loud, screaming hissy fit. Mom looked at him for a moment,

My sister spends the day working, leaving me alone to amuse myself in Vegas. And here’s the thing.  Vegas can be endlessly amusing at absolutely no cost. Grab a complimentary coffee while pretending to play the penny slot machines and then wander outside and sit. That’s all it takes. The world passes before you. And what a bizarre world it is.

Sometimes it seems as though we forget that despite all the political and religious differences that divide us, what really unites us is how we aren’t really anything like the people who seem to inhabit Las Vegas in every

As I prepare to leave town for a few days, my dogs’ anxiety rises exponentially to the amount of departure activity in which I engage. First there is the strange person who shows up to learn how to feed and medicate them. Then there is the appearance of the suitcase. Then there is mom’s mournful moping through the house while apologizing to the birds for leaving them for a week. It is all topped off by mom letting the dogs have way more treats than could ever possibly be healthy for them.

That’s the way it is in my home

I watched “Up In The Air” recently and the only thing I could think through the whole movie… aside from the fact that George Clooney has no right to get so much sexier with the passing years…. is that there is no way ANYONE is as comfortable and happy flying as George would have us believe. Flying is a misery from paying for a suitcase to cramming more carry-ons than god intended anyone to have into a small overhead space, to seats that create more intimacy between you and the person in front, beside and behind you than you have

Why does it seem that we never notice how strange our little families can seem until we are showing a new house sitter the routine?

I love that in Alaska we break out the shorts and t-shirts when the temperature inches towards 58.  You gotta love the warmth.

The legislature has left the building. Let the chorus of “Say wha….???”

Yes, once again our “conservative” legislature, the one that is so dead set against big government and its interference in our lives, has managed to redefine the term “fiscal responsibility”.

According to these fine ladies and gentlemen, since we have plenty of money this year, and since they’ve put some aside into a savings account, the rest is fair game. All of which is true until you smack your face up against the huge deficit looming in the state retirement program.

While some might feel they can outwait

There was a time not too long ago where I thought that Sean Parnell could actually put the needs of others over his political ambitions. Well, he shot that concept to hell in very short order.

In announcing that the state of Alaska would waste money on a law suit that almost all legal experts believe will fail in challenging the recent health care reform legislation, he said that the constitutional question is so important it overrides the urgency of covering almost 100,00 Alaskans who are without health care. His exact quote was, “Health insurance at the price of freedom.

According to a government investigation, senior employees of the SEC were watching up to 8 hours a day of porno on their government computers while our economy imploded. Some of these people were earning up to $222,418/year. One accountant was blocked 16,000 times in one month from visiting sites classified as “sex” or “pornography”. I guess it was more amusing than watching the porn occurring on Wall Street.

Do other people periodically wonder if the molecules that make up their body once made up the body of Michaelangelo or DaVinci or Elizabeth 1?

Did I really just say that out loud? Oh dear. I think I finally had one of those sixties’ flashbacks I was promised so long ago.