It has been a while since I wrote anything here, but I just wrote a short post for the Cantina blog, so I thought maybe it was time to jot down some stuff here, too.

We just got back from a weekend in dirty, old New Jersey. My grandfather just turned 88.5; my mom has decided that it would be a nice thing to celebrate his semiannual anniversaries. He’s shooting for 90, which seems like a pretty good goal to me. We went down with the tyke to celebrate with the family. The kiddo got to spend some time with her G-ma and we had one of our not-often enough four-generations dinners.

Besides the eight human beings in attendance, there were also four iPads. And I must say, we spent a lot of time jawing about those amazing tablets. I don’t think I ever expected that I would find my mom, or her husband, that interested in a computer. EVAH.

It was also an interesting weekend for us car-wise: we grabbed a MINI Clubman from ZipCar for the trip. I have wanted a MINI ever since I first saw one, perched atop a van on Newbury Street. I don’t know what it is about those little cars. It may be the same thing that drives me to contemplate kidnapping my neighbor’s French Bulldog, Reggie. He’s cute and tough at the same time.

We figured that the best way to figure out if there was any point in going beyond the mere fantasy was to try an extended test drive under real conditions. And it was worth it. The MINI may be small, but the ride was really enjoyable and world’s better than our old Civic or the Subaru we’ve grown to hate too soon. We won’t be getting a MINI soon, unfortunately, but now at least I feel like I can really get one.

In the larger picture, things are going well. My job at Cantina is amazing, largely because I get to work with a crew of super smart, super funny and all around good folks. The tyke is wrapping up her last year of pre-school and the whole family is buzzing a little as we careen towards KINDERGARTEN. Wow, how time flies.