The past few days have been filled with many opportunities to reflect on life. On Friday, I attended a fundraiser for a 6-year-old girl with Stage 4 cancer. That same day, a friend’s wife lost her long-fought battle with the disease. Over the weekend, I corresponded with two online friends, both of whom are strugglingRead more about Counting blessings[…]

Today marks the first time I’ve been alone in the house since February 12th, the day before we left for our cruise. It’s been quite a roller coaster. The cruise was wonderful–relaxing, lots of quality time with the kids, great food–but we crashed back down to reality pretty quickly. My youngest daughter ended up catchingRead more about Ah…solitude![…]

gah…this is depressing. A friend recently posted this link to “TrainHorns.net”, where you can listen to a sound frequency that is supposedly only audible to those age 25 and younger. I had read about this before (and that kids were using it as a ringtone to take calls while in school without the teacher hearingRead more about Sounds only young people can hear[…]

Hey folks, we’re back from our vacation and had a fabulous time. I’ll be blogging a review of the cruise later this week, but right now, it’s time to get ready for tonight’s Oscar party. It’s an annual tradition here at Casa Yak and I’m really looking forward to it. Lots of pictures to follow!

Happy Anniversary Yak Talk! I can’t believe it’s been two years since this blog first began. I’m still amazed–and delighted–at how many people pop in to read this blog each day, from all over the world. I hope that you find the blog helpful and entertaining, and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyRead more about Two Years and Counting….[…]

Well folks, the kids have some time off from school next week, so we’re packing up our bags and heading out on another cruise vacation. We leave today out of Bayonne, New Jersey, aboard Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas. Loyal readers of YakTalk may recall that we were just on this ship back inRead more about Cruisin’ the Caribbean[…]

Once a week, I teach a 3rd grade religious education class at my local parish. Yesterday, I was talking with the kids about our next class, which will be held on Ash Wednesday (Feb. 25th this year). I asked the kids: Where does the church gets the ashes that the priest puts on our headsRead more about Ashes, anyone?[…]

I went swimsuit shopping today. Ugh. I’d been dreading it and putting it off for weeks now, but with our vacation coming up in a few days (another cruise…details to follow), I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I’ve put on some weight in the last couple of years, and none of my old bathing suitsRead more about Shopping for a “miracle”[…]

Bill Murray at his best: Happy Groundhog Day!

Another day, another negative Italian-American stereotype. This latest one comes from Verizon. The commercial featuring the “Collurio” Family depicts an open-shirted, heavily-accented blue-collar guy in full-on “fugeddaboudit” mode, hosting a barbecue for his extended family of trashy, overly-dolled-up women and greasy-haired men. Imagine if this had been a barbecue filled with African-Americans wearing large goldRead more about Et tu, Verizon?[…]