• At Hyde Brothers Booksellers, I discovered that the books I love the most — and the ones I hate the most — are all in the Sociology shelf.
• I wanted a bubble tea at Firehouse Tea & Coffee Cafe, but they were out of “bubbles.” They were cooking more tapioca, but we went with a simpler iced tea instead.
• Pio Market on East State, according to a kid inside, is pronounced “Pee-oh.” He may be wrong.
• We went for pizza at 800 Degrees to cool off. We also saw Tommy and Heather Schoegler!
• We checked into Stay Inn Suites on Lima Road near the interstate. If you stay there, you get free access to Spiece Fieldhouse!
• For dinner, we went to a nice little Greek restaurant called Maza Grille. Delicious! Mary had a little lamb.
• We went to play darts at Break & Run on Goshen Avenue, but despite my call checking to make sure they’d be open, we were greeted with a CLOSED sign. So we ended up grabbing something at Starbucks and catching up on some fun reading.
• The next day, after a filling complimentary breakfast at the Stay Inn, we ended up browsing some more bookstores — Barnes & Noble and Every Other Book, which, as Mary said, has a wonderful homeschooling section.
• Thanks to a Groupon, we spent the afternoon bowling six games at the 56-lane Pro Bowl West. I’ll spare you the details (rimshot!), except that we later had achy muscles in places that we didn’t expect.
• And we finished with a great stir-fry supper at one of my favorite spots,The Flat Top Grill.

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See the full gallery on Posterous

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My daughters Hannah and Sarita are budding authors, and this short essay by 13-year-old Sarita reflects what they wish to accomplish and how they intend to get there.

You Can Cook Another Omelet

a short essay sort of thingy about ideas

By Sarita Swerens

Just write down the idea.

When you detect that feeling, that inexplicable sense that you’re on the verge of becoming the author of a whole series of novels that no one has ever thought of, no one has ever read, no one has ever imagined in their deepest dreams, write it down.

When you feel the inspiration strike, wait for nothing and no one. Don’t post about your enthusiasm on Facebook or Tweet about your idea on Twitter. Don’t send a letter to your friend that you feel like writing; write. Don’t call all your friends on the telephone and shout that you’re about to get the most brilliant idea ever heard of on the face of the earth; write it down. If you have to dash out of the kitchen and let the toast burn or the roast combust or the egg-and-broccoli omelet smolder, then do it. If you have to tear through the house tipping over chairs and knocking your favorite purple coffee mug to the floor to hastily type down a fast-fading story idea from a dream about a song in a book you just heard about from a friend, then do it. You don’t have to use an online thesaurus, or dictionary, or rhyming dictionary, or rhyming thesaurus. You don’t have to spell pontification or serendipity or onomatopoeia or perspicacity correctly. Just write.

Don’t let the small things go. If a single sentence pops into your head that has a neat feel to it and makes you think, don’t leave it there. Don’t think, “Oh, I’ll write it down later, when I’m done with this English assignment,” because if you do, before you read two more paragraphs, the sentence will be a thing of the past; it will have faded away into the winding, cobwebby maze of ideas, stories, dreams, and fantasies that is your brain.

Even if it’s a single sentence, an entire story can be molded from it. A romance from an adjective. A villain from a noun. An ending from an adverb.

Even if it’s a single sentence, a tale of betrayal and faith and battle and love and hope against all odds can be woven into a rich, twisting story that is light and relief in this darkening world.

If it’s a dim, fading image from a dream that you just remembered you had a week ago, and it fills you with a desire to share your perception of the world with others, then write it down, even if it’s on a wrinkled piece of paper from an old history report that you just pulled out of the trash and scribbled on with a dull pencil from the junk drawer. Just write it down. Describe the feeling, the experience. Set your mind down on paper and trace it with ink. Scrawl down your scheme before it wanes and perishes and becomes an illusion of the idea you once had, the skeleton of a greater notion that can never be retrieved from the farthest reaches of you mind. Scribble down the inkling of better tales to come, before the passion dwindles and passes on into the inaccessible realm of lost stories. Just write it down.

Because if you write it down, it’ll be worth it later. If you write it down, then later you can correct your misspelled version of onomatopoeia. You can buy a new purple coffee mug. You can finish your English assignment. You can cook another omelet.

Because if you write down that idea and let it bloom, then later you can embellish it. A romance from an adjective. A villain from a noun. An ending from an adverb.Possibly related posts:

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Hearty Potato Soup

6 potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 quarts water
1 medium onion, chopped
6 Tbsp. butter
6 Tbsp. four
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1½ c. milk
Opt.: 1 bag frozen corn, shredded cheddar cheese to taste

Cook potatoes, carrots and celery; reserve water. Saute onions, flour, salt and pepper. Add milk. Stir until thick. Optional: Add shredded cheese. Stir in vegetables. Add water from vegetables. Heat and eat.Possibly related posts:

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No, I’m not being annoyingly repetitive. Caleb won twice in Saturday’s fencing tournament.

He was drafted into competing in the saber competition because they needed a sixth fencer. He enjoys saber, but out of the three fencing weapons, considers it his least favorite.

So he fenced saber. And won.

Now Caleb has a ranking with the U.S. Fencing Association, an E. (USFA rankings are letters from E up to A. You earn them by beating a certain number and rank of other fencers. Beating five fencers earns you an E.)

Next up was the epee competition, in which he used his brand new Italian-grip weapon he received Wednesday in the mail. So with zero experience with his new weapon, he ended up in fifth. (He has two weeks to prepare for a big epee tournament in Michigan.)

But then the last competition was foil, his favorite weapon. Out of eight competitors, he won first place and received an E ranking in that weapon, too.

Congratulations to Caleb for doing so well in his sixth tournament!

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Click for a larger photo.

Born at 2:22 p.m. today at 8 pounds, 21 inches. Welcome, little niece! And congratulations Jeff and Jenn!Possibly related posts:

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We had 222.

My parents seemed to stumble upon that number in one way or another over and over again, whether on license plates or in phone numbers.

For example, years ago when Mary and I and our four young kids moved to a new apartment in Dunkirk, N.Y., I was shocked to realize the address.

222 Townsend Street. Apartment 2.

When I told my mom, there was a stunned pause. Then, “No sir.” I think she still doesn’t quite believe me.

So today, as my brother Jeff marvels at the birth of his new baby girl, he watches the doctor write the time.

Jeff asks, “Did you just write 14:22?”

Yes. 2:22 p.m.

Welcome to the family, little Nora. You certainly are a Swerens.Possibly related posts:

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