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Family
Why Is It So Transfixing To Watch Our Kids Play Sports? And Is It Healthy?
Posted on Apr 28, 2008 5:27:22 PM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

There is simply nothing in my life now that matches the unique pleasure of watching Eldest and Middle play soccer. (Ok, watching The Office comes close). And thank goodness for that, because from now until June, half of our weekends are given over to travel soccer. With a bit of lacrosse thrown in. Oh, and Little League too, but we don't discuss that as I'm still pretending that my husband didn't sign our four-sport son up for it. Anyway, all the time spent on the soccer sidelines certainly gets you thinking about adult behavior and why we care so much...

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Miscellaneous
Remembering Things That Don’t Matter and Forgetting Things That Do
Posted on Apr 21, 2008 4:12:38 PM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

Last weekend was beautiful here in New York and was filled, for my little family, with the sort of varied activities that actually make you feel like you are conducting your life in a way that’s interesting, responsible, and practically overflowing with moments of good parenting. But over the course of the weekend I realized, yet again, that my brain is so full of useless information that the important information I should be remembering instead has no place to land and stick. To wit: FRIDAY NIGHT Went for a cookout at the house of our friend Robert, who is the...

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Observations
Five Small Things That Tell You Just About All You Need to Know About a Person
Posted on Apr 18, 2008 1:30:45 PM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

1) The way she treats waiters 2) The look on her face when she talks about her parents 3) How she reacts when she sees a baby 4) The words she uses to describe her job 5) Whether she holds open the door if you are walking into a building behind her

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Observations
Why My Children (and I) Have No Idea What They Should Call Adults
Posted on Apr 15, 2008 5:47:18 PM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

When I was a kid, I didn't call any adults by their first names. I don't even recall *referring* to any adults by their first names, except for my high school track coach, and that was because her name was weird (Hilda) and she was mean. Now that I have kids of my own I realize with horror that not only do my boys use adult first names with impunity, but we seem to have no household standards or rules where this subject is concerned. I think this is how it happened: when they were little, they called our friend...

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Observations
Is It Possible to Politely Disagree with Your Relatives About Politics?
Posted on Apr 10, 2008 7:00:00 AM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

According to my husband, who attributes everything he knows about me and my personality and in fact my whole family to a little book called Brilliant Orange about the Dutch soccer team, the Dutch are an opinionated, argumentative, stubborn people. (I did not believe I was stubborn until quite recently, when my boss called me stubborn. “I am not stubborn!” I said, which he immediately pointed out was a stubborn response.) Anyway, I come from a big family: my father — who grew up in Aruba after his parents moved there from Holland — has six siblings, and they all...

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Observations | Work
The Weirdest Email I’ve Gotten in a Long Time
Posted on Apr 7, 2008 7:11:00 AM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

One of the most fascinating but possibly worst parts of my job is that I appear to be on every random PR email list that exists in America. Yes, I realize I could have myself removed from these lists; however, I don’t think it’s worth doing when I can hit "delete" faster than I can go through the silly-laborious steps of asking to be removed. Besides, if my name were no longer on every random PR list, I would miss gems like this one, which I received last week: Ban 9 and 5 on All Clocks? LOS ANGELES - Apr....

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Observations
Things You Expect to Last Forever...
Posted on Apr 3, 2008 4:01:00 PM  |  By KristinVanOgtrop

...and then you’re disappointed when they don’t. cashmere sweaters Volvo station wagons black leather pumps with two-inch heels dryers certain close friendships youth terra cotta pots wool stair runners loyalty expensive watches tulip bulbs good dogs wooden spoons

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