As I reported in last week's column, my hubby and I have been downsizing from a 3000 square foot house to a 1600 square foot townhouse.

Well, last week we made the move. Dishes were carefully wrapped, boxes were packed and stacked, and big burly men with arms the size...

At latest count I've sold off 10 pieces of furniture; donated over 200 books, assorted dishware and clothing for Goodwill; thrown out a small dumpsters worth of garbage and cut my candle collection in half. All this and I still have many days worth of sorting and clutter clearing to...

This week I sold my house, found a new place to live, arranged for a moving company and helped my husband get prepared for his back surgery coming up at the end of the week.

Oh and by the way, I cleaned the house, took the dog to the...

I'm so mad I could sneeze (or cough), but at least it would be in the privacy of my own home, not sitting next to you at a dinner party because "I've been so looking forward to this, even though I'm sick, I just couldn't miss it."

This...

I once took my dog Penny to see a canine behavior specialist. The probelm was that Penny, having been adopted from a shelter, had spent the first part of her life suffering at the hands of neglected owners. At the ripe old age of 18 months, she had survived her...

I'm don't consider myself a workaholic - more like a work-a-lot-ic. And at midlife, I strive now more than ever to integrate time for exercise into my daily routine. The at-home treadmill helps and I have found that making dates with girlfriends to go for hikes and walks is a...

One upside to the economic downturn is that it gives you a good excuse to review your finances and find ways to save time managing them. The more you can simplify your finances, the more time you will gain to put into your other goals. In the new book

I can only describe this past week as computer hell. A Malware invasion that crashed my Wordpress site - yup. An Email program snafu that banished over 200 of my messages to never, never land - you bet. A freaky bug that wouldn't let me delete an errant email -...

Slamming down the phone, yelling at coworkers, giving the computer (or copier) a good whack, shouting profanities, and throwing papers in frustration - psychologists may call this counterproductive behavior, but in more down-home terms it's known as desk rage.

Regardless of what name it is called, one thing seems clear:...

As Summer starts to fade and we forge straight ahead into Fall, the coming change of seasons proves a prime time to pack away unused clothes, de-clutter the home office and clean out the house in anticipation of the holidays -- which let's face it are closer than we think....

Today was a four snooze alarm morning. Between the cold I caught from a fellow guest at a friend's dinner, deadlines for clients and editors looming over my sleepy head, and the drained energy I felt from dealing with someone else's negative emotion - I just wanted to crawl under...

Every night before I go to bed, I read a book. Depending on my mood, I may paw my way through a foodie memoir, a prize-winning novel, or a popular piece of fiction. Back in the days when a new Harry Potter book would come out - I used to...

In 1956, George Miller wrote a paper entitled, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two." He had discovered that people can only focus on five to nine things at a time - anything beyond this has to be held in the unconscious mind. For most of us, it...

Gosh, my thumbs are tired. All that texting, typing and tweeting has given my digits an Olympic-size work out.

With the past few weeks bringing on a torrent of Twitters about Michael Jackson, Iran and Sarah Palin, there can be no doubt that social media has left its mark on...

Recently, my husband Jon and I decided to take advantage of some miles we had and treat ourselves to a resort hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were weary from work and the relentless stimulation of technology that accompanied it. Our plan was to spend a whole lot...

Elizabeth was the type of friend who was always inviting me out to lunch and then ambushing me with the delivery of her latest disappointments in our friendship and my performance in it.

The offending action was usually something seemingly insignificant (a misunderstood comment, a phone call un-returned) that...

Now that the kids are out of school and summer is just peaking around the corner, busy moms need to find a way to manage themselves and their brood.

According to a research report women in the labor force average 76 hours in total weekly work, which includes 33 hours...

When I was a kid, one of my favorite candies was Pez. The bottom half of the dispenser was designed in the shape of a cigarette lighter, and the top was the head of some famous cartoon character. With one swift motion, I would pull back the Donald Duck, Goofy...

Fifteen or so years ago, I sat through a dinner party where the discussion at the table went something like this...

"Well, as a three, I felt like I really needed to finish the 10k in less than an hour," said the perky blond. The whole table cracked up,...

If you feel like you're still recovering from last year's summer travel season - made memorable by incredibly long lines at the airport, long delays when traveling to visit relatives and poor service at restaurants - you're not alone. The summer travel season can be one of the most stressful...