The roaring of the wind is my wife and the stars through the window pane are my children. The mighty abstract idea I have of beauty in all things stifles the more divided and minute domestic happiness.

'A duck!... A baby duck.' (Squealing about a birthday card on her third birthday on Puerta Vallarta, Mexico.

As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.

I hope they get here soon. The kids are biting at the chomp.

'There is no such thing as 'fun for the whole family.''