Photo courtesy of Lenny Gotter. Four years ago, our friend Jacque came to visit from Chicago. During her stay, she and Kara started...

Photo courtesy of James Butler Some months ago, my former neighbor came by to do some landlord work on his old house. While we caught up in the driveway, his five-year-old daughter played nearby. Eventually, she came up to me and said: "Are you sad that Kara's dead?" She was smiling. Not just smiling, but almost giggling . I smiled back. In a flash, I saw her father, well over six feet tall, reduced to a heap of ashes in a wooden box. (I have a few such boxes myself.) And I s

KIDDING! Kara never won the national title. This was taken IN CASE she won the national title. U.S. Air Guitar National Championships,...

Photo courtesy of J. Levinson for blog promotional use only. This weekend, I will be landing in San Francisco, Calif., for the U.S. Air...

My iPhone alarm goes off. As always, Kara is to my right, smiling down at me.   From an 11" x 14" print hanging on the wall.   Light is...

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, 2003 This is going to reveal just how old I am, but screw it. I'm gonna tell the story. This...

I had actually just received good news here. Where the hell have I been? A lot has happened since Kara launched her Sparkle into other...

Photo by Lenny Gotter The Long, Cold Walk To our invisible valentines As I write this, snow is falling. Four years ago at this time, snow...

"Last Christmas" with my baby, 2022 The First Christmas After the Last Christmas For those mourning a loved one during the holidays I had...

Photo by Lenny Gotter How we carried each other through cancer There is SO MUCH I want to write about how Kara and I navigated the...

Google Photos popped this one at me and it keeps me going I have been in a major funk lately. It seems that the more I learn to navigate...

Kara wrote her blog as a form of oral storytelling. Her writing style developed largely in the context of her reading her biweekly posts...

One year ago today, my wife, my baby, my spicy Picante, commenced Sparkling On into her next, post-earthly adventure. She had been...

"I hope I don't cheapen it by saying it so much but I do love you and want you to get through this too. We walk through the dark forest...

Note: Please don't jump to the bottom, but read straight through... for a Very Special Bonus from the Queen of Sparkle! Two Thursdays...

Yesterday I went down a rabbit hole and looked up famous women entertainers who died of cancer at a relatively young age. I learned some...

Three weeks ago, I threw a small party for Kara's fifty-fourth birthday. I organized the tasks in a Google Sheet, invited a handful of...

The other day a friend and I were talking about how so many people we know have been dealing with hardcore struggles lately. Some of this...

After a five-week hiatus, The Adventures of Kara Picante is back! Off and on, I have debated with myself over whether I should keep...

Hello, everyone! In the midst of a brief hiatus, I am back on Kara's blog to celebrate May 4, the informal holiday that commemorates the...