L.'s fall break is winding down. On Monday he heads back to school, and we take our deep breaths and cross our fingers, and hope for the best.

I sat in my car this morning, parked at a meter, waiting to go into a Marriott Hotel for a breakfast meeting. I was an hour early. I replied to emails as I waited.

If you are involved in the world of blogging for any length of time, sooner or later you will be invited to participate in a meme. A meme, according to the trusty source Wikipedia, is any idea or behavior that can pass from one person to another by learning or imitation. In the blogging world, you can pass along fun challenges, quizzes, and "getting to know you" questions as a way of fostering further connections and providing, frankly, sometimes very welcome fodder for blog posts.

Yesterday, in my Facebook profile, I wrote a note about how I was tired of people who care too much about cars. Then I sat down to write this column, which is about how, after four weeks on Craigslist, we've said good-bye to our poor, down-and-out Dodge Grand Caravan--the first car we ever bought together, and the one we used to bring both our babies home from the hospital. Then I thought I was living a double-standard, because clearly I care a lot about cars if I was going to sit down and write a whole column about one.