Pertinent to my Interests

Documentary reviews, body neutrality, parenting, Jupiter, piano, cats, European history, ghosts, rodents, the collapse of civilization, and if this goes on long enough I'll probably end up cataloguing my entire smushed penny collection.

Category: Uncategorized

  • M&Ms

    I’m starting to enjoy peanut M&Ms and I am a little embarrassed about it. My natal family is an M&M family. My grandma loved plain M&Ms, my mom loves plain M&Ms. Plain M&Ms were my toddlerhood potty training reward and my little brother famously referred to them as “num nums” for many years. I still…

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  • Costco

    Every time I drop off junk at Goodwill I swing by Costco on my way home. The irony is not lost on me. What a horrible warehouse of wonders. I’m not even talking about all their Christmas decorations. The snack aisles alone are enough to make me gleeful (welcome home, giant box of Cheez-Its!). They…

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  • Boiler problems

    We went up to our cabin this past weekend and walked in to discover that for the third time in eighteen months we had experienced a complete boiler failure. The details on all of this bore me at this point so I’ll try to give the short history for those who don’t know it: Anyway,…

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  • Time & Memory, a follow up

    I wanted to follow up on my recent post about reading all the Life magazine issues from 1963. I am fascinated by the nature of time, how the present tumbles into the faraway past in mere seconds. We lived in New York City in our early twenties; it has only been eleven years since we…

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  • 2023 Resolutions

    I’m not usually big on making resolutions at the new year, but this year I had three goals that kind of naturally bubbled to the surface of my brain. With less than eight weeks left in 2023, now seems like a good time to do a progress report. Goal #1 – Push harder on my…

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  • 1963

    A few months ago I read all the Life magazines from 1963. 1963 was an interesting year. There was an eclipse and a new pope. Prayer in schools was the divisive issue of the day. Beer can technology was changing quickly (at least according to all the Schlitz ads), and long-distance calls were the new…

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  • Give me stripes or give me death!

    Does everyone else make up back stories for their pets or is that just me? One of our cats is a tabby with beautiful dark stripes on top of a fluffy caramel base coat. He is small and fierce, and he doesn’t like snuggles. He’s a real cat’s cat, always a little suspicious of our…

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  • It doesn’t have to be every year!

    It occurred to me yesterday, after posting about our 2023 Halloween season, that some people may find that long list of festive(?) activities discouraging. Most people probably won’t care, and will just add “way too focused on cemeteries” to their mental list of reasons I am both strange and interesting. But some people (in particular…

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  • Halloween Season

    We had quite the Halloween season around here! Every year it gets a little a little spookier, a little scarier, a little more. It is possible we hit peak Halloween this year. (Lists are not rankings.) Scary Movies Watched Spooky Books Read Cemeteries Visited Haunted Experiences Survived

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  • Variations on the Theme of Kindness

    We had the big Halloween event at my kids’ school last week. My husband and I were both on pretty major committees and wow that is not my favorite thing. It was stressful, and I’m glad it’s over. But my oldest got to make his big debut as a scare actor in the haunted house,…

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