Category Archives: This & That

When the history of this time is written down, the cowardice will be remembered as much as the fascism

— John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) March 14, 2025 at 8:41 AM

As I watch the stock market tank for yet another day (as I type the Down is currently down more than 500 and the Nasdaq is down more than 600), I am even more grateful for the last few years. We were able to purchase two new cars and vacation cottage. There’s no way we would have dared to do either of those things in the current economy. What a disaster.

Nevertheless, life goes on and we all have to trudge through our daily lives and appreciate the good things while they still exist. Our eldest was offered the job he really wanted! So he is apartment hunting and will be moving to the city at the end of the month. It’s an ideal first step for him as he begins a career in social work. I am so proud of him! Our middle kid released an EP and has been playing out whenever possible, all while maintaining a GPA of at least 3.75 every semester so far! And our youngest is starting to think about college and careers and will begin exploring Early Childhood Education next year with a schedule split between the high school and a highly-rated program at our local CTI. She’s also hoping her schedule allows her to take AP English and AP Psychology. And for the next few weeks she is volunteering at the elementary school once a week to give the kids an intro to French. The opportunities our school district offers are so wonderful — I can’t imagine my kids missing out on any of this.

Work is great, but so busy. The library is celebrating 60 years of service to the community this year, and we have a party scheduled for April at the adorable cafe up the street. It should be a really nice time, and I hope to see lots of patrons and supporters!

Still working on the first of two ripple blankets for the loft beds at the cottage. It took me a while to get the right pattern and then get the right size, but now I’m hooking right along. I have way more done than what’s shown above! I wanted to have both finished for April… not sure that will happen, but definitely for the summer. 

We got a Ninja Creami for Christmas so we have enjoyed making all kinds of frozen treats. Currents favorite are Fairlife chocolate milk and a banana, and Cabot Vanilla Greek Yogurt with frozen berries and a splash of milk to thin it out. Both are delicious! I’ve also had a lot of success using protein shakes, a little cream cheese, and sometimes fruit. 

We’ve been watching some good movies & TV shows. Paradise on Hulu was really good. We finally started watching Only Murders in the Building, which really is as good as everyone says! Single Drunk Female is better than I expected. I’ve been watching a lot of horror & sci fi movies: Smile 2, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Monkey, Season of the Witch… I know there are more but I can’t think of them right now. 

The weather is finally starting to warm up a bit and I can feel that spring is on the way. Things I’m looking forward to: pansies in planters, reading outside with a cup of coffee or tea next to me, and the sound of peepers. Here’s to making the best we can in the moment.

This library-themed Valentine graphic is a favorite of mine. I wish I could give proper credit — I have had it saved for years. If you know, please fill me in so I can give proper attribution. Hopefully you take time to enjoy something special today. I have had an exhausting week (but let’s be real — who hasn’t?) so our plan is pizza, cannolis, and binge watching Season 3 of Resident Alien. Not a bad way to kick of a three-day weekend!

Wow, what a week, huh? And it’s only Wednesday. It’s been sad, honestly, but not surprising. It’s also been incredibly stupid, and tiresome, and frustrating. But we’ve been here before, and we all know how this is going to go. At least we are (somewhat) prepared for the chaos to come.

So, what am I going to do different this time around? First of all, I am not letting anger consume me. Am I angry? Yes. Of course. Anyone with a brain is angry. But I am also acknowledging that I can channel that anger into action. So instead of fuming, I plan to do thing like contact my political representation, attend more town halls when they are offered, and donate to organizations that align with my values.

Another thing I am doing is reevaluating my online presence. I’ve done another cull of the blogs I follow as well as who I follow on social media. That one is always hard, but ethical differences have become obvious with some accounts and in the interest of protecting my peace, they just don’t make the cut. I’ve moved over to BlueSky from Twitter (I refuse to call it anything else), and while I have not deleted my account, I don’t post or engage. Facebook and Instagram are more challenging. I need Facebook for work, and now that I have curated a good feed, Instagram is a nice escape with pretty photos of crochet, journaling, plants, books, cooking… things I really do love. As much as I loathe Meta, I haven’t figured out a way around dealing with it.

Along similar lines, I am making an effort to actively enjoy the things that I love. I spend my free time junk journaling, knitting and crocheting, trying new recipes, watching moving, and reading. I am trying to find balance in my news consumption. I’m dabbling in creative writing again, too! Channeling anger into art seems to be a popular theme among a lot of people these days, and I am here for it. Onward!

Thank you for the art, David Lynch. You were amazing.

Ah, another week begins… I’m starting it off by wearing my cool new Doc Martens. They were a present to myself and I love them! It was a good weekend here. My parents came down yesterday for a visit and a belated Christmas. I made a mini holiday dinner — turkey breast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and cranberry sauce. I gave my husband a Ninja Creami for Christmas so I also spun up a pint of mixed berry frozen yogurt for dessert. Delicious!

After they left we decided to watch an episode of “Man on the Inside” on Netflix, which turned into us binging the entire 8-episode series! It is such a sweet show — I highly recommend checking it out, especially with everything bad in the news. We also watched the new Goosebumps series on Hulu. We are big R.L. Stine fans in this house!

Not much to report aside from that. This week I am hoping to get back on track with my crochet projects. I have yet to finish my daughter’s infinity scarf, and I need to make progress on the two blankets I am making for the cottage. This coming weekend I’m taking a writing workshop with author Carol Goodman. I would really like to get back into a writing practice. Of course, I write a tremendous amount for my job, but reports and grant applications are not exactly the same as a story! When I saw this workshop being offered, I took it as a sign.

Fingers crossed my oldest may have very well found a full-time position! Not to jinx it, but he’s at the background check portion of the process! This week he is heading down to the city to look at apartments. I am very excited for him and hope it all works out. When I graduated from college I was hoping to move to Brooklyn (though I’m glad I ended up in Boston), so I may very well be living vicariously through him. 

Other than that, I’m trying to do my best to manage my news intake. Shit is absolutely bananas, but I also want to stay informed, so it is a delicate balance. I’d love to find some new blogs to read, but I haven’t had much luck in that department. Generally, I’ve been swapping my scrolling for reading, which has been fabulous. This weekend I started All Fours by Miranda July, which I think is great so far. I’m also listening to Watch Us Dance by Lelia Slimani for my Global Lit book club. I’m slogging through it. It’s OK, but not a book I would pick up on my own.

I guess that’s about it! My late meeting tonight has been cancelled so I am thrilled to get two hours of my time back. I see some Brooklyn 99, some eggnog ice cream, and crochet in my future!

Well, I will admit that I am quite happy the holidays are done and dusted. Don’t get me wrong – they were fun and they were fine – but I just wasn’t into it this year. I did take some time off around New Year’s, which was nice. We went up to the Cape, I did some organizing around the house, met a friend to catch up over breakfast, and started a new book (The Most by Jessica Anthony).

I didn’t do any of the crafting I wanted to do, and I spent the last weekend sick, but at least it is just a cold and not Covid, Norovirus, Bird Flu, or anything more sinister. So that catches everyone up.

Yesterday I tried my first new recipe of the new year — a recipe for Creamy Sausage Parmesan Soup that I’ve been seeing all over Facebook. It was a big hit and I’ll share my version later this week. Aside from that, it’s been pretty much “new year, same me.” I think the only thing I am trying to change is wearing less makeup. Perimenopause is wreaking havoc on my skin, so I’m trying out just moisturizer & mascara as my daily routine.

I’ve been working through a week’s worth of messages, emails, and to-do’s this morning. Ugh – sometimes I wonder if it is even worth taking the time off. Everything that I pushed to January since Thanksgiving is now sneaking back up on me! 

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge this day — January 6th. Four years ago I was off for the day and watched live on TV as violent rioters stormed the Capitol. Right-wingers can whitewash it all they want, but we all know what we saw happen in real-time. And it is a disgrace that the person who incited it all had his electoral win certified today. Note that the certification happened without incident and you will not see headlines like these showing up tomorrow:

Sadly, it is what it is and we have to trust that some of our elected officials are going to stand up and do the right things to protect the Constitution and the people in this country. 2025 is going to be a wild ride, that’s for sure.

Well, we have almost made it! Today may be Monday, but it is Christmas week which likely means a day off for most of us suckers who actually have to work for a living, LOL! We actually have tomorrow off too. Since we are always closed on Wednesdays I stuck in the 24th as a holiday. Personally, I am glad to see all the festivities winding down. 

It was a good weekend over here. Saturday I picked up my daughter from her friend’s house and then we braved the stores to get a few groceries for the holiday. We picked out the perfect prime rib, though, so it was worth the aggravation and traffic! We also finally got to try the salted caramel Frosty at Wendy’s and it was absolutely delicious! Better than I thought it would be, for sure. Yesterday I did a little puttering around the house, but spend most of the day watching movies and crocheting. I definitely needed an at-home day. (Not to mention it was too cold to step outside — I think it maybe got into the teens yesterday, but I am not even sure of that.)

Today I am just doing all the things here at work — payroll, drafting agendas for January meetings, annual appeal acknowledgements, etc. Not sure what I’ll do for dinner. Still figuring that out.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve we and will head to my mother-in-law’s, but Christmas Day we get to just spend at home (hooray!). We will have my parents over in a couple weeks. As I mentioned, I got a standing rib roast this weekend, so I will be making that on Christmas Day. I think this is the third year I’ve done prime rib and it is so easy and delicious! The bones make excellent stock, too. I look forward to some beef barley or onion soup afterward just as much as the steak itself. 

As for the rest of the week, it will be back to work on Thursday and Friday. We may head up to the Cape this weekend, so I am really looking forward to that, and then I am off all next week (yay!). I will be thinking of what to make for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I would like to do stuffed shells for New Year’s, but that will depend on what my MIL makes tomorrow night. Sometimes she does manicotti and the two dishes are too similar to have within a week of each other. I know some people have New Year’s food traditions, and I always find those interesting but I can’t say that I recall any growing up. We usually had a New England boiled dinner for New Year’s — ham, carrots, cabbage, potatoes. It was not exactly a favorite of mine so it’s not a dish I make.

Well, that was quite a ramble for a Monday morning! Wishing you all a lovely week!

Well, here we are… December 2nd. I guess it’s officially Christmas season now. We had a nice, though busy, Thanksgiving weekend over here. Thanksgiving Day my MIL came up for dinner. Saturday was my parent’s 50th anniversary, so we drove up to Western Mass. and met them and my brother’s family at this wonderful German restaurant Munich Haus for a celebratory lunch. It was super fun catching up with everyone and because we were at a restaurant I think everyone could actually relax — no stressing about how clean the house is or cooking for 11 people. 

After that Drew headed out to our condo on the Cape (since he was just about halfway there already) so he could work on a few projects and go to the cable store today to get our service set up. Yesterday was back to college for Mr. Music, so most of my afternoon was spend on the highways of New York and Connecticut. And now it’s back to work.

I was able to get just about all my Christmas shopping done this weekend, and while all the kids were home I got a photo for cards, too. I’ll try to get those mailed out next week. This year I definitely feel like everything is just an item to be checked off a list. Actually, a lot of people I know feel similar. Not sure if it’s because Thanksgiving was so late this year or what, but I know for sure I’m not alone. 

Nevertheless, I do have a lot of holiday activities coming up:

• my daughter’s winter band concert
• the town tree & menorah lighting
• baking 4 dozen (!) anise cookies for the Friends of the Library cookie sale
• gingerbread house program and cookie sale at work
• staff appreciation lunch

Tomorrow Jake has an interview for a job he really wants so I am crossing my fingers and toes. It’s at a hospital in NYC, which is perfect. Close enough to hop on a train to visit, but far enough for him to be on his own. Public transportation. And it would be great work experience in his field before applying to grad school. His goal is to be a credentialed LCSW (licensed clinical social worker), and CUNY Hunter has a great program so any positive vibes are appreciated.

I have some crochet projects on deck, so I am looking forward to starting those. I’m also trying to find some lighter books to read this month, to try to get my mind off, well… everything. I’m almost done with Exit West, which is for my Global Lit book club. After that I am putting aside all of my history and political non-fiction until next year. So, I downloaded The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore for my Kindle. I figure it is probably cutesy and won’t take a lot of brain power to read. Plus it sounds like the main character has my attitude problem, LOL! Lesser Ruins by Mark Haber also just came in for me as a hold, so hopefully those will keep me occupied.

Well, I guess that is about it. On to another busy week!

One of my favorite quotes is “Silence is the best reply to a fool.” It is attributed to Imam Ali. I’ll see if I can take this advice to heart over the next few days. Godspeed to those of you who have to deal with, shall we say difficult relatives. And if you feel like you really can’t stay quiet, well… Sadly, facts are unlikely to sway them so maybe just double-down on their ridiculous claims and say something even more insane just to mess with them! This reel from Dan Donohue explains it better than I can.