Author Archives: sara

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About sara

i live in michigan with my teenage daughter, my partner, and our three cats. i am a paralegal, legal manager and corporate governance specialist, and when i'm not reading contracts or maintaining the dusty archives of our arcane corporate history like some weirdly specific librarian, i enjoy knitting, books, running slowly, making candles, and bird-watching. i started blogging way back when I was an expat living in australia and in recent years have tried to be more diligent about keeping this space up to date and as a creative outlet for the things in my life that inspire me and balance my 9-5.

pre-thanksgiving

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So we’re hosting my brother and his family for Thanksgiving- which is a win-win for us. My SIL usually hosts but Brandon and I are slated to run the downtown Detroit Turkey Trot that morning. It’s a festive, cold 10k that runs along the Detroit parade route and as we missed it last year due to the pandemic, we are excited to get back this holiday. It makes it a bit rushed to travel afterwards, though, so we were thinking it may just be a quiet day at home for us. Brandon was just a little sad about that because he loves holidays, he loves hosting big family gatherings, putting on a nice shirt and making it a special day. He has a family stuffing and sweet potato casserole recipe, he pours liberal drinks for everyone, and just basks in the togetherness. When my brother and his family unexpectedly said they’d take us up on our offer to host, we got the best of all worlds.

This weekend has been a shopping whirlwind, for food, new drinking glasses and silverware (so all of our guests get an adult-sized fork and don’t have to drink out of mismatched Mason or old jam jars), and I’ve decided on a farmhouse table theme (hint: buffalo plaid). And of course the turkey.

got a little knitting in – Christmas socks 2021!

I’m working two days this week in the home office and taking Wednesday off for some last minute housework and a shakeout run before the Trot.

It’s good for me that we are hosting. I think I need the family togetherness. I’ve noticed a bit of pre-holiday melancholy lately, which seems to catch me off-guard in the middle of my busyness. It’s moments when I’m alone and a small sadness comes into my thoughts, or lingers on the edge. It reminds me of being a child in the backseat of my parent’s car, driving somewhere at night, maybe to a holiday dinner at my grandparents’. The car is warm and safe, we are drowsy small children in the back, a cocoon of warmth and the rise and fall of my parents’ voices from the front. Yet outside the car is cold darkness, frozen fields under hard icy stars. And away on the horizon are lights, strange houses, unfamiliar neighborhoods, the blinking red eye of a watchful radio tower. And we are so small, just specks, really, bound together by what and for how long? Everything is strange all of a sudden, utterly indifferent to me and the people I love, safe in a car for that short moment in time that nonetheless stays with me for a lifetime, and can never be replicated, stretching away in ceaseless anonymity, under that endless black sky.

first snow and new hat.

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I accomplished two of my goals this weekend – our Saturday morning 5-mile run and casting off on the Purl Soho Simple Pleasures hat.

It also snowed this weekend, so it was the perfect time to model it. It’s actually for the kiddo, but I like it so much I might make one for myself too (although I may try to swap out stash yarn instead of the pricey Line Weight merino and silk mohair Tussock that I used for this version). I just bought the kit, in the RIver Rock and Grey Quartz colorways, from the website and it was a quick, satisfying, dreamy knit and as an extra benefit, my daughter seems to like it and I think she’ll actually wear it (it can be a bit touch and go with teenagers and hand-knits).

The week ahead includes a band concert and many home office hours, and planning for Thanksgiving (I bought the turkey on Saturday and it is safely chilling in the freezer waiting for its big day). I hope everyone had a cozy and relaxing weekend and is geared up for another week! xo

friday five!

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1. I got my Covid booster on Monday so, like Big Bird, I am fully armed to protect myself and my community. My first two were Pfizer, this one Moderna. My initial side effects were all similar- sore arm, fatigue, headache, all of which were resolved within 24 hours. I took the next day off from work, slept, drank lots of water, and was good to go the following day. However, now, a few days out, I’m developing an itch and mild rash at the injection site. After some Internet research I’ve found that this an uncommon but benign side effect – mostly in women – of the Moderna shot but not seen with Pfizer. Nothing to worry about but who knew.

(And while we are on the topic of Big Bird’s vaccination, can we remember that Big Bird has been endorsing vaccines since 1972? And let’s also remember that Ted Cruz is a repellent individual who – while vaccinated himself (!) – feels he has nothing better to do to serve his constituents than attack a PUPPET for making little kids feel good about vaccinations in general. Whenever I think the GOP can’t get shittier or dirtier they manage to outdo themselves.)

(Also – fuck psycho Kyle Rittenhouse and fuck his psycho mom and fuck the biased judge while I’m at it. You don’t go out walking around with an AR-15 and then CLAIM SELF DEFENSE WHEN YOU KILL PEOPLE. It was what you INTENDED TO DO ALL ALONG. And then certainly don’t (badly) pretend to CRY ABOUT IT. You’re a racist scumbag murderer – at least own it now, stand by your shoddy upbringing and flawed belief system and complete absence of morals and ethics and take your punishment.)

2. The other big thing for me this week is the rollout of the new Weight Watchers program. I’ve been on WW for over a year now, after gaining some Covid weight. I gained about 10 on top of being about 10 over where I should be, lost almost 20, stopped working the program and gained back 10 to put myself right where I was pre-pandemic. I’ve been half-heartedly and listlessly tracking since then without much motivation. Peri-menopause is real and it is here. The new program has jump-started me because I can actually earn points back for drinking water, hitting my step goals, and eating non-starchy vegetables! I’m very much in favor of it and am back to tracking constantly. For the first time in months I’ve had over 60 oz of water several days in a row and hit step goals and food targets as well! I love that the program is holistic, there are no “bad” foods, and encourages general health, activity and well-being.

3. Yesterday at lunch Brandon and I walked our annual Thanksgiving donations down to the mailbox. We each donate a specific amount for Thanksgiving (and then again at Christmas) to our selected charities. This year he went with Salvation Army and I chose Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit. Then we got Starbucks in the new holiday cups (basic bitch level enjoyment unlocked) and walked around the historic district of our village admiring the Veterans Day flags and banners. A belated but heartfelt THANK YOU for your service to all my readers who are vets!

4. I’ve never been one for expensive shampoo but my stylist convinced me to try samples of Aveda NutriPlenish and dammit after a week my hair looks and feels much improved. I find it difficult to spend that much on shampoo and conditioner but what am I to do? Luckily my salon is having a holiday 25% off sale next week so I can pick up my first bottles at a bit of a discount. I’d be better off if I could go days between washes but I’ve never been able to do that.

5. For several weeks the kiddo and I have been working together on a top secret crafting project for holiday gifts, which I hope to share more about next week. This year, we’re trying to do more handmade gifts for loved ones and I’ll give you a hint – we use a lot of these at this time of year.

That’s it for Friday. What are you doing this weekend? Brandon and I will do a 4-5 mile run, and I have to get the kiddo sorted out with a pair of black dress pants for her band concert on Monday night. I also hope to finish up her Purl Soho Simple Pleasures hat. The weather should be cooler and wet with possible S-N-O-W! Be well and enjoy. xo

do i want to go back?

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I’m still working from home 100% but expect that my workplace will open back up a bit after the holidays, maybe? I have mixed emotions about that. After a year and a half, I can’t imagine going back to the way things were, being in the office 5 days a week. I am an introvert so working from home has been no issue for me; also, my job in the legal profession supports that. My primary responsibilities are reading and reviewing documents, and those are very well-suited to a quiet home office with a cat asleep on my desk and WRCJ classical radio playing in the background.

I’ve also been able to have time with my kid that I have never had since she was born. I’ve always been a working mother and so being around to see her off to the bus, to be home when she gets home in the afternoons, have a snack together, have her do her homework in the armchair in my home office while I’m doing my job – well, it’s been a blessing. It’s been an absolute gift of time and presence. But I do have to admit that from a mental health and productivity standpoint I also benefit from being in an office, too. I can relationship-build, have meetings, and resolve issues more quickly face to face than with a technological hookup like Zoom or Skype or Teams. And being isolated in a home office can be anxiety-producing for me. Issues that are just ‘one more task’ to complete in an office of bustling, busy colleagues with their own agendas, complaints and victories can become looming and dreadful in a home office. Problems can be magnified, worries fester. It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees and remember that I’m a part of a larger assembly, and we’re all going through similar things.

I know a lot of folks who are eager to get back; I know just as many who want to stay home full-time, which I do not think is an option in my company over the long term. So we will just have to see what happens.

fall back

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It was a beautiful, golden fall weekend, but it looks like the switch is going to be flipped next weekend, so we spent it making hay while the sun shines (a favorite quote from Pa Ingalls). I am one of the weirdos who never minds the end of daylight savings time. The darkness doesn’t bother me, at least not to start, although I’m usually equally pleased when the earth tips again and the days get longer. Seasons are seasons and I love the change, the constant ebb and flow. But the long bright days of summer can be exhausting in their own way, and in November, I am usually happy to begin to curl back in on myself, to slow down and prepare for the coming winter.

We bought firewood, stacked it inside and outside, brought in patio cushions, filled birdfeeders and took down the garden and the porch and patio containers.

We turned the clocks back, made Thanksgiving entertaining plans, added lots of hygge candles and light strings inside to beat back the darkness, and drank lots of hot tea and October beer.

We cleaned out the freezer so we can stockpile a bit of meat and we ran miles to prep for our Thanksgiving morning 10k Turkey Trot in downtown Detroit.

I did some reading and knitting and napping and Brandon made a Sunday roast and watched football.

If all goes well, I’ll be getting my Covid booster this afternoon, and hopefully having a quiet week in the home office. I hope wherever you are your days are full of light (even if it’s light you have to create yourself) as we enter November. xo

friday frivolity: halloween recap, and some new knitting

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Halloween was a bit of a disappointment – the forecast was clear, but the weatherpeople were not correct. By 7:30 PM or so, the winds had picked up and the rain was pelting. We were expecting a flood of kids, pent-up demand from the past year, but we had a small turnout and the weather put a damper on festivities. We have LOTS of candy leftover which is terrible for my discipline and self-esteem.

the kiddo and brandon making the most out of her costume

I took Monday off and put away the Halloween decorations, smashed the pumpkins under our birdfeeder and filled them with sunflower seeds. The birds, deer, and other yard wildlife (we have possums and a raccoon) enjoy the smorgasbord. It’s turned colder so the flannel sheets are on the bed and the woodbox is filled. The kiddo and I had dentist appointments this week, on Tuesday Brandon & I went to vote the short local ballot (city council), and work has been a bit stressful. I had a call with Japan one evening that I spent a lot of time preparing for and feeling anxious about and now, here on Friday, I am drained and bloated and sugar-hungover and ready for a weekend of lots of water and fresh, clean food. I haven’t been able to muster the energy to run in the newly cold mornings, which seem increasingly dark, even though I do really like cold-weather running and I have all the appropriate gear, so I have to conclude that I’ve just been silly and have not done the best job at self-care this week.

Vlogtober is OVER and I am bummed out. I so enjoyed following two of my favorite vloggers with their daily updates. Gayna from Tales from Cuckoo Land and Ali from This Little Wonderful Life are just a joy and being able to climb under a blanket with my iPad and watch them every day was a balm for my busy October. Ali is pretty regular so I expect to see her again soon – and I think she’s already committed to Vlogmas – but Gayna has intimated that she maybe won’t be able to film again until the New Year and as I really enjoyed her Vlogmas last year, this is a crushing disappointment. I really need Christina and Red Bank Mike from Chelsea Knits to commit to a Vlogmas so I can fill in my Gayna loss. (Their house and chickens are so fun, and I love her planner vlogs too.)

On the knitting front, now that the Halloween socks are finished, I have turned my attention to a couple of other projects. I cast on a hat for the kiddo – the SImple Pleasures hat by Purl Soho. It is fantastic. She picked the grey tones and the yarn is absolutely luscious to work with. For the ribbing, you hold two strands of the wool, and once you get into the body of the hat, you cut one strand and replace it with a strand of the kid mohair. I’m considering doing another one for myself, maybe in one of the plum tones. I also got myself a little gift for Thanksgiving knitting – this tiny stitch marker from Sucre Sucre Miniatures. It’s the most perfect, detailed, immaculate slice of pumpkin pie and the artistry is amazing.

gah!!!

I’m also winding yarn for the Snuggle Down Cowl by Jooles Hill. This has been on my short list for awhile, and I’m finally winding up some of my mini-skeins from last year’s Legacy FIber Artz Advent calendar. I’m pairing them with a silk mohair in a pink shade from one of my new favorite indie dyers, Casual Fashion Queen, who is up in Ironwood, MI, where it’s already snowing.

So there’s my Friday update for you all. I hope you are well and safe, warm if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, and cool if you’re under the Southern Cross. We change our clocks back this weekend so the long days of dark are upon us. Be well, be kind, and enjoy. xo

21 days of horror 2021!

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I think we had our best year yet with 21 Days of Horror, achieving 19 out of 21 targeted films. Without further ado, here are our picks for notable watches, with the full list at the end of the post. A note on our categories: we have a Best of Season, a Worst of Season, and an additional category of Rewatchable. A Rewatchable is a film that for us becomes a classic that we can go back to year after year.

Sara’s Picks:

Best of Season: Terror Train, 1980. Unusually, the first film we watched also ended up being my favorite for the season. It’s not strictly a Halloween film, as it takes place over New Year’s; a fraternity books a picturesque old sleeper train for an overnight masquerade party. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, it’s a standard ‘revenge’ plot, but gets many extra points from me for cool costumes, an aura of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, and magician David Copperfield in a peculiar guest role.

Worst of Season: Chopping Mall, 1986. Brandon disagrees but in my opinion this film was wretched. A small group of kids (with a random young married couple thrown in to buy beer) decide to have a sex party in a mall furniture store after hours. Meanwhile, a lightning storm scrambles the wiring of the experimental robot security team. Transformed into rogue killing machines, the murderous wheelie bins slowly scoot around the mall stalking and zorching the sex crazed teens. The virginal nerd kids slowly and ineffectively dispatch the completely not scary robots and live to hold hands for another day.

Rewatchables: Halloween, 1978 and American Werewolf in London, 1981

Brandon’s Picks:

Best of Season: Sleepaway Camp, 1983. 80 minutes of terrible movie, but the twist at the end of the 81st minute makes this one very memorable.

Worst of Season: The Mutilator, 1984. Released as Fall Break, a terrific example of dumb choices made by people under duress.

Rewatchable: American Werewolf in London, 1981

  • Terror Train, 1980; Sara’s Best of Season
  • Halloween II, 1981
  • April Fool, 1986; an ensemble cast featuring Biff from Back to the Future.
  • Fright Night, 1985; an excellent turn by Roddy McDowell, some great supporting performances but these do NOT include Marci from Married with Children.
  • Sleepaway Camp, 1983
  • Train to Busan, 2016
  • Graduation Day, 1981
  • Chopping Mall, 1986; Sara’s Worst of Season
  • The Evil, 1978; unremarkable except for a few good 1970’s outfits. Brandon: “Richard Crenna. C’mon, man… Not a bad premise, and somewhat atmospheric, but it started to feel like a TV movie after awhile.”
  • Halloween, 1978; Sara’s Rewatchable
  • Friday the 13th, 1980; who doesn’t remember Kevin Bacon? Altogether a surprisingly solid horror film and may also attain a Rewatchable category from Sara.
  • The Fog, 1980; another surprisingly good movie that had subtle yet undeniable tips of the atmospheric hat to The Birds, even though the plots were not similar.
  • Curtains, 1983; a small budget cult classic with an incomprehensible plot starring several very similar-looking late 1970’s-looking actresses with fluffy hair and aggressively tweezed eyebrows; a lyrical ice skating scene and a really good scary mask.
  • Silent Night, Deadly Night, 1984; this was a strong runner-up for Sara’s Best of Season. Really excellent. Points taken off for the fact that it’s actually a twisted Christmas movie. Brandon: “This has been on my list for well over 30 years. Not bad, and the toys of the era as seen in the toy store where the movie is set offered some wonderful nostalgia.”
  • American Werewolf in London, 1981; Brandon and Sara’s Rewatchable
  • The Mutilator, 1984
  • The VIllage, 2004
  • Hellraiser, 1987; really stands up. Dense plot and a lot of backstory. Brandon: “I probably could not have watched this as a teenager, afraid of the flying fish hooks, but a lot of this plays now as camp. Overall, the most sophisticated story of this genre.”
  • Dead & Buried, 1981; this is another honorable mention as a really strong small budget film starring James Farentino as a sheriff in a small town and the only one who doesn’t know that everyone else is a zombie.

And that’s a wrap until next year. I hope your Halloweens are delightfully creepy and atmospheric and your pillowcases are full of candy and your masks still allow you to see oncoming traffic and any lurking masked figures around hedges. Be well and Happy Samhain!

halloween socks 2021!

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Last year, I was madly casting off and stitching the toes up on Halloween, this year I finished my Halloween socks a full week early!

These are the Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern by Erica Lueder, knit on Casual Fashion Queen’s plush merino sock in the Spider’s Lullaby colorway (with just some black Patons for toes and cuffs).

The only bummer is that I usually use a 2.0 mm for my socks and this time – following the pattern exactly because they are my first pair of magic loop socks – I used a 2.25. They’re too big for me. I can wear them with another pair of socks underneath but I need a 2.0 Chiao Goo red lace needle for future magic loop projects. These are modeled by my daughter whose feet are bigger than mine.

Happy knitting!

never enough time

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Friday flew by in a welter of activity, and I ran from my home office to the car to the middle school to the high school football field and then home again without missing a beat. The kiddo had school Halloween festivities and then a performance with the high school marching band at that night’s game and it went off without a hitch! Brandon and I were in the stands with a family friend and the other marching band & Scout as well as neighborhood parents and we were a proud cheering section.

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to meal planning and shopping, laundry, carving pumpkins and watching Charlie Brown. Brandon made an amazing beef tenderloin on Sunday and I crashed by 9. It’s another busy week ahead and I’m not mentally ready for it.

Life is good but there’s never enough time for all of the things that I want to do.

I hope you are all well and healthy and safe. Happy Monday.

friday five

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Capping off another work week with a sigh of relief and hoping you are all well – here’s an October Friday Five.

Puzzle season has commenced…

1. 21 Days of Horror – longer term readers will know that every October I delve deeply into the world of horror films. It started out as 31 days, but I couldn’t do 31 horror films and keep a healthy mental balance (and most years we don’t hit 21 either)! On Halloween I will recap the season and unveil our favorite. If you know us, we aren’t big on zombies or torture or overt gore, and tend to lean towards the late ‘70’s and 1980’s genres. Brandon also really enjoys Hammer horror from the ‘60’s. Join us on Halloween for our final pick.

2. Halloween trip to Glenlore Trails with the Girl Scouts. The weather was perfect – cool enough for a jacket but exceptionally mild with a big moon. The Scouts ran off on their own for the roughly 1-mile walk. The displays weren’t scary – mostly lights and projected images – but it was all intended to be family-friendly and it was a nice night to walk in a spooky woods.

3. A real live trip to a movie theater! We saw James Bond “No Time to Die” at our local and had dinner out mid-week. The movie was good but way too long in my opinion. I can watch Daniel Craig forever and a day but I am of the firm belief that we need to get back to the days of 90 minute films (this one was 2.5 hours). We had the theater to ourselves so the teenager was on her phone most of the time ha.

4. The hummingbird feeder is down, washed, and stored, and the seed feeders are up. (I save suet for colder days later in the season.) And yesterday we saw our first dark-eyed Junco, which we also call ‘snowbirds’. They are regular visitors in the snowy months and not around much at all in warm ones, so this is a sign that despite the balmy autumn, winter won’t be delayed indefinitely.

5. I know that I run the risk of jinx but it’s been so nice to have everyone healthy here. I am not taking it for granted. I’ve been back to tracking my food via Weight Watchers, trying to eat well and make overall good choices. Lots of evening kombucha and I’m glad the weather is cool enough for hot tea again. If you like a sweet dessert tea that will give you a post-dinner or pre-bedtime treat, I highly recommend this:

Tonight I’ll be at a football game to watch my kiddo’s middle school band perform a pre-game with the high school band. This is very exciting for me, as I loved band in high school and never miss an opportunity to remind people that I was actually BAND PRESIDENT (#geek). The rest of the weekend – who knows? Lots of relaxing and a couple of runs for sure. I hope you enjoy it and recharge your batteries for the big lead-up to Halloween. Be well – xo.