tgif (formerly friday five)

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Editor’s Note: I have changed the format of my Friday posts a bit, focusing on the TGIF rather than having five items. Forgive me but sometimes I just can’t come up with five (although maybe someday I’ll have SIX) and I’m not sure I ever did the whole Friday Five thing right anyway! But this week I do indeed have five so let’s get rolling.

TGIF my friends. We made it through another long, dark winter week and having spots of brightness and optimism helped.

1. As Van Jones said:

goodbye 45!

I’ve never been a big watcher of inaugurations but I will never again take for granted the ceremony and meaning of these occasions. After being so deeply in fear that a peaceful transition of power would not take place, the symbolic importance of the day, and the presence of so many different voices and people from both sides of the aisle, was something I was very grateful for. 🇺🇸

The Bernie memes have been amazing. My faves:

The inauguration was of course the biggest high point of the week but I also have some superficiality- so now on to the minutiae!

2. I read a review of L’Oréal Elvive Wonder Water and for $9 I was intrigued to try it. The texture is weird but it really works to make my hair soft and shiny. Without a blowout and a straightener, my hair is wavy underneath and straight on top which can make it look poofy and unkempt. This product makes it noticeably straighter and more manageable without styling. Which is good, because in the age of remote work, I still shower and wash my hair every day – yes, every day, it’s a tic that I cannot feel clean or productive if my hair isn’t washed- but mostly I’m just blowing it a bit dry and twisting it up into a clip. Warning, it does make the shower floor extremely slippery so use caution.

3. I am a huge fan of Finnish writer Tove Jansson and I recently saw a collection of yarn inspired by her Moomin characters. uhhh…. this could get expensive.

4. Speaking of knitwear…my parents got me Bombas for Christmas…FROM THE SESAME STREET COLLECTION. This is my fave sock brand and I can’t tell you the happiness it brings me to look down during the day and see Grover or Oscar on my ankle.

5. Josie aka Pot Roast is by far the cleverest cat I’ve ever had. One day I pulled up a YouTube video on my computer monitor and let her chase a cartoon mouse across the screen for awhile. I called it “feline enrichment” a la the Kitten Lady (check her on IG). This was all cute fun and games until Pot Roast caught sight of the television monitor. Now she chases Green Bay Packers across the screen, punches out Audrey Hepburn during “Charade”, and thinks she can dunk a basketball like a Laker. Her particular faves, however, are Brandon’s old Kung fu films that he likes to watch before he falls asleep. The funniest thing is hearing a bit of a scuffle in a dark bedroom then seeing Pot Roast’s little ears and head rising up in silhouette against the television screen, looking like Tom Servo or Crow from MST3k. We don’t have the heart to discourage her but that will undoubtedly change when she knocks the TV off the wall and feels pleased that she finally bested Commander Wong.

I hope you have a fantastic Friday and weekend ahead. xo

january

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I have to remind myself that Januaries are always difficult for me, and Februaries, as well. As is the case for many people, things are a bit of a grind here in suburban Elysia just at the moment. But I can’t judge 2021 too harshly on its face, just yet.

My expectations weren’t high. The pandemic wasn’t going anywhere. The riots at the Capitol and the continued insanity of Trump, MAGA, and Q….well, that’s a big bunch of demerits for sure.

We’ve had a mild winter so far, without a lot of snow or extreme temps, which is sort of nice but then again every day is just more Michigan grey. At this point I’d relish a nice whomp of snow just for something different.

I’m still working away in my back bedroom / office and still having to make hundreds of quick transitions between employee / parent / teacher / chef / home project manager / therapist / partner / lover every day. Which is not ideal but which I think many of us are struggling with. This will likely continue through April or May, at the earliest, if I’m not mistaken, and perhaps longer depending on how we handle Miss L’s continued remote school through June. This paying job I’ve done for the past 10 years – at a company I’ve been with for 19 – is its usual mix of stability, ennui, consistency, tedium, stress, aggravation, reassurance and comfort, all at once. I try to remind myself to get out for walks or runs and fresh air, get enough sleep but not sleep too much, to have gratitude, take my vitamins and watch my diet and keep to-do lists and make time for self care but sometimes things fall off the plate and I have to start all over again.

Maybe my daily commute (30 minutes to an hour plus one way, depending on weather and traffic), which I always bemoaned in the past, was more beneficial than I thought- time to transition from one role to another, catch up on news or audiobooks or podcasts.

Rise of the Fake Commute and how it might be beneficial to your mental health

The key is taking things one day, one action at a time and not thinking too far ahead.

How’s your January going so far?

show us your books! – december 2020 reads

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Note before I start: I’m equal parts enraged and exhausted by the attempted coup last week. The images of white supremacists and alt-right extremists storming our Capitol, at the urging of our president, armed with Confederate flags and zip ties, made me sick to my stomach. Yet for anyone who has kept their eyes open about Trump and his followers, they are no surprise. I can only pray that now that he is deprived of some oxygen, days from his departure from a position of official political power, that his deplorable supporters sink back into the woodwork where they belong. PS – it wasn’t Antifa. It was Trump and his trolls. Own the violence, own the inflammatory rhetoric from the Trumps and Giuliani that exacerbated and urged it moments before it exploded, and punish it accordingly.

fangirling!

And now onto the books, eh?

As always I am joining our hosts Steph and Jana for this monthly linkup.

I didn’t read that much in December – too much else going on at work and at home. But I did get a few books under my belt and one “definite recommend”.

  1. The Girl in Cabin 13 (Emma Griffin FBI Mystery #1) by A.J. Rivers was a Kindle Unlimited selection. (I’ve since unsubscribed from Kindle Unlimited since once my library reopened for at least curbside pickup, I can pretty much get anything I want that way, and the Kindle Unlimited selections weren’t consistently appealing for me.) Anyway, this was a quick read, introducing Emma as an FBI agent undercover in a small town to investigate several deaths / disappearances. I would read more of this series, but in general I’d say if you’re looking for books about strong female law enforcement, there are better selections out there (including the one I discuss below).
  2. Where the Lost Wander, by Amy Harmon, was another Kindle Unlimited. The story of a family setting off on the Oregon Trail mixed with a love story. I love historical fiction but on occasion find it culturally problematic…This one seemed to acknowledge those pitfalls and avoid most of them. My biggest beef was that a major incident occurs within the first 1/4 of the story, and immediately afterwards, the author backtracks to fill in the narrative up to that point. The reader then has to wait until the last 1/4 of the book to find out the resolution of the aforementioned major incident. I know that the author probably thought that dropping the bombshell early and then withdrawing would draw readers on, wanting to find out the resolution, but for me it essentially rendered the entire midsection moot. I don’t care what they packed or what she drew or her relationships with her kid brothers after that, especially when some / all of the characters that the author is laboriously filling me in on may not survive Major Incident. So I ended up speed-reading and skipping large chunks just to get to the resolution. Which didn’t make it an especially enjoyable read.
  3. Death in the Family (Shana Merchant #1) by Tessa Wegert is a much better example of the genre I reference in book 1 above. It’s an Agatha Christie-esque family whodunnit featuring a murder on a remote, storm-tossed island and a gallery of plausible related suspects in a sprawling manor house. Shana has her own demons and has to battle those throughout and the narratives mesh and play off each other nicely. Hugely atmospheric, fast-paced, and kept me hanging on until the last. Highly recommend.
  4. A Rose for her Grave by Ann Rule – another Kindle Unlimited (can you tell that my library closed down in December because of a Covid surge?). True crime queen Ann Rule tells the story of a Blackbeard-type murderer who marries, takes out life insurance policies on his unwitting brides, and dispatches them one after another. If you like true crime, her books are classics.
Life According to Steph

the last one of 2020

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We spent the end of the year quite pleasurably up north with my parents. I got out for a trail run and the Michigan lakeshore was like an alien landscape, empty, with high waves and wind and a low, pale sun.

“There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that’s a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that don’t fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything’s quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep—then they appear.”
Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter

I got dug into a dense book from my dad’s bookshelf and we played a lot of poker.

My parents are wonderful and we love spending time with them. They are gentle, intelligent, funny, and generous. I have so much gratitude for their continued strong presence in our lives, their good health and safety.

However, their cats hate us – they’re rescue cats and they are accustomed to having a very quiet existence with my folks. I’m making inroads, though.

We left for home on a snowy morning that quickly turned to rain, and now we are home, in front of the fire with many blankets and food and wine, to ring in the New Year.

I love some statistics so here’s my 2020 Year in Books.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2020/15419153

And my Top Nine of 2020!

Thank you all for reading and following and sharing my ups and downs. There’s nothing else I can say about this year that hasn’t already been said, and said well. So I will end with deep gratitude for what I have and hope for the future. I truly value the connections I’ve made via this blog. Happy New Year to you all and we look forward to a blessed and better 2021.

sweet little things

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I know this was a terrible year and sharing holiday cheer feels somehow wrong. But it is also right to express gratitude for what we have, and take pleasure in the little things when so many big things are very wrong. So here are a few things that brought me some joy this holiday.

The joy we find in our community. Running and walking in our neighborhood, enjoying the sled hill on a snowy morning and our Heritage Park trails and historic buildings, our local businesses and the friends we have here.

Being together. My daughter, Brandon and I spent so many enjoyable hours doing puzzles, art, taking walks, crafting, sledding, cooking and relaxing with each other- we had the gift of time.

Taking great joy in celebrating the holiday with pleasures like a nice meal and a table with a tablecloth and our nice dishes and some candles, even if it’s just the three of us.

Getting outside even on cold days to get some steps, fresh air, clear the cobwebs and do some birdwatching.

Enjoying our furry family.

I hope, even in this awful year, that you were all able to find some joy and peace in this season and if not, know that you are not alone and that things will be better. Until then, we will have to muddle through somehow.

friday five – imported olives edition

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  1. Brandon’s mom got me a gift certificate for a knitting shop and I finally got around to using it. Stitch In Time in Howell, MI is about 30 minutes from where I live and it is just the coolest place. It occupies the first floor of an old converted house and is full of creaky wood floors, polished paneling, old windows and YARN. I had the BEST time browsing and the staff was super helpful and kind. Highly recommend if you are knitters or crocheters and anywhere near Howell. I need more sock yarn like I need a hole in the head, but I could NOT resist the Uneek self-striping and the WSK (Western Sky Knits) Christmas 2020 colorway. I also picked up a skein of Malabrigo for a knitted beanie.

2. Christmas is the season of giving so I ended up purchasing myself an early present. I’ve wanted a pair of Doc Marten ankle boots for awhile (I still kick myself for giving away my Docs from college) and these were the ones I picked – the Flora in patent. I love them and made sure they were roomy enough for knitted socks underneath.

3. Brandon is visiting his parents this week so Miss L and I have been enjoying a girls’ week – dropping little gifts off to her Secret Santa buddy from Scouts, eating comfort food (hello tuna casserole) and watching some festive Netflix. We picked ‘Dash and Lily’, a charming little YA romance featuring two predictably precocious New Yorker teens falling in love via scavenger hunt. The soundtrack is hipster and the cast diverse and the episodes are short and fast-paced. It’s been a good choice. We are also working our way through Dolly Parton’s ‘Christmas in the Square’ which is admittedly a bit of a hate watch. I love Dolly but this is so atrocious that we sincerely and enjoyably loathe it. We watch five minutes a night and that’s usually more than enough. 🙂

4. I usually try to save my books for Show Us Your Books, but I have to share this. I started the week off on the wrong foot by staying up super late to finish ‘Death in the Family’, an Agatha Christie type whodunnit by Tessa Wegert. I couldn’t put it down. I was a bit grumpy the next day (I need my eight straight) but getting a comment from the author on my IG made it worth it. I’m totally fangirling. 🙂

5. For the first time in several years, Widget Central sent out holiday baskets. This brought back fond memories of a previous boss who always sent fruit baskets for the holiday with amazing pears, and we ate them on Christmas Eve with baked Brie. Miss L painstakingly unpacked everything and examined it closely and was thrilled with the contents. She gave me a huge hug and said, ‘You must have done a great job this year, Mom!’ Of course the basket was not specific to me or my performance this year but I was so gratified by her excitement that I didn’t spoil it for her. 😉 “MOM! MILK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES MOM! AND THE OLIVES – THEY’RE IMPORTED!!!’

I hope you are all well and safe on this Friday morning, looking forward to a short workday and a long peaceful weekend. xoxo

friday five – two tannenbaums

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  1. Holiday festivities have commenced. I don’t know how I ever handled a normal holiday season because it seems utterly overwhelming even with most things cancelled. Then again, maybe it feels like this because of the extra stress of COVID? See further musings on this in #5. I don’t know – but I’m not coping well with externals. We’re blowing through episodes of “Derry Girls” on Netflix to compensate (language warning for a lot of Irish ‘fecks’ but very funny).
  2. The tree has been up and decorated since the weekend after Thanksgiving and because I’m working from home, I’m actually wrapping in advance with color-coordinated wrapping paper on my lunch breaks. I feel good about this but no one should expect it in a normal year.

3. We LOVE Advent calendars at our house so we each got one (or two lol). I am so excited – I treated myself to a Moomin Advent calendar that can be played as a board game when all the pieces are unwrapped and a Legacy Fiber Artz mini skein calendar. (Anyone with any good patterns for mini skeins – a cowl maybe? – drop me a line!) Miss L has a Funko Pop Harry Potter calendar from the Order of the Phoenix and a traditional chocolate from her Neena. Brandon’s, however, is my fave. I found a wooden stand on Etsy and filled it with mini liquors. He likes whiskey so I tried to get a bunch of little ones for him to try (although there are a few cheapos like Fireball, peppermint schnapps, and Goldschlager mixed in to keep things fun).

4. You may remember that a few weeks back I lost a major chunk of my willow tree that narrowly missed the power lines. This has forced me to contract with a tree service for its removal in 6-8 weeks; but first DTE had to come clear the wires. It was actually pretty neat to see how they get between the houses using a very narrow machine that then opens up like a spider with a bucket on it. I feel sad about losing the old willow but every time it blows or ices I shudder with apprehension and I won’t miss THAT.

5. My life is like whack-a-mole right now. If I’m on top of shit at work, then I haven’t made eye contact with my family or gotten out to exercise in days and am shuffling around like a pale bloated Boo Radley. If I’m getting fresh air, exercising, eating right, getting good sleep, prepared for the holidays, staying on top of Miss L’s remote schoolwork and also being emotionally present for my family, then I feel like my to-do list at work is out of control. Maybe it’s just pandemic, but shouldn’t I have this under control and figured out by now? Shouldn’t it be easier because I don’t have to drive to an office? Why isn’t it? I know no one has answers and these are rhetorical questions but damn, how they persist.

I hope you are all well and safe during this December time and that your Secret Santa is timely and generous. And that if YOU’RE the Secret Santa, your recipient gives you some grace. xoxo

show us your books – november 2020 reads

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Happy December my friends and welcome to my first SUYB in months. It really seemed like I’d kept up better with this but blog archives prove me wrong so here I am with increased vim.

As always I am joining our hosts Steph and Jana… you can find the link to join up at the bottom of this post.

It wasn’t a super productive reading month – I only finished 4 books and one of them was quite fluffy. However, these were mostly new or more recent books as our library was open for a millisecond (before shutting back down again during the recent spike). Honestly I doubt December will be much better but here’s hoping!

1. Cosy – the British Art of Comfort by Laura Weir – apparently “cosy” is the British answer to “hygge” and this book goes to great lengths to prove its superiority. This is a charming and very quick read and has a lot of hot beverages and blankets and other creature comforts. A good read if you’re drowsing by the fire with that second (or third) glass of wine and can’t focus on anything with a plot (also might make a good stocking stuffer for that Anglophile in your life).

2. The Sun Down Motel by Simone St James – I read a previous book by St James – The Broken Girls – which was a thriller set in a 1950s girl’s boarding school – and enjoyed it. But this one fell flat for me. A young woman sets out to uncover the mystery of her runaway aunt, who went missing while working as a night clerk at a creepy motel. There are ghosts and a serial killer and a twist at the end but I just could not get engaged or interested.

3. Katheryn Howard, The Scandalous Queen – I’ve read many of Alison Weir’s nonfiction accounts of the British monarchy and also enjoy her fictional accounts of the six wives of Henry VIII. I’m a sucker for good Tudor historical fiction and this one, about perhaps the most naive and careless of his wives, didn’t disappoint. Howard, the monarch’s fifth wife, is young, beautiful, and not particularly shrewd. She doesn’t protect her chastity or good reputation when it comes to men either before or during her marriage to the King Hypocrite and as such is the second of his wives to lose their heads.

4. The Tenant by Katrine Engberg – I recently started following a new IG account called Crime By the Book (she has a blog as well) with some fantastic “Nordic noir” selections. I love Scandinavian mysteries and now my “to be read” list is full. The Tenant was one of her suggestions and I really enjoyed it. A pair of Copenhagen police detectives investigate the grisly murder of a young woman in her own apartment. The mystery begins to coalesce around the landlady of the apartment building and a dinner party which brought an ill-fated cast of characters together. There’s a newish follow up featuring the same pair of detectives called “The Butterfly House” and I immediately put it on my library request list.

So that’s all for this month – I hope you have a wonderful month of good books and cozy (cosy) times leading up to the holiday season!

Life According to Steph

thanksgiving 2020

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visitor to our backyard the day before thanksgiving

I had a five day long weekend for the US Thanksgiving holiday and it was delightful. I can’t deny that my morale and productivity in my home office was at a low point in the days leading up to it. Five days off and now it’s Monday morning and I have the glad feeling that I’m ready to be back at my desk. I have to-do lists to make, emails to read, documents to review, and meetings to schedule, and I’m ready for the push through to the end of the year, where I’ve scheduled even more time off.

Miss L was at her dad’s for the holiday so it was just me and Brandon. We’d originally planned our family holiday celebration for the weekend, and invited Brandon’s cousin and girlfriend over for Wednesday night drinks, but with the three-week “pause” instituted by our governor, in the end, no one really wanted to meet up. This was fine with me as it gave me the ideal sort of holiday for an introvert and just what I needed, really. Hopefully Covid cases go down in upcoming days and if not then at least I’ll have the feeling that I’ve properly isolated to see my family over Christmas.

sarge says “hey man”

So Brandon and I were in our own little holiday world. We cooked our turkey and had a candlelight dinner and he made his special family dressing. Unfortunately the only photograph I got was of the pumpkin pie I made. I was very proud of this as I love pumpkin pie and I feel now like the true embodiment of “teach a man to fish” (although my mom’s pie is still the best).

We went for runs and long walks and bought nothing on Black Friday.

wood ducks among the mallards!

I had spectacular afternoon naps with the cats every day, and read and knitted a bit. We drank lots of Malbec and stayed up late watching the latest season of “The Crown” as well as “The Miniaturist” and “Vienna Blood” from PBS (all ‘recommends’). I didn’t worry at all about what I ate or drank but tried to temper it by getting outside daily for fresh air and steps.

I’ve explored some new and fun ways to present turkey leftovers since we had a 14-lb bird and despite our best efforts we did not eat our required 7 lbs each on Thursday. We tried these recipes and all received thumbs-up from Brandon.

Cranberry Turkey Crescent Ring (from Pillsbury)

Pot pie (from Two Peas and their Pod – it’s written for chicken but is great for turkey, too. I’ve made this many times with both chicken and turkey and always a crowd-pleaser.)

Turkey Monte Cristo (from Martha Stewart. We actually got lazy and skipped the French toast step here and just grilled it on the stovetop like a classic grilled cheese, with some good bread, and it turned out absolutely yummy.)

I hope everyone had an equally relaxing weekend and we’re all ready for the push to the end of the year. What’s on tap for this week? We will get our Christmas tree up, and I have to go into the office one day, and I have to meet up at the bank with some of the Girl Scout moms as I’m taking over the role of troop treasurer for this cookie season (whyyyyyyyy do I do this to myself argh). I also have a late work call with Japan one night. I’m still looking forward to being back on a more normal schedule. Oh – and we’re supposed to get SNOW later today and tomorrow!

As Garrison Keillor used to say, be well, do good work, and keep in touch. xo

friday five – where’s the turkey, chuck

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  1. All I can say is thank goodness Apple TV loosened their capitalistic stranglehold on the Peanuts holiday specials and are allowing them to be shown on PBS after all. I bitterly railed against the loss of the Halloween special and can’t imagine getting through the holidays without seeing Snoopy fight with a lawn chair and Linus bring us to tears with his simple reminder of what the holidays are all about, Charlie Brown. At the age of 47 I will still be sitting in front of the TV at 7.30 EST Sunday night November 22 with Miss L and my snacks (maybe popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans and toast?) to bring back a taste of my childhood.

2. Some weekends, all I want to do is sit and knit with something soothing to watch. I love vlogs and am so excited about Vlogmas coming up. Some of my favorite crafting vlogs include Ina Knits, Sandy by the Lakeside, Birch and Lily, and Mandarine’s (all available on YouTube). I also love Christine McConnell although that’s less crafting and more aesthetic (achievable crafting, anyway), Talasbuan, and Northern Heart, and I recently found a new one that I love called Simple Swedish Life. This is a very quiet, peaceful vlog about a young Korean man married to a Swedish woman living in Sweden with their toddler. It’s very aesthetic, full of poignant musings and images, not much (if any) spoken word, and some great cooking and recipes. If you’re looking for an excellent accompaniment to an afternoon of working quietly with your hands with a cup of your favorite beverage, I would highly recommend any of the above.

3. I don’t think I’ve shared yet, but I cast on my holiday socks in the post-election trauma and have been busting away on them ever since. They are the Summer Camp pattern by Jill Zielinski (which is not seasonally appropriate, I know, but looks great with the yarn I chose and a contrast heel / toe) in two colorways from West Yorkshire Spinners. I can’t remember them offhand and the ball bands are downstairs so I will just say the socks are Raveled and I’ll add the colorways later on. Whilst I was taking the inaugural picture for Ravelry, Emmett decided he wanted to help display their attributes and I let him. He’s a handsome model, don’t you think?

4. For the first time perhaps ever, I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping before Black Friday. Making a budget and lists in advance helped. My biggest project left to finish is Brandon’s Advent calendar. I don’t want to reveal it here, but I found the base idea on Etsy and have to buy the supplies for each day. I have 6 days done but need to hit up some shops over the weekend to finish it up. I didn’t quite realize that the month was going so fast. All three of us are getting Advent calendars this year and I look forward to sharing them here on the blog and also over on my Instagram (link in the side column).

5. For the past two weeks I’ve been scheduling my workouts in advance and blocking off time on my calendar. Over the summer, it got light early enough that I could be up and out and get back and shower and not have to delay the opening of my home office, but with the shorter days and darker, cold mornings, I find I have to make accommodations. Setting aside a few mornings a week where I don’t schedule meetings too early has been great and I’ve stuck to my scheduled workouts every time – either getting out for a walk or run or, if the weather is inclement, going into the basement for a strength workout. It’s not always going to be possible this winter to do this, based on my work schedule, but anything is better than the nothing active I did last spring during early work-from-home times (and the corresponding weight gain). Could it be that I’m getting the hang of this “adulting” thing? (Questionable.)

Anyway, I hope you are all well and safe and your families, too. What’s on tap for this weekend? I will be finishing up the Advent calendar for Brandon, picking up the last bits and bobs for our Thanksgiving dinner next week, knitting and enjoying my books and vlogs. Take care and enjoy. xoxo