Three things ~ 1.26.23

Things I’m loving this week

“Nobody Hates You” by Jessia. I don’t know how old this song is, but I just heard it recently and immediately added it to my “liked” songs list on Spotify. The lyrics are awesome, especially for young women, but…sadly, I know, also for plenty of young men, too. What have we done to our kids? Sigh.

“Alexa,  play some music.” I discovered this command by accident, but I’m finding it fun to see what she comes up with for my personalized playlist. Usually it’s based on my listening habits, but sometimes it’s way out there — like contemporary R&B, which was actually pretty fun. I find it hard to discover new music using streaming services (Spotify’s Daily Drive, etc.) that just feed us what they know we like. 

College basketball games. I never watched basketball until a friend’s daughter began playing for Behrend, so I couldn’t be more surprised to say that I really like going to the games. They are fun and exciting. People. Pep band. Dance Troupe. Cheerleaders. Mascot. And, of course, a fast-moving game that never drags into extra innings or long overtime sessions.

Microban Multi-purpose Cleaner. My mom swears by this to clean up pet stains and I have to say it works better than most of the other products we have tried. And, it’s not even very pricey — maybe $5 or $6 at Walmart.

Things I’m not loving this week

$400+ Emergency Vet Bill and a sick pup. I don’t know what’s wrong with Haddie, but she’s had liquid poo for days. On Friday night she sprayed it all over me in the truck on the way home from my inlaws (oh, yes, that’s a story i must find time to tell here soon) and when it continued Saturday morning, we decided we had to bite the bullet and take her to the Pet ER. The first quote was nearly $900. They took off some things to get the price down to $414, which was still steep for no diagnosis, but we did get plenty of meds — nausea, stool hardener, worm medicine (just in case) — as well as antiseptic butt wipes, antibiotic cream, and a cone-of-shame from a lick-induced infection/hot spot on her back end.

I’m still not sure what is wrong. Is it her food? Does she have some sort of inflammation or chronic, sensitive belly? Does she need probiotics? Did she pick up some infection from something in the yard? I don’t know, but I hope we get it figured out soon. In the meantime, she’s enjoying rice-boiled-chicken-and-pumpkin dinners and is clearly feeling much better. (The tail wrap was to keep the fur out of the mess going on back there.)

M&Ms. Good gravy…..imagine being Mars Inc. and taking orders from that fat, blowhard, soft, squinty-eyed, perpetually-confused-looking loser, Tucker Carlson. No…I’m not “canceling” M&Ms now, I’m just hoping they realize they don’t need to kowtow to a man who literally contributes nothing to this world but more resentment and anger. He makes a living off keeping people mad about stupid shit.

 

 

Worth Reading ~ 1.25.23

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

Canary Media: We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electrify everything

Aeon: Born that way

“Thomas and Chess had effectively nixed the idea that babies are born ‘blank slates’ who passively receive and are moulded by the environment. Their work flipped the script on psychological views that had paid almost exclusive attention to the role of parents and the environment on child development, while ignoring the influence of the child’s innately endowed predispositions. Thomas and Chess, working with colleagues who progressed their original study, showed that neonates, sometimes just hours old, begin to inadvertently affect the physical and social environment by adapting, resisting, observing, reacting or ignoring it in ways nudged by their biological temperament, and that parents, siblings and other close people change the environment and/or their own behaviours in response. In other words, the environment and the baby have a dynamic bidirectional relationship from the very beginning, changing in response to each other. What’s more, this influence means that babies play a major role in their own development.”

Greater Good magazine: How to Stop the Pain of Wishing People Were Different (Makes life a lot easier when you just accept people for who & what they are)

BBC: Why some people can’t tell left from right (Raises hand….don’t ask me which one.)

Words to Start Your Week: Embrace your weird

Words to Start Your Week: live now

Worth Reading ~ 1.18.23

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

Literary Hub: Judy Blume’s Advice for Aspiring Writers

New York Times: ‘You Have to Learn to Listen’: How a Doctor Cares for Boston’s Homeless

Scientific American: The Best New Year’s Resolution Might Be to Just Let Go of an Unfulfilled Life Goal

Time: 6 Surprising Things You Think Are Making You Happy—But Are Doing the Opposite

Three things ~ 1.12.23

Things I’m loving this week

Taking/having time to read again. The algebra class I took last semester sucked up most of my free time and brain space after work and I don’t know if I made it through more than two books while I had that class, but it’s over now (I’ll reflect on that in a future Just Write soon) and I can once again read for fun. It’s often the last thing on my list. I always have ten thousand other things that need done or cleaned or picked up or whatever….but I made a promise to myself that MAKE more time to read because it’s important to me (and my creativity) and I can’t keep thinking of it as something I do only when I get everything else done because there’s always more to do.

Erie Apparel’s Vintage T-Shirt Club. I joined this monthly club on a whim and I thought long and hard about another monthly subscription hitting my credit card, but I’m impressed with the first shipment, which included not just a vintage (and exclusive) Koehler’s T-shirt, but a beer coaster (which the husband collects), a T-club shirt, a sticker, and a card with some history about Koehler’s Brewing, which was pretty cool. I ordered a large so that if the shirt is not my cup of T (pun intended), I can re-gift. While I liked this one, I knew the husband really wanted it….beer is kinda his thing, so…  It’s $30 a month for a unique shirt shipped to your house.

A perfect father-daughter Steelers experience. Kelly spent a good chunk of her hard earned money to buy Dan a really cool Christmas gift — tickets for the Steelers v. Browns game on Sunday. When she bought them, I worried about them going to a January game and driving and sitting in bad weather, but it turned out to be a perfectly gorgeous January day (for Pennsylvania). Cold, but sunny and precipitation free. They had a great time made even better by a big Steelers win over a local rival team.

Blendjet. Dan got me this cordless, rechargeable to-go blender for Christmas and I was like…um…OK. I didn’t think I’d find it any more useful than my little plug-in smoothie blender, but I was wrong. This is awesome. And, indeed, I can fill it up with the ingredients, throw it in my workbag and blend it when I’m ready to eat it. Also, I just found a bunch of recipes on their website. Fun!

Things I’m not loving this week

Poo-eating puppy. The sign on the basement door says it all. Get a puppy, they said. It will be fun, they said.

Vacation planning. I decided this might be the last opportunity for a big family vacation with the girls and we have been wanting to back out west since our first trip in 2019, so I’ve started the long process of finding flights and locations and car rental and trying to decide when, where and how to go. It’s pretty exhausting…and I hate it, but if I don’t do it, who will? I’m leaning toward Yosemite and Grand Tetons via Salt Lake City. But…man…car rental tripled in price (literally).

Worth Reading ~ 1.11.23

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

Bloomberg Businessweek: Eight Shocking Secrets I Learned While Working on Private Jets

NPR: Banished Words List for 2023

Harvard Business Review: Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Walk (I’ve walked at lunch for years…I maintain it makes me more productive and less prone to getting afternoon sleepy feelings).

Worth Watching:

Worth Reading ~ 1.4.23

A few articles, blog posts, and other things I think are worth your time.

Apartment Therapy: You Should Put a Bowl of Vinegar in Your Dishwasher—Here’s Why

Harvard Business Review: Stop Being So Hard on Yourself

Well + Good: Here’s How To Use the HALT Method To Figure Out Why You’re So Grumpy

Quanta Magazine: How to Win at Wordle Without Cheating

Home Edit: Tips for Storing holiday decor

Three things ~ 12.29.22

Things I’m loving this week

The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook. I bought this from Amazon on a whim to give to Kelly for Christmas and it has really great (and easy) recipes. So good and easy that I went and ordered a copy for myself. At less than $8…it’s worth it.  I actually found it for less than $5 at Thrift Books.

Dog Treat maker by Dash. Another gift I picked up for fun was this dog treat maker. While the bones don’t look like the ones on the box, they are still yummy (so the dogs thing) and they are made with all natural ingredients you probably have around the house (with the exception of whole wheat flour, which…I actually did have from some past baking recipe).

My new coffee mug. Does Kelly know me or what?

Kitty Christmas Wreath. Kelly made me this wreath with items primarily from Dollar Tree with the exception of the wreath form and the cutout cat, which she bought on Etsy. I just love it!

Spider Curls. We’ve avoided doing these because we thought we would look silly, but….they are so fun, and you can feel how/why they really work your biceps. We’ll do more of these, no matter how weird we feel. 🙂

These puppy dog eyes. Even when they are begging, they are just. so. dang. cute.

Things I’m not loving this week

Snow IN the house. How cold, snowy and blowy was it this week? Snow came THROUGH the outlets and into the house.

Blown out pool panels. How snowy, blowy, cold was it this week – part 2? So cold that our pool fence blew out in two places. Sigh.

Three things ~ 12.22.22

Things I’m loving this week

Running downtown in winter at night. With only 8 hours of daylight right now, it’s not hard to find time to enjoy the lights downtown on an evening run. Betsy and I met up for a few miles last week while her daughter was at dance class. Perry Square, State Street, and Gannon U. are quite festive right now.

Bar hopping with my kid. Dan is hellbent on getting his annual Lake Erie Ale Trail membership growlers filled this year, so we headed to Titusville on Saturday with two growlers to hit both Orr’s Brewing and Fat Chad’s Brewing, which is right next door. We had pizza at Orr’s and a beer at each and it was nice to just sit and relax. Kelly and I aren’t big beer drinkers, but we can usually find a fruity one or a seltzer or cider.

Finally got a tree up. It’s been a year…at least it’s been a tough December and we’ve had no time to put up any holiday decorations. Dan did manage to get a tree last week and this weekend we finally put it up and decorated it. That & a couple of wreaths will have to do this year.  It’s enough.

Last minute appetizers. Need an easy last-minute appetizer for a holiday gathering. Grab a block of cheese and some fruit. These were sharp cheddar and blackberries, but gouda and red raspberries are good as are cheddar and grapes and pretty much any other fruit-and-cheese combo you can come up with.

A USB port extender. I love my new work laptop, but it has ONE USB port and no SD card reader, which doesn’t work for me because I like to use a mouse and I’m often also using a card reader and/or flash drive. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier to get an extender, but…this is the best $8 I spent recently.

Things I’m not loving this week

Switching tires over. I need to get my winter tires on because my regular tires are no good in the snow, and I hate doing this twice a year. Every vehicle I had before I had a complete set (with wheels) of snowtires, but I found it impossible to buy inexpensive wheels for my Jeep Patriot (it has some odd lug design or something) and so….every season, it’s back to Kerr’s Tire Korner to pay $80 to get my tires switched. At this point, I should’ve just spent the $500 (or whatever it was) on the wheels.

Trump the grifter. I’m going to put this in “things I’m not loving this week” even though I am completely enjoying how utterly ridiculous this is. It looks like an SNL skit. And….THEY SOLD OUT. LOTS OF (stupid) PEOPLE PAID $100 for these poorly photoshoped digital images.  DAN could’ve been a better job photoshopping these. ROFL: