Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace Hotdogs: just a vehicle for the relish. For better spreadability: warming up the butter shavings. Dang holey cukes. Lodi sauce, our fave. Simplest salad. Homemade is not easier than store-bought. When your friend’s a star baker, and generous, too. Garden rubies. Veggie dog. Travel tales. Birthday money branch. March messages. Kitchen cleaner. Heatwave. This same time, years previous: peach pie with bourbon and fresh rosemary, the quotidian (7.20.20), Italian meringue buttercream, lemony cream cheese frosting, a ..read more

These days I am . . . Recuperating… from a little 13.5 mile walk I went on yesterday. After (above photo), my exhaustion levels were off the charts. I went to bed at 8. Wondering… why the insides of certain types of cucumbers disintegrate into nothingness. After the series of hot soaks that are called for in the 7 Day Sweets recipe, my small firm cukes were completely hollow. Where do the middles go? And what kind of cukes do retain their innards? Also… Thinking… about adding calcium chloride to my canned pickles to make them crispier. Why haven’t I done this before? Have you? Luxuriating… in ..read more

If you’ve been reading along here for any length of time, you know I enjoy talking about women’s health. Already, I’ve already interviewed women about perimenopause, menopause, and sex after menopause, and now here we are again, this time discussing yet another aspect of this complex and under-discussed lifestage. The more we talk openly about what we are experiencing, the better we understand ourselves and the more proactive and capable we become. Thank you, Elise*, for getting the ball rolling. *Names have been changed. *** How old are you?53 Are you menopausal or still in peri? In 2015, I ..read more

I don’t listen to music.  No, seriously. I don’t listen to music. Like, not ever.  I don’t know lyrics. I don’t know musicians. I don’t know genres or song titles or band names. I don’t go to concerts or have spotify or create playlists. I don’t hum songs or whistle or play an instrument.  I don’t sing in the shower. It’s not that I have anything against music, really. It’s just that music just isn’t something that occurs to me.  (Caveat: each December I play Christmas music for about two hours while I’m baking cookies before I get tired of the noise and have to ..read more

Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace Vinegar by the gallon: tis the season! Zucchini relish, restocked: time to grill some hot dogs. Supper delivery prepped: pepperoni rolls, plus salad and mint chip ice cream. Veggieeeeees. Mold: don’t freak, just scoop it off. Petals and locks. Pig puddle. Just a-swinging. Father’s Day delivery: one gift to make his life easier, and one to make life harder (stay tuned!). Look who’s back! Circle left. Redwing. This same time, years previous: cracked all-the-grain sourdough, banana pudding, mushroom burgers with che ..read more

This evening I turned the oven on to preheat and then, when it was still cool, I slipped in a grape pie before sitting down for supper. Supper finished, I noticed the oven still wasn’t to temp. Oh dear.  And then we noticed that the house smelled like burning something or other. Not gas, but carbon monoxide maybe? My husband says, nah, it was “incomplete combustion.” Whatever. We turned the oven off, I removed the raw pie (maybe it will still be bakeable at a later point?), and now my husband and I are settled on the couch, each on our respective computers, me crowdsourcing via writing t ..read more

See that dot in the middle of the ocean? That’s where my older daughter is. On the Queen Mary 2. COMING HOME. Her friend met up with her in London so they could come back on the ship together. They boarded on Sunday (it’s a six-day trip), and that morning I got this photo from my daughter with the caption, “Getting a ride from some strangers!”  She called briefly then, to let me know they made it to the docks (apparently the bus line was down and there was some festival thing and they had to scramble to find transportation), and to tell me that she wouldn’t have cell service for the nex ..read more

Quotidian: daily, usual or customary; everyday; ordinary; commonplace When the sign points to pie. Cream two ways: cheese and butter. After my breakfast post, my younger daughter set me up. A plate of veggies and don’t you dare try to tell me otherwise. Surprise carbonation: here’s to hoping I don’t have glass bombs in my basement. What I do have: nifty storage! (for some of the bottles anyway) You know you make ice cream frequently when you refreeze the salted ice. Flower planter. Worm snack for the chickies. He designed an interactive arduino light display for his senior table. I ..read more

A few weeks back I had a routine checkup with my medical provider, a certified nurse practitioner who specializes in women’s health and sees me and both my girls and my mother (how’s that for wholistic intergenerational healthcare!). When I told her that I hadn’t had my period for 2-3 months, she asked if I had considered hormone replacement therapy.  Me: Not really. Tell me more. Her: When you begin to go through perimenopause, sex hormone levels drop and all sorts of problems crop up so take HRT to not have problems.  Me: But why does HRT have a bad rap? Didn’t they determine that ..read more

A week ago, one of my girlfriends invited me to do hot yoga with her. I could come for free on her pass, she said, just to try it out.  Okay, sure, I said. I hate being hot. Tell me more. The class is an hour and fifteen minutes, she said. The room is 105 degrees. Get there early. There’s no talking. You will sweat a lot; bring a towel to put over the yoga mat so you don’t slip. If you can’t hold the poses, don’t worry; just being in the room is a challenge. Hydrate ahead of time. Sounds like fun, I said dryly. The night before our 9:00 morning class, I dreamed that I hadn’t left for the ..read more