random musings
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On Labor Day and Hobbies
Work should not rule one’s life. I say that one week into the school year with a three day weekend to run errands, take a nap, exercise, and play around with beeswax. But I mean it. And I’ll mean it in October when my body is screaming at me and I’m stressed for time–although I… Continue reading
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Geezer’s World
Saturday morning my husband and I got an early start to do errands, one of which was to hit a big sale on compression socks at the new Austin Pharmacy in Cockeysville. This is how you know we are turning into old people: I–that’s right, me, myself–got up early on a Saturday to go buy John compression… Continue reading
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Not ready to call it a summer
This is it. Back-to-school week for teachers. And I’m not ready. Oh, I’m “ready.” I’ve gone to Office Depot for a boatload of supplies. I’ve paid Toyota a significant amount of money for scheduled maintenance on my car. I have the weeksheets typed up for my first week of lessons. I even practiced using my alarm clock on… Continue reading
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Summertime…and the reading is easy. Sort of.
It’s mid-summer and my dilemma du jour is this–which book to read next? Before heading off on vacation last week, I spent hours browsing and uploading books (or at least samples of books) onto my Nook. I didn’t really need to do that since our beach place had internet as well as books, but it’s… Continue reading
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Kitchen Canisters
As all teachers know, summer vacation is when all the projects that haven’t been done the rest of the year get done. This includes things like filing paperwork, getting to the bottom of the laundry, and putting away errant Christmas decorations. The dilemma is not what to do; it’s where to start. A seemingly simple… Continue reading
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Meditations from the herb garden: Graduating the seniors
My goal Saturday morning was to weed around the screen porch in order to find room for the flowers I bought last week, but by the time I slept in and enjoyed a mug or two of coffee, the sun was blazing in that part of the yard. The wise weeder seeks shade, and shade was… Continue reading
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A Tale of Haggis
Strolling through the Notting Hill market during my recent trip to London, I did not see Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts. I did, however, see a sign in a butcher’s stall for haggis. I had to take a picture of the sign. Then I peered around to the front of the stall to see if there… Continue reading
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In Memoriam: Peaches (1993-2012) and Fluffball 3 (May-December)
We are pet-less for the first time since about 1987 when Kristin, age 4 or thereabouts, prayed for a cat. A cat wandered into our yard; John fed it a hotdog; it adopted us. When we moved to Maywood in 1993, the cat came with us and promptly died. I took Kitty to the vet who… Continue reading
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Meditations on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with a recipe for Winter White Martinis)
Sometimes you just need a grilled cheese sandwich. You have a hunger in the pit of your stomach and you’re stressed out. A grilled cheese sandwich is comfortably warm and creamy while also offering a most satisfying crunch. (Crunch is important for releasing stress and anger.) So you get it into your head that your hunger… Continue reading
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2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,700 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people. Click here to… Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 