Good afternoon, class. Today’s lesson is on the importance of looking at your food before consuming it. To illustrate, we have a special guest appearance. This cheerful green pepper was sliced open by one of my coworkers during dinner preparations last autumn. Like...
It has come to my attention that I am now allergic to our couch. This is not wholly unexpected. Spring is in the air, which means if you look at me wrong, I sneeze. With pollens already irritating my sensitivities, it doesn’t take much for anything else to send...
I am in love with my tulips. It was a pre-meditated emotion, although I never expected it to be so strong. Last fall I loaded up a new audio book on my iPod, dumped three hundred dried and ugly bulbs into a large bowl, stirred them, then stepped outside into the cold,...
There are three things you should know about my day: 1) It’s Friday. 2) I got to go into work late. 3) While at work, I had to assemble a piece of furniture. The first is universal, the second is lucky, and the third is capable of canceling out the pleasure of...
Well, we are now nearly three full months into 2008, and guess which one of the following I still have not done? Go on, circle one: a) Licked an envelope and received a paper cut on my tongue. b) Roasted Peeps over an open campfire. c) Started my diet yet again. d)...
We’re leaving for the weekend in an hour, and I’m in that post-packed, pre-leave limbo. My laptop’s open, and I have three options: touring the blogosphere, surfing the internet, and writing. Although blogs are tempting and mindless surfing has its...
Sometimes it seems as if everybody wants to be a novelist. I’m sitting in my local coffee shop, where I retreated in order to — what else? — work on my own novel. The place is not crowded, but I count three others hiding behind their laptop screens....
Back by request, round two of Five on Friday, wherein I occasionally post five links on a certain theme. This week’s theme is recipe sites. The sad fact is that I’m severely lacking in kitchen skills, which means that while I have collected many beautiful...
It’s time for the annual posting of the first flowers of the season. (Yes, this happens every year.) I discovered these crocuses in our backyard while on the phone with my mother on Friday evening. Naturally, I was so excited I lost the entire thread of our...
From time to time my husband and I have been known to indulge in our Scrabble addiction in public places — restaurants, coffee shops, hotel lobbies, park benches. Unlike conversing or reading a book in public, a Scrabble game seems to be everybody’s business, always...
