Musing, blogging, reflecting, affirming, complaining, documenting
| If you had to choose between eating bacon every day, or being skinny for the rest of your life, would you choose applewood or hickory-smoked? #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #CoreStrengthening #BicycleCrunches #DeadBugs #PelvicTilts #Bridges #KneeExtensions #KneeToChestStretches #Clamshells #HipSideSlides |
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Note: Image generated by Gemini AI
| Open on the sabbath? I went to my library on Sunday to return 2 books in the outside book-return receptacles and was shocked to learn it was open on Sundays! I knew that branch was open on Saturdays, but I had no idea it was open on Sundays, too. Sometimes, it’s the little things. |
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| What’s in a name? Having had 2 beloved cocker spaniels, they have a special place in my heart. From a distance, I saw a store sign that said, “Village Spanials,” and missing the misspelling, I thought, “What??? There’s an oddly specific pet store here now?” Closer, it turned out to be “Village Spa Nails.” |
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| Who knew from a wine bar? The restaurant that last July opened in the former location of Cafe Carolina, billed as a “wine bar,” has never caught my attention since I don’t drink wine. But today, the name Postino, certainly did grab my attention, since we recently ate at one in Scottsdale, Arizona and loved it. |
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| The trainer asked me, “What kind of a squat are you accustomed to doing?” I said, “Diddly.” |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible. I can’t remember the last time I bought a ticket through them, as I go to box offices at the venues to get my tickets. And if I can’t do that, I just don’t attend the event.
The good news is that N.C.’s new-ish Attorney General is going after them for being a monopoly. Here’s the first few paragraphs of the article. If you’re interested, read the rest on Substack. (Scroll to heading: The People vs. Ticketmaster/Live Nation.)
People ask me how I don’t get bored during retirement, and when I say I’m on my computer at least 8 hours a day, it seems hard to believe. Well, this is a typical morning, which can take up at least 2-3 hours:
Doing morning brain teasers:
| AARP crossword puzzle |  |
| L.A.Times crossword puzzle |  |
| NYT Strands game |  |
| NYT Connections game |  |
| NYT Wordle game |  |
Next in my routine are visiting these websites:
| Check our Google calendar for the day’s commitments |  |
| Check today’s to-do list in my iPhone Reminders app |  |
| Review our checking account activity |  |
| Update my sentence-a-day diary |  |
| Check my wait-listed library books for movement |  |
| Check the morning’s stock market activity |  |
| See what my exercise check-in is for today |  |
| Read the day’s TLDR newsletter |  |
| Check the daily BookCrossing releases |  |
| Check my daily BookBub email for free e-books |  |
I do things like this on the computer throughout the rest of the day:
And usually, I spend my evenings reading. As of today, I’ve read 30 books so far this year.
| Before I get in shape, does anyone like me chubby? |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
I’m 5 days post-op and so happy to get those huge bandages off.
The stitches will come out on Tuesday, April 8. I’m so happy to be able to type again!
I grilled chicken on Sunday evening:
We grilled enough to make 3 meals of it, each delicious in its own way. Bob’s homemade pasta salad is yummy!
I have white coat hypertension (a.k.a, white coat syndrome), so I keep a record of my daily blood pressure readings to take to the doctor’s office whenever I go. I record my heart rate, too, but only because the machine takes it along with my blood pressure.
White coat hypertension aside, knowing your numbers is just plain smart, since high blood pressure is known as “the silent killer.” Do you know yours?
| 14 muscles are activated when you pour a cup of coffee. Fitness is my passion.
#ShoppingCenter #Cardio #27MinutesWalking |
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This is the second surgery that I’ve had that has been with just a local anesthesia. The first one was 38 years ago, about which I wrote this 50-word story:
Mind if we watch?
At 29, I got a vasectomy. With my legs in stirrups and my junk hanging through a hole, the surgeon asked if a med school class could observe the procedure. To my surprise, I heard my Valium-induced euphoric response: “Sure, why not? Y’all pop some popcorn and sit up front.”
Last Wednesday, I had surgery to remove mucoid cysts on 2 of my fingers — also with just a local anesthesia but with no med school students watching.
The most interesting thing that happened while the prep team was reading all of the disclosures to me that have to made before surgery (e.g., “All surgeries involve some kind of risk.”) was this disclosure: “Dr. Erickson [my surgeon] is a business partner of — and has financial interest in — this center.”
About 45 minutes before being wheeled into the OR, I had a Valium and 4 (quite) painful numbing injections — 2 in the palm of my left hand and one into each finger that was going to be sliced open.
In the very cold OR, with a drape between me and my hand so as not to see the operation, along with the doctor there were several people in the room — 4, I think.
I chatted with the doctors and nurses the whole way through. Here are snippets of some of the conversations:
Doc (pinching my middle finger to make sure it’s completely numb): Can you feel this?
Me: Actually yes, just a little.
Doc: OK, let’s put a little more numbing medicine in that one. How about this index finger?
Me: No, I don’t feel anything on that one.
Doc: Good. We’ll start on this one while the numbing on the other one is progressing.
Nurse (scrubbing my lower arm and entire hand including all of my fingers): We are just going to get you good and clean to avoid any chance of infections.
Me: Thank you.
Doc: I’m putting a rubber cover over your nearby finger for protection.
Me: Thank you.
Doc: OK, we are finishing up on this finger. I’m going to stitch it up and then we’ll start on your other one.
Me: I appreciate the play-by-play as you are operating. It’s very helpful and comforting.
Me: Do you have a preference for the days you work in the office seeing patients as opposed to the days that you’re here doing surgery?
Doc: I like a mix of both, really. I enjoy spending time with patients figuring out what’s causing their pain, and I enjoy surgeries, too. This is my favorite kind of surgery, though, where the patient is awake and we can have a conversation.
Me: My husband and I are getting to the age where some of our doctors are retiring, like Dr. Edwards where you work. I saw him 18 years ago to look at my finger, and now he’s retired.
Doc: And his son is working with us now!
Nurse (I think his name was Peter): And his son is very good, too.
Me: Dr. Wyker did my knee replacement and my husband’s hip replacement. He’s probably getting ready to retire, too.
Nurse: I used to work in Dr. Wyker’s office! Good guy.
Me: He’s probably been on a few vacations in the Caribbean off of our joint-replacement money alone.
Me: Where is your favorite place to vacation?
Doc: There is a ranch in Wyoming that my family likes to go, generally once every other year.
Me (sort of joking): A dude ranch?
Doc: Well yes, it is a dude ranch. We like to ride horses, it’s peaceful and quiet there, and I like to sit on the porch and read — and just relax.
Doc: What’s been your favorite vacation so far in your life?
Me: Two come to mind: 1) For my 50th birthday I went to 3 places in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die. They included The Blue Mountains of Sydney, 7 Spirit Bay in The Outback, and Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef, and 2) this past August, my husband and I did a Safari at the Sabi Sabi™ private game reserve in South Africa. It was as incredible as everyone says they are.
Doc: What do you do to fill your days in retirement?
Me: I read a lot. I read 102 book in 2022, and I’m close to 30 so far in 2025. Also, I spend at least 8 hours a day on the computer — a lot of that time writing. I was a writer and editor for a living, and I still write something every day. I write three 50-word stories around a theme every Wednesday, keep a sentence-a-day diary, and blog about observations I make during my day. In fact you’ll probably be in my blog one day this week.
Doc: Ha! That’s great. About how many people, would you say, read your blog?
Me: 4.
(Laughter all around.)
Me: I’m sorta joking, but it’s not a lot. You aren’t going to go viral or anything.
(Chuckles all around.)
Me: My husband and I also occasionally take walks downtown, take 5 or 6 pictures each, and then sit on our front porch with a cocktail (or two) and write haikus about them. Real renaissance men.
Doc (and others listening in the room): That’s neat.
Doc: We’re finishing up now. I’ll stitch up this second finger, and then we’ll get you out of here and into the recovery room.
Me: Thank you. All of you have been great, and I appreciate each one of you.
All-in-all, it was a great experience. I was only in the recovery room for 15 to 20 minutes and then wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair, which was required because I had had a Valium. Bob drove us home. I get these bandage monstrosities removed in 5 days, so Monday 3/31/25.
If you’re the type who enjoys watching live surgery, here is a video of what they did. Note: This is not my surgery. As the image denotes, you have to watch it over on YouTube. To do so, click the “Watch on YouTube” link in the image. It’s 4½ minutes long.
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| 📕10-word summary: Sight-losing professor and speech-loss adult student connect on several levels. 🖌6-word review: Concentration required: arduous-to-read, Nobel-prize-winning, lyrical literature. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “She has goosebumps on her arm and on the back of her neck from the aggressive air conditioning.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: imperious, hanji, zelkova, inarticulacy, maru, dappled, cryptomeria, fretsaw, paroxysm, philtrum, declensions, iljumun, bunsik, stridulations, hanok | |||||||||
| Description:* In a classroom in Seoul, a young woman watches her Greek language teacher at the blackboard. She tries to speak but has lost her voice. Her teacher finds himself drawn to the silent woman, for day by day he is losing his sight. Soon they discover a deeper pain binds them together. For her, in the space of just a few months, she has lost both her mother and the custody battle for her nine-year-old son. For him, it’s the pain of growing up between Korea and Germany, being torn between two cultures and languages.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I saw this book on BookBub and the description intrigued me enough to check its availability in the library. I liked the plot premise and that it won the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2024. Not surprisingly though, that made arduous reading at times. Several times I put it down after reading only a short bit of it. I didn’t discover until a good way into the book that the male protagonist’s storyline was in first person and the female protagonist’s storyline was in third person. Short on dialogue tags, there were times when I could only tell who the speaker was by whether it was in first person or third person particularly in chapter 19, A Conversation in Darkness. I expected to like this book more than I did, but I’m just not a huge fan of lyrical writing, and this book was no exception in spite of being a Nobel Prize winner. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: Short, biographical introduction to an African American seamstress and poet. 🖌6-word review: Lyrical prose. Beautifully illustrated picture book. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “What thoughts do you carry when idle with nothing to do? Do you dream of the future? Or of someone who lived before you?” | |||||||||
| Description:* What dreams do you carry? Myra Viola Wilds dreamed of opportunity. She left her home in rural Kentucky for the city, learned to read and to write, and became a dressmaker. She hand-stitched gorgeous gowns. She worked so hard she lost her eyesight, and her world went dark. But those well-loved stitches turned into words, and one night Myra woke in the middle of the night and wrote a poem she called “Sunshine.” She kept writing. She wrote the lush green, sweet-corn yellow, cerulean blue, sunshine-y world from memory, collecting her poems into a book called Thoughts of Idle Hours, published in 1915.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I hadn’t heard of Myra Viola Wilds before reading this book, and I’m glad to know about her now. The story seemed a little disjointed to me, hence the 4-star, as opposed to 5-star, rating. The art work is great. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: A dysfunctional gay male couple takes in a third partner. 🖌6-word review: Existential angst, self-doubt — to a fault. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “I’d never seen three men together in a committed relationship. Before me sat three groups of them. It was great to see.” | |||||||||
| Description:* Casper loves two things — his guitar and his stepbrother, Reed. Being in a band with Reed is both amazing and torturous. If only Casper could get out of his own way and tell Reed how he feels. The lead singer, Reed’s passion is music, but he’d give it up if it means staying in Casper’s arms. When a new man enters their lives, he could be who Casper and Reed are missing to make them whole. The lost soul, Elic’s world tilts when he meets Casper and Reed. Living on the streets has left scars on Elic, inside and out. He’s surprised to find both men desire him. Their relationship is tested repeatedly. Truths are revealed. They will have to lift each other up and prove their love is worth it if they want to see what their future looks like.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I’m not a fan of romance novels at all — and after reading this one, I’m still not. The only other gay romance novel I’ve read has the most oddly specific genre I’d seen to date: gay Amish romance, and it was called A Forbidden Rumspringa. I nabbed this book from BookBub back in December as a free download, and finally decided to give it a whirl. One blurb I read about it contained two acronyms I had to look up: MMM and HEA. There was a lot of, “I don’t deserve you,” or “You deserve better,” “I don’t deserve what’s happened to me,” etc. In other words a lot of existential wallowing. Also a lot of thinking the wild sex and intensity of their feelings for each other was going to last forever. Ah, youth! | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| According to this BMI chart, I’m too short.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
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We feel very blessed to be able to eat the purported delicious Hooters’ wings without being subjected to the “flesh flash.” And bonus, these were BOGO at Publix.
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 03/30/25 Sunday |
• Grilled chicken chef salad • Rutabaga |
| 03/31/25 Monday |
(Run club & Clint’s birthday front-porch happy hour) • Chips & salsa • Cream cheese sausage balls • Carrots & celery • Birthday cake cupcakes |
| 04/01/25 Tuesday |
• Ham • Butternut squash • Mixed vegetables |
| 04/02/25 Wednesday |
• Wings • Crinkle-cut fries • House salad |
| 04/03/25 Thursday |
• Mile-high salsa pie • Cream salad |
| 04/04/25 Friday |
• Gyro pitas • Greek salad |
| 04/05/25 Saturday |
(John: Shrek @ 7 p.m.) • Grilled chicken patties • Quinoa salad |
Although I still do all 3 of these puzzles pretty much daily, I stopped posting my results. Just had a hankering to post today’s.
| I’m “helping” my nephew look for his bag of M&Ms that I ate an hour ago.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #35MinutesElliptical |
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| Things that tell the truth: small children, drunk people, and yoga pants.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #45MinutesElliptical |
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We had a surprisingly pleasant and amusing experience with the guy who came out to do our plumbing repairs.
The plumber, Matt, was a nice-looking, young blond guy with tattoos on his neck and elsewhere, and he was as country as a bowl of grits. What an accent!
He was here for about six hours, repairing two of our toilets and our urinal. The urinal repair was quite involved!
I was surprised that he knew how to work on a urinal, as I assumed the plumbing company would have commercial and residential plumbers, and it being less common for urinals to be in houses, the residential plumbers might not be familiar with them.
Matt talked to himself a lot while working. Bob and I were both amused at his ramblings, and we both howled when, at one point during the urinal repair process, he ejaculated: “Holy shit; that worked!”
Later, when we received his emailed invoice for the work, we learned that he wasn’t talking to himself, because this transcript was included:
Called en route
Arrived
Met Robert
Was shown 2 toilets and a urinal
Toilet 1 leaking from tank to bowl bolts
Toilet 2 has a bad flapper
Urinal leaking from bottom, possibly seal or flange
Recommended full rebuild on both standard toilets
Customer approved
Turned off water to home
Rebuilt both toilets with all new components
Turned water back on to home and tested toilets
Toilets working as they should be with no leaks
Explained to homeowner I would have to remove urinal from wall in order to diagnose and make necessary repair
Turned off water to urinal
Cut hard caulking seal
Removed urinal and found broken PVC urinal flange
Non-stock item, had to source from supply house
Drilled out old flange with success ← time of “Holy shit; that worked!” outburst
Cleaned hub
Installed new flange with bolt kit
Made sure flange was level
Allowed glue to cure for a while before setting flange under load with fixture
Set urinal
Secured to wall
Turned on water
Urinal won’t stop flushing
Replaced diaphragm and vacuum breaker
Urinal now flushes and stops when satisfied
Caulked around urinal perimeter
Cleaned up trash and tools
Wrote up notes
Job complete
Customer paid by check
So, apparently, he was not talking to himself but dictating his work progress.
Bob and I both LOLed again at the transcript comment: “Urinal now flushes and stops when satisfied.” Much like ourselves when peeing in it.
Recently, like in the last month or so, these painful nodules popped up on the end of the middle and index fingers on my left hand.
A trip to the Raleigh Hand-to-Shoulder Center diagnosed them as mucous cysts, also known as ganglion cysts, and yesterday I had them removed.
They have to remain wrapped for 5 days, and it’s really cramping my style typing.
I am dictating what I want to say into an iNote on my phone and then cutting and pasting the resulting text into this blog entry. I will not be deterred.
| The Michaelses | The birthday boy | The Thompsons & Stoimenoffs |
| We had dinner with our friends Sherry and Fred at Baby Kay’s Cajun Kitchen in Mesa, AZ. John and Sherry met on an ambassadorial trip in October of 2008 to Beijing, Guilin, and Shanghai. We don’t see each other #IRL often, but like this time, it’s always a great visit. | My husband’s brother, Tommy, celebrated his 75th birthday, and we flew in to attend a surprise party for him. His brother Jimmy and his wife Cindy hosted the gala, and I met a nephew for the first time who also flew in for the occasion. Bob made the birthday cake. | We met grade-school friends of my husband for lunch one day. I was Facebook friends with one of them, so it was great to meet her in person. Bob and I enjoyed a bruschetta board, which was fantastic — second only to the company we enjoyed dining al fresco at Postino’s. |
| The first day of spring was an excellent reminder that I was supposed to get in shape before spring.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 03/23/25 Sunday |
(Lunch with Thompsons & Stoimenoffs @ Postino Highland, Scottsdale, AZ) • Shared a choice-of-4 bruschetta board: |
| 03/24/25 Monday |
(Return flight to Raleigh, arriving 8:15 p.m.) • DiGiorno pepperoni & jalapeños pizza |
| 03/25/25 Tuesday |
• Korean beef • Broccoli • Quinoa salad |
| 03/26/25 Wednesday |
• Sliced ham • Mashed potatoes • House salad |
| 03/27/25 Thursday |
• Parmesan-garlic cod • Carrots • House salad |
| 03/28/25 Friday |
(Celebrating David Stratton’s birthday) • High Rail |
| 03/29/25 Saturday |
• Relish tray • Grilled chicken • Pasta salad |
Whew! That was a big party-food-eating week!
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 03/16/25 Sunday |
(Nicholas Blanchard’s St. Patrick’s Day party, 3 p.m.) • Party food |
| 03/17/25 Monday |
(Pelagic Run Club cheering front-porch happy hour) • Layered taco dip (⅓ corn, ⅔ beans) & chips • Veggie tray • Cream cheese cookies |
| 03/18/25 Tuesday |
• Pork & vegetable stir-fry • Cabbage |
| 03/19/25 Wednesday |
(Leigh & Jaleh happy hour) • Layered taco dip (⅓ corn, ⅔ beans) & chips • Veggie tray • Cream cheese cookies |
| 03/20/25 Thursday |
(Baby Kay‘s w/ Sherry & Fred in Mesa, AZ) • John: Catfish & shrimp basket w/fries • Bob: Catfish dinner w/potato salad • Shared: Green-olive slaw |
| 03/21/25 Friday |
(Take-out from Scottsdale Carlos O’Brien‘s @ Cindy & Jimmy’s) • John: Favorite Fajita Quesadilla • Bob: Chicken Taco & Chicken Enchilada (“the #4”) |
| 03/22/25 Saturday |
(Tommy’s 75th surprise birthday party @ Cindy & Jimmy’s in Scottsdale) • Catered sandwich platters (roast beef, turkey, & ham on white bread and tuna on croissants) • Cindy-made salads: one curried sweet potatoes & other veggies, one broccoli & other veggies) • Bob’s Best. Ever. Banana. Cake. (among other desserts like brownies & lemon bars) |
| The most exercise I get is tugging on my shirt so it doesn’t look so tight. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
| Gay trash | Asian literature | African American picture book |
| Notes of Unspoken Words is a gay romance novel. The description of it had 2 acronyms in it that I had to look up — MMM and HEA. This is only the 2nd gay romance novel I’ve ever read — the other one being of the oddly specific genre gay Amish romance. | Greek Lessons is classified as Asian literature about a student who has lost her voice connecting with a teacher who is losing his sight. The book won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, and it was named Best Book of 2023 by both Time magazine and The New Yorker magazine. | Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds is a beautifully illustrated picture book about the titular African American poet. After losing her eyesight due to overwork as a dressmaker — who made gorgeous hand-stitched gowns — she hand-wrote the culturally important poetry collection, Thoughts of Idle Hours. |
| I love long walks when they’re taken by people who annoy me.
#Home #StrengtheningCoreBack |
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Bob adopted Vincent, whose full name was Vincent St. Patrick McVeigh, on St. Patrick’s Day.
Here’s a pic we took of him one St. Patrick’s Day and one we took yesterday as Bob wore Vincent’s bow tie for our front-porch happy hour with the theme from Rocky blasting by the street while we cheered on the Pelagic Run Club runners as they passed by our house.
| What the hell??? I skinny-dipped for 14 days in a row and didn’t lose an ounce. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Had a super stylist today — very details-oriented, which in my opinion, is a huge asset in a stylist.
At the register, she whispered, “Are you 65 or older?”
Me: “Yes, but you can’t give me the senior discount on this coupon that’s for a $9.99 haircut. I do appreciate you trying, though.”
| I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
#Home: #Strengthening #Core #Back |
We’re in a gay bar and looking at a girl wearing some very short white shorts and some above-the-ankle white boots, which give her a look that reminds me of a high school baton twirler, like the one who threw her baton high into the air — sometimes too close to me — while I was performing my drum major duties.
Me to my gay friend standing nearby looking at her, too: Do you ever look at a woman and wonder, “If I were straight, would I ‘go for summa dat?'”
Friend, thinking for a moment: No, I can’t say that I have. But, I have wondered if I were born a girl, what kind of girl I’d be. A whore? A”good” girl?
| My cholesterol would be better if I ate better, exercised, or cared.
#HomeEllipticalMachine #Cardio #30Minutes |
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From the movie Elegy:
I think it was Bette Davis who said old age is not for sissies. But it was Tolstoy who said the biggest surprise in a man’s life is old age. Old age sneaks up on you, and the next thing you know you’re asking yourself — I’m asking myself — why can’t an old man act his real age? How is it possible for me to still be involved in the carnal aspects of the human comedy? Because, in my head, nothing has changed.
Or, as Roseanne Roseannadanna said (6 seconds):
In the last month or so, these painful nodules have popped up on my middle and index fingers on my left hand, and today I learned about mucous cysts (a.k.a. ganglion cysts), which I’ll have removed in the next 2 weeks.
Looking at this x-ray taken at the Raleigh Hand to Shoulder Center, the doctor said about the spaces between my knuckle joints, “These are the joints of an 18-year-old.” (So flattering! 😂😂😂). And about the proximal interphalangeal ones (midway between knuckles and fingertips), “And these are still very good.” But, as you can see, about the ones near your fingertips, well there’s bone-on-bone osteoarthritis going on there, especially in those two fingers with the nodules.”
As the old #DadJoke goes — certainly, my dad said it often: “Arthur — the worse one of the Ritis family.”
Interesting aside: You see that crooked little finger? I had that checked out in 2007 in the same practice, which used to be called the Raleigh Hand Clinic, and it was Dr. George Edwards, Jr. who looked at it. 18 years later and Junior has retired and Dr. George Edwards III now works there. (You might be getting old if a lot of your doctors are retiring.)
It has never caused me any pain — and still doesn’t in spite of the x-ray suggesting it could, probably should. It also hasn’t gotten any more crooked. I affectionately refer to it as “my cut & paste finger,” since I tend to “rock” on it when I execute those functions.
In all fairness to my fingers, they have been very, very good to me throughout my 42 working years, starting with keyboard work that began with typing more punched cards than you can shake a stick at during my 4 years of undergrad learning how to program.
And every job, and there have been plenty of them — from my very first job at IBM in 1980 until I retired from Red Hat in 2022 — my fingers have cranked out untold millions of characters without any pain that was debilitating enough to stop me. I’m actually quite surprised I never got the dreaded carpal tunnel syndrome over the years.
Give a hand to my hands.
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| 📕10-word summary: Bad guy, Guy, pisses off people and gets hisself kilt. 🖌6-word review: Typical cozy mystery. Decent “holiday read.” |
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| 💭Fun quote: “Sláinte!” | |||||||||
| 🎓A new-to-me word: coddle | |||||||||
| Description:* When an old friend is arrested in Dublin, tour guide Lana Hansen will need the luck of the Irish to clear him of the crime. Lana is thrilled her friend Jeremy and his wife are on her tour to Ireland. The couple are having the time of their lives exploring the country’s rich literary and cultural history, until they run into Guy Smith, a reporter Jeremy recently exposed as a fraud. A tussle turns into a fight and leaves each man vowing to destroy the other. Yet cross words and dirty looks tell Lana that Jeremy is not the only client on her tour who has a grudge against the reporter.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This book was “right on time” — holiday-themed and free — in my daily BookBub email. It was a short, quick read, although when at 50% complete without anyone having yet been murdered, I wondered how long without a murder in a murder mystery was “acceptable.” A search found the answer to be all over the place, but most said closer to 25% to 33% of the way through. While down that rabbit hole, in one page about what elements make a good cozy mystery, the author said to “include a plot twist that the reader won’t see coming.” I’m pretty sure you can’t write a plot twist that people will see coming. Not seeing it coming is the very nature of a plot twist. Needless to say, I’d be hard-pressed to take writing advice from the author of said writing-advice article. I found 3 editing misses in this book, which only made me happier that I got it for free. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| I get a runner’s high on the way to the fridge.
#PlanetFitness #Strengthening #UpperBody |
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Do you have an eye doctor or optometry office in Raleigh that you love? Caveats:
| I got kicked out of group exercise class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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| 📕10-word summary: Rare children’s biography about an African American and LGBT person. 🖌6-word review: A lyrical, beautifully illustrated picture book. |
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| 💭Lyrical quote: “The first time James Baldwin read a book, the words clung to him like glitter.” | Description:* Before James Baldwin was a celebrated novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and activist, he was a boy who fell in love with stories. Words opened up new worlds for young Jimmy, who read and wrote at every opportunity. He ultimately realized his dreams of becoming an author and giving voice to his community, and in doing so he showed the world the fullness of Black American life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | ||||||||
| Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: 1) And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, 2) Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer, and 3) Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I was curious to see how a children’s book would (or wouldn’t) address the fact that James Baldwin was gay, and I suppose it was “age appropriate” that it wasn’t mentioned at all as part of the main story. It is covered in a back-matter section called, “More About James Baldwin,” which noted: “As a young adult, Jimmy began to reckon with his sexual identity. He was queer and felt romantic love toward both men and women, which was an aspect of identity that was rarely spoken about publicly during that time. That silence made him feel alone.” The back matter also contains short “A Note from the Author” and “A Note from the Artist” sections. This book is beautifully illustrated. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: Uncovered family history, a century apart, rocks the family’s world. 🖌6-word review: Well-done, dual-timeline epic family secrets story. |
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| 💭Amusing quote: Melinda: “Did you make any friends in rehab?” Bailey: “No. Not my type. Bunch of drunks and addicts.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: bedsit, shantung, dupioni, aquiline, trompe l’oeil, cur, bombazine, Birkin, truncheon | |||||||||
| Description:* A century apart, Sara and Bailey are both tempted by and struggle against the golden excess of their respective ages — for Sara, the opulence of a world ruled by the Astors and Vanderbilts; for Bailey, the nightlife’s free-flowing drinks and cocaine — and take refuge in the Upper West Side’s gilded fortress, the Dakota. But a building with a history as rich, and often as tragic, can’t hold its secrets forever, and what Bailey discovers inside could turn everything she thought she knew about the building’s architect, Theodore Camden, and Sara and Bailey’s ancestor — and the woman who killed him — on its head.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This was a Mostly Social Book Club book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those dual-timeline stories, where I preferred one storyline over the other — in this case, the past (1880s) over the more recent (1980s). It was an epic family secrets saga, which at times reminded me of one of my all-time favorite classics, The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. The title of the book is an allusion to when this actual apartment building in NYC was first built and its location was considered “way out there” from “the city,” but the promise/prediction was that one day it would become the address to have. And indeed it did, with the area now known as the “Upper West Side” area of Manhattan. The building still exists, and according to AI, the maintenance fee for an apartment in the building can range from $11,057 to $13,000 per month. As of this writing, there are 2 units for sale — one for $6.2M with 8 rooms, 4 bedrooms, and 2½ bathrooms, and one for $19M with 6000 sq.ft. 15 rooms, 5 bedrooms, and 9 bathrooms. If the name of the apartment building sounds familiar, it might be because it’s where John Lennon was shot and killed in 1980. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| I prefer sit-ups to jumping jacks. At least I get to lie down after each one. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
| 2015 | 2020 | 2025 |
| The theme of the event was “Eat Local Chili,” Bob named his entry, “Bob’s Beanless Batch,” and he won 3rd place vegetarian even though there was turkey in it — oops! (A judging snafu.) I don’t like beans, so he made the bold choice to make and enter one without them. | The theme was “Passport to Chili,” Bob named his entry, “PORCH-uguese Chili,” and he won 3rd place in the meat category. The name of his chili was inspired by the fact that the entries in crockpots are placed on tables on the Watkins’ wraparound porch, and me being half Portuguese. | The theme was “Dune: The Spice Must Flow,” Bob named his entry, “Howya Dune?” and he won 3rd place in the meat category. The name was inspired by the fact that Bob is Irish, “Howya” is how the Irish say, “How are you?” and “Dune” is intimating the word “doing?” |
| According to my F𝐚tBit, I’ve sat on my ass for 4 full hours today. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
| When I’m exercising, nothing’s funny and everybody’s ugly. Don’t talk to me. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
WCPE announcer: “What were you doing when you were 12? Mozart had already written over a dozen symphonies by the time he was 12.”
#MicDrop #Overachiever
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| 📕10-word summary: An I.T. security guy is sucked into employees’ email conversations. 🖌6-word review: 75% epistolary “dialogue.” Amusing, fun, fluff. |
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| 💭Amusing quote: “She was loud. And funny. (But not as funny as loud.)” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: strident, pithy, rotavirus, Valkyrie, nadir, vetiver | |||||||||
| Description:* Beth and Jennifer know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now — reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers — not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke. When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories. By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself. What would he say…?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This book was on NPR’s list of great summer reads. Not being in school and being retired made me wonder what characteristics of a book make it a “summer read.” According to AI, it’s “a light, accessible, and entertaining book, often with a focus on escapism, romance, or a lighthearted plot, perfect for relaxing during the summer months.” Not sure why you can’t relax during the spring, fall, or winter months — but I digress. I enjoyed this book, which comprised many email exchanges between the two female protagonists. Reading other people’s mail is something that appeals to me, and I can see why Lincoln, the I.T. guy, got sucked into reading Beth’s and Jennifer’s — ethics and privacy issues aside. It definitely checked off the summer read characteristics of escapism, romance and a lighthearted plot. With enjoying the book said, if a movie was made of it, it’d be the kind of movie I’d never want to see. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Our neighborhood has an annual chili party that’s been going on for more than 25 years. It has a theme each year, and medals are awarded for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place in each category of meat and vegetarian. They also added a category for cornbread this year!
This year’s theme was Dune: The Spice Must Flow, and Bob made an Irish chili, and named it “Howya Dune?” And he won 3rd place in the meat category!
This is his third 3rd place medal in 15 years:
Capturing for posterity:
I’m proud of what a great and dedicated cook Bob is, and I’m thrilled when he’s recognized by others for his efforts. Congratulations, Bob!
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 03/09/25 Sunday |
• Loaded baked potatoes • Broccoli |
| 03/10/25 Monday |
(John @ NCSU work alum meet-up) • Free night |
| 03/11/25 Tuesday |
• Korean beef c̅ riced cauliflower • House salad |
| 03/12/25 Wednesday |
• Angus meatballs c̅ rigatoni • Broccoli |
| 03/13/25 Thursday |
• Grilled jalapeño & cheddar sausages • Quinoa salad |
| 03/14/25 Friday |
• Cordon bleu • Mashed potatoes • Green beans |
| 03/15/25 Saturday |
(Josey St. Pádraig’s Day party) • Party food |
| I feel bad punishing my legs for something my mouth did. But here we are. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
I attended the Friday, March 7 noon performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2 with my friend Wayne.
We had proper brunch cocktails, mimosas, before Bob dropped us off at the performing arts center downtown. We had seats on both sides of a couple, and they were very civil, agreeing to move over one seat so we could sit together.
Thoughts on Timepiece
On introducing the first piece, Cindy McTee‘s Timepiece, the conductor, Leonard Slatkin, called it something like, “a great piece of music, by a great composer, with a great and renowned career — and who just happens to be my wife.”
That reminded me of when I was in the closet and every time I introduced myself when public speaking, I’d be sure to mention my wife so that it was clear to everyone that I was straight. I’m not suggesting this man is gay. He is, after all, on his fourth wife. 🐱 Surely he would have switched teams by now.
After that announcement, and once I cleared my head of words and phrases like “nepotism,” “conflict of interest,” and “you got some cojones, bro,” I opened my mind to the music.
It was a rather short piece, I think he said it was going to be 6 minutes. Words like, “choppiness,” “syncopation,” and “cacophony” came to mind while listening, and I thought, “I wonder if this is Eastern European music.” (As it turned out, the composer studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków and one of her teachers was Krzysztof Penderecki.)
A lot of — and unusual — percussion instrumentation is going on here. I wonder what that instrument is called that sounds like a zipper. Wayne used the word “ratchet” for it, and I thought he was kidding. I mentioned that it reminded me of those washboards on Hee Haw. Turns out we were both onto something — internet to the rescue: here is the list of percussion instrumentation in the piece:
That clopping sound, which I now know comes from “wood blocks,” reminds me of the Sleigh Ride song.
Thoughts on Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2
I had initially thought, “I’m surprised the piano is way in the back of the orchestra when it’s going to be so prominent in the piano concerto,” but in the short break between the first and second piece, they rolled out a gorgeous Steinway front and center.
That dress! The soloist, Olga Kern, had on this dress (not the blue one in that ad glossy above) that reminded me of tiers on wedding cakes or something. It looked something like this but all white and without the picnic basket:
She slouches, is hunched over, actually, when she plays — which made me think of Schroeder’s playing.
When Olga’s fingers were flying over the keys at one point, I thought about how piano playing has an end game, specifically with regards to arthritis of the hands and fingers.
In the middle of the second movement, I thought, “I can’t believe I did not pee after those 3 mimosas and before this performance started. Oh, boy.”
Wayne and I mused over what the actual performer titles were, specifically with regards to the best players in the string section — was it “first chair,” or “principal chair,” or “principal violinist (or viola or cellist, etc.)” or something else. The internet to the rescue again: looks like: principal, associate principal, and assistant principal, which sounds similar to the hierarchy of college professors.
That conductor looks like Andy Rooney — or Leslie Jordan — and like he has kyphosis.
That cymbal player just stood up, buttoned the bottom button of his jacket, picked up his cymbals, and waited. Then, without playing them, he put them down and picked up a slightly larger pair, which he did crash together one time before putting them down, unbuttoning his coat, and sitting back down.
It made me think that if he got paid by the note, he’d be broke. And that reminded me of Barbra’s classic spiel in her backyard concert for which the tickets were $5000 a piece, and during which she mused for 25 seconds about how much that was per note:
Wayne and I had a delightful walk home after a quick stop at Sir Walter Coffee to ostensibly have a cup of coffee but to furtively use the restroom, avoiding the long restroom lines at the venue after the concert. Lots of bladders needed to be emptied before getting on the vans back to the retirement homes and assisted living facilities.
We felt blessed with beautiful weather and to be able to make the 2-mile walk back to our house. Thanks for a swell time, Wayne.
Coda
If you’ve never seen this 2.5-minute scene from The Seven Year Itch, which Bob just introduced me to and is an homage to Piano Concerto #2, enjoy “Good Old Rachmaninoff“:
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| 📕10-word summary: A candid, ferocious, and compelling introspection on womanhood and motherhood. 🖌6-word review: Classic Ferrante voice — quirky and dark. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “How foolish to think you can tell your children about yourself before they’re at least 50. To ask to be seen by them as a person and not as a function.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: Camorra, reproof, pareo, tohu-bohu | |||||||||
| Description:* Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante’s language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I was prepared for this author’s voice, quirky and dark, from her book The Days of Abandonment, which I read in 2022. My husband watched and reviewed the movie made from this book, starring one of his all-time favorite actors, Olivia Colman, and which was Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s directorial debut. There was a lot packed into the 140-page story, and it’s a rare, refreshing, honest look at women who aren’t completely taken and in love with their own children. Oh, and lest I forget, my pet-peeve overused word made an appearance on p. 18: “They called each other by name with drawn-out cries, hurled exclamatory or conspiratorial comments, at times quarreled: a large family group, similar to the one I had been part of when I was a girl, the same jokes, the same sentimentality, the same rages.” | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: Author Toni Morrison’s life beautifully honored in poetry and pictures. 🖌6-word review: Brilliant accomplishments. Understandable poetry. Glorious art. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “You, Tony Morrison, first-of-the-first brown-skinned bosses, bringing color to an all-white literary landscape.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: griot, gutbucket | |||||||||
| Description:* From imaginative child to visionary storyteller, Toni Morrison was a fiercely inspiring writer who helped change the world. This poetic picture book is part love letter and part biography, praising the power of this Nobel Prize winner. With its tender refrain, readers will know how much Morrison’s stories — and their own — mean to the world. She was loved — and so are they!*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This was one of 3 books that I saw in an article reviewing 3 recommended children’s picture books about African-American people: And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories, Go tell it: how James Baldwin became a writer, and Dream a dress, dream a poem: dressmaker and poet, Myra Viola Wilds. I didn’t expect this one to be poetry, but thankfully, it was very accessible poetry. I knew that Toni was a Pulitzer Prize winner (1988), but I didn’t know (or remember) that she’d also won the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993) and that President Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012). This book is beautifully illustrated. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| My goal weight is one chin. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
“My teeth are so clean, I could eat off them.”
I’ve been going to the same dentistry for 45 years, and I’ve seen the same hygienist, Leigh Ann, for 25 years.
| No matter how much you exercise, you’ll never burn off 40 pounds of whore. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
We got one of Costco’s 10-lb spiral ham when it was on sale for $10 off — marked down from $25 to $15.
Bob made some delicious ham salad from some of it, and for lunch today, he prepared some romaine lettuce to make ham salad lettuce wraps with. So good.
You know your stock is close to worthless when going up 6½ cents is a 13.5% increase. Poor Weight Watchers. (Poor me.)
| What do I not need? | What is not wrong? | What do I not understand? |
| Here are the top-4 things I do not need, with the one I do not need the most first. 1) To ever relocate — love our house. 2) A retirement job — not bored, don’t need extra cash. 3) Another food to like — like plenty. 4) More age-related aches and pains — sucks. | Things in my life that are not wrong include: 1) My choice of a mate. 2) The relief from back pain I’ve enjoyed for a year-and-a-half. 3) The number of friends I have. 4) The result of “planning for retirement.” 5) The number of vacations I take in a year. | There are so many things: 1) Why men discard chewing gum in urinals. 2) What the draw is of violence and chase scenes in movies. 3) Our U.S. tax code. 4) How the proof for “1+1=2” can be 300 pages long.2 5) How a stationary car’s wheels can still turn. |
| I found the perfect gym outfit to wear on the couch. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #UpperBody |
| Yoga class is great. You can close your eyes and imagine yourself in a relaxing place. Like on your couch not doing yoga. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
I’m on the waitlist for 7 books at the Wake County Public Library, and as they are sometimes wont to do, a bunch of them are close to becoming ready at the same time.
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| 📕10-word summary: Ghostwriter learns truths about the famous person she’s writing for. 🖌6-word review: 49 pages were just enough. Unremarkable. |
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| 💭Laughable quote: “With the cleansing power of this sage, I release all negative energy from this space. Visualize the smoke absorbing all negativity. Watch it disappear and float out of the windows.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: wakeboarding | |||||||||
| Description:* Anne is barely keeping it together. A frazzled ghostwriter and aspiring novelist, she juggles nine-year-old twins and a listless marriage from an overcrowded Manhattan apartment, spreading herself thinner each day. Just as Anne is about to give up on her dreams, she lands her biggest client Melody Wells. When Melody passes along a lead on a spacious sublet complete with East River views, built-in closets, and three bedrooms, Anne can’t believe her luck. Melody seems to know just what her family needs. But as small, unsettling incidents begin to accumulate, Anne starts to wonder what price she’s willing to pay for the good life.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This was an “interesting enough” read, nothing remarkable. I was interested enough to invest 49 pages to see how it ended. I’m ambivalent about including the explanation of polydactyl cats and the boiling frog apologue. It felt like a couple of things that the author knew about and wanted to fit into the story, which violates a classic rule of writing: In your edit, find your favorite word or line that you worked into the story and delete it. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: A mathematics professor gets himself in a world of shit. 🖌6-word review: My first Lee Child book. Excellent. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: “Korovki [a Russian prison] is like any small town. Full of gossip. Sometimes exciting.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: last | |||||||||
| Description:* Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics — in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I became aware of Lee Child during an after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen through Barnes & Noble. She recommended his Jack Reacher books, but this book of his was available to borrow free through Amazon’s Prime Reading service, so I grabbed it. At 50 pages, it was a super quick read, although I do wonder what part of that enjoyment was served by my love of mathematics. Although the Kindansky numbers in this book are fictional, they reminded me of the Fibonacci numbers, which actually exist in mathematics. I thought it was a great introduction to Lee Child’s writing, which I definitely plan to read more of, probably starting with Killing Floor, the first in his Jack Reacher series of 29 books to-date. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: Family faces hard truths in wake of businessman patriarch’s death. 🖌6-word review: Good story. Good pacing. Hopeful ending. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “Casual dress is a privilege for those given the benefit of the doubt. It is for people who will be accepted without question, and that’s not you.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: senescence, bicker, boater hat, quiddities, bouclé, B-roll, kente, diapason, rubicund, inosculated | |||||||||
| Description:* On their Martha’s Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate. But when the billionaire patriarch dies right before his 70th birthday, the media is quick to question the future of the multi-industry conglomerate that makes the Carters living legends. Amid the succession crisis, his daughter, Kennedy, is questioning her father’s past. Kennedy is an aspiring filmmaker, and the documentary she’d planned to present at her father’s party begins an inquest into the life of a man she never really knew. As a twisted history emerges, the fault lines in the family grow. Torn between morality and the promise of maintaining wealth, Kennedy must decide what’s most important—the Carter legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I liked how each chapter was from one character’s perspective, and essentially rotated through the members of the family at the center of this story. A scene about “a request form to ensure the chef and housekeeping staff were aware of everything from who liked to sleep with socks on, to who liked their bacon extra crispy,” reminded me of a spreadsheet that my work team created once for an off-site retreat that involved several nights during which some of us would have to share a hotel room: “We’ve started a spreadsheet to note preferences such as “needs white noise,” “likes it cold,” “snorer,” “not a morning person,” etc. Well, it quickly devolved with added columns, such as: “potty-trained,” “litterbox-trained,” “nude sleeper,” “never-nude sleeper,” “needs arm rub to fall asleep,” “needs bedtime story + song,” “needs bedtime story only,” “AM radio,” and “cuddler.” And the memory made me chuckle. I enjoyed reading about “the Black experience” attending Princeton, and a couple of times thought of a book I read last year, The Last Negroes at Harvard,” to which there was an allusion in this book, in fact. There are some good thoughts in this story about capitalism vs. humanitarianism. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| The library | BookBub | Amazon Prime |
| The last book I purchased was White Fragility in 2020. I borrow most of the books I read each year from the Wake County Public Library. I’ve added a field to my list of books that I’ve read in 2025 to indicate where I got the book and its format. | BookBub is a service that alerts you to cheap or free downloads of ebooks on amazon.com. I only get one that sounds interesting if it’s free — or once I got a $1.99 one for free with a balance on an amazon.com gift card I’d earned participating in a focus group. | I get free book downloads from two services available as an Amazon Prime member. At the beginning of each month First Reads presents 9 or so free books to choose one — and sometimes two — from, and Prime Reading lets you borrow up to 10 ebooks or audiobooks at a time. |
| My favorite exercise class is one that’s canceled. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 03/02/25 Sunday |
• Shrimp cocktail • Hot & sour soup |
| 03/03/25 Monday |
• Turkey breast c̅ cranberry • Mashed potatoes • Green beans |
| 03/04/25 Tuesday |
• Ham • Potatoes • Broccoli |
| 03/05/25 Wednesday |
(Leigh & Jaleh happy hour) • Rotel cream cheese sausage balls • Vegetable tray |
| 03/06/25 Thursday |
• Chicken & vegetable stir-fry • Riced cauliflower |
| 03/07/25 Friday |
(Beth Putz’s birthday party) • Party food |
| 03/08/25 Saturday |
(Watkins’ Chili Party) • Chili, chili, & more chili • Cornbread, cornbread, & more cornbread |
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| 📕10-word summary: More murders take place while trying to solve old ones. 🖌6-word review: Very complicated plot points. Didn’t love. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “Age gives you perspective. Now I know the difference between being popular and just being talked about.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: balaclava | |||||||||
| Description: Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: Like many others, the catchy title of this book drew me in. But, I didn’t love this book. The author broke the fourth wall often, which at times came across as a funny or expositive aside, but at other times felt too gimmicky. There were a lot of characters and murders in the story — with lots of sometimes obscure, and often complicated, connections to people outside the family. I never quite cared — as much as I thought I should have — about who the murderer was. My pet-peeve overused word made an appearance about a third of the way through: “I leaned over and whispered conspiratorially.” And in what’s apparently an Australian pronunciation quirk, the narrator of this audiobook distractingly pronounced the word “assume” (which was used a lot) as “ashoom.” I’d be hard-pressed to recommend this book without a lot of caveats. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
I have white coat hypertension, also known as white coat syndrome, a condition where blood pressure is higher in a medical setting than in other settings.
That’s my main impetus for taking my blood pressure daily, the results of which I take to my doctor whenever I go for an office visit. She always appreciates seeing my charts, which help her more confidently make any adjustments that might be needed to my BP medicine.
Also, with high blood pressure being called the silent killer, it’s comforting to me to “know my numbers.” Do you know yours?
| I didn’t come out of the womb, I came out of the pantry. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #15MinutesTreadmill |
| I stay a little heavy to make it easier to distinguish my clothes from my husband’s when we’re folding laundry. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
We recently went through our old passports and driver’s licenses, and Bob took my 3 old passport photos and made refrigerator magnets out of them. He did the same with 2 of his old passport photos and one old college picture. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting some gummies that help you fall and stay asleep, or help you get back to sleep if you do wake up during the night. I took the plunge earlier this week.
More than one friend recommended the Modern Apothēca in North Raleigh. It was a little tricky to find (just inside 540 up Falls of Neuse Road), but it’s a cute little place and it has a “coffee shop” next door. The name of the coffee shop is an indication of their advertising “voice.”
Its full name is The Burnt Pot: Cannabis Cafe & Lounge, which is described as: “One of the nation’s first hemp lounges and cafes. We provide a private space for the social and recreational enjoyment of legal hemp products.” They also sell “infused beverages and baked goods” there.
After entering the main door of Modern Apothēca, there’s another door into the sales area, where you’re greeted by someone who, if you tell them it’s your first time there, explains how they’re able to sell what they sell, and why they can’t sell the things they can’t sell.
I explained that I was a “first time user” and what I was trying to “accomplish” with gummies, which was not to get high, but as a relaxant toward a restful night’s sleep.
The salesguy was very knowledgeable, personable, and patient explaining what the various combination of “ingredients” (i.e., CBD, CBN, & THC) are and what they do. I ended up going with Tillmans Tranquils Perfect Dose Night Gummies, and I got a free sample of Comfortably Numb whose name sounds exactly like something I could use to get through the next four years.
And here’s the ad card, on which their advertisement voice is evident again in their daily delivery cutoff information.
| My daydreams about being skinny are always interrupted by the sound of my own chewing. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
We have these 3 movie posters hanging in our dining room, with a meal-times theme to them.
| Breakfast at Tiffany’s | Naked Lunch | Dinner at Eight |
| This 1961 movie’s claim to fame is Mickey Rooney’s beyond-cringeworthy portrayal of “Mr. Yunioshi,” which catapults it to the top of “movies that didn’t age well” lists. I read the book, by Truman Capote, and I was stunned that they could make a 2-hour movie out of a 179-page book. | I refer to this 1981 movie as “the weirdest f*cking movie I’ve ever seen.” William S. Borroughs, who wrote the book it’s based on, said people’s opinion about the book included: “Disgusting!” “Pornographic, un-American trash!” “Unpublishable!” He adds: “So Hollywood, in all its wisdom, made it into a movie.” | This classic 1933 movie had a tagline that stated: “MORE STARS THAN HAVE EVER BEEN IN ANY PICTURE BEFORE. The biggest film sensation in 10 years!” The trailer describes a gentleman “who has outlived everything but his vanity,” and a lady “who would sacrifice everything to give a society dinner.” |
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| 📕10-word summary: The ripple effect on each other of 12 mostly strangers. 🖌6-word review: Quick paced. Nice surprises. Wonderfully interconnected. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “What she hated about even mild turbulence was the way it ended the illusion of security.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: muezzins, fug, tiffin, escutcheon | |||||||||
| Description: A woman strikes up a conversation with the man sitting next to her on a plane after some turbulence. He returns home to tragic news that has also impacted another stranger, a shaken pilot on his way to another continent who seeks comfort from a journalist he meets that night. The journalist’s life shifts subtly as well, before she heads to the airport on an assignment that will shift more lives in turn. In this novel, Szalay’s diverse protagonists circumnavigate the planet on twelve flights, from London to Madrid, from Dakar to Sao Paulo, to Toronto, to Delhi, to Doha, en route to see lovers or estranged siblings, aging parents, baby grandchildren, or nobody at all. Along the way, they experience the full range of human emotions from loneliness to love and, knowingly or otherwise, change each other in one brief, electrifying interaction after the next.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: During a recent after-lunch stroll with my friend Jen, through Barnes & Noble looking at books, sharing what we’ve read, and trading recommendations, she recommended this author to me. This book of his was readily available at my library, and I loved the premise. As it turns out, though, Jen recommended John Scalzi — and has never read anything by this author! But now that she’s read my review of this book, she’s adding it to her to-read list. Too funny! I loved how each of this book’s chapters was around a flight, whose chapter title comprised the flight’s departure and arrival airport codes, and after the first chapter, how each featured someone who was somehow connected to the person in the previous chapter. There were a couple of nice surprises; for example, when you didn’t know how someone at the beginning of a chapter was connected to anyone in the previous chapter, and it was revealed in such a way that all of sudden you figured it out or it became obvious. I also liked when a character seemed unlikable or unsavory in one chapter, but you found out why they might be that way in the subsequent chapter. (It reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 5th habit: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood®.) If I’m remembering correctly, only the first story involved literal and figurative turbulence, the others having just the figurative sense of it — turbulence in the character’s lives. Also, I thought the ending was brilliant. I will probably put this forth as my Mostly Social Book Club book when it’s my turn again to chose one. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| Doing crunches twice a day now—Cap’n in the morning, Nestlé in the afternoon. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 02/23/25 Sunday |
(Mafia party) • Take antipasto tray |
| 02/24/25 Monday |
(Runners’ happy hour with Guy Lampe et al.) • A “simple” smörgåsbord |
| 02/25/25 Tuesday |
• Scallop & corn soup • House salad |
| 02/26/25 Wednesday |
• Milton’s pepperoni-sausage-onion Stromboli • House salad |
| 02/27/25 Thursday |
• Spaghetti squash c̅ meat sauce • House salad |
| 02/28/25 Friday |
• Baked cod • Acorn squash • Green beans |
| 03/01/25 Saturday |
MordeGras party, taking: • Chocolate chip cookies • Vegetable tray • Deviled eggs |
| A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #15MinutesTreadmill |
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| 📕10-word summary: Nurse creates opportunity for potential last words to loved ones. 🖌6-word review: Compelling dual timeline — ultimately heartwarming — story. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “She was suffering terribly, and you did the best thing for her. This is a war, and any man on the battlefield would have done the same thing.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: maisonette, hob, Luftwaffe, Primus, cagoule, swifts, biro, chivvying, trundling, naff, welly | |||||||||
| Description: London, 1940: When nurse Elsie offers to send a reassuring letter to the family of a patient, she has an idea. She begins a book of last letters: messages to be sent on to wounded soldiers’ loved ones should the very worst come to pass, so that no one is left without a final goodbye. But one message will change Elsie’s life forever. When a patient makes a devastating request, can Elsie find the strength to do the unthinkable? London, present day: Stephanie has people she’d like to speak to: her estranged, incarcerated brother; her nan, whose dementia means she’s only occasionally lucid enough to talk. When she discovers a book of wartime letters, Stephanie realises the importance of our final words – and uncovers the story of a secret love, a desperate choice, and the unimaginable courage of the woman behind it all.* *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. |
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| Thoughts: I read about this book on BookBub and it was available for a $.99 download. Since I had a credit for that amount, I “bought it” at no out-of-pocket expense. I appreciated that this was one of those dual-timeline stories in which both the present-day storyline and the in-the-past storyline were both good. Other than the aspect of “the nurse and the airman” communicating in “the book” in a couple of pages that were “purposefully stuck together to keep them private” being totally implausible, it was a believable and compelling story. I was completely sucked into it, and I looked forward to picking it back up as soon as possible and pretty much zipped through it. YMMV, of course. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Overheard dollar store employee annoyed with two guys who are there to presumably fix a broken freezer and asking her to empty it first:
“I ain’t doing that. They’re only paying me $14 an hour even after being here 8 years. That’s not enough money to do that kind of work.”
| I’ve learned to use meditation and exercise to relieve stress. Just kidding. I’m on my third bourbon and soda. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
Don’t you hate it when you tune into the afternoon opera program on your favorite classical station, and you’re waiting and waiting for the first person to sing at the beginning of an act, but the music goes on and on without it happening? I know I do.
It goes on longer, and you start rolling your eyes in annoyance, then start harrumphing in disbelief that an intro could go on so long — all before realizing they’re airing a ballet today and not an opera.
I grilled the burgers to make our Olive Burgers (a Michigan favorite) with pepper jack cheese on Dave’s Killer Bread whole grains and seeds buns.
Bob’s quinoa salad comprised quinoa, cucumbers, black olives, celery, carrots, & onions.
| The trope | An instance | A good fit |
| The “nosy neighbor” is a well-known, and some would argue, timeworn trope in entertainment. Some say it’s time to jettison the archetype altogether. Others argue they represent real-life people and should stay — but “be ‘relatable’ and ‘3D’ while serving their purpose.” Lamentably, it’s women most often portraying this character type. | Arguably, Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched, is the most famous “nosy neighbor.” One present-day meme describes her as “The Original Doorbell Camera.” She was a grotesquely stereotyped shrewish gossip — always on the lookout for delicious secrets and rumors by peering suspiciously around her living-room window curtains at least once an episode. | Crime fiction is a genre in which nosy neighbors thrive — busybodies, gossips, sleuths. They’re the busybody who, over their morning coffee, witnesses a murder while spying on the house next door, and the town gossip who realizes there’s something not right about the family down the block and relentlessly snoops. |
| I’m pretty sure my soulmate is carbs. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
As he is wont to do, Bob shoveled the snow from our driveway and walkways.
While he was out there, Tom — a friend and neighbor — walked by, and he said to Bob, “I knew you’d be out here shoveling your driveway. We Ohio-Michigan folks always do that. I shoveled mine, and Scott shoveled his.”
Tom and Scott are from Ohio, and Bob is from Michigan.
Musing about a regular, quirky thought of mine, which I just had.
Whenever I enjoy a sweet (like the slice of Ghirardelli Caramel Walnut Turtle brownie I just had) with a cup of coffee, and they taste so good together, I always think, “This is why cops stopping at Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts) for coffee and a doughnut has become such a cliché.”
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| 📕10-word summary: Man who doesn’t like people very much overdoses on them. 🖌6-word review: Smart satire. Overdone hyperbole at times. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “Therefore, to avoid your neighbors, you have to make yourself uninteresting, but not too uninteresting, because that makes you interesting.” | |||||||||
| Description:* Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and Pad Thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: Until this book of his, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with this author. I read A Man Called Ove in 2017 and with so many metaphors and similes (several of them in one paragraph at times), the writing became distracting enough for me to abandon the book. Then in 2023, our Mostly Social Book Club read Anxious People, and I absolutely loved it! I’m happy to say I really enjoyed — albeit just short of loving — this book. I thought that at times, although it sounds redundant, the hyperbole was over-the-top — to approach being just plain silly. I’m also turned off when (professional) reviewers describe a book, like many did about this one, as “hilarious” or “laugh-out-loud funny,” because humor is so personal and subjective. With all that said, it was a short, fun read, and I’d definitely recommend it. I chose this book as my November 2024 First Reads offering, which provides free early access to an editor’s pick from Amazon Prime. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
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| 📕10-word summary: A glimpse into a mid-thirties freelance copy editor’s inner life. 🖌6-word review: Sometimes great, sometimes excruciating protagonist’s dialogue. |
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| 💭Compelling quote: “As long as you’re living on this planet, you have to be serious about something, but it’s better to be serious about a limited number of things.” | |||||||||
| Description:* Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it is not easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it. As the long overdue change occurs, however, painful episodes from Fuyuko’s past surface and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I saw this book in my BookBub email, and it sounded interesting, perhaps because the protagonist was a copy editor. I went back-and-forth between not liking and liking this book, and ended up on the “like” side, as per my 4-star rating. Several times, I had to tell myself that I was frustrated with the main character because she was an introvert when she sometimes either took forever to answer somebody’s questions, or just didn’t answer them at all. I found all three of the main people she interacted with during the story — Hijiri, Mitsutsuka, and Noriko — quite interesting. I also liked how this book did not have a “Hollywood ending.” | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
| I ran my first marathon today. Just kidding. I’m on my third cupcake. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
| St. Lidwina | Wilgefortis (a quasi saint) | St. Isadore |
| The patron saint of chronic illnesses and ice-skaters. Ice skating at 15, she broke a rib and sustained a head injury leading to the progressive paralysis of her entire body, and putting her into a deep depression. After a life-long battle with illness, she died at the age of 53. | The patron saint of facial hair and gender-fluid people. She grew a beard to make herself repulsive to a king she was being forced to marry — and took a vow of virginity. Enraged, her father crucified her. She’s considered a “folk saint,” especially by women seeking to escape abusive husbands. | The patron saint of students, computer users, computer technicians, programmers, and the Internet. Isadore’s knowledge of encyclopedias morphed into the internet, seen as the modern encyclopedia of universal knowledge. I can only imagine the conflicting emotions of becoming a saint only to be assigned to the I.T. helpdesk for eternity. |
| These jokes on the side of food packages are getting absurd. Today’s was: Serving size is 2 cookies. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #15MinutesTreadmill |
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| 📕10-word summary: Man stuck in time loop until he solves a murder. 🖌6-word review: Interesting premise. Complicated execution. Tedious reading. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “Thankfully, the leaves and twigs are so demoralized by the earlier rain they don’t have the heart to cry out beneath my feet.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: brazier | |||||||||
| Description:* Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let’s begin… Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: If, like me, the title of this book reminds you of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, disabuse yourself right now of any notion of a connection between the two books. There isn’t any. It took me a while to get the rhythm of how the storyline in this book was going to work, and the dealbreaker for me was the one chapter that was solely exposition of the time- and body-traveling rules. I mean, if you have to stop the story with a chapter explaining how a device — which you’re purportedly employing to enhance your narrative — is going to work, maybe that’s a little too heavy-handed writing. It suspended my effort to suspend my disbelief with the sort of reading equivalent of breaking the fourth wall in theater.
Tedious, annoying, distracting: 1) I found it tedious that there were 8 “hosts” (i.e., other characters’ bodies) that the protagonist inhabited during the story, but then there were a couple of bodies he “visited” more than once. End it already. 2) Overuse of the word “conspiratorial” (or its derivative) in writing is annoying to me, and there were three instances of it in this book. Nobody whispers and conspires that much. 3) This is the second audiobook by a British author that I’ve listened to recently in which I found distracting the pronunciation of these words as “enna-thing,” “enna-one,” and “evra-thing.” Is that how all Brits say those words? I don’t think so. |
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See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
There was a pre-metrosexual-era internet “street quiz” called “Gay or Eurotrash?” It presented a picture of a “stylish” guy, and you had to guess whether he was gay or “just European.” It was all tongue-in-cheek, but funny. At least the first 20 times “playing.”
I’ve been thinking about that quiz the past couple of days at Planet Fitness, where I’ve seen several pairs of guys at various times on various days working out together—a few of which seemed just a little too “stylish” (think those very short workout shorts with the slits up the sides) or a little too “well groomed” (think highly coiffed hair with lots of products in it) or standing just a little too “close” for spotting.
They’ve made me think of a variation on that game that I’d call “Workout Buddies or Husbands?”
| I’m getting real sick and tired of food having calories. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
Starting off with a complete aside, this book has no connection whatsoever to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
At 33% of this book read, I’ve come across the word “conspiratorial” (or one of its derivatives) 3 times. Here are the contexts:
