| I have an impersonal trainer—he doesn’t care what exercises I do. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Exercise check-in
Here we grow again… another deck upgrade
It’s time to replace the outdoor bar set that you can see at the far end of our deck. This one is a replacement of the exact same one that we had before it.
Instead of getting a third identical one, we’ve decided to have a nice bar added on to our deck.
This won’t be the final version, but it’s the drawing we’ve given to the builder as a starting point. It is going to be built off of that existing privacy wall, and a lot less elaborate than this one. And, it definitely will not have a TV in it!
The 2025 Mordecai neighborhood yard sales
Because Bob clears out things regularly and donates them to Cause for Paws, we didn’t have that many things to sell at a yard sale, so Bob joined forces with our across-the-street neighbor to be on the map for our neighborhood day of yard sales.
Yard sale item that didn’t sell
“CROSS CUT EDGE has been demonstrated cutting trees on TV.”
“BOTTOM EDGE is sharp enough for a professional meat cutter.”
“SHATTER PROOF, BOIL-PROOF DISH-WASHER safe handle guaranteed for life.”
“New SAFE GUARD handle.”
“STAYS SHARP because 90% of this razor edge NEVER touches cutting surface.”
This vintage, mid-century Quikut serrated meat knife, still in its very-marketing-oriented sleeve, has been in my family for years. I think my dad might have used it to cut the Thanksgiving turkey some year(s), but I wouldn’t swear to it.
Exercise check-in
| If you see me running call the police, ’cause someone’s chasing me. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
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Exercise check-in
| If you spread 1/3 less fat cream cheese on 66% less fat Baked Ruffles then there are no calories in any of it, because math. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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Finished book #35 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: Chronicles the highs and lows of a decades-long, rule-breaking romance. 🖌6-word review: Funny. Sad. Infuriating. Heartwarming. Always interesting. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “He relished conversation; he celebrated and savored anointing a shimmeringly pleasing word or phrase, treating the English language as a treasure trove to be plundered. Or more plainly: he loved to talk and make sure he was good at it.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: straw boater, hauteur, antediluvian, homunculi, officious, swain, vicuña, inveigle, sisal, Etruscan, frippery, fustiness | |||||||||
| Description:* Devastatingly handsome and insanely rich, Farrell Covington is capable of anything and impossible to resist. He’s a clear-eyed romantic, an aesthete but not a snob, self-indulgent yet wildly generous. As the son of one of the country’s most powerful and deeply conservative families, the world could be his. But when he falls for Nate Reminger, an aspiring writer from a nice Jewish family in Piscataway, New Jersey, the results are passionate and catastrophic. Together, the two embark on a uniquely managed romance that spans half a century. They are inseparable—except for the many years when they are apart. Moving from the ivy-covered bastion of Yale to NYC, L.A., and eventually all over the world, Farrell and Nate experience the tremendous upheaval and social change of the last 50 years. From the freedom of gay life in 1970s Manhattan to the Hollywood closet, the AIDS epidemic, and the profound strides of the LGBTQ+ movement. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. |
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| Thoughts: When I was still on Facebook, an ad for this book appeared on my timeline. It sounded interesting, so I added it to my library to-read list. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the comedic highlight being the description of a wedding at the beginning of chapter 15 and the “take-that | up-yours | touché” highlight being in a reading-of-the-will scene in the middle of chapter 18. Unfortunately, my pet peeve word appeared at about ⅓ of the way into the book: “There were photos of the happy, or at least conspiratorial, couple at the altar, arm in arm before a floral arch at the reception…” The larger-than-life characterization of Farrell is most excellent. This author, also a screenplay writer, has worked as an uncredited script doctor on films including The Addams Family and The First Wives Club. He was credited through the pseudonym “Joseph Howard” for his work on Sister Act, which was originally intended for Bette Midler. The screenplay went through many revisions and was re-fashioned for Whoopi Goldberg. (At this time, Rudnick refused to have his real name associated with the script.) He received sole writing credit for Addams Family Values, In & Out, and the screen version of his play Jeffrey. I would consider this book for a future Mostly Social Book Club book. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| Whoever decided that a 1-inch candy bar should be called “fun sized” really needs to re-evaluate their standards of “fun.” #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
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“Chocolate ‘in a Petri dish’ could save crisis-hit industry”
“Lab-grown chocolate could rival traditional chocolate in several ways. The process can grow cells that multiply swiftly and mature within a week, as opposed to the six to eight months usually required for a conventional cocoa crop. The resulting product can also contain higher levels of health-promoting chemicals and fewer contaminants such as heavy metals or pesticides. The price of cocoa is skyrocketing as the industry deals with drought and other problems.” Source: TLDR. (2025, April 23). TLDR Newsletter.
Read the full article (a 3-minute read): The secrets of lab-grown chocolate.
Three 50-word stories about whether a paper book or an e-book is better for the climate.
| It’s complicated | Paper | E-book |
| Whether it’s better to read books in print or on a device is complicated, because of the complex interplay of the resources involved across the entire lifecycle of a published work: how books and devices are made and shipped, what energy they use to run, if they can be recycled. | Traditional print publishing comes with a high carbon footprint. It’s the world’s third-largest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, and 32 million trees are felled each year in the U.S. to make paper for books. Then there’s the printing and shipping — to say nothing of the many unsold books that are destroyed. | Digital reading seemingly has a considerable eco-advantage over print by saving trees, pulping and shipping. Moreover, companies that make e-readers such as Amazon, which sells the market-leading Kindle e-reader, offer recycling programs for old devices, helping save an estimated 2.3 million metric tons of carbon emissions over a 2-year period. |
Source: Veltman, C. (2024, May 25). What’s better for the climate: A paper book, or an e-reader? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/05/25/1252930557/book-e-reader-kindle-climate
Front-porch sittin’
It’s days like this that I revel in being retired.
- Our front porch is newly power-washed and re-stained. (Thank you, Bob!)
- The weather is fantastic.
- I’m reading my 35th book of the year, and it’s a funny one that’s occasionally making me guffaw.
- And a lazy-afternoon nap is imminent.
Exercise check-in
| Weighing myself causes me to stress eat. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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Exercise check-in
| Pilates? Oh, hell no! I thought you said, “Pie and lattes.” #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #CoreStrengthening #BicycleCrunches #DeadBugs #PelvicTilts #Bridges #KneeExtensions #KneeToChestStretches #Clamshells #HipSideSlides |
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Funny secret in this week’s collection
I’ve been reading the PostSecret site weekly for a long, long time. (I’ve even had a secret of my own published on it.) Note: New secrets are posted every Sunday.
Every once in a while, one makes me literally laugh out loud. This week it was this one:
A less-than-satisfying customer service incident
You are now chatting with Froilan.
Me: When I log in and select the Web Apps option from the dropdown menu, it throws me out to the login screen.
Fro: Hello John. This is not the experience we want you to have. I am going to do my best to assist you today. John, please retest on your end using another browser. Then tell me if the issue persists.
Me: I’m using Chrome. Just tried it on Edge… same thing. I’ve also tried it in an incognito browser on Chrome. I’ve also tried: once logging in, instead of clicking on Web Apps, I clicked on Logout and then logged back in… same thing.
Fro: How about using Firefox browser?
Me (getting annoyed): That is so last century. I don’t have Firefox. I mean how many browsers do we have to try it on? It should work on all of them. (With all due respect.)
Fro: Thank you for trying.
Me: I just tried it on my iPhone with Safari… same thing. I’m now officially out of browsers to try it on.
Fro: Please hold on while I check on this matter.
Fro (after several minutes): I will escalate this issue to our Tier 3 support team for further investigation. Please hold and I will provide you with a ticket reference number.
Exercise check-in
| Dieting is no piece of cake. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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The struggle is real
Like with electronically stored photos and documents, I have “management issues” of where all of my books-to-read lists are kept. And then there’s the digital detritus of the books that I’ve read but haven’t removed from the list or deleted its download.
I have no fewer than 4 “to-read” lists. I say “no fewer” instead of “exactly,” because there are undoubtedly some scribbled on pieces of paper somewhere.
1. My to-read list at the Wake County Public Library currently contains 33 books, all of which, of course, the library carries. Most of them include a note as to how it came to be on the list.
Expand if you’re interested in seeing my library to-read list.
2. My to-read list on Goodreads currently contains 54 books, and the ones on this list are primarily ones that I did not find available at the library at the time I added them to this list.
Expand if you’re interested in seeing my Goodreads to-read list.
3. My to-read list on my Kindle contains 30 books, and these are free downloads that I got either from BookBub or Amazon First Reads and haven’t read yet.
Expand if you’re interested in seeing my Kindle to-read list.
4. My to-read list in the Notes app on my iPhone is a “quick list” of the priority items to consider for my very next book.
Expand if you’re interested in seeing my iPhone Notes to-read list.
Finished book #34 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: A healing NYC family’s year preceding the John Lennon’s assassination. 🖌6-word review: Fascinating male relationships. Excellently paced plot. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “When, once in a blue moon, they fought, it was scary, in the way arguments can be between smart people who know exactly how to hurt each other.” | |||||||||
| 🎓A new-to-me word: SRO | |||||||||
| Description:* It’s the fall of 1979 in New York City when 23-year-old Anton Winter, back from the Peace Corps and on the mend from a nasty bout of malaria, returns to his childhood home in the Dakota. Anton’s father, the famous late-night host Buddy Winter, is there to greet him, himself recovering from a breakdown. Before long, Anton is swept up in an effort to reignite Buddy’s stalled career, a mission that takes him from the gritty streets of New York, to the slopes of the Lake Placid Olympics, to the Hollywood Hills, to the blue waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and brings him into close quarters with the likes of Johnny Carson, Ted and Joan Kennedy, and a seagoing John Lennon. But the more Anton finds himself enmeshed in his father’s professional and spiritual reinvention, the more he questions his own path, and fissures in the Winter family begin to threaten their close bond. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. |
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| Thoughts: I saw this book in a BookBub email, and since I recently read The Address, which was about The Dakota apartment building in NYC, the fact that it was part of this title caught my eye. While the building was a “major character” in The Address, it played a comparatively small part in this story. As is often the case with historical fiction, I wondered how much of the story was historically factual and how much of it was fiction. John Lennon played a big part in this story, and at first, each time it said he did something, I wondered if he really did that and looked it up. (e.g., owned a sailboat named “Isis.”) Checking everything soon became untenable, and it didn’t really matter in this story. There were 2 things about this story that I loved: 1) the male relationships — specifically those between Anton and his father, Buddy; Anton and his brother, Kip; and Anton and John Lennon, and 2) this story moved right along; a typical example being when one paragraph mentioned that something was going to happen in 3 weeks (and arguably, it’s the thing you’re most interested in seeing how it plays out), and in the very next paragraph, it’s 3 weeks later. No waiting until the next chapter with filler or another storyline, or anything like that. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Our menus for 04/20/25 – 04/26/25
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 04/20/25 Sunday |
(Soup & Salad Sunday) • Apple Bacon Salad • Cabbage and potato soup |
| 04/21/25 Monday |
(Meatloaf Monday) • Meatloaf • Honey gold mini-potatoes • Japanese cucumber salad |
| 04/22/25 Tuesday |
(Taco Tuesday) • Tacos & fixins • Cream salad |
| 04/23/25 Wednesday |
(Wonton Wednesday) • Bibigo Mini Chicken Wontons • Broccoli |
| 04/24/25 Thursday |
(Tortellini Thursday) • 5-cheese tortellini with andouille sausage slices • House salad |
| 04/25/25 Friday |
(Fried Rice Friday) • Scallop fried rice • Applesauce |
| 04/26/25 Saturday |
(Shrimp Scampi Saturday) • The Pioneer Woman Shrimp Scampi • House salad |
Exercise check-in
| I stay a little overweight to make it harder to kidnap me. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
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Exercise check-in
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Me: I can’t do this anymore. You hurt me too much. Trainer: It was one push-up. You did one push-up. |
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On this day 31 years ago…
On April 17, 1994, I came out of the proverbial closet.
I like the idea that I’m approaching the year when I will have spent as many years out of the closet as I spent in, which will happen in 2030. I’m currently at 36 years in, 31 years out.
In 2021, I wrote these three 50-word stories about the emotional toll of living in the closet for 35 years and why people say, “It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders when I came out.”
| Keeping up appearances | In the interest of me | To come out—or check out |
| I’m married to a woman, but I am a terrified, closeted gay man trying to keep up the charade. So, I “ogle” at “big tits” and traveling as a trainer for work, I make sure I refer to “my wife” at least once while introducing myself. It’s kind of exhausting. | I was a young Republican because I believed I was a self-made man—before I learned about privilege. But mostly I identified as such to distance myself from “the gays.” Voting against their interests, I couldn’t possibly be one, right? I’m still embarrassed and haunted by this. I’m so sorry. | Riding home from my $100K job, to my $250K home, in my $40K car, I wonder: “Is there any way to plunge this ‘ultimate driving machine‘ into that ravine and ensure I won’t live with an ‘intended to die’ for the rest of my life?” It’s unbearable living like this. |
Sleep has arrived…
Modern Apothēca is celebrating “4/20 Week” with a 20% off coupon, so I put in an order. Delivery is free, and if you get your order in by 4:20 p.m., you get it the same day. With the offer going on, they had a lot of deliveries today. Mine just arrived.
I fell asleep waiting for my sleep gummies to arrive.
#OtherIronicThings
- It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay.
- It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late.
- It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid.
- A “No smoking” sign on your cigarette break.
- It’s like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife.
Exercise check-in
| I’m grateful that no matter how many cookies I eat, my shoes still fit. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
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A quintessential customer service experience
In case anyone (everyone?) has forgotten what a good customer service experience sounds and feels like, we just had this one with a staff member at the Anne Murray Centre museum in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Email exchange:
We (2 of us) are interested in visiting the centre on Thursday, Oct 2, 2025 at around noon. This will be during a cruise ship port call from 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. in Halifax. We’re planning to rent a car at the port as soon as we get off the ship, drive to the centre, spend an hour or 2 there, and then drive back to make sure we’re back in time for the 6 p.m. ship departure.
Our questions:
1) Does this seem doable to you?
2) Do the tickets have a time of day (e.g., entry at noon) associated with them?
3) When would be the earliest we would be able to purchase tickets?
Thanks for any help!
John & Bob
Thanks so much for your message and interest in visiting the Centre.
The last of September is usually our last opening, but we can come in for you by appointment. You can just pay at the door. Yes, we’re 2 hours from Halifax and it sounds like a great little trip for you.
Please email me a couple of weeks prior to remind me and confirm, and I’ll make sure someone is here for you.
All the best,
Wanita
Thank you for your prompt and very customer-service-oriented response and generosity, Wanita!
I will definitely email you a couple of weeks before our trip to confirm and with any further details we might have at that time. We appreciate you!
John & Bob
Hi John and Bob,
Thanks so much for getting back to me and for your very kind words! Looking forward to seeing you in the Fall.
Cheers until then,
Wanita
Three 50-word stories about things that sound lovely in theory but I find annoying in reality.
| Fireplaces | Convertibles | Wind chimes |
| The theory: It’ll be so lovely sitting around it, with the flickering flames and the crackling sound — so romantic and relaxing. The reality: Somebody’s ass will be getting up every 30 or so minutes to stoke that fucker, or it’ll die out or worse yet, start smoking up the house. | The theory: With the sun on our skin and the breeze on our faces, we’ll be one with nature. People will notice and envy us — like we’re rockstars. The reality: I can’t hear you and this damn wind is messing up my hair even with the extra-hold gel in it. | The theory: The soothing sounds will bring us a sense of calm and peace, and they might bring some good luck and ward off negative energy. The reality: That damn thing is keeping me awake at night, and today we got a complaint from the neighbors that it’s annoying AF. |
Exercise check-in
| “The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” ~ Julia Child #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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Image generated by Gemini AI
Finished book #33 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: Kids try to resolve effects of very complicated family dynamics. 🖌6-word review: Powerful story. Family tree logistics challenging. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “It means that we never really know what we’ve seen, only what we noticed. It means absorbing that these are two different things, and living differently with that knowledge.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: cerise, crenellation, striate, apotheosis, kouros, pullulate, louche, palaver, chiaroscuro, deadheading | |||||||||
| Description:* When Bunny Linden abandons her 3 children with her older sister, Jayne, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother, one that she could never be. As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: This was a compelling story with a lot of kids in it, of which one sister (Bunny) dumps her 3 kids (Sage, Huck, & Brian) on her sister (Jayne) who then has 2 kids (Linden & Clyde) of her own — raising all 5 of them, and at times they think they’re all brothers and sisters, when in fact 3 of them are cousins to the other 2. And then there are 2 other kids (Michael & Luke) of Margaret and her first husband, who are Jayne’s & Bunny’s half-brothers. It was just a lot. So much in fact, that after reading chapter 20 (of 25), I had to stop and draw this family tree:
to remind myself who Michael & Luke were (they hadn’t been mentioned for ~15 chapters) and how they were related to the other 5 kids. And if that wasn’t enough — and it really was — at one point Jayne divorces Rodger and marries another man who has a kid (Justin), so becomes Linden’s and Bunny’s step-brother. Anyhoo, that was all problematic, but I really did enjoy the story, and I loved the pace. It moved along snap, snap, snap. |
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See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| I’m like an avocado: I’m fat, but I’m a good fat. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
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A couple of things about today’s NYT Connections puzzle…
Two things about today’s NYT Connections puzzle…
Spoiler alert: The answer to today’s (04/14/25) puzzle is under this fold.
1. My knowledge domain of the blue category is the null set. Never heard of the game.
2. This is the first time I can recall that a word in one category is actually the name/subject of another category.
Exercise check-in
| I’m giving up eating chocolate for a month. Sorry, bad punctuation: I’m giving up. Eating chocolate for a month. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
An expensive memory
In our upcoming Danube Riverboat Cruise, during our port call in Passau, Germany, there’s an optional excursion available that includes this as part of its description:
Learn about traditional glass production and see a demo in a small family-run glass manufacturer.
We won’t be doing it, but it reminds me of the time in 1987 in Venice, Italy when my then-wife and I visited a glass manufacturer that was home to one of the master glass blowers in Venice.
Impressed — and unequivocally caught up in the moment — after the demo by “the master,” we ended up buying an $800 vase. That doesn’t sound like that much, but it was at the time. It’s $2,284.92 in 2025 money! For a damn vase. Had to have it, apparently. 😂
Menus for 4/13/25 – 4/19/25
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 04/13/25 Sunday |
• Chicken cordon bleu • Corn • House salad |
| 04/14/25 Monday |
• Air-fried sliced chorizo • Crinkle-cut fries • House salad |
| 04/15/25 Tuesday |
• Stuffed clams • African peanut soup |
| 04/16/25 Wednesday |
• Onion & cheddar chicken patties • Butternut squash • Green beans |
| 04/17/25 Thursday |
• Gyro slices with feta • Mixed vegetables • Kalamata-olive slaw |
| 04/18/25 Friday |
• Ham • Sautéed mushrooms & onions • Yeast rolls |
| 04/19/25 Saturday |
• Cheese tortellini with andouille sausage slices • House salad |
Exercise check-in
| I eat intensely enough to consider it exercise. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
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Finished book #32 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: Dual-timeline, multi-generational story reveals consequential, brutal, and grave family secrets. 🖌6-word review: Compelling story with pronoun antecedent issues. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “Kit was taken aback, because maternal concern is not an armament Lucinda keeps in her quiver.” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: stagecraft, insouciance, shoulder season, traif, harridan | |||||||||
| Description:* In 1959, Hollywood ingenue Mercy Welles seems to have the world at her feet. Far removed from her Nebraska roots, she has crafted herself into a glamorous Oscar-nominated actress engaged to an up-and-coming director… until she shockingly vanishes without a trace, just as her career is taking off. Almost 60 years later, Kit O’Neill, a junior Manhattan television producer, is packing up her recently deceased grandmother’s attic, only to discover a long-lost box of souvenirs that reveal that the grandmother who raised her and her sister Claire was, in fact, the mysterious Mercy Welles. Putting her investigative skills to use, Kit is determined to solve the riddle of her grandmother’s missing life, and the trail eventually leads to Martha’s Vineyard.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I suppose I was destined to read this book for several reasons: 1) I saw it in my 3/27/25 BookBub email and went to put it on my to-read list at the library, where I found it already there from my 7/29/24 BookBub email. 2) I’m a sucker for stories about found letters. 3) I have a great fondness for stories about The Cape in general, and Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, & Provincetown in particular, probably because I grew up just off The Cape in Fall River, and my husband and I spent a month at a VRBO in Eastham during the pandemic. In this dual-timeline story, I found the storyline in the past more interesting than the one in the present, but both kept me interested. The only complaint I had was that there were several times when a pronoun’s antecedent wasn’t clear. For example, a paragraph talked about 2 female characters, and the subsequent paragraph referred only to “she” (4 times), and I wasn’t sure which of the 2 characters it was referring to until the end of the paragraph. And finally, my pet-peeve word showed up a quarter of the way into the book: “Well,” she said almost conspiratorially, “it’s just we don’t see Mint out that much anymore. She rarely leaves Sycamore.” | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| I constantly disappoint the thin person inside me trying to get out. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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“Being there”
My friend’s sister died on Thursday, and on Saturday I made the 600-mile drive from Raleigh, NC to Conneautville, PA to attend her funeral on Sunday.
It was a 9.5-hour drive, and I decided to stop every 2 to 2.5 hours for a break, since I was driving alone and wanted to keep alert. My first stop was about 2.5 hours into the trip — at the first rest area in Virginia — and I assessed the snacks and lunch my husband had packed for me, which included 2 homemade sausage biscuits that were fantastic.
I arrived at the Quality Inn I’d reserved the day before, ate a quick Fish and Chips meal (would you look at the size of that fish, and those 2 paltry hush puppies, which I paired with the two free cheddar biscuits) at Red Lobster, and hit the sack early.
The visitation and short funeral mass — both at the funeral home — were the next day, and after lunch at my friend’s family’s house I drove 3 hours of the return trip before just walking into a Hampton Inn in Fairmont, WV and asking if they had any rooms available. I’m pretty sure this is the first time in my life I’ve ever gotten a hotel room without having a reservation. That’s out of my comfort zone.
I left at 9 the next morning and got home at around 3.
Greek burgers… it’s what’s for dinner.
Bob prepared all the fixins: kalamata olives, fresh oregano from our yard, red onions, feta cheese, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and tzatziki.
I grilled the Angus burgers and the buns.
With our eyes closed really tight, we thought we were eating al fresco in a taverna in Kalamata, Greece.
Exercise check-in
| My main goal is to get thin enough to stay dry under an umbrella. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #Home #Strengthening #Core #Back |
This is really cool… I think.
I kind of like the idea of this über-conspicuous umbrella, but I’m trying to imagine the thoughts of people passing by me as I wander about under one.
I’m pretty sure I’d go with different shoes, and perhaps purse, at the very least.
I’m also pretty sure that in this litigious society of ours, somewhere along the bottom perhaps, these words would have to be imprinted: “This plastic extension is not a toy.”
Three 50-word stories about unexpectedly hard things to do with my middle and index finger out of commission on one hand.
| Tying shoes | Flossing teeth | Opening packages |
| With recent surgery on the middle and index fingers on one hand, it quickly became obvious that doing things that are normally second-nature become difficult at best, impossible at worst. I learned to do some of them with my ring finger and thumb instead. Tying shoes was one of them. | The next challenge was flossing my teeth. I wind the floss around my index finger of each hand — pretty tightly — and that didn’t sit well over the quite tender, stitched-up finger on my left hand. I was able to get by with a little help from my friends: dental picks. | Have you tried to open a high-density polyethylene bag like those inside cereal boxes? (I often resort to scissors even when all of my fingers are fully functional.) Fuhgeddaboudit with two fingers out of commission! Heck, I could barely open a GLAD® FLEX’NSEAL sandwich bag, or a pack of nabs! |
Demoted from glory
I guess even miracles have an expiration date or lose their luster so as to be put out to pasture on the purgatorial clearance rack.
#BlessItsHeart
Customer needs awareness
Having been in the technology business — one way or another — during 40 years of working, I’m very interested in the evolution of the number of outlets being provided in various venues, such as hotel rooms, cruise ship cabins, and waiting areas.
On a recent trip, I stayed at both a Quality Inn and a Hampton Inn, and while the outlets available in the Quality Inn room were adequate, the ones in the Hampton Inn room far exceeded them.
In addition to the outlets in the walls, there were 2 outlets built into the desk itself, 2 built into the lamp sitting on the desk, and 2 on the lamp on the nightstand between the two beds.
The most impressive to me, though, were the two on the microwave. It’s the first time I’ve seen that.
You can safely plug in devices that draw 4 amps or fewer into a 4-amp max outlet, which includes many small electronics like phone chargers, small lamps, and some low-wattage appliances.
A 9-amp max outlet can safely power most common electronic devices like lamps, chargers, computers, and TVs, as long as the total wattage of all devices plugged in doesn’t exceed the outlet’s capacity.
2-week post-op fingers surgery appointment
A quick visit to the doc today to get my stitches removed and for another pleasant exchange with Dr. Erickson.
Assessment: Looking good. No signs of infection. Keep bandaged for another couple of days and then start rubbing some cream containing cocoa butter and vitamin E over them, if you want to, to help minimize scarring.
Complete cynical-healthcare-expense aside: I was glad to see that my visit was at no charge, and that Medicare wasn’t going to be charged $10 per bandage.
Exercise check-in
| The reason I’m fat is because it’s the only way my naturally tiny body can store all this personality. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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A what referral?
I had my tires replaced a couple of days ago, and the brawny-bear service guy could have no inkling of the thoughts that ran through my head when he said, “Now, it’s nothing to be concerned about, but I’m going to give you a stud referral.”
Some of said thoughts:
- Oh, really?
- What are we, horses?
- I’ve never heard of such a thing, but it sounds swell.
- I could have used a lot more of those in my life.
- I can’t wait to see the selection of studs available to choose from.
- Is that really a tire-related thing or is your Spidey-sense (a.k.a. gaydar in this context) trying to deflect me away from you?
At any rate, it is a real thing, and I got one, and I’m going to take care of it today at the referred place, which just happens to be a walkable half-mile from our house.
Update: I stopped to see if the repair place could take my car today to handle this.
Me, handing the voucher I had to the lady at the service desk: “Is this something you can do today, or should I schedule an appointment for later in the week?”
Lady, to co-worker across the room: “SCOTT, CAN YOU DO A STUD TODAY?”
Me (thinking): “Honey, if he can’t, I can.”
It’s just too easy with the vernacular around this repair.
Exercise check-in
| I was told to take my new meds on an empty stomach. I haven’t had an empty stomach since 2014. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Finished book #31 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: An altar boy and a rabbi forge an impenetrable bond. 🖌6-word review: Religious dogma eclipses remarkable relationship storyline. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “This was the last mass of the day, and so he went back to the altar to extinguish the two candles with a long-handled device the altar boys had named the 'holy snuffer.'” | |||||||||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: ciborium, chasuble, maniple, amice, Spaldeen | |||||||||
| Description:* Brooklyn, 1947. The war veterans have come home. Jackie Robinson is about to become a Dodger. And in one close-knit working-class neighborhood, an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rivals anything in Captain Marvel. For the rabbi, Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball. But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there’s only one way out — a miracle.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: I read about Pete Hamill’s book, North River, but the library didn’t have it. Searching on the author’s name, I saw this book, which sounded interesting. I didn’t notice that one of the genres of the book was magical realism, of which I’m not a fan, and unfortunately, that aspect didn’t manifest itself in the book until the very end — or I might have abandoned it. It was a decent story, but a huge section of it was about religious beliefs that didn’t advance the plot, and of which I started skimming through after it went on and on and on. (FTR, I am an atheist.) I also found way too much violence depicted in the book, of which I’m also not a fan. I gave it 3 stars for the story that was outside of all that, which was the relationship between the young Catholic protagonist and the elder Jewish rabbi, which I really enjoyed. I was extremely disappointed in the ending of this book for the reason I already stated. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| Our main goal is to assist you with your weight loss with knowledge, respect, and dignity. Now step onto the livestock scale so we can get started. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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Note: Image generated by Copilot AI
We’ve booked a vacation that’s not a cruise!
We have booked a sleep-car bedroom for a ride on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, which leaves Chicago on Wednesday, September 3rd and arrives in Los Angeles on Friday, September 5th.
It’s an approximate 43-hour trip, covering roughly 2,265 miles with 31 stops. The Southwest Chief is known for its scenic views, including the Painted Desert, Red Cliffs of Sedona, and the Grand Canyon.
The trip is described as:
We’ll take you across the mighty Mississippi through 8 states — past wheat fields and ranches, missions and pueblos, mountains and deserts. Carving through curving canyon passages only a few feet wider than the train itself, you’ll see spectacular landscapes and pristine vistas not visible from interstate highways.
ITINERARY
We’ll leave from Chicago’s Union Station on Wednesday, September 3, 2025 @ 2:25 p.m.
And arrive in Los Angeles’ Union Station on Friday, September 5, 2025 @ 7:57 a.m.
SLEEPING
Our bedroom looks like this, where the seating on the left side converts to bunk beds:
And I’ll be climbing up the ladder to the top bunk for sleeping. You probably figured I was a top.
EATING
See the current traditional dining menu.
Bob and I both love a good omelet, so we’ll definitely be having one of these one day, if not both days! (Note: We will also be adding a hyphen between “three” and “egg” in our order.)
We’ll be flying to Chicago to catch the train, spend 3 days in the L.A. area once we get there — for a family event — and fly back from LAX to RDU.
Here’s a taste of the experience, which shows the bedroom and the dining experience. (Complete aside: Jeb is adorable, which isn’t important, but my goodness doesn’t it help?)
Exercise check-in
| 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
Three 50-word stories about my walk around the Village District this Sunday.
| 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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Exercise check-in
| The trainer asked me, “What kind of a squat are you accustomed to doing?” I said, “Diddly.” |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
If you hate Ticketmaster as much as I do…
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.)
Why I don’t get “bored in retirement”
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:
- Write blog entries like this one (which I spent at least an hour on).
- Write my three 50-word stories on Wednesdays — and sometime one set of bonus ones on the weekend.
- Check for potential cruises and vacations to go on.
- Follow-up on any emails or invoices that have come in.
- Update our Google calendar with any social events (we socialize a lot), doctor’s appointments, scheduled service calls (e.g., exterminator, roof-cleaning) that have come about.
- Update my books-read this year page when I finish books.
- Update Bob’s movie website when he finishes movies.
- Check the PostSecret website on Sundays.
- Update our weekly menus each week.
- Take and record my blood pressure.
- Update out Mostly Social Book Club’s web page as we choose future books.
And usually, I spend my evenings reading. As of today, I’ve read 30 books so far this year.
Exercise check-in
| Before I get in shape, does anyone like me chubby? |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
Post-surgery bandage-removal day!
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!
Versatile grilled chicken
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!
pasta salad Sunday lunch
chef salad Sunday dinner
Blood pressure and heart rate stats for March 2025
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?
Exercise check-in
| 14 muscles are activated when you pour a cup of coffee. Fitness is my passion.
#ShoppingCenter #Cardio #27MinutesWalking |
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Yammering my way through finger surgery
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.
Finished book #30 in 2025
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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.
Finished book #29 in 2025
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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.
Finished book #28 in 2025
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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.
Exercise check-in
| According to this BMI chart, I’m too short.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical |
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YOU hooter, you brought ‘er
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.
Menus for 03/30/25 – 04/05/25
| 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 |
NYT puzzles
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.
Expand if you want to see the answers…
Exercise check-in
| 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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Exercise check-in
| Things that tell the truth: small children, drunk people, and yoga pants.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #45MinutesElliptical |
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Plumbing repair experience
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.
I have had it handled
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.
Three 50-word stories about our recent trip to Scottsdale.
| 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. |
Exercise check-in
| 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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Our menus for the week of 03/23/25 – 03/29/25
| 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 |
Our menus for 3/16/25 – 3/22/25
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) |
Exercise check-in
| The most exercise I get is tugging on my shirt so it doesn’t look so tight. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Three 50-word stories about diverse books I’m currently reading.
| 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. |
Exercise check-in
| I love long walks when they’re taken by people who annoy me.
#Home #StrengtheningCoreBack |
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Remembering our sweet boy — Vincent St. Patrick McVeigh
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.
Exercise check-in
| What the hell??? I skinny-dipped for 14 days in a row and didn’t lose an ounce. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Great Clips check-in
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.”
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Exercise check-in
| I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.
#Home: #Strengthening #Core #Back |
Bar convo snippet
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?
Exercise check-in
| My cholesterol would be better if I ate better, exercised, or cared.
#HomeEllipticalMachine #Cardio #30Minutes |
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Bette, Tolstoy, Roseanne Roseannadanna, and me on the “golden years”
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.
Finished book #27 in 2025
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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.
Exercise check-in
| I get a runner’s high on the way to the fridge.
#PlanetFitness #Strengthening #UpperBody |
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I’m looking for an eye doctor in Raleigh
Do you have an eye doctor or optometry office in Raleigh that you love? Caveats:
- I’m not interested in The Eye Institute at Seaboard Station.
- I don’t have any special needs (i.e., I don’t need an ophthalmologist or any other specialist).
- I am open to a downtown Raleigh recommendation — although as a location, it’s not my first choice.
- It’s not necessary that they sell eyeglasses in their office, as I don’t buy my glasses in those kind of places.
Exercise check-in
| I got kicked out of group exercise class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn’t mine. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Finished book #26 in 2025
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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.
Finished book #25 in 2025
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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.
Exercise check-in
| I prefer sit-ups to jumping jacks. At least I get to lie down after each one. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
Three 50-word stories about Bob’s award-winning entries in our annual neighborhood chili party.
| 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?” |
See short blog entry about this year’s win, which includes Bob’s medals and a haiku he wrote about winning.
Exercise check-in
| According to my F𝐚tBit, I’ve sat on my ass for 4 full hours today. |
| #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
Exercise check-in
| When I’m exercising, nothing’s funny and everybody’s ugly. Don’t talk to me. |
| #PlanetFitness #Strengthening #Core #Back #UpperBody |
What are we, 12?
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
Finished book #24 in 2025
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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.
Bob places in our annual neighborhood chili party!
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:
And noticing that they’re in 5-year intervals, he wrote this haiku about the feat:
They were each 5 years apart
Twenty-thirty next
Capturing for posterity:
- The 2015 theme was “Eat Local Chili” and Bob’s chili was named: “Bob’s Beanless Batch.” (Context: I don’t like beans, so Bob made the bold choice to make his entry this year without them.)
- The 2020 theme was “Passport to Chili” and Bob’s chili was named: “PORCH-uguese Chile.” (Context: The chili entries in crockpots are set up on tables on the Watkins’ wraparound porch, and John is half Portuguese.)
- The 2025 theme was “Dune: The Spice Must Flow” and Bob’s chili was named “Howya Dune?” (Context: Bob is part Irish and “Howya?” is how Irish people say “How are you?” and “Dune” of course is intimating “doing.”)
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!