| My favorite vegetable is the one I smother with cheese. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
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Exercise check-in
Wait… football players line dance on the field?
While on the Planet Fitness elliptical machine, facing one of their huge TV screens, I saw a headline on GMFB that asked, “Should ‘tush push’ be banned?”
I was, like, “Huh? Is that a line dance they do when they make some great play or get a touchdown?”
At the height of my line-dancing days, I knew close to 50 line dances, one of which was the Tush Push.
Turns out the tush push in football is a play, not a dance, and a controversial play at that.
What the Tush Push (a.k.a. the “brotherly shove”) looks like in football:
What the Tush Push looks like in line dancing:
Exercise check-in
| If complaining about dieting and exercise burned extra calories, I’d be so thin. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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45 years ago today I started my first professional job
4 years ago today I wrote these three 50-word stories about the 21 years (with an 8-year break in the middle) that I worked at IBM.
| First day of work | Assembling a career | It was a large time |
| I began with an unheard of annual salary of $16,437. I remember driving into “thee” Research Triangle Park and thinking, “I have arrived.” I started coding assembly-language, network-routing software. It essentially did what your 6″x10″ home computer router does today, except that it was the size of a side-by-side refrigerator. | I worked for IBM a total of 21 years, had 19 managers, and 9 very different job types during that time. I learned so much about technology and working on a team for a large company, made a ton of money, and met so many good people during those years. |
FDA OKs first blood test that can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease (2-minute read)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Friday endorsed the first blood test that can help diagnose Alzheimer’s and identify patients who may benefit from drugs that can modestly slow the memory-destroying disease.
The new test, from Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., identifies a sticky brain plaque, known as beta-amyloid, that is a key marker for Alzheimer’s. Previously, the only FDA-approved methods for detecting amyloid were invasive tests of spinal fluid or expensive PET scans. Read more…
Source: Perrone, M. (2025, May 16). FDA OKs first blood test that can help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease | AP News. AP News.
Two LOL-to-me postcards in today’s PostSecret collection
We have a lot of realtor friends, none of whom specifically reminds me of this post card.
I’m not sure what tickles me so much about this one, but perhaps because it’s just a big f*ck you to adverting.
See this week’s full PostSecret collection. It changes weekly on Sundays.
Our menus 05/18/25 – 05/24/25
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 05/18/25 Sunday |
• Chicken & vegetable dumplings • House salad |
| 05/19/25 Monday |
(Front-porch happy hour cheering on Pelagic Run Club runners) • Pork tenderloin • Apple sauce |
| 05/20/25 Tuesday |
• Cher’s Hawaiian meatballs in honor of her birthday! Recipe | Bob’s dish! • Rice pilaf w/parsley from our yard • Mint-feta-watermelon salad w/mint from our yard |
| 05/21/25 Wednesday |
• Ham steak • Crinkle-cut fries • House salad |
| 05/22/25 Thursday |
• French onion soup • Crusty bread • House salad |
| 05/23/25 Friday |
• Spaghetti squash c̅ herbed clam sauce • Veggie tots |
| 05/24/25 Saturday |
• Grilled chicken thighs • Pasta salad |
Finished book #40 in 2025
Book #40 |
Book: The Family Fang | Author: Kevin Wilson | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Print |
Pages: 309 | Duration: 05/15/25 – 05/17/25 (2 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: fiction, humor, art, family | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Quirky family adventures with bizarre parents and arguably exploited children. 🖌6-word review: Compelling enough story. Structure sometimes confusing. |
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💭Favorite quotes:
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| 🎓Some new-to-me words: sestina, pratfalls | |||
| Description:* Annie and Buster Fang have spent most of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their famous artist parents, Caleb and Camille. But when a bad economy and a few bad personal decisions converge, the two siblings have nowhere to turn but their family home. Reunited under one roof for the first time in more than a decade and surrounded by the souvenirs of their unusual upbringing, Buster and Annie are forced to confront not only their creatively ambitious parents, but the chaos and confusion of their childhood.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: I saw this book in my 5/12/25 BookBub email and it sounded interesting and was available in the library. I noticed that it had been made into a 2015 movie, and I asked my husband if he’d ever seen it, and having not, he watched it while I was reading the book. “Quirky” is a good word to describe both the story and the titular family. The story shifts between the past and the present, and that was a little confusing until I figured out the structure. I enjoyed the imagination of the “performance art” scenarios enumerated, and I enjoyed the intellectual quandaries as to whether it was indeed “art,” and whether or not the children (and arguably the wife) in the family were being exploited. In answer to this discussion question at the end of the book: “Have you ever witnessed an event in your own life that felt like a Fang performance?” I’d have to say it was the time I participated in a flash mob on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Finished book #39 in 2025
Book #39 |
Book: The Man Who Died Twice | Author: Richard Osman | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Kindle |
Pages: 422 | Duration: 05/13/25 – 05/14/25 (2 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, humor, series | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Thursday Murder Club’s septuagenarians in the throes of it again. 🖌6-word review: Complex story. Enjoyable read. Stopping here. |
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| Description:* Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He’s made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life. As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn’t that be a bonus? But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off 4 septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: I read the first book in this series, The Thursday Murder Club in 2023. Like that one, I liked this book a lot, but I didn’t love it. This one also involves mafias, cartels, or organized crime, none of which I enjoy reading about. It looks like this series is up to 5 books now. I’m glad I read this one, but I won’t be reading any more of them. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| If you are what you eat, I need to eat some skinny people ASAP. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
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Grilled shrimp, fruit & veggie kebabs
Last Friday, Bob did all the sous-chef work preparing these items for our grilled shrimp, fruit, & veggie kebabs, which I cooked on the grill.
Yummy, yummy, yummy!
Exercise check-in
| None of my yoga pants have ever actually been to yoga. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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Exercise check-in
| My son told me I was fat, so I sent him to his room and ate some of his leftover Easter candy. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
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Exercise check-in
| Mirrors don’t lie. Lucky for me, they can’t laugh either. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
Airbnb adding new services and experiences
Airbnb expands into services and experiences, plans more social and AI features (8 minute read)
Mehta, I. (2025, May 13). Airbnb expands into services and experiences, plans more social and AI features. TechCrunch.
“Airbnb has introduced a new feature that allows travelers to book services and experiences. The new offerings can be added to trips or booked independently.
There are currently 10 categories of services available, including:
- catering
- photography
- massages
- personal training
- makeup
The services are available in 100 cities worldwide across eight countries. Airbnb is also launching exclusive experiences that involve celebrity partnerships. It has planned social features for release later this year.”
TLDR Newsletter. (2025, May 14). TLDR.
Progress on our deck bar
Getting excited about our new deck bar! The guy who’s building it gave us this rendering today, and it’s going to look great picking up the design of our grilling station at the other end of the deck.
Three 50-word stories about significant May milestone anniversaries of mine.
| High school graduation | College graduation | Started @ IBM |
| 50 freaking years ago, on May 25th and marching to Pomp and Circumstance, I graduated from Lejeune High School on the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. I wouldn’t be attending our 50th reunion in July even if I wasn’t going to be on a riverboat cruising from Budapest to Regensburg. | 45 years ago, on May 9th, I received my undergraduate degree from East Carolina University in Mathematics with a Computer Science Option. Computers were so new then, there wasn’t yet a separate Computer Science major. I immediately moved to Raleigh to begin my 42-year career working mostly for technology companies. | I remember it so clearly. That May 19th morning 45 years ago, when I turned off the Research Triangle Park‘s Alexander Boulevard and into the IBM entrance thinking. “I have arrived.” Never in a million years did I think that I’d work for such a prestigious (at the time) company. |
I just don’t 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙.
The lady in front of me at the register was purchasing this:
Cashier: Would you like this double-bagged?
Inside my ready-to-explode head: No. No. No. No bag at all! It’s got its own handle!
Customer: Oh, yes. That would make it so much easier to put in my car.
Me in my ahead again: 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩??? How will the handles of two bags (which will no doubt end up in a landfill) make it easier to put this item in your car than the handle that’s on the bottle? What is 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 with people???
As the cashier grabbed the first of my six items, I immediately said, “I don’t need a bag for any of this.”
Exercise check-in
| I drink a little rum while I do my aerobics. I call it my Bacardio workout. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
New Google logo
Google has updated its colorful “G” logo for the first time in almost a decade. An update to the Google app on iOS and Pixel phones shows a new logo that blends the logo’s red, yellow, green, and blue colors into a gradient, as reported by 9to5Google.
Exercise check-in
| I wish peeling an orange was as easy as removing a candy bar wrapper. I’d be so thin. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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Finished book #38 in 2025
Book #38 |
Book: Plays Well with Others | Author: Allan Gurganus | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Kindle |
Pages: 368 | Duration: 05/07/25 – 05/11/25 (5 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★☆☆ | Genres: fiction, magical realism, gay, LGBT, queer, New York, AIDS, chosen family | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Newly arrived southerner in NYC creates a brilliant chosen family. 🖌6-word review: Ran cold. Ran hot. Ran cold. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “I sit reading the Times, waiting, though basically I have no talent for waiting.” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: rictus, toney, natch, filched, rube, rheostaticly, tintypes, juvenilia, pogrom, odalisque, comestibles, diptych, freesias, gessoed, tocking, rawboned, dandyism, fusty, zabaglione, cowcatcher, odalisquing | |||
| Description:* It’s 1980, and Hartley Mims Jr., a somewhat overbred Southerner, arrives in town to found his artistic career and finds a circle of brilliant friends. He soon discovers both Robert Christian Gustafson, archangelic boy composer of Symphony no. 1: The Titanic, and Alabama Byrnes, a failed Savannah debutante whose gigantic paintings reveal an outsized talent that she, 5-feet tall, can’t always live up to. This circle — sexually venturesome, frequently hungry, hooked on courage, caffeine, and the promise of immortality — makes history and most everybody else. The story chronicles a ragtag group of gifted kids who come to seek their fortunes; they find the low-paying joys of making art and the heady education only multiple erotic partners can provide. They suddenly encounter a brand-new disease like something out of fifth-rate sci-fi. Friends are soon questioning how much they really owe each other; they’re left with the ancient consolation of one another’s company and help. *From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: In the early chapters of this book, I found myself asking a couple of times, “Okay, who is the narrator here?” and “What exactly is going on right now?” — 2 questions, IMHO, a reader should never be asking. I waffled throughout the story as to whether this was a 3- or 4-star book. I thought of the first half as a 3. Then it really picked it up, and I was leaning toward a 4. But I completely lost interest in the ending, which had a section name of “Appendix,” so I almost didn’t read it. After an entire (very) realistic story, the last 15 or 20 pages was all magical realism, one of my least favorite genres, and worse, it was about heaven (thinly veiled as “paradise”) with 3 short chapters about “how everything works up here.” Not a fan. I will take a second to praise the use of the word “collusive” (instead of the overused “conspiratorial”) in: “…she flashed me one collusive wink that made me feel almost human again, partly included.” | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Our menus for 05/11/25 – 05/17/25
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 05/11/25 Sunday |
• Stuffed peppers • House salad |
| 05/12/25 Monday |
(Front-porch happy hour cheering Pelagic Run Club runners) • Motor City double pepperoni pizza |
| 05/13/25 Tuesday |
• Peace China takeout – Bob: Singapore Rice Noodles – John: General Tso Chicken |
| 05/14/25 Wednesday |
• Italian Wedding Pasta Bake • House salad |
| 05/15/25 Thursday |
• Lemon dill chicken orzo soup • Baguette slices |
| 05/16/25 Friday |
• Grilled chicken breasts & mushrooms • Fresh sweet corn • Applesauce |
| 05/17/25 Saturday |
• The Best Million Dollar Spaghetti plan-aheads • Broccoli • Fruit salad |
There’s a kind of hush…
Have you heard that when talking in a group, and it gets quiet, it’s invariably at 20 minutes after the hour? I recently heard of this phenomenon from my brother-in-law, and apparently it’s a thing, since I just came across this passage in the book I’m reading:
They were there, okay, she lost in smoke, and everybody gathered around, seeming somewhat mopey, mooning, with no good talk going on… But maybe I just arrived at twenty after or twenty till when the silence-spreading angel passes overhead.
Curious about it, I googled the phenomenon to see if any research has actually been done on it. Spoiler alert: According to this article on the HowStuffWorks website, Does a hush really pass over a crowded room 20 minutes after the hour?: “it might be more of a myth or superstition rather than observable group behavior patterns.”
With that said, there’s a lot of hedging language in that conclusion: “it might be” and “more of a” and “myth or superstition.” And with that said, I don’t see any cited research on it on scholar.google.com.
Misheard ad
I was half-listening to the radio when an ad came on that I thought said the word homosexuals, which of course perked up my ears!
Tuning in, I got the context of it being an ad for a home goods store that had sectional sofas on sale.
And what they apparently had said was: “Get these home sectionals before they’re all gone.”
Exercise check-in
| I put my bathroom scale in the corner, and that’s where it’ll stay until it apologizes. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
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Location, location, location…
My sister texted me: “Are you familiar with INRI above the cross/crucifix in most Catholic churches?”
I said I was, but that I didn’t know, or can’t remember as I’ve probably looked it up before, what it means.
Then I shared what I’d found as to its meaning, to which she replied:
Yes, but what makes me laugh is Pépère [our maternal grandfather, who lived in Pawtucket, RI] used to say it stood for “In RI” [“in Rhode Island”].
This is not only hilarious to me, it’s a family story I’d never heard.
Exercise check-in
| I need to social distance myself from the fridge. I just tested positive for a big ol’ ass. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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I never sausage a thing…
This was on the locker next to mine the other day at Planet Fitness.
I’ve never seen such a thing, and I’ve learned that the Master Lock brand calls theirs Letter Lock™, and it makes me wonder if there are other dial variations on combination locks.
A winning recipe
Bob toiled making The Best Million Dollar Spaghetti recipe from allrecipes.com, which caught my attention because it made me think of my favorite dish from K&W Cafeteria, when it was open at The Village District (née Cameron Village), and where we used to have dinner a couple of times a month. (Bob’s favorite dish there was their liver and onions.)
There is no way this dish couldn’t be out of this world with its “cottage cheese, cream cheese, and sour cream mixture for a decadent, cream spaghetti sauce.” Oh yeah, there’s a ½ cup of butter in it, too!
We had Portuguese rolls for a crusty bread with it and Bob’s homemade fruit salad as a dessert.
Exercise check-in
| I regret spending my skinny years thinking I was fat. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
Exercise check-in
| Instead of thinking of it as “how fat I currently am,” I reframe it as “this particular stage of my metabolism.” #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #10MnutesTreadmill |
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Finished book #37 in 2025
Book #37 |
Book: Blank | Author: Zibby Owens | |
| Source: Free First Reads download Format: Kindle |
Pages: 250 | Duration: 05/04/25 – 05/06/25 (3 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★☆☆ | Genres: fiction, humor, romance, books-about-books, chick lit | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Writer’s-blocked author devises a book with a possibly preposterous plot. 🖌6-word review: Meh. Too many non-plausible plot points. |
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| 💭Favorite quote: “Darling, it’s not a vacation with kids; it’s a trip.” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: mishegaas, towheaded | |||
| Description:* A wife, mother, and frustrated writer faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around in a hilarious debut novel about family, friendship, success, and exhilarating self-(re)discovery. Pippa Jones is a 40-ish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing had to be tossed, she couldn’t write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only 5 days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she’s already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her twelve-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved. Pippa’s not only going to make a bold statement, but she’ll change the book world while she’s at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn’t have a choice. When Pippa’s publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: This was a free First Reads book from way back in February of 2024, and I’m glad it was free. I thought the entire premise of turning in a “blank” book to meet a deadline, and purportedly to make a statement about the book publishing industry, was far-fetched at best, and that was confirmed. I found it very heavy-handed, and was unimpressed overall. In addition to that cockamamie stunt of a blank book, there were other quite improbable things that happened; for example an Instagrammer who checks out L.A. real estate incognito and then posts about it, goes to a place that turns out to be a “love nest” where her husband goes to cheat on her. What are the chances? Two things I did appreciate about the book were: 1) My pet peeve word, conspiratorial, did not appear, and 2) Instead of using the overused “palpable” or “was deafening” in this context, the author wrote: “The silence felt tangible.” I would be hard-pressed to recommend this book. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Three 50-word stories about our niece’s recent visit.
| Oak Island lunch | Raleigh cookout | Front-porch happy hour |
| We took Mary Lou on the 2-hour trip from Raleigh to Oak Island to join other NC family members at Shagger Jacks for lunch. Our party of 10 enjoyed some good food, shared lots of family memories, and made a few more. We visited 2 aunts’ houses before heading back. | It was a gathering of Mary Lou’s first cousins, along with John’s sister and brother-in-law at our house for a littlenecks with Portuguese rolls appetizer and grilled chicken thighs for dinner — along with a cheeseball, celery, and carrots, broccoli salad, macaroni salad, chocolate chip walnut cookies and fresh strawberries desserts. | We had a front-porch happy hour with Mary Lou and 11 friends and neighbors, and we cheered on the Pelagic Run Club runners as they ran by our house. Once they’d all passed, we moved to the back deck to continue the conversations, snacking, and drinking until about 8:30 PM. |
Exercise check-in
| My version of going on a health kick is to eat organic potato chips. #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
Exercise check-in
| I may act like I’m okay but deep down inside, I’m hungry again. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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Our menus for 05/04/25 – 05/10/25
| Day | Meal |
|---|---|
| 05/04/25 Sunday |
(Family gathering for Mary Lou) • Cheeseball & crackers (Vivian bringing) • Littlenecks c̅ drawn butter & Portuguese rolls • Montreal-Steak-marinated grilled chicken thighs • Broccoli salad (Vivian’s bringing) • Deviled egg macaroni salad • Carrots & celery vegetable tray • Chocolate chip walnut cookies • Farmers’ Market fresh strawberries c̅ whipped topping |
| 05/05/25 Monday |
(Front-porch happy hour cheering Pelagic Runners Club runners) • Cookout plan-aheads or Motor City Double-Pepperoni Pizza |
| 05/06/25 Tuesday |
• The Best Million Dollar (Baked) Spaghetti • House salad |
| 05/07/25 Wednesday |
• Bibigo chicken & vegetable steamed dumplings • Sweet & sour soup • Mixed vegetables |
| 05/08/25 Thursday |
• Chicken patties • Plan-ahead cabbage soup • Corn bread |
| 05/09/25 Friday |
• Grilled shrimp kebabs c̅ pineapple & veggies |
| 05/10/25 Saturday |
• Pork chops & applesauce • Mashed potatoes • House salad |
Finished book #36 in 2025
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| 📕10-word summary: Influential philosopher contemplates complex life questions from an ethical perspective. 🖌6-word review: Very thought-provoking, but ultimately dated material. |
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| Description:* In this book of brief essays, Peter Singer applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet. The collection also includes some more personal reflections, like Singer’s thoughts on one of his favorite activities, surfing, and an unusual suggestion for starting a family conversation over a holiday feast.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||||||||
| Thoughts: It’s been a long time since I’ve read a “cerebral” book, of which this one definitely qualified. Several times I had to read a sentence two or three times to parse and understand it. The questions explored were very heavy and fascinating. The downside of the book was that the date of each essay was different, including different years with almost all 10 or more years ago, and in an an essay it would say things like, “this week… such-and-such a thing happened,” but you didn’t know what year it was. And along those same lines, because the essays were so old, a lot of the things posited as possibly happening in the future, we already know don’t play out that way. It looks like there was an updated version of the book printed in 2023, with 8 more essays in it. I probably should have read that version. | |||||||||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
Exercise check-in
| I just did a week’s worth of cardio after walking into a spider’s web. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40Minutes #Elliptical |
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Blood pressure and heart rate stats for April 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
| I’d lose weight… but I hate losing. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical #Home #Strengthening #40Minutes #Core #Back |
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Three 50-word stories about papal coffins.
| The three coffins | The inner coffin | The green pope |
| The traditional, three-nested papal coffins comprise: The inner cypress coffin, symbolizing humility, holds the pope’s body and personal items. The middle coffin, made of lead, preserves the body and secures important documents. And the outer coffin, crafted of elm or oak, ensures durability, symbolizes strength and honors the pope’s dignity. | The inner coffin traditionally includes coins minted during the pope’s reign and a rogito – a history of his key acts – written on parchment paper and placed in a brass or metal tube. Also included: a death certificate and other symbolic items — including his miter, pastoral staff, broken ring, and rosary. | The carbon footprint of the traditional three papal coffins varies depending on the materials and manufacturing processes involved. However, Pope Francis’s choice of a single, zinc-lined wooden coffin significantly reduces the environmental impact compared to the traditional triple-coffined system. The zinc lining replaces the three-coffins’ cypress, lead, and elm protection. |
Sources:
- Kennedy, L. (2925, April 24). Why are popes traditionally buried in three coffins? HISTORY.
- Miller, S., Hjelmgaard, K., & Santucci, J. (2025, April 26). Pope Francis’ final farewell: A huge funeral, a humble burial. Live updates. USA TODAY.
Exercise check-in
| I wish there was a way to donate fat like you can blood. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #30MinutesElliptical #10MinutesTreadmill |
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Great Clips check-in
4 on the top, 2 on the sides.
Exercise check-in
| Exercise rule #1: If my heart starts racing, I start sweating, and my muscle starts throbbing, I deserve an orgasm.
#PlanetFitness #Cardio #30Minutes #Elliptical |
China’s megacity of 34M people, but few have ever heard of it
There are some great, great images in this mostly-visual story.
Chongqing, the world’s largest city – in pictures (4 minute read)
The Guardian. (2025, April 27). Chongqing, the world’s largest city – in pictures.
“Chongqing, China, is as big as Austria. With 34 million inhabitants, the city is the emblem of the fastest urban revolution on the planet. It has become a symbol of the Chinese ability to reshape the world. This article contains a gallery of images from all over the city showing sights like the Yangtze River, street food stalls, various shopping centers, and more.” TLDR. (2025, April 28).
Exercise check-in
| I have an impersonal trainer—he doesn’t care what exercises I do. #PlanetFitness #Cardio #40MinutesElliptical |
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… can you believe it???
“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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