Abstract and Landscape
"The day before spring break is always a perfect day for a snow storm," or at least that's what I imagine Murphy was thinking to himself as he thought of all the conditions that might prove his law to be true. It it actually is a perfect day to dump a bunch of precipitation on… Continue reading April Fools
The great thing about having raised teenagers is that, when your perpetually adolescent cat puts his front paws up on your plant shelf and starts sniffing the various items that are ‘in his spot’, you know exactly what he’s thinking. There’s a plum tree right outside my window, and the late spring has produced an… Continue reading I Wonder What Would Happen
Real cats, according to Jim, don’t drink out of the water bowl. Drinking water, you see, is not really about hydration. Everything you do as a real cat should establish that everything in the place where you reside is belongs to you. This is why, for example, when presented with a $.10 beer glass won… Continue reading How to be Real Cat
For the first time since the worst pain of surgery subsided, there's real-live, incredibly tickly, itchy proof that the Frankenstein seam wrapped up under my Darth Vader boot has got to be getting better. Can you feel it?
It takes more than a perfect menu to make a great holiday. It takes at least one good tradition, and sometimes those come from the craziest sources. Thing1 had graciously offered to spend his first afternoon home from college helping me with the big shopping trip for the big meal that was coming up on… Continue reading Holiday with a Side Dish served Dark
Under the heading of "she's kind of funny girl", I decided to blow sunshine up on Etsy. And there is a funny thing about my new mantra. Each time I feel frustrated or down, it gets easier and easier to start blowing sunshine into my life. It appears to be pretty good source of renewable… Continue reading Sunshine on Etsy
Denial isn’t a river in Egypt. It’s a pitcher of Kool-Aid, and as the heatwave wore on into its fifth day on Thursday, Thing1 and I were sporting faint purple mustaches, reality about to crash through the walls — again. Heat advisories all week had included warnings for people with chronic illness. The advisories… Continue reading Yes, at the Dinner Table
Food and I go way back. Almost fifty years now. We’ve had a great relationship. I mean, don’t all great friendships include an all-controlling dominant half (food) and a sycophantic lickspittle (me) or, in my case lick-whatever’s-left-on-the-plate? I have started to question that relationship in the last few years. I’ve tried to take the upper… Continue reading Food, Glorious Drug
We thought we were starting with Lady Jane Grey (yes I watch too many historical dramas) and Gentleman Jim. Well, 5 minutes after we got home, we decided our swaggering orange tabby was more of a confirmed country boy and started calling him Jim-Bob. We still thought Jane was very ladylike as she hung back… Continue reading That’s No Lady
Pretty soon, we'll be snowbound, and the seed catalogs (otherwise known as Porn for Gardeners) will start to arrive. But this week kicks off not only celebrations of family and holy days for many religions, but a four-week orgy of eating which will hopefully be a feasible explanation for why I've been indulging in so… Continue reading And Now for Something Completely Gratuituous..
I have come to believe that in many marriages there is one partner who has their head in the clouds and another who helps keep both people anchored to the ground. Anyone who knows me knows that my head is not in clouds; it's often in another dimension. No one knows this better than the… Continue reading Of Plans, Plants, and Cigars
Rachel Barlow Art 