Searching for Direction & Purpose in Life's Sea of Opportunities
I have avoided stepping into this particular confessional for a couple of years now, because it is going to cost me some street cred. But here I go: Some of the hugely popular movies of my lifetime I have either not liked or took pride in not seeing. What kind of geek/Gen X spokesperson am… Continue reading Confessional: Popular Culture Edition
One of the items I purchased after my cheese class was a thermometer: The Big Daddy Dial Thermometer. It is super cool because it has a nice long stem, and it can be calibrated. My previous thermometer didn't register at low enough temperatures for some types of cheese. I put the instrument into rapidly boiling… Continue reading There She Goes Again
This past weekend I finally spent my birthday money from Ma and Tom. I was looking for the perfect-for-me opportunity, and then my job loss delayed things even further. But finally I found exactly what I wanted, and I spent Saturday afternoon in a cheese making class. Gisela, the owner of Curds and Wine, taught the three-hour… Continue reading Cheese Fundamentals
Since my last post about books dealt with works that didn’t live up to their full potential, I figured I should give equal time to those works that surpassed all my expectations. Last year I read a lot of books for me (64), and I thoroughly enjoyed many of them, but I didn’t give out… Continue reading Five-Star Books
For many summers, Tom was a camp counselor. Over the years I’ve enjoyed hearing what I’m sure have been sanitized versions of his stories from that time (I’ve seen Meatballs). One of the many lessons that I have taken away from these stories is what they taught new counselors: When creating new games, remember that points… Continue reading Points are Free
I find it hilarious that an internet meme could inspire a blog post called “pretentious.” Recently I saw this bar joke plus grammar joke meme going around. The best part of this for me is the fact that I understood all of them! In the past, whenever I didn’t know something, I felt intimidated by… Continue reading Pretentious
I was a teenager in the 80s – as numerous pictures of me with cockatiel bangs can attest. That was during Reagan’s military buildup, “the bear” ad, and his “tear down this wall” speech. Somehow, however, I never felt that the communist threat was real. I was living in a first strike city (and have… Continue reading Communist Plot
Recently I was able to find a new oil changing place I feel I can trust. After my previous bad experiences, trust is big with me. When this new place was done, they let me know that all the fluid levels were where they should be, they’d replaced the oil, vacuumed out my foot wells, and… Continue reading The Time I Set My Car on Fire
I have gone to the zoo in as many places that I’ve traveled as possible. It started with my first foreign location – Paris. I was inadvertently spoiled when it came to zoos simply by being born where I was. Our zoo is called “the world-famous San Diego Zoo.” I figured it was hyperbole, like… Continue reading Paris Zoo
As I was writing my blog post about my mandolin, I started laughing as I described the frustration of trying to get all the pieces back in place. It reminded of a similar experience I’d had many years ago with Ma during a visit home. Ma was enrolled in a recipe club, where bunches of… Continue reading Spatial Relations Fail
Grown Up, Now What? 