The leaves are budding out in the park

A New Week in Quarantine

Anyone else feel super energized and ready to take on another week in quarantine? Um, no? Too much pantry time, TV time and cocktail time? Yep, me too. But, here’s a wrap up of my last week and hoping this week in quarantine is a little more productive. What Iā€™m Reading CorineAtoZ is a participant […]

Take a Breath

Okay.Ā  Anyone else shaking their head and wondering how we got here?Ā  Take a deep breath, say a prayer or spend five minutes in meditation (watch a kitten video?).Ā  And now, during this time when we need one another more than ever, we are supposed to ā€œsocial distance.ā€Ā  Iā€™m trying to make small, significant changes […]

Lucky Four Leaf Clover

Super Easy Corned Beef & Cabbage

Do you celebrate what I call ethnic (but PC would probably prefer ā€œculturalā€) celebrations?Ā  I do, especially if they involve eating.Ā  And luckily for me, most holidays revolve around food!Ā  Of course, everyone knows the menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe even Passover and Easter.Ā  But some of the lesser celebrations ā€“ well Iā€™m all […]

How to Build a Delicious (and Healthy!)Pizza

We hosted our first patio happy hour Friday night with DF Helen.  It might have been a bit more than happy hour, because we added an assemble-yourself pizza bar, so I guess you can call it dinner.  Can pizza be delicious and healthy? Well, we built and grilled them on the patio. I can attest […]

My Favorite Detectives (and Honorable Mentions)

Mysteries are by far and away my favorite reading genre and I have so many favorite series detectives.Ā  I donā€™t care if the novels are violent and trashy, bring it on!Ā  Strangely, I donā€™t like that in movies, but in books, I do.Ā  Go figure. To qualify as one my top favorite detectives means that […]

My So-Called Beauty Routine

This is the third blog post Iā€™ve started for this week.  Everything I have wanted to write about keeps bogging me down and feels too weighty for this place and this time.  I really want to write about something a little more substantial than our good weather, but it keeps coming back to that. With […]

Spring has Sprung

There is a very good reason why I moved to a place that has hellaciously hot summers.Ā  It is for the short winters, of course.Ā  We in Arizona are rewarded with falls that are more like what I call summer-lite ā€“ hot days and cool nights.Ā  Spring generally starts early here and I can generally […]

Is Valentine’s Day Child’s Play?

Isnā€™t what makes romantic love special the fact that it’s exclusionary?Ā  Itā€™s different from familial or friendship love because you love that one person differently from all others and it is conditional rather than unconditional.Ā  So how in the world did Valentineā€™s Day become a day when little children send cards to every other child […]

Do the Math

I absolutely love math. Ā That is either a crazy affirmation statement that makes me hope someday I will supernaturally be good at it or itā€™s the biggest lie Iā€™ve ever told. Ā I donā€™t love math, but I love the ideaĀ of math. Ā Iā€™ve seen movies about math. Ā A Beautiful Mind, Enigma, The Theory of Everything, Hidden […]

Seven Tips for a Quick Cleaning Day

For some, this season of life is retirement, for others itā€™s more empty nesting.  I know many of you are caretakers of elderly family members or are still really involved with children or grandchildren, so you are part of the sandwich generation. I guess for me itā€™s really pre-retirement.  I got a small taste of […]