This is a pretty sparse list. I usually try to flesh these out with my notes from conferences and overseas trips, but I’m visiting my hometown and the notes are in Davis …

Books Read: 118 (See here)

Things missed due to illness: 8 live comedy shows; 1 film festival; 3 plays; 1 book release; 1 dear friend’s birthday party; 2 conferences in Spring; 1 opera, staring a friend

Times Thoth broke a neighbor’s heart, when she thought he was her long-lost kitty, but then he turned out to be ours: 1

Wineries visited: 8

Times I was driving to see Vanessa for a brief moment when our schedules in California could overlap and my car completely died: 1

New cars: 1

ER visits: 5

ADD diagnoses: 1

Seeing Deborah Harkness live: 1

Grad school mentors and friends lost: 2

Poetry books I wrote blurbs for: 1

Poetry books blurbed: 1

Ancestors added to my tree: 1101

Atwood journals out: 1 (449 pages)

Times a boss sent a cryptic email about how we were all being forcibly moved out of the University Writing Program but refused to answer any follow-up questions: 1

Massive job reorganizations, the consequences of which are as of yet unknown: 1

New ergonomic office set ups: 1

New air fryers: 1

Times I was in the waiting room for a online panel at WorldCon, and I talked a little to myself and to the cats, including telling myself that of course I was going to try to have diarrhea just before it started, and then finally being added to the online room, where I could see a tech guy’s message that said “I can hear you”: 1

Wedding anniversaries: 1

Times Jeff and I got a hotel room in Woodland just so we could get into a pool once that summer, only to find that the pool was closed: 1

Windshields destroyed during atmospheric rivers: 1

Broken computers / new computers: 1

Phones that broke in Vienna: 1

New phones that I dropped within 24 hours, shattering the screen: 1

New phones total: 2

Times a student’s parent wrote me to complain about the course schedule: 1

Times a student’s parent apologized, after seeing the actual schedule: 1

Cancer scares: 1

Days in winter quarter that I couldn’t move my neck: 5

Hosting the campus femme show: 1

Times a guest speaker in my stand-up class asked me afterwards if two particular students were giving me problems. They were, I confirmed. “They’re just so smug,” he said. “I wanted to slap them”: 1

Times I thought I lost my glasses: daily

Times I actually lost my glasses: 1

Times Anubis was jealous that Snowball was getting goo in a tube, so he just licked it out of her mouth: 1

Times I fell: 1

Oxford wine bars and shops where they knew Vanessa and I by name: 2

Roses from a former student: 6

Noroviruses: 1

Getting to see my college friend, Kaaron: 1

Getting to see Tiffany, Liam, and Courtney, with Vanessa, in London: 1

MRIs and X Rays, etc: 5

Times I got to give a talk at the amazing Woodland Shakespeare Club: 1

Days I couldn’t walk well in Fall Quarter: 15

Really fancy lunches in London: 1

Times when Dr. Liam got to guest lecture in Oxford: 1

Cold, rainy summers in Oxford: 1

Visits to Dishoom in London: 2

Times Vanessa and I had to keep a window open in London with medicine bottles: 2

Times I watched the World Cup in my local pub: 1

Explaining how American healthcare works to horrified Brits: 2

Times Vanessa and I stumbled across the ruins of an abbey where King Henry II’s mistress was sent to retire: 1

Rum Festivals with Vanessa in Oxford: 1

Times we thought we were fine at the rum festival, until it was time to walk down the stairs: 1

Wine tastings in Oxford, after which we were better on the stairs: 1

Times I got Covid in Oxford: 1

Vienna trips in which Melissa and I were confronted by a the equivalent of a hurricane (the storm had a name: Boris): 1

Purses lost or stolen in Vienna: 1

Visits to Nandos in the UK: 7

Living rooms I couldn’t hang out in in Oxford, because I was allergic to something: 1

Side trips to Salisbury, to visit the museums and the famous cathedral, where one of my ancestors is entombed: 1

Trips to Stonehenge and the Wilton House: 1

Ways venison was prepared for my lunch at the Haunch of Venison in Salisbury: 3

Museums: if I had my notes, I would know: probably about twenty

Visits home: 1

New Recipes Tried: 69: Slow Cooker Mississippi Pork Roast; Bison Noodle Bowls; Garlic Rosemary Lamb Chops in the Air Fryer; Indian Lamb and Spinach Curry; Garlic Paprika Chicken!!!; Air Fryer Maple Dijon Salmon; Pork Pernil; Salmon en Croute with dill hollandaise; Farfalle Pasta with Zucchini and Ham; Ground Beef Noodle Bowls; Three-Cup Chicken; Prairie Pie; Sauteed Chicken with Meyer Lemon; Chicken Gratin with Turnips; Beef Tortilla Soup; Creamy Chicken Casserole with a Cheddar Biscuit Crust; Air Fryer Corned Beef; Shrimp Scampi with Garlicky Miso Butter; Orange-Glazed Baked Salmon; Baked Blueberry Pancakes; Puff Pastry Chicken and Leek Casserole; Shrimp, Cilantro, and Tamarind Soup; Pork with Grapes and Tarragon; The Best Baked Salmon (Food Kitchen Network); Honey Garlic Shrimp; Cucumber Salad (from Food and Wine); Potato, Steak, and Chorizo Pie; Sheet Pan Pesto Chicken; Skillet Shrimp and Corn with Lime Dressing; One Pan Garlic Butter Chicken; Sauteed Salmon with Leeks and Tomatoes; Creamy Asparagus Pasta with Peas and Mint; Creamy One-Pot Spaghetti with Leeks; Pan-Seared Ranch Chicken; Sheet Pan Roasted Salmon Nicoise Salad; Lamb Biryani; Lamb Makhani; Slow Cooker Lemon Piccata; Zatar chicken; Grown up fish filet; Chicken, pesto, couscous, balsamic, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil salad; Air fryer shawarma lamb; Honey and soy glazed chicken; Chicken lazone; Pistachio cake; Honey and miso glazed; Tri tip in the air fryer; One-pan-shrimp-enchiladas-verde; Chicken-stuffed bell peppers with orzo; Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole; chicken noodle salad by Chef John; italian pork in the crock pot; sheet pan salmon and crispy rice (F&W); Tomato Butter Salmon; Lamb Stew; Lo Mein; another Dutch Baby; Apple and Persimmon Crisp in the crock pot; Thai Red Curry Butternut Squash; Cilantro Lime Butter Shrimp; Potato and Bacon Quiche; Smashed Cucumber, Avocado and Shrimp Salad; Chicken in Basil Cream; Black Pepper Chicken; Pumpkin Bread; Brussels, Squash, and Fried Sage; Air Fryer Chicken Bites; Creamy Italian Sausage Soup; Voodoo Pasta

New Cocktails Tried: 5: Fool’s Gold (with lemoncello and bourbon; Full Monte #2 (bourbon & Amara Montenegro); Vesper; Italian Sunset; One Dance (gin, lemon, lillet)

Stand-up specials (live and recorded): 28: Gary Gulman: Born on 3rd Base; Randy Feltface: Smug Druggles; Alex Edelman: Just for Us ; Randy Feltface: Feltopia; Taylor Tomlinson: Have it All; Daniel Sloss: Dark; Daniel Sloss: Jigsaw; Daniel Sloss: X; Jimmy Carr; Neal Brennan: Crazy Good; Rachel Feinstein: Big Guy; Daniel Sloss: Can’t; Chelsea Handler: Big Little Bitch; Jim Gaffigan: Dark Pale; Natasha Leggero & Riki Lindholm at the Punchline; Nurse John; Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking; Ali Wong: Single Lady; sStuuc or treat; Eddie Izzard: The Remix Tour; Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous; Nikkie Glazer: Someday You’ll Die; Gaffigan: Comedy Monster; Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special; Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill; Russell Howard: Lubricant; Whose Live Anyway?

Plays 5: Six!; Vanya; Now Circa Then; Operation Mincemeat; Richard III

Movies: 131: The Holdovers; The Color Purple; Oppenheimer; May December; Elemental; Indiscreet; My Favorite Wife; Arsenic and Old Lace; Killers of the Flower Moon; Maestro; Nyad; Rustin; Society of the Snow; the new Mission Impossible; Godzilla Minus One; The Marvels; 3000 Years of Longing; Dune 2; American Fiction; Anatomy of a Fall; Poor Things; The Zone of Interest; Rustin; The Boy and the Heron; Nimona; El Conde; Napoleon; Bobi Wine: the People’s President; Golda; Perfect Days; The Teachers’ Lounge; American Symphony; The Creator; The Goldman Case; Memento; The Seventh Seal; Mean Girls; Kick-Ass; Scoop; My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3; Brideshead Revisited; Nausicaa of Valley of the Wind; The 39 Steps; To Catch a Thief; Lawrence of Arabia (twice); Deadpool; Deadpool 2; Aquaman 2; Easy A; Anyone But You; Madame Webb; Ghostbusters: When Hell’s Kitchen Freezes Over; The Saint (twice); Delicious; Ghosted; Bridesmaids; Marcel the Shell with Shoes On; The Marvels (again); The Third Man (twice); Lilo & Stitch; WALL-E; In & Out; Hot Fuzz; Runaway Bride; Shaun of the Dead (twice); Notting Hill; Jim Hensen: Idea Man; Bridget Jones’s Diary; Priscilla; Hamilton; The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare; About a Boy (twice); The Fall Guy; Lightyear; Roxanne; Sense & Sensibility; Inside Out 2: Inside Outer; Deadpool & Wolverine: Horny Like the Wolf; If; Minions: Rise of Gru; Fallen Leaves; Dirty Little Letters; Imitation Game; Problemista; The Martin (extended cut); Alien: Romulus; Forgetting Sarah Marshall; The Proposal; Nandor Fodor and the Talking Mongoose; Gosford Park; Man Up; Dr. Horrible’s Singalong Blog; Love Actually; Spirited; A Clüsterfünke Christmas; While You Were Sleeping; The Happiest Millionaire; Betelguese Betelguese; Scrooged; Die Hard; Damsel; The Adam Project; Lover Come Back; Nosferatu; Emilia Perez; Shadow of the Vampire; The Shop Around the Corner; Paddington 2; Persuasion (twice); An Education; They Shall Not Grow Old; Chicken Run; A Fish Called Wanda; Labyrinth

3 of 5 Documentary Shorts nominated for an Oscar

New Shows: 31: The Serpent Queen; Rome; Beef; Murder at the End of the World; Girls5Eva; Elsbeth; Funny Woman; Manhunt; Lessons in Chemistry; Astrid; Nolly; True Detective; Mr. and Mrs. Smith; Mr Bates vs. the Post Office; Franklin; The Sympathizer; Mary and George; Star Trek: Short Treks; Baby Reindeer; Renegade Nell; The Three Body Problem; Acolyte; Ms Marvel; House of the Dragon (season 1); Loot; Palm Beach; Bletchly Circle; Bad Sisters; Man on the Inside; Nobody Wants This.; Monsters; Black Doves

Old Shows Kept Up With: 25: Miss Scarlet and the Duke; All Creatures Great and Small; Loki (fin); Sisi; Resident Alien; Call the Midwife; For All Mankind; Abbot Elementary; The Simpsons; SNL; Bob’s; Seth Meyers; The Daily Show; Star Trek: Discovery; Hacks; Doctor Who; Star Trek: Lower Decks; What We Do in the Shadows; Last Week Tonight; Colin From Accounts; Shrinking; The Diplomat; The Empress; Star Trek: Lower Decks

Shows Re-binged: 14: Brooklyn 99; Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt; Schitt’s Creek (twice); Malcolm in the Middle; Bridgerton; the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance; The Umbrella Academy; The Bear; A Discovery of Witches; Staged; The Good Place; 30 Rock; The Great

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A student just cited the magic toaster as a source in her essay.

Explanation: I am a visual thinker; AI is nebulous, so I envision it as a magic toaster. It’s not a great toaster, as it routinely makes shit up (aka hallucinating), cites things published in predatory journals, etc. It’s also a terrible writer.

I spend a lot of time telling my students why I don’t want them to use it. I have no interest in what the toaster thinks, and I shouldn’t spend the too-little time I have on this planet commenting on its nonsense. I also ask them what will happen when I give AI a bad grade: will they go to the toaster and explain that I hated that introduction?

Despite this, I’ve seen an explosion of AI use, and now I’m spending more time turning people in to SJA than in trying to warn them.

I have an online freshman course at SCC, and it’s been most destructive there. One homework assignment was to gear us up for an analysis of a film of their choosing: the students will argue whether the film ultimately upholds traditional gender roles and stereotypes or subverts them.

The assignment asked for a one-paragraph summary of the film and a one-paragraph explanation of why it would be a good fit for this assignment.

1/3rd of the students had AI write those paragraphs. How could I tell? The paragraphs didn’t sound like any other writing the students had done, and they all sounded the same. Each assignment ended, for example, with AI saying the film would make a “nuanced case study …”

None of the students denied using AI. And none of them apologized for it.

Several of them later turned in drafts written by AI; I wrote them all notes about how they were going to fail the assignment. I also told them all I would be running each essay through an AI detector, and stressed that AI should not be used on this essay, other than for grammar/spelling.

As I was glancing through the essays yesterday morning, my heart dropped. Students were required to use three secondary sources. One had AI as her third source. “According to AI, Moana is a movie about . . .” The Works Cited page entry was “AI. Google.”

I emailed the student, who said she remembered me saying they could use AI if they cited it.

Here’s what the syllabus says: “… You may use Grammarly and other editing programs to identify and fix typos, spelling errors, punctuation, and sentence errors. You may not use these editors to add new words, sentences, or ideas. I’m fine with you using [AI] to brainstorm and to edit/proofread (as long as you cite and talk about it in the memo). What’s not okay: letting AI write a draft for you. If you can point to sentence in your paper and say, ‘AI wrote that part,’ then something’s wrong.”

I have also done extensive source work with the students, going over reliable sources and how to find them. I have stressed that AI is unreliable, and I have forbidden students to use sources with no authors and cheat sites. AI, in this context, is a combo of both.

AI isn’t an expert on Moana, I explained to the student; it hasn’t actually seen the film.

My last message to the students before the paper was due said: “Don’t use one of the four forbidden sources. Don’t use AI.”

The only comfort I have is reminding myself that the student doesn’t watch most of the videos and didn’t do all of the homework on sources, but I still feel like a new line has been crossed.

It’s been a year and a day since my last post on Facebook’s Simpsonology page. Meta’s AI suspended it because it thinks it’s pretending to be The Simpsons. The page clearly says that Denise and I are Simpsons scholars, using the page to share trivia.

Naturally, I disagreed with the page being suspended; Meta let me know that no human was available to review my objection.

In Simpsons news, Pamela Hayden has retired, and we’re going to miss her.

I also miss posting about this kind of thing and having an actual system wherein I could appeal.

Today’s my great-grandfather’s birthday.* Henry William Schaperkotter was born in 1908 & passed in 1993. We were close, and I’m thankful that he got to hold my child a few days before he died.

There are lots of things about him that I loved, but today I’m thinking about his story of the last time he was in a church.

He was the son of recent immigrants (I’m not actually sure if his mother was pregnant when she arrived with him or if he was a babe in arms), living in a small town in Michigan. When he was growing up, everyone went to church.

When he was a very young man, he listened to the preacher rail against dancing. Apparently, some teenagers had done it at a social event. Three of the girls–and the preacher was focused on the girls–were sitting in the front. As they learned of their upcoming eternal torment, they sobbed.

Bill stood up, which would have been noticeable, since he was 6’5″ or so, and told the preacher he should be ashamed of using God to scare good people.

He left, and never looked back.

*He was technically my step-great-grandfather, but he’s spiritually in my blood and fully in my heart, and he helped raise me, and we don’t take kindly to folks who would argue that he’s not my Grandpa.

Note: one eye is off kilter, because it was glass. I wish I knew that story!

Today, I changed my FB profile pic to a handmaid. An acquaintance accused me of “fear mongering.”

Fear mongering is when you’re using fear to manipulate people, often by exaggerating or completely making up a threat.

Some recent political examples include Trump saying legal Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets and claiming that Democrats are aborting babies after they’re born.

I’m in shambles today. Crying gives me a terrible headache, and course I’ve been crying, so I’m in more physical pain than usual, and I’m anxious and depressed, and I don’t know how I’m going to get through today, much less tomorrow.

I’m an Atwood scholar, so it felt right to put up my little handmaid, both as a symbol of the weight of fear I have and as a symbol of resistance.

I don’t think that Trump being elected = Gilead in all its forms, and that’s not what a handmaid avatar means to me.

However, I reject the claim of fear mongering because I’m not making up fears to manipulate anyone. I’m expressing the very real fears that I have, because of what Trump has said and because of what Project 2025 states. (Note that some Trump fans are exclaiming today that (d’uh) Project 2025 is the new regime’s plan).

On this day eight years ago, people told me to relax, that it wasn’t going to be that bad. It was worse, so I am afraid.

Trump disbanded the Pandemic team before Covid, and he says he’ll kill it again on his first day in office, so I am afraid.

When Covid happened, Trump knew it was serious; he told Woodward so, but he lied to the rest of us, so I am afraid.

Trump could have pulled the country together during Covid, but instead he claimed it was a Democrat hoax, using a deadly virus to score political points, so I am afraid.

Trump’s lies killed people, so I am afraid.

Trump constantly insults the military, especially those wounded or shot down (like my Daddy), so I am afraid.

Project 2024 would take resources from disabled veterans like my husband, so I am afraid.

I am a top scholar in my field & an award-winning teacher, but the only reason I still have my job, when UCD would love to replace me with a cheap grad student, is my union. Project 2025 will undermine unions, so I am afraid.

Speaking of unions, I couldn’t get healthcare due to pre-existing conditions, until I moved to California for a union job. Repealing the ACA would allow insurance to deny coverage for people like me once again, so I am afraid.

My child is nonbinary, so I am afraid. Many of my students and loved ones are LGBTQA+, so I am afraid.

Many of my students are DACA, so I am afraid.

Project 2025 says the only real families are those with stay at home mommies, so I am afraid.

Climate change is real and deadly, so I am afraid.

Elected Republicans, unlike the majority of Americans (including unelected Republicans), resist any common sense changes to gun laws. I teach at a university, where any disgruntled white boy could open fire at any time, so I am afraid.

US agencies agree that White Supremacist Terrorism is the greatest terrorist threat. White supremacists love Trump, and he loves them back, so I am afraid.

Trump, hereinafter referred to as Ofputin, will definitely help Russia conquer Ukraine and whatever other countries he’s after, so I am afraid.

Ofputin gave Putin classified information, Covid testing supplies, etc. At one point after the former, our undercover agents started being killed, so I am afraid.

What Ofputin says is just not how tariffs work, so I am afraid.

The economists say Ofputin will wreck the economy, so I am afraid.

Project 2025 would continue to attack public education and our ability to teach facts instead of right-wing propaganda, so I am afraid.

I was once in an emotionally abusive marriage; I prayed that God would kill me to free me from it. Thankfully, after deciding divorce was holier than my child being raised without me, no fault divorce meant I could leave. Project 2025 will make it harder for women like me, so I am afraid.

Many of my loved ones and students are at risk of an unintended pregnancy. Not being able to access abortion services leads to more poverty, more domestic violence, more infanticide, more mental and physical illness, and more women’s murders. In fact, the number one way that pregnant women die in this country is by the hands of the man who impregnated them, so I am afraid.

Many of my loved ones and students need birth control. The Supreme Court and Project 2025 are coming after it (and gay marriage), not to mention comprehensive sex ed. These things are what actually get abortion numbers down, and I am afraid.

Many of my loved ones and students will have problems with their wanted pregnancies. The legacy of the last administration and its policies are already letting women bleed out, so I am afraid.

Project 2025 wants more religious freedom laws, and many current states have them. When I visit my family this December in Florida, for example, if I need critical care, an ER doctor could literally refuse to help me if he or she thought I was a sinner, which I obviously am, as we all are, so I am afraid.

I know many people who didn’t vote for Harris because she isn’t anti-Israel enough for them, but the President-elect won’t advocate for a two country solution, won’t try to stop the disproportional retaliation against Gaza, and has a chief sycophant who argues that ALL Palestinians, from toddler age, are terrorists, so I am afraid.

I want a functional Department of Education, Department of Energy (it oversees our nuclear weapons, FFS), FDA, IRS, HHS, etc, but Republicans don’t want any of these things (and I’m not going to list all the sources below cause there are too many), and I am afraid.

I don’t want RFK Jr in charge of anything, much less “everything,” so I am afraid.

Ofputin thought he could nuke hurricanes, so I am afraid.

Ofputin wanted to shoot BLM protestors, so I am afraid.

The Supreme Court heard arguments that Ofputin could kill a political opponent and not be in any legal trouble and they sided with that argument, so I am afraid.

Ofputin bragged about grabbing women by the pussy and then slandered a woman who said he grabbed her by the pussy, but was found liable for grabbing her by the pussy, and now his supporters wear shirts encouraging him to grab them by the pussy, and his main defense against rape allegations is that the women who accuse him aren’t hot enough to be “the chosen one[s]”–you know, chosen for him to rape, but he also thought a picture of E. Jean Carroll was of his wife, and he’s bragged about being able to see naked teenagers at pageants, and even if I hadn’t been a naked teenager at a pageant once, I would think that was gross, and Epstein said he was Ofputin’s best friend, but also that Ofputin, again: in Epstein’s opinion, was a bad person, and again, I’m not going to source all of this, but you know how to use Google, and I am afraid.

I could keep writing, and I am afraid.

But I’ll end with this.

On January 6th, 2021, I was trying to work–to distract myself from the political coup unfolding on my screen. My work that day, though, was editing an essay for Margaret Atwood Studies on the coup pulled off by the Sons of Jacob in The Handmaid’s Tale. As I was editing an essay on a right-wing, white supremacist coup of the U.S., there was a right-wing, white supremacist attempted coup in the U.S.

Now, how can I think of Ofputin and the existential threat he represents to this nation (a threat verified by those who served under him last time) without thinking of The Handmaid’s Tale?

If fears are real, it’s not fear mongering.

Sources:

Haitian claim

Abortion claim

Project 2025 fans today

Pandemic team

Covid Woodward

Covid hoax claim

Covid lie mortalities

military insults

2025 & vets

2025 & unions

pre-existing conditions

2025 & LBGT . . .

DACA

2025 & families

2025 & climate change

2025 & guns

Trump & white supremacists

Ofputin & ukraine

Ofputin & classified info; Ofputin & covid testing; Ofputin and American agents

Ofputin & tariffs

Ofputin & the economy

2025 & education

2025 & divorce

turnaway abortion study

2025 & birth control

the end of Roe

2025 & religious freedom

florida & religious freedom

Ofputin’s lawyer on Palestine

RFK

Ofputin & hurricanes

Ofputin & protestors

Ofputin ok to kill political rivals

This week in my Margaret Atwood seminar, while discussing a short story from 1983:

Student A: How old was she then?

Me: She was middle aged.

Student B: No, she wasn’t. She was born in 1939, so she was REALLY OLD then.

Me: She was over forty years younger than she is now, though . . .

Note: I’m currently five years older than Atwood was then.

I was really hoping to have a strong start to the quarter–I was especially hoping to have a deep-cleaned house, since this quarter will be so busy.

The universe, of course, had other plans. While in Vienna for a conference, my medicine bag was lost (stolen?) and my phone straight up died.

And I’m really sick from something I caught on the plane back, so today the classroom is my dirty home. I will greet classes 342, 343, and 344 on Zoom!

Our old couches are really old: they were used when I bought them in 2007. They bear cat scratches and have almost no support, so hubby wanted something more comfortable.

I suggested doing a curb search: it is move in/out season in Davis, after all.

He shot me down, but I didn’t really know where one gets new couches. Then I remembered hearing that some conservatives think a furniture company traffics children, so I went to that company’s site & looked at what was on sale, opting for a couch / chair combo.

(Not because I endorse child trafficking, but because that’s not happening & I figure this conspiracy theory might be hurting their bottom line.)

I knew we needed some pillows, and I remembered seeing some cat themed ones years ago, so I ordered the slips and shoved the old couch pillows into them.

At the same time, I have been undertaking an organizational clean up around here. I’m not going to post pictures of the closets and under sink cabinets, but I sometimes open the bathroom cupboard when I’m stressed just to remind myself that I am getting things done and that, for this brief time, things are actually where they should be.

(Why am I stressed? The usual health stuff, some less usual family health stuff, having been forcibly moved to an academic “unit” & not knowing what that means, and the oncoming storm that is five courses (four preps) for Fall.)

The reorganization has necessitated some accent shelves and a small spice rack.

As the hubby and I are both bad about putting things up straight, we contracted a task rabbit, who then didn’t show up cause they were sick. A week later, they were still sick and then a different task rabbit just didn’t show up at all, so I figured out how to do the straight and even thing, cussed a lot, because the drill and I are not friends, but got it all up!

My husband has what he describes as “man feet.” Last Friday, I went to a very overdue pedicure & insisted he go with me. When I told him he would get to sit in a massage chair, he agreed.

He proudly announced it was his first time, and the ladies who worked there made a big deal about him–telling him he was lucky to have a wife who cared about his feet, etc. They clapped when they learned he’s an AEMT.

He was enjoying his pedicure so much that he let them upsell him to a manicure. He didn’t go for any polish, but he got the works, including paraffin.

I let him pick out my toe color.

Today, he went back to buy the bottle, so I can do my hands to match. On the way, he picked up some thank you flowers for the women–one of his toes, which had chronic pain, no longer hurts.

They gave him the nail polish for free.