February 17, 2026
Hail, Caledonia!
Or, the day I found a charming hamlet in which to play with my new camera.
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October 26, 2025
Pickle jongg
I’ve discovered that, for my generation at least and perhaps for the shoulder generations to GenX, there are two types of women: those who play pickleball and those who play mah jongg. And they have much more in common than you think.
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September 21, 2025
A Social Experiment on Facebook
I bought a new car back in April, a Chevy Equinox EV. I don’t buy new cars very often, so I was pretty excited. It’s also our first EV, and the thing is so tricked out it’s like driving the Enterprise from Star Trek. (One of the new ones like D or E, not the original NCC-1701 with no letter.) (Yeah. I know my Trek.) I researched like crazy and we test drove several different EVs and a hybrid before we ordered, and I felt solid about my choice.
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September 7, 2025
The Unabridged Tale of Pesto The Flying Fish
This is a true story about a fish how much I love my child.
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August 24, 2025
The Legacy of Matthew Foley
Over the Fourth of July holiday, we hosted our cousins from Cincinnati. Casting about for things to do, I offered to take them to an exhibit at the Soldier’s Memorial Military Museum in downtown St. Louis. Even though I am a proud St. Louisan, born and raised, I had never been to the memorial before. The closest I came was driving past it on the way to the St. Louis Public Library. Teachers at work had taken students to a Ghost Army exhibit there, we wrote about the field trip for a newsletter, and I was intrigued. Honestly, I was also a little surprised: I had thought the memorial was just a memorial; I had no clue there was a museum inside.
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March 9, 2025
Pointing
Ross Gay, one of my favorite poets/essayists, said that writing is a version of pointing at things. “Writing stuff I notice helps me, I think. It’s a version of pointing, writing is. Pointing and thinking, to be more precise. Preciser still: wondering!”
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February 16, 2025
Time Travel
My local library system recently opened a new flagship location, which is wonderful since it’s five minutes from my house. The first time I visited, I walked around to get a feel for the place. It’s pretty snazzy, but I was super jazzed to find an entire set of shelves that holds yearbooks, both high school and college, from around the region. I thought I remembered where my gran went to high school but when I looked, I instead found M’s grandmother. (What are the odds?!)
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February 6, 2025
It’s actually NOT a misunderstanding
I ran to the grocery store the other day—my old store, not ALDI—to pick up just a few things that ALDI doesn’t carry. I grabbed one of the wee carts and start blasting around the perimeter, as I do. The one thing I really miss about this particular store is the music. I don’t even register what ALDI plays, if anything. The HVAC unit in there is so obnoxiously loud that the Pride of Troy could be blasting away in the meat section and we wouldn’t hear it. But the fancy store…they play good music.
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January 26, 2025
“Moby Dick”: a Review
This is a review of Moby Dick, as I’m reading Moby Dick.
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December 2, 2024
Twenty-five in Twenty-five
Two years ago, after listening to a podcast I love, I sat down with a dear friend to create our “23 in ‘23” lists. Twenty-three things we each wanted to accomplish in 2023. We did this in January of ‘23 so we were actually working with a little less than a year, but it was ok. The podcast hosts encourage listeners to include some stretch goals, of course, but also save room for the easily attainable. That way one doesn’t get discouraged as the year goes on.
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