Today our trash men picked up two bags full of unpleasant and bitter memories. The endless photos of my dead sister and her family that my mother had. The receipts and cancelled checks for her wedding. Realizing her veil was over $1000 from Priscilla and mine was a floor sample from JC Penney. Her roses and my daisies. Her updo and bridal portrait. All week I’ve been sorting through this and it felt like I was stabbing myself in the eye, over and over.
Listening to Luke Combs singing Willie Nelson at Royal Albert Hall as part of the Grand Ole Opry Live in London concert has me in tears. I fear Willie won’t be around much longer.
Also, ds2 is there. I can’t wait to hear all about it!
I’m unhappy. I wanted to order a knitting book that is has been out of print but was recently reprinted in Germany (where it was originally printed). The book has been unavailable in the US for several years. The book is $55, but international shipping (including a new tariff surcharge) was $25! Ridiculous!
Today - all within one hour!!! - my husband got a lucrative consulting gig offer, his Coinbase account had a suspicious login from Moscow, and he also can get a 1% rate discount on a $1M mortgage… oh, and someone is willing to pay above market price for the property we don’t own!
I did it! I booked my next boat/bike tour - this time will be a 3 mast sailboat and through Tuscany! I sail in Sept 2026, and will take a week to explore Florence, Pisa, and possibly Portofino, and a few days after to further explore Tuscany.
I waffled back and forth between this journey and their Burgundy region, and Tuscany won!
There’s a reason why shelled hickory nuts are $90/lb.
We have multiple mature (40ft+) hickory trees in our yard and the neighbors’ yards on both sides. And this season the nuts are falling all over the place.
Yesterday I swept our short, maybe 25 ft long typical suburban driveway and completely filled a curbside trash can with nuts and their outer hulls. So LOTS of hickory nuts…
Seeing this bounty, I decided I wanted to make a hickory nut pound cake (old family recipe from the pre- Civil War era). It requires 2 cups of shelled hickory nuts.
Those of you who have cracked hickory nuts can start laughing at me now….
First, I had to buy a lever-armed, heavy duty nut cracker because the shells are so hard. The shells are hard, on par with black walnuts or macadamia nuts. And the nutmeats do not just fall out of the shell. The nut meats are embedded into a deeply fissured interior of the shell and have to be picked out in little pieces.
I spent about 3.5 hours cracking and picking and don’t even have 1 cup yet.
Not sure if this cake is ever going to get made…..
The battle begins today: FallGirl vs the pumpkin eating squirrels. Stay tuned to see if FG’s secret weapon ( coating the pumpkins with a layer of Crisco) will help her win this year.
I just had a few sorority sisters spend the weekend. There is nothing like spending time with friends you’ve had for over 35 years. No need to put on any pretenses or even clean my house. They know I leave my pjs on the floor. Different from childhood friends because we change so much during college, and different from adult friends because they haven’t lived with us at both our best and our worst. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to say I was in a sorority (although I think mine was very different than the Southern ones people talk about), but I’m also so glad I met these women.
Your sister and BIL go celebrate 30 years of wedding anniversary with friends and family. Your sister gives a financial excuse. OK. But when you return doesn’t ask to see pictures or anything like that. Doesn’t comment on a hairstyle change.
Watching this press conference about the solving of the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders is so cathartic. I got chills hearing how it came together. People who were here when it happened have never forgotten. RIP, Sarah, Jennifer, Eliza and Amy.
It doesn’t affect me, and I have no insight into what happened, but I’m sad that Keith Urban is divorcing Nicole Kidman. For some reason, this makes me feel a small disturbance in the universe.
Gosh, TD Bank, you’re about to lose a business customer. For the FOURTH time in a row, you’ve put a check from my main client on a six business day hold. This is the only instance in over 20 years that this has happened. Every time, I have to call in, sit on hold, and ask that the check be released. Nobody can tell me why the computer is flagging it every time. I’ve had this customer for at least six years with never a single problem. Grr. At least you gave me the direct number for the fraud department so I can call you directly.
Waiting to board my flight. I have Delta Comfort and I am 45 on the upgrade list for first class. What do you think the chances are with a full flight and only 14 first class seats? . Not really sure why they even bother with these very long upgrade lists.