September Week Three Photo Roundup

Monday, September 15
My friend is in town visiting and we had fun going to a bunch of small Wisconsin towns going to bakeries, bookstores, and thrift shops. I don't usually go into bookstores, so it was fun to wander around!

Tuesday, September 16

We met up with Sarah for brunch in Madison and then, on her advice, went to the State Capitol where we climbed all the stairs to get to the observation level where you can walk around the whole building several floors up. It was fun, but terrifying. Then we walked up and down State Street and I finished our exciting agenda with a trip to Costco. 

Wednesday, September 17

Lunch at a local spot. I'm a bit creeped out by the empty birdcages. That's all. 

Thursday, September 18

I was doing a fun photo shoot with Hannah when a woman walked by. I nodded and kept my arms around Hannah. 

"Can I pet her?"

"Oh, sorry, she's not nice to strangers." 

The lady kept coming at us. I tensed. Hannah growled. The lady put her hand out. Hannah barked. "Please, she's just uncomfortable around new people." 

"I like dogs."

"I'm sorry, she's..." Hannah is squirming in my arms. I'm holding her tight. Hannah's growling and her hackles are up. 

The lady shook her head and walked away.

I warned her. I told her Hannah wasn't nice and if she'd listened and just kept walking, Hannah would have ignored her. Is this my fault? Should I do something different? 

I don't know. I beat myself up about having a reactive dog. But she's so sweet to us and she's so happy with her little pack. She doesn't need other people and we live in a small enough town that I can avoid having her interact with others. I feel like I am at fault whenever people have these interactions with us.

We live by a pre-school and the little kids frequently ask me if they can pet her and I say "thank you for asking, but she's not nice to children" and they have ALWAYS backed off. It's always the adults I worry about. 

My precious Hannah. 

Friday, September 19

My friend and colleague has had some bad medical news. She's optimistic and cheery and filled with hope. After lunch today I had to leave my office because I just couldn't focus anymore so I stopped by her office and asked if she wanted to go for a walk. We walked the perimeter of the campus and stopped by a little flower garden. She's going to be okay. She has to be okay. I am very much on edge about this right now.

My Googling leads me to believe this is Early Amethyst Japanese Beautyberry. 

Saturday, September 20

Just me and my best kitty. If you want to know, that tail is simply the most luxurious thing in the whole house. 

Sunday, September 21

It was Hannah's worst day - bath day! She was mortified and embarrassed and grumpy. Now the whole house smells like wet dog, but for the next day or two you won't have grime on your hands after you touch her, so that's a win for the humans.

Bonus photo for extra pathos.

****************

You have until Wednesday to cast your vote for the CBBC book. Here's the link to the Google form if you haven't already voted. Things do look like they've settled into a winner, but it can go in any direction with a few votes from any side. 

****************

When were you last in a bookstore? Climbed a really tall building? 

August 2025: What I Spent

As a reminder, my husband pays the "big bills" like mortgage, phone, and electricity. I pay for groceries and the pets and that somehow evens things out.

In what continues to be a weird summer of spending, this was a weird month. I was in California to start and had to go to Michigan, too. It was unsettled and weird and it took a lot of fortitude for me to sit down and figure out how all this worked out. I honestly don't know how people who travel a lot do it. I found this so stressful. 

Entertainment ($4, <1%) - I paid for parking once.

Eating out ($33.39, <1%) - This is actually more, but Dr. BB paid for a lot of meals when we were in California. And J bought lunch. And my BIL bought us dinner once. It turns out I owe a lot of people meals. 

Gifts ($45.02, <1%) - I bought our cat sitter gifts for both times we were out of town and my neighbor a small gift for taking in our trash bins while we were gone.

Cars ($75.30, 2.2%) - Filled up our clunker twice and a rental car twice.

Personal care ($112.26, 3.2%) - Two random trips to Walgreen's. One of those was to buy cortisone cream because the mosquito situation here is OUT OF CONTROL.

Bills ($133.33, 3.9%) - Home and car insurance.

Savings ($200, 5.8%) - The personal finance people out there are rolling their eyes at me.

Miscellaneous ($303.25, 8.8%) - Look, for boring reasons I took out a bunch of cash when I was in Michigan. I used this to pay for tips for flower deliveries, when we got our nails done, and for random coffees I got when I just needed something to get me through the day. I have not tracked this money and I still have some of it. 

Travel ($376.12, 10.9%) - This was what I paid for a rental car when I went to Michigan.

Health ($381.63, 11%) - This is the bill for when I went to see the orthopedist about my leg and for some prescription toothpaste.

Groceries ($736.82, 21.3%) - Despite all of the chaos, we still HAVE TO EAT.

Pets ($1061, 30.6%) - Why so much, you say? Well, we boarded Hannah TWICE this month. Which is TWICE MORE than we have in literal years. We found a place in northern Illinois that has separate kennels for each dog, so she didn't have to hang with other dogs. So $650 of this is just boarding for Hannah and the rest of it was the usual mess of food, probiotics for both of them, and Hannah getting a Seresto collar (that lasts for eight months). 

****************

Outside of bills and food, what was your largest expense last month? 

****************

If you are interested in voting for our next book for Cool Bloggers Book Club, don't forget to vote if you haven't already done so! The Google form is ready for you.  Seriously, the vote is tight. The first place winner keeps swinging. Your vote matters!

****************

Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #0.5) by Suzanne Collins

I did not care overly much for The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Collins's earlier prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy, so it was much with much trepidation that I started reading reviews of Sunrise on the Reaping. 

I found this as satisfying as I found the original trilogy. It's not great literature, but it's good. It's fun. If you're into plot, well, maybe this isn't your best bet because we know the ending at the beginning (if you've read the original trilogy) and a ton of the book parallels other plot lines in the original trilogy. BUT. It's still an imaginative world and Collins introduces unforgettable characters here that I'll be thinking about long after today.

Haymitch Abernathy was Peeta and Katniss's mentor in the first Hunger Games novel. He was District 12's only surviving Games victor, cynical and drunken, and he obviously quickly became a fan favorite. How did he win those Games and become the District 12 mentor? Well, the answer is in this book. Through a series of unfortunate incidents, he is chosen as one of four Tributes in the second Quarter Quell Games. So Haymitch leaves his family, his girlfriend, and all his hopes and dreams and heads to the Capitol. But Haymitch doesn't want to give the Gamesmasters what they want. He wants to fight back. And he does fight back. But the consequences are not exactly what he had hoped for.

There are some criticisms that this book is more heavy-handed in its criticism of things like totalitarian governments, spineless media, and disaffected citizens than previous books. That might be true, but in 2025, what would expect from an American author? As we start to fall more and more into the world of 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, and The Hunger Games, I can see why so many authors feel like subtlety is a luxury of the past. 

In general, I really liked this. I'm not a Hunger Games superfan, so it's likely a lot of easter eggs were lost of me, but if you're a fan of the original trilogy, I'd say give this one a shot. If you've never read any of this series, this is not the one you should start with. 4/5 stars

Line of note:

"You can't choose your parents."

"You could reject their business," I point out.

"I couldn't," says Maysilee. "I was going to spend the rest of my life behind that candy counter, no matter how much I hated it. And I'm guessing you'd have been wearing miner's overalls to your grave. We never, none of us, had any choices." (page 82)

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

...with matching thigh-high boots and a tall hat with a visor brim. (page 20)

Feathers fan out from the top of the hat, making her look like a deranged daffodil. (page 20)

...yanks off her daffodil hat by the chin strap. (page 29)

Her hat, a two-foot pillar of red fur, jauntily tilts over one eye. (page 60)

cheap plastic coal miner hat (page 71)

...flips the light in Maysilee's hat. (page 72)

Wyatt picks up Louella's hat...(page 76)

Four black hats stacked on her head...(page 171)

"Made yourself a hat, did you?" (page 275)

...yellow hat feathers bobbing...(page 340)

****************

Have you read The Hunger Games? Are you interested in reading this prequel?

****************

If you are interested in voting for our next book for Cool Bloggers Book Club, don't forget to vote if you haven't already done so! The Google form is ready for you. The vote is tight, so your vote could make all the difference. 

****************

September Week Two Photo Roundup

My thirty day goal for September is to take a photo every day. I'm going to just do a quick photo roundup each week to keep myself accountable.

Monday, September 8
I wish I could explain to all of you just how much time Zelda spends on my lap. If I am sitting down, there is a very high likelihood that the cat is near me. Unfortunately, the two of us huddled up on the couch is super hard to get photo evidence of, so I did my best here with the two of us while I was attempting to eat dinner. 

Tuesday, September 9
It is official. Hannah's days of getting all three walks in the sunlight is down to one walk in the sunlight. Poor baby. Soon it will be zero. This is our morning walk.

Wednesday, September 10
My friend's mom sent me a recipe for ricciarelli, a type of Italian cookie, that is naturally gluten free. I went ahead and made it. It was fiddly as fuck (notice that it was very late at night by the time I finished) and the results aren't perfect - I didn't use enough powdered sugar and I didn't let them dry enough, so they didn't crack as much as they should have, but in my defense it was closing in on eleven o'clock on a work night). ANYWAY. They are delicious. 

Thursday, September 11

Someone took off work early to get her hair cut.

Hairstylist: What are we doing today?
Me: Cut it off. To my chin.
Hairstylist: No.
Me: Yes.
Hairstylist: Let's do shoulder length and if you want it shorter, we'll do that next time.
Me: Fine. Also, I want bangs. Sideswept bangs.
Hairstylist (squinting at me): Are you okay?
Me: Yes. I just want a change.
Hairstylist (stares at me suspiciously): How about we just do some long layers in the front and then if you want it to be more dramatic, we'll do that next time.
Me: Hmph. 

From my hairstylist's Instagram page. 

Friday, September 12
The trees are changing. I am grumpy about this. 

Saturday, September 13
I have a friend in town and I took her to a food truck festival that was happening in Nowhere. We got egg rolls and loaded fries and bubble tea and I got this cinnamon pretzel for dessert. Look, it's not at all pretzel shape, but it was perfectly baked and delicious.

Sunday, September 14
My friend is still in town and we went to a parade in a nearby town for their German festival. It was pretty lame, to be completely honest, but at least we went, right?

****************

If you are interested in voting for our next book for Cool Bloggers Book Club, don't forget to vote if you haven't already done so! The Google form is ready for you. The vote is tight, so your vote could make all the difference. 

****************

Did you do anything fun this weekend? See any parades? Eat from a food truck?

Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) - What Are We Going to Read?

It is the most wonderful time of year - CBBC time! 

Previous CBBC books were:
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
My Brilliant Friend 
I Capture the Castle
The Blue Castle

According to my non-existent editorial calendar, we're doing another round of Cool Bloggers Book Club (CBBC) next month! I have winnowed down the book selection to three books and now you, my friends, are going to vote on what you think is the best option. These have all been suggested to me by readers in the past and I'm happy for additional suggestions to keep adding to my list of potential books for CBBC.

You do not have to be cool or a blogger to participate, although I'd argue you're cool just by being here. 

My criteria for adding a book to the vote is that it is written by a woman, someone has expressed interest in reading it for this purpose, and I want to read it. I have a list of books people have recommended to me, so if you have a request for future books, please don't hesitate to put it in the comments or drop me an email. 

Option #1

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

Tam's debut novel, The Joy Luck Club, follows four Chinese immigrant families in San Francisco. It's divided up into four parts, each four chapters long, and that is enough to make my book club organizing heart go pitter patter. That's basically all I know about this book. (1989, 288 pages)

Option #2

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

Quiet little dystopian book originally written in the French. What does it mean to be human? How do we maintain the drive and human imperative to survive in the face of isolation and loneliness? Do we even need men? (Okay, fine, I added that last question.) (1995, 184 pages)

Option #3

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

So much punctuation in a book title! I have not read this book since I was a child, so I'd be interested in how this coming of age story holds up. (1970, 159 pages)

Those are the options. You can try to lobby fellow readers to your favorites in the comments, but your vote will be cast at this Google form. I am asking for you to rank order your choices from your most preferred to least preferred book. You do not actually need to be a blogger to participate in CBBC, but you should probably at least occasionally read this blog. I'll leave the form up until Wednesday, September 24 and then I'll tabulate the votes and post the schedule soon thereafter. 

Everything Is Awesome*

I did my annual well woman exam in late July, got my birth control prescription renewed, and thought absolutely nothing about that appointment again.

That is, I didn't think about it again until I was driving to my mom's memorial and I got a phone call from the clinic saying that I had an abnormal Pap smear result. I pulled over, made an appointment to do a follow-up colposcopy, and diligently listened to the nurse who insisted that I not Google anything. Instead, I texted my SIL who is a doctor and Anne, who has a doctorate in nursing. 

They reassured me and said that it was concerning, but a lot of people get abnormal Paps (and my HPV was negative), so don't worry about it until I had to worry about it. 

So I put it in the back of my head and didn't worry about it until they tried to reschedule it. 

The description they gave to me on the phone of the colposcopy was that they would use a microscope (see above) to look at my cervix and see if there were any irregular cells and if there were, they'd just biopsy them. No big deal. Not any worse than a regular pap smear. 

Friends, I get to the appointment and they start talking about how I had "atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGUS)" and they were worried it was endometrial cells, so I was going to get not just a colposcopy with a cervical biopsy, but also a fun endometrial biopsy. This was not what I had been told on the phone. They were not just going to biopsy the surface of my cervix, but they were going to go all the way up to my uterus. 

Let me make things pretty clear to all of you. I have not had a child. I have not had an IUD. This procedure was the most invasive, painful procedure I have had done in my lady bits. I hesitate to tell you how much blood there was, but let it be known that they had to change the pad underneath me MULITPLE TIMES. 

Dr. BB had offered to take me to this appointment. I read the description I had been given about the procedure and I took some ibuprofen and said I was good to go. I later regretted this decision. The drive home was a bad dream. I felt like absolute trash with cramps I have not experienced since I was a teenager without the benefit of hormonal birth control to keep my menstrual pain in check. I basically laid on the couch for several hours afterwards and prayed for sleep and/or the removal of my abdomen. (I was fine within a few hours of the procedure, so don't feel too bad for me.)

Then I had to wait for the results. I was not pleasant to be around during this waiting period. 

And the results were good. Everything was normal and I just have to go back for a regular Pap in six months and maybe do regular Pap smears more often. 

I have since talked to several women about this and it has been SHOCKING to me the number of women who have said that they also have had abnormal Pap results. SHOCKING. Why aren't we talking about this? Why aren't we telling other women about this?

I'll tell you why. I was embarrassed about this. I thought I had done something wrong. I thought my wild twenties were coming back to haunt me. I thought I had brought this on myself by not dealing with stress appropriately this year and leaving myself vulnerable to viruses. I thought I was to blame.

So I decided to write this here in case it helps someone else. 

*****************

*You know the reference, right? 

*****************

What is the most amount of pain you have ever been in? (My answer is definitely when I had my first kidney stone.)

September Week One Photo Roundup

My thirty day goal for September is to take a photo every day. I'm going to just do a quick photo roundup each week to keep myself accountable.

Monday, September 1 - Labor Day! 

The kids were playing pool as I was packing up. I made them all pose for me and they were good sports about it. (If anyone wants a blast from the past, here is a photo of O - the tall kid in the yellow Hawkeyes shirt below - as a preemie.)

Tuesday, September 2 

First day of class for the semester. Because Dr. BB is teaching super early, we're getting up even earlier than before. I am going to have to do something about my lack of SAD lamp time, but that's a problem for another week. It was super foggy and creepy on my (early) morning walk with Hannah.

Wednesday, September 3

Pile of lanyards on my boss's desk. We're supposed to wear these lanyards that say "ASK ME" on them and she was going to pass them out to faculty. I don't know why, but this made all of us laugh when we walked into her office. (Also, I have had "Ask Me" by Amy Grant in my head for days now. If you don't know that song, maybe don't listen. It's sad.)

Thursday, September 4

Pile of stuff for yoga in the student union at lunchtime. Raise your hand if you can spot the lanyard from yesterday's photo!

Friday, September 5

What a crazy day at work. I had a zillion student appointments and reached out to a couple dozen more of the students I am tracking for one reason or another (generally if you end up on my caseload, I try to follow you for a few semesters and then I think I should just keep tracking until graduation, you know?). Meanwhile, it was a gorgeous day in Wisconsin - perhaps a tad bit chilly for me and you'll notice I'm wearing a scarf, but I'm keeping this positive - and Hannah was READY for her walk. 

Saturday, September 6

I have no idea what this sign means, but I immediately thought to myself that the Thirteenth Amendment made this shit illegal. 

Sunday, September 7

Bike with Dr. BB! I swore we'd do more bike rides this fall and I'm honestly going to try for one or two a week. He was a good sport to stop and take a photo with me. 

If you are new around here, this is one of my town's sculptures of the main dairy cows here in Wisconsin. This is the red and white. 

****************

Did you have any fun adventures this weekend? See any cows, real or sculptural?