Cool Blogger Meetup & The Olympics

This past weekend was chockful of two things. One, I had a visit from a cool blogger. Two, THE OLYMPICS. 

To start with, Kyria came to visit me on her massive cycling road trip!! For those of you who don't know Kyria, she is currently doing a massive trip on her bicycle and I was lucky enough to host her on Saturday night. (Also, you all should know her because she did a guest post for my anniversary celebration.)

Poor Kyria was greeted by a dog who was losing her shit because a) Hannah has a documented hatred of bicycles, so bringing Bob into the house created some dog drama and b) Hannah apparently has a (newly documented) fear of people in bicycle helmets with lots of bags. I guess?  I don't know what her issue was. But we bribed Hannah into liking Kyria with lots of sweet potatoes and chicken and Hannah then became the calm, sweet dog that she is when there aren't bicycles and accessories around.

And then we watched the Olympics. More on that below.

And then we went to eat at one of three passable restaurants in town. She missed Friday Fish Fry, but I'm hoping someone in the Midwest will make sure she experiences a full fish fry while she's here. After that, we did a tour of all seven cows and we got ice cream at the local ice cream stand. 

The next morning, Kyria got to join me and Hannah on our regular Sunday morning off-leash walk at the middle school. The thing is that I roll out of bed and walk the dog in whatever I wore to bed. I don't brush my hair or put on a bra, so I'm going to show you photos of this, but don't judge me. I just got out of bed!

Good framing here. You can see the scoreboard. 

Hannah looks really worried! LOL. She is wagging her tail, though, so it's not dire.

Anyway, that was a blast and Kyria is as lovely in person as you might imagine. I hope we're able to meet up again soon!

But! I know for a fact that my reading and blog posting is going to take a dramatic decline in the next two weeks because of the Olympics! You GUYS. There's fencing, diving, gymnastics, and archery. There are fancy horses, boat races, shooting sports, and this guy:

Sorry, friends. I can't comment on your blogs. I have to watch Nedoroscik warm up for his 45 seconds of fame. 

It's been a long time since we watched an Olympics because of reasons. The last one I remember was 2012 in London. We felt terrible about the political conditions in Sochi, then Rio was a mess for the people who lived there, I don't know why we didn't watch the Winter Games in South Korea, but I suspect I was too busy dealing with LIFE, we though the Japanese summer games were irresponsible re: COVID, and then there were the Beijing games and we had more issues with geopolitical issues. BUT! 2024! France! No COVID! It's FINE and I can enjoy all the events*!

*I do not care for all the events. If it has a ball, I will not watch it. I'm talking about basketball, tennis, water polo, etc. Blah. Boring. I also find swimming and running sort of boring to watch. Eh. Whatever. You'll find me over here debating the finer points of dressage and horses dancing. 

Are you watching the Olympics? What sports do you enjoy?

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

 

All The Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker came on my radar because it was one of Catherine's picks in the Summer Preview episode of Sarah's Bookshelves podcast. 

A young boy saves a girl from being kidnapped and is kidnapped himself. What follows is a decades-long tale of the reverberating effects of that one incident.

Here is where I tell you that I'm a terrible reader. I found myself constantly frustrated by Whitaker's purposefully obtuse writing. It was clear he knew what he was doing, but it was also clear that the style was not for me. I can see why this style of writing would appeal to others and there were some beautiful moments, but I also felt a bit like I was being misled in a mean way. It also felt like sort of reading a very boring textbook that only talked about criminals and disasters in which a lot of people died. 

Eh. 4/5 stars because I'm pretty sure I should have liked this more than I did.

Lines of note:

"When it comes to marriage, love is merely a visitor over a lifetime. Respect and kindness, they are the true foundations." (page 272)

I mean, this is a weird thing to say, isn't it? If you treat someone with respect and kindness, won't love come along? 

He took her to the small public library, surprised that such a reader had not been before.

"So other people have touched these, maybe even read them on the toilet, and then you just go ahead and take them home?" she said. (page 406)

I am not joking when I tell you that this is the reason my SIL doesn't use the library. I do not know how to react to people like this.

"I feel like I'm acting. When I'm being a father, when I'm being a friend. When I make something to eat or take a shower. I'm playing a part in a story deep down you know cannot end well." (page 427)

Ha ha ha. I feel like I'm acting like I'm some sort of adult all the time. How did I get to be in charge of shit?

"Why do some people fall so short?"

"It depends what you measure against." (page 482)

I like this perspective!!

Things I looked up: 

TRAP laws (page 50) - Targeted restrictions on abortion providers. These laws are designed to shut down abortion providers through costly and medically unnecessary requirements. I'd never seen or heard this acronym before. 

Super Outbreak of 1974 (page 56) - From April 3–4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario. It was the second-largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the 2011 Super Outbreak. It was also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded, with 30 violent (F4 or F5 rated) tornadoes confirmed. 

Yuba City bus disaster (page 64) - This occurred on May 21, 1976, in Martinez, California. A chartered school bus transporting 52 passengers on an elevated offramp left the roadway, landing on its roof. Of the 52 passengers (not including the driver), 28 students and an adult adviser were killed in the crash.

The Memphis Girl by Addison Lafarge - A painting mentioned in the book. I think maybe it's a fictional painting?

paifang (page 277) - Also known as Pailou, meaning archway in English, is a traditional Chinese gateway with a memorial or decorative nature. 

...massacre in 1933, four lawmen dead at the hands of Adam Richetti and Charles Floyd as Frank Nash was being transferred back to Leavenworth prison. (page 292) - Kansas City Massacre in 1933. Read more about it here. 

...moved on to Ollie Embry...(page 292) - A criminal who was on FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list, but only for twelve days before he was arrested. He was wanted for the robbery of the Monroe national bank in Columbia, Illinois.

mammatus clouds (page 376) - a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud

Big Bayou Canot Bridge (page 388) - On September 22, 1993, an Amtrak Sunset Limited passenger train derailed on the CSX Transportation Big Bayou Canot Bridge near Mobile, Alabama, United States. Forty-seven people were killed and 103 more were injured. To date, it is the deadliest train wreck in both Amtrak's history and Alabama's railway history.

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

22 hats!! That seems like a lot for a contemporary book. Some of my favorites are:

...her grandmother wore a navy dress with a gorse flower hat, like she could not decide whether to celebrate or mourn. (page 281)

...trussed between layers of blankets and a pink woolen hat. (page 391)

Sammy buried his hands deep in the pockets of his velvet blazer and straightened his rabbit felt hat. (page 481)

CBBC reminder & Cool Bloggers Summer Salad Challenge

Just a quick reminder that next Monday (August 5 already!) we will be starting our next round of Cool Bloggers Book Club by reading the first six chapters of I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. More details can be found in this post. 

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Tobia created the Summer Salad Challenge and I'm here to join in.

I tweaked the version of the green bean salad here. No red onions for me and I added some garlic scapes to the dressing because I could get them at the Farmers Market. 

I kept the dressing separate from the beans so the salad would last longer and took this bad boy salad to me for lunch at work four times last week. I bought some more cherry tomatoes and green beans at the Farmers Market on Saturday, so I suspect I will also bring it to work with me a few times this week! Maybe I'll add some cucumbers to jazz it up. 

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What's your salad game right now?

Anniversary Countdown: Guest Post #15

In celebration of my blog's 20th anniversary, I'm having guest posters every week leading up to the big day. 

Today we have The Birchwood Pie Project as our guest!

Birchie blogs over at The Birchwood Pie Project, where she writes about local travel, particularly in her quest to see Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, what's she reading, eating, and how things are going with her puppy, Doggo. She's a reformed runner, is making her way through AFI's Top 100 movies, and you can count on her to tell you all the nitty gritty details about if the book is better than the movie (yes, yes, it is).  

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Happy 20th Engie!  It is an honor to join you for your 20-year blogging anniversary, especially considering that I’ve only been blogging for 13 years. 

In the words of Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  In that spirit, I don’t remember exactly how I found Engie’s blog – maybe someone linked to her or maybe it was through a comment – but I do remember vividly how I felt when I clicked the link and started reading.  At the time I’d stopped reading a lot of blogs because they had gone the SEO route and had become a mess of nothing, but here was A Real Person!  Writing about Real Things!  I squealed with delight and clicked through post after post.  I still feel that way when I see a new post from her pop up in Feedly, and if you think her blog is great, you should meet her in person!  I had the pleasure of doing that this summer. 

NGS and Birchie! Together! At House on the Rock!

Here’s the thing, the longer that you blog, the more you’ve already written about so the more that you assume that everyone just knows all of your stuff.  The other thing is that blogging is one huge party where you know some people very well, but you’re always meeting new folks and you have to get their story and catch them up on yours.  So I thought that I would introduce myself to my soon-to-be-new-friends, and reintroduce myself to the people that I already know.   

Here are 20 things about me and about the things that I blog about. 

1. I love it when people ask my husband and me how we met. The answer is: OK Cupid! It’s my favorite website that I haven’t visited since January 2013. I was so scared to try online dating and of course I met him on the first day. According to OKC, Hubs and I are 80% compatible, and as far as I can tell the 20% is that he doesn’t like spicy food and he counts our anniversary as the day that we “met” online and I count it as the day that we met IRL a few weeks later. 

2. I knew from a very early age that I did not want to have kids, and I also thought that it would be kind of neat to be a stepmom. And then it all came true. I am a stepmom to two teenage boys, who are heading into their sophomore year of college and senior year of high school. Kind of neat? It is AWESOME beyond my wildest dreams.  

3. I am both a cat and a dog person. I grew up with cats, and was always afraid of/disgusted by dogs until I was in my 30s and one night a friend’s German Shepherd growled at me and then curled up next to me on the couch and put her head in my lap. I used to dog sit for my friend when she was on vacation and I loved that dog dearly. The next special dog that came into my life was Stepdog, who was technically my husband’s ex-wife’s dog, but lived at our house. She and I were “the girls” in a house full of boys.

Stepdog passed last year, leaving a void that we knew could only be filled by another dog. We had just gotten to the point where we knew we were ready to let another dog love us when Hubs saw a shelter posting for a seven month old German Shepherd mix, and that’s how Doggo came into our lives. 

Note from NGS: This photo was titled "pretty feet" and LOOK AT DOGGO'S ADORABLE PAWS.

Adjusting to puppyhoood has been incredibly difficult but incredibly rewarding. We can’t imagine life without her, but she does make it hard to blog sometimes...most of my nights look like this and there’s no way I’m getting a laptop on my lap. 

4. My husband is a software developer and I am an accountant, so you know we get invited to all of the lit parties. All signs indicate that the little apples have not fallen far from the tree – my oldest stepson is majoring in computer science with a focus on cybersecurity, and the youngest is looking at engineering. My husband and I have worked at home since 2020 and have no plans to ever work “outside of the home” again. 

5.  I have a masters in accounting, but my undergrad degree is in Nutrition and Dietetics. I’ve forgotten all of the chemistry and biology that I had to learn, but I will never forget day one of my first nutrition class where I learned the one absolute rule of nutrition: “there is no such thing as a good food and no such thing as a bad food."

6.  Work has become much less rewarding to me in recent years. Luckily when I was 22 my parents gave me a book called Your Money or Your Life, where I learned about financial independence and that it was possible to start things in motion back then on a small income.  My only motivation was to make sure that I would always have my needs taken care of, and later to make sure that my family would have their needs taken care of, without focusing on a specific number.  During an unhappy time at work last year, I realized that I was at the finish line.  I’m taking this year to get more comfortable with the idea of not working, and I plan to quit next year.  I won’t be retiring “to” anything, I’ll just be doing all of the non-work things that I do now and that should make for a full life.  My husband is happy in his job and can’t imagine ever retiring...but I say stick around until he sees me not working and let’s see if maybe he doesn’t change his mind. 

7.  Enough about work!  My hobbies are blogging and the things that I blog about – cooking, fitness, watching TV and movies, reading, and most recently, travel.  Let’s do a deep dive on all of those things! 

8.  I started out as a recipe blogger, and later on when I had a family and needed inspiration for family meals, I started writing about our meals. 

9.  It’s all very fine and well for me to tell you that I’ve been writing about meals for years...but how about I give you a few favorite recipes just in case you’re looking for something to make for dinner tonight?  Here are four recipes that everyone in my family loved, plus one that only I loved. 

(PS I do not like chicken but my family does, so I can verify that the two chicken recipes work for both chicken lovers and chicken haters) 

10.  Chicken and Basil Fettucine Pasta – this is a Blue Apron recipe and please be assured that I have never ordered from Blue Apron.  I found out about this recipe from another blogger’s sponsored post.  My time/money/sanity saving tips are that you can use plain old dried pasta of your choice instead of “fresh basil fettucine pasta” and cream cheese is a perfect substitute for mascarpone. 

11.  Taste of Home's Chicken Fajitas – there’s a little bit of labor involved, but the results are worth it. 

12. Damn Delicious One Pot Garlic Parmesan Pasta – it’s good as written, and also good if you add protein and veggies. 

13.  Beef with Snow Peas – so quick, so good.  Speaking of remembering how something made me feel, I learned about this recipe because Suzanne shared it. 

14. Rainbow Plant Life's Braised Tofu – this thing is not like the other things, so guess which of the five recipes is that one that my family wouldn’t touch but I adore?  This one is just exquisite. 

15. My fitness life has evolved quite a bit during my blogging days. I went from someone who casually ran to someone who was obsessed with running. Later on running and I had a falling out, and I realized that fitness needed to be moved down on my priority list. After two years of blissfully not running, I started doing short runs a few weeks ago...what is the meaning of all of this? Who knows? I’ll let you know when I know but for now the moral of the story is that it’s OK to be passionately into something and then move on to other things. 

16. I love good TV and good movies...and yes I know that what I think is good is not everyone’s cup of tea. I’ve loved classic movies since junior high, and sometimes my friends tease me and ask if I’m aware that movies have sound and color nowadays. Hey I like what I like! 

17. Books! Right now reading has to have the lowest priority in my life, but it’s still something that I adore and great pleasure out of. I only read for 10-20 minutes right before bed, and if a book isn’t holding my attention I will mercilessly DNF that sucker. Probably the biggest difference between my IRL life and my blogging life is that I can’t remember the last time I talked about books with someone IRL. In the blogging world, I do nothing but talk about books! I get so many great reading ideas from the Cool Bloggers’ Community. In particular I often use Engie’s reviews to decide if I want to read something or not. 

18. Is the book always better than the movie? Usually! The only exceptions that I can think of offhand are The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity. 

19. Travel went from being something that I didn’t care about to something that I am obsessed with. The rest of my family is in Boy Scouts, and that’s where my husband’s limited PTO has to go right now.  A few years ago I realized that all of his vacation going toward Boy Scouts meant no vacation for me and I couldn’t remember the last time that I had taken a day off work. At the same time I was very negative about where I lived. Ohio...Rust Belt...bad economy...what a sorry place to live.  And then one day I came across an article about Lighthouses on Lake Erie...yeah I know about Lake Erie, I see all of those stories about toxic algae that hit the news every year. Wait there are lighthouses? Ugh but I’d have to drive so far to see them...I can go to the park in my town and sit by the lake anytime that I want...but wait did someone say that we have lighthouses here????? 

One day I finally got off my butt and drove out to see a lighthouse. It wasn’t as far as I imagined but it was in a whole new world.  The next week I went out to see another lighthouse and had another magical transport to this magic new world that was somehow in Ohio. Once I’d seen the lighthouses I found myself with a list of other places to go...like who knew that we have islands in Ohio?  And that there is an island hopping day cruise. From my interest in old movies I knew that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall got married on a farm in Ohio and oh hey it turns out that this farm was the place where everyone who was anyone in Old Hollywood came to hang out and it had been preserved and was open for tours. People were always telling me to go to a place called Fallingwater which is how the Frank Lloyd Wright thing started...every time that I went somewhere I came away with 10 other places to visit. From there things escalated to  “Boy Scout Widow Camp” where I started going on short little trips away from home on the weekends when the rest of my family was at Boy Scout camp.   

Every once in a while the stars align and my family comes with me on these trips, but for the next few years Boy Scouts will continue to have first dibs on family time. That’s fine, because I’m not going to run out of places to go anytime soon. 

20.  One of the biggest roadblocks that I had when I started my blog is that I couldn’t figure out what to call it.  I lived on Birchwood Street and my first post was an apple pie, so that’s how I came up with The Birchwood Pie Project.  I don’t live on Birchwood Street anymore, and I hardly ever make pie, and also I still haven’t figured out what to call my blog.  My oldest stepson suggested “Cooking the Books”, which has merit, but I’m not that kind of an accountant so… 

Alrighty that’s my 20 things!  Thanks for reading my ramblings! 

Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski

I heard about Women and Children First by Alina Grabowski on Sarah's Bookshelves podcast. Susie had it in her top five of the year so far in episode 172. 

The book is ten chapters long and each chapter is told from a different point-of-view of a woman. A teenager dies at a party in the crumbling town of Nashquitten, Massachusetts, and what we have here is a collection of short stories about how the lives of each of these women is connected as they try to grapple with what happened. Susie compared it to Great House and I liked the structure of Great House, even if I didn't like the execution of it, so I was excited to give it a try. 

Alas, even though I want to like this structure - I love the idea of thinking about how one event, large or small, weaves through so many lives - I have to admit that the structure doesn't actually work for me. We don't get to spend enough time with the characters to really get to know them and understand why they are making the decisions that they are making. I like it in theory, but in reality I get frustrated with the very thing I say I want to read.

So. Basically. This is my problem, not the author's. It's an interesting look at a community and how interconnected everyone is and how many secrets there are. It makes me think I should have more secrets in my small town. 

3.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

While I waited for her to respond, I watched videos of old women grooming small dogs on YouTube, which was what I did when I was sad. (page 133)

I watch so many dog grooming videos on YouTube. I felt so seen. I also watch some guy who trims cow hooves. Why is this so fascinating?

I used to think that everyone was on the same page, that we agreed being human meant taking care of one another. But now I understand that a lot of people - maybe most people - think that being human means just taking care of yourself and those you've already decided have value. (page 253)

When did you last think people were on the same page? I feel like I stopped thinking this way when I was six. 

I watch a documentary about cults until Jane arrives. I can't understand why you'd follow someone who calls you a whore and drops your phone in a swimming pool when you try to call your family, but there are a lot of things I don't understand. The appeal of sporting events, people's obsession with lobster, thermodynamics. (page 254)

Ha ha ha. I laughed at this and read it aloud to my husband. Seriously. Why are we all so excited about the Olympics? What even does "thermodynamics" mean? 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

I straighten my spine and tip an imaginary hat. (page 119)

Only now did I realize that a crowd had gathered around us, moms with stricken leathery faces and their oblivious kids in bucket hats. (page 217)

He takes off his jacket but not his hat, and then the hostess leads him to a table and he's gone. (page 305)

Colonoscopy 101: Ugh (But You Still Gotta Do It)

Earlier this week I had my first colonoscopy. I want to talk about it because it sucked and everyone made it sound like it would sort of suck, but then it would be over, and that would be fine. I did not find that last bit to be true. Stephany recently wrote about her sleep study and I was inspired to write this down because maybe it will help someone else out who has some of the questions I had.

Look, this is going to be graphic and talk about poop a lot, so if that's not your jam, maybe just skip this post. 

Pre-pre-procedure

I have a first-degree relative with colon cancer, which is the reason I got to get a colonoscopy a bit earlier (seriously, just weeks) than age 45, which is the recommendation for people to start getting screened. My husband had his colonoscopy about a month ago and he went through a different healthcare system and his prep was entirely different from mine, so I'll try and talk about the two different preps and then go into my experience. 

Dr. BB's pre-procedure

My husband had to be on a low-fiber diet for five days before his colonoscopy. My husband was given a jug with some prep powder in it and an optional flavor packet and he had to drink a cup every fifteen minutes for two hours the night before his procedure. The morning of his procedure he had to repeat the drinking of the prep every fifteen minutes for two hours. The prep was gluten-free, if anyone is interested in that. 

My pre-procedure

The only food restriction I had for my prep was no popcorn for seven days. I admit that for most people this would probably just be a mild inconvenience, but I cannot tell you how many times I eat popcorn in a week, so this was a real sadness for me. Oh, well. I persevered. 

The day before the procedure, I had to be on a clear liquid diet starting at midnight. I drank water and tea and ate a few popsicles. You can eat or drink anything clear as long as it wasn't purple or red. Then the prep started. 

At around noon, I took five 5mg tablets of Dulcolax. Things were fine for a few hours, but then the nausea started. I had a wet bowel movement. 

THEN! Things got terrible. I had to buy two big bottles of Miralax (238 grams each) and mix it with Gatorade. I chose to mix it with full-calorie lemon-lime Gatorade. I went with "real" Gatorade because I was concerned that the lack of calories was going to be a big problem for me, but I fear that the mistake I made was in so many calories because I was already nauseated and then all this sugar made me really feel like I was going to vomit and never stop. Do not recommend. I had to drink a cup of this solution every fifteen minutes until my stool was "clear like light beer." 

The actual instructions. 

(I hated this. Like I have any idea what light beer looks like? Or regular beer for that matter. Honestly. Way to show your roots, Wisconsin. Imagine I just said the word Wisconsin like it was a swear word, okay?)

Anyway, I drank nine glasses of this and there were still flecks, but if I smelled Gatorade, I would have vomited my lungs up, so I gave up and went to bed. It was a terrible night of sleep. I had to wake up to void everything once and my stomach was cramping like mad and did I mention that I thought I was going to puke every time my husband so much as moved a micromillimeter? 

I woke up and had to keep drinking that nastiness until my stools were clear like light beer, but I finished the whole fucking thing and there were still flecks, but I didn't care because if someone had asked me to eat or drink anything, I would have laid down and died. 

(It's possible I am melodramatic when I am sick or injured. Why do you ask?)

The hospital is a quick five minute drive away and I tried to remain cheerful because, hey, at least I didn't have rhabdomyolysis, right? But I want you to know that I rolled down the window and kept my head out the window the whole way there because if I was going to puke, I wasn't going to do it in the car.  

End scene. We get there at the exact time I was told to get there, but the doctor was running late. This meant I was going to the bathroom at the hospital (still flecks, yo) and we were just sitting in the waiting room while I contemplated if it would hurt the fake plant if I puked in its vase. 

(I never did puke. But it felt very close the whole time.)

So. The prep. -2/10. Do not recommend.

The Colonoscopy Itself

But here's what I was really worried about. I was actively menstruating and I know, from having been there with my husband a month before, that they asked you to remove everything when you put your gown on. I did some research, but the Internets let me down because there were no clear answers about what to do. (My husband did not understand my concern. Was I supposed to wear a tampon? Was I supposed to free bleed? What is the answer here?)

So when we finally got into my assigned room, they had me strip and put on a gown and I asked about what I should do if I was actively bleeding on my period. Like...help me out, nurse? 

Mesh panties. And a pad. That's the answer. They give you mesh panties and a pad. The definitely do not want you wearing a tampon. And think of them as Chekhov's mesh panties because they're going to come back. 

We waited in this room for literal hours because the doctor was running behind. They put in an IV and gave me some sweet, sweet Zofran and I stopped feeling like I was going to puke.

Things we talked about while waiting:

    The clock on the wall and how the minute hand moved incrementally every fifteen seconds 
    Construction at the hospital
    The building we both work in is having its roof replaced, but not soon enough since there was leaking and one of the (empty) offices in my husband's department had gotten wet
    How nice it was not to feel like vomiting
    Whether or not people would like I Capture the Castle
    Calculating how many hours we'd spent in the hospital in the last week
    How slow my IV was dripping
    If I would ever drink lemon-lime Gatorade again

Okay, was that list boring? Yeah? Well, imagine living it.

They finally took me back to the procedure and it was fine. I mean, they position you so you're laying on your left side and then there are drugs and I literally remember nothing until waking up back in the recovery room. 

But, hey, did I wet myself? Like, it's very damp. I had to just sit there in dampness until they removed my IV, but they still wanted me to sit up for five minutes and then sit on the side of the bed for a minute or two before I got see what's what.

You guys. You GUYS. The mesh panties were yellow. ALERT ALERT. I clearly peed on myself. And maybe I peed on the health care workers? WHAT HAVE I DONE?

The results were normal and I have no polyps and that is the best news we could have asked for.

The allergy band makes it look DIRE. I'm allergic to sulfa drugs, which is not a big deal. 

Post-procedure

When we got home, I have to admit to you some sad news. The Zofran wore off and I was once again nauseated. AND THEN the gas. They have to shoot air up your ass, I guess, and I am not a person who gets gas and I literally thought I was going to DIE of abdominal pain. (Melodrama, I know!)

So I curled up in a ball on the couch where I sat for three hours, letting out teeny tiny bits of gas almost continuously. And felt like throwing up. 

AND THEN! I was finally hungry. I ate some yogurt and granola and it was the best tasting yogurt I've ever had. 

But man I was still gassy. And I had bloating and abdominal pain for about 28-30 hours after the procedure was finished. And I didn't have a BM for more than 48 hours after the procedure. Maybe TMI, but I have BMs much more regularly than that. Like multiple times a day more.  And there's a huge bruise on the back of my hand where the IV was. 

Note: You can also see the scar left by Penny the Cat. 

And I get to do it all again in five years. Hopefully with less peeing on myself. 

Please get yourself a colonoscopy if you're due and you haven't done it. Yes, it really does suck (real talk), but colorectal cancer is way worse. Early detection is key to good outcomes!

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When is the last time you were nauseous for more than a day? Did you also put your face out the window of a moving car? Do you have questions about this procedure? I will be an open book.

Throw Some Money At It

I recently paid an enterprising young man $250 to just come and make my biggest yard problems disappear. Our yard is a jungle and every week it kept getting worse and worse. Here are the big issues with the yard.

1) The compost is open almost every day, but most days it closes at 3pm and we are working adults. That means that if we do yardwork, the waste sits around in our garage for days and days until we can get it there, usually on a Saturday. The compost is not open at all on Sunday, which means that if we do yardwork on the weekends, it has to be Saturday morning/early Saturday afternoon or bust. Now, I don't know how things work in your world, but in my world, a lot of that Saturday morning time is spent sleeping in. The compost hours are a big problem.

2) When Dr. BB went into the hospital, we lost a weekend. And now he's on restricted activity and I have a full-time job and it turned into, hmmmm, a fucking nightmare. I was literally have nightmares about weeds killing me. 

So, you know what? I decided that my innate frugality was going to lose the battle and I paid Trevor and he came THE NEXT DAY and now I am not having nightmares.

We were bumping into greenery with our cars trying to get in and out of the driveway. No, I'm not exaggerating that the church is right behind us. 

He left the damn hostas, so I'm going to have go in there and remove them, but look! You can use the driveway. Next weekend we'll get some wood chips and we're going to roundup the plants we don't want to come back and we're just going to count this as a lost year. Sorry birds and insects.

But I don't want anyone feeling too bad for the birds and insects because there are at least four other beds just like the one we had taken down that just don't impede the driveway. Those are beds for another day. 

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What chore have you recently given up on?

Ghosted by Rosie Walsh

 

In Ghosted by Rosie Walsh, Sarah and Eddie meet and spend "seven perfect days" together. Eddie then leaves for vacation and Sarah doesn't hear from him again. We spend the rest of the book as Sarah tries to figure out what happened to him and how to move on with her life.

Hmm...look, this book was not for me. We hear a lot about these "seven perfect days," but there is very little time of that shown to us, so it just ends up seeming like Sarah is an obsessed stalker. Sure, they meet and there's a connection, but she goes through some extreme lengths to find/contact him that seems inappropriate (and, honestly, if it had been a man doing it to a woman, he would have been arrested).  

And then there are the "twists" that just keep happening towards the end of the book. I felt a little bit like the author had misled the reader in an unfair way. I don't know. Maybe this will be the book for someone else, but it didn't work for me. 2/5 stars

Lines of note:

Did anyone ever lose the desire to impress their favorite teacher? I wondered. More than nineteen years had passed since I’d been in her A-level English class, and yet here I was, trying to make clever gags about revenge tragedies. (location 840)

Ha ha ha. I saw my band teacher from high school (I was in a class with him every school day from sixth grade through graduation in high school) and he didn't remember who I was and I'm not going to lie, friends, my feelings were hurt. 

I rest a hand on the trunk, saddened to imagine this magnificent beast felled by a snarling chain saw. “Sorry,” I tell it, because it feels wrong to say nothing. “And thank you. For the oxygen. And everything.” (location 3593)

I have done this! We had a lot of ash trees taken down because of the emerald ash borer and when I'd see the big orange X on the trunk, I'd take time to touch the trunk and thank the tree. I don't know. Maybe it's weird?

Things I looked up:

King’s Cross fire of 1987 (location 1033) - Sheesh! I was even alive during this time. Someone threw a lit match on a wooden escalator and it caught fire and then there was a flashover and it spread to the ticket hall. It led to thirty-one fatalities. 

Later he had challenged me to a game of shithead and didn’t mind in the slightest when I thrashed him.(italics added)  (location 3384) - Shithead (also called China Hand, Ten-Two Slide, Karma, Palace or Shed) is a card game, the object of which is to lose all of one's playing cards. Huh. I've never heard of it before. 

Hat mentions:

An actual clown, with boxes of red noses and ukuleles and silly hats. (location 475)

Why didn’t I take a a hat, or some gloves? (location 4121)

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Did you know about this King's Cross fire? Have you ever played shithead?

Monday Misfits

Just some photos of my gorgeous girls.

So much belly fuzz. I love everything about this pose.

Forget it. If you come into our home, you will not be greeted with a welcome mat, but with a cat who will consider murdering you with her paws.

This made me think about Jenny's blog title - Runners Fly. Hannah doesn't need any paws on the ground!

Not ten seconds later, she had come to a complete stop and was giving me the best doggy smile she could.

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Tell me all about the last dog or cat you pet!

20th Anniversary Countdown: Guest Post #14

In celebration of my blog's 20th anniversary, I'm having guest posters every week leading up to the big day. 

I feel like San doesn't need an introduction, but for those of you who aren't following her, here goes. She is originally from Germany, but lives in California now with her husband. She is the poster child for having a Peloton, makes delicious food, and has a fascinating job as a geographer who does both fieldwork and data analysis. She blogs over at The In Between Is Mine and she is the organizational guru who has kept a vibrant blogging community alive through continuing NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and doing an annual Secret SANta Swap. I don't have any favorites in the blogosphere, of course, but San is definitely a favorite.  

Let's welcome her!

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I am so excited to be part of Engie’s blogiversary celebration and thrilled to be featured on her blog (which was ‘born’ the same year as mine). It’s so fantastic to know another blogger who has stuck out the highs and lows of blogging over the years and still finds joy and value in keeping this personal online diary (with the benefit of an amazing blogging community to boot). Happy Blogiversary, Engie!

The first few things that probably come to mind if you know me already and read my blog are “NaBloPoMo, Peloton, and my crazy workout schedule” (which in honesty doesn’t feel so crazy to me, but I can see how it looks crazy to others.) 

I like to joke that I don’t have any other hobbies (which is a complete and utter lie, by the way), so working out takes up a lot of my time because I choose to make it a priority, and because I enjoy it, I’d like to add. I know I am lucky that way. I am also ambitious and always up for a challenge, although not really competitive (other than with myself).  

I am a positive and optimistic person and like to put positive spins on everything. Don’t worry, I am not one of those annoying overly positive people who just throw around glitter and sunshine (although a little glitter can never hurt). I know how to kick, scream, and wallow a good amount, I don’t believe in “everything happens for a reason" (because it doesn’t, don’t @ me), but in the end, my ‘half-glass-full’ mentality usually prevails. 

Mantras and motivational quotes are not everybody’s thing and they can be corny and eye-roll-inducing (believe me, some of them do that to me too), but surprisingly, I’ve also come across quite a few that I “needed to hear” and that I employ and rely on regularly during my workouts. 

I thought I’d share my 20 favorite mantras/motivational quotes that I use or remind myself of during exercise, but I feel that some also apply to everyday life. Many of them, you’ll not be surprised, I’ve heard from Peloton instructors. They might not have originally created them. Some are just phrases that anybody could have come up with, I guess (who can claim ownership of a string of words?) but some are credited to certain people. Either way, I hope you find some nuggets of wisdom here and think of them as inspirational too. 

1) I don’t have to, I get to. (Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor)

This might be my #1 mantra. Whenever I struggle or feel unmotivated, I try to remind myself what a privilege it is to move my body. It's not something I take for granted.

2)  The hardest part is - check ✔-  done, you showed up today. (Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor)

If you have wondered how to get into a workout routine and stick with it, this is it. You just commit to showing up for yourself. (Another favorite mantra that hits the same spot, “Keep showing up”.) Sometimes, it’s only 10 minutes, but just showing up and getting started is half the battle. Usually, after you get started, you follow through with the rest of your workout. Or you don’t, but you will never regret showing up, even for only 10 minutes. [Note from NGS: I have certainly regretted showing up for workouts, but I get it.]

3) Run the mile you’re in. (Ryan Hall, Olympian and American Half Marathon record holder)

Have you ever been out on a run and felt like it was never going to end? Well, here’s a thought: break up your run into small chunks. I always tell myself that I can run “one more mile”. And then, I just reiterate that at the end of every mile until I am done. It seems silly, but it seems to work for me. 

4) I can do hard things. (Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor)

When I struggle through a workout (or I find myself in a tough situation), this is the mantra I repeat in my head: I can do hard things because I've done hard things before.

5) Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. (Arthur Ashe, tennis player)

It's hard to not compare yourself to others (we all do it now and then), but I try to remind myself that everybody is at a different stage on their own journey.

6) Beat yesterday. (Garmin).

You might be surprised that I am not a very competitive person. I mainly compete with myself and my goal always is to "beat yesterday".

7) If you can’t get out of it, get into it. (Denis Morton, Peloton Instructor)

A simple shift in your mindset and attitude can make a huge difference and help you get through a hard situation. If you can't get out of it, commit mentally to getting through it. It usually helps me.

8) Allow yourself to be uncomfortable. (Alex Toussaint, Peloton Instructor)

We’re so used to seeking out comfort and instant gratification in modern society that we forget that achieving things sometimes takes time and perseverance and that it might be uncomfortable for a little while. (But just remember how glorious you’ll feel afterward!)

9) Drink as you pour. (Chelsea Jackson Roberts, Peloton Yoga Instructor)

This sounds like straight out of a self-care book (or the flight manual where they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others), right? It's good advice though. Self-care and rest are just as important as doing things for others. [Note from NGS: I have no idea what this means. Please explain it to me like I'm five.]

10) If you need to take an emotional lap, take an emotional lap. (Adrian Williams, Peloton Instructor)

Adrian often calls this out after a hard workout block, but isn’t it so true for life though? If you need a moment to breathe, just step away and do just that (and literally take an emotional lap around the living room, if it helps. I know that walking around helps me sometimes.) 

11) Athletes don’t exercise and diet. They train and fuel. (Matt Wilpers, Peloton Instructor)

I love, love, love that statement. For me it completely takes away the negative associations of “exercise and diet culture” and emphasizes a positive relationship with our bodies, the fact that we’re working with our bodies and conditioning them to be and do what we want them to do. [Note from NGS: Clearly I am not an athlete. LOL. I definitely exercise.]

12) Remember when you wished for what you have right now? (Robin Arzon, Peloton Instructor)

How is that for a little bit of perspective? We often are so goal-focused on things in the future that we forget to look at the progress that we have already made and celebrate those little milestones along the way.

13) What you’re not changing, you’re choosing. (Denis Morton, Peloton Instructor)

I am guilty of being a bit “indecisive” sometimes and this is a good reminder that not making a decision is a decision in itself. Think about if the consequences of a non-decision are the outcome that you want. 

14) Use your whole ass. (Jess King, Peloton Instructor)

Ok, this one is funny, right? I might have snorted the first time I heard it. You know how we say that people “half-ass” things? Well, if you decide to do something, do it right. Use your whole ass. And I couldn’t agree more. 

15) Being ready is a decision, not a feeling. (Jess Sims, Peloton Instructor)

If you wait around to be ready, some things are never going to happen. Decide to be ready for whatever is in front of you and tackle it with intention. 

16)  Shut up legs [or insert other words of choice here], you’re fine. (Unknown)

Sometimes we just have to give ourselves a little pep talk and get over ourselves. (I usually use this when things get tough during a run.) [Note from NGS: As someone whose spouse just had rhabdo, I don't know about this one...please pay attention and listen to your body!]

17) Someday you won’t be able to do this. Today is not that day. (Unknown)

This is a good reminder, friends, that everything is finite. Embrace what you have (or can do) while you have it. It won't always be so easy to get around. 

18) I run this body. (Dorothy Beal, run coach) 

This is another favorite mantra during runs. I am in charge of my body and my mind is stronger than my body. If you don’t believe you can do it, you probably don’t but if your mind game is strong, the body will usually follow.

19) Tough times don't last, tough people do. (Becs Gentry, Peloton Run Instructor)

When I am struggling through a workout, I like to remind myself that the pain and struggle are only temporary, but that it makes me a tougher person in the end.

20) Just breathe. (Pearl Jam)

One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, and one of my favorite mantras. If in doubt, just breathe (through it). [Note from NGS: Meanwhile, I am singing a Faith Hill song. I think that this post definitely shows that San and I are very different people!]

Which mantra is your favorite? Which one can you see using in your life?

True Biz by Sara Nović

One of the prompts for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge this year was to read a book by a deaf or hard-of-hearing author. I chose True Biz by Sara Nović as my entry for this prompt and I was immediately blown away.

Charlie is a teenage girl who was born deaf, but had a cochlear implant that didn't help much. She struggled in a traditional high school setting before she transferred to the River Valley School for the Deaf. The headmistress of the school, February, realizes that Charlie has basically been language-less for her entire life because she couldn't really hear English and she never learned ASL until arriving at River Valley. Meanwhile, Charlie starts dating Austin, the son from a legacy Deaf family. 

I mean, this book had its typical YA tropes - absent parents, kids getting drunk and smoking, kids just wandering around and not coming home at night - that really irritate me. BUT. I learned so much about Deaf culture and ASL as a language. There were mini-history lessons in the book so we could see the sorts of things Charlie was learning at school, and those history lessons covered how Alexander Graham Bell was an early opponent of ASL and about a student rebellion at Gallaudet University over hiring a hearing president. 

I learned about the differences between BASL, spoken mostly by black people, and ASL. I learned about how dangerous it is to be deaf in these modern times. I learned about the threat to Deaf education. I learned about the danger of cochlear implants and why they are controversial in the Deaf community.  I learned so much and it was done gracefully. If, like me, you know very little about Deaf culture, this is a great place to start. 

4/5 stars - It is a YA book, after all.

Lines of note:

Mel arrived with coffee and two bags of hot Cheetos, their preferred snack for stress eating. (page 224)

What's your stress snack?

...Charlie liked sex. And why shouldn't she? She strong-armed her body into countless unpleasant tasks each week: waking up when the morning was still blue, listening and lip-reading, circuit training in gym class, flossing. Shouldn't she be allowed to do something fun without being hamstrung by heirloom shame? (page 248)

Ugh. I'm such a prude. I want to scream at teens having sex. I mean, I know they do it. But! Why shouldn't she? Pregnancy, STIs, and heartbreak all come to mind. I want to be all sex-positive like the cool people, but I am an old fuddy duddy.

Hearing people turned aggressive so quickly, at even a momentary failure to respond, so sometimes Austin gave them the kind of answer they wanted, albeit loud and slurred. "Deaf" was a mercifully easy word to say, and he pointed to his ear and said it now. The driver reddened, handed Austin back the five, and motioned for him and Charlie to sit.

It was hard to imagine what the world might be like if deaf people had as short a fuse about hearing people's inability to sign, their neglect or refusal to caption TV, or, hell, the announcements on this bus. (page 288)

This was a powerful passage, I thought.

Hat mentions:

Charlie hung her grandmother's coat - a burgundy fur she really hoped was fake - on the hat rack and followed her in. (page 215)

Out on the street, Slash unzipped his backpack, pulled out a fistful of wooly hats, put one on his own head...

He pulled the fold of his hat down over his face to reveal a full ski mask. Charlie unrolled the hat in her hands... (page 231)

...scrolled through the Instagram deluge of his classmates' pets coerced into wearing Santa hats. (page 273)

She found him beside the ghost light, fussing with the feather in his hat. (page 318)

Nice hat, her father said, motioning to the headlamp. (page 319)

Three Things Thursday

1. Dr. BB is home from the hospital. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and words. He's supposed to "take it easy" for a while, so he's Couch Husband for the time being. 

2. Hannah and I tried for about five minutes to take a selfie the other night when she refused to go for a walk. I swear this is the best I could come up with.  Look at the vein on my forehead! Look straight up poor Hannah's nostrils. Also, note the ominous cloud in the sky. It stormed LIKE CRAZY on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights and I could tell both the girls were relieved when Dr. BB came on Tuesday because they were all like the girl human cannot control the weather, kind sir, and we are depending on you to make sure that it doesn't thunder and lightning and frighten us tonight. And then it didn't storm on Tuesday because all was right with the world.

3. My comments section has been talking about the list that the New York Times recently put out about The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. My Brilliant Friend was #1 and I was so touched that everyone wanted to run to my blog to tell me I'm right about what a great book it is/complain that it's a terrible book and doesn't belong on the list at all.

That's the take home point. I think it's an okay list, to be honest. I see a lot of criticisms of it - some are fair, like how come the Copenhagen Trilogy just counts as one and the Neapolitan Quartet is split up? - but I am a basic bitch of reading and I like a lot of these books. I have also DNFed three (two were Zadie Smith books which makes me feel a bit like a terrible feminist - absolute tangent, but did you know Doc Brown and Zadie Smith are brother and sister?).  

If I ever finish my Top Fantasy Books by Women list, maybe I'll make it a goal to read the rest on this list.

How to Be Both, Ali Smith 2014 - Fine, but I wish it had spoken to me more. 3/5 stars

Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 2001 - Befuddling. I don't think I'm smart enough for Patchett. 3.5/5 stars

On Beauty, Zadie Smith 2005 - DNF August 2023 at 11%. Maybe I should try again?

Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 2014 - So good. A rare book where I wished there was more of it. 5/5 stars

The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2015 - I love these books unabashedly. No notes. 5/5 stars

An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 2018 - Great observational writing. Huge thumbs up. 5/5 stars

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 2022 - Incredibly skippable. 2/5 stars

The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 2018 - A loving meditation on writing and taking care of pets. Lovely. 4.5/5 stars

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 2022 - Gorgeous writing. Not a perfect book, but incredibly well done 4/5 stars

Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 - I read this a long time ago and remember a few powerful scenes. Maybe I'm due for a reread to see its star rating. 

Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 2003 - An important book, but not one I feel like I have to revisit. 3.5/5 stars

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 2013 - This book made me anxious. 3/5 stars

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 2015 - Brilliant. 5/5 stars

H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 2015 - Complicated grief memoir. I feel like falconry is bad, though? But the writing was evocative. I have a lot of competing feelings. 3.5/5 stars

Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 2006 - I thought this graphic novel based on Bechdel's childhood and her relationship with her father to be simultaneously too honest and forthright and too chilly.  I think it's brave of her to put out the good and the bad, but I also found it hard to care. 2.5/5 stars

Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 2011 - Too dogfight-y for me. DNFed in August 2012. 

White Teeth, Zadie Smith 2000 - DNF August 2023

Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 - Powerful and important. 4.5/5 stars

The Overstory, Richard Powers 2018 - The first 150 pages are some of the best writing I've ever read. It was less effective for me after that, but was a lovely book overall. 4/5 stars (5+/5 for the first 150 pages)

Evicted, Matthew Desmond 2016 - Thoughtful, well-researched, and I still think about a lot of the scenes, particularly from when he went to eviction court. 4.5/5 stars

Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 2017 - I am haunted (no pun intended) by this book. I think about it all the time. I think I like it more than I did at the time of reading it. 5/5 stars

The Sellout, Paul Beatty 2015 - Mixed feelings having read this, but I'm probably a better person for having read it. 3.5/5 stars

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 2000 - Slow to start, but eventually turned into something. I liked Moonglow a lot more. 3/5 stars

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 2017 - Unrelentingly bleak, but I'm glad I read this. 4/5 stars

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 - I did not care for this book at all. 1.5/5 stars

The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 2016 - Innovative and interesting, but I didn't love it. 3/5 stars

My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2012 - I don't need to tell you that I love this book, do I? 5/5 stars

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Do you have a giant vein in your forehead that sticks out? Have you read any of the "Best Books of the 21st Century"? 

CBBC: The Vote Is In

 

The vote is in, friends. We will be reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith for our next Cool Bloggers Book Club! Thanks to everyone who voted.

I imagine most of you will get an ebook or a copy from the library, but there are free online options that are available (at least in the United States). There's a pretty good scan on Archive that I would recommend. 

Here's the schedule as I see it for now:

August 5: Chapters 1-6
August 12: Chapters 7-10
August 19: Chapters 11-14
August 26: Chapters 15-16
September 2: Wrap-up

That's roughly 60-70 pages a week, which seems like it's fast enough for us to get momentum every week, but it will really only take us a month to read the whole book.

Who's on board?