About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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April 20, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Winter! December 21 through March 19
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What I read
Terry Pratchett
Unseen Academicals (Amazon, IndieBound). When the world is too much, you just need Pratchett.
All the RWA nonsense (in Reno in 2005) and over the 2019 Christmas holidays made me have a look into romances to support the decent writers. I’ve mostly avoided the romance genre through the years because I wasn’t interested in books with HEA built in but you know what? With the world being what it is right now, that’s now something I appreciate! Clearly everyone had the same thought in my town because all of Courtney Milan’s books were checked out 🙂 Also Jeannette Ng interrogated something about romances of more than ten years ago that makes a lot of sense to me now – basically, the older romances defined love in a narrowly Western way that I didn’t recognize or didn’t resonate with me. Today’s are more varied and nuanced. So fittingly, I had a whirlwind romance with romances.
Sherry Thomas
The Luckiest Lady in London (Amazon, IndieBound)
The One in My Heart (Amazon, IndieBound)
The Hidden Blade (Amazon, IndieBound)
Jade Lee
What the Groom Wants (Amazon, IndieBound)
What the Bride Wore (Amazon, IndieBound)
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April 17, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. Weekends seem to be the time for my body to say NOPE THAT IS ENOUGH and I have to crawl back into bed for several more hours of lying down. PiC and JB are understanding, thankfully, and with no work to do aside from basic survival like eating and walking the dogs, it’s not so bad for them either. At age 5, JB is reasonably independent and I can rely on them to responsibly watch a bit of TV, turn it off as agreed, then report back in for other activities.
2. PBSKids.org yielded a treasure trove of lovely printables with activities we could do. We took the Spring Color Wheel for a walk and JB stopped every ten steps to draw another plant they saw that fit into our color wheel.
3. TMobile’s freebies this week included a free postcard, designed and mailed for free, so I shot a photo postcard off to a loved one who is sheltering in place alone. It was super easy, didn’t require an account, and I loved it.
Challenges this week: Stress is trying to eat me alive so it’s made me feel sicker than usual, my appetite is all off, and so is my sleep. BOO. I keep saying I won’t stress about PiC’s job and I’m saying it again but it’s mostly to try to keep the stressing low.
4. I found my Very Old iPad, and the charging cord, but not the charger adapter. I repurposed an old one in hopes that it’ll bring the tablet back to life but I’m not sure I remember my password anymore! Oh dear. But I may have to reformat the whole thing anyway judging by this error message:
5. Finally! Put the last stamp on the 6th envelope that needs to go out today. We have belated birthday cards, Easter cards, and other letters to loved ones that have been piling up on my sideboard because I haven’t had time to walk them to the mailbox. We’re shipping a box of goodies to sick homebound family and that means I can schedule a pick up for the box AND the regular mail. Yay. We also ran into our postperson on their regular rounds and they confirmed that they were getting the masks they needed to do their job more safely. I’m glad. They are good people.
6. I’ve been wanting to do ice cream in a bag with JB and was excited to find this post on it but dismayed that we need half and half for it or some equivalent. We only have fat free milk right now.
:: How are you keeping healthy and occupied?
April 16, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Ali and Alison are making plans within plans within plans as they face the ever-shifting circumstances of COVID-19 as nomads. I appreciate this level of planning.
Hmong conference radio, a fascinating look into how Hmong preserve connections.
It looks like the lack of people at the zoo is making some animals sad!
I find it rather monstrous when people insist that our values should be primarily about the money and getting businesses “back to normal” because “some people are going to die anyway”. And it definitely seems like this contrarian is cherry-picking data to suit his goals.
How To Enjoy Working From Home During A Pandemic (A Parody): Don’t think I haven’t been tempted by #1.
As a parent and a manager, I’ve had this question on my mind: how can we make sure flexibility for parents isn’t unfair to everyone else? My solution boils down to: no matter what kind of flexibility you need, you get it. If it’s kid related, you’re fine. If it’s family related, you’re fine. If you need time to hunt and gather, you’re fine. I don’t care why specifically my team may need the flexibility because it doesn’t matter. PANDEMIC. They’re all doing their work to the best of their abilities, and when they need something, they get it. Some will need more, some will need less. It shouldn’t matter if it’s not exactly the same as long as everyone gets what they need, when they need it, the way they need it. No one is asked to cover for anyone else unless it’s truly necessary and if it is, we share out the work as much as possible so no one person is impacted. Because that’s the point of fairness. Right?
I hope none of my readers experience job loss during this terrible time, but if you do, or if you don’t feel prepared for a recession, One Frugal Girl’s post is a good primer for what to do.
Pizza groundhog
April 14, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
April 13, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Weeks 3 and 4 of shutdown in the Bay Area.
This is a record of our weekdays. We are attempting to set up the occasional video call with other kids so that they can socialize that way.
Week 3, Day 1: Why are Mondays always just the worst? They just are. It’s not even that I dread work, it’s just the day always starts off with me feeling physically slow and sluggish and often also mentally slow and sluggish. My 5yo coworker also complained of being tired but they mostly didn’t want to leave the cozy bed. Me neither, kiddo. Evidently my Monday woes stem from not feeling well on Sunday carrying over. I had to crash for the morning for a while. JB brought their art to hang out bedside with me and narrated their art projects for an hour. I mumbled barely coherent responses most of that hour, they didn’t care.
Seamus just keeps on trying to force us all to be in the same room together.
Week 3, Day 2: Our leadership has confirmed that they think we should be financially ok for several months and no one should be worried about layoffs and that is a huge relief. I’m so grateful to know that I just have to worry about making it day to day with our million concerns and not about losing this job. I was definitely not lucky in job security during the Great Recession so I have a great deal of empathy for the people losing their jobs now.
Since they could be wrong, since we can only make our best guesses on the information we have now and that keeps changing (and is likely inaccurate), I’m doing a lot of balancing of our budget day to day to both be supportive of the local economy and communities in distress and to bolster our own finances.
We’re looking at all the ways we can put cash back in our pockets: requesting our cash back from cash back sites, submitting requests for our dependent day care reimbursements, following up on FSA reimbursements, requesting refunds for services that won’t be rendered for a while from very large corporations that can bear the costs, filing our federal tax return now (we’re due a small refund).
This cash gathering is to balance our spending ahead on services we won’t be getting from smaller businesses until much later to try and help keep them afloat.
Other places that need help:
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April 10, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
1. Brain therapy was tough and good. I found it hard to agree that I should be kinder to myself, that I deserved to let my body rest without being harsh about it letting me down when I inevitably need way more rest than I think is “normal” or “acceptable” after a certain amount of activities.
Challenges this week: A loved one is going through a really terrible time with their abuser. They’re trying to get out and stay out but the outlook isn’t good for the vulnerable children, the adults in the legal system are NOT standing up for them the way the parent trying to escape is trying to get them to, and they definitely don’t understand how bad it’s going to get. It’s beyond infuriating. PiC’s job is now potentially in jeopardy and THAT is frightening and infuriating.
2. I treated myself to Seanan McGuire’s Imaginary Numbers on Kobo (Amazon) (IndieBound). I am really trying to like Kobo but it is taking a bit of getting used to.
3. Our friends are getting a puppy and this means I get puppy pictures and videos!! I love puppies. I love other people getting puppies and doing the work so I can enjoy them without the work.
4. I learned a new word: kakistocracy. Yeah. That’s what we’re in. (more…)
April 9, 2020
If you’d like to join me in helping Lakota families and/or rural libraries this year, please read this post. Over 6 weeks in 2019, we raised $2669.94 for the Lakota families, touching 27 lives. What can we do in 2020?
Current total: Lakota, $640.74; Rural libraries, $321.62.
Middle Class Revolution remembering being caught up in the liar loan euphoria
Mush! Dog Team Delivers Supplies To Elderly Residents Shut In By Virus
I loved this (thanks Cloud!): Tips From Someone With Nearly 50 Years Of Social Distancing Experience
PiC and I are having a small difference of interpretation. Our parks permit us to go walking through them, per the city’s ordinance on their website, and people are going there an staying 20+ feet away from each other or more. So he thinks it’s safe to take JB for a bit of an outing and I want him to. But, I also don’t trust the police to act right. What would you do?
I feel down a YouTube rabbithole and found this clip of Emily Blunt briefly singing with the Backstreet Boys. That really took me back to senior year and the busload of boys who sang the entire Backstreet Boys repertoire on the way home from a field trip.
I spent way too much time thinking about the logistics of this awesomeness:
Are supermarket cash registers now so advanced they can ring through transactions without payment entered? My experience many years ago was that you had to either complete the transaction with a chosen payment type or back it out completely if you had to move on to another customer. I’m imagining Tyler Perry walking in with a dozen personal credit cards and handing one to each cashier to ring up all the customers. I love that image.
My current theory is they’re ringing it all through as cash payments without taking payment, and handing over the receipts for reimbursement later. Like I said, way too much time on the logistics. I’m happy that people are helping people.
I’d be happier if the CDC wasn’t issuing guidance that will lead to more sick people.
Three dogs and a cat