Category Archives: Uncategorized

Today was the last day of Puppy Kindergarten. Lizzie is 5 months, a couple weeks. Home for 2 months and a bit. Erik, Lizzie and I were the only students who showed up for the review/graduation today, so we just got an hour of personalized attention from the proprietor. I’m fully all-in on her worldview.Continue reading “Lizzie Doggins at 25 Weeks”

This year’s big summer project is a complete redo of the back yard. My neighborhood is hilly, and my house sits about at the level of my back neighbor’s roof. There’s a short retaining wall original to the 1950s builds, but it was insufficient. My back yard was rapidly eroding away, and taking the backContinue reading “Backyard Reno: Regrade & Fence”

Yesterday was Summer Solstice. I’d recently commissioned a leaf sculpture from a friend, and I got to take it home yesterday! What perfect timing. I set it up on a little improvised plinth near a wild corner of the garden, where the volunteer honeysuckle grows. I wanted it to be a little altar where IContinue reading “Midsummer 2023”

Erik has given me such a gift, in this garden. He encouraged me in my interest. He has had absolute confidence, and continues to hype how awesome this is going to be. He has always said “yes” and “do more”. And he has put in so much labor to make it happen. This garden, truly,Continue reading “Making a Garden: Part 2 – Construction”

It is an early Spring cleaning day at Ahu TongEriki… Our annual household holiday (the Ascension of St. Marlin) is coming up this week, and we will be hosting our traditional dinner. That, in itself, is a story for another time. I focused on deep cleaning the library — pulling out all the tchotchkies andContinue reading “Early Spring Cleaning Day”

I often feel like I struggle to find good meal ideas. The internet was once useful; now it’s a wasteland of ad-clogged SEO pages. Anyway, last night I needed to do Something With Pork, and came to the idea of mustard. Ended up with a nice recipe from Kitchn, which is a pretty reliable sourceContinue reading “Dinner: Mustard Cider Pork”

In October of 2020, I started actually meaningfully tracking my spending — not a habit I’d managed to build consistently as an adult. But it stuck! And now, two years on, I’m still meticulously tracking everything I spend. In March of 2022, Erik and I bought a house and merged finances, and I applied thoseContinue reading “2022 Budget Retrospective”

On occasion, folks ask some variation of “How do estate sales actually work?” I get it! Before I started dating Erik, I felt similarly. I didn’t really know what estate sales were, or how they worked. You … had to wait in line and get a number? Was it like an auction? What are theContinue reading “Estate Sales: How and Why”

Just before the pandemic began (as a worldwide phenomena — the virus was already active), I attended Leadership Lincoln’s day on Health. As one of the activities, we visited the idea of a Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) — a mental health treatment tool. I wrote about it in depth on Facebook (post is friendslocked,Continue reading “Mental Health in January of 2021”