I told you that I’m going to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my friend Marilee in St. Catharine’s. Well, I decided that I wanted something new to wear, as it would also come in handy for Ted’s work holiday party. People get dressed up, and I end up wearing the same thing over and over again. So I went shopping last week. Something kind of dressy, I thought…I’ll go to Nordstrom. I don’t wear dresses anymore, because I can never find shoes that look good with dresses that work with my feet these days. I refuse to be in pain. So a nice blouse was in order. I wandered around and…

Now that you’re (almost) caught up with my books (I finished one and started another yesterday, both on audio), I’ll catch you up on other things around Chez J. Remember our new dishwasher, named ASKO? Well, Ted and I (mostly Ted) unclogged it on Wednesday, and it ran cleanly on Thursday, and I wrote last week’s post…and then on Friday it threw the same error about trouble with the outtake, and it wouldn’t run a complete cycle. CRAP. What is this, you might ask? It’s a little piece of zip tie. I took a picture on a piece of paper so you could have an idea of how small it…

The cartoon above looks random, but it is not entirely random, because while I do not plan to be singing on an airplane, I will soon be on an airplane! In October, I’m going to go visit my friend Marilee in upstate New York, and then visit a few friends in NE Ohio. Exciting! I wanted to go further west to Chicago or maybe Wisconsin, because I know some awesome folks there (you guys), but it turned into too much driving, right in the middle of the week while everyone would be at work and doing kid things, so I’m limiting this trip, this time. I am thinking of all…

AKA, your weekly dose of randomness, this time on Saturday. Perhaps I could have made a Friday Randomness post, even though I didn’t write anything on Thursday, because I got up at about 3am yesterday. So gross. Why? Couldn’t sleep. Probably wine, which doesn’t metabolize as well as it used to. Onward. I saw this post the other day and immediately thought of Elisabeth, and how getting away from the dark of Nova Scotia might be helpful in the midst of winter. I mean, she’d be away from home for Christmas, but also, she’d wouldn’t have the work and stress of Christmas. Nicole recently shared a picture of her bookmark…

OK, it’s Friday afternoon and I haven’t even been keeping up with my own comments on this blog, let alone coming to your place. I will say that I just went to a couple of blogs, Engie’s and Sarah’s, and I can’t comment there. (Engie, congrats to Dr. BB on his award! Sarah, Minnie’s hair is SO CUTE) I guess it’s a blogger thing? I hope it resolves soon and is simple! Now on to the randomness around here. I’ve taken to grocery shopping online recently, since my newest credit card gives me 3x points if I purchase online instead of going inside. It’s a win-win, because this way I…

Why am I suddenly craving eggs? Hmmm. Every once in a while I think about the Flex Hash egg dish I had at Hugo’s in Studio City last May, and wish we lived closer to Los Angeles. Those were some seriously good eggs, but 6 hours each way is a long drive for breakfast. Ready for some Friday Randomness? Here we go. Life can be a lot sometimes. I’ve been thinking a lot about the wild horses being rounded up and sold to middlemen who then sell them to be slaughtered (which is illegal), and how we have the ability to administer birth control to wild horses via darts, and…

Happy Friday everyone! It has been a busy week for me, so I didn’t get around to writing my normal Friday Randomness in time to post this morning, so hey, afternoon will do! What’s new with J? Let me tell you. I bought a new purse! I got sucked in by this ad on Facebook, and I bought myself a new crossbody purse. What is it about these videos, watching someone load up a bag with a perfect place for everything that I find so satisfying? I don’t know, but I do. I bought it (not through Facebook, I have learned my lesson about counterfeits there) and have had it…

Looks like I didn’t do a Friday Randomness last week, so let’s get caught up. This week uber-creative blogger Michelle and her husband were in San Francisco for a medical appointment (thankfully great news there!), and when they asked if I wanted to pop over for dinner, of course I said yes! As always, meeting a blogger is like meeting a friend, because they ARE a friend, just one that you haven’t met in person before. In this case I got a bonus, because her husband joined us for dinner. It was lovely to get to know them a bit in person, and hear about their very rural life, which…

How is it Friday already? I guess because I did a randomness post on Monday, so it feels like a week has gone by, but clearly not. Whatever. Time for your (sort of) weekly dose of randomness falling from my brain. I had to laugh when I saw that Monday was Sleepyhead Day in Finland. The idea is that the person who sleeps the latest is therefore the laziest, and will be unproductive for the rest of the year. Does throwing them in the water cure them, or punish them? I’m not sure. This year it would have been me, but since I woke up at 5:03, I didn’t think…

I didn’t get around to a Friday Randomness, so you get your randomness on Monday instead. Aren’t you lucky? The picture above is art in Golden Gate Park. They have shut some of the roads off to traffic, which is great but a little disorienting if you used to live there 30+ years ago and think you know where you’re going. When Birchie was here last year, I thought I would drive through the park to pick her up, it’s a beautiful drive that I used to make almost daily on my way to school. Nope. Anyway, when I went to see the Monet exhibit a few weeks ago with…

I missed my Friday Randomness last week. I had things to talk about, but the week got away from me. I’ll try not to blather on too much today, though with these posts, the blather is really the point, right? We celebrated our 33rd anniversary at a very fancy steak place near Union Square in San Francisco, Mastro’s Steak House. The food was delicious, but boy, it was a lot of food. We both wanted the rack of lamb, and had we been paying attention, we would have split an order, because it was 22 oz. Gulp. The baked potato was a pound. Ted’s boss told him that the butter…

I missed a week of randomness. I had things to say, but somehow couldn’t muster myself to come here and say them. So here goes, lots of drivel ahead. June 15th was the anniversary of my mother’s death. Here she is in 1960, a picture for a calendar she made for my Grandma for a Christmas gift, where she dressed up in different costumes for each month. She was 18 and found herself to be hilarious. I find her hilarious too. These anniversaries are tough, and her loss is tied closely with the loss of my dad too. When she died in 2008, it was Father’s Day, so when I…

Happy Friday everyone! Quick Friday 5 today. I don’t have pictures for everything, so I am going to pepper this post with some random photos of suburban California flowers. I don’t remember where I heard about this book, but it was in my TBR on Libby, so when I found myself looking for something to listen to, I gave it a try. DNF. I do not DNF often, especially with audiobooks. I realized that I was about 30 percent in, and I just could not care less what happened next. It’s a western tale, about a Union soldier after the Civil War on the hunt for the man who killed…

Another week of randomness. I feel like the most random thing I saw this week was the woman in front of me in the checkout line at the grocery store, paying with a check. I remember when I used to carry my checkbook in my wallet, for decades of my life. Now the only time I write a check is to send money for birthdays or graduations, and that doesn’t always work. My bff’s son has a check from me that he’s had for about 18 months. Will he ever cash it? It’s probably lost at this point. Which reminds me, I have two graduations this spring, I’d better write…