Weekly recap + what we ate: Soggy soggy week

Well that was a very full weekend! The weekend started Friday with a trip to Toby’s Dinner Theatre, and it was so much fun! We went to see Summer, a juke-box musical about Disco Queen Donna Summers. Dinner Theatre and Juke Box musicals aren’t usually something on my radar, but a friend of ours plays in the pit, and he got us a ticket discount, so we decided to take the whole family (including my parents). I’d never been to Toby’s before, but my work BFF was telling me that she went every year with her family and she couldn’t believe it was still around. The particular dinner theatre is performed with the audience sitting on all sides. When you walk into the space, there are different levels with dinner tables and chairs set up and a buffet and salad bar on the ground level. (And an ice cream bar in the lobby!) At around 7:15pm, people started clearing away the buffet and salad bar, sweeping and mopping the floor, clearing the tables, etc. And at 7:55pm the show started in the space that previously was the buffet area.

a plate of salad sitting next to a program. The program reads Toby's dinner theatre. Summer: The Donne Summer Musical.
Salad and rolls and theatre program.

As we are waiting for the the show start there is a host who gives the standard safety announcement and then gives shout outs. He goes around and calls out all the birthdays and anniversaries that are being celebrated that night and has a whole patter routine with the celebrants. The patter was hilarious and heartwarming and he always ended by wishing each person, “Good life, good laughter.” We were there to celebrate both our newly minted 7 year old, but also my parent’s anniversary. (Actually, their birthday too! They have the same birthday and they got married on that date.) I had never done the math, so I was a little shocked when my father told the host that they had been married for 53 years. Fifty-three! Wow. Good life, and good laughter, indeed.

And then the show really began. One of the fun things about dinner theatre is that the waiters who serve you dinner before the show are the actors onstage during the show. To be honest, it was a little jarring at first to see the guy who brought us our drinks an hour before, now onstage singing and dancing. We did get a little preview because he brought the 7 year old a special dessert and sand Happy Birthday to her. At intermission, the performers threw on bathrobes over their costumes and brought us our intermission drinks and the bill. I think, though, that’s part of the family feel of Toby’s Dinner Theater – the folksy humor, the “all hands on deck” feel of how the place operates. Everyone is working very very hard to make sure the patrons have a good time.

I thought the show was really well done – the space is small and in the round so it felt very immersive. (The theatre is really not that big – and in fact, it is going to be torn down at the end of the year because they are opening a new facility next door come 2027. ) The singing and dancing was full of energy and you could see everything super close because of the layout of the theatre. I think I’ve always thought of dinner theatre as cheesy and never thought about going, but you know what… I was wrong. Of course it might be cheesy, but it’s a really good time.

Saturday morning was activity free – the 14 year old’s voice teacher was out of town, and the 7 year old’s gymnastics class is cancelled whenever there is a home football game because the gym is on the campus of the University of Maryland. I guess on paper that would bring us a bit of breathing room to start the weekend, but after our weekly family meeting, it felt like I spent the rest of the morning with laundry, chores, and various tasks. In the afternoon, the two younger kids had a birthday party to go to so after dropping them, I went to the library near by to work on some supertitles for an upcoming gig. I’ve been having a hard time finding time to focus on work at home, so it was nice to go to the library where the distractions were fewer.

In the afternoon, the 14 year old wanted to go to the mall with her friends. (I mean the Shopping Mall, not the National Mall… I feel like I do have to specify that given where we are and all that.) The two major malls near are about to pass a 3pm curfew. Which means us that after 3pm, if you are under 18 years old, you must have a chaperone/parent/guardian with you who is 21 or older. THREE O’CLOCK in the afternoon!!! I’m so irked that my kids will not have the mall rat experience. The curfew is understandable because of some shenanigans (and then some) that have been going on lately at the mall – some of which I understand were quite violent. The mall is just trying to protect their businesses and patrons. But even still….

Anyhow, the 14 year old didn’t really have much interest in roaming the mall with her teenage friends prior to the news of the curfew, but I think she figured she should experience that which is about to be taken away from her. So on Saturday she went to the Mall with some of her friends. Near as I can tell, they browsed some stores, she had sticker shock as to how much clothes really cost, and she had some food and boba.

Saturday night we went to our favorite dumpling house for dinner, ate way too much and came home and collapsed in food comas. The 14 year old, the Husband and I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls and then a Kathleen Madigan comedy special. The latter was very funny.

Sunday morning was again one of those stretches that on paper seems empty, but somehow got filled with laundry, and dishes, and chores, and throwing a football around with the 9 year old. I had wanted to go to the park or ride bikes with the kids in the morning, but the weather was kind of grey and drizzly all day. Is this the start of autumn? I mean it is technically autumn now, but it feels like a switch flipped in the past couple of days and we went from scorching heat to grey and damp. The kids are wearing pants! PANTS!! I put on pants too. Pants always seems like a seasonal marker.

Sunday late morning, we spent two hours in spitting rain watching the 9 year old play flag football. This is a new activity for him – I signed him up for flag football because trying to figure out soccer made my brain hurt. The weather was gross but not bad enough to cancel the game. (They only cancel for Thunder). Props to everyone who stuck it out. I had my large golf umbrella with me, and I stood on the sidelines holding it over the kids who were waiting to go in. Our team was soundly trounced, but I think that’s okay when you have a team that’s played together for two weeks (us) playing against a team that has been together for five years (them.) The 9 year old seems to like Flag Football; he likes playing defense and chasing people down.

After we got back from flag football we had an hour or so to decompress, eat lunch and then we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for the (now!) seven year old’s birthday party. We had gotten the low frills party package – basically game cards and a reserved table – no host or extras, and we ordered pizza separately. But there were three other birthday parties going on at the same time so we did get visited by the person in the giant mouse suit, took part in the dance party, and the 7 year old got to do the ticket blaster. I find Chuck E. Cheese over stimulating, but I think the kids all had a great time. It’s funny how exhausting a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party can be, even though we didn’t do much other than say hello and hand out the game cards. (Also pro tip that I didn’t realize until after the fact – you can pause your game card. I wish I had known this because we spent 30-40 minutes eating pizza and cake and then afterwards only had 15 minutes left on our card to play. Next time, I’ll have folks pause their game cards so they extend the time available after cake.)

The 7 year old in the ticket blaster. She was smart and figured out that it was easier to grab the tickets that were on the floor than the ones flying through the air.

I did go into the photobooth – we didn’t get the the whole family into the photo booth this year – the 9 year old couldn’t be pried from playing Halo – but we got the Husband and his girls, and I got into the photobooth with my mom and the oldest. I think the Photobooth is my favorite thing at Chuck E. Cheese.

We came home and I’m writing this post while supervising the 7 year old as she opens presents and writes thank you cards. We’ve been miserable failures at getting the kids to write Thank You Cards, so I’m very determined this time that the cards will be written as the presents are opened. Wish us luck.

Other Things This Past Week:

–The youngest kid turned 7! The actual day of her birthday was quite busy with activities, so we had her favorite dinner (Ama’s chicken wings, steamed green beans, and tater tots) and then after everyone got back from activities we had strawberry shortcake. Happy Birthday to this smart, bold, fearless, happy kid. We’re so lucky you’re part of our family.

–The NY Times came out with ANOTHER List – 100 Best TV shows of the 21st Century -which seems a little presumptuous because we’re barely a quarter of the way into the 21st century, so it seems a little early to say. But hey – it’s a fun exercise and I’m sure it gets them lots of clicks. Here’s a link to the list, if you’re interested. ANYHOW… I haven’t seen very many of these shows – (I’ve seen 22 of the 100. And that’s just seen at least one episode, not “seen’ in any kind of completist way.) – but I have quibbles. It seems that the list leans heavily towards shows featuring a lonely anti-hero, solitary existentialism, and trauma leveraged for entertainment. Let’s see – the top five are: Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Succession, Fleabag.

I haven’t seen Fleabag or Breaking Bad, but the other shows are shows that I find deeply unpleasant to watch. Not that they aren’t compelling in their own way. Not that I wasn’t sucked in to them. But in the end, they all feature some pretty demoralizing things happening to people.

Life is hard enough – I don’t need to spend my free time watching horrible people doing horrible things to each other.

I mean where is Bluey on this list? I think Bluey is quite brilliant, actually.

Or Brooklyn 99? Or Parenthood? Or Younger?

Clearly I don’t have very refined tastes.

–The absolute heartbreakingly bonkers situation of the closing of the Kennedy Center. In case you haven’t heard, the Kennedy Center has had an embattled past year or so, ever since Donald Trump fired the President and the chairman of the board and appointed himself chairman of the board instead. Things have gone downhill since then – his name went on the building. Ticket sales plummeted. Entire departments were gutted. The name came off the building (court ordered). He’s trying to find ways to put his name back on the building. And then last week, the Center was closed, citing dangerous conditions. It’s all so bonkers.
This is a place that I’ve considered my work home for over twenty years. I’ve spent a large chunk of my working life there. I’ve met the best people there – backstage and onstage. It’s where I’ve seen so many great performances, where my kids and my parents have seen so many great performances. One of the Husband and my first dates were there. My oldest has performed on the stage there. And to have the place be shut down is bewildering and gut-wrenching. I’m so mad that our President doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of a national arts center, or of a place being a living memorial that honors a dead president. To have my industry be so fundamentally misunderstood is so very very frustrating. But also … I find it baffling that he cares – there are so many other issues he could go piss on (and that he does). Why deny people the opportunity to experience the Arts? All to say, the whole thing is pretty devastating to watch.

–On a happier note – did you see that the Mayor of New York is giving away free opera tickets to New Yorkers who haven’t been to the opera since 2019? This is government involvement in arts done right.

–These enormous grapes. On another happier note – I was at HMart last week and saw there enormous grapes. Of course I bought a bag to try out and there are SO good! They are crisp and juicy and sweet. I googled it and apparently these grapes are only in season in August and September, which means we’re near the end of seeing them in stores. I’ll have to remember for next year. I might have bought at least ten lbs of these grapes in the past week. We’ve been polishing off a bag a day. Good thing they were on sale at HMart for 2.99/ lb!

a bag of green grapes.

–This article was an interesting read: How to Raise a Son Who is Boring and Unattractive to Women. I mean that title is click bait right there. The author does acknowledge that he is writing from a certain culturally specific ideal, but I think he does make a good point about the importance of being well rounded. There is a certain privileged bourgeoise nature to his criteria – not everyone is going to be able to afford a piano let alone lessons – but I really like his idea of teaching kids to have lots of interests – boys who don’t just do sports, but boys who also find a pathway in the arts – and raising kids who can talk to adults and who can read. I think, though, more important than the reading, is a sense of curiosity. I had forwarded the article to a friend who is deep in the trenches of dating and she said that worse than boring men are the narcissistic men who are only interested in themselves. I don’t think this article applies only to men, but to humanity in general (again, hierarchy of needs and all that…). When we have casting calls at work and the ratio of boys to girls is 1:8, it makes me a little sad that boys aren’t being encouraged to participate in the arts the way girls are. Anyhow, food for thought.

Grateful For:
-My back up car flannel. I keep one of the Husband’s old plaid flannel shirts in the car in case anyone needs an extra layer. And oh boy, last week, that layer was needed. I left the house, blissfully thinking that it was still summer. It was not. It was so very cold. I’m glad I keep this flannel in the car for those moments.

-The now 7 year old. What a brighter world this is for her being in it!

-That is rained and took the humidity out of the air, replacing it with bracingly crisp autumn breezes.

-The Husband driving us to and from Monticello safely. (Monticello recaps coming soon!). I don’t like driving so I’m always grateful that he wants to do all the driving on our road trips.

-Happy Hour with my bus stop moms. I’m grateful we could squeeze in one last gathering before my schedule got super busy.

-My bike! There was one day I drove to work and it took twice as long as normal because there was a lot of construction. The next day, I rode my bike and it was faster and I got a good workout. I was realizing that my bike is

-My Parents’ visit. My father is 82 and my mother is 77 and I sometimes take it for granted that they are still active and able to visit and hang out with the kids. Their minds are still sharp and engaged and I feel so lucky to have them with us still.

Looking Forward To:
-The Stage Managers are coming! A New Show Is Starting! My work is starting to ramp up – I’m excited, but also a little bit nervous about what’s coming up for us.

-Hair cut. I like to get my hair cut before I start a new show so I have an appointment for this week. Looking forward to having bangs again.

-Trombone! The 9 year old starts instrumental music at school this week. He’s picked the trombone. The Husband plays the baritone – I’m looking forward to hearing then play duets. I’m really glad the 9 year old’s school is still committed to music for the students.

-Hallowe’en costumes. I bought fabric for the kids’ costumes and I’ve cut the patterns for one of the pieces. I’m rubbish at cutting patterns – that’s the hardest part for me. I’m glad that’s over and I’m looking forward to the actual sewing part for the first garment I’m making. Wish me luck.

– Reading more of this book – it’s kind of a twist on Jane Eyre, set in Old Hollywood. Jury is out on it so far – it’s got a confusing dual timeline thing going on – but I do love a Jane Eyre re-telling.

What We Ate:

Monday – we got home from our trip. No one was particularly hungry since we had had a huge lunch on the way home, so it was kind of scrounge and snack as you will.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. Chicken and black bean tacos – meat pulled from the freezer.

Wednesday: Ama’s Chicken wings, steamed green beans, tater tots – the 7 year old’s requested birthday dinner. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Strawberry shortcake w/ fresh whip cream and strawberries. so tasty!

Thursday: Spicy Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili from NY Times Cooking. Our friend had given us his CSA for the week since he was going to be gone and there was a lot of sweet potatoes. This was tasty and we have plenty left over for the freezer. Vegan.

Friday: Toby’s Dinner Theatre. There was so much food at the buffet.

Saturday: Dinner out at our favorite dumpling house.

Sunday: The 7 year old’s birthday party – Pizza at Chuck E. Cheese. Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen. I had a turkey sandwich when I got home. Why is there something so deeply satisfying about a sandwich? Just bread, cheese, meat, mustard – so simple and satisfying to eat.

That’s it for this week! Can you believe the end of the week is October??? Turning the corner into the last quarter of the year!

Were you ever a mall rat? Have you ever been to a dinner theatre? Or Chuck E. Cheese? What kind of things do you keep in the car in case of emergency?

(bi, er… tri)Weekly recap + what we ate: Labor Day Weekend 2026 and more

And then I see the end of September just around the corner. Not sure when that happened. It’s been a bit since I wrote a re-cap post, so this might be a little bit of a brain dump. September has been kind of quietly inefficient for me. I’m only working 5-10 hours a week. The other day, the Husband asked me, “What do you do all day?” And I can’t really say where the time goes. I mean aside from the one morning that I ignored everything to finish Nora Goes Off Script….

Let’s see in this period of underemployment….

-I make dinner without feeling like I’m in a rush, even when we have to eat at the dot of 5pm so people can get to activities.

-I spend hours researching how I’m going to make the kids’ Hallowe’en costumes.

-I walk the kids to the bus and then go for a run afterwards, or even just walk the long way home.

-I even got to bike with the kids to school a few times.

-I bake muffins.

-I replace the torn screens on six of our windows. All by myself. This is actually quite easy to do; it took less than ten minutes per window.

-I have spent more time scrolling the internet than I should. Internet rabbit holes are my nemesis and always make me feel…. blergh-y. It is ironic how much time I spend reading blogs and articles online about maximizing productivity since it is precisely reading blogs and articles about productivity that is keeping me from being productive.

-Also clearly I haven’t been blogging a lot. This is one area I would like to be more disciplined about. Not because I think I have incredible content that must be pushed out into the world, but more because it’s a creative outlet and I like to try to do something creative every day in a routine way.

Anyhow, things are going to change because I’m on to a 20 hour a week (paid) work schedule starting this week. Which doesn’t sound like a lot of time in the office, but it means being in the office approximately 10:30a – 3:30pm. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for other, non-paid things. Maybe I can get a run in before work, or declutter one thing. Run one errand. Maybe it will make me more efficient. Or maybe it will stress me out and I will revenge bedtime procrastinate even more.

And then in October, I’m back in rehearsal and it’s game over then for leisure time. To be honest, I’m kind of dreading October until the end of the year. It’s going to be a really exhausting time at work, I can tell already. Usually when work ramps up, family is the first things that falls by the wayside and I want to figure out how to not let that happen this year. I will ponder….

On to other happenings….

Ever since the school year has shifted to starting before Labor Day, I’ve always felt like the holiday has come a very inconvenient time. We get momentum from starting school then… whoa. Here’s a long weekend to throw the routines out of wack.

The past couple of years, Labor Day Weekend has meant Maryland Renaissance Festival. They have a new ticketing system this year where tickets are released in two batches – one set in July and one set the Monday before the weekend. It was a little confusing, because if you check for tickets mid week it will look like everything is sold out. And then you will be sad. I guess I understand – last year tickets were being sold on re-sale sites for 3 or 4 times what they cost. All to say, the new ticketing system was very confusing and I was worried we wouldn’t get tickets. So couple weeks ago when I saw that a batch of tickets had ben released for Labor Day, I snatched them up.

On the day, I managed to get everyone out of the house by 9:00am and we got to the Renn Faire around 9:50am, then it took us another 15 minutes to get through the gates – it was very crowded. Aside from the 6 year old’s floral crown, no one got dressed up this year – we just went as we were.

Friends, I love going to the Renn Faire SO MUCH. As we were walking up to the gate, I was struck with a giddy sense of excitement for the day ahead. “I love this more than Christmas,” I sad to the kids. “It’s just as fun and I don’t have to cook!”

It was a really good day. We saw all our favorite shows – acrobatics, juggling, physical comedy, music. We saw the jousting twice; there are three jousting show throughout the day and we always go see more than one because there is a narrative arc built into the day.

We heard some new to us musicians – isn’t music grand? I don’t know that I’ll ever go to a rock concert or anything on that scale, but I do love listening to and seeing people play music. There were bagpipes! We browsed the shops – the 9 year old bought a battle axe that is over half his size. We ate turkey legs and other food and drank lots of Pepsi because it was super hot.

On the matter of hydrating – I made kind of a critical mistake this time. Last year water bottle fillers were installed, which was great. In previous years I always brought two big bottles of water with me because you had to bring sealed water. Well now with the bottle fillers, I thought I’d just bring my small Nalgenes and not weigh myself down so much. Well that was a bit of a mistake because the lines for the water filler were soooooo long. I think I waited at least 15 minutes each time I went to fill my water bottle. The second time, I did a little thought experiment as I waited in line – “If someone were to walk up to me now, and offer to instantly fill my water bottle for $2, would I do it so I wouldn’t have to stand in line?”

Because that’s the thing – the soda is $2. (It’s not a terrible deal and the soda stands are run by a rotating roster of youth organizations as a fundraiser. So really it’s more liek $3 because I like to tip. “Huzzah for the generous tipper!” they always yell when someone puts money in the tip jar.)

Anyhow, I don’t know what my threshold would be for paying for water vs. spending time standing in line, but I did miss the last few numbers of the bagpipe band, so maybe it would have been worth the $2 to have a cold soda and hear music. I find the internal calculator such a fascianting thing.

Next year, I will bring bigger water bottles. Any maybe also fill them with ice.

We stayed at the Renn Faire til closing, when members of the company sing a last parting song at the gates. Then we got in our cars and wistfully went home, eagerly looking forward to next year.

Because there will always be a next year. The Maryland Renn Festival is 50 years old this year. There were a series of signs up throughout the grounds this year with tidbits of history and blurbs about the people who had performed here over the years. What a beautiful tradition. May it keep going for another fifty.

Other fun things that we’ve been up to so far this month –

-Date Night. The 14 year old’s voice teacher was performing in a production of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, one of my favorite pieces of music. Although I’ve worked on MASS, I’ve never been in the audience for it – it takes a lot of people to put it on, dancers, singers, chorus, children’s chorus, orchestra…. So when I saw that it was being performed, I asked the Husband if he wanted to go. He said yes and it was date night! We even went out to dinner before hand – it was Restaurant Week in DC, so I picked a nearby restaurant from the list of participating restaurants. We ended up at Ottoman Taverna where the tzatziki was melt in your mouth smooth, and pita fluffy, and the meat grilled to perfection.

-One last swim in the pool. Most outdoor pools here close on Labor Day, so we managed to squeeze in one last evening at the pool. It was raft night so people could bring their floaties. I swam laps, we had dinner sitting in Lounge chairs, and we enjoyed on last relaxing poolside evening. I’ve already paid the membership for next summer.

-A Visit from my Cousin and a trip to Glenstone Museum. My cousin and her mom – okay technically her mom is my cousin, but I call them all cousins – were here visiting. I love how they just fold into the family. They help around the house, eat whatever we were planning on eating, cuddle on the couch, and put up with the noise and chaos of three kids with big feelings.

Glenstone Museum. Nature trails leading to a Richard Serra sculpture.

My cousin loves Glenstone Museum, so she got tickets to visit. Glenstone is a museum of contemporary art with several galleries set on 300 acres of land. There is also a restaurant and walking trails and many many outdoor sculptures.

Jeff Koons, seen from a skewed distance. This is a fun sculpture to see throughout the seasons. because the vegetation changes.


This time there was a striking exhibit of works by the artist and activist Andrea Bowers that were centered on issues of body autonomy and environment. There was a room that was papered with letters written to an abortion activist who was known for providing people with a list of abortion providers. It was really heartbreaking, reading all the letters from people – women, men, parents, all desperate for help.
There were some stunning images drawn on canvases made of recycled cardboard, including one that had the tagline, “Women and the Earth have to tolerate a lot.”
I suppose Bowers’ work had a little more politics than I was comfortable with for a sunny Friday afternoon, but I imagine making people confront their discomfort was part of the point.

-Back to School Night, including our first High School Back to School Night. Wow. It’s been a long time since I was in high school so it was a little surreal to once again be wandering hallways, looking for classrooms. It must be so hard this constant sense of change that high school brings – every few months, it’s new teachers, new classrooms, new patterns. I also wondered if my parents ever went to Back To School night? I don’t really remember; I certainly never accompanied them if they did go. But of course, school communication was very different back then. I’m pretty sure schools sending out email communication wasn’t a thing when I was in school.

-I finished watching Starstruck on HBO Max – I really loved this show. It’s about a twenty something woman who has a one night stand with a famous movie star which turns into more, which turns into on again, off again, what am I doing with my life? The show is funny, messy, and filled with just the right amount of existential angst and rom com warm fuzzies.

-I started taking tap dance lessons! I signed up for a seven week class. I feel frumpy and uncoordinated, but there is something very satisfying about intentionally making lots of noise.

-Funny Kid Quote: I asked the kids the classic question of if they would rather be a big fish in a little pond, or a little fish in a big pond. The six year old replied, “I want to be in a big pond so I can have the whole pond to myself!”

Grateful For:
-The Maryland Renaissance Festival. Every year we go, I just feel so lucky that we have the country’s best Ren Faire so close to us.

-My (former) work colleague C, who has now gone on to bigger and better things. She was so brilliant at her job, always logical and clear-eyed, and handled very difficult situations with grace and tact. I’m sorry to see her go, but I’m glad that she’s on to fulfill other dreams. I’m so glad I got to work with her.

-Music. Especially when it’s played in the car very loudly and everyone sings along.

-Free Bus Ride. The local county bus is free to ride. I had some errands to run the other day, and decided to take the bus. It was so easy to just get on and find a seat. I find this is a lovely use of my tax dollars.

-On that note – car free days. This year, the kids’ bus stop is less than a ten minute walk from our house. And then last week I was able to take the Metro to work. And then because there were no kid activities that evening – I managed to have a car free day. Driving always stresses me out, so I’m always happy to leave the car at home if I can. I realize I am very lucky to have a car to use when I need to, but I am also grateful that I can have a day here and there where I can just get on the metro and read my book.

-The 14 year old taking over some of her own communications. She had to re-schedule a voice lesson the other day, so I asked her to email her voice teacher, and she did. It seems pretty cool that she’s now of an age that she can take care of these things for herself and I don’t have to be the middle person.

-That my grandfather is home. My mother was supposed to come to visit last week, but then my grandfather in Taiwan went to the hospital, so she went to Taiwan to be with him instead. She’ll spend a few days with him then come to us. My grandfather got to go home not soon after my mom arrived, and we Face Timed with him briefly. I guess he was okay since they discharged him. My grandfather is 101 (102 if you’re counting the Taiwanese way), so every day with him active and alert seems amazing. I’m grateful for him receiving medical care and then being well enough to go home. I’m grateful that my mother could get on a plane to him. It’s not nothing to be able to purchase an international ticket at the last minute.

Looking Forward To:

– Come From Away! This is one of the Husband’s favorite musicals and we’ve never seen it live. It is being produced at a theatre here this fall so I got tickets for October.

-Monticello. We have a long weekend coming up for school, so we’re going to go to Charlottesville and visit Monticello. My father, who is visiting, has always wanted to go, and it’s not really that far. We’re going to make a two night trip of it and also get some hiking in…. (Note – we’re currently on this trip… recaps coming!)

-Speaking of which …. National Parks! Now that the middle kid is in 4th Grade, we get a free National Parks Pass for the year. We’ll probably take a trip to Shenandoah on the way home from Charlottesville/ Monticello for a half day hike. Closer to us, Great Falls has some really nice hiking along the Potomac. I’ll have to research more. Last time we had a parks pass, we went to the Smoky Mountains.

-A new mattress. We finally went shopping for a new mattress. Our current mattress is maybe 10 years old but it has definite lumps and valleys in it. Shouldn’t a mattress last more than 10 years???? Oh well. I’m looking forward to our new one. This one is flippable, which I ‘m finding is quite rare these days. (Also – side note, as we were wandering through Macy’s we saw an area that was all curtained off. Of course, we were curious, so we took a peek behind the curtains, and what did we see….?

(Christmas is COMING!!!!)

-We also have a new fridge coming. I might have mentioned the conundrum of our old fridge starting to work fine again after we bought a new fridge. Well we couldn’t stop the order and delivery of the new fridge, so the old fridge is getting sent for Recycling by Pepco (our electricity company). It makes me a little sad to get rid of a working fridge, to be honest. Argh. One of those frustrating things in life.

-Gilmore Girls. When Gilmore Girls first came out, I was just out of college and I didn’t have a television. Which, back in 2020, you needed a television to watch TV. (funny, that. Also funny that they still call them TV shows when you don’t need a TV to watch them these days.) So, partly inspired by J, I’ve decided to fill the Gilmore Girls sized gap in my cultural literacy. It feels so cliched, but I’ve been watching with the 14 year old. There are many many many seasons, so it will probably take me a decade to get through this show, but I’m looking forward to it.

-Reading this book – it’s about Taiwan, how could I not pick it up?

And listening to this audiobook:

What we ate: Oh wow – I haven’t post meals since the start of the month…. Okay. So here is three weeks’ worth of meals:

Monday: Pasta and meatballs and garlic bread. The 14 year old cooked. The meatballs were from the freezer – I had made them a while ago.

Taco Tuesday: Cuban Pork Tacos. from the freezer. I also made a pot of black beans to go with. And quick pickled red onions.

Wednesday: Chicken noodle soup, at the request of the kids.

Thursday: Pad Thai – the Husband made. I went to Happy Hour send off for my colleague C.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made at home) and Avatar Last Airbender live action movie from 2010. The movie was not great, but also ended on a cliff hanger, so I’m a little irate that there isn’t a sequel. Also it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which I find fascinating.

Saturday: The Husband and I had dinner out for Date Night. The 14 year old made fried rice at home for her younger siblings.

Sunday: KFC eaten at the pool. Fried Chicken has always struck us as a perfect meal to bring to the pool, but for whatever reason fried chicken never made it on the menu all summer. Until the last day. It was crispy, crunchy, and delicious.

Monday: Ren Faire! We ate fair food and our own snacks throughout the day and weren’t hungry for dinner when we got home.

Taco Tuesday: Freezer Tacos again – the rest of the batch of Cuban Pork Tacos from the freezer that we had eaten last week. (We are in a major “clean out the freezer” phase right now.)

Wednesday: Thai Quinoa Salad. This recipe from Cookie and Kate, only I used coleslaw mix rather than red cabbage – I didn’t want to shred a whole head of cabbage – and I added edamame instead of snow peas for a boost of protein. This was really tasty and packed full of veggies and topped with a peanut dressing. I really needed this injection of vegetables. Vegan.

Thursday – Roasted Salmon and potatoes w/ green beans. The 14 year old cooked.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Aristocats. I had never seen Aristocats before – my cousin picked this movie; when we have guests visiting, we always let our guests pick the movie for pizza and movie night. And truth to tell, I still can’t claim to have seen this movie because I fell asleep about thirty minutes in. It was probably just as well that I fell asleep because afterwards we watched a music video for one of the musical numbers and there were some pretty problematic Asian stereotypes going on with that Siamese Cat. I don’t know… I still get super uncomfortable with slant eyed/ chopstick wielding/ sing song voiced characters in movies. Maybe I should squirm my way through them and have conversations with the kids about how terribly racist people are and how this is not okay to distill entire races down to one or two exaggerated elements. But you know… when I was growing up, kids pulled their eyes into slants at me and I really don’t need to subject myself to that willingly. So… sorry kids, you don’t get to see fake Asians on my watch. You’ll just have to settle for watching other egregious bits of racism – like Peter Pan. (All of this, I realize, makes Breakfast at Tiffany’s kind of difficult because it is, Mickey Rooney aside, one of my favorite movies…. Sigh. The world is complicated.)

Saturday: Butter Chicken with rice and paratha. My cousin brought a spice packet with her when she visited and the kids like chicken.

Sunday: Butternut squash curry with tofu and noodles. I know there’s a fancier name for this dish, but the Husband made it, so I don’t know what the real name is. But it was really tasty. And bonus – he used up a bag of butternut squash that was in the freezer.

Monday: Chicken Parm Pasta. The 14 year old cooked. This meal was very tasty, but more soupy than expected.

Taco Tuesday: We went out to eat because our favorite Mexican restaurant was having music and Taco Tuesday specials.

Wednesday: Soup. I can’t remember, to be honest, but I think this was some kind of soup that I pulled from the freezer and re-heated.

Thursday: Tofu rice bowls. Sort of based on this recipe from NY Times Cooking, only I made the tofu from this recipe, and added edamame and used brown rice. I love a good bowl where each person can craft their own thing. Vegan-ish since I used honey.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Air Bud. It was my father’s turn to pick the movie and he wanted something that was a comedy. After some really inappropriate suggestions (including Booksmart, and something in French), we decided on Air Bud – it’s got dogs AND basketball – something for everyone in our family. I have to admit, I might have teared up more than once during this movie. I hear there are sequels…. Wait I just looked it up. There are FOURTEEN Air Bud movies. Ouf. Not sure if I will make it through all (or any) of them….

Well, that’s the bits and bobs of September so far here… this week is a short school week, and we’ll be celebrating a few birthdays, plus my parents are in town, so that will be fun.

Do you have a favorite National Park? Have you seen any Christmas Decor yet? How much would you pay to not stand in line for 20 minutes to fill your water bottle?

Books Read August 2026

August was such a good reading month! I don’t know what happened, but I read 11 books in August – that’s more books than I ever remember reading in one month, or even two months some times. I would chalk it up to lengthy commute (hence lots of audiobooks) and being on vacation/ under employed and also reading books that I just couldn’t put down.

So many of the books too were excellent reads. My two favorites were Dolly All The Time and Etna, but in any other month, there are easily three other books on this list that would have been a “top read of the month.”

And the Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graf, read by Edoardo Ballerini and a full cast (too many to name here…) – This book is made up of first person accounts surrounding the atomic bomb. I had a strange moment as I was listening to this book. It was July 16th and this being a history book, dates were pretty important. I realized that I was listening to the book on the 81st anniversary to the day that the first atomic bomb test (Trinity) took place – July 16th, 1945. There was something so immediate to know that wow – this is what the world felt like at the time Trinity happened – kids were out of school, the country was in the lazy, hazy days of summer. And most of America was going on with their lives (like I was), and this colossal thing was happening that would change the world. Also it was two months before my father was born. I mean that fact isn’t that important to the world, but somehow it grounded the events in the book. This book covers a huge range of things – from the very science of nuclear fission, through the formation of the Manhattan Project, to the stories from the Japanese people who were on the ground in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The science definitely went over my head, but what kept me listening was the human aspects of the story – the Jewish physicists who fled Nazi Germany to come to America; the hiring decisions; the people who up and moved to work on the atomic bomb project; the towns that were built in Los Alamos NM, Oak Ridge TN, and Hanford WA to support the project – the government built entire towns!!; the day of Trinity and who was there and who had to watch from afar; the pilots who flew the Enola Gay (also – very cool because I’ve seen that plane in the Air and Space Museum here); the doctors on the ground in Japan trying to save people. The survivors. The aftermath. There’s a whole section where people talked about how the decision was made as to which cities to bomb – the seeming disregard for human life in those decisions. I think aside from the science and the war room strategies, this book really sucked me in with the human emotions and thoughts behind the atomic bomb – the joys of scientific discovery and also the crushing grief of loss and destruction.

Dolly All The Time by Annabel Monaghan – This is a fake dating romance that is kicked off when single mom Dolly is persuaded by Stewart, the handsome scion of a Rhode Island family, to be his pretend girlfriend. I am so grateful for whomever stuck this book in a Little Free Library at the pool because I LOVED this book soooo much and I’m really glad to have my own copy to re-read whenever I want. Which has been something like three times already. I stayed up until 4am to finish this book because I really needed to know how everything worked out and this book now has a permanent place on my nightstand. I’ll just randomly pick it up and re-read passages of it because every scene is just so perfect. I don’t much like fake dating, so I was a little skeptical going in. I also don’t really like first person romance novels because the other side of the love equation never comes across as a complete person. Monaghan, however, managed to blow past all my reservations. She writes in such a way that Stewart comes across as a nuanced and vulnerable character, not just some fantasy of Dolly’s. There is a part of this book that is fantasy wish fulfillment – rich guy comes takes care of things for the over-worked, ever responsible and resourceful single mom – but also I really loved how Dolly has to work to figure out so many things for herself about life and family, (and so does Stewart). There’s something about this book that straddles the line between literary fiction and romance; yes, you get the Happily Ever After, but there is also sotry of growth and family- there is more going on than just two people falling in love. At the end, I felt like Dolly will be okay if Stewart never calls her back, even while I kept hoping that he figures his shit out too. Swoony, funny, and oh so satisfying.

Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukess, read by Carlotta Brenton – What a fun premise – When Cath finds out that her estranged dead mother had booked a vacation for the two of them to a murder mystery week in a quaint English village. Stuck somewhat in a rut, she decides to use her mother’s trip to shake up her life a little bit. This is one of those books where I think I enjoyed it more on audio than I would have if I had just read it. The fake murder mystery plot and reveal were cute, but a lot of the characters and plot points seemed a little forced. It’s the kind of thing where the characters were quirky and entertaining to listen to, but they might have really annoyed me if I were reading it. But all in all, this was pretty entertaining, if not wholly memorable.

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser– This is a Cinderella re-telling, told from the Stepmother’s point of view. I feel like Cinderella’s Stepmother falls in the category of cliched unredeemable villains – I couldn’t imagine the world where she comes off as reasonably likable. Well, this book proved me wrong. I really loved this book and how it is such a different look at everyone in the Cinderella story – not just the Stepmother, but also the sisters, the Prince, and Cinderella herself. At it’s core, this is a story about a mother – strong willed and imperfect – trying to raise three girls in a world where women don’t hold any power. The plot never lets up, with secret after secret slowly unspooling and about mid way through the book, it moves from feeling like a fairy tale re-telling to feeling like a fast-paced thriller. Very readable, but also I loved what a story of female empowerment this was.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell – Here’s the thing I’ve come to realize about Maggie O’Farrell after three books – maybe she just isn’t for me. I LOVED Hamnet, thought it was the most beautiful book I’d read in ages. I was meh about The Disappearing Act of Esme Lenox – I thought it was cliched plot wrapped in beautiful writing. And now The Marriage Portrait. Look – she writes beautifully precise prose. Her writing plunges you into a world where you can feel the velvets and breathe the air. BUT.. but but…. she leverages trauma in a way that makes me feel manipulated and gross. I don’t feel like she’s exploring traumatic events in her character’s lives for any great point; she’s just making her characters miserable. So much as I admire her writing, I don’t know that I’ll put her back on the top of my TBR any time soon. Maybe in the future when I’m able to read about horrific things with a sense of personal growth. That’s not something I can currently do.

Etna by Paul Yoon– This short novel is told through the eyes of Etna, a bomb sniffing dog who tries to find his (her?) way home after the war ends. I listened to this on audio with the 6 and 9 year olds. There were a couple of times when I almost turned it off because there are some violent things in this story, but the kids were so invested in Etna’s journey that they wanted to keep listening. I loved how Etna clung to the dream of going home even when things got tough. I loved the friends that Etna made along the way. This unnamed country is a pretty defeated place in the wake of war, but there is still kindness. I love how Etna never judges those around him, but does understand and recognize kindness and kinship. I loved how Etna defined home as a place where he had once known peace. He’s a remarkably clear eyed narrator. I asked the 6 year old what she liked about the book, and she said, “I liked that Etna made friends and even though there were some side times, in the end, Etna was happy.”

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forrest – In this contemporary romance, Lily Greene, who dreams about being a children’s book editor, strikes up a correspondence with her favorite Fantasy author. He writes back then suddenly ghosts her. A year later, Lily asks her new neighbor Nick to help her find a date to her sister’s wedding. Well… you probably know what the plot twist is here. This book was fine – I didn’t love it. The writing’s a little workaday. I just felt like there wasn’t a lot of chemistry between the two main characters and you could tell that other characters and details were being dropped into the book so that they could be put into future books. (This book is first in a series.)

Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian– This contemporary M/M romance is about two actors on the same long running hit sci-fi tv series who have had an ongoing on set rivalry. But then life circumstances intervene and Simon and Charlie are forced to be there for each other. I thought this book was pretty great. It’s not an explosive romance novel, but rather a quiet slow burn where Simon (the story is from his POV), gradually comes to realize that Charlie is no the rash ball of chaos that he thought he was. In fact Charlie is more thoughtful and deep than Simon had ever given him credit for. I loved this book for the inside look into tv series, the way people end up caring for each other, and a super cute dog. Also, this book has a lot to say about being a creative and putting something out into the world that make people happy, and as a person in a creative field, I really need to hear that from time to time. (I had a quote from this book as a quote of the month in my August recap post.)

Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan– of course after finishing Dolly All the Time, I wanted to read everything by Annabel Monaghan. This book also is a bit of fantasy wish fulfillment- divorced mom has a fling with hot movie star- but I Nora’s story is so much more than that- it’s about coming to terms with the life you have and hugging the people who are important and letting go of those who aren’t or can’t be. Like Dolly, this book was funny, felt real, and had so many beautiful moments and characters. I think the one thing that made this book not as perfect as Dolly is that I never got a sense of who movie star Leo was- he wasn’t a terribly complex or well defined character. His job was pretty much to be hot, caring, and a good listener. Which, as romance novels go, is totally fine by me.

The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan, read by Gabra Zackman: This is the true story of a group of moms who solve a 15 year old cold case double homicide. I thought this story was fascinating, how the four women banded together and with little more than determination and gumption and their own brains, really dug into the case – the secrets come out, the clues are dissected, people are interviewed again, and memories revived. Also all this was during the first months of COVID – I found the undercurrent of parenting during COVID made me really identify with these women – they’re looking for purpose at a time when the world was on it’s head and it was hard to tell when really mattered. I did find the audiobook a little dry – some of the clues involve getting pretty in the weeds about fraud and finance, which made my eyes glaze over a little bit. There is a part of me that kind of wished this were a podcast rather than an audiobook – there’s something a little more engaging in the tone of podcast voices for this kind of thing. But overall a really gripping non-fiction read.

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys by Dan Kindlon, PhD and Michael Thomason, PhD – This book was my morning non-fiction book in August and it talks about how boys need to learn emotional literacy to deal with all the social and emotional changes that they face. The book talks about how we have to teach boys that life isn’t fair, but that this unfairness is not a threat to them. Daria left an interesting comment a few weeks ago about how this book seemed a little dated; the advice in the book is nothing revolutionary today. I think she is right – I don’t know that I came away from this book with more insights into my my son needs, but I do think reading this book made me think of the world that he is growing up into. I think it’s all very well and good for us to teach our boys that they need to be flexible, empathetic. and willing to express their emotions, but how much good does that do when he is living in a country where a man uses petty retaliation as a tactic for running the country? This is what I realized in reading this book – no matter how much I try to teach my son (actually all my children) how to be emotionally literate, the world he lives in is not sending him these same messages. And that’s one thing that makes me feel like raising a boy is so hard these days. (I mean raising a girl is hard too…. raising any child to be a responsible adult is hard…)

On my Proverbial Night Stand:

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope- the plot is thickening. I have thirty more chapters to go- hopefully I’ll finish before the end of the year.

Game of Rogues by Julie Anne Long – the latest in her Palace of Rogues Series. I’ve been waiting so long for this book!

Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Greene and David Levethin – I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for a while and was looking for something to take me out of my Dolly All The Time hangover so decided to start this one. Teenagers putting on a high school musical! That’s my catnip.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, Edited by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter –  I had read this twenty years ago, and I was inspired to revisit it by one of Engie’s posts about the book Clean Up on Aisle Five.

Fourteen Talks before Age Fourteen by Michell Icard- My morning non-fiction book.

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay – on audio. I was snort laughing on the bus while listening to this.

Weekly Recap + What We Ate: Good-bye August, Hello September!

Well school has started. We have a new morning bus stop this year that is walking distance from home. It’s actually where the afternoon bus dropped off last year, but for some reason last year there was no morning stop. Well they’ve added one. It’s been picking the kids up at 9:20am every day, which is slightly problematic because school starts at 9:25am. The kids are upset because they don’t get to have breakfast at school. My thought is boo hoo. They get breakfast at home. (Breaking news! The bus will now come at 9:04am! It has opened up my morning in amazing new ways!)

This weekend is Labor Day, and we are off to the Renaissance Festival. Labor Day is late this year, so it doesn’t quite feel like we are almost a week into September. But September it is. So how was August?

August Highlights:
-Tech-ing a show and the one single performance. My friend coming to see the show and riding home with him afterwards.
-Our Indiana/Sarnia/Niagara-on-the-Lake/ Corning Museum of Glass/ Harrisburg, PA road trip.
-Swimming laps at the pool. Not having to rush to get to swim practice, but rather going on our own schedule.
-Submitting passport applications for the two younger kids.
-Read some really good books. (Reading recap coming soon!)
-Peaches! I have some canned for January.
-Lunch and walk with a good friend A.
-Dinner and walk with good friend K and The Husband.
-Slipping in one last Happy Hour with my bus stop mom friends before school started.
-Purged the kids’ clothes and made sure they had clothes for the cooler weather.
-Decluttered our linen/medicine cabinet in the bathroom – things like bandaids, tampons and pads, COVID tests. We had so many masks from COVID times – like two drawers full. I’m torn on what to do with all the masks that I had sewn. On the one hand, I don’t think we’ll need them again, but on the other hand, they are an interesting memento of the times. Maybe I’ll keep one or two.
-Two small fresh figs from the fig tree on our back patio, harvested and eaten before the birds got to them.
-A day at the Maryland shore visiting my friend with good company, a relaxing pool, tasty food, and sheep.
-First Day of School! This year the kids are in 9th, 4th, and 1st grades.
-On that note – we have a high-schooler! My heart is bursts with pride watching her navigate life at high school.
-Favorite Dinner Cooked: Well all the dinners I cooked last week were given heart designations in my log. See Below. Also Crispy Tofu Tacos from NY Times cooking was a big hit.
-Favorite Things Watched: I think my favorite thing we watched was Derry Girls. We have one episode left and I’m so afraid to watch it and then have no more to look forward to. I also thought the Sheep Detectives was very entertaining.

Goals And Habits:
Painting: 2 (goal is 1/ week, so I’m falling behind.)
Crossword Puzzle: 1 (also wanted to do one per week. I didn’t bring puzzles with me on the trip, so there was some missed opportunities.)
Live Performance: Saw Wind in the Willows at the Shaw Festival.
Museums: 2 – Corning Museum of Glass and Niagara Power Station
Hike: 1 – Niagara Glen
Yoga: I logged 23/31 days. I might have done more days than that – I wasn’t great at habit tracking last month.
Run: 2 runs/ 5 swims.
Strength: 3x, all while on vacation because we stayed in places with nice fitness set ups. (Goal is 8/ month… wump wump)
Vegan Meals: 2 (goal is 4/ month or 1/week. We didn’t eat a lot of vegan dinners when we were on vacation.)

Clearly being on vacation is good for filling out some goals.

Quote(s) of the Month:
“There’s meaning in making something other people enjoy, something they look forward to, and talk about, and write their own stories about.”
-Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian.
Sometimes I question my career choice, and this quote reminded me that there is value in bringing joy to people and letting them feel emotions.

from This interview with Ina Garten in the New York Times:
 “I just love having a good time, and I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t, so I always go toward that. I go toward people that are happy. I go toward people and projects that will be satisfying. Fun isn’t always like going down a water slide. Fun is building something with people that you care about. “
Earlier in the interview she talks about how “fun” for her is about having a process or task that engages her. I think this is so important – fun isn’t always joy, but it should be engaging.

“I never get tired of cookies!”
=The 6 year old. Yup. I totally agree.

August Lowlights
-Feeling behind at work. The nature of my contract is that I’m not full time during the summer. I sit in on meetings, but I feel like I’m not getting the full picture of what is going on because I’m not as active as I am when I’m on full time. It gives me a bit of anxiety to think about playing catch up in two weeks.

-Some really bad behavior on vacation that I’m not going to blog about, but it was really tough.

-Our fridge might have died. I’m not quite sure. It stopped working for three days and we ordered a new one, but then our old one is up and running again. Not sure if we should cancel the order of the new fridge or not?

-I feel as if between the vacation and activity sign ups and the fridge and random repairs we’ve been hemorrhaging money this past month.

-The time I forgot my kid’s voice lesson. I hate making stupid mistakes.

Looking Forward to in September:

-The youngest will turn 7! (I had a realization last week that we are 13 months from never needing a babysitter ever again since in Maryland kids can stay home by themselves when they are 8.)

-The Husband and I are going to a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass this weekend. I love this piece – I’ve worked on it, but never seen it. It’s not produced a whole lot becuse it takes a lot of people to put on. This production is kind of being done as a response to all the shit that’s going down at the Kennedy Center since MASS is the piece that opened the KC.

-Family Visit. My cousins are coming to visit, then my parents.

=Renaissance Festival! Going this weekend. fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain!

=Declutter projects. Maybe I should just set one goal for this? Okay – I think the freezer situation is dire and I would like to get a handle on the bins of yarn in my bedroom. That’s two goals. Manageable.

=Starting Hallowe’en costumes. The children have chosen! I need to figure out if I can make them or if I’m just going to buy them.

-Tap Dance classes. I signed up for a 7 week Intro to tap dance class. Here’s trying new things!

-Easing back into work. No shows to rehearse this month, but I have a supertitle gig to prep for and I have to prep for stage managers starting in early October.

Grateful for:
-Loaner fridge. When our fridge stopped working, we went to the local appliance place to buy a new fridge and they gave us a loaner mini fridge to take home. How cool is that? We have a fridge in the basement that we put everything in, but it’s a pain to constantly be going up and down the stairs. The loaner fridge is just big enough for milk and a carton of strawberries, but it’s enough.

-Trail to school. I’m hoping to bike with the 6 and 9 year old to school a few times this fall and I’m glad there is a bike trail most of the way there.

-Passport confirmations and patient post office managers. When we were waiting for our passport appointment, a man came into the post office in a bit of a frenetic state, cellphone stuck to his ear. He was on the phone on hold with the Passport people. Turns out, he had submitted an application a while ago with his girlfriend and his girlfriend got confirmation of materials received and got her passport, but he has heard nary a peep. He’s travelling in a month and, understandably he is in a state of worry and frustration. The conversation was seriously second hand stressing me out. The part of his conversation that really stuck with me was this exchange:
Post office Lady: Did you apply for a new passport or a renewal?
Stressed Out Guy: I applied for a new one.
POL: Is this your first passport?
SOG: I had one like twenty years ago. But then I had my daughter and… you know what, that doesn’t matter. But yeah, I had a passport before, but it’s been twenty years.
Something about the link between having a kid and his passport expiring really got to my heart.
The lady at the Post Office managed to talk him out of his tree and said she would try to find a paper trail on her end for his materials. He left, not rally mollified, but at least he seemed calmer.
It is such a leap of faith, the postal system, right? You put your things in an envelope and hope it gets where it’s going.
Anyhow, grateful that I got an email confirmation this week about the kids’ passport info and that the Post Office Lady calmly helped the frustrated man.

-That the pool is still open. Our pool is open Memorial day to Labor Day, and Labor day is late this year, so we’ve been able to go to the pool in the evenings. I’ve been embracing the 45 minute pool visit – we go after dinner, have enough time for me to swim laps for 20-25 minutes while the kids play. The pool is usually not crowded in the evenings and there is something so blissful about swimming under the pink sunset sky.

-That everyone had an uneventful first day of school. The bus came. The kids got on. The bus returned the kids to us at the end of the day. Hooray.

-Also this is super cool – the 14 year old is taking American Sign Language as her foreign language requirement for high school. Her teacher is Deaf and it’s fascinating to how he manages the classroom. I’m so grateful that the 14 year old has this opportunity.

-That my friend A, who’s husband had been posted to the Middle East for three years came home and we can have long walks and conversations. She’s been home since the Spring, but because they were sent home early, they’ve been living all over the area. Now they are back in their own home a few miles down the road. I’m glad they are safe.

-The 9 year old’s imagination. Yes, he asks for screen time constantly, but when I say not right now, he will go and play. He still gets dressed up and acts out scenarios (usually something to do with alien invaders), or constructs lego planes that he swoops through the house. The other day he said to me, “I’m grateful for my imagination.” Same, little guy. Same.

What We Ate: I was home most of last week to cook and we had some five star dinners.
Monday: Chickpea noodle soup from NY Times Cooking. Vegan. I was not sure how this was going to go over because it has a heavy hand of tumeric and nutritional yeast in it, but it went over like gangbusters.

Tuesday: Fish Tacos from NY Times cooking. This was SO easy to make. We’re trying to have more fish in our lives. We had our tacos with cabbage, pickled red onions, avocado, and chipotle sour cream.

Wednesday: Eggplant pork stirfy with noodles. The Husband cooked. Another 10/10. Not sure where the recipe came from, but it was delicious.

Thursday: Ginger catfish (Trey Cha K’nyei). This is a Cambodian-ish recipe that is so flavorful. There is a huge amount of julinned ginger in the recipe. The ginger gets cooked first in oil and gives the dish a crispy spicy bite. The recipe comes together really quickly; the hardest part is julienning all the ginger, but I used a mandolin and that made pretty quick work of it.

Friday: Pizza (The Husband made) and Karate Kid. Can you believe I’ve never seen Karate Kid? It’s really a great family movie and I enjoyed it. Also a young Elizabeth Shue – so luminous! Also – did you know there’s a show on Netflix called Cobra Kai, which takes place 30 years after the fact and revives the old Daniel vs. Johnny rivalry. We watched the first two episodes and it didn’t quite get off the ground, but Reddit tells me the show really finds its footing in season two.

Saturday: Dumplings and green beans at home. Dumplings from the freezer from our favorite dumpling house. This was our last bag so we need to get more…

Sunday: Tortellini with red sauce. Cut up veggies and fruit on the side. Our standard Sunday Supper.

That’s it from over here! Happy Labor Day Weekend for those that celebrate. And plain happy weekend for those having just another weekend!

Have you seen any of the Karate Kid movies? thoughts on cookies? How old were you when you started staying home alone? What has you excited about September?

Revisiting childhood stomping grounds

A road sign that says "Welcome to Canada" in both English and French.

When I was writing my Indiana/Niagara road trip post, I mentioned that we went through the small Canadian city where I grew up. It hadn’t been a planned pit stop. We were in Detroit and had expected the GPS to take us over the new Gordie Howe Bridge – we even saw the bridge in the distance as we drove to lunch at Buddy’s Pizza. BUT… after stopping for lunch, we pulled up the directions to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the GPS took us further north to cross the border at Sarnia, Ontario.

Sarnia is city where I grew up; I lived there from the time I was 2 until I was 15 and my family moved to Southern California to be closer to my mom’s family. Plus there were massive layoffs happening at my dad’s work and we wanted to get out while we could. Sarnia is located where Lake Huron becomes the St. Clair River. When I was growing up there were maybe 50, 000 people living there. The area is primarily known for petroleum processing. (There is a nearby city literally named Petrolia because oil was discovered nearby.) The area where all the refineries are is called “Chemical Valley”. Growing up almost everyone I knew had at least one parent working in Chemical Valley for Dow, Polysar, or Esso (also known as Imperial Oil, the Canadian version of Exxon), and that’s actually how my immigrant parents ended up there – my father had a degree in Chemical Engineering and worked for Esso.

Here are some more tidbits I remember from growing up in Sarnia:
– It was very white. Like in my elementary school, we were one of two Asian families. There were no Black families. I didn’t actually clock this until we moved to Southern California when I was 15 and then I was like, “Whoa!” It was a bit of a culture shock.
-Even though there were lots of beaches you couldn’t go into the water because of all the pollution from Chemical Valley. There were always signs up at the beaches that told us we couldn’t go in the water.
-It was a small city – my 5th grade teacher taught music lessons on the side and was my first music teacher; our pediatrician’s office was next to my mom’s bakery, I could walk to school. But at the same time, I had a lot of opportunities; I took music lessons and gymnastics and dance and art classes and played travel soccer and all sorts of things. It was a really safe place to grow up.
-There was a waterpark called Splashdown that was down the road from my parent’s restaurant and they would sometimes let us go there all day during the summer (we must have been like 11 or 13 or so… Would this be okay these days? Maybe…) . There were bumper boats, two different kinds of water slides, and lots of pools with spray areas. And I just looked it up and Splashdown closed in 2015 and this is making me unspeakably sad. I might need a moment here.

So we moved to California when I was 15. Once maybe 25 years ago, when I was on a cross country road trip with a boyfriend whom I don’t remember anymore, we stopped by Sarnia. In the years since, I hadn’t imagined that I would re-visit the city after that – it’s not a destination city or anything. I didn’t think much about Sarnia, except when I took part in that Asian food study in July, I did have to think a lot about what my childhood like and what it was like growing up in a city without an Asian grocery store, and that brought back a lot of memories. So when the the GPS route to Niagara-on-the-Lake had us cross the St. Clair river over the the Bluewater Bridge into Sarnia, and the Husband looked at me, a question in his eyes, I figured fate wanted me to take a little trip down memory lane.

twin steel bridges spanning a river
The Bluewater Bridge.

It was odd visiting my childhood stomping grounds. A lot has changed since 1994, but the bones are still the same. The bridge across the St. Clair River is still there, though though now there are two bridges instead of one. The streets are where the streets were when I was growing up, though there are more cracks in the asphalt and many of the buildings are different – different names, different colours, some buildings gone or replaced. The hospitals are still there. The parks are where the parks were, the library is where it was. Fun fact – another thing that hasn’t changed is the mayor. Mike Bradley was the mayor when I was growing up in Sarnia – I remember him being elected in 1988. He is still the Mayor. Wikipedia says he is the second longest running mayor in Canada.

We didn’t have much time to spend in Sarnia, but I wanted to drive around to see the places that I remembered the most, starting with the neighborhood and house where I grew up. Everything seemed smaller. The park at the end of the street was still there, though it seemed closer than I remember it being when I was little. The large hill that we used to sled down in the winter was still there. The playground equipment was new. But one thing that I found surprising is that the park was still mostly a wide expanse of grass. I was surprised and grateful that the land was still so open, that no one put a mini-mart or anything on top of it.

On to the house where I grew up:

a two level house with an attached garage.

When were were here, the garage was pink. I think my father had found a deal in paint. I didn’t think much about it at the time; the pink garage door made it easy to point out the house when people were dropping me off. Those huge house numbers, though – my father had them custom made. It make me really happy that the numbers are still there. The tree in the front yard is the one I fell out of and broke my right arm the fall I started Grade Five. My parents made me write with my left hand for eight weeks. It’s funny, so many things about Sarnia seemed smaller when I re-visted, except that tree. The tree was bigger than I remembered. Actually it was probably bigger because it kept growing.

My elementary school:

a fenced off school building with rubble in front.


We didn’t get to close because the school was under construction. I didn’t get to poke around, but I could still see the bones of the classrooms. I could still point out the curb where six year old me fell and had to get stiches. The field where my brother got into a fist fight with his best friend. The big patch of grass where we used to lock up our bikes is now a car drop off circle. Car lines weren’t a thing when I was growing up. Twenty years ago, next to our school was a Catholic school. There was a huge rivalry between the two schools. Now the school is gone and there are houses in that plot of land.

We then drove to the place where I spent the second most amount of time, my Mom’s bakery. My mother, with her degree in Library Science, had a Portuguese bakery. She had been a stay at home mom and was looking for a way to enter back into the workforce and running her own business made sense with having young kids. So she bought a bakery from a Portuguese couple and learned from them how to make all the breads and deserts. She bought books and taught herself how to decorate cakes and would make elaborate character cakes.

We drove to the bakery, past the YMCA where I spent all my Saturdays as a kid, swimming and playing floor hockey. The YMCA is now shelter and community resource center. I wonder what they did with the pool. Across from the bakery used to be a Beckers, which is kind of like a 7-11. We used to go there to buy cans of soda. The bakery itself is now a Sewing/Alteration Shop. I wonder if anyone lives upstairs.

I have so many stories and memories from the Bakery. For much of my childhood, the bakery was the third place in our life. Because my father had to go to work early and my mother had to bake bread early, every weeknight, after had dinner, got showers, and put on our PJs, my mother would take my brother and me to the bakery where we would spend the night.

The second floor of the bakery was a one bedroom apartment. The three of us would sleep together in that one bedroom, my mother telling us stories at night to get us to go to sleep. During the day, she would read books between waiting on customers, and at night she would re-tell us the stories that she read. This is how I first heard the story of The Count of Monte Cristo. Only, she would tell us these stories in Mandarin (because that’s what we spoke at home). For the longest time, I thought The Count of Monte Cristo took place on an island off the coast of China. When, in my twenties, I picked up the book, I wondered why the book sounded so familiar.

Then in the morning my mom would get up to bake bread. We would often get a fresh bun with margarine for breakfast. Between batches, my mom would drive us to school. Thinking back on this, I now see how wildly unconventional this was, but at the time, it was just pretty fun to live above a bakery and be surrounded by the smell of baked bread. I think we were lucky to have this in our lives, but I think for my parents, it was just how you make a life.

After the bakery we only had time for one more stop, so I decided I want to see the library. We spent so much time at the library when we were little. It was also walking distance from the bakery so sometimes during the summer, we would just walk down there on our own and spend all afternoon reading books, with trips to the corner store down the block to buy candy. We were in the Children’s department so much that my parents actually got a talking to. “We are not a child care facility,” they told my mother. I always think about how mortifying that must have been for my mother. Here she thought the library was an amazing place full of books – something her kids loved – somewhere she could safely leave the kids when they got bored of hanging out at the bakery on long summer days. And then to be reprimanded.

I don’t know what the upshot of that conversation was, but my brother and I continued to go to the library on our own. And then I made it worse. One day, I was there, reading a book and chewing a big wad of gum. And without thinking, when my gum got flavorless, I took it out of my mouth and stuck it under the radiator. The Librarian was pretty livid about that. After that, my brother and I just went to the adult side of the building. This is where I got my start reading romance novels.

For memories sake – and because the kids needed a bathroom – I took a quick visit inside the library. The layout of the library was much as I remembered – basically an adult section and a children’s section divided by a long glass wall so that the two sections were quite separate. As with so many other things on that day, the children’s section was smaller than I remembered. The storytime corner, which I remembered as being a wide sunken level with steps for kids to sit on while listening to stories, now seems barely big enough for a librarian and her books. I remember this part of the library seeming huge with endless shelves of books when I was growing up, and now, I can see from one end to the other, barely turning my head. But there are still books and small bathrooms, and a friendly librarian… so I guess the important things stay the same.

a photo of a corner of a room. The corner is sunk down with deep steps surrounding it. In the sunken part of the corner is a char and an easel. A television screen hangs above the easel.

We left the library and as it was late afternoon, got back on the road and headed towards Niagara-on-the-Lake. We drove past The Lawrence House, the Victorian Manor turned art gallery where I took art classes in the summer. This is also where my mother would borrow VHS recordings of operas and ballets, one of my first exposures to opera. The Covent Garden recording of the Tales of Hoffmann starring Placido Domingo is a key memory from childhood. Who knew that twenty years later I would start my opera career working for Domingo’s opera company? Now my kid just looks up these videos on YouTube. She is so lucky…

We drove past Centennial Park, location of one of those polluted beaches from my childhood and a walking path along the St. Clair River. (Actually I’m not sure if the beach is still there?) Also the resting place of a large steam locomotive from the 1940s. I remember a photo from our childhood photo album of my brother and I standing in front of this locomotive.

We drove past the Mall where, in the food court, there used to be a place that had the best egg salad sandwiches – they were so creamy with the onions chopped so finely that each bite had just the right amount of pungency.

And then we got on Highway 402 and headed east.

As we were driving off, the sun at our backs, we put on the crowd sourced Road Trip Play List I had made this summer – this is the playlist I compiled by asking people to give me just one song for the road trip. A guy I worked with asked me a million questions before he gave me a song – “Where are you going?” “Are you going somewhere old or somewhere new?” “Is this for the beginning of the day or end of the day?” “Will there be children in the car?”

I had no specific answers for these questions. “Just give me a song!” I said.

So after much pondering, he did.

And about twenty minutes outside of Sarnia, his song came up:

I’d never even heard of this song before – 17 Again by the Eurythmics.

And it was perfect.

Have you ever revisited old stomping grounds? Do you know 17 Again? Where would be the perfect place for you to listen to this song?

Weekly recap + what we ate: last week before school starts

Welp the kids all got off to school this week. Yay!

We spent last week getting back into real life groove after vacation, but also it was still summer vacation, so it was a combination of holding on to summer vibes but also preparing for fall. The Sunday after we got back from vacation, the 14 year old wrote this end of summer bucket list:

I do have choice words for the fact that this is her level of spelling the summer before she is to start high school…. she gives me that nonsense of having spell check at school, as if that makes it okay….. I feel a little as if the system has failed here somehow….blergh.

In case you can’t read 14 year old highlighter scrawl, the list says (and I can’t help it, but I’ve corrected the spelling.):
Last Week of School Break Bucket List
-school shopping
-go to Studio (This means my work – she likes coming to work and dancing in the rehearsal halls)
-get boba
-have a movie day
-hugs kisses
-Go to Asian store
-Bake
-make dinner
-face masks.

I think we got through most of her list. There was lots of boba consumed.

I really struggle with being productive all. the. time. Monday was a great day – I banged out a bunch of internet errands in the morning (ordered new backpacks, lunch boxes, underwear, socks; registered for things; filled out forms.) Then we went school supply shopping, stopping for boba and onigiri as a treat. Then we went grocery shopping. We were home by 4:30pm. I made dinner and then went to happy hour with my bus stop mom friends.

And then it all went downhill from there for the rest of the week. There were play dates and pool visits and one or two other errands. I took one kid for a hair cut and cut the other kid’s hair myself. (First time doing this and it was relatively easy. Plus her hair is wavy so mistakes are easily forgiven.) We dog-sat for our favorite Yorkie and went on lots of walks with him. Oh we also had our chocolate donut taste test:

four containers of chocolate covered donuts on a table. There are Hostess donettes, Entenmann's, store brand, and TastyKaek.
The winner was the Entenmann’s – it had a nice vanilla tinged cake and a thick fudgy chocolate layer. The least favorite was the Donettes- they were just dry and tasteless.

But there was also a lot of naval gazing, wall staring, and scrolling, and malaise, and losing track of life. I completely forgot that the 14 year old had a voice lesson on the day and ended up logging her in 45 minutes late (thank goodness the teacher was flexible…). I forgot to go over and walk the dog one day and he was home for ten hours by himself. I feel really bad about that….

The weekend was a good mix of tasks and fun. Saturday I spent all day decluttering and going through the little kids’ clothes. I got rid of anything that was too small and rotated in the winter clothes. I made sure they each had 10 tops and 10 bottoms for warm weather and 10 tops and 10 bottoms for cold weather. I think we in truth have more like 15 tops per. Plus the 6 year old had a lot of dresses. At first I thought I would have to go buy more pants for the 9 year old, but then I remembered that my friend had given me bags of clothes from her kids and once I pulled them out, I got to 10 pair of pairs of pants for him. I think the 6 year old will still need some leggings, but I feel like we’re in a good place for the cooler weather. I will seriously scream if one of the younger children comes to me and says they have nothing to wear this fall/ winter.

The 14 year old, in a fit of “I’m going to high school!!!” emptied all her drawers late on Saturday night, had a meltdown, cuddled with me for a while, and then we methodically simultaneously purged and put everything back. This kid has SO MANY free t-shirts. I tried to encourage her to cull, but every one is special. Anyhow, we went through everything while watching Love, Rosie (which is marketed as a rom-com, but is decidedly not – OMG the male protagonist – why is he rewarded with true love at the end of the movie after being such a blind turd? He makes some seriously not good choices only to be conveniently relieved of them in the end… Anyhow… pretty forgettable, but Lily Collins was cute.)

A Yorkshire terrier sits among a pile of clothes on a bed.
Max is helping to sort clothes.

The upshot of culling the closet/drawers with the 14 year old, though, is that this kid who never cared much about what she wore, who hitherto had a uniform of jeans (usually whatever didn’t fit me anymore), basketball shorts, free t-shirts, and hoodies – she has decided that she doesn’t have any cute clothes for high school and needs some clothes. On her list:
-baggy jeans (like her favorite KPop artists)
-a ruffled denim skirt
-a cute top or two, but not cropped or low V-neck or anything that shows too much skin.
Of course, she hates shopping for clothes, so I’m not sure how we are going to check those items off her list…. Where do teenagers even shop for clothes these days?

Anyhow, that was Saturday. I also cleaned out the area around my desk in the bedroom and got rid of a box worth of crafting supplies. The sad thing is that the room doesn’t actually look any less cluttered, because everything was contained in boxes or shoved in a closet. The room looks the same amount of boxy mess, only now those boxes are empty. I think the biggest thing I have to decide what to do with is:
1) my yarn collection – I have three containers of aspirational yarn. When was the last time I actually made something???? (Well, I crochet a belt for my son’s KPop Demon Hunter costume last year…. I feel like that doesn’t’ count.)
2) A box of cassette tapes from my childhood.
3) Papers. So many papers. Mostly investment statements. I’m sure I can just shred those. right?
I feel if I took care of those three things, 85% of my bedroom clutter would be solved. I guess the yarn would be the easiest place to start, so maybe that will be a September goal.

The upshot of Saturday was two bags of clothes and one big box of art supplies went to donation. There’s still more to do, but it felt really good to start to sort and purge and to get a sense of what everything is and where it might want to live. For example, we are currently keeping art and office supplies in maybe four or five locations around the house and I really need to consolidate that.

Sunday we went out to the Maryland with shore with a friend to visit another mutual friend of ours. She has a pool, her neighbor has sheep. We had a low key lunch – take out pizza, quinoa salad, lots of cookies and snacks and sodas. We lazed in the sun and pool, and talked and talked and talked. I had brought the 9 year old and the 14 year old with and I think they had a good time soaking up one last lazy afternoon of sun and swim before school started. On the way home we stopped for boba. Only the place was out of boba. It was 4PM. What kind of boba tea place runs out of boba at 4pm??? That’s prime boba drinking time. Oh well, we got lychee and coconut jelly instead, which was fine, but not as nice as boba.

three brown sheep around a feed trough, one of whom has climbed into the trough to eat.
We visited the baby sheep. They had just been weaned and were hilarious.

Well it’s now a new school year and a new opera season, so more clearly defined blocks in my day now. I know when the kids have to go to school. I know when they will come home. I know what activities are where. Sort of. The sports schedule is still nebulous for the 9 year old. I’m not back to having a set work schedule, so I need to be a little more disciplined about getting work done efficiently and with focus since I’m really only accountable to myself until late September.

I felt a little frustrated with myself. It’s as if I can only have one optimally productive day in a week and that optimally productive day takes so much out of me that I can’t figure it out for the rest of the week. Last week, Monday I was on fire and the rest of the week not so much – I felt like my energy level was really low and I kept forgetting to do things. Why is it that 10 things on my to do list are easier to accomplish than two things?

But maybe it’s not an optimally productive day for me if knocking out those then things is so exhausting? Maybe I need to more consistently have a lower bar of to dos and allow myself more naval gazing time? I find that in any given day, I either have a lot of momentum and go go go, or inertia and nothing nothing nothing. Balance is hard to find.

Grateful For:
-Hand me downs. I thought I was going to have to do a big clothes shop for the 6 and 9 year olds, but I found almost everything in hand me down bins in the attic.

-Passport photos taken at Staples so that I could get those done while school supply shopping. Free printing at the library (up to 15 pages per library card) so that I could print the passport applications since I don’t have a printer at home.

-Our contractor/ handyman who came over one day and fixed a bunch of annoying but not urgent things for us. A play structure that had come loose from the wall is now safe to play on. An unsightly ding in the kitchen wall is now magically patched and repaired and seamlessly painted over. A nail in an awkward but potentially dangerous spot ground down. A drawer front re-attached. It’s funny how we just learn to live with these little things and when they get fixed life just seems… shinier.

-My mother’s rice cooker. We’ve been making a lot of onigiri and my mom’s rice cooker, which I borrowed from her apartment, has made that process so much simpler. I used to make rice on the stove and now I’m loving being able to put rice and water in the pot, flick a switch and walk away. The 14 year old can even do it. Heck, I think any of the kids could use the rice cooker. Maybe we should get our own one day.

-Sunny warm weather. Not too hot, but also still warm enough to go to the pool.

-Speaking of which – an empty pool. I took the kids to the pool one day and it was just us – it felt so indulgent to have the whole space to ourselves.

-Music in the car. We were coming home from church on Saturday and some song came on the Pandora – I’m not sure which, but it was one of those songs that you just have to sing along to. At the top of your lungs. And we were half a block from home, and the kids said, “Can we keep driving – this is such a good song!” So the Husband drove on past our house and kept going and drove an extra five or ten minutes so that we could keep playing music and singing along. It was magical. I’m always listening to books or podcasts in the car and I forget what an amazingly soul refreshing thing it is to sing loudly in the car with the windows down.

Looking forward to:
-Maryland Renaissance Festival! They have a new ticketing system which makes it difficult to truly know when tickets are available, so I went ahead and bought tickets for Labor Day when I saw they were available.

-Trombone and piano. The 9 year old gets to choose an instrument now that he’s in 4th grade and he has chosen trombone. We rented him a trombone over the weekend and I’m really excited to hear him play. The 6 year old is also starting piano this year after asking all summer. (I think is is mostly because when we went to the 9 year old’s piano recital, we discovered that two of her best friends from school are taking lessons from the same teacher and she didn’t want to be left out.)

-First Day of School! (This happened! All went well.)

-New passports. On our way back from Canada, I noticed that the two younger kids’ passports were to expire next March, so while on the road, I booked an appointment for new passports. I filled in the paperwork as soon as I got home, and everything went smoothly and there will be new passports with new adventures to come. I also realized that when the 14 year old next renews her passport, she will be old enough to get a 10 year passport. That milestone gave me a bit of pause. I feel like the 14 year old’s milestones are coming more and mroe quickly every day.

-My parents are coming to visit next month. Will be nice to see them. We are thinking of going to Monticello for the weekend.

-Just started this book. I really enjoyed her latest book Dolly Any Time, so I picked up one of her earlier books at the library:

Brightly coloured book. The title is Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan.

What We Ate:
Monday: The 14 year old cooked and she made chicken and green salad. I went out to dinner with my Bus Stop Mom friends and I had a club sandwich, Greek Salad, and French Fries.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! I made these crispy tofu tacos from NY Times Cooking. Big hit with everyone. Vegan because I left out the sour cream. We just ate them with quick pickled onions, mango and avocado.

Wednesday: Pasta Salad. I needed something that I could mostly make-ahead. This Pasta Salad had small balls of fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, cucumbers and a balsamic dressing. No real recipe, just tossing things together.

Thursday: Egg Curry from NY Times Cooking. Eaten with rice and paratha. I always forget about this dish and every time I make it everyone loves it. I added handfuls of spinach to it.

Friday: Pizza (The Husband made pizza – cheese, sausage and mushroom, and a pickle pizza.) and The Sheep Detectives. I wanted to see this movie in the theatre, but never got the chance – it’s got so many things that appeal to me: based on Three Bags Full (a very funny book), Hugh Jackman, and Emma Thompson. Talking sheep! What more could one want. The plot is nothing at all like the book. Actually I would say this is very loosely based on the book. Other than the sheep, there’s not much the same. Still – it was a charming, heartfelt, and that kind of sincere to the verge of sentimental that is so hard to find these days.

Saturday: We went out for Vietnamese food after church in the evening. It was delicious.

Sunday: Hodge podge dinner. The 6 year old had pizza at a birthday party. The 9 year old had microwave mac and cheese – only we don’t have a microwave, so I just put hot water in the cup. It was not the best, truth be told. Do not recommend. I had some Vietnamese scallion pancakes that I had picked up at the Farmer’s market, plus some sliced cucumbers from our yard. The Husband and the 14 year old just snacked through the evening.

Are you holding on to summer or have you moved to fall? What’s your favorite song to sing loudly in the car with the windows down? Any small but not urgent fixes get done lately?

Books Read July 2026

In book-ish news – the New York Times has released another “Best {blank} of the 21st Century”, this time “The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century.” (gift link). Of 50 the books on the list, I’ve read eight. I can’t say that I really enjoyed any of them, though. One book I thought was completely bonkers. Two books of those eight were books that I hated. (They both featured unreliable narrators, which is the one narrative device/trope that makes me automatically want to throw a book against a wall and feel like I’ve wasted hours of my life in reading that book. Not telling you which ones because that would be a spoiler…) And you know, reading the book descriptions, I did put another fourteen on my “want to read” list, but there were many more that made me say, “Oh absolutely not for me.” All of which leads me to realize… maybe I just don’t like thrillers?

I sure hope the NY Times makes a “50 best Romances of the 20th Century” list soon. I’ll be here for that one.

Anyhow, on to books read in July! I read nine books this month, thanks largely to going on a reading retreat at the beginning of the month and also spending a lot of time in the car listening to audiobooks.

Sideways Stories at Wayside School by Louis Sacher, read by the author – We listened to this in the car on the way to Taiwan camp. I remember reading this book as a kid and it really stuck with me. The book is a series of stories about a school where instead of having the classrooms built next to each other, there was a mix up and the classrooms were built on top of each other, so that the school was 30 stories tall. Anyhow the school and students are wacky with their own logic. The stories were just as offbeat and perceptive as I remember.

Courting Miss Hattie by Pamela Morisi – I picked up this 1991 novel on my reading retreat because I’d never read a Pamela Morisi book, and a lot of romance authors I read recommend her books. The story is set in early 1900s Arkansas and centers around Hattie Colfax, a 29 year old who runs her family farm following the death of her parents. After spending her life working the farm and not having any marriage prospects, she finds herself being courted by a widower with many children. But once Hattie is being courted in earnest, Reed, her young farmhand/ friend (who happens to be engaged to the town beauty) starts to realize that maybe he also has feelings for Hattie. This was a really sweet and (for the time) unconventional romance novel. It didn’t knock my socks off or anything, and the sweeping vistas and character archetypes definitely feel dated, but it was a pleasant read.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward: I picked up this book when I saw it in a Little Free Library because it had won the 2017 National Book Award. This novel takes place in Mississippi and tells the story of 13 year old Jojo and his drug addict mother Leonie (who is Black) who embark together on a road trip to the State Penitentiary to pick up the newly released Michael, his father/ her boyfriend (who is white). A lot of this book was hard for me to read because I don’t really like reading about child neglect, but I thought Ward really was able to show a side to Leonie that wasn’t just that of an irresponsible mother, thought there was certainly a lot of that going on. I’m not sure I completely understood where the book was going – there are some elements of magical realism going on – but the exploration of trauma, both individual and collective, and to some extent the trauma to come in the future, made this book a really stay with me.

The Anti-Ableist Manifesto by Tiffany Yu – This was one of my non-fiction reads this month, suggested to me by my intern at work who is writing her Masters project about the intersection of neurodivergence and stage management. I thought this book had some great concrete ways that we can make the world easier for people with disabilities (differently abled people?) to navigate. What struck me was that there is no one way to engaged in anti-ableist behavior because everyone has their own preferences for how they want their disability to be acknowledged (or not). I think the biggest takeaway I had was that we all need to help elevate people with disabilities so that they are not ignored or patronized. Visibility and representation matters, and goes a long way to helping people feel included and like they can function without barriers. This was a really eye-opening book for me.

ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, adapted by Annabel Lee for Audible Studios: This is the second Christie mystery adapted by Audible after The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I really like these adaptations – the performances are top notch melodramatic, but also with heart, and I enjoy the post WWI framing that these stories are given – it lends them a bit of emotional depth. I read ABC murders years ago and I feel like it’s clever and a little over the top, making it a very entertaining novel. (I just saw that Audible is just released a similar adaptation of Murder at the Vicarage with Toni Collette as Miss Marple, and I’m putting that in my queue.)

For Better or For Worse: Home Sweat Home by Lynn Johnson – For Better of For Worse was one of my favorite comic strips growing up. I liked how it was about a family just trying to live their lives and I could related to all the characters. The strips don’t often have side splitting punchlines, rather the humour is rather quiet. Home Sweat Home is, I think, one of the later compilations – they kids have all grown and have been launched in the world. Maybe it’s a function of the new phase Johnson is writing about, but I noticed there is a lot more text in the book than I had seem previously. Sometimes the word bubbles cover half or more of each cartoon cell. At any rate, I enjoyed catching up with the Patterson family and seeing where their lives were going.

Dare to Love a Duke by Eva Leigh – I was in a historical romance phase and I’d never read any Eva Leigh, so I picked this one up. It’s an interesting premise – Lucia Marini manages a secret society (read: sex club), and Tom (newly the Duke of something or other) discovers that he has inherited the club following this father’s death. Tom is trying to succeed in politics so needs to divest himself of such a scandalous possession. Lucia needs the club to continue in order to keep her employees, well, employed and also to support some side aspirations. This book was fine as historical romances go. I thought Lucia was smart and independent and interesting. Tom was less so. The premise and plot was interesting, but the writing was a little banal to be honest.

The Dead Romantics by Ashely Poston – I loved Poston’s The Seven Year Slip, so I picked up this book from a used bookstore on my reading retreat. This novel tells the story of ghost writer Florence who returns home to attend her father’s funeral only to run into the ghost of her publisher Ben, the same man who just fired her for being unable to deliver on a book. This book wasn’t as magical for me as The Seven Year Slip. I really liked Florence and the quirky small town characters and details, but I thought Ben wasn’t very well defined. Other than being really good looking, I didn’t really understand why Florence would want to be with him. I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry there. Still, the book had plenty of charm and humour and how everything is resolved at the end did give me goosebumps.

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed – This book – my second non-fiction read in July- is culled from Strayed’s Dear Sugar advice columns. I picked up this book from a used bookstore during our reading retreat because I had always seen it on lists of “Essential reads for new graduates” type lists. The writing is beautiful and heart-wrenching, but I found the advice a little narcissistic. Which is ironic because a lot of the letter writers are asking her how to deal with narcissistic people. I felt like Strayed’s advice is always about making boundaries and holding to them while recognizing that people won’t change. In fact she literally writes, “It’s a truism of transformation that if we want things to be different we have to change ourselves.” Boundaries and acceptance and self compassion are all very healthy things, but it all just made my heart ache for the lack of connection the letter writers had with other people. Maybe that’s just the nature of letters to an advice columnist. Each letter and response was full of wisdom and compassion for the letter writer’s suffering, but after a while the letters started running together for me. This book is probably better read in small doses, spaced out with a couple days in between to digest.

On my night stand:

Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian – I’m really enjoying this book. It’s gut wrenching and funny all at the same time.

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of boys by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson – still working through this book. It’s insightful, but no magical solutions yet.

The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope – still plugging away at this. I don’t understand why people in this novel continue to get engaged to people they don’t want to marry. Trollope would probably say it’s about image and money.

Etna by Paul Yoon narrated by Shrader Thomas – Story told through the eyes of a dog trying to find his way home in the wake of war. It’s not a kid’s book, but on a whim I put it on for the kids and we are all now super invested in Etna’s return home.

The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson, read by Claire Danes- We were listening to this before Etna, but no one seems to like the narrator, so I might need to finish this one without the kids. What I don’t get, though… why doesn’t Odysseus just get on his boat and go home? He’s having too many adventures.

Have you read any of the thrillers on the NY Times list?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Three Days in Niagara-on-the-Lake

We got back from our road trip to Niagara on the Lake earlier this week. I’m kind of rubbish at writing trip recaps that take more than one post to get out, so I’m going to put the whole trip in this one post.

Originally when we had planned this road trip, we were going to go to Indiana, Chicago and Niagara: Indiana because that’s where my in-laws are buried and for the Husband to see college friends, Chicago because it’s an awesome city and Niagara because the oldest had wanted to go ever since she was eight or nine and read a Geronimo Stilton book set at Niagara Falls. But then I got a last minute gig and we had to re-think our trip and we ended up cutting out the Chicago portion. The Husband and the kids left for Indiana on a Wednesday while I stayed home to finish out my contract. They visited Grandma and Grandpa’s grave sites, cleaned the tombstones, and then went to visit friends.

The Saturday after my show, I was on a 9:50am flight to Indianapolis. I had a moment of pause when I emerged out of arrivals at IND because this was where my in-laws would always meet us when we flew in to visit them- they were not the “We’ll pick you up outside” type people. They passed away ten years ago and we never fly into IND anymore because – well there’s no one to pick up up anymore so we now just drive to Indiana. Walking out into the arrivals concourse and not seeing their smiling faces just made me so sad for a moment, thinking about how the two younger kids will only know their grandpa and grandma through the memories of other people.

The Husband and kids picked me up and we headed to Bloomington, where the Husband went to college and where we met up with the Husband’s friends. We spent two nights in Bloomington. The first day, we had sandwiches at Dagwood, went to Hot Pot for dinner, then Husband, his friends, and the 9 year old played Role Playing Games deep into the night. (Shadow Run – I have no idea what this was, but from what I overheard, it sounded like people doing mundane things while trying to stay alive.).

The next morning we went to brunch at The Village Deli, where the pancakes were as big as my head. They had a cinnamon roll pancake that featured a swirl of buttery cinnamon goodness cooked into the pancake. Afterwards we wandered around the Indiana University campus, the Husband and his friend pointing out buildings and paths from their college days. The students haven’t returned to campus yet, so it was pretty quiet. There’s something kind of magical about a quiet campus, I think – all the simmering potential and the air that important things are waiting to happen. After stopping for ice cream, we said good-bye to the Husband’s friends and then we wandered around Bloomington for a while, we stopped at a few book stores (The Husband and I bought Alexis Hall’s recent book Hell’s Heart to read together – the Husband likes Science Fiction/space opera, I like Alexis Hall; we’re hoping we both like this book.)

Because we have a weakness for public libraries, we stopped at the Bloomington Public Library. They have a huge children’s section, a nice used book store, and a pretty awesome teen section. The teen room was what impressed me the most; it was a space where kids could truly gather. In addition to books, there was an area where kids could lounge and play MarioKart, there were several craft tables with supplies, there was a wall of ukuleles and guitars… And despite all that (maybe because of?) the room was relatively quiet even though it was filled with teens. I really wished our library had a teen room like that. One of my favorite things was they had a gumball machine that would spit out book recommendations. How fun is that? You turn the knob and a little plastic capsule pops out inside is a folded piece of paper:

my gumball book recommendation.

We also stopped at a record store. The Husband loves buying vinyl. At the record store, they had a classical music section and I leafed through the albums, taking a trip down memory lane as I saw some albums that I remember from my youth. I think one thing that I lament with the advent of music streaming is the loss of album covers – what a lost opportunity for some great art. Such as these ones:

I mean seriously – this is what we’re missing out on with music streaming!

The record store also had listening stations throughout the store. Do you remember those? I used to love going to Tower Records and putting on a pair of earphones and getting to hear the music right there, close and intimate. The kids were getting a little restless, so I perched them on stools and had them listen to some albums and, surprisingly, it kept them rapt for a good 15-20 minutes. Do you remember just listening to music? No distractions, no multi-tasking?

That night we had Indian food for dinner, picked up some groceries from the Bloomington Co-op, then had an early night.

The next day, we set off for Niagara Falls, by way of Detroit. Why Detroit? Well, the Husband really wanted to try genuine Detroit style pizza. Have you ever had Detroit style pizza? The crust is thick and they put the sauce on top of the toppings. It was very filling for sure.

This was the personal size. I only managed to eat half of it.

After lunch, we got on the road again. We made a little unplanned detour in Sarnia, Ontario – the town where I grew up. I started to write about that pit stop, but the post got long and I had so many thoughts, so I’m going to save that for another time. We arrived in Niagara on the Lake around 9pm – enough time to unload the car and turn in for the night.

We had three full days in Niagara, and we managed to pack them very full – perhaps a little bit too full. Here’s how our time in Niagara On The Lake was spent:

Day One: Rental bikes and theatre.
Apparently a big thing to do at Niagara-on-the-Lake is to do a bike tour of the wineries. We aren’t big wine drinkers, but we do like biking. A couple weeks before I had found a place that rented bikes. I wrote them and asked if they also had 20″ and 24″ bikes to rent. The folks at Zoom Bikes got back to me within minutes and said, “Yes!” Zoom Bikes, coincidentally was a ten minute walk from where we were staying, and our first full day in Niagara-on-the-Lake, we walked over at 9:30am and picked up our bikes. I highly recommend Zoom Bikes – the staff there was super friendly and helpful in telling us which routes to take, they provide helmets and bike locks and each bike has a basket and bell. You can do a half day rental (3 hours) or a full day rental (until 8pm.)

We spent most of the day biking the trail alongside Niagara Parkway. The trail would have taken up all the way to Niagara Falls, but we didn’t feel up to doing the whole thing. Instead, we biked for about an hour and a half along the Parkway before turning around and coming back. The trail was nice and smooth and had good views of the Niagara River. On the way back, we stopped at Walker’s Market for sandwiches and baked goods. I had a butter tart, a bit of Canadian deliciousness that I never see in the States.

After lunch, we biked to Fort George National Historic site, a military fortification that was originally completed in 1802 by the British Army. It was largely destroyed during the War of 1812 and very little of the original buildings remain. It was a nice historical stop – they had costumed re-enactors who answered questions and engaged visitors. We watched a musket demonstration, wandered through buildings, ate cookies baked in a hearth oven, walked through a tunnel to a look out tower. The kids had little activity books to fill out.

musket demonstration.

After Fort George it was a five minute bike ride to Queen’s Royal Park, which was on the mouth of Lake Ontario and had a little strip of beach. We weren’t prepared to go into the water, but the 6 and 9 year old took off their shoes and socks and built dams with rocks while the Husband and the 14 year old relaxed in the shade.

Lake Ontario. On a clear day you can see Toronto.

Around 4:00pm, we biked back to Zoom Bikes to return our bikes and head back to our rental house where we rested before our next adventure. I have to say, when I first got the idea for a family bike ride, I was a little nervous about the two little kids, but I would say we biked maybe 10 or 15 miles that day and no one complained. Family bike rides are going to go on our list of vacation activities, I think.

The next adventure as dinner and the theatre. Dinner was at a local Irish Pub (because every city has one, even Kyoto, Japan). After dinner we headed to the Shaw Festival. Ontario has two world renowned summer theatre festivals: The Stratford Festival (which specializes in Shakespeare), and the Shaw Festival (which specializes in works either written in the lifetime of George Bernard Shaw, or set during that time period.) Growing up in Sarnia, we would often go to the Stratford Festival, but we never went to the Shaw Festival. I’ve always wanted to see something at the Shaw Festival, so this was a dream come true.

The theatre complex was stunning. There are two (maybe three?) theatres on the site, with an airy courtyard between the spaces and also a lovely garden out back where patrons can sit and enjoy nature as they wait for their show to start. In the garden, there were trees with poems attached to the trunk, each poem listing the staff member who chose it. I thought that was such a personal touch.

We saw an adaptation of the book Wind in the Willows and it was wonderful. The performances were high energy, the set was clever and inventive, and the show was performed in the round, which always lends a sense of intimacy and immediacy. I don’t go to a lot of straight plays, and I always forget how wonderful it is to see actors playing off each other, finding their own rhythms and paces.

After the play, there was a Q&A with the actors, which we stayed for. It was really fascinating to learn about the unique nature of the Shaw Festival – they are truly a theatre company, where everyone is there for the whole summer and plays parts in multiple shows – they might be a lead in one show and then in the ensemble of another show. I was proud of the kids for asking questions even though it was mostly grown ups who stayed for the Q&A. The family also gave me a hard time for not asking the stage manager (who was moderating the Q&A) a question – I feel bad because they were right, no one ever asks the stage manager questions… I really like theatre that has these audience events – if you ever go to a show that involves an Q&A afterwards, I highly recommend going.

Day Two: Niagara Falls
This was our day in Niagara Falls. We were originally going to take the WeGo bus from NOTL to the Falls, but we couldn’t get the purchase to go through online, so we ended up taking and Uber. Originally I hadn’t wanted to drive in because I had read that the parking can be really difficult and expensive. We later discovered that if you are willing to walk 15 or 20 minutes away from the main drag, you can find parking for $10-$20 for the whole day. If we ever go back to Niagara Falls, we will probably try that option.

Niagara Falls has gotten really developed since I was there as a kid. Back in the 80s and 90s, I remember there being a Ripley’s Believe it or Not and a Wax Museum but that was it for non-falls related entertainment. Now, the Clifton Hill area a few block from the Falls is lit up like a Vegas amusement park and there is no shortage of ways to be entertained or to spend one’s money, both at the Falls itself and at Clifton Hill.

Knowing that there were so many things to do in Niagara, we focused on just two things – the iconic boat ride to the Falls and a visit to the Niagara Parks Power Station with its tunnel to the base of the falls. The Boat Ride is the must do of Niagara and I remember doing this as a child. The Power Station seemed like a really cool perspective of the Falls. Our Uber dropped us off at the Power Station at 11:00am, and we got tickets for the 1pm tour.

To pass the time before the power plant tour, we walked over to take in our first views of the Horseshoe Falls. The Falls are huge. It is a lot of water travelling very fast. Niagara Falls is such a popular destination that it almost feels like a cliche, but seeing it never felt cliched to me – it just felt awesome and almost meditative to watch the water flow and hear it roar. I felt like I could just stand there and watch it forever.

The Horseshoe Falls.

For lunch we had brought some sandwiches from the Budapest Bakeshop in Niagara on the Lake (more on that below), so we found a table outside and ate those before heading to the Niagara Power Station. The Power Station was built in 1906 and then decommissioned in 2005. It is now a museum that combines history and science. Visiting it is great for people who like a little bit of nerdy information with their tourism. It was fascinating to think of how all the water was used to create electricity. The tour even took us up to the original offices of the Power Station and back to one of the control rooms.

The main exhibit hall of the Power Station.
The control room.

The last part of the Power Station visit was a descent down to a tunnel that had been used to feed the water back into Niagara River. The elevator is glass so as it took you down you could see the inner mechanics of the power station. The tunnel now provides a walkway to the shores of the Niagara River where you can get a view of the bottom of the falls.

The pathway to the river.
The tunnel opens out into here.

We spent the rest of our time at the Power Plant exploring the various exhibits – there was a good combination of hands of activities and informative placards. There was an audio tour included with admission, which I’m always down for an audioguide!

Soon it was time to head off to our boat ride. When I was growing up, the boat ride was called The Maid of the Mist, but I’ve learned that Maid of the Mist is actually the boat tour from the American side. The tour from the Canadian side is called merely Niagara City Cruises. We picked up our complimentary red ponchos and boarded the boat. The 6 year old didn’t want to go to the top level, so I rode in the bottom level with her. The views were still stunning, and we got VERY wet. The boat took us past the American Falls and then close to the base off the Horseshoe Falls. It was such a sensory overload of an experience – water spray everywhere, the roar of the water coming down, and the amazing sight of the falls. And on the way back to the dock, we even saw a rainbow!

Here’s a picture of the boat that I snapped from above earlier in the day.
The 6 year old and me in our ponchos.
Rainbow in front of American Falls.

The boat ride was short – maybe 30 minutes, but I think it was the kids’ favorite activity of the trip. Following the boat ride we headed to dinner. We walked through the very crowded and neon touristy Clifton Hill area to the quieter area a few blocks further away for some Indian food. For some reason Indian food is one of our go tos when we travel – I think we like knowing that the food will be flavorful and we’ll get good vegetarian options.

Afterwards we got some (mediocre) boba and walked back down to the falls. One of my favorite memories of visiting Niagara Falls when I was a kid was when the Falls were illuminated at night. I really wanted to stay for that experience again, which meant staying out a little later than planned since the lights weren’t turned on until 8pm. I have to say, when the lights were turned on we were still half an hour until sunset and the skies were still bright, so the effect was a little underwhelming, but as the skies got darker, the lights on the falls became more saturated. It wasn’t as magical as when I was growing up, but it was still really pretty to see.

Around 9pm, we hopped in an Uber back to our house, we were all exhausted from our big day of walking and adventures.

Day Three – Hiking and Small Town Shopping and Beach Time:
Our third day started with a walk into town to get our van. Early that morning, the Husband had taken it to a charging station in town and since the parking meters turned on at 10am, we wanted to get the van before we had to pay for parking. It was almost like a mini date! We stopped to pick up a cinnamon sugar chimney cake from The Budapest Bakery – these were a new to me treat – dough is wrapped around thick cylinder and baked. Then the inside of the cylinder can be filled with sweet or savory fillings. (We had bought a bunch of their chimney cake sandwiches the day before to eat at Niagara Falls.)

savory chimney cakes.

Then we wandered a little down the street of cute shops. Not much was open before 10am, but one shop that was was Beau Chapeau hat shop. I love hats and had bookmarked this as a place I wanted to visit. The store was FULL of all shapes and sized of hats. And they also had an area where they built and repaired hats. This was a lovely shop and I walked out having indulgently refreshed my hat collection. I can’t wait to wear all my new hats.

What an amazing work space!

After we got back to the house, we decided to head out for a hike. The 14 year old stayed behind, so it was just the Husband, me, and the 6 and 9 year olds. We went to Niagara Glen to visit the Nature Center and go for a hike. The hike took us to some gorgeous vistas of Niagara Gorge.

The hike was quite a bit steeper than I had thought it would be, so even though it was a short hike (maybe 90 minutes round trip), it was pretty intense in parts. We stopped at the halfway point to eat the peanut butter and honey sandwiches that I had brought. After the hike, the 6 and 9 year old changed into our swim suits and headed back to the little beach at Queen’s Royal Park, where we played in the sand and swam in the lake for a couple hours. The kids were really obsessed with building a dam and once I figured out that the water a few meters out was less rocky and actually had a nice sandy floor, I hung out there and swam back and forth. It was a nice cooling way to relax after our hike.

Around 4pm, we walked over to meet up with the Husband and the 14 year old at Balzac’s coffee shop. Next to Blazac’s was Fritters on the Lake, a shop that was recommended multiple times on Reddit (where I get a lot of my travel ideas, tbh.) They make only one thing at Fritters on the Lake – apple fritters. Basically they take apple rings, dip them in batter, fry them, and sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar. They also came with a little container of caramel sauce. The whole thing was divine.

After our snack break, we wandered around Niagara on the Lake for a little bit, checking out the various cute shops. I stopped at the candy store and picked up a bag of licorice – they had salted licorice as well as chalk licorice, two of my favorite kinds. We also stopped at the grocery store to stock up on our favorite Canadian snacks:

Photo taken after we got home – wine gums, ketchup chips, maple cookies, Coffee Crisp, Oh Henry, Smarties…

Then we picked up gyros and falafel for dinner from Gyros on the Lake (“On the Lake” seems to be a big thing here.) and sat in the nearby park and ate it. The Husband and the 14 year old had tickets to see Funny Girl that evening, so they headed off to the theatre.

We had only planned on one theatre excursion on this trip, but Wind in the Willows was so good that they Husband and 14 year old wanted to see a second show. One of the wonderful things about the Shaw Festival is that student tickets are only $28, so it taking the kids to see theatre didn’t break the bank. They said Funny Girl was also really really good. The show had six understudies going on that evening, which was unusual and the Artistic leader who came out to do the curtain speech gave a shout out to all the technical departments (including stage management!) for pivoting and putting six understudies on. I thought that was pretty cool because techies never get shout out and applause.

Meanwhile the other two kids and I headed back to our rental where we packed and did laundry and had showers and basically had a low key last evening in Niagara On The Lake.

And then we went home….

We went home via the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY, which I would also highly recommend. It’s a museum devoted to, as you would figure, glass – there is both glass art and glass artifacts, and it’s all breath takingly stunning. There are also opportunities to take part in glass activities – we did the sand blasting because the activity was rated for all ages and you could take that home with you right away. The museum also had opportunities to do glass fusing, etching, flame working, and glass blowing. For sand blasting, we used tape and stickers to make a design on glasses and then using sandblasting techniques created a frosted look on the glasses.

glasses ready to be sand blasted.
The finished product at home in our cupboard.

After doing our sandblasting project, we took one of the tours then wandered around the museum on our own. The kids really liked the hands on science exhibit and we got to watch someone make a wine glass using flame working technique. I loved how the exhibits were a combination of the exquisite (see below) and the mundane – there was a whole exhibit about Pyrex and Corning ware.

Nocturn 5 by Karen LaMonte. This piece was stunning.
Tiffany window.
These are from the collection of contemporary women artists.
I loved this one – it’s called Thousand Hands by Song Dong. It is made up of discarded hands that were found outside a factory that makes glass Buddhas.

We spent about four hours at the Corning Museum and then got in the car to continue home. We stopped the night in Camp Town, just outside of Harrisburg, PA where we had spent our reading retreat a month ago. It wasn’t a conscious effort to return to Harrisburg, rather it was a convenient place to stop since we like to stay at hotels in the Marriott family. In the morning, we spent an hour wandering around Mechanisburg, including some time in an vintage good store where we found some plates and a table top tennis game for the kids from the 1970s. Then we had lunch at Millworks, the brewery/ artist studio we had visited last time we were here, and grabbed coffee and chai at Denim Coffee, another of our favorite places from our reading retreat. We were on the road again by 2pm and then home by 5:30pm.

It was nice to get home not too late – we unpacked and clean up and ordered pizza and watched The Princess and the Frog for movie night. I had never seen that movie before – it’s delightful.

As nice of an adventure we had over the past week, it felt so cozy to come home and go back to having pizza and movie night.

Grateful For on this trip:
-That we had a safe road trip. And the Husband for driving almost the entirety of the trip. I think we are embracing the road trip as our summer activity. International/ plane travel is great and all, but I think it’s good to also explore what’s just around us.

-That we were able to see friends in Indiana and they made time for us.

-Our Bookings.com host who were super responsive and even sent us a detailed list of places we could charge the van. The house was perfect – we could walk to the cute shops of Niagara on the Lake. The house was well furnished – there were toys and games and craft supplies for the kids. There was a fitness area in the basement so I could go yoga and some strength training. Everything was labelled. I mean everything – light switches, cupboards, drawers. I liked not having to guess where things were. I would definitely stay there again.

-That all three kids are now old enough and proficient enough on bikes that spending a day biking was a feasible plan.

-That our contractor came and fixed our water damaged wall while we were gone and we came home to his beautiful repair job.

-Nature. And the fact that Niagara Falls, despite being a huge tourist destination, is still an amazing natural feature.

-That the kids were in a relatively good mood and got along in the car, mostly.

-Museums. For being full of beautiful and fascinating things.

-That, back home, our friends came over and fed the fish while we were gone.

-Time together with the family.

Well that’s the recap on the trip! I know I usually put our dinners on these weekly recaps, but it’s all in the recap. And if there is no dinner listed, it meant that we ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches and apple slices for dinner. I would say all in all it was a good trip. There were some unbloggable mishaps – not my story to share – but hopefully we got through it all okay. If anything, I would say I would have loved to spend one more day in Niagara on the Lake. The one thing we didn’t have was a lot of down time and NOTL is the perfect setting for some downtime. I’ll remember that for the future because I hope we do go back again.

Have you ever been to Niagara Falls? What kind of activities do you seek out when you travel?

Tips for Surviving Middle School (from someone who’s been there.)

Since kids are all gearing up for the start school, or have already started, I thought this would be a good time to share a list that the oldest kid gave me – published with her permission, of course! She came up with this list in seventh grade. A couple of months ago, as she was finishing her time in middle school, I pulled it up again and we read it, and I said, “Do you have anything more to add?”
“Nope – that’s all still true. Oh wait, there’s one more thing.”
Which we added at the end of the list.

I never went to middle school growing up since I went to a school that was K-8. But even though I didn’t go to middle school, I did go to school in my tween years and it’s such a time of transition, of finding a sense of place and self and growing independence. It can be a hard time.

I have to say, even though I sometimes am beside myself about the 14 year old’s lack of executive functioning skills – like that moldy bagel that was in the bottom of her backpack for I don’t know how many weeks, or homework struggles – overall, I’m really proud of how the 14 year old went through middle school – walking the 1.1 mile to and from school all by herself almost every day, staying out of mean girl drama (and middle school drama in general), being captain of the basketball team and being the lead in the school musical, being kind to boys who had crushes on her, figuring out how to navigate the inane online system for school and grades, connecting with her teachers… I’m really proud of all that. I hope she found middle school a time of growth and discovery.

So here it is – our 14 year old’s top ten fourteen tips for surviving middle school.

  1. If your locker is kind of broken, keep your locker because if you tell your teacher you might not get a new locker till the middle of the year.  
  2. Always bring your own materials because the school system has stopped funding teachers to buy supplies.
  3. Make friends in every class.
  4. Don’t complain to the teacher and always stay on their good side.
  5. Make sure that you take notes, especially in French class.
  6. There are no bad teachers or students, there are just bad helpers.
  7. Make sure you find  that one teacher that lets you eat in their class. 
  8. If your teacher says you can’t chew gum in their class in the first few weeks, wait a few weeks before you start chewing gum because by then the teachers will be worn down enough to let you.
  9. Make sure you endear yourself to teachers.
  10. Candy is the way to anybody’s heart.
  11. Always carry a snack.
  12. Don’t forget to ask for help.
  13. Don’t curse.
  14. Don’t eat school lunch.

Well… I think perhaps this list is more a snapshot of the 14 year old than of middle school. But who knows… maybe in eight years she’ll look back on this list as she enters the workforce and think, “Yep, all of that is still true.”

What about you? Any top tips for middle school?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye July, Hello August!

A theatre with the seats half filled. Onstage is platforms set with church pews and on the sides is scaffolding. A movie theatre frame, lined with lights displays movie posters. One poster prominently says "Tosca".
Photo taken by my friend who came to see the show.

Well another tech week and show into the history books. I had a good show. Some frustrations, but over all I worked with a lot of really great people who all worked super hard to put a show on very little time. One fun thing that happened on the day of the performance – there had been rain forecast, and we heard periodic rumbles. We were all hoping that the rain would hold out because we are in an outdoor venue and a large part of the audience sits out on the lawn, which is uncovered. Well, we were lucky and the rain did hold off. But just as the show finished and the heroine had collapsed on the ground dead, there was a huge clap of thunder and the heavens opened up. I guess God approved of our show….

August! Where did you come from? Here we are. How was July? Well here’s the run down:

July Highlights:
-Going on a Reading Retreat with the Husband over the 4th of July. We went to Harrisburg, VA and enjoyed bookstores, farmer’s markets, and lots of reading.

-All three kids going to Taiwan camp with my mother. They all had a great time and want to go back next year.

-Going over to a friend’s house one evening for S’mores over their firepit.

-A great swim season w/ the swim team.

-On that note – the Mom on the swim team who took over swim meet logistics when there was a sudden change in plans on a Saturday then personally contacted every swim team family to let them know of the change, even if it meant knocking on their door. (Our Swim Team Rep and many of the members of our swim team are shomer-Shabbat Jews.). This display of inclusion and kindness was a definitely a highlight of the month.

-Going to the theatre with the Husband.

-Impromptu dinner with some family friends. I always think it is such a hassle to host people for dinner, but it doesn’t have to be. Plus I like cooking for people, so it’s even kind of fun if I keep things simple.

-Watching the World Cup. I might have been late for work because I was watching the final game.

-The 14 year old cooking dinner and baking. I told her she has to do at least one analogue activity a day. She fulfills this request by making a mess in the kitchen. But at least it’s tasty and she’s learning some skills.

-A Belated Birthday trip to Dave and Busters for the 9 year old and a few of his friends, with dumplings and noodles afterwards.

-Discovering the Japanese market near work and stocking up on my favorite gummy candies and buying three different brands of ramen for our ramen taste test.

-Happy Hour with my Bus Stop mom friends. (I know this happens almost every month, but it is consistently a highlight of my month.)

-The two younger kids going to camp – gymnastics for the 6 year old and fencing for the 9 year old – and really enjoying it.

-Visiting the National Gallery of Art. I should go more often. They have such good things to see there.

-Peach Truck Peaches! 25lbs of peaches. Picked them up on Sunday. Half the box was gone by Thursday. I canned 9lbs. The 14 year old made a pie. The rest we ate, dripping peach juice down our chins.

-Favorite Dinner: Salmon bowls that became onigiri making. That was fun and tasty. I’ve been researching other onigiri fillings to make.
Also – snack dinner at the pool was a big hit – crackers, salami, cheese, cut up veggies and fruit.

-Favorite thing watched: I didn’t watch a whole lot this month because I was at work a lot (or commuting to work), though I did finally watch Season 1 of Bridgerton (pretty people. pretty clothes. lots of sex. I’m on the fence if I’ll watch the other seasons. But Benedict and Francesca’s books were my favorite, so I might just watch those seasons.).
Oh we also started a show called AP Bio about a Harvard Philosophy Professor who is fired and ends up teaching high school biology. It is very funny, but the sardonic academic schtick gets old after a while so I don’t find the show great for bingeing.
We also watched a few episodes of Nora From Queens. I never remember that I love this show until I feel like I have nothing else to watch.
And of course the World Cup. I really loved watching that.

Yearly Goals/ Aspirations:
Creativity:
-Haikus: 2 (18/52 written so far this year… needs more time)
-Painting: 0 (ouf this was a bad month for making time for creativity)
-Crosswords completed: 1

Consumption:
-Live Performances: 1 theatre performance
-Museums: 2 (visit to the National Gallery of Art and to an Artist’s creative space – not technically a museum, but there was a lot of art to be seen)
-hikes: 0 (Why is this even in this category? Is it because I’m supposed to be consuming nature? Well, I did pretty badly at that.)

Healthy Habits:
-Yoga: 27/31 days
-Strength: 3x (goal is 8x a month)
-Runs: 3x (not great, but I did swim…)
-Swim laps: 4x
-Vegan Dinners: 3 (Sesame noodles- twice- and Corn, Tomatoe, and Mint Pasta Salad. Goal is once a week, so this isn’t bad)

Quote of the month:
This one came from the 14 year old. We were sitting on the couch, hanging out watching tv and scrolling the internet together. I was reading some blog or substack or something with beautifully curated sleek (and expensive) houses and glowing impeccably dressed blonds with sleek smooth locks, everything bathed in gorgeous light with nary a speck of dirt or mess in sight. And the 14 year old leans over and looks at my screen and said:
“Mom – you don’t want to be her!”
And I said, “You know what? No, I don’t.” And I shut my laptop and pulled her in for a cuddle. It was just the reminder that I needed to make sure my inputs match the things I really value and love.

July Low Lights:
-The hot weather.

-The long commute. (But yay! now I no longer have to do that … til next year. And at the risk of toxic positivity – at least I have work during the summer.)

-Smoke in the skies and the bad air quality. I’m sorry Canada had to deal with this all.

-The exhaust pipe falling off my car as I was driving to work. (But the kindness of everyone who helped me was a highlight of July.)

-Sibling squabbles. It might have been a little too much together time for the kids this summer.

-On that note – the jury is still out on whether this uber unstructured summer was a good idea. (Each kid only had one week of camp all summer.) I think the kids loved it, but I feel like they might have done better with a little more structure to their days. Yet when I tried to impose structure, there was much protesting, whining, and yelling.

-Missing a piano lesson for the kids because I forgot that it was at 7:15am, after two consecutive weeks of 7:45am. Argh! I hate stupid mistakes like that.

-Discovering the waterline to our fridge misting water.

Looking Forward to in August:
-Our trip to Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls.

-Listening to our Road Trip Playlist. I can’t remember where I got this idea, but I read about someone who asks people she meets on her travels to add a song to a playlist she makes for each trip. I sort of riffed on that idea and all summer long, I’ve been asking people to add a song to my road trip play list. I don’t listen to a lot of music myself, so I don’t know that I could create a playlist on my own. By asking people to give me just one song for the playlist I find that I’m being introduced to an eclectic mix of music – and each song will be tied in my mind to the person who chose it. I’m still taking songs, so feel free to give me a song for the list!

-School starting. The oldest is going to high school!

-Routine. I’m craving regular rhythms and space in my day.

-The Maryland Renaissance Festival. We usually go at the end of August for preview weekend since it’s cheaper, but they’ve changed their pricing and so the first few weekends cost just as much as any other time. So this might actually be a September thing. It’s the last year that the 6 year old can go for free, so I feel like I should make an effort.

Grateful for:
-Lap lanes at the pool. I’ve been going to swim laps at the pool and it’s a really nice alternative to running when the temperatures at so hot.

-A day off that was relaxing and productive and social – checks all my free day boxes. I read and swam and went through some of the kids’ outgrown clothes and packed for my trip and had a friend over to can peaches and went to bed exhausted and satisfied.

six jars of canned peaches sit on silicone hotpads on a granite counter
Can’t wait until January!

-Uniqlo nylon culottes. Running a show at an outdoor venue in 80+ degree weather, is deeply unpleasant if I’m not wearing the right thing. My new discovery this year was these pants – they’re lightweight, look somewhat nice, and have rear pockets, which are perfect for stashing my cell phone. And because they are culottes, they give me the coverage of pants, but are as airy as a skirt.

-Company on my drive home – My friend came to see my show and he came to the afterparty with me and afterwards, I drove him to the metro stop near me so he could get home. I’m always a fan of a commuting catch-up – it was lovely to see him and to have thirty minutes in the car to chat.

-Having a parking pass in Zone 1. The stage managers get to park in the lot closest to the theatre. The singers have to park in the lot a little further down. I always have so much stuff to schlep with me that I’m glad I get a Zone 1 parking pass.

-That the kids can pack themselves. I make them packing lists and they just do it. I do have to check the 6 and 9 year old’s suitcases afterwards, but the bulk of the work is theirs. (The 14 year old gets a list, but we let there be natural consequences if she forgets something…) I’m so glad we’re at the phase now where I don’t have to pack for the kids anymore. Also grateful that we no longer have to travel with baby gear.

a piece of paper with a 14x2 grid. In each of the rectangles is an item from the packing list.
The packing list I made for the kids. Thank goodness for clipart. Plus I got to use my laminator!

-And incredibly bright moon, rising large and luminous on the horizon as I drive eastward home after a long day at work. I needed that shot of beauty in my life at that moment.

What We Ate:
Monday: Honey Chicken with green beans and corn. The 14 year old cooked. I heard this was tasty – there wasn’t any left when I got home.

Tuesday: Leftover Teriyaki tofu and miso zucchini for me at work. I’m actually not sure what the rest of the family ate.

Wednesday: I packed more leftover teriyaki tofu, but then they had leftovers from an event at work, so I ended up eat that – it was roasted vegetables, chicken, salad, and fruit. I love free food at work.

Thursday: My friend came over to can peaches and we had snack dinner – pimento cheese, leftover miso glazed zucchini, good bread… whatever else was in the fridge.

Friday: The day of our show! We went out to eat with our interns as a Thank You for all their work this season. I had a Buffalo Chicken sandwich. I love Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches, but my stomach does not like them as much as it used to, so I only have them sparingly these days.

Welp that’s the month that was… Just in time for the middle of the month. Eeep. The month is racing by and I’ve barely been able to catch up.

Tell me, what one song would you add to my road trip playlist? Do you keep a packing list for travel? Have you ever used a laminator? What are you looking forward to in August?