The annual Grillin’ for Peace was Feb 1, 2014. It was a bittersweet celebration this year, because the founder, Tom Barry, died last summer. Sadly, and too soon – he was almost 5 years younger than me. But the event went forward, in its usual weird WI way. Grillin for Peace 2014 from Debra Shapiro […]
Smiting leftovers at every turn. Woke up this morning and started plotting how to use up the sad leftovers in the fridge. I think I ended up with a pretty good plan. The last of the potato gratin and the one leftover baked potato from last night – that was itself the last of the […]
I’m not sure, but think I like the vortex better. When it’s this little bit warmer, but damp, the cold seems more penetrating. Today we are having freezing fog. And now, for the walk home, it is black dark at 4:36 PM, with a mix of rain & snow.
OK, so it’s above zero out – just – something like 3°. But it’s 55º in the downstairs and 64º up. Yesterday when we got up, Mark’s furnace – the 2nd floor one – wasn’t working. We coaxed it back on, and the upstairs returned to normal temps. Then, around 5:00 in the evening, the […]
Let’s see if I can recreate – Monday was the I ♥ SLIS thing at Brocach – benefit for scholarships at the library school where I work. It got pushed back a little later in the day, so I didn’t go to my Dr.’s appointment after work (my dermatologist yearly full body scan that I […]
Little sliders with cheese inside, and brats. Flags. A dog named Toulouse wearing booties – who was amazingly well-behaved – didn’t even get near my foil pans of meat sitting on the ice. Cajun shrimp, chicken, jalapeños stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. And, while I was writing this, they just played Jerry Garcia […]
It’s cold and salt-encrusted and dirty everywhere I look outside. I think I have permanent hat hair. And I know I’m not getting enough exercise. Hmm, must be midwinter. I’m keeping the fridge pretty empty, but I had a nice work breakfast of thick yogurt and thick preserves, topped with granola. After breakfast, things kind […]
The downside of being so over-busy is that when I have a short span of UN-busyness, I have this unfocused inability to do anything. Like today – I recorded a lecture, read the discussion boards in my class, graded two assignments, kind of caught up on email, answered numerous student questions, met with a student […]
We are having an extremely mild winter in WI – no snow, and the average temp is like 35 degrees, probably. The lakes are still open. All the municipalities around WI are saving a ton on not having to plow the roads – the figure given for for Madison on the local news last night […]
Before we had all the excitement of the Superbowl, we had all the excitement of the blizzard – about a foot and a half of snow that fell on the night of February 1, with high winds and drifting. It was a Tuesday, and we knew pretty much everything was going to be closed on […]