I’ve been 5’4” my whole adult life.  Until my last doctor’s appointment, when I was informed that I am now 5’ 3 1/2”.  Dangit!

Dulce de leche.  Sweet milk.  Divinely delicious creamy caramel.  Yes, you can buy it in a can if your grocery store can keep it in stock.  But if not, never fear.  It’s about the easiest thing in the world to make yourself.

My poor father is quite bald.  He has a little hair around the sides, rather like a monk’s tonsure, but on the top? Nothing but a few lonely spikes of hair.  So his head gets cold year round.  Outside, he favors baseball caps, but indoors, it’s all beanies all the time.

It is a truth universally acknowledged…

I have in a previous post mentioned the joys of roasting vegetables. I’d like to go a little farther today. I’m going to posit that roasting transforms almost any vegetable—and some starches, like potatoes or corn-on-the-cob—into something delicious. Except broccoli. There’s nothing that can redeem broccoli.

On July 20th, I was privileged to see a movie entitled Rebel With A Clause. This is naturally the film version of the book of the same name, which I reviewed recently.  The author—and star of the movie—Ellen Jovin was going to be present at the viewing, answering questions at the Grammar Table and autographing her book.  I have a hardback copy of her book, of course, perfect for autographing.  But having recently packed up my whole household to move and being slow to unpack in the new place, I hadn’t gotten around to unpacking a single one of my books.  Which occupy about thirty boxes.  How to find the one book I needed to take to the autographing session?

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m loving my new massaging neck pillow.  In fact, I love it so much that I bought that company’s original lower back pillow, which performs the same functions.  However, while the neck pillow does actually apply gentle traction to the neck, the same can’t be said for the lumbar pillow.  The mechanics of the body just don’t allow it.  Nonetheless, I’m glad I bought it and it is helping somewhat with my chronic lower back pain.

Post-apocalyptic:  relating to or set in the period following an apocalypse, such as an imagined nuclear war or the collapse of global civilization.

I recently published a blog article singing the praises of my new adjustable platform for my sleep number bed  I have not changed my mind about it, but I was having a little issue.  The remote control to adjust the bed works great, but where do I put it when I’m not actively using it?  If I have it on my nightstand when I’m ready to raise the head of the bed, I can just reach over, pick it up, and use it.  But once the head is inclined, I can no longer reach the nightstand without reaching perilously far out of bed.  I haven’t yet fallen out of bed, but I was positive it was only a matter of time.

Back in May, my former co-worker and fellow bibliophile Larry Porter recommended a book to me.  Okay, I already need to digress.  Larry Porter is tall and thin and wears perfectly round glasses.  The day I first met him, I thought he looked like a grown up Harry Potter.  When I expressed this opinion (because in my younger days, I thought all opinions should be immediately expressed), he smirked at me and replied, “Larry Porter.”  And so he was.

Whenever I’ve visited my parents in recent years, I’ve spent the night on an air mattress.  At first, it was my parents’ air mattress, which (like all air mattresses) would slowly deflate during the night until I was sort of “encased” in the mattress, which is both uncomfortable and creepy.

In all the excitement and disorientation of my recent move to a new house, I almost forgot that I just finished my fourth year of this blog.  Four years of posting a new article every Friday.  I know I say this every year, but it’s more and more true every year…I’m so impressed with myself!  Okay, enough of that.

I had such fun with my recent compare/contrast writeup of the movie and book versions of The Martian that I thought I’d do another: Project Hail Mary, by the same author, although different filmmakers. 

For most of my adult life, I’ve suffered from frequent headaches related to neck/shoulder tension and spine alignment problems.

A long time ago (in a galaxy far, far away), I saw a recipe on YouTube and gave it a whirl.  As time passed, I adjusted it to my own taste and the result is the Thai Salad that I’m going to share with you today. The big secret to this salad is the dressing…it’s just amazing.

I’m in the process of moving house (as our English cousins like to put it) so I’m a little tardy in putting up the results of my second quarter book nook.  But hey, it’s still spring, right? So this still counts as my spring book nook.

In our family, the most frequent choice for a birthday celebration dessert is chocolate cake with raspberry filling.  There’s a reason for that, of course…it’s a classic and utterly delicious flavor combination.

Yes, this is a blog post about Mars.  And the man who colonized it.  Fictionally speaking, of course.

For many years, I worked swing shifts or night shifts.  This of course necessitated sleeping during the day.  Which contains light.  Daylight, I believe it’s called.  Quite a number of studies have been performed, showing that sleeping with even a little bit of light in the room adversely affects quality of sleep, with a host of associated potential adverse affects on health.

For some mysterious reason, spice cake seems to have gone out of fashion.  It’s still delicious but not many people make it anymore, which is a shame.  It’s light and delicious, especially with cream cheese frosting.  And if you add apples (usually in the form of applesauce), it’s extra moist and flavorful.