What the hell??!?!

The award for grossiest sandwich imaginable, possibly even worse than Gidget's Heartbreak Special goes to.......this bizarre dream I had back in 2020.

Destination Doughs

If it were up to me, I'd have made a Belgian chocolate filled doughnie and then an Amalfi lemon filled, in honour of Positano. For the third...how about baklava flavoured with a filo dough top and stuffed with gooey bits of pistachio to make me think of traveling to Greece or Armenia. It's good to dream!!

June 2026 Books

** Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse by Marthe Jocelyn with illustrations by Isabelle Follath - My god! The writing by Jocelyn is damn near poetic at times. Scratch that, it is poetic. There was a bit at the start of a chapter when Aggie is in a tent by the seashore and the description was so good that I could hear the light passing of a breeze against the tent and the surf lapping against the sandy pebbled beach. I even took a photo of the page so I would remember to share it here: But the white canvas glowed in today's early sunshine, making it seem that I had slept inside a seashell. The rolling murmur of waves was as steady as blood through a vein. I love when an author overly describes things because it allows me to jump into the story as if I were Mary Poppins with Bert and the children, popping in to the chalk painting and becoming a part of it. I was able to peer over Aggie's shoulder and watch the unearthing of a new dinosaur and sit beside her in the tent gazing in amazement as Hector volunteered in the circus show. I so, so hope that more is to come in this fantastic series.

♥ Narwhal Peanut Butter and Jelly by Ben Clanton - I thought no series could be cuter than Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, but then I discovered Narwhal and Jelly, the stinkin' cutiest cute-cutes in all the land. Or, sea rather. Regardless of where they roam, Narwhal and Jelly are adorable to the max and I look forward to one day having every book in the series. This one is about a narwhal that eats only waffles until he is introduced to peanut butter cookies by his jellyfish pal. Who wouldn't want to read a story like that? Well, if such a person exists, I do not want them in my circle of friends, that's for sure.

Penny Parker Mystery Stories: Tale of the Witch Doll by Mildred A. Wirt - I had high hopes that this series of books by my favourite Nancy Drew author would be a new go-to for relaxing reads in between heavier ones. Nope. It was blah and I put it in one of the Little Free Library boxes right after I was done with it. Wholly unmemorable.

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.

May 2026 Books

♥ Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Body Under the Piano by Marthe Jocelyn with illustrations by Isabelle Follath - I am hooked on this series! I started with the third book, since it was the only one available at the book shop I was in, and liked it so much I bought the other three books. The Body Under the Piano was the one that started it all and I loved learning how Hector and Aggie met and became friends. The next book takes place at Christmastime, so I'm saving it for December. On to book four!

Post Script:

A Little Life ¹ by Hanya Yanagihara - I can't remember a character I identified with more than Jude St. Francis, the man at the center of Yanagihara's disturbing and distressing book. I only made it 58% through the audiobook and had to give up. I Googled the plotline because I wanted something good to happen to Jude but it never did. Or rather, the scraps of happiness he experienced never made up for the horror that was inflicted upon him. Listening to the exceptional Matt Bomer narrate and tell me one despicable thing after another that happened to Jude from childhood onward became exhausting. I spent an entire two and a half hour car ride to Phoenixville in tears, feeling crushed that little boy Jude was so unloved and uncared for. He eventually found a group of wonderful men that saw his goodness and beauty but no matter what, the trauma that Jude went through was too much and he never believed that anyone would ever love him for real. It got to a point where I became angry with Yanagihara for hurting Jude. Like when we were all furious with the writers of Downton Abbey for having our beloved Anna be raped in season four. Don't make me love someone and then hurt them and expect me to keep coming back for more. It got to where I was having trouble sleeping because I would just remember and replay all the sexual trauma that sweet Jude went through, only to find that his entire life was tragic and awful. (And I do not think a handful of moments with great friends makes up for decades of abuse and neglect.) I returned it to Libby early and put on The Nanny to push away the heartache of meeting Jude St. Francis and then having to find out the cruelty he suffered. (It's a known fact that Fran Drescher can heal all emotional pain. I turn to that series when I need to feel peace and to crack up laughing. It never disappoints.) I'm finally getting around to posting this in July and still, at least every other day I think of Jude. A sweet, caring, broken man who I came to love and continue to feel enraged at what Yanagihara subjected him to. How dare she. I'll never read another thing she wrote for asa long as I live.

¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.

July Ends

Strange - Celeste

Away - Cam Cole

Bulls on Parade - Rage

I Happen to Like New York - Bobby Short

Accidents Will Happen - Elvis Costello

Bloodstream - Tokio Myers

Bring It On Home to Me - Sam Cooke

Half-Breed - Cher

I've Been Loving You Too Long - Otis Redding

You're No Good - Linda Ronstadt

I Wanna Be Around - Tony Bennett

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

How About You? - Frank Sinatra

Let Go - Frou Frou

Furnace Room Lullaby - Neko Case

Mockingbirds - Grant Lee Buffalo

What If I Loved You - Joey Gian

Wedding Bell Blues - The Fifth Dimension

Last Night I Had A Dream - Randy Newman

I Know You're Out There Somewhere - Moody Blues

Model House Opening - Troy Herion

I'll Come Running (To Tie Your Shoe) - Brian Eno

Hello Young Lovers - Mel Tormé 

I Used to Care - Louyah

Dance To This - Troye Sivan feat. Ariana Grande

Rama Bauer - Tony Lagare

- July 2021 Playlist

The World's Most Remarkable Boy

I am absolutely LOVING all the time I've been spending with Jackson this Summer - twelve times so far! He's fourteen and a half and I'm cramming in as much one on one with him as possible, as once he has a license and a vehicle, he'll be out and about with his friends. I saw him on Thursday at Mum's and he let me snap a handful of photos. Proof positive that he's handsome as hell and accommodating to his weird spinster auntie's wishes.

Lady Miss Liv

Ever since I was nineteen and saw her in Stealing Beauty (thirty years later it is still in my top five favourite films of all time), I wished to be as flawlessly beautiful as Liv Tyler. I even have a photo I found of her on the beach tacked up on my vision board in my closet. If I could have the body of someone else's, it'd be Liv Tyler's on that beach. She's lovely.

10 - The Lion

The Lion

Last week a lion came to town. Naturally we were terrified. He stalked our streets with his tail swishing behind him, snarling and lunging at anyone who came near. We gathered on rooftops and watched him from a distance, too frightened to return to our offices and homes. He ate mailboxes and small cars, and he was taking apart the post office with his teeth when a little girl came skipping down the street. She bounded towards the beast with outstretched arms, singing Mr. Lion, Mr. Lion as if he were a stuffed animal that had come to life. She giggled as she picked up his tail and began skipping rope. We gasped. We could not look. But the lion simply sighed and settled down for a nap. When approached by such a cheerful and harmless creature, what else can you do?

Approach your adversaries with kindness and no harm will come to you. Your behavior will determine the well-being of your community and yourself. Integrity is louder than words.

Molly Ringwald

Pretty much anyone who was a girl in the 80s liked Molly Ringwald. She was beautiful in a very real way and was a natural actress. She had that lovely red hair and deep brown eyes. Here's a page from an old scrapbook. I took this photo of it back in 2015, when I was heavy in to downsizing and getting rid of stuff. Glad I snapped this pic - if only for the hair inspo. I wonder if I could ever get mine styled like that...

My Kinda Stairway

Man do I wish I had a real home that I could wallpaper the hell out of...

(photo kidnapped from Instagram account houseandgardenuk - 20 March 2023)

Just Be Grateful

Natalia in Perú

Natalia's in Perú with hubby and Teo. She's such a doll and has been keeping me up to date on all her adventures.

(The ham rant.)

Roger Sterling Quotes

My favourite character on Mad Men, and the most debonair and handsome, was without question, Roger Sterling. I’m so glad I took a screenshot of his best lines because I really needed this laugh. I gotta re-watch that series immediately. 

Meeting Mr. Copeland

Back in February I bought tickets for me and Jax to see Stewart Copeland's spoken word tour and scored us a meet and greet as well. It was a little under four hundred bucks total, which was kind of an insane thing to do since I'm not a massive fan of The Police and I don't really know his film scores or other work. Jackson didn't know him at all, but Copeland is one of the most respected drummers alive and I wanted us to go and kick start Jackson's discovery of a new-to-him musician. The day arrived and I was worried about traffic and parking and so we left way too stinkin' early. I picked up Jax at 1 and, of course, we hit zero traffic and found a perfect parky spot by 2:40. 

First up was late lunch at Tai Me Up for some fab grub.  I thought we'd kill a couple hours but the food arrived super fast and we wolfed it down, done at 3:20. Thankfully the place wasn't busy and the waitress there is an absolute sweetheart and didn't mind that we stayed until 4:30. We headed over to Reads to do some book shopping before arriving at the theatre at 5:30. 

The meet and greet portion was before the show and didn't start til 6. Finally, my hand-held fan on full blast in an effort to cool the fug down, we were ushered in to form a line. It moved pretty quickly and by 6:15 we stood before the man himself. Every thought I had about what to say flew right out of my head. I got as far as shaking his hand and introducing myself and then Jackson. He was signing Jax's drumsticks and I stupidly said, "So how are ya?" I gotta stop meeting celebrities. I always come off as a freakin' doofus. Then I turned to Jackson and said, "you have nothing to say??" That jogged his memory and while Mr. Copeland signed my copy of his memoir (which I will say he seemed kind of impressed, looking at the spine and saying "Oh!" as he recognised his book) Jackson asked him how he warms up. (Copeland said he shakes out his hands and stretches them then does single stroke rolls and paradiddles (or paradoodles, as I prefer to call them), which Jackson said was a helpful tip.) Then as I thanked him and we turned to go, Copeland said, "get him to give up drums and go into dentistry!" Cute!

(Kudos to Inez who took the photos - she did a fantastic job and I love that she took candid shots plus a couple posed. What a doll!)

Now it would be another nearly two hours before the show started. We squirreled away in a corner and chatted til they let us in to our seats at 7. The spots I scored for us were the exact row behind where we usually sit. Jesus God almighty. It was so tight and poor six foot tall Jackson was crammed in with his knees crunched into the back of the seats in front of him. I'm 5'5" and it was uncomfortable as hell for me. By the time we'd sat there for a half hour I decided we'd be better off standing out in the upper hall until showtime. Jackson was clearly dreading having to go back to the seats so...I made the call and we skipped the show. Stupid, I know, but I just thought, he's happy with having met Copeland and I was bored silly with his memoir that I read back in March, so why torture this kid with a show that I wasn't elated to see either. Plus Chase, his BFF, was back at the house waiting for him. We stayed long enough to hear the crowd cheer for Copeland and, oddly, chant E-A-G-L-E-S!!! at Copeland's prompting, and then hit the side door and left by 8:15. I figured he'd want me to race him home, but instead he wanted to drive to Lena's Water Ice for a chocolate shake (they have the best chocolate water ice, too!). I dropped him home by 10:30 and then steered Phineas towards home in the downpour. Aside from cramped seating and lots of waiting around, we had a great time together as always. The bonus was that Stewart Copeland was very nice and I didn't trip and fall on the walk to meet him. Hurrah!

Wednesday's Noon Meeting

On 24 July 2020 I saw a YouTube video from ASAP Science that posed the question:  Wednesday's noon meeting has been moved forward by two hours. What time is the meeting now? For me, the answer was clearly 2pm, since that is two hours after noon and therefore two hours forward in time. It was fun to ask friends and find out how differently we interpreted the question. My most involved convo was with Marina.

Bishop: 2pm

Xavier: 10am

Amy: 10am

Dave: 10am

We Heart Tom Selleck

Aunt Berne had a lifelong crush on hunky Tom Selleck, who was my first celebrity crush. Seeing these on Instagram last year always made me think of her.