NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON MY BLOG
Our bookshelves, ourselves
I Am What? I Am
Who knew that with a name like Maureen Egan, that, if I am to believe the DNA results from a sister, I am actually 23% Scandinavian?! That explains all those Ikea pit stops. 13% Eastern European might explain my occasional sullen-ness. (It's ok--I can stereotype...
Hanging
Not to over-anaylze it--squiggly, wiry, metallic and free-form. Note the juxtapositions. (There are always juxtapositions.) Is it an Alexander Calder mobile rip-off? A caricature done in coat hangers with a nod to irony? Symbolic of Virginia hanging onto its...
Cowed by the Roads
I have had more near-death experiences in Ireland than in any other country and I’ve been there for a grand total of 4 months of my life. It’s the roads and the people driving them, not the cows, that I blame.
Smoke and Mirrors
If you read Dear Abby even rarely, you've come across a Pennies from Heaven anecdote. Somebody dies. Somebody who misses the dead person lives and finds a penny. Maybe the penny is from the year of the dead person's birth, death or wedding--first kiss--last...
Affection Trumps Infarction
I must hand it to dreams--sometimes they know what they are doing. The last couple of nights I've had the funniest anxiety dreams, so finely crafted, so detail-oriented, so nuanced that I couldn't (and certainly won't now) articulate a mixed-up miasma of complicated...
RVA at the Forefront of…
Four Play. Yes, it certainly can't be at the forefront of the homophone to four play. Even the word homophone is making some people in Richmond nervous. And let's not even talk about anything tongue-in-cheek. Earlier this summer there was the brouhaha over a fun,...
Cottage in its Dotage
It's been a couple of weeks of taking care of what's on top and what's on the bottom and everything in between. Roof leaks, sewer gas smells, gas stove servicing, annual termite inspection, car issues, trips to the dentist and the GYN. I even made a colonoscopy...
Checking the list
Just glanced at a list I made for a recent trip: checkbooks legal pad of joy knitting That pretty much sums it up except I forgot the checkbooks, I knit perhaps 3 rows the entire weekend and the legal pad had a few more worry lines added to it. Par for the course....
What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting It
I think I have the title to my new book. Or perhaps it still needs some tweaking: What to Expect When the Fetal Position Doesn't Clean Your House, Replace Applicances in Your Mother's House from 4 States Over and/or Solve Your Problems. I honestly don't know what I...
Holier than I
I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, with assists from her husband Steven Hoppe and daughter Camille Kingsolver. It's the sort of book that makes me feel smug and superior compared to people who eat at McDonald's and slovenly and...
Funeral Festivities
I suspect it's bad form to think about funerals just before a plane trip, but I went to a service for a 93 year-old neighbor today so it makes sense to me. A friend and I made a solemn if semi-senile vow there that we'd attend each other's funeral. Something tells me...
Tiny Things
Why are tiny things so appealing?
Food Faction
Richmond.com just published this interview with me today. 5 Questions with a Foodie. I would never say I'm a foodie or a native Richmonder, so let anyone come at me with their knives sharpened. As Stephen Robertson pointed out (ha!), sharp ones are better than dull...
Knock on Wood
Sometimes it's hard to see that I'm making headway in a given area of life. It could be my tendency to weed 62% of the weeds in one spot of my yard, meaning to get back to it to get the rest before they go to seed and undo any of the % I just took care of, but...
Words and No Words
It's common enough to say there are no words upon hearing of someone's death. It's understandable--touching even. But it can't be said about Maurice Sendak's passing. There are words, so many and so wonderful. And there are pictures and because of his...
What I Want
is a medal. It doesn't have to be fancy or engraved or even made out of metal. No strings attached necessary. No ribbons. No ceremony. No podium. Just a medal. For doing the dishes. And folding the laundry. And putting most of the laundry away in drawers....
Pardon my French
Mais non, je ne pas cuss all that much in writing. In speaking--that's another thing. My roommate in college did not approve of my cussing though it was tame, very tame. I truly learned to cuss when I taught at a Catholic boys school right out of college. And no,...
Mountain Meals
I have been to the mountains and I didn't want to leave. No cell phone coverage. No internet. Sky--lots of it. Also more maple syrup than I technically needed, but that's Highland County's thing, so can't really argue with it. It won't make me popular at Monterey's...
Confidence
I have no confidence in my scrambled eggs. It is a sad truth. Also I am lazy and scrambling eggs seems like much too much work for breakfast. Other people in my house take the time to jazz up the eggs with veggies and cheese and bacon and sausage which makes the eggs...
Mary Shumate
With the passing of dear Mary Shumate, who lived and loved the house and yard I've lived in 16 years, I've been appreciating her handiwork with a sharper eye. She and her dear husband Stuart built this house and fashioned this yard starting in 1955. It helps that the...
ME on Twitter
“When we keep books like #Speak away from our children, we are withholding wisdom from our kids.” And we agree, @halseanderson 📚#VelshiBannedBookClub #Velshi http://ow.ly/ak0J50KenAK
I don’t know why conservatives are panicking. I’ve been told that if you’ve done nothing wrong and simply comply with the cops, you have nothing to worry about.