Miss(ing) Manners
So, the other day I made pork chops for dinner. This is the kids’ favorite thing. They were on sale, so I was thinking how neat it’d be to treat them. My husband was gone that evening, so I was holding down the fort, serving the chops, monitoring the mealtime chaos. Now, over the years […]
Interview: The Brothers Washburn
I had a chance to interview Andy and Berk Washburn, the brain trust behind PITCH GREEN, the newest release from Jolly Fish Press. I reviewed PITCH GREEN here. If you like a good, spine-tingling read, these guys have a story for YOU! First off, do you go camping? If so, which of you tells […]
Make that $481
Remember the Rice Cooker? Wait. There’s more. My vacuum also broke. The “dream” vacuum my mom insisted on buying me three years ago when she was here last and saw the ridiculous effort I was making with my fourth vacuum in 8 months, and how futile the effort was. She couldn’t take it and in […]
Review: Pitch Green
PITCH GREEN by The Brothers Washburn debuts today from Jolly Fish Press. It’s a YA Horror novel *(NOT my usual genre)* which is what is going to make this review highly unexpected–especially for me. I’ll be interviewing The Brothers and posting the interview here on Monday, but I’m excited about this book and want to give any weekend readers […]
The Near Death Experience of Fuzzy Logic, Or How I Saved $181 This Week
Fuzzy Logic. That’s the jargony term the Zojirushi company uses for the magical way their rice cookers “know” when the sticky rice is done just perfectly. We bought a Zojirushi rice cooker with said Fuzzy Logic about 12 years ago when we bought our house. At the time I was dying because my husband insisted […]
Review: Dissension by Adrienne Monson
Adrienne Monson’s debut novel, Dissension, is the first in a trilogy and tells the story of a teenage girl who finds herself unexpectedly sucked into the world of vampires (pun intended) and the vampires’ war against the immortals, their eternal enemies. Samantha doesn’t know what to expect when her mother dies and she must go […]
Mistakes about the 1956 World Series Yankees and my Dad (with apologies to the fans)
All my life I grew up thinking my dad loved the Yankees. He’d met the team in Japan. I love Japan. I loved living in Japan. I loved learning Japanese. I loved meeting Japanese people. I loved all of that. It’s been 20 years now this spring since I got on the plane to fly there for […]
Top 5 Best Westerns
I’m not talking about the hotels here. This afternoon my husband came home for lunch and surfed Netflix streaming until he found “El Dorado.” This is a western starring the one and only John Wayne. I sat down to fold clothes while he watched, just to hang out with him. Now, I’ve seen this one […]
Don’t Go to Bed Angry, But Waking Up Angry is Fine
Moms. We have to get up pretty early in the morning. It seems that no matter how early I get up, whether it’s 6:15 or 4:45, I end up berating myself for not getting up ten minutes sooner. But some mornings it’s hard, especially after a late night Netflix or Hulu binge of Korean dramas […]
Who’s “The Man?” (A definitive answer from Ray Bradbury)
On the front cover of HERE THERE BE DRAGONS is an endorsement of the book by none other than Ray Bradbury. THE Ray Bradbury, of Fahrenheit 51 fame, of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit fame, of 20th Century author pantheon fame. Mr. Bradbury passed away last June, but what did the late Mr. Bradbury have […]