Sometimes I think I should become a minimalist. (Not the kind of minimalist that lives in a 10 foot square box in someone else’s back yard and has only one chair (for him or herself) and thus has no room to have anyone over for dinner. Not that kind of minimalist. But the kind of minimalist who knows the exact location of every fork and pencil and mismatched sock, and doesn’t have boxes and piles of anything useless just laying around. Or maybe that’s just being organized.) Then I think, “Why would I want to do that…become a minimalist, I mean?” I like my stuff. Sometimes having extras of things that seem useless comes in handy.  Like when the in-laws come to visit and you actually have enough towels without having to dash out to Tar-jay and purchase cheap towels at 11 o’clock the night before they arrive. Granted, they… [Read More]

This post is a reworked repeat of one I did some years ago. I’ve met several people who are suffering with PF. I can totally relate, so I’m reposting in the hope that it may help someone. I beat plantar fasciitis by taking the following supplements daily: 500 mg magnesium (recommended to take before bed…seems to cause drowsiness in some people and is sometimes used as a sleep aid) Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) I couldn’t find it on it’s own, so I take a Stress-B Complex that contains it, recommended daily dosage. Note: Not all B-Complexes contain Pantothenic Acid. Read the labels. Fish Oil 1000 iu per day Vitamin C recommended daily dosage for absorption of the Vitamin B (I get this in a daily multi vitamin) … [Read More]

Today, you are in luck because I’m giving you a recipe for this divine, delectable, delicious, deliriously decadent dessert. Did you like all that alliteration? I get requests for this every time we have a potluck. If you take this to a potluck you will instantly become the most popular person there. Those of us who are “popularity challenged” need all the help we can get! In the interest of full disclosure, I did not make up this recipe, and I have no idea who did, but bless you, whoever you are. More disclosure: I have not made this recently, though my husband would love me more if I did. And another disclosure: this is an updated version of a previous post so if it looks familiar…it is! (Just kidding about that husband loving me more thing.) (I hope I’m kidding.) (I’m pretty sure I’m kidding.) I apologize… [Read More]

Part 1, Part 2   I like to imagine Mr. Gray grading our essays in the evenings in his bachelor pad over a bowl of Top Ramen. Of course he had a pad; this was the 70’s and he was a bachelor. They all had pads. I imagine him laughing over mine. I imagine him laughing so hard that he had to stop and clean up the Top Ramen that he inadvertently snorted though his nose. Thirty plus years has brought me not only a great deal of retrospect, but also a softening of the edges and a greater understanding of human nature. I don’t think he was really Mr. Haw. He was just Mr. Haugh, doing a job that, perhaps, no one else wanted to do. Clearly he was stiff and strict and “by the book,” but these days I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps he was… [Read More]

Part 1 Part 3 Mr. Haugh was someone with authority over everyone, liked by no one. He was a large man, as wide as he was tall. And he was quite tall. Which made him quite wide. He had fleshy hands, droopy jowls, was mostly bald, and extremely out of shape. The poor man probably hated his job and was at high risk of cardiac arrest but we didn’t think about those things in the 9th grade. We were just scared of him. He was usually scowling except for times like now, when he looked down at us past his ample nose with a grim self satisfied smirk as he turned the key in the detention hall lock. We were incarcerated. No innocence until proven guilt. Never mind that we had been caught red-handed. Never mind that the school janitor was probably, at that very moment, mopping up bucketfuls of water… [Read More]