Dreadful Penny

After a few busy months, I’m feeling the urge to write again.  How convenient that I already have a blog!
Since July, I’ve worked as PA on one short film and an extra on five feature films, a TV series pilot, and a national commercial.  I posed for an artistic picture by a talented photographer (and […]

This morning, I looked outside and saw a small black squirrel climbing around on our (as yet unsealed) cedar deck.  No big deal; while the squirrels haven’t seized the deck as their own, I see them there occasionally.

I watched to see where he would go next and was surprised to see him remain in place, […]

This was our weekend harvest from the garden: delicious cherry tomatoes and the second batch of sugar snap peas.  Today I’ll pick a bunch of sage to roast a chicken and some basil for freezing.  We’ll have more cherry tomatoes soon, too.
Lessons learned so far:
- Next year I’m not planting pole beans.  They got gigantic […]

Today we had my husband’s colleagues over for lunch and I’m happy to announce that everyone survived!  Here’s what we had.

Beverages:

soda pop
bottled water
berry lemonade

Appetizers:

fresh vegetables and dip
potato chips
pretzels

Main:

hamburgers and rolls
chicken kabobs

Sides:

caprese salad
potato salad

Desserts:

grapes
stuffed strawberries
rocky road brownies

The potato salad and dip were purchased as is — I don’t have particularly impressive recipes for either, so I […]

Last week, I posted my estimated and actual weekly grocery/house/personal care spending.  While that was probably boring to anyone else who saw it, I thought it was a useful exercise to help me stay on track, and I’m doing it again.  This week, I’m forgoing most stock-up purchases (unless the product will be a net […]

Last Christmas, we gave gifts that included both store-bought and homemade items — crabapple candy (including fruit from our own tree), spiced apple syrup, cinnamon apple wedges, and dolls that I designed and sewed.  This year I intend to do the same and it’s not too early to get started.
I don’t have many ideas yet, […]

Back in May, I described this year’s attempts at small-space gardening, and I figure it’s time for an update.

Most of the spinach is done now.  It got tall and spindley, flowered, and dropped spiny seed pods.  I’ve chopped those down.  Most of the lettuce is through, too.  The red varieties came in later and are […]

That’s something I’m trying to figure out.  Admittedly, I’m using the internal debate as a technique to procrastinate.  I don’t want to go down into the crowded, dimly-lit, spider-filled basement and sort through boxes!
It needs to be done, though.  We’ve been living here for a year and a half and most of the boxes cluttering […]

It’s officially summer, so how have I been spending my multitasking time? Crocheting scarves, of course.
This first one is for me. It’s just cheap acrylic yarn, but it’s Wings red and should be perfect for game days. The pattern is simple - nothing more complex than an occasional double crochet - and […]

Wow, CNN is particularly late to the party on this. They’re just reporting now on Salary.com’s annual silly announcement (released near Mother’s Day) that the appropriate salary for a housewife would be X. This year, X = $117,000.
I don’t have a job. That is, I do not have an employer who pays me […]