I had a list. We ignored the list. We burned the list to the ground.

You see, Mom and Grandma and I: we are experienced in the ways of Cookie Day. But having already done one, we had a lot of our usual tricks kind of…handled. One of the ways that you keep three experienced bakers working all day with only one oven is to make things on the stove ( Read more... )

Okay, another dialect question. Haven’t done one in awhile. Does your home dialect contain the phrase “a goin’ concern,” usually applied to small children? And if not, would you still have some sense of what “that child is a goin’ concern” might mean if someone else used it, or would you be completely in the dark?

(Sometimes when I’m talking to ( Read more... )

Me: I was telling a story and mentioned her friend Harold and then turned to my mom and said, "Not actually a giraffe," and she broke up laughing. Grandma sort of patiently sat there and waited for us to start making sense again.
timprov: I hope someone's bringing her food.

Today is my grandma's 80th birthday. We're having a big party for her on Sunday--where by "we" I actually mean my folks are doing all the work--but today is the official date. I don't mostly put birthdays on here because I don't want it to seem like a statement if I miss one. But 80, 80 is a big, round number. Eighty is a thing ( Read more... )

We are having dessert and conversation after Christmas dinner, and Grandma needs you all to know that she has two friends in their nineties who are packed up to go downhill skiing. They are also quilters ( Read more... )

Fairview Ridges is a nice hospital. It is a good hospital. It is pleasant and clean, and you see the staff washing their hands all the time, and the cafeteria is not too bad, and there is a Granlund sculpture out front. It is very near our local Vietnamese place of choice and also not too far from a big chain bookstore, a SuperTarget, and other ( Read more... )

We are scrambling around here trying to get everything done in the right order so that Grandma can come home to Mother and Dad's. Drainage tubes, meds, and all: the doctor has given the go-ahead, and I get my grandma for Christmas.

Merry indeed.

My grandma has been readmitted to the hospital. She has an abscess where the appendix was. She also has pneumonia and a urinary tract infection. They did a procedure this morning to try to take care of the abscess. They believe that went well, but the next 48 hours will tell; if the procedure this morning wasn't enough they may have to do a ( Read more... )

1. This story about a lion and a tiger and a bear who live together and are pals. Nonfiction. Awesome.

2. Shimmer's Clockwork Jungle Book Issue. In which I appear.

3. My grandma is healing well from her appendectomy.

Now that much of the family has been called or directly e-mailed, I will put this here: my grandma had an appendectomy this evening at the hospital nearest us. It went as well as "you are 77 years old and unexpectedly need your appendix out right this minute" can go, and she is resting as comfortably as the hospital staff can manage. (We loff ( Read more... )