1. I feel kind of guilty about expressing my discomfort with the We Need Diverse Books campaign in the past. I want to make it clear that my discomfort is COMPLETELY PERSONAL, not ideological. I never want to give anyone the impression that I think it's "reverse racism" or unfair to me as a really-boringly-undiverse writer in any way people have ( Read more... )

I got a composter for my birthday-- a big spinning bucket of a contraption you put all your compost in so you don't have to stir it, as you would a compost heap. This is a handy thing for me to have, because in the 11 years of its existence I have never once stirred the compost heap in our backyard. Freshly decomposed compost would be wonderful to ( Read more... )

The other day as I was trying to teach my 5yo-on-Saturday the finer points of weeding (the garden. As opposed to the library. This gets confusing in certain circles), I remembered how, recently, someone (I forget who) had warned me, "You know when you weed dandelions, you have to get the WHOLE ROOT, or they'll come back," and I remembered feeling ( Read more... )

I’ve been nominated by vovat (but on his Wordpress blog) for the Versatile Blogger Award.

Here are the rules:

If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy. Why, thank you, Nathan! Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy - if you can ( Read more... )

The day involved gardening, and grilling, and lots of time spent outside ( Read more... )

I haven't mentioned gardening this year. Probably because it's been an exceedingly dreary rainy cold spring, and I haven't had many opportunities to DO gardening. NONETHELESS, I managed to finish doubling the size of my vegetable patch today, while the kids climbed all over the wheelbarrow, at that point weighed-immobile by piles of dug-up sod, and ( Read more... )

I realized something mildly depressing the other day: I have no idea how to do something Completely For Fun anymore. Oh, I'm great at incorporating fun into whatever I DO do, but if something doesn't have some Practical Purpose BESIDES fun, it makes me antsy. I shouldn't be doing something without a Practical Purpose! What's the point? How can I ( Read more... )

Okay, I'm tired of getting phone calls from recordings of politicians telling me who to vote for. Particularly as I'm not allowed to vote in the primaries and the only other registered voter in the house just votes for whoever the NRA says to vote for ( Read more... )

Guess what I got to do this afternoon! Plant my vegetables ( Read more... )

I pulled a bunch of poison ivy up today, and I THINK none of it touched anything but the plastic bag, but if I do break out again in the next couple days I can't say I'd be surprised ( Read more... )