My old coworker from Birds Eye/Pinnacle emailed me while I was out yesterday with a company update - Pinnacle is being purchased by Hillshire Brands for $4.23 billion (about twice Pinnacle's value), and Hillshire is based in Chicago. She indicated that there are no immediate consolidation plans, but that it sounded as though Hillshire wants a ( Read more... )

My Facebook frienemy posted a video of a Christian comedian arguing against atheism and “nailing it.” As I rather expected, he seems to be operating under the illusion that atheism equates to being offended, being nihilistic, and blind to the beauty of humanity and the world. I’d let it pass as it’s-funny-to-its-intended-audience-who-cares, but I ( Read more... )

Home improvement websites and magazines are chock-full of inspiring ideas and beautiful remodel pictures. However, I’m bothered by some of the trends I see.

Subway tile - not that I have anything against it; it’s a basic bricklike shape and in solid neutral shades it’s a classic backsplash/wall covering. But it’s frickin’ EVERYWHERE in bath and ( Read more... )

I forgot to mention here that in February we took Lucia for a behavioral evaluation, basically to ascertain if there was a professional opinion that she continue behavioral services through the school system when she starts preschool in May ( Read more... )

I have these internal moments of realizing my own prejudice that make me uncomfortable but are very hard to surmount. A recent moment had to do with young girls/women whose ambition is to be a stay-at-home wife/mother. I don’t think I feel as much weirdness around adult women who are already IN the role of stay-at-home parent and homemaker (maybe ( Read more... )

I am determined to make some marmalade. I got a sudden yen for it last weekend while I was toasting up some English muffins, realizing that we really didn't have much in the way of jellies or jams to spread on toasted baked goods. I actually did make do with a bit of Honey Citron "tea" mix as it is very marmalade-esque, and it was pretty nice, but ( Read more... )

So, for about a year and half I have listened heavily to the Nerdist podcast, hosted primarily by Chris Hardwick and co-hosted by Jonah Ray and Matt Mira. Generally they do episodes centered around a guest from somewhere in the entertainment world - frequently comics, but also actors, musicians, writers, the occasional video game creator, etc. - ( Read more... )

We have a mystery floor. In what would probably be called a dining room (which we are now using as a sewing room), the floor is a dark-stained wood with almost no sheen. It is scuffed from when we moved in, making lighter-colored marks (almost like sidewalk chalk marks, though not as heavy) here and there ( Read more... )

While I was driving up to New Hampshire for my grandmother’s funeral, I found myself surfing radio stations about halfway through the trip - about outside of Worcester, MA. Early on I found it funny and comforting to hear that the Southern New England rock station I found didn’t deviate much from what I had heard all through my time spent living ( Read more... )

So, another thing to add to the list of things to do in the house: add some stair lighting. Our only bathroom is downstairs, and while I usually don't have to traverse the dark passage from the upstairs landing down the dark stairs to take care of nighttime business, Chuck does. Often the landing has just enough ambient light from outside to see by ( Read more... )