#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things, small pleasures, and other odds & ends

(A multipurpose post...!  lol)  

Annoying things: 

• It's been a busy week!  It feels like there's never enough time to get everything done on my daily to-do lists (especially with a vacation coming up soon...!)  I have days of unopened emails. (I have been checking, in case there's something truly important.)  
• I just got back from the dentist (boo, hiss...). We went for checkups about two weeks ago, where I discovered I had at least one cavity and likely two (the tooth beside it). Oh joy. :p  So it was back to the city this morning.  I barely felt the freezing injection (yay!), but the procedure itself was rather arduous. :(  Not painful, but a lot of tugging and pressure involved.  I felt limp as a rag but glad when it was over (at least until I saw the bill...!  -- thank goodness for dental insurance...!).  As I type, I'm still waiting for the freezing to wear off (it's almost gone!) to try out my new bite (i.e., lunch!).  
• Our building's air conditioning system decided to conk out last Tuesday during a recent heat wave -- one of the hottest days of the year so far (35C/44C humidex), amid record temperatures for June. Temperatures inside reached 80F (about 27C)(normally we keep the thermostat set at 74F. Our HVAC unit WAS running, but the air it was blowing was not very cool/cold. :p  We both felt pretty wilted (especially after three days of high temperatures and humidity, even when the a/c was running!), but ran the Dyson purifier fan, drank lots of fluids, and went to the mall for a few hours for respite. 
• Related small pleasure:  We bought a yummy rotisserie chicken at the supermarket on Sunday so that we didn't have to cook, and used the leftovers with salad to make light no-cook meals for the next two nights too.  

Small pleasures:  

• Kobo has been making some changes to its website recently... I'm not sure I like all of them, BUT I recently logged on and noticed changes to my wish list:  it's now sortable!  Newest to oldest added (which is how it was organized previously), alphabetical by title (but sadly not by author -- A to Z and Z to A), most to least expensive and vice versa. If I choose the "least to most expensive" option, I can see right away if any books on my list are on sale cheap, instead of having to scroll through the entire list. (And I have a very LARGE wish list...!)  
• After complaining (ummm, WRITING! lol) about my futile search for a pair of sandals to wear to a family wedding in August, I found (bought!) not just one but two pairs on a recent expedition to the mall! Both are silver (or silver-ish), flat or low-heeled, wide widths in my size, and feel relatively comfortably on my very wide foot! (I could actually get my foot into them!  lol) And both pairs were fairly reasonably priced too.  This one is silver with a one-inch chunky heel -- so it's not flat, but the heel feels substantial enough that I won't be teetering precariously in it. The other one is completely flat, but I think it's just dressy enough (particularly with the floral print dress I bought). It's "nude" -- gold-ish overtones vs pure silver, but I think it's silver-y enough. Anyway, that's a load off my mind!   

Personal stuff: 

• I recently, mostly, stopped wearing a mask in (most) public places, for the first time in 5 (-ish) years.  (Fingers crossed...!)  Dh has been foregoing masks for a while now, and I will admit, after five years, I was a little tired of putting on a mask and dealing with foggy glasses and a sweaty face -- especially at the mall, when (on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, which is usually when we go) there were so few people around anyway. 
• I still keep a couple in my purse just in case, and I still put one on if I'm somewhere where there's a lot of people and/or the air circulation doesn't seem very good, etc. And we'll definitely be wearing them at the airport and on the plane west to see my family in a few weeks' time!  
• I found out this week (via my high school graduating class's Facebook page) that our English teacher (in both Grades 10 & 12, as well as our yearbook advisor) passed away last week. Mr. P. was 80. Not only was he our teacher, he had been a student at the same high school himself in the early 1960s, and later went on to become principal -- essentially devoting the better part of his life to the school and the community. He was an excellent teacher -- as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of comments on a community FB page I joined, and on the funeral home obituary.  He taught several generations of students from the same families -- their parents, their kids, their aunts, uncles & cousins.  Decades later, he still remembered their names, their stories, their family members. He was, in short, legendary. 
• I added a comment myself, and enjoyed scanning the others, and seeing many familiar names from my past. 
• I didn't know, but learned from one commenter, that Mr. P. was reluctant to accept the principal's job, and only did so on the condition that he could still carve out some time to continue teaching.  
• One former student recalled running into Mr. P. at the grocery store -- who glanced at her shopping list, and pointed out that she'd misspelled an item. (I'm sure she made his day, lol.)  
• And I was particularly amused to read one from a former student (obviously younger than me) whose first year of high school was Mr. P.'s last before retirement in 2010. He recalled Mr. P. addressing a student assembly on the first day of classes, and compared him to Dumbledore at Hogwarts, lol. 
• My class is collecting money and will make a donation in Mr. P.'s memory to one or more of the charities mentioned in his obituary, and/or plant a tree(s) in his honour. 
• The memorial service was held Friday afternoon, and I watched the livestream (three cheers for the Internet!). It was held at the big church where my graduation took place (I don't know if that's still the venue these days). 
• One of the speakers was one of his four (!) sons -- who is also now a teacher AND a vice-principal at the same high school!  
• (I'll admit, as a childless person, it was a little tough hearing all the talk about children and grandchildren, generations of students from the same families, etc... It also stirred up a lot of memories from my school days. Most parents get to regale/bore (lol) their kids with those kinds of stories.  Who do I get to share those memories with??) 
• I've mentioned Mr. P, in several previous posts here -- in particular, this one from 2010 (in which I named him as one of the people who had the biggest impact on my life, outside of family), and this one from 2019, about memorable teachers in my life. 

 Recent reading/viewing: 

• Going through my archives, I stumbled onto this post from June 2015 -- 10 years ago. Very timely, given the recent death of musical genius Brian Wilson, and I decided to share it again. I'm betting you will want to listen to some Beach Boys music after reading it!  
• There was a fascinating/disturbing story in the New Yorker recently about children adopted from China, reconnecting with their biological families through DNA testing.  (I found the link in an ad post on Facebook, and was able to access it without a subscription.)  
• Jody Day's quarterly/seasonal Fireside Wisdom Zoom discussions with a fabulous panel of childless elderwomen (the "Nomo Crones") are always interesting and worth watching!  The topic this time around was menopause. The video of this session is now available on the Gateway Women website (under the "Childless Elderwomen" tab). Just be aware there is some frank/explicit discussion about sex.

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Mania: Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller" by Stuart "Woody" Wood

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that I spent 2-3 years of my teenaged life in the mid/late 1970s in the thrall of... the Bay City Rollers (lol).  Next August (2026) will mark (big GULP) 50 (!!!) years (!!!)  since my sister, two of our best friends and I screamed ourselves silly at a Rollers concert, along with about 12,000 other hysterical teenaged girls, at the old arena in Winnipeg. (You can find my past posts about the Rollers here.) 

In recent years, I've read several books about the band -- some better than others -- including memoirs by two members of the classic lineup (bassist Alan Longmuir and lead singer Les McKeown -- both sadly gone now, as well as Ian Mitchell, who replaced Alan). (The links go to my blog reviews of their books.) 

Now it's guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood's turn to tell his side of the Rollers' story (with the help of collaborator Peter Stoneman). Woody was my favourite -- the man I wanted to marry when I was 15 (lol)  -- and although I am now happily married to someone else (and so is he -- and coincidentally, they don't have any kids either), I could not resist hunting down a copy when I first heard about it on his Facebook page. "Mania:  Tartan, Turmoil and My Life as a Bay City Roller" is not yet available in North America -- and to have one shipped over from the UK would have been ridiculously expensive -- but I was able to get my hands on an e-copy last Tuesday, a few days after it was published on June 19th, and dove right in.  :)  It was a fast read that kept me turning the pages. (Obviously, your mileage may vary, depending on your interest in the band!)

Woody, now 68 years old (the same age as the guy I actually did marry) was still just 16 years old and (as he describes it) "wet behind the ears" when he joined the band in 1974 -- the last of the classic lineup to be added. A poor student prone to daydreaming, he had dropped out of school to train as an apprentice electrician, and had been playing guitar in local bands (in Edinburgh, Scotland) for a couple of years when Tam Paton, the Rollers' uber-controlling manager, spotted him. He was first invited to work part-time as a roadie for the Rollers, and eventually to join them when another member dropped out. 

The Rollers were the hottest band in Edinburgh then -- and their weekly salary was double what Woody had been making as an apprentice electrician -- so he accepted -- just as the Rollers started taking off nation-wide, on the strength of their single "Remember."  Soon afterward, "Rollermania" -- which many compared to Beatlemania, a decade-plus earlier -- was under way, spreading to North America, Australia, Japan and beyond.  Young Woody was thrust into a relentless schedule of touring, playing night after night after night (more than 300 days in 1975) to increasingly larger audiences of screaming teenaged girls -- then fleeing them after the show -- plus press interviews, photo sessions, television and radio performances and interviews, writing and recording sessions.... Tam fed them "vitamins" to keep their energy levels up, and then other pills to help them sleep. They toured the world, but their fame was such that they didn't actually get to see very much of it. Trapped in their hotel rooms, they could not go out for a walk, or into shops or pubs, etc., without attracting a hysterical mob.  Even the Wood family home was besieged by fans ringing the doorbell day and night and leaving graffiti on the walls. Woody's parents eventually had to move. 

In Toronto in the summer of 1976 -- a few weeks before I saw them in Winnipeg -- their limo was mobbed and nearly crushed when they tried to attend an interview at a local radio station (just a few blocks away from where I'd be living, a decade later!). That same summer, some 50,000 fans turned out to see them make a brief personal appearance at Nathan Phillips Square (Toronto city hall). It was a hot summer day; girls were fainting in the crush of the mob, and the Rollers were quickly whisked offstage and sped away for fears of everyone's safety. You can hear snippets from that day on the song "Yesterday's Hero" -- the album version, from their "Dedication" album. (Other versions cut out the crowd noises. Listen to the lyrics... oh, the irony...) 

“At that age you’re not so much scared as the adrenaline is in full flow. I’d be terrified if that were to happen now,” he writes.  

It's been a while since I read Alan & Les's memoirs -- but I feel like Woody's book was the best at capturing the mania of that chaotic time, and the personal and professional turmoil he and the others lived through. It's a book that lives up to its title and subtitle!  

It was fun at first, but after a while, the hectic lifestyle began to take a toll.  Inevitably, the mania began to fade. The hits stopped coming, the record company lost interest in promoting them, Tam's intense monitoring tapered off, drugs entered the picture, and the band members came to a dawning realization of the legal and financial mess they were in -- which eventually led to years of bitter legal battles. In 2016 -- more than 40 years after their heyday, and 300 million records sold -- the band members finally received a settlement for a undisclosed amount of money (believed to be in the range of  70,000 pounds sterling each -- don't quote me, but my calculations would put that at about $85,000 US in 2016).  

It was also probably inevitable that, thrust together under these incredibly stressful conditions, conflict would arise among the band members. Woody makes no secret of the longstanding mutual dislike between him and Les McKeown, although he does give Les full props as a first-rate frontman. He doesn't have a lot to say about drummer Derek Longmuir (Alan's younger brother), or Ian Mitchell, Pat McGlynn or Duncan Faure, all briefly part of the band. He admits to a few fistfights with Eric Faulkner -- but he respected Eric's musical abilities, and they lived on a farm together for a while, and wrote songs together, including a few of the Rollers' hits. His buddy in the band was Alan, who served as the best man at his 1997 wedding. They were sadly estranged before Alan's death in 2018, but his enduring affection for the man shines through the pages.  

Of Tam Paton, Woody confirms in an author's note at the beginning of the book that the man was as awful and abusive as it's been rumoured (the rumours include sexual abuse of at least some of the band members) -- but he refuses to go into lurid details here. “I moved on a long time ago and don’t want that beast to be any part of things concerning my life. I don’t need therapy; I have coped in my own way and have no need to spill my emotion,” he writes.

It's not all sad and serious stuff, though -- there are some passages that had me literally laughing out loud until my sides ached. And I loved the warm foreword written by Rod Stewart!  :)  

Les quit the band in 1978;  Duncan Faure was hired to replace him, and the band limped on for another few years before eventually calling it quits. Woody and Duncan teamed up with drummer Richie Hall in South Africa for a while as Karu, based in Los Angeles;  later he teamed up with Ian and spent five mostly happy years in South Africa in a band called Passengers, before returning home to Scotland in the early 1990s. 

Over the years, there were were several Roller reunions, featuring various combinations of past band members, but never the entire classic lineup. With encouragement from his wife, Denise, he got involved in playing and producing Celtic music and, until just recently, he was a part-time lecturer in music production at a local community college. 

Woody has owned the rights to the Bay City Rollers name since 2003 and, for the past several years, has been touring with a new version of the Rollers -- the lone member from the classic lineup still out there playing the old songs. He does it for the love of the music, and for the fans, and enjoys it a lot more than he has in a long time. His life has had a lot of ups and more than its share of downs -- but at heart, he's an optimist, a "glass half full" kind of guy. For all the records the Rollers sold, he's far from being a millionaire -- but he seems happy with his life today, and I hope he "keeps on rolling" as long as he wants to.  :)  

I closed the book with a smile -- then looked up some old clips on YouTube to link to here. And got a bit teary. It was so long ago now, and it was fun while it lasted...  

A solid 4 stars. (As I said above, your mileage may vary, depending on your interest in the band!)  

This was Book #20 read to date in 2025 (and Book #4 finished in June), bringing me to 44% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: It's summertime! Where's my happy medium??

Summer officially arrived here on Friday. And as if to remind us of that fact, it started getting warmer almost immediately. 

Like, a LOT warmer.  TOO warm.  

Environment Canada issued an extreme heat warning that began on Saturday night and is expected to last through Tuesday and possibly Wednesday in some parts of Ontario.  

Saturday was pretty warm & humid, but not extremely so. I noted in my datebook that the peak temperature was 25C, which felt like 32C when the humidity was factored in (the "humidex"). (That's about 77F & 90F.)   

Yesterday, however, the temperature outside soared to 35C, with a humidex value of 46C ( = 95F and 115F) -- which is pretty hot any time during the summer hereabouts, but especially for June!  Officially, we tied the all-time record humidex value for June (records date back to 1953).  Inside our condo unit, the air conditioner was running nonstop -- but the temperature in our unit went from our pre-set norm of 74F to 77F (about 23C to 25C).  (Canada is officially a metric country, but in reality, it's still more of a hybrid -- especially among people of my generation -- and dh & I keep our home thermostat in Fahrenheit.) 

Today's peak temperature reached 36C (almost 97F), and the humidex was 44C (111F). Our air conditioned unit reached 78F (about 26C -- the last time I looked...!).  Unofficially (it won't be confirmed until tomorrow), today is the hottest June 23rd in Toronto history. (The previous record -- which we've already passed -- was 32.8C in 1921 and again in 1983.) 

How hot is it?  It's so hot that our property manager posted a message this afternoon that yes, the building's cooling system IS working!  BUT it's working at capacity -- and they've asked us to keep our curtains and blinds drawn during peak sunlight hours to reduce indoor heat gain and help the cooling system maintain optimal temperatures during this heat wave. (We've done this, and we've also been running the fan feature of our air purifier/humidifier. Needless to say, we are NOT using the humidifier right now!!)  

It's so hot that -- even though the City of Toronto has explicitly suggested citizens use the recently-opened public swimming pools (on top of other ways to cope with the heat), some pools have been unable to open, or stay open, because lifeguards are refusing to work (!).  

Schools, however, are still open -- despite the fact that most of them are older buildings and do not have air conditioning. In fact, just 177 of the 579 schools under the Toronto District School Board have central air conditioning. Most of those that don't do have at least one air conditioned space, such as the library or gymnasium, where students can go to cool off.  

This is the last week before summer vacation kicks in, and one story I saw noted that attendance is lower than usual. It's possible that some parents are keeping their kids at home in air-conditioned comfort (what actual learning goes on in the last week of school anyway??), while others may have started their summer vacations early.  The board is not closing schools because it would put working parents in the lurch without childcare. Instead, teachers are opening windows (assuming classrooms have windows, and windows that can be opened), holding classes in shady spots outside, cycling groups of students through the few air-conditioned spots in the building, encouraging students to stay well hydrated, etc.  

As someone without kids, I don't have a dog in this hunt, as the saying goes -- but I do feel sorry for the kids (and the teachers!) who have to endure this kind of extreme heat and humidity.

(Suffice to say, the schools I attended in the 1970s were not air conditioned -- most houses weren't either, of course -- but then again, I don't remember this kind of extreme heat back then, before we knew what "global warming" was. There often WERE a few very warm/hot days at the beginning and end of the school year, but we were expected to suck it up -- and did. (This was also long before people walked around with water bottles in hand -- if you were thirsty, you went to one of the hallway fountains, or bought a can of pop from the machine, or from the canteen in the lunchroom.  And of course, you were NOT allowed to drink it in class!)  I do remember some lectures from the school principal about proper dress on hot days. I don't ever remember wearing shorts to school -- I don't think we were allowed, outside of gym class (granted, the shorts in those days WERE pretty short! -- this was the era of "Daisy Dukes," after all...!) )   

I keep saying, "There has to be a happy medium??" (Wasn't I just complaining about the cold, snowy winter?)  

But if there is, I'm not seeing it...

If you're interested, here's a link to the Toronto Star's ongoing live news feed with updates about the heat wave. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman

Another book that's been sitting in my TBR pile too long is "We Solve Murders" by Richard Osman, author of "The Thursday Murder Club" series. (I've read all those books to date;  they're all reviewed here.)  TTMC will be back with a new adventure this fall, but in the meantime, Osman wrote this, the first volume in what will no doubt be another highly successful series. It recently came out in paperback (although I've had an e-copy for a while).    

Amy Wheeler is a bodyguard for the rich and famous -- and as the book opens, she's on a remote island off the coast of South Carolina with eccentric best-selling author Rosie D'Antonio, who's been receiving death threats from a Russian oligarch she wrote into one of her latest books. 

But now someone is trying to kill Amy too. They've already killed several minor social media "influencers" (!) -- and Amy has been implicated in those murders -- and they may have killed Amy's boss, Jeff, too. The only person she trusts is back home in England -- her father-in-law, Steve Wheeler, a widowed, happily retired cop, a homebody and creature of habit whose idea of excitement is the weekly quiz night at the local pub and who dotes on a cat named Trouble. Rosie flies Steve over to America in her private jet to join her and Amy  -- and then the chase is on, from South Carolina to St. Lucia to Ireland to England and Dubai. 

I remember Anne Bogel/Modern Mrs. Darcy included this in her last year's (2024) Fall Reading Guide, and when introducing it during her "unboxing" event, she laughed and shook her head and said, "It's ridiculous!" -- but in an affectionate way, implying that it was a lot of fun. It was.  :)  I blazed through the first 2/3 over the weekend and finished it this morning. 

I think the TMC books are still my favourite Osman novels -- but this was a pretty great read too. Lots of action (almost right from the start), lots of laughs. Plot twists and turns and more twists galore. Just don't take it too seriously. (I doubt you can, really.)  If you enjoy TTMC, you will enjoy this one too.  

The TTMC books have been consistent 5 star reads for me. I gave this one 4.5 stars on StoryGraph. I debated whether that should be rounded up or down, and decided that while TTMC is still my favourite, this wound up being too irresistible not to give it full props. So, 5 stars on Goodreads. 

ALI/CNBC note:  Amy & Adam are childfree by choice. Grief/loss is also a theme here (widowed Steve holds regular conversations with his dead wife Debbie). 

This was Book #19 read to date in 2025 (and Book #3 finished in June), bringing me to 42% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

Odds & ends

On the personal front: 

• Plans are underway for Little Great-Nephew #2's baptism. Date still TBD -- but we got a call from BIL a few days ago:  "Don't get mad," he said, when dh answered the phone.  Apparently, we are not invited. :(  They are having a party/meal at a restaurant after the service -- and if they invite us, they would have to invite all their other aunts & uncles too, and they can't afford that. BIL said he was calling because Older Nephew (who is OUR godson) felt so bad he couldn't bring himself to do it. 
• Dh called up Older Nephew after he got off the call with BIL, and told him to relax, we are NOT mad!  He apologized profusely, and said "You guys do so much for us." Awww... it's nice that he recognizes that...! 
• Of course we're disappointed -- but we understand. Fair is fair. 
• We weren't invited to Little Great-Niece's baptism celebration either, for the same reason. (We did go to the church to see the ceremony, since it was just a short drive away, and it's a public event.)  
• We didn't get to go to Little Great-Nephew #1's baptism either -- but that's because it was during the summer of 2020 -- i.e., pandemic restrictions. Obviously, no big party after the service. (We did get to watch the service, though, on the church's live YouTube feed!)  It was just the parents, godparents (Younger Nephew & his wife) and the priest. And SIL -- she knew the priest well, and he bent the rules by calling her up just before the ceremony and said, "Come see your grandson get baptized." She got there just in time! (Not sure where BIL was!) 
• Depending on when the baptism is scheduled, we might not be able to go anyway (if it's during the time we're out west visiting my family -- I'm almost hoping that will be the case!).
• Meanwhile, LGNephew #2's older brother, LGNephew #1, graduated from senior kindergarten this week!  :)  Parents only at the graduation ceremony/party, and Older Nephew took a rare day off work to attend. His wife posted a photo of the entire family on Instagram, with LGN #1 wearing a graduation cap, and a "boomerang" video of him in what appears to be a graduation procession, wearing his cap and carrying a little tealight in his hands, a huge grin on his face.  Awww....  Grade One in September!! (How??!)  
• Annoying thing:  dentist visit this morning. 
• Related annoying thing:  It was at 9 AM -- which meant getting up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM, and driving through the city in morning rush hour traffic to get there.  We left at 7:30 AM -- an hour is usually sufficient -- and we only JUST made it there on time!   (There's a reason why Toronto traffic is among the worst in the world...!)   
• Even more annoying:  I have to go back on June 30th for a filling -- possibly two. Sigh.  (I made sure that appointment was later in the morning!  lol)  
• Annoying thing #2:  I went to a certain very large, very well-known site to leave a product/book review this week. Imagine my surprise when a message popped up informing me that I can no longer contribute reviews or other content on that site (!)  -- and all my previous reviews have been removed (!!) -- because of "unusual reviewing activity on this account." (!!!)  
• I'm at a loss here. I don't contribute a lot of reviews to this site. I had a look at their community guidelines. The only thing I can think of is many of my reviews have been of books written by friends, and I may or may not have disclosed that in the reviews.  But it's kind of hard to figure out what I might have done wrong if I can't see what exactly I wrote.  I would have appreciated being notified at the time that the review was being removed and why (because then I might have done better the next time around).  
• This is the same site that suspended my account for almost six months while it wrangled with my bank/credit card company over payment after I was scammed two years ago (and reported the fraud to my bank within minutes). (The conclusion of that saga, with links to previous posts on the incident, here.) 
• I am wondering whether this latest hitch is connected to that one in some way??  
• I'm debating whether it would be worth it to contact the company about this?? 
• Has anyone else had a similar experience?  What do you think? 

Recent reading to share: 

• This Q&A with Gateway Women's Jody Day, posted on the Substack "[B]OLD AGE with Debbie Weil," is well worth a read -- not only for Jody's answers (always worth reading!), but also for Debbie (a parent)'s frank admission of her personal discomfort with childless and childfree people.  We need more honest conversations like this one!  (I don't always recommend reading comments, lol, but the ones on this post are worth a read too!) 
• Jody recommended this Substack post by Poorna Bell, "On not being 'that' type of aunt (or uncle)." 
• (I'm very lucky that I had some pretty fabulous aunts & uncles... MOST of them!  lol)  
• Sara Petersen, who writes on "In Pursuit of Clean Countertops" about momfluencers (and has children herself), recently asked: "Do Kids Ruin Friendships? (And what are we asking with such a question?)"  
• Unfortunately, it's behind a paywall, but she does make some great observations. A couple of sample quotes:  
• "...ultimately, I don’t think it’s particularly hard to see eye-to-eye with my friends who don’t have kids if we’re both operating from an understanding that womanhood as a construct is fucked."
• "The problem is a lack of structural support for caregivers AND the toxic expectation that motherhood is every woman’s “natural” destiny. Women without children have every reason to feel a certain level of alienation and resentment towards a culture which still views them as selfish aberrations, and mothers have every reason to feel a certain level of alienation and resentment towards a culture which tells them they’re doing the most important job in the world without providing them any structural support for that job."  [Boldfaced emphasis Sara's.]
• I see that Carly Marie (and her beautiful beach photos of remembrance) is back on Facebook & Instagram, after several years' absence! 
• In the "IT'S ABOUT TIME" category: the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada issued new compassionate care guidelines for miscarriage patients this week. (Gift link -- **beware the comments!**) The Globe & Mail says "the recommendations include a call for more early pregnancy assessment clinics to be established across the country, similar to the ones in Britain that improve care and reduce waiting times."  They also recommend that loss patients receive mental health screening and offers of support if needed.
• The Toronto Star published a critical article about the lack of transparency in success rates at Ontario fertility clinics (and Canadian clinics generally).  (Gift link.) 
• This Globe & Mail article about co-housing for seniors, while focused on the LGBTQ community, is highly relevant to childless seniors too. (Co-housing of some kind is a topic of much conversation in some of the childless communities I belong to.) 
• (Unfortunately, I used up my quota of gift links for this month, so you might run into a paywall -- sorry!)  
• I was fascinated by this Globe & Mail article on "immersive reading," and the differences in how we absorb books in text form vs audio. (Gift link.)  

#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things & small pleasures

Annoying things: 

• As I mentioned here back in March, I unsubscribed from the Washington Post:  my longtime subscription ran out in late May. I was sad to let it go (particularly since it was a REALLY good deal that I'll probably never get again...!), but I wanted to express my displeasure over some of the decisions made by the publisher, overruling his own editorial department on several occasions.  
• The annoying thing:  I thought I would be able to read at least a couple of articles every month for free -- but that doesn't seem to be the case. Every time I click on a link to a Post story, I get a pop up inviting me to re-subscribe (that will not go away, no matter where I click). Sigh.  
• Back around Eastertime, dh & I were at Canadian Tire (which, as any Canadian can tell you, sells a lot more than tires!) when we spotted a display of diapers, at a very reasonable price. We knew we'd be seeing Older Nephew & family over the holiday weekend, so we picked up a carton of diapers for Little Great-Nephew #2 (something I'm sure I could NEVER have imagined doing, 25 years ago!). I have a points card from the store, and used it then.  
• Annoying thing: I recently had an email from Canadian Tire land in my inbox. Header:  "Reminder: Stock up on diapers" (!!). Seriously?? (Reminder to self: Don't use your points card when buying baby-related stuff...!)   
• A lovely little Italian bakery/cafe/gelatoria in the heart of the original old village here that specialized in cannolis closed in mid-June with one day's notice. (The same family does still operate larger bakery/cafe, a bit further away from us.) It was a great/convenient place to stop and pick up some pastries en route to a family gathering -- and we went there once, pre-pandemic, just to sit and enjoy a couple of mini-cannolis and cappuccinos together. I was hoping to do it agai... (I need to learn not to put these things off...!)(The lemon cannolis were to die for...!) 
• Dental checkup later this week. :p  Fingers crossed that all is well...!  

Small pleasures: 

• Spending time with both nephews, their wives and kids (all the LGNs!) at BIL's on Saturday. We hadn't seen LGNephew #1 since Easter!  
• Not so much annoying as "ouch":  the moment when the Father's Day gifts came out.  :p  (Dh knew this would be a FDay celebration; it was his choice to be there!)  
• Longer days (until the solstice later this week, anyway...!) and nicer weather. (FINALLY!)  :) 
• Clearing most of my book club obligations for the next few weeks, and blazing through a book of my own choice (review here).  SO MUCH FUN.  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Kills Well With Others" by Deanna Raybourn

Having caught up on my current book club/reading group obligations, I eagerly dove into a volume of my own choice: "Kills Well With Others" by Deanna Raybourn, a sequel to "Killers of a Certain Age," which I read (twice!) and adored (and reviewed here and here).  

"Kills Well" picks up more than a year after the events of "Killers." Our four kick-ass 60-something (childless!) heroines -- Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie -- a crack team of professional assassins (!), now retired -- have been laying low. Then they get an off-the-record call from the head of the top-secret organization they worked for. A retired employee has been murdered -- and all the evidence points to the son of the gangster the quartet killed for their first assignment, 40 years earlier. Moreover, there's evidence that there's a mole on the inside who's identified the agents involved in the case. Who is helping him? And are they his next targets?  

Like the first volume in the series, this book is a whole lot of fun.  :)  There are scenes of graphic violence -- but plenty of laugh-out-loud humour too -- and I absolutely love how the author subverts the stereotypes placed on older women. :) Also like the original book, there are flashback scenes to the early days of the women's careers.  There are a lot of twists and turns in the plot that kept me turning the pages, as our killers travel to Williamsburg, Virginia; across the Atlantic aboard the QEII to England, then across Europe to Sardinia, Venice and the Balkans. 

I blazed through the bulk of this one in one day -- and I can't wait for another installment.  :)  (How about it, Deanna Raybourn??)  

I rated the first book 5 enthusiastic stars, on both readings. I'm not sure this one *quite* reaches those lofty heights -- the novelty element is not as great this time around -- but it's definitely another great read. 

4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 4 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #18 read to date in 2025 (and Book #2 finished in June), bringing me to 40% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

Odds & ends

• After reading this article about a mother's grief  over the loss of not just one but BOTH of her (teenaged/young adult) sons (!), I immediately added the book she's written to my wish list.  
• Related article from The Guardian. 
•  This story -- about bereaved parents from British Columbia, who mistakenly received an itemized bill for their stillborn daughter's autopsy (!) -- but not the ashes they were expecting -- was featured on the CBC National news recently.
• The doctor interviewed points to the lack of standards when dealing with pregnancy loss across Canada. It's infuriating to realize how little has changed, certainly in the 27 years since my own loss, and it's been going on a LOT longer than that! 
• I found a "print" version of the story on CBC's website too, which includes two radio/podcast links to listen to (one that's 23 minutes long). I have not listened to that one yet. 
• While I was searching for a link for that story, I found another recent story related to pregnancy loss and Mother's Day from CBC British Columbia, and thought I'd share it with you all (even though Mother's Day was several weeks ago).  
• I found this link via Sari Botton's Substack, I think: "I Was Devastated By The Death Of My Newborn Baby. This Unexpected TV Show Helped Me Feel Alive Again." (Subhead: "I laughed — out loud — for the first time in weeks. I had forgotten that I still knew how.")  
• I felt/feel the same way about the book "Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding. I've written about my fondness for the book many times before (here, for example). It made me laugh at a time I never thought I'd laugh again. 
• I don't remember latching on to a sitcom the same way, but during the 2+ months I was at home I watched lots of episodes of "The View" (which was still pretty new, I think) and Oprah, as well "A Wedding Story" on TLC.  I could NOT watch "A Baby Story," for obvious reasons, but the wedding stuff was something I could get enjoy. 
• In the Globe & Mail, Aviva Coopersmith asks "Who's my dad?"  and calls for the end of donor gamete anonymity. (Gift link) 
• On the Life Without Children Substack, Charlie Brown asks (in a piece that originally ran on Medium): "How Do You Grieve For Infertility When There Is Always Another Potential Route to Parenthood?"   Sample passage:  

...I feel the weighty expectation that I should try to be a parent by any means necessary, regardless of how much it costs or how stressful and traumatic the process is. I feel the expectation that my own feelings should be shelved as I relentlessly slog through parenting alternatives.

Don’t grieve, it’s not over yet!

When you’re infertile, it’s never over. There is always another round of IVF. Another donor egg to procure. Another sperm donor to use. Another vulnerable child to adopt. And of course, there’s always another payment plan to help make your dreams come true.

• And on her own Substack, On the Outside, Y.L. Wolfe turns the spotlight on the long-ignored power of single & childless women.  A couple of excerpts:  

We aren’t just a demographic that is doing some heavy lifting in society and outperforming many other demographics, but we literally have enough numbers to qualify us as a force to be reckoned with.

We have the power, we have the competence, and we have the numbers.

No wonder they are afraid of the “cat ladies” of America!

and (and this is SO true, I think!!) 

I often think that childless women must scare the shit out of mothers, the same way that childfree women scare men. Childfree women remind men (and all of society, I might add) that women have a choice in what they do with their lives, something our society desperately doesn’t want women to remember. Childless women remind mothers (and again, all of society) that we can make choices…and things still might not work out the way we planned, something our society desperately wants to deny.

Women without children are a scary demographic. And what does it mean when society is scared of a demographic? It means we have power.

And that’s why society works so goddamn hard to try to convince us we don’t.

• I'm not sure whether non-subscribers can access this? But Anne Helen Petersen (who is childfree by choice) hosts a Culture Study podcast on Substack, as well as her Substack newsletter -- and she recently did an episode on the subject of "intensive parenting trends." I have not listened to the episode yet (although I've browsed the transcript) -- but I read her intro, as well as the comments.  She said (in part): 

People often ask me why I care so much about parenting when I am not, myself, a parent. This question is always so weird to me — of course I care about parenting norms, because I’m surrounded by parents! The choices that parents make (in the voting booth, as consumers, as community members, as friends) have so many direct and indirect effects on my life and everyone’s lives. Plus I’m always interested in how people try and make sense of a ton of contradictory information and “best practices” about how to be in the world, and whew, that is contemporary parenting right now.

I commented:  

That first paragraph -- so true! Thank you for that, AHP (from another non-parent, albeit it was not a choice on my part). Just because we don't have kids doesn't mean we aren't interested. (To a point, anyway, lol.)

To which AHP responded: 

LOL LORI YES

(LOL indeed...!)  

• Finally, this is a really, really excellent article that is definitely worth a read:  "If you’re 50, childless, and people keep asking “don’t you regret it?”—here’s what psychology says."  Extremely well said!   

"Rules for Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane

"Rules for Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane is the July pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. It will be deeply relevant to many women without children, who experience what Jody Day has called a "friendship apocalypse" when their friends start having babies and life paths begin to diverge sharply. It's a book about friendship, family, trees and gardening, and the lingering impact of traumatic loss and grief.   

The premise: May Attaway -- a single, 40-year-old gardener and landscape designer, who lives at home with her widowed father -- is unexpectedly granted an extra month of vacation time/leave. May has very few friends, and decides to use her vacation time windfall to visit and reconnect with four once-close friends she hasn't seen in many years, who are scattered across the United States and in London, England. Interspersed between the chapters are some beautiful line drawings of various tree species, along with May's descriptions (which really aren't just about the trees). 

It took me a while to get into this book. May's narration is a little flat, especially at first, and takes a little getting used to. But once May began her round of visits, the story started to get more interesting, and all the various plot points came together in a lovely way by the end. I was a little teary by then.  

I'm glad I read this one. A solid 4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph. 

This was Book #17 read to date in 2025 (and Book #1 finished in June), bringing me to 38% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

#MicroblogMondays: An old friend returns! :)

Do you (or did you) have a "signature scent"?  

A girlfriend gave me a small bottle of Fidji by Guy Laroche for my 21st birthday (and y'all know how long ago THAT was!!). I loved it, and it became my go-to/"everyday" eau de cologne for the next several decades. (It was a step up from Charlie and Love's Baby Soft, lol.) (A few of my other favourites included Clinique Wrappings -- sadly long gone now -- and for dressy occasions, Chanel Allure.)  

But then Fidji started getting harder to find (I referenced that in this post from 2011!) -- and more departments at work started going scent-free -- so I stopped wearing perfume regularly, except on special occasions such as weddings. 

Nevertheless, I was tickled to spot an old familiar logo on the shelf at the drugstore recently -- I even brought out my phone/camera and snapped a photo that I posted on Instagram (see below). I still have a partly full bottle that I've been hoarding (it hasn't evaporated yet!  lol) -- but it's nice to know it's back, if I want more! 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

It's baaaackkk!  :) 

Annoying things & small pleasures

 Annoying things:  

• Not so much "annoying," but sad: smoke from the wildfires in Saskatchewan and my home province of Manitoba (1000+ miles away) has reached us. :(   it's not as bad (so far...!) as the smoke from fires in Alberta & British Columbia was, a few years ago, but it's noticeable.  The forecast has been for sun, but the sky turned grey & slightly hazy on Monday night and has stayed that way. 
• So far, the air quality index is not too bad (the weather sites rate the risk today as "moderate). I know it's a lot worse in northern Ontario, as well as Minnesota & Iowa, etc.-- not to mention outside the fire zones in those two provinces.  Mom & Dad are nowhere near the fires but they've had to keep the windows closed (the levels there are in the "dangerous" zone).  We're keeping ours closed too, and I've got the air purifier running, although the current inside reading is not too bad either. 
• Related annoying thing:  pollen.  Dh has been sneezing like crazy, and I've had to take a couple of antihistamines in the past few days too. Eyes have been feeling gritty and irritated for both of us. 
• No water! (for just an hour this morning, but still...)  The city has been working on the sewers outside our building, and we had our water turned off for a hour this morning while they did some "backflow testing" (we were notified well in advance). We set the alarm clock and got up early to take our showers and get the laundry going before then (Wednesday has been laundry day lately). They were out there all day, and it was noisy (and smelly! -- sewer gas) -- but it was only an hour of real inconvenience, so... 
• (Speaking of noise...) The cacophony from lawnmowers, weed whackers, and (especially!) leaf blowers!! (One downside of summer weather!)  
• Shoe shopping:  I am looking for a pair of dressy sandals (preferably silver, but navy would also do) to wear with the new dress(es) I bought for a family wedding later this summer. Easy peasy, right?  Well, no. 
• The biggest hurdle and main issue:  I have very wide/thick feet that are VERY hard to fit. (It's a common feature on my dad's side of the family, and it is f***ing annoying.)  I can't even slide (cram?) my foot into many shoes that are specifically designated "wide width."  
• I want something that's flat or low-heeled (not kitten heels or stilettos).  I actually HAVE a couple of pairs of dressy silver sandals that I bought and wore the nephews' weddings (gulp -- 7 and 9 years ago now!) -- but they both have heels that are slightly higher than I am comfortable with these days. Given the tumbles I've taken recently (in low/flat heeled shoes!), I do NOT want to tempt fate and embarrass myself in front of a couple hundred wedding guests! 
• Also, they are not especially comfortable -- but it seems that finding dressy silver or navy sandals with low heels that actually fit my feet AND are decently comfortable would be the equivalent of winning the Powerball lottery...!  I will wear them if absolutely nothing else turns up (and jus be very careful...!).  The good thing is I still have two months to look!  
• I received an email notice on May 22nd that Pocket is "saying goodbye" -- i.e., shutting down. (I should have known when they were bought out by Mozilla in 2017 -- a buyout never seems to bode well..)  Mali recommended it to me years ago and I've been using it ever since then to save/bookmark articles I've been reading.  (It's also been very handy to get around some -- not all, but some -- paywalled material.)  
• Apparently we can export our saved items.  But to where?? (Any suggestions/recommendations?) 
• Not seeing Little Great Nephew #1 since Easter (and his brother only once briefly, almost a month ago now).  :(  
• The flood of "last day of school," prom and graduation photos began a few weeks ago and will continue through to the end of June. Sigh... (I do enjoy seeing them -- to a point! -- but after a while, it gets to be a little too much...)  
• The cost of flying within Canada. (I just booked our tickets to visit my family in July. OUCH.) 

 Small pleasures: 

• (On the flip side of the above point...!)  Having a trip "home" to look forward to...! 
• Finding matching "Cousin Crew" T-shirts in all the right sizes for all three LGNs!  ;)  
• A free month's trial of Ancestry DNA's ProTools. I've been particularly interested in (and taking advantage of) its "enhanced shared matches" feature, which lets you see how your shared matches are related to each other. Most of us are distant cousins to each other, of course, but I've been able to clarify a few relationships in some cases, which has been a big help.  :)  
• I actually missed the deadline to cancel before I was charged so I guess I'm paying for a month (erk! -- annoying thing).  I'm not sure I'll subscribe long term -- I already have a regular Ancestry subscription (which is not cheap), and this is an add-on to that -- but I can definitely see periodically subscribing, doing a spurt of research and then unsubbing, like some people do with streaming services. 
• The wit & wisdom of Kermit the Frog, needed now more than ever...!  (Lucky graduates!) 
• One of my classmates actually sang "The Rainbow Connection" at our high school graduation ceremony. (This was 1979, not long after the original Muppet Movie was released.)    

#MicroblogMondays: Summer reading

The New York Times had several articles this week (they are probably in Sunday's print version books section) about summer reading. There were the usual lists of great picks to consider reading this summer. But there were also a couple of articles about the practice of summer reading itself -- in particular, a story about summer reading challenges (they're not just for kids anymore! -- gift link included), and a suggested "summer reading bucket list" (this one was for subscribers only, sorry).  

That got me thinking about my own relationship with summer reading. I was always a big reader when I was a kid. (I know, you are SO surprised, right??  lol)  In that time before cable TV, when we only got one TV channel (! -- unthinkable these days, I know...!) or the Internet, reading was one of the main ways we spent our free time. And summertime -- with no school or most other organized activities to worry about, no summer jobs (for my first one when I was 17), and many of our friends away on vacation -- gave us plenty of extra time to dive into one book after another.  We spent a good chunk of every summer at our grandparents' house in northwestern Minnesota, and regularly raided the local library there (they let us have cards even though we didn't live there, because it was a small town and everyone knew our grandparents). Grandma had a wonderful screened-in porch off the kitchen at the side of the house, covered in virginia creeper vines, and my sister & I sent many hours out there with our books.  

I remember the library had summer reading challenges/programs back then, and even though we weren't around for the entire summer, we usually breezed through the challenges. I remember one year in particular (possibly 1976/Bicentennial?) when we got maps of the U.S., and for each book we read, we got a sticker in the shape of one of the states to fill in the map. My completed map, with all 50 states covered in with stickers, sat in a drawer at my parents' house for many, many years (and may still be there, for all I know...! -- I'll have to check next time I'm there!). (If I threw it out, I wish I'd taken a photo first, because I was very proud of it!)  

I'm nowhere near the reader I was then -- but I still find myself hoping to get through a good stack of books every year when summer rolls around. I used to regularly pack a pile of books in my suitcase when heading "home" to spend time with my parents (almost) every summer (before e-reading took over most of my reading life -- and lightened my luggage weight considerably! lol), and I did manage to read a lot of them. I've been less successful in recent years, partly because of online distractions (cough!), but also because my parents have needed more help around the house as they've aged, and that's consumed more of the time I used to spend reading.  Still, there's a certain mystique to the image of lying on a beach or a pool somewhere, or sitting on a deck/porch with a glass of something cold and a good book to read...! 

While I usually set a goal each year for the number of books I'd like to read (via Goodreads), I have never attempted completing a challenge like the NYT's suggested bucket list ("read a book published in the last year... a book in a genre you don't typically read... a book that takes place in the summer..." etc. etc.).  I prefer to read what I want (in between book club obligations, lol) versus ticking off items on a list.  (What if I'm not in the mood to read a book that would fit one of the bucket list categories right now? Maybe I'd rather read something else instead?) I found myself nodding when I read one comment that said, "No, thank you. Reading challenges are too much like homework." 

How about you? Do you find you read more in the summertime? Do you look forward to "summer reading"?  Do you have any particular goals for summer reading this year? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.. Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

May -- the Victoria Day long weekend, at least -- is traditionally regarded as the kickoff to summer in Canada.  This doesn't necessarily mean the weather will be summer-y!  The rule of thumb, at least in the parts of Canada where I grew up, is you don't plant your garden before Victoria Day, because frost is still a distinct possibility.

By mid-May, I'd abandoned my long sleeves & cardigan. The Friday of the Victoria Day long weekend was sunny, warm and humid enough for dh to turn on the air conditioning. I optimistically wiped down the balcony furniture and hopefully pulled out my capris & sandals... only to have to put my long pants & socks back on again (and consider turning the heat back on!), when the weather turned grey, chilly and rainy on Sunday (and mostly stayed that way for the rest of the month...!). In fact, it hadn't been this consistently cold in late May since 1967!!  Thankfully, slightly warmer temperatures (if not the sun itself) returned just before the end of the month.  

This month, we: 

• Drove to a bookstore about a half-hour north & east of us on Sunday, May 4th, to attend a book signing by an old friend. (I wrote about her book here.)  
• Went to the mall to walk & shop (May 5th, 13th, 20th & 27th). 
• Spent most Friday mornings this month with SIL & Little Great-Niece at BIL & SIL's house. 
• Some explanation: SIL has been taking care of her granddaughter (Little Great-Niece) two mornings a week, since her mom returned to work part-time last summer.  The other grandmother takes care of her the other three workdays.  Both parents mostly work from home, and the office space in their small townhouse is simply not big enough for both of them, let alone LGNiece and SIL too -- so Younger Nephew started going to the office at his parents' house to work!  Then LGNiece learned to climb stairs (lol) and kept heading up to see what her mother was doing!  So Younger Nephew started bringing LGNiece to his parents' place instead. So far, she's left her dad alone to work -- at least, more than she did with her mother!   
• We wanted to spend some time with LGNiece (as we did with LGNephew #1 before he started school), but didn't want to add to an already-crowded situation by going to  Younger Nephew's townhouse, even though it's not very far from us. Visiting at BIL & SIL's house, however, is a different situation!  
• And so, we joined SIL & LGNiece for a walk to the nearby park on May 9th, then returned to the house for tea & snacks. Younger Nephew also came downstairs for a few minutes to say hello (one of the perqs of working remotely!).    
• Went for a walk around the neighbourhood on May 16th, with SIL & LGNiece (it rained overnight, so it was too wet to spend much time at the park), then back to the house, where BIL (who had the day off work) grilled hot dogs for us all for lunch (including Younger Nephew).  
• It was raining AGAIN on May 23rd, so we mostly played in the basement. :) 
• We missed going to the park with SIL & LGNiece on May 30th (they'd already been by the time we got there), but had fun playing in the back yard with the water table & helping SIL water her tomato plants. 
• LGNiece is much fonder of the women in her life -- happily, including me! -- than the men (not including her daddy)!  It took her a long time to warm up to her nonno (BIL), and for some unknown reason, she is afraid of poor dh (!) who is generally a kid magnet. "I don't want you here," she will sometimes tell him with 2-year-old frankness. She has shown some signs of thawing, but I think it's going to be a long, slow process...!  (But then, when we first started going over to SIL's to visit him (after being largely absent from his life during the worst of the pandemic), LGN #1 used to hide behind his nonna's legs when he saw us coming! -- and he certainly came around!)  
• After visiting SIL & LGNiece on May 9th, dh & I went out for an early Mother's Day brunch (his idea!). :)  Then to Reitmans (women's wear shop), Chapters (bookstore) and then home. 
• Went to the bank on the morning of May 21st to arrange an RESP (registered education saving plan) for Little Great-Nephew #2 (as we've done for the other two great-niblings).  
• A signature from Older Nephew's Wife/the mom was required within three business days -- so dh called her and we drove up there (about an hour, one way) after lunch (takeout pizza slices from the supermarket). (Dh called SIL too, to see if she'd like to come along, but she was busy.)  
• We only stayed for half an hour or so, but we got to spend time with the baby and take turns holding him.  Also got to see the dog -- albeit I think he was a little miffed that I was holding the baby and not petting him, as I usually do when I'm there, lol.  (LGN #1, of course, was at school.)  The baby is such a happy, smiley little guy, and we hadn't seen him (or LGN #1) since Easter. (Still haven't seen LGN #1 since then!  :(  )  DAY MADE.  
• Had my first mani-pedi of the year/season on Friday, May 23rd!  :)  (The salon was PACKED and I immediately put my mask on when I walked in... for the fumes, as well as the germs, lol.)  
• Went with SIL to a lovely bridal shower on May 25th. The wedding is in August;  the bride is marrying the son of a cousin of dh & BIL's, and all of the female cousins & remaining aunts on that side of the family were there. The groom is the same age as Katie would have been -- his mom's pregnancy and mine briefly overlapped. (Her baby shower happened shortly after we'd announced my pregnancy, and I received almost as many congratulations as she did!)  Not sure how I'm going to feel about this one...!  But I did have a pretty good time at the shower!  

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 3 books in May (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"):  

• "Miss Austen" by Gill Hornby. (3.5-4 stars; my review.) 
• "A Burning" by Megha Majumdar (the June selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (3-3.5 stars;  my review.) 
• "Anne of Windy Poplars" by L.M. Montgomery (called "Anne of Windy Willows" in the U.K., with some text variations). My L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group started reading & discussing this book together on Jan. 6th;  we just finished this week! (Previous review here;  most recent review here. 4 stars..) 

This brings me to 16 books read in 2025 to date, 36% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "Rules For Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane (the July pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club -- just started;  currently 6% completed).  
• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, the current slow read with Footnotes and Tangents, which began May 5th and runs for 20 weeks (until Sept. 15th). Currently 17% completed. 
• "Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson, for my D.E. Stevenson group.  Our group discussion began on April 21st, and I'll count this as another re-read once we're finished (in July). I've read the book twice before on my own (once in 2015 and again prior to the start of our group read & discussion -- see above! Currently 52% completed.  (Original 2015 review here;  most recent review here). 
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  I'm once again taking part in a chapter-by-chapter group read of this CNBC classic!  The most recent Zoom meeting covered Chapter 10.  This is the 5th (!) time I've read this book, or the earlier version of it ("Rocking the Life Unexpected").  (Most recent review, with links to earlier reviews, here.)  
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "Drive Your Plow (Over the Bones of the Dead)" by Olga Tokarczuk. (August) 
• "The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole. (September) 
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan. (October) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• The Two Mrs. Abbotts (likely starting in mid-July -- my original 2015 review here).
• Crooked Adam
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe -- starts Sept. 29th, for 5 weeks. 
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the other books he's selected were all ones that she loved, so he figured they would probably be worth reading!) 

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  

• "On Freedom" by Timothy Snyder 
• "Look for Me There" by Luke Russert 
• "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver 
• "Missoula" by Jon Krakauer 
• "Whale Fall" by Elizabeth O'Connor 
• "Table for Two" by Amor Towles 
• "Paris Undercover" by Matthew Goodman 
• "Why We Act Like Canadians" by Pierre Berton 
• "Rental House" by Weike Wang
• "Isola" by Allegra Goodman 

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Watching: 

• "Miss Austen" on PBS Masterpiece, which began May 4th and ran for 4 episodes, based on the novel by Gill Hornby (see "Reading," above). 
• "The Handmaid's Tale" (the sixth & final season, which wrapped up earlier this week!). My thoughts here!   
• NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs -- at least until the Winnipeg Jets & Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the second round (sob). :(    Cheering for the Edmonton Oilers as the finals (against the Florida Panthers) get underway -- a rematch from last year!  (Even so, I do think hockey in June is pretty ridiculous...! -- the season never went this long when I was growing up -- but then, the league was much smaller then...!)  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of May 31st:  
• Heardle 60s: 75.2% (708/941, 276 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 77.8% (527/677, 299 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 38.8% (212/547, 77 on first guess), up 0.6% from last month. Max. streak: 5 (up from 4 -- fist increase since May 2023!).
• Heardle 90s: 31.4% (204/650, 48 on first guess), up 0.5% from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections:  
• By April 30th, I'd completed 276 games and won 83% of them, including 140 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  And I maintained my maximum winning streak at 30!  :)   
• By May 31st, I'd played 307 games and won 85% of them, including 156 "perfect puzzles," including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first (unchanged from last month)  And I ended the month by matching my maximum winning streak of 34! (On to 35!  lol)  

Following:  

Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January,  after less-than-stellar bloodwork last fall earned us both serious chats with our doctor. We'll be doing more bloodwork later in the year to check again -- so we've continued our efforts to eat healthier -- reduce portion sizes, cut back on fatty & processed foods (fewer casseroles, more chicken and beans/lentils), eat more fruits, vegetables and fibre, snack less (and make better snacking choices), and be at least a little more active. 
• Since then, I've continued to yo-yo a bit, but I still ended the month almost a pound lighter than at the end of April. (I'll take it!)  Overall, I've lost about 12 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October (dh has lost about 22), and 24 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• As mentioned above, dh took me out for brunch on the Friday morning before MDay -- the same place where we went on the Friday before Valentine's Day. ;)  (Much less busy! -- and less expensive than dinner out!)  We both had omelettes (ham & cheese for me), which came with home fries and toast. 
• The bridal shower menu on May 25th included a lovely salad with berries, chicken with roasted potatos and vegetables, and a creme brulee tart with berries. Plus a traditional Italian cookie table.  :) There was a mocktail bar with a large menu when we arrived, which was fun, and wine was served with lunch. Not quite as elaborate as some of the Italian showers I've been to, food-wise, but it no one starved, and the food was good! -- and it was a lovely setting (at a golf clubhouse) and all beautifully presented. The company was great too! 
• Notable recent takeout meals: soup, pizza slices and teriyaki rice bowls from the supermarket takeout counter;  wood-oven thin crust pizza, and Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken. (Trying to avoid the stuff that's really calorie & fat-laden!) 

Wearing:  Earlier in the month, with the weather (finally!) starting to warm up, I put away my long-sleeved shirts in favour of shorter sleeves, and by the Victoria Day long weekend, I was wearing yoga capris and a tank top and ready to bring out my denim capris & sandals!  Alas (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post...!), it turned chilly and rainy and I had to bring out my long pants, socks and cardigan again!  :(  (boo, hiss...)  I finally got to bring out (and wear!) the capris earlier this week, when milder (if not sunnier) weather finally returned! 

Buying (besides books, lol): 

• More Canadian products (or, failing that, international) products (vs American -- you can probably guess why...! It's not always easy, though, given how intertwined our two countries' economies & supply chains are...!).  
• Cute summer outfits for the great-niblings (including matching Canada Day T-shirts from Old Navy, lol). 
• For myself:  some black denim shorts (Old Navy), and some soft, colourful 100% cotton T-shirts (Gap).  
• Also for myself, from Reitmans (Canadian women's wear chain):  two shirts & a pair of white linen pants, plus a couple of pairs of yoga pants (all on sale). I wore the linen pants with one of the tops (black linen -- couldn't find a link for it to show you?) to the bridal shower on May 25th, mentioned above.  
• Not just one but two dresses at Laura (another Canadian women's wear chain).I'll wear one of them to a wedding in August and save the other for another wedding next year. 
• The first one I tried on (which I sadly couldn't find a link for?) was absolutely gorgeous, and looks great on me (if I do say so myself...!) -- navy blue, short, fitted, sleeveless with a portrait collar, and some ruching and a rhinestone embellishment on one side. Simple and classically elegant. The only drawback is the fabric is a bit heavy, and might be a bit hot for an August wedding. But I could not resist it. :) 
• As backup, I also decided to get another dress I really liked  ;)  -- it's a much lighter fabric, also navy (background) with a floral print (pink & plum tones), sleeveless, high-low hemline and a fuller skirt. Here's a link. :)  

Anticipating (nervously):  Our next visiting to the dentist (!), in mid-June. I've been anxiously obsessing about my front teeth ever since I took a(nother) fall in mid-April.  I'm 98% sure all is well, but I will feel much better once the dentist has had a look! 

Appreciating: The lack of extreme heat & humidity so far (while still hoping for some more sun than we've had to date!). It's been very hot & humid out west where my parents are, and there have been some terrible forest fires that have affected the air quality where they live.  One fire, in a "cottage country" part of the province, got within six miles of my cousin's place. So far, they're okay! (They don't live there year-round, but they do spend a fair amount of time there, particularly in the summer.)   

Noticing:  It's staying lighter outside a lot later these days! -- sunset isn't until almost 9 p.m. now (and it will keep getting lighter until the solstice, later this month! (It's also getting lighter a lot earlier, too!)  And I'm noticing more (and more colourful) sunsets again, too!  :) 

Speaking of which...! 

 

Enjoying:  Sunsets, again!  :)  Yes, I know, the sun sets every day, year round!  But it seems like they're not as noticeable (or as pretty) during the winter! And we do get some pretty great views of them from the windows & balcony of our condo!   

Wondering: Why my eyes have been so dry lately??  (especially when it's beginning to get more humid outside!) I'm going through eye drops like crazy (and they're expensive!). 

Trying:  Not to worry too much about getting through my emails every day -- prioritizing the urgent/most interesting ones, and letting some of less important ones sit on the back burner (or go altogether!). 

Wanting: To start making plans for the next few months, for a trip west to see my family, for our upcoming wedding anniversary -- and hopefully for a nice trip somewhere later in the fall!  (Now to corral dh and get him to help me make some decisions...!!) 

Loving:  The weekly photos Older Nephew's Wife posts of LGNephew #2 every Friday. (She often posts others during the week, of the baby and his big brother -- but always one on Friday marking how many weeks old the baby is)(now 23!).  And he always has a huge smile on his face too!   

                              

Feeling: Glad that winter is finally behind us!  Looking forward to the summer, to our wedding anniversary, and to going "home" in July to see my parents (and to celebrate a significant anniversary for them!).