Brooke here. Zu recovered beautifully and without the need for surgery, although for some reason the entire house now smells like Bac-Os. Go figure. Last week, Mary and Elizabeth gave us a copy of Remembering Randall, the memoir of Randall Jarrell written by his wife, Mary von Schrader Jarrell. There’s some serious weirdness in this […]
Brooke here: Zu outgrew his crate and was moved to a larger one, which was THE END OF THE WORLD. The puppy howled all night long. We moved him into the bedroom to see if being close to us would help; it was partially successful, as he switched over from howling to vomiting. I went […]
Brooke here: New house-related posts will soon be in the works. I finished my office, minus a much-needed flat file cabinet, over the holidays and am working on an illustrated breakdown. The holidays destroyed our budget for interior maintenance and repair; the weather made it too cold and sticky to do any yardwork. The weather […]
Brooke here. It was a glorious Christmas. I grew up in Massachusetts and, like all supercilious and self-important displaced Northerners, I have nothing but scorn for how Southerners deal with the quote snow unquote.* But, while we got a very respectable snowfall, I feel terribly guilty about a white Christmas. Absolutely beautiful in every way, […]
Brooke here. This is the one when the heat went out. The new house came with a digital thermostat, which seems nice, but wasn’t. Seems as though a device that’s designed to save you a few dollars a month shouldn’t end up costing you a hundred bucks out-of-pocket, but maybe that’s just me. Anyhow, this […]
Brooke here: Winter has arrived. I hate winter. I’m nothing but a high-pitched whine until mid-March. This is not the post about the broken thermostat, however, as I realized it was a bit of a dick move to imply Rottweiler Prime was in pain but not delve into the whys. Simply, he’s old, and there […]
Brooke here: A peaceful Saturday morning here, so there is time but no motivation to write. I’m sitting on a few substantial posts, such as the trip to Randall Jarrell’s grave, waking up to a delightful 55-degree house as the heater had crapped out, and why Rottweiler Prime is doped out of his gourd on […]
Brooke here: The Thanksgiving festivities have ended for another year. I think I can say with a fair degree of certainty that for those families who play host, Thanksgiving is better known as That Time When You Clean Every Inch Of The House Twice in 48 Hours. During the Holiday Of Cleaning, our friend Steve, […]
So, after grabbing Zu from rushing headlong into traffic, the puppy spun around and bit me hard on the… chestical region. I shoved him under an arm, saying loudly that “Someone is overtired and cranky and needs a nap!” And my parents, who had seen the whole thing, agreed it was me who needed the […]
Brooke here. The Canadian Husband is still at large. Keeping a home improvement blog in the winter is difficult. There is still stuff to do – soooooo much stuff to dooooooo!!! – but the vegetation is on its way to dormancy, we don’t want the windows open to let the pant fumes out, and … […]
Flying by night 