All posts by verily sherrilee

Directionally challenged, crafty, reading mother of young adult
Business, Media, Uncategorized

Time to Make the Donuts

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January 8.  I am not willfully ignoring the events of yesterday or the day before that.  Or the day before that.  I don’t want us to become a source of dissension that could attract trolls.  And on a more personal note I need at least one place/forum separate from the insanities that are surrounding us on a daily basis.  If others disagree, I bow to the majority but will mostly likely be quiet.

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I saw a news story that some residents of the town of Haverhill, Massachusetts are upset at the smell emanating from the new Dunkin’ Donuts factory there in town.  They complain about the fried dough smell and that their homes and clothes reek of it.  Of course, quite a few others think it’s a nice smell.

It was a surprise to me that the donuts are made in a factory; while I never really thought about it, I assumed they were made in each Dunkin location:

Turns out it’s a little of both worlds.   Most Dunkins get frozen dough from various partner factories.  They thaw the dough, shape, fry, ice, etc. in the individual locations but there are also franchises that have the donuts made in their local factory.  Who knew?  Truly I do like the idea of the donuts being made right in my little store, but as long as they taste good when I get them in the drive-thru, I guess it doesn’t really matter to me.

However I do sincerely understand how the anti-smell folks in Havervill feel.  When I was working in the bakery, I came home every single day and took a hot shower before I did anything else.  I even convinced the owner to include me in the uniform rental (the other women in the bakery didn’t want this) so that I could leave the odor-drenched clothing at the bakery.  I could FEEL the bakery smell on my skin.  It wasn’t even that it was a bad smell just that it was so enveloping.  And, of course, I believe I told the pumpkin pie story more than once, but my aversion to that smell is just as strong now as it was back then. 

I guess that means I would be in the “ew, it stinks” camp if I lived near the factory.  But I’m not sure I’d be willing to complain about it out loud.

What kind of a factory would you prefer not to live near?

2025, books, Fantasy, History, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Alternative Histories

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The holidays brought me a nice cache of giftcards so yesterday I had a “gift card day”.  Dunkin for breakfast on the way to knee therapy.  Blicks Art Supply.  Barnes & Noble.  Taco Bell.  A great day.

I spent about an hour wandering around Barnes & Noble.  As a dedicated library patron, I have to admit that I haven’t been inside a bookstore since last year when Jacque’s sister was signing her latest book at Once Upon a Crime.  Nothing against bookstores but my pocketbook prefers the library system.

Anyway…  as I was checking everything out, I found two tables that had various history books piled up.  I’m assuming that B&N stores get table recommendations from headquarters with a few title suggestions but that most of the books are picked for display by store employees.  (That’s how it was back in my day in the bookstore.)  The history tables had the look of employees having a bunch of fun.  History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, History of America in Ten Expeditions, History of the World in Six Glasses.   Clearly this is a trend and it reminded me of a couple of titles I’ve read – A History of the World in 100 Objects and Orchid Muse: History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers.  100 Objects started as a BBC radio series – I stumbled upon in once it was published in book form.  It looks at objects from all over the world, from as long ago as 2 million years.  It was absolutely fascinating.  Orchid Muse was a book I read last year as part of my Rivers & Ridges Book Festival experience.  The author was at the festival so I got to hear her speak – a lot of extra little details that weren’t in the book. 

I didn’t realize that history in a set number of lessons was a thing but if you do a quick internet search, you can find a glut of these books.  47 Borders, 50 Books, 50 Failures, 12 Maps, 500 Walks, 50 Lies.  I could go on but this is enough and it makes me wonder if authors are starting out to do a “number of things” or if they have an area of interest and publishers/agents push them in that direction?

Any other suggestions for “History of the World in”…….?

2026, books, Media, Mysteries

A Good Thing After All…

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One Good Thing.  That’s the name of my journal – short and sweet – one good thing a day.  Every now and then if I just can’t whittle it down, then two.  Doesn’t have to be earth-shaking. 

Every now and then, like yesterday, I am just not feeling it.  Gray and cold.  No good news in the world. Found out my supplement program has stopped doing the $50 of pharmacy freebies.  My checks haven’t come in yet.  The mail didn’t arrive.  I started three different books and none of them lit any kind of spark.  Just a crumby day.  What in heaven’s name was going to be my one good thing?

Back in December I went to get my hearing aids checked before my 3-year warranty was up.  It was pretty cursory but when “Opal” (name changed to protect the innocent) asked me if I had downloaded the app, I remembered when Jacque was helping Lou with his hearing aid once at a Blevin’s meeting using his phone.  Opal and I discussed it for a bit, what it could do for me and if it would fit my needs.  And then she said the magic words…. “do you ever listen to audio books?”  You all know I perked up immediately.  Turns out that even without the app, I can have audiobooks (and also my phone) stream through my hearing aids!  Who knew.

My phone does have the Libby app on it already but it hasn’t too useful.  If I had it too loud, YA would comment.  During the summer, when windows were open, traffic made it hard to hear sometimes.  If I would get up and leave the room, I’d have to remember to grab the phone.  I didn’t use this feature often.  But through my hearing aids, it’s a whole `nother world!  No irritating YA, no traffic noise, no having to remember to take the phone.  I can walk all over each floor of my house before I get out of range.  It’s amazing.

This has been life-changing for me and I’m trying not to regret that I spent three years not knowing about this.  Oh well.  Even though Opal clued me into this in December, since one of my “meh” books today was listened to via my hearing aids, I’m gonna take it!

One good thing for anybody else yesterday?

2026, Fitness, Health, Mysteries

Biting Remarks….

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My dental exam was Friday.  Like most folks, I don’t spring out of bed on dentist day, singing with joy and sprinkling my path with rose petals.  Honestly, if I could take a pill and never have to worry about my teeth or go to the dentist again, I’d take that pill every darn day. 

My dental history isn’t all that happy.  I have a small mouth to start with, not really enough room for all my teeth and then when my adult teeth started coming in, we discovered that I had some duplicates.  That meant tarting at the age of 9, I got the first set pulled, then wore retainers.  Then when the second set descended, those got pulled as well.  More retainers.  Then, the eventual braces, followed by more retainers.  During that time, I had another adult tooth that wasn’t breaking through the gum so had to deal with that.  5 years total.

Before marriage to wasband #1, I had my last dental exam while still on my folks’ insurance.  Dentist said all four of my wisdom teeth were there but didn’t appear to be doing anything.  Since my mom’s wisdom teeth never came in, the decision was made to leave them be.  Literally six months later (after wedding and without any dental insurance) all four came in.  They had to come out (small mouth, no room) and three of the four were impacted.

I’ll stop there, but suffice it to say I’ve had plenty more drama – broken tooth, crowns, bridge, more gum issues.  And this is all for a person who brushes and flosses every single night.  For decades.  Did I mention that my dentist growing up was my uncle?  So there was no sloughing off where the teeth were concerned.

Anyway Friday was just a cleaning but as I was laying back, I had to “un-tense” constantly.  It didn’t hurt but every few minutes I would realize that I was tensing up and have to force myself to relax.  At one point the hygienist knocked the tray with her elbow and I just about jumped out of my skin.  She said “it’s OK, you can relax” and I laughed so suddenly that I snorted.  Luckily she didn’t have any implements of destruction in my mouth at the time.  During a little break in the action, I asked her if anyone ever relaxes in the chair, she said “about half”.  That surprised me, I would have thought that most folks can’t relax.  I prefer not to be the outlier in this area.  We’ll see if that desire helps me relax next time around!  Snort.

What do dentists call the x-rays they take of your teeth?

2026, Automotive, Mysteries, Stories

The Early Bird… is just early.

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Guesstimating how long a task will take is not one of my long suits. 

Bad estimates happen often when I’m trying to give myself enough time to get somewhere.  Don’t get me wrong – when I’m going from one place straight to another, then I’m pretty accurate.  I like to arrive with a few minutes to spare and this usually works out.  It’s when I add errands to a trip; the more errands, the worse I guess.  Two weeks ago, I had a knee therapy appointment at 7:30 a.m.  At that time of day I know it takes about 15 minutes to go straight there.  I added stopping for gas and estimated 10 minutes for that, then 5 minutes to swing by the post office, 10 minutes for Dunkin Donuts.  Figuring 10 minutes to check in and cough up my co-pay, I decided I should leave the house at 6:30.

Got all my errands done and showed up at my therapy place at 6:50.  My car was warmed up at that point so I sat in the parking lot for 20 minutes listening to my book on CD.  That still left me 20 minutes (of which the check-in/co-pay took 3 minutes…sigh). Good thing I’m a morning person.

The other time this problem rears its ugly head is when I have some chore that I’m not too excited about.  A 10-minute job becomes an hour in my mind, a 20-minute chore becomes an afternoon.  Then the procrastination kicks in.  I found this meme last year on Facebook; I even printed it out and pasted it in my journal.  Whenever I’m putting something off, I TRY to remind myself of this silliness in my nature.  Occasionally it helps

I’m hoping that showing up 40 minutes early for my therapy will be a learning experience but I’m not exactly holding my breath.  You know – that old dog/new tricks problem.

Do you have a good relationship with time-keeping?  Any procrastination problems?

2026, Food, Gatherings, holidays, Uncategorized

Bottoms Up!

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Most of my friends and acquaintances know me well enough to know that New Year’s Eve does not find me out drinking and partying wildly.  The only time I’m up at midnight these days is if I need to make a trip down the hall in the middle of the night. 

I have only been drunk twice in my life.  The first time was when I was living in Northfield during the summer between what would have been my junior and senior year.  I was working at Ole Piper Inn and went to a party with my co-workers.  I hadn’t really had drunk much prior to that and there was a lot of mixing of different kinds of alcohol.  I woke up in my bed but don’t remember how I got there.  Keys were in my jacket pocket and the car was in the driveway – luckily nothing amiss. Thank goodness the party was only about 10 blocks from my apartment.

The second time was at a work party at the bakery in Milwaukee.   No memory loss this time (I remember the bus ride home from the bakery QUITE clearly) but I felt so awful the next day that I wished for memory loss.  It was after this horrible hangover that I decided that overdrinking was just not something I wanted to do. 

I’m not a teetotaler but I rarely have more than a glass of wine or one mixed drink.  It’s not hard as the taste of alcohol isn’t my favorite anyway.  Not imbibing much was a little challenging with clients over the years but nothing too awful.  The pressure that many people experience for not drinking in social settings hasn’t happened much to me; I’ve found that if I don’t call attention to my beverage in a party setting, most folks don’t even notice that I’m nursing one glass of wine for an hour or that I’ve switched to a non-alcoholic option.

All this is coming to mind because in addition to the New Year, I finally gave in and let the Medicare/BCBS home wellness visit happen last week. It was easy enough, no invasive stuff and only took about 30 minutes. The nurse practitioner asked me all the same questions that the doctor asks every year at my usual wellness checkup.  When he got to the “how often to you drink alcohol” question I hesitated after saying “one or two” and he immediately filled in with “a day?”.  I laughed and said “no, probably one or two every two or three months”.  I had hesitated because I was trying to decide between two to three months and three to four months.  He clearly didn’t believe me.  I reported that I had just had a glass of wine the Saturday before at my party but that I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d had any alcohol.  Maybe Blevins back in September? 

He did write down 2-3 months, although I’m not sure he really thought that was the truth.  Oh well.

Did you party last night?  What makes for a good celebration in your opinion? 

2025, Family, Food, Games, holidays, Kids, Seasons

Christmas Eve Chaos

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When I was growing up, there were only two holiday celebrations – both on Christmas Day.  In the morning it was just me, my sister and my folks opening gifts.  We opened one at a time, in order of age.  The next person couldn’t open anything until we had all sufficiently ooohhed and aaahhed over the current gift.  Then later in the afternoon, my mom would host Christmas dinner.  This was a potluck; Nonny did not like to cook, so hosting a dinner in which she cooked many dishes was not an option.  The attendees were different every year, depending on who was in town for the holidays.  I have 11 cousins but it was a rare Christmas when there were more than three of them joining us.  Quiet.  Christmas for me was quiet growing up.

Fast forward.  YA and I have been celebrating on Christmas Eve with some of my oldest friends (Alan and Julie) for 25+ years.  Back then there were Julie, Alan, their 3 girls, me, YA and usually a couple of Alan’s sisters and a few cousins.  As the kids got older, Alan’s sisters moved away but were replaced in number by boyfriends who then became fiancés who then became husbands.  Then the grandkids joined the fray.  14 of them.  No, not a typo.  The kids range in age from 1½ to 17.

This year Christmas Eve started out with about half of the kids snowmobiling/snowboarding; I thought it would tire them out, but I think it just revved them up.  Stockings first – Julie does those and they are low-key affairs: a mandarin orange, little pack of Kleenex, a candy cane and this year, each kid got a placement that Julie quilted for them with fabric chosen for each grandchild.   Gifts were next and that’s when it got a little wild.

We always start out going by youngest to oldest, but that breaks down pretty quickly, especially when someone chooses their Ukrainian egg box or their ornament box (I always wrap these in take-away boxes – perfect size).  Then everybody opens theirs at the same time and then the order of gift opening usually goes awry from there.  One of the sons-in-law is a bit of a neatnik so every gift that is opened, he supervises where the wrapping and ribbon and tissue went so he can scoop it up. Once we’re all opening packages willy-nilly, this gets a little stressful for him but we can’t convince him to relax about it.

A couple of the older kids started the “it’s a box” joke when taking off wrapping paper.  Then the younger kids took the joke and ran with it.  For the rest of the evening, every box was met with a chorus of “it’s a box”.  The teenagers had tired of the joke at this point so there was a lot of sighing and eye-rolling by a couple of them.

Several of the kids received stuffed animals and Howie, who is 9, got a capybara.  I guess they’re popular right now and Howie was smitten with it.  Its little legs were just the right size that it could sit right on top of Howie’s head, where it stayed for at least an hour, even when the unwrapping was done and the kids were split into various groups, playing some of the games they had received.

The noise levels are so far beyond what I either experienced as a kid, or am used to these days that I find myself just sitting back in wonder.  When YA and I carried our stuff to the car and headed home, my ears almost rang from the silence.  And when we got home, it felt so chaos-free (even with the dog excited that we were home) that I breathed a little sigh of relief.  I love them all but glad the chaos doesn’t follow me home!

Any fun/chaos/noise to report this week?

2025, Automotive, books, holidays, Technology

Park at Your Peril

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When you have fifteen kinds of cookies on the front porch during the holidays, you’re always open to ways to spread the wealth.  I usually make cookie platters for my local library, my vet and my hardware store guys.  It’s fun and between assembling the platters and delivering, it takes less than an hour, as all the recipients are very close by.

This past year, I really tested the Inter-Library Loan department of the library system so I decided that I should provide some holiday cheer for them.  I found out that ILL works out of the downtown library (not much of a surprise) and do a straightforward 9-5 schedule. 

I spent several weeks waffling about how to get the cookies downtown as I detest driving downtown and I detest paying a fortune for parking even more.  As of Monday afternoon, my plan was to take the bus.  A long trip two ways but only $2 out of my pocket and the bus stops literally at the front entrance door of the library.  I even went to the bank to get a few one dollar bills.

As Monday afternoon wore on, I wavered more and more about this plan.  I checked online and found that the library parking is only $4 for the first hour.  I even called the library; the librarian confirmed that this was true and that you could park near the elevators and come right up to the atrium.  She also said that if you were in and out in 15 minutes, there was no charge.

Of course, yesterday when the GPS got me to the library, that particular lot was full.  I went around a two block area about five times – no on-street parking open and all but one ramp had their “FULL” lights lit up.  Grrrr.  I considered just going home and dismantling the platter but I figured, I’d come this far….    At this point, I was pretty stressed.  There were two machines at the entrance of the only open ramp near the library and it took me a bit to figure out how to get a ticket.  Found a parking spot near an elevator but when I pushed the door open to the outside world, there was a small sign saying you needed the QR code from your parking ticket to get back in.  Luckily I hadn’t let that door shut, so I went back to my car to grab the ticket.

Delivery went really well but when I exited the parking ramp (about 20 minutes later), they charged me $17.  OUTRAGEOUS.  At this point, I just wanted to get home but my GSP wouldn’t open until I was actually out of the ramp.  More stress.  The fortunate part was that once I got going in the right direction downtown, I did know how to get home.  Even being directionally-challenged.

It’s all I can do to no look up “parking-induced anxiety” on the internet.  Not sure if it would make me feel better to know I’m in good company or if it would make me feel any more weird. And we’ll have to wait to see if ILL ever gets holiday cookies from me again.  Please don’t hold your breath.

Any directionally-challenged issues or parking anxiety for you this month?

2025, Family, holidays, Movies, Mysteries

How Did This Happen?

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Holiday movies are a staple for me.  I wait (sometimes patiently, sometimes not) for the day after Thanksgiving and then I cut loose – holiday movies galore for the weeks.  I prefer older movies although it seems every year or so something pops up that gets added to be stable of favorites.  Last year was Red One.  Three years ago it was The Christmas Chronicles.  Four years ago it was Klaus.  I’ll try any Christmas Carol at least once although Alistair Sims is the top of my list, followed shortly thereafter by Patrick Stewart.  And I simply cannot stay away from White Christmas despite its drecky and implausible plot.

The Bishop’s Wife, Miracle on 34th Street (the original only please) and, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life are still my top contenders; I usually watch these more than once a season.  I had Wonderful Life on last night when YA wandered in.  I was about ¾ of the way through and she said “when does he go to his weird world”?  What?  What?  So I tried to succinctly explain that Clarence the angel was showing George a world in which he had never been born.  This took a bit of explaining.  Anyway, YA stayed for the rest of the movie and asked MANY questions as we went along.  Zuzu’s petals were particularly hard to explain. 

Then we got to the scene in which Harry shows up after flying through a snowstorm (questions about where had Harry been, where did the movie take place).  I’ve probably seen this movie 100 times and I still choke up a bit when Harry says “To my big brother George – the richest man in town”.  YA looked at me in surprise, as if tearing up at a movie you’ve seen before is just too weird to understand.  I suppose we shouldn’t discuss the last line of Princess Bride, should we?

How can YA, at the age of 30 and having lived her entire life under the same roof with me, not know this movie?  Or get a little verklempt at the end?  I feel like a complete failure as a parent!

Watched any holiday movies this year? And do not list Die Hard as a holiday movie.  Just don’t.

2025, Family, Food, Games, holidays, Seasons

Counting the Days

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YAs current advent calendar (yes, she still gets an advent calendar even at the age of 30) is something I put together several years ago – decorated envelopes that are clipped onto greenery with cute teeny clothes hangers across the dining room windows.  Gift cards and the kinds of sour candy that she likes.

As you know, that’s not the only advent fun we have around here – there are advent calendars of all kinds out there now, making it easy to indulge.  You know I’m not doing the wine anymore and the shortbread bit the dust, the gingerbread was awful.  The cat and the dog weren’t remotely interested in theirs.  Even a high end chocolate one a few years ago wasn’t to our taste.  But that doesn’t stop us from checking stuff out.  This year we have:

  • A small post-it sized pad of simple pictures that I can color.
  • My color-by-number app has a different advent picture each day
  • Advent jigsaw puzzle (small box of 42 pieces per day)
  • Milk chocolate
  • Cheese

Day One of Advent Jigsaw Puzzle

As if we can’t throw ourselves into this kind of thing enough on our own, we have friends who are now abetting us.  One friend sent me an online advent calendar by Jacquie Lawson (an online card creator).  It is quite elaborate and fun.  Another friend gave us a World of Chocolate (this is different from the little milk chocolate calendar I mentioned above).  Neither YA nor I are big dark chocolate fans, so we’ll have to see how this plays out.  The biggest surprise this year was a delivery from a couple we know of a Bonne Maman jams/jellies calendar.  For the first day I took a picture (the header photo) and sent it to my friends.  Wonderful.

So, yes, we’re a little crazy here but it’s a fun, low-key way to enjoy the season.  And we’re pretty good at jettisoning the non-fun stuff if needed!

Do you celebrate the season?  Tell me how!