blue·stock·ing (blstkng) n.
An educated, intellectual woman.

bid·dy (bd) n. Slang
1. A woman, especially a garrulous old one. 2. Nickname for Bridget.


Sunday, June 29, 2025

Parallel trips

 This past weekend I went to a conference while Jeff and the kids went camping with a group of other families at the coast. We had fun, although I think their trip was in some ways probably more fun. I got to see some friends and colleagues, while they relaxed, played, splashed, and enjoyed nature. 






There is more camping coming soon, and happily I will get to join in the fun next time 😊

Sunday, June 22, 2025

New Order

 Game night with my goofball kiddos, when we decide to play New Order on Spotify:



They can’t help but dance 🤣

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Happy Father’s Day!

 Puck seems to be healing up just fine. He is still taking some pain medication and is a bit more sleepy than usual. And he also has to wear a special suit that keeps him from licking his stitches, which he doesn’t particularly love but tolerates, so that might be part of him being less active as well. 


The kids had their last day of school on Friday. We celebrated with movie in the afternoon, and then a fire in the backyard with s’mores:



And today of course was Father’s Day. The kids and I made Jeff breakfast (he usually makes us breakfast), gave him some cards and presents (the kids picked out a mug and a phone tripod), went on a hike in the woods along a creek, and ended the day with dinner out. I think he had a good Father’s Day, and hope everyone who celebrates also had a great day!






Sunday, June 08, 2025

Puck strikes again

Last week Puck ate the head off of a game piece that was, ironically, shaped like a cat. We gave the game to Linden for Christmas, and when we opened it up we saw that it was the type of rubber that he likes to eat. At that point we should have taken some action, either taking out the game pieces and swapping them for a non-rubber alternative, or possibly even taking the game back to the store. But instead we decided we could be careful to keep the cover on the game and the pieces away from Puck. But we got sloppy and complacent and last week he struck again. 

After finding the headless game piece we hoped that perhaps he had chewed it into pieces and they would be small enough to pass through his intestine. But unfortunately no such luck. On Wednesday night he started throwing up in his special way, and Jeff took him to the emergency vet where they stayed until about 3 AM. They sent him home because there was no clear evidence of a blockage in his intestine, but we were pretty sure there was one. Over the next day and a half he deteriorated and we took him to his regular vet who eventually sent us back to the emergency vet where they decided to do surgery. 

As we suspected, they were able to immediately find the missing head and remove it:


Puck has now officially used up four of his nine lives. That’s three surgeries (all for pieces of rubber he has ingested which have gotten stuck in his intestines), plus that one time when he ate my medication and was on life-support while it cleared his system.

He is home now and recovering, and although he is not as resilient as he was the first two times he had surgery, he seems to be doing OK. I just hope we don’t have to go through this ever again!

Sunday, June 01, 2025

First harvest

 Last week I forgot to mention that Linden lost another tooth:


This week we had our first garden harvest – radishes!


The plan is to roast them which we haven’t done yet, so we haven’t tasted our bounty as of yet. I was getting excited that our next harvest would be peas, but sadly today I discovered that deer can easily reach them through the fence and have chomped off all the flowers. Of course now it is obvious to me that I planted them in a terrible spot, but that is where they are growing so I think the earliest we will have any peas will be fall (when I can plant them in a new spot where the deer won’t get them).

Today our department had a picnic at a park, and we brought rhubarb crisp to share. However, there were no forks or spoons so no one ate it. Here is a picture of Maren trying to have a bite with the best “utensil“ Jeff could find:


At least that means there was a lot to bring home, so I am going to go have some now!