Dang, this is good. Currently reading: Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom 📚
Finished reading: Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange 📚
🧶 Wonky Star quilt
Posting about my latest quilt for posterity. This is a “wonky star” quilt using 10” precuts, measuring about 60 X 70”. I completed the sides last night and will hand quilt all of it with a mix of big stitch quilting.
Finished reading: Lit by Mary Karr 📚
So long
Deactivated my Twitter account after fifteen years (sheesh).
Finished reading: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates 📚
Finished reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt 📚
Just talked myself into and out of $300 of yarn.
Currently reading: Abortion by Jessica Valenti 📚
It’s the time of year when I can’t get around the nagging feeling that I need to buy yarn (I don’t need any more yarn).
Ephemera
Been playing with micro.blog for a bit now and very much recommend the experience. The interface is friendly and the team behind the app is ultra responsive. My fav features are Bookshelves - and the ability to push new posts to Bluesky and Mastodon.
In other news, I got a new bike.
Finished reading (a couple of months ago): Holding It Together by Jessica Calarco 📚
Read this in one sitting, reminded of “The Fire Next Time” in both style and urgency. Finished reading: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 📚
Finished reading: On Writing by Stephen King 📚
“To create a novel or a painting, an artist makes choices that are fundamentally alien to artificial intelligence.”
🍳 Bean machine
It’s soup season - and I’m a newly-minted member of the bean club. This is more or less my favorite lentil soup recipe, except I deglaze the pot with a healthy dose of dry red wine before adding the lentils and stock, and I stew it with a big sachet of fresh thyme.
Finished reading: James by Percival Everett 📚
🍳 Meat People
This butchery on the east side is owner-operated, and features meats only from local, humane farms. In addition, they are a “whole animal” butcher, in that they buy and break down a whole animal at a time, thus offering an array of extremely fresh products from sausage to steaks to specialty cuts (picanha, anyone?). One of the owners was working the counter this Saturday when we came in and greeted us with some suggestions for the day. We got a few pounds of pork shoulder to make carnitas at home, and while they were preparing our order, I perused the grocery area.
It’s clear that whoever curates their grocery knows their stuff. They had great fixings to pair with their meats, including a selection of curated wines, hot sauces and other sundry that reflect thoughtful food experience, travel and research. I got some wine, a series of hot sauces, and some tinned fish. Our tacos were delicious.
Currently reading: 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories by Lorrie Moore 📚
Watch House
Last week I joined an old friend on a road trip through Wisconsin. We saw a folk show, stayed at a vintage motel, and camped in the crook of Green Bay.
In our early years, we were both shit-kicking dirtbags, rebels, people who thumbed our noses at convention and were told (and fully believed) we wouldn’t amount to much. Today, we’re regular middle-aged ladies secure in our work, home and ambition, figuring out what the rest of our lives will look like. In that way, this trip was a fun reset: a reminder of where I’ve been and where I’m going.
I’m grateful to be surrounded by so many incredible women.