To avoid unnecessary house explosions, thigh burns, and scorched shorts on the Fourth of July, I’m blowing the flaming popsicle stand that is my neighborhood. I’m sure the “rocket’s red blare” and “bombs bursting in air” look amazeballs, but I wouldn’t really know for sure because usually, I’m in full cat freak-out mode, searching for… Continue reading How Do We Dance When Our Bundts Are Burning?
Cutie Fruity Patootie
With reckless, thrill-seeking abandon, I bought a package of fruit cutters for three dollars. They are WILD! Wildly cute, that is. These are the shapes they come in: star, goldfish, bunny head, and flower. We had some leftover pineapple from Alex’s graduation party, so I cut out star shapes from that. The banana got the… Continue reading Cutie Fruity Patootie
Graduation and Other Warm Dense Matter
Our little tadpole grew a tassel, tossing his graduation cap in the air, like he just didn’t care. Except he cared…a lot! The baby of the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team, Alex, graduated from college, cum laude, with a physics major and a minor in actuarial science. It. Was. Not. Easy. He said, towards the… Continue reading Graduation and Other Warm Dense Matter
Hard Core Group Core
The local Y is a sight for sore thighs. In a good way. I joined a “Group Core” class that meets on Wednesdays because…how can I run if my thighs aren’t burning? A while back, I was in physical therapy because my knees and Achilles tendon hurt too much to run on the treadmill, so… Continue reading Hard Core Group Core
Wandering Meatloaf
Lonely, wandering clouds of Wordsworth’s fame, step aside. You’ve got meatloaf-shaped competition—and I can’t unsee it. I’m only wandering lonely as a meatloaf from now on. On a rare, sunny day, Nate, Alex, and I took the ferry to Whidbey Island, walked along the beach, and found this loaf-like shape in the rocky sand—and it… Continue reading Wandering Meatloaf
Im-peck-ably Spiced Chicken
Aw, cluck it! I know the majority of my dinners start and end with chicken, but for cluck’s sake, if I wasn’t meant to make chicken for my family nearly every night of the week, why does it taste so cluckin’ good? During a typical weeknight, we eat chicken at least two days a week,… Continue reading Im-peck-ably Spiced Chicken
Craft Alert: Bookish Starfish
Though my inner craft alarms were blaring on high alert at Powell’s City of Books last weekend, I couldn’t subject so many innocent bibliophiles to wayward scissors-swiping or gruesome gluing glitches. A craft, inspired by books and bookmarks, would have to wait until I returned home. Powell’s, in downtown Portland, Oregon, is the mother of… Continue reading Craft Alert: Bookish Starfish
Tiki Bar Trek (and More) in Portland, Oregon
Because that one Hawaiian shirt from Nate’s tropical prints collection in his closet has seen the inside of a tiki bar only once, it was my mission to find a tiki bar while at a conference in Portland, Oregon. To be fair, we ate at other places, too, so I’m including those restaurants and pictures.… Continue reading Tiki Bar Trek (and More) in Portland, Oregon
Random Dip Night: Red Pepper Sauce
Random dip generators (RDGs) would take the drudgery out of planning dipner, the meal that comes right before dinner in my house. In my wildest of foodie fits, I’d imagined the RDG would be a spinning mechanism, mounted to the fridge, that could scan items inside, spinning them in combinations so as to make delightful… Continue reading Random Dip Night: Red Pepper Sauce
It’s Flamingo O’ Clock Somewhere
If you give a flamingo sangria, it will ask for shrimp and slap you across the face with its wing. So don’t give a flamingo sangria. Instead, celebrate flamingo o’ clock with a ka-honk, ka-honk and a clink, clink of the wine glasses. On a warm day last week, the Fixin’ Leaks and Leeks Team… Continue reading It’s Flamingo O’ Clock Somewhere
Fixin' Leaks and Leeks 