Thursday, November 30, 2023

Weekly Round Up: Thanksgiving

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  ICYMI, last week was very sad with the passing of Stepdog.  It was also a time of happiness, gratitude, and family shenanigans.

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

On Losing A Pet


TL&DR: Stepdog passed away last Friday after a brief illness.  

I'm here to spill my guts out, which I will then try edit into something coherent.  I'll tell you what happened, the things that helped our family to get through it, the decision to use a home euthanasia vet, and a few wonderful stories of her last days.  This is one of two posts that I will be writing about her.  Today's post is the hard part, and the next post (to be written at some future date much further along in the grieving process) will be a tribute to her and stories of the great joy that she brought to us.

I am not always in the right headspace to read a "my pet died" post, so you absolutely have my blessing to skip this one.  The only reason to ever read a blog post is because you want to, and no one is taking "blogger attendance".  Nothing bad or graphic happened, apart from the fact that the dog died.  Here's a happier dog post as an alternative.

Monday, November 20, 2023

Weekly Round Up: I Wanted More

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  A theme of this week is that I tried some things on the food and book front that left me...well, see title of post.  But I also found some goodies to make up for it.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Weekly Round Up: There's no school like the old school

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  This weekend I kicked it old school and had a girls weekend with the dog while the boys were at Boy Scout camp.

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Diary of a First Grader: The Sixth Annual Weekly Eats Roundup

Hey Friends, it's that time again!  Six years ago today I had an impulse to write a weekly recap post of my meals, workouts, TV watching, and reading.  After a year of weekly recaps I wrote an annual recap which I've come to think of as "Birchwood New Year".  Now that these posts are old enough to start first grade, let's take a look back at the best of the best things that we've talked about this year.

Friday, November 10, 2023

Let's Go Places: Malabar Farm State Park, Ohio

 

Friends, I'd like to take you to a very special place today.  Can I interest you in a trip to a farm that's a state park in the middle of nowhere?

I guess that doesn't really sell it.  Let me up the ante by telling you that Malabar Farm State Park is a one stop shop for:

  • State park stuff.  Nature and hiking (OK, I'm mildly interested)
  • The farm is historically important for promoting sustainable agriculture (OK, that's somewhat interesting.  If I had another reason to go there I'd be open to learning more)
  • Was the home of a Pulitzer Prize Winning Big Deal 20th Century Novelist who might not be a household name now but was in the same league as Fitzgerald and Hemmingway back in the day (that's more like it!  But in Ohio?)
  • Some of the exterior scenes for a Big Deal 90s movie were filmed here (Hmm, depending on the movie I might be interested)
  • Was a hangout for Everybody Who Was Anybody in Hollywood in the 40s (Now you've really got my attention!  But why were big movie stars coming out to Ohio of all places?)
  • Was the scene of a Big Hollywood Wedding (hey you already sold me!  WHO?????)

Monday, November 6, 2023

Weekly Round Up: Dark Clock

 

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I'm going to tell you about a new lunch obsession, some workout chatter, a 1970s cult TV series that I just learned about, and some book stuff.

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Weekly Round Up: A Family Shenanigan



A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  We have A LOT of stuff to talk about: I'll start with our family shenanigan, then talk a little food and workout stuff, and then I HAVE A BOOK THAT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT - for both good reasons and bad.