mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Bad-ass scientist, educator, speaker. I help women advance their careers. Find me at UCLA and Women Advancing Together. Views are my own. She/Her
Foolishly drove through an intense storm this morning to get to an orchard and farm owned by the same family for 200 years. Loaded up with an enormous amount of food that cost only $46. Thanks to Deborah Edwards-Oñoro @redcrew@mstdn.social for the recommendation! (photo attached)
Turned a peck of tomatoes into 12 pints of tomato sauce (seven canned, 4 for the freezer, and 1 for dinner tonight). (photo attached)
Dreaming of turning the plums into spiced jam.
#3GoodThings #Knitting #Ceramics
I just completed my first cardigan. This was very hard for me to do as a beginner, especially the v-neck and double-knitted button band. I’m super happy with how it turned out. And I LOVE the buttons I made for the piece. (photo attached)
Had a wonderful dinner at my cousin’s tonight. She’s a fabulous cook and generous person.
Got all the laundry done.
I taught myself crochet from lots of Youtube videos, just so I could use scrap wool yarn to make a round thing, soak it in slip, fling it onto a slump mold, and then turn it into a bowl-type thingy. (photos attached)
Lessons are being learned as I work through this process. I'm slowly inching towards success.
Woke up and made spiced plum compote. Added a bit of sugar, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, star anise, and a good sized splash of cognac. Two-and-a-half pounds of plum turned into two pints of compote. It's super delicious. (photo attached)
Old friends came over for a visit and coffee this morning. It was lovely, and the house smelled great from above compote.
Our pottery studio had a meeting to plan a workshop trip to Jingdezhen, China. I'm so excited!
Picked the ripe cherry tomatoes from two plants, and a bunch of basil from six plants. They are limping along in our mostly shaded garden. The basil got turned into pesto. (photos attached)
The weather finally broke and the smoky air went somewhere else. It is a perfectly lovely day with temperatures in the 70s F and a very low Air Quality Index of 11.
It's so nice outside that I cleaned the front porch. Cocktails and snacks out there at 4pm!
My Bleeding Hearts.
My annual planting of the veggies and herbs in our raised garden beds was done in the rain. It was a very pleasant experience. (photos attached)
My knitting group met at a friend's back patio and I made some progress on the right sleeve of my purple cardigan, without messing up while engaged in conversation. A first!
A simple salad for supper eaten in the backyard while admiring my gardening handiwork.
Tulipalooza in my front yard. The squirrels have mostly left them alone this year -- only one beheading. I think the trick of putting used coffee grounds around the base of each tulip worked well. (photos attached)
#3GoodThings #Michigan #Knitting #Pottery
1. First backyard meal of 2026. Middle Eastern dinner from Star's Cafe in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a beautiful day and evening. (photo attached)
2. Take 2 of my cardigan knitting is going much better. I just tried on the yoke piece with v-neck, and it's the right size with no wonkiness in the stitching.
3. Glazed a bunch of my pieces at the pottery studio this morning. May the kiln gods be kind to me. (photo attached of two pieces)
Why did the turkey cross the road?
(There were actually two crossing Plymouth Rd at Murfin. The other drivers were very patient when the light turned green and the birds were still sauntering along the crosswalk.)
That horrible odor in the basement bedroom where we've been sleeping due to the heat? Three dead mice found in the window well outside the bedroom. They've been removed. When I said to my husband, "It smells like something died in here," he said he couldn't smell anything. I love telling him, "I told you so!"
My new passport arrived. Good for another 10 years.
Hot out of the kiln: Experimenting with Laguna B-Mix 5 Speckled clay. I like how this bowl turned out.
Had good 1:1 meetings with my team today. Two by phone and one in person. One more to go this week. Got great input on strategies to improve what we do and enhance their engagement. Go team!
Walking back home from my in-person meeting, I came across a very charming front yard display of toys/art. (photos attached)
Made a delicious dinner tonight: crispy baked chicken thighs with roasted potatoes and carrots.
#3GoodThings #Reading #CostaRica
Finished an outstanding historical fiction novel for my book club, “The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell.
Had a jaw-dropping time at the Museo de Oro in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica (photo attached).
Seared tuna for dinner; bought the fish at the Santa Ana farmers market yesterday. So good!
I remembered the Michigan sour cherries from last summer that I had pitted and put in the freezer. I added them to my newly acquired Michigan peaches and made Peach-Cherry Jam. Wow! The house smelled great. (photo attached)
Leftovers for dinner. We still have work to do on that. We make something a little different with every meal of leftovers. I think one more will finish it off.
Weekly Zoom gathering with friends from across the U.S. tonight.
Early morning cuddles with my dog on the sofa. This one of favorite positions: nose buried under my arm and paw anchoring said arm and torso. (photo attached)
I finished a novel this afternoon that was both entertaining and irritating. Now I can move on.
An old friend of mine sent me a photo taken in 1973 when we were 13-years-old. It was a bunch of us dressed up for a party, and I have to say that we looked adorable.
#3GoodThings #Sunset #Michigan
It was such a beautiful day in Southeast Michigan, that my husband and I ate both lunch and dinner outside.
Good day at the pottery studio glazing my ceramic spoons. I've never made these before and I hope they turn out nicely.
I caught a vibrant sunset just as I was descending the stairs and my husband saw it from the front porch. We took photos at the same time from two slightly different locations. (photos attached)
Went for a walk with my dog at a park that has a nice lake. She loves prancing in the water. It's hard to get her out once she's in. (photo attached)
Made grilled cheese & tomato sandwiches and ate them outside on this lovely day.
Got my flu and COVID-19 vaccinations.