I love Ina. I survived a period of serious bereavement by hanging out with my BFF, her infant (screaming) twins, and Ina. We spent a whole winter on that big white couch with Ina on the DVR, each of us trying to get a screaming twin to nap. (I’m good, the twins are 12, and my love for Ina is everlasting).

For those of us who live where the investment makes sense MERINO WOOL LONG UNDERWEAR!! The best thing ever. I have all the different weights for bottoms, and wear them like tights. Muck boots + Long wool skirt + midweight wool longies + icelandic wool sweater + scarf + thinsulite vest + long wool coat + mittens =…

Really? Please G-d I sorta don’t believe in tell me this is true. I’m SO SO terrified.

Hey — MrPorcupine is an actual carpenter who NEEDS his cargo shorts. And because he’s ... frugal ... needs there to be enough cargo shorts in circulation so he can find them cheap on his annual trip to Ross/Nordstrom Rack. (Not a fashion statement my guy — logger boots, socks, cargo shorts, tee shirt. And random drill…

When my father left in 1972, my mother went to the archdiocese to see about an annullment. There was no record of her marriage in the records. Her aunt, known as “the Duchess” had organized the wedding, including finding the priest. She ran a Catholic Settlement house for 50 years, and was in with the hierarchy.…

The auntie in me is so happy about this picture — since the kid nearly died a few years back of some weird infection. Look at her! All grown up and beautiful (and sulking like a normal teenager).

I’ve never wanted so much to take a hot dish to a celebrity. Its all I can do not to go buy a big foil pan, make some funeral food, and send it to LA. So heartbreaking.

She *really* wanted to get a GIGANTIC prosthetic bra for the laughs. It was funny though, she didn’t really care, but her lifelong best friend (who is both THE most glamourous woman I know, and also stupendously kind) was SO upset that she was just running around slightly-flatter-chested than before. She got a normal…

She has her moments ...

My mom’s a teeny person, and didn’t have reconstruction. “No one even *noticed* that my boobs are gone!” she said afterwards. “It’s so insulting!” Then she started making cracks about getting a Jayne Mansfield prosthetic bra. “That’ll show ‘em!”

I am SO ready to be done with periods, despite the other .. um ... issues, although I do think the don’t-give-a-fuck is a lovely compensation. And good to hear that removal was easier than insertion — since my body managed to betray me by getting preggo at an absurdly advanced age, I’m waiting at least the full year…

Oh this made me giggle. Yeah, it does sound horrible, doesn’t it? Worked, but made me woozy (does the same at the dentist). Have to say though, not looking forward to getting the damn thing out as my reproductive lady years are coming to an end.

Fuck this shit. I had a hell of a time getting an IUD in my early 40s! No kids, didn’t want kids (at that point) and finally met a lovely man who felt the same. One doc refused. One gave me a scare story about how it was SO painful if you’d never had a baby. Then I get preggo at 46. FUCK THEM ALL. My lovely doctor who…

Since the Mr and I aren’t actually married, I did this too. Visions of my ridiculous mother showing up and wanting to take charge scared me into getting it done. My friend/small town lawyer jokes that the Mr can now “do everything but shoot you.”

Fuck yeah. When my brother died, it was a mess. Never occurred to either of us that we weren’t one another’s next of kin. Nope. It was our feckless parents. I had to get paperwork to become the executor, and about a million death certificates to send to everyone — get a fucking will. Name an executor and an heir. It…

Oh my. One of the first really famous people that I feel like I should start making a pan of mac and cheese, or lasagne or a pot roast to take by. Which would be weird and stalkery because I live several states away, but oh. Sadly I know how sudden loss like that brings a whole different set of sorrows than losing…

Mountain lion/coyote/wolf — get big. Grizzly bear, drop and curl up and cover the back of your neck with your hands. Grizz wants to make sure you’re no longer a threat (usually to cubs). We had two local girls survive a grizzly attack unscathed a few years back by curling up face down — for a long long time. They said…

Welcome to our beautiful home tourists. Please — do not touch the wild animals, do not throw food items outside on the ground around our cabin that you have rented, do not butcher your (in-season deer) on the screen porch leaving the floor covered in bloodstains, do not mistake the septic tank cover for a firepit…

I’m just hoping my elderly mother doesn’t have HBO. She was beside herself with anger at me during the original hearings, because I thought of course Anita Hill was telling the truth (also, I’d just started grad school and wasn’t following her script for me, which was to marry rich, have kids, get divorced and let her…

We’ve got a vacation rental cabin, and usually leave some basic staples in the fridge. Without fail, renters scarf down the butter, and leave us tub after tub of fake whipped whatever not-butter.