I had my taxes done last year by the Volunteer folks; in my case, accounting students at a local HBCU, who made this middle-aged white guy feel right at home. They were friendly, cheerful, and an immense help, getting me a good refund at a time when I needed the bucks. (I was out of work at the time, but started my…

In “The Way to Cook,” Julia Child suggesting using salsa to top burgers instead of ketchup. Never did it myself, not being much of a salsa person, but I suggested it to friends who love it.

I did a boned/rolled/tied 3 lb turkey breast in my Instant Pot recently; cooked on high for 30 min and it came out tender and moist. So much so that I was paranoid it was undercooked! You season as you want (the recipe called for orange zest and thyme, an odd combo but it worked, but any combo you want will be fine),…

I once borrowed my dad’s car, and had to promise I wouldn’t park it under a tree so birds could poop on it. And, well, I parked under a tree. And birds pooped on it, with a vengeance. I was driving home, dreading his reaction, when a sudden, violent rainstorm hit. It POUNDED down rain, to the point I had to find a…

I have one happy memory of that song....when in college, I was a party on the evening of my father’s birthday. I called him up from the host’s place, and had everyone there sing “Happy birthday” to him. Mom later said she never saw him smiling so much...

I threw up my hands in disgust at how my big corporate bank was eating up my accounts alive with fees....and just as I decided to close my account, they closed all their branches in my city. I found a credit union that at first I thought I wouldn’t be eligible for, but when looking at their website I found that anyone…

I learned some postal jargon at a former job. A scrawled “MLNA” on an envelope means “Moved, Left No Address.” They should spot that and make a note of it. Should.

At my former office, I was surrounded by people who felt that anything under 80 was “freezing” and any sort of moving air was a “cold draft”. They thought I was insane for having a fan at my desk during the summer. They griped and whined whenever the AC came on and once tried to bribe the maintenance people to turn…

I went from Chrome to Firefox to Vivaldi. Very happy with Vivaldi.

I bought a used car just over a week ago....a good thing about car shopping during a cold snap is that you know it will start in the cold. And that the heat works.

I don’t get out to the movies much, largely because of a major budget crunch over the past year and a half, but I did get out to see “Murder on the Orient Express” because I wanted to support a traditional murder-mystery movie. (I’ve grown numb to FX-heavy superhero blockbusters.) I used to go to arthouses a lot,…

I read about the 13 desserts in a book by James Beard and want to try it out sometime; maybe next Christmas. After a heavy meal, a big sampler platter of fresh and dried fruit, along with some nuts, some chocolates, a few cookies and some slices of cake would be a dream. You can nibble and graze for the rest of the…

I dine solo a lot (i refer to myself as “terminally single”, a long story), and it can be a good experience. I’ve been in lots of places where the waitstaff get extra-friendly and helpful, and a few times have come to know the owners as they stop by to chat. I’ve also made friends by getting into random conversations…

I tried a recipe for a pork roast in cranberry sauce, done in the slow cooker, that turned out to be exceptionally good, one for the permanent file. Pork and cranberries are an unexpectedly happy combination.

I tried with a number of temp agencies and never got anything. I even reached out to a few and got no reply. I tried a second time with a major temp agency and got a reply that time that landed me where I am now, still in a temp job after 9 1/2 months, but looking very promising for a future hire.

Re: Mental Health....when I got the boot from my old job in July 2016, I already had a therapy appointment scheduled (as the job was causing some serious stress and anxiety for me). My first appointment was the day after I got fired, and it was good for me to talk things over with him. I had a few more appointments…

I had a thermometer/hygrometer at my desk to see if it really was as “freezing” as they said it was, and also to track the humidity (as that office sometimes got very muggy for reasons we could never identify). Nope, it was 75, sometimes a degree or two above or below. I walked into one colleague’s office once and…

Nope, Baltimore MD.

I kept a digital thermometer/hygrometer at my desk, out of curiosity (that office also got clammy with humidity sometimes), and it would read 75 most days.

At my former office, a good third of the employees used space heaters at their desks, plugged into power strips, because an office of 75 degrees was “freezing”. When they were told they could no longer use them due to fire restrictions, they griped and complained loudly, and I think by now are back to using them. I…