Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)
Today is my husband’s 64th birthday, which is significant to GenX and older because he’s officially reached the Beatles definition of old age:
“Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I’m sixty four?”
Also, I hear there’s football a game going on during a Bad Bunny concert tonight. 😉
Go Pats!
I asked ChatGPT two Yes or No questions. I was pleasantly surprised by its honesty and inability to dodge.
After that, I got carried away:
Is Donald Trump racist? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump a sexual predator? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump a liar? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump senile? Yes or no answer only.
No
Is Donald Trump unfit to be President? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump self-dealing? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump a narcissist? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump a traitor? Yes or no answer only.
No
Is Donald Trump stupid? Yes or no answer only.
No
Is Donald Trump making the world less safe? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
Is Donald Trump bad for the US economy? Yes or no answer only.
Yes
With the Milan-Cortina Olympics about to start, we’re going to be seeing many shots of Milan’s iconic Gothic-style Duomo.
This reminds me that I visited Milan in 1985 with my friend Julie during our semester abroad in Italy. We climbed up to the rooftop terraces of the Duomo. Back then, you didn’t need reservations or special tickets to go up.
I love it when photographic evidence of my foggy memories actually exists!
Here’s a photo I took of Julie taking a photo through a doorway atop the Duomo in Milan 40+ years ago. Julie is a great photographer so I’m sure she got a wonderful, artistic shot. But I like my pic too. Her red coat looks cool. And you can see some of the over-the-top decorative elements of the roof. Those endless spires remind me of wet, drippy sandcastles.
Posted for Dan’s Thursday Doors.
This is the first winter in forever that I’m not going to Florida for at least a week. I’m staying here in the cold with my husband—and his new knee—for the entire winter. And it sure is a cold and snowy one. We have a huge snow bank in our driveway and major icicles hanging off our roof. I’m worried about ice dams causing leaking into the house (so far, so good).
On the bright side: I get to see my granddaughter today 😁 Also, the Patriots are in the Super Bowl, which is a big plus if you’re married to a huge Pats fan. The Super Bowl is on his birthday too. Also, my church is hosting an Emma’s Revolution concert Friday to benefit a local immigrant and refugee justice organization. It’s going to be fun.
Yesterday, I watched some of the congressional testimony from people whose lives have been ruined by ICE, including Renee Good’s two heartbroken brothers. Not a single Republican congressperson attended the hearing. I watched Aliyah Rachman—a woman with a traumatic brain injury—testify to the most horrific capture and treatment by ICE that you could possibly imagine. The conditions in the detention centers are subhuman, with living human beings referred to as “bodies.” Watch her testimony here.
My husband has signed on to get his other knee replaced in mid-March, so that’s going to….in a word…suck.
But back to the bright side: we moved an old treadmill from the unfinished side of the basement to the “nice” side of the basement and it still works fine. So I can “take a walk” even when the weather prevents me from going outside. I’m currently rewatching the entire original Sex and the City series while I’m treadmilling. I’m on Season 3.
I’m getting closer to the end of my watercolor botanicals workbook and I decided I’d like to keep learning in a class with a teacher. Last night I found a class at a different community arts center (even closer to my house than where I took my first watercolors class last fall). There was just one opening left, so I registered. I had hesitated to register earlier, because the class focuses on learning to paint one particular subject, which sounded kind of silly. But last night as I watched All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, I decided that painting “soft, cute and fluffy baby farm animals” might be just what I need in the Winter of 2026.
Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)
Of all the unexpected bad news out of left field, Catherine O’Hara suddenly passing at age 71 made me cry OH NO at top volume.
Like literally everyone else, I LOVED Catherine O’Hara.
There are currently about one million tributes to Catherine online, so I’m just going to pick one favorite memory to share and that is: I honestly don’t know how we would’ve made it through the pandemic lockdown without Schitt’s Creek and Moira Rose. She was such a bright spot during that awful time. I absolutely loved all of the scenes involving the Women’s Choir (probably because I’m a lifelong Choir Lady myself), but remember her audition? The bizarre scat singing and the shaker egg in one hand. 🤣 How on earth did she come up with that? I often wondered how the other actors made it through even one take with Moira Rose without cracking up.
When Moira Rose auditions for the Schitt’s Creek Women’s Choir:
Thanks for the laughs Catherine, but you left us way too soon! There are so many other Baby Boomers that should’ve gone before you (especially the one in The White House). NOT FAIR. I was so looking forward to seeing you in Season Two of The Studio and whatever else you ever decided to do.
😢
Trying to learn to let the paint and the water “do their thing.”
Designs from Watercolor Workbook by Sarah Simon (IG: @themintgardener)
Have you ever received a casual invitation that was likely not meant sincerely? You know, something like “you should come visit sometime”? Welp, I got one of those once and I decided to take the person up on it.
My husband’s cousin (an interior designer) and his husband (an investment firm VP) live in a very fancy Manhattan coop in Murray Hill. We saw them at a family gathering in Massachusetts in 2008 and they “encouraged” us to visit. Looking back now, I really don’t think they meant it. They were childless city folk and we had young kids.
Anyway, I reached out that summer because my friend and I wanted to go to NYC to see Legally Blonde on Broadway with our daughters and get this—they offered us their apartment for the weekend! They were going to be at their “country home” the weekend we were coming, but said we could stay in their city place by ourselves.
We couldn’t believe their place. First of all, it was HUGE. Second, it was decorated in the least kid-friendly way imaginable. There was glass everywhere, Nothing was left out on any surface, everything was completely smooth. There were sculptures (mostly of gorgeous male bodies) on pedestals that would have been deadly if knocked over.
It was actually comical. We were so afraid of breaking anything that we barely moved! At one point, I remember hunting for a coffee maker in their exquisite, smooth-surfaced kitchen (a note said it was in “the appliance garage”) but then just giving up and going out for coffee.
I realize I’m not using Dan’s Thursday’s Doors in the usual way. I search my photo file for “door” and some door pops up that prompts a memory.
Check out the other cool doors here or just search for posts tagged Thursday Doors.
Thank goodness I found another indoor hobby besides reading and watching TV. Between the freezing cold weather and not traveling due to my husband’s knee, I needed something.
Even though I’m working with someone else’s designs at the moment, I’m definitely learning some stuff from this book/teacher.
Mark your calendars: The next mass anti-Trump NO KINGS protest will be March 28, 2026.
Here’s the message from the national leadership of Indivisible:
“Our mobilizations grew from month to month last year, exploding from Hands Off in April (3 million) to the second No Kings Day in October (7 million) — and the regime’s ongoing brutality and authoritarianism in the months since have only convinced more Americans, including many who’ve never attended a protest in their lives, to join their neighbors in the streets. Now we’ve got to keep that momentum growing, with the same creativity and dogged determination.
Everything we’ve done so far, and everything we’ll be doing in the next weeks and months, is the stuff of history. And together, we’ll write the history of how, for the second time in 250 years, we the people defied, and overcame, a tyrant.”
The only thing that’s going to stop this authoritarian/fascist train is US—the people. Minnesota showed us that all people of good conscience (left, right and center) must get involved.
It’s a winter wonderland here in Massachusetts. No sign of the plow guy yet this morning, but the Patriots are going to the Super Bowl – again. Therefore many New Englanders (husband, son…) are in a much better mood than they otherwise would have been. Go Pats!
And some good news: our whiny-ass, murdering, rapist, senile, spray-tanned orange President has announced he’s not going to attend the Super Bowl because he doesn’t like the halftime performer. He’s probably afraid all those Boston and Seattle fans would boo him into oblivion. In any case, Long Live Bad Bunny!
I’m continuing to work my way through “Watercolor Workbook” by Sarah Simon. If interested, she’s on Instagram: @themintgardener. All designs are hers.
Unfortunately my paint set doesn’t have one important color for botanicals: Oxide of Chromium. I’m having to make do with Sap and Veridian.
Related:
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