A Lego flower in white, yellow, and orange -- it looks like a bird of paradise.

Day 21!

(Or next weekday evening!)

Absolutely! This weekend is pretty booked but I'm free next weekend!

Anyone have advice for the particular ennui called "I'm about to turn 40 and what do I have to show for it?"?

An absolute unit of a tom turkey on the pavement in front of some garages.

Two turkeys with their tails fanned out, seen in the woods past a deck with a chair in the foreground.

Backyard friends.

A big Lego flower with five petals in two shades of purple and three long, white, tusk-like stamen.

Day 20! I think this flower has tusks??

Oh, totally! I used the word "collected" deliberately.

One of my biggest pet peeves is someone calling the Grimm "the original version of Cinderella." "Original" is a nonsense word for a folk tale, and the Grimms collected theirs over a CENTURY after Perrault published the version that Disney based the movie on.

A Lego flower with a bunch of clusters of red buds or berries on a brown stem with two small green leaves.

Day 19!

Poor Jason, of the good half of the Seinfeld cast!

Yes, definitely a place to specify the Adam! (I know nothing about Adam West as a person but that's better than what I know about Adam B!)

A collection of four Twilight Zone audio drama CDs, narrates by Stacy Keach, Jason Alexander, Jim Caviezel, Adam West, and Adam Baldwin.

Not loving the batting average on narrator choices here.

Absolutely! I felt so bad for her. (I was actually at the taping of two of Jamie's episodes while I was on vacation in LA, and I felt bad for the other contestants then, too!)

I was embarrassed by how hard the anagrams category was for me!

Also Friday's episode was a wild lineup for me: guy who shares my alma mater, woman in my industry, and guy from the town next to my hometown. I could get to all 3 with very few degrees of separation.

I've decided I really want Jamie Ding to win exactly 39 games of Jeopardy. I want him to beat Matt Amodio but not beat Amy Schneider.

A big red and white Lego flower with bits of pink and some long green and yellow stamen.

Day 18! Much better than yesterday.

A Lego flower that's some kind of reed or pussywillow, with white ball buds on two stalks.

Day 17! This one was a nightmare -- half of the white bits wouldn't stay on. It's probably getting dismantled.

I guess I've finally acclimated to the Midwest because I'm mostly shrugging at the tornado sirens. We have no basement so there's not a whole lot we could do anyway, and the spotted storm isn't moving in our direction.

A big orange Lego poppy.

Day 16!

A page in the brochure for next season's performance offerings from Madison's Overture Center. A mascot costume of Bluey the cartoon dog is pictured in the same blank yellow void as guitarist Bonnie Raitt.

For a moment I genuinely thought Bonnie Raitt and Bluey were going on tour together.

A cluster of small blue Lego flowers on a green stem.

Day 15!

I'm home and not planning to leave again!

I did too! I'm glad we're both home safe.

A piece of hail over an inch across, held in the palm of a white hand.

I can't remember ever experiencing hail like this. My cat is terrified.

I can hear it so clearly in my head as I look at the gif!

Post your favorite film from the year you turned 18. (Thankful for this; every other option I considered when I looked at a list of 2004 movies was deeply embarrassing.)

It's all a mix of serendipity, talent, friendliness, and being genuinely interested in other humans. My foot in the door was a single conversation with an editor at the Marvel booth where I mentioned I'd always wanted to intern in editorial. But I'd already been building acquaintanceships for years.

Beautiful!

Giving myself a day of rest and mild (but entirely local) retail therapy: lunch, coffee, and a pastry from local cafes; new coasters from a kitschy gift shop; a book from an indie bookstore; and a wall scratcher for my cat from an indie pet store.