The mallard’s nest, part one On Tuesday, I walked out to the end of the driveway to retrieve the garbage can – I knew the recycling hadn’t been picked up yet- and placed it by the garage door, slightly sheltered fr…

The mallard’s nest, part one www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/the-mallards...

The interesting times continue “May you live in interesting times” is said to be a curse. And our times have certainly had waves of interesting in the past few months. Back in December, I had mentioned our leaking ba…

The interesting times continue www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/the-interest...

K-2SO because Alan Tudyk. 😁

What is Patches? As I was cruising in the Caribbean (posts about that coming soon!), playing my daily puzzles like Wordle and Zip, I noticed that LinkedIn was suggesting a new puzzle: Patches. How new? Yesterday&#8…

What is Patches? www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/what-is-patc...

My different packing styles In the last month and a half, I have packed for four different places that weren’t my own bed (and were all sadly lacking in cats): a local convention, a brief work trip to Tennesee, a confer…

My different packing styles www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/my-different...

Do you Zip? I realize, without context, there are a lot of options for the word “zip,” not the least are “zipper” or “zipline”. In this case, Zip is the name of a daily puzz…

Do you Zip? www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/do-you-zip/

Did you “spring forward” last Sunday? Or did you, like me, reluctantly hobble forward in this seemingly pointless semiannual ritual where we change the clocks and hope our circadian rhythm catches up to the change quickly? I was oddly …

Did you “spring forward” last Sunday? www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/did-you-spri...

That could be very large Lego.

You’ve got dice! If you read Cassandra’s blog, you may have seen her post a few months ago about entering sweepstakes. When she finds a sweepstakes that may also be of interest to me, she shares the link. Whi…

You’ve got dice! www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/youve-got-di...

Thyroid: the Stabbening When I had my MRI in November, other than the arthritis, the results turned up something odd about my thyroid. After a discussion with my primary doctor in December, I scheduled a thyroid ultrasoun…

Thyroid: the Stabbening www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/thyroid-the-...

Not Anne McCaffrey or Anne Rice?

Temperature projects update 2025 is done!* 2026 projects are progressing! OK, the * is because I still have the border to finish on the 360-day granny square blanket I started in mid-February 2025. The final day in that count…

Temperature projects update www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/temperature-...

Goblins and art show and boxes, oh my! Capricon 46 has come and, alas, gone, as is the way of annual conventions. I had waves of free time alternating with “why did I schedule myself like this” intervals… again, that&#…

Goblins and art show and boxes, oh my! www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/goblins-and-...

Avoiding hibernation It can be tempting for those of us in cold climates to stay indoors most of the winter, relishing the technology that heats our homes. Several locations that you would generally count as outdoor ea…

Avoiding hibernation www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/avoiding-hib...

An eclectic selection for Capricon’s art show I’ve mentioned Capricon here a few times, particularly last year when I volunteered as co-chair. I have far less work for the convention this year, as a staff member, panelist, and volunteer,…

An eclectic selection for Capricon’s art show www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/an-eclectic-...

An Apology To Winter “Everything is leafless (except those guys),” I understood of winter as a child, and I believe I mistook that for “so nothing interesting is happening (except snow days).” A…

An Apology To Winter www.randomgeekchild.com/an-apology-t...

Thoughts on The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association is quite the handful for a book name, and I’m delighted that this book by Caitlin Rozakis lived up to that handful. Our local library ty…

Thoughts on The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/thoughts-on-...

Temperature Tree and Temperature Blanket: Scavenger Edition Back in October, I mentioned the discovery of a Temperature Blanket group on Facebook, and some related ideas, like a Temperature Tree embroidery kit. Since my embroidery skills are not at the same…

Temperature Tree and Temperature Blanket: Scavenger Edition www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/temperature-...

Setting my 2026 Side Quests What are Side Quests, you ask? Well, I used to refer to them as Goals, but really, “Quest” is more fun as a concept, at least for us gamers. I don’t accomplish every quest I give …

Setting my 2026 Side Quests www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/setting-my-2...

That's certainly one way to distract people from the Epstein files.

Thoughts on the Universal Yums Advent Calendar As I mentioned in my previous post about Universal Yums, we purchased their Advent Calendar for this holiday season. Unlike the location-specific boxes, this was entirely sweet: candy and chocolate…

Thoughts on the Universal Yums Advent Calendar www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/thoughts-on-...

The Default When your attention is committed and a task still needs to be done, how do you approach it? When you’re too tired for the challenging and still looking for something fun, where do you look fi…

The Default www.randomgeekchild.com/the-default/

Christmas Stocking Memories In college, I spent a year abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, which was a fabulous experience is so many ways, including my first Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) adventures. That&#821…

Christmas Stocking Memories www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/christmas-st...

Enter To Win: The Sequel I don’t usually come back to topics on this blog, which is… absurd, considering how often one comes back to topics in life. And one of the topics I’ve come back to recently is sweepstak…

Enter To Win: The Sequel www.randomgeekchild.com/enter-to-win...

Homeownership is not for the faint of heart Almost two weeks ago now, it snowed – again – bringing our accumulated snow to a whopping 11 inches early in the season. It was warm enough that the snow was melting on the roof even as…

Homeownership is not for the faint of heart www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/homeownershi...

Nah (But Yes) It’s been a very real life week, I’m very tired, and it’s very cold out, so I’m going to forego the usual enthusiasm and commentary and just say, ‘wasn’t this pr…

Nah (But Yes) www.randomgeekchild.com/nah-but-yes/

Universal Yums, round 2 at the library Over the summer, our local public library hosted a Yum Club event with treats from Taiwan. Having enjoyed that, we prioritized signing up for the next one when it was announced and were delighted t…

Universal Yums, round 2 at the library www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/universal-yu...

My mother-in-law had shingles over a decade ago, and said it was terrible. I took her advice and got the first dose of the vaccine the day after I became eligible.

Do You Recognize This Bird(le)? I was playing Metazooa recently – a taxonomy game – and excited about the different species at our bird feeder, and I figured, “There has to be a bird identification game out ther…

Do You Recognize This Bird(le)? www.randomgeekchild.com/do-you-recog...

Touch snow, the grass is covered. It feels like just yesterday that Cassandra posted about touching grass; it was actually two weeks ago, and the seasons have definitely shifted more towards the snowy side here in Chicagoland. In f…

Touch snow, the grass is covered. www.momsguidetothegalaxy.com/touch-snow-t...