Connected cars are obnoxious. I don’t want a holiday card from my damned car. But couldn’t figure out how to dismiss the pop-up on the display when I started the car without playing it.

The cookie baking has begun. These chocolate and peppermint chip chocolate cookies didn’t spread as much as usual, but they smell right at least!

Starting my VHS digitizing project! Just watched my poor junior hunter really not enjoy 3’9” jumper equitation finals 😂 (USET east coast). Had to ride hard at a water jump (forgot there would be one. Hadn’t ever done one on him) and he was so confused and he was already a freight train without that

That should be enough Friskies for a while (it’s about 4 months worth for my feral crew). Coupons plus Petsmart points bonus made it a good time to stock up. That’s actually not my entire stash 😂

Happy Sunday

Reheated Wendy’s fries were better than I expected (yesterday was free fries with purchase day, so I got extras). Paired with a salad of course so my lunch isn’t an entire nutritional bust.

You might be thinking, "CPSC, does a dry Christmas tree really burn that much faster than a well-watered tree?" Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.

Been cleaning out my freezer to eat all my pre-cooked meals, use up all the little odds and ends of frozen veggies, and go through my frozen bread. My skillet of beans plus freezer items (tomatoes, what turned out to be sweet potato puree, and onions) turned out pretty darned good

I just released my 10th proposal to org since September. I am exhausted. (PI on 4, but wrote big parts of 6 of the 10; contributed to the other 4 on prior submitted versions & just helped with some updates this time). I hate this funding environment....

I cannot express how much I loathe the iPoster software that @aas.org insists on using. I have *never* had a non-infuriating time putting an iPoster together. Today's stupidity: apparently you can't put three figures in one box on these posters? (they would fit fine on display!)

If I owe you an email just know that it‘s 2025. Have a great decade!

Attendance at US-based science conferences is bouncing around this year but generally down. #AGU25 has ~10k fewer this year! I explored these trends for @nature.com — including solutions to keep conferences local & productive: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

For @newscientist.com subscribers--which includes library users who access content online!--here is my Christmas 2025 column! "As a cosmologist who knows she isn’t an expert on comets, I believe all of the experts who say that, without a doubt, comet 3I/Atlas isn’t an alien object." 🔭🧪🙏🏽👀

Just decline the peer review invitation. What are you people even doing?

Got a photo of the pipe that caused the (lack of) water drainage from the house this past weekend. That’s a good sized hole! No wonder the rocks they saw inside the pipe with the camera yesterday were so big looking

Wow. Grants might now be rejected/accepted based on a single outside review and no panel

If the whole point is to have political appointees pick and choose the award winners in a patronage system this is what you would do.

Doesn’t matter that it’s only 7pm. Gus says it’s bedtime (and says it loudly). So I guess it’s bedtime.

Ran out of eggnog, so made up a half gallon this time. That should hold me for a little while at least 😂

Wooo it's up! New paper alert! I will write a summary thread about this paper tomorrow morning when I'm not quite as mentally exhausted! "An Orbital House of Cards: Frequent Megaconstellation Close Conjunctions" by Thiele, Heiland, Boley, & Lawler https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09643 Not […]

did anyone go to the nasa planetary research webinar yesterday? I missed it and can't find any posts about it. Wondering if they actually usefully answered any of the questions that were upvoted beforehand

Using up my leftover cream cheese in my sweet potato and black bean enchilada casserole (itself a result of leftover enchilada sauce). Shall see how that pans out.

Gotta love a work email with the subject “rat necropsy results” 😂😂 other than a few carpet squares that need replacing, our rodent drama is officially over (but seriously I do appreciate that my workplace had the rodent tested to be sure it wasn’t carrying anything bad)

Finn outdid himself this morning. This is the dirtiest I’ve ever seen him 😂

I can’t be mad that she’s blocking so much of the bed when she’s so adorable and comfy

me dressed up and exercising at the airport before my 8 hour flight

The good (chocolate) mini moon pies keep being out of stock at the store. But I am a sucker for purchasing the other flavors I haven’t tried even though I never like them 😂. Bets on how bad these are? (Gonna try one after dinner)

The hard plastic part of my iPad case chipped like 4 months ago and I kept forgetting to order a replacement. Finally remembered and $10 later my 5 year old iPad is looking shiny and new! (Old beat up case underneath was once identical to the new one)

Tis the season for eggnog!

I don’t *love* my wreath, but every year when I price buying a new one (before or after the holiday sales) I decide I like my 5-year old $15 wreath just fine compared to the $50-70 replacements 😂. Though I just scored a cute fall wreath for $3.50 so maybe there’s hope for the post-Christmas sales

Happy Sunday! Going to have to do a freezer restock over the holidays. Only have one more set of pancakes in the freezer

The blueberries I bought earlier in the week were pretty subpar. The solution for that is always cobbler

I spent a frankly absurd amount of money buying this embroidered duvet cover when I was a teenager (at least $200 and that was ~25 years ago), but damn if I don’t love it still every time I pull it out. Also reminds me how much higher quality bedding was back then.

Arizona health department says it's far too risky to stop automatically immunizing newborns, despite a CDC panel's new recommendation.

For those who will be attending, please think very hard about what you intend to do if you encounter people getting detained. I'm not advocating for any particular action, but the best time to consider how you want to respond is before you're in the moment.

well then, Netflix's promise that it will keep your account for 24 months after you cancel is a lie. I took a break and they deleted my account. Was considering restarting for a month over the holidays, but guess that makes my decision easy not to

I am being denied snuggles. Even though I turned the heated blanket on just to lure someone in

We are dealing with a rodent incursion at work, so I set up my game camera. Here’s the little shit who ate my nice plant and has been tearing up carpeting around the building

I was too tired yesterday for a nice Sunday breakfast. So it’s a Monday breakfast this week

Holiday decorating achieved. (With the cats, the best I can do is my tiny tree on top of the coat rack 😂)

I was hungry and haven’t gone to the store yet, so made a meatball pasta bake! (Frozen meatballs, jarred sauce, pasta, and cheese which I always have in the fridge!)

The bulk of the digitizing is going to have to wait until Christmas break, but gotta inspect the haul!

Flying home hopefully in time to miss the 4 inches of snow in Toledo/detroit. My *entire* carry on suitcase is filled with every vhs tape left from my childhood to digitize. Was fun to watch the <30 year old TSA screener try to puzzle through what he was seeing 😂 (not sure he figured it out)

The Black Friday deal I’m here for: 30% off the dewormer pills for my outside kitties 😹😹 (most of the “deals” in my inbox are made up, but getting those suckers at <$4 per dose is pretty decent)

Ugh. There’s a reason I moved away. I’m not built for this anymore (the house temperature has been turned up for me and I just piled like 4 extra blankets on my bed 😂)

Interesting. Apparently Ohio has passed laws that mean I can access my DMs unless I verify I’m an adult. I don’t want to deal with that bullshit, so if you DM me, I won’t see it for a while

I can already tell that next Monday me is going to hate current me for how many emails I’ve snoozed to deal with the ….

Hi #planetaryScience folks, we have an open position for a *Professor in Planetary Sciences* at the Space Research & Planetary Sciences Division of the @unibe.ch. Application deadline: *Jan 31, 2026* Full ad: ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo... Reach out to me if you have any questions! 🧵 1/5

Desert Christmas party in my kiln. 🌵