Among my many, many complaints about February is that I’m so tired of wearing winter clothes. I’m done with hoodies and jeans. Please, I just need a cute little sundress or something. For my mental health.

Oh! Kind of a weird thing — so, Simons has this line of hoodies and sweatshirts called Destination bc they show popular travel destinations. I look at them every time a new set come out because I like seeing what places they’ve chosen (a fav example from this year was that they made a Shediac top).

Great episode of 99% Invisible this week about dental tourism in Mexico. Absolutely baffling to hear an American man describe himself as a “dyed-in-the-wool capitalist” who opposes socialized medicine but also can’t afford dental/medical care and thinks costs should be lower. Cognitive dissonance.

15yo: I’ve heard that liking pineapple on pizza is a sign of a weak bloodline Me: Hawaiian pizza is Canadian, actually! It was invented in Chatham, Ontario. 15yo: … and what other heresies happen in Chatham? Is there a satanic temple where they leave pizza offerings?

Being in a book club turns me into the nitpickiest reader. Even when I overall think the book is fine! Anyway, hope everyone is ready to hear my list of minor complaints about Everything is Tuberculosis, starting with “modern scholars think Charlotte Brontë probably died of hyperemesis gravidarum”

15yo, entering my room: good evening, Comrade Mother

Looked up the origins of the figure skating death spiral the other day and learned that it was created by a German figure skater named Charlotte Oelschlägel who was mostly active in the 1920s and 30s. She got stuck in Germany during WWII but refused to skate for the Nazis. An unproblematic queen.

When I was a kid, I would always be so pumped to see the cross on my forehead after Ash Wednesday Mass, and it would always be a sad grey smudge. Yet every year I would have fresh hope. Really a Charlie Brown football type situation.

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

I’m at the Mardi Gras. I’m at Lunar New Year. I’m at the combination Mardi Gras-Lunar New Year.

Hell yeah. (We weren’t the only ones there excited to experience Line 5 for the first time - you can see the woman in front of me was filming the train’s arrival too.)

I’m in Toronto and my Family Day plans are to ride Line 5 with two high school friends (and fellow transit/infrastructure enthusiasts) all the way to Kennedy and then back again.

An exciting thrift store score, even if it goes against my personal World Cup allegiances

This video of lion dance as line dance is delightful (from Edmonton, of course). Happy (almost) Lunar New Year!

The billionaire family that owns the only currently open bridge between Detroit and Windsor has been trying to rope Trump into their smear campaign against the new Gordie Howe bridge for YEARS. Interesting that he has finally taken the bait! Anyway, @99pi.org did a great episode about it last year.

15yo has beef with the Eglinton Crosstown (line 5) because they stole the number 5 from our old bus route, which was forced to become the 13 Avenue Road

I slipped on the top step and slid halfway down our staircase earlier today. It feels like my fault because something similar happened a few years ago and I still haven’t put a runner or whatever on our stairs. Anyway, I have a real beauty of a bruise starting on my thigh.

This feels a bit silly, but do you ever go through a time in your life where there’s a lot of transition happening and it’s not necessarily bad (in fact, much of it is even good) but you’re not good with change and your nervous system is kinda fried and it all feels just AWFUL? Anyway, lol.

15yo’s friend, a self-described dog person, as our elderly Grand Duchess of a cat takes a shine to him and rubs against his head: “I feel a … vibrating? She’s vibrating on me? Is that normal?”

Still think and laughing about this a week later. Especially since my kid only attends Mass under extreme reluctance these days. Oh, you go to someone else’s house and suddenly you identify as Catholic?? Hmmm interesting. (Thank you, Grace, for graciously putting up with T)

15yo, eating a sausage mcmuffin and hash brown: It feels very traditional to be eating sausage, bread, and potatoes for breakfast. I’m like a medieval peasant.

The notorious "Irish episode" of Stargate is rarely broadcast #Olympics #OpeningCeremony

I think my favourite winter Olympic sport is the bobsleigh, because I like watching that silly little death sled hurtle down the track with only the top half of the helmets peeking out

Happy Candlemas/Imbolc/Groundhog Day/whatever you celebrate. The important thing is that we are now halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. We’re getting there!!!

You know that moment near the beginning of Home Alone where the mom is trying to get Kevin to go upstairs and he says he hopes he never sees her again for the rest of his life? And Catherine O’Hara’s face hardly changes but somehow communicates just how heartbroken she is? Anyway, she was a genius.

Good - and I cannot stress this enough - night

I grew up in a family where, if we didn’t have cash money for something, we just didn’t do it. Anyway, all of that is to say that it kinda blows my mind to learn how many people carry consumed debt from things like “we wanted to take a big family trip and this was the only way we could swing it!”

Are you ever consumed by thoughts about how everything that you touch has gross germs all over it to the point where you struggle to function in public? No? Just me? Anyway, things are fine haha. Very cool, very normal.

I was in Toronto this weekend and had to catch an early morning train back to Kingston. The subway doesn’t start running until 8 am on Sundays, so I had to take a cab to the station. I ordered it through the Beck Taxi app, so I could see the driver get close to my intersection before driving away.

15yo: you know how the Battle of Agincourt was fought on St. Crispin’s Day? Me: No, I don’t know that. 15yo: Oh. Well, anyway…

13th day of school since returning from the Christmas break, 6th time the school buses have been cancelled due to a winter storm. Also, wtf is this.

Grateful to be interviewed by Canadian journalist Anne Thériault for “Why today’s spiritual seekers are reviving ancient practices,” for Broadview. A joy to talk of Benedict of Nursia and more! Thank you, Anne! @annetheriault.bsky.social broadview.org/modern-mysti...

Just booked 15yo’s first solo train trip to visit a friend in Montreal (a responsible grownup will be sending him off and meeting him at the respective train stations), and I’m suddenly crying because how is my baby old enough to be going on solo train trips??

Under "report account" you can select "violence" and "human trafficking." Just fyi while you're over there blocking.

🎶 Mon cher Théo, c’est à ton tour De te laisser parler d’amour Mon cher Théo, c’est à ton tour De te laisser parler d’amour 🎶 My kid is camping with Scouts this weekend, but he’s officially 15yo now. The days are long, but the years are short (and seem to grow shorter and shorter as they go by)

Just divide by zero who gives a shit anymore

Speaking of Spanish things, this book combination is just [Italian chef’s kiss]. Like a fine wine paired with the most perfect cheese:

Three months ago we were staying at the most heavenly aparthotel in Granada and I took this video of the birds in the bulding’s courtyard singing at dawn. I watch it whenever the weather feels unbearably cold and miserable. Wish I was back there drinking an Alhambra Especial on a sunny patio.

Not to brag, but I have the kind of eczema that makes my hands look like raw hamburger meat 💅

“Why one small American town won’t stop stoning its residents to death,” an AO3 fic in which Isaac Chotiner interviews the guy who runs the lottery in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, is astounding. archiveofourown.org/works/73396436

Some people own stocks. I own a collection of travel and sample size expensive skincare products and perfumes that I got from Sephora for free. This is my retirement fund.

Just came out of my bedroom and for some reason all of the cats are lined up in the hallway waiting for me

I borrowed one of 14yo’s hoodies earlier this week and received many compliments on it. Pros: - nice to get compliments - cool that we can now share hoodies - I bought it for him, so obviously have exquisite taste Cons: - no one ever compliments me on the hoodies that are mine alone :(

I saw someone refer to Jacob Tierney as Canada’s Shonda Rhimes, and, while a bit premature, it did feel correct

Happy three kings day from the mother of the front legs of this life-sized camel puppet

14yo has been dying for a flat cap all year, so my mom brought one back for him from Ireland as a Christmas present. He wore it to school yesterday and apparently everyone liked it and said he looked like “a Peaky Blinder or a Newsy”. It’s nice to know that I have given birth to a Character.

Playing the long game: I had a kid so that fourteen years later I could send him videos like this (Now thinking about the time he gave a school presentation about William the Conqueror and was mad that, because it was a francophone school, he had to refer to him as Guillaume le Conquérant)

Genuinely can’t believe he’s going to be fifteen years old in two weeks. This was him explaining a plot point that he feels sceptical about from the book he’s currently reading.

14yo, as we’re leaving the theatre after seeing Marty Supreme: “Wait, was that the guy from Shark Tank?”

I know I’ve been posting a lot of churchy stuff this year. It’s been a really crummy year (with some highlights), and I’ve been going to mass more often. Sometimes my main motivator is that I feel so off my rocker and don’t want to be alone, but also don’t want to have to interact with anyone.