Category Archives: jay

Getting Onion Smells Out of a Wooden Cutting Board

Or garlic smells…. My sister just refinished this beautiful red maple cutting board for me out of a chunk of the countertop of my old house. The story behind those counter tops is interesting: they’re the old beds from the county jail. They had to get rid of them because folks who were drunk wereContinue reading “Getting Onion Smells Out of a Wooden Cutting Board”

Storing Christmas Decorations

Since Epiphany is tomorrow (the 12th day of Christmas) and my city’s tree-cycling program ends this weekend, it’s time to de-decorate. Honestly, it’s fine: as much as I love Christmas, I recognize that its ability to thrill me every year stems in part from the fact that it’s a limited engagement. Also, while I neverContinue reading “Storing Christmas Decorations”

Unauthorized Uses: Wine Corks

After I hosted 11 people for Thanksgiving, several of them serious wine enthusiasts, I ended up with a lot of corks. I rubbed my hands together in glee. There’s nothing I like better than a wine cork for multi-purpose Rigging of Things. I already mentioned corks in a previous post, but wine corks’ size makesContinue reading “Unauthorized Uses: Wine Corks”

Letter of Recommendation: Christmas Pyramids

I think I’ve already established that I’m pro-Christmas. I have a pretty elaborate decorating scheme this year that I’ll share once it’s all set up, but for now I wanted to put on your holiday radar an old favorite that I’ve recently rediscovered: German Christmas pyramids. They’re called pyramids because the most famous of themContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Christmas Pyramids”

Letter of Recommendation? Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I may have been Neil Diamond’s youngest fan. “Song Sung Blue” was my favorite commuting song when we drove to Pre-K at Sunset Mesa when I was 5. And I’m pretty sure it was a combination of Neil Diamond’s soundtrack, seagulls, and the name Jonathan that got me into Jonathan Livingston Seagull. From there itContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation? Jonathan Livingston Seagull”

Letter of Recommendation: Eighth Generation

Tomorrow’s my 50th birthday, and my family got me a really beautiful gift: a blanket designed by Louie Gong (Coast Salish, Nooksack) from Eighth Generation, an American Indian artist collective that’s looking to counter the wave of “native-inspired” designs that appropriate tribal cultural heritage and capitalize it such that the profits never find their wayContinue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Eighth Generation”

Letter of Recommendation: Pandemic (the board game)

Before you jump to the wrong conclusion: I did not start playing this board game during the COVID-19 pandemic. I actually started playing the game series in 2017. There are 4 games so far in the series: Pandemic, Pandemic: Legacy (Season One), Pandemic: Legacy (Season Two), and Pandemic: Legacy (Season Zero), in order of release.Continue reading “Letter of Recommendation: Pandemic (the board game)”

Unauthorized Uses: Disaster Engineering

I don’t set out to create chaos. I’m actually the sort of person who dislikes chaos. And yet…. As I mentioned in my kintsugi post, I have a wide, wild streak of impatience in my personality that leads to disaster whether I like it or not (and I don’t). I do try. I have tried,Continue reading “Unauthorized Uses: Disaster Engineering”