Allison Portnow Lathrop

Xmas movie marathon of my friends’ favorites begins with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Amanda B’s favorite. 🌲 💡

Me: be really quiet while I thread this needle

8yo: silently does the OA dance

I made it to 43. 👀🎉

I have learned through whatever October was and No* School November that most non-nature kids shows are just yelling. Whether we’re happy or sad. Yelling.

*Election Day, Veteran’s Day, week for Thanksgiving

Watching “Nightmare Before Christmas” for movie night and the #DiesIrae for “Making Christmas” is stressing me out. Weirdly the 8yo said it was scary at this exact moment. Does he know??

Am I healed? I don’t know. I just lost my glasses on my head.

Two sneaker tops peaking out of a hospital blanket making, together, the most perfect face I never could have sculpted on purpose.

Bright aqua and dark green capsule pills in the palm of my hand.

Had a brief (ha) midweek trip to the ER this week, but on a plus side I took these two pictures.

I specifically asked the phone to say coaches, not couches.

Idea: wrist play couches with kid plays (if they do this, then you try that). 🏈 One wrist per kid.

Now I have to go to bed and I miss the main character so much.

Fixing new glasses, seeing new ophthalmologist, new chemo (wow living it up) which might fix other things. Watching GBBO with friends on discord in 13 minutes!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for The Correspondent. Happen to be a sucker for an epistolary novel anyway, but even better than I hoped.

OTOH my mom proudly typed her own thesis (and like many women of her generation had typing class in case she became a secretary) and she now henpecks on the keyboard today. 🤷‍♀️

Yup. Ours are taking standardized tests on computers years before [they will] get instruction on operating a computer and typing.

This morning I said, we’ll at least have almost two full months til Thanksgiving with how late it is. 🦃

Photo of my 8 and 6yos dressed as a bright green gecko and teal axolotl for Halloween.

Happy Halloween. The gecko and axolotl costume shop is CLOSED.

Missing an axolotl arm but otherwise good to go! 🎃

Trash heap is not happening (this year?? All-knowing Trash Heap willing??) — turns out it’s hard to make a trash heap costume while your life is kind of a mess. The great irony!

Bonus: it spiralizes too!

Photo of my bumpy orange pumpkin next to a cordless drill and lots of spirals of pumpkin.

My pumpkin was too tough to carve so I used the next best tool: a power drill. 🎃

Wait

THIS is an interesting data point

Change one letter, ruin a candy

Knickers

tangy braised chickpeas “Brisket”-braised chickpeas — that is, with all of the flavors of my favorite meaty braise — with not a speck of brisket involved. This vegan dish is a perfect cozy and hear…

Normal people: please make this. smittenkitchen.com/2020/09/tang...

True life: I started cooking before we found the second and last can (it took two adults and one child to find it).

Screenshot of NYT Cooking The Veggie newsletter reading; “So You Have 12 Cans of Chickpeas. Now What? Chickpea anxiety is real. We can help.”

It’s all fun and games until you’re using the last two cans of chickpeas in your whole house.

What kind of things should I glue onto myself? Leaves? 🍂 Drawn-on-felt fruits?

😂 I can’t comment publicly

Yelling at my spouse for not getting an engineering degree in Halloween costume design. 👌

Woah, seems like he had very specific people in mind. Happen to think I learned from a truly gifted individual that taught me more about musicology than any seminar did. (💐💐💐 Brent Wissick)

The Rach Too concert