Stop throwing away perfectly good food! Let’s talk about “expiration dates” on food. Note the quotes. There is no such thing as an expiration date on food!! A little history. I worked at the Oregon Food Bank for several years, where I was responsible for food safety at over 1000 emergency food distribution sites. …

Move out that clutter — Most of us have clutter EVERYWHERE. How did we get to this place? So overwhelmed with junk that it’s hard to even begin to throw it away. Well, modern culture. But worrying about cause doesn’t help us overcome the anxiety. (Think about that when you have enough room to sit…

I’m drowning! Picture this: I’m hunched over my laptop in that trying time between dinner and bed when it seems as though you should be able to get something done but you are far too tired and brain-dead to accomplish anything. I’m trying to book plane tickets. Which is already weirdly stressful…

What might have been might have been worse. A long time ago I got a divorce. It was traumatic, naturally. It was messy and upsetting for everyone. And for years afterwards, I was haunted by this thing that had occurred long before there was a house, or kids, or any kind of legal contract. I was standing at…

The hits just keep coming. — I’m a parent, so obviously I’ve made a bunch of mistakes with my kids. There’s no getting around it. Sometimes I realize as soon as words have left my mouth that they were misbegotten. Too bad there’s no recall on stupid verbal communications… But at other times I have an…

Using intuition and letting my tired brain take a rest. — In January I encountered the weirdest car problem ever. It didn’t help that I was still dripping wet from an interrupted shower when I raced out to move my car so my kid could drive her car to work. I reversed out of the driveway, hit the clutch and shifted…

Curating your lifetime collection. — My mother was a docent for many years. Which made her a terrific museum companion, except that woman had STAMINA when it came to viewing art. I’d be limping 10 paces behind begging for another espresso while she called over her shoulder that there was just one more exhibit we…

Don’t let the past haunt you — Clothing! Necessities we’ve turned into an obsession. Seems like a lot of trouble, but you can’t wander around naked, am I right? Humans are all about signifying — our intentions, our moods, our status. Clothing is a quick and easy way to identify who we are, what we do, where…

How I tried to become an expert in epidemiology in three short days — A friend of mine wrote a blog post. And then posted about it on Instagram. I followed the link, opened it up, and wow, Pandora really set this one up for me. Some of what I read just seemed wrong. There were numbers, and to be honest, they’re not generally…