*For anyone interested in upgrading their subscription…I’m offering 25% off annual subscriptions through the end of August in celebration of SIDEBAR’s return to form. Redeem that offer here if you’re so inclined!*

But enough on that…

1. As mentioned last week, Sam took part in a 24-hour theatre festival this past weekend. The audience was so alive! This is rare, I find, in most plays I attend. I think there was a lot of excitement for the inherently special nature of what we were about to witness given each play was written & staged within 24 hours. It was refreshingly unserious. Sam did an excellent job directing, and if I may say so myself, I did an excellent job of dropping off homemade cookies for his cast before showtime. Baby also did an excellent job sleeping in the car with my mother-in-law while I popped in to see Sam’s play. It takes a village!

2. I’m just loving the dishwasher magnet we got from this Etsy shop. We really cracked down on dish management the past few months after our daughter was born — it’s a tight ship around here now — and this little magnet delights me.

   

3. It feels like every other time I write these posts I’m writing about a major appliance breaking and needing replaced. Okay fine, this is only the third time, but it’s the third time in less than a year and I am tired. To be fair, we inherited all of our appliances from the previous owner of our house and had no clue how old they were, so who’s to say. Maybe they lived a long life. Just not with us. Anyway. Our dryer is a goner. This is a tragic tale when you have a baby. The door busted open in the middle of a cycle to reveal part of the lint catcher had melted and was sticking up in a weird pointy way, having caught a few pieces of clothing resulting in one ginormous knot of every item in the dryer. Honestly it was impressive, but it did ruin a good few pieces of clothing, and was a personal insult to me to untie. Adding this incident with the broken lint catcher to a dryer that has made constant, unnervingly loud sounds and is very bad at drying things, it is time for a new one. These are the hardest purchases to make — every review is part of some paid promotion and I feel like everything is a lie! If you have a dryer you love (that does not need an app) please drop the deets in the comments.

Below the paywall: the wild animals taking over our yard, the 2014 show that is my personal Roman empire, my favorite recipe I’ve made in months, the parting words from the woman who used to own our house and more…

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There are so many things from my maternity leave I want to share, but nearly all of them are heavily baby-adjacent, so I think I may do a few dedicated posts on all of that business for those interested in the future. Just an FYI.

Also! Paid subscriptions are officially turned back on, so those of you who so kindly support SIDEBAR that way, your subscription will pick up where it left off.

*And for anyone yet to subscribe annually, you’re in luck — I’m offering 25% off annual subscriptions through the end of August in celebration of SIDEBAR’s return to form. Redeem that offer here if you’re so inclined!*

Without further ado…the return of Weekly Bits!

1. I can’t begin without confessing my current obsession with Baldur’s Gate 3, which is consuming most of my thoughts most of the time. I bought it back when it released in 2023, played the first act and somehow didn’t pick it up again until recently when I had time to fill while wearing my baby for her naps and bouncing endlessly on a medicine ball. My god is it excellent. For those not familiar, it’s a Dungeons & Dragons adventure with every bell and whistle — the stories are superb, the UI is fantastic and it scratches so many itches I get when I’m not playing DnD in real life. If you’re into fantasy and video games even remotely, and you also missed the boat back when it released, you’re in for such a treat. I’m about halfway through Act 3 now and jonesing for drama of the inevitable finale. Top romance choices are of course Shadowheart (duh), and this time around I’ve put all my chips on Gale which has been unexpectedly satisfying.

   

2. I’ve officially christened my Hunza G swimsuit in both pregnancy and as a new mom and I am a huge fan. They’re famously one-size-fits-all, super stretchy high-quality fabric one pieces and I might have to say they’re worth the money. I love that it fit throughout my pregnancy & currently through my postpartum, and is much more family-friendly than my drawer full of bikinis. I see it lasting years through swim lessons, family pool days, future pregnancies/size fluctuations, vacations, etc. and still looking super chic. I have one of the standard cuts and feel like in certain settings I want a little more coverage — I just throw on a pair of shorts or a wrap — but they have a higher coverage cut that could accommodate more modest desires. I couldn’t find the exact one I have, but it’s basically this one but with tortoiseshell rings connecting the straps to the body. Also worth noting I found it on sale, which helped a lot with the price tag. Also also worth noting, this sounds like an ad but it is not, lol. Not even an affiliate link.

3. Loved this article by director Clara Aranovich on Hollywood losing its roots as a generational industry town, featuring a story about our beloved Nancy Drew script supervisor Hannah Balgord. Clara was one of my favorite episodic directors to grace our set back in season 3 of Nancy Drew — she directed episode 304 — and captures a particular part of our industry collapse perfectly here.

Inside the paywall, a Nancy Drew deck of cards, my new favorite home purchase, the album on repeat in my car and more…

*medical drama, extraordinary pain

I’ll spare you too many details, because to talk too much about babies when the having of babies may be entirely irrelevant to your reader is a tricky balance, but it’s been wonderful to have her here. She is so cool and special and I have only gratitude.

Another wonderful upside to giving birth is that it feels like my brain and spirit are back, and I hadn’t even realized how far away they’d gone while I was pregnant. I had lost a lot of ambition. I felt distanced from the things I loved and the life I knew to be mine, in some sort of hazy soft-focus of only what was to come. I remember saying (and feeling!) that I never really cared if I acted again, that that chapter was likely behind me only to resurface in another ten years, maybe, if it really called to me. That temporary, hormonally-charged conclusion was definitely influenced by how bleak the past two years in the industry have been, but it was real outside of that, too, for many months. What a delightful relief to give birth and return to myself, just as I was before with all of my same dreams and desires, this time with an even fuller cup and my daughter to come along for the ride.

My maternity leave has been stop and go — 8 weeks in I was offered a short acting job I felt compelled to take, and am very glad I did. My mom and daughter and I flew across the country together, and albeit losing my 500+ day Duolingo streak due to the time change, we survived. Maybe even thrived towards the end. We celebrated my first Mother’s Day together and I learned that I could basically do anything (with help — a lot of help!).

You hear a lot as an expectant mother that your identity will need to be found again, reclaimed from the bottom of some strange whirlpool years after birth, and I don’t want to negate anyone’s experience but it hasn’t been mine. The job helped, but mostly I think having lived a nice slice of life ahead of time did a lot for fortifying “who I am” and I kinda feel more like myself, if anything. Maybe it’s because being a caregiver is a role I’ve filled a few times over already, albeit for animals, and you may fight me, but puppies are harder than babies.*

*my baby, anyway, and I’m sure if I have another one, I will come to regret this statement. But you don’t have to teach a baby everything they need to know when they’re still babies!!! They can’t move and they don’t have teeth!!! This all changes with toddlerhood, however, and I can only imagine. I digress.

Outside from our adventure, my maternity leave the past five months has been mostly joyous and sometimes very hard but ultimately one of the most natural experiences of my life. I feel part of something bigger. I know my place in the world better. There’s a security in that I have craved for a long time. It’s very good, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

x

I’m so happy to be back here with you all — I’m not exactly sure what the rhythm of things will be just yet, but consider me “back.” I’ll also say that it will be impossible for me to continue talking about my life and experiences without mentioning motherhood to some degree…I also totally respect that it’s not a topic everyone is interested in. Know that I am striving for a balance that feels authentic, and if you have anything in particular you want to see from me here, drop a comment down below. xo

If you missed it, I’ve had two projects come out in the past two months — an indie rom-com Love on Tap and horror anthology The Terror: Devil in Silver.

I had to pop in from maternity leave to share that my new movie ‘Love on Tap’ just released today.

You can stream it here at any of these links:

https://linktr.ee/loveontapmovie?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=0a753bb7-84e2-4382-97b5-5eabf05a49ce

It’s a lovely little indie romcom with a lot of heart and (hopefully) a lot of laughs. We’d love your support if it’s your kinda thing. If things go well with this first release, we’re hoping the movie will sell to a streaming service & find more viewers!

Thank you so much for your support.

Also….I MISS YOU!!!! I already have a post or two in my drafts for when I’m officially back post-baby, which will hopefully be within the next few weeks. I can’t wait to be back with you all.

xoxoxoxox

This is a chatty one — pop on for a crafting or chores session & let’s spend a litt…

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Basically if you’re a paid subscriber, whether month to month or with an annual subscription, not to fret — your subscription will be paused right where it is to be resumed when you’re getting regular content again so you’re not paying for any time while I’m not posting. For example, if you’re 4 months into a yearly subscription, you’ll still have 8 months left once I’m back (or 2 weeks into a monthly sub, you’ll have 2 weeks left). You don’t have to do anything on your end, it’ll all be controlled through me, so you’re set! Please feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions or concerns. xo

Now that that’s cleared up…it’s been a lovely week! We’ve sorted out our final must-do’s before baby arrives, so in case I go into labor as I write this, we’d be prepared enough. I still have a nursery full of stuff not quite unboxed — baby headquarters will be in our bedroom for a good few months, which is thankfully set and ready to go — and I’d like to do some good ole fashioned freezer meal prep so we’re not wasting precious energy cooking & cleaning once baby is here…but otherwise, we’re ready and really, really excited.

I’ve got some solid recommendations from the week in a variety of arenas ahead, so buckle up!

1. I knew this podcast episode had to be the first thing I mentioned this week from the moment I finished listening to it…you must listen to the episode “Stanford Professors: One Tool That Makes Every Life Decision Easier” from The Liz Moody Podcast. The title doesn’t really do it justice in my opinion, because my most significant takeaway was maybe five different life-changing mindset adjustments that will and have already absolutely improved my happiness and fulfillment. I do think they cover great stuff about making hard decisions in life, etc., but more than anything, it’s a beautiful, permission-giving nudge towards joy and gratitude with just a subtle mindset tweak or two. The personal anecdotes from the two guests really hit home, and I already look forward to listening to it again.

2. I’ve long been someone who’s wanted to knit, and knit well. I loosely taught myself maybe three years ago, along with some help from one of our Nancy Drew on-set wardrobe supervisors (shoutout), but got too frustrated and afraid to fail that I threw in the towel. The knitting urge has crept back in (also for crochet, which I definitely need to choose a lane for now, but I’ll probably circle back to) and I’ve officially started my first project after some practice. I stumbled upon The Long Weekend on TikTok at some point in the past, and I love her style — turns out she just released a free, super beginner-friendly winter scarf pattern I’ve chosen to tackle! I’ve just begun but it’s going well…I think…and I must accept it won’t be perfect in order for me to actually learn anything, lol.

   

3. The indie rom-com I shot back in 2024, Love on Tap (formerly Brewmance), is having a fun little theatrical run in select theatres in the US around Valentine’s Day! It’s hoping to find a home with a great streamer in the coming months, but if you’re in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Houston, Santa Fe, Mason City or Las Cruces you can get tickets here! I haven’t seen the finished product myself — and will be far too pregnant if not already a mother by the time it premieres to attend — but I had the most wonderful time shooting it & the team behind it is just awesome. If you do get a chance to go, I’d love to hear from you!! Trailer below:

Below the paywall, our new favorite Netflix show, the perfect rib recipe, facial massage, wisdom from Grandma and more…

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On the personal front, I’ve been trying to keep things very chill…quite literally all I can do as my pregnancy comes to a close, whether that be in one week or four (or god forbid, six), to keep myself and baby in a happy, healthy place for a safe arrival into the world. I’m teetering between I-can’t-wait-any-longer to oh-my-god-wait-it’s-really-happening-gimme-a-second. I am hoping for enough time to finish my ever-increasing to-do list, but Sam and I are both pretty pumped for baby to arrive sooner rather than later. Wild times! I don’t remember if I found it desperately boring to hear about pregnancy before I was experiencing it, but it’s really hard not to talk about it constantly since it’s quite literally the only thing on my mind at this point. So…sorry! If you hate it. I consider this a sort of journal, certainly a personal blog reflective of whatever stage I’m in, and well, there’s one big headline these days.

That being said, the bits below have all sorts of non-baby things within, I promise!

1. I’d like to begin with a dream-come-true moment this week: acquiring a label maker. I’ve dreamed of being a label maker girl for years. Something about having my shit together so much that I can have consistent labels throughout my home sparks a great sense of pride within me. As I’ve mostly spent the past weeks obsessively organizing and deep cleaning, adding labels sent me to nirvana. Highly recommend one that embosses, for the ideal vibes and ease-of-use. This is the one I got.

2. I’m thrilled as always to have Love Island UK back in my life, and this time it’s All Stars: Season 3. We’re 14 episodes in and I’ve gotta say, it's been a bit of a tough start but it’s heating up. I feel like it’s too heavy on the must-report-all-actions-to-anyone-I’ve-remotely-flirted-with “respectful” gameplay (live a little, people), but the women especially make for a solid cast I’m pretty invested in. I just love having an episode every day for my little snack in bed, what can I say? Feed me Love Island forever.

3. It’s been a big week for chocolate in our house. Sam and his folks went out on a little adventure a few towns over last weekend and returned with some locally-made Dubai chocolate, which neither of us have ever actually tried and it was simply fabulous. I would eat that every day. I still think about it. And then, of course, it’s Girl Scout cookie season. Or at least it is here, anyway. I don’t know the rules. But the Girl Scouts were selling at our local grocery store and it was like the heavens opened up before me. As I was waiting in line, I asked the young girl scout screaming “COOKIES FOR SALE” which cookie was her favorite so I could pick that one, and to my dismay, she walked over and pointed to the Thin Mints. Look, I know people love Thin Mints, and I’m not trying to be a hater. They have a delightful texture, I’m just not a mint chocolate girl. And in my mind, when there are Tagalongs, what are you doing picking Thin Mints? Silly girl. So I got my two boxes of Tagalongs, my two boxes of Samoas, and my obligatory box of Thin Mints because who am I to disappoint her. Let’s just say 4 out of 5 boxes are gone, and there’s but one still sitting in the cupboard:

Below the paywall, a must-see TikTok, kitchen hacks, many baby clothes & more…

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Sorry, trying to march on, but cannot concentrate over the exceedingly loud re-roofing happening at my neighbor’s house every single day for much longer than anticipated. This of course is not a wrongdoing, but everything is very annoying at almost nine months pregnant and let’s say I’d love it to stop.

Ahem.

1. What can I say except that Leonard, at some unknown point, feasted on at least four pairs of my brand new underwear in one sitting this week. This is particularly distressing because we go far out of our way to completely deny him access to said contraband, and yet here we are. It all started when we arrived home after a long day out (more on that ahead) to find two pairs of underwear strewn about in a far-reaching pile of dog puke in the middle of our master bedroom. Had we left the closet open while we were gone? Was some sitting around? No, in fact, not at all. When he feasted, we will never know. He’d been known to sneak a pair when he was a much younger puppy, as well as recently in his current rebellious adolescence, but never two at once. Good grief! We were relieved he got them out of his system, but also they were brand new and I was not thrilled. At least it was only two of them, I thought to myself. Except the next day he pooped out another pair. Brutal. Three! We couldn’t believe it. And then, two days later, another pair puked out on the stairs. Good god, man. And we know for a fact he didn’t get any new pairs after the first puke fiasco — hyper-vigilance unlocked — so somehow, some way, his body stored all of them up to be released in a slow, painful tirade. Who’s to say it will ever truly end?

2. Last weekend we attended an 8-hour birthing & newborn care class at the hospital I’ll be delivering at, and boy was it odd to be back in a classroom. There was something so novel about taking a class in-person as an adult, with a bunch of other adults, taking notes from a powerpoint, having scheduled bathroom breaks…also a unique opportunity to be in a room with like, ten couples who are all going to have a baby at the same time as you. We took a tour of the facilities, and found them to be quite fancy — I feel like me and Sam’s first apartment was smaller than the delivery suites, lol. Anyway, pretty wild to picture ourselves there in just a few weeks, welcoming our baby into the world! Currently more excited than nervous, and hoping to keep it that way.

3. I discovered the nontoxic cleaning brand Rosey this week, which I’m quite excited by…they’re the in-house brand with Thrive Market, so pretty sure you can only get it there, but I’ve loved Thrive Market for going on 10 years & it’s always been worth the yearly membership fee (zero affiliation, I just really love them). I do some DIY cleaning products, mostly using vinegar, but there are a few other categories I stocked up on so everything is as easy as possible once baby’s here. I’ve previously hated store-bought nontoxic cleaning products, mostly because they’re really expensive and also because they don’t work particularly well, so my fingers are crossed these get a rave review due to the incredibly low prices & great EWG scores…I haven’t tried most of them yet, but the reviews are really good, and I’ve been a lover of their powdered laundry detergent for a long time. Will report back!

   

Below the paywall, a broken dog tooth, a new fantasy MMO, some go-to recipes, remembering my 2016 health blog & more…

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Shall we?

1. I made and loved this Thai coconut curry potsticker soup. I played around a little with it, leaving the mushrooms & bell pepper sliced instead of diced, adding more curry sauce, etc., and I used the pork & vegetable potstickers from Trader Joe’s, which added the perfect fatty balance to an otherwise light, acidic soup. It was excellent and affordable and simple, and will absolutely be made again.

2. It’s Traitors season, my very favorite time of year. Sam and I capped off the end of last year with the UK Celebrity Traitors which was fabulous, a watch I highly recommend, and have dived into the newest US Traitors season with the rest of the country. Two of my best pals and I have a bit of a long-distance, voice note “watch club” with a few different reality shows & Traitors made the cut this go around, so after each episode drop we leave each other 10-minute voice note reactions in the group chat that always delight me and make staying in touch extra fun and easy. The cast isn’t as stacked with my personal favorites this season, as I feel like the “gamers” category (Survivor & Big Brother players essentially) is a bit underwhelming & there are so many Housewives, who I admittedly know nothing about. But of course, we do have Rob Rausch & Maura Higgins, both of whom I adore from Love Island, and I love Top Chef’s Kristen Kish and Drag Race’s Monét X Change. The secret traitor twist was a great addition while it lasted, and I’d love to see that again — very fun to have an element of playing along at home ala The Mole. We’ll see how it shakes out but my money, as of now, is on a traitor taking home the crown.

   

3. We had an afternoon of card games with my in-laws this past Sunday — I lost Scat and ended up in a head-to-head with Sam as we closed out rounds of poker (I won, but he gave it to me). Most notably, in one of our final rounds against each other, we ended up with the exact same hand in Texas Hold ‘Em, which was kind of unbelievable.

4. I re-stacked this anti-cosmetic surgery essay earlier this week, but wanted to share it here too in case you missed it. It’s a long one, but thorough and entertaining, and captures a lot of views I share despite struggling to articulate them or to take such an outright hard line. But similar to author father_karine, I’m kind of having a difficult time with the softball “oh well”s of this particular issue when I find it kind of critical that we curb the direction we’re headed ASAP. I find cosmetic surgery (including botox and filler) & it’s prevalence increasingly disturbing and actually, like, very weird. And of course I caveat that this is a nuanced discussion, and there’s a greater root issue as to the unfair reasons why women feel so compelled to control and manipulate their image which deserves plenty of credence, and then the conversation of where do we draw the line of “acceptable” versus “unacceptable” body modification on the spectrum from shaving body hair to a acquiring a totally new face, etc…but I do stand behind the thesis of this particular essay, which is that cosmetic surgery is “something I believe is especially corrosive to women’s mental, financial, spiritual, and bodily health.”

Below the paywall, a perfect crunchy salad recipe, desperate dog toy surgery, my take on hypno-birthing & more…

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Tales from baby shower week & all that surrounded ahead…

1. The main event of the week, of course, was my baby shower. My truly incredible gaggle of neighborhood pals, along with my mom, have spent the past few months planning the most perfect shower. The decor was downright precious, the food divine, the array of homemade desserts astounding & the activities delightful. As someone who didn’t have a bridal shower, or an engagement party, or a wedding, this was really quite special. Sam and I were overwhelmed with gratitude, and yes, I did cry instantly upon walking in. We had so many worlds collide! Friends and family from all over, from so many phases of life, spent a perfect afternoon together and bowled us over with their enormous generosity. We’re real lucky ducks.

   

2. My dear friends who had travelled from New York and LA to attend spent an extended weekend with us, meeting our dogs, seeing our home, going on our favorite hikes and eating at our favorite places. As Sam and I have been hard to pin down the last few years, it was many of their first times visiting us in Arizona and it was magical.

3. Naturally we had a game night — quite a few of them were friends cemented through Dungeons & Dragons throughout college & after, so be together and not play some kind of game would be a travesty. We did coerce everyone into playing Settlers of Catan in teams of two, and I’m happy to report Sam and I kept up our winning streak from Christmas, though the competition was fierce. We finished up the night with some rousing rounds of Catchphrase, which my team brutally lost, so all’s fair (though Sam’s team won, and he was feeling pretty high and mighty).

   

4. Thanks to my wonderful interior designer friend Mallory, one morning was spent antiquing at our favorite local haunt, something I will never tire of. She found a bunch of great pieces for an upcoming styling job, and my dear pal Jack found an antique folk guitar worth about ten times what they were charging for it. I came home with a painting of a pig for baby’s nursery!

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   Below the paywall, one of my last nights out before motherhood, a new cozy mystery game, some DIY clothing upkeep, my recent tech horror story and more…

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SO much has happened!!! After a whirlwind run-up to Christmas, we’ve found some little pockets of quiet to ring in the new year and sink into the fate of parenthood that awaits us in not too many weeks now…wild! More on that Friday. I’ve got a packed edition today re-capping our holiday hits for you, including the ever-awaited completion of your renovation. Yes, that’s right. Well…98% completion. Who cares. We moved back into our master & life is grand!!!!!

Let’s get into it…

1. Well, I spoiled this one. But…our master bed & bath renovation is DONE! Our Christmas hosting was the glaring deadline, given that we needed to, ya know, free up our guest room…but we made it. With the exception of a few towel bars & hooks that need replacing once our new ones arrive (I always end up sourcing things from an Etsy shop in Scandinavia or somewhere with a similarly lengthy shipping time), we made it in the nick of time. So many moments throughout this process I have deeply questioned why on earth we took on so much ourselves with so little previous experience…but hand on heart I am SO happy we did it. The point was learning, and we did, A LOT, and also saving money, which we certainly did, and on top of that, we’re just thrilled with the result. Our house really feels like home now, and I could spend all day long in that room. Mostly I’m just glad you get to stop hearing about it. What a relief. (Though when I properly photograph the ‘after,’ I’ll be sure to share)

   

2. Once we could properly furnish our master for the first time, we did the ole furniture shuffle and ended up with a few gaps throughout the house that we hurried to fill before our guests arrived. This was a genuine pleasure and something we were really looking forward to — an excuse to focus on decor is an excuse I will gladly take any day. Sam and I love nothing more than antique shopping and snagged just about everything secondhand! Quite a few of our newest pieces made it into my yearly round-up of favorite antiques that you can watch here:

3. One of my favorite parts of hosting Christmas is baking a slew of lovely things I dream of making throughout the year when I have a captive audience. I always prep these cinnamon rolls to be popped into the oven Christmas morning (usually paired with mimosas, an elite combo, though I skipped it this year given the whole pregnancy thing) — they are the best tasting things on the planet, according to everyone, every time. Our lovely family friend Melissa used to bake these around the holidays and share them with us, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I like to round out the offerings with a pie and a tart, past favorites including this cranberry linzer tart I am obsessed with but isn’t the biggest crowd pleaser (it’s a very tart tart!), and a variety of pecan, chocolate chess, or fruit pies. This year I sort of free-styled a mixed berry pie with my favorite all-butter homemade pie crust from Claire Saffitz’ Dessert Person, as Sam, my dad, and my sister-in-law love berry pie, and finally tried out Alison Roman’s caramelized maple tart as the closer to Christmas dinner. Instead of the regular tart crust, though, I actually used the toasted walnut crust featured in the cranberry linzer tart recipe because it’s so good and festive I couldn’t have a Christmas without it. I don’t know if texturally it was a perfect match with the caramelized maple filling, but taste-wise it was divine & sort of made the whole thing feel a bit like a thin, maple-y cheesecake. The filling was 10/10, even though I accidentally made maple sugar the first time I tried caramelizing the maple syrup (don’t remove it from the heat before you add the cream!) — I saved the mishap in a jar of course, and it made a great addition to a homemade holiday latte.

Below the paywall, a funny pull from my Instagram DMs, my Christmas dinner menu, tales from our holiday board game marathons, top Christmas gifts & more…

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I’m particularly excited to share some of the bits this week, so without further ado…

1. My in-laws are moving to town! And they’re shopping for a house. Naturally as I am both nosy and invested in their acquisition, I’ve been joyfully accompanying them on a slew of home showings. I love touring houses. There are few other opportunities to really poke around and feel justified judging a home, so when said opportunities present themselves, one ought to take them. We’ve been in very old charming homes, recent flips, mountain escapes up winding roads, homes whose decor hasn’t been updated in 50 years but with enormous potential…each with loads to offer and laced with interesting stories. I just love houses and all the history they hold, as I wrote about in one of my favorite posts here. They make me emotional! Or maybe I’m just pregnant. But I think maybe they do anyway.

2. This YouTube video actually moved the needle for me in stepping away from time spent watching short-form content. I must admit I’ve needed an extra push lately to spend more of my down-time offline…since pregnancy & our renovation has really mentally tired me out, I’ve fallen back on scrolling TikTok to “rest,” and while I think there are legitimate arguments for social media/scrolling/short-form content serving that purpose, I know myself well enough to know at this point that it just tends to make me personally feel duller, sadder, and more dysregulated. I’ve been noticing time slipping away a bit too often, my focus being harder to keep, but I needed some external encouragement to remind me why my scrolling habits might not be helping. This video did the trick. It also made me think back to when I read Dopamine Nation and felt immensely motivated to spend more time offline and less time trying to “escape” through various dopamine hits…maybe time for a re-read! Instead of my TikTok scrolling time, I’ve been spending way more time reading on Substack again which has been a great substitute. Not an offline activity, but certainly one that’s way less emotionally manipulative and brain-hijacky.

3. Everyone knows there is little more beautiful in this world than the $5 Costco rotisserie chicken. And if you didn’t know that, now you do. I’ve become a big Costco shopper since we’ve had one nearby and as a passionate deal-finder, my indoctrination has been nothing short of holy. This week my Costco haul was pretty substantial, and given its hot and fresh nature, I opted to snag my obligatory rotisserie chicken (please tell me where else you can get that much sustenance for $5 these days) last after my shopping had been completed. But shock horror, there were no chickens!!! A woman and I arrived at the same time with the same look of longing. We needed our chickens. We investigated together — from the timer on the machines, my young eyes could see but 6 minutes left…we must be close. And you bet your ass I’m waiting 6 minutes for my $5 chicken. So we waited. The crowds formed around us. More chicken-heads, desperate for their fix, lining up in wait. The word spread…six minutes or so, that young lady said (me). But the pressure was building as the minutes crept on. Finally, a Costco employee came to check the chickens — our messiah! But no — the chickens weren’t yet done. “There were a few under 175,” she said to her fellow employee. The timer raged on. Unrest spread through our numbers, of which there were maybe now 12 or 13. We were blocking a crucial throughway, but we’d invested too much…HOW MUCH LONGER??? Finally, the employee returned. She checked the chickens. You could hear a pin drop. When she moved to put on her ginormous heatproof gloves, we knew. It was time. After maybe a full 25 minutes, we rejoiced as the chickens hit the shelves. They say time is money, but you know what I say? Time is community-building. Worth every precious second.

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I know I’ve said it before, but really this time…the end of our renovation is in sight! I swear it! We’ve had the goal to finish by Christmas (well, by the days leading up to Christmas before our families arrive), and I dare say we might even have an extra…I hate to jinx it…week? What I can confidently say is that the biggest, most arduous bits are nearly out of the way. Sam is finishing the last big job as I write this! We’ll see if it turns into a hundred deviations as it usually does, but man, we are close.

I also did some vlogging over the holiday weekend, so stay tuned for that! I’ll share it here as well as over on my YouTube channel as soon as it’s done being edited.

Onto the bits from the past two weeks!

1. I’ve gotta start with some self-congratulation here…you guys, I’ve successfully done some plumbing. Yes, it’s true. I replaced all of our sink hardware (including under the sink — I’m talking drain, I’m talking p-trap, I’m talking the little pully bar that makes the drain open and close…the nitty gritty) and I made it all work without any leaks. Hot and cold water connectors? I know about those. The drain plug? I’m with it. Of all the tasks left on our renovation to-do, this was one I could do, and it felt so good to spend a day (well, two) successfully contributing after Sam has absolutely carried us. It’s so empowering knowing how to do things!!! It’s very cool and fun!!! I look at every sink differently now. A reminder to throw yourself in the deep end with some helpful guidance from instruction manuals and the occasional YouTube short.

2. I had the best time Zooming into my alma mater’s audition class to chat to the current crop of students about auditioning for film and TV, my horrors and successes, and all the in-betweens. When you’re in drama school, there are so many mysteries about what it looks like to actually be a real actor and so many things you don’t even know you don’t know…though I’m sure I rambled on far too much and probably didn’t always make sense, it felt good to share some lessons I’ve learned (or am still learning!) about what is inevitably a really difficult pursuit in a really difficult industry. But a beautiful one! And being reminded of that magic feeling of being a student with everything ahead of you…priceless.

3. You guys, you won’t believe it…our deck spider Dylan is going to be a MOM. I’ve been dying to share this. So listen up — we’ve had this incredible orange spooky spider living on our deck for months, Dylan, who we realized had gone missing! Tragic. There had been some storms and he wasn’t in his web and hadn’t seemed to make a new one anywhere…we were heartbroken. We loved Dylan. BUT THEN! Sam was out working on the deck and pulled out the fold-up table we had stashed against the wall, to find not only Dylan, but Dylan perched upon a sack of eggs!!!!!!!! She’s gonna be a mom!!!!!!!!!!! And she was retreating to a nice dark hidden space to hatch her little babies!!!!!!!!!!!!! Naturally, I cried. We were both pregnant together. What a beautiful miracle. Somehow I can’t wait for all her spider babies.

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Over the years Sam & I have found ourselves flying solo for Thanksgiving, either too far from family, or in Canada (where they do have Thanksgiving weirdly, though on a different day), or in college with way too little cash and time to travel for both Thanksgiving and Christmas…you know the drill.

So you go about your business, not thinking too much of it, until you find yourself doing your regular grocery shopping the week of Thanksgiving and the Trader Joe’s is a mad house. And you begin to think to yourself, well, we don’t technically have any plans, but to go without mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving just doesn’t quite feel right. It’s too late and too inconvenient to cook an entire feast for just one or two, but ya wanna feel a little something.

May I introduce to you my bare bones, super last-minute menu you can whip up the day of (and buy ingredients for that the grocery store still has in stock) to have a nice, festive dinner that doesn’t leave you with an ungodly amount of leftovers or a weird feeling like you missed out.

Shall we?

1. There shall be no turkey.

And that’s a good thing. I swear. There is always too much turkey and it’s not that good. I am a fan of doing turkey legs & thighs in a full-blown Thanksgiving situation, but if you’re reading this when it’s posted there is no more turkey to acquire and it’s simply not worth it. Roast a chicken, using my personal favorite recipe (minus the leeks and all the accoutrements) or this one or whichever you fancy, or better yet, grab a rotisserie chicken the night before and heat that baby up day-of. There is no pride here. We’re going for tastes good and conveniently chicken is superior to turkey anyway.

2. A banging stuffing will do all of your heavy lifting.

This is your star dish. And this herby sausage stuffing is the recipe that rules them all. Please do me a favor and use a spicy sausage (I always do a ground, spicy Italian sausage so I don’t have to fuss with getting the casings off), and most importantly, add some torn up dates. It’s heaven, and this is the dish most highly requested at my house when anyone visits for any holiday. You will not find sage at the grocery store last-minute, trust me, and if you do please know you won the lottery. But don’t worry, it’s still delicious without it (though if you have some, definitely use it). If you’re out of luck finding any of the other herbs, use dried, and it’ll still taste great. As for the stuffing cubes, I prefer pretty much any other bread torn up into larger chunks, but that’s just me. If you have the night before to lightly prepare, I would buy a crusty loaf of any white bread, rip it apart into bite size chunks, and let it sit out uncovered on the counter overnight to get a little stale. You can do this with a sliced loaf bread too if your options are slim. Or maybe you have stale bread already in your cupboard, in which case, rejoice.

3. Mashed potatoes or no potatoes at all.

Look, I don’t care what you do, but I need a mashed potato on Thanksgiving. And if you’re not a mashed potato fan, I would probably skip them all together unless you want to make like, gratin or something. A roast potato is redundant when you have a really good stuffing. A silky mashed potato, however, is the buttery vehicle for all other things on your plate, and is therefore heavily endorsed. I’ve never been an instant mashed girl, but be my guest. If you want a simple recipe, here’s my mom’s method inspired by her mom that never fails:

1. Use a gold potato. Bigger ones are better because they’re easier to peel, but gold is important for texture.

2. Peel and chop your potatoes into 2-inch chunks or so.

3. Put your potatoes on the stove in a pot of heavily salted room-temp or cold water. This is important for a reason I don’t quite know but it’s probably about starch or something. Set to boil.

4. Boil the potatoes til they’re really tender. Like, very easy to smash with a fork (not just to pierce through).

5. Turn the heat way down and drain all of the water. Return the potatoes to the still-hot pan on their own to cook off any residual water. You want these babies dry.

6. Add as much butter and cream (or whole milk, or sour cream, or buttermilk*) as so calls to you. Obviously more butter/cream = thinner mashed potatoes. Salt to taste. Mix & mash with a potato masher, a wooden spoon, or blend with an immersion blender. Serve.

   *Buttermilk or sour cream adds a nice balance of a little tang if you’re into that (I’m very into that, but whatever suits you).

4. Pie.

Pie, of course, is a staple. If you can snag one store bought, whether fresh baked or frozen, wonderful. I like the idea of a frozen berry pie that can come out of your oven all bubbly and delicious, but if you insist on pumpkin, I get it. Personally I love to bake, so I would (and have) probably spent the majority of my time and effort making a pie from scratch because I enjoy the excuse. But of course, not the point of this whole winging-it thing. You can also opt for a premade pie crust and make a quick filling for a half-in situation.

I’ve never made this pumpkin pie recipe, but it looks solid and simple. As I’m not a pumpkin pie fan (I know, sue me), I’ve opted for this pecan pie recipe before and it’s so good and easy. If you want to bake & are like me (or the stores are sold out of pureed pumpkin), that’s the one I’d go for.

Or, honestly, you can skip the pie and just focus on the dinner part. Maybe grab a pint of ice-cream or go nuts and get a roll of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. This is your day of thanks, dammit.

5. Extra credit: gravy, salad & drinks.

To me, these are all skippable in the most bare-bones menu, but also easy to throw together and naturally welcome if you want to add them.

As for gravy…you could get fancy and catch the drippings from your chicken as you roast it, add those to a pan with a little flour and seasoning and whip something up, or you could go the instant route and have something super simple and still very tasty.

As for salad, I’d grab a bag of arugula, dress it with lemon and olive oil and call it a day. If we want a little extra crunch, toss in some thinly sliced green apple and a chopped nut (pecan maybe, or walnut) and you’re really off to the races. If you really wanna amp it up you could make a homemade vinaigrette that leans a little sweet for ultimate plate-flavor-balance, but now we’re just getting cocky. For me the dates in the stuffing get the sweet element taken care of, but if you skipped those, you might want to lean sweeter with your salad.

A nice red wine is delightful here of course, if you’re into that sort of thing. A little fizzy cranberry cocktail or mocktail would also be divine, and only requires mixing cranberry juice with sparkling cider or prosecco & chilling.

And well…that’s all she wrote. I hope I didn’t offend you terribly by my choices, but hey, not everything can make the cut. Please battle it out in the comments if your favorite side dish was left behind.

And may I just say…

I’m so very thankful for you. Whatever your plans, quiet or bustling, I do hope you enjoy a peaceful little holiday.

xo

But enough of that…

Bits from the last week!

1. We started off last weekend with a trip to Bagdad, Arizona to enjoy a pretty drive and have lunch at a strange and wonderful little diner. It exists pretty exclusively to support the copper mining operation at its center & it’s far from flashy, but we found it pretty charming (though not sure how universal that experience would be, lol). The diner was genuinely great, and served up the best burgers we’d had in a long time (though it was a Pepsi-only establishment, which is a criminal offense).

2. We’ve been having a little extra TV time these days in the evenings to recover from our renovation work, so we burned through both Netflix shows Next Gen Chef and Squid Game: The Challenge season 2 in the last two weeks. Both were great! I love a cooking competition, particularly with a fine-dining emphasis, and Next Gen Chef was excellent. Really competent and accomplished young chefs, nice judging, fun celebrity chef guests. And as for Squid Game: The Challenge, it’s a great watch. Maybe not as compelling as season 1, but has some really strong moments and the whole competition is really gripping. So much on the line (4.56 million dollars!) with so much luck involved, high stakes with such rudimentary games…it’s fabulous. Great tension. Would recommend them both!

3. I don’t know much about TikTok creator Shay Sullivan except that I really love her hair. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve followed a hair tutorial, but she got me with this one. I didn’t use any of the hair products she did (I’ve paired down my hair products to exactly one outside of shampoo and conditioner and not sure I feel like going back), but I did follow her method and was a big fan. Love the forward curled sections and the big volume at the crown.

   

   @shaysullivannEnd up tutorial on how I get my blowout! • • • Products used: @K18 Hair hair repair mask @Kérastase glazing milk @amika superstar styling oil @Moroccanoil volumizing mousse and dry texture spray @Luxy Hair rollers

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I personally love harboring a months-long secret, but I was so desperate to add context to all of my past updates here, lol. I assure you our renovation project would not be nearly so stupid and dramatic if I wasn’t also growing a baby the whole time. I also would’ve talked about drinking way more champagne had I not been pregnant, and would’ve seemed way more reasonable at the time for watching so much reality TV. I kept thinking to myself that all of you must think I’m the ultimate baby as I talk about being tired and overwhelmed and generally behind without much excuse — if only you knew!

I’m thinking I might do a little podcast episode or a written post to drop here in the future talking more about it if that sounds fun, or maybe it doesn’t? Let me know. x

Onto the bits, this time, with context!

1. Okay, fine. I watched The Golden Bachelor this season even though I said I wouldn’t. The thing that finally got me was that I do love seeing and celebrating the incredible women who were cast in this show despite a true dud of a lead, and man were the women wonderful this season. I heard on the The Liz Moody Podcast once that having positive associations of aging can potentially impact you living longer (?) or at least, having a better time growing older (? something like that), and these ladies make me feel fabulous about reaching my 60s and beyond if I’m so lucky. Every one of them was like, the coolest and most radiant woman I’ve ever seen. That being said…the season was laughably bad, mostly thanks to it being super truncated and having a lead that was utterly emotionless and uninterested in the process. Little spoiler for the finale, but it does seem like we got a happy ending, and Mel ended up with a baddie. I wish them the best! Okay, bigger spoiler: Cindy for Golden Bachelorette please! She carried this season on her beautiful, elegant back and I was so happy when she left early (I called it!). And her After the Final Rose look? Are you kidding me? So good.

   

2. I had to share this picture because it’s so hilarious to me. I finished an errand run at Costco this week and was starving so I grabbed a slice of pizza and absolutely stuffed my face as soon as I got back in the car. I feel like this picture is giving pure beer belly dad, but it’s really more like desperately hungry pregnant lady. (This was my first Costco pizza slice and it was delicious, btw)

3. My lovely neighbor took me on a shopping trip Monday to pick out some fabrics for baby gifts she’s making for our upcoming little one…unbelievably generous and sweet. I haven’t done much for the nursery yet since Sam and I are currently sleeping in it while our master is under renovation, and it made everything feel so real to peruse fabrics and picture which ones my baby might wear or what might go in their room. I also couldn’t believe what a lucky friend I was to have someone wanting to spend her time making something special for me? Well, not for me, but you know. Not totally unexpected, but having a baby is a really cool and emotional time, and to have people in your village respond so generously is kinda mind-blowing.

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Some fun highlights from the past week ahead…

1. Halloween feels like one hundred years ago, but supposedly it wasn’t. We didn’t get up to much this year (we had to finish the World Series!!!) but we did carve the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch the weekend prior, our artistry displayed below. We also maintained our yearly tradition of putting Otis in his pumpkin costume ever briefly due to his incessant hatred of wearing anything, but thankfully for him Leonard did manage to rip it up later in the night thinking it was a toy. Fair enough. Stick together, boys. Fight the man (me).

   

2. Speaking of the World Series, I thoroughly enjoyed every game. Congrats to the Dodgers, who we were lightly rooting for, but just barely. Now, you may not think of me as a sports girl, and you would be correct…but I love anything high stakes, so any big final showdown has my attention. I’ve also grown to love Formula 1 because I can quickly recognize all the key players, and baseball is kinda sorta like that if you only have two teams to keep track of. I like seeing each individual’s contribution so clearly and not being confused on who is who like I constantly am in football. Sam also loves baseball, and passion is infectious! We had a great time. By far the most important thing to report, however, is that our cat Mama correctly predicted the World Series winner. I know, I know. How could she possibly? Hear me out. For years, when posed with a big decision we can’t decide on or a desire to know what might happen in the future, we present Mama with two post-it notes, each scrawled with one of two options, equidistant from wherever she’s sitting. Like clockwork, she will definitively walk to one of the two options and give it a clear sniff, never bothering with the other. And my friends, as we approached the ever-important Game 7 of the World Series, we presented Mama with her options: who was gonna win, the Dodgers or the Blue Jays? She went straight for the Dodgers, no ifs, ands or buts. As the game progressed, and the Dodgers looked like they had not a hope in the world, we thought, huh. Mama must’ve finally got something wrong. But oh no, folks. Oh no. By the absolute skin of their teeth, in the final moments…they won.

3. I am really having a moment with sungold kiwis. They’re like regular kiwis but they’re golden inside with a bit sweeter and more mellow flavor — so good. And yes, I do eat the furry outsides. Extra fiber. I remember I heard on a podcast once with Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (author of Fiber Fueled) that kiwis are one of the very best foods for gut health or something like that, and ever since then I became a kiwi girl. I don’t remember what the research was exactly but I do feel like I’m doing a really good job when I eat them now.

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Shall we?

1. We started off the week with a new plant Sam snagged from our neighbor’s driveway — “free to a good home!” And we, thanks to Sam, are a great home for a plant in search of one. We don’t know what kind of plant it is except that it’s indoors, and while we have yet to find her perfect place within the house, she fits right in. Unfortunately shortly after this photo Leonard took a nice chunk out of one of the leaves for a snack, which he has since learned is unacceptable. I love the purple coloring of the leaves underneath…it’s like a giant Swiss chard!

2. Thanks to a day totally thwarted by renovation mishaps, I found myself with a mass of over-proofed sourdough…dough. Sourdough dough? Dough for bread made with sourdough starter. Or just ‘sourdough,’ probably. Anyway — I abandoned it during an impromptu 8-hour reno work day and almost threw it away before I remembered the best and easiest thing to do with over-proofed dough is to use it for focaccia. I tossed it in the fridge for a few days and when the time came I let it warm up a bit on the counter, coated a sheet pan with olive oil, stretched and dimpled it and boom, focaccia! Add some more olive oil and toppings (like rosemary and garlic) and bake it on the bottom rack at 400 degrees or so for ya know, awhile. I made the horrendous mistake of popping it on the top rack for a quick broil at the same time Sam started cooking something on the stove, so my hopeful 30 seconds of browning time turned into 3 minutes and I absolutely burned the shit out of it. So…you win some, you lose some. But — salvageable! Just needed to slice off the burnt bits on the top, and it actually tasted really good.

3. The focaccia went particularly well with a too-soupy shepherd’s pie I made this week, which was delicious albeit more like stew with mashed potatoes streaked throughout. I love a shepherd’s pie this time of year, and any recipe that involves a ground meat is a favorite because it’s just so stress-free to cook. I browned some ground beef (though I think lamb is more traditional) in a big cast iron skillet, then removed it and sautéed some finely diced carrots, celery, onion, garlic & mushrooms in the beef juices. Added some tomato paste to cook for a minute or two, then Worcestershire sauce, stock, and some soy sauce (adds a really nice depth of flavor IMO) and let it simmer with the beef added back in while I made mashed potatoes, about 20 minutes or so. Much butter, sour cream, and cream for the potatoes. Too much, turns out, because while they were delicious they were way too runny for my purposes — I also didn’t help myself by adding more liquid to the meat mixture and totally forgetting to add some flour to thicken it. Alas. Notes for next time. I topped the soupy meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and baked in the oven for another 20 minutes, let it sit for maybe 5, and dished it out with a desperate effort to keep the potatoes from completely mixing in with the rest. Thankfully we had the focaccia to mop up the extra juices, and while a bit “informal” as they might say on the Great British Baking Show, tasted delicious.

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