I haven’t baked since Thanksgiving – and that was just box-mix brownies. I have been meaning to bake practically every day since, but simply didn’t. But this weekend, the need to bake, the guilt about not baking (take your pick) finally got to be too much. I made peanut butter blossom cookies. Why peanut butter…

My Mom passed away quite a while ago.  I just found out that my brother Chick has her ashes.  And Chick recently contacted me and my sister Linda about what to do with Mom’s ashes. I thought she wanted them scattered at Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Chick mentioned that he thought Mom wanted her ashes scattered…

Monday. I did the weekly grocery shopping.  I choose the recipes I plan on making this week.  I make a list of ingredients I need and I add the items written on the list on the refrigerator to the list Tuesday. First thing when I get up (well, not first thing –  because first thing,…

The first lead in a musical I ever did was playing Vera Charles in the Caseville (Michigan) Summer Enrichment Program, the summer of 1970.  I had also found the world of plays – books you could read that had actual plays in them.  I was in heaven. I was reading a play during a rehearsal. …

I am trying something new with my Dikke Dame dolls – I am making multiple dolls at the same time.  One of my grandnieces wants some Dikke Dame dolls, so I am making her those and I am making one more doll as part of my “Alice” group – a take on the Cheshire Cat.…

My Mom was somewhat notorious for starting projects and not finishing them.  Later in life, she did pick up the hobby of doll making and she did finish a lot of these and they are lovely. But the project that she did complete that means the most to me is a simple counted cross-stitch, that…

I’m in my late 60s.  That means roles that I could expect to play are getting fewer and farther between. I’m moving back to the Tri-Cities (Bay City, Saginaw and Midland) area of Michigan. I’m moving from an area that is abundant in theatrical opportunity and where I am a known quantity (and quality). As…

I used to say that instead of spring cleaning – I moved. Friends and family used to tell me that they always wrote my address in their address books (remember those) in pencil. I moved.  A lot. So why is the whole thought of pulling up roots in San Jose and toddling across country back…

I don’t know about other states, but in the large metropolitan areas of California, legal secretaries make damn good money – and they are in high demand. How did I become a legal secretary/paralegal?  I learned how to type fairly fast and accurately; I learned shorthand; I had a good grasp of English grammar and…

I often dream in stories; and sometimes those dreams stay with me.  I found that MSG triggers very vivid dreams. Last night, I had a doozy. I was living at “home” – my sister and my mother were there – both upstairs – so I’m thinking this was the Midland Street house – although parts…