Even though we haven’t lived in Norfolk, CT, since May 2023, I still serve on the board of directors for the Norfolk Land Trust. I’m the chair of the NLT outreach committee, and it’s my responsibility to put out the monthly e-newsletter.
Yesterday, I sent out the October newsletter, and I included one of my favorite photos of Annie.
I miss her human, too, and the town of Norfolk, itself. Fall was always my favorite time in Norfolk. I took this photo on October 16, 2022. It is completely unedited, unfiltered, untouched. This is the magic of autumnal New England in all her glory!
Here in Colorado, we’re slowly easing into fall. Every day I wake up and eventually check the 10-day forecast, hoping that we’re heading down instead of up.
Today is still not that day. Ugh! 90 in October?
I don’t walk nearly as much around Lafayette as I did in Norfolk, not least because I have a full-time job (which I truly enjoy and am grateful for), but also because this summer was hot and humid, even at six o’clock in the morning, and my joy of walking around the lake came with too much sweat dripping down my back.
Last summer, I spent nearly every morning walking around the lake, and so this summer was quite the walking bummer. I only hit my bare minimum of two times around the lake for the last 10 weeks.
For someone who is very achievement-oriented, this bare-minimum success can be a hard way to live. However, this is where the rationalization part of my brain kicks in, and I recognize that I spent this past summer doing many other wonderful things besides walking around the lake, like reading more than I have in a long time, spending more time on my writing, and working on strengthening my body by lifting heavier weights three times a week.
I like to think this balances out my life in a nice, well-rounded way, even as I long for cooler days and more walks around the lake. They’ll eventually get here.
Last night, Heath and I attended Dark Skies & Deep Space: Andromeda Rising, hosted by the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Department. The skies were clear, and the stars slowly came out for us to enjoy. Spencer, a City of Boulder Ranger, used a laser beam to point out different constellations in the sky. My favorite was the Summer Triangle, mostly because I had never heard of it before!
Image from the NASA website
Spencer also posed an interesting question after discussing the history of naming the constellations: If we were to create new constellations today, what popular culture would be represented in our night skies?
Some of the answers were fun and funny, such as a chat window of a Microsoft Teams meeting or Spider-Man. My first answer was, of course, a dog, because I love them so much. But we already have dog constellations, so I didn’t share that answer.
Then I thought of the perfect answer, and I yelled it out: Dolly Parton.
Spencer responded, “That answer deserves a round of applause.”
I have since Googled “how does one name a constellation,” because I wondered if I could start a petition to get a constellation named after one of the greatest musicians, feminists, and philanthropists of all time. From my scant research, naming a constellation isn’t up for discussion. The International Astronomical Union does not accept proposals for new constellations or sell naming rights (anyone who is selling you a star is essentially selling you a piece of paper and nothing else).
Oh, well.
I’ll have to think of another way to honor Dolly Parton. In the meantime, I’ve decided that anytime I think of a current event that raises my ire, I’m going to say out loud, “Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library have given over 330 million books to children,” to add more positivity to the world.
But back to the night skies – one thing I learned from a Dark Skies Colorado volunteer is that last night in Boulder County, over ONE MILLION birds migrated through the night sky.
ONE MILLION!
The volunteer explained that this is one reason it’s essential for people to turn off their outdoor lights at night, especially during bird migration season. Which, in case you are wondering, is March through June for spring migration and Mid-August through November for fall migration.
The City of Boulder isn’t the only one educating on the importance of dark skies this migration season. Today was also Lafayette’s Migratory Bird Festival at Waneka Lake. I strolled over there this afternoon under a very hot September sun (92 degrees at 2pm). Raptors from HawkQuest, local musicians, artists, vendors, and non-profit organizations shared all kinds of information on how we can help birds.
In addition to turning off your outdoor lights, other simple steps include using red lights outdoors instead of white, or replacing upward-facing light fixtures with ones that face down.
So consider yourself informed!
Please do turn off the lights if you’re able. Tell your friends and neighbors.
Then look up into the night sky and say out loud, “Dolly Parton and her Imagination Library have given over 330 million books to children.”
Let’s put more good into a world at a time when we need it!
While there may be three more weeks of summer (or possibly more in Colorado if this heat never lets up), my personal calendar has summer ending on September 1st. The CU semester started on Thursday, August 20th, and we are now well into the Fall 2026 semester.
You may recall that my theme for this summer was Summer of Tsundoku: 2026 edition. Tsundoku is a Japanese term for books that pile up on your bookshelf to read later, and it was my goal to clear my shelf and read those books!
My Summer of Tsundoku 2025 was not as successful as I hoped, so I went into this summer with more focus and motivation to get through my pile of books. I had identified 36 books in total, and a few surprised me later on because I had requested them through inter-library loan and they finally came through (Famesick and Yesteryear, I’m looking at you).
Drumroll, please ….
I did it!
Sort of.
This summer, I read 41 books! And I’m on track to finish another one by the end of the week. The “sort of” part comes in because several of those books were NOT in the original pile, and thus, the original pile still has a handful of books left. No, I’m not going to tell you which ones because I don’t want to hurt those books’ feelings, and it’s not personal at all.
Have no fear, I will be reading those books next!
How did I read 41 books this summer? It helped that I stayed off all social media in May and June, and then in August I did a social media and news fast as my yearly birthday gift to myself! Traveling to Alaska also gave me ample time to read. One of my happiest times on the trip was having my family around me as I stared out the window of a bus driving from Anchorage to Seward (I think that’s where we got on the cruise ship) and listening to an audiobook as the Alaskan coast flew by.
Another way I read 41 books was to always have a book available, which meant I had an e-book and audiobook on my phone and a paperback or hardback in my backpack or on the couch.
The books I read were all so different from each other, so it’s hard to say which was my absolute favorite. But if I had to choose or I would die (dramatic, I know, but it forces me to make the choice), I would go with Bad Badger: A Family Story by Maryrose Wood. I know a friendship story between a badger and a seagull isn’t going to be for everyone, but among books I like best, this one had it all: talking animals, silliness, poignancy, and heart.
Other books I read this summer that were not on my original list include: The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal, PhD (no relationship to Minerva McGonigal, sadly); 1984 by George Orwell (read by request because Heath also read it this summer and he wanted someone to talk to about it); Three Blue Hearts by Lynne Kelly (a lovely MG story about a boy who befriends an octopus that I read because I needed an e-book at this one was available via the Libby app), Fatal Glitch: Camp Zero by Erin Entrada Kelly (see previous reason); Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (which should have been on my original list because it was on my bookshelf waiting to be read and I overlooked it); Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan (read by my Romancing the Tropes book club in July and the best audiobook romance I have ever listened to); How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly (my book club’s June pick); Maxi’s Secret by Lynn Poudre (same reason as Inheritance Games); Famesick by Lena Dunhan (I was 85 on the waitlist and my time finally came), and Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (see previous reason).
It was a wonderful way to spend the summer! I’m looking forward to an autumn of prioritizing writing over reading, but you better believe my Summer of Tsundoku momentum is going to keep me going until I finish all the books on my original list.
And, of course, there will be new acquisitions to the bookshelf to keep me reading through the fall, winter, and spring, and then I expect it will be time for Summer of Tsundoku: 2027 edition.
If you have a book recommendation, I would love to hear it!
Last week Heath and I headed south to Westcliffe, CO, for our second annual reading and stargazing retreat.
Photo from the visitwetmountainvalley.com website
The time and place were perfect for stargazing. Westcliffe is a certified dark sky area, the Perseid meteor shower would peak at 2am on the morning of Thursday, August 13th, and a new moon would grace the night sky (meaning zero illumination).
If you’re wondering about the reading/stargazing combo, that 2am viewing time should tell you all you need to know. That is very late for a sleepy person, of which I am. Hence, I am often too tired to do anything of note if I am ever out and about in the wee hours of the morning. Reading is the perfect way to spend a low-key, sleepy day.
For the record, there are few activities for which I will ever stay up late by choice. When my niece and her husband were visiting last Christmas, I was asked what some of those activities were. Here’s what I came up with:
Cuddling baby animals, such as polar bears and panda bears
A midnight showing of a new Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movie (assuming all the original cast were reprising their roles)
A remake of the Harry Potter movies with the above Lord of the Rings cast playing the key roles
If there was one magical night when all my beloved dogs who have died would show up so I could pet them again
If my niece got married at midnight
Wondrous natural phenomena (so far including, but not limited to lunar eclipses and meteor showers)
The stars were, in fact, wondrous that night!
Photo by Heath Hughes
Photo by Heath Hughes
The meteor shower was … okay! Clouds rolled in, so we were lucky to see anything. We saw about 15-20 meteors in about 90 minutes. This is way more than we saw last year (one) because when I planned our first annual reading and stargazing retreat at Black Mesa State Park in Oklahoma, I didn’t know that moon phase mattered. All the stars we could see last year washed out under a very bright full moon after only 15 minutes.
Nevertheless, those were some awesome 15 minutes, and Heath and I became hooked on stargazing.
We chose Westcliffe this year because it was recommended by a woman I met at the Recycle Colorado Summit in June (where I was the keynote speaker!). Heath and I sat next to her at the Recycle Colorado Summit awards dinner and got along incredibly well. Debbie used to be on the Custer County Tourism Board, and she’s the one who came up with the Custer County slogan, “Come for the Mountains! Stay for the Stars!”
So not only did we get to see stars, but we also got to know Debbie and her husband better. They invited us to their house for dinner and games. Best of all, their cats, Vera Lynn and Waldo, personally gave Heath and me their stamp of approval, which apparently doesn’t happen for everyone.
Vera Lynn
It was a perfect end to my summer break: spectacular stars, expansive mountains, new friends, excellent books (I started and finished Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet, a murder mystery inspired by Little Women, that I couldn’t put down), and animal approval. The semester starts on Thursday, so we’ll see what I can manage in the coming months.
Until next time!
This post was updated to correct an error: I identified my friend, Debbie, as being on the Westcliffe Tourism Board and coming up with the slogan for Westcliffe. She served on the Custer County Tourism Board, and the slogan she came up with is for the whole county! Sorry I got it wrong the first time.
When I close my eyes, I certainly don’t feel 49. I still feel the same as when I was 15, 25, 35, and 45.
And when I open my eyes, well … There are some signs I’m getting older.
I won’t dwell on them for too long because: 1) I have recently upped my skincare regimen; and 2) that’s all I’m interested in doing because when I see people who are, shall we say, being more aggressive against aging, I’m not personally convinced that’s the better way.
I spent a delightful day yesterday doing some of my favorite things. I started with reading and writing and then attended my cold plunge group’s weekly Saturday meetup. After that I volunteered to be a pretend wedding guest for a dog named Hoover, who is training to be a ring bearer for his humans’ wedding next week.
Then I picked up Heath, who works on Saturdays, and we drove around on a mini-adventure, and ended up finding a specialty gourmet grocery store near our house where I found the best birthday card imaginable for my niece and I now can’t wait to send it to her in November.
We then ended the day watching two episodes of Frasier. While I watched Frasier back when it was on the air on NBC in the 90s and 00s, Heath has never watched it. It’s standing the rest of time (unlike many other shows/movies we’ve rewatched) and it remains as hilarious as ever.
I also find myself feeling incredibly nostalgic for the 90s and 00s because that was a time before smart phones and the Internet as we know it and I long for the days of less fractured attention.
Nostalgia aside, it was the perfect birthday of small joys and some quality time with the person I love most in this world.
I’ll continue celebrating for the rest of the month with my usual news and social media fast. This is a gift I give to myself every year, and I rather enjoy it. So, if anything important happens, someone please let me know.
In the meantime, thanks for still sticking around all this time. Here’s hoping I make a splash this year in as many wonderful ways as possible.
My social media fasts have been going well. For the most part, I don’t miss it, and I especially don’t miss wasting time scrolling, especially when I would get caught in loops of politics and injustice.
Lately, however, I’ve been checking social media more often.
On July 1, I received a text from a good friend:
You may recall that Frannie was my #1 Internet dog, whom I fell in love with in 2024, and whom I loved with my whole heart, even though I had never met her.
So when I received a text that Frannie was sick, I immediately opened Instagram to find out what was going on.
The news was not good, and it continued to not be good. But Annika, Annie’s rescuer and real-life angel, kept posting updates and sharing with us right up until the end.
Today Annika shared an “in loving memory of Frannie.”
.What I think most drew me to Frannie, aside from just how precious and cute she was, is that her story made me feel like there is good in the world.
It is so hard to love this much and this deeply, especially a dog I never even met. Yet I can’t imagine existing in a world where hope does not reach out to you in the most unexpected of places.
That’s what Frannie did for me. And for that I will be fur-ever grateful.
Good-bye, sweet girl. Thank you for these last 2.5 years of joy and inspiration.
I’ll be taking care of her until Monday. While I don’t normally dog sit anymore – it’s too hard to juggle a full-time job, writing, marriage, narcolepsy, and health – I made an exception for Phoebe.
Phoebe’s human mom is a friend of mine from a monthly book club I love. When her regular dog sitter wasn’t available, I agreed to step in because of the specific circumstances. Besides, as I wrote about recently, I really miss having dogs in my life.
It took Phoebe a while to warm up to me. We had two meet and greets, complete with a walk, before she agreed that I was okay. Before that, there were many nips of my calf muscles and Phoebe felt she had to herd me away from her human. It’s a good thing she’s so small and cute, because otherwise it might not have been so endearing.
Now, though, we are good friends. I know this for sure because Phoebe greets me by showing me her belly every single time.
We really are having a great time!
One of the best parts about agreeing to take care of Phoebe is that I was introduced to the Rothman Open Space. It’s a prairie trail system with the Rocky Mountains in the backdrop. It’s wide, expansive, and glorious in the early morning.
Best of all, there are prairie dogs!
If you live in Colorado or other areas in the Midwest/West that have prairie dogs, you may think this is no big deal. However, I did not grow up with prairie dogs within walking distance. If we wanted to see prairie dogs, we would have to visit Zoo America in Hershey, PA, which we did often. The prairie dog exhibit was one of my favorites.
So you can imagine my delight that the Rothman Open Space is filled with what must be hundreds of prairie dogs! I love listening to their chirps and squeaks in the morning. And while I do miss my Waneka Lake walks and the abundance of wildlife there, the prairie dogs are a good substitute.
In addition to my sheer joy and enthusiasm for the prairie dogs, it’s fun to get writing inspiration while on these walks. I’m currently revising a middle-grade manuscript, and it turns out that my brain works just as well in the open space as it does around the lake. Thank you brain!
I’m also discovering new sources of inspiration, most notably a golden retriever who watched from behind a sliding glass door when Phoebe and I walked by on the trail. I swear the dog bowed at us. Immediately, my mind whirled with the possibilities of what secrets a golden retriever who bows will be keeping.
So while I did not set out to shake things up a bit by sitting for Phoebe, it’s good to be reminded that you don’t know what you don’t know. I had no idea I had access to such a wonderful place. And now I can’t wait to bring friends and family here the next time we have visitors.
If you’re on the fence about whether or not to do something, let this post be your sign that you should give it a try. You never know what may happen.
Now, while you may think that the trip to Alaska itself was my greatest achievement thus far in 2026, I’m delighted to report that the trip was only a contributing factor.
We had such a fun time, with 5 days on land and 7 days at sea. We saw so much wildlife – whales, harbor seals, stellar seals, mama and baby caribou, mama and baby grizzlies, mama and baby black bears, one coastal brown bear, ptarmigans all over Denali, eagles all over the coast, snowshoe hare, and moose – and we even got a glimpse of the elusive peak of Denali, which is a mountain so massive that it creates its own weather system and only 30% of visitors ever see it.
Then there was the cruise itself. As someone who works hard against overconsumption both on an individual and societal level, it was hard to witness such excess. However, being on a cruise with my mom, husband, and niece was also a delightful way to spend time with family where we didn’t have to worry about how we were going to get somewhere, what we were going to eat, what we were going to do, and who was going to clean up after us. So there will be some cognitive dissonance to unpack in the coming days, which means I will likely justify the trip to myself as a way to spend time with my family that I only see a handful of times a year in a stress-free way.
While we loved getting off the cruise ship for our excursions, such as whale watching in Icy Strait Point
Photo courtesy of Macy Sherrill, one of the naturalists guiding our whale watching tour. The whale in the photo is named Heavy Dave.
or taking the White Pass into the Yukon on a historic train,
I took this picture from the outdoor viewing area from the last train car.
we also loved the activities on board the cruise ship, such as watching musical variety shows and playing games, including The Price Is Right.
It is in this latter category of entertainment where I accomplished my greatest achievement of 2026 (so far). Friends, you are now reading the words of the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas Twilight Trivia Champion, a feat I won single-handedly.
This is now my second Twilight trivia championship, the first being from the Odd 13 Brewery Trivia Night in Lafayette, CO. However, the Odd 13 championship was a group effort with a few other women from the Romancing the Tropes book club I belong to at the Westminster Library, and this championship was truly just me and my brain.
I won with 16/20 points, and for a few minutes during the questions round, I felt convinced I would not win because some of them were hard, such as what is Bella’s mother’s full name, how many chromosomes does a vampire have, and what song plays during the iconic baseball scene in the Twilight movie. While I could tell you the mother’s first name (Renee; turns out her last name is Dwyer), and that they discussed the chromosome count in Breaking Dawn, I couldn’t even hear the song from the baseball scene in my head enough to formulate a guess.
The other question I got wrong was which Jane Austen book Bella reads in Twilight, and I said Mansfield Park. While it is mentioned in the book, Bella decides not to read that one because the main character, Edmund, is too close to her love interest, Edward.
I will never get these questions wrong again!
Another question I’ll never get wrong again is what address did Chandler tell Janice he was moving to on Friends?
Wait. What? Wasn’t I writing about Twilight?
Yes, I was. But surprise! I’m also the Royal Caribbean Ovation of the Seas Friends Trivia Champion, with a one-question assist from my mom.
The answer to the above address question is 15 Yemen Road, Yemen. My answer had been 1 Yemen Road, Yemen. Dang it! I was so close on that one.
Thankfully, my mom knew the answer to the one question I truly guessed for the answer: What was the brand of lipstick Joey advertised in Japan?
I wrote down konnichiwa, however, my mom knew the answer was ichiban. That correct answer got me to a tie-breaker round with another cruise goer who also scored 19/20.
It all came down to one final question – how many episodes was Gunther in? I guessed 200 and the other competitor guessed 215. The correct answer given was 145, but as I’m fact-checking that number on Google, Wikipedia says 148 and the BBC says 185 and IMDB says 164.
So even though I am thrilled to have spent quality time in all 50 states, and time with my family in Alaska, I am ecstatic to be a twice-crowned trivia champion on Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas. The fact that it’s Twilight and Friends really does make me feel proud because of how much I loved the books and show.
Will this feat end up being my greatest achievement in all of 2026? Only time will tell! On Tuesday, I’m giving the keynote address at the Recycle Colorado Summit, and my agent is diligently at work on another of my manuscripts that will hopefully go on submission soon.
Let’s see what else the summer has in store for us ….
I had to use magic eraser to remove other people from this photo, which resulted in a bit of editing slop where interior is now misspelled!
Is it too early to be planning my summer? Perhaps if I lived seasonally, then yes, it is.
However, I live academically, and the semester officially ended last week. WOHOO!
So I consider May-August my own personal summer.
To be clear, I don’t stop working during May-August; and I am teaching in the second summer session from June 30-July 31. However, I certainly have more free time during these next few months, even with the summer session.
This summer, I also expect to have more free time because I am now on day 40 of a social media fast and a news diet (where I only read the news delivered to my inbox every Friday in a roundup of the most important stories). It’s amazing how much time opens up when you kill two activities that can accidentally turn into hours wasted.
What am I going to do with all my time? The same thing I did last summer! My friends, welcome to the Summer of Tsundoku, 2026 edition!
Tsundoku is a Japanese word for accumulating books and not reading them. For years, while we were nomads, I hardly ever kept books because they were so heavy to move from place to place. Now that we’ve been in Colorado for nearly two years, my minimalist ways have lapsed a bit when it comes to books.
The cognitive dissonance of being a minimalist while having a stuffed bookcase is quite uncomfortable, and since I am not going to shed my minimalist identity, my only choice is to read more books.
How did I get so many books?
I blame myself, of course, as I am the commander of my own behavior, as well as my desire to be a good literary citizen by supporting authors I know and/or like when they have new books come out. There’s also reading for the sake of my writing, in terms of improving craft and finding comp titles to share with my agent. Oh, and let’s not forget my writing accountability/critique partner is a more prolific reader than I am, and generously shares her books with me. Throw in the free little library by our house (as well as any free little library I come across) and my love of the Lafayette Library, which, in addition to offering a wealth of books to check out at my leisure, also offers a perpetual book sale to raise money to support itself, and it’s a perfect storm for Tsundoku.
As of May 1st, there were 36 books on my Summer of Tsundoku TBR list. You can see most of the books here:
Missing from this stack are Bad Badger: A Family Story by Maryrose Wood and illustrator Giulia Ghigini, a sequel to a book I adored so much in 2025 that I pre-ordered it weeks ago (publication date was May 5, 2026, and it’s currently on its way!),
and You’ve Been Pooping All Wrong: How to Make Your Bowel Movements a Joy by Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH, a book that I am WILDLY EMBARRASSED to tell you about, but a book that is hands-down (or cheeks up*) one of the most entertaining, interesting, and informative non-fiction books I have EVER listened to, to the point that I am willing to overlook my embarrassment and share this book with anyone who wants to listen.
Seriously, get yourself a copy, or better yet, get the audio version because it’s narrated by the author, and she did a stellar job. I enjoyed the book so much that I will be buying a copy to keep (and read again), as well as getting one for my niece when I see her next week.
Anyway, as that book was an audiobook on my list, I couldn’t stack it on my crates.
For anyone wondering, yes, I believe 36 is a ridiculously high number, and, yes, I fully expect to fall short of the goal. My current reading pace in 2026 is an average of 6 books a month. Realistically, that would put me at 24 books by September 1. However, I like to aim high because you never know!
Also, as this is Mother’s Day, a special shout-out to my mom, who instilled this love of reading and books in me. I wouldn’t be able to consider 36 books this summer without her commitment to literacy in my life.
Let the Summer of Tsundoku begin!
*Credit for this joke goes to Charlaine Harris in Dead to the World, my favorite of the Sookie Stackhouse books (which I will likely listen to again this summer, but aren’t on my list because I use them as bedtime audio stories to help me fall asleep, and don’t give them my full attention).
On Friday, it snowed. Not a lot, just enough to cover everything, including the lilacs on campus.
This little bit of snow made me realize how much I missed winter this year. There’s a literal missing of winter, as where we live in Colorado only received about 13 inches of snowfall this season, and there’s also the figurative missing of winter in that those weeks I had the flu over the winter holidays hampered my ability to experience any rest and restoration to carry me through this semester.
Last week, I couldn’t even remember if I started a Dog’s I’ve Met in 2026 list, which tells you everything you need to know about how pervasive this missingness is in my life.
Upon further investigation, I discovered I did start this list. However, I felt quite appalled that as of last Sunday, it only listed a scant 10 dogs on the list. Compared to 2024, when I met 102 new dogs and 2025, when I met 111 dogs, 10 dogs in the first quarter of the month is just embarrassing.
Thankfully, the universe felt my concerns and promptly responded with an abundance of dogs. In the last 7 days, I met Sunshine, a poodle wearing pajamas at the San Antonio aiport.
Max, a fancy therapy poodle who visited the CU Psych Club
Kringle, a goobery therapy lab, who also visited the CU Psych Club.
And Janey, a perfectly white therapy lab who rounded out our CU Psych Club trio.
I also met Burger King, a pitbull in a puffy pink coat, at Waneka Lake, and Juno and Nala, two golden retrievers at Big Daddy Bagels in Boulder. Sadly, I didn’t snap photos of those dogs because I was so excited to meet them out and about.
Last but not least, there’s another Max, this one at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, who visited me in the volunteer room and practically jumped into my arms to give me kisses. I suspect Max will get adopted right away; that’s how cute and loving he is.
All to say, thank you, universe. Please keep sending the dogs my way, and other blessings you would like to bestow.
