family recipe

A One-Pan Meal

I hate washing a ton of dishes after dinner. When my kids were little, I didn’t have a lot of time to wash dishes, even if I did enjoy it … which I don’t. So, whenever I can find meals that don’t take many pots and pans, I’m all for it. I have loads of meals I can manage to make with two pans, but very few with one. Meatloaf is one such meal, if…

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family ideas observations

Pushing for a 4-Day Work Week

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is on strike. While listening to a report about the strike, I heard that one of the union’s demands was for a 4-day (32-hour) work week at the current level of pay for a 5-day work week. According to this Associated Press article on the strike, this demand has been dismissed by automakers, but, darn it, it shouldn’t be. Switching to a 4-day work week isn’t about laziness. It…

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family music

Santigold – Another Musician I’ve Been Missing

Earlier this year, I blogged about discovering the musician AURORA. Whelp, I was just introduced to another amazing musician by my brother. Once again, she’s been out there being musical for years now and this was the first I had heard of her. Although, in my defense, I don’t follow music as closely as my brother, who is a musician, and he had somehow missed her, as well. (We commiserate regularly about our age, including…

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design observations

Aggravating Design

This Labor Day weekend (2023), Minnesota is experiencing some record-breaking heat. Yesterday, it got up to 97 degrees F. Today, it’s expected to reach 96. In the interest of avoiding the hottest part of the day, Hubby and I headed out in mid-morning to run errands. While on the drive to the storage unit we are renting, we were listening to 1A on Minnesota Public Radio. The conversation was with Mark Ellison, a carpenter who…

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design home product packaging products

Can Opener #642

I have a gripe. My husband shares it with me. Might you have the same gripe? Why can’t a can opener last more than a few months? Over our 3-decades plus marriage, we have gone through countless can openers. We’ve tried cheap ones. We’ve tried expensive ones. All seem to fail by not properly cutting the top off a can or by falling apart. Our latest can opener was from Ikea. Compared to the previous…

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