R 🌈

Diving deeper into the growing teacher shortage western Pa. is facing Western Pennsylvania is facing a growing teacher shortage, as thousands have left the profession, while fewer enter it. KDKA investigative producer Tory Wegerski joined us with more information on thi...

Went on Talk Pittsburgh today to chat about my investigation into Pennsylvania's teacher shortage and what your school district can do to fix it (hint: pay 'em)

side note if anyone has any suggestions about how to sit up straight please share b/c I thought I had good posture and yet: no.

pint-sized mason jars filled with pickling spices, sliced red onion and sliced cucumbers

pickles!

dried kitchen herbs & medicinal herbs in various containers and on plates. there are 3 stained glass windows behind them in a harlequin pattern of red, orange, purple, & green. a hat rack w/mirror is on left. light orange pine wood walls & corner shelves on left. intricately patterned rug in blue, red, tan, pink, and burgundy on the right bottom

herb-drying station set up!

def do it on a cooler day!

cloudy sky that’s got dark blue clouds. a roof with a brick chimney is on the right. evil trumpet vines on a fence at the bottom of shot

raindrops? raindrops (in south park) very unexpected!

redo dining room” means changing it+the connected living room up furniture-wise. the insanely heavy marble topped dining room table of my mom’s makes it impossible as i can’t move it myself. our house isn’t big & i need it to be much more modular for seasonal projects like canning

small 2-shelve wood bookcase half-filled with bags of green (unroasted) coffee beans held in place with a sage green ceramic pot with raised dot pattern

school work shelves have been temporarily requisitioned as coffee roasting shelves for a few weeks! not that i’m roasting all of it now, but they’re are 6-8 different kinds of beans and i like switching it up frequently

very excited about adding 96 sq ft of floor space to the attic. it’s only between 3-4’ in height up there, so getting more storage space will help get the garage emptied out considerably

glad i got some coffee roasting done on saturday b/c i’m mainlining it currently to get motivated lol

checking aqi/wx to make my weekly project list. today=making bbq bread & butter picked b/c i found gorgeous pickling 🥒. buying plywood to add more flooring to attic & we’ll cut it to size today for install tmrw before 90°’s return. booking guys to move heavy table next wk so i can redo dining room!

Buy audiobooks & support local bookstores Libro.fm makes it possible for you to buy audiobooks directly through local bookstores.

i’ve found that libro.fm, hoopla, and libby give me everything audible once did, and i’m so thankful for them as my reading is probs 75% audiobooks these days!

plus the not great AQI and dry air today has me with a post-nasal drip kind of sore throat. not covid, but still very annoying

took my mom to the doctor & got her set up for her zoom interview for her master gardener application & that is about all i accomplished today

i think now that i have a grad school break, my body did that thing it used to do when i was a teacher & summer break started where i just slept for 3 days

happy birthday!!! 🎈🎉🎂

medium sized black and silver husky-corgi mix laying stretched out on the grass in the sun

toby: i need to go out. like, right now! out out OUT
me: wow ok drank a lot of water did you?
toby: this spot of grass needed laying on it was an emergency

i can’t grocery shop w/my adhd mom without a list that i’ve organized by aisle location of items

i’m adhd, too, but i’m almost 100% low executive function & high hyper-focus, not so much the distractable aspect, as she has
and i no longer go into hardware/home improvement stores b/c i lose my MIND

i’ve never gone to new england in the fall (except for a quick trip to boston) & if we get any kind of unseasonal wx (hot) in late Sept here in SWPA, i think i might take a little jaunt up that way this year. this little bit of relief we’ve had this week made me realize how “cool” breaks help a LOT

right? it’s been a desperately-needed psychological reprieve. makes me feel like i can, indeed, get though the rest of the summer

a bunch of red and green apples sitting on a metal lattice table top in the foreground. green plants, trees, and grass in the background, along with a light orange barn-style shed

it’s not “fall” yet but try telling that to them

and he’s on bsky, apparently, tho not sure how often 😂

Hey everyone, I am moderating a panel on the legacy of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood with special guests David Newell, the iconic Mr. McFeely, and others. Join me at White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield this Friday at 7pm. www.eventbrite.com/e/the-legacy...

omg i remember when you got her (the golden twitter days)
happy birthday Bruna! 🎉 🐶

ahhhh i miss grocery outlet
just looked and the closest one to pittsburgh is 40 miles away. which, while much closer than i’d expected, still kind of defeats the “save money!” purpose 😭

in normal times, they were such fantastic escapism from the daily grind of (now, in retrospect, _minor_) annoyances

now i’m almost exclusively reading english mysteries that take place a long time ago b/c other than some increasingly pertinent WW2 storylines, they’re unlikely to happen to me?

tho if someone wants to write a zombieland -style novel called “tips n’ tricks for the apocalypse” i’d still be all over that, probably

minor thing in the midst of all of the actual horrors but one thing i miss about my former life is reading dystopian literature for enjoyment, not for gd tips n’ tricks

i will say this, tho (not as a doom thing, but so your 🍅 & 🥒 babbies don’t die just as they’re hitting their stride): keep up your watering in the garden for the next two weeks b/c it looks to be pretty dry
i watered well yesterday & everything in pots needed it again today

like…bath & bodyworks stuff? if so, then yes!

*not* talking about ron smiley, whom
we all love to pieces

the sheer number of meteorologists i’ve seen/read saying, essentially, “sure, the cooler weather is great, but don’t get toooo used it, it’s still august blah blah blah” is ridiculous.

like, we know, we’re not cretins, just let us have this nice thing for a few days in this daily hellscape of dread