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Category — Consumption

Consumption 8

by Mel

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

  • Cafe sandwich: Tofu, peanut-ginger sauce, soy-based slaw on a panini-pressed sourdough bread with a side salad of greens, carrots, and beets.

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

  • Only Murders in the Building (Season 5): Sometimes the episodes are great. Sometimes they’re okay. I always enjoy watching it, but I don’t crave watching them a second or third time as I do with other comedies.
  • The Office: We missed this years ago, but we decided to try it now because we’re enjoying The Paper. We’re only a couple of episodes in, and it’s slowly getting better. I think we’ll stick with it but watch it slowly.
  • Taskmaster Season 20: The episodes are currently rolling out on YouTube. This is one of my favourite casts. We like everyone. It’s so funny.
  • The Diplomat: New season! I did not see that twist coming at the end of the first episode but it totally makes sense on how the rest of the season will roll out. Such great storytelling and character exploration.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

  • A website about historic Sugartown
  • Women’s wellies on the Barbour website (debating between Barbour, Hunter, and Bogs)
  • How to get email notifications from Libby
  • Location of Lyra’s bench in the Botanic Garden at Magdalen
  • A sweater I liked at Hanna Andersson
  • Exeter Cathedral’s new treasure room
  • A Wikipedia page for the show Inside No. 9
  • The advice song from the Hunger Games from Wiress on priorities: “First avoid the slaughter / Get weapons, look for water / Find food and where to sleep / Fire and friends can keep.”
  • A page about the now defunct Bowcraft Amusement Park

Micro-Joys

  • Seasalt (my other favourite British clothing brand) is opening stores in the US in same-named cities as where they have stores in the UK. There is a Seasalt in Shrewsbury UK, and there is now a Seasalt in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. We were nearby, so we drove over and I fell in love with the first skirt I tried on. I felt so good in it, and I can’t wait to wear it this winter.
  • There is a black cat with a white foot who prowls around the neighbourhood and loves to sit in our bushes. One night, we came home, and there was a fluffy grey cat sitting upright on our top step, outside the front door. While we always expect to see the black cat, this was a cat we had never seen before, waiting for us. It stared at us as we watched it from the car. Finally, we opened our car doors and started up the steps, and IT VANISHED. It didn’t jump off the steps and run away. It literally vanished. We think it was a ghost cat.
  • The apartment building I lived in during graduate school changed its name and quintupled the rent after a refurbishment. But it was driving me bonkers because I couldn’t remember the old name. I ended up having to message Serenity because I knew she would remember the name. So forgetting something meant I got to catch up with an old friend.

Mood

  • Trying to keep things in perspective and take a step back when I notice that I’m not.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

October 29, 2025   1 Comment

Consumption 7

by Mel

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

  • Vegetarian pho with ChickieNob in a little outdoor restaurant.
  • New York Times corn risotto recipe, heavily changed.
  • Olivada pizza from Antonios: fresh mozzarella, olive tapenade, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, Parmesan, and basil.
  • Poppy Cooks roasted potatoes — these were exceptional.
  • Austin Grill corn soup (without the add-ons) from the Vegetables Unleashed cookbook by José Andrés.

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

  • The Thursday Murder Club on Netflix. It was good if you don’t compare it to the book (that all-star cast!), but it felt pretty flimsy if you do. I’m not unhappy that I watched it, but I don’t think I would ever re-watch it.
  • The Paper on Peacock. I never saw The Office, so I may be missing a few jokes, but it’s very funny and sweet. I like that they’re all (except, of course, the character Esmeralda) trying to make the newspaper work vs. get out of doing work.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

  • A list of audio books read by Kristin Atherton. I really like her voice.
  • A webpage on Tenby in Wales. I’d like to go there.
  • A website for Moomin Valley Park in Hanno, Japan.
  • A description of the ride Danse Macabre at Efteling.
  • A stuffed pine marten on Amazon.
  • An announcement for a Boden sample sale.
  • Pippin at the Signature Theater.

Micro-Joys

  • I baked a chocolate cake with coffee icing at the end of August, and we ate a slice every night around 8:30 pm, calling it cake-o-clock.
  • Josh set Waze to use Paddington’s voice to give us directions. Even after a month, Paddington sometimes throws in a little Paddington fact we haven’t heard before. Hidden depths.
  • I got to see an old friend for a short visit, meeting her at her old neighborhood park. It was so good to see her and her kids/husband face-to-face v. through a screen.
  • Football/soccer is back! We love cheering on the Spurs on Saturday morning.

Mood

  • Contemplative. Trying to keep my head down and get through things without getting swept up in the noise and chaos.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

September 30, 2025   2 Comments

Consumption 6

by Mel

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

  • Adjusted this cucumber salad to remove the fish sauce and add cubes of tofu
  • Potatoes dauphinoise
  • Trader Joe’s appetizers for dinner

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

  • Season 2 of the US Traitors. The US Traitors is infinitely less interesting than the UK Traitors because people enter already knowing things about the other people because they were on reality television shows. In the UK, at least in the first three seasons, everyone entered as strangers.
  • We started Murderbot, which is pretty funny. We’re a few episodes in.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

  • Warby Parker glasses
  • The Threatened Swan (two people I knew were going to Amsterdam)
  • Weasley family (could not remember Bill – up until 1 pm running through men’s names until I finally googled it)
  • Seasoned baked potato wedges with ranch (Nitty Gritty)
  • Finger puppets from Folkmanis
  • Mrs. Meyer’s fall multisurface cleaner options
  • Agafia Lykova’s Wikipedia page
  • Pictures from the defunct Fred Flintstone Park in South Dakota
  • An article about Xando, the defunct restaurant that merged with Cosi. I could not remember the name of either place
  • Menu for a fish restaurant opening in DC this fall that I want to take the Wolvog to when he’s home for Thanksgiving
  • An article about visiting Framlingham Suffolk

Micro-Joys

  • We went to hear Tituss Burgess perform, and he brought people up to the stage for a Q&A session in the middle of the concert. One woman mentioned that attending the concert was her birthday gift, and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to the woman. She burst into tears. It made me happy to see someone else so happy.
  • While Josh was at a conference, I gave myself a special treat book for while he was away. These are books I save up to read when I need a book I know will be a really good book. This time, it was Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz.

Mood

  • Super sad that the kids are going back to school soon.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

August 27, 2025   1 Comment

Consumption 5

by Mel

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favorites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

  • Miso-sesame noodles (tweaking this recipe to make it less slaw and more noodle-y)
  • Stanley Tucci’s marinara sauce (tweaking to use passata instead of whole tomatoes)
  • Jamie Oliver’s tomato risotto
  • Recreating Burger Fiancé’s vegan chicken sandwich, to the best of my ability. If you are ever in Montreal, this is our favourite restaurant

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

  • Our experience with Australian Traitors lasted two episodes. We were really upset by the stuff with Chloe, and we decided to stop watching and switch to the U.S. Traitors. We don’t love it as much as the UK Traitors, but it’s a close second. We watched Seasons 1, so far.
  • We started Department Q. I read the first two books and loved them but worried that seeing it on the screen would be too scary. The episodes are intense, but it’s well-done.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

  • The best time to book train tickets.
  • Come See Me In the Good Light Wikipedia page.
  • Trying to figure out what the KONO signs (with a violin) mean. We see them on telephone polls all the time.
  • A recipe for Philly tomato pie, which I read about in an article.

Micro-Joys

  • Josh has been joking for more than 20 years that I have an unusual love of primates. Joke was on him when Wordle made “loris” the answer on July 18, and I got it in three guesses.
  • Our waitress at a restaurant told us it would help them a lot if we left a review. Happy to help out, especially because she went above and beyond, allowing us to sit outside for our meal. After I left a review, I wrote one for every place we enjoy in the area. The exercise reminded me that we know a lot of awesome places.
  • Drew Petersen was the solo pianist at a Gershwin performance, and he was invited back on stage for an encore and shyly dedicated the performance of Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” to his boyfriend who was in the audience. And you know how old the crowd was when you collectively heard 1,800+ people touch their chest and let out an “aaaaaaw” in the face of young love. It was awesome to celebrate happiness.

Mood

  • Feeling a little melancholy with the end of summer.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

July 30, 2025   3 Comments

Consumption 4

by Mel

This is a monthly series, published near the end of the month summarizing what I found, ate, watched, googled, and felt this month. New categories are added from time to time.

Books Added to My TBR (e.g., books I just learned about that I’m excited to read… maybe)

Notable Meals (new recipes, old favourites, and restaurant items we ate this month)

  • Pannenkoeken, which are Dutch pancakes. I served them with cherries and cream.
  • Food and Wine’s ramen noodle salad.
  • Tofu fajitas.

Television, Movies, and Music (watching and listening)

  • Started Grosse Pointe Garden Society. Super fun, light-hearted mystery. I hope it gets a second season.
  • Started The Residence. Love, love, love this. It’s like Knives Out in the White House.
  • Watched all five episodes of Sirens. Perfect if you liked The Perfect Couple but snickered at it, too. Satire wrapped in Lilly Pulitzer.
  • The new Sarah Silverman special, PostMortem. You’ll laugh, but it’s also a moving account of losing her parents and stepmother.
  • The new Mike Birbiglia special, The Good Life. It was less cohesive than some of his other specials but had great stories.

Added To My Ongoing Mix Tape

Tabs I Left Open (things I Googled and left up on the screen)

  • A Wikipedia page for Gotland, Sweden.
  • An explanation for why you can’t say “rabbit” on the Isle of Portland.
  • A web project collecting scans of my old high school’s literary magazine.

Micro-Joys

  • The symphony community outreach staff gave me a birthday button.
  • When we travel, we keep an audio journal each night, talking through all of our memories for the day. It often comes in handy when we’re trying to remember something, which in the case of this story was the graffiti that appeared on a building we passed on the train between London and Norwich. To find the passage, we had to listen to a bunch of other memories. I have these audio journals dating back about 12 years, and I always remember something new when we listen to them.
  • I had a ladybird on the outside of my car for many days. The first day, I commented that there was a ladybird. The second day, I marveled that it was still there. By the third day, everyone else thought it was dead, but I still held out hope that it was sleeping. A week later, I had to admit that the ladybird probably would have needed food by this point if it was still alive. “It’s just like ladybird ladybird,” I told Josh. He didn’t know that children’s poem and didn’t believe it was real (once I said it aloud) until I showed it to him online.

Mood

  • Feeling pretty fearful about the future, and that makes me feel jittery for a large portion of every day.

What about you? Let me know what you’re eating, seeing, listening to, googling, feeling this month.

June 29, 2025   2 Comments

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