You’ll have to forgive me for my delay. The plague has befallen the Shand household, and I write to you with a fever, intrusive coughing spells, and brain fog. I blame any incoherencies found below on my current state. This year was another year of big life changes—milestones, if you will—not just for me personally, … Continue reading Top 10 of 2025
The Shand household is sick, so I’m writing this blog in a clouded haze of brain fog and I’m not entirely sure what I will type. I’m just happy to be writing a blog at all since I’ve been preoccupied for the past 12 months with keeping another human alive 24/7. Mom bloggers out there: … Continue reading Top 10 of 2024
Let’s pretend it’s six months ago, and that it makes sense to write a “Best of” post for 2023. To be clear: it was my intention to publish a blog on New Year’s Day, per my blogging tradition, when 2023 was fresh in everyone’s minds. But that didn’t go as planned, and from January 2nd … Continue reading Well, Folks. Here it is: The Top 10 of 2023
It might have taken me ten months to write about my honeymoon, but I am determined to keep my New Year’s tradition of blogging about the previous year’s highlights on January 1st. In other words, this will be an all nighter. But didn’t you only get four hours of sleep last night? you ask. Why … Continue reading Top 10 of 2022
Why yes, my astute and observant blog readers, I did blow right past my Thanksgiving Day blog this year, and waved farewell to my Christmas Day blog,* but I will not—WILL NOT, I TELL YOU—neglect my decade-long tradition of the New Year’s Day blog! *in an ironic twist, I found a Taylor Pork Roll section … Continue reading The Top 10 of 2021 (with bonus content)
If it hasn’t already been said, Charles Dickens wrote the best summary of the year 2020, which is remarkable given that he composed it in 1859: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of … Continue reading The Top 20 of 2020
I started to compose this blog on January 4th, as part of my annual tradition, and in the three weeks since I drafted the opening paragraph, I: I ended up in the ER. had to close my bank account because someone was creating fraudulent checks. found out a very special person passed away at the … Continue reading The Year of the New Decade
I’ve always known that there are few people in this world, and in this country, and in the neighboring state of Texas, who do not know anything about New Mexico. Whenever I encounter someone in New England who has been to New Mexico, I’m overjoyed because it means they know where it is! Even my well-meaning, extraordinarily intelligent friends ask questions … Continue reading Ten Questions You Shouldn’t Ask a New Mexican
What To Expect When You’re Expecting (To Walk for Hunger) 1) A necessity to wake up early on a Sunday. I haven’t woken up at 5:30 a.m. since I had a “real” job last year, with maybe one exception to catch a flight, so this was a challenge. But I was determined to arrive ON … Continue reading What To Expect When You’re Expecting (To Walk for Hunger)
They Call Me Fushilou 