I made a new friend at the refillable ink cartridge store this afternoon. All these years I’ve been buying my Epson ink at Office Max and they’ve been telling me I can’t use generic brand or get them refilled. In a pithy word, nonsense! My new friend at the RICS sold me refilled cartridges for about a third less, and that means nothing goes to landfill — except the shrink wrap around the cartridge. I asked if I could have it w/o the plastic, and he said it’s necessary to keep the ink from drying out. He’s a local guy who runs a very green business. The store is very…

or more of the same… It’s pretty funny to look at myself today, compared to a year ago when I started the Compact — basically everything I’m wearing is thrifted or gifted or found, from my cowboy boots, jeans, yoga shirt and the belt and scarf I have on. My office furniture is mostly found by the roadside; the radio next to me is a boom box that no longer booms — the CD player lid snapped so Daughter #4 didn’t want it anymore. But the radio works just fine! There’s a glass bottle of water on my desk, formerly a French lemonade bottle with a snap spring top cork.…

The cat bite got ugly, yes, but so did the antibiotics. They killed all the good juju in my body and left a little bit of the infection still living. It will probably come back and eat me while I sleep. Anyway, ended up with a nice case of thrush and some kind of stomach ailment which left me unable to eat much. Except probiotic soymilk and live yogurt. So that was my diet for a few days. Cured the thrush and then the other thing, and now I’m finally able to enjoy some of the forbidden foods: alcohol, yeast bread, sugar, and fermented foods (pickles, olives). All had to…

Yeah, more fun at my house. Something must have bitten me — turns out it was one of those darned cats. Right on the thumb knuckle, and next thing you know I had a fat red thumb that looked like something you’d see in a Tom and Jerry cartoon, after being hit with a hammer. Looked like a big toe. A toe for a thumb. It was not sexy. I had a lot of trouble using the space bar, opening jars and turning the key in my ignition. Let’s all cheer for the underappreciated opposable thumb! I thought I had a case of arthritis. That’s how sharp I am. But…

Hi, peoples, finally got through my 971 backed-up e-mails to catch up. I’ve been inundated with way too much excitement, such as going to court and therapy and the chiropractor, mourning the loss of two long-time friends, fending off the crazies, juggling Thanksgiving around three separate families and yes, getting ready for the holidays… …plus getting a new print vendor for the newspaper, and having extra full-color sections to fill for the holidays in less time than usual… …plus Mr. Husband said something dumb to me the other day so I chased him because it could not go unpunished, and tripped over the doorstep, landing with a gorgeous roll on…