K.T. Donohue

There and Back Again, Nostalgic For Camping, Hobbits Beware of the Twin Towers

Let me start by saying that a few hours on the beach in Malibu is as much camping as I could handle anymore—however, in August. I had a wave of nostalgia for what I grew up calling camping. I flew up to Seattle for a family party. I had

Fait Attention, The Price of Opulent Living, Neal Asher

Fait Attention! That's French for Pay Attention! I say it to myself when I get distracted. My inside voice is my college French professor. While I have had everything I need to eat better and pay attention to my health, I do not. Now, with my added "

Why Should the Devil Get All the Best Tunes? Success Tracking and the Free Apps on Your Phone

I had Ah-Ha connection between a clever thought I picked up from reading and my actual life. Early Thursday morning, I mixed up my workout drinks for the next day. I had my moment of connection. Here is the clever bit. "You have everything you need to succeed."

Paintingrooms, waywardgalaxy3, jasonanspach, jnchaney, cuttingin, drybursh

Self-Painting Advice Squint at the splendor of our Citrus Salon

Just now, we painted our office/guest room. It's been a plan kicked down the road for ten years. I wanted to paint it an orange or orange accent. I left the exact choice up to Mark. He was visiting with friends recently and saw an orange paint

Ventura Beaches, DVD Conversions, 80s Action Movies

This week, I took on a new project. I am doing video Conversion From DVD to .mp4 file. My husband has about a dozen video DVDs of his live shows and TV appearances to convert to computer files. I said yes. It's the kind of thing I can

Rendezvous The Way Home from the Moon

I am working on a story about how we painted our office/guest room. It's not interesting enough to share yet. There was hardly any fighting over how to do it or what color to use. But let me inject here that "I said I was sorry&

Disability and Medicare, 10 year aniversary, I do,

Medical Miracle Smarter Faster Better Happy Aniversary

We had quite a day this week. Let's call it Tuesday. My husband took a spill in the yard and broke his wrist. Of course, he needs a cast for a month. We have had no luck finding a Doctor to put a form on that takes his

The Year with No Pudding Cups The Wizards of Fear

I am celebrating a milestone this month. I have gone 12 months without being put in the hospital due to my Crohn's or anything else. Not a single tray was served to me with a pudding cup or Italian ice treat. It's a backhanded success, I

Never Miss Twice Twin Fools in the Resort Pool Failing to Fail

Last week I did not get the chance to write a weekly blog post. I don't offer an excuse. Instead, I want to share the opportunity I took instead. I made plans to see my sister visiting from San Francisco while her family was staying at a resort

Line of Sight, Dawns Early Light, Read What You Please.

"Environment is an invisible hand that shapes human behavior." —James Clear. Last week we dismantled our living room to make room for a dining room table. This week we tape-measured our way into how big a table we wanted. It was the $45 second-hand Ikea table from the

Thank The Makers, Medals for everyone, Save the Fabric

My husband fancies me a maker of things. I possess the patience of Job to put the hex bolts of an Ikea kit together in three or more tries. So, I follow his creative lead on our projects to the point where I can turn something over in my head

Half the Sky Below Me, Family Party

My family is having a party. My sister was organizing an invitation this week and looking for a photo that showed us all together simultaneously. It was a challenge because I have seven siblings, and to find a photo of us all together is a challenge, especially as adults. The

Generations Embrace the Idiosyncrasies Channel the Crock

The gap in generational experience is like speaking another language. Our TV shows about Star Trek are funny. Social rules and interpersonal relationships have been the same in that universe for hundreds of years of storylines. That's not how things work from one generational epoch to the next.

Dupped By Scales, 30 Weeks of Diet Scutiny, Mistborn Wizard

I spent a long time listening to diet advice from people on Youtube who are very clever about citing studies. They sounded knowledgeable, but I have since discovered the recommendations are based on incorrect conclusions from the cited studies. I was duly dupped by the advice and started shopping for

They are penetrating the Bureaucracy and Being present.

I recently changed insurance, which has led me on a journey to penetrate the bureaucracy. I feel like Mr. Incredible in the cartoon movie helping his client work the insurance system. Now I am a client on a fixed income, figuring out how to cover the cost of my costly

four thousand weeks, Deadloch, weeks to live

Four Thousand Weeks, Deadloch

What am I reading? I am still reading 4k Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I am doing it on an audiobook. His voice is soothing. However, the title springs a bit of death and doom on us right out of the gate. Let me interject a quick disclaimer here. We have

Habit Hack

Brain Candy and Making the Easy Things Harder.

Make the easy things harder. I have been rereading Atomic Habits by James Clear. It is dense with valuable insights to help me live a more productive and happy life by hacking my good or bad habits. For example, I put my phone in the bedroom in the morning while

PICC line

My TMI Goal for 2023 And Fun with PICC Lines

Spoiler alert all my blogs with TMI in the title have too much information about my Crohn's illness. So don't read further if you don't want to hear about it. Make the hard things more accessible. A goal to not spend any time in

What would my everyday tasks look like if they were easy?

Once in a while, he would get an insight that he could write about and eventually do something worthy of a Nobel prize. He did not always know how a note would fit or grasp the connection immediately, but he saved it and could return to it later.

Night Cafe Art for the NonArtist Steal Like a Robot Artist

I have experimented with AI writing and AI art. The Art option I have had the best luck with is Night Cafe. It has a text-to-picture format and a picture-to-art format.

Everything is a Negotiation

This week I am reading about hostage negotiation. I almost didn't start it, but I am glad I jumped in.  It's a KT top five suggestion with practical applications you can use immediately.  I tried it out on my husband, and it worked. It borders on

Leveling Up with Power Tools Breaking The Internet Again.

I have held off buying power tools my whole life. It seemed like having power tools and the skills to use them was jumping into the deep end of DIY culture. I am happy watching DIY on Sunday mornings with my husband. We watch other people do clever projects. As

Hey, That is my Desk Idea, Travel and Be Inspired.

We rent small apartments in our building, so I have mused over clever ideas about making them more functional. One idea is Murphy beds in the studio units. We put a Murphy bed in the second bedroom of our apartment. That was a very DIY build. We bought a kit.

One Bite of Snickers the Essential Experience of Limitlessness

When I was about ten years old, my mom was in the habit of pulling out a hidden candy bar after dinner. She chopped up the Snickers bar as dessert for eight. At the time, I did not appreciate the visceral essentialism that one bite of a Snickers bar represented

911 What is Your Emergency?

I was working on a door lock and a painting project on Monday. The order I decided to tackle my tasks put me in the right place at the right time to save my neighbor's life with CPR. Tuesday I told my IV nurse what happened, and she