I used to love to read. In grade school, reading was my preferred recess activity, far above four square, jumping rope, and doing flips on the jungle gym. By high school, I must have scaled up to a good four or five hours a day spent cracking open a book and just blissing out. I…
Author: Jane Kalmes
8 Totally Random Things I Like, or Don’t
I don’t like: Drying off after showers Pushing grocery buggies Taking out my contacts The smell of clams I like: Taking my socks off in bed Buttering toast Chopping veggies The smell of garages How about you?
The Buddy System Continues
Well, the first two weeks of my Buddy Pact with Becky are over, and so far it seems to be a success. Neither Becky nor I have missed a deadline. Which is good, especially since she as a real-life deadline looming and I have a desperate desire to get my book in the mail. Three…
OMG Star Trek OMG
What can I say about the new Star Trek movie? I mean, what CAN I say about the new Star Trek movie? Because the last thing I would want to say is anything that might spoil it for anyone. So I will simply try out a new maxim I’ve been floating around in my head…
Five Things My Mom Does Better Than Anybody Else
Make lasanga Plan birthday parties Fix disasters Scrapbook Love me Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!
Buddy Buddy
Of all the things that are hard about being a writer, cultivating discipline is probably the hardest. I’ve been struggling with it for years, for what feels like my whole life. And I don’t think I’m alone. Other people struggle with it too. A couple of years back, when I was looking for a house,…
I Want to Sell My Soul to HBO
I was in the bookstore yesterday and I noticed there was a new cover for Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Book publishers like to update their covers every once in a while, to keep them looking fresh and modern and on code, so this wasn’t exactly a big surprise. But as I…
Make Mine Sushi
Lately, I’ve had a real thing for sushi. I can’t get enough of it. For dinner, for lunch… heck, I’d even eat the stuff for breakfast. Problem is, you just can’t get sushi cheap. So last Friday I got out my much-read-but-never-used sushi cookbook and decided to give it a whirl. My sushi cookbook, I…
Cracking the Code
Whether you realize it or not, you know the code. The code of packaging. It’s the code that tells you that chips that come to you in a muted-color bag are healthier than those in a bright one. That Milano cookies are a perfectly respectable snack to serve to adults. That Target’s generic shampoo is…
Man, I Didn’t Know the Economy was THAT Bad
If you’ve ever been to Zaxby’s chicken shack, you know what it is to get lousy customer service. Zaxby’s is sort of the Anti-Chick-Fil-A; it is staffed almost entirely by stoned, sullen college students who evidently have a lot more important things to do than get me my food in a timely manner. But I…