Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Super Bowl Squares Pool ⢠Pool #1 is sold outâ¨â˘ Pool #2 is open â 45 squares remainingâ¨Same deal: $25 per square ($10 goes to ALS United) In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to:â¨â˘ Venmo: @Nicole-Snarskiâ¨â˘ Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.comâ¨â˘ Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, Iâll post a photo on the blog.
Monday, February 2, 2026
Super Bowl Squares Pool ⢠Pool #1 is sold outâ¨â˘ Pool #2 is open â same deal: $25 per square ($10 goes to ALS United) In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to: ⢠Venmo: @Nicole-Snarskiâ¨â˘ Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.comâ¨â˘ Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, Iâll post a photo on the blog. I donât have it⌠yet.
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Super Bowl Squares Pool. ⢠Pool #1 is sold outâ¨â˘ Pool #2 is open â same deal: $25 per square ($10 goes to ALS United) In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to: ⢠Venmo: @Nicole-Snarskiâ¨â˘ Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.comâ¨â˘ Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, Iâll post a photo on the blog. I donât have it⌠yet.
Saturday, January 31, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Poolâ¨â˘ Pool #1 is sold outâ¨â˘ Pool #2 is open â same deal: $25 per square ($10 goes to ALS United) In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to: ⢠Venmo: @Nicole-Snarskiâ¨â˘ Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.comâ¨â˘ Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, Iâll post a photo on the blog.
Friday, January 30, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Poolâ¨11 spots remaining â $25 per squareâ¨If youâre interested, In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to: ⢠Venmo: @Nicole-Snarskiâ¨â˘ Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.comâ¨â˘ Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 These new blog hours have really thrown my writing off. Itâs nearly 7:00 a.m., and Iâm just getting started. Add in the fact that I canât always hit the letters on the keyboard cleanly, and suddenly âlate blogâ is becoming a theme.
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Good morning, everyone. The Super Bowl Squares Pool is officially halfway fullâ50% of the squares are sold. Each square is $25, with $10 going directly to ALS United to support ALS patients. Details are at the bottom. Over the past couple of months, my food choices have grown increasingly narrow. Eating has become less about appetite and more about mechanics. Most foodsâand even many drinks (too thin)âare now off the table because I canât chew them well enough to safely swallow.
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Today is Nikkiâs birthday. Happy Birthday, Kiddo! Youâre one amazing daughter. I love you!â¤ď¸ Nikki is putting together a Super Bowl squares pool for fun and fundraising. Details are as follows: Hi everyone, Super Bowl Sunday is coming up, and weâre hosting Super Bowl Squares this year to raise money for a great cause - ALS United, of course. You can gamble and feel good about it! Cost: $25 per squareâ¨Donation: $10 from each square will be donated to ALS United (through our marathon funding page).
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Itâs officialâI wonât be doing any volunteer Tax-Aide work this season. Back in early fall, I was still holding out hope that I could get IRS-certified and take on a limited role for the 2025 tax year. I really thought I might be able to make it work. But my fingers had other plans. Theyâve become far too clumsy on a keyboard for the kind of accuracy tax prep demandsâand when the requirement is 100%, âclose enoughâ doesnât cut it.
Monday, January 26, 2026
Good morning, everyone. First things first yesterday: a call for help to remove the door to the downstairs powder room closet. When the toilet safety rails were installed, the closet door no longer had enough clearance to open and close. We left it stuck in the open position, which ended up blocking part of the grab bar. I told myself it was fineâthat enough of the bar was still accessible. Iâm not sure if that contributed to my fall yesterday, but thereâs no good reason to leave obstacles in my path.
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Whatever Happened to Phil? So I havenât seen or spoken to Phil since I left Portland in 1980. Ever since Facebook became a thing, Iâve tried off and on to track him down. I searched his name, poked around for siblings, and narrowed my focus to the Pacific Northwest. For a long time, nothing turned up. Then one day, in 2024 I stumbled across his momâs obituary, and suddenly I had just enough information to start sleuthing with renewed enthusiasm.
Saturday, January 24, 2026
Good morning, everyone. This is the continuation of my time living in Portland, Oregon, when I was 20 years oldâwith my triplet brother Tim and my roommate from WIU, Phil. Weâd been in Portland for about a week, and reality set in quickly. We needed jobs. And we needed a place to live. We found temporary housing overlooking a junkyard in a sketchy part of town. There was no heat. That was fine while the weather was still decentâbut once November arrived, it became a real problem.
Friday, January 23, 2026
Good morning, everyone.â¨Be safe out thereâit is seriously cold. Following my one year and done at WIU, I returned home in the summer of 1979 to a fair amount of well-deserved stink eye from my mom. She was always the bad cop. Like any good parent, she asked the question that hung in the air every day: What are you going to do with your life? I was 20 years old, and I had no answer.
Thursday, January 22, 2026
Good morning, everyone. In keeping with the mantra âHappy wife, happy life!â Iâm breaking from my self-imposed 7:00 a.m. CST publishing deadline and pushing this back by an hour or so. It helps keep the sleep cycles in the house somewhat normalâand thatâs a win for everyone. Letâs rewind to 1978â79. I was a freshman at Western Illinois University. After graduating high school, I stayed home and attended the College of Lake County to get my grades up.
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was a hard dayâŚeven though all I really did was sit and get pushed around. It still amazes me how exhausting it can be to do almost nothing physically. We left the house at 7:00 a.m. for my 8:45 CT scan of my chest at Evanston hospital. It was Cindy, her sister Barb, and me. Bitter cold, quick transfers, careful steps on icy ground. At least I finally upgraded from ankle socks to warm trekking socksâŚabout four months late, but better late than frozen.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Good morning, everyone. I finished Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Itâs a work of historical fiction centered on Martha Ballard, a midwife who delivered more than a thousand babies in the second half of the 1700s. Lawhon takes a narrow slice of time and builds a murder mystery around it, using Marthaâs detailed journals as the backbone of the story. Martha is observant, deeply involved in everyoneâs business, and openly scornful of most menâincluding, at times, her husband, who comes across as nothing short of a saint.
Monday, January 19, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Tough loss for the Bears last night, but what a seasonâit was heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat football all year and the most excitement in Chicago since the Devin Hester daysâŚor even the â85 Bears. Caleb Williams is the real deal, and for the first time in a long while thereâs genuine hope for the future. The overtime loss hurts, but this team never quit. They kept us watching to the very end, and thatâs what sports are supposed to be: pure entertainment and a welcome distraction from life.
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Growing up, most of us had a best friend at some point in childhood. That one person who lived a block or two away, close enough that you could just show up. Back in the â60s and â70s there were no arranged playdates, no calendars to coordinate. Your parents simply nudged you out the door and told you to get out from underfoot. Friendship took care of itself.
Saturday, January 17, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Yesterday was massage dayâmy bi-weekly appointment with Ashley from Sullivan Mobile Massage and Spa. This was my fourth session with her, and she continues to be nothing short of wonderful. At my third massage, we switched to a chair massage. I simply donât move well on a table anymoreâand if Iâm being honest, I donât really move at all. Playing it safe felt like the right call. But when Ashley finished, I knew immediately: it wasnât the same.
Friday, January 16, 2026
Good morning, everyone. I finished reading The Nine yesterdayâa WWII story. Iâm always struck by what people are able to endure and still maintain the will to live. The courage and tenacity required to survive torture and the inhumane conditions of concentration camps in Germany and Japan is beyond comprehension. Thanks for the recommendation Nikki. ALSâŚAnother Fall I had fall #16 the other day while Cindy was out with friends.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Good morning, everyone. Happy Birthday to Geoff B. đđđĽłđ Geoff is the IT brain behind this blog. If he hadnât helped get it set up, Iâm honestly not sure it ever wouldâve gotten off the ground. Thank you, Geoff, for your steady support and for being one of the people quietly making this whole thing possible. We had a couple of visitors yesterday afternoon. Bill and his girlfriend Monica made the trek from Waukegan to spend some time with us.