Sunday, February 8, 2026 – Day 534

Good morning, everyone. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. Kickoff is at 5:30 p.m. CST. The Squares pools are attached. Pool #1, make sure it says “revised” at the top—otherwise, you’re not looking at the correct version. Pool #2 had no changes. Good luck to everyone. Have fun. Nikki and Wyatt pulled off a last-minute surprise and came in for a weekend visit. They’re staying until Monday, which means they’ll be here to watch the Super Bowl with us.

Continue reading →

Super Bowl Squares Pool 1 - Revised

Updated pool #1, sorry for having to revise and the confusion that followed.

Super Bowl Square Pool #1 Error

Hold the press. On pool #1 I regret to inform you of an error. On the Seahawks side of the board, there are two 7’s and a missing 6. I will repost corrected version. Sorry for the error and confusion that results.

Saturday, February 7, 2026 – Day 533

I Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Pool All the numbers have been drawn and assigned. There are four sheets for each of the two pools, each one corresponding to the ending score of a specific quarter. The numbers change every quarter, so it may look a little confusing at first—but I’m confident it’ll make sense once you see the sheets. With your help, we raised $2,000 for ALS United. Thank you all for being part of this.

Continue reading →

Friday, February 6, 2026 – Day 532

Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Pool • Pool #1 — sold out
• Pool #2 — sold out Photos of the numbers will be on tomorrow’s blog. We raised $2,000 for ALS United.
Thank you. Truly.
Now I just need to wipe the tears from my eyes so I can keep typing. Yesterday was clinic day. We had arranged for a driver and a van that could accommodate my power chair—something new and something I was actually looking forward to.

Continue reading →

Thursday, February 5, 2026 – Day 531

Super Bowl Squares Pool • Pool #1 is sold out
• Pool #2 is open — ~45 squares remaining
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-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, I’ll post a photo on the blog.

Continue reading →

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 – Day 530

Good morning, everyone. I had a much better night’s sleep 😴. There’s an over-the-counter product called Biotène that helps with dry mouth, and it actually works. It’s not perfect, but it’s taken the edge off enough that I don’t feel the urge to rip the ventilator mask off in the middle of the night—which feels like a small but meaningful win 😃. In my photo box, there’s a picture of all eight of us kids standing in front of our house at 316 Keith Avenue in Waukegan, probably taken just before we moved to 1922.

Continue reading →

Tuesday, February 3, 2026 – Day 529

Super Bowl Squares Pool • Pool #1 is sold out
• Pool #2 is open — 45 squares remaining
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-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, I’ll post a photo on the blog.

Continue reading →

Monday, February 2, 2026 – Day 528

Super Bowl Squares Pool • Pool #1 is sold out
• Pool #2 is open — 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-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, I’ll post a photo on the blog. I don’t have it… yet.

Continue reading →

Sunday, February 1, 2026 - Day 527

Super Bowl Squares Pool. • Pool #1 is sold out
• Pool #2 is open — 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-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, I’ll post a photo on the blog. I don’t have it… yet.

Continue reading →

Saturday, January 31, 2026 – Day 526

Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Pool
• Pool #1 is sold out
• Pool #2 is open — 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-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 Once the squares have numbers assigned, I’ll post a photo on the blog.

Continue reading →

Friday, January 30, 2026 – Day 525

Good morning, everyone. Super Bowl Squares Pool
11 spots remaining — $25 per square
If you’re interested, In the notes section of Venmo or Zelle, please write Super Bowl Squares and your name, and send to: • Venmo: @Nicole-Snarski
• Zelle: nesnarski@gmail.com
• Phone number to verify: 847-687-3312 These new blog hours have really thrown my writing off. It’s nearly 7:00 a.m., and I’m just getting started. Add in the fact that I can’t always hit the letters on the keyboard cleanly, and suddenly “late blog” is becoming a theme.

Continue reading →

Thursday, January 29, 2026 – Day 524

Good morning, everyone. The Super Bowl Squares Pool is officially halfway full—50% 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 foods—and even many drinks (too thin)—are now off the table because I can’t chew them well enough to safely swallow.

Continue reading →

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 - Day 523

Good morning, everyone. Today is Nikki’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Kiddo! You’re one amazing daughter. I love you!❤️ 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 we’re 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 square
Donation: $10 from each square will be donated to ALS United (through our marathon funding page).

Continue reading →

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 – Day 532

Good morning, everyone. It’s official—I won’t 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. They’ve become far too clumsy on a keyboard for the kind of accuracy tax prep demands—and when the requirement is 100%, “close enough” doesn’t cut it.

Continue reading →

Monday, January 26, 2026 – Day 531

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 fine—that enough of the bar was still accessible. I’m not sure if that contributed to my fall yesterday, but there’s no good reason to leave obstacles in my path.

Continue reading →

Sunday, January 25, 2026 – Day 530

Good morning, everyone. Whatever Happened to Phil? So I haven’t seen or spoken to Phil since I left Portland in 1980. Ever since Facebook became a thing, I’ve 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 mom’s obituary, and suddenly I had just enough information to start sleuthing with renewed enthusiasm.

Continue reading →

Saturday, January 24, 2026 – Day 529

Good morning, everyone. This is the continuation of my time living in Portland, Oregon, when I was 20 years old—with my triplet brother Tim and my roommate from WIU, Phil. We’d 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 decent—but once November arrived, it became a real problem.

Continue reading →

Friday, January 23, 2026 – Day 528

Good morning, everyone.
Be safe out there—it 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.

Continue reading →

Thursday, January 22, 2026 – Day 527

Good morning, everyone. In keeping with the mantra “Happy wife, happy life!” I’m 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 normal—and that’s a win for everyone. Let’s rewind to 1978–79. 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.

Continue reading →