Reflections? Me, my turn? Oh, um...where to start...

Feels at once, somehow, like a slog of marathon and a brief page flip. Let's sum up: 2015 was a rebuilding year. I've learned what an incredible man my husband Joe Kowalski really is, and I've learned how lucky I am that so, so many of you are truly real friends. I can't begin to even express...what can I even say, you guys rallied and saved my life. That's real. I've learned about mental illness and self-respect. 2016's theme is going to be...

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Just when I decide to write more and Facebook less...

...a friend I never see gets the cutest puppy in the world.  Must see all puppy pics forever. ...

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Generation X Problems

When I was little I demanded to know why Goofy wears clothes and talks, but Pluto goes bare and makes dog sounds. Can you DO that? Can you have two dogs in one franchise and only one is anthropomorphic? Were they ever in a scene together? What does Goofy have to say to Plut...

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Stop the glorification of "busy." It's OK to be happy with a calm life.@ActionforHappiness...

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That's Not A Hoverboard

Why is everyone calling those two-wheel things "hoverboards?" Roll. No hover. We're just calling shit whatever now? Then I didn't get a Mazda 3 Zipcar and go to Target to find a new trash can. I got a spacebuggy and went to Narnia to find a Horcrux. You can't just say stuff is other stuff when it clearly isn't. ...

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Christmas Day

Uncle Joe and the girls waiting for pie....

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Cardullo's

Who went to Cardullo's for Torrone? Marone, the place was a madhouse! On a Friday at Christmas? You don't say. Do you know this box? For the un-initiated, this is a box of Italian nougat candies. They come in lemon, orange and vanilla. In our house, mom placed them on the Christmas tree along with the candy canes and popcorn balls. Torrone is individually boxed. I used to wrap the individual boxes (after I ate the candy) in bits of wrapping...

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Recipe: Loaded Potato Chowder

I whipped up this decadent soup the other night, making it up as I went along -- that's usually how I approach soup-making -- but this one came out so good that I've got to write it down. Sorry, it's not for vegans nor Atkins people. This is a hearty, fatty winter soup that's a stick-to-your-ribs meal in a bowl. You non-bacon, non-dairy, no-carb guys might live a few years longer, but then again, you don't get to have this soup. Let's call...

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Throwback Thursday: 2007

Cherry Hill, NJ Joe's mom puts up two trees. "The tree" and "the other tree." This is the other tree. Every time Joe snaps a selfie, one of us is cut off. It's okay. Love my tall man. 💓 Related: WII Cook, WII Eat, WII Drink, WII WII Related: Christmas 2007: Part the Second...Dog Da...

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Throwback Thursday: 1986

Photo: Sharon Lombardi Young people need role models. Having a young and creative woman like my aunt Sharon was great. I had a not-so-happy childhood and she seemed to sense it, seems she went out of her way to spend time with me. She tried to teach me how to drive a stick, and she'd find reasons for the two of us to hang out. I remember this day when she and I went for a walk, she wanted to take pictures of me. I resisted. I hate pictures of...

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Christmas in Harvard Square Bears

Harvard Coop bears are ready for Santa. Cardullo's gingerbread house. Sure it's big enough, Paisans?...

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Joe Gets A New Tattoo

On the bus to Central Square so Ian Adams can put a new tattoo on Joe.Are my eyes even open?I was so tired that I fell asleep in the tattoo place.I'm sure I snored like a bull.Update:A new Joe Show!...

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Throwback Thursday: 2008

That time we had a house guest for a week. I loves me some orange cats. This orange cat loves him some Joe. This photo was taken an hour after BaileyCat arrived. Bailey and Joe had never met. Joe makes everybody feel at ease right away....

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Today I made a Tree Man out of Sculpey clay. I use a big overturned ceramic mug as a sturdy base. (Photos: Joe Kowalski)...

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Top Ten Tiger Beat Stars, Redux

This one's for my girlfriends and all the 80s kids, my big-haired comrades-in-legwarmers, a delightfully shrill roving army on rollerskates. We wore neon and spandex and acid-washed baggy designer jeans, and we launched the careers of our Tiger Beat Star boyfriends. Oh yes, Rick Springfield, you're nothing without us! Same for you, Johnny Depp. You're welcome, John Stamos. And all of these dreamboats whose faces wallpapered our...

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You Guys, I Met Peter Sagal

[Peter Sagal, Boston MA] I was recently at a marketing conference here in Boston, and to my utter delight I found out that Mr. Peter Sagal was going to deliver the final keynote. Peter has been hosting NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" for about fifteen years or so. Every week the NPR listener-ship tunes in to this news-based radio gem with its rotating panel of players, call-in listener challenges and celebrity guests. Me 'n Joey never miss...

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Throwback Thursday: 2001

Joe Kowalski, All the Queen's Men (Photo: Rachel Berman for The Noise) I mean...what would you have done?...

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Decaf, son.

Invited this guy to share my table at Panera, since it's a 4-top and has an outlet. Dude's been absentmindedly kicking the table leg for like two hours. Trying to write here, Kicky McJitters, how about switching to decaf, son? ...

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My brother was my left shark when we were little. Happy Halloween, everyone! Don't be stupid!...

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Throwback Thursday: 1987

Hyde Park, NY Humanities Class trip to the Vanderbilt Mansion NHS. (Photo: Brenda Fitch) Bonus Throwback This isn't the first time this photo set came around. Prob'ly will again, too. A nice side effect of staying in touch with the people you were stupid with in high school. Me, James, Brenda, and Deb.. ...

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Throwback Thursday: 1989

Louie's Caffe - New Rochelle, NY (Photo: ? The camera was Lorraine's, but...that's Lorraine on the right) Here's the thing.Our college IDs were laminated, but they didn't have Date of Birth.You could peel back the laminate, type in a DOB that made you 21, and use a warm iron to melt back the laminate into place.Our "Junior Sisters" dutifully took us through it freshman year.I dunno if that's what CNR had in mind with the Junior Sister progra...

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Big Papi!

Look who they let into a company box at Fenway. "I was on TV!"...

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I'll Call You Back On My Purse

Betsey Johnson bag spotted at Macy's in Downtown Crossing. The handset works, dude. The handset works....

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Naked Cake

September 14, 2015 2:55am · Allston Rock City, MA The last of the party guests had gone home, hopefully happy. Joey had done his part of knocking out eight or nine bottles of red wine. So I put my none-too-steady husband to bed, assuming he'd be asleep in minutes. Next I set about tidying up, putting away leftover cheeses, covering olives, closing bottles of tonic, organizing the empties...when I heard an exuberant voice from the living room...

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Happy Birthday-ay-ay-ay-oh-oh-ooooo...hey, that's nice!, Mel Torme

Melty. That was a fun party. We'd intended to prepare only legit retro party food, but we chickened out once we looked into it. As it happens, party food was gag-inducingly loathesome in the 60s and 70s. Pimento olives made far too much of a showing. Entirely too much ham and gelatin was involved, shaped into something truly diabolical. Everything was formed into a mold or a loaf of some kind. Friends don't serve friends "molds." As a...

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If anyone was going to buy cheese at Star Market in Brighton today...

...sorry, they're out. I bought it all.  Just returned from a shopping trip with a metric ton of various cheeses for Joe's locally famous Fondue-bee-doo-bee-doo. Celebrate The Velvet Fog's 90th birthday with us! ...

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Throwback Thursday: 2003

Joe Kowalski (bass/keys All the Queen's Men) Throwback to 2003 AQM tour! A local photographer came and took great photos of the band. I missed the entire show. "Great set! Your tour manager is in surgery." While AQM rocked Bikini Test, a great club in La Chaux de Fonds, I was downstairs in the green room where a Swiss woman whose name I never caught was holding my hand and feeding me tea. My gut was on fire. The band got off stage to find...

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#TheRentIsTooDamnHigh

Something's fucky in the rental market in this town. I've read several articles over the past few weeks about "high end glut."All over Boston they're in the process of adding over 2000 new high-end rental units, which are NOT getting rented, meanwhile regular folks are struggling to make rent in ordinary family neighborhoods. Anyone have $2360 to rent a 400 sq ft studio in The Continuum? That's the new "high end" mixed-use building opening...

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Throwback Thursday: 1986

Shepaug Valley High(Photo: Brenda Fitch)I'm sorry there wasn't enough mousse for you in '86.I needed it....

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It's happening

Mel Torme and FriendsJoe had two copies of the same record, so we hung one of them in an album frame. Got Joe a tuxedo T-shirt for the party....

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Myrick Street

This sunflower blooms every summer through a hole in the sidewalk....

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Throwback Thursday: the 1990s

The 90s were so weird....

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