It’s January, the skies are cloudy and dreary, and it’s cold and snowing outside. This kind of weather doesn’t inspire me to get out and get moving unless, of course, it’s on the ski slopes. Skiing is such fun and terrific exercise, but I can’t make it to the slopes every day. In warmer weat…
Well, we’ve made it! 2020 is slowly slogging to a bitter end with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging but with hopes renewed that it may come to an end in the new year. The first vaccines have been given approval and are starting to be administered. It really is amazing to me how quickly they…
It’s been one heck of an interesting year, to say the least. Now that we’re approaching Christmas, I imagine you’re busy shopping for gifts, decorating or baking cookies – unless you already did that back in October. Ever since the pandemic pushed us into lockdown last spring, it seems as if…
I can’t decide whether this year is flying by or dragging itself over the finish line and slowly grinding to an end. A commercial the other day featured a coffee mug with a fake review for 2020 saying, “Very bad. Would not recommend.” This made me laugh and think back on what has been either…
Well, we got through Halloween and Election Day and the sun still came up this week.
I can’t decide whether 2020 seems like the slowest year ever or the fastest.
Have you eaten out lately or at all since March?
If you’re reading this, breathe a sigh of relief. No, the COVID-19 worldwide nightmare is not over yet. I’m writing this Monday afternoon, and NASA says not one but two asteroids with estimated diameters between 60 and 90 feet will pass by Earth tomorrow night. So if you’re reading this with…
I’ve read a lot in recent years about the benefits of being mindful. This is the process of concentrating on and enjoying one thing at a time and is the exact opposite of my usual multi-tasking. I have been trying to employ mindfulness since it’s supposed to relieve stress and actually make …
Have you been busy cleaning out closets and reorganizing your stuff? It seems like one byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic is that people found themselves with plenty of time on their hands, stuck at home either not able to work or not able to go anywhere. I’m reading and hearing about everyo…
We’ve finally started summer and I’m already tired of yard work.
Well, we’re in the “green phase” now in most of Southwestern Pennsylvania after months of a lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the stay at home order still in place, let’s just say we’re all living in a world where “casual Friday” has morphed into “yoga pants on days that end in Y.”
We’re halfway through the month of April and that means we have about two weeks left on the current stay-at-home directives because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s April Fool’s Day and it certainly feels as if the world is playing a cruel joke on all of us.
Last month, we had a stretch of five 50-plus degree days and three straight days without any precipitation. That may not sound like anything special, but it marked the first time this year we went longer than two days without rain or snow. Two of those three days were sunny with barely a clo…
There we were spending a perfectly quiet Valentine’s Day in Washington, D.C. My boyfriend’s enormous group of colleagues had checked out after their work conference and we went upstairs to change for dinner. While we were changing, a dramatic transformation was afoot in the hotel lobby. We h…
It was the day after the big game and my co-workers still looked a little tired from Super Bowl LIV festivities the night before.
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you may recall that I recently wrote about riding the bus to work in downtown Pittsburgh some days rather than fighting traffic on the parkway. Not only is this a less stressful commute, it also saves me time and money and gives me about a half-hour…
No, I’m not talking about marijuana, although it is legal in Colorado, and it’s everywhere. I mean everywhere. As soon as you leave the airport, you start seeing billboards and signs advertising dispensaries and all sorts of CBD and marijuana products and vendors. I had no interest in any of…
As I write this, the sun is shining and the temperature is soaring into the upper 50s, which is pretty mild for late November.
How long is your commute to and from work? Or do you even have one anymore?
It’s that time of year when leaves have reached their peak golden and rust colors and are beginning to fall, and kids everywhere are excited to put on their Halloween costumes and go do to door for trick-or-treating. I’m prepared with my giant bag of candy which I will try to hand out rather…
Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and not just because of the warm, mainly dry weather, lower humidity and colorful foliage.
Columnist Kristin Emery buys a new car that both amazes and confuses her.
As I write this, Hurricane Dorian is churning just north of the Bahamas after devastating the Abaco Islands. My heart breaks as I see the footage of 20 feet of storm surge overwhelming cars, homes and lives.
I am constantly amazed at how many people are on the highway and how much traffic there is everywhere you go nowadays.
Warm summertime temperatures motivate me to get outside and take a daily walk (most of the time). Sometimes I take my smartphone with me to play some music to enjoy through my earbuds and to keep me going. To those of you who are also products of the 1980s, this is the equivalent of those gu…
Is it just me or did I somehow miss the fact that I moved to the tropical rainforest this year? The heat and humidity over the past week were so tropical that you could almost cut the mugginess with a knife.
I like driving. I realized this the other day while I was driving to work for an early morning weather shift and practically no one else was on the highway. That’s rare these days since the roads are more packed than ever, even though they keep building more and more lanes.
Summer has finally officially arrived, and it ushered in some sunshine over the weekend. With all of the rain we experienced during the early part of June, I hadn’t gotten around to doing much yard work in the way of cleaning out flower beds, mulching and weeding. That all changed around two…
Are you a collector? I know plenty of folks who are collectors, and my mom was a big collector. Part of being a collector is the fun of acquiring pieces for your collection or in having someone give you a certain piece as a gift. It’s great fun seeing something that you know a loved one woul…
Since we just marked Memorial Day, I was remembering that old clothing fashion rule that you only wear white shoes or carry a white handbag between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Remember that? Whatever happened to that rule? Then again, whatever happened to white shoes?
Spring cleaning got started a little late at my house, but at least it’s done. After going through boxes and plastic totes of belongings that used to be in storage, I can proudly say that my entire house is organized and “redd out.” Well, don’t go into the attic – that’s a project I’ll tackl…
I wrote a column a while ago about how much time and effort we women put into our appearance. Between makeup, skincare, hair styling, nail polish, jewelry and matching shoes and belts among other things ... it’s exhausting.
You’ve probably seen those tiny houses on television, but could you actually live in one?
Each spring, it occurs to me just a little too late that I should have made plans to spend some time at spring training soaking in the sun and watching the Pirates play baseball in Bradenton, Fla.
I heard that familiar sound the other morning just after waking up, and it wasn’t the birds chirping or the sound of the school bus on its usual route.
Well, it finally happened. For decades, I thanked my lucky stars that I had 20/20 vision and didn’t have to endure the same torture as my friends and family did wearing contacts lenses or any kind of glasses. Father time finally caught up with me a few years ago when middle age presbyopia se…
When I was growing up, there were several things that were annual summer traditions in our family: a trip to the Jersey Shore, spending long days at the local pool, playing baseball and softball at Washington Park and taking part in the Washington Community Theater summer musical production.
You may have read a recent health and medical article I wrote that appeared in last Saturday’s Observer-Reporter about the results of a new study showing the pros and cons of getting enough, too little or too much sleep.
As we slog through winter, my skin keeps getting drier and drier. Ladies, you know what I mean, right? Despite the humidifier on the furnace, thicker face and body creams and even moisturizing botanical oil, the flaky skin always resurfaces this time of year. I just returned from a ski trip …
This wild roller coaster of temperature swings that we’ve been on the past two weeks has everyone so confused about the weather that they don’t know if they should fire up the snow blower or throw on a T-shirt and sunglasses and wash their cars.
Every time I bend at the waist or reach above my head this week, I am cursing the creators of wallpaper. Who in the world invented this stuff, anyway?
It’s a new year, and since we’re already one week in and I haven’t exercised once, that working out resolution isn’t going so well. But today is a new day and there’s no reason to give up yet, right? My New Year’s resolutions in recent years have been more introspective and have included goa…
Let's all hope that Mother Nature's New Year's resolution is to turn off the faucet around here.
They finally found me. There, in my mailbox, was the official notice that I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore. No one really needed to inform me of that, but in my mind I’m still eternally 25 years old. Aren’t we all? It’s just my right knee that tells me otherwise after too many decades of sk…
Note to self: Don’t book your next diving excursion right after binge-watching an entire DVR full of “Shark Week” specials. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what I need to do every year. I booked my latest trip to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico at the same time I was glued to the television…
I picked up a couple of bags of Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters the other day while browsing the Halloween aisles of a local store. Yes, there was an entire section of Halloween candy, costumes and decorations, and we even have entire Halloween stores pop up temporarily just for the oc…
What are you wearing right now? That’s not meant to be a creepy question, because you may be in your pajamas if it’s first thing in the morning. The real question is whether those pajamas are summer shorties or fall flannels. While you may have put away your flip-flops for the season, the we…
