“Would you like to try some chia seeds?” my mom asked me last week. Little did I know this was a trap. The next day, a 2.2 pound bag of chia seeds was staring at me—mocking me—every time I opened the fridge. Was this going to be another teff flour incident? Was this going to be yet another bag of something I’d never figure out how to use? No! I was going to conquer those chia seeds. Unlike the teff flour (and the dried lime leaves, yellow soybean paste and instant corn flour…all of which have languished in my kitchen for years) I was going to use those damned seeds. The Chia Challenge had begun. Continue reading →

In my last blog post—The Five Stages of Cat Ownership—I may have suggested that cats are not entirely perfect. I may have suggested that they have a few teeny tiny flaws. I was wrong. Cats have two huge flaws—anal glands. Continue reading →

You’ve probably heard about the Five Stages of Grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—a roadmap, of sorts, to the emotional turmoil people go through during serious illness or loss. Well, I’m here to tell you that the Five Stages of Grief apply to way more situations than their creator—psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross—ever imagined. Just for starters, I think the Five Stages explains perfectly what happens—and, here, I speak from personal experience—when someone adopts cats… Continue reading →