Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

RIP Sarah Rodgers

Sarah (Edelson) Rodgers, age 79, passed away in Guatemala after a brief illness including anemia, fluid in the lungs, and, unshockingly (to anybody who believes in science), extensive scarring in her lungs after decades of smoking.

She was born in Portland, Oregon on December 14, 1946 to Elizabeth Ruth Thompson (Stevely) & (absent) Harold (Hal) Miller, immediately adopted by Zan & Mary (Lonergan) Edelson, and further raised by Bunny Edelson.

She met her husband, Frank, while attending Portland State University, quitting her role as Student Body President and the related protests at faculty events that she was now invited to after marrying the Director of Libraries. They moved with their young daughters to Miami, Florida in 1979, just in time for Hurricane David to turn around off the coast, leaving them with boxes of avocados rapidly harvested before the storm and a desperate quest to use them all, thus introducing avocado lime pie as a family favorite.

She fell in love with Antigua Guatemala on her first visit in the 1980s, following with subsequent visits, enrolling her daughters in middle school, and ultimately buying and renovating a house that became known as Sunshinetenango, merging her personal sun logo with the “tenango” suffix from many Guatemalan towns. (Oddly, “tenango” arrived from the Nahuatl people in Mexico with the European conquistadors, rather than from the Maya people of Guatemala.)

Her fascination with Guatemalan textiles involved buying many used clothing items and repurposing some of the fabric into pillows, bag holders, and other common use items. On one occasion in the late ‘80s, she and housekeeper Salvador took an overnight trip home to a remote village with someone they met on the street to buy the clothes off his back. In addition to the clothes for her collection, she brought home a twisted ankle, acquired descending a slope to the outhouse in the middle of the night.

She is, as best we know, the oldest of her siblings: Syl, Charles, Rich, and Andrea (all surviving) from Zan; Betsy, Janet, and Doug (only Janet surviving) from Elizabeth; and Stephanie, Karen, and Christine (unknown status) from Hal.

She was preceded in death by her adoptive parents, birth parents, and husband, Frank.

She is survived by her amazingly resilient stepmother, Bunny; daughters Hilda and Frances; grandchildren Jesi, Alex, and Cassandra; and a fabulous array of nieces and nephews.

Altered invitation, changing Sarah's 80th birthday party to a celebration of life.

Due to the unfortunate circumstances, her planned 80th birthday party will be repurposed as a celebration of life. Whether you can attend or not, we would appreciate if you share some memories – and photos, if you have them – of both her and our father, Frank, so we can assemble a combined memory book.

So many yellow flowers!

By a combination of chance and design, we have a wide assortment of yellow flowers spread across our yard this season, and that’s in addition to the bison bur flowers I mentioned recently.

Pumpkin flowers around and on the Eastern Redbud in the front lawn, as well as some yellow on the many dill plants, mostly in the mulch.
An evening primrose volunteered in the front yard with small yellow flowers.
Yellow flowers in our cantaloupe bed and the first indication of a formed cantaloupe.
So many yellow flowers on the tomato plant, many of which have already become delicious cherry tomatoes.

While the pumpkin flowers are deliberate, the pumpkin vines climbing up the redbud are not; we have been removing young fruit as it forms there. The redbud is barely taller than I am, and the pumpkins are the large white carving pumpkins we grew last year. (And then saved the seeds from, of course.)

Playing “yarn chicken”

If you’re unfamiliar with the game of “chicken,” there’s a Wikipedia page about it. The short version is two cars drive towards each other, and whoever swerves first – avoiding a crash – is the loser. That is a game I have never played, since I value both my life and my insurance rates.

I do frequently play the much tamer “yarn chicken” game though, which is the gamble between the quantity of yarn possessed and the quantity of yarn needed for the project. You may recall that this year’s temperature blanket is a scavenger edition, using leftover yarn from my stash. I have lost once at yarn chicken – I ran out of the orange I was using for the 80s and had to pull something similar from my stash – and am closing to losing again on the green for the 70s. The replacement green is nowhere near the bright green I started with.

Part of a crocheted blanket made up of different colored links, showing two different shades of red next to each other.

I’m also working on a historical temperature blanket – a year and location in the past, so the counts were set before I started – and woefully miscalculated on my remnant yarn for that. You may recognize these colors from last year’s temperature blanket; this is the leftover yarn from that project. I specifically mapped the colors I had more of to the more frequent temperatures for this blanket, and realized recently that I would not have enough of two or three different colors. When I checked the nearest craft store, I was able to purchase two of the three in the same brand’s style and color, but the third one, a red, was not available. In poor lighting, it won’t be noticeable, but one of the two reds pictured is definitely a burgundy. So that’s another loss to yarn chicken.

The standing desk saga

Back in April, I decided I was ready to transition to a sit/stand desk – sitting all day isn’t particularly healthy, but neither is standing, so I wanted a desk that would do both. I found one I liked and decided the discount (10% or so) was worth ordering the repackaged one that had been returned. After all, they guarantee that it has been checked for damage and all of the parts are included.

Narrator voice: This was not the case.

Due, among other things, to slightly delayed delivery and my work travel, the box sat unopened for over a month. That was my fault. When I finally opened the box, the first problem I noticed was some damage on a couple corners of the desk pieces. I could have worked with that.

The second problem I noticed was the absence of assembly instructions. Fortunately my order email included a link to a PDF for those… except that part letters and numbers on the PDF didn’t match the pieces I received. It did get me to the point where I could at least check for all the parts, which led to the third problem… they weren’t all in the box. Specifically, I was missing the wheels and the metal bar (in 2 parts) that connects the motor to the legs in order to switch the height.

After some back and forth with Customer Service (a couple people, the AI chatbot couldn’t help me because of the 30-day window), where I made it clear that I only needed the missing parts and accurate instructions… they issued a full refund and said I could dispose of or keep the desk. By that point, the desk was assembled – the damaged corners notwithstanding – so I tried reaching out to the manufacturer to order replacement parts. Alas, I received no response.

So I ordered the same desk again. I skipped the repackaged option this time, and made sure to open the box the day after it arrived.

Assembly instructions: included! And with part labels that matched the stickers! (And for the record, that metal bar… was one piece, not two, making the mismatched instructions for the first build that much more frustrating.)

But… why aren’t there wheels? Not in the box, and not on the instructions, but the desk is listed on the website as having wheels.

Back to the website, then, where the AI chatbot apologized for the inconvenience and placed a replacement parts order.

Several days later, I received an email stating that the replacement parts order had been cancelled (no explanation of why), and they were sending me another “unit” instead. Yes, really, they were sending me a third desk.

By this point, I made the assumption that the third desk would be packaged identically to the second – without wheels. I went elsewhere and ordered a dozen wheels, which is enough for all three identical desks. The wheels and third desk arrived the same day.

New desk set-up: a wooden desk with a shelf for the monitor and laptop above storage areas, with a little green figure intended to hold a cell phone, a mouse on a dragon mousepad, a keyboard on a decorative mat with cats and doughnuts, and another pair of drawers just below the mouse and keyboard area. Behind the laptop, half of a photo of Jason Carter as Marcus Cole in Babylon 5 is visible.

I am happily relocated to my new desk, am working on clearing out my old one, which is destined to become our garage workbench. The two spare desks – one slightly damaged, and one unopened in its box – are going home with a friend soon to his new apartment. With wheels. All for the cost of one desk and some extra wheels.

No real post, have a maybe weed

A lone buffalo bur plant surrounded by pumpkin vines and a near neighbor to an eastern redbud tree.

This week has been hectic, not the least of which is because my mother is in the hospital since Saturday, recovering from what appears to have been a stroke, and I’ve taken on the role of passing information from my sister to a collection of friends and relatives as updates become available.

We have many pretty flowers in the yard at the moment, and recently had an extended discussion about what constitutes a weed requiring removal, as opposed to random plants that have appeared and we’ve decided to keep. The buffalo bur in the photo has pretty yellow flowers, but, in addition to the burs indicated by the name, sports some nasty-looking spines. This is perhaps not surprising when you find out it is alternately referred to as Kansas/Mexican/Texas thistle. And, for now, has been granted permission to stay.

Visiting Stay & Play Game Cafe

We found ourselves in towards the city (Chicago, if you’re new to this blog) before an event and decided to visit Stay & Play Game Cafe for lunch and a quick game. Based on our time restrictions, Cabanga! and Trio were recommended; we decided to try Cabanga!. (We had hoped to get to both, but ran short on time.)

But this post isn’t about the excellent game we tried, it’s about the awesome place we tried it at. The cafe’s website mentions Puerto Rican food, drinks, and board games, and we partook of all of those. For context, the drinks we selected were from the food menu; we didn’t look at the drink menu this time. The food was delicious and the tables were spacious enough to allow for gaming while eating. Not that I got a photo of the tables… I was too busy admiring their alphabetized and categorized game shelves.

In terms of categories that are split out, there are children’s games, classics, party games, and 2-player. Their online Games Library includes a search by number of players, and there are some games (174!) that can be played solo available on their shelves.

The overall ambience was excellent for board gaming – there was music running, just not at an overwhelming volume, so we never strained to hear each other. Reasonable space between the tables meant that we and the servers could move around easily, and we were encouraged to explore the game collection. We will certainly return to play more games and partake of the tasty menu options.

You’ve got mulch!

That’s weird, I thought, glancing out the kitchen window. I’m sure the mulch pile was shorter than that. I took another step towards the window and realized that we’d had new mulch delivered. (Yes, I had an email saying it was coming. No, I hadn’t seen it yet, I was busy at work today.) Needless to say, I’m going to be busy!

A large pile of mulch sprawling across the end of the driveway. A blue car is parked in front of a blue house on the other side of the driveaway, and some colorful shirts hang as sunshades to protect the young currant bushes.

I wasn’t quite finished with the previous load of mulch from ChipDrop, delivered near the end of April. I was getting close enough to finishing that I was concerned about not having enough mulch to cover the areas that I know need mulching in the next month or so. No more worries there! Just a bit of back ache and sore legs as I haul it over the yard.

A bird view of Charleston, South Carolina

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Charleston, South Carolina for a business meeting. Of course I flew in early so I could wander a bit, though other than some amazing restaurants, I didn’t really hit any particular tourist attraction. I did see a variety of birds across the two days I was there, including some herons that were shockingly comfortable around people at the Shem Creek boardwalk.

A bird – great heron? – on rocks at the water’s edge with breakfast in its mouth.
Two birds in an area park in the early morning.
Seagulls flapping overhead at the Shem Creek boardwalk.
A painting of a bird above the continental breakfast spread at my hotel. Does this count?
Possibly a great heron perched on a roof at the Shem Creek boardwalk.
A white heron perched on the railing at the Shem Creek boardwalk.
Pelicans at the Shem Creek boardwalk.
A white heron perched on a post at the Shem Creek boardwalk. A cloud behind its head provides a blur effect as if it had just moved.

A visit to the Pokémon Fossil Museum

Near the end of May, the Field Museum’s newest rotating exhibition opened: the Pokémon Fossil Museum. (You probably figured that out from the title of the post.) Naturally, we avoided going immediately after opening due to potential crowding, opting to wait a month and visit on a weekday. That may have reduced the overall crowding at the museum; the exhibition still sold out for the day. The exhibition tickets were timed entries, we scheduled ours for mid-afternoon to avoid being rushed in our arrival or lunch.

Not having visited the Field Museum in over a decade, we knew we weren’t going to cover everything in a day, especially with a special exhibition included. We opted to precede our Pokémon exploration with a visit to the Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet & SUE the T. rex, which segued pleasantly into the overlapping information at the Pokémon Fossil Museum.

But what is the Pokémon Fossil Museum? It’s an exhibit comparing special Pokémon, theoretically restored from fossils, to “ancient life from our world”. What can I say? Someone decided Pokémon should be educational, and they did a delightful job of it. Each Pokémon fossil on display was paired with something from our world, such as the combination of a Tyrantrum and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Pokémon world items were a blue background and our world had red, making it easy to distinguish between them; both included detailed explanations in English and Spanish. The T-Rex skull pictured is a replica of SUE’s, the most complete T-Rex ever found, who is housed in the Evolving Planet exhibit.

A picture of Pikachu as a paleontologist welcoming visitors to the Pokémon Fossil Museum.

A sign, in both English and Spanish, explaining what Pokémon are, with a couple images as examples. — A picture of Pikachu as a paleontologist welcoming visitors to the Pokémon Fossil Museum.

As we stepped into the special exhibition, we were each handed a Pokémon card… a reprint of an existing card, rather than a special promo one. Apparently a special promo card caused some problems at a previous location for this traveling exhibit. Each admission does get you access to the special Pokémon store across the hall, with a limit of 5 items, no repeats allowed, per admission. This includes an Excavator Pikachu plush that they seemed to have in remarkably large quantities, though everything in the store is “while supplies last.” (Some of the items are also available at the Pokémon Center.) For those of us that play Pokémon Go, there’s an Excavator Pikachu available in the game in and around the exhibit, as well as some themed stickers and themed Pokéstop/Gym images.

Sadly, due to time constraints, we did not see all of the regular exhibits or any other special exhibit that day, so I expect we’ll have to return to the Field Museum again soon to remedy that.

Have you heard of Fahlo?

If you recall, back in April we visited three zoos – and two airports – in just over a week. The first zoo we visited had Fahlo bracelets at some of the stores, which was the first time I had heard of the organization. The concept sounded appealing, purchasing an accessory to digitally track an animal and supporting the conservation efforts, yet we managed to leave without acquiring any of their items.

A map of the southeast edge of the United States showing several dots where the tracked shark, named Summer, has visited, with the date May 21 showing as the most recent update (2 days before the screenshot was taken).

And then we saw them again, at the airport, alongside Fahlo stuffed animals. And we knew, since we were flying on Southwest out of Chicago Midway, that we’d be coming past those same stores when we flew home a few days later. On our return a few days later, I acquired a soft hammerhead shark, though the tracking is for a tiger shark named Summer. Different animal types support different organizations; my new plush support Saving the Blue, which focuses on threatened marine organisms.

Each Fahlo object comes with a QR code to scan, which links you to the supported animal on their app, showing you where they’ve mostly recently been tracked and providing additional details, like how far they’ve traveled since the tracking began (March 9th, in her case) and their average speed. Summer has travelled over 2000 miles since acquiring her tracking tag!

A map of mostly Asia, pointing to the region where the tracked red panda, named Ninamma is being tracked.

More recently, in the app, there was an offer for a red panda bracelet, which tracks Ninamma, who lives in a protected forest in Nepal. Similar to Summer’s tracker, the app shows a dot for each date she’s been tracked dating back to December 20th. Compared to Summer’s relatively stable placement off the coast of northern Florida and southern Georgia for the past month, Ninamma’s map (in the app, not pictured here) looks chaotic… but has only covered 239 miles. Presumably there’s an advantage in distance to being aquatic. However, Nimanna’s updates periodically include new photos.

In both cases, there may be gaps in their tracking: Ninamma’s because of the mountainous terrain or dense canopy cover, and Summer’s when she’s moving in deep water. The optional notifications will notify you when there’s a new ping on the map for your sponsored animal. Well, a potentially delayed ping, to protect the animal based on standards set with the partnering conservation organizations.