Bomb Diggity: Staying In Your Good Books By Sharing Memes About Books + A Very Special Reader Comments

February 25, 2025March 3, 2025 / Ally Bean / 203 Comments

Yesterday I learned a new-to-me idiom. It is “in someone’s good books” and is defined by The Idioms as:

If you are in somebody’s good books, it means you have done something good that has delighted them, and if you are in their bad books, you have annoyed them, and they are now angry with you.

Granted over the years I’ve said something similar [to be “in someone’s good graces”] but now I have another respectable idiom to add to my personal lexicon.

Also, I have what will be the catalyst for this blog post: BOOKS.

You see, my little popsicles of profundity, I’m currently at loose ends, a blogging wordsmith with time on my hands because somehow or another IT IS STILL FEBRUARY and not much is going on in my life.

Thus with the aforementioned catalyst in mind I perused my folders and files that are in order for once because I’ve used this winter to get my little bloggy organized for the first time in years.

[To wit please note, there’s a revised About Ally Bean tab; a new Best Of The Bean tab; an updated Blogroll 2.0 tab + a new Header image.]

Getting back to the issue at hand, after looking into my recently organized folders and files I found the following which I present without any personal commentary. Yes, this is unusual for me but I’ll admit that at this point in February my bomb is less diggity than usual.

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AND FINALLY A VERY SPECIAL READER COMMENTS…

After writing the above I realized the following bloggers who comment here regularly are also authors of published books. Seems like a good time to mention them. Click on a name and go say “HI!” Tell ’em Ally Bean sent you.

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📚 Now it’s your turn to stay in my good books, and I know you want to delight me, so leave a comment below! 📚

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What A Hoot! 6 Random Things To Tell You On A Tuesday Morning In February

February 11, 2025February 12, 2025 / Ally Bean / 277 Comments

I am reminded. Many, many years ago around Valentine’s Day I learned about a simple Spanish cocktail called a Kalimotxo. It’s Red Wine & Coke, a take on the Cuba Libre cocktail of Rum & Coke. It’s not my favorite drink, but I won’t disparage it either. I remember it at this time of year because it was deemed the perfect Valentine’s Day cocktail. Think whimsically and look at how it is spelled: KalimotXO. Kisses and hugs automatically included with each drink.

I am grateful. Colette, a former blogger who is now HERE on IG, has a relaxed idea about how to embrace thankfulness. I am doing it. Instead of a daily gratitude journal, each week you decide what’s your one favorite gratitude experience from the week. Then you write it on a small piece of paper, fold the paper into a square, putting the square into a jar designated: Good Things. After a year you’ll have your bestest gratitude moments in a pile of notes in front of you.

I am irked. WordPress’s current commenting system is an exasperating multi-step process— if you can even get your words to show up in the comment box. I contacted WordPress yesterday and asked why I was unable to comment on WP blogs. The Happiness Engineer gave me the link to WP problem updates + had many suggestions of various possible solutions. The one that worked for me was to change browsers, so now instead of Safari I’m using Chrome for iMac when I visit bloggy friends and want to leave a comment.

I am delighted. I’m a fan of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series of cozy mysteries that feature octogenarian sleuths. Thus I’m looking forward to the movie version with its perfect cast: Helen Mirren [Elizabeth], Ben Kingsley [Ibrahim], Pierce Brosnan [Ron], and Celia Imrie [Joyce]. The movie is set to release in 2025 and it well could be the best thing to happen this year.

I am underwhelmed. If you enjoy NYT’s Connections word game and would like to create your own, go HERE and have at it. However, a truth bomb: I put together a couple of these games and discovered that my results were weaksauce, not even worth saving. But you might be better at making one than I was.

I am nerdy. According to the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test I’m a Nerd who’s slouching toward Goth. To wit: “Nerds are sometimes seen as being more interested in academics, technology, or other ‘nerdy’ pursuits than in popular culture or mainstream social activities.” Hell yes, NAILED IT! A joiner I am not.

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Questions of the Day

Do you have a particular drink that you think of around Valentine’s Day?

If you have a gratitude practice, what is it?

Are you finding it increasingly more difficult to leave comments on WordPress blogs? And how does that make you feel?

Do you read mysteries? Do you do the NYT’s Connections game?

And finally, if you took the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test, who is ‘ya? Spill the beans

~ ~ 🩷 ~ ~

It’s Not A Mystery Why I’m Answering 10 Unique Questions

October 8, 2024July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 165 Comments

Life can sometimes be a mystery.

While it’s true that I enjoy writing stories that entertain and doing research that informs, the reality is that sometimes I don’t have anything going on in my real life that is blogworthy.

And you do realize, my little moonbeams, that I give you only the best, right?

Welp today is one of those times when my life is rolling along smoothly but I can’t think of anything to talk about. So instead of fretting about my lack of blog fodder, I decided to do the following.

See what you think.

I read THIS INTERVIEW with Kelly Hoppen in The Guardian’s Saturday The Q&A column. In this weekly column Rosanna Greenstreet asks celebrities fun questions.

I perked up when I saw that Kelly Hoppen was an interviewee. About 10 years ago when I was first learning about interior design principles, Hoppen’s books explained many of the concepts to me.

Her words + photos made sense. Not that I’m as enamored of neutrals like she is, but I enjoyed her approach about how to create a cohesive style for your home. That’s what I needed to learn.

Anyhow as I read the interview I thought to myself, I like these questions and will take the juiciest ones to create a snazzy little blog post that is cheery and authentic.

Obviously it’s no mystery why bloggers like questions, they’re an easy way to craft a blog post by replying to someone else’s queries. In fact, should you be in search of something to write about, feel free to answer these questions on your own blog [if you have one] or pick a few to discuss in the comments below.

10 Unique Questions

1 – What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m a wimp about making phone calls.

2 – What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Cruelty, whether it be physical or emotional

3 – Describe yourself in three words
I am light-hearted, truthful, and creative. [Also, because describing yourself in five words is better than doing so in three, I am organized and empathetic.]

4 – What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I have rosacea so my face looks red all the time.

5 – What is your most unappealing habit?
Involuntarily rolling my eyes at empty-headed people, especially those talking inflammatory gibberish or wearing face paint in support of a sports team

6 – If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
The passenger pigeon, a species that went extinct in 1913 at the Cincinnati Zoo when Martha, the last one, died

7 – Who is your celebrity crush?
Natasha Lyonne [especially in Poker Face and that’s no bull shit]

8 – Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
While I’ve read Olive Kitteridge, I’ve not read any other books by Elizabeth Strout and I know that many bookish friends are crazy about her writing.

9 – What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
“I’m sorry we don’t sell alcohol on Sundays in this grocery store. This is a dry county, but if you want to buy some beer you can drive 20 minutes from here into the next county over where they sell alcohol on Sunday.”

10 – What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Kindness happens, often when you least expect it, so stay open to the possibility and don’t close your heart to its existence.

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In Which I Become An Active Amateur Nutritionist: A Story, A List, A Few Questions

October 1, 2024July 2, 2025 / Ally Bean / 219 Comments

Is this not so‽

DESPERATELY [SORT OF] SEEKING CALCIUM FOR STRONG BONES

You’re not a very good freezer spelunker.

Z-D said this to me when I couldn’t find a bag of frozen edamame, a bag that he found almost instantly after digging further down into the disorganized mess that is our freezer.

He was right about me. Our freezer is on the bottom of the refrigerator and looking down into it with my bespectacled eyes is the equivalent of 52 card pick-up. It’s a jumble of blurry stuff.

The thing is that prior to March 2020 in the Before Times we had an organized freezer. I had a place for everything and could quickly easily find what I was looking for.

However after March 2020 when Mr. Man began working from home all the time and we began making all our meals at home all the time I lost control of the contents in the freezer because, say what you will about Z-D, he knows food and likes to have lots of it on hand.

Nonetheless, getting to a point here, you may be asking yourself why was I searching for edamame?

Thanks for asking. Please allow me to explain.

• • •

Edamame, also called soy beans, are a good source of calcium which, as you probably know, is good for your bones.

If I am to believe the results of a recent DEXA scan that measured my bone density, I need more calcium so that my bones get stronger or at least remain as strong as they are now. I’m not into a full-on osteoporosis situation with brittle fragile bones, just a pre-osteoporosis situation that is called osteopenia.

There’s always some dodgy name for medical conditions.

And further if I am to believe my Primary Care Physician’s advice I need to eat more calcium in addition to taking a weekly little prescription pill called Alendronate.

My insurance company [inexplicably] covers the full cost of this annoying little pill. You take the pill on an empty stomach then without laying down you wait at least 30 minutes before eating or drinking anything. I’m a person whose digestive track is easily upset, so naturally the pill doesn’t play nice with my intestines.

There are issues.

Plus the ridiculous dosage regime means that after dragging myself out of bed to face the day there’s no coffee for me for a half hour. I resent this intrusion into my morning routine. Obviously this is not a good way to start my day and I’d like to get to a point where I don’t take this little pill even if it is weekly.

• • •

Admittedly I’m not thrilled with dairy products, a well-known source of calcium. I eat a few but to get the recommended amount of daily calcium [1200 mg] I have to think about taking dietary supplements &/or eating more calcium-rich foods.

Because I want to avoid the dietary supplement angle of calcium intake I’ve chosen to become the Queen of Non-Dairy Calcium Information. As an active amateur nutritionist I’ve researched the topic online, going so far as to put together the following list of sources of calcium-rich non-dairy foods that I ~~would~~ will eat.

I share it here because maybe you, too, are trying to eat more calcium because you, too, don’t like taking prescription medicine or dietary supplements. Thus without further ado I present for your edification this *at least it’s a place to start* list.

[Please note: the order of the foods means nothing more than how I wrote them down during my research.]

A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF SOURCES OF NON-DAIRY CALCIUM

SOY FOODS