"10% happier: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics" by Dan Harris and Jeffrey Warren

Quick Book Review: “10% happier: Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics” by Dan Harris and Jeffrey Warren

This was a really good, practical book.  I go through phases where I meditate regularly, and when I do, my life is much better.  But I sometimes let my travel schedule distract me from the practice, and I forget to do it on the weekends, and before I realize it, I’ve let the practice of meditation fall by the wayside. …

Read more

Kenya and Ethiopia – Part 7: Mercato and Half Day Addis Ababa Tour

Mark’s main interest in life is food.  He is a big-time foodie, spending nearly every evening watching cooking videos, thumbing through cookbooks, and perusing cooking blogs.  When we go into a bookstore, he visits one section and one section only: the cookbooks. There is a travel video blogger named Mark Wiens who makes videos which are a perfect mix of…

Read more

Kenya and Ethiopia – Part 5: Rough Trip to Mombasa

Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya after Nairobi, and it’s on the coast.  There’s city stuff to do, and beach stuff to do. In all of the guidebooks that I had read, they recommended staying at a beach hotel and NOT in the city proper, as there are potential safety issues for tourists.  Diani Beach was the recommended…

Read more

Kenya and Ethiopia – Part 4: Buying a Tourist Souvenir at the Right Price (How to Haggle Abroad)

I mentioned in a previous post about how Mark overpaid for a bowl in one of the souvenir shops.  Mark doesn’t like to haggle, and neither do I. It’s demeaning to negotiate prices with someone, especially when you know this is how they make a living and you want to pay them a fair rate for their goods. And yet,…

Read more

Mittens

Mittens Obituary

Mittens    2005 – 2020 On Thursday night, January 16th, my dear cat Mittens lost her short battle with colon cancer, two months shy of her 15th birthday.  My history with cats is long and wonderful, and this ends another touching chapter in that personal history book. Next month will mark 20 years that Mark and I have been together.  When…

Read more

Kenya and Ethiopia – Part 3: Kissing Giraffes and Touching Elephants

Our first full day in Nairobi was a memorable one.  We woke up early, grabbed breakfast at the hotel, and then Uber’ed it to another hotel, the Kenya Comfort Suites, in downtown Nairobi.  It was the meeting point for our tour. On tap this day was a tour of the Giraffe Center, followed by the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. About seven…

Read more

"The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery" by Sam Kean

Quick Book Review: “The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery” by Sam Kean

Although I didn’t like seeing neurology cases as a veterinarian, I seem to have a penchant for reading books about human neurology.  This one started out slow, but got better and better as it went along.  Filled with clear descriptions of how the neurological system works (kinda basic for me, but probably very lucid for laypeople), the book follows up…

Read more

Pin It on Pinterest