CW: Pet loss
In 2011, I baked my first original recipe cake in observance of National Bundt Day. On the afternoon of Saturday 15 Nov 2025, I baked my 15th. By that night, despite the day having started pretty well, it was very clear the weekend would end very badly.
CW: domestic violence, infanticide
In October 2024, we were walking through a cemetery, as we often do with our dogs. This headstone caught my eye because someone had put a lot of time and love into dressing it up for Halloween. As I walked closer, it caught my eye for another reason; I shared a birthday with someone interred there. As I got close enough to read everything that wasn’t obscured by the decorations, I realized there were four someones in this grave.
About six months after saying goodbye to my asshole dog, we went to the shelter and brought home what we thought would be another little mess on four legs.
Some of you may recall that, back in 2017, we adopted this asshole dog. We named him Gilfoyle because, like his namesake, he had amazing hair and a shit attitude.
He was estimated to be about 9 at the time, and I said if I could have 5 good years with him, I’d be happy. When I started typing this, it had been a couple of months over 7 years.
When I started typing this, it was the day after we had him put to sleep. It’s been almost 6 months now. 6 months of saying goodbye in a thousand tiny ways before I could sit down and say it this way.
Back in 2011, I made my first original recipe cake in observation of National Bundt Day, and it is now the longest creative streak I’ve maintained in my life.
About 2 months after my 2023 Summer of 1000 Tomatoes post, we found out my husband had cancer and pretty much our entire lives revolved around nothing but that for about 8 months. I managed to keep all the plants from dying and they gave us a better harvest than we deserved based on how little I gave them in return.
November 15 of 2023 found me looking back over a streak that began on that same date in 2011, the first year I was aware of National Bundt Cake Day in time to do something about it.
Unfortunately, November 15 of 2023 also found me looking 5 days into the future, when my husband would have his second round of chemo.
Not the same husband. The other husband I had who had cancer died in 2001, four months after we got married. It sucked. A lot.
Now, 22 years later, my husband has cancer. If I hadn’t already been to one “husband with cancer” rodeo in my lifetime, or if it weren’t the same type of cancer my father died from last year, I might be processing the situation differently.
But for the past 3 months, I have been deeply entrenched in a state that mental health professionals commonly refer to as “freaking right the fuck out over pretty much everything”.
We started observing the 25 Days of Drinkmas in 2020, a year that called for a booze advent calendar if ever a year called for a booze advent calendar.
We repeated the event in 2021, another year that absolutely warranted nightly cocktails for 3+ weeks straight, but it was cut short by some unexpected holiday travel.
And here we are in 2022. I’m trying to keep this light and fun, but this season started challenging me at about 10:00 a.m. on December 1st and shows no signs of letting up. But at least there will be fancy cocktails.
