a semi-circle of US flags flying against a light blue sky.

Happy Fourth of July!

Where does the phrase “raining cats and dogs” come from anyway?

Thatched roofs? Unsavory Elizabethan street sanitation practices? A 1652 Richard Brome play? Where does the phrase “raining cats and dogs” come from anyway?

worker using a broom to push fish to the side of the road

Update to a Past Caterpickles: “Why does it rain fish in Honduras?”

While I was busy not blogging this month, it came to my attention that this blog is ten years old. Goodness. I thought it would be fun to mark its decade-aversary by revisiting a question post from the early days of the blog to see how well my answer has held up. Spoiler alert: Not well.

One shot down, one to go

One side benefit of The 14-Year-Old being older than I think she can possibly be, is the fact that she is eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine. We took her last week to one of our county’s mass vaccination sites. One shot down, one to go.

Wordless Wednesday: Crocheted Unicorn Mugshot

It’s too warm this week to knit blankets, so I’ve switched to amigurumi (the craft of crocheting little stuffed toys). It’s finicky work and I’m always deeply uncertain about the results, which is why as soon as there is a hint of coolness in the air, I plan to go right back to making blankets. Anyway, this week I made this unicorn.

Mural displays the words It's a Beautiful Day painted in white in a rounded all-caps font against a black background. The artist has painted a multi-layered shadow for each of the letters in the words out of the colors of the rainbow. The effect is to make the words look like they've been launched into space, trailing rainbow flames. (Sorry this is a terrible description.)

Languishing our way through 2021, coping skills for kids, and other news of the week

All week I kept stumbling across useful articles and podcasts about this almost-there-but-not-quite-yet moment in the pandemic. Here are three of my favorites on muddling through this moment in the pandemic; helping middle schoolers establish and evolve critical coping skills to manage their stress, anger, and anxiety; and pandemic changes parents actually want to keep.

Barrel shaped cactus plant with giant cluster of white flowers with a yellow center.

Wordless Wednesday: Flowering cacti

It’s springtime for the cacti too.

Snippet of Carrie Lederer's Lost in my abstract garden is a swirl of purples and green in various floral shapes.

Palo Alto Public Art Project: Lost in My Abstract Garden on California Avenue

Palo Alto has installed eight new temporary murals designed to give residents struggling with the pandemic a bit of an emotional boost this spring. Last week, I visited the murals along California Avenue, and found myself spending a great deal of time with Carrie Lederer’s mural, Lost in My Abstract Garden.

Mural of a marching band consisting of a variety of foods playing various instruments. The mural reads Welcome to California Avenue.

The Palo Alto Public Art Project is helping us remember how to be in public spaces again

With Santa Clara County slowly resuming economic and social activities, looking at some freshly installed public art is a great opportunity to get my entire family used to roaming freely around the world again.

white blossoms on a tree branch against a bright blue sky

Detecting and neutralizing misinformation, a couple of book reviews, and other tidbits that crossed my desk this week: A Caterpickles miscellany*

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading about how to detect and neutralize misinformation this week –and how to teach my daughter to do the same. Here are a few of the articles, blog posts, and books I’ve found most helpful.