doyce testerman

Posts under ‘Blood, Sweat, and Cheers’

This is not my holiday

Martin Luther King Jr. will never mean the same thing to me that he means to my brother-in-law Reggie, nor will he have the same impact on me as on my nieces and nephew.
Close as we are, I can’t even claim Reverend King’s impact to the same degree as my sister.
I’m just a liberal white [...]

Hugging my Security Blanket Ball

Short post today; I love you (I do, really. Put this mask on.), but I have other writing to do.
So last night, I spoke to Twitter and said:
I love my new bowling ball. My new bowling ball hates me and is filing for a restraining order. I think I’ll name her ‘Carla’.
Yeah. I’m going to [...]

What I’ve learned about Bowling

Tonight marks the conclusion of the fall season of the bowling league in which I, my wife, and several of my game-geek friends participate.
It’s fun. Shut up.
In a way, it’s a weird return to my childhood. While bowling continues to grow in popularity in the U.S., bowling league participation dwindles, but such was not the [...]

SPECIAL SQUASH CASSEROLE

So there’s this thing Floy-Jean makes around the holidays. It’s generally called “Grandma’s Special Squash”, because

No one really makes it quite as good as she does.
It’s special. (And be ’special’ I mean ‘actually a dessert, masquerading as a hot dish’.)

Here’s how it goes.
1. Start with 3 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded. and cubed. (Not everyone [...]

Doycean White Chili

Okay, so Grandma Floy (she of the dusting-of-furniture-while-we-move-it) has a pretty rad white chili recipe. I had it a couple-five holidays ago and followed up my third bowl by begging for the recipe on my hands and knees.
(To which she was like: “Here’s the recipe, you didn’t have to beg. Food isn’t a secret.” Which [...]

#NaNoWriMo: Using Time

I’m writing from the Home Office today, rather than a booth at Panera or the front seat of my parked car over lunch hour. I have this lovely wingback chair (secretly also a recliner) in the corner of my office, and it’s in that chair that I’ve tapped out about two-thirds of this month’s project [...]

Habituals Update

It’s been relatively quiet around Casa Testerman for the past week or so. There was a trip to Philadelphia, thick with unexciting wardrobe malfunctions, but otherwise I’m plugging along with writing, reading, and trying to get these damn habits locked in. Lemme sum up:
Reading:
It’s been a very good month for me as far [...]

In May, I will form a habit.

I’m not always fantastic at practicing what I teach.
For instance, a number of my classes have to do with modifying your own behavior (time management, giving feedback, verbal communication, how to not be a pain in the ass for everyone who reads your email, et cetera), so when I talk about what needs to change, [...]