Benning Printing & Publishing

When it rains, it pours. It never fails that as soon as I get something paid off, a large expense occurs. I recently paid off my car, and then my washing machine broke down. I paid off my credit card, and not one, but two of my cats got sick, maxing it out again. I love my cats, but I am beyond stressed, and they aren’t helping the situation. I noticed that Salem, my four-year-old house panther (black cat), was losing weight. I kept finding vomit and adjusted the camera to

This month’s book for book club was Hour of the Witch, a bestselling historical fiction novel by Chris Bohjalian. Set in Puritan Boston in 1662, the story follows 24-year-old Mary Deerfield and the abuse she suffers at the hands of her husband, Thomas. After the abuse reaches the point of Thomas stabbing Mary in the hand with a three-tined fork, she seeks a divorce. However, the court refuses to grant it. It is an irritating reminder of the patriarchal society of the time, w

I have officially joined the CPAP club, and let me tell you, it has been an interesting experience. Lately, my exhaustion and fatigue had gotten pretty bad. By the time I finished working, I could barely function, and even simple things seemed to take longer than they should. That started a series of tests that eventually landed me on the CPAP train. The at-home sleep study wasn’t too bad. I had to sleep two nights with a device strapped to my chest, along with a nasal cann

Is Terminator becoming less entertainment and more warning? The quick development of artificial intelligence is raising concerns among some of the people that are building it. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI development may be moving faster than safety measures can keep up with, while other technology leaders have called for stronger safeguards and independent testing. Much of the concern centers on increasingly capable “AI agents” that can perform tasks indepe

This month’s book club selection was Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson. As far as thrillers and murder mysteries go, this book had a very unique premise. Jet lives with her wealthy family in Woodstock, Vermont. After spending an evening at the town’s Halloween festival, she returns home hoping to enjoy some peace and quiet. Instead, she is brutally attacked. Jet wakes up in the hospital and learns she suffered a serious head injury that required surgery. The bad news is th

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a cat story, but apparently the universe decided I needed another one. I walked in the door late one night after work, only to have my mother tell me, “We have an overnight house guest.” Oh? Then a tiny kitten popped out from under a chair. Oh great. That was exactly what I didn’t need. Of course, it became my problem to deal with. My joke has been that “Mom brought home problems,” so naturally, I named the kitten Problems. Apparently,

Apparently, I have become the unwilling host of a spider nursery. Earlier this summer, as per usual in my home, I found a spider. I am not a big fan of spiders, and we have an agreement: You stay away from me, I stay away from you. I don’t like them in my house, but I don’t particularly like bugs in my house either. So the spiders can take care of those. They control the bug population, and I let them live. But I won’t save them from the cats. This summer, however, was th

I learned about an interesting folktale from the Old Farmer’s Almanac. August 17 marks the start of “Cat Nights,” a tradition rooted in an old Irish legend about witches and cats. According to this legend, a witch could change into a cat eight times, but on her ninth try, she would be stuck as a cat forever. This story is often linked to the saying that cats have nine lives. The Cat Nights folklore may be related to legends of the Cait Sidhe in Ireland and the Cait Sith in

I finally did something fun this summer. As the chaos of a hectic and depressing summer finally begins to wind down, my boyfriend and I found ourselves with something we haven’t had much of lately—a day with nothing planned. The weather was nice, and he wanted to get outside and do some hiking. We started looking at local parks when I came across the Thomas Dambo trolls in Detroit Lakes. I thought that sounded like a fun adventure and something his kid may like, so we decid

Grief is contagious. To say this has been a busy and stressful summer would be an understatement. Mom’s battle with cancer has been only half of it. Recently, my boyfriend lost his older brother to cancer. After spending his entire life in and out of hospitals for medical conditions he was born with, and for countless surgeries, and also living with a tracheostomy, he made the difficult decision not to pursue treatment. He was only 41 years old. From what little time I kn