I try to be a good daughter and call my mom fairly often, but since she almost never calls me, the ball’s in my court to keep in touch on a regular basis. A couple days after I chatted with my mom, my brother John called and we talked about random stuff for a while before he said, “Hey, did Mom tell you she got impaled?”

Previously I mentioned my mom’s pepper-growing hobby and how it all but consumes her time from the months of July to October. She was supposed to come to Seattle for a visit the first week of November, but since the fall frost hasn’t come to Michigan yet, I got pepper-blocked again as Mom stays behind to tend to her crop before winter. Sigh.

My brother John informed my mom that he was heading to the Korean grocery store to pick up some groceries, and, as usual, she gave specific instructions on what he was supposed to buy for maximum Asian deliciousness. This time around, she tried to force him to make a vanity purchase.

My mom will occasionally go see a movie. I’ve accompanied her on a couple occasions, as has my brother John. Seeing a movie with my mom is always a treat, mostly because watching her reactions and listening to her review afterward is easily more entertaining than the movie itself. Below are a few movies we’ve seen with Mom:

On Sunday I completed my first Ironman. I had been training for the race for the past several months and recently conquered the distance for the first time. A couple days before the race, I called my mom to remind her of what I’d be doing all day Sunday since she was too busy with her peppers to fly out and cheer me on. The call went about how you’d expect.