Alexandra Vaillancourt

Dateline Boston — For Thanksgiving this year, we made reservations.

Dateline Boston — The year is almost over, a year when S.O. and I stopped eating out. No restaurants, coffee shops or chain eateries. We’ve saved hundreds of dollars. As I’ve stated previously, the biggest thing I’ve taken away from our experiment is that we no longer think about going out to eat as an option.

Dateline Boston — On the third day of our babysitting adventure, S.O. and I took the kids to see Dolphin Tale. At first, I was a little hesitant to take a 3- year-old and a 7-year-old to a PG-rated movie. Our friends, the parents, assured us that it was fine; they had been planning to take them anyway.

Dateline Boston — My S.O. and I are taking care of our dear friends’ two kids for the weekend. Lucas, 7, and Rose, 3, have different activities on Saturday morning. I elect to take Rose to her ballet class, which starts at 9. We have a leisurely morning, making breakfast, playing Bingo.

Dateline Boston — I arrive right on time for my tattoo appointment at 5:30. I’m here to get the flower on my wrist colored in. I got the outline of the flower done about a year ago. It’s been so long, my tattoo artist, Ram, has forgotten what it looks like. He gets my file (which is pretty thick — I’ve been working with Ram for close to 10 years), and we sit down for a consultation.

Dateline Boston — Lately I’ve been throwing things away. And I do mean throwing them away—not recycling them, not giving them away, not bringing them to the second-hand store.

Dateline Boston — The other day at nursery school, a grandmother was congratulating me on my engagement. She turned to her 4-year-old grandson and said, in her English accent, “Lee, Alex is going to get married. Do you know what that means?”

Dateline Boston — I am engaged. My S.O. asked me to marry him. I said yes. We are very excited.

Dateline Boston — My S.O.’s mother moved from her house to an independent living facility this summer. It was quite a process. “Mom” had lived in her house for something like 50 years. Her three kids grew up in that house, and she lived there with her husband after they all grew up and moved out. Her husband was moved to a facility for Alzheimer’s patients five years ago. At 83, Mom puttered around, going out with friends who could drive her to lunch, shopping, and to visit her husband, who didn’t quite know who she was anymore.

Re “Visit to the ENT”

Dateline Boston —I had a fluttering feeling in my left ear for about a month. It started out feeling like a tic. Then I switched to a buzzy feeling, as if there were a bug in my ear, flapping its wings furiously. A few days later, it changed again, feeling like a kitten purring in Morse Code.