FREE Help with UC Applications, A Cozy Mystery Series Recommendation, and Thanksgiving Recipes

I admit to being a Trekkie so I'm very sad about the death of Sir Patrick Stewart. I know he was an amazingly accomplished actor, but he'll always be Captain Picard to me. I have loved the stories that have come out about him, and learning that despite their Shakespearean backgrounds, it was the X-Men movie that made Sir Patrick and Ian McKellan good friends. But what I've loved most is this absurd Super Bowl commercial for Paramount that I do not remember at all. How could I have missed it?! (I've marked affiliate/referral links with a *, which means I may make a little bit of money if you make a purchase or sign up using that link - thank you!)

A sleepy Stella ... we may have gained an hour this weekend but it still throws off our internal clocks!

University of California applications are due at the end of the month. UC Santa Barbara hosts webinars for students submitting a UC application, and because the application is for all UC schools, the webinars are beneficial even if you're not applying to UCSB.

Shemmassian Academic Consulting has a detailed guide to answering the UC personal insight questions. (I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but if the method resonates with you, go for it. And it's a great place to start if you're feeling overwhelmed.)

Now that both of my kids are in college, I'm thinking more about retirement. Capstone Wealth Partners has an interesting article on retirement cash, and income reserve vs. emergency fund.

If you need a new cozy mystery series to get into, I highly recommend The Glass Library series* by C.J. Archer. I've flown through the first five books, and there are only six in the series so far. 😢 So I was happy to learn that this series is a spinoff of the 13-book Glass and Steele series*, which I will of course be reading next.

Have you started thinking about Thanksgiving? Our family has agreed on who's going to host, and I'm apparently making the turkey. It's not my favorite thing to do, so I might order a pre-cooked turkey from somewhere. But I'll be looking over the turkey recipes in my Thanksgiving Pinterest board (and also doing some price comparisons - if it's far cheaper to cook the bird myself, then I'll definitely do it).

I prefer cooking the Thanksgiving side dishes (by far), and regardless of whether we're taking side dishes along with turkey to our host's house, I'll definitely be making some of Aunty Toki's cranberry sauce. My kids love it and it's not only great with leftover turkey, it's also nice to mix into some yogurt for a snack.