jenn schiffer's live laugh blog

weekly retro #74: heat dome

it is presently a cool 84 degrees (F) out according to my laptop as i type this in a well air-conditioned room. don't be mistaken, though, your beloved princess of hating the heat (me) spent a lot of time outdoors despite, and in spite of, a three-day "heat dome" bringing over 100 temperatures to the metropolitan area throughout the 4th of july weekend.

i went to a couple tech meetups this week (brooklyn web workers and jerseyscript), crossed the river for therapy on the hottest day in hell, and then walked all the way to the waterfront on purpose to watch cool boats sail up the hudson river. this weekly retro is sponsored by sunscreen and water.

selfie of me during a golden hour in the park

every heat wave is the devil trying to get me to shave the sweater growing out of my head. my skin is breaking out too, i think it's a mix of the sweat and sunscreen clogging my pores and my body adjusting to an increased dose of my pituitary meds. i went to urgent care because my ear was bothering me and it's probably inflammation from the same meds blocking da tube. endocrine issues require a lot of trial and error and patience through discomfort. it also makes temperature regulation difficult. i'm not going to shave my head.

photo of a bowl i am trimming on the pottery wheel

we made bowls and plates in class this week. i have a feeling my plate is either cracked dry on the shelf right now or will crack during the first fire. i also am drawing a blank on what design i should underglaze and sgraffito into it. i don't want it to be plain! i also have 3 bowls thrown, so i need to come up with something for those too.

photo of my easel on my desk where i'm in the process of painting a monochrome pixel art gouache painting of a naked woman wearing a hat and holding a scarf

i finally put paint to paper this week on a grid i drew down months ago. i streamed a little bit of it too - thanks to the folks who joined me! i have had this standing desk for several years, along with a desk easel on top, and it only just occurred to me this week that i can therefore adjust the height of the easel. i've been doing these paintings flat on a table like a cave person with a sticky hand for a spine!

photo of echinacea flowers - brown middles with bright pink petals, like a psychelic daisy

i got to catch up with a couple of pals this week who are good reasons to brave the sun and heat. lisa gave me a big envelope of stickers to go in my sticker book, many from back when we were in college together. i followed vijith after the brooklyn web workers meetup to watch some live bluegrass that made the very annoying tinnitus from my ear issue go away for a bit. perhaps live bluegrass is the cure.

photo of the hudson river from the jersey city waterfront and there are some very old looking ships parading through on the manhattan side

andy and i got up early and trekked to the waterfront to watch the ships and planes performing in celebration of america's 250th anniversary. we had a nice, sweaty morning capped off with an ice coffee on the way home. it was around 100 degrees (F) by the time we got back indoors, and i don't think either of us want to see the sun for at least the next 48 hours.

things i enjoyed this week

it's gray out and my sinuses feel like (and the weather reports say) we're going to get a couple inches of rain. will i finish my painting finally? will my eustachian tube unblock itself? will i finally list some new candles and ceramics on the shop in time for its one year anniversary? only the next week will tell and the weather will allow.

xoxo jenn

this was published July 5, 2026 under living health weekly-retro ceramics friends meetups brooklyn jersey-city jerseyscript holidays

weekly retro #73: frequent stops

this past week was a test for how bad i really want to be off my phone, and the answer is *very bad*. it's a tough habit to kick though, requiring intentional moves like deleting apps and logging off of web pages, keeping the phone further from me than other things i could fidget with my hands and eyes, and simply going outside. in an algorithmic world, making intentional moves is really hard.

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weekly retro #72: cone's off, cramps on

when i was in college learning software engineering, my professor told us that there's no way to say with 100% certainty that your software is bug-free. even if everything is working perfectly now, there's always a chance that some kind of race condition or memory leak will rear its ugly head down the line. that doesn't mean you should never celebrate a release, just that there's a level of humility needed to align with reality. i bring that up to show that i know that there are caveats when i say that pumagreg is cancer-free. as far as the sarcoma in his leg is concerned, he's all clear, and that's a huge win!

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weekly retro #71: the cat's alive, knicks in five

i wrote last week's retro from the floor of my bathroom next to pumagreg as he lay lethargic after pissing blood, and with advice from the animal hospital to see if it clears in the morning otherwise bringing to an emergency room. today, i type this from my couch as pumagreg lays nearby after zooming around looking for food. it's incredible how a good nights rest can heal even the sickest little guys.

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weekly retro #70: asked the vet for a lobotomy but they said no

happy june, happy pride. it's also the beginning of what i'd been preparing for weeks, which is a new chapter in my cat's life as a (hopefully) cancer-free tripod. in this weekly retro i talk about some dark stuff but calling attention to the dark makes the light even brighter or whatever. oh, and go knicks!

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weekly retro #68: quiet before the scheduled storm

this was a week of resetting after doing a lot and before doing even _more_ a lot. finding ways to ground myself is key to plan as i take care of responsibilities ranging from low risk (hosting a karaoke party lol) to higher risk than hosting a karaoke party (preparing the home for pumagreg's upcoming surgery).

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weekly retro #66: spring showers and neighbors' flowers

the other day i was streaming and there was an incredible sounding rain. the chat and i sat in silence and just listened for a bit, it was so nice and refreshing sounding. it was like the earth was getting a nice, clean reset for the season. i hope that's the same for me.

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what i made during my third ceramics class

i said in my second ceramics class post that i'd be back in early may with a roundup of my third class pieces and, here we are, in early may. i brought my final pieces home on monday and i am so stoked to get to finally show them off. here's what i made during my third ceramics class

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