This Week
Hello there everybody. I’m working on some programming stuff to enable some future new features for the site this week, so I’m going to be around a little less than usual. My pal Aaron Cohen (previously) is going to be here to fill in some of the gaps, so be on the lookout for that. 👯♂️
In the meantime, what was one small thing you did this weekend that made you or someone else smile, laugh, relax, or feel satisfied? After a productive day yesterday, I treated myself to the first episode of the new season of Silo, read Craig Mod’s Things Become Other Things for 30 minutes, and listened to James by Percival Everett on audiobook for 20 minutes.
Discussion 31 comments
We had friends over for a baby playdate which was great for all of us. I got a fresh pair of running shoes and I'm going to just try and commit to doing 15 mins a day of jogging outside at any pace, to help with my other goal of sleeping more and better.
We had friends over Saturday night for Jackbox Games - such a blast, always always a grand time with Jackbox. Despite a mild hangover Sunday, the house felt great because of the tidying-up we did before guests.
I spent Saturday afternoon leisurely cooking dinner for my son and a couple of his friends, who came over from (nearby) college. It was great to see him, and he devoured the non–dining hall food.
Took my 3 year old son to one of those indoor trampoline parks. He absolutely *loved* getting thrown into the foam pits.
I, a grown adult, realized upon reading this that *I* would love getting thrown into a foam pit.
Surely there must be a way I can make this happen.
Perhaps we have a business idea here... we can sell chopped sandwiches too!
Find your local indoor trampoline park. You'll have to throw yourself into the foam pit, but it is pretty fun.
Went to the bookstore with my 8 year old to grab a birthday present for a friend, ended up letting him pick out a book for himself and one for his sister and one for them to share.
Watched Princess Mononoke as part of a film club that meets up virtually to talk about a movie every week (or so).
I was busy with schoolwork all weekend, but managed to make time to have dinner with different friends on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. I feel so lucky to have wonderful people in my life.
We had our annual "Soup Party" where three other couples come over and we serve 4 (small) bowls of soup to 8 adults and 8 kids. That's 64 bowls of soup! Lots of hits this year, including our pickle soup. And a surprise "tirami-soup" for dessert really topped things off.
If you read only the first sentence and assume there's only 4 small bowls for 16 people, the Soup Party takes on a whole different character.
That's soup fight, it comes a few days later...
We brought games over to play at some friends' house (Gudetama, The Gang, Tales by CAH). Lots of laughs. Much needed.
We bought a painting from an artist that I've admired for over 20 years. It's perfect and now it's ours.
My husband and I rarely read the same kinds of books but we decided to form a one-off mini book club to read The Power Broker.
I've been teaching myself about cyanotype printing and finally set a morning aside to play with it. Managed to get three solid prints complete before I lost all the sunlight. I'm seeing more artistic pursuits as a coping mechanism for the rest of my reality so taking this step made me really happy.
I adore cyanotypes. So much fun and such an enjoyable and easy process. Have fun with them and good luck as you explore more artistic endeavors!
Played my first non-D&D TTRPG (Call of Cthulu), went to a metal show, fully cleaned my fridge for the first time in 3 years. Very rare fun/productivity ratio for a weekend and it felt good!
I’ve decided to migrate my site from Wordpress to Hugo (hosted on GitHub or something) and spent a good chunk of the weekend tinkering with it. I had so many false starts and almost gave up until I found a theme that clicked and found my groove and got my site to 99% where I need it to be. It was so satisfying and I love working in Hugo so much after dealing with Wordpress bloat for so long.
I dog-sat my niece's Golden Retriever, Odysseus, and took him on long walks in Riverside Park.
My daughter turned 1 year old yesterday! We had a party, invited a bunch of friends and family. It was really nice being with people we care about and who care about us.
Watched The Wild Robot with the 9yo and the almost 5yo, we all loved it.
I went to visit my daughter in her university town, we laughed and went out to eat, I bought her a woolen blanket to cuddle up under, and I was so happy to be with her and so sad that I can't be close to her all the time any more. And quite spontaneously and surprisingly, we found the perfect cat for her
For the first time in a long time I entered my ceramics studio and threw on the wheel. The hands remember (but the technique is a li'l rusty!) My body was tired, but making is the antidote to so much in this moment and it felt like exactly the right kind of productivity.
I went to a live taping of the podcast How Did This Get Made. They broke down the movie Megalopolis. The show was hilarious as always, but I had to watch Megalopolis in preparation so... 🤷🏼♀️
I'm rehabbing (another) weaving loom. Seeing the wood transform into something beautiful is rewarding. I used a screw extractor for the first time to remove a set screw that brought the project to a halt. That felt both scary and empowering. Sunday I went to class and hung out with other weavers. Happy days
Had a relatively non-fun weekend (reinstalling a toilet and sink in a downstairs bathroom). But did make it to a crazy estate sale featuring hundreds of cameras and managed to only buy two, a backup Olympus XA (one of my favorite cameras) and a Minolta 16 II, a 1960s era subminitaure camera that I may never shoot but loved the design of.
Watched “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” with my grandkids. Loved hearing them laugh.
I'd rejuvenated our overgrown climbing rose, New Dawn. Twelve-foot canes! One-inch thorns! Kind spouse came to free me when the rose pinned me to the fence. I survived with minor wounds, and the rose looks much happier.
I finished James the other night — IT'S SO GOOD. Been a while since I've wanted a book to go on and on and on and on. Felt like it ended with tons of energy left to spare, and for that I respect it mightily.
Thanks for reading my book 🥹
I spent yesterday in my pajamas, setting up a new computer like a mega dork and it was extremely therapeutic. Now I start prepping for a big launch of a new book in Japanese, which will be the opposite of yesterday's quietude.
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Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!