Did anyone take an hour yesterday (Tuesday) to do whatever they said they’d do with an open hour on a Tuesday afternoon? I’d love to hear about it!
Yesterday I went for an afternoon walk. Today I’d use open time to take a nap as last night was just ridiculous. The toddler was up for 2.5 hours or so. My husband took the first hour, and then I took the remainder, being the “closer” for the situation. He (the toddler) was willing to lie in his crib while I sat in the rocking chair, so I added a substantial quantity of screen time to my tally for the day. I can attest that a lot of people are tweeting in the middle of the night.
This morning was subsequently dreary. I’m tired. My 14-year-old forgot his Spanish assignment and I drove it to school (I’m listening to Aaron Copland’s Rodeo in the car now after listening to Appalachian Spring ten times or so). We have an appliance installer here finally putting in our new dishwasher and a beverage station. Will this transform my coffee making? We shall see. My husband and I tend to make and share a pot, but the problem is we get off schedule. Someone makes a pot mid-day and we only drink half and then we leave it there and drink the day old coffee the next morning, but day old coffee is not as good as new coffee.
Some fun family news: My father was just elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. This year’s class also includes Glenn Close and Salman Rushdie, so that’s kind of fun. You can read Notre Dame’s news release here.
In past-podcast-guest news: Kendra Adachi’s new book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen, came out yesterday. She talks about meal planning, kitchen layout, how to create dishes, and so forth. I think my favorite part is the formula for food at a party. You need six “bites” per person per hour, and three choices per ten people. So if you have 20 people over from 7-10 p.m., you need 6 x 20 x 3 bites, which is 360 bites. Since you have 20 people, and you need 3 choices per ten people, this means you need 6 choices. Ergo, you need 60 bites of six items. It’s just math!
(With seven people in my house, I guess every meal is something of a party. I can tell you that making 12 muffins does not last long. It’s unclear whether everyone can even get a muffin for breakfast the next morning. Guess we need more bites!)
Congrats to your father.
My kids had a 1/2 day yesterday and we went to a museum in Halifax we’ve been meaning to visit for years and just…never visited. It was fun, though museums are never quite the same with kids in tow. Glass-half-full me would remember I saw a whole button from shipwrecks only because my daughter is currently obsessed with buttons. Pre-kid me would never have noticed this little detail in the display.
The math and execution on finger foods is one of the main reasons I don’t host group events (well, and the fact I’m an introvert). All those little “bites” sound tedious. Sigh. I’d rather have one family over for a meal and call it an evening.
congrats to your dad!
I am headed out tomorrow for a 6-day camping/hiking/writing retreat. It is a week until graduation – I could sit in my office and clean it up from a hectic semester, or I can get a head start on summer. Opting for the latter.
I had an unintentional extra hour yesterday, when I decided that I wasn’t making any progress at work and needed some fresh air. I had to cycle into the village for an appointment and then decided to go home the “long” route via the walled garden, so I got a 5 mile cycle ride and then a quick wander through the garden. It is a traditional walled garden which was attached to a stately home which is no longer standing, and I try and go for a walk round every week or two, it helps me feel connected with the changing seasons. It’s only a mile from our house so on nice days when I’m wfh, I’ll cycle over with my lunch, or any reading I need to do, and find a spot under a tree. Once I had to send a bunch of painful emails and I just brought a flask of tea, some chocolate, and my phone, because even if I was doing something annoying, at least I was doing it in nice surroundings.
Congratulations to your Dad! Your family must be so proud.
Congratulations to your dad–his work sounds wonderful and your whole family must be so happy and proud.
I got released a few hours early on Tuesday, so I 1) took care of some work stuff before I left that ended up taking almost 2h, and 2) took the dog to the vet. Yay.
Wow – how cool! Congrats!
Random comment to go with the random updates: You’re dating yourself with the picture of the IKEA plate. I should know –we have a set as well. :o) They’ve updated the product with a slightly different look.
I unfortunately had one hour LESS than planned yesterday due to a miscalculation on my part. So I outsourced one errand to my husband (brilliant!), but then had to rush through dinner prep and ended up yelling at my kids because I was rushed and they were fighting and would not help (so not cool for all parties). Definitely needed that extra hour to be alone and feel unrushed!