Yesterday I slept way in. I washed my hair, click-shipped boxes for pickup later today, had a call with my mentee, did the laundry, and watched SG-1. Board score for scrabble was 648, one bingo. I finished AART and started the sequel, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. Long involved dreams of a lab sciences version of everything I did in the pandemic, plus a virtual conference and inventing a nerf soccer version of CtFwS.
Yesterday was rough, so I mostly stayed in bed all day watching SG-1. I did finish writing cards for gifts, and packed everything up in boxes. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing continues the same, with the discomfort of watching characters face trolls and the thrill of seeing imperfect people try hard to work together and do better. We did the crossword after lunch and scrabble after dinner (580s?). More SG-1, snack, sleep. Long involved dreams of all the interpersonal parts of the pandemic except with a different cast of characters from my life, which was very weird. Anarcho-communist meetings, complicated snacks, art supplies, perfume dealers, a TA union and strike, landlords, a deep dive into the collaborative design and construction of a particolored leather handbag dyed with cough syrup for some reason.
Yesterday was Christmas. We did a Zoom call with P’s family, gifts between us (a Chinese cleaver and sand ginger for P, books on Japanese knitting patterns and Lakota recipes for me) and what had arrived from family (grippy oven mitts, a trivet, nice coffee, local corn grits). I spent the rest of the day getting grouchy and hormonal but managed to declare it and shield P from the worst of it. Crossword after lunch. The afternoon went to roasting the enormous tromboncino: sliced the neck into short lengths, peeled, diced; cut the seed cavity in half lengthwise and then did the same, scraping out the seeds with a grapefruit spoon. Surprisingly spaghetti-squash like texture around the seeds. Roasted with olive oil and salt, four sheet pans total. Roasting was a good call, since they reduced in size so substantially that I suspect boiling or steaming would’ve resulted in something watery and tasteless. As it is, the resulting tiny cubes are delicious. A+ will definitely repeat the experiment next year.
Dinner, talked to my folks, scrabble (563), SG-1, sleep. Extensive dreams about pandemic mishandling in schools.
Started reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. The autobiographical content is pretty uncomfortable, but the plot is legit and the characters are sticky and imperfect. People solving problems in groups. Recommend.
Yesterday I wrapped more gifts and wrote more cards. I drilled screw holes and one access hole in the brass housing, and test fit them together. Works great, no slippage. Now I need to either find counter-sunk washers, machine screws of the proper thread pitch, or (eek) counter-sink the holes in the brass.
I wrote a bio for a talk I’m giving next month to the girls robotics team, and helped resolve two small fires at work.
We did the crossword after lunch (ugh we are not good at catching anagrams and the awards thing was disorienting), scrabble after dinner (560s), then SG-1, snack, and sleep. Dreamt of teaching and taking college classes, losing a small comfort icon, escalators, dining halls learning to be better community members, non Euclidean paths to the ceramics studio, Korean-style kick wheels.
Yesterday I did a practice bend on a scrap of brass, and it worked great. I measured and marked the through hole for the speed controller knob, and started cutting it out with a saw. Slow work but it’ll be pretty when it’s done.
I wrapped some more gifts, and wrote some cards to give them a bit of context.
After lunch we folded laundry and did the crossword. I spent most of the afternoon watching SG-1 and napping. It was pretty excellent.
Dinner, scrabble(660, two bingos), SG-1, snack, sleep. Dreamt of being head scorekeeper for some kind of forecasting competition, fixing road signs, and auntie M visiting to help with a deep clean.
I finished Dusk of Dragons and Crown of Dragons and started Shield of Dragons. The battle tactics were fun, and the “hey why don’t we try actually talking to each other” is a relief. Misogynist world, feminist author. The villains are still a bit flat but what can you do.
Yesterday I did the laundry, made kale chips, and submitted a batch of recommendation letters for M. There are more to go; doing the one for Columbia wore me out since they require university letterhead (wtaf?). The cloth wrap from Handmade Arcade had arrived, so I also wrapped a few gifts. The post office is pretty tanked everywhere so they may not make it for actual xmas, but we’ll get close.
After dinner we did some research into under-sink water filtration systems, to see about retiring the pitcher for drinking water and the kettle for neti pot water. While we’re at it we’ll replace the main faucet with a pull out one for conservation of sink holes, but that will require more research since faucet reach is a primary issue for me.
Scrabble (612 board score, and we hit all eight TWs), snack, sleep. Snacks are starting to get weird; it may be time to try chiwda again.
Finished Throne of Dragons (terrible ending, just gave up), started Born of Dragons.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeasmymeasure
