I’ve been mostly offline this Thanksgiving. I haven’t checked anything for work, checked Twitter (or Mastodon, Bluesky, or Threads), read my RSS feeds, or checked any news sites. I did play Wordle, text some friends, and research microwave sales (the power supply on ours died). This was good for me, and I think I need to keep it going on weekends as much as I can.
Weekly Charlie photo dump.
Charlie likes learning about things, and recently anything with an engine is interesting to him. So I thought, why not show him our car’s engine? He liked it. He also loves starting the car whenever we go somewhere.
We joined the Richer family for Thanksgiving this year. It was nice enough that some of us opted to sit outside. Charlie and I also took a walk. Amanda and I were in charge of vegetables, so we made a dish of roasted butternut squash and a dish of roasted root vegetables (parsnips, rutabaga, onions, carrots, celeriac, and potatoes). With the leftover root vegetables we made a shepherd’s pie on Friday.
Charlie took his first train ride this weekend and he loved it. We took a short 20 minute ride up to Cold Spring to see how he’d do. Since he liked it so much, we think rides down to Manhattan are doable.
Charlie likes shopping at wholesale clubs.
I feel imbalanced.
- I frequently work evenings after Charlie goes to bed.
- I’m not reading as many books as I’d like.
- I feel a little bit stuck at work.
- We have some house & property projects we need to figure out but keep putting off.
- I find the two year old phase as challenging as it is gratifying. Watching Charlie learn and encounter the world for the first time is incredible. Teaching him new things is gratifying. Yet, the tantrums that come with him pushing the boundaries of his independence are incredibly frustrating. These past two weeks have been tougher than usual. Amanda and I are exhausted.
- My friend Jon asked me during Thanksgiving whether or not I’m turning any Christmas ornaments this year. I sheepishly said that I wasn’t and didn’t have time, but that didn’t sit right with me and bothered me the next couple days. I haven’t made much in my workshop since Charlie was born.
- I feel in a rut with what I’m cooking for dinner regularly.
In short, it is time to make some changes.
- I signed up for Automattic’s coaching program and scheduled my first couple coaching sessions.
- I spent a couple hours this afternoon cleaning my workshop, which I used as storage for most of the past two years.
- I made chicken stock tonight for the first time in almost a year.
- I reached out to my friend Scott Scharl about going through The Imposter’s Handbook together in the new year.
More I need to figure out:
- Get in a regular stretching routine so I don’t feel so tight all the time.
- Get back to regular meditation to help deal with frustration and anxiety.
I almost didn’t blog this week, but I think it is important to keep documenting things for my future self and keep putting things out there to start conversations.
I think a new theme is in my near future. Maybe using TT4. I’m trying it out for a project at work, so we’ll see how I like it. Looking at the current patterns, I think it needs one for a standard blog homepage with full content posts, so perhaps I’ll open an issue and put in a patch.
I’m sipping a Fall Back from Sasha Petraske’s excellent posthumous book, Regarding Cocktails, while writing this.
- 1oz Rye
- 1oz Apple Brandy
- 1/2oz Amaro Nonino
- 1/2oz sweet vermouth
Stir in a mixing glass with ice, strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass.
I started this year’s versions of 100 things and 40 questions. Doing them gradually over the next month should be easier than trying to jam in them between Christmas and the new year.
Leave a Reply