Saturday, April 10 2021

2019-04-17 Wednesday

Good morning, journal!

Getting a late start to writing. I got tied up dicking around with mpd on rasbian. But it's all to the end of being able to listen to music through emacs - a pursuit worthy ALL my extra time. If you hadn't noticed, emacs is a pretty big part of my life. It's one of the few pieces of software I couldn't live without. I hope to be a regular contributor someday.

So let's recap yesterday. Lots of wrestling with documentation, lots of meetings, and finished off the day with a really intense battle with homemade red sauce and meatballs. It turned out just fine by the way - I just set off the smoke detector, through a spatula out of frustration, and kept the family waiting until 7:20. But other than that, I think it was a success. Pasta is a challenge. There's a lot of moving parts, and lots of timing to get right. I mean first off, there's just a ton of chopping. Dicing an entire onion, four cloves of garlic, two bunches of herbs, zesting a lemon, and grating cheese, all while making sure your sauce doesn't burn and your meatballs cook to completion is no small task. But it worked out, the lemon zest with the ricotta cheese and ground pork was a pleasant surprise and offered just the right amount of misdirection to make eating a bowl of spaghetti more fun. I think I'm going to try again, only using store bought sauce so I can focus on the meatballs. They tasted good, but I had trouble evenly browning them in a pan. They stuck and basically lost most of their delicious brown crust (I know it was delicious because I just shamelessly ate it out of the bottom of the pan - this was a science experiment after all, and where would an experiment be without collecting all the data you can?).

Today should be a pretty low key Wednesday. I'm working from home all day with just a few meetings sprinkled throughout the morning. We'll probably walk over to glass nickel for some lunch and a beer, then we're going to cap off the day by going to Bed Bath and Beyond for some much needed kitchen organization stuff. We're reorganizing the kitchen at the moment, and to my delight Marissa and I agreed on a few key accessories we need to keep a few hot spots organized.

Man, Frank Ocean is so good in the morning. Lately my thing has been listening to Endless while I write these little journal entries. Then again, Endless is by no means exclusive to journal writing. Endless is so versatile, you could listen to it while cooking, cleaning, working, quietly thinking, doing yoga, evading the police, etc. Music is special when it helps you focus on what you're doing, no matter what that is.

I've been thinking about kicking up the old blog again. I don't know how I would get traffic on the blog posts since I don't use Facebook anymore, but I'm thinking about switching to an email based medium. Just need to play around with that public mailer software and see if I can craft it to look like a blog. Heck, I might even just host it right form my computer. That would be kind of fun. Methods aside, I think I have more things to say. Journaling is all well and good, but a public blog draws out a different, equally important side of a writer I think. Like the way different workouts target different parts of the body to the end of being in well-rounded, active shape. (slaps belly) emphasis on well-rounded am-I-right?

As always, the coffee is wonderful today. But I might need another cup. I slammed that mug in a few minutes and I think I'm ready to re up. I might as well just jump in the shower, it's about time to start the day. Have a great Wednesday, journal.

2019-06-27 Thursday

Good Morning Journal!

Yesterday's concert on the square was such a wonderful time. We arrived there a bit early, and lemme tell you, the extra few minutes to settle in before the concert started made it easier to relax. Rod did so well, too. He ate his dinner, but he was also a really big fan of the chex mix that Alex and Cassie brought and practically inhaled all of it himself. And the gazpacho soup was as big hit as well, there were clean bowls all around. What was funny is that when we got home, I ended up making quesadillas for us because Marissa and I were still pretty hungry. That's why I think if I were a vegetarian, I would definitely gain weight because I'd need to do lots of snacking.

But concert on the square was wonderful. Not going to lie, last year I didn't really get it. I was uncomfortable, and waiting in line for food I've already had before made me grumpy about the whole thing. But it's one of those things that gets better as you lean into it. If you make it a big part of your week, it's very rewarding.

Still throwing around ideas for what I want to cook next week, but I'm definitely leaning toward vegetable dumplings.

Marissa surprised me yesterday by doing all of my chores. By the time I had put Rodney to bed, she had already cleaned the microwave, done the dishes, and was in the middle of scrubbing the stove top. That was a really nice surprise. Wednesday nights are chore-heavy for me, and to be honest, coming back late from concert on the square was pretty draining. I was not looking forward to it at all.

Nothing much going on today. I think I could use a quiet night. I have some shopping to do, just little things around the house that are depleted, but I might make jumbalaya in the meantime. This weekend should pick up in business. This Saturday, we're getting a sitter and hanging out at Alex and Cassie's to watch the 'shake the lake' fireworks. Oh, and we're going to relearn how to play beer pong.

I'm really struggling this morning with energy. I'm pretty tired. I feel like I should skate to work, but I don't know if I got it in me today. I just spent probably five minutes spacing out, staring at my desktop. Lately, I can't stop kicking around ideas for how to rework my datacenter wall.

Alright, I'm going to refill on coffee and try to get my brain working. What a struggle this morning!

Let's have a Thursday!