I’m doing random things in the early evening, which are fun, but take me away from having dinner at the “regular” time. But it’s OK (I think). I actually think it’s OK to practice leaving the house after 6 pm. My favorite is starting to wind down the house at 7:30 which precludes going out at night.
I went out on a Pokemon walk with many, many people – but mostly with Noah.
Here we are near the Rockville metro. Also, I park at Noah’s house so I get to spend some time chatting with Tom before I head home. Elka also goes on these Pokemon walks and has a good time. 🙂
I feel very lucky and happy these days. I’m enjoying myself which is a big blessing. Edda and I went to our, now usual, Friday night event at Main Street and I’m really getting to know the staff and people’s names and it’s a lot of fun. Edda had fun, I had fun and I’m *this close* to having Elka be able to come which would be even funner. Everyone asked after Jeremy who couldn’t come because he’s still a bit under the weather, but actually also had to work (I think pacific time work, so runs late on Friday afternoon/evening).
Jeremy made me delicious avocado toast for breakfast today.
I also like to bury the lede, but Vince was awarded the Outstanding Senior in his major – Chemical Engineering. It doesn’t mean that he got the best grades or did the best thesis – though you have to be in excellent academic standing be considered for the award, he got it because of his community building. (I also like that he isn’t a fan of inbox zero, lol.)
Here’s the general criteria:
When he started, it was the pandemic and he was unsure of himself and classes were hard and he had no friends because he was locked in his dorm room against viral attack and there were many, many upset calls back and forth and lots of worry and hand wringing and once the lockdowns lifted, he slowly but surely turned it around and did so many things for the department while getting good grades. Look, he resurrected chem-e-car from nothing and they ended up competing well at Berkeley a few weekends ago. I will say that Vince formed and led this team, but I don’t think Vince will actually say that, he always says it’s a team effort and he just held the meetings. Thank you UC Davis ChemE department (faculty and students all) for everything you’ve given and taught to Vince, my appreciation is deep and unstinting. Go Aggies! Moooooooo!
There are many people on Edda’s team and I’m appreciative for all that they do. Z, our current bus driver in the morning, got outbid (?) on this route so her last day was today. Why they change bus drivers like 5 weeks from the end of school is a mystery to me. But we all love Z, esp Elka, who got to run from the garage door and greet her and got scratches and zoomed around the driveway.
Jeremy rode into work yesterday for a retreat (they flew people from his office in from all over the country), but then by mid-day he was feeling crummy having caught Edda’s cold. So he took the Metro home and I picked him up with his bike. But then he realized that he forgot his work computer at work. So, I think, he’s driving in to pick it up today.
He bought an even bigger monitor to replace the accidentally broken one. It’s like 4 “full screens”. He’s quite adept at using a large monitor, there are little secrets that maximizes/minimizes/searches, etc.
I moved my found-almost-dead-on-the-street fiddle leaf fig out onto our porch. I chopped off the top which was causing it to lean precariously over to one side and I hope to propagate it. I am propogating many plants in my house and Jeremy’s like – do you want more plants? And I said that I didn’t really, but in our neighborhood, there is a plant share stand where I will drop them off once the roots are formed.
I joined Rent the Runway for a monthly subscription because I am tired of wearing pants. Pants irritate me and so I end up just wearing my pajamas all the time all over town. And I have 17 hoodies which I wear all the time ever since I was 14 (so this is a hard habit to break), which is totally fine, but I really want to transition to dresses. But I don’t know which dresses I like. So I’m trying this rental thing to see if I can figure it out. I’ll be OK with going back to hoodies and leggings, but, you know, I want to try and up my game. Look at this shapeless, colorful thing I’m wearing today. A little too feminine. But I’ll roll with it.
Edda stayed home yesterday, a little under the weather. It was a marginal call, but I’m glad she stayed home. I gave her a spot of Motrin at breakfast and lunch and she was mostly happy during the day and not too bored. And then she took a long, deep nap in the middle of the afternoon. So long and so deep that I did the early infant thing of watching her chest rise and fall to make sure she was still alive.
My girls napping in my office. Jeremy was downtown all day, Ginny, our evening caregiver called out sick, so actually, it was a very quiet day at home. But I couldn’t settle and get to work really well. It was our first day in the 90s (or high 80s) and I had the house too warm and last week I got bit by some insects and I tend to be sensitive to these bites, so I feel swollen and itchy.
The NYTimes ran an article which said the best 25 restaurants in DC. And three are in Rockville! Rockville is the center of ethic food excellence and we don’t take that for granted at all. We’ve been to two out of the three and we’ll try the third one soon. But honestly, I’m baffled. This Z&Z restaurant replaced our beloved pizza place during the pandemic, but we don’t really like it. I mean, if we really loved it, we’d be eating there all the time! Like all the time! Because it’s like a 3 minute walk from the house. But we don’t. We really miss our pizza place. But we are old people now talking about the olden days. (It also does list our favorite high end spots – Pineapples and Pearls and Rasika. Both excellent and fun!)
Jeremy accidentally broke our most expensive computer monitor while trying to move it from his desk to my desk for me to try out. He was easing it out of its place (or trying to unplug it) and it slipped and hit something and you can see an enormous spider web crack in the electronic screen (the actual screen you see is not broken). Poor thing (meaning Jeremy, not the screen). We were trying to think if this was the most expensive thing we’ve accidentally broken. I think maybe some car fender benders were more expensive, but this one is not cheap.
Edda is running a slight fever this weekend and is quite snotty. She’s home from school today. And Jeremy is downtown doing business things so it’s just us girls home today.
I have no idea why, but I feel very, very bloated this weekend – my pants don’t fit, I feel lumbering, it’s not great and I don’t know why. Honestly, all my slight weight fluctuations happen right at my waist right where all the high waisted jeans which are supposed to be so fashionable hit. So it doesn’t matter that the pants are too big everywhere else, they are too small at the waist. But only sometimes! Argh. I swear off pants now. I got no pants!
I went to the woods for a long run on Sunday trying to tuck it into the morning before it got to be 85 degrees.
I got rewarded with seeing a little turtle friend. I did move him off the trail, there are trail bikers who might accidentally hit him.
Friday night, we did hang out for dinner at Potbelly’s with our Main Street Friend and then excused ourselves from watching Kung Fu Panda 4 and took Elka to the dog park on Friday night. And then we went to Baked Bear to meet Ginny’s son Carlos who works there and knows Edda and Elka already, but we have never met him. Elka got some whipped cream. (This might be why my pants don’t fit at the waistline).
Soo…Vince is not protesting at his school. UC Davis remains out of the news regarding that. He spent the weekend at Berkeley competing in ChemE car. So proud of Vince who is the president of this club and resurrected this from non existence post pandemic. They came in about 4 or 5th out of 16 teams including beating out Caltech.
