A blue ceramic bird.

  • πŸ₯˜ Brother-in-law, and his wife, joined us for Sunday lunch at my in-laws. We didn’t get to see them so often before, but they have been trying to make it every week for a while now, and it’s great. tinyMovieStar LOVES her aunt, and it’s a routine we all seem to enjoy. We spend the entire week at home, the three of us, and having her grandparents and all (or most) of the uncles around during the weekend is something we believe works wonders. She is growing up with a big, loving, family. Can’t get much better.

  • πŸ₯° Monday came and it was time for tinyMovieStar to go back to school. She was presented with the options: car, or pram. She picked “Papi”. Off we went, piggybacking it, talking to our neighbors on the way, meeting our dog friend, singing, window shopping, the usual. We got there late, but who cares?

  • 🍺 We, the gang (or most of it), managed to get our schedules in sync, and got together for an afternoon beer. It was very enjoyable. One is going back to Ukraine in under a month, the other just recovered from his first bout with Covid, things never seem as carefree as before.

  • πŸ˜” Also time for a sad lunch this week, with a friend who’s going through some hard times in his life. Not getting into a lot of detail here, but parenting can be a challenge, and some people find it hard to cope with the change in their lives. When there’s a baby involved things can spiral out of control pretty quickly, and get to a point of no return. Hopefully he’ll get over this huge bump in his life. I’m not even sure what I can do to help, other than being there for him.

  • πŸ’» maique.lol is still going, very well I might add. Vincent did a great job with the install and maintenance and, even though this is not something I really needed, it’s been awesome to have. Keeping it around, loving my Mastodon instance. Worth saying that, if you’re looking to have your own instance, you should really get in touch with him.

  • ⚽️ We finally made it to the end of FIFA Uncovered, while the World Cup of Shame is going on. I have never been a football fan, thankfully, but this whole mess would surely get me off the football train if I ever was. It’s disgusting.

  • πŸ’ˆ New trip to the barber, as this particular haircut needs a lot of maintenance. And I wanted to be ready for the workshop. There was a TV interview, after all!

  • πŸ“· The Workshop! My first attempt at teaching non-photographers. I had written about this already, and the time to do it arrived. The trip up north was long, and tiresome. Five hours driving with rain and fog. More about this one on next week’s update, I’m sure.

  • ✏️ I really, REALLY, needed yet another place to share things, as the ones where I’m doing it aren’t nearly enough, so I went ahead and signed up for PencilBooth. Not even sure how/what I’ll use it for, but the idea of pondering a bit longer on a post, mostly photos, and only being able to do it once a week, feels enticing. Anyway, if you want to get these updates as well, sign up at pencilbooth.com/maique. Or don’t.

πŸ™πŸΌ Special thanks to jamesvandyne, thingsThisWeek is now a thing, again.