viewed from inside a car, the countryside looks mighty hot.

  • 🌴 Weekend Routine, Summer Edition. We are trying to arrange things in a way that allows us to take tinyMovieStar to the beach on weekends, and still enjoy the company of her grandparents (both sets). To get there, we had to make a little adjustment to our weekend schedule: we are now moving to the in-laws on Friday, able to go to the beach all day on Saturday, and moving back to the city on Sunday, with dinner at my parents. Let’s see how this works out…

  • 🚌 This first weekend was a special one too, the moving about weekend. Drove to Cascais, dropped movieStar, drove back home, picked up tinyMovieStar from kindergarten, drive to in-laws, back to Cascais the following morning, pool day, picked up movieStar, back to in-laws, slept, and finally back to the city. Darn. Lots of time spent on a car, with crazy heat outside. That was the theme of the week too, as I wasn’t done with driving yet…

  • πŸŠβ€β™‚οΈ We did get to spend a day at the pool, and what a treat it is. tinyMovieStar is getting so comfortable in the water, full of confidence. We do our best to build up her confidence, but she does most of the work herself. She’s really strong.

  • πŸ“· Then I had to leave the city on the hottest day of the week, and travel to the hottest part of the country, to shoot outside, on the worst hours of the day. Of course I did. Worth it, though, as I was shooting an architect, on two of his creations. Loved it. To make things more interesting, I’m now actively avoiding highways whenever I can, and pick the regular roads, the ones we used back when I was a young boy, and highways were not available. Feels so good, a true trip back in time. Those times are like a dream now, as the country is covered with highways. Most of the time the trip will be a few minutes longer, of course, but not as much as one might expect. And I get so much in return. I get to see the country again, the little villages, the abandoned restaurants by the road, the industrial areas around the bigger towns, people going about their lives, …

  • πŸ‘Ή Toddler-sitting. I love my baby girl. I, unsurprisingly, believe she’s the most perfect kid on earth. I’m biased, of course. But, truth be told, some of the other kids are just assholes. There, said it.

  • βš–οΈ Now that I believe I can say smoking is behind me (54 days, and counting… fingers crossed), it’s time to get back to my fasting routine. I tried to keep this under control, but not smoking turns out to be a hell of an appetite booster! I have gained around 6Kg by now, time to let them go again. I was/am aware of how poorly I controlled my appetite for things I shouldn’t eat, and how I kept postponing the end of that behavior. Now is the time to get that app working again, and take care of myself.

  • πŸ“Ί As far as TV goes, and I should call this TV/iPhone, as a few of these are watched on the run, on the smaller device, it’s still season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones. And we got to the end of The Diplomat, again. Now we’re eagerly waiting for season 2 of both this show, and The Bear. August 2 is the date when we’ll be able to say “Yes, Chef” again. And I managed to watch Taking the World Stage (Full Episode) | North Korea: Inside the Mind of a Dictator (YouTube link) while I was on a very long editing session at home. I also got to the end of episode 1 of Smartless: On the Road, and still not sure if I’ll even watch episode 2. How is the podcast so funny, and the TV show so painfully boring? And, finally, I got the courage to watch the final episodes of Schitt’s Creek. I will miss this one, a lot.

  • πŸš€ New app for the laptop: Rocket. Bought the Pro version. Not spending a lot of time with on the Air but, when I do, emoji picking took a lot longer than it should. Not anymore. Another great find by Mr Matt. I can now do this (Ν‘ Β° ΝœΚ– Ν‘ Β°) too, easily!