{maique}

Final week of August, a month that should have been mostly vacation, but took a different turn this year. No week at the village, no week at the Algarve (we’re doing that next week, in September). It was not an easy month. We are super thankful to my in-laws, as they helped us with this loooong one.

• 🍎 We moved back to the in-laws, after one night in the city. We’ll have plenty of those soon enough. It’s quieter in the countryside now, cousins all left. We spent the rest of the week there, and then moved to the city again. Friday was “back to school” day for tinyMovieStar. We also missed our place, and have only a couple of days before we travel to the Algarve for a week of R&R. August was mostly spent over there, in the countryside, ever since we drove down from the music festival. Three weeks. That’s a long time. We did have a great time, though. tinyMovieStar got to pick apples and figs at a friend’s orchard, play around with cousins, spend time with her grandma&grandpa, go to the pool… Life in the countryside does have advantages. We are very fortunate to have this available, and so close to the city too.

• 🇨🇭 Still on tinyMovieStar (can’t get enough of this one), for the past month the little one has been super into flags. She knows a ton of them by heart now, and, although she has no grasp of where the countries are, or what they actually are, she does remember the links between some of them. We have a couple of books now, with all the flags in the world, and we keep going back to those. Neighbours are “friends”, and she wants to visit all the countries, so she can find out what language they speak there, and how the local boys&girls look like. Awesome. So, instead of walking to school on her first day, we had to drive there. She wanted to see the Swiss flag she discovered the other day, “a real one, not paper”. We drove by the Zurich insurance company on the way.

• 🎉 We, finally, drove back to the city, just in time for kindergarten day one. tinyMovieStar a bit scared. She’s moving up in class, and changing teachers. Her friends are still the same, but she was, understandably, apprehensive. One day only, and on to Party Weekend. That’s how this one will be remembered. Two birthday parties! On Friday a cousin was celebrating his 10th anniversary, and two days later another one was also turning a decade old. Fun times, for sure, but very exhausting.

• 💸 Purchased App Tamer license. It really helps my old Air, I’ve been trying to, well, tame the fans, but couldn’t quit the processes that fired it up. They would always come back. This works.

• 🔐 1Password subscription renewal time this week as well. I’m on the family plan, with a 50% discount for another year. I like it, and have been using 1P for many years, but… For the first time I thought I need to find a replacement. I loved it, but, since the update to v8, it just doesn’t seem to work as reliably, as snappy, as perfectly. It was smooth, but not anymore. I could go with Bitwarden, Proton Pass (I got the lifetime $1/month Plus plan on launch day), or something else. I would just need to figure out movieStar’s situation. Proton Pass seems rather nice already, and a ton of new stuff seems to be coming in the near future. I started using it as a quick, and easy, way to have a few passwords available when I’m playing with Linux, and it has grown on me.

• 💻 Edited and sent last week’s small assignment. Also sent a couple of receipts, as we need more money for our week down south. August is normally a slow work month, this time it was no different. I have one thing scheduled for September already, but had to say no to a request, as we’re not in the city. Not great.

• 📸 We are a few days into Micro.blog’s September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge. Time to see a lot of cool photos, and figure out what to post every day. Prompts have been getting harder with every edition of the challenge, and I’ve been trying to shoot for it, instead of just going to the archive and pick something that fits. Not sure if it was a wise move. So far these are the ones I submitted. Day 01, 02, 03, and 04.

• 📺 Finished the Ghosn limited series. The Guardian has a great review, I agree with it 100%. Watched The Big Conn. The world is full of incredible stories. Love non-fiction. Also Platonic. Fun.

• 🍿 House of Gucci, Sing 2, Hail, Caesar!. It’s been a while since we’ve had such a movie-filled week! Felt good to sit through this with movieStar (and the tiny one for Sing, of course).

• 🌧️ It was also the “Hello, rain” week. Not a particularly brilliant timing, I must say, as we’re moving out of the city for some beach days early next week. We will probably spend the first day, on the road, with rain. And we’re going to Seville the following morning, so… darn. movieStar is getting a bit worried, as they rain seems to be here all week. Far from perfect. If we’re unable to go to the beach, and miss the opportunity for some pool days, I know someone who’s going to be pissed!