A clay bowl containing fresh salad, consisting of lettuce, onion, and tomato, displayed in a refrigerated case.

Messy week, yet again. Not sure what to make of it, but everything seems a bit off balance.

  • πŸŠβ€β™€οΈ Saturday was a full day, that started with our return to swimming classes, after a couple of months away. tinyMovieStar is a little behind now, but did an incredible thing too. She went full underwater, and that was the thing keeping her away from the pool. The teacher was asked to give her a pass when that moment arrived, and he did. She still dove in at the end of the class. Amazing little girl, I’m proud of her every day.

  • πŸ₯˜ In the evening we had dinner at my brother-in-law’s place, and the in-laws decided to join in, after telling us they wouldn’t drive into the city. It’s not a long drive, we do it every weekend, sometimes more than once. But they always make a big thing out of coming into the city. It should not be like that. 2024 might be the year when something changes in this relationship. Not thrilled, but it is what it is. We still need to figure this one out.

  • 😝 Sunday, party day. One of tinyMovieStar’s little friends had a birthday, so we drove to Cascais for the celebration. Funny thing, and lucky too, my lovely mildly dyslexic wife misread the time of the appointment, so we slowly (very much so) drove there, in a very roundabout way, only to discover that we were in fact two hours late by the time we finally made it. A few of the school’s little buddies had been invited, so that was another chance for us parents to have a couple of beers. More on that later.

  • 🩰 Ballet Monday, but that was only after two (as in twice, 2) drives to IKEA. Yes. I went to IKEA twice in a day! Shouldn’t I be getting some kind of award? A giant meatball, at least? Anyway, I love ballet Monday, and how much the little one seems to enjoy it.

  • πŸ₯° Taking care of myself. I’m back to intermittent fasting, and cutting down on beer. Maybe I’ll even do a “dry some month”, now that January is half behind us, and I’m late for that one. Also walking a bit more again. Not as fun in the rain, but I must get back to it regularly. The Christmas season left it’s mark, and I must get fitter.

  • 🦠 Shots were taken this well, both Covid and Flu. We should be thankful for our SNS (National Health Service). It took me two minutes to book both shots, for free, for two hours later, in a pharmacy on the next street over. Pretty nice, if you ask me. Also, the person getting the shots before I got in was an old friend, so we waited and talked for a while. Cool. A day later (when I’m publishing this), I’m in bed, with my joints aching, and my upper arms in some pain. Not terrible, but enough to give me a monster headache.

  • πŸ“· No work whatsoever.

  • πŸ“Ί The Brothers Sun ended. It was good. Will enjoy the next season, whenever it shows up.

  • 🍿 Lift. Boy, oh boy, is this a shitty one! Predictable, feels-like-I’ve-seen-it-a-thousand-times, soooooo bad. I was recovering from the flu/covid shots combo, and it made me feel worse!

  • ⭐️ Last Friday was, it turns out, Micro.blog appreciation day, even with all the complaining. The post did not start as such, but the service handles some things right. Hope the rest gets fixed. Also, used Scribbles for this, it’s a nice one.

  • πŸ‘» True to my Self-Hosting Woes, I launched another Ghost blog (Boo!) on PikaPods, and it’s still going. Not sure I’ll use it for something, but it’s fun to tinker. Mailgun has been set too, so I can use it to send the weekly thingsThisWeek, since this is as close to a newsletter as I’m likely to get. Sign up, or don’t, really. Not sure if it will make to next week.

  • 🐳 Tried Beluga as well. There’s a profile, but I don’t think it will get a lot more than the initial post. Cool one, though.

  • πŸ“ Also Gibberish, but I’ll leave that for next week.