Author: ana

about me

weeknotes, 37/25

another delightfully boring week, just getting work and life under control. the shelves have finally been filled with stuff and i can see my “table” again in the ~~bath~~craftsroom! i listed a few more things for sale, and have slowly been taking inventory of what else i want to get rid of. there’s quite a bit of stuff, but who will want to buy a 15 year old scanner whose drivers probably don’t even work anymore? we’re saddled with this old tech that still works, and it feels impossible to give it a good home. :(

finished reading the song of achilles, and oh, my poor heart. like someone wrote on the reviews, madeline miller could write a shopping list and i would give it five stars. and also, now i kinda want to visit greece, and connect the stories with the place, their cruel gods and their favors and revenges. appropriately, we cooked a lamb meatballs with tatziki recipe this week, and it also made me yearn for these fresh flavors straight from the source.

now i’m listening to tom lake (read by meryl streep!) and reading daisy jones and the six. i feel like i’m years late to all these popular books that everyone has already read, but it’s ok! we also started watching extraordinary attorney woo, which has been delightfully quirky so far.

i used a couple of the pumpkins my parents left us to make pumpkin jam, which is the best! i’m sure i’ve written about it before, but making jam always feels so gratifying — like i’m getting ready for whatever comes, like i’m bottling pieces of sunshine for when it’s not so bright outside. i don’t really know why i get this feeling, since i don’t even eat it myself…

just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 36/25

a full week with the parents + the small cousin around! there was a lot of beach and a lot of “first times” for her: first time in the ocean, first time seeing jellyfish and crabs, first time on a boat, first time writing a postcard, first time using binoculars and seeing flamingos…

wanting company on her walks, my mom promised her an ice-cream for every 10k steps she did, and she had icre-cream every single day! 😂 to pass the hot hours, we played uno and she painted everyone’s nails, as if she were a professional nail technician. i hope she’ll keep fond memories of her time here, and that she’ll want to return someday. :)

i ordered some sturdy shelves and we put them up on the bathroom we use as crafts&storage room. they look huge, and i hope they’ll be a good place to put the stuff that has been spread a bit all over the house. this messy room has been making me anxious for a long time now – hopefully when things are tidier, it’ll be easier to use it.

on saturday, we drove north with the parents so we could attend the 25th anniversary dinner of our uni class! it was fun — everyone is older and telling stories about their kids now, but the faces and the voices are all so familiar. we all spent so much time together, and it feels like we slot right back into those times.

we also had a bit of time to squeeze little niece and cover her in kisses… before finding out she has lice. luckily, we don’t seem to have caught it!

just life weeknotes

weeknotes, 35/25

just a quiet week, filled with busy work days in which nothing else happened. we worked, and went to the gym, we ate and took care of things, preparing for september and its winds of change.

we finally received the samples of the new batch of commemorative postcards (they look good!) and then they were on their way to latvia, and off to the shop.

i listened to the martian, which was good, but not as good as project hail mary. super looking forward to the movie!

my old birkenstock were splitting apart in the back, and i macgyvered them with a bit of silicone. let’s see how long they’ll last!

on my getting-rid-of-stuff spree, i sold the old treadmill + a pair of new shoes. the shoes were bought in desperation for an event a few years ago, but they were too large for me and ended up staying in the cupboard, unused. it’s good to see them fly to another pair of feet!

and then on saturday, the parents and little cousin came, with their usual whirlwind of activity and energy. :) i can’t believe this kid has never seen the ocean… it’ll be the first thing on our list!

general

weeknotes, 34/25

got the hsk6 books for the new school year (discounted on vinted, hurray!), and i don’t know how the teacher is going to do this feat of finishing a book each semester… it will be intense, to say the least, and i don’t feel very confident about this transition. i haven’t even done the hsk5 exam yet, and we’re already jumping ahead…

the free days in the middle of the 10 hour ones continue to be the most relaxing ever — like a mini-vacation every other day. i have so much energy to do things on those days, and long postponed to-do lists are just melting away. of course, everything will change when the parents come to visit next week, and when classes start again. but i’ll appreciate it for as long as it lasts!

continuing on our let’s-fix-stuff streak, paulo replaced the battery in my 15 year-old kindle, which refused to switch on. it worked! last week i also successfully sold the portable AC unit my brother had lent us, while our own was broken. why is fixing old stuff or selling stuff you don’t need so extremely satisfying?

this week, i increased the weight i put on the barbell for squats and deadlifts quite a bit, and it felt good to see progress at the gym. i’m still very much a newbie, but i’m enjoying it — especially how quick the workouts are. 30 minutes of sweating, and afterwards i can do sauna and sit a bit in the swimming pool.

also on the list of “things that never get done” was to repot some plant babies, so now there’s a few more specimens throughout the house. we’ve done a good job so far of picking only sturdy plants that can go a few weeks without water, and some of ours are over 10 years old now. i’m hoping these ones will do well too.

general

godchildren

i stumbled on similar photos of me and my two godchildren, some 20 years apart :)

made me smile to notice the symmetries — them looking at the camera, while i look at them.