Category: weeknotes

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!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 28/25

aaaaaah… a full week at home! there was a lot of work in preparation of the 20th anniversary of postcrossing, but the quiet contentment of being home made it all ok.

the boy had to go to faro to do some lung exams, and i went along to give blood — my first time giving it since the thyroid shenanigans earlier this year. and i got some new birkenstock sandals, from a tiny shop in town that has all my favorite brands of summer shoes! ?

other than work, we went to town several evenings in a row with different groups of friends to catch the circus/theater shows taking place this week. as usual, it’s a bit of a mixed bag with the performances, some better than others, but they haven’t disappointed so far. and i ate the first fartura of the year, always a happy moment!

we watched the last few episodes of murderbot, and i finished reading the iron flame (book #2 of the fourth wing trilogy). of course, i immediately jumped to the third book in the series, but also started reading one of the paper books my brother and his wife got me for my birthday. :) i read a bit of it today on the little rubber pool we put out on the garden, and it was bliss!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 26-27/25

sometimes i delay the writing of these words, and then so much takes place in the span of a couple of weeks that it’s hard to remember what we did. but let’s see…

on week 26, we went north by train, to see the family again, as it was my mom’s 70th birthday! she has been saying she’s going to retire for a few years now — first, when little niece was about to be born, then on her 70th birthday… but guess what, she’s still going to work a couple days a week, splitting her time between porto and celorico. :D well, as long as she’s happy!

we spent time with other small cousins and little niece too, and took care of some bureaucracy and doctor appointments with the boy’s parents. my brother and his wife officially sold their house while we were up there and moved to aveiro! our old car, forever parked in my parents’ garage, came in handy to move a lot of their stuff back and forth. i feel like tavira and aveiro are kind of similar in some ways (both are flat, waterfront towns, and both have lagoons with lots of birds), and i kind of like the symmetry between them. maybe someday we’ll consider spending some more time there.

anyway, after the week in the north, we came down and settled back at home, at long last. it felt really, really good to finally sit down properly at my desk and work, without other distractions. i’m still running behind on my tasks, but i’ll get there. it was a big week for postcrossing, as we finally launched a product we had been working on for ages. everything went really well, and we sold out of it in a few hours. now we can make more!

now that things have quieted down, i went back to art classes and to the gym as well. it feels really good to lift some heavy stuff, and to see the weights slowly increasing! i don’t exactly have concrete goals, other than to feel a bit stronger and stave off the osteoporosis threat that comes with age.

i’ve been reading quite a bit too, but mostly chunky books, so there’s not a lot to show for it. i read craig mod’s japan walking memoir things become other things, and also the first book of the fourth wing series, which it was surprisingly good — like diving into a harry potter-like universe again, but with sarcastic dragons! i’m making my way through the second book now. we also watched king richard and went to town at night for the first street performances of the year, a really nice, alien-like performance.

summer is definitely on now, and our temperamental AC seems to have called it quits, without a possibility of repair… so we’re getting new ACs soon. in the meantime, i’ve set up the little pool outside, and i shall splash to my heart’s content for the next couple of weeks. :)