Eris had her first full week at kindergarten this week. She seems like she's having a lot of fun, but also claims the days get harder and harder. I've been tired organizing so much of the morning and evening logistics. I have been enjoying reading Dealing with Dragons to her as a bedtime story, once she got over her strenuous objection to a book ( Read more... )

Eris started kindergarten this week, and seems to be enjoying it so far. Though the transition seems to be having some of the usual usual ups and downs. The anticipatory anxiety about leaving the current routine behind, followed by excitement at celebrations and the novelty of new activities and new friends, then a dip down into missing what was ( Read more... )

Things have toned down a bit for Eris, and she's talking more directly about what's stressing her out. Which is good, but it's still very frustrating to deal with going over the same concerns over and over again. She's stressed out about the pandemic. (So I guess the "stressed out for reasons I don't fully understand" from a few posts ago is mostly ( Read more... )

The scenes from Afghanistan sure are disheartening. Two decades of war, and for what? Well, dismantling Al Quaeda wasn't nothing, but that's been done for a while and maybe could have been done with less. And maybe the US government would have had more chance of success if Bush hadn't simultaneously tried to run another war in Iraq.

It's ( Read more... )

It's been a rough few weeks.

Our dishwasher broke. The bit that prevented water from coming out of the front of the dishwasher decided to relocate and prevent water from coming out of the drain of the dishwasher instead. Given the cost of repair on that 17-year-old dishwasher, I decided that it made sense to get a new one instead. Which is nice, now ( Read more... )

Last weekend, my in-laws were here with our niece, Emilia. (And their dog, Elphie.) Eris was thrilled to spend some time with her cousin and crushed that the vacation couldn't last longer. Was certainly very nice to see them in person for the first time since 2019. We did as much of the visit as we could manage masked and/or outdoors, but it was ( Read more... )

Pretty dead this week. Eris has apparently been under more stress than usual for reasons I don't fully understand, but it's meant a lot of late nights in the past week and a few nights where I didn't get a four-hour block and was consequently wrecked. She's been extra particular and tempestuous. My parents, having heard of my plight, are sending me ( Read more... )

The weekend wasn't bad, objectively, but I still felt pretty down. Got some good cooking done, at least. We would be going to Sandy Island at this time most years. Feel bad about missing it this year, though I'm not sure it would have been good to go, and definitely didn't know enough to commit to it when it was time to make a decision. (And my ( Read more... )

Last week, we took our first family vacation in over a year. We joined my parents and my brother Solomon at a vacation rental in Auburn (near Worcester), MA. I reread Cryptonomicon and tried to struggle my way towards Mythic again in Magic Arena. We cooked bluefish and salmon and London broil, had a fancy tapas meal takeout for Fathers Day and a ( Read more... )

7-day running average confirmed cases per 100k dropped to 1.0 today, putting my county into the "low" COVID-19 risk category for the first time since March 2020 (as measured; probably more accurate to say ~February 2020). The vaccine effectiveness numbers seem good. Nice to be here.

Remember when I used to share links? Here's two more from today:

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