Kareila's Journal

Ran into a new problem with LEGO Dimensions this morning: not enough disk space for the Wii U to download DLC updates. So now I'm moving some saved game data onto a USB stick to try to make room. The kids are out of school tomorrow so I'd like to be able to finally start playing the LEGO Batman Movie pack. Will has been hogging the console lately to play Just Dance 4, although I have to admit I'm tickled to see him enjoying it so much.

I've had hardly any energy the past few days, to the point where multiple people remarked on how tired I seemed. I pretty much slept all day Tuesday and still felt groggy the next morning, but I had an easier time waking up today, so hopefully I'm back to normal soon.

Still haven't finished my taxes, but I did catch up on paperwork filing. I have a terrible system where I shove everything into a pile for years until the pile falls over, then sort the pile into stacks. Each stack goes into a folder, so for each folder, I shred the current contents (which at this point are several years old) and put in the new contents. It's terrible, but it generally lets me find what I need to find without too much trouble and I only spend time on it once every few years.

Logan was so great. The Dropkick Murphys were great too. They had an opening act called The Interrupters that I just loved, so I downloaded their albums on Apple Music and have been listening to them a lot.

We all had dentist appointments this week. The kids had no cavities. Will is down to his last baby tooth; all of his permanent teeth have to be in before he can start braces, so that's still a year or two out. I also have no cavities, but continue to have issues with gingivitis. Robby has to get a filling later this month.

Our spring break is once again a non-event due to scheduling shenanigans. Robby is home next week and will probably spend most of his time working on his car (still) and on Connor's new loft bed. The kids are out of school the last week of March, which is also Verdi Requiem performance week. We haven't had a family vacation in two years and I am starting to get grumpy about that.

Connor's birthday also ended up being pretty relaxed. Since he was out of school for President's Day, we had lunch at the Pizza Hut buffet, which made him very happy. We ate so much we basically skipped supper and just had birthday cake. Publix wouldn't put Shy Guy on a cake because of copyright issues, so I ended up doing it myself, which turned out well enough.

We had the conversation about future sleeping arrangements, with the understanding that a new bed in the near future would be his "expensive" present. He was adamant that he wanted to continue sleeping in the same room with his brother, as he's been doing almost every night since he was old enough to climb out of his crib. So over the next few months, Robby is going to dismantle the IKEA bunk bed that they both sleep on the bottom of, and build a new loft deep enough to hold a better quality mattress and sturdy enough to support the additional weight. Which means Connor's room will remain primarily a quiet reading/gaming space for now, and can function as a guest room in a pinch now that it's no longer overrun with toys. Maybe if I removed Connor's dresser (old changing table) and put in some bookshelves, I could call it a library? I like that idea.

In the past seven days:

• I caught up on another current episodic series, The Expanse. That's two. If I get to three, I'm pretty sure that's a sign of the apocalypse. (Don't worry, season two starts this week so I'll almost immediately be behind again.)

• Will was pressured by a "horrible, mean, worst ever" substitute teacher into competing in his class spelling bee, which he won, and went on to finish fifth in the school. (He missed "Austenite" which is easy to do if you've never heard of Jane Austen.) All of his intermediate school teachers over the years let him opt out. He overcame a huge amount of anxiety to participate and I am so fucking proud of him.

• After seven months of private lessons, Connor swam unassisted for the first time! Will is also improving, but not quite as rapidly as Connor.

• I participated in an amazing performance of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms which given that Friday was the Holocaust Day of Remembrance, was spectacularly well-timed. We start rehearsals for the Verdi Requiem tomorrow.

• I kept my Election Day promise to myself and set up small monthly donations to various political resistance organizations, including the ACLU. I also started cautiously putting more political posts on Facebook, and haven't gotten any pushback yet.

• I finished knitting the yak yarn hat for Robby - it turned out great! I anticipate borrowing it whenever I have the chance to do so.

• I attended a presentation on the history of the Disciples denomination that reminded me why I appreciate my church so much - it brings together people with diverse beliefs to focus on what unifies them, not what divides them, and lets each congregation forge its own path. Proud to count myself in the company of rebels and radicals.

I haven't even tried to do New Year's resolutions in something like four years, for reasons I most recently explained here, although I've been less frantically busy lately than I was when I wrote that.

And when I do make resolutions, they tend to be the same tired things. Read more books. Catch up on my TV shows. Take better care of my body. Finish playing those video games. Declutter the house. Do all the things I never make enough time for.

I think I do best when I free myself to focus deeply on one or two things each day, and assign everything else to a routine that I don't need to spend any executive function on. So if I'm regularly not doing enough of X, X needs to be added to that routine somehow. All that remains is to figure out what I want that to look like.

This past week I managed to see Sing, La La Land, Passengers, and Rogue One (again). All four had good soundtracks, but the La La Land soundtrack in particular has been stuck in my head for days. Heather and I also saw Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings in concert at the Lyric, which was amazing.

The rest of the time I've been relaxing at home, either knitting or working on Dreamwidth. The kids have been hiding out in their rooms and I've barely even seen them the past few days.

Hard to believe tomorrow is New Year's. We'll be back to the daily grind in a few more days.

I've been experimenting and tweaking this recipe for a while, and I've gotten it as close as I can get to what I want, so I'm ready to share it with other people.

This "quick and easy" version assumes you have access to Swanson’s Thai Ginger broth (I can find it at Publix) - if you are not so lucky, the older version of the recipe walks you through the steps to get a spicy broth from fresh vegetables.

Quick Thai Coconut Soup

( Equipment )

( Ingredients )

1. Combine all initial ingredients (everything EXCEPT condensed milk) in a soup pot.



2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and simmer covered for 10-15 minutes.



3. Stir in condensed milk and serve, topped with pepper flakes if desired.

Makes about 4 servings.

I went to Gamestop today because they emailed me a $5 coupon, which is basically half off a LEGO Dimensions character, and the kid who rang me up was confused by the box.

"It's Mr. T! - Why does it say B.A. Baracus?"

"That was his character's name on the A-Team. I don't know if you're old enough to remember that show..."

"Oh, sure, my dad raised me right. We watched A-Team, the classic Terminator movies, Invader Zim..."

I didn't say anything, but I feel compelled to point out that A-Team was part of my childhood, Terminator was my teenage years, and Invader Zim came out when I was in my TWENTIES. *shakes fist, yells at cloud*

Of course, when I was in my twenties, I couldn't have gone into a Gamestop without being condescended to, so that's something, I guess.

In other news, after several days of drought-busting rain, it is very dry and cold today and I am addressing Christmas cards. No major plans for the weekend, for a change.

The first weekend of December is always busy, but this one was busier than most. It started Friday night with a fun holiday symphony concert downtown with my mom. The second half of the program featured a live soundtrack performance accompanying the film The Snowman, which was amazing.

For the past three years, our church music director has asked us to perform for the holiday open house at a downtown landmark on the first Saturday, so our recorder consort dressed up and played carols for 45 minutes. Then we grabbed lunch and picked up the kids just in time for their weekend swim lesson, which was more exciting than usual because about 40 minutes into our hour, someone pulled the fire alarm and we had to evacuate the building.

After that, I got Robby to drop me off at H&P's house. Heather's birthday is in a few days and she decided she wanted to go see The Secret Life of Pets at the dollar theatre, so that's what we did. It wasn't a great movie, but it had its funny moments.

Since I needed a ride home, I ended up staying at H&P's house after the movie longer than I intended, and forgot to take an allergy pill today. Heather gave me a Zyrtec, so I'll probably sleep 12 hours tomorrow. But first, I have to get through a busy Advent service and yet another afternoon concert performance that we're usually asked to help out with on the first Sunday of December.

Now that the big DW maintenance event is over and I've gotten my first solid night's sleep in a week, I can start thinking about other things, such as: the holiday movie season!

I did pretty well in November, seeing 3/4 of the films I wanted to see that came out that month, but the next several weeks are going to be something of an avalanche, so I'm going to make a list here ordering them by release date and highlighting the ones I want to make sure I see in the theater, as opposed to waiting for the DVD release.

- Moana (out now) - getting great reviews, family friendly, but not a must-see. Might go see a matinee with the kids while they're out of school.

- La La Land (12/16) - looks amazing and I love musicals, but not a must-see. Not sure it's even playing in local theaters; DVD might be my only option.

- Collateral Beauty (12/16) - love the actors and I cry every time I see the trailer, but not a must-see. Striking this off the list after reading a NYTimes review which eviscerated it.

- ROGUE ONE (12/16) - I will see it at least twice in the theater because Star Wars. But probably not until 12/17, because 12/16 is our symphony chorus performance.

- Assassin's Creed (12/21) - I haven't played any of the games yet, but my friends want to see it and I will probably go along.

- Sing (12/21) - this is a borderline must-see and probably will-see, because it is animated and includes singing.

- PASSENGERS (12/21) - Chris Pratt & Jen Lawrence in spaaaaaaace, hi have you met me?

- A Monster Calls (1/6) - I've been holding off reading the book because I want to see the movie unspoiled, but it looks like the sort of children's story I love. (See also Pete's Dragon & The BFG, from earlier this year.) And I know Patrick Ness is great, so I have high hopes.

- HIDDEN FIGURES (1/6) - I missed including this on the original list because the release date keeps shifting around, but you better believe I won't miss this one.

- The Space Between Us (2/3) - This keeps getting pushed back. I've been seeing the previews for this for so long, I thought it was on DVD already, but I do want to catch it at some point.

- THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2/10) - Everything is awesome.

Turkey Day went well, but I seem to have used up all my good mojo earlier in the week, because I came down with a cold on Friday and slept most of Saturday. The tragic fallout of a day spent with very small children. And to make matters worse, all my football teams lost on Saturday. (At least the Pats won today, but they weren't televised here.)

Good things to report: we finished cleaning out Connor's closet, the Christmas tree has been deployed and lit, and we played through most of the LEGO Dimensions Fantastic Beasts story pack.

Back to the grind tomorrow... although at least I have some special visitors to look forward to...