Comin thru

Long day. Long week. And it’s only Wednesday!

Even with the dense days, I’ve been making time to walk, outside, every day. My doctor prescribed it after my annual physical on Monday. All my foot/ankle woes put me on the path to visit a specialist, but first, why not try a holistic approach?

So a minimum 20 minutes a day, I must get up and out and about.

Gosh I hope I can do this long enough to make it a natural habit.

Dune: Part Two

We sorely missed not seeing the last first Dune in a theater — it was so well done, even when it was gut-wrenching. Plus also? The grain of it — sci-fi doesn’t often feel so analog… palpable… humanistic? Every detail, thoughtfully designed.

The goal was to catch the sequel before Kung Fu Panda 4 takes over the biggest of screens.

Dune 2 picks right up where things let off and then sifts in all sorts of directions until things blur from velocity. It was longer. There were a lot of names to remember. And it was epic.

Spoiler if you’ve not seen the first flick:

My only complaints: Jason Momoa did not secretly survive and Oscar Isaac did not appear as a ghost.

Making stock from scratch

Sourcing images for clients is becoming extra frustrating with the rise of AI, and it was already frustrating before. Adobe has particularly leaned into the generative technology, including said images by default in searches and not allowing to save preferences for the future.

Every once in a while I’ll spend a little extra time and print something out and fire up the camera to create an image.

Invariably I knew what I made would not be selected but I have fun doing it — at the end of the day, that’s the win.

Before I removed the background noise:

colorful target with a single map pin

MAR10 Day

Of all the made up celebrations for any given day (there are many), I’m happy give a nod to Mario on this March 10th.

Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System still stands as the my most joyous introduction to computer interaction. Consoles prior to the NES were good, but the tight controls on display with this launch title were a whole new level.

I’ve savored every mainline Mario title since the 8-bit days with few exceptions (this excludes sports, party and third party titles). Yoshi’s Island didn’t entirely click with me and Super Mario Sunshine’s water gun mechanic was weird, but other than that? Big fan!

I’m currently playing Mario vs. Donkey Kong for the Switch. Though not a mainline game, it’s a fun platform puzzler — not quite Captain Toad Treasure Tracker good, but entertaining for short bouts.

I look forward to the next 3D adventure but will likely need to wait for the next generation of machine.

Now bring back the mall

We are in a food hall era. There are many in the area and The Gatherall in Norwood seems to be hitting a sweet spot with a collection of mostly local options. Since my list visit they’ve added personal favorites like Melt Test Kitchen and Trophy Pizza.

It’s doing so well it’s getting dense with folks, nicer weather will help ease things up greatly as there’s lots of outdoor seating.

I wish this energy could be channeled into a mall resurgence. Let me put my name in at a barber for a haircut, kill some time at the arcade with a smoothie that tastes a lot like an Orange Julius before picking up a paperback at the bookstore.

One can dream.

Deceptive patterns and a pick up

Closed out the week making a relatively healthy kit for lunch. (Green Chef’s Maple Cauliflower Bowl with Seared Tofu, summer squash, cranberries and herb miso-tahini sauce.) I’m starting to catch on to their deceptive patterns with little up-charges that aren’t apparent unless you look really close at the menu cards when making selections. The meal? It was a’ight. I cut back on maple syrup and miso-tahini which is probably why it wasn’t stellar.

Later in the evening I went to pick up Casey at the airport and snapped the above photo in the cell phone lot. Weather was rainy but I gave myself plenty of time to go slow and easy along the highways.

61

Today would have been my sister’s birthday. It is our first without her.

Death is hard to reconcile, perhaps more so when it happens unexpectedly.

I continue to wrestle, running a gamut of emotions without discernible pattern.

She’d scoff at lingering in sadness even though that’s easier to say than do.

So I ordered pizza for dinner (not her favorite, which would have been Imperial from Buffalo) but close enough.

I put on music she liked.

Lit a candle.

And celebrated with her spirit.

Nugget & Copper

Couch cushions are done! I hobbled up north (my foot’s been acting up again) to grab ’em over lunch and got to visit briefly with these two pups.

The cushions are better than new — just the right firmness with a little bounce. Couch shopping can now be shelved for the foreseeable future! I can highly recommend the services of Lines, Circles & Angles and revitalizing stuff that’s got more life left.

Now I’m eyeing other things to get repaired so I can go back and pet those dogs.

Dinner with Sophia

I’ve been methodically going through fridge and freezer trying to clear out stuff, whipping up hodgepodge meals. Sometime yesterday I hit a wall and decided going out to dinner proper would be a good idea. I poked around some restaurants didn’t allow reservations for single diners.

Seeing this as an opportunity I reached out to my friend Sophia and asked if she was free. We circled around options and ended up at Nolia for an early supper.

There was lots to catch up on as we hadn’t bent elbows since the beforetimes. It was made all the more special by the meal and service. Highly recommend! The restaurant and randomly reaching out to connect.

Unovercast

Casey’s still in Florida.

Dropped off couch cushions to get re-stuffed.

Noticed a hosta peaking out of the ground.

Enjoyed sunlight.

Garbage content

I’ve only tried scented garbage bags a few times, often by mistake. Each experience the same — whenever I’d open the trash can I’d scrunch my nose and wonder what the awful smell was. Oh, it’s the bag.

Now there are almost as many varieties as Oreos and Goldfish crackers, so maybe one of the variants is pleasing.

I won’t find out today. The plain old boring unscented bags were tucked away on the bottom shelf.

Mini cucumbers

Among the reasons we started back on meal kit deliveries was to learn new techniques, recipes and ingredients. A few early standouts have been squash and little cucumbers. We don’t normally keep either in stock but they’re both really versatile and add nice texture to oodles of dishes.

We had been sprucing up salads with mini croutons, but have now switched to diced mini cucumbers — they’re bright and add crunch.

On the horizon: trying this simple salad with four ingredients: Honeycrisp apples, cucumbers, serrano pepper and lime juice (As seen on: Instagram / Tiktok)