Pretty Routine

So I last posted a week and a half ago and didn't even mention that the evening before we has Cris & Steve and Brandon & Gene over. We played Wise & Otherwise, and a round of 7 Wonders, and a few of the Jackbox games, and a good time was had by all.

Then last Saturday we went to Mary's for food and socialization along with Kate, Sarah, and Mary's nephew. We played a round of Citadels and one of Ticket to Ride. Mary made a bunch of tasty dishes and Sarah cooked a turkey breast and it was all excellent.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Tim & Stacy's, but we couldn't stay too long because my parents came into town to drop off a car for Leslie. We had dinner with them and Dave & Michelle (et al) at Cheddar's. Mom & Larry spent the night in our guest room and took off early the next day. I was planning to work from home because a big snowstorm was forecast, but it didn't accumulate on the roads, so I ended up going in to the office after all. Oh, and I remembered that it would be a smart idea to sweep dead leaves off the patio and clean out the gutters before the first big snow! So I felt all adult about getting that done on Sunday afternoon.

I made up for it by staying home on Wednesday after my dentist appointment. I had the other half of my deep cleaning, plus got a cracked filling replaced, and the after-effects of the anesthetic just knocked me on my ass. I actually napped for a couple hours after I got home. Felt human enough to go to my Board meeting that evening, which featured a very long group discussion with the Chief of Police, which was heartening (especially given how unpleasant the news is all the time these days). There's always room for improvement, but the impression I got is that things are generally on the right track and if there are any changes wanting to be made, they're small matters of implementation, not big course changes. (I should mention that if I ever post about the Inclusivity Board online, I am of course just presenting my own personal opinion, not speaking on behalf of the board. So there's your obligatory disclaimer.)

Went to Games Night at Chris's on Thursday, and otherwise there's not much else been going on. We did nothing at all social this weekend, just grocery shopping and chores. Didn't get all the things on my list done, but dealt with a bunch of them, including a number of "oh I need to remember to do that" items. I made low-carb jambalaya (substituting grated cauliflower for rice), which turned out pretty tasty. I also opened up a can of tomato paste and portioned the whole thing out into little 1 tablespoon dollops that I froze, instead of using a couple tablespoons and having the rest of it go bad in the fridge! So that feels like an accomplishment. Oh, and last weekend Mom brought a shoebox of tomatoes. I sliced up a couple of them and at them raw, and then made shakshouka out of the rest of them to use them up before they spoiled.

I got all of my tedious chores at work done (typing up QC details to hand off to my student, quarterly report for one of the grants, answering emails that require long essays to respond to properly) and was able to get a good start on building out the last chunk of my analysis framework, so I ended both this week and last feeling pretty good about my progress. Which is good, since I suspect that before I know it it'll be time to start prepping for presentation at conferences, and I'll need to have some results to actually prepare...