Updates
1) Cook has been using his new standing desk at work for three days now (including a 12-hour day and a 10-hour day). He says so far he has noticed only that "it's a lot of standing." Considering that he commutes to work by bike, I think he's gone as far as he can go to reduce the health impact of his job without buying himself a treadmill desk.
2) We've been eating a lot of cucumbers. We have one very productive cucumber plant, and we just were gifted 10 pounds of pickling cucumbers.75% of us love cucumbers vinaigrette, and 100% of us love pickles, so we're going to make a lot of that. I refuse to can anything, so it's all going to have to get eaten in the next week or so... got any good recipes?
3) I got rejected from the one job I applied for this summer. I hadn't really expected to get an interview (though I truly am qualified for the job, and it looked like it would be a really good fit), but I found myself crushed by the rejection email anyway. It totally destroyed my cheery summer mood, making me realize how much of that cheeriness was built on air - one rejection put me right back where I was when I decided to take a break from applications. Where I was, in case you forget, is a place that is unpleasantly redolent of hopelessness and self-loathing. I would prefer not to stay.
Oh well.
4) Duchess has decided that she would like to be an architect focusing on sustainability when she grows up. I don't think she has much grasp on what that would entail. I have the impression that she's thinking she will build houses for wildlife. I wonder if I can find an architect in Portland who'd be interested in having an 8-year-old do a job shadow.
5) We (okay, the girls and I) have achieved Max Fun for the summer. The girls had so much fun at the amusement park yesterday, which, when piled on top of all the other exceedingly fun things they've done this summer (Duchess went to Disneyland again, even), seems crazy decadent.* I'm not sure if we can top this, but we've still got a much-anticipated week at sleepaway camp** for Duchess and between one and three camping trips. That's a lot of fun still to come. The hair-shirt part of me warns darkly that we're setting the fun bar way too high...
6) Back-to-school shopping has been completed, except for the two reams of copy paper and the $25 check. I don't remember if schools ever provided any of this stuff, or if families have always provided all the materials. We certainly supply all the materials Duchess uses over the year (and then some), including tissues and bandaids, and sticky notes and permanent markers for the teacher to use. This year, Duchess is not required to have paint, which to me suggests that there will be even less art in her life. I splurged and bought her a pack of mechanical pencils, which seem to make her feel extremely competent and grown-up.
That's the news. I leave you with one more photo from our California trip.
*I am coming to terms with the basic conflict of my personality, which is more or less divided evenly between self-indulgent hedonism and self-punitive martyrdom. My brain is lying on a couch, wearing a hair shirt, calling for more dancing girls and wine.
** With a "marine ecology" theme!
2) We've been eating a lot of cucumbers. We have one very productive cucumber plant, and we just were gifted 10 pounds of pickling cucumbers.75% of us love cucumbers vinaigrette, and 100% of us love pickles, so we're going to make a lot of that. I refuse to can anything, so it's all going to have to get eaten in the next week or so... got any good recipes?
3) I got rejected from the one job I applied for this summer. I hadn't really expected to get an interview (though I truly am qualified for the job, and it looked like it would be a really good fit), but I found myself crushed by the rejection email anyway. It totally destroyed my cheery summer mood, making me realize how much of that cheeriness was built on air - one rejection put me right back where I was when I decided to take a break from applications. Where I was, in case you forget, is a place that is unpleasantly redolent of hopelessness and self-loathing. I would prefer not to stay.
Oh well.
4) Duchess has decided that she would like to be an architect focusing on sustainability when she grows up. I don't think she has much grasp on what that would entail. I have the impression that she's thinking she will build houses for wildlife. I wonder if I can find an architect in Portland who'd be interested in having an 8-year-old do a job shadow.
5) We (okay, the girls and I) have achieved Max Fun for the summer. The girls had so much fun at the amusement park yesterday, which, when piled on top of all the other exceedingly fun things they've done this summer (Duchess went to Disneyland again, even), seems crazy decadent.* I'm not sure if we can top this, but we've still got a much-anticipated week at sleepaway camp** for Duchess and between one and three camping trips. That's a lot of fun still to come. The hair-shirt part of me warns darkly that we're setting the fun bar way too high...
6) Back-to-school shopping has been completed, except for the two reams of copy paper and the $25 check. I don't remember if schools ever provided any of this stuff, or if families have always provided all the materials. We certainly supply all the materials Duchess uses over the year (and then some), including tissues and bandaids, and sticky notes and permanent markers for the teacher to use. This year, Duchess is not required to have paint, which to me suggests that there will be even less art in her life. I splurged and bought her a pack of mechanical pencils, which seem to make her feel extremely competent and grown-up.
That's the news. I leave you with one more photo from our California trip.
*I am coming to terms with the basic conflict of my personality, which is more or less divided evenly between self-indulgent hedonism and self-punitive martyrdom. My brain is lying on a couch, wearing a hair shirt, calling for more dancing girls and wine.
** With a "marine ecology" theme!
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