Went to the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival with Meghan: Imagine a comics and/or games convention, but for plant and garden nerds.

I got blisters on my fingers!

I’m now in the rare-for-me situation of reading two books at once: The first gets me so mad that I can’t read it at bedtime, so I had to start a second.

Tonight’s kitchen defeat: briefly grabbed a skillet fresh out of a 450°F oven.

The bambina came home early from a birthday party yesterday when her friend’s mom tested positive for covid.

Went out for dinner last night with the family, Billie, and Katie and Matt and their kid.

Finished reading Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ) by Haruki Murakami. I’m not quite certain what I’ve read, and it’ll take me a bit to digest. There were parts I really loved and parts which let’s say I found problematic; I don’t know if the problematic parts are a Murakami theme or unique to this book.

Meanwhile, the bambina made onigiri and helped Meghan with gyoza and assorted veggies.

The dude and I met Greg for a Magic event at the local store last night.

Started updating my resume, for the first time in … thirteen years?

Tonight’s kitchen victory: bœuf Bourguignon, with Mom over.

Finished reading “The Walking Man” by Jiro Taniguchi (歩くひと by 谷口 ジロー). This manga is mostly vignettes of a man walking in a small city, maybe eight to ten pages each, often with a final page as he gets home. It’s very peaceful, essentially no story, just a mellow vibe as he encounters interesting people or things and returns to his life.

I have now read two apparently-unrelated articles in two days mentioning or featuring the Land’s End–to–John o’ Groats trail, which I had never heard of before.

We had snow showers off and on all yesterday afternoon, but no accumulation, and we seem to be past the freezing now.

Finished reading Menewood by Nicola Griffith, which picks up where Hild left off. This was another great book, with through-lines of trauma, grief, and becoming true to oneself, and perhaps a secondary theme of disability. Like Hild, I will reread this at some point; I hope she’s able to write the next one in less than ten years.