Reorg and a Weekend at Mom’s (Weeknotes #25-12)

Happenings
🏢 I have a new boss at work. The change, which will take effect at the end of the month, will have me reporting into the data organization rather than the architecture organization as I do now. The new guy is someone I’ve worked with a lot since I started there four years ago, and someone with whom I have good rapport. I don’t expect anything to change in terms of my duties so overall I think it’s a good change.
🌸 I finished the last of the 32 flowers for this year’s Battle of the Blooms. It’ll be fun to watch the remaining daily polls and see which one goes all the way.
☘️ We did absolutely nothing to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day this year.
🧆 Celebrated elder daughter’s birthday with some shopping and dinner at a local Mediterranean place.
🥳 Attended my mother-in-law’s 85th birthday party. It was well attended by several of her friends, as well as (as far as I could tell) all of us kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, and even great-great-grandkids. We had pasta and salads catered in, and of course a huge cake. I played photographer so everyone could get their picture with the guest of honor. I was, as you might imagine, chaotic and loud, but it was also nice to see everyone.
Weekend at Mom’s
🔑 I went up to see my mother at the weekend. It’s about a 2 hour drive and I was almost to her driveway when I realized I had forgotten the house key. This would not normally be a problem except that she was not home. Fortunately, the next-door neighbor, who keeps a spare, was around to help me. Whew.
🚰 My mother has been complaining of a slow sink drain so I rolled up my sleeves, took some things apart, and problem solved. It was not too difficult, but it was very gross.
🍹 In the evening one of her friends invited us to dinner. Being “Mexican night” there were chips and salsa and margaritas and enchiladas aplenty. It was a lovely evening that I got to spend with folks I don’t often see. Note to self: Don’t try to keep up with mom and her drinking buddies.
Web
-
I Added Colin’s toot to my One Thousand Likes page.
-
I experimented with moving the Battle of the Blooms polls from Mastodon to a neutral site, but engagement went down markedly. I posted to Mastodon asking folks why this might be. Besides the hassle of clicking out to another site, one user told me that not knowing the result (via automatic notification once the poll closes) took some of the fun out of it. So I moved the poll back to Mastodon. Live and learn.
Watching
-
Continuing season 3 of The White Lotus
-
Caught up with all available episodes (through season 3) of Hacks. I’ll admit I should have seen that ending coming because they just laid it out there but I was surprised. Can't wait for S4 to start in April!
Reading
-
(Mar 23) Finished reading The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
-
(Mar 22) Finished reading The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes
-
(Mar 21) “This is how Tesla will die” by Will Lockett (Planet Earth and Beyond) falls into the category I call “wishful reportage” but it is interesting nonetheless.
That’s all for now. Cheers!