1. This.

2. 2106 5, A&B 0.  So far, 2016 has pretty much kicked our asses.  A’s mystery bug was finally diagnosed as post-infectious gastritis, which is a fancy way of saying he got food poisoning so bad it seriously messed up his GI tract.  We’ve had the plumber out twice so far, once for a leak that had water cascading into the basement and once because the garbage disposal backed up into the bathtub. The roof needs to be replaced when the rain stops. The garage door broke, and because there’s no other entrance we had to call a repair company to get us in. So if I’m not managing to blog as regularly as usual, it’s probably because we’ve had another crazy week.

3. I’m making the Facebook hiatus semi-permanent. About a month ago, I uninstalled the app from my phone. I’ll admit, it made me a little twitchy at first. I’d gotten used to having those dopamine pings, in the form  of the constantly scrolling news feed. But when it comes down to it, there’s very little of substance in my feed. Back in the days of the 140 character limit, people posted less, and posted more meaningfully.  Now, it’s largely click-bait and life events.  So I log on every couple of days, to catch up on photos and announcements – and thanks to Facebook’s algorithms, they’re almost always at the top – make a few comments, like a few photos, and log off.

4. Austerity month. After seeing the credit card spend for December and January, A and I decided to make February “austerity month.” Our goal is not to go crazy with not spending money, but to hold off on the impulse buys that always end up adding up at the end of the month. Like the Target runs that somehow top $100, or the never-ending Amazon cart. Of course, given the spend on house repair and maintenance this month, it’s looking like we may be trying for an austerity quarter. What I’ve found interesting is that this has made me very aware of all the things I want but don’t really need, like new shades for the ceiling fixture in the office, or a laptop/camera bag, or another pair of sunglasses.

5. This is what Valentine’s Day looks like when you have a toddler. A and I dropped Z with the sister after her nap on Saturday and went to go see Zoolander. In a theatre. With actual other people. Then we came home and promptly fell into bed. Sunday morning we slept in. Until 7 am! We went to IHOP for breakfast, looked at the calorie count next to all the dishes, and split a breakfast sampler. Then we yard-worked for a few hours. The rest of the day was pretty much spent sitting on the couch.

Closing Tabs

An exploration of the rise and fall of waterbeds.

OK Go’s new video takes place in an S7 airplane, in zero-g, and it is every bit as cool as it sounds.

I bookmarked this article on parenting a toddler awhile ago, and recently found it while cleaning out my bookmarks. The advice in here is spot on, at least for my kid, and I’ve found that turning things into games or “contests” has made life easier for both of us.

I’m seriously thinking about going to this writer’s retreat. It’s short, it’s nearby, and it’s fairly affordable.  Bay Area writer friends, any interest?