The State of the Household - September

Hello, all!

New month, new "random, silly updates from us" post!

Here we go!

August wants you to know that she's been

watching nature documentaries,

and she's enjoying them quite a lot.

September 2020

What's Your Current Work Situation?

I learned just last week that University of Phoenix has extended our (alleged) temporary work from home status until May 30, 2021; we kind of figured that would be the case, but they just made it official in a leadership call.  Certain departments in the University have now been made permanent work from home positions from this point forward; while my job hasn't done that yet, it seems reasonable to assume it might be coming down the pike as well.

Chris is still doing the "in the office two days a week" thing, and he's working from home on the remaining days.  His currently woodworking project is building a new desk for the media room, so he seems to be figuring Gore will be doing this for the longer term as well.

Zoe says she's done with Chris shutting his door
during conference calls.
She has ideas to share!

How's Everyone's Health?

Good, thank the sweet baby Jesus!  I've been slowly crawling back toward actual fitness, taking care not to overextend myself or go too crazy (Chris has been a great help with this, keeping an eye on me and giving me the "are you doing too much?" face when he thinks I'm, well, doing too much).  I finished my month of "Care" yoga with Yoga with Adriene, and now I'm doing the "Build" series, which also lasts a month.  I'm also gradually integrating strength training 2-3 days each week, and I'm starting to accompany Chris on short, easy hikes.  Fingers crossed that things keep moving forward!

Chris and the dogs are normal, whatever that means.

What Have You Read/Audible'd This Month?

This month, I read:

Kindred by Octavia Butler - Even though I don't make it to most of their meetings, I still like to read whatever the College of General Studies book club picks, as Jenna and Kristen strive to select interesting, lesser-known works by a wide range of authors I wouldn't necessarily run across otherwise.  This quarter's selection was fantastic - Kindred is the story of a young, recent married African-American woman living in the mid-1970s in LA who is transported back through time to an antebellum plantation in Maryland.  It was both gripping and touching, and I couldn't put it down.  I have plans to read some of Butler's other works; as a female, sci-fi writer mainly working during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, she has a unique perspective that I'm a bit ashamed I didn't know of until now.  

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove by Christopher Moore - Like a lot of Moore's books, this one was totally bananas.  A sea dragon is awakened by a small leak of radioactive waste from a nearby factory, and he crawls ashore in Pine Cove, California, where the local shrink has just taken the entire town off their antidepressants.  Hilarity ensues, kind of.  The tone of the book is more bizarre than hilarious, but Moore's characterizations and turns of phrase remain on point; overall, though, for my money, Carl Hiaasen is way better at this sort of thing (how could you not be, when you have the state of Florida as your canvas?).

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu - This was the second book in the Three-Body Problem trilogy, and I liked it much better than the first.  This book had a different translator, and I think his style was a bit more natural.  This book also benefited from being read by an audience who already knows most of the characters and the general situation; the first book in any series always has to take time to work through lots of explanatory dialogue and what not to build the world in question, whereas the second book can often jump right in.  I'll break for at least a few weeks before I hop into the third and final book in the series; that one is freaking doorstop (624 pages).

Chris - Chris is still listening to (and enjoying) The Light of All That Falls by James Islington (Book 3 of the Licanius trilogy).  He also wants all of our blog readers to know that he's having a wonderful time reading all of the Harvard Business Review articles for his class.

What Have You Enjoyed Watching This Month?

We're still watching several of the shows I mentioned last month, including Lovecraft Country.  We finished Harley Quinn, and we were thrilled to read that it was renewed for a third season on HBO Max!  Whee!

New shows for us this month include:

The Great Pottery Throw Down (HBO Max) - if you like The Great British Baking Show/Bakeoff, you'll probably also like its pottery equivalent.  It's very much in the vein of Bakeoff - kind, bright amateur craft-persons making amazing creations, one male and one female judge, both of them experts in the field, and a comedian host who holds the whole thing together.  Like Bakeoff, it's calming and cleansing, and it's a perfect counterpoint to some of the bloodier, gnarlier shows we're also watching.

Speaking of bloodier, gnarlier shows, how about The Boys on Amazon?  The second season carries over the storylines from the first, with very little time elapsing between Seasons One and Two.  Some characters are showing some growth, some new folks have been introduced, and some remain just as terrifying/disturbing as they always have (bless the poor actor that plays Homelander; if I ever see that guy in the street, I will likely turn and run away as fast as I can).

Such an attractive gentleman.

Such a terrifying character.

Some of our favorite FX shows have also come back (we're watching them on Hulu), including Archer and Fargo.  To be honest, we're moving away from Archer a bit, mainly because the main character is so completely horrible (not to get too deep into the plot, but Archer was in a coma for a few years and the rest of the team moved on without him and improved quite a bit, and his poor behavior is dragging all of them down).  We'll give it a few more episodes, but if we don't start finding it funnier pretty soon, we may be ditching it completely.

Fargo, on the other hand, continues to be a delight.  We're only two episodes in, but the plot is moving right along, the actors (as always) are well selected (Jason Schwartzman and Chris Rock are the headliners this year, and Timothy Olyphant just popped up...playing another US Marshal), and the dialogue is once again snappy and complex.  Additionally, who could possibly fail to enjoy a show featuring characters named as follows:  Doctor Senator (who is, by the way, employed as neither of these), Ethelrida Smutny, Rabbi Milligan (like Doctor Senator, not a rabbi), Oraetta Mayflower, and Banjo Rightway?  No one, that's who.

Where Have You Adventured This Month?

As mentioned in the "health" section above, I've been out on some short, easy hikes with Chris.  One of these was along the Marcus Landslide trail, within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, way up in northeast Scottsdale.  As it turns out, the landslide in question is one that occurred 500,000 years ago, and nobody realized what it was until about 2002; one of the folks who discovered it is related to our friend Christina!  Small world, right!?!

The trail to the landslide is about 1.5 miles one way, and it's an easy trek, very gradually sloping downhill; although it was a gradual uphill on the way back, it got my heart pumping, so I know my cardio fitness needs some work.  We finished the round trip in just under an hour.

A few shots from the hike:

Chris, with additional mountain ranges behind him

The trail had several of these neat "viewfinder" type structures,

generally accompanied by a plaque,

conveying all sorts of interesting information.

No trips in Arlene this month, but as you've seen on a previous blog, we have been out to visit her way the fork in east Mesa.

What's the Stupidest Thing You Bought on the Internet This Month?

After six months of constantly wearing our existing house/comfy clothes and trying out a series of natural deodorants (as I've mentioned previously, through the hottest July that's ever occurred in Phoenix), we figured it was more than time for some new "around the house" tank tops and t-shirts.  It was off to the 6 Dollar Shirts website!  We've purchased items from the 6 Dollar Shirts folks before, and while they're not the best quality items, they do the job, particularly for the price (which is, as you might have guessed, generally $6 per item).

I went with mostly tank tops ($12 each, which seems counterintuitive), including the stunner shown below:

In case you can't see, the graphic on the shirt

is three humpback whales with the text,
"Whale, whale, whale."

(Say it out loud - it's funnier that way)

I also ended up with a tank that reads, "Pro-Doggo"

and one that says, "Introverts Unite - 

Separately and in Your Own Homes."

For his part, Chris ended up with a few different t-shirts, one reading "This is My Quarantine Shirt," and this gem:

A dumpster fire, indeed!

Okay, that's it!  See you in October!

Later!

Amy