Using a Uni-ball Signo micro 207 in red to edit documents. Will be ordering the new red and blue pencils from Blackwing later today.
About to start reading: The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I read Exit West last year. 📚
I was stoked to read this NYTimes Magazine Eat column about ‘buttery garlic shrimp’ on the North Shore of O’ahu. I took the long drive around the island many times in the early 1990s. Great memories. (I found the Onolicious Hawai’i site mentioned in the piece; there’s no RSS.)
Stepped out to warm the car and was met with the deep drumming of a pileated woodpecker somewhere out there in the woods. 🌳
Finished reading: The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull A sci-fi novel, set in the U.S. Virgin Islands, about life that survives. 📚
A close Duke-UNC men’s basketball game tonight. Our family pulls for the Tar Heels (a master degree for me, an MPH and a JD for Erin) even though Duke pays my salary. Then an hour in the terminal testing a program; I’m grateful for great service from my webhost, Opalstack.
A new shemagh arrived from Afghanistan (via Combat Flip Flops), and Erin promptly asked if she could have my old one, which she borrowed recently and liked wearing. This after she’s laughed at my liking of this style of scarf. #converted
Having grown up with a plan to be a Peace Corps Volunteer — my father served in the Dominican Republic and inspired me— I had huge expectations by the time I set foot on Paama Island. My 2102 blog post remembered what happened next.
Oliver and his cousin are in the kitchen making cookies, listening to country, and now he’s turned up the volume on Wagon Wheel because I’m sitting in the living room and he knows I love this song. I love chocolate chip cookies, too, and those are coming soon.
A walk in the woods this beautiful morning.
Took my brother to the Carolina Hurricanes hockey game to celebrate his 50th birthday. Canes win in overtime 5-4! Exciting game.
I’m reading The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull. Anna gave me this for Christmas, knowing I would enjoy reading a novel about the U.S. Virgin Islands. Turns out this is about aliens, too. Turnbull earned his MFA in creative writing at North Carolina State University. Review soon. 📚
Today is a boot day. Played soccer this morning, now heading into the office wearing my black Lucchese cowboy boots.
What a stunningly bad speech to have to listen to as I wait to pick up my family at the airport.
In the pre-dawn dark
a single sound in forest
weak squawk of a baby owl
With the morning light
forest trees shrouded in mist
call the adult great-horned owls
Erin, Anna, and Malia are in El Pescadero, Mexico visiting relatives. The other day they swam near a whale shark in the Gulf of California. Today they watched baby olive ridley turtles get released to the Pacific Ocean. 🐢
Waiting in the orthodontist office with Oliver. He tried an AI app for first time by asking for six paragraphs about Rick Astley. Oliver is 12 and is constantly playing that damn song (you know the one) on his sax.
Last day of this winter break from work but that doesn’t mean I suddenly learned how to relax. The warm weather had me outside making another firewood rack.
Justin Watt has time on his hands in a new city, so he let Craiglist know that he wanted to help others with their projects. Justin wrote a detailed blog post about why he did this, and what happened next.
Firewood stacked in the new rack. Very satisfying.
