You know how there are some weekends where everyone just seems to be firing on all cylinders?  The weather’s perfect, the kids are happy, and you check everything off your to-do list?  This weekend… was not like that.  Okay, actually, it was a total dud.  It started out with a bad-behavior report about one of the kids at the school pick-up.  And by bad-behavior report, I mean two teachers giving me the play-by-play, in excruciating detail, to the point that I felt compelled to confirm that yes, I understand that hitting is wrong.  (They were both staring at me and obviously wanted me to say something.)  After my public shaming (the perpetrator was gleefully playing in the corner of the classroom and couldn’t have cared less) I finally got everyone halfway out the door and then the other kid melted into a puddle of emotionally overwrought temper tantrum right there in the middle of the school hallway.  Awesome.  And it got worse from there!  I ate something that disagreed with me for dinner and spent most of the night in intense discomfort (#notpregnant #justfoodpoisoning), so I was exhausted all day Saturday.  The kids were at each other’s throats all weekend – Mars must be in retrograde, or something.  And we started a gauntlet of five birthday parties in less than a month.  There were some bright spots; there always are.  We had a nice walk on Saturday – a loop through the farmers’ market and past our two neighborhood fire stations.  My brother and sister-in-law called on Saturday night and we had a lovely long chat while they drove home from skiing at Vail (don’t you just hate them?).  And Nugget and I spent a cozy afternoon at the library on Sunday and managed to only check out one book apiece – look at us and our personal growth.  And today I’m working from home; my office is technically closed today, but I have a huge brief due on Wednesday.  I hope you have the day off, though, and I hope it’s blissful!

Reading.  I was very busy over my books this week, as you can see.  Busier than usual – the reason being library deadlines, as always.  The Nine Tailors wasn’t due back urgently, so it might have been a little irresponsible of me, but I really wanted to read that one right away – so I did.  But after that, I had to buckle down in a big way.  The Go-Between, Fables Volume 10 and Fables Volume 11 were due back on Sunday the 20th, and I was out of renewals, so it was either read now or return unread (which I hate to do).  I tore through all three this week (liked The Go-Between but didn’t love it, but really enjoyed the two installments of Fables – possibly my favorites of the series thus far).  I thought I had some breathing room coming to me, because I had two more books out that I knew couldn’t be renewed before they’d be due on January 26th – one because it had holds, and one because I was out of renewals – but then I discovered that Spying on Whales had a fresh hold, too.  BLAST.  Tore through that in time to return it (early!) to the library yesterday, and now I’m a few stories into How Long ’til Black Future Month?, which I am liking, or at least recognizing its merits.  Short fiction isn’t usually my jam, nor is speculative fiction, and put them together – well, that’s something I’ve really got to be in the mood for.  I’m not in the mood for it, but I’m reading it anyway (I know, I know) because I like N.K. Jemisin and I don’t like returning books without having read them (again, I know, I know).

Watching.  Well, Nugget and I watched Jurassic World for the eleventy-seventh time earlier this week.  Or, to be more precise, Nugget watched and I kind of drifted in and out of the movie but mostly looked at him (he’s so beautiful, guys).  And that’s it.  After the antics at pickup on Friday, the kids got a screen detox enforced all weekend – and it’s been nice to not have a constant backdrop of Puffin Rock as I go about my day.

Listening.  More podcasts, as usual.  As of press time, I’m halfway through the episode of The Book Riot Podcast in which Jeff and Rebecca discuss their favorite non-bookish things of 2018, and Jeff waxing rhapsodic about his new electric scooter might be one of the best things on the Internet right now.

Making.  Tea.  And not much else.  I had big plans for an afternoon of batch cooking and bread-baking on Sunday, but it didn’t happen.  (Oh!  I made a mountain of kale sautéed in vegetarian oyster sauce, and it was pretty delicious, and I have a little bit left over.  Does that count?)

Anticipating.  On Friday, Steve and I have a date night – a brewery tour and beer-tasting (probably just for him, but I might sample some wheat beers or sours if they’re on offer) at Port City, our local brewery.  The tickets were one of his Christmas gifts.  There’s no way I’m as excited about this as he is, but I’m pretty excited.

Blogging.  Part III of my 2018 reading retrospective – book superlatives, always a fun post – on Wednesday, and a big photobomb post full of pretty sunrise pictures from recent whirlwind business trip to Miami on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Y’all have heard about the new southern resident orca calf, right?  Baby L-124 Lucky, born to L-77 Matia, was spotted swimming with his/her family – including big sis L-119 Joy, who happens to be the whale I adopted on behalf of Peanut’s kindergarten class, less than two weeks ago.  Lucky is still very young and SRKW calves have a 50/50 survival rate in their first year (and to be honest, it’s not much better after that) but I’m cautiously excited, and more so after Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research confirmed that Lucky appears healthy and energetic.  Lucky’s fortunate enough to have been born into a particularly strong family group within L-pod, so that should help.  I barely got any work done after the first encounter with little Lucky went live on the Center for Whale Research site.  I mean, can you even STAND the cuteness?!