The Age of Discovery

My sister’s family uses this because they are a mixed android/apple family, and when we became a mixed family, T. wanted us to use it too, so T. and I do. It has a driving report feature. I got a notification about the driving report feature so I looked at it. I don’t know if this thing actually works properly in terms of knowing whether I am driving or a passenger (it looks like it does based on behavior? Presumably it knows based on whether it was hooked up to a car system or not?), but it will tell you about your hard braking, hard acceleration and speeding.

I always think of myself as a moderately aggressive driver (intermittently?), but looking at this driving report, I look … pretty law-abiding and calm. My son, on the other hand, has a driving report that looks like how I think I drive. LOL.

ETA:

I had a loaf sandwich today. Yummy!

I had a delightful phone call with JC. Truly enjoyable.

I ordered some minor things to solve minor problems around the house, and took a frame down and replaced the photo triptych in it with this year’s photo triptych. I took some holiday decorations down. I messaged the person who picks up lego from me and offered him the gingerbread at-at and the ski chalet and he picked those up and handed me a holiday gift bag his wife put together and wanted to give us while we were in California but we were in California.

I refilled shampoo containers and a travel conditioner container. I removed some items from my roller from the December trip and moved them in the direction of where they ultimately need to wind up.

I’m basically going through my massive, untidy to-do list / Note that helps me not permanently forget things, and picking off minor tasks. It is sooooo satisfying.

Oh, and I cooked rice. Next up is probably chicken thighs.

ETA:

I had a delightful phone call with AY. I had a couple calls with Priestess. I was stood up for dinner by JH, but she was nauseous yesterday when I checked in with her, so I’m betting she finally found something to help her feel better and then slept. Also, I am thinking I’ll let her lead any charge towards a reschedule. Because I had known the day before that things were not great for her, I had pre-arranged with R. to have dinner with me instead and we had an awesome meal and drink (I had two drinks, he had one) at Luna. Yummy!

Because it snowed way more than I had expected, I shoveled a lot of white stuff. T. packed up his car for moving tomorrow. We talked through plans for T.’s summer European travels and internship and how that all fits together and what tickets we need to get for him and made sure that my cousin is good with the part where T. will be meeting up with him.

The chicken thighs turned out fine, which is great because of the aforementioned snow. I think I might use the air fryer next time tho. I used the upper oven and a baking dish, which was fine, but I think I can do even better.

I had a delightful phone call with J.

T. was accepted into his internship program, so we had a discussion about filing the commitment form, payments due at various times, the scholarship he was offered, how that interacts with his week and a half study abroad, etc.

Because the MBs, LSs and us all agree on the Aimee Dining Arm Chair, and because R. and I settled on the number of arm chairs, I went to order the chairs, and then realized we hadn’t talked about which color choice. R. didn’t want the white and black with rattan, so I dug around in the fabric options and found a nice subtle dark teal. I will need to run that past my sister, and also I need to talk to someone at the store about time frame, and pricing. There’s a great sale on the website for the standard choices but no clarity on what happens to price when you specify a different fabric. Still, very exciting!

Today was IEP day. A. did not attend. The guidance counselor from ABRHS was there, and pushing the database for searching for colleges, which I just don’t even understand the point of. Nothing will work if there isn’t a good disability office for accommodations, and that information is not in the database. MF, head of school at Fusion, was there, and she knew to make sure the guidance counselor doesn’t sign A. up for that database, because apparently they’ve had nightmares associated with duplicate sign ups and Fusion also uses that database. Yay.

The guidance counselor also suggested Mount Holyoke College, which in terms of college demographics is indeed a good vibe for A., but because all of Seven Sisters are humanities focused, and A. really does not cope with writing well at all, it just seems like a bad idea. Geographically good location for the new house, so I’m not saying no or never but the cost is going to make it feel like we should try hard to make it work and I think it’s most likely to work if we don’t give a shit whether it does or not.

And that, in turn, led to my next idea which was: hey, what are the community college options out there? Holyoke Community College has a radiology program for C., and CS program for K. and a chemistry program for A. They dual enroll and have special support for kids on the spectrum. They serve a large hispanic community. A. is going to fall right in the middle of folks there, in terms of struggle, and it’s totally traditional to take a course at a time or start in the summer or take a term off or whatever. Plus, guaranteed transfer of credit to other public schools in Massachusetts that are part of that program.

In the end, the IEP led to me doing that research after the meeting, and finding that option made me and my sister feel such a sense of relief. Plus, students can get health insurance through the school and it is under $3k per term (quarter system). All around good stuff.

ETA: Oh, and I moved book group to next week because I hadn’t read it and didn’t have it in me to run the meeting anyway.

ETAYA: R. and I had dinner at Sichuan Palace in Chelmsford. It was yummy.

Just the way I like it. It should clear up later so I will hopefully still get a walk with M.

I cautiously looked over a little bit of news today, and read a WSJ (you should not read the WSJ, much less give them money) profile of Steve Sando, found of Rancho Gordo and plausibly referred to as America’s Bean King. I found it especially entertaining because the latest Maintenance Phase episode included a lively back and forth between Aubrey and Michael about BeanTok, and whether Beans are a Thing (obviously, Beans are a Thing if WSJ is profiling Steve Sando, which I did not need to be convinced, because Aubrey said that Beans are trending and if Aubrey says it, I probably believe it).

I am, weirdly, looking forward to the rest of today, rather than dreading it, as I have many recent days. I can’t say I’m caught up, but I’m feeling much less far behind than I was a couple days ago.

I got A. to school on time. I got to my Dutch lesson on time. I had a lovely Dutch lesson.

I walked with M. It was warm!

The barstools arrived, and I was, frankly, devastated to learn that they all had the stretcher at the same height as the original one. I do not know what to do. The stools are beautiful, and they are all perfect for R., and will generally work for people. They will just stress my knees out over time. Which kind of sucks. I do not think it sucks enough to ship them back to the maker, so I think I’m going to more aggressively pursue having a footrest attached to the bar wall in front of the stools at the correct height for me. This would give a high and a low option for people at the bar if it works out. We’ll see. My worst case solution would be ordering one more stool and being super clear where I want the stretcher, so that most stools would work for R. and then one would be special for me.

OK. In the grander scheme of things, as upsetting as that was, it was completely trivial.

I picked A. up from school. I heated up her steak and R. had already gotten her sides ready. R. and I went out to the Bull Run for dinner with the MBs, which was awesome as always and we came home with girl scout cookies and some piece of electronic equipment. Their remodel is done, so next outing will be to their house. I am so excited to see it! It looks so beautiful in pictures.

I had a long phone call with my friend, and emphasized that I was committed to getting that charge moved off of his card and on to my card. I noted that it would have been easier if I had known about it sooner, but was super clear that I was going to make it right regardless.

This had a really interesting and unexpected effect, in that he then proceeded to tell me a variety of things that as near as I can tell he never told anyone, not even his now ex-wife. Some of which constitutes medical history relevant to his younger offspring (I don’t think he ever thought about it in these terms). We also had a really enjoyable discussion of DisneyLand and how it has changed over time, and I looked up some stuff and shared Yesterland with him, and he really enjoyed perusing that website for a while thereafter. Yay!

I then had a conversation with the other parent of the affected offspring, to discuss a possible path forward in exploring the migraine / aura / wtf phenomenon, because she confirmed that there had been complaints along those lines. In a weird twist, other medical choices may have a beneficial effect. It turns out that quite a few people with migraines benefit from testosterone. It’s just one of those weird things that has been known for a long time, but somehow we just don’t really assimilate culturally into our understanding of how things work.

It’s been a long break, and I’m not sorry to see the end of it. A. is excited to see friends and teachers at school, so that’s good. We got showers and A. did her online playdate without my involvement at all (absolutely jaw dropping miracle there) and we did family zoom and otherwise is was another quiet, indoor day.