Cute New Mug

January 21, 2026

I found this mug while Christmas shopping in December and decided I needed to gift it to myself. Drinking out of this gives me joy.

Backyard Social House

January 20, 2026

I believe we have found our new home for pub quiz. Backyard Social is a great atmosphere with good food and a great game format. Bonus -we won our first time out! Rafe, Karen, Will, Jonah, and I make a very solid team. I'm hoping Bree can join us in the future as well!

Getting the Hang of It

January 19, 2026

Another knitting picture? Yep! I'm really enjoying this hobby, and it makes me feel productive when Rafe and I are sitting and watching our TV shows. (Right now, Russian Doll is our binge.) Plus, I was able to make some real progress on the drive back from Palm Springs.

Palm Springs Day Two

January 18, 2026

Day Two at the tournament was a much stronger showing. It was perfect weather. They shook off the cobwebs and made some great plays. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to put them in finals contention, but we wrapped up our day on the field and headed to the team Airbnb (we stayed at a different hotel for the trip) and had a barbeque. Great evening team bonding!

Palm Springs Baseball

January 17, 2026

Baseball kicked off the season with a tournament in Palm Springs. This is a fun group of guys who typically play with a handful of different teams during regular season, but form a separate tourney team for pre- and post-season. It was a bit of a rocky start, but still a fun day one.

Crazy Fog

January 16, 2026

Today for the first time in 23 years, Clovis Unified called a Foggy Day Schedule. We ultimately ended up on a four hour delay, which made our classes, for the few students who came, about 15 minutes each. Something I've always been bothered by is that if it is so foggy that they believe it is unsafe for school busses to run, why on earth do they think it is safe for regular cars to be out on the road? The parents who drive their little ones? Young teen drivers navigating foggy roads for the first time? School employees? Y'all, none of us can see 10 feet ahead of us in those conditions. In fact, I found out that one of my students got into a horrific accident on her way to school this morning. She was transported to the hospital in critical condition. It breaks my heart for her and for her family! In addition, in the evening Rafe and I drove out of town to Palm Springs. We thought we'd drive out of the fog, but there were still huge patches of it all the way to Bakersfield. On the other side of the freeway near Tulare, we saw a big rig totally engulfed in flames after a wreck. I just hope the driver made it out. Stay safe on those roads, all!

Knitting Class #2

January 15, 2026

Since I have been making progress (really, just so I remember how to do it), I wanted to be able to keep working on my green project and not have to unravel it or change it to learn something new because I'm proud of it, flaws and all. (Yes, I did drop a couple of stitches here and there. It gives it a little character!) So tonight in class, I bought a second skein of yarn and knitting needles to practice casting on and perhaps to learn how to purl as well. Turns out we didn't get to purl, but that's okay. I love the variegated colors of this skein, and the different textures. We'll see how this one looks on a few weeks!

More Knitting Progress

January 14, 2026

I'm just practicing and not actually 'making' anything in particular yet, but I am feeling really good about my progress! I can see this being a hobby I stick with.

Pub Quiz, Round Two

January 13, 2026

We decided to check out a different pub quiz this week. We went to House of Pendragon, which is much closer to home and had great food. Unfortunately the acoustics weren't great, or maybe just our seats were not ideal, but it was nice that they had a screen to project the questions. I liked the variety of types/formats of questions. This particular night was themed, and it happened to be a theme I felt pretty strong in--culinary. I was definitely able to come with some answers not everyone in our group had! That being said, I don't know if every week is a theme night, but next week is all things Star Wars, for which I would be decidedly less useful. 

Book Club

January 12, 2026

We held book club to discuss Lisa Wingate's Book of Lost Friends. Most of us who read it enjoyed the concept but didn't love how long it took for the multiple storylines to converge. Nevertheless, it was a good time as always catching up with these women.