Weeknotes 25:48

Posted 1 day ago

Week of November 23–29

I decided to take 3 PTO days this week to combine with the 2 days that my employer gives us for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have the week off from work. It gave me time to enjoy spending time with my family, playing video games, watching movies together, and time to read books and catch up on some articles in Instapaper.

I appreciated Thanksgiving Day more this year after spending last year isolated from my family with a stomach virus. It was so good to be back with my family and celebrating our normal traditions.

Here is what Thanksgiving looks like for us:

  • My youngest makes muffins on Wednesday so that we can eat muffins for breakfast on Thursday morning
  • We start the day by watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. My wife and daughters really enjoy the musicals and the Rockettes.
  • Next, we watch the National Dog Show. I remember watching the first one when my oldest was just a year old.
  • The dog show ends around 2 p.m. We usually eat our Thanksgiving meal within an hour of the dog show being over. We enjoyed our feast of turkey, stuffing (Stove Top), cornbread dressing (what my wife grew up with), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, pasta salad, corn, yeast rolls, and Hawaiian rolls.
  • After the meal, I help clean up. After that, everyone usually scatters for a couple of hours.
  • Depending on how long people scatter for, we will either start putting up our Christmas tree or eat dinner or switch the order if it is later in the day. This year we did a catch what you can dinner (I had a turkey sandwich with stuffing and potatoes. After dinner, we put up the tree.
  • After the tree went up, we usually watch a movie together. We use to have a tradition of watching Miracle on 34th Street (1994). This year, we watched Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical.

On Friday, we ended up splitting up. My son and I went to a college basketball game at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. That has become a tradition for us these past four years he has been in college. My daughters and wife went to see Wicked for Good. We came back together and ordered Cava and then watched Robin Hood, the animated Disney movie. It was one of my favorites as a kid and I had been wanting to watch it again recently.

Watching youngest in Charlotte’s Web
My son made a protest sign for one of his classes. He traced a printed version and used paint markers.

Articles I read

Inspiration

Dan Cederholm shared several links in his Studio Notes this week that I enjoyed.

  • Modern Illustration Archive – An archive of illustration from c.1950-1975, shining a spotlight on pioneering illustrators and their work. I shared the link with my son (a graphic design student) and he was really excited about it. He may use it for inspiration for several projects for his senior show that he is working on.
  • Flowers of Fire: Illustrations from Japanese Fireworks Catalogues (ca. 1880s) – This is pretty cool to look at how they illustrated what the fireworks would look like when exploded.
  • All Aboard! (Vedad Siljak) – A collection of TYCO catalogue illustrations. I had a TYCO race track when I was younger. I also like the one of the “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.”

What I watched

Forevergreen (YouTube)

How to use Web Components, and why you’d want to (Kevin Powell on YouTube) – Watching this got me excited about Web components. I plan to start Scott Jehl’s course in the new year. Already have an idea of making something I built recently into a Web component.

  • You didn’t lose your attention span. It was stolen. (Jared Henderson, YouTube)
  • Snortmotion Short ? 3 (YouTube) – I relate to the last one as my club went flying into a water hazard on my first hole the first time I played golf.
  • Everybody Loves Raymond 30th Anniversary Reunion (CBS) – My wife and I watched most of the episodes of this show. It was also fun to see Phil Rosenthal in his element.
  • Watson (CBS)
  • Dancing with the Stars finale (ABC) – I was more engaged with reading articles on Instapaper but I did stop and watch some of the dances. My oldest was the most excited about it as she has been watching this season.
  • The Muppets (2011) (Disney+)
  • Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC) – This is a family tradition. I appreciated it more this year after being sick last year and being isolated from my family on Thanksgiving day.
  • The National Dog Show (NBC) – Another family tradition. I watched the first one the year my oldest was just a little over a year old.
  • Frozen: The Musical (Disney+) – I enjoyed the Broadway show adaptation.
  • Robin Hood (Disney+) – This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I have been wanting to watch it again recently.

Books I am reading

Walking

I was hoping to build on the momentum from last week. And with taking time off, I thought I would get out more often. Less structure meant I did not get them in. It rained on Tuesday. And I didn’t make time the rest of the week. I did get out Monday and my youngest went with me.

  • Sunday – 4 miles in 1 hour 14 minutes
  • Monday – 3.75 miles (estimate) in 1 hour

What I played

  • MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I went 4-1 this week.
  • NBA 2K25 (Nuggets) – I went 2-1 including a comeback win against the Celtics. My loss was a 3 point loss to the Suns. I had tied it but was unable to keep them from scoring despite tough defense.

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