This, and That, and Nothing Much (Weeknotes No. 25-35)

I missed last week, so here’s what I’ve been up to during the fortnight of August 18–31, 2025.

Baking

I spent part of a Saturday baking four dozen chocolate chip cookies. If you haven’t tried these, you really should. They’re very easy.

I’ve been using Folio a lot lately. I was never a Pocket user, so I’m just getting into the habit of adding links to my “read later” list in this way. Admittedly, it is much quicker than copying links into Day One, but the app is not without its annoyances. The two most notable are that you cannot tell when you added a particular link, and you cannot copy text from the displayed content; you must open the link in a browser first. Despite all that, it has come in very handy.

I took apart and re-greased my Kitchenaid stand mixer. The thing is over 30 years old so this was long overdue. The old grease was more like jelly than grease, but (to my surprise) the gears were all in really good shape. Thanks to the step-by-step YouTube videos by Mr Mixer, the process was straightforward and easy. The whole thing only took about two hours from start to finish.

I’ve been going through old issues of Omni magazine again, out on the Internet Archive. I like to scan the tables of contents to see which literary titans’ names are lurking on those pages: Robert Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, Orson Scott Card, Harlan Ellison. I just read a short story in the June 1979 issue by George R R Martin called “The Way of Cross and Dragon,” about defending faith and fighting heresy among the stars.
Although Spy magazine was a bit before my time, I was a huge fan of Vanity Fair under Graydon Carter’s leadership. (The magazine isn’t the same since he left.) He launched Air Mail, a digital weekly in 2019. I was an early subscriber, although I admit I haven’t read it in a while. Mr Carter’s new memoir is out now, and listening has inspired me to return for Air Mail’s 320th weekly installment.
I finally got around to reading the spring issue of Good Internet and am looking forward to the next issue.
I’m still slogging my way through Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Two weekends in a row, we’ve got to play pickleball on Sunday morning. And two weeks in a row, I’ve spent Monday in pain. Well, not pain so much as stiffness. Golly, I miss my knees.

My dad had boxes and boxes of QSL cards in his basement. Most of them are from the 1970s and 1980s. It’s an impressive collection spanning over 100 countries. I spent the last few months scanning them all, front and back. The images (fronts only for now) are on Flickr for all to enjoy. Together with my small assortment of cards, the total number is over 3,800.

I bought a Rhodia ballpoint pen to go with my recently acquired Field Notes leather cover. (Which was a smashing success on my recent trip to Mexico, by the way.) The pen is very nice, having a hexagonal barrel like a pencil and a hefty weight in the hand, both features I enjoy.
I also bought a Uni SRX-200 D1 refill, which has very nice, smooth ink. But I find the 0.7mm writing tip too fine for my taste. I found a 1.0mm refill by Kaweco, but it is definitely not as nice.
Small (potential) problem: I didn’t realize when I ordered it that the D1 refills are very small. I’m worried I’ll run out of ink when I need it most. Maybe I just have to remember to always carry extras?

My old shredder, which I’ve had for many years, finally gave up the ghost. It had some plastic parts between the “teeth” (or whatever you call those scary-looking cutting discs) that was causing it to jam. So I started shopping for a new one. Reading the reviews online isn’t helpful because they all have as many “this is the best shredder ever” comments as “avoid this shredder like the plague” comments. So I just picked one that looks good. After a few test runs, it seems like it’ll do the job.

I was shopping at World Market to pick up some fancy candy and flavored syrups, and I stumbled upon a bottle of “tropical-flavored” spritzer commemorating the 50th anniversary of the release of JAWS. Naturally, I grabbed a bottle. It tastes pretty good, not too sweet, and it’s blue!

I had a second meeting with my new tattooist. We are homing in on a plan for my next tattoo, which will be a colorful sleeve. There will be one more consult before the first inking session in three weeks. Look for pics soon!

I earned the National Parks Challenge award in Apple Fitness.
Some people have complained about being a “slave to the rings” on their Apple Watch, but I am not like them. I often do not close all my rings, but I find them to be useful reminders—as they are intended. Anyway, I managed to get my August challenge award on the very last day of the month, bringing my streak to nine months. Now on to my September challenge.

For many years I’ve been a big fan of Strawberry Hill’s English Walnut Povitica which can be shipped anywhere in the US. They normally make several other flavors, but it looks like they’re only making the original while they relocate their operations to a new facility. They should be back to full speed in time for the Christmas holiday season. I hope so! I’ll be on the lookout.

That’s all from Arch City—er, Cbus—for now. Cheers!