Thanksgiving is a Time For Food, Family, and Movies (Weeknotes

Here are the highlights from the week of November 20 to November 26, 2023. It was a short work week, which meant a lot of extra time for watching movies, hanging out with family, and eating waaaaaay too many carbs.

• 🥲 I was genuinely thrilled to have both daughters home this week. We spent our first evening together at our favorite local Mexican restaurant, telling stories, laughing, having fun. I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am for that.

• 🤖 I launched my latest vanity project, V.I.N.CENT, which is a collection of links, notes, and other miscellany that I want to keep track of. I was inspired by Robb’s Intersect but too lazy to implement it the way he did, so I’m using weblog.lol instead. Thanks for the idea, Robb! Update: This project has since been retired and succeeded by my digital scrapbook.

• 🚀 Hiro reminded me that I should give Rocket Emoji a second chance. I tried it once before but didn’t give it much of a chance. I think it’ll save some time.

• 🏊 We watched Nyad and this “inspirational biopic” about Diana Nyad is anything but inspirational. It is a tedious film that failed utterly in making me care about its heroine. Now I don’t know Diana Nyad personally so I can’t tell you what she’s like, but Annette Benning’s portrayal paints her as an unconscionable narcissist whom I cannot imagine getting anywhere near. Let’s just say it is a bad movie and leave it at that.

• 🐍 We also went to see The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes which I and the whole fam-damily were very excited to see. It was pretty good, but left us wanting. There were some pretty big plot holes and the pace was interrupted by a jarring break in the middle that was clearly meant to be the start of a second film.

• 🎬 Lots of time off this holiday week meant lots of movie watching, which also included revisiting some classics: The Black Hole , Planes, Trains and Automobiles , and OF COURSE Home For The Holidays .

• 🦃🏃 Thursday was the Thanksgiving Day holiday here in the states, and one of our family traditions is to do the Columbus Turkey Trot 5-miler. It’s not a great course but it qualified us for pie so I’m not complaining. Also: I’m thankful I didn’t keel over in the street.

• 🧦 I’ll close with a goodbye, to a pair of my beloved Bombas socks. I know it seems silly, but these socks hold up so well and last so long I can’t remember the last time I had a pair actually wear out. Farewell, your memory will live on in a new pair—that I hope to get from Santa next month!