Five on Friday

A very good week!

1. A fabulous special art exhibition at the Legion of Honor in Golden Gate Park - Manet & Morisot. My neighbor invited me to go and it was great art, a good curation of the story of their friendship and time in history, and a chance to sit in the cafe and get to know each other better. 

If you are interested in artists and art in the time of Degas, the curator's show opening presentation is really interesting. I really enjoyed to talk although I did skip the museum director's opening remarks and questions/comments at the end so it wasn't as long as it says. Manet & Morisot exhibition

2. Our Saturday morning time with younger granddaughter went really well. Two hours was perfect and she got time by herself with us. She will be 3 later this month and is really changing quickly.

3. I signed up for a once a week Feldenkrais class for February. Tuesday afternoon was the first session. It is only stretching and quite different from yoga or Pilates, but I can see why my Pilates instructor has encouraged me to try it. And it is with a group of friendly people which is a plus. My Pilates instructor kindly rearranged my appointments for February so I don't have this Tues afternoon and Pilates Wed Morning.

4. We booked a Christmas gift of a brewery tour and tomorrow will head about an hour north. Hubby got them to solve a problem with registration using our code so we could use the gift. They serve food and the menu looks good so we will go early and have lunch. A new restaurant and an outing!

5. We received the 6 dinner plates matching our discontinued set and they are in better shape than ours. The eBay reviews were correct - they were packaged extremely well. Now I can throw out the chipped one and we will have 15 nice ones. Happy with the purchase.

What I'm Reading Wednesday #5

Prompt 37: Started on the 26th of a month

If I hadn't known this was the first published book of this Queen of Crimes author and read it as part of my Personal Curriculum for The Golden Age of Detective Fiction, I wouldn't have finished it. A rambling story that shows the promise fulfilled in her later books. 2.5 stars.

For fun - The second book in a series - hope there are more. 4 stars.

Prompt 10: Spans a decade or more.

I picked this up from a Little Free Library and it was a "beach read". Predictable plot; well written. 2.5 stars.

Welcome to February - Vision board + task goals

I am trying out doing a monthly vision board plus specific tasks/goals each month. The vision board is

reflective of what I want the month to feel like. Tasks/goals are what I hope to accomplish.

February important tasks/goals:

- Manet & Morisot Exhibition at the SF Legion of Honor with my neighbor

- Date Night babysit for 9 year old grandgirl

- New recipe and/or restaurant

- Outing with dog

- Brewery tour (Christmas gift) with Hubby

- Try Feldenkrais 4 week program at rec center

- Research water heater replacement options and schedule work

- One small house fix it/upgrade project

FEBRUARY INSPIRATION BOARD

CALM SPACES

KEEP DINING ROOM TABLE & OTHER FLAT SURFACES CLEAR

ADD MORE FLOWERS OR PLANTS

ADD COLORS I LIKE IN SMALL DOSES

RELAXING DAYS

READ A LOT

DRAW WITH COLOR

PLAY WITH DOG & GRANDGIRLS

NEW EXPERIENCES

FELDENKRAISE AT REC CENTER

NEW RECIPES & RESTAURANTS

ART EXHIBIT

BREWERY TOUR

Five Things #5

After "dog spa day" yesterday - looking handsome

I hope everyone stayed warm and safe this week! 

For us this was a week of one off spending and making future spending decisions, but all useful and needed.

1. I'm starting to prepare for doing our taxes. I bought TurboTax on sale to download when I'm ready and made my list of all the tax documents/info we will need. As I recall some were not available until mid-February last year but we have already received one in the mail and notices to print others.

2. We have decided to "kick the can down the road" and replace our water heater with a gas tank one. Have to do it soon to meet the deadline for them being unavailable here. Our son decided to do the same thing and replace his aged on demand gas water heater this year.

3. We seem to run low on dinner plates and drinking glasses. I found a reasonable deal on eBay for 6 plates for our set and bought them. The set is one I took from my parent's house after they had died and we do like the basic whiteness of them with an embossed tulip pattern.

4. One of our space heaters died so we bought a replacement. 

5. And other spending outside of the routine - 

• Younger grandgirl is visiting us for "special time with Nana & Papa" tomorrow morning and has announced she is not wearing diapers anymore. I bought a foldable toddler toilet seat that fits on top of the existing one. Wish her (and us) good luck.
• We got takeout pizza and salad. Needed a cooking break.

What I'm Reading Wednesday #4

I got sucked into this series - fantasy, romance, adventure, evil vs good, redemption, a dragon & more - oh my! I do have to say the 3rd book was not as enjoyable as the story took some very dark turns.

Prompt 23: Grumpy sunshine trope - "Assistant to the Villain"

Prompt 8: A 3 syllable word in the title - "Apprentice to the Villain"

Prompt 5: Featuring a conspiracy - "Accomplice to the Villain"

Five things #4

1. The electrician fixed the dishwasher outlet situation and added 2 outlets in the garage since there was only the one by the dryer. In the process they discovered the breaker sub-panel had issues and fixed those. The fact that we have 2 fuse sub-panels is less than optimal, but we're not ready to address that yet.

2. The dishwasher is installed! It's nice and shiny and quiet.

3. Interestingly, in the 2 big metro areas of California, on Jan 1, 2027 it will no longer be possible to buy and install a gas water heater. Next project is researching replacing the existing gas tank water heater with the same or installing an integrated heat pump electric water heater. Regardless, replacement will happen this year as the current water heater is 14 years old.

4. Oh, almost 3 year olds! We babysat briefly on Monday as son had an appointment and schools were closed. "Read me the poop book Nana!" Uncle & Aunt gave her a book titled "Who Poops in the North Woods" for Christmas. It actually was about animal tracking, but her focus was on the poop!

5. No rain continues but it is getting colder and grayer. The lovely warm sunny days were great though.

What I am reading Wednesday #3

Winter is when I read the most so I am zipping through the 52 prompts.

Prompt 28 - From a series at least eight books long

There are 14 primary books in this series with many, many short stories in addition. This was a good read although the plot started to get redundant. 4 stars.

Prompt 12 - A genre-defining read

I don't recall actually reading this before and, after reading about the author being a founder of the white feather movement in England during WWI (shaming men who were presumed to have avoided military service) and her belief that the aristocracy were much superior to everyone else, I almost skipped it. 

However, she was one of the Queens of Crime along with Agatha Christie, so reading it meets one of my personal curriculum goals. It is considered to have created and defined the masked avenger genre.  The writing is rather overwrought. 3 stars.

Prompt 10 - Spans a decade or more

I have such mixed feelings about this book. It ran the gamut of deep human emotions, jumped around in time and character perspectives and spanned at least 30 years. But I kept reading! It was translated from French and apparently was a big hit in France. It gets either 2 or 4.5 stars - can't make up my mind.

Prompt 24 - Uneven number of chapters

A rather silly premise but an enjoyable read. Part of a series. 3 stars.