🍴:

Mon – because I anticipated having a rehearsal conflict on Saturday for intermediate ballet, I popped into tonight’s beginner 2 class, so Hampton took care of dinner and did a lentil/merguez/feta shenanigans much like we did a few weeks ago and I was so ready to eat after an hour of strength training before an hour of dance, I did not take a picture of his very first lentil cook.

Tues – Hampton was v excited to try these martini-inspired baked potatoes (he doesn’t do gin, I don’t do bleu cheese, edits were made), and our annual Costco rewards arrived, so he hit the store for our fave pork tenderloin pack and cooked one with Chicago Steak seasoning to go with a very steakhousey side.

Wed –

Thurs – lemon walnut shrimp pasta and salad

Fri – sheet pan chicken and mushrooms with white bean purée (from those uncooked beans on Wednesday) and a spinach pesto (because we didn’t have the kale called for here)

Sun – apple cider-braised beef stew with cauliflower mash

🥃: taught Hampton how to use the frother so he could make Cà Phê Muối (Vietnamese salted cream coffee) with the phin filters we brought back.

🐶: the George dog turned 15! We have had the pleasure of knowing him for 12.5 of those years and would like at least as many more please and thank you.

📚: Have been slacking on books while I clean up all my emails from vacation. One of these days I will figure out how to paginate and count e-newsletters. Special shout-outs to Michael Ian Black and Jeff Tiedrich for being as eloquently witty in the face of *gestures vaguely at the state of the world* as I wish I were (but with less swearing).

🎭: Ok, technically, this was last week, but since I didn’t do one of these then bc Vietnam, last Sunday, five days after getting back into the country, Hampton and I jumped into one of Camel City Playhouse’s “Spilled Ink” staged readings. We have both been annoyed when other people (or maybe just one particular person) didn’t bother to show up to rehearsals for such things but used traveling halfway around the world to justify it for ourselves. And also we really like the director (aka the stage manager who talked me into doing Othello last year) and she trusts us. Hampton had three small parts and I read the stage directions — and apparently my Hedwig and murder mystery director and his bff who staged managed his wedding (that I officiated and missed writing about) were very impressed with how I stood the whole time and did so without distractingly moving around which I may need to put on my résumé: convincing Serious Voice and Good Stamina. I have always thought I might want to be one of those performance art buskers who paints themselves metallically and pretends to be a statue.

And I got to reunite with Ethan/Hedwig who missed me despite my international data plan.

Also: Man of La Mancha rehearsals have started!