KG's Five Best Things Ever: 12/19/20

Take a look at the hottest trends and coolest items in my life this week. It's the Five Best Things Ever for 12/19/20:

1. Pantsuit Politics Podcast - Considering the Covid-19 Vaccine episode:

Dr. Chris Beyrer, a John Hopkins epidemiologist, joined Sarah and Beth on the 12/11 episode of Pantsuit Politics to talk about the development of the vaccine. I thought it was a great conversation about what went into the trials and the time developing the vaccine. It’s an extremely helpful episode to hear if you have concerns about getting the vaccine when it becomes available to you. Pantsuit Politics is one of my favorite podcasts and I recommend the show in general, and especially this episode in particular.

2. Amaryllis bulbs

I usually buy both my mom and me amaryllis bulbs for Christmas with the idea that if we plant them on Christmas day, we will each have a flower sometime in January. One day in November, the Internet told me it was the day to plant Amaryllis bulbs. “So Early!” I thought. I listened though and immediately bought the bulb and planted it. I sure am glad I did. It bloomed this week and it will knock your socks clean off because it’s so glamorous and beautiful.

3. Kenny Moore II’s interception against the Raiders

Just Watch it. Oh, you already saw it? I don’t care. Watch it again. It was incredible. You suck Derek Carr.

4. 642 Tiny Things to Draw book

My friend Carrie is an excellent gift giver. She gives gifts that are so perfect, you wonder why you didn’t already own them. This year, she sent me an array of wonderful things including a guinea pig Christmas ornament and also this tiny book called 642 Tiny Things to Draw. It has 642 prompts of small things to draw and the space to draw them. The prompts are creative and sometimes challenging.

5. Who Killed Mr. Boddy (Clue #1)

This month, I’ve been enjoying reading a few of my collection of kids' books procured from either Little Free Libraries or the clearance section at Half Priced Books. My favorite so far is Who Killed Mr. Boddy. (Clue #1). It’s a collection of 13 short mysteries involving the shenanigans of the Clue board game characters. It’s ridiculous. It has puns. Here is a sample from the book, so you get the idea:

Mr. Boddy and the other guests chased the old woman through the hedge maze. But they all got bushed. 

Then they chased her through the family cemetery. This must be a plot! Thought Boddy. 

Then they chased her through the miniature golf course, where Boddy’s shoes began to hurt his feet. There must be a hole in one, he thought.

Even though they steal, burn down the mansion, and try to murder each other, Mr. Boddy keeps inviting the group over every week. I don’t understand why they are friends.

Scholastic made 18 of these and I hope to find more of them in book bargain adventures in the future.

That’s it for this week, my friends. These are the five best things ever in my life this week. Maybe I’ll see you back here next week. I’m not making any blogging promises though. 

19 in 2019: Visit a Cat Cafe

Number three on my 19 in 2019 list was the needn’t to be explained “Visit a Cat Cafe!” I’ll go ahead and explain it anyway. I love animals. I like visiting animals at people’s homes or zoos or aquariums. I like looking at pictures of animals. The majority of my Instagram feed is made up of baby animal aggregators, zoos, Internet famous pets, and animal photographers. (The rest, if you are wondering, is crafty folks and hot people.) So, when this new trend of cat cafes started, I was ready. Somehow though, I managed not to make it to one in 2018 even though I really really wanted to. Even though some friends went to some without me! When I started thinking about my 19 in 2019 list, the cat cafe is one of the first activities that sprung to mind.

Present Participle List: January 2019

This was a busy, busy month at work. I worked a lot of overtime and then I got a yucky cold. So I waffled between working my butt off and being flat on my butt. Here are a few things that I got up to.

Watching:
Documentaries, lots of them.

Top Chef Kentucky: It’s been years since I watched a season of Top Chef, the show with the hottest judges in reality show history, Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. Nothing much has changed about the show and I prefer it that way. There are still the nice chefs and the cocky chefs and the nervous chefs and creative challenges in between in-show car and Whole Foods commercials.

Eating:
Shrimp and Grits: One of my 19 in 2019 goals this year is to cook new recipes. I subscribed to New York Times Cooking and cooked Shrimp and Grits with Garlicky Swiss Chard as my first two new recipes of the year. Then I ate grits again and again after that and at least another time after that.

Listening:

Radiolab episode: The Punchline Thanks to the recommendation by MJV, I checked out a hockey-based episode of RadioLab about the season when goon John Scott was elected to the NHL all-star game in a popular fan-fueled campaign. It could be an allegory of what happens when corporations try to use social media marketing without a complete understanding of how it works. It details the steps the NHL took to remove John Scott from the game and highlights their villainy. Sure, the NHL is run by jerks, but in this situation they go out of their way to be total dicks. I recommend this episode to sports fans and students of social media alike.

The Smiths
I read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, whose characters are big fans of the Smiths and I’ve been on a Smiths’ bender ever since. I’ve been listening to A Light That Never Goes Out a lot, probably an unhealthy amount.

Reading:

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies by J.B. West This intriguing book by J.B. West, who served as usher and then chief usher in the White House from FDR to Nixon is filled with awesome tidbits about the first families he served. There is nothing salacious here as West has such respect for each of the presidents and their families. The book covers so many behind-the-scenes looks at important moments in American history including the Kennedy assassination and the death of FDR in office.

Playing:
Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

A Way Out
A bartender at my favorite bar Best Buds Gaming Lounge recommended A Way Out to my friend D and I and then we spent the next many hours and beers playing it. It’s a cooperative prison-escape jaunt that feels more like playing through a movie then a game. Yeah, there are a lot of cutscenes but you also get to steal a truck from old people! This playable Choose Your Own Adventure is very entertaining.

That's what I was up to in January

19 in 2019: Play an RPG!

It's still January and I've crossed another 19 in 2019 off my list! Number 7: Play an RPG! is now complete. I've been interested in playing an RPG such as D&D for years and even created some Shadowrun characters with a friend back in college and I still hadn't managed to actually play a game.

On Black Friday, I saw a screaming deal for the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire beginner game. I figured Star Wars was a great place to start my RPGing adventure, since I'm familiar with and love the Universe already. The package came with a condensed rule book, an adventure book, maps, specialized dice, four pre-made characters and another adventure available for download online. Knowing I wouldn't be able to find anyone to play in December, I set it aside for examination this month.

19 in 2019: George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary

I couldn’t let January 2019 pass without knocking at least one thing off my 19 in 2019 list, so on January 13, my friend R and I headed up to Canada to check out The George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. For just $5 admission, we checked #18 off the list!

After coworkers told me about the sanctuary years ago, I knew to expect a large number of birds when we arrived. What I didn’t realize is just how many species we would see. We saw:

8 Sick-Day Documentaries to Heal Your Cold (or help you take a nap)

I caught the mother of all colds last week and stayed home for a boring and lonely 3.5 days. Usually when I’m sick, I sleep a lot until the cold goes away. This set of symptoms was a different beast though and I didn’t manage to sleep much. I had a terrible headache that prevented me from reading, so watch TV I did. A lot. A whole lot.

Usually my sick day show watching consists of the Price is Right followed by some sort of nostalgic TV show like Magnum PI. Occasionally, I’ll watch a documentary or two. Since this sickness was some sort of extra sick, I decided to do some extra TV watching. So, I present to you: THE GREAT SICK DAY DOCUMENTARY FILM FEST OF 2019!!!

4 Reasons Why My TBR Pile Might Kill Me

It’s not hard to keep a TBR list. Anyone can make a Goodreads account and click the green “want to read” button or keep a handwritten list in their bullet journal. What takes a little more commitment and a lot more space is a physical TBR stack. This is where I find myself now, with a more than three-foot (Yes, I measured) pile of books taller than my nightstand next to my bed. With the paltry shelves of the actual furniture long full, I’ve expanded to the floor.

The Highest Peak of Book Mountain

My TBR stack was created by the following four-pronged fact attack and because of this it will mostly likely tumble over and bury me in a pile of unread books: