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. 

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

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:

The Dark Side of Choose Your Own Adventure

Do you ever have a tidal wave of memories that crash over you without warning from the recesses of your brain? This happened to me one recent Saturday morning when I had a distinct memories of a family road trip, stuck in the very back bench seat of my family’s silver 1986 Plymouth Voyager as we crossed the hot Eastern Washington desert, reading and rereading a box set of four Choose Your Own Adventure books. I remembered picking out the set at Costco and how special it seemed because my mom was buying me four books instead of just one.

Whatever caused my sudden and unstoppable need for a nostalgia-fueled afternoon of sifting through Choose Your Own Adventure books was now gnawing a small pit in my stomach. It was a thirst that needed to be quenched immediately. Time to track down some of these gems of my childhood!

 WARNING!!! 

The 7 Best Books I Read in 2018

In 2017 and 2018 I set a goal of reading or listening to 100 books or audiobooks. In 2017, I consumed 193 books mainly because I went on a huge children’s literature binge to combat my despair over Trump’s inauguration. That January and February, I went through loads and loads of story books and it was fun. It was a great antidote for the terrible news.

Last year, I ended up consuming 92 out of 100 books even though I started two book clubs and expected to easily meet my goal. I’m not unhappy that I didn’t meet my goal, just surprised. Last year was challenging for me, as I tried to balance the new commitment of spending time with my 92-year-old aunt who we moved from assisted living in California to a facility a few miles from my apartment. It was harder than I ever imagined. I spent a lot of time feeling sad and frustrated and that manifested in playing a lot of games on my phone and doing mindless internet scrolling.

I still read great books though and gave seven of them the coveted 5/5 rating on Goodreads. A mix of non-fiction and mostly YA fiction, they are, in no particular order: