Thankful Thursday, Hoth Edition

 

It is SO cold. Here are some things I'm thankful for!

1. So far I have kept power. There was a decent chance we were going to get freezing rain during last weekend's storm, and the one thing I was worried about was losing power when the temperature was in the single digits. 

2. I managed to chisel out my car on Monday. It took over 2 hours, but I think if I had waited any longer it would have been permanently iced into until this mess thaws someday.

3. Snow storms are pretty. After all the prep leading up to the storm, I loved just watching it snow and sleet. Luna was not a fan of walking in the storm, but it was fun to listen to all snuggled in bed.

4. My in-person work meeting got moved from Tuesday to Thursday. This made it much easier to get into the office, and it meant I could stay for our office warming party. Win-win!

5. Board game birthday party for Elisa last Friday night, with our tradition of playing Settlers. Baa thump!

6. I got some more LOE allocated to a work project.

7. Read 2 more good books. Castle in the Sky (Howl's Moving Castle #2) and The Bakers Secret (WWII fiction). 

Thankful Thursday, Snow prep edition

 Happy Thursday folks!

This week I'm thankful for: 

1. I was able to see a close family friend in the hospital last week. For a while it looked like circumstances were conspiring against us, but we made it work. Vague-booking on purpose.

2. I'm over my food poisoning. Holy crow, did I eat something last weekend that angered my tummy. Possible culprits were raw cookie dough (most likely), tacos (relatively unlikely, I've been to that taco place a bunch), or a burger (also unlikely because it was well done, but I've never eaten there before). I was down for the count Sunday through Tuesday, and only began to slightly feel normal yesterday. Let's... not do that again, eh?

3. Good books! I finished 'The Other Americans' by Laila Lalami and 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama this week and both were excellent. I've now started 'Castle in the Sky' by Diana Wynne Jones and its a fun read so far.

4. Incoming snow! I am so excited we might get some good snow this weekend. Less excited for the potential of ice, but we'll see what happens. I braved Costco today because I am insane, so I have yummy food for a while.

5. A successful work presentation on Wednesday. Sometimes presenting virtually over Teams can be bumpy, but I think this went well and we had a good discussion.

Thankful Thursday, 2 weeks into 2026

 

There's a lot going on and the world feels like it's on fire, but I'm still searching for the big and small ways to be grateful.

1. Luna. My fast-acting, non-aspirin pain reliever. I gave her a bath this week and all day I kept exclaiming, you're so fluffy!!

2. Some mild weather to get a few outdoors things done. We had a couple days of January thaw earlier this week, which helped me cut up and move a branch in my yard without freezing to death. Now? Currently the feels like is 9, which leads me to...

3. Central heat and warm blankets- mainstays of January in the mid-Atlantic.

4. A good visit with my mom yesterday. Alzheimer's makes things like visits and plans very apt to change, so it was nice to bring Luna over and just chat for an hour.

5. A very fun dinner at Carol and David's house Monday evening, getting to know some people better including our new pastor Joshua!

Thankful Thursday, I mean Friday

 I'm a day late, oops!

This week I'm thankful for:

1. Warmer weather. I squeezed in a quick hike with Luna late yesterday afternoon, and we saw a fox. And it barked at us! Once Luna saw it, she of course barked back :)

2. PT for my knee. I over-hiked in November and my knee has been a little angry at me since then. I'm glad I can get some PT so I can continue hiking and dancing without hurting it.

3. Catching up with friends. I finally was able to catch up with my friend Joanna last week, and I miss her so much. It's lovely to have friends that we can just pick up where we left off even if we haven't seen each other in a while.

4. Movie night with local friends last week. Elisa, Alexandra and I watched American President in honor/memory of Rob Riener.

5. An easy week back to work after the holidays. It was nice to just be able to write and not have a lot of meetings this week.

6. Drawing. I'm doing birbfest, which is drawing a bird each day of January, and I'm really enjoying it!

Happy New Year 2026!

 Happy New Year!

This week I'm thankful for:

1. The friends I played board games with last night to ring in the new year. It was chill, fun, lots of food and laughter, and sweet doggos = a perfect evening. 

2. A comfy bed. This might never not be on my list. I enjoyed sleeping in this morning after going to bed at 2am.

3. Luna, who is currently curled up next to me on the couch. 

4. 4 more days off work, for a total of 17! Probably the longest I've taken a vacation in a while, and it's been great to plan/celebrate Christmas, relax, organize my house and brain, and read.

5. A brisk first day hike in the new Royce Hanson Conservation Park in Poolesville. 

Thankful Thursday (er Saturday?) #5

 It's been a week. It's tempting to think of things I'm thankful for in terms of negatives. I'm thankful I wasn't on the plane that fell into the Potomac. I'm glad I don't work for the federal government. But I also want to look for the good, not just the 'glad it's not worse' things.

This week I'm thankful for:

• Very good friends. With the craziness of executive orders and all of the uncertainty, my friends have been a rock for me. And of course there is solidarity for those going through the same uncertainty, as I have a lot of friends in the international development sphere.
• I'm thankful for Luna. She's my fast-acting non-aspirin pain reliever this week :) 
• I'm thankful for a couple of warmer days. A small taste of spring is very welcome at the end of a very cold month, and even though I know it will get cold again, it was nice to get some fresh air, melt some dirty snow, and take some longer walks with Luna. 
• A Possum! I've never actually seen one before other than one running away at night. Luna and I went hiking on the C&O last Saturday and there was one relatively close to the trail in a tree. Of course Luna went crazy barking at it, but I still got a photo with my phone.
• I'm thankful for pedicures and hilarious movies. I might make a separate post about this, but Babs and I got pedicures today and there was a hilariously bad horror movie on in the salon.
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Thankful Thursday #4

 This week I'm thankful for...

1. Central heat! Temps plummeted on Sunday and we only went back up to freezing today. While I still think this is much better weather than multiple 100 degrees days with humidity, I am very glad for heat and layers. It's been harder to explain this to Luna why we aren't walking as long. I don't want her outside when its 10 degrees for very long, but Luna is grumpy about less walk time lol.

2. Really good books. In the sometimes seemingly eternal month of January, I like to jumpstart my reading for the year, and I've read some great books in the last few weeks. 

- I read the first 2 books in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia Wrede, which are delightful. Will probably read the last two before the month ends.

- I finished the Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman, and book 8, The Untold Story, was a very satisfying ending to the series. 

- I also finished 'Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon' by Melissa Sevigny. I have a collection of books about the Grand Canyon, and this is another great one about the first non-indigenous women to raft the entire Grand Canyon in the 1930s.

- Finally, I read Switchboard Soldiers by Jennifer Chiaverini, about the women in the Army in WW1 operating the switchboards in France. This author does a really good job of telling a story and really detailing historical setting, in this case 1917-1918 USA and France.

3. My church bell choir and their creativity. So we were about 15 minutes into our bell choir rehearsal when the power went out. A brief investigation revealed a transformer was out so it was going to be a few hours before we got power back. Our choir was resourceful and between minimal emergency lights and cell phones, managed to rehearse an hour in the dark :) First a tornado warning during rehearsal last year, and now a power outage. Apparently we still are -that church-.