Week 1

Let's see how long I can keep this going in 2018: a weekly account of the past seven days.

Taking on this level of enthusiasm in the new year

The first week of the year brought some sunshine - long enough for me to get my car washed without it feeling like a wasted effort - and then rain, which made the roads and sidewalks an interesting jumble of ice crusts.

I went back to work and felt OK about it. It's good to be back in some sort of routine, but I wasn't as ready to resume my early bedtimes.

With the new year, I'm game to try some new resolutions, but this year I'm thinking of them as projects. Among them is building a cardio routine into my weekly workout. The Bar Method gets my heart rate up, but I need something more to get my lungs in shape for future bike rides and hills. I learned of an app called Aaptiv (eye roll...these names!) that's an audio-only workout you can bring with you to the gym or on the road. I've done one so far on an elliptical machine and it was actually fun. I might try one today that is purely for stretching. I'm on a 30 day free trial so my main concern is that I remember to cancel it if I don't end up using it after this week.

This weekend I put the Christmas decorations away but left all the Christmas cards on the mantle. I'm not ready to part with those sweet sentiments of the season yet.

Reads

The Lives They Lived: I spent a solid hour on the couch on New Year's Eve reading through these short tributes to people who left us in 2017 - people I knew of, like Mary Tyler Moore, and others, like Delia Graff Fara, whose names are less familiar but who left a unique mark on our society and contributed something to the ways we understand the world, and whose lives were tragically too short.

On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee: "Might the most fulfilling times be those spent solo at your tasks, literally immersed or not, when you are able to uncover the smallest surprises and unlikely details of some process or operation that in turn exposes your proclivities and prejudices both? And whether or not there is anything to be done about it, you begin to learn what you value most."

I appreciated this column about keeping resolutions. Exerting willpower is taking a toll on our psyches. Turns out, like seemingly everything, cultivating gratitude, compassion and even a certain amount of pride is the answer.

Winter Hours by Mary Oliver at bedtime, filling my head with comfort and reflection before sleep. "All things are meltable, and replaceable. Not at this moment, but soon enough, we are lambs and we are leaves, and we are stars, and the shining, mysterious pond water itself."

Having fun with my new brush pens!

Movies (technically watched Dec. 30/31 but still worth noting)

The Darkest Hour: I've never had so much Winston Churchill in my life until this past year. If you love The Crown, The King's Speech and/or Dunkirk, you'll probably enjoy this one. Or perhaps, like me, you say, "That's enough now."

Downsizing: While the concept of this movie provides much food for thought, I spent a lot of time trying to find holes in the plot. I didn't find Matt Damon's character all that sympathetic (and maybe he wasn't supposed to be), and while I love Christoph Waltz in pretty much anything, this was an odd fit. It was a weirdly tedious movie to watch. Nothing about it was convincing to me.

Playtime: I came across this somewhat randomly while picking out stuff for the DVD queue and it turned out to be an unexpected gem from 1967. According to some, a masterpiece. I loved the reflections, literally, of Paris in the modern world, the physical comedy, the recurring themes, and the memorable Monsieur Hulot. There were so many scenes that make you wonder how on earth a director could direct such chaos. This video provides a fun view.

TV

Black Mirror: We're giving it a shot. So far it reminds me of my beloved Amazing Stories of the 1980s by Steven Spielberg for it's one-off storytelling and bizarre twists, but way more disturbing.

Planet Earth 2: I just have to look away when the animals eat each other, but otherwise I love this up close and personal stuff - even when it means looking at a Komodo dragon's drool.

Call My Agent! (Netflix), Season 2: I have a love/hate relationship with this French show about a talent agency in Paris. My ambivalence about the characters ultimately changed to a genuine warmth toward them by the final two episodes of this season.

Dark (Netflix): I love watching something in German for a change. The plot feels like a mash-up of other shows like Stranger Things and The Returned (French), but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get into it as deeply as those.

Can you see the kids playing in the field down below?

Hey, can we get a move on?

New Recipes

Red Wine Risotto with Beans (Paniscia) from Cook's Illustrated: This is a new favorite. It's so full of vegetables (lots of cabbage) and flavor (salami!). Though it takes a bit of prep work, it makes enough for several meals, which in our case is a good thing.

Risotto

White Negronis because I gave Joel some Suze for Christmas.

Someone forgot to take the sticky off the lemon (me). Classy.

Black Eyed Peas. A nice reminder of our trip to Napa this past year when the fine folks at Rancho Gordo gave us last year's crop of black eyed peas for FREE! to make room for the new, and a New Year's Day tradition for good luck.

Baked Chicken Tenders. This was apparently the most popular recipe the New York Times published in 2017. It's not groundbreaking or life-changing, but it is a solid go-to weeknight meal. I'm always looking for recipes we can throw together somewhat quickly after I get home from the Bar Method, and we had the meal on the table within 30 minutes (thanks to some initial prep work administered by Joel). Paired with a green vegetable and maybe a few other dipping options, it's heaven on a Tuesday night.


Cookie of the Week

Because afternoon espressos must be accompanied by a cookie, and because I received Dorie's Cookies for Christmas, I'm embarking on another Official Project of 2018: Cookie of the Week. (In case you're worried, losing weight is not on my list of resolutions.)

For week one, I made Biarritz cookies. I found the recipe daunting at first because it required a pastry bag (I used one of these) and instructed me to press almond meal through a fine mesh sieve (I didn't believe it was possible!). But I did it, and the cookies turned out splendidly thanks to Dorie's helpful instructions, like, "Whisk the batter more vigorously than you normally would." They remind me of Milanos by Pepperidge Farm, and as it turns out, PF used to make Biarritz back in the olden days, too.

Listens

Last year I made a Spotify playlist of all the songs from the 70s that fit into the category of melancholy love schmaltz - i.e., instant downers, despite the intended sentiment of many of them. Barbra and Barry, Melissa and Karen. I packaged them as a way to say, "I never, ever want to hear these songs for the rest of my life." And then Saturday, when putting the Christmas decorations, it seemed to be a fitting occasion to play it. What a stupid idea.