Notes

Over the years we have refined how we share the work of managing our household and found some services we wouldn’t want to live without. Here are some of the ways we manage our household.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this fall.

I bought a treadmill for my standing desk and I love it.

I think you should do something 100 times. Choose something you enjoy, figure out how you will track it, and then do it 100 times.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this summer.

Some of my favorite work days start with an activity that puts me in a good mood. Here are some vetted suggestions.

Last year I worked through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series as a first-time watcher. The comparison of what’s old and new is a strong theme in the series and is often projected as magic.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this spring.

On video calls, I receive a lot of compliments about my plant wall. Before the pandemic, people asked if my background is real live plants, and now they ask if it’s virtual.

Last year, I met my goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks and then some. I owe it all to audiobooks, mainly, but also Libby, friends with great book suggestions, Roxane Gay’s audacious book club, and learning that New York State residents can apply for a New York Public Library card.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this winter.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this fall.

This year we perfected our outdoor dining kit. We keep the kit in our front closet and pull it out after we place a pick-up order and find a nearby table.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this summer.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this spring.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this winter.

I found an old note that contained a project to write a haiku every day. My project started in December 2018 and ended promptly in January 2019. The themes included work, baking, and difficulty finding nice fabric.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this fall.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this summer.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this spring.

The books, music, and recipes I enjoyed this winter.

I’ve been meal prepping for as long as I’ve worked remotely (almost 6 years). I started with batches of chili, next burrito bowls, then butter chicken. During the week, it’s an incredible convenience and comfort to have a hot meal a few minutes away.

On Saturday, June 18, Jason and I were married at an Airbnb on the side of a mountain near Manchester, Vermont. It ended up being more beautiful than both of us imagined.

Last year, Ela Conf organizers and I relied on Google Forms for women to submit anything from talks to volunteer applications. Forms worked well for us, but reviewing abstracts in a spreadsheet wasn’t exactly a fun thing to do. With the help of Zapier, I created some efficient little bots that keep us organized and motivated.

I have entered my terrible terrific twos of working remotely. Working from yoga pants. Working from couch. Working from over the sink as I eat leftovers. The glamour. The rolling out of bed. The “I’m going to wake up early and walk, lol jk.”

I love the X-Files and to celebrate the new season I created a list of episodes that I think about often.

Earlier this year, Joni Trythall retweeted something about a new tech conference, ELA Conf, to empower women to pursue leadership roles. There was just something (re: ) about the conference that got me excited, and suddenly I found myself emailing the conference (not even realizing that Joni was on the other end):

Shower and change your clothes often (or daily even) Your significant other (who also works from home) isn’t your coworker — respect their time. Leave the house (even if it’s to aimlessly walk around Jo-Ann Fabrics). Don’t do house chores during work hours (because you’ll never remember to fold the laundry). Don’t do work hours during downtime (because you’ll never stop working). Have a special lunch at least once a week (order out, grill a hot dog). Hang out with your friends. Ping your coworkers just to say, Hey! Build a tabletop for the treadmill and walk 5 miles every morning1: This is how I survived winter. ↩

I keep a gist named yay.md. A secret, never shared and don’t plan to, gist. It’s where I keep screenshots of my personal yays.

A couple months ago, I was chewing on an idea for a slide for my FOSS4GNA talk and I needed to write it out. Knowing that The Pastry Box Project had opened their submissions, I worked on the idea and massaged it into something that I enjoyed.

Swoosh. Plunk. Flick. Flick. Flickflick. Tap. Taptaptaptaptap. Swoosh.

This is a devlog I wrote at Mapbox that inspired my talk Writing for everyone.

We enjoyed 20 weeks of the Fox Creek Farm CSA.

This past winter I decided that I wanted to grow food. More specifically, I wanted to wake up in my Albany studio apartment, reach my hand to my windowsill, and pick food off of my plants.