I love our neighborhood. We walk almost everywhere and the metro is just down the street for longer trips. The National Zoo is our neighbor. For the majority of the year, this is fine. Yeah there are tourists, but we can take side streets to avoid the worst of the crowds. But, a few times a year, the zoo hosts nighttime events and the streets turn feral.

Right now, it's ZooLights season. The display is great and draws tons of people. This is good for the zoo and local businesses. I 100% support it. The downside is the traffic. The zoo charges a steep parking fee. People don't want to pay so they park in our neighborhood. During the day, we are zoned for a 2-hour limit unless you have a residental permit. That stops at 6pm. So, we (*cough mostlymyhusband cough*) are left circling and circling for spots if we don't luck in to one of our building's few lot spots. It's rather annoying.

Now, if parking was the only problem, I would tolerate the inconvenience and move on with my life. But, it's not. Parking is so difficult that people park illegally all over the place. They park in front of hydrants, the park overlapping driveways and crosswalks, they park in our private spots, and they park in no-parking zones meant for busses and loading. It's like the rules no longer apply. If there is a space, a driver will cram a car in - no matter how poorly.

On top of this, drivers are frustrated which makes them more aggressive. More people drive through red lights, unexpectedly change lanes or make turns, and slam on the gas when they break free from traffic or see an open spot. It's scary when you're in a nearby car. It's terrifying when you're walking with your preschooler. 

This year, we're going to try to pick up our kid by metro as much as we can simply to avoid the chaos. It's less convenient, requires one of us to leave work early, and takes longer - but at least we stay off the roads.

It boggles my mind that it is December already. We've been slowly decorating our home for the holidays all week. It's been fun watching the kiddo get more excited each day. This year, we're trying a countdown calendar. It's one we get to fill and we've got lots of goodies on hand. 

Here's what else was good this week:

• My office space heater
• Being able to metro when the weather is cold
• Lucking in to a lot parking spot
• A work project taking less time than I thought it would
• Drinking hot tea with honey
• Adding the Kitchen Sisters Present back into my podcast feed
• Kiddo brining us a large stack of books to read after her quiet time
• Successfully making space in our freezer in time for the holidays
• Got our first holiday card in the mail
• Shared photo albums

I read a lot of books with my kiddo. Kid Reads is a biweekly look at what we've enjoyed recently. ​

Some private high schoolers in Michigan were assigned an essay on evaluating websites. Apparently, their teacher referred to a page on our website as a resource for them. This is great! The downside is that they are abusing our online chat support service. We get one or two actual questions and then it devolves in to juvenile antics. Today was not the first time this has happened. It's a mix of fun and aggravating.

On top of dealing with teenagers, here's what I'm working on:

1. Finals Week Social Media: Classes end Saturday and final exams kick off Tuesday. I've spent a lot of this week putting together motivational and study break social media content. My usual material was feeling a bit stale so I used ChatGPT to help spur some post ideas. (It's a good tool when you use it right!) I also made a bunch of graphics. My favorite one uses a photo of my colleague in a high visibility vest. Canva's background removal feature is my best friend.
2. Research Assignment Design: We're on to draft three of our article! For this version, we're just going through and commenting. For this round, we are trying to focus on content things and, as my colleague put it, thinking like a peer-reviewer. It's soooooo hard not to line edit.
   
3. Holiday Prep: Tis the season! We're doing a countdown calendar for our kiddo this year. We made a list of things (treats, small toys, and activities) to put in there but will adjust on the fly as necessary. We also sent out her present list to the families. Santa also jumped on things and we ordered her gifts. Now I just need to decide what to buy everyone else. Part of my family is opting to do no gifts, but I may get everyone a book anyway. I can't help myself!

I was out of town with my family and yesterday was a travel day. This is going to be a short issue. Have a great Sunday!

I will be on scattered hiatus until after the Thanksgiving holiday. I will share the usual Weekly Wrap, but all other posting will be paused.

Our normal schedule will resume on Monday, November 27.

On Tuesday, we received the last delivery from our farm share. It was our first time doing this and it turned out to be a rather tasty experience. It also was an education. 

This week, I wanted to share some things we learned over the past few months:

• Be flexible with meal planning. In the past, I used to plan our entire menu on Friday. I could not do that when we didn't know what would be in our bag each Tuesday. Thus, I adopted the "pick a protein, cook a veggie on the fly" method. It worked quite well and we rarely had to compost an item from our share.
• My lunch meal prep did the heavy lifting with using veggies the other people in my family do not enjoy. I would search my recipe archive based on these ingredients to decide what to make. That led to some great finds - like marinated cauliflower salad.
• It was important to process each bag the day we received it. On Tuesday night, I would inventory the contents, bag greens with paper towels, separate root veggies from their tops, remove rubber bands, and freeze anything we knew we could use later.
• Subscribing to The Farm Share Newsletter was a great help. So many menu and how to ideas.
• It's really fun to try new foods! I've never had an Asian pear before. They are delightfully sweet and crisp.
• Roasting and pickling are your friend. Roasting works for almost every veggie and proved an easy way to make a side to our protein. Pickling items was a convenient way to use items we would not eat right away but could not freeze. We've got some pickled radishes in our fridge right now and I like to add them to sandwiches or on top of other entrees.

Have you ever had a farm share? What did you learn?

I love that our HVAC units are Wi-Fi connected. Today, while in a Zoom meeting, I was able to adjust the temperature without leaving my seat. Plus, this means we can reset temperatures when we're away. Such a little thing but it makes life so much easier.

Here's what else was good this week:

• Rain boots
• Going grocery shopping as a family
• Caught up on all my magazine reading
• Kiddo played by herself for almost an entire day
• People I need to talk to for work FINALLY got back to me
• Walking on to a metro train without having to wait
• Baking muffins with the kiddo
• Caught up on my work email
• Maintaining a permanent packing list

I read a lot of books with my kiddo. Kid Reads is a biweekly look at what we've enjoyed recently. It's just been a lot of Fancy Nancy lately.​

At work, I tried something new today. I declared it a "loose ends" day. Instead of working on major projects, I just tackled all the little things I've had lingering on my to do list. It felt so good to finally get those off my plate. I think, if my schedule allows, I will try to do this once a month.

Here's what else I'm working on:

1. Email Clean Out: After over a week away from the office, my inboxes are a complete disaster. I didn't get a chance to review anything and I am paying for it. After my initial triage to get to the most important items, I'm making a concerted effort to get through everything else. 
2. Semester Wrap Up: We're nearing the end of the Fall semester. While we are in the midst of paper writing season, I am working on closing out the semester. I have some final marketing pitches to send, documentation to review, and plans to make for the Spring. A lot of my work from home next week will focus on prepping for the spring.
3. Travel Planning: We head out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday soon. We're making lists, deciding our ground transportation options, and trying to prepare our kiddo for her first airplane ride. Also, we need to figure out how few toys we can get away with packing. I don't want to show up at the airport with a dozen bags.