The best part about having your own blog is that you get to make the rules.

After my vacation last week, I realized that I did not miss writing this weekly post. Since I'm trying to Marie Kondo my life better (and remove things that don't spark joy), I've decided to end this feature. 

I'll come up with something else to post on Fridays but the topic/theme is TBD. 

Here's what I looked up this week:

• Olympic Race Walking - Turned on the TV and this was the only live event on one day. I was curious about the history and the rules. It just looks so painful!
• French Window Tax - Someone I follow on Instagram moved to an old French cottage. She posted about wanting to open a bricked up window. She also said she didn't know why it was bricked up. I did some searching and discovered that, like England, France had a window tax.
• Crepe Myrtle - Before I posted an image to Instagram, I confirmed that I was talking about the right tree in my caption.
• Olympic Medal Design - Both the Husband and I were curious about the design of the Olympic medals throughout history. I'm a big fan of PyeongChang 2018 and Turin 2006.

I had no meetings this week. I thought that would be awesome, but it turns out that it made the week feel oddly slow. Also, I miss talking to people who are not my husband or kiddo.

Here's what I looked up this week.

• Vault Penalties - As we were watching women's gymnastics, I was curious what the penalties and deductions were on the apparatus.
• Traffic Calming - There is debate in our neighborhood about reopening a service lane that has been closed during the pandemic. I wanted to bring some facts to an argument about how streetscape design (humps, bumps, tables, and greenery) can slow down cars. 
• Tunisia at the Olympics - When a Tunisian swimmer won gold, I was curious about the country's history at the games.

*Googles* "How long will this glorious weather last?"

*Answer* You live in DC and it's July.

*sigh*

Here's what else I looked up this week:
​

• Montgomery Bus Boycott: We were watching an episode of Doctor Who and the text crawl on the opening screen sent me searching.
• The Ton: I knew it was French but I needed to recall what it meant in the context of Bridgerton. 
• London Season: I'm surprised, after how many romance novels I've read, that I've never searched for the exact time frame of the London season. It ran from late January to early July.
• Irish at Heart: I was gifted three months of this subscription box and was curious what might be headed my way.

I was in a meeting this week where we ended up discussing "learning how to learn." It's a meta-topic but so very important. I'm always amazed by how I random learn things when looking up other things. Those accidental lessons are so important.

Here's what I looked up (and learned) this week:

• Sunscreen Recall - I wanted to see which bottles were on the list so that I could check our stash.
• CSS Code - I need to do some custom CSS coding for work. It is not my forte. I wanted to see if there were snippets of code I could steal and adapt.
• Montessori Toys - The kiddo's birthday is coming up. I was trying to track down age-appropriate gift options to send the grandparents.
• Corian Countertops - We're in the very early planning stages of a kitchen redo. So early, all we're doing is considering the overall look we want. I like the idea of Corian countertops, so we reviewed possible colors.

We've had a small leak in our toilet for a few weeks now. Nothing major, just random trails of water out of the base that occur sporadically and without any pattern. We both knew all we probably needed was a new wax ring, but neither of us is comfortable with plumbing. Somehow, I managed to avoid a Google rabbit hole looking for possible causes. That likely saved me a lot of stress. Today, we had it fixed by a professional. His solution - a new wax (well, rubber) ring. I'm just glad it's fixed.

Here is what I looked up this week:
​

• What temperature does chicken need to be cooked to? - 165. One day, I will remember this.
• How old is Jennifer Lopez? - 51. We were watching one of her recent movies and I knew she was older than I thought.
• Rotate PDF - I was sent a PDF file but all the images were scanned upside down. I either need to print it out and lose the color, or flip all the images. It can be done but usually with a third-party app.
• Dry White Wines - A recipe I was making called for a dry white wine. I wanted to know what my options were.

DC was walloped with a series of bad thunderstorms last night. We even went through a tornado warning which is a rare event for this area. I spent a lot of the evening watching radar and looking at photos of the aftermath. Twitter is a remarkable tool for local information.

Here's what else I looked up this week.

• Bannock - We're rewatching Outlander and the Husband asked what a bannock was. I knew the general idea, but I wanted to see a picture.
• Pippin Hill Farm - Wanted to see if they still made a wine I love. They do!
• Open First Box - A friend asked about tips for moving, and I wanted to send her a link to the page where I learned about the open first box idea.

I'm reading an autobiography for work right now - it's our common read for the upcoming year - and it chronicles a basketball coach. I am not a basketball watcher. This book has a lot of basketball terms. A lot. Thank goodness for Google and YouTube. It's helping my understand things like "full court press."

Here's what else I looked up this week.
​

• How many episodes of Eureka were there? - 77. I miss that show.
• Doctor Who Characters - We're watching some recent seasons of Doctor Who. I've occasionally looked up a few of the characters for backstory and plot lines.
• Shout Stain Remover Stick -  I have not been able to find my preferred stain remover in stores for weeks. I wanted to see if shout is still making it. They are.
• Tick Bite Rash - I had a bite on my leg that looked kinda like the classic tick bite bullseye. I did some visual searching to compare. Not a tick bite. Just a larger than usual mosquito bite reaction.

I was ecstatic when apps that could tell you what you were listening to came along. Now someone needs to invent something similar, but for actors in shows you're watching. I spend far too much time looking up people through IMDB. That works, but it only goes so far for bit parts.

Aside from lots of people in Doctor Who, I only looked up the phrase "old hat." I was interested in the etymology of the word.

Every week, I go through our Alexa activity to see what questions I asked. This is also a reminder that we listen to "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Baby Shark" approximately a thousand times a day. I fear for the day our kiddo's language skills are good enough that she can ask for songs on her own. Going to need to find those parental controls...

Here's what I found myself looking up this week.
​

• How many grams are in an ounce? - Needed the conversion for some calorie counting.
• When is the summer solstice? - June 20... and then the days get shorter again. Boo.
• How many miles is 4,200 kilometers? - Can't remember why I asked Alexa this. But the answer is about 2,600 miles.
  
• Grishaverse Map - We finished watching Shadow & Bone and I was checking the overall universe. It's sometimes hard to keep a map in your mind when watching a TV show. I always liked how Game of Thrones used the map over the opening credits. It helped me understand scale and what was happening.
  
• Sous Vide Temperatures - We cooked both chicken and pork in the sous vide this week. I needed temperatures and timings.
  
• Reginetti  - This pasta shape was mentioned in something I was reading, and I wanted to see what it looked like.