The Weekly Wrap: February 13, 2022

As I write this, I am sitting on a rather comfy couch in a house we rented for the weekend. Normally, we rent a huge house in this area with a bunch of our friends. Due to COVID, that hasn't happened for two years. This year, we decided to get out of town as a trio. Just the husband, the kiddo, and me. 

In front of me is a large, plate glass window that looks out over an inlet of a lake. There are a bunch of other houses below and I can see smoke lazily drifting up from chimneys. The kiddo just went down for her nap, and the husband is on a run to grab more firewood. For the moment, it's just me sitting alone in the living room. 

There are no city sounds outside. I can't hear the neighbors. I haven't heard a car drive by in hours. It's an overcast day and, while I can see birds flying around, they're not calling out. It's the closest thing I've heard to silence in a long time. 

When I'm alone, I normally default to listening to podcasts or watching TV.  I always feel like I have to "catch up." Not this time. I'm enjoying a serene silence that is oddly comforting. It feels like the world has hit pause. The only obvious passage of time are the cloud shadows drifting across the ground outside.  

I know this respite is only temporary, but I am going to soak in it for as long as I can.

When was the last time you sat in silence?

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• Paywalls make the truth expensive to access. [NPR]
• Glaciers have less ice stored in them than we thought. That is bad news for fresh drinking water supplies. [WaPo - gift link]
• The new "democratized" forms of money only work if you already have money. [Vox]
• Creating information literate kids starts early - pre-school early. [Is My Kid the Asshole?]
• The intense internet sleuthing behind what this Pizza Hut used to be is incredible. [The Deleted Scenes]
• How to curate your kids' mementos. [WaPo - gift link]

• As a new cubicle dweller, this story about how the cube came to be is relevant to my interests. [99% Invisible] 
• The difficulty of scaling good ideas. [The Indicator]
• How to lose well and recover from disappointment. [Life Kit]
• The Japanese history of Chinese American fortune cookies. [Gastropod] 
• There is a brilliant Gen Z movement to combat misinformation. [The Daily]
• A meticulously planned bank heist where you almost have to admire the thieves. [Planet Money]
• Have ice skaters reached the limit of physics? [Short Wave]

• I know they're particularly controversial this year, but I am watching as much of the Winter Olympics as I can. I tend to default to the main NBC feed, but we've caught some longer coverage of hockey, curling, and skiing on the sister channels. This is one of the few times I allow myself to stay up past 11 to catch something live. I get oddly into whatever sport is own, even if I wouldn't watch it at any other time. [NBC]

• I mentioned last week that the husband wanted to try cooking more elaborate meals this year. I voluntold him to make cheesy spinach stuff shells. Stuffed shells are never hard, they're just time consuming. This recipe requires five different types of cheese and a block of frozen spinach. They were tasty as is, but we both wished we had stuffed a pepperoni or two in the shell first. [Eat, Live, Run]
• I found a sneaky way to get the kiddo to eat a piece of shrimp. I made shrimp tacos, but turned hers into a quesadilla. I finely chopped the shrimp and let the cheese melt over it. For the adults, I made a simple slaw to go with the spicy shrimp. We served it was a side of fire-roasted corn straight from the can. [Well Plated - slaw inspiration]

• This weekend, we cracked open a two-person game I purchased months ago. I love word games - Scrabble, Words with Friends, Wordle, Boggle, crosswords, etc. The husband is "fine" with said games but they are not his favorites. I play them so often I have an edge. This new game, A Little Wordy, is a word game but there is no advantage to having played word games before. Often times, the easiest or most common word wins. There's a lot more strategy than vocabulary involved. Plus, it can be a super short game if you don't have much time. Highly recommend! [Exploding Kittens]