The Weekly Wrap: July 26, 2026

One of the productive things I did with my week off was clean out our storage cabinets, bookcases, and dressers. I try do this once a year because it gives me a chance to see stuff that is hidden and dust in all the nooks and crannies.

After a few hours, I came away with a few items to donate and a full bag of trash. 

How is this possible? 

Our place is neat. We stay on top of our donations because our building does a pick-up every two months. Any time something out grows it's usefulness, it goes in our donation bin. I like clear surfaces so things like unopened mail, filing, magazines, and craft projects are handled regularly. We don't let things we don't need linger.

And, yet, whenever I do projects like this, I always find more things to toss and donate. 

I'm beginning to think it multiples on it's own when I'm not looking.

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• Building a stone wall is like editing. [The Atlantic - gift link]
• AI doesn't want its own slop. [404]
• Heavy credit cards are a status signaler. [The Atlantic - gift link]
• A lovely essay about an emotional life transition. [Raising Her Voice]
• It's time to end the clock changes. [Your Local Epidemiologist]
• I dunno. Still feels like a conspiracy to me. [Real Simple]

• How our brain experiences pain. [Hidden Brain]
• Archival Listen: The speed of drone racing. [StarTalk Radio]
• On potatoes and insults. [Code Switch]
• Why AI is raising all your bills. [Galaxy Brain]

• Our awesome neighbor offered to babysit since this was my birthday week. We took her up on that offer because I really wanted to see The Odyssey in theaters. As much as I would have loved to see the 70mm and/or IMAX version, that was not in the cards for our window of childcare coverage. So we saw it on a plain old film screen. Like many reviews say, it was quite good. But so loud! I came prepared with earplugs and, even then, there were still scenes where I felt the need to cover my ears. I don't mind long movies, but I think they could have found a total of 30 minutes here and there to clip down. Anne Hathaway is, hands down, the best actor in this one. She is a force of emotion. [IMDB]
• The Tour de France is coming to an end and I am preemptively sad. It's been a good tour to follow, but it feels like there have been a lot more injury-related withdrawals than usual. So many broken collar bones from falls and crashes. [Peacock]

• I wanted to try something new and a little fancier. I've been meaning to make a galette, and I found a recipe for a mushroom one that would also use up the half tub of ricotta we had in our fridge. Our store's premade pie dough selection was lacking. I ended up depanning two frozen crusts and stacking them on top of one another. The flavor was there, but the look of my galette was quite messy. Let's call it rustic. We served this with some salad. [Mon Petit Four]
• The kiddo chose mac and cheese for her meal selection. When I asked if she wanted boxed or "fancy" she picked fancy. Years ago, I made one pot bacon broccoli mac and cheese. It's fancy-ish. You use evaporated milk instead of making a roux or bechamel. It makes things faster while retaining most of the flavor. I love that this one also got our kiddo to eat broccoli without complaint. Both the kiddo and husband asked for more bacon next time. [Budget Bytes]
• It seems that the days of our kiddo's severe picky eating are over, but one thing she still struggles with is the texture of cooked chicken breast. I wanted a chicken recipe this week so I settled on cashew chicken lettuce wraps. It's a compromise because it uses ground chicken. The meat mixture was excellent but our store refuses to carry sturdy lettuce for warps. We ended up eating this bowl style with some leftover rice and torn green leaf lettuce. [Eating Well]