The Weekly Wrap: June 13, 2021

At the end of this week, DC got a good long soaking of rain. When I'm inside, that's fine. I like watching the rain hit the leaves on the trees. I find the sound of it splattering against the windows soothing. I've been known to turn on a rain white noise website on sunny days.

If I have to go outside, it's an entirely different story. As much as I like the rain, I don't like getting wet in it. I often tell people that I am a cat. I wear boots, sometimes a rain coat, and use the biggest umbrella I can find. I'll even finagle opening and closing said umbrella to reduce the amount of time I'm exposed to rain drops. I pout and ask the husband to drop me off at our building under the front door awning. On really rainy days, I will find any way that I can to be inside where it's warm and dry. Preferably curled up with a book or on the couch with a tasty snack. 

In rainy weather, I always see people walking in nothing but a raincoat or running through it entirely unprotected from the elements. I am baffled by kids (my own among them) who just don't seem to care about getting wet. Puddles attract them like a magnet to metal. That is a level of tolerance that I just don't have. 

How do you respond to the rain?

---

• Breaking down Simon Bile's Yurchenko vault. [WaPo]
• Eating over the sink. It just tastes better. [Bon Appetit]
• You've got about 4 to 5 hours of focused work time in you each day. Use them wisely. [WaPo]
• You might want to turn off this new Amazon "feature." [WaPo]
• Time management can't fix everything. [HBR]
• Your enneagram number and what it says about your habits with money. [The Simple Dollar]

• Our new, dangerous era of hacking the economy. [The Daily]
• On coming out and being the recipient of the news. [Life Kit]
• How Zoom came to dominate video meetings. [The Indicator]
• The rise of third-party food delivery. [Dish City]
• White support for Black Lives Matter has plummeted. Surprising very few. [Code Switch]
• The vegetables are a lie! [Short Wave]

• This TikTok amuses me way too much. [danceglitch]
• We finished the last four episodes of Shadow & Bone. I am excited that the series has been greenlit for season 2. I am sad that I have to wait. I literally finished the last episode and said, "Gimme more!"  This is a high fantasy show that is just addictive. I was, however, surprised to find myself way more into the side stories than the main plot. [Netflix]

• We tried recipe #2 on our bulk order of cascatelli. This time we went the carbonara route. It was tasty. Would make again. [Dinner then Dessert]
• I always try to make one new recipe each week. This week it was mu shu chicken. It was quick, easy, and delicious. I added some sriracha on mine to up the spice factor. In lieu of traditional pancakes, we used taco sized tortillas. Not quite the same texture, but it still worked. [Weelicious]

• This weekend was my 24-hour parenting break. I checked in to a local hotel yesterday and then proceeded to do a whole lot of home spa pampering followed by a whole lot of nothing. It has been glorious. As an introvert, the pandemic made it hard for me to get alone time to recuperate. I like people, but I recover best being on my own for a few hours. Those hours are hard to come by when you can't go any where and you have a toddler. The husband gets his break next month. Assuming he's a fan, I'm going to say that we both get to do this at least once a year from here on out. We all need time to just be who we are and do what we want.