The Weekly Wrap: October 6, 2024

Now that our kiddo is in public school, I'm working on becoming a volunteer. I'm interested in helping in the school library (obviously) and tagging along on a field trip or two. Before I can do any of that, however, I need to be approved. The approval process involved lots of online paperwork, a background check, and, in a surprise to me, fingerprinting.

The fingerprinting proved to be the most onerous part of the process. I had to use an approved vendor and they only had a few stations in DC... none of which were near the metro. So, I picked the least worst option and headed their way for my appointment - which of course could not be scheduled before 11am - on Friday.

Thankfully, the physical fingerprinting itself was a breeze. I wasn't sure what to expect because the rest of the approval process was so involved. For this bit, my two IDs were check then I did placed four fingers, two thumbs, and four more fingers on a scanner. I signed and was out the door. I was in and out in less than four minutes.

What was the last surprisingly easy task you had?

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• The story behind a lovely photograph. [WaPo - gift link]
• Small ways to make your home feel more luxurious. [WaPo - gift link]
• What happens when shipping containers fall into the sea? [AP News]
• How to hang pictures without a nail. [Lifehacker]
• The surprising upside to having an EV during a blackout. [The Atlantic - gift link]

• Making Last Week Tonight. [The Daily]
• A riveting story about a Russian deserter. [The Deserter]
• Living without plastic for a week. [Life Kit]
• Outsmarting fungi. [Short Wave]
• How uncertainty influences conspiracy theories. [Hidden Brain]
• We're gonna need a lot more power. [Booming]
• Keep your food out of the trash. [Gastropod]

• The Hurricane Heist is a solidly B-list movie. It's just above made for TV quality but not a true blockbuster. Most of the CGI and action holds up EXCEPT for the final scenes. In those bits, it's laughably bad. The acting is decent which keeps things from going off the rails. [Amazon Prime]
• Our new weekday watch is the final season of Succession. This show is so good but I forgot just how dysfunctional the family is. Kudos to all the actors for getting me to love people who are not decent human beings. The drama is delicious. [Max]

• For my lunch meal prep, I made spicy street corn salad. Our store finally had cotija which really helped bring this dish together. The jalapeno I grabbed had a nice kick. Between the salty cheese, spice, bitter arugula, and sweet pop of the corn, there were a lot of flavors happening in this one. [Real Simple]
• I tried a new meal on our meatless Monday: chickpea gyros. It was delicious! There are a lot of components to this one but they come together quickly. Instead of small dicing the cucumber in the tzatziki, I used a grater. It was faster and didn't change the flavor much. We served this with a size of roasted zucchini. [40 Aprons]
• We try to let our kiddo have a say in dinner when we can. Last week, she asked if we could do a dinner with the "small" ravioli. Done! While kiddo had her pasta in red sauce, I made pesto ravioli with spinach and tomatoes for the husband and I. Instead of breaking out a sauté pan to cook the veggies, I just drained the ravioli and let the heat of the pasta wilt the spinach. I also mixed in some reserved pasta water to help things come together. [Eating Well]