The Weekly Wrap: September 25, 2022

Sometimes there are chores I just can't be bothered with. 

For example, this week, the weather turned cool which means we got to throw open all our windows. This is a glorious time of year and I'm glad it's finally here. What I am not happy about is that doing this reminded me of all the cobwebs that are hanging around outside. 

Our building has deeply inset windows. Spiders like to make their webs between the brick façade and window frame. This means each window has several clusters of cobwebs just staring me in the face. As the wind blows, the cobwebs smush and thicken. The spiders make more webs. Soon, I see thick strands and clumps of cobwebs every time I look outside. They're now starting to gather leaves.

What I need to do is open the screens and wipe everything down with a duster pole covered in a towel. That will sweep away the webs and make our windows look cleaner.

This whole chore would probably take me 15-minutes to do. I just don't feel like doing it.

What chore are you ignoring?

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• We were watching a rerun of Halloween Wars and I was curious to learn more about isomalt.  [The Spruce Eats]
• The rise of the corporate test kitchen. Just like grandma made. [The Takeout]
• Muscle knots are confounding. [Lifehacker]
• There are so many ants. [WaPo - gift link]
• Feed the microbes in your gut the good stuff. [WaPo - reader submission, gift link]
• Apps to catalog your books and track your reading. [Book Riot]
• An older article put the point is sound - cancel homework. [The Atlantic]

• The viral cannon and audio interests of Tik Tok. [The Daily]
• We're all probably too hydrated. [Short Wave]
• The care and cooperation of design. [99% Invisible]
• Why Texas' power grid is so weird. [Planet Money]

• After years of me delaying it, we finally watched A Quiet Place. I don't do horror. (Or, rather, I don't do super tense movies with jump scares.) I also avoid films with children in peril. This film has both but I read so much about it, that it stayed on the list. I thought it lived up to the hype but the husband disagreed. I was impressed by the sound editing (just some brilliant decisions there), filming making, and attention to detail. [Amazon Prime]
• The making of French leavers lace. Wow! [Business Insider]

• Slow cooker season is back! I made sweet and sour chicken. Honestly, the sauce smells weird going in, but it winds up tasting great. We've eaten this over both cauliflower and regular rice. I prefer it with regular rice. This dish would also benefit from something crunchy. We're debating adding cashews or water chestnuts next time. [The Kitchn]
• For my lunch meal prep this week, I made Mexican street corn potato salad. I took one taste on Sunday and couldn't wait to eat it the rest of the week. This recipe is a lot of steps and time - mostly allowing things to cool - but I thought the flavor was totally worth it. I cheated and used frozen corn. I also added bacon. [The Department of Salad]