I spent part of my Friday staring at melting ice. 

We have a special ice maker that creates beautifully clear ice balls. After you remove the balls from the mold, the bottom of the container has the "leftover" ice which is cloudy with air bubbles. To speed up the melting process, I filled the container with hot water. It was then I noticed the fizzing. 

Curious, I leaned over the container and watched as individual air bubbles were released from the ice as they melted. Every now and then, a group would release at once and fizz to the top like carbonation. My favorite moments, however, were when a big bubble blooped its way to the surface.

I must have stared at this for ten minutes. It was entrancing - almost meditative. In those minutes, my mind was eased and quiet.

It's interesting how certain things capture your attention.

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I've been in the mood for a YA novel. I started read The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee a few days ago. I'm only a few chapters in, but the premise is interesting. Essentially, it's looking at the class structure of a super skyscraper. The book is set about 100 years in the future with all the tech to go with it. I've read McGee before and enjoyed her alternative history storylines and contemporary writing style.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

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• One way to get meal planning to work for you. [What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking]

• Taboo food and a short history of eating lobster. [Amuse-Bouche]

• What happened to all that PPP money. [Up First]

• Why it's such a pain in the butt to buy a car from dealers. [The Indicator]

• There are many kinds of tears. [Short Wave]

• Notes from a long hike. [Atlas Obscura]

• The rise, fall, and possible regrowth of the American chestnut. [Gastropod]

• I have trouble seeing Martin Freeman as anything but that guy from Love Actually, but he made me forget about that role a bit in The Operative. This is a good spy thriller with complex characters. It also seemed like a realistic portrayal of Iran (present events excluded) done with care and intention. But the ending. The ending is just mean. Good... but really mean. [Netflix]

• I debated adding Blacklight to the Wrap this week. But, I think that I feel asleep during it is probably the best review I could give. This is the most recent entry in the Liam Neeson punches things genre. It's bad. To quote the Husband, "They spent all their money on Neeson and forgot to budget for anything else." [Amazon Prime]

• I really like polenta. This week, the husband made shrimp and sausage with polenta. I was a happy camper. The polenta, while un-cheesed, was creamy and delicious. The meats provided texture and umami. Do not skimp on the butter. It is key. [My Evernote via Real Simple]

• The onion I bought to go in our pasta with bacon and peas went bad. That was a bummer because it would have elevated the flavor of this dish. It needed that bit of freshness and sweet. The pasta wasn't bad, but it was missing something. A few cranks of black pepper did help a bit. [Budget Bytes]

This looks like the cheesiest pile of comfort food pasta ever. I would like to settle in with a bowl of it accompanied by a glass of cabernet. [Smitten Kitchen]

I had to submit a pile of receipts for reimbursement. Our office no longer wants the originals. I ended up taking pictures of the paper ones and merging them with the emailed receipts using Combine PDF. It was simple and easy. Plus, I got to drag and drop the files to put them in the right order. There is a lot more functionality than just those things, but those things alone are great!

Husband is heading out of town for work leaving me to solo parent for a few days. Rude that he’s doing that to me after I just did it to him. Twice.