For the second week in a row, this intro is going to be short.

I presented at a work-related conference on Friday. The husband came with me so we could tack on a long weekend together. We're at a hotel on the beach! This is the first long weekend we've had (alone!) together since our kiddo was born.  It's been a long time coming and I am fully enjoying every moment.

Have a great week!

Leave a comment

For our beach trip, I put down the non-fiction book I was reading and picked up Well Traveled by Jen DeLuca. This is apparently the last book in her romance novel series that centers around a renaissance faire. As with the others, it’s a rompy delight. The heroine is currently a touch annoying, but I think that’s just some character set-up that will mellow out as the narrative goes on.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• Not everything needs to be optimized. (But, also, coffee makers should work.) [Culture Study]

• How to keep your cash from physically decaying. [Lifehacker]

• What plumbers know. [WaPo - gift link]

• Gender-affirming care is healthcare. [Anti-Racism Daily]

• More people want a semi-retirement. [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]

• I want to fly through Milwaukee just to visit this bookstore. [The Deleted Scenes]

• A cake decorating sampler from 1979. [Present & Correct]

• The Planet Money team shows what AI can and can't do. [Planet Money]

• How AI got started. [The Daily]

• Do the subjects of art get any say? [Atlas Obscura]

• What a melting iceberg in the Antarctic means for a city in Texas. [Short Wave]

• A few weeks ago, we flagged The Outfit as a movie we'd be interested in while scrolling for something else to watch. I wanted something meatier this week so we put it on. Mark Rylance plays the lead. He's a bespoke tailor who gets a little mixed up in some gangster action. Rylance gives a quiet and subtle performance that plays well off the louder aspects of the film. This is a well crafted period piece that I couldn't help but think would do well as a stage play. The story has a small cast, takes place mainly in one room, and is mostly talking. It would be interesting to see how it would do as live theater. [Amazon Prime]

• Time Trap is, essentially, a made for TV movie with an unknown cast. That said, it was pretty darn good! The CGI holds up very well, the acting was shockingly on point, and, overall, the narrative works. There's time travel in the story which means you have to stop thinking about all the paradoxes for it to work, but I was pleasantly surprised by this flick. [Amazon Prime]

• We haven't done a pasta dish for awhile, so I tossed together penne rosa with shrimp. This is an easy dish with minimal chopping. The bummer was that my sauce broke. The yogurt just did not want to blend in. That meant we lost that creamy mouthfeel it should have had. The flavor was still good, though. Also, instead of penne, we used the Sporkful's vesuvio pasta. Kiddo had fun eating that shape. [Wholefully]

• There was a leftover sweet potato chilling in our pantry that we needed to use. That ingredient led me to make black bean and sweet potato tacos. This was my first try at this recipe and it was okay. I think I under-spiced the final mixture. That said, I love any excuse to use queso fresco (I had to sub that for cotija because our grocery store never carries that when we need it). [The Kitchn]

Who knew that it could be in the mid-60s in June in Virginia Beach. This weather is a bit cold for true beaching activity but it’s fun to watch the ocean be a bit angry from our balcony. [My Instagram]

I firmly believe that we are a bigger threat to sharks than they are threats to us. OCEARCH Shark Tracker lets you see where in the world tagged sharks are swimming. Hover over the icon to see the name of the shark and its breed, sex, length, and weight. Pretty cool to see where these animals are located.

I’m attending an weeklong, online conference. After my presentation on Tuesday, I am going to use the time to multitask to knock out some admin work.