I took the upcoming week off of work. First, it's my birthday week. Second, the Husband will be out of town for work. I could not pass up the opportunity to have our home ALL TO MYSELF while kiddo is at daycare. 

The reason I'm excited is because I like to do certain things when NO ONE is around. And I mean no one. I want to plug into some podcasts and get to work on home tasks without anyone being in the way or looking over my shoulder. Since the Husband works from home permanently, I always feel like I have to tip toe around since he's on a lot of calls. This week, I don't have to worry about that! I can tackle my to do list without fear that his colleagues will see me vacuuming the couch behind him.

This week, I plan on completing a few whole house projects. I'm going to conduct one of my biannual weeding of all our belongings. Everything I'm opting to donate will go in a box in our front closet for two months. If no one misses it, it's leaving the building in the next scheduled donation pick-up.

I'm also going to do some deep cleaning. Monday, I plan to dust and wash our walls (which has not been completed since we moved in... three years ago). Tuesday, I'm deep cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen. Wednesday, I'm doing a general clean and ALL the laundry. Thursday is my birthday and I'm giving myself a home spa day. That leaves Friday. The kiddo is home (daycare is closed for PD) so she's joining me on a trip to CostCo.

​All of this presumes kiddo does not get sick, but at least I know I will knock a few of these items off my task list.

What do you like to do alone?

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I just wrapped up Electric Idol by Katee Robert. I enjoyed it but this book, like many in the genre, fell for the trap of making too much happen in an unrealistic time period. It always bugs me when romance characters fall in love over the course of three days.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• The little fish that could. [NPR]

• Who knew medieval sword fighting was so interesting? [BBC]

• An accurate depiction of reading. [My Giant Nerd Boyfriend]

• One year of the James Webb Space Telescope. [WaPo - gift link]

• What we lose as we lose handwriting. [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]

• We shouldn't cede learning to AI. [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]

• Give yourself a mid-year review. [INC]

• How book bans impact authors. [Literary Activism]

• The perils of sharenting. [Up First]

• Anything can be addictive and smartphones made it worse. [Hidden Brain]

• Still not sure what I think of lab-grown meat. [Gastropod]

• To complain is human. [Atlas Obscura] 

• The cult of creativity. [Throughline]

• Want to see Jason Bourne in an middle eastern war zone? Then Green Zone is for you. Matt Damon leads an ensemble cast (with a barely recognizable Jason Issacs) in a film that retells the early days of the US war in Iraq and the hunt for WMDs. The director made the decision to use a shaky cam and wash out the film. That only lends to the tense feeling that pervades the movie. It's a pretty basic war movie, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. [Amazon Prime]

• I wanted to watch Plane the instant I saw the trailer. It is exactly what I expected. This is purely a Gerard Butler action vehicle... and that's okay! Interestingly, they didn't explain the entire back story of one of the characters and that gives more depth to the story than anticipated. Also, this movie has a steady level of intensity with few breaks. You do have to suspend some disbelief related to technology for this to work. If you can do that, it's a decent flick. [Amazon Prime]

• Why is this so accurate? [CharactersWelcome]

• In order to make room for our farm share produce, I've taken to scheduling one dinner a week as a protein with some random veggie. This week, we sous vided pork chops and served them with a side of corn (from the share) and broccolini (also from the farm share). This was my first time cooking broccolini, so I went with a simple roast. Tasted just like broccoli! I like that, but my husband says it was "fine." (He's not the biggest broccoli fan.) [Food Network]

• For my lunch meal prep, I made BLT pasta salad. I thought it was delicious but needed more bacon. The recipe calls for enough but I only cooked what we had left in a package - which was all of four strips. Next time, I make more bacon. Also, I will make half the dressing. I followed the recipe and it made WAY too much for my taste. [Budget Bytes]

I needed a photo of a tattoo for a work thing and scrolled through dozens on free stock photo websites. This image jumped out at me. Don’t think I’ll ever get a tattoo myself, but they can be such works for art. [Pexels]

This week’s Thing of a Week is a reader submission. Legal Lullabies lulls you to sleep with the dulcet sounds of someone reading the terms of use for social media services. I dare you to stay awake for five minutes.

An accurate depiction of me this week.