I spent roughly 15-hours cleaning our home this week. I'm talking a take everything out of the cabinets,  dust the light fixtures, wash the walls, and scrub all the surfaces sort of deep clean. My entire body has that good kind of sore feeling happening. Except for my left wrist - that is more of a kind of painful soreness. (It is getting better, though.)

We keep our place neat and you wouldn't think that it would need such a deep clean. But it does. I was shocked by the visible difference our place had after I washed the walls. I had no idea there was a layer of dinge hanging around there. I went through about a dozen microfiber clothes - laundering them each night so I could use them again the next day. 

I've always respected home cleaners, but I have to admit I had no idea how much of a full body work out the job could be. My FitBit thought I had been in the gym all day. I barely read anything in my book this week because I passed out almost immediately when I went to bed each night.

​What cleaning task do you dread?

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I’m about two-thirds of the way through Rivals: American Royals III by Katharine McGee. This is a YA book series set in a world where the US is run by a royal family. In this entry, we get to see a conference of royals from around the world along with a side story where two rivals team up to take on an interloper. Nothing about this is realistic except for the fact that teens are leading with their emotions. I'm loving it.

*Books shared here may be affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• A love letter to a specialty food store in Paris. [David Lebovitz Newsletter]

• In support of home baking. [Word Loaf]

• I love a good science museum. [The Discoverer]

• Old vines make better wine. [Wine Folly]

• I bet you see these kinds of apartment buildings everywhere. [The Deleted Scenes]

• This thread is amusing. [@DanAmira]

• Why we continue to "Zoom wave." [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]

• How we finally got to OTC birth control pills. [The Daily]

• Disgust is sometimes tied to racism. [Code Switch]

• We need shade. [99% Invisible]

• AI chatbots only work because they plagiarize. [The Daily]

• How to be there for kids who aren't yours. [Life Kit]

• What lives in the Pacific garbage patch. [Short Wave]

• The Husband tossed a few movies on our watch list and one of them was 6 Days. This is about a terrorist hostage incident that occurred in London in 1980. (I'd never heard of it.) The film shows all of the behind the scenes work that went into rescuing the hostages. The story develops slowly as it shows all the rescue options that were considered and trialed. I will say, the mustaches in this movie were practically their own character. Also, Mark Strong plays a role. He's one of those actors I love but never think to seek out. [Amazon Prime]

• Since 6 Days was a shorter film, we opted to follow it up with Anthropoid which appeared as a recommended title on our screen. This is a World War II period piece. The stars are largely British and they all put on vaguely Eastern European accents. The director decided to wash out the film itself and make the quality a bit grainy. That made it seem older than it really was. The narrative takes a while to ramp up but the ending is riveting. [Amazon Prime]

• While the Husband was out of town, I went on a bit of a documentary binge:

  • Bama Rush - This profiles a few women in the lead up the 2022 sorority rush at the University of Alabama. Honestly, it made me sad. I get Greek life but I just can't get around all the negative things associated with it. [Max]

  • Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets - This series looked at the rise of the Duggar family and their "church." I am using the scare quotes because it's a cult masquerading as faith. I feel for all the kids who grow up in that world. They all deserve better. [Amazon Prime]

  • Queen Cleopatra - If I could meet one person from history, I want it to be Cleopatra. Her life and impact on global history is fascinating. I love that they cast a black woman in the lead. This is a docudrama and she does a great job in the dramatic scenes. I didn't learn anything knew, but I appreciated the strong presence of the politics particularly as it related to Cleopatra's siblings. [Netflix]

• We got a medium-sized bunch of kale in our farm share this week. I opted to make Big Kale Pasta Salad to use it up. This was my first time massaging kale and - wow - I had no idea that it would reduce in size so much. I followed this recipe fairly closely but I swapped feta cheese for parmesan because I needed to use it up. [Budget Bytes]

• I love beets but I rarely buy them. I was ecstatic when we got three in our share. I roasted them off to make a salad that I loosely based on this roasted beet, walnut, and goat cheese salad. For the base, I used the swiss chard we got in our share. In lieu of the recipe's dressing, I used a simple oil and balsamic vinegar. I also tossed in about a quarter of a red onion - sliced thin. The bowl was quite stained when I was done, but it the mess was worth the taste. I love beets! [Alexandra's Kitchen]

I flipped through photos from the 2023 World Aquatics Championship. This image of a diver entering the water was so cool looking. You can see the air bubble made by his hands when he enters the water. [The Atlantic - may be paywalled]

We have five senses but we don’t use them all every day. Take this quiz from Gretchen Rubin to figure out which sense you neglect the most (you do need to sign up for a newsletter to get the results.) With your results, you also get a list of ways to indulge your least used sense. Apparently, I neglect my sense of smell. I’m going to light our candles more often.

While I did work on the coding for our website, nothing was working how I needed it to. Going to try again.