About a week ago, my colleagues and I received the peer-review comments for an article we submitted to a journal. At first, they were overwhelming. There was a long email with each reviewer summarizing their thoughts and recommendations. Attached was a track changes edition of the article. At first glance, it was daunting. We were happy the reviewers recommended publication, but it looked like we had a lot of revisions to complete.

On second review, after I reminded myself that we did not have to take all the suggestions, things didn't look too shabby. We sat down, made a list of revisions, and got to work. My main job was taking the track changes document and completing a line edit. I like doing line edits, so this wasn't too bad. To show my work, I left comments for my colleagues when I opted NOT to accept a revision. Let's just say one reviewer was nit-picky. Their revisions were mainly stylistic and not substantive. As I line edited, my comments became more and more sarcastic. It's a good thing only we will see these notes. 

They say you never want to see how laws and sausage are made. I would add peer-reviewed scholarship to that list.

What part of your job is messy?

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This week, I started The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Graber. This is book two in a trilogy, and I am no happy to be back in this fantasy world. Graber is excellent at world building. Plus, her writing is cinematic and I would not be surprised if this series ended up on a screen somewhere.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• There's no "away." [Sketchplanations]

• Too much sauce? [The Takeout]

• I also enjoy taking bloom walks. [enJOY] 

• Ways to try your hand at marginalia. [Noted]

• A behind-the-scenes look at the making of romance novel covers. [Smart Bitches, Trashy Books]

• I would like to eat all of these dumplings. [CNN]

• When you live on the space station you are a science experiment. [Short Wave]

• The tipping environment is changing. Here's some help for what to do. [Life Kit]

• Designing spaces for all kinds of accessibility. [99% Invisible]

• What's behind the chaos for a cup? [Culture Study]

• Gran Turismo is based on  a true story about a sim video driver who ends up racing real cars. It was better than I expected. David Harbour plays the grumpy chief engineer. He was perfectly cast and carries the film. Without him, this movie would not be worth watching. I did like how they integrated video game play with actual driving. It was a cool way to show how the skills translated. But, in many ways, this was just a long advertisement for PlayStation and Nissan. Their logos are everywhere. [Netflix]

• I will watch Emily Blunt in anything. She stars in Pain Hustlers which is a story of how we drove ourselves into the opioid crisis. Blunt does a fantastic job of making you get why she did bad things. This movie made me angry because it's all true. I thought the film made an interesting structural choice in using black and white interviews as narrative storytelling. [Netflix]

• Our kiddo loves gnocchi. We eat a lot of it. To satisfy her adoration and break out of a bit of a recipe rut, I made gnocchi with shrimp, asparagus, and pesto. Kiddo got to eat a favorite while we moved beyond caprese flavors. We used Rao's pesto and it was fantastic. Lots of flavor in every spoonful so I used a bit less than normal. One thing I would change is my cooking method. I baked the gnocchi and asparagus and the sauce really needed some pasta water. [My Evernote]

• The Husband and I have been trying to do a date night dinner at home once a month. The plan is to make a fancier dish after the kiddo goes to bed. We open wine, set the table with candles, and I put on not athleisure clothing. Despite our best intentions, this is only the second time we've been able to hold this dinner. The Husband picked Chilean sea bass with Asian sauce. I got a phenomenal sear on the fish if I do say so myself. We decided this would be an awesome surf and turf and may marinate a skirt steak in the sauce next time. [Avocado Pesto]

Peak bloom is one of my favorite times to scroll Instagram. So many lovely pictures. My city is pretty. [@parks_on_the_board]

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What I tell myself as I take pictures of all the flowers in bloom.