🥳 Happy New Year!

I think we ended 2020 well.  I spent New Years Eve working from home with Ro. He watched a lot of tv, played with his toys, and then we took a quick masked trip to the grocery store, meat shop, and ice cream shop. Everyone at the stores kept asking him if he was going to stay up for New Years. He looked at them like they were crazy and we had to talk about the staying up part when we got home because he had never done it before. Ro had been excited to choose the meats and so for dinner we had Santa Maria marinated chicken and hot dogs, and then I also baked crackers and baked brie with onions. I also made two boules of sourdough bread, but that was only because I already had the dough going in the fridge.  We didn't stay up late, but we were ready to play the next day.

I've still been doing a lot of baking this year with lots of cinnamon rolls and biscuits.  Having a sourdough starter is like keeping another animal, but using the discards in food.  It has gotten me to cook at home more even if it's not always sourdough stuff.  My main staples for cooking have been curry, stir fry, macaroni and cheese, and (not-homemade) uszka with salad.  I'm hoping to add more pie crust type recipes in the future since the sourdough pie crust is easy to make.

Mom asked me to read a book called "How Not to Die" by Michael Greger.  She said it inspired her to overhaul her diet to be completely plant based, she lost a lot of weight, and she is off her blood pressure medication.  She said it also helped Dennis lose some stubborn weight as well.  It reminded me of the raw food diet that you used to tell me about, but I preferred your approach to telling me.  I think Mom has started consuming this plant-based diet thing instead of watching true crime stories on tv.  She said she had moved onto Forks Over Knives, which Sharon and I had watched the documentary a long time ago, said "eh," and moved on with our lives.  I've been really unimpressed with the catastrophic nature of these diet books -- let's face it:  they are diet books.  I would prefer better journalism similar to Michael Pollan's books or history of cooking shows similar to Mind of a Chef on Netflix.  That being said, I do read the books and listen to the authors' logic, but I use it similar to finance:  I keep it running in the background to make sure I stay somewhat on track rather than go crazy with it.

I am sensitive about my weight.  I've watched Aunt Jane and Aunt Jean yoyo with their weights and self-esteem so often.  I remember watching them discuss their different diets, and I watched them give up on them after awhile.  I also hesitate to listen to Mom talk about losing weight when she's not a big person.  The odd thing is that I feel like I'm normal.  When I lose a lot of weight, there is something really really bad going on.  

Years ago, a therapist suggested exercise was most likely a key factor in my moods.  I've definitely noticed when Ro has his moods because he doesn't eat or he's on his Kindle all day.  I've noticed my health and attitude is much more tied to how much I exercise than what I eat because what I decide to eat follows the exercise.  If I eat a burger and then go running, it feels worse than eating uzska and salad and then going running.  I use that reinforcement to keep going.  

Maybe I'm just feeling mad because suggestions about changing my lifestyle seem similar to someone telling me that I'm not good enough as I am.  I was joking around with some friends -- one is doing a keto diet and the other doesn't diet but she also is unable to exercise because her hip muscles keep breaking -- and mentioned, "People don't seem to understand that half of my genetics are midwestern.  I'm actually doing pretty good!"  I try to stick to that frame of logic.

Everything else is going ok.  I have an arrangement with work where I can work from home in the morning and help Ro with his online school every two weeks.  B's mom is off on those days, and so she can show up when I need to go to work, finish up Ro's distance learning, and then take him to her house to finish the day.  I hope this helps me stay in the look for his learning.  I've realized during the few minutes of overlap where I've seen Ro do his online learning with Wanda that Ro is on his own when doing the Spanish of his school.  It's easy for them to miss assignments.  Ro's teacher is aware of this since she can also hear the other students in his classes getting help from their parents when Ro seems a little lost.  He's still doing really well and understands Spanish really well.  He hesitates on speaking Spanish to us but often has no trouble blending languages.

I've been knitting a little bit still and made my first pair of gloves.  Because Ro wanted to learn something with needles, I gave him scrap of fabric, a needle and thread, and he got to work practicing stitches.  B and I joked with him that we now expected him to be able to sew up buttons on B's work shirts.  

Ro usually needs a lot of urging to get ready for bed and then fall asleep.  He hates brushing his teeth, and I was finally able to get him to do it willingly by letting him listen to the Chompers podcast.  I then have to set up a playlist of science podcasts for kids for him to fall asleep to including "But Why?" and "Brains On!".  If he's still hesitant (read: fighting) getting ready for bed, I tell him he can listen to an episode of "Wow in the World!" or the "Molly of Denali" podcasts.  

Other than podcasts, we've been reading "My Father's Dragon" and "Dragones y Tacos" ("Dragons Eat Tacos" is the english version).  We'll have to go back to the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series since Ro has gotten interested in the idea of the underworld -- not Hell but the idea of a place to live that is underground.  Ro was learning about the parts of a house in school and the story of "Los Tres Cerditos" and his teacher wanted the kids to draw their own houses.  Ro drew and presented a house made out of a mountain with one door and no windows that was underground and surrounded by a subway train so there was no way for a wolf to blow it over.  

We finally got rain here and there could be a total of 2-3" by Saturday.  A lot of growers were trying to get all the rest of the citrus off the trees last weekend just because of the freeze alone.  Between the freeze and rain, any citrus left on trees will be expected to have more rot.  Citrus is usually harvested through February.  I'm not sure if that means a shorter citrus season or a good cherry season if this keeps up.  Everyone is excited about groundwater recharge since we didn't have a good rain last year.  

I'm just happy I got my bike back after it being in the shop for the last few weeks.  B's road bike is really difficult to ride while hauling all of my work stuff -- the 20" work laptop alone is heavy.   The first day of riding B's bike was awful with falling and having to change from carrying stuff in a tote bag to a backpack.  I never really got used to riding it and the one wet day that I had to ride home from work, the bike splashed up enough water up my backside to make it look like I shit myself.  

After this difficulty,  B said I could buy an ebike.  He still thinks a cargo bike would be very single use, but I still think it would be worth having.  Most ebikes are built to get people from point A to point B quickly, but without hauling anything.  I also want to be able to have the option of carrying Ro short distances.  It doesn't seem safe to carry the bulky trailers in bike lanes.  I would feel a lot safer carrying Ro directly behind me.   I'm leaning toward the Tern HSD as a compromise -- it's still a cargobike but only a midsize and can carry 130lbs safely while still being small.  The only problem is that it is newer and I would be paying more for the smaller size.

Anyhow, I hope things are good on your end.  I love you and miss you.