Took some time to unwind tonight by baking a batch of cookies. I didn’t even end up eating any of them tonight!

Fresh batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies sitting on the cooling rack on top of the stove in my kitchen

I was craving some baked goods so I made a batch of soft pretzels for the first time in twenty years I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.

A bakers dozen of soft pretzels on a cooling rack on top of the stove cooling in the sun.

Raquel and I took in the Thunderbirds game this afternoon after I won free tickets. Half way through the game Raquel said “I think I like sports now!”

One cool touch was that they had a drum circle before the US and Canadian anthems.

The Thunderbirds turf and Jumbotron in the Scotiabank Center pregame.
A drum circle at Center field performing the Mi’kmaq Honour Song before the US and Canadian National anthems
Post game moment with the team gathered at center to celebrate the win

Apparently it has been 10 years since “this is fine” was published. This meme has deeply embedded itself in my professional life and even taken up a spot on my shelf.

Plush dog wearing a bowler and holding a mug from the “this is fine” comic sitting on my shelf.

The original artist posted a great reflection on the impact of this phenomenon on them.

And it feels like it’s only getting harder. The best I can ask for is for people to simply forget, but the dog persists. So I do what I can and try to keep in good humor and be thankful that I can still do what I do for a living.

Reflection on a decade from the author

On Christmas Eve we had a little family outing to the rink and I got to take Gwen for a bit of a spin around in addition to playing some hockey with my cousin’s children.

Gwen in a red snowsuit sitting in her stroller while I am pushing her around the ice surface of Kentville arena while wearing a hockey helmet and holding a hockey stick in my other hand.

As far as Gwen is concerned this may as well be the Infinity Gauntlet with all of the Infinity Gems installed. The moment I fully assemble it she will stop whatever she is doing and come pull it apart and distribute the rings to all corners of the room to keep the house safe.

Fisher price Rock-a-Stack assembled properly sitting on the play mat

I stopped posting to Twitter entirely a while ago and had been cross posting from my blog only for a few years before that. Mostly I was keeping my account for a mix of sentimental reasons and it being an authentication method to some hockey analytics stuff.

At some point I set a reminder for today to go and grab a screenshot of the 15 year anniversary of joining Twitter. It seemed like forever for something on the internet and somehow important. The last week I kept thinking “will Twitter make it to Tuesday!?!

Twitter notification saying that I joined 15 years ago and prompting me tweet about it
We made it 🎉

I enabled activitypub support on my site years ago but beyond micro.blog interactions it was more novel than useful.

Even if it’s short lived it has been fun to see people following me from several mastodon instances in the last week.

Tire swing on fire.
Twitter today

This summary of current events earned a legit laugh out loud.