Category: To Occupy my Time

Étoile Episode 3

Ariel sent this very cute French bistro postcard for the third episode.

Ariel is sorry to say that Luke Kirby (excellent as Lenny Bruce in the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) annoys her as the character Jack. I am in agreement. She points out this was clearly a Daniel (Palladino directed) episode (she’s not a fan, usually) but it managed to hold her attention. I was not pleased by the worst qualities of Daniel on display in this round.

We did get to see two Gilmore Girls alum: Kelly Bishop and Headmaster Charleston.

Bedroom in Transition

I spent a good chunk of allotted room transformation money at the Swedish flat-pack store and have been in my happy place: assembling Ikea furniture.

The cat tree that was in the bedroom so that the cats could get to the windowsill and perch has now moved out to the living room in preparation for moving to a new home. In the meantime, it’s corralling the cardboard of the items I did and didn’t assemble.

My new table! One of my goals was to have a place where my sewing machines could be easily accessible. They will sit on top of this table, which has drop leaves that will let me have space to sew when the bed is put up.

The wall with the window will have three Billy bookcases. This is the biggest one, it will be flanked by two smaller ones. It has a rolling drawer.

I also bought a new duvet cover. It’s not as orange as it looked in the store, so it might not be the final iteration. We will see.

Storage Ottoman Achieved!

When I was looking for a new coffee table, I was hoping it would have storage and be the height where I could comfortably put my feet and legs on so I could lounge out. Julie informed me such a thing was called a storage ottoman.

I ended up going in a different direction, storage ottomans being in short supply, but what should I find at Ikea, but a very small storage ottoman for thirteen dollars!

It nicely matches the chair that has always needed a footrest.

From the future, I can report that I went back and bought two more of these storage ottomans and they sit at the end of the coffee table. I put them against the couch and can now lounge out, like I always dreamed.

They will also be a great place to put scraps of fabric.

Thanks, Ikea!

Independence Day Fireworks from Willamette Park

For the first time in many years, we headed out to watch the fireworks. Specifically the Oaks Park fireworks from across the river at Willamette Park.

You can see that it was not a particularly warm night. Also, check out the very dead grass we were sitting on.

From later in the evening as the sun went down. That stand of trees to the left of Matt’s head was where the barge with the fireworks was.

This meant that we saw most of the fireworks through the leaves of those trees. This was clearly our first rodeo at Willamette Park.

A subpar fireworks picture (taken with my fireworks setting on)

People near us brought glowing balls to swing around. They were fun to watch, and photographed a tiny bit better than the fireworks.

I’m always happy to watch fireworks, even on a not-warm night with trees partially obscuring my view.

Movie Quiz Results June 2025

Battleship Cinematic Universe had such a good first round! 76 points! Amazing! We only missed 4 out of 40 on the grid round, which was a feat, especially because my handwriting had me thinking the word was “Bayan” rather than “Bryan.”

And then the second round had too many horror films and we tanked.

Favorite names: Baby Fish Mouth, Eternal Sunshine of Midsommer, and Tom.

Gnocchi was sitting in front of us. They had a similar experience with the rounds as we did.

Matt’s Birthday Dinner at Janken

Matt’s mother offered to take us out for dinner on his birthday, and Matt picked Janken, a recommendation from one of his friends at the gym. The Japanese-Korean fusion tapas was delicious and service was great. I had edamame, crispy brussels sprouts (fabulous!) and miso soup. Matt ordered the Bignsu dessert which was big enough to share.

He also got cream puffs with a candle for his birthday celebration.

Look at that Bingsu! So good looking.