Q2 2026 Update

Plus a poem

Another quarter in the books! The lowlights this quarter were pretty dang low so let’s skip ‘em and focus on what went well.

Highlights

  • Drove 500+ miles around Ireland without scratching the rental
  • Confirmed to Historic Board of Review in Marietta
  • Re-upped Atlanta Tech Village Advisor role
  • Started hosting dinners and parties at home again
  • Got my first wonky handmade pottery bowls back from the kiln

Plus, the free better boy tomatoes from the bank are growing. We had to barricade the pot with patio furniture to keep the dog from digging them up.

Better boy tomatoes

Healthyish habits

Pilates is fun. Hot yoga is more soothing. When it’s 90 degrees outside, you don’t even have to turn the radiants on.

Average step count is trending up but only because we walked 15,000 steps per day while we were on our travel vacation.

Step count You can see exactly when we flew home

Against my natural tendencies, I’m currently forcing myself to eat breakfasts. Lots of old-fashioned oatmeal with berries and nuts.

I am also trying to cut back on dining out in favor of cooking more healthy dinners at home. Easier said than done. Especially when the go-to pub finally fixes their smashburger recipe.

Reading / watching / baking / writing

  • The House of the Dragon, Season 3
  • The Bear, Season 5
  • Derry Girls – woefully late to the game on this one; now convinced this is most perfect TV show ever produced
  • Widow’s Bay
  • Yesteryear ← entertaining but mostly pissed me off
  • Wuthering Heights (the book and the movie) – the book is boring, the movie is splendid, fight me
  • The One Story Success Can’t Fix – as a longtime Barrett fan, I had heard parts of this story over the years but this keynote brought it all together and left me in tears
  • Key lime pie, recipe from an old Gabriel’s Bakery cookbook

Sorry I'm late bag My cousin-in-law has started a personalized gift shop

Yesterday I made multiple catastrophic calendar errors. I stayed up late trying to shake off my mistakes. This morning I wrote a poem.

Strawberry Moon

The moon rises on her own time I am pacing the yard Hands on hips, walking in circles Like a man waiting outside the room where a child is being born Venus, Jupiter and all the stars are Pinholes past the airplane paths. In the grass: a green-yellow light An ash from the fire? No, the candle is wax It’s a lightning bug pulsing on the ground Tiny insects are running laps around the lip of the big citronella bowl Like an ice skater, a roach slips across the surface between the wicks Panicked, it slides into a melty well Seizes and dies, wings open and soft The shovel I made from a small brown leaf, Not fast enough to save it. Indistinguishable from a street lamp The sour strawberry moon Climbs up behind the lung-veins of the neighbor’s tree “To bed now,” I concede “We can’t wait up for you all night.”