The good:
- Thanksgiving in Los Angeles was really enjoyable:
- There was no family drama.
- Staying with my grandma was relatively easy.
- My Brussels sprouts were a hit, and people liked my cranberry sauce and Paleo pumpkin pie, but didn't rave about those.
- I got to meet the first child in the next generation of my family, my sister Jacqueline's daughter, Svetlana ("Lana").
- We had a wonderful dinner at the Biddles'.
- Lunch with Kim at Astro Burger was delightful.
- We had a nice dinner with Reed friends.
- We even got a chance to have a last-minute breakfast with Jeff.
- I (re)discovered how much I love Mel's Drive-In!
- We got a Christmas tree!
- Max's behavior has been on an upward trajectory.
- Thor is continuing to learn.
- I'm making progress in therapy working through a 2019 panic attack. EMDR seems to have worked pretty well for that.
- Chase and I hosted a lovely dinner with Jeff and Natalie.
- I bought an electronic piano from Costco on a whim.
- I got to work on a nerd tech project, my Dockerized Speedtest tester for each of my 4 ISP connections.
- I cleaned up the server rack and replaced all the cables and switches with new equipment, resulting in faster internet speeds.
- I upgraded the storage in my NAS.
- I got some of the plumbing issues in the main house sorted, even though not totally fixed.
- I went snowboarding for the first time this season and had a great time at Keystone and Copper.
- I resumed Krav Maga after an extended break.
- I've been experiencing a lot of benefits from taping my mouth during sleep and also during the day (especially during physical activity) and forcing myself to breathe through my nose, based on inspiration from James Nestor's Breath. Thank you to Xavier and Cynthia for their recommendations.
- My herniated disc seems to have mostly healed.
The bad:
- My grandma has been experiencing some cognitive decline that's been pretty noticiable over the last handful of months.
- While Martin and Melissa were at Dragonsteel, I struggled with some behavioral difficulties from Robert, and I didn't do all the perfect Positive Discipline things.
- My basil didn't do so well over Thanksgiving, given lower temperatures.
- We're still struggling with some of the electrical wiring and issues in the ADU.
- I'm still struggling with irritability and feeling overwhelmed, but I'm feeling surprisingly more patient in general. Probably relatedly, I'm still struggling with my sex drive.
- I'm sad that Star Trek: Lower Decks ended, because it was surprisingly good and really enjoyable.
The ugly:
- Chase got into a horrific car accident, and he's lucky to be alive.
- I dealt with a rather unpleasant security officer who seemed to be drunk on his own authority during a lockdown drill at Chase's school, Bergen Elementary.
- Thor had a week of pretty severe GI issues, one time even trapping us in the room by pooping in front of the door while we were sleeping, and another time, having the most awful-smelling vomit and diarrhea in his crate that we almost vomited ourselves, trying to clean it up in the middle of the night.
- My grandma's cognitive decline and our family's concern and desire to help her has led to a lot of discord and unpleasant interactions.
- Chase has been navigating some difficult dynamics with his parents and their divorce and figuring out what to do for Christmas.
- One of my friends from Krav Maga, Gerret, died somewhat unexpectedly.