The middle of July heralded the start of summer (cue the
Vivaldi on accordion!), as Boston's giant snow pile finally
melted. Before and after that momentous event, however, the boys were occupied with chess and sports as these photos and
video attest:
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| Chess simul with GM Larry Christiansen |
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| First tournament |
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| Beating the heat with speed skating |
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| LOL on the Charles |
I got some bonding time with the boys as well, together as well as individually. We went kayaking on the Charles River (above), but I couldn't get them interested in the Fourth of July fireworks (Minecraft and "Avatar: the Last Airbender" prevailed instead). I had to tend to Nikita's pain after tooth extractions (a whole set of adult teeth!) and Ivan's constant searches for markers and old T-shirts (to make soccer uniforms). I will cherish, however, my evening walks with Nikita and requests from Ivan for a good-night kiss and hug.
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| BSJ 2.0 |
July was a productive month for me. I taught a half-day workshop at HMS, and attended meetings about the fall semester. Back at the house, we finally had the insurance claims on our cars settled, and I weeded the front yard and started decluttering the basement - thank goodness for herbicide and Goodwill! I also participated in some fun swaps and
mail tag through
LEP, got some cooking done (Cook's Illustrated's
Sicilian pizza, Nigella Lawson's
dense chocolate cake), and finally finished a
Child Surprise Jacket for Nikita (right; he requested the same colors I made for his baby one!).
And there was so much to read! Online, I read articles about
privilege,
grief, how
opinions can be wrong, and a potentially superior way of
choosing host cities for the Olympics (now that Boston is thankfully off the hook). I enjoyed a number of books for work (
Engaging Ideas,
Experimental Design for Biologists) and pleasure (
Frankenstein,
Old Filth). None of these books were used to complete
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge or reach 82 books on the
pseudo BBC list. Although I keep learning about
more authors to read, I am getting better at abandoning books (I will not try Harper Lee's "new" book) and will keep my first meme in mind:
