The tourists are back in town. Lots of Germans with face masks. I suppose we’re all beginning to venture out into the world again, just a bit closer to home. Anja and I are considering taking the ferry to Norway. Apparently you can camp virtually anywhere in that country, as long as you “leave it cleaner than you found it” and make sure you’re gone after two days. At this point, we’re vastly underestimating how attached we are to luxury. I can still hear myself whining “Bonsoihoir”. This was the catch-all name we used anyone who would come to the door of our Parisian hotel room with a bucket of ice, “no, not for champagne, just for the drinks”. I also really don’t like ticks, and I simply can’t imagine that Norway somehow doesn’t have the national health crisis taunting its neighbor.

We’ve begun hosting dinner parties again. Eggplant bulgogi and roasted squash with soy-glazed gingery tofu make for a great Asian fusion. With a side of steamed rice and homemade furikake, of course. I also seem to be making improvements with the dough I typically use to make challah and jam buns. The buns came out spectacularly well and were fluffy and delicious even without having been covered during the refrigerator proofing.

At work, I’m preparing for our new designer to join the team. Practically, this means cleaning up our documentation and our design system so that she has a place to land rather than a hot mess. I’m being more verbose than I normally am in my design documentation, and having to write about my decisions makes me notice all the techniques and frameworks I’ve come to use over the years. One of my favorite’s is Cohesive design, which is now so second nature that I forgot I didn’t even think of it myself.

On Sunday I watched a few horror films, Midsommar being the favorite. I also watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), which wasn’t even that bad until I got to the final scene. Anja and I are watching season 4 of Killing Eve, which I imagine and hope will be the last season. Assassin résumé aside, I get Villanelle. I get every little bit of her.