2020: Week 23

June 1, 2020 – June 7, 2020

“Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet.”
– Dr. Mae Jemison

Black people and all people of colour should have the right to be anywhere. I will be educating myself more about black history and contemporary issues. I will do more. Black Lives Matter compiled these educational resources and ways to help.

Bucket List Items Accomplished

I knocked three sort of combined things off the list at once. A pumpkin pie was the last things on my list of pumpkin flavoured things list to make. It’s also a sweet pie and I used a lattice crust with some cute details.

Bake a sweet pie again
Make a lattice pie crust
Make pumpkin or kabocha things – pancakes, latte, chai latte, pie, bread, oatmeal

Things I Enjoyed this Week

I decided to commit to doing 10,000 steps a day for every day of June. We’ll see if I make it. If I don’t make it on a weekday because of work, I will make up the missed steps on the weekend. I miss my daily bicycle commute, and this is a good way to get some exercise and a lot of solid audiobook time in.
- Monday: 10,768 steps
- Tuesday: 14,068 steps
- Wednesday: 10,778 steps
- Thursday: 13,694 steps
- Friday: 10,588 steps
- Saturday: 15,644 steps
- Sunday: 17,289 steps
- Daily Average: 13,261 steps a day
- Weekly Total: 92,829 steps

I also want to learn a new word everyday for the 30 days of June. The words of this week were grabbed from Wordsmith.org or Merriam Webster’s Word of the Day or in the wild from books or podcasts.
1. Bokeh – The aesthetic quality of blur due to shallow depth of field. Bokeh is often exemplified with cute blurred lights.
2. Cadger – A moocher. Someone that obtains things by imposing on others
3. Switch (as in willow switch) – A thin branch, cane, or flexible rod made of wood used as a whip for corporal punishment
4. Pleonasm – Use of extra, reduntant words
5. Capricious – On a whim, impulsive, unpredictable
6. Ersatz – Imitation or artificial and inferior substitute
7. Sobriquet – Nickname

My ongoing gratitude and photo project continues below. I was back on track this week taking photos everyday.

Day 65: I am grateful for portals.

Day 66: I am grateful for vanishing points.

Day 67: I am grateful for my mobility. My father struggled to walk up the steps to get here, but he made it.

Day 68: I am grateful for green.

Day 69: I am grateful for cari cakes on Youtube. Her vlogs are filled with small joys.

Day 70: I am grateful for partnership.

Day 71: I am grateful for small businesses doing their best.

I watched no Oscar Best Picture Winners.

I taught myself a few more constellations. Skymaps is a wonderful resource for monthly star charts. They list interesting celestial phenomena that will happen throughout the month, and which stars and constellations are visible. Wikipedia has good breakdowns of the features and mythology of each constellation. I want to learn more constellations as part of my bucket list. I also want to learn more about Greek mythology. It is a perfect match. Maybe one day I’ll know all 48 of Ptolemy’s traditional Greek/Western constellations, or maybe even all 88 of the currently recognized constellations.
- Hercules – Hero and son of Zeus. He completed twelve labours to atone for killing his children while under a spell from Hera. The creatures involved in several of these labours are also immortalized as constellations.
- Serpens – This constellation is split between Caput (Head) and Cauda (Tail) with Ophiuchus between. Serpens represents a snake that was killed by Asclepius that was later brought back to life with a revival herb by another snake. Asclepius used this technique to revive the dead.
- Ophiuchus – Represents Asclepius, the son of the god, Apollo. To the ancient Greeks, it may have represented Apollo himself, wrestling with a giant snake.

Meal Prep and New Recipes Tried

I made some simple Tuna and White Bean Salad from Budgetbytes to eat with the bread I made on Sunday. It needed a hefty dose of sriracha and was nice and filling.
I made a Dairy-Free Pumpkin Pie following Joy Food Sunshine’s recipe. I made 1.5 times the crust recipe so I could add a lattice top.
I followed Just One Cookbook’s recipe to make some Oroshi Soba which is topped with green onions and grated daikon. It wasn’t my favourite soba recipe, as the astrigent quality of the daikon clashed a little bit with the sauce. It was still quite good and refreshing though.
I made Tandoori Chickpea Stuffed Yams from Rainbow Plant Life’s recipe. I did not make the raita. These were delicious and a great way to get in several servings of different coloured vegetables.