Silly Little Things Vol. 3

a smorgasbord of topics for Friday

Fun fact: If you Google “smorgasbord,” it turns out that it is essentially a Swedish charcuterie. If charcuterie is French in origin, what would the American version be? Lunchables?

Anyway, Silly Little Things posts are a smattering of things I’ve been buying, reading, watching, writing, or otherwise loving.

A Marriage Proposal Spoken Entirely in Office Jargon (McSweeney’s)

The Isolation of Intensive Parenting (The Atlantic) - To me, this feels like the parenting of the 90s that I grew up with, albeit with maybe a bit more (needed) supervision.

TheSkimm out here doing the lord’s work.

I’m about 25% through Onyx Storm and leisurely making my way through. My (spoiler-free!) initial thoughts are: Who are these people? Is this a person? A place? A dragon? Why are there so many characters?

I don’t usually struggle this much picking up the next book in a series, but for some reason, this one is giving me a run for my money trying to figure out what the hell is going on. I’ve confirmed with one friend that she feels the same, but how’s everyone else doing with this one?

The Traitors. Delightful brain candy, this is. I’ve never watched Vanderpump Rules, and I am only surface-level familiar with Scandoval, but truly, the question must be asked: what does anyone see in this man? The cast isn’t quite as good as it was last season but it’s still fun watching these ding-dongs bumble their way through.

Severance. Season two is FINALLY here, and unlike Onyx Storm, I managed to pick up the plot fairly quickly after a nearly two-year hiatus. Hoping this season lives up to the first.

The Challenge. FKA Real World/Road Rules Challenge. I have been a die-hard fan of this show for decades at this point, and a beautiful thing happened this season - season 40 is flowing directly into The Challenge: All Stars with zero break in between. Bless. 🙏

🧼 Since I mostly spend my days cleaning, I got this power scrubber, and I love it.

🧖🏻‍♀️ A few too many TikTok ads got me to cave and get this $10 gadget, and I swear my jawline is more snatched. Don’t even care if it’s a placebo effect.

🦸🏻 We have a Spidey-obsessed 3-year-old here, so I recently bought this (big hit), this, these, and Nonna got him these.

Other than this Substack, which I am incredibly proud of myself for publishing consistently twice a week for the last month, I’m working on a zero draft of a new novel. It’s a romantasy, potentially a series, which I enjoy reading but have never tried writing before, so this should be interesting.

I’ve been thinking about sharing more about what I’m writing and my writing plans and process here. Would that be something anyone would be interested in hearing more about?

✈️ I filled out the paperwork to get both kids passports. Next need to get their pictures taken and take them to apply. We don’t currently have any trips planned, but I am COLD and I am TIRED of being cold. This winter feels particularly brutal, and if I can stretch our credit card points for a little tropical getaway, I’m doing it. Plus, making sure we all have passports will be useful in case we have to flee the country at any point in the next 4 years. (Dramatic, maybe. But better safe than sorry. I’ve seen Handmaids Tale.)

🍴Finding the motivation to make dinner is something I thought would be easier now that I’m not working, but alas. It still sucks. Add two picky children and it’s actual torture. So please - if you have some foolproof kid-friendly recipes, SEND THEM TO YA GIRL. This is one I can reliably get everyone to eat, and it’s super versatile (I skip the mustard).

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xo, Katrina