Another busy week, although a strange one as Kin was home sick for most of it. Was it COVID? I’m not sure. He never tested positive, but he had all the symptoms. That said, I never felt sick at all, so if it was something he picked up at the office, it wasn’t something he spread here at home.
Poppy had her first trip to the vet here in the city — something that made me realize how poor her care was in Oakland. The vet office there was always overwhelmed. (There’s a vet shortage.) And the vet admitted she didn’t like Rottweilers. She’d also fat-shame Poppy, which was decidedly uncool. Poppy is a big girl, but come on — she’s healthy. The new vet here didn’t have anything mean to say about her body weight or her breed. Indeed, his only complaint that her records from Oakland seemed to be missing a few things. All the staff loved Poppy. So she was thrilled to be there, despite the shots and the blood draw.
I got a BlueSky invitation. I made an account, but I haven’t posted there. Honestly, I just can’t make myself care about social media. In the words of another Oakland great, Marshawn Lynch, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”
The nice thing about New York, of course, is that you don’t have to rely on The Internet to maintain friendships as people visit regularly. Dale and I had a “walk and talk” on Friday; and we’re seeing Martha for dinner tonight.
More Oakland-related news: we’re finally watching Boots Riley’s I’m a Virgo. It’s great. And in New York-storytelling: we finally finished reading The Power Broker. I think the audiobook was almost 70 hours. But damn, I’m so glad we did it. I have learned so much about New York — things I think about all the time as I move through the city.
That said, the book has left me sort of tired of reading. I’ve started Democracy’s Data, about the census, and it’s quite good. But I spent a lot more time than usual not reading last week. As a result, I completed the NYTimes crossword every day. Go me!
It was a solid week of training: Tuesday’s speed work on the treadmill was over 11 miles (and I think I’m scheduled to do a half marathon’s worth of speed work tomorrow). I did my long run on Saturday, to coincide with “Summer Streets” — Park Avenue was closed to cars, and as a result was full of runners and cyclists. It was a shorter run — just 75 minutes — but next weekend is the final closure for the summer, and I’m planning to run all the way to Brooklyn. Lifting is going well too, although I’m not really advancing my weights terribly quickly. And swimming and cycling were good too. I have my first race — a 10K — coming up, and I’m getting pretty nervous. I’m still worried about the heat and humidity, even for an 8am race. So I have pretty low expectations of how I’ll fare.
In other exercise news, the elevators went out in the building this week. And guess who lives on the 36th floor? So that was an adventure.
And the best part of the week: the food. Sacco’s, a neighborhood pizza joint, for slices. Ess-a-Bagel again. Gray’s Papaya for the best hot dog I’ve ever had. BarDough for pizza on our “date night,” followed by pie from Little Pie Company. I made gluten-free brownies with soy sauce (which were not as soy sauce-y as I'd imagined they'd be so I'm not really sure what the point is of using it in lieu of salt); smashed chicken burgers with cheddar and parsley (delicious); posole rojo (ok. Rancho Gordo sent dried posole in the last shipment, otherwise I'm not sure I'd have made this); tofu with cashews; and smoked gouda and broccoli flatbreads (made with leftover naan, which turned out great).