I'm nearly done with the 2023 calendars now! For the version I am making the most copies of, for Dad and Sherri, their children and grandchildren, I was feeling a little bit up against a wall as of this weekend, with just maybe two month-photos short of being exactly what I wanted it to be, but with alternate photos that I could make work if I had to. But then, with a couple last-minute texts to both Angel and Gina, at the very last moment, they both came through—and I got another new photo from Angel that fit the theme perfectly, and then from Gina, not one, but three perfect new photos! As a result, I am possibly more satisfied with this year's theme than I have been since I was able to use all the spectacular shots from Australia for the 2021 calendars. But even beyond that, I am more satisfied with this as a specifically family-related theme than I have been since, maybe, the 2015 calendar which had "dearly departed" family members as its theme. The more sentimental ones seem to be the most popular, and this one is both unique and very sentimental. I think people are going to love it.

And, I now have all the photos situated, finally. Between all the birthday and anniversary photos for the calendar grids, plus four different sets of twelve photos for each month on four different calendar themes I'm working with, I'm dealing with a total of 127 photos, about 88 photos at most for a single calendar (that one being the one I make for Shobhit, as it includes all photos for both sides of my family, plus photos of his family as well). As of right now, all I have left to do is assemble the four different calendar templates online at Costco.com, proof them several times, and then finally place the orders. I'll be having a total of 15 calendars printed this year—one less than last year, since I am not having a calendar made for Ivan this year (he's living and working in Vermont at the moment).

So I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend working on that, which entails a lot more work than you might expect, largely because of how simple and limited the Costco calendar templates are: I have to edit photos on my own first so that they fit properly into the rigid dimension parameters of the templates. I have to crop all the calendar grid photos into square shapes beforehand, and make sure the monthly photos have the right dimensions, the correct aspect ratio, and mark up the original photo files with any text I might want on them, as I can't put text over the images in the templates. The old Apple calendar templates were a lot more user friendly and flexible than this, but I have a working set of notes to refer to each year for the Costco calendars, which does make it easier with each passing year. I now know what to do and in which order, to make the process more efficient for myself.

So setting all the calendar stuff aside, I still did something social all three days this weekend, starting with Friday: this month's Movie Watch Party on Prime Video. This was another of my suggestions, the 1996 comedy The Birdcage, which she had never seen; she was all of about five years old when it came out. And except for the bit about a conservative politician getting embroiled in a scandal for dying in bed next to an underage Black sex worker, which didn't age especially well, it was as entertaining as it's ever been. Kwanteria seemed to have a great time watching it, as we texted back and forth in the Movie Watch chat window. We did comment, though, how the movie traffics in a lot of stereotypes of both conservatives and queer people that probably wouldn't fly today, but that hardly makes it unwatchable now. It just would never be made quite the same way today.

As seems to happen almost every month, Kwanteria was very excited about our Movie Night, and mentioned how much she always looks forward to it—as do I. She told me everyone in her family knows about it and "thinks it's super cute." Well, all right then.

I kind of feel bad about how the movies are always at my suggestion—although to be fair she seems to really appreciate being introduced to fun movies she's never seen—and how White-focused they always are. I'm thinking of seeing if she'll be interested in Lilies of the Field next month, starring Sidney Poitier, as I would bet she's never seen it. I haven't either and it's been marked in "My Stuff" to watch on Prime Video for ages. And this one we wouldn't have to rent, it's already available to subscribers! One the other hand, maybe I'll suggest that for January; I'd kind of like to suggest a Christmas movie for December.

And that brings us to Saturday, when Shobhit, who is not working weekends at all anymore, was happy to join Alexia and me when we left at 3:30 to walk downtown to the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, to see the Seattle Festival of Trees. I've now gone to this event twice

We even made a pit stop at Fran's Chocolates, Shobhit hoping, in vain, that they would hand out a confection sample like they often did in the past. Alexia wound up buying a small chocolate turkey for another friend's husband. In the meantime, I got a nice photo of the much larger chocolate turkey (not for sale) that was part of the display, which I decided would be perfect for this year's Thanksgiving photo album.

From there we went into Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory as well, then meandered a bit through Pike Place Market which was mostly closed down. We meandered over to Beecher's Cheese—still no samples there either—and to a nearby bakery, and we then walked together back home. Shobhit was a little borderline with his behavior, wanting to move on without lingering anywhere, and he was slightly hyper, but honestly he wasn't nearly as irritating as he often is when in such a mood, and that's way better than when he's pissy anyway. So really, it was all fine and mostly pleasant; I got a photo album of 26 shots out of it, a good amount less than last year's 49, but then, I went to it twice last year (first by myself and later with Alexia, on its last day, when many of the Christmas Trees were already packed up to be shipped to their buyers), and it was just the one visit this time. I may find myself back there again this year and get some more photos, we'll see.

This year, as part of the silent auction, there was a Washington State Cougars tree competing with and right next to a University of Washington Huskies tree, which I later texted to the group text with Gabriel, Lea, Mandy and Andy. Gabriel was like, Gross. It's not Thanksgiving yet!!! (Side note: his use of three punctuations feels significant. Is he actually getting less uptight?) I had to explain that this happens this early because it's an annual event of pre-decorated trees sold at auction as a fundraiser for Seattle Children's Hospital; it's always from the Friday before Thanksgiving (with the Gala event the Saturday before Thanksgiving) through the Wednesday after—then the trees are packaged and delivered to their buyers, presumably timed thus so they'll have all of December to enjoy them in their own homes.

It does mean, however, that my annual Christmas-themed events, which go into my ever-increasing collection of photo albums each year, does start before Thanksgiving, and not even I put out my home Christmas decorations until Thanksgiving weekend. And in fact, I had two such events this year, as yesterday, without anyone else available to go with me, Shobhit joined me for this thing in Ballard at the National Nordic History Museum called Julefest: A Nordic Christmas Celebration.

Now, to be fair, this one would make more sense to me being scheduled sometime in December; I don't know why they schedule it in November. Maybe for similar reasons, I guess: having new holiday decor at the ready before the season actually starts. I don't know; a lot of people think even December 1 is too early to put up a tree and such, although on that I heartily disagree.

In any case, it's just a Nordic themed holiday market festival, with $10 admission, so it only cost me twenty bucks to get us both inside. Apparently regular museum prices are $20, and this event includes access to the museum, so we got a deal there. Shobhit did not know about the well-known Nordic history of the Seattle area and specifically the Ballard neighborhood; it makes total sense that would be where the museum is located.

As for photos, the day yielded a photo album of all of 21 shots—only 16 of those really holiday- or even winter-related to this event; I took a few others when milling about the museum to get the most out of our ticket prices. (Shobhit is usually not interested in museums, but he does want to maximize the value of anything purchased.)

Shobhit did buy us a peppermint hot chocolate and a delicious cookie in the coffee shop just inside the museum entrance. Inside the museum there was also a huge cafeteria with food and drinks, plus huge pretzels we were very tempted by, but ultimately did not get. All the vendor shop tents were outside in the back, and we browsed them all before browsing the museum, and then walking over to the Ballard Sunday Farmers Market as well, before getting back to the car and coming back home.

I did get this great photo of Shobhit that I was immediately very happy with, standing among Nordic gnomes, which were sold all over these vendor booths and I had no idea were a href="https://scandification.com/the-history-of-scandinavian-gnomes/">very much a thing. This vendor seemed to have a dual focus on holiday themed gnomes, and wooden boards meant for setting hot dishes on (they looked a lot like cutting boards). Shobhit was admiring a large one hanging on the wall behind me when I took this photo, very tempted to buy it even though it was $45. I reminded him we are scrimping and saving for our trip to Australia in February so that changed his mind.

[posted 12:14 pm]