Good things that happened in 2023:

• We renovated our bathroom and laundry, and spruced up the rest of the house by painting and getting rid of the carpet.
• MEP and Paul visited us here. We got to see thousands of penguins.
• We had an amazing holiday in British Columbia full of friends, family, and nature.
• Spent a lot of time with friends here. Lots of meals and board games.
• Joined a birding photography group and saw a lot of birds.
• Went on a cool trip to the Mallee.
• Played a lot of pickleball.
• Knitted a lot.

PBs: Snatch 48kg -> 51kg. Clean and jerk still stuck at 58kg in comp, and 60kg in training. Back squat still 73×1, Front squat 60×2, Deadlift 88×1, OHP 34×1.

Plus 4th place in a pickleball tournament. :D

New board games: Anomia, Project L, Sabobatage, I’m The Boss!, Diner, Homebrewers, Showdown Yahtzee, Potion Explosion, Isle of Skye, Colt Express, Scoville, Gold Ahoy!, Ramen Fury, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Sushi Roll, Welcome To.

We played 26 games with 29 different people.

Highlights included playing Welcome To with Rosemarie as a remote player, touching fingertips to make deals in Squamish, and cross-breeding chilies with pals at the board game convention.

Books (in rough order from favourite to least):

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – put off reading it because it was so long but ended up really enjoying it and was happy that it was so long, really liked reading what she had to say
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – liked it! silly, science, feminist, some clever bits
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – not what I expected at all, it’s not a poetry book! Depressingly relatable
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – good, some overlapping characters with Malibu Rising
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – if I had read this before learning about WWII in high school, I probably would have been a lot more engaged
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry – easy read
• Every Summer After by Carley Fortune – lil bit sexy, very Canadian.. set in Barry’s Bay
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – short, easy, weird book about an autistic girl and an incel
• Deacon King Kong by James McBride – slightly amusing, reminded me a bit of The Wire
• Wanderers by Chuck Wendig – long, more modern version of The Stand, crazy that it was written pre-covid
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart – some weird Scottish words, sad story
• Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney – nice easy thriller
• The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave – iunno, was ok
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – bit too poetic for me
• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – sad history book, didn’t know they were gonna make a movie

Great new recipes: Can’t really think of anything. All we ever cook now are Recipe Tin Eats and Pinch of Yum recipes. Maybe something from the Recipe Tin Eats cookbook?

Favourite bird pics:

Year of the fairy-wren, apparently!

Last year’s goals: Use my good camera more. (I think I used it less, oops.) Become more athletic. (Maybe? I’ve started doing plyometrics in my training, and my reflexes are getting better at pickleball, however I’m getting a heck of a lot more sweaty so I dunno…) Eat more protein. (Yeah, tuna!) More knitting. (Definitely accomplished this one.) Start volunteering in migrant services. (Nope.)

2024 goals: Use camera more!!! Design bird sweaters. Be more comfortable being me.

2023 final thoughts: The first half of the year was a bit difficult to do anything because of all the renovation projects, and then the last half of the year was difficult too because Scott lost his job. Thank goodness we managed to squeeze in our Canada trip in between. Hopefully Scott ends up getting a new job soon so that we go back to traveling and doing more fun stuff again.