Sunday Smatterings (The Kerr Edition)

Happy Sunday, one and all! It's me, your friendly, neighborhood Kerr.

Did you have a good week? Have you gulped down THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE yet?

How was your week, Amy? Oh my week was fine, thanks for asking. When J.T. is in the zone, working hard on a new book, I get into a groove of my own. It helps to have a boss who believes in Deep Work, and allows me to turn off anything with notifications so I can concentrate for large chunks of time. It's a wonderful way to work, people. Silence is golden, in more ways than one.

I hope all of our Northeastern friends survived Snowpocalypse 2017! I have a friend in Pennsylvania who showed me a photo of his Jeep buried under a snow bank, and I almost cried for him—out of jealousy, because he couldn't go anywhere for days, and wouldn't that be glorious?! (if you're giving me the Stink Eye right now, I don't take it back—I'm an introvert for life).

ANYWAY.
 

What I'm Eating

Remember how I'm ridiculously lazy when it comes to food? Yeah, that didn't magically change this week.

The past few years, I've made an effort to replace refined sugars and starches with vegetables. Don't get me wrong, I love refined sugars and starches . . . vegetables just make me feel better. 

One of my easiest veggie swaps is spaghetti squash for traditional spaghetti noodles, because (a) it's nice to pretend I'm eating noodles and (b) I actually like the way spaghetti squash tastes (it's a bit sweet, which I don't mind in savory dishes).

For a quick meal, I'll preheat my oven to 375, grab a spaghetti squash, poke a bunch of holes in it, then stick it on a sheet pan to bake for 75 minutes. Then I let it cool, take the seeds out, and take the "spaghetti" strands out of the squash. While the squash is cooking, I brown some ground beef or Italian sausage, add a jar of pasta sauce (I like this Tuscan Pepper sauce for a bit of a kick). Combine spaghetti squash and meat sauce, and boom: lazy, healthy dinner.

Lazy healthy eater pro tip: I put down a bed of spinach, then scoop my "pasta" onto it to it because I, like Popeye, feel better when I eat spinach.
 

What I'm Playing

This week, what I'm "playing" is on my iPhone: the Alabama Shakes' album, Sound & Color. The title track especially is . . . wow. Talk about a song with texture. I played on loop for hours as I worked this week, and I didn't get tired of it. Not even once.
 

What I'm Reading

I went on a tear and added a bunch of stuff to my Kindle this week, but I've been too busy to start any of them (thanks, taxes 🙄). 

1. BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley (J.T. freaked out about this book—this is usually a good sign)
2. YOU'LL GROW OUT OF IT by Jessi Klein (supposed to be funny—we'll see)
3. TEXTBOOK AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (RIP, wonderful lady)

I'll keep you apprised on my progress.
 

What I'm Watching

You guys. I tore through Season 3 of HALT AND CATCH FIRE. Tore. Through. It. As in, the last time we talked, I didn't even know Season 3 was on Netflix yet. 

AMC hardly goes wrong in their original scripted television (except for TURN, which is kind of a snoozefest). Armed with fresh, innovative story ideas, this beautiful network has given us MAD MEN, BREAKING BAD, and television's most-watched show when GAME OF THRONES isn't on (and for good reason), THE WALKING DEAD. All this from a network that, ten years ago, showed old movies and had just started airing a show about an ugly (hahahaha NOT) man named Don Draper.

Back to HACF: if you're nostalgic for the 80s, if you had a Commodore 64, if you remember what it was like to dream a world of technological possibility before such mind-blowing things like the website you're reading right now could have ever existed, if you want to see strong women in the tech world, if you want to see the different kinds of people and personalities that make up a microcosm of the corporate world, if you're a human with a pulse—you want to watch this show. 

Simply put, the story follows four people—a Steve Jobs-like visionary, a brilliant young coder, and two slightly beaten-and-broken-but-still-talented product engineers—as they navigate the burgeoning tech scene in the Silicon Prairie (yes, prairie) of Texas. The set designer and costumers did a brilliant job capturing the 80s details (oh the kitchens—they could be the backdrop of my own childhood memories). The show is fun and poignant and riveting, and begs viewers to ask themselves what the world could look like thirty years from today. Because the world we live in right now is so different than the world of HACF—but also much the same.

Well, folks, that's all I've got for you. I hope your week is warmer, the flowers brighter, and your spirits higher. I'll talk to you soon.

xoxo,
The Kerr