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My word(s) for 2026

Adjust and Adapt

This year will bring much change to my life. So much of my time revolts around household support and Beatrix logistics. Once she’s off to college my life will need to become much different. Just one example of how I will need to be guided by these words.

A frequently told joke among Minnesotans, and those in the Twin Cities especially, is that every time someone tries to leave or move somewhere else they always come back.

It’s true for me. For my wife. For anyone I know who’s tried.

We love it here. Leaving only makes us love it more.

Things I Posted About In 2025

The first of a few posts about the work here last year and my plans for the year to come.

These are the things I wrote that I’m the most proud of.

Over the years of hunting down the true tools, I have noticed a pattern among the those that earn their place: they offer simplicity and reliability. These are not gadgets promising to revolutionise your life through complexity. They are not systems requiring elaborate maintenance or steep learning curves. They are foundational tools and habits that quietly-and without fuss-ease daily life.

— Nicholas Bate, The Tools of Excellence: Seventy Devices, Concepts or Strategies which enable Brilliance, Easily.

Her Serious Face

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Ever since she was a little kid, when Beatrix is having the most fun ever — the time of her life — her face is serious. No smiles or laughter. No wide-eyed wonderment. Dead serious. It remains that way to this day. If her face looks like this, she’s having a blast.

This was her at Mardi Gras in New Orleans watching a parade. Loving every second. Serious.

Seeing Hamilton or Hadestown (with the original casts, no less) on Broadway? Serious.

Seeing Frozen at five years old? Very serious.

When we were first noticing this, we’d stop to ask her, “Is everything OK honey?”

“Yeah! Why?”

Beatrix is one book you should never judge by her cover.

I’m still stuck on the wonder that we can get turn by turn directions almost anywhere on the planet for any mode of transportation available to us including our feet!

Way more amazing and useful to me than anything AI currently offers.