Hello there! Well, 2024 happened. So did 2023. I would still like to go back and write about some of the things that happened, but we’ll see if that ends up getting done. For now, here’s the yearly overview of the things I read, watched, made, and did in 2024.
In
January, there was one hike in unseasonably nice weather, snow, and one hike in the snow, within a period of four days. I finished my last post-Christmas Christmas gift for my coworkers (a cross stitch of peppers, pattern provided free by DMC), we played a new-to-us board game (Forbidden Desert), and I baked a matcha Swiss roll and my yearly batch of pecan rolls. After putting it off for some time, I committed to watching the first arc of
La Casa de Papel (
Money Heist) (in Spanish with English subtitles), and picked up
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree and Ted Chiang’s
Exhalation: Stories at the library.
February in New England was cold, dark, and depressing as usual, but eventful because I said farewell to my foot mole. Dermatology wanted it gone, so right after Valentine’s Day podiatry sliced out an inch of my foot, I wasn’t allowed to put weight on that foot for a couple weeks, then I had a very cool Frankenfoot (seven stitches) for a few more weeks after. I also tried a new thumbprint cookie recipe, finished another cross stitch project, read
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and watched the first season of
Star Trek: Discovery. Mixed feelings about
Discovery, but mostly positive, I think.
As some semblance of warmth returned in
March, we got out for a couple hikes. I filed my taxes slightly early for me, finally made the Wellesley fudge cake I meant to make for my birthday last year, and assembled some knock-off not-LEGO flowers. Knock-off LEGO has come a long way, but still doesn’t quite compare to the real thing.
Barbie showed up at the library, so I finally got to watch and enjoy the movie. At work, we turned over 60 L of cell juice from upstream into 10 g of protein in seven days.
For a very late birthday present, I took my mother and a friend to a paint bar in
April. Later in the month, after seeing other people post about it, we went tulip picking. There was also eclipse day, and I completed the last cross stitch in a set of three that I’d originally started back in Ann Arbor. Last minute, I decided I did want a garden this year and started the tomato seeds way too late.
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| Clockwise from top left: January - snow along the reservoir, February - thumbprint cookies, March - trees on a hike, April - tulips |
In
May, we went to Dam Day at Wachusett, one of two days in the year that people are allowed to walk on the Wachusett Dam. After some delay, a boardwalk trail finally opened nearby, so we went to check it out one weekend. I continued my delayed media consumption with season one of
The Mandalorian, which I liked, and
Lessons in Chemistry, which I have to give a very mixed review.
Unlike last year, it did not rain almost every weekend all summer, so we got outside every weekend in
June. There was a day trip to Quabbin Park, strawberry picking, Art on the Trails at a local park, and a visit to the botanical garden at Tower Hill.
We celebrated the 4th of
July by hiking at Wachusett, then continued the summer of activities with blueberry picking, a day at Purgatory Chasm, and a trip to Revere Beach for the annual sandcastle competition. For a birthday, I baked my best-ever sponge cake for a Japanese strawberry shortcake that turned out delicious. On the library front, I continued my slow way through Terry Pratchett’s Discworld with the next night watch book,
Night Watch. In the garden, I harvested my first zucchini.
In
August, we visited Moore State Park (it frequently comes up in lists of places to visit in central Massachusetts) and spent a day at the beach in Salisbury. In the second half of the month, my at least second favorite brother came to visit. We spent a week at Acadia and hiked a lot, ending up covering over 130,000 steps or a little over 55 miles. The tomatoes from my one volunteer tomato plant that ended up growing this year were coming in in earnest, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Patrick Stewart’s memoir
Making It So.
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| Clockwise from top left: May - Dam Day, June - Quabbin Reservoir, July - blueberries, August - Cadillac Mountain |
I was
allowed sent to attend BPI East in
September, my first conference since grad school. It was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, and we got to go to the Museum of Science as our “scientists can have fun too” activity. We went for a first round of apple picking, and I baked a belated birthday key lime pie.
October always brings on the hunt for fall colors. I did some exploration around the reservoir, and we hiked Mount Watatic and a hill a few towns over. As it got cold, we officially pulled up the garden for the year, closing out this year’s harvest list at arugula, baby bok choy, green beans, red peppers, orange lunchbox peppers, habanero peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and a bunch of other unsuccessful tomatoes. Additionally, I completed my next cross stitch project, an anatomical heart, baked a birthday German chocolate cake, picked apples (again), and went bowling with my company for our fall outing. I watched
The Big Year,
This is Us, and
Over the Garden Wall, all of which I would recommend, but for very different reasons and probably audiences, unless you’re me.
On Halloween, with unseasonably warm temperatures in the forecast, we took an impromptu road trip to Cape Cod, seeing in the first day of
November with sunrise on the beach. We saw a bunch of lighthouses, hiked Great Island, and got a nice dose of coarse, rough, irritating sand that gets everywhere. As the days really started to shorten and cool, there was less hiking, but we did make it to Tower Hill for Gnomevember. And also I built a k’nex roller coaster.
Finally, that brings us to
December. Earlier in the month, we went to see lights at Tower Hill, and there was one day warm enough for me to take a 7.7 mile walk up the aqueduct. At work, we had our annual Yankee Swap, and we celebrated the company’s 10 year anniversary at Top Golf. Now it’s Christmas Eve, it’s cold out, and there’s snow on the ground. We’ll see what 2025 brings, but for now, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays to all!
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| Clockwise from top left: September - Musuem of Science, October - fall colors, December - lights at Tower Hill, November - sunrise on the beach |
