Weekend Fun Recap: September 5–7

How was your weekend? Can you believe Labor Day was already a week ago? September is flying by—hopefully toward cooler temperatures. (I am whatever the summer equivalent of a Grinch is about the heat.) We had a full weekend that somehow still involved way too much screen time for the kids. I’m not looking forward to their detox process this week, but at least they’ll be at school for some of it!

Family Game Night

Family game night was a blast from the past with The Omega Virus, which was one of my husband’s favorite childhood Christmas presents. He has fond memories of seeing this talking electronic game on commercials and finding that it lived up to the hype. We were impressed that a) the game still works, b) only one important piece is missing (we found an alternate), and c) the technology from 1992 could keep track of various rooms and weapons and players. The girls had a lot of fun with it and played it again on their own the next day. I think we’ll keep this one in the rotation for as long as it still works!

If you or a fellow millennial has fond memories of this game but years in an attic haven’t been kind to your copy, check out Omega Virus Prologue. This card-based game is set in the same world as the board game. I think it will make a great stocking stuffer for my husband!

Haircut

Ok y’all, I am making progress with learning how to girl. On my last trip to my friend/stylist, she recommended that I, you know, attempt to style my hair. With some tools. Like an adult. So I went with this hair dryer (it’s pink!) and this curling wand, and I’ve been happy with both of them. I got another haircut and got my highlights touched up (byeeee gray) while my toddler watched TV and got his own haircut. He looks adorable—I’m always surprised by what a difference it makes!

My friend also mentioned that she’d recently gotten her colors done on a mutual friend’s recommendation and had a really good experience. Now, I know this is the trendy thing, but I’ve kind of ignored it because I am such a textbook Winter that like, I get it. But my friend mentioned that the consultant she saw also helps with makeup. And y’all, your girl could use some help in that department too. Then this morning, I ran into said mutual friend at Trader Joe’s who confirmed that this experience was life-changing. So that might be the next item on my learn-how-to-girl journey. If you’ve had this done and have recommendations, let me know in the comments!

Football with Friends

So we have some good friends from college. College as in UGA. Which has a pretty good football team. (I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we recently won back-to-back national championships.) And one thing that is generally fun is watching college football with college friends.

However. When we watch college football with these particular college friends, UGA always loses. I once saw a football fall straight from heaven into an Auburn defensive player’s hands while watching football with these friends. And that’s just not fun. We kept trying, but eventually we realized that on behalf of Bulldog Nation, we needed to take a break from football and hang out in March instead.

So we did. But we saw our friends less often than we would like. So we decided to test our theory that hi, we’re the problem, it’s us on the Austin Peay game. And guess what? We won (not spectacularly, but a W is a W). We’re no longer superstitious about the whole thing, but we are a little stitious. So we might not try again for any big games. But it is nice to know that perhaps we could reintroduce this fun activity without ruining it for the rest of the Dawgs.

Reading Recap

This week, I finally got around to reading Lauren Groff’s Florida, which had been languishing on my TBR for several years. (At least there was no longer a wait at the library.) Florida is a collection of short stories set mostly in (you guessed it) Florida. Lauren Groff is an absolutely stunning writer, but somehow in the short story format it just felt like she was showing off. Like, you can write this amazing prose for a 40-page story, but can you sustain it for a novel? (The laundry list of accolades her novels, which include Fates and Furies and The Vaster Wilds, have received suggest that yes, she can.)

Florida is intense and often heartbreaking. The characters’ stories are often every bit as oppressive as the Florida humidity that perhaps is driving them to make questionable choices. It’s hard to imagine reading this book in the winter, but in this muggy in-between season when it feels like fall will never come, only the edges of hurricanes, it fit right in. This isn’t a fun book, but if you can’t get to Disney, the stories will at least transport you to the eponymous state.

Little Golden Book

In honor of Michael Scott’s being not superstitious but a little stitious, I bring you The Office: Counting with Office Supplies! Here’s hoping UGA will snag that number one spot again. And I bet Kelly has had her colors done.

What’s your take on short story collections? Are you a football fan? Have you had your colors done? Let me know in the comments—I love hearing from you!

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