What are Side Quests, you ask? Well, I used to refer to them as Goals, but really, “Quest” is more fun as a concept, at least for us gamers. I don’t accomplish every quest I give myself, and sometimes I add quests during the year based on circumstances. For example, the year I got laid off, getting a new job became my highest priority quest.
For the most part, I try to spread my quests across various categories that I’ve deemed important, such as Garden, Fitness, and Finance (among others). Obviously, these will vary by person… one of my categories is “Garden,” which may be entirely irrelevant to you. An important factor is always making sure these quests are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. The SMART aspects helps in planning for achievable goals rather than setting your sights on something that may not be feasible in the time period you’re looking at. To use martial arts as an example, a white belt working towards a black belt in an achievable quest, but setting a deadline of a single year is not likely to be attainable.
I find that tracking my quests is also useful, so at the beginning of the year, I set up a document on my Google Drive listing them. Over the course of the year, I pop back into the document to make notes and mark when I complete items. Then at the end of the year, I copy that document for the layout as my base for the next year’s quests. In some cases, quests that I didn’t get to may be carried over to the next year, like some of the sorting and furniture rearranging that I didn’t get to in 2025. I’m kind of in a house organizing phase at the moment, so if I keep it up, I may complete that quest early this year.
What do you want to accomplish in 2026 and how do you track it?
As I mentioned in my previous post about Universal Yums, we purchased their Advent Calendar for this holiday season. Unlike the location-specific boxes, this was entirely sweet: candy and chocolate, as indicated on the box cover, and from a variety of locations. The back of the box (not pictured) has the entire ingredient list for all 24 varieties of candies, particularly useful if dealing with allergies.
The box opens up to reveal (not surprisingly for an Advent Calendar) 24 squares to open leading up to Christmas. Each one is decorated in a way that relates to the contents. For example, the box labelled 1 has illustrated pomegranates, and the candy was a pomegranate-flavored jelly candy from Greece. Each square contained 4 candies (except for that one with 5… yay, us!), mostly of the same flavor, though a couple squares were described as “assorted flavors” and came with a couple different flavors of the same candy to try.
The accompanying book included the bracket pages and information about each candy in order. My one complaint here is that the candies weren’t numbered on the information pages, which would have been useful for the elimination bracket. There is a QR code on the brackets pages to a PDF version, so each person participating can have their own copy to work through. This was helpful; our brackets diverged in several places, and ultimately resulted in different winners.
In my case, the finalists were a Lithuanian blackcurrant and melon-flavored candy and an Italian multi-colored chocolate square that included dark, milk, white, and hazelnut chocolate. Despite the inclusion of white chocolate, the “Novi Cuadro Quattro” was the winner in my bracket. I liked all of the candies to some degree – even the salty licorice caramel – and will be delighted to see what their future years’ Advent Calendars include.
In college, I spent a year abroad at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, which was a fabulous experience is so many ways, including my first Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) adventures. That’s not what comes to mind this time of year though. As the dorms closed over break, I went with the guy I was dating to his parents’ home near Edinburgh for most of the month we had off (with a fun-filled week in Paris for New Year’s). His parents were amazingly welcoming to this strange American he dragged home, including me in the family Christmas traditions.
On Christmas morning, I woke to find a stocking lying at the foot of my bed – rather than hung by a fireplace (not that we did that in Miami either) – and was amazed to find that every gift inside that stocking was individually wrapped! I recall being delighted as I unwrapped each gift, many of which were small Lego sets. (Oddly, I owned no Lego at all until that year. I certainly made up for it over the next few years.)
This year, in the midst of dealing with the delightful homeownership issues that I mentioned, I decided to do the same for my daughter… wrapping all of the stocking stuffers, that is, not the Lego sets part. (Don’t worry, we have plenty of Lego in the house.) I’ve thought about it in the past and never got around to it. After wrapping all of them, I realized that she’s the same age I was when I woke up to a stocking full of wrapped gifts, so I guess this was the perfect year to do it.
Almost two weeks ago now, it snowed – again – bringing our accumulated snow to a whopping 11 inches early in the season. It was warm enough that the snow was melting on the roof even as it was falling, causing an annoying drip drip drip outside my bedroom window, which I unfortunately noticed in the middle of the night. I suspect the persistent dripping off the edge of the gutters is partially due to the smaller width of the gutters after the siding and gutter work early last year; this was not a problem we had encountered before. A few hours later, I was sitting in the living room sorting embroidery thread and realized I could open the curtains for better lighting, as it was a sunny day and reasonably warm (for winter).
I was definitely not prepared for what I found! There was a puddle on the bay window bench and water damage on the window’s ceiling. I scrambled to clean it up, then move everything we had near the window out of the way, discarding a couple cardboard boxes after relocating their (fortunately undamaged) contents. It was a while before I returned to sorting my embroidery thread, followed by waves of cleaning, and as the snow continued melting, the realization that the afternoon heat (I use the term loosely, it was in the mid-30s) was causing a steady drip of snow melt and I wanted more than just a pair of towels in the window to mop it up.
Monday morning found me on the phone to the window company, who installed the window back in 2018, followed by reaching out to the company who redid our roof, siding, and gutters last year. The consensus is that nothing can be done until after the snow melts (did I mention 11 inches of accumulation?), my towel/bucket approach was the necessary approach for now, and the cause of the leak (likely the gutter work) needs to be fixed before the window can be. As the weather shifted back to cold (and colder… last Saturday’s high was 8 degrees), the drip temporarily abated, though it did return this afternoon in a sudden burst of warm weather (high of 48!). Hopefully enough has melted to clear the gutters of ice, though we’re not keeping the warm weather for long, so I’m not sure of the repair timing.
Another disaster struck Friday morning, at least for someone who works from home… our internet connection vanished mid-morning! Our neighbors use the same service, so I was able to verify that it was isolated to our house, and now know that the wire bringing fiber into our house can freeze at the box if water gets into the wrong spot, pushing the wires apart and breaking the connection. On the plus side, they were able to send a technician out that evening, though the poor guys were working in the dark by the time they got here.
As the title says, homeownership is not for the faint of heart. On the plus side, there’s chocolate. On the downside, I wonder if that’s why my glucose count was higher than usual on my annual blood test last week?
Over the summer, our local public library hosted a Yum Club event with treats from Taiwan. Having enjoyed that, we prioritized signing up for the next one when it was announced and were delighted to discover a variety of treats from Mexico.
Similar to our exploration of treats from Taiwan, Universal Yums provided full ingredients lists for every treat, as well as a paragraph with a detailed description and context for each of the treats. For example, one of the items was “Japanese-Style Coated Peanuts,” which is described as “an international fusion snack” and explains that they were created by a Japanese man who immigrated to Mexico in 1932. They’re quite popular, Mexico produces over 30,000 tons of them each year.
Most of the treats in this box were sweet, with only four of the thirteen items being savory. One of those, the Snacker Norteñitos Corn Chips with Chile placed first on my list, followed closely by the Las Sevillanas Obleas, a Caramel Wafer Cookie with Goat’s Milk. There were several people attending who didn’t care for caramel, so that cookie ranked low for many of the other attendees. My third choice was the Lupy Lups Sour, a Sour-Flavored Challenge Cotton Candy – easily the best pre-packaged cotton candy I’ve had. (When I was younger, I’d buy fresh spun cotton candy at festivals in Guatemala, and that’s hard to beat.)
All in all, a delightful experience, and an excellent precursor to the Universal Yums Advent Calendar that we’re currently working through. I expect I’ll share details about that adventure in the near future.
It feels like just yesterday that Cassandra posted about touching grass; it was actually two weeks ago, and the seasons have definitely shifted more towards the snowy side here in Chicagoland. In fact, the only place grass is visible in our yard is where we cleared paths to necessary areas, such as the birdfeeder and composter.
That said, it’s awfully pretty in a different way. The square lumps of the six matching raised beds amuse me, the leaves that fell after the snow (about 10 inches of shoveling, only 8 currently remaining), and the cluster of birds around the birdfeeder, scattering seeds all around it. It is the ideal time of year to appreciate the beauty of our garden… from the comfort of a heated house.
Mid-November found us back in Portland, this time joined by my sister, with the primary goal of the trip to visit with my aging grandmother, scheduled in short visits on alternating days so as to not overstay her energy levels. To those family and friends we did not manage to connect with on this trip or back in June, I offer my sincerest apologies.
As part of our effort to not overstay our welcome with Grandma, we once again stayed in downtown Portland with an amazing view of the riverfront and a couple blocks away from the Portland Saturday Market. What we somehow missed in June, possibly because of the later sunset, was the number of murders that appear at sunset by the river; Portland is apparently known for its crow population (among other things).
A snail at the Portland Aquarium
At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a sign that reads “ALL HAIL the Misfits Mischief Makers Creators and Collectors. Yours truly, the Rat King”
At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, a couple distressed-looking mushrooms and a butterfly along the carpeted slope for one of the holes.
At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, assorted characters looking on at the carpeted slope for one of the holes. Multiple carpet textures are in play, as well as some odd bumps.
At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, possibly the weirdest hole, requiring the player to either stand on a wobbly wooden log or use their golf club as a cue stick.
At Wonderwood Indoor Mini Golf, the continuation of the weirdest hole – the plinko adventure below depends on how far along the uneven, carpeted bridge your ball proceeds before rolling out again at ground level.
Portland is also a prime location for quirky art, or in the case of this blog post, quirky immersive art. We revisited the Portland Aquarium, vaguely justifying the repeat visit because my sister hadn’t been there yet, and a few days later, explored Mike Bennett’s other immersive art experience, the Wonderwood Restaurant & Indoor Mini Golf. While I have absolutely no golfing experience, I have played a few rounds of mini golf over the years, and this was by far the craziest set of holes I’ve played. (Please note that I’m not particularly good at mini golf. Par is something that exists for other players.)
In addition to Mike Bennett’s delightful art, I could tell we were in for something different when we noticed the plethora of extraneous holes at the first hole, with writing inside like “Nope”, “Wrong”, and “X” (which did not, in fact, mark the correct spot). In addition to odd patches of mismatched carpet texture, deliberate bumps in otherwise flat surfaces, one of the holes has you teeing off at chest level (depending on your height, of course), with the choice of standing on a wobbly log or a nearby step to hit the ball onto a narrow, unevenly cut, carpeted (with multiple textures) bridge above a plinko-style structure that drops your ball back out to ground level. While we had the option of playing again – your admission covers unlimited plays in the same day – we opted to escape (this time) across the street to a lovely yarn & book store.
A selfie of me wearing a cocktail shirt (no, really, it has line art of cocktails… and flamingos) with multicolor lights streaming across and behind me. Hanging lights at the Hopscotch Interactive Art Experience. The lights were constantly rotating between colors as you walked among the dangling strings.
A couple days later, we explored another nearby immersive art exhibit: Hopscotch. We weren’t sure what to expect from this one, I had picked up a brochure at the airport in the 20-minute gap between our flight arrival and my sister’s, so we were working from a single page description and photos, including “23,000 sq. ft. of total immersion in the unexpected” and “15 vibrant installations from 40+ local, national, and international artists.” This turned out to be another delightful experience, with some exhibits being harder to leave than others, like the colorfully lit trampoline room (not much bounce, but the wall lights are reactive to nearby activity) and a ball pit. Tickets do need to be purchased online, and if you’re visiting on a Saturday, ahead of time. Don’t show up like we did and be disappointed that it’s sold out, though that did offer us the opportunity to visit the nearby Hippo Hardware store and walk across the Burnside Bridge; we then pre-purchased tickets for Sunday.
If you know of other immersive art exhibits – anywhere! – I’d love to hear about them.
A couple years ago, I posted about my first MRI experience, which was for my hip. While I found the sound variance fascinating with a headset, this week, I experienced an MRI without one, and it was definitely annoyingly loud at various stages, even with the earplugs they provided. When it wasn’t too jarring, I was – as I was concerned about in my previous experience – bored.
I understand why I didn’t have a headset this time. Technically, I had two MRIs back-to-back: one of my spine and one of my brain. It’s safe to assume that they don’t want a headset showing up while scanning your head.
Good news! No concerns at all about my brain. Well, at least not on an MRI.
Bad news! We’re back to arthritis in my neck being the likely cause of the tingling in my fingertips that I have been experiencing since May. The EKG I mentioned back in July that was checking for nerve damage/carpal tunnel showed nothing significant, which led to me seeing my Primary Care Physician (PCP), who then referred me to Neurology.
On the plus side, the neurologist is amazing – attentive, taking notes, looking up possibilities while we were talking about my symptoms and eliminating options based on symptoms that I don’t have. She called me within a couple hours of the MRI results hitting the system to discuss what I should try next. I’ll schedule a follow up with her in a month or so to discuss the effectiveness of the latest possible solution.
I swear, from one day to the next, the trees suddenly changed color. I’m sure there was a progression, yet I somehow missed it. What I haven’t missed is the subsequent delivery of many of those beautiful leaves onto our lawn.
Three photos over the course of four days show the slow progression, most noticeably in the upper left branches, which are now creeping towards bare. It could be gradual from here, with more branches showing each day… or, as happens periodically when you live near the Windy City, a blusterous day could sweep in and shake the rest of those leaves lose. That already happened to a tree across the street.
*checks the weather forecast for the next week or so*
Done well before the first snow!
And, delightfully, done mulching for the season.
For those of you following along at home, we went through about 35 cubic yards of mulch this year, dispersing it to a mix of previously and newly mulched areas, such as around the raised beds in the vegetable garden (old) and creating a back perimeter path (new). Our most recent new spot, which finished out the mulch pile, is in the front yard, set up for a variety of fruit that will be growing in the area.
Normally, I’d say we’re done gardening for the season. It is, after all, November. But the growing season has been entirely weird, I picked some raspberries earlier this week and we have some white strawberries still, though I don’t expect those will have time to ripen. It’s warm enough that weeding can still happen, which is really just a head start for spring weeding.
