Life admin enjoyable + content material

Things break. This is a part of life, although at all times annoying to take care of. This week concerned fixing a number of issues.

Among them: the wallpaper within the eating room. When we renovated this home a number of years in the past, I selected a beautiful wallpaper for the eating room, little realizing that the entrance wall of the eating room was not notably properly insulated. This signifies that when issues get very chilly exterior (and thus the wall will get chilly) if the humidity isn’t completely calibrated in the home, we get condensation on the entrance wall and the wallpaper falls off. We thought we had cracked the code of precisely the place it wanted to be, and we made it via the very chilly stretch, however then we determined to lift the humidity degree a bit as a result of we have been via it however…one morning final weekend I woke as much as the wallpaper falling down. Again.

So I searched in my inbox for my paperhanging man’s e mail and positive sufficient, we final communicated on like Feb 19 2025 when it had occurred earlier than. Seems to be a recurring time of yr factor round right here! Fortunately final yr I had already purchased an additional roll of the wallpaper — simply in case! — and he had a small spot in his schedule to squeeze us in. So that obtained fastened Wednesday.

(Yes, I’ve debated simply tearing all of it down and portray that room however…it’s fairly. And perhaps it gained’t occur once more?)

Also on the checklist this week: My 2011 automobile. The “check oil level” gentle would come on (with an annoying ding) each time I turned sharply or went over a bump. While the oil wasn’t at a low sufficient degree the place it could truly require fast altering, I suppose it was sloshing round — in all probability a results of issues not working completely proper as a result of the automobile is simply outdated. With all of the potholes now we have round right here proper now the factor was dinging a dozen instances in a brief drive. So I introduced that in to get fastened. I’m simply shy of 100,000 miles (I solely drive this automobile domestically – we use the van for household journeys – although did I point out I dinged the passenger door of the van two weeks in the past?) and I talked with them in regards to the really helpful upkeep for 100k miles and the stuff concerned would mainly be greater than the automobile is value. So, debating that. I actually don’t wish to go purchase a automobile.

Sadly, our bodies require upkeep too. I noticed that loads of my annual test up stuff was in March final yr which suggests theoretically I must be scheduling all that once more too. Was it actually a yr in the past? I made two of the youngsters’ properly go to appointments. Eventually I’ll get to the 2 others.

In the meantime: this week’s content material! Over at Before Breakfast I interviewed Farnoosh Torabi, host of the So Money podcast, and in addition the co-host of a brand new hyper-local podcast all about Montclair, NJ. Local journalism is staying sturdy in a brand new approach, which I believe may be very cool.

In the quick episodes, I speak about the right way to “Make your own magic” — you’ve got the ability to create no matter enjoyable you wish to see in your life — and about “One way to make your inbox more fun.” Sending emails to individuals you want is an efficient technique to get good emails again!

Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack publication, I’m writing about the right way to “Calm the chaos” — 9 little methods to make a schedule much less disturbing. I’m additionally writing about the right way to “Keep people from misspelling your name” (a perennial challenge with a reputation like “Vanderkam”). Behind the paywall I wrote about “7 small wins you can achieve by Sunday night.” People typically chew off greater than they’ll chew on weekends, but it surely’s enjoyable to hit the tip of the weekend feeling like you’ve got truly completed one thing.

Thank you for supporting my work! A fast reminder that Big Time will likely be out in lower than 3 months. Pre-orders are useful for exhibiting booksellers that folks will wish to learn this — so in case you can pre-order out of your favourite retailer that may be wonderful. If that’s not within the playing cards proper now, please contemplate asking your library to order the guide. Patron requests affect what number of copies any given library will purchase (plus in case you request it now you might be able to get in entrance of the queue to test it out, relying on how your library maintain system works). Thank you!

Photo: Still snowy mid-week, however nearly all of that is gone now. Though we’d get extra Sunday…