Microsoft outage
Was your workplace affected by the Microsoft outage yesterday? One colleague after another came by to ask if I was also having issues with email and the Internet. Yes, and I guess we were not the only ones. The Microsoft outage was global! Wow. I had no access to my email all day – which can be good and bad. Good, because you can get some things done uninterrupted. Bad, because you also can’t reach out to anyone (although Teams was only minimally affected and I was able to join a few meetings). All seems to be back to normal today.
I have the best friends
I received a lovely package from Kim this week. It totally made my day week! [THANK YOU!] She had talked about these Potato Sticks from Aldi on her blog, and I chimed in that they are super-popular in Germany and that I hadn’t had them in ages. I went on to complain that I didn’t have an Aldi near me and that I didn’t understand how they were not available in US stores… so she went ahead and sent me a couple of bags. So sweet!
But not just that, she also included one of her beautiful painted rocks! In case you didn’t know, Kim has been painting (and hiding) rocks for years now (I forget – did it start as a pandemic hobby? Or how did you get into it?) and she has her own Instagram account if you want to check it out. Her rocks are so, so beautiful, and I feel so lucky she gifted me this one. Jon asked who the package was from and then said: What a beautiful gift. You have the best friends. Yes. Yes, I do.
A craving
Wednesday was St. Martin’s Day, a catholic holiday that is celebrated in parts of Germany on November 11, and it made me crave the traditional pastry that is given out to the kids on St. Martin’s Day: a “Weckmann” (a pastry in the form of a gingerbread man, which is made from sweetened yeast dough), sometimes with raisins.
I shared the recipe a few years back, and I think I have to bake this weekend.
Go Mary!
Have you been following the Senate race in Alaska? I am still waiting for Mary Petola to be declared the winner. I’ve seen her in interviews on the news a few times, and she seems like such a level-headed, competent woman who would be a great representative! I really hope she’ll become the 56th Democratic Senator in the newly elected Congress.
Did you know that Alaska implemented ranked-choice voting in 2022? It allows voters to rank as many candidates as they’d like in order of preference, rather than selecting a single candidate on the ballot. If any candidate secures support from more than 50% of voters as their top choice, they win. But if nobody wins an outright majority, the count goes to a second round. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their supporters’ votes are redistributed to their second choice. That process continues until one candidate wins a majority.
I guess there are pros and cons for this voting system, but I personally believe it would help move away from this polarizing two-party voting system that has been so prominent in the US, and people could actually be comfortable giving their vote to the first-choice candidate, but with the option to select an alternative if their candidate is not viable.
When it rains, it pours
I found out today that between now and Christmas (which is – if you did the math – only a 5-week window), I will probably have to do three weeks of field work. I usually enjoy getting the opportunity to get out of the office every once in a while, but why does it always have to pile up like that during the holiday season? Part of me hopes for a rainout; part of me hopes for the weather to be kind, as we’ll probably have to go out in the rain anyway. The first of a series of forecasted storms moved in today, and it poured all day.
I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. #nablopomo2026
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