RETROSPECTIVE

[lizardek]

t's been another crazy pandemic year and it's still ongoing so I don't expect a lot from 2022 at this point. We are all managing to stay healthy, even though as I write this Anders is coughing. Bo>th he and Karin came down with colds over Christmas week, but have tested negative multiple times and he's at the very tail end of his. I am back at work as of Monday but it's another short week, only 3 days, so a nice soft start to the year. Martin and I just finished the super hard jigsaw puzzle of a map of Paris that my friend Camilla gave me, and we have 2 more 1000-piecers to do, so might get a start on one of them this afternoon.

Family & personal highlights of 2021

• Doing a 5K every month of the year
• Karin moving to a new apartment in Lund
• Karin and Anders spending a week skiing in northern Sweden
• The whole family getting vaccinated against COVID-19
• Anders and Liz celebrating 25 years of marriage
• An anniversary trip to Gotland
• Axis calling Karin for a new job
• Anders putting the final touches on the porch
• A new Tesla!
• Martin moving home to Sweden after 4 years in the US!
• Karin's trip to Mallorca
• My mom moving into her new place in South Carolina
• Martin getting a job at TUGG in Lund
• Being able to celebrate our annual Friendsgiving again
• Having the 4 of us all together for the holidays

I feel like a read a LOT of books this year, and just now when I checked my stats on Goodreads, I find that my feeling is correct! I read a whopping 101 books this year (really 101.5 since I'm in the middle of a huge book right now). That's my third highest total since I started keeping track on Goodreads in 2011. It probably helped that I was able to read at lunch so much while working from home most of the year!

Best books of 2021 (in no particular order and not including re-reads)

• The Chronicles of St. Mary's by Jodi Taylor
• I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
• Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore
• The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman
• Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson
• The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
• Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Why Peacocks? by Sean Flynn
• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
• Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman
• Sourdough by Robin Sloan
• The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken
• The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
• A Psalm for the Wild-built by Becky Chambers
• Fuzz by Mary Roach
• Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon

Martin basically kept me supplied with new music this year, consistently adding songs and artists to my playlist.

Best new music artists of 2021

• Julia Kwamya
• Mitski
• BENEE
• Mina Okabe
• Oslo Ibrahim
• Arlo Parks
• Remi Wolf
• Daði Freyr

In 2021, we watched a lot of series and movies again, though I watched fewer movies by far than the year before. I watched only 41 films this year, compared with 63 in 2020, but I watched more series, clocking in at 31 different ones for 2021. In no particular order:

The movies I enjoyed the most in 2021 were: The Half of It, The Dig, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Birdman, Free Guy, Dune, Encanto, and Spiderman-No Way Home.

The new (to me) series I enjoyed the most and recommend were: Barry, Dickinson, Fråga Lund, Bäst i test, Lupin, Mare of Easttown, La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), Over the Garden Wall, Sex Education, Six Feet Under, Ted Lasso, The Last Man on Earth, The Mandalorian, and Welcome to Earth.

Some manageable goals for 2022

• Visit my mom and sister in the US
• Visit my brother and meet my niece before she turns 2
• Anders' 60th birthday trip and party
• Renovate the kitchen
• Shed the pandemic pounds: WALK WALK WALK
• Continue to stay COVID-free

It's very weird to think that tomorrow starts 2022, which sounds like something out of one of my sci-fi books. We are spending the evening tonight with our good friends Mats and Annelott while the kids are out with a few of their respective friends (small circles due to the ongoing pandemic) and I expect tomorrow and the rest of the weekend before I have to start work again will be very quiet. Happy New Year!