Can't believe it's been a year since the last election. It simultaneously went wildly fast and concerningly slow. Glad with the turnout and results yesterday, hoping there's real positive change from all this but I'm not holding my breath.

When we went to Japan back in May I got myself a fountain pen -- LAMY Safari with an EF tip. Also got a Pilot Coccoon and a Pilot Custom 74 for my partner. I've really been enjoying mine, but want a fatter nib so I'm exploring getting a second. If anyone has recommendations I'm all ears!

I have an app called "Merlin" that helps identify birds. It's really fun and works through either identifying by how the bird looks or by bird call identification. It alo shows likely birds by region and season. In addition to all that fun stuff, it gives you a bird of the day to watch for, based on likely birds for location and season. I've been using my fountain pen to do quick sketches of my bird of the day the past week and it's been fun. I can't draw for shit and I'm making them all one color, my rock pigeon looks deranged, my stellar's jay looks like it's trying to rob a bank, and my golden crowned kinglet is rotund as fuck. But it's fun. It's a nice 5 minute break from work every day.

Today is my grandmother's 89th birthday. She's got a broken back and was just discharged from a hospital to a SNF. Hoping she'll recover well but she's 89 and I'm not holding my breath. My partner and I are celebrating 4 years around now too. Time flies.

It's a specific type of electric work we need done so we need the specialist -- replacement of knob and tube. I'm also taking it as a good sign it means he's in demand and likely then does quality work.

Lol a little over a year at this point! Once or twice I've pulled from the home distilling one too because #bootlegpubski, but they tend to be heavily discussion based and pics of stills, not cocktails with homemade liquor. /r/firewater if you want to have some fun.

Just signed up for an electrician. They're busy, likely won't be able to come until January. Painting is slow going, we've done two windows of trim, one wall in the dining room, and the upper half of the bathroom (beadboard vs drywall). Taping is by far the worst part. And we don't even have colors picked out for the living room, kitchen, or primary bedroom yet.

Big shout-out to the cocktails reddit page for always having someone posting cocktail pictures it's been fun looking at them for a new pic every week.

Hope all is well with everyone!

VHT's top holdings include United Healthcare, JnJ, Eli Lilly, AbbVie, Abbott Labs, and Merck. Any large cap ETF you hold will have exposure to those already. I just wanted a bit more because I've been entrenched in the immorality of it all for a decade now and don't see it changing anytime soon. My general large cap ETFs (VOO and QQQ) have done better likely because tech exposure in those pulling it all up. But long term I'm unfortunately confident healthcare will continue to be used for shareholder profit and not for the benefit of people so I sought out some extra exposure.

Money in healthcare is a huge issue and I could soapbox about it for days but suffice to say it's long been an issue at every level of care and will continue to for the forseeable future.

It's far from my best performing asset but I do hold a few shares of VHT. The future retiree hopes to see it go up but the human in me wants it to disappear and end investable healthcare.

Shout-out to the people in the house behind ours who had their dog outside at midnight barking aggressively for 10 minutes, encouraging it and asking who is there, to them after 10 mins go "oh it's just the raccoon in the tree."

Finally got to break in our new grill with goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, jerk chicken with a homemade dry rub, and pineapple. Highly recommend that combo for a dinner it's delightful.

https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-recipes/spice-blends/homemade-jamaican-jerk-seasoning/

The bamboo is actually well contained directly in front of a massive retaining wall between us and the people behind us. I watch the garden to make sure it doesn't jump but the previous owner had few problems with it and looking at how it's growing I understand why. It's in a 6 inch thick cement box in front of the retaining wall. I'm ready to dig it all up eventually but that's not an immediate need. We'd want to replace it with something else that grows as tall and dense but is native, and that's the part I need to research.

Roof quotes were 13k and 25k without skylight. Skylight I had 5k because we're cutting in the new hole so leaving room for installation, drywall and attic work+insulation if need be.

We're lower than our neighbors behind us by a good 20 feet. The space is weird, the bamboo actually is well contained, part of it was dying off and so I trimmed it to actually help it grow back. There's a 10 ft retaining wall behind it, and then someone's yard and house. It's a lovely green wall that maybe one day we'll exchange for something else but that's not anytime soon.

We have the plug under the sink but need a switch. We could drill the countertop hole, didn't think of that thanks! I do think we could do the install ourselves, just a question of a switch for it.

We'll just over two weeks in and the job is great so far. Team is lovely and supportive, patient and willing to spend time to train. Truly a delight.

Partner's first few weeks of her PhD are going well too which is awesome. She's learning so many fun and terrifying things! Us epidemiologists are super fun at parties...

The house is going well. We probably need to drop 15k on electric to get rid of leftover knob and Tube that's burned through insulation and is still active. We need to spend another 15k on a roof and want to add in a skylight when we do that for an additional 5k. Turns out a beautiful garden is a ton of work. I spent two weekends thinning out a 6 ft by 3 ft patch of bamboo because it looked horrible and filled out compost bin twice, and bent the brand new pair of garden shears. Painting and even finding the right colors is a long and adventurous game, we've got most of the house chosen but still need a few rooms of color. Our doorbell broke, our washing machine plumbing is dripping, and our below kitchen sink stopper doesn't work, but we have a home warranty and all are covered, just trying to organize those contractors to come out and visit. And we need to add a garbage disposal because not having one sucks, but we need to add a switch in too, which means more electrician work. It's a neverending charade, and I am loving it even if it's too expensive.