Weekly Report: July 28th - August 3rd 2025

The Week in Summary:

• Taylor and I had the absolute pleasure of spending our staycation with my sister, Teegan, and her lovely partner, Cadence. Both flew in from Abbotsford to spend the week with us. Taylor and I are so grateful for our time together and we are excited to see them again (hopefully soon)! For the purposes of not retyping all of our names, all mentions of us together shall hereby be referred to as the Gang.
• Early on Monday morning, I went for a very rainy bike ride and read at the cafe over a dirty chai. In the afternoon, the Gang joined with Alexis and Katelyn to play mini golf. I haven't played mini-golf in over a decade and it really shows, but it was a great time to enjoy time together. While there, we all acquired tiny plastic animals (whomst we dubbed Mapp mapps, as we collectively agreed that this is the sound they make). Afterward, the Gang (minus Taylor who had to take an evening meeting) went to Cold Beer and Pizza on 17th Ave for their Roman-style pizza, obviously, and a peach slush.
• On Tuesday, in the spirit of celebrating Rand's 60th birthday, the Gang met up with Rand and Dan for a day at the zoo. It was Rand's first visit! We saw so many fantastic animals and plants, but my personal favourites included the North American Porcupine, Muskox, Rock Hyrax, East African Grey Crowned Crane - not to mention all the butterflies in the botanical garden. We went to Kensington Pub afterwards for some old-fashioned British cuisine.
• With Taylor working Wednesday, I took Teegan and Cadence down to Kensington to grab drinks and food at Higher Ground and shop at Pages. As someone who fancies a good bookstore, we also went to Shelf Life Books later in the day before getting sushi. On Thursday, we joined Alexis to head down to D6 to play Hues and Cues (described hues included "dirty bean" and "eggplant"). Afterwards, we went to get ramen down on 4th Street SW.
• For Friday, Rand picked us up and we stopped at Sentry Box to show Teegan and Cadence a family-favourite local board game shop. For the rest of the day, we spent time with the family playing board games (like 7 Wonders and Sequence) and enjoying Chinese take-out. The following day was Teegan and Cadence's last day and we took them down to Inglewood to show them the neighbourhood before they departed in the late afternoon.
• When we were not out and about with Teegan and Cadence, we all spent much of our time playing games together, including Chess (so much!) and Rotten Rummy (the Sanford special version of regular Rummy). We also took turns teaching each other Balatro, Little Big Planet, Bananagrams, and we all learned a new game called Red Flags together. In prepping for their visit, we purchased an enormous container of apple juice for Teegan, refreshed our matcha stash, and just generally did a little mad dash to try and make things as welcoming as we could for them! It truly was a blessing having them up after so long apart, and lovely to meet Cadence!
• With Taylor catching up with work on Sunday, I did a post-visit tidy, played Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, and read my new book on reality television all day on the couch. It was a good way to unwind, but admittedly, our home felt much emptier without our dear visitors.
• As for reading, this week, I finished reading John Vaillant's Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World and Maggie Helwig's Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community.

The Week in Images:

The Week in Links:

The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals – and you

Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies, the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and the organs of Antarctic penguins. But how do they travel through the world, and what do they do to the creatures that carry them? Here is the story of how plastic contaminates entire ecosystems – and even the food we eat

The GuardianPhoebe Weston