One thing that I completely forgot about during the last two weeks of travel was New iPhone Day. Mainly, I missed it because I was walking around London, but after checking in post-event, it’s not like I was interested in any sort of an upgrade. And that goes for almost everything Apple-related in the house right now; my iPad is just fine, thank you, and I’m still running happily on a 2021 M1 MacBook (okay, I slightly regret not getting an M5 last year before the AI companies bought up all the available RAM and SSD supplies, but on a day-to-day basis, the machine is just fine!). Mind you, if they release a new Apple TV in the next couple of months, I’ll be all over that, but that’s about my limit of Apple desire these days…

Anyway, I Spent My First Week This Weekend In Phoenix, Arizona, And I Think The Main Takeaway Is Anybody That Tells You, Oh Wow, It’s A Dry Heat, Is Somebody Who Can Just Be Ignored Because I Don’t Care If It’s A Dry Heat.

Seriously, try pushing a buggy in 40ºC heat — it’s just miserable whether it’s wet or dry! It was mostly a trip where Maeryn and I would explore things to do in the morning or sit in the hotel room whilst Tammy was busy at her conference, preferably without either of the two of us dying of heatstroke. There was a Children’s Museum a few blocks away from the hotel, which was a nice way to spend a few hours, but it did make me realize just how lucky we have it in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Museum Center is, you know, an actual museum with exhibits and stuff, not just “here’s a bunch of balls and things to play on”. Also, it’s the Hall of Justice. I will say that American indoor soft play is a step above from what I remember back home, too — we went to an indoor centre which had had a (very small) football pitch on the first floor along with a short racing circuit on the ground, multiple fast slides ready to inspire terror in the hearts of parents, and of course, a dance zone. Lots of fun. Although the purple slide almost killed me…

Our sleep schedule is completely wrecked with all the timezone shifting; we’d basically go to sleep almost as soon as we’d put Maeryn down while in Arizona, and then after coming home, we woke up at 9am on both Saturday and Sunday, an almost-unheard-of time of the day (normally, a small person in the house insists on a time between 6am and 7…). So the weekend has been shorter than expected. And we only have two weeks until the next set of flights…