Add weeknote for January 17-23, 2026

Week of Inuhele convention in Atlanta, swim meet, international food
exploration in Duluth, 3D printed cormorant pendant, and meeting
MeduSirena the fire-eating mermaid.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

content/posts/2026-01-23-weeknotes/index.md

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+---
+title: "Weeknotes: January 17–23, 2026"
+date: 2026-01-24T09:00:00-05:00
+draft: false
+description: The week started with chlorine and ended with rum. In between, international grocery exploration, storm anxiety, and a fire-eating mermaid who made me want to do more with my life.
+tags:
+  - weeknotes
+  - Inuhele
+  - CONpossible
+  - 3d-printing
+  - family
+---
+
+The week started with chlorine and ended with rum. In between: international grocery exploration, storm anxiety, and a fire-eating mermaid who made me want to do more with my life.
+
+---
+
+Saturday I spent at UGA's competition pool watching Juniper swim her way through another big high school meet. She's a sophomore, solidly JV, but this was a personal-records kind of day—first place heat finishes, times dropping, the whole arc of improvement visible in a single afternoon. The older kids will graduate. She'll be ready.
+
+Sunday took me to Duluth for the last in-person CONpossible staff meeting before the convention. But the real adventure was the food. Before the meeting I wandered through a Middle Eastern grocery store down the street from the hotel. Afterward I crossed to an enormous Vietnamese shopping center, which culminated in a truly excellent bánh mì eaten in the parking lot before the drive home. Duluth is a treasure trove of international markets and I've made it a habit to explore a new one each visit. I may never run out.
+
+Monday was MLK Day—a work holiday. Some years I join one of the local service projects, but this year I put the 3D printer to work on items for CONpossible and one beautiful cormorant pendant for Inuhele.
+
+![Close-up of a 3D printed cormorant pendant, hand-painted in black and silver with blue and gold accents, hanging on a black cord against a red shirt](cormorant-pendant.jpg)
+
+The cormorant isn't Inuhele's mascot, but it's a tropical, oceanic bird—adjacent to the traditional tiki imagery but my own. I wanted something that felt both handmade and a little fancy. A few hours of printing, a few more of careful painting, and I had something I was genuinely proud to wear.
+
+Tuesday and Wednesday were my only work days this week, and by Wednesday evening the weather forecast had solidified into something alarming: a potentially catastrophic ice storm arriving over the weekend, right when we'd be in Atlanta at Inuhele. I split my attention between actual work and storm preparation—weatherproofing the house, arranging extra care for the cats, packing for what might become a longer stay than planned. Tuesday night I managed dinner and drinks with a dear friend I hadn't seen in far too long. She's been traveling internationally and in-person sightings have been rare. It was good medicine before the anxious Wednesday that followed.
+
+---
+
+Thursday morning I finished freeze-proofing the house, then we drove to Atlanta for [Inuhele](https://inuhele.com) setup day. This is one of my favorite parts of being on staff: the transformation. You arrive at a generic hotel conference space and leave behind a tropical, kitschy paradise.
+
+![Person standing next to a large Creature from the Black Lagoon statue in a hotel hallway](creature-greeting.jpg)
+
+![Golden skeleton wearing a hat and lei, seated on a wooden barrel surrounded by ropes and nautical decor](skeleton-on-barrel.jpg)
+
+![Floral arch with tropical flowers at the entrance to the convention space](floral-arch-entrance.jpg)
+
+![Main Inuhele stage with thatched roof, tapa cloth backdrop, and peacock chairs under string lights](main-stage-setup.jpg)
+
+By Thursday night the space had become something else entirely.
+
+---
+
+Friday was the first full day of the convention. I'm the A/V and general tech support person for Inuhele, but my workload this year was genuinely light. Light enough that I could do it with a drink—or two—always in hand.
+
+![Evening scene at Inuhele with string lights, colorful lanterns, and attendees in Hawaiian shirts mingling](evening-atmosphere.jpg)
+
+![Mirror selfie showing Eric in tiki toga party attire: blue embroidered fez, purple sash draped as a toga over a tropical shirt, and the cormorant pendant](friday-outfit.jpg)
+
+![Two people in matching silver space suits at a mobile bar cart](space-couple-bar.jpg)
+
+![Hand holding a cocktail garnished with a lime wheel, cherry, ti leaf, and small hibiscus pick in an Inuhele-branded cup](inuhele-cocktail.jpg)
+
+I love this convention and the people who come to it. The creativity and silliness seem boundless. People show up in elaborate costumes, build themed room parties, treat the whole weekend as collaborative performance art.
+
+My favorite new person was [MeduSirena](https://www.instagram.com/fireeatingmermaid.medusirena/), billed as "the fire-eating mermaid." Her approach to art and performance mirrors my own sensibilities so closely—but she actually goes out and *does* it, full time. I only dabble. Watching her made me want to do more. Not necessarily fire-eating or mermaid-ing, but *something*. She's the kind of inspiration that sticks with you after the convention ends.
+
+---
+
+**Shipped:** One hand-painted cormorant pendant. The CONpossible prints are still on the printer, waiting for paint.
+
+**Noticed:** Duluth's international food scene keeps rewarding exploration. And MeduSirena reminded me that "dabbling" is a choice, not a constraint.
+
+**What's Next:** An ice storm was bearing down on Georgia as Friday ended. We were safely in Atlanta with the cats cared for at home, but the forecast looked bad. More on that next week. CONpossible prep continues—those prints need painting.
+
+**Vibe Check:** A week that built from routine through anxiety and released into something joyful.