I’ve been referring to the break between Christmas and New Year’s Day as “The Week Between” ever since I found John Roderick’s version of the songhttps://youtu.be/x5dlcUGZqGY?si=-mLBmvLWpsjqtbz5 by the same name on YouTube. I have been lucky that for much of my adult life, I have been able to take the week off and be home with the family, most appreciably since becoming a father.
The Week Between is a time to make some plans and do some things that you might not otherwise have time to do, although we are not inclined to do anything exotic or costly.
I have the lists of things I’ve spitballed doing in both DEVONThink and even Workflowy, and it’s fun to look at the notions I listed there. Usually we don’t end up doing many of them, but I like to have a list to check if we get bored.
This year’s Week Between was emblematic of our typical fun, with some new twists:
- True Detective: There’s not much new on that’s been interesting to watch, but in her style, Rhonda found herself watching the first season of True Detective while we prepped for Christmas dinner. I loved season one but never got back into the show after that, so we finished off Season One and then watch the second as well. I liked the second season much more than I thought I would have.
- Wonka: I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator when I was a kid, and both novels were magical escapes. I didn’t even know about the original Gene Wilder movie until I was well into adulthood! This musical, starring Timothy Chalamet (from the most recent take on one of my favorite novels, Dune) plays Willy Wonka in a non-canonical prequel to the original story. It’s excellent and dreary and colorful and magical and a lot of fun to watch.
- Bellview Winery: I’ve been sniffish about local wines for no good reason until recently, when I attended a celebration of life for a retired VPS employee at Bellview. I had a nice glass of their dry rosé and was well impressed. Rhonda and I have been meaning to go back and check it out, and our recent jaunt to Willow Creek Winery was so much fun that we resolved to get to Bellview. We went earlier this week and are getting ready to go again as I write this. It is considerably less expensive than Willow Creek but is quaint, charming, and offers equally good wine.
- Pitman, NJ: Pitman didn’t have much going for it when I was younger, save for a cool hobby shop and the Music Museum, but it has experienced a downtown-shopping-district renaissance along with other notable downtowns in South Jersey in the last decade or so (like Collingswood and Haddonfield). We went about a year ago while Aaron was at the Deptford Mall with his girlfriend and tried lunch at Merryman’s Pub (meh), a beer at a now-defunct brewery, browsed the guitars at Just Antiques, and bought some cookies from Just Cookies. This year, we hit Crave and the Crazy Cat for cookies and cupcakes, and grabbed a pour-over at Endgrain. The coffee took a while to brew, and because they were single origin, only served black. I asked for milk, and the barista repeated, firmly, that they only serve the single origin coffees black. OK, fine. (I can’t argue with the end product, which was delicious.)
- Leave the World Behind is an apocalyptic Netflix original film. It is complete with some very cool camera moves, a bleak and urgent vibe, and a wholly unexpected ending.
- Bonesaw Brewing: After Pitman, we hit Bonesaw for a German altbier, and an IPA. My alt was interesting and I was wholly unaware of the history of the style, which includes an age-old competition with another of my favorite styles, Kölsch.
- Toy Stores: The boys still collect, so we hit both House of Fun and Play with This, as so often happens with our Camden County trips (Joe even called ahead to find a coveted Mezco Dr Doom).
- I should be writing my essential software lists; I have macOS to cover, as well as iOS, but this year, I’m adding Windows software to my list. I really like Windows 11 and am keen to write about it and the software I’ve been using.
- Umi: We tried this sushi-forward buffet as part of our Camden County trip. It’s a good self-serve buffet experience if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s not gourmet or chill, but it’s kinda casino style. Fun.
1 “The Week Between” is originally on “One Christmas at a Time” album by Roderick and Jonathan Coulton