07APR2024

Happy Solar Eclipse-eve! We're back from a great, much needed vacation at the beach, and feeling rejuvenated. Keeping fingers crossed that we don't pay the price for all the fun in the sun by having rain or cloud cover during the totality tomorrow.

On to the good stuff:

• ✈️ Flighty - The Flighty app for iOS is one of my travel essentials, and came in handy during all the travel this week-- It's a really thoughtfully designed, delightful app for tracking your flights and any relevant updates (delays, gate changes, etc). It routinely gives me updates on my flights faster than the airlines' own apps, and also offers a handy Live Activity view of how much time is left until your flight, and then how long until your arrival.
• 🌞 Proof 72-Hour Merino UPF Hoodie - I've written before about my love of the Proof 72-Hour t-shirt, but this trip was my first time putting their long sleeve, hooded version through its paces. Even thought it's technically Spring, the sun was doing its best Summer impression while we were out on the beach this last week. I was really impressed that it not only kept me from getting a savage sun burn, but the merino wool woven into the shirt made it dry ridiculously quickly and (most importantly) stay odor free. I brought just two of these shirts and alternated between them each day for 6 days of swimming in the ocean, hiking, and hanging at the bar... Remarkably, neither stink like they should from all the activity and both look clean enough to wear out to brunch.
• 🪨 The Comfort Crisis - Speaking of adventures, I recently finished this remarkable book and really enjoyed it. Michael Easter spends the book making the case for intentionally introducing more mental and physical discomfort in our lives to help us live healthier and happier. Bridging everything from Tibetan Buddhism to arctic hunting, Japanese Shinto practice to military-style rucking, the book has me all sorts of inspired to find new ways to stretch outside of my comfort zone.
• 👨‍✈️ Masters of Air - I was really excited to see this show when it first came out but ultimately was turned off by a few mediocre reviews. With a lot of time to pass on flights recently, I decided to give it a shot and am actually really enjoying it. Produced by the folks who did Band of Brothers and The Pacific, it tells the story of Allied bomber crews flying during WWII. It's alternately inspiring and grim, but really well done, with excellent production. That said, not sure I recommend watching on flights, like I have-- I guess it depends on your tolerance for seeing planes shot down and crashing while you, yourself are airborne.
• 🥣 Oats Overnight - This breakfast hack has been amazing for my wife and I, especially when balancing getting getting the kids out the door for school, trying to get lunches prepped, and get ready for work. The idea of overnight oats is far from new, but Oats Overnight brings a great twist by making a really healthy, tasty, high-protein variant with a ton of different flavors to choose from. All one has to do is dump a packet into a shaker bottle with milk or a milk variant, give it a good shake, and then toss it in the fridge overnight. The next morning, you've got a butt kicking fast breakfast ready to go.

That's it for this week, be well everyone!