"You Wouldn't Steal A Gender" and "I Would Definitely Steal A Gender" badges, in exactly the font you'd expect.
What I’ve Just Finished Reading
Agnes Hewes’ The Codfish Musket, third and last in her trio of boring 1930s Newbery Honor winners. I can only imagine that the committee felt that the “Rah rah MANIFEST DESTINY” message was good for the Youth, because my God these books are dull. How can books be so dull when there are so many deadly conspiracies?
But maybe it’s because Hewes is actually not great at deadly conspiracies. The best part of this book by far is the non-deadly middle, when our hero Dan Boit goes to Washington and accidentally becomes Thomas Jefferson’s secretary after he finds Jefferson’s lost notebook full of observations about when the first peas come up and the frogs start peeping.
In modern-day Newbery Honor winners, I finished Chanel Miller’s Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, a short and charming tale in which Magnolia and her new friend Iris try to return orphaned socks from Magnolia’s parents’ laundry to their owners. In the process, they explore New York City and learn more about the denizens of their neighborhood.
I also read Susan Fletcher’s Journey of the Pale Bear, about a Norwegian boy accompanying a captured polar bear to England as a present for the king. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Fletcher wrote a related picture book, but that focuses more on the bear’s experiences, while this is more about the boy and the boy-meets-bear of it all. Who among us has not wished for a bear friend!
What I’m Reading Now
In Our Mutual Friend, Lizzie Hexam’s father has DIED. This may be a lucky escape for him, as he was about to be arrested on suspicion of murder (at the word of his wicked lying former business partner), but I’m very concerned what will become of poor Lizzie.
My suspicion that Mr. Rokesmith is in fact the dead John Harmon has only grown stronger as he has insinuated himself in the Boffin household as an unpaid secretary. What is his ultimate goal here? A more suspicious soul than Mr. Boffin might wonder who on earth would offer himself up as a secretary without pay, and consider the possibility of embezzlement, but blessed Mr. Boffin is not concerned a bit.
What I Plan to Read Next
Onward in the Newbery books! I am ten books from the end of the historical Newberies, and I intend to finish the project while Interlibrary Loan is still alive.
Agnes Hewes’ The Codfish Musket, third and last in her trio of boring 1930s Newbery Honor winners. I can only imagine that the committee felt that the “Rah rah MANIFEST DESTINY” message was good for the Youth, because my God these books are dull. How can books be so dull when there are so many deadly conspiracies?
But maybe it’s because Hewes is actually not great at deadly conspiracies. The best part of this book by far is the non-deadly middle, when our hero Dan Boit goes to Washington and accidentally becomes Thomas Jefferson’s secretary after he finds Jefferson’s lost notebook full of observations about when the first peas come up and the frogs start peeping.
In modern-day Newbery Honor winners, I finished Chanel Miller’s Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, a short and charming tale in which Magnolia and her new friend Iris try to return orphaned socks from Magnolia’s parents’ laundry to their owners. In the process, they explore New York City and learn more about the denizens of their neighborhood.
I also read Susan Fletcher’s Journey of the Pale Bear, about a Norwegian boy accompanying a captured polar bear to England as a present for the king. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Fletcher wrote a related picture book, but that focuses more on the bear’s experiences, while this is more about the boy and the boy-meets-bear of it all. Who among us has not wished for a bear friend!
What I’m Reading Now
In Our Mutual Friend, Lizzie Hexam’s father has DIED. This may be a lucky escape for him, as he was about to be arrested on suspicion of murder (at the word of his wicked lying former business partner), but I’m very concerned what will become of poor Lizzie.
My suspicion that Mr. Rokesmith is in fact the dead John Harmon has only grown stronger as he has insinuated himself in the Boffin household as an unpaid secretary. What is his ultimate goal here? A more suspicious soul than Mr. Boffin might wonder who on earth would offer himself up as a secretary without pay, and consider the possibility of embezzlement, but blessed Mr. Boffin is not concerned a bit.
What I Plan to Read Next
Onward in the Newbery books! I am ten books from the end of the historical Newberies, and I intend to finish the project while Interlibrary Loan is still alive.
I had played a bit of Cookie Run Kingdom in the past but deleted it off my phone as not much for playing games on my phone. However, a mix of what I was learning about the character Shadow Milk cookie and finding out that I can not play the game on pc has gotten me back in the game.
I've been playing a lot.
One of the funniest things to me in Cookie Run is when your team has a cookie in it that appears in the plot. Just a Strawberry Crepe cookie in my group and there she is on the other side.
At that point I often like to say "Well, one of us will have to change."
I'm hoping to get Shadow Milk at some point. Some day.
I've been playing a lot.
One of the funniest things to me in Cookie Run is when your team has a cookie in it that appears in the plot. Just a Strawberry Crepe cookie in my group and there she is on the other side.
At that point I often like to say "Well, one of us will have to change."
I'm hoping to get Shadow Milk at some point. Some day.
The official theme for World Book Day 2025 is:
"Read Your Way: Diverse Books for Every Mind"
This theme emphasizes the importance of inclusion and diversity in reading. It encourages readers to explore different voices, perspectives, and cultures through literature, promoting empathy and global understanding.
( Read more... )
"Read Your Way: Diverse Books for Every Mind"
This theme emphasizes the importance of inclusion and diversity in reading. It encourages readers to explore different voices, perspectives, and cultures through literature, promoting empathy and global understanding.
( Read more... )
Good news includes all the things which make us happy or otherwise feel good. It can be personal or public. We never know when something wonderful will happen, and when it does, most people want to share it with someone. It's disappointing when nobody is there to appreciate it. Happily, blogging allows us to share our joys and pat each other on the back.
What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?
What good news have you had recently? Are you anticipating any more? Have you found a cute picture or a video that makes you smile? Is there anything your online friends could do to make your life a little happier?
Insects are disappearing due to agriculture -- and many other drivers, new research reveals
New paper highlights 500+ interconnected drivers behind global insect decline.
Insects are disappearing at an alarming rate worldwide, but why? Agricultural intensification tops the list of proposed reasons, but there are many other, interconnected drivers that have an impact, according to new research.
( Read more... )
New paper highlights 500+ interconnected drivers behind global insect decline.
Insects are disappearing at an alarming rate worldwide, but why? Agricultural intensification tops the list of proposed reasons, but there are many other, interconnected drivers that have an impact, according to new research.
( Read more... )
I mentioned that last night the truck very suddenly started sputtering and running extremely rough, and the check engine light came on.
We took the truck over to a local auto parts store to get a read on the code for the check engine light. They said the most likely culprit was an ignition coil, causing misfires in one of the cylinders. That was one of the potential things I'd seen on the list of possible causes for the rough idle. Pretty firmly on the lower end of the middle of "how fucked are we," so that was a relief. (So glad it wasn't "fuel pump" money.)
So we took it to the usual shop we use. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it tomorrow, and they would have to do their own diagnostic rather than relying on the code, which was fine. They'd give me a call tomorrow morning to let me know the results of their diagnostic and talk costs and recommendations and such.
Mom loaned us her second car, since Taylor doesn't typically go in to the office anymore, so we could get around until then.
-
Turned out Jaspurr was at the vet (same vet that we were at yesterday) for surgery. :( Poor boy had a lump on his abdomen, so they were removing and biopsying it.
Got the excellent news that it was just a fatty lump, and did not need to be biopsied!
-
I was just about to take a nap, when the auto place called. They were able to get it in today (initially I was told it was the main tech's day off, so couldn't get it looked at until tomorrow; apparently someone else was available today!)
They did not think it was the ignition coil, they thought it was the spark plugs. They wanted to replace the spark plugs plus do an injector system service. I misheard the initial quote and thought it was super high, like four figures; it was not, haha. It was within the general range I'd been expecting. (Which I wasn't *delighted* to pay, but when I balked at my misheard price, he offered a discount to bring it down slightly, ha.)
They got the work done by the end of the afternoon, but when he called back he said the spark plugs hadn't fixed the issue... because it turned out it was the ignition coil. *Facepalm* (They say that the coil was fine when they tested it earlier, because they swapped a good coil for the potentially bad one, and the problem persisted, which was why they'd ruled it out; maybe the coil and a spark plug both failed?)
They replaced the spark plugs and the ignition coil. He gave us the coil at-cost (which was cheaper than we could have gotten it if we'd bought it ourselves; we priced them at the auto parts place when we got the code read) and didn't charge any extra labor for it. He also completely comped the system service that they did, so the total wound up only being $14 over the original estimate. In exchange for the discount, he just asked that we leave a nice review, which I did.
The truck is now running fine! It might be even smoother than it was prior to the problem starting last night; it hadn't been having issues that made me want to take it in, but occasionally a little roughness that I wasn't noticing this evening. So perhaps that coil had been on the way out for a while.
Not the best timing in the world, and I spent a good part of last night and this morning fighting through the chest pain and horrible nausea and prickling scalp of massive fucking anxiety, but I'm glad it's sorted out, that it didn't happen at a *worse* time.
We took the truck over to a local auto parts store to get a read on the code for the check engine light. They said the most likely culprit was an ignition coil, causing misfires in one of the cylinders. That was one of the potential things I'd seen on the list of possible causes for the rough idle. Pretty firmly on the lower end of the middle of "how fucked are we," so that was a relief. (So glad it wasn't "fuel pump" money.)
So we took it to the usual shop we use. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it tomorrow, and they would have to do their own diagnostic rather than relying on the code, which was fine. They'd give me a call tomorrow morning to let me know the results of their diagnostic and talk costs and recommendations and such.
Mom loaned us her second car, since Taylor doesn't typically go in to the office anymore, so we could get around until then.
-
Turned out Jaspurr was at the vet (same vet that we were at yesterday) for surgery. :( Poor boy had a lump on his abdomen, so they were removing and biopsying it.
Got the excellent news that it was just a fatty lump, and did not need to be biopsied!
-
I was just about to take a nap, when the auto place called. They were able to get it in today (initially I was told it was the main tech's day off, so couldn't get it looked at until tomorrow; apparently someone else was available today!)
They did not think it was the ignition coil, they thought it was the spark plugs. They wanted to replace the spark plugs plus do an injector system service. I misheard the initial quote and thought it was super high, like four figures; it was not, haha. It was within the general range I'd been expecting. (Which I wasn't *delighted* to pay, but when I balked at my misheard price, he offered a discount to bring it down slightly, ha.)
They got the work done by the end of the afternoon, but when he called back he said the spark plugs hadn't fixed the issue... because it turned out it was the ignition coil. *Facepalm* (They say that the coil was fine when they tested it earlier, because they swapped a good coil for the potentially bad one, and the problem persisted, which was why they'd ruled it out; maybe the coil and a spark plug both failed?)
They replaced the spark plugs and the ignition coil. He gave us the coil at-cost (which was cheaper than we could have gotten it if we'd bought it ourselves; we priced them at the auto parts place when we got the code read) and didn't charge any extra labor for it. He also completely comped the system service that they did, so the total wound up only being $14 over the original estimate. In exchange for the discount, he just asked that we leave a nice review, which I did.
The truck is now running fine! It might be even smoother than it was prior to the problem starting last night; it hadn't been having issues that made me want to take it in, but occasionally a little roughness that I wasn't noticing this evening. So perhaps that coil had been on the way out for a while.
Not the best timing in the world, and I spent a good part of last night and this morning fighting through the chest pain and horrible nausea and prickling scalp of massive fucking anxiety, but I'm glad it's sorted out, that it didn't happen at a *worse* time.
Yesterday was paperwork day. I drew diagrams of how things should be set up in the arena for our two arena based events and then printed out diagrams of how the obstacles work. That info is for the setup crew. Next will be judges paperwork.
The roof is almost complete. Now we are waiting for the ridge vent materials. Apparently it will be a couple more weeks before they arrive, which is fine, there is no real rain in the forecast, and the roofers say that the roof is watertight in any case. Michael says my sprinkler pipes are done, but I haven't picked them up yet.
This morning Donald and I "brushed out" a trail. I had failed completely to drain the muddy swamp at the bottom of Buckeye pasture, it is still a churned up, gloppy mess so we needed an alternate route. Yesterday Carrie and I walked a path from the east Clover Flats gate down the canyon to a point just past the swamp. For years people have wound their way up and down the south side of the stream, dodging trees and low limbs. It is a really pretty area when you aren't ducking something. Unfortunately dozens of trees have been out competed by their neighbors, died and fallen or partially fallen, all along the route. Other trees have branched out to take their place. The resulting tangle of dead wood and new branches has effectively blocked all reasonable routes. Even the cows; who are masters of forcing their way through; had problems. I chainsawed while Donald cleared up for about 4 1/2 hours before I felt the trail was clear and would be nice to ride. This trail will make a great trail link across the bottom of Jungle Pasture.
The roof is almost complete. Now we are waiting for the ridge vent materials. Apparently it will be a couple more weeks before they arrive, which is fine, there is no real rain in the forecast, and the roofers say that the roof is watertight in any case. Michael says my sprinkler pipes are done, but I haven't picked them up yet.
This morning Donald and I "brushed out" a trail. I had failed completely to drain the muddy swamp at the bottom of Buckeye pasture, it is still a churned up, gloppy mess so we needed an alternate route. Yesterday Carrie and I walked a path from the east Clover Flats gate down the canyon to a point just past the swamp. For years people have wound their way up and down the south side of the stream, dodging trees and low limbs. It is a really pretty area when you aren't ducking something. Unfortunately dozens of trees have been out competed by their neighbors, died and fallen or partially fallen, all along the route. Other trees have branched out to take their place. The resulting tangle of dead wood and new branches has effectively blocked all reasonable routes. Even the cows; who are masters of forcing their way through; had problems. I chainsawed while Donald cleared up for about 4 1/2 hours before I felt the trail was clear and would be nice to ride. This trail will make a great trail link across the bottom of Jungle Pasture.
Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg
Apr. 22nd, 2025 11:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperslistI've found a lady who has the same sort of shape as me, who dances the same kind of dance that I would love to dance. She has such precision and confidence-verging-on-arrogance and strength and lyricism and sweetness. I don't know that I can get my creaky old, arthritic person to do some of the things she does (that back bend!) but I love her sense of theatre. I love how she has combined bellydance with inspiration from sci-fi and theatre to make something that is very unique.
Much though I like dancing, I haven't been able to find any genuine love in my heart for the whole 'scantily clad get in touch with your inner goddess who is also a sexy flirt' malarky, chiefly because I don't think I have an inner goddess of any kind, let alone a sexy one. But as a writer I 100% have an inner Evil Galactic Emperor, or an inner hero or villain character of a sort that I can lean into.
So I the new dance I am now wrestling with is inspired by the plot in Stargate Universe in which Chloe - experimented on by aquatic aliens - fears she is losing her humanity, even while she grows stronger and more intelligent.
My question was, why the heck wouldn't you embrace that? Super strength? The ability to do maths? Sign me up.
I've just got to find a way of expressing this in dance.
Today is mostly sunny and warm with a light breeze, a beautiful spring day. :D
I fed the birds. I've seen several sparrows and house finches, two brown-headed cowbirds, a mourning dove, and two fox squirrels.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 4/22/25 -- We went out shopping. I picked out roughly 5 flats of plants at DeBuhr's. We found a garden hose, nozzle, and reel plus a gas can at Home Depot. Also at Home Depot I spotted a modular garage storage system that looks very promising. It has mounting rails for shelves and a wide variety of hooks. That ought to combine well with a pegboard.
EDIT 4/22/25 -- I planted a 'Sugar Snack' cherry tomato and a 'Yellow Pear' tomato in the large pots by the septic garden, each with 4 marigolds around it.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
I fed the birds. I've seen several sparrows and house finches, two brown-headed cowbirds, a mourning dove, and two fox squirrels.
I put out water for the birds.
EDIT 4/22/25 -- We went out shopping. I picked out roughly 5 flats of plants at DeBuhr's. We found a garden hose, nozzle, and reel plus a gas can at Home Depot. Also at Home Depot I spotted a modular garage storage system that looks very promising. It has mounting rails for shelves and a wide variety of hooks. That ought to combine well with a pegboard.
EDIT 4/22/25 -- I planted a 'Sugar Snack' cherry tomato and a 'Yellow Pear' tomato in the large pots by the septic garden, each with 4 marigolds around it.
As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.
It's a warm today and I am itchy and sweaty. I have spent two days in the shed, pulling out boxes and cleaning up spider webs and mouse poop. SO MUCH MOUSE POOP. And one dead mouse.
I'm taking a break right now. when I go back outside I'll stack the things that I know are staying out there onto the shelves and finish taking the rest of it into the house. Then I'll finish going through the boxes. This is the last place in the house to be cleaned out and I've already found the paining supplies box, so I'll make a list of whatever I'm missing and tomorrow I'll hit the hardware store. I'll also be able to make the final get-things-out-of-the-house push so maybe that will make some room to empty the storage unit. We'll see.
While I'm working I'm also taking pictures of all the stuff the contractor didn't finish. I keep noticing new things, like spotting a new light switch leading me to a light fixture that was never installed. I should also take screenshots of the text messages where I repeatedly asked for receipts I never got.
Everything is taking too long. I keep offering to give money to people for help and they keep not showing up. Which in itself is frustrating. Like if you're not available, fine! But tell me so I can make other plans!
Lord Brock is doing well except for shouting at me whenever I come back from outside because how dare I not be in the room when he decides he wants to sit on me.
I should probably book a massage on the last day of the week. I already feel like somebody beat me up and it's only Tuesday.
Right. Back to the salt mines.
I'm taking a break right now. when I go back outside I'll stack the things that I know are staying out there onto the shelves and finish taking the rest of it into the house. Then I'll finish going through the boxes. This is the last place in the house to be cleaned out and I've already found the paining supplies box, so I'll make a list of whatever I'm missing and tomorrow I'll hit the hardware store. I'll also be able to make the final get-things-out-of-the-house push so maybe that will make some room to empty the storage unit. We'll see.
While I'm working I'm also taking pictures of all the stuff the contractor didn't finish. I keep noticing new things, like spotting a new light switch leading me to a light fixture that was never installed. I should also take screenshots of the text messages where I repeatedly asked for receipts I never got.
Everything is taking too long. I keep offering to give money to people for help and they keep not showing up. Which in itself is frustrating. Like if you're not available, fine! But tell me so I can make other plans!
Lord Brock is doing well except for shouting at me whenever I come back from outside because how dare I not be in the room when he decides he wants to sit on me.
I should probably book a massage on the last day of the week. I already feel like somebody beat me up and it's only Tuesday.
Right. Back to the salt mines.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/04/protests-erupt-across-the-uk-after-supreme-court-ruled-against-trans-rights/
Many many pictures.
Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.
Many many pictures.
Also, more protests yet to come, apparently, with ones scheduled for Oxford and Cambridge.
The following is a growing reading list for the ReadPalestinianSpecFic challenge. This is a work in progress to create a list of all available Palestinian speculative fiction.
(Cy and Bella, sleeping.)
Today was annual vet visit day for both dogs. (It's a little hard to believe it's been more than a year since Cy's emergency vet health scare.)
They each got their physical exams and their leptospirosis shots.
Cy is only down about a half pound from last year, and while I'd *like* him to gain a pound or two, that's pretty good. Bella has dropped a couple pounds, which is odd, because she doesn't look like she's lost weight. But we'll try to get a couple more pounds on her. (She's close to the weight she was when we first brought her home, and she looked *terrible* then; she looks pretty good now.)
Both of them were very good for their exams. Cy of course always is, but even Bella handled it well. She is NOT a fan of getting her temperature taken, and jumped pretty hard when she got her lepto shot, but she did great. Cy was just happy to be getting so much attention and didn't react at all to his shot.
Cy appears to have a lingering mild ear infection. He had one a while back (started right before the handful of days I'd stayed at my mom's) but we thought it had cleared up. There wasn't any visible gunk and he'd stopped the head-shaking. It's not serious, but still there. The vet gave him a topical antibiotic (a nice tube of goop squirted into the ear). She also showed me how to clean out his ears and gave me an easy recipe to mix up to help with it. (I hadn't been going quite deep enough when I was cleaning them, turns out.) Can't clean it out for two weeks, as the antibiotic is supposed to stay in there, so he's gross and slimy with antibiotic ointment until then, haha.
He also had a little gum inflammation around his bad teeth, though not nearly as bad as it has been in the past. He's too old to want to do a full tooth-cleaning under anesthesia, but she did as much tartar removal as she could. He also got a short course of antibiotics for the gums + the ear.
We'll get the results of his bloodwork in a few days. He has a refill of his Rimadyl, but the results of the bloodwork will determine whether we can keep him on it. (I hope so - it seems to help him quite a bit.)
The tech said he was just so good for his blood draw and his teeth cleaning, ha. (I believe it for the blood draw; I am more skeptical that he was good about his teeth.)
-
Bella also then got to go on a long walk around a local lake (after Cy got dropped off at home), so she had a Very Big Day.
-
Of course, the very day that I had to drop several hundred dollars at the vet, the truck very suddenly started sputtering and running EXTREMELY rough and the check engine light came on. Fuuuuuuuck.
So we will have to take it in tomorrow and find out what the problem is. It could be anything from "replace the fuel filter" or "replace a spark plug" to "your fuel injector is fucked" or "your catalytic converter is fucked". So I'm really hoping it's on the simple end instead of the "we're fucked" end, but I am very afraid to find out which it is.
Recently I bought a little fern, so I'm making a new terrarium. You can also see the previous Antique Jar Terrarium.
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( Read more... )