I'm not hot shit in a wineglass, more curried goat in a paper cup

It's that time of year, again

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 20:10:16 GMT

When we get ready to send cards out.

If you have changed your address within the past two years, please send me a private message, because I'm really bad at updating things and just realized that I hadn't updated my holiday cards list from last years changes. ;)

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warning

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 13:07:48 GMT

Audiobook, "In the Lives of Puppets" by TJ Klune, narrated by Daniel Henning. I mean, I don't want to stop you if you like this kind of thing, but if you're down for simplistic writing and slow, scene-chewing narration, go for it. Love is love, I won't judge you. In fact, if you read this and you have read the book and you think it redeems itself, please let me know and I might give it a second chance.

AudioFile Magazine claims: "a queer/sci-fi retelling of 'Pinocchio'. This laugh-out-loud, emotional audiobook asks listeners to question what it means to be human." Library Journal claims "Henning does a phenomenal job capturing ... the heartless, bloodthirsty Nurse Ratched and the anxiety-ridden robot vacuum Rambo".

Okay, I should have been clued in by the fact that TJ Klune is a New York Times bestselling author, and that he picked names for his robot characters of Nurse Ratched and Rambo. I very rarely like anything that the New York Times endorses. But I love sci-fi, queer and humor, so I was really looking forward to it.

I listened to the first chapter because I was on a walk, it was cold, and I didn't want to stop and expose my fingers to the wind for long enough to turn it off.

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Weird call

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 17:14:01 GMT

I just got a call from my mother's cousin (who I think is possibly younger than me by a year?) who has Alzheimer's (brought on by COVID). I wondered for a while if he'd just kind of random dialed, but by the time we closed out he said, "I love you [Derien]".

Somehow I also said I would try to print out some pics of family for him, because he asked me years ago to send some and I only within the past year sent a thumb drive which his wife hasn't got a computer to look at them with. And it would be a whole lot easier for him to look at something tangible in his hand.

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On bereavement leave

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 16:19:26 GMT

Traveling back from the Celebration of Life for Nancy. So many wonderful interactions with her family, many of whom I hadn't seen for years... So long that they have kids I had never met. Their kids are awesome, and I think it goes back to a wonderful grandmother.

Such a lot of people wanted to tell us all what a wonderful person she was, and then we had to hang around and talk about how happy we were to get to know each other a bit, that it was about a 4hr shindig.... Which is not enough, really. They are having another get together today, at a pub, but unfortunately we didn't know about that and my traveling companion and I had our plans set.

At least 2, maybe 3, of the people who spoke styled themselves as her children when they were not actually blood related, so I don't feel the least bit bad having styled her as my aunt to my co-workers. One or two were stepchildren, but one is actually the son of her ex-husband and his second wife, but still she was like a mother.

Well, I think our train (2hrs delayed) might be here. I can't wait to board. A little tired of listening to my traveling companion talk to some other passengers about UFOs. Okay, I'm just damned tired at this point. I wish I could teleport home. I just don't want to hear people talk about anything. I want to read Murderbot fanfic in a quiet place.

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Delights

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 01:46:05 GMT

I'm seriously thinking of snoozing half my friends list on Facebook because my blood gets boiling when I know what some of my co-workers actually think about things. I have to work with them, so I don't want to even know. It's been a bit difficult to keep my cool since the election, and I feel like not only am I irritable but it seems like some people are going out of their way to be a little extra annoying. I had one woman stop right in front of me and make a dramatic comment "to herself" today, which was obviously meant FOR ME as a representative of the government. No telling what her politics or opinions are, people on both sides hate us as representatives of the government. And of course there was no way I could respond in any way, because she wasn't talking "to me." It's never a good idea to respond.

Week before last I had a bunch of medical appointments lined up, and managed to several things cleared up, but then got tremendously sick and had to cancel the last one of the week, so in January I'll be getting assessed for cataracts. (People are telling me to go for the expensive lenses, it's worth it, and you only get the one shot at it.)

So, I never did find out what exact illness I had - they eliminated COVID, flu and strep, and gave me prednisone for my throat closing up. But let me tell you, when I started to recover I felt for a few days as though my whole body was bruised. Eventually I began to figure out it was my lymphatic system. Apparently if your immune system really gets working hard it can take a bit for the lymph nodes to clean out, or something.

Looks like work won't have a pot-luck for Thanksgiving this year, for the first time ever. Partly because the FSD decided to have the tables taken out of our breakroom for some reason. Instead of six good-sized tables we have three little plastic folding tables. Also, the coworker who runs the soda machine has not been able to figure out how to increase the price that the machine charges to compensate for how much more he needs to pay to fill it, so there's no money to buy the turkey and potatoes, as he has been doing for years.

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I just don't even know

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 01:11:14 GMT

I thought I could always flee to Canada, but found out election night that my "Aunty" in Canada had passed away. Yeah, that makes it sound like that was my primary thought, all about me. Not really, I just thought it sounded funny to say it that way. In fact the thought of the world without this person in it was so incredibly unbelievable I cried for the rest of the evening. She was so present for me as a stable adult when my parents weren't. She was so gentle and wise and caring. We went to Canada to visit in August because I knew time was growing short and I might not get another chance, and I'm so glad I made that decision. Being in her house and talking with her was healing to my spirit, and at least now I have that memory.

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well hell

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 13:52:04 GMT

Just heard that a second-cousin of mine, about my age or a little younger, has been diagnosed with dementia. At least he's not a first cousin, though it's possible he's a double-second - the family tree is a banyan on that side. And I wonder how long he's been experiencing effects of this. I think about 3 or 4 years ago he was sending me messages asking whether I thought it was true there was an alien space ship on the other side of the moon. At the time I was having a rough patch (I think I'd just heard that my brother's cancer had advanced more) and I got impatient with his blathering and stopped responding. But just a couple of months ago I sent him a thumb drive with some pictures he'd asked for back when we were communicating and now I realize I probably should print some out and make a book, as they say having photo albums helps people keep in touch with the idea of their relatives.

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So much going on....

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 19:36:05 GMT

We just yesterday returned from three nights up at Baxter State Park, so my traditional thing to say is that I have returned, yet again uneaten by bears, and talk about our hikes this year, etc, maybe go back and do some retro-posts so that those will show up on the appropriate days. But guys, all that is taking second place in my mind right now to something which happened the day before we left.

On the 18th our offer on a piece of land was accepted! We're gonna be landowners again! I think this means we can vote? We are HYPOTHETICAL landowners until we pay for it, so we have to organize our resources in the next few days.

It's 6.6 acres and some change in Sweden, Maine. (Yes, there's a town named Sweden. Also Norway, Mexico and China. It's an ongoing source of humor. We finally found that there's still a Sodom, but unfortunately did not see any land for sale there.)

Six acres, flat, tree-covered, with lots of what appears to be blueberry plants. It's way too far from work to commute, but I plan to retire in a few years so hopefully by then we can have had a house built. Until then we can go camp on the property, learn about it, try to figure out how we want things laid out when we bring people in, and find the people we want to hire. I'm so excited!

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waste of time?

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 13:19:00 GMT

Do you ever spend a hour or more writing a post, then delete the whole thing because you realize you don't want to talk about that with other people, yet? Yeah. I just did that. It's thoughts about writing, specifically "Swept Away" - ha, bet you thought I had completely abandoned that story.

But writing helps me collect my thoughts, even if I do delete it afterward.

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Power outage

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 12:51:09 GMT

Lost power Saturday night, and the projection is that we might get it back tomorrow. Meanwhile the dentist office a 6min walk away has power, so Eor gets to keep his appointment, and work is on for both of us.

Luckily I had Friday off and baked logan bread - it's a nice solid thing to snack on.

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a souvenier of COVID

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 18:54:01 GMT

Through sheer luck I got a week of individual days off strung together, and then traded with a couple of people to get two more days. The plan was to get together with my brothers; Eightball lives in Arizona, and Hawk would fly there from Seattle.

( sorry it got really long. )

And nobody else has gotten particularly sick at all. Aunt S felt a little worse than her normal allergies, Hawk got a bit of a sore throat, Eightball says he felt nothing from it. Even Hawk's inlaws, who we went to dinner with on Sunday evening (they happened to be in Sedona, it seemed like too amazing a piece of luck to pass up), have texted me to let me know that they are still feeling fine! Something is seriously off with my immune system these days. I used to be the last person to get sick and this past year has been nothing but one illness after another.

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books

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 12:35:52 GMT

2) "Small Gods", Terry Pratchett.
I think that, years ago, this was the first Pratchett book I read, and it's a great place to start if you've never read Discworld before, as it's a stand-alone and covers a lot of the basic themes which Pratchett was interested in. I love the perfect twist at the end of a deus ex machina which feels like the natural and right way to end this story (with a few prods from Lu-Tze). And I'm impressed by the lengths to which he was able to carry the turtle imagery; there's the obvious parallel between the world-turtle and Om incarnate as a tortoise, and at the end the different metal turtles built by Vorbis and Urn, but I was thinking that Brutha somehow seems to embody as a human a sense of turtleness - a tortoiselike ability to withdraw his head when threatened and then keep on plodding toward his goal.

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books - closing out 2023, starting 2024

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 18:17:54 GMT

Books...

61) Three short stories by John Berryman, which I will put here just so I can include them:
"The Trouble With Telstar" A technician convinces his telecommunications company to put him into space to fix the fault in their satelites. It turns out not to be what he expected. He and the actual astronaut he goes with do not form a lasting friendship, and he dumps the girl. (seemed a little misogynistic, since he was into her sassyness and then apparently wasn't.)
"Vigorish" Some humans have extraordinary psychic powers. They gather together in an organization which attempts to contact newly emergent people and keep them somewhat under tabs and out of trouble. The main character has power to move things with his mind. A casino contacts the organization thinking someone is using their powers to rob them, and he goes to investigate. He meet his future wife.
"Card Trick" A guy with a newly emergent talent doesn't understand what he's doing to win at cards. He meets the characters from "Vigorish" who figure it out, and it's not what he expected.
All the above stories were from Project Gutenberg, gleaned from ancient ~~scrolls~~ sci-fi magazines, and the writing defintely feels 'of the time,' but fun in that anthropological study kind of way.

62) "Strong Female Character", Fern Brady. Such a good read! Fern Brady is a comedian who was diagnosed as autistic as an adult, after she'd started traveling for standup gigs. The difficulty of growing up undiagnosed with no coping skills, learning coping skills as an adult - it's a fascinating book.

Audiobooks... 63) "All Systems Red", Martha Wells. I finally got to hear the first in the Murderbot series! (At least I think it's the first one - she kind of leaves it open that she might write a prequel, I think.) Yeah, every now and then I think Kevin R. Free makes an incorrect choice on inflection, and yes I think he did choose the wrong way to pronounce 'tears' in the context of that one sentence (it was something like "her suit was covered in abrasions and tears" - well, she MAY have been crying also, but I can't imagine you'd know the entire suit was covered in tears), but I love his depiction of a cyborg Security Unit. I think even if I read these myself I will imagine them in his voice. (That all said, I wonder if I'm always sympatico with autistic-coded characters...?)

I think I'll call this where 2024 begins...

1) "Coyote Blue", Christopher Moore. I re-read this because I was giving away the paperback book and someone asked about it. I think for my money this is one of his best, because it feels like a good balance of myth and character developement, and the sex doesn't feel shoehorned in like it does in most of his books. Though modern sensibilities have to wonder if it's correct for him to be writing about a Native American god, at least he did so with a LOT of assistance and feedback from a bunch of Native American people who he thanks by name. Drawbacks include a rather thin love story based mainly on physical attraction and a strong helping of damsel in distress.

Currently reading...
The entire "Stealing Harry" universe of stories by Copperbadge, which is an alternate universe of the Harry Potter series, originally posted 20 years ago. You might need an AO3 login to read them, but they start here. He starts when Harry is I think 8 years old, so it's a huge project. I'm only up to year 3 of Hogwarts.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/987408

"Small Gods", Terry Pratchett. This is a re-read, along with Eor, of all the Discworld books in order.* Small Gods was my first and I think it's one of the best, though this time through I did notice a couple of continuity errors that bugged me. :)

*And making that statement just made me realize how abominably awful I have been with my reading posts, because I mentioned "Equal Rites" but I can't find any others on my entries for the past year. During this 2023 I must have read the following, but don't know if I posted that fact anywhere...:

1. The Colour of Magic

2. The Light Fantastic

3. Equal Rites

4. Mort

5. Sourcery

6. Wyrd Sisters

7. Pyramids

8. Guards! Guards!

9. Faust Eric

10. Moving Pictures

11. Reaper Man

12. Witches Abroad

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Thai fried rice

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 02:56:46 GMT

Every now and then we get two orders of chicken fried rice, and we usually only eat half to two-thirds of one serving, saving the rest to eat over the next day or two. I mused one day, "I wonder why we always buy two?" and Eor immediately replied, "Because it would be gluttonous to buy four."

It IS awfully good.

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books!

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 14:10:25 GMT

54-59) "The Merchant Princes" series - Charles Stross.
I picked up the "Merchant Princes" series because I encountered Charles Stross in a discussion thread on rachelmanija's DW. The thread was about Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett's "Long Earth" series, and someone (possibly me) said they didn't like that particular series but would have been up for more alternate universe stories, and Stross himself replied, saying (IIRC) he had written a series that came out about the same time as the Long Earth and got overshadowed by it. (Unfortunately I don't recall his DW user name, because my highly developed Mainer instinct for protecting famous people's private lives caused me to erase it from my memory.) Eor bought it on the Kobo for me, in a version where the six books are combined into three, and I must have liked it well enough because I ripped through these in a few weeks. There are some small points I'd have liked more clearly explained, or where I might have suggested a little bit of a 'kill your darlings' approach on the occasional phrase, but who am I to judge given my epic book series is still mostly in my head. It's definitely edge of your seat adventure, and after six books I was still up for more. Wiki on it here, if you don't mind the potential of spoilers with your synopseseses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_Princes

The Family Trade
The Hidden Family
The Clan Corporate
The Merchants' War
The Revolution Business
The Trade of Queens

And if you want to look for the compiled copies we bought, it's
The Bloodline Feud
The Traders' War
The Revolution Trade

And I now learn from the Wiki that there IS a second series of three books! Well, there goes another couple of weeks. :) Focusing on, as I expected, the main protagonist's daughter she gave up for adoption. I thought sure she would show up before the end of the first series, but I'm glad she didn't. She was twelve at that point, and writing a kid in an action adventure story is always a tricky idea.

60) "The Machine's Child" - Kage Baker
The cyborgs continue to muddle on toward the end times, most of them at a rate of one second per second, but some have found ways to cut through time. Alec, Edward and Nathanial get their beloved Mendoza back, but she has complete amnesia. She knows there's something not right with her supposed 'husband', but accepts the explanation that he was damaged in an accident and doesn't realize he has three personalities sharing the same body. Joseph (who thinks of Mendoza as his daughter) is searching for Mendoza and wants to kill Alec/Edward/Nathanial for "ruining" Mendoza's life, like a typical overprotective and overcontrolling father. I adore Joseph's bumbling. He literally goes back in time and tries to make sure Alec is never born in an elaborate, terrifying scheme with typically amusing results. :) The weirdest shit happens at the end, I can't even.... it makes sense in context, I think. And that's where Baker shines, I think - making weird shit seem to make sense. It's a thing I like in all the authors I really adore.

I can't actually finish this post and get up to date, today, so I guess I'll just go with this.

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Christmas list?

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 13:09:21 GMT

~~presents~~ - mailed out! (missed some few things I had meant to send, but, yeah.)
~~cards~~ - mailed out! (again... there's this thumb drive of old family pics that I couldn't find when it came time to stuff the card to my mother's cousin.)
~~Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross~~ - all read!
Yes, that's 6 books that I read as though they were one. It's a page-turner of a series. I hope he continues it!

I also have a long list of things I should really get done which have fallen by the wayside while we were focusing on getting cards done. You know, like dishes and cleaning the bathroom, little stuff like that.

ETA: But instead I started reading Fern Brady's book, "Strong Female Character." Just what I needed, another page turner. She doesn't stop for a second, just barrels on in the tale of her life with autism.

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What's up with you?

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 17:11:36 GMT

I should be making lunch or organizing things to go to our get-together this afternoon (just meeting up at EB's to watch "Hogfather" with her and ElvenGirl). But, laundry is in and I started to look at my genealogy stuff, and when I opened FamilySearch it came up to this page that I had left off with the other night: a scan of an 'old death record' (meaning it was copied from some old town record when Maine decided that records needed cleaning up). All this record gives me is that someone named Guptail died in 1792 in Lebanon, Maine. Cause of death: "Killed by Abbott." Not even a first name, age, any context at all for the person who died.

Eor, responding to me reading it aloud to him, said, "Could have been somebody named Abbott." I burst out laughing, because I suddenly envisioned wild, feral abbots roaming the countryside, and he said, "The robes! The robes!" But, as he said, we know Catholic schools back then could be pretty harsh, and it wasn't really a left-field response because hearing it aloud had not given him the context of it being a large 'A' and double 't' at the end.

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I feel like a pup

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 01:00:01 GMT

Sitting in the waiting room waiting to get my shots - flu and COVID at the same time. Though what I'm concerned about now is RSV, as it's on the rise in Maine, and my brother in Seattle went to the Emergency Department in the middle of the night because of it; he was choking on his own spit because he couldn't swallow. He did get fixed up and sent home, but yeah. I've been masking selectively at work the past days since being sick the last time, trying to stay well until I got these shots, but I don't know if they have a shot for RSV. I guess I should ask.

It's getting up on 10am, though... And people who came in after me have been called. Did I not hear my name or are they punishing me for being a minute late? Why is it so often harder to be on time if you live nearby? I'm just horrible at getting out the door, always have been. I don't know if this is an ADD thing or what, because it goes beyond just forgetting things. I will literally just stand, sometimes. It's like I can't find any other reason to stay, but I just don't want to leave my cozy home.

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Lewiston shootings

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 12:15:38 GMT

(Edited to break from personal news)

All day yesterday I couldn't seem to look at the news at all, but Eor was keeping me updated. I just this morning looked at what the BBC posted, and giggled a little at their "Idylic Lewiston" headline. Don't judge, let me explain! This guy nearly doubled the homocide rate for the year from what it was last year (and I think last year was a record year for Maine), and he did that singlehandedly and in about an hour, far as I can tell from the BBC timeline. That's horrific and people are in shock. But also, if a few days ago you'd asked anyone in Maine where they thought something like that could or might happen they'd have said, "Lewiston, probably. Maybe Portland." There's a lot of poverty and social tension in that town, and always has been. I have a friend who lives up there, and she tends to say that it's not as bad as people think, but then she gets talking and I start thinking that she's just used to it and knows how to navigate the eddies. She was proud of herself that she didn't get in a fight at a funeral a few weeks ago. (She is in my mind in connection with this event because she's a volunteer firefighter for the town of Greene, and got called up with all the other first responders. They sent her troop to hang out around St. Mary's Hospital. It seems kind of funny to call up firefighters, but I'm sure they felt they needed every hand, and also I'm sure if he'd showed up there they would have handled him.)

Today people are out walking their dogs, again - everyone stayed indoors here in our community, yesterday, until some point in the afternoon when a few cars left. (Yarmouth, where we live now, is almost an hour drive from Lewiston, but an hour drive is pretty much the usual to people from Maine; it's not 'far' to us.) I think that was about the time the news came out that his car was found at a public boat launch along the Androscoggin River. I started to think he'd probably thrown himself in, and that might be what everyone started thinking. He could have swapped cars, he could have decided to take a boat across, or down to Bowdoin where he lived. I don't know, purely speculation. Maybe I kind of fear he went in the river because that might mean it takes even longer to find him.

But man, the pictures of the guy. Could he look more like just any guy from Maine? If they don't find him soon the only guys NOT getting pulled over will be Black.

LL Bean cancelled work yesterday, as did many places, but they also offered that anyone who didn't feel safe at home could shelter at the warehouse, so they must have had security in. Last night just before 9pm they sent out a text listing out which locations would continue to be closed today, but they kind of formatted it wrongly because a lot of people didn't see the period in the middle of the list. It's hard to tell a period from a comma on a text, so break your lists with other words. Very few people are showing up to work at any location, and Eor slept in.

ETA Friday evening: They found his body about a mile up the road from where his car was, behind a building he used to work at, dead of a gunshot wound.

ETA Saturday morning: Looking over this again I realized I never mentioned the shooter's name at all, probably because I figured everyone knows it from all the reporting. But, my aunt added to the family text group that she had been speaking to someone who had to cancel a poetry reading partly because the poet was getting death threats because his name was similar; Robert Carr. People are stupid, what the actual fucking fuck.

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Oh, the joy of sleep!

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 12:07:22 GMT

Yes, I actually went back to my own bed and, laying flat, managed to sleep, with only intermittend coughing and one weird bout of muscle cramps in my butt - sounds silly but hurt like a bastard. I took even more potassium, just in case, but I think it was the Tylenol that did the trick. It was probably just because I curled up too tightly on a round of coughing and then stayed that way for too long because I was sleeping so deeply that I didn't move when I should have. And my body needs stretching; too much sitting around.

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Snow shovels are useful even when there's no snow

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 14:18:42 GMT

Eor is using it to move the oak leaves and acorns off the back patio.

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better living through chemistry

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 13:52:00 GMT

In news of me, it's time to take the meds. I have Doxycycline and Prednisone in pill form, and then an Albuterol inhaler. I think I will call in sick again today because I got about 2.5 hrs sleep and that was mostly between 0630 to 0830 this morning when my chest stated to feel really significantly better. But my brain was like a squirrel in a cage last night. The Prednisone might be winding me up, or not having had any exercise for the past few days. Also, one of the meds steals potassium from your system, and my legs got all twitchy. Fun times.

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Sick again??

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:26:47 GMT

So, I had COVID in the beginning of August, I got sick 3 weeks ago, and thought I was getting better but got sick again this long weekend. Not COVID apparently but wtf??

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Books, reading and listening

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:39:57 GMT

( Book roundup - sorry I haven't done one in a while so it got really long. )

I just finally finished the Asimov's with "Gravesend" on the cover, and am now just starting the "Slightly Spooky" edition.

Currently listening to "Lincoln In The Bardo", George Saunders: They got a cast of I think 165 to read it, which puts it more on a different level than an audiobook in my mind. People think a lot of this book. So far to me it's... okay, but it feels like a New York Times Best Seller; scattered, pointless and gruesome. We'll see.

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where did I put my passport

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 00:03:58 GMT

Between "Good Omens" and "Sherlock In Love", to flatten out.

So now if I can't find it I can ask you, and you'll know. ;)

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