To-read pile, 2025, August

Sep. 3rd, 2025 07:00 am
rmc28: (reading)
[personal profile] rmc28

Books on pre-order:

  1. Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells (7 Oct 2025)

Books acquired in August:

  • and read:
    1. The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
    2. The Work of Art (Somerset Stories 1) by Mimi Matthews
    3. The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd [3]

Books acquired previously and read in August:

  1. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan [3][May]

Borrowed books read in August:

  1. A Sorceress Comes To Call by T. Kingfisher
  2. Iron Flame (Empyrean 2) by Rebecca Yarros [2]

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited

notable quotables

Sep. 1st, 2025 01:10 am
ursamajor: droppin' the ball (d'oh)
[personal profile] ursamajor
[personal profile] hyounpark has recently started watching the 2022 revival of Quantum Leap, and tonight's episode? Revisited the World Series quake. As somebody who lived through that? ROFL, pedantry ahoy!

Me: "Hi Candlestick! ... wait, happy hour during Game 3 of the Bay Bridge Series? GET UNDER A SOLID DOORWAY NOW."
Me: "WHAT THE HELL YOU WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO SEE THE FERRY BUILDING FROM THERE IN 1989, NOT EVEN WITH THE FREEWAY COLLAPSE."
Me: "You can't get across the Bay in the time you have! The bridge is down, BART is down, that utility tunnel is at least FIVE MILES LONG, and even when you come up on the Oakland side you still have to get through the entire-ass Port of Oakland. And you're playing a white family, highly unlikely they would have lived in West Oakland at the time, so now you have at least another two miles of running to get anywhere where the apartments look like that and you could plausibly have none or very few Black neighbors, and OH WAIT YOU'D HAVE TO CROSS THE CYPRESS STRUCTURE TO DO THAT, which also fell down in the quake! Your 90 minutes are up, tick tick BOOM."
[personal profile] hyounpark: "Watching this ep with you is WAY more entertaining than watching it by myself would have been!"
Me: "And this didn't even account for going back to their new apartment in SF at least two miles in the wrong direction, RUNNING UPHILL, to look for the kid!"

*

The Strategist interviewed Sally Jessy Raphael a few weeks ago on some of her favorite things, and I feel seen.

"Let me explain. The first thing people say when they see me is, “Oh my God, you’re so short.” This is terrible. I am slightly under five feet. This means that if I go to buy grown-up clothes in the store, everything is too long. Everything. Every skirt, every pair of jeans, it doesn’t matter what I pay or where I shop. So, I have pinking shears. Everything I own, I pink with the pinking shears. It doesn’t make sense for me to go to Kohl’s and buy $9 jeans and then send them to be hemmed for $30. In New York, that’s what it costs to hem. So I gave up on having anybody hem them. And I’m having trouble threading my sewing machine. So pinking shears do everything."


I mean, not that I own a pair of pinking shears, but I'm always on the lookout for jeans that are short enough for me off the rack. Usually, they end up being some form of slim-to-straight fit cropped style, but the best pair of jeans I ever had was a flared sort of baby bellbottom style that I got at a clothing swap like 15 years ago. They didn't last terribly long (got holes on the inner thighs within a couple of years), but I loved the hell out of those jeans - they were button-fly (look, I bought my first pair of jeans with my allowance from the Gap in the early 90s and that's what I imprinted on), they had embroidered cuffs, they flared out below MY knee height just enough to balance my curvy hips better than any pair of then-trendy skinnies ever did, and I wore them at least twice a week while I owned them except in summer.

They were my holy grail of jeans, and I've been looking for anything like them ever since. I've tried on jeans from probably every American mass-market brand in the interim, but no. At this point, I own two pairs of Levi's Wedgie Straights because they are not "cropped" and come in a 26" inseam (so the knees hit where they're supposed to), and are suitable for the times when I just need plain old jeans that don't stand out. They are reliable. But they don't feel like ~me~ the same way these old jeans did.

I know the real answer is that I just need to buy a sewing machine and learn how to make my own jeans, but. Sigh.

August summary

Aug. 31st, 2025 11:01 am
jack: (Default)
[personal profile] jack
> Social

Ely peacock's tearoom. Buying physical books! K birthday and 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Poly Meet. Main munch, DS munch.

Dinner with Rachel's family.

Capybaras and As You Like It with Tim, Pearl, and Tim's parents.

Run DnD (Lovely people. Second and fourth wednesdays, now changing to second and penultimate wednesdays).

Colin and Kirsten wedding blessing in Synagogue, and Ceilidh.

Mathsjam

Coton Manor Garden with Mum and Rachel to see FLAMINGOS!

Kerry and Simone BBQ.

Hosted grantchester meadows picnic. About 12 lovely people. A little swimming. Next time, clear directions to location, somewhere with shade, somewhere with less deep mud on river bottom.

Jamaican vege dinner at metamours'. So Clover, Mao.

> Creative Hobbies

Updates to open source running app Fitocracy. For my use an in PR. Add pace as well as speed. Add average speed current interval.

DnD planning. Experimenting with a scenario across a few sessions for less prep.

Musing on Space Opera RPG. Musing on Vampires Ball and coffee shop LARPs.

Made butterscotch brownies.

> Exercise

Managed several consecutive runs without much breathing difficulties. Feel like I'm getting a proper workout in my legs and body again.

2x jog to parkrun and back (not early enough to actually do parkrun). 1-2x lido.

> Countryside

Walking with Claudia

Pootled in river by Hauxton nature reserve

> Misc

Sharpen knife.

Dealt with roof patching people.

Watching fantastic four first steps. Reading many web serials, physical books. Playing Slay the Spire and Starvaders.
Solving LOK puzzle book with Rachel.

Struggle with WFH. Maybe need a break before trying again.

Friday Five: Outcast Edition

Aug. 29th, 2025 08:45 pm
ofearthandstars: A single tree underneath the stars (Default)
[personal profile] ofearthandstars
From this week's [community profile] thefridayfive:

1. Does where you live have regular doorstep rubbish collections or do you have to take your trash somewhere else?

There are two ways to handle trash and recycling in my region - the first being to carry it to a local convenience center yourself, with hauling of large items to the county dump, and the second to select a trash service that offers one or both services for you. It used to be that you had to pay for a permit for the convenience center, but a little while ago they determined that county taxes actually cover the costs of those facilities, and now they are open to everyone. So, I could do that route, but I do not love filling my car with trash to take it off, so we take advantage of one of the local services. They are quite nice people and they often put up with me running down the drive dragging a can as they pass the house and then meekly waiting by the road barely-caffeinated for them to stop once they've turned through the cul de sac. The recycling pickup is every 2 weeks, and trash pickup is once a week - which, for me and most of my friends, is the reverse of what we really need (recycling is always topped off first!) The only thing we don't have is yard waste collection, which is fine, most of my yard fellings compost naturally here, or we sometimes have a small bonfire (we only even burn natural leaves and limbs) for the things that need to be cleared for fire safety.

2. Do you separate recycling? What sort of stuff gets recycled from your household?

Yes, we always have, and I always encourage people to, as there has been an effort to revamp the National Recycling Initiative and improve the services available, even as there are understandable weaknesses and failures in the current system. (Other countries are so far ahead of the U.S. in this matter.) In our home all cardboard containers/boxes and most plastics are recycled, as well as aluminum, metal, and glass. We also have a local metals and scrap recycling center that pays by the weight that we sometimes use. Oils and car fluids can be taken to a convenience center free of charge. The hardest thing is used electronics - generally the acceptance days for these products run only once or twice a year. And we don't buy a lot of electronics, but if you miss the day you are stuck hold onto items for a while!

3. Do you take things you don't need to charity shops, or give them away online, or sell them secondhand, or ...?

I drop less at charity shops now and most things I pass through my local Buy Nothing Group. I have adult children so many household items have been passed down to them secondhand.

4. Do you pick up litter in your local area, from streets or trails or play areas or parks? Have you ever found anything interesting discarded or lost in a public space?

Yes, I do. I'm a huge believer in trying to leave places (and people) better than you found them, so when we pack for hikes I usually have a couple of bags on us and make sure to pick up found items. Once got an entire opened pocket pack of Kleenexes, which isn't very exciting, but is useful. I also keep trash bags in my car for large items, and I'm frequently picking up dropped items along our lunch walks (usually things that are scattered on trash days, my street is pretty good about not littering.)

5. Are there "repair cafés" near you to help mend fixable items? Have you ever been helped by a community repair service or volunteered for one? Do you do any other kind of upcycling?

Not so much as there used to be, I'd love to see more in our area. Most of the upcycling takes place through the Buy Nothing Group. I once got a metal headboard for a bed that is becoming a muscadine vine trellis. I recently took a cabinet a friend was giving away and "updated" it to the look I wanted with contact paper. Little things, nothing amazing.

Age Verification and Related Matters

Aug. 26th, 2025 09:51 pm
highlyeccentric: Sign: KFC, Holy Grail >>> (KFC and Holy Grail)
[personal profile] highlyeccentric
I have not had the werewithal to make link-roundups relating to either my local jurisdiction or the Global State Of Things.

If I had been regularly LinkPosting, I would nevertheless have said that if one read almost exclusively Aus content, OR one has not been keeping up with any of the global developments in this field: one could do worse than the dw_news post re Mississipi. It is, in a way which I appreciate, quite heavily tilted to the "we cannot FUNCTIONALLY do the thing you have asked" side of things.

Behold, A Link.
ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
The algorithm sent me this ATK recipe (paywalled, but linked for posterity, and pretty easy to extrapolate the basic idea) for a peanut butter chocolate quesadilla yesterday, and my instant reaction as a Massachusetts expat: "But where's the Marshmallow Fluff?! How can it be a Fluffernutter quesadilla without the Fluff? This is all Jarrett Barrios' fault, isn't it!"

Though of course, out here on the West Coast, getting ahold of actual Fluff is more difficult; when supermarkets have jarred marshmallow product, it's usually Kraft's Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme, which is more liquidy. ... hold on, I can get a two-pack of Marshmallow Fluff from my local Cost Plus?! As in the same Cost Plus where my mom used to buy us Botan candy to keep us occupied while she looked at household decor? ROFL.

Of course I ended up down the merch wormhole with my search results; I'd rather have it as a long-sleeve tee, but I love the logo on this What the Fluff sweatshirt from the Fluff Festival. 20th annual this year! Pairs well with this Ice Cream Weather hoodie from Gracie's just across the square that I've been meaning to pick up for years now. As well as my What a Cluster! tee. And now I want Goo Goo Clusters and Marshmallow Fluff. At least Moon Pies have made their way to the Bay? I can get those at my local CVS sometimes now.

Cherry on top of all this internet wormholing: while trying to figure out if Fluff was sold in any grocery stores local to me (besides Walmart, ugh), I stumbled across their recipe section, and amusingly enough, one of their most popular recipes is Lynne's Cheesecake. I swear I didn't submit it - the recipe looks like a New York cheesecake recipe, and I strongly prefer my cheesecakes burnt Basque or Japanese cotton style. But now I'm thinking, maybe I should tackle a burnt Basque Fluff cheesecake. Though admittedly, on my cheesecake back burner, I also want to make a cheesecake with Poppy Bagels' truffle schmear, Wikipedia has just informed me of the existence of a smoked salmon cheesecake, and Kat Lieu just posted a SPAM Basque cheesecake. Time to reup our Lactaid stock!

And now, of course, I'm earwormed with the old-timey Fluffernutter jingle.



(Yeah, I know, an original Fluffernutter has no chocolate, but sprinkling some chocolate chips on top of one side and melting before assembly is pretty standard. Though IME hagelslag or vlokken work better, and of course you can also get hagelslag at Cost Plus, 😂.)

Reading not-Wednesday 23/8

Aug. 23rd, 2025 03:24 pm
liv: Bookshelf labelled: Caution. Hungry bookworm (bookies)
[personal profile] liv
One advantage of my unexpected free month was that I started reading books again. Not a lot but 6 complete novels and a longfic in 6 weeks, which is more than I have for years. Let me catch up with some brief reviews:

Since term properly, properly finished on 6 July, I have read:

  • Circe by Madeline Miller 2018, Pub 2018 Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781526612519
  • Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla (c) Nikesh Shukla 2010, Pub 2010 Quartet, ISBN 978-0-7043-7204-7
  • Will Super Villains be on the final? by Naomi Novik, illustrated by Yishan Li (c) Temeraire LLC 2011, Pub 2011 Del Rey, ISBN 978-0-345-51656-5
  • Some desperate glory by Emily Tesh (c) Emily Tesh 2023, Pub 2023 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-51718-6
  • Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie (c) Ann Leckie 2015, Pub 2015 Orbit, ISBN 978-0-356-50242-7
  • A free man of color by Barbara Hambly (c) Barbara Hambly 1997, Pub 1998 Bantam, ISBN 0-553-57526-0
  • I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! by Lanna Michaels, 2025


Circe )

Coconut Unlimited )

Will Super Villains be on the final? )

Some desperate glory )

Ancillary Mercy )

A Free Man of Color )

I transmigrated into Cordelia Naismith! )

Biarritz

Aug. 23rd, 2025 08:52 am
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

Last night I successfully got the jersey I wanted for my team, and many of the people I wanted to draft to my team, and here we are:

Team Lanzarote, just after being drafted

(except one guy who'd wandered off, I'll try to get another group photo with him in at some point, but that one is beautiful; look at those gorgeous jerseys and that sunset sky)

I am so happy with this team. I put in some time and effort to read through the draft grid and make my first-and-second choice selections, and I switched things up as I spoke to people before and during the draft, and in response to how our draft order went on each round. I know I have a bunch of good people, both on and off the ice. In particular I got my captain from last year Sean, who is also the only person here this year who has been on my team in both the previous years. I instantly made him my A, and he's been a delight in the role already.

Three (short) games today and three tomorrow, to see whether I'm as good at picking and running a team as I think I am ...

ursamajor: the Swedish Chef, juggling (bork bork bork!)
[personal profile] ursamajor
I did not end up making a dessert for choir this week that magically used any portion of our eleven cups of plum jam in the fridge. I made chocolate chip cookies, and they disappeared like magic (the only empty container on the snack table when I went to clean up after break!) and I got multiple compliments on them *preens*.

It was my usual recipe, doubled because I used the oversized 20 oz Ghirardelli bag of semisweet chips, and then I went through my spice cabinet and pulled out baharat and rosewater. Though I've made a couple of adjustments over the years, and didn't actually write them down online, so here, have my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. )

Ugh, I need a new chocolate icon, FJKR.

That being said, I went by Market Hall this morning since the internet said they were my local carrier for the See's Candy x McConnell's Ice Cream collab - they didn't have all the flavors, but they did have Coffee + Molasses Chips, so that got promptly plopped into my bike basket.

But while I was there, I also perused the other things they had available, and the regular old standard size 12 oz bag of Guittard semisweet chocolate chips was SIXTEEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS I HATE THIS TIMELINE.

Even checking online right now - Berkeley Bowl is claiming $12.39/bag, Guittard direct says $11.99/bag, and I am wondering how many bags of the semisweet I can order via my farmshare at $7.49/bag before they cut me off. Ghirardelli is still available at Berkeley Bowl for $8.79/bag, but I'm wondering for how much longer - before this summer, both of these were pretty close price matches, maybe 50c/bag difference and not always consistently in the same direction depending on what supermarket I was at? This feels like when vanilla prices exponentially spiked a few years ago and my $50 of vanilla backstock was suddenly worth $300.

... the farmshare website dropdown goes to 20 items. I'm not sure I want to be talked out of this. (I will probably buy at least 4, I am literally down to my last bag of chocolate chips and I usually have half a dozen bags on hand at any given time.)

Playlist

Aug. 22nd, 2025 04:38 pm
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28

A few months ago I heard a love song and thought "this captures how I feel about ice hockey" and thus was a playlist born:

three-plus years in love (with hockey)

Additional suggestions always welcome :-)

full list, with exemplar lyrics )

(previous playlists, titles hopefully self-explanatory:

first game feels
second season:stepping up

I have completely normal feelings about this sport.)

Page generated Sep. 4th, 2025 05:45 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios