kareila: a lady in glasses holding a stack of books (books)
[personal profile] kareila
On the one hand, my free trial of Kindle Unlimited ended and I should read the books I downloaded from that so that I can stop paying for it. Mostly LitRPG-type stuff.

On the other hand, I've actually been making some progress on the TBR pile? And I decided to restart Spider Robinson's Callahan series, which I never got around to finishing.

On the third hand, I have my usual pile of library books - ten checked out right now, and another half dozen or so scheduled for holds at the end of the month.

I swear I used to have other hobbies.

Cheese Quest 1

Jan. 10th, 2026 04:23 pm
used_songs: (Default)
[personal profile] used_songs



Before New Year's, E and I went to the HEB at Lincoln Heights which is fancier than a regular HEB, but not as fancy as Central Market. I was looking at cheeses while E was in the bakery and the cheesemonger gave me a coupon for 20% off any of their cheeses in that section. So I went with one I knew I'd like and two that were experiments.

The one I thought was a sure bet was the Chimichurri Gouda because I love gouda. I was hoping it would be a bit spicy, but despite tasting of pepper and chilies it was more earthy than spicy. It was also sharper than I expected, but it was good. 

My favorite was the white cheddar dill which was a surprise. I love dill, but I'm not a fan of cheddar at all. It's generally way too sharp for me. This one was very herbal and salty and just delicious. 

My least favorite, and the one I wouldn't have bought if I hadn't had a coupon, was the smoked cheddar. I took a chance on it because I do like smoked gouda and smokiness in general. However, this was very hard, almost crumbly, and it was way too sharp for me, I'll probably take it to my parents and see if they want it, because I tried it again a couple of days after the first taste and I just don't like it. And honestly I didn't even realize cheddar came in that consistency. 

The only other cheese I've put in my analog cheese journal is HEB Monterey jack with jalapeño and habanero which is something I have with my lunch every day during the week. So, obviously, extremely good!

This week we are having enchiladas, so I will be journaling about oaxaca and queso fresca, both of which are delicious. One of the best things in the world is thinly sliced pan sauteed potatoes topped with mole poblano sauce and queso fresca.

Vid rec: Around the Bend by danegen

Jan. 10th, 2026 08:15 pm
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)
[personal profile] cesy
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Around_the_Bend

I love this vid, I remember it well, I saved it and rewatched it when I needed a mood boost, I even saved the song after hearing it for the first time from this vid.

And I'm posting here to have the memory published and quotable for Fanlore. Did any of you see it when it first came out?

Book Stats 2025

Jan. 5th, 2026 02:38 pm
kiwiria: (Books: Warm Books)
[personal profile] kiwiria
(-/+ indicates difference from last year - comparing percentages where possible)
Total number of books: 93 (- ... by a LOT! ... couldn't I have read just 7 books more? Would have made the percentages SO much easier to work out! :-P )
Total number of pages: 17,446 (-)
Total number of hours listened to: 371 (-)
Average number of pages per book: 277 (-) (Not counting audiobooks, so out of 63 books)
Average number of pages a day: 48 (-)
# Rereads: 30 / 32% (-)
Books read in Danish (may be translated): 6 / 6% (-)
Ebooks Read: 17 / 18% (+)
Audiobooks Read: 30 / 32% (-)
Library Books Read: 5 / 5% (-)
ARCs Read: 7 / 7% (+)
New Authors Discovered: 27 (-)

# Physical Books on my Shelves by End of Year: 1315 (+22)
# TBR: 194 (+9 - oops!)
Longest Book: (Not counting fanfics) "Alchemised" by SenLinYu at 1030 pages
Shortest Book: (Not counting short-stories) "The Christmas Book Hunt" by Jenny Colgan at 127 pages


Read more... )

Snowflake Challenge #2

Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:20 pm
used_songs: (dog love)
[personal profile] used_songs
Challenge #2: Pets of Fandom

Loosely defined! Post about your pets, pets from your canon, anything you want!


Here is a VERY small sampling of photos of my Ella.

Read more... )

Snowflake Challenge #1

Jan. 3rd, 2026 04:06 pm
used_songs: (damn uhura is hot)
[personal profile] used_songs
two log cabins with snow on the roofs in a wintery forest the text snowflake challenge january 1 - 31 in white cursive text

Challenge #1

The Icebreaker Challenge: Introduce yourself. Tell us why you're doing the challenge, and what you hope to gain from it.


I haven't actively participated in a fandom in a while (except for a drabble every now and then). Maybe I'm looking for ideas for new fandoms. Maybe I just want to see what other people are excited about.

Maybe I just want to do my part to keep communities strong here on DW. 

My New Year's Resolution is to do a cheese quest this year. I have already tried three new-to-me cheeses so far. The best one was the white cheddar with dill. I will be journaling about all of the cheeses in a notebook and, perhaps, in my DW journal. 

I post almost everything under lock as I'm a teacher in a hostile state, but I will probably add you. 

kareila: a lady in glasses holding a stack of books (books)
[personal profile] kareila
I was told today that Hoopla changed their terms of service and because I'm not a county resident, I can no longer access Hoopla using my metro library card. It's never been available through my local library, as far as I can tell.

That's going to make it harder to cheat on my goal of reading more books that I already own. Although, I do still have Libby access. And I haven't cancelled my Kindle Unlimited subscription...

In other semi-related news, today I went to order a new pair of glasses with my updated progressive prescription (because the flexible spending account refills every January), and got talked into also buying a second pair just for medium distance vision, to use when spending a lot of time on the computer. These days I do that so rarely that I didn't even realize it was hard on my eyes until I was working on Advent of Code last month. Hopefully those will come in before the MIT Mystery Hunt starts in a couple of weeks.

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