naschlag

1. I bought some purple sweet potato spread at work a couple months ago and hadn't used it yet because I had other toast toppings that needed to get used up first, but I finally tried it today and it's so good!

2. I took four walks today and walked almost ten miles total. It's really nice weather for it. Mostly cool and overcast, and though it was a bit sunnier around lunchtime it still wasn't really hot or glaring.

3. I wanted to walk somewhere for lunch today and go somewhere new, so I was just poking around at the maps app and seeing what was around and remembered this place called Pita House down the street that we'd wanted to try. I took a look at their menu as I was walking down and saw they have cheesy shawarma fries and that locked my decision in lol.

They were amazing. I still have half of them left, as well as a beef kebab and some pita, because the fries were listed as an appetizer so I thought it might be small, but I was wrong. The fries alone would be good for two people and the kebab was overkill. But now I have something to eat tomorrow for lunch as well.

4. I haven't seen the granola bar guy at the farmers market in a few weeks but he was there today. He said he was there a couple weeks ago, but that must have been a week I missed. He's got a new flavor, peanut butter and chocolate, and it's really good. I also got a couple of my favorite coconut macadamia ones.

5. Look at this blob!

torachan

Recently Finished
The Grapples of Wrath
New book in the Grave Expectation series! I had no idea this was coming out until very recently so it was a nice surprise. Still enjoying the series.

A Poison at Castle Gloaming
Second in the Jemima Flowerday mystery series. Enjoying this one as well.

Blackmail, My Love
Stand-alone mystery set in the early '50s with a queer woman investigating the disappearance of her (also queer) brother. I enjoyed this but didn't love it. Kind of slow-paced for a lot of it.

A High Five for Glenn Burke
Sweet middle-grade book about a boy who does a report in class about Glenn Burke, the baseball player who invented the high five, but is afraid that people will find out the other reason he likes Burke so much: that he was gay just like the MC.

Banned Book Club
Graphic novel about college student activists in South Korea in the '80s. This is not a period I had any background knowledge of so it was really interesting. I'm definitely interested in learning more.

The Great British Bump Off:-Kill or Be Quilt
New John Allison comic! I had no idea about this but it suddenly showed up on Hoopla. Although it shares the title with a previous comic from a couple years ago, it's not connected at all except by the main character (who is also a character from his Bad Machinery series). I love pretty much everything by him, and this was no exception. Very silly and cute.

Sakura, Saku vol. 9
I don't think I would have followed this series to the end of it hadn't been on Viz Manga, which I already subscribe to. It's cute enough, but started to feel annoying with the hurdles introduced. This was a decent ending to the series, though.

torachan

I went down to Disneyland after work this evening as it's the first day of the lunar new year festival. A lot of other people were doing the same, as it was pretty crowded. The parking lot was also ridiculously full, though not just from park guests, as it's across the street from the convention center and is used for convention parking as well and there's a big convention this weekend (NAMM). I had to park waaaaaay at the far corner of the lot from the bus loading area and the lines for the bus were looking long, so I just decided to walk over to the park.

( Read more... )

torachan

1. Work was kind of annoying today as I really only had one big thing to work on, but I couldn't work on it until the afternoon because something was messed up with the sandbox environment we were uploading files to and it had to be fixed first. But that meant I got a lot of reading done while I was waiting around for it to get fixed, so that was a bonus anyway.

2. I went to DCA in the evening and got some really tasty foods from the lunar new year festival. Today was the first day so it was pretty crowded (though still not Christmas levels, thankfully) but I had a good time.

3. My tattoo is still healing well. It's at the peeling stage and has been peeling for the past couple days and is almost all done. The skin underneath is looking good and for the most part it hasn't been too itchy. There's still some bruising in spots and redness under the yellow band, but both of those have improved a lot, too.

4. I'm very glad it's the weekend. Since I went to Disneyland tonight, I'm just planning on staying close to home and relaxing for the next couple days.

5. Look at this Jasper!

torachan

1. Having remembered the new Shake Shack near work, I decided to go there for lunch today to try more of the Korean menu items.

The chicken sandwich was so good. It did make me feel bloated for several hours afterwards, but it was worth it. The fries with kimchi powder were also very tasty, though I didn't love the dipping sauce that came with them. And I almost forgot, but the drink was pomegranate basil lemonade. Not part of the Korean menu, but they always have a variety of seasonal lemonades and they're always good. This one was delicious.

2. There was a tiny bit of rain today but nothing that interfered with my day. As I was getting home from my morning walk there were a few sprinkles, but it was over soon. When I got down to work, the streets were wet, so it had clearly rained a bit more down there, but it wasn't raining when I got there or when I went out for a walk after lunch. It rained a little bit on the drive home, but only barely more than sprinkles, and was done by the time I arrived. I feel like we had enough rain earlier in the month so I'm fine with no more than this amount now lol.

3. I have gotten some really great pics of Tuxie yesterday and today. He looks like he's on a prayer mat here lol.

torachan

1. I took Carla to the airport this morning before work and she has arrived safe and sound in Wisconsin.

2. Our heat spell is over and it was chilly and overcast today. It might even rain tomorrow, though the forecast has gone down from 50% to like 25%, so maybe not.

3. I love when cats morph into their slug form.

torachan

1. Got my hair cut this morning. Carla wanted to get hers trimmed before her trip (she's going to Wisconsin for a week tomorrow for her aunt's 80th birthday) so it was the both of us and we decided to pop over to Universal Studios for lunch afterwards. The crowds were so low! If we'd stayed to go on any rides, almost everything was like 20 minutes or less, even the massively popular ones. As it was, we just had a nice lunch, spotted some characters, and came home.

2. Because of the haircut appointment, which was awkwardly timed for late morning, I just made today a WFH day. Did some stuff in the morning before we went, and then had a meeting later in the afternoon. I didn't really have a whole lot on the agenda for today anyway, so it worked out well.

3. Shake Shack is apparently having a Korean inspired menu right now, so we got the burgers with Korean BBQ sauce. They were so good! There's also a chicken sandwich and fries with kimchi powder and dipping sauce, and even a caramel gochujang shake, so if they've still got this stuff on the menu when Carla gets back from her trip, we're planning to try some of those as well. Actually now that I think of it, there's one near work, so I might just go over there for lunch one day...

4. Warming bed + stretching = best combo.

torachan

Universal Studios has short hours during the off season, making it inconvenient to go for dinner on weeknights, but today we had an opportunity to go for lunch since we were sort of partway there.

The park wasn't crowded at all, but all the good parking was taken, so we had to park at the ET parking structure, which is at the far end of CityWalk, but at least that meant we got a nice walk to and from the park as well as inside.

( Read more... )

torachan

1. Pretty chill day at work today. I got stuff done. The office situation is a bit annoying now because as of last Thursday we have a handful of new people moved in, but there weren't enough empty desks so they brought desks from their previous office and crammed them in where we had previously had a meeting table and it feels very crowded now. I'm sure I'll get used to it, though.

2. I love the dramatic lighting on Gemma. It suits her dramatic personality lol.

owlmoose

The Scavenger Door by Suzanne Palmer : The third book in The Finder Chronicles; as much fun as its predecessors, and the end had me immediately turning around to start book four. ( Spoilery thoughts. )

Non-spoilery thought: Suzanne Palmer sure knows what it's like to live with a cat.

Um Actually live show: I don't subscribe to Dropout, so I'm sadly unfamiliar with most of their shows, but during high pandemic, they dropped a bunch of Um Actually episodes on YouTube, and T and I spent a lot of time watching them. So when we learned that there would a live show at this year's SF Sketchfest, we immediately decided to get tickets. The panel, which was not announced in advance, was Janet Varney, Marc Evan Jackson, and Tawny Newsome; they were an awesome group who played well off the hosts and each other, and we had a great time.

Current Mood: good

torachan

1. I got my tattoo wrap stuff from Amazon this afternoon but I actually think I'm just going to go without it. I took off the bandage a few hours ago and there hasn't been any seepage (there was a bit in the bandage). But both Carla and I would like to get more tattoos in the future, so it will be good to have on hand.

2. Carla had been wanting to go to an English pub, so we went down to the King's Head for lunch and got fish and chips. It was so good. It's a little too far to walk for Carla right now, so we took the train, which still gets us a good walk between the station and home and the station and the restaurant (which is down near the Promenade and mall, so we checked out some shops while we were there, too). It was a nice afternoon and the sun wasn't too bad on the way there, though we were definitely feeling it on the way home.

3. Every weekend I've got it on my to-do list to do a little more planning for our upcoming trip to Japan and we're making good progress.

4. Look at that Ollie face!

torachan

1. The tattoo seems to be healing well. There was a lot of fluid buildup in the bandage even though I'd put on a new one yesterday, and around midday I noticed some floaty bits of either dead skin or adhesive residue from the previous bandage but either way didn't want to leave it on like that, but the tattoo place had only given me enough to change it once, and the stuff I ordered from Amazon isn't coming till tomorrow, so I checked to see if there was anywhere I could buy it in person and it seems like the answer is no. Google told me the Ulta near me sells it, so I went over there and they did not have any, so I decided to check CVS to see if they at least had larger tegaderm patches than what I have at home leftover from when I had surgery, and they did have ones that are at least big enough to cover the tattoo with three patches, so I got a pack of those.

After taking off the old bandage and washing my leg, I used some lotion and let it just air out for a while, but then put the tegaderm patches on before we went to Disneyland just to keep it protected. There seems to be a lot less fluid coming out now, but I'm still going to change it again tomorrow when the stuff from Amazon gets here and at least use it for another day or two.

2. I went to the farmers market this morning and got an ube cinnamon roll, among other things. This is my second time getting one and they're so good.

3. We had a really nice time at Disneyland tonight. Despite the warm weather, it's getting cool quickly in the evenings (only good thing about hot weather in the winter is that it never lasts into the night) so it was pleasantly warm rather than unpleasantly so, and the crowds were light. We walked back to the car from the park rather than taking the bus, and passed by a mochi donut shop we always see from the car and stopped in to get a few for tomorrow's breakfast. We got matcha, passionfruit, and guava donuts. The place we usually get from always has matcha, but I don't think we've had either passionfruit or guava, so I'm looking forward to trying those.

4. Working from home yesterday almost made this feel like a three day weekend. I still have another day before going back to work!

5. Jasper!

torachan

We decided to wait till later in the afternoon to go to Disneyland since it was hot again today and it had been so pleasant when we went on Wednesday evening. We left the house around 2:45 or so and got down there at four and the sun was already low enough that we didn't need sunglasses or anything and the temps had already gone down a lot so it was very pleasant.

( Read more... )

torachan

1. I had a very nice relaxing WFH day. (The only annoying part was the very loud construction on one end of the street and the tar smell which was coming from either that site or the construction at the other end of the street lol.)

2. We walked down to the Italian deli this morning to get sandwiches for lunch. Also a nice part of working from home! We knew it would be pretty hot today, so rather than walk there at lunch time, we went right after Carla woke up, when it wasn't too hot and there was still some shade for most of the walk.

3. I changed the bandage on my tattoo this morning and cleaned it up. It's looking really good! After changing it, there is still some fluid coming out, but doesn't seem to be any blood. They said to use the clear "second skin" bandage for up to a week, so I actually ordered some more off Amazon (she gave me enough for one change) in case I need to change it sooner. With the amount of fluid under it right now, I might.

4. Upon closer inspection it looks like Tuxie is missing some fur on his forehead, so I think he might have been in a fight while he was gone, but he seems fine otherwise. Better than that time he got a chunk of his ear ripped out.

torachan

Recently Finished

Peril at the Exposition
Second in the Captain Jim and Lady Diana mystery series. I was disappointed to see that this one doesn't take place in India, so I hadn't jumped right on it after finishing the first, but my backlog of audiobooks was going down, so I decided to give it a go. It was fine. I'll probably read more in the series at the same pace, but it's also not really what I'm wanting in a mystery (and that was the same with the first one).

Deeds and Words
Another second book in a mystery series, though it seems like this is also the final book. It was also just all right.

Riot Baby
Set in a slightly more dystopic alternate reality, this tells the story of a girl with psychic powers and her brother, who was born after the LA riots, thus being nicknamed Riot Baby, in alternating POVs. I liked this, but it felt like the two POVs weren't really well integrated.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
In the late 1800s England, a man gets a mysterious watch that saves him from a bomb exploding, and then is tasked with finding out if the watchmaker, a Japanese man who can remember the future, is the one who set the bomb. I didn't much like this at all. The first half or more was extremely boring, and then once the action seemed to finally get going, the characters got worse and worse, especially the lone female character, who seems to exist only as a plot device to make everything horrible for the men.

Little Monsters vol. 1-2
Two volume comic series about child vampires living in an empty city after an apocalypse. I liked it all right. The ending was good.

Sakura, Saku vol. 8

owlmoose

Joyride : A buddy road movie focused on Chinese-American women taking a personal journey across China, testing the boundaries of their relationships and coming back stronger. We were looking for a lightweight way to pass an evening, and I'd say this fit the bill, although a little raunchy for my taste (explicit drug use, over-the-top sex). Top-notch cast, particularly Sabrina Wu as the awkward and too-relatable Deadeye.

The Knives Out films: This was a rewatch -- I've seen Knives Out and Glass Onion several times, and I insisted we watch Wake Up Dead Man the day it was released on Netflix -- and I'm happy to say that the series holds up, both as individual movies and overall. I think Knives Out is still my favorite, although a Chris Evans fangirl would say that, but I appreciate them all for their different strengths. Before the rewatch, I would have put Wake Up Dead Man a clear notch below the other two, but now I'm not so sure -- Father Jud is easily the best protagonist in the series, and I appreciate the depiction of a priest who represents the best aspects of Christianity drawn in contrast to some of its very worst. I also found the mystery quite satisfying, maybe even the best of the lot. The major downside was the supporting cast, which was fine (I will never argue with yet another showstopper from Glenn Close), but they didn't quite have the chemistry or interest of the ensembles in the other two films.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Eluvium - "Repose in Blue"

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