trelana

Grateful for every update I see from Minnesota friends right now, affirming that they're ... okay isn't the right word; infuriated and joining with their neighbors and friends to stand up against evil in whatever ways they can is probably more accurate. Marching, recording, feeding people, sharing information. The rest of us, doing what we can from the outside, preparing for ourselves to be next. Sending love to you all.

And once that's done, I ( turn back to cooking. )

( finally succumbing to ebooks )

Speaking of scifi, we dropped Paramount after the latest season of Strange New Worlds, partly because of CBS's actions, partly because too many subscriptions and we're trying to cut back, partly because Amazing Race was yet another season of known-quantity reality stars instead of reasonably-believable normies. But we did get to watch the first episode of Starfleet Academy because they made it available on YouTube. And yeah, while I agree the preview made it look like "Star Trek: Dawson's Creek," as

hyounpark put it, I really needed to see a Starfleet captain stand up for justice; I needed to see people reaching across cultures from different backgrounds. I worry that the current environment is going to shift broadcastable storylines by next season; S1 was filmed mostly before Biden left office, while S2 is filming now, after CBS bent the knee. But I still found it promising enough to want to watch more; I just don't know how to watch it in a way that balances the scales for me.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: let me name you, claim you

weofodthignen

A beautiful blue-sky day. The dog took me to the park, but was discombobulated by the many children. Later Monty watched me for a while as I put soil in two wooden windowboxes or portable small veg raised beds that I scavenged from the street a while ago, and planted some sprouted cuttings in them. Costco finally had bags of soil on our last visit. I found 50 quarts of soil surprisingly heavy to lift. I think I'm getting weak; Google tells me that's only 50–70 lb. Anyway the bag is now half-empty, liftable with one hand, and in the garage tied off with a twist tie.

weofodthignen

It was chilly and cloudy again; the sun broke through at about half past three. My laundry didn't dry well. The cat food got eaten expeditiously, but the only cat I saw was Mama Violet.

It's been dry for long enough that the sticky outside door is unsticking.

weofodthignen

It was a better laundry-drying day today. As expected, the storm that's being predicted to have dire effects in the Southeast just gave us a cloudy, chilly day.

Monty and Prudence waylaid me to be fed. I hadn't seen her in a few days; the filet mignon people are apparently succeeding in persuading her to become their indoor-outdoor cat.

ysobel

Back in 2015 I wrote an anti-ode to prednisone. Last night my brain came up with another verse, so I'm posting the revised version for posterity.

(Youtube version of the original is here)

Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
How fucked-up are your side-effects!
You make my mood go here and there
And make me sweat, like, everywhere
Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
How fucked-up are your side-effects!

Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
You make me so unhappy
Because I'm hungry all the time
I can't think of a proper rhyme
Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
You make me so unhappy

Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
I really dislike taking you
The anti-inflammation's great
But all the rest is cause for hate
Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
I really dislike taking you

Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
I can't wait til I'm done with this
You taste like shit, and what's more wrong
You made me filk this stupid song
Oh prednisone, oh prednisone,
I can't wait til I'm done with this

weofodthignen

Monty didn't hiss today. But his mother did, of course.

I keep finding drifts of hay in the street. I tend to pick them up and put them in our greenwaste bin (which already gets road grit from me sweeping leaves out of the gutter). I think they're from those fabric sausages that construction crews place around street drains when they're going to be blasting mud into the street. I always thought those contained straw, but I can't think of any other source. It really seems to be hay, not pine needles. I suppose some people could be letting their extremely old grass clippings escape ...

weofodthignen

Cloudy, and it got chillier as the day continued. Maybe we get a late winter.

A couple of days ago, Monty was on the fence next to the driveway, and then he wasn't. I checked and saw him on the porch, where I'd just put out more food. So I brought the dog out for walkies; and the silly cat had moved to near the side door, about to request a personal food offering. He ran for the fence and the dog barely noticed him. After we got back, I put his food in the usual place anyway, and some got eaten. But now when he sees me, he hisses. :-(

ysobel

Not dead. Just a lot of stuff.

Mom has been moved to the new place (which is also memory care -- she hates being locked in) and when I visited her last week it was not great at all. The place looks nice but mom was insistent that she needed to go back to OldPlace and I could take her. (I declined. Six times.). I need to decide how often I'm visiting her, because I can't do every week.

Wrote a story for Yuletide (pinch hit) and I love the source and I have no energy to write up all the stuff I want to say

Have FOP flareup under my jaw. I can still chew but mouth opening is restricted -- about the size of a slice of bread's thickness -- and chewing is effortful. Have to take smaller bites so there's more chewing needed too. Have started prednisone (ee) so hopefully that will help. No clue if this is permanent or will resolve. At night it feels like I have something heavy resting on my neck; it doesn't interfere with breathing but it's kinda uncomfortable and getting to sleep is harder.

I've been playing a (free with gacha elements) casual life sim game called Heartopia. So cute. I've just adopted a cat (golden spotted, looks like a bengal) and have unlocked the option to adopt a dog but can't decide which one (golden retriever I name Phoebe? Black lab named Yahtzee? Shiba Inu? Corgi? Husky?). Also you can interact with wildlife. So much cuteness! I love.

weofodthignen

Saw the first tree in full spring blossom; one of the white ones, of course.

azurelunatic

Two canes can be better than one.

I have a battery of tests aimed at me for the leg weakness, in case it's neurological.

And my primary care is leaving (again) within a few months. They said last time that I would be assigned to someone in the same practice. That was inaccurate. They're saying it again this time, so I will prepare for battle.

Cats are nice and warm, and extraordinarily heavy on the knees.

weofodthignen

The dog was very brave. After getting spooked when we were almost at the park and turning back—there was a nice man who asked how old she was, terrifying—the next day she took me all the way in, and then we found it was full of kids. She's horribly scared of kids; it may all go back to the day we adopted her at the shelter and she was wearing a cone and I had to lead her to the car, which the housemate had parked in the suburbs of Ulan Bator, and when we were almost at this unfamiliar vehicle that she was trying to trust would not take her to penal servitude, a mother let her two brats run over screaming to pet the doggie. She shucked her collar and the cone, leaving me with a useless leash, and if the housemate hadn't darted forward and somehow managed to engulf her, she would still be running free in the North Bay hills. But she stiffened up and didn't try to drag me away from the kids. She led me alongside the playground and even when a banshee scream came from one of the climbing frames, she only shuddered a little and headed for the path with the fewest kids.

ursamajor

Today has been a very bookish day for me, albeit a highly social one.

Romance book club in the morning; this month, a Regency romance (J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head. (Reminder to self - send

minervacat the book club list, it's just in inconvenient-to-share format.) Good to shake up my usual contemporary/romantasy tendencies, and we had a fun discussion about the perils of how to introduce a large cast of characters (I compared it both to the Baby-Sitters Club *and* Pucking Around, ahahaha), and historical portrayals and understandings of nonbinary and alternate genders, but I think overall I still don't gravitate towards Regency romances in general. Also, the series is literally "Regency Cheesemakers," I would like more cheese content please!

Afterwards, I headed over to Book Passage as a friend was having an event for their book on transportation advocacy (If You Want to Win, You've Got to Fight). Of course we chatted some about specific local bugbears (why do people keep trying to close SF's newest and reputedly most popular park to turn it back into a highway, how do we get things done when we're a small minority against an entrenched system, how do we get across to people that parking on a public street isn't their personal space, it belongs to all of us? how do these lessons apply in a broader context?). Then Heather and I were hungry, so after stumbling across a surprisingly long line at El Porteño (no empanadas for us!), we went down the street to Gott's to address our growling stomachs with chili and sweet potato fries and milkshakes.

Our timing meant we finished eating, looked up into a cotton-candy sunset sky, and both yanked out our cameras to chase the color for awhile. The sun had mostly set by the time we got on the ferry, but it meant we had a lovely view of the city lights as we pulled away across the bay, under the bridge. Unanimous agreement: the ferry is such a relaxing transportation option compared to BART.

And then I came home to the scent of 红烧肉 (hóngshāo ròu, Shanghai red-braised pork belly) wafting out of our kitchen. Now that our cookbooks are all organized and on shelves again instead of half of them being stacks on the floor, it's so much easier to browse through them, which is how

hyounpark spent his afternoon while I was out gallivanting around the bay :)

*

Before that, catching up with

bitty and

anirt Friday evening; an amazing rose pistachio cake at Mey Friday morning with Jen,

ladyjax, other Heather, and Cade; solid rehearsal Wednesday at choir as we work on two pieces for this spring about migrant experiences. Time with friends all the more precious now.

Current Mood: cheerful

weofodthignen

The spare the air days have been extended. At least I could see the hills today. Vaguely.

weofodthignen

Back to watering. Monty is almost a fixture on a particular sloping roof. The dog starts barking bright and early because there's no morning fog. And the "spare the air" day yesterday has been extended through tomorrow.

weofodthignen

A Spanish-style house (there aren't many in this particular suburb) is newly for sale, asking $1,799,000.

In January 2018 it was for sale asking $1,500,000—it sold for $1,710,000. So they aren't asking for much more than they paid.

Both times, a recent remodel is claimed. But the main change seems to be that the current owners had it staged—and the photos are less dark. A lighting fixture or two, maybe a retiled shower, the Tesla charger and probably the washer and dryer; otherwise it seems basically unchanged. Looks like the same windows, maybe even the same kitchen appliances. It's a small house on a street of small houses, but it's been enlarged to 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

weofodthignen

It's basically flat here; streets slope almost imperceptibly towards the Bay. In a demonstration, a guy was inline-skating along the bike path on the street that runs beside the railway line, with an (ice) hockey stick, dribbling a rubber ball. Close enough to a rink.

weofodthignen

The dog has adopted my blankie—a sign of the chilly nights, I'd set it aside for her months ago but she rejected it. Luckily I have a second one for myself.

The orange tree has resumed dropping oranges. There were 3 today, 2 intact that I will have with my cereal tomorrow, and one sufficiently smooshed that I fed it to the compost monster.

weofodthignen

I was reading yesterday's Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. That's one weird city. They're worried not enough people are using public transit, so they're doing things like having musicians with "strong social media followings" play live on ferries during the evening commute. That would drive me right to an alternative means of transportation. I can imagine people who don't share the booker's taste and who refuse to drive making creative use of drinks. Or blasting something very different. But the reporter acts as though this is a marvellous perk of buying a ferry ticket and says everybody was grooving. San Francisco.

weofodthignen

PG&E saw fit to cut the power. To the person I was talking to on IRC - sorry, not my fault.

Now I have a very large assemblage of pdfs to track down and reopen.

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Trelana

November 2010

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Reading

let her dismantle your distance

D.O.P.-T.

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Prednisone song, updated

D.O.P.-T.

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(no subject)

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Ow

D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

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D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

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D.O.P.-T. (yesterday)

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November 2010

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