karenmarie: buckling up for a wild ride in 2025 - part III

Welcome to my third thread, and may the Universe protect us from the chaos demon and his minions.

It’s a shock. It’s less than 2 months since the chaos demon and his minions started dismantling our institutions, our safety, our democracy.

Eight ways to describe me and books: bibliolater, bibliomaniac, bibliophile, lectiophiliac, bookworm, Book Dragon, biblioflâneuse, and librocubicularist.

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@lizzied, Peggy, wrote “If I’m kind, I’ll get the day I deserve.” I’m going to try to implement that. No guarantees, but I may get through an hour or two before snark and unhappiness overcome my desire to be a better person.

The Good: Family, friends, kitties, books, and soccer in constantly-rotating order. Smut, of course, and book sort team/Friends of the Library. Jenna got married in November to her girlfriend Hwan and they live about 35 minutes from us. They are so good together, and I love having them over.

The Bad: The hostile takeover of the US government by Elon Musk. I'm having a serious case of schadenfreude when I read how much money he's lost and two rockets exploding. I'm not going to win the Peggy Kindness Award.

From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock. This information was published on January 29th when the clock was set to 89 seconds before midnight, apocalypse. 89 seconds is the shortest time to apocalypse since the clock was created in 1945. Rather than try to quote parts or even the whole thing, I’m going to provide the link for those with the stomach to read it: Doomsday Clock 2025

The ugly: What’s going to happen in the world given the instability in countries one would consider stable - France, Germany, Canada, South Korea. China taking over Taiwan. All the headlines I never, ever thought I’d read in my lifetime.

I read and am a charter member of the Redbud and Beyond Book Club, started in 1997. Our 2024-2025 Book Club Year.
Aug – The End of the Affair by Graham Greene – started, abandoned.
Sep – Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – finished. Loved.
Oct – Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain – after 3 attempts to start it in September, finally devoured it in time for my RL book club meeting.
Nov – Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie. Was stunned by this book.
Dec – Foster by Claire Keegan – Started, abandoned. Memo to self: Listen to an audiobook before acquiring it. A very strong Irish accent just didn’t work for me.
Jan – James by Percival Everett – finished, loved.
Feb – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell – well, I’ve read 8 pages and won't go to book club. Abandoned twice, but back on the shelves in a show of optimism.
Mar - The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict - Abandoned before the meeting I didn’t go to.
Apr – The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. I retrieved it from upstairs! It's here in the Sunroom!
May – Dinosaurs by Linda Millet – my book choice
Jun 8 - book selection

I have been married to Bill for almost 34 years and am mother to Jenna, who turned 31 last year and is married to Hwan, 29. Or, as we have put it recently, bio daughter and bonus daughter.

Sears Photography Studios, 1995. Jenna was 2 years old. She’d pitched a fit and fallen into it just prior to this photo being taken. The bunny was one of Sears’ – she didn’t want anything I had on offer.



Zoe and Wash, March 2025.



My goal last year was 150 books, recognizing that I’m powering through the smut. I still really, really enjoy reading this subgenre of contemporary fiction/romance and will continue until it no longer interests me. It’s getting more challenging to find books as I’ve refined my targeted trope(s), but I’ve become a great detective. This year’s goal is 200, which is still based on reading smut. So far 65 read and 26 abandoned, 14739 pages read.




News avoidance about 85-90% of the time, but I am occasionally dipping my toe in when I need my dose of schadenfreude, aka epicaricacy, see recent examples above, and I continue to revel in any and everything that politically or legally injures Trump or warns me about Terrible Things To Come. I’ve unpaused my NYT subscription, and am getting WaPO for $1/week for a while.

And, finally, I need to express gratitude for what I have - family, friends, intangibles and tangibles - every single day.

Currently Reading:

Unwritten Law by Eden Finley narrated by Antony Ferguson and Joel Leslie 4/18/25 Audible audiobook 5.45 hours Law and Reed The Steele Brothers 1 2018
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride 3/29/25 458 pages trade paperback
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride narrated by Michael Boatman 4/09/25 14.5 hours
His Dark Paradox by Avery Tu and Kota Quinn 4/20/25 Kindle Nuri and Silver 2023
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel 4/6/25 trade paperback 356 pages 2008
The Federalist edited by Jacob E. Cooke 5/28/22 656 pages hardcover 1961

read

**abandoned His Prince by Cora Rose** 228 pages Facile, cutsey, chaotic emotions that didn't always make sense.
**abandoned The Club by Rina Saint** 100 pages One of the main characters, in the closet, all of a sudden comes out dramatically and publicly at a sex club. The dynamic between him and the other main character was a bit too kinky for me, and I don't hate kink.
1. The Sinner's Sanctuary by August Jones 1/3/25 1/5/25 427 pages Kindle Christian and Gibson Doormen of the Upper East Side 3 2024
2. Crossroads by Riley Hart Narrated by Sean Crisden 1/3/25 1/5/25 Audible 7.5 hours Nick and Bryce Crossroads 1 2015 really 4.25
3. A Little Bit by L Waltree 1/5/25 1/5/25 310 pages Kindle Warren and Eli 2024
4. Ruined by Vanessa Waltz 1/5/25 1/6/25 382 pages Kindle Luca and Dominic Sinners of Boston 1 2024
5. Test Drive by Riley Hart 1/5/25 1/7/25 Narrated by Sean Crisden Audible 6 hours Justin and Drew Crossroads 3 2016
6. Hard to Let Go by Jaclyn Quinn 1/7/25 1/10/25 Audible audio book narrated by Sean Crisden 6.75 hours Owen and Brady Haven Coves' Series 1 2019
7. How to Hack a Hellhound by Shannon Mae 1/7/25 1/8/25 234 pages Kindle Quinton and Liam Hellhounds of Paradise Falls 2 2025
**abandoned Taken by the Lord of the Nocturne Court by KA Merikan** 80 pages
**abandoned Never Have I Evan by DJ Jamison** 107 pages
8. James by Percival Everett 12/23/24 1/11/25 303 pages hardcover 2024
9. Commitment Issues by Bradley Brady 1/11/25 1/12/25 350 pages Kindle Evan and Scott Commitment Issues 1 2017
**abandoned Man of Honor by Parker St John** 182 pages 1/10/25 Kindle Gage and Wyatt
10. Dead Draw by Layla Reyne 1/12/25 1/14/25 237 pages Kindle Marsh and Levi Perfect Play 1 2022
11. Pull Back by JD Sampson 1/14/25 1/14/25 147 pages Kindle Bodhi and Morgan Hollywood Endings 1 2020
12. The Vertigo Effect by JD Sampson 1/14/25 1/15/25 170 pages Kindle Bodhi and Morgan Hollywood Endings 2 2020
13. The Two Shot by JD Sampson 1/15/25 1/17/25 201 pages Kindle Bodhi and Morgan Hollywood Endings 3 2021
14. Deep Focus by JD Sampson 1/15/25 1/18/25 184 pages Kindle Bodhi and Morgan Hollywood Endings 4 2023
15. Six Degrees of Lust by Taylor V. Donovan 1/18/25 1/19/25 366 pages Kindle Sam and Machlan By Degrees 1 2020
16. One Man's Trash by Marie Sexton narrated by John Solo 12 hours Taylor and Warren Heretic Doms Club 1 2017
17. Hearsay by Taylor V Donovan 1/21/25 1/22/25 240 pages Kindle Derrick and Roman Bylaws 1 2014
18. Benji by NR Walker 1/22/25 1/23/25 196 pages Kindle Kindle Benji and Nolan The Wylde Street Boys 1 2025
** abandoned When We Collide by Avril Ashton ** 167 pages Zander, Vince, Scotty
** abandoned Six Degrees of Separation by Taylor V. Donovan ** 208 pages Mac and Sam By Degrees
** Love the Sinner by Avril Ashton ** 110 pages Gabe Pagan
** Silver & Gold by Katherine Diane 47 pages ** Seth and Raider Seth & Raider series 2
19. Disaster Stray by FA Ray 1/24/25 1/24/25 280 pages Kindle Luke and Sebastian Rainbow Rescue Cat Cafe 2 2024
20. Reckless Hearts by Jax Calder 1/24/25 1/25/25 412 pages Kindle Seb and Marcus Rainbow Redemption Book 2 2025 4.5
21. The Other Brother by Jax Calder 1/25/25 1/26/25 290 pages Kindle Ryan and Cody 2022
22. The Fixer by Charity Parkerson 1/26/25 1/27/25 244 pages Kindle Chad and Journey Damaged Devils 1 2023
** abandoned A Matcha Made in Hell by FA Ray ** 68 pages facile, no character development
23. Under Construction by Juliet M Dixon 1/27/25 1/28/25 505 pages Kindle Dennis and Chris Straight to Him 1 2025
24. Back With the Tide: Memoirs of Ellen Douglas Bellamy By Ellen Douglas Bellamy 1/23/25 1/30/25 54 pages trade paperback 1940
25. Savage by Brooke Blaine and Ella Frank 1/28/25 1/30/25 301 pages Kindle Lachlan and Cooper Park Avenue Kings 1 2025
26. A Simple Mistake by Alice Winters 1/30/25 1/31/25 361 pages Kindle Liam and Gabriel Deadly Mistakes 1 2025
** abandoned Save Me by Beck Grey ** 97 pages
** abandoned Sold by Ace Fawn ** 43 pages
** Tender Strokes by Diane Vale ** 41 pages
27. MateHub: Legend by Marie Reynard 1/31/25 2/1/25 342 pages Kindle Richard and Hunter MateHub 1 2024
28. Something About You by Riley Hart narrated by Sean Crisden 1/23/25 2/2/25 Audible audio book 7 hours Saint and Lucky Saint & Lucky 1 2018
29. Accidental Bonds by Marie Reynard 2/1/25 2/3/25 454 pges Kindle Victor and Elijah Elemental Bonds Book 1 2023
30. The Southerner's Book of Lists by Jim Erskine 2/3/25 2/3/25 128 pages paperback 1996
31. Mixed Motives by Leslie Macadam 2/4/25 2/4/25 73 pages Kindle Henry and Keane
32. Born Again Sinner by Daryl Banner 2/2/25 2/6/25 Audible audio book 10 hours Trey and Cody Spruce Texas Romance 2 2018
33. Raising Hell by Daryl Banner 2/6/25 2/7/25 329 pages Kindle Mathew (sic) and Charlie 2018
34. The Husband Experience by Maya Jean 2/7/25 2/7/25 150 pages Kindle Eli and Colby Sweet Southern Book 1 2024
** abandoned Guardian Angel in Leather by KA Merikan ** 20 pages
** abandoned Ho Ho Homicidal Maniac by KA Merikan ** 74 pages
** abandoned Notorious by Leslie McAdam - re-read ** 141 pages
** abandoned Bloom by NR Walker ** 104 pages
35. Crown of Disguise by Lola Malone 2/7/25 2/8/25 291 pages Kindle Dominique and Gaël Initiation Series 1 2023
36. Crown of Steel by Lola Malone 2/8/25 2/12/25 406 pages Kindle Régis and Arthur Initiation Series 2 2024
**abandoned A Different Light by Morningstar Ashley ** 100 pages
**abandoned Open Mind by Luna David ** 9 pages
**abandoned Sick Bargain by Nordika Night ** 189 pages
**abandoned Shameless by Lola Malone ** 71 pages
**abandoned Bonds of Denial by Lynda Aicher ** 8 pages
37. Cambros by Juliet M. Dixon 2/7/25 2/7/25 49 pages Kindle Alex and Cory 2024
38. Pretty Broken Doll by Bree Wiley 2/12/25 2/12/25 348 pages Kindle Shilo and Ryan 2025
39. Getting Lucky by Daryl Banner 2/7/25 2/15/25 Audible audio book narrated by Chris Chambers and Alex Kydd 12 hours Lucas and James 2018
40. Bad Intentions by Ella Frank 2/15/25 2/15/25 Audible audio book narrated by Tim Paige and Aiden Snow 6.5 hours Gabe and Marcus Intentions Duet 1 2021
41. The Mercenary and the Mortician by Alexandra St. Pierre 2/12/25 2/15/25 760 pages Kindle Cal and Ryan The Silent Hollow 1 2025
42. One by Paulina Ian-Kane 2/15/25 2/16/25 291 pages Kindle Michael and Raph Angels of Wrath Book 1 2023
43. Six by Paulina Ian-Kane 2/16/25 2/18/25 306 pages Kindle Ollie and Rague Angels of Wrath Book 2 2023
44. Happily Never After by Ava Olsen 2/18/25 2/18/25 222 pages Kindle Aaron and Harrison 2025
45. Three by Paulina Ian-Kane 2/18/25 2/20/25 339 pages Kindle Rami and Hunter Angels of Wrath Book 3 2024
46. Five by Paulina Ian-Kane 2/20/25 2/20/25 341 pages Kindle Gabe/Bez and Lori Angels of Wrath Book 4 2024
47. Mighty Quill by Emmaline Strange /2/21/25 2/24/25 398 pages Kindle Thor and Cassian Sanguis et Fauna 1 2022
48. Wake Me Up Inside by Cardeno C 2/24/25 2/24/25 313 Kindle Zev and Jonah Mates Collection 1 2015
49. With This Ring by RS McKenzie 2/25/25 2/26/25 297 pages Kindle Carter and Kaison Opposites Attract 1 2025
**abandoned Redeeming Rafe by Sloane Kennedy ** 81 pages
**abandoned Friction by Kindle Alexander** 323 pages
50. Wild by Adrienne Wilder 2/26/25 2/28/25 338 pages Kindle Carter Keenan and August 2017
51. Out, Proud, and Prejudiced by Megan Reddaway 2/28/25 3/1/25 346 pages Kindle Bennet and Darius 2018
52. Shelter Me by Megan Reddaway 3/1/25 3/2/25 Kindle Leo and Cole Heven Book 1 2017
53. Honor, the Duel, and Indiscretion: The Life of Elizabeth "Betsey" Pollock Devereaux Jones (1818-1879) by W. Davenport Robertson 3/5/25 3/5/25 40 pages paper published in "North Carolina Historical Review," vol. CI, no. 4 (October) 2024
54. The Killer Who Kept Me by Davidson King 3/5/25 3/6/25 224 pages Kindle Em and Soros 2025
55. Run To Me by Ashlynn Mills 3/6/25 3/6/25 248 pages Kindle Nate and Jace 2025
56. Estranged Heart by Ashlynn Mills 3/6/25 3/3/7/25 346 pages Kindle Silas and Elijah 2025
57. Taken By My Dad's Bodyguard by Candace Lark 3/8/25 3/8/25 78 pages Kindle Otto and Myers Sin City 1 2023
58. Vile Heart by Lola Malone 3/8/25 3/8/25 80 pages Kindle Camren and Davian Vicious Valentine 1 2025
59. Distant Heart by Lola Malone 3/8/25 3/8/25 91 pages Kindle Ilya and Rexton Vicious Valentine 2 2025 own
60. Caught by Leo Rivers 3/8/25 3/8/25 75 pages Kindle Evan and Silas Mating Run 1 2025
61. Rivals by Leo Rivers 3/8/25 3/9/25 91 pages Kindle Viktor and Nick Mating Run 2 2025
**abandoned Be Mine, Bloody Valentine by Skyler Snow** 43 pages
62. Pounding Skin by LA Witt 2/15/25 3/10/25 Audible audio book narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo 9.5 hours Jon and Matt Skin Deep, Inc. 2 2019
63. Shifter for Brains by F.N. Manning 3/9/25 3/9/25 258 pages Kindle Lucas and Chase Supernatural Affairs 2 2022
64. Black Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes 288 pages 3/10/25 3/10/25 Kindle Linden and Colt Wolf Moon Rising 1 2021
65. Lost and Pound by Lilo Quie 3/10/25 3/11/25 103 pagesKindle Nico and Shilo Love Sync Mates Season Two 8 2025
**abandoned NOX by Adrienne Wilder** 178 pages
66. Reckless by Nicole Edwards 3/11/25 3/12/25 361 pages Kindle Cam and Gannon Pier 70 Book 1 2015
67. Hunter Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes 3/12/25 3/13/25 345 pages Kindle and Brook Wolf Moon Rising 3 2021
68. Wolf Lost by Sam Burns 3/13/25 3/14/25 206 pages Kindle Sawyer and Dez The Wolves of Kismet Book 1 2019
69. Werewolf in Shining Armor by Minerva Howe 3/14/25 3/14/25 127 pages Kindle Symon and Adrian Werewolf Knights Book 1 2024
70. Such a Good Omega by Lorelei M Hart 3/14/25 3/15/25 96 pages Kindle Talon and Rowan His Alpha Desires 1 2024
71. Werewolf in Leather Armor by Minerva Howe 3/14/25 3/14/25 127 pages Kindle Rian and Eyre Werewolf Knights Book 1 2024
72. Cold Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes 3/15/25 3/16/25 225 pages Kindle Dante and Skye Wolf Moon book 4 2021
73. Lone Wolf by Tessa Kane 3/16/25 3/17/25 346 pages Kindle Keir and Julien Exiled Omegas Book 1 2023
74. Cinderella in the Sheets by Reece Pine 3/17/25 3/17/25 131 pages Kindle Presley and Louis 2018
75. Carnal Heart by Emmy LaRoux 3/17/25 3/18/25 82 pages Kindle Zaiah and Devyn Vicious Valentines 3 2025
76. Blinding Light by Lola Malone 3/19/25 3/20/25 374 pages Kindle Cyprian and Moargan 2025
77. The Hunter's Heart by Minerva Howe 3/20/25 3/20/25 17 pages Kindle Jason and Isaac 2020
78. Echo by Chani Lynn Feener 3/20/25 3/22/25 437 pages Kindle Rabbit and Baikal Devils of Vitality 1 2023
79. These Silent Stars by Chani Lynn Feener 3/22/25 3/23/25 500 pages Kindle Rin and Kelevra Devils of Vitality 2 2023
**abandoned Guns 'n Boys by KA Merikan** 8.75 hours
**abandoned My Only Regret by Leigh Lennon** 2.5 hours
**abandoned The Measure by Nikki Erlick** 5.25 hours
80. Call of the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener 3/23/25 3/25/25 565 pages Kindle Sila and Bay Devils of Vitality 3 2023
81. Devil May Care by Chani Lynn Feener 3/25/25 3/26/25 482 pages Kindle Nate and Kazimir Devils of Vitality 4 2024
**abandoned Devil May Fall by Chani Lynn Feener** 127 pages
82. Kick at the Darkness by Keira Andrews 3/26/25 3/27/25 267 pages Kindle Parker and Adam Kick at the Darkness 1 2015
83. His Secret Alpha by Chani Lynn Feener 3/27/25 3/28/25 146 pages Kindle Sky and Kian Christmas Omegas 6 2023
**abandoned The Wolf's Wounded Omega by AJ Kane** 108 pages
**abandoned Chasing Mr. Wright by Aimee Nicole Walker ** 173 pages
**abandoned Betrothed to the Emperor by Kai Butler** 197 pages
84. Who Said Mobsters Were Scary? by Aria Clark 3/28/25 3/30/25 324 pages Kindle Leo and Chai Mobster Mayhem 1 2024
85. Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy 3/30/25 3/30/25 362 pages Kindle Niko and 'the Kestrel' Starhawk Book 1 2024
86. The Alpha's Heir by Wolf Specter 3/30/25 3/31/25 135 pages Kindle Zeke and Mathias The Alpha's Heir 1 2016
87. Mated to the Alpha books 1-8 by Rosa Swann and Wolf Specter 4/1/25 4-2-25 388 pages Kindle Max and Ethan 2015
88. Claimed by the Boss by Sophie O'Dare 4/2/25 4/3/25 211 pages Kindle Leo and Nolan Taken by His Alpha 1 2024
89. Rancher's Runaway by Asher Wylde 4/3/25 4/3/25 220 pages Kindle Wesley and Zack 2025
90. Mating the Omega by Ann-Katrin Byrde 4/3/25 4/3/25 153 pages Kindle Jason and Mac Mercy Hills Pack 1 2016
91. Abel's Omega by Ann-Katrin Byrde 4/3/25 4/4/25 348 pages Kindle Bax and Abel Mercy Hills Pack 2 2016
**abandoned Who Said Witness Protection Was Boring? by Aria Clark** 153 pages
**abandoned Wrong Train, Right Wolf by Colbie Dunbar** 43 pages
**abandoned Wrong Number, Right Wolf by Colbie Dunbar** 23 pages
92. Collared by Lola Malone 4/4/25 4/5/25 116 pages Kindle Thurel and Maël The Wicked Chase 1 2024
93. Trapped by Lola Malone 4/5/25 4/5/25 124 pages Kindle Robin and Arsène The Wicked Chase 2 2024
94. Hunted by Lola Malone 4/5/25 4/5/25 124 pages Kindle Olivier and Alexandre The Wicked Chase 3 2024
95. Cherry Breeze by Jett Masterson 4/5/25 4/6/25 392 pages Kindle Asher and Sebastian 2025
96. Marked by Lola Malone 4/6/25 4/8/25 126 pages Kindle Edouard and Romain The Wicked Chase 4 2024
97. Finding Lord Landry by Lucy Lennox 4/8/25 4/9/25 340 pages Kindle Kenji and Landry The Billionaire Brotherhood 5 2025
98. His Bewildered Mate by Brea Alepoú 4/9/25 4/9/25 234 pages Kindle Dillan and Rhy Unexpected Mates 1 2019
99. Grabbed by Susi Hawke and Crista Crown 4/10/25 4/10/25 157 pages Kindle Preston and Noah Team A.L.P.H.A. Book 1 2019
**abandoned Ready or Knot by Susi Hawke and Crista Crown** 124 pages
100. Devlish by Ella Frank and Brooke Blaine 4/11/25 4/11/25 295 pages Kindle Lucien and Kai Park Avenue Kings 2 2025
101. The Revenge Game by Jax Calder 4/11/25 4/12/25 439 pages Kindle Andrew and Justin The Revenge Club 1 2025
102. His Reluctant Omega by Sam Abbot 4/13/25 4/14/25 45 pages Kindle Nathan and Brock Devil's Creek Omega Book 1 2015
103. Wildlands Omega by Ruby Nox 4/14/25 4/14/25 121 pages Kindle Riley and Jack Summerwood Wolves 1 2017
104. The Alpha's Touch by Claire Cullen 4/14/25 4/15/25 94 pages Kindle Robert and Sebastian Lost Omegas Book 1 2016
105. Wrenched by Casey Morales 4/15/25 4/15/25 257 pages Kindle Sam and Miguel Nashville Spicy Book 1 2023
106. Omega's Escape by Feral Moon 4/15/25 4/16/25 72 pages Kindle Aiden and Jude The Omega Files Book 1 2016
**abandoned Hollywood Lightning by JV Speyer** 80 pages
107. Kiss the Villain by Rina Kent 4/16/25 4/17/25 496 pages Kindle Kayden and Gareth Villain 1 2025
108. Between the Devil and the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener narrated by Dan Levy 3/26/25 4/18/25 12 hrs 20 minutes Apollo and Shadow The Devil and the Sea 1 2023
**abandoned Wrath by Ellis James** 346 pages
**abandoned Rescue by Mx Alex** 188 pages
109. Ferocious by Leslie McAdam 4/17/25 4/19/25 405 pages Kindle Rowan and Charlie 2025
110. Omega On the Run by Aria Grade 4/20/25 4/20/25 80 pages Kindle Jamie and Cameron Love Sync Mates Season 2 10
111. His Dark Paradox by Avery Tu and Kota Quinn 4/20/25 4/21/25 260 pages Kindle Nuri and Silver 2023

reminder to self: add to @@kenner1953 with reading dates

read 2

adds - 306 last year

1. Audible - Silk & Sand by Katherine Diane
2. Audible - Crossroads by Riley Hart
3. Audible - Guns 'n Boys by KA Merikan
4. Kindle - Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac
5. FoCCL - The Complete Parallel Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books published by the Oxford University Press
6. FoCCL - Cicero Select Letters Volume I
7. FoCCL - Cicero Select Letters Volume II
8. Audible - Hard to Let Go by Jaclyn Quinn
9. Amazon - All of Us Strangers by Taichi Yamada
10. FoCCL - Introduction to Islam by Frederick Matthewson Denny Fourth Edition
11. FoCCL - French in 10 minutes a day by Kristine Kershul
12. Kindle - Commitment Issues by Bradley Brady
13. Kindle - Dead Draw by Layla Reyne
14. Kindle - Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
15. FoCCL - Sir John Dering by Jeffery Farnol - sad copy needed a good home
16. Karen - The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick
17. Karen - Marsupial Frogs by William E Duellman
18. Re-added from being culled - The Future by Naomi Alderman
19. Re-added from being culled - Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
20. Audible - One Man's Trash by Marie Sexton narrated by John Solo
21. Kindle - Save Me by Beck Grey
22. Kindle - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
23. Amazon - The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Edition by Gaius Valerius Catullus (Author), Peter Green (Translator)
24. Audible - Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino
25. Audible - Hard to Let Go by Jaclyn Quinn
and thus ends January's acquisitions, to be reviewed later in case I missed any.

26. FoCCL - How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb
27. FoCCL - The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook by Michael J. Gelb
28. FoCCL - The New American Bible by the Catholic Bible Publishers
29. Audible - Getting Lucky by Daryl Banner
30. FoCCL - The Hunter by Tana French
31. In House - The Calvert Party Encyclopedia by Calvert Distillers Company
32. In House - We Made It! Recipes from Aunt and Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary
33. In House - Collection Seventeen Kitchen Pamphlets
34. FoCCL - In Too Deep by Lee Child and Andrew Child
35. FoCCL - The Cask by Freeman Wills Crofts
36. FoCCL - Great Stories of All Nations ed by Maxim Lieber
37. FoCCL - The Bedside Book of Famous American Stories ed by Angus Burrell and Bennett A. Cerf
38. FoCCL - Time Travel: A History by James Gleick
39. Amazon - Bonded in Death by JD Robb
40. Kindle - The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro
41. FoCCL - Starborn by Roberto Trotta
42. FoCCL - A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel
43. FoCCL - Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
44. FoCCL - When Will there Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
45. FoCCL - Beloved by Toni Morrison
46. Amazon - The Library at Night
57. Kindle - Taken By My Dad's Bodyguard by Candace Lark
58. FoCCL - The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu translated by Royall Tyler 2 vol set, slipcased
59. Kindle - Chased by the Alpha by Summer Aspen
60. Audible - Treasure Trail by Morgan Brice
61. FoCCL book sale - The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong
62. FoCCL book sale - Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh
63. FoCCL book sale - The Great Chiefs by Benjamin Capps
64. FoCCL book sale - Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
65. FoCCL book sale - Bloodless by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
66. FoCCL book sale - Eternelle egypte by Collectif
67. FoCCL book sale - Early Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
68. FoCCL book sale - The High Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
69. FoCCL book sale - The Late Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
70. FoCCL book sale - Who Were the Celts? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Celts 1000 B.C. to the Present by Kevin Duffy
71. FoCCL book sale - The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing by Betty Edwards
72. FoCCL book sale - Ephesus by Selahattin Erdemgil
73. FoCCL book sale - Bad Actors by Mick Herron
74. FoCCL book sale - Joe Country by Mick Herron
75. FoCCL book sale - London Rules by Mick Herron
76. FoCCL book sale - Real Tigers by Mick Herron
77. FoCCL book sale - Slough House by Mick Herron
78. FoCCL book sale - Spook Street by Mick Herron
79. FoCCL book sale - dot.dead by keith.raffel
80. FoCCL book sale - The Great Book of King Arthur: and His Knights of the Round Table by John Matthews
81. FoCCL book sale - A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions by William M. McBride
82. FoCCL book sale - Mother London by Michael Moorecock
83. FoCCL book sale - Homemade Cookies by Nell B. Nichols
84. FoCCL book sale - Egyptian Antiquities in the Hermitage by B. Piotrovsky
85. FoCCL book sale - The Pyramids and Sphinx by Desmond Stewart
86. FoCCL book sale - Three Aces by Rex Stout
87. FoCCL book sale - The Chicago Record Prize Cook Book: Seasonable, Inexpensive Bills of Fare for Every Day in the Year by The Chicago Record Co.
88. FoCCL book sale - The Philosophers' Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding by Robert Zaretsky
89. FoCCL book sale - The Holy Bible Red Letter Edition, KJV
90. Peggy - The Gold Bat and Other School Stories by PG Wodehouse
91. Peggy - Losing Battles by Eudora Welty
92. Peggy - The Matriarch by GB Stern
93. Peggy - The Basil and Josephine Stories by F Scott Fitzgerald
94. Peggy - The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
95. Peggy - We That Were Young by Irene Rathbone
96. Peggy - Four In Hand by Sylvia Townsend Warner
97. Peggy - Uncommon Clay by Margaret Maron
98. Peggy - Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution by AJ Langguth
99. FoCCL - Tutankhamun by TGH James
100. FoCCL - Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly
101. Amazon - Between the Devil and the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener audio book
** Jan - Mar
102-109. Kindle - Mated to the Alpha Series, books 1-8 by Rosa Swann and Wolf Specter
110. FoCCL - The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch by JJ Hurtak
111. FoCCL - Wah'Kon-Tah by John Joseph Mathews

...
So, here's the thing. While visiting Judy's thread, she mentioned adding all her Kindle books to her catalog. I looked at my Kindle books purchased, and it ends up being 159 books more than what I had in my catalog. Well, shit. So have I added them here as a separate tally, and am not counting them as books acquired in 2025. I in addition to tagging them "Kindle", I've also tagged them "Catch-up Kindle".

1. Cold Lonely Courage by Soren Petrek
2. The Works of Elizabeth Gaskell by Elizabeth Gaskell
3. The Book of Souls by James Oswald
4. Keeper of Secrets...Translations of an Incident by Anjuelle Floyd
5. World War II: London Blitz Diary by Side Thompson
6. Commitment Issues: A Modern Romance by Bradley Brady
7. Acrobat by Mary Calmes
8. High Five by Janet Evanovich
9. Angle of Investigation: Three Harry Bosch Stories by Michael Connelly
10. Suicide Run: Three Harry Bosch Stories by Michael Connelly
11. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
12. Savage Nights by D. Gagliani
13. Four Days with Hemingway's Ghost by Tom Winton
14. The Scavenger's Daughter by McIntyre
15. Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich
16. Reunion by Jeff Bennington
17. Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton
18. First in Their Hearts: The Life of George Washington by Thomas Fleming
19. Timesplash by Graham Storrs
20. Simple Simon by Douglas Pearson
21. Scriber by S. Dobson
22. Blind Her With Bliss by Nina Pierce
23. The Fifth Avenue Series Boxed Set by Christopher Smith
24. Prelude to Reveille: A Vietnam Awakening by D. Sawyer
25. It's Murder, My Son by Lauren Carr
26. Crux by Rocha, Kit
27. Cake Icing, Butt Budder and Tea Lids by Renee Andrews
28. The Philanthropist's Danse by Paul Wornham
29. Smartie Breedlove by Sam Finney
30. Shift by Zack Mason
31. The Hangman by Louise Penny
32. Solomon vs. Lord by Paul Levine
33. The Drought by Lily White
34. Pirates of Savannah: The Complete Trilogy by Britt, Sandie
35. The Tourist Trail by John Yunker
36. A Day of Small Beginnings by Pearl Rosenbaum
37. The Sot-weed Factor by Ebenezer Cooke
38. Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon
39. Cocaine Blues (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Book 1) by Kerry Greenwood
40. Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster
41. Fire and Ice by Dana Stabenow
42. Secrets by Liz Schulte
43. John Carter: Barsoom Series by St. John, J. Allan
44. Running Blind by Lee Child
45. Die Trying by Lee Child
46. Echo Burning by Lee Child
47. A Wanted Man by Lee Child
48. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
49. Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
50. Birdman by Mo Hayder
51. The Treatment by Mo Hayder
52. Perfect for You by Kathia
53. I Hope You Find Me by Marie Dawson
54. High Heat by Lee Child
55. Lost and Found by Marie Dawson
56. Belshazzar's Daughter by Barbara Nadel
57. Consenting Adults: Short Stories About Life, Love, and Lust by Lea Lopez
58. A Chemical Prison by Barbara Nadel
59. Wool by Hugh Howey
60. A Perfectly Good Family by Lionel Shriver
61. Strike From the Deep by Bob Branco
62. In A Small Town by DiGiacomo
63. The Shining by Stephen King
64. The Host: A Novel by Stephenie Meyer
65. True Crime by Allan Collins
66. The Zona by Nathan Yocum
67. Neon Mirage by Allan Collins
68. Alas, Babylon by Brin, David
69. Control by Lucia Jordan
70. 35 Slow Cooker Beef Recipes by Jean Pardue
71. Reamde by Neal Stephenson
72. 43*: When Gore Beat Bush - A Political Fable by Jeff Greenfield
73. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
74. Merlin's Furlong by Gladys Mitchell
75. Shadow Woman by Linda Howard
76. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
77. Mystery Girl by David Gordon
78. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
79. Good Men by Jennifer Weiner
80. My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni
81. The Last Passenger by Alfaro, Andrés
82. Wild Ride by Mayer, Bob
83. Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
84. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume
85. Girl Jacked by Christopher Greyson
86. Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson
87. Spies, Sadists and Sorcerers: The History You Weren't Taught in School by Dominic Selwood
88. The Paranormal 13 by various
89. Tales of a Traveller by Washington Irving
90. We're All Damaged by Matthew Norman
91. The Black Robe by Wilkie Collins
92. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
93. The Time Machine by G. Wells
94. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
95. Sons and Lovers by Herbert) Lawrence
96. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
97. The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things by Elizabeth Mauk
98. American History in 50 Events by Henry Freeman
99. Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein
100. The Art of War by Giles, Lionel
101. Bleak House by Charles Dickens
102. Slave Narratives Collection by Douglass, Frederick|Equiano, Olaudah|Truth, Sojourner
103. 100 Books You Must Read Before You Die - volume 1 by various
104. Galusha the Magnificent by Crosby Lincoln
105. Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations by O'Toole
106. Tam O' the Scoots by A L Burt Company
107. Witch Hunt, Silver Bullet, and Hotter Than Helltown by SM Reine
108. Bella Poldark by Winston Graham
109. Dead Simple by Peter James
110. The Monogram Murders by Christie, Agatha
111. This Side of Paradise by Scott Fitzgerald
112. The Man Who Could Be King by Ripin Miller
113. Kings of Broken Things by Theodore Wheeler
114. All the Little Children by Jo Furniss
115. No. 17 by Jefferson Farjeon
116. A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea by Brown, Martin|Kobayashi, Risa
117. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
118. Henry Wood Detective Agency by Brian Meeks
119. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
120. The Things We Don't Say by Ella Carey
121. Licensed to Thrill 1: Hunt For Jack Reacher Series by Diane Capri
122. Sense and Sensibility by Brock, H M
123. Happy Doomsday by David Sosnowski
124. The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator by Broome, Agnes
125. The Dry by Jane Harper
126. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Rosling, Ola|Rönnlund, Anna Rosling
127. The Frame-Up by Scott Molin
128. Future Perfect: A Skeptic’s Search for an Honest Mystic by Victoria Loustalot
129. Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
130. Mystery at Geneva: An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings by Rose Macaulay
131. What Not A Prophetic Comedy by Rose Macaulay
132. War with the Newts by Wyllie, David
133. Stars in His Eyes by West, Adrian Nathan
134. The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon
135. Ragtime by L. Doctorow
136. Headlong Hall by Love Peacock
137. The Monk by McEvoy, Emma|McEvoy, Emma
138. Siddhartha's Brain: Unlocking the Ancient Science of Enlightenment by James Kingsland
139. Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza
140. We of the Never-Never by Jeannie Gunn
141. The Souls of Black Folk: Original Classic Edition by Du Bois
142. The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
143. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Ward, Humphry
144. Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell by Emily Brontë
145. The Capture by Kathryn Lasky
146. Lockdown by Peter May
147. The Devil in America by Ashante Wilson
148. Tomboyland: Essays by Soloway, Joey
149. Inside Job by Connie Willis
150. Attack of the 50 Foot Indian by Graham Jones
151. The Saltmarsh Murders by Gladys Mitchell
152. Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
153. Represent! (2020-) #1: It's a Bird by Morales, Mark|Martinez, Alitha|López, Emilio
154. The Red House Mystery by A. Milne
155. The Ethics by Elwes, R. H. M.
156. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
157. The Personal Librarian by Murray, Victoria Christopher
158. Tied Up by Jesse Fuchs
159. Why Love Matters by Jay Northcote
**end of project**

culls - 219 last year

1. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
2. Impulse & Initiative by Abigail Reynolds
3. Prayers for Peace by Karen Blincoe
4. The Southerner's Book of Lists by Jim Erskine
5. Boundaries and Protection by Pixie Lighthorse
6. Better Homes and Gardens Crockery Cookbook
7. Lean and Lovin' It by Don Mauer
8. In the Kitchen with Rosie by Rosie Daley

While looking for American Gods by Neil Gaiman so I can start eliminating his books from my catalog, I decided to get rid of a few more:

9. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
10. Touchstone by Laurie R. King
11. A Fearsome Doubt by Charles Todd
12. Uh-Oh by Robert Fulghum
13. It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It by Robert Fulghum
14. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
15. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
16. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
17. Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
18. Darcy & Elizabeth by Linda Berdoll
19. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
20. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
21. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
22. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - yes, duplicate
23. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
24. Justice Hall by Laurie R. King
25. The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
26. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
27. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
28. Seabiscuit by Laura Hillengrand
29. We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper
30. In The Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
31. Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz
32. Mother London by Michael Moorcock - duplicate, new copy in better condition
33. The Defector by Daniel Silva
34. The Messenger by Daniel Silva
35. Prince of Fire by Daniel Silva
36. The Heist by Daniel Silva
37. The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
38. The English Spy by Daniel Silva
39. The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva
40. Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva
41. Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
42. The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva
43. Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freedman
44. Ships by Enzo Angelucci
45. Rumford Complete Cook Book by Lily Haxworth Wallace - 1935 edition
46. The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly abridged CDs
47. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee unabridged CDs
48. Doctor Sleep by Stephen King unabridged CDs
49. Dress Yuor Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris unabridged CDs
50. Classic Tales of Espionage and Suspense by Graham Greene
51. Astaire: The Man, the Dancer by Bob Thomas
52. The Old Devils by Kinsley Amis
53. John Adams by David McCullough
54. Taking on the World by Robert W. Merry
55. Angels & Insects by AS Byatt
56. Rosslyn by Tim Wallace-Murphy & Marilyn Hopkins
57. Murder at the Library of Congress by Margaret Truman
58. The Lonely Dwarf by Rosemary Lamkey
59. Friends to the End by Bradley Trevor Greive

YTD Statistics through February

50 books read
39 ebooks, 8 audio books, 3 paper books
12369 pages in completed books
67.75 hours in completed audio books
24 books abandoned, 2598 pages abandoned, 0 hours abandoned

14967 total pages read

Avg pages read per day, incl books abandoned: YTD = 254
Avg pages read per book, only those completed: YTD = 247

Book(s) of the Month: Crown of Disguise by Lola Malone

Books by Month
January: 26 books read - 18 ebooks, 4 audio books, 5 paper books
February: 24 books read - 21 ebooks, 4 audiobooks, 0 paper books

Author
Male 12%
Female 78%
Undeclared * 8%
Non-Binary 2%
* - can't find info anywhere

Living 98%
Dead 2%

US Born 31%
Foreign Born 15%
Undeclared * 54%
* - can't find info anywhere

Medium
Audio Book 16%
e-Book 78%
Paper Book 6%

Source
My Library 26%
Library 0%
Kindle Unlimited 74%
Borrowed 0%

Misc
Galley Proof 0%
Re-read 0%
Series 76%

Fiction 98%
NonFiction 2%

Author Birth Country
Australia 5%
Canada 4%
New Zealand 4%
Puerto Rico 4%
UK 2%
Undeclared * 50%
US 31%
* - can't find info anywhere

Original Decade Published

1940-1949 2%
1990-1999 2%
2010-2019 24%
2020-2025 72%

Genre
Historical Fiction 2%
Humor 2%
Memoir 2%
MM Romance 94%

Average Rating
2.0 - Bad 1
2.5 - Average 1
3.0 - Good 2
3.5 - Very Good 12
4.0 - Excellent 28
4.5 - Outstanding 6
5 - Masterpiece 0

Average Rating 3.83
Books acquired YTD (last year 306) 46
Books culled YTD (last year 219) 8

5895 books cataloged on 12/31/24

February Lightning Round

Any in bold are NOT MM romances, few and far between as they are.

Quite a few of the smut books have warnings about triggers that I don’t mention here. Caveat emptor re triggers if you want to dip your toes in.

MateHub: Legend by Marie Reynard 1/31/25 2/1/25 Kindle

Paranormal MM romance is a phase within a phase for me, although the MM romance phase is now 2.5 years old and still going strong. In this book a porn star wolf shifter has a contract with a human. The tag on Amazon is The contract was simple: three months, seven scenes, zero feelings. Following it was not. Richard the shifter, is the porn star, and this is his 13th 3-month contract. Every single one has had his partners having feelings for him, and of course he would never expect to find his true mate in a human. So he feels safe entering into this one. The reason I’ve given it 4.5 stars is because of the emotional and sexual bonding that occurs. They are transactionally bonded by a mage before the contract starts and the bond will be severed at the end of it. Richard always sees the pain in his partner when the bond is severed, so there’s no way he will Get Feelings. Well, both of them start having feelings. I like the way the emotional connection is described, the lyrical writing of their times in the MateHub apartment, and yes, the steamy and lyrical writing about the sex they have. As I’ve mentioned before, writing good sex scenes is a gift, and this author is very good at it. Some of their friends are a tad twee for me, and the scene is set, if you will, for another couple to have their own book. Caveat emptor re sex.

Something About You by Riley Hart narrated by Sean Crisden 1/23/25 2/2/25 Audible audio book 7 hours

Lucky lives in the town he was born in, the baby brother and son. He loves his grandmother and the woman she lives with, Alice. Lucky finds out that Alice has a grandson and writes to him. Saint didn’t know he had family, and comes to meet her. I’d say this is an enemies to lovers trope, but Lucky is too sweet, too gentle, too much a man to be an enemy. Saint dislikes him though, and it takes them a while to overcome that. There’s a lot to unpack in this story with Lucky coming out as bisexual to his family, Saint and his grandmother getting to know one another, Saint learning why his father was estranged from Alice. There’s sadness and joy, and they get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Accidental Bonds by Marie Reynard 2/1/25 2/3/25 454 pages Kindle

Victor is the Alpha of a wolf shifter pack. Elijah, a mage, has taken over the magic shop of a mage who, along with Victor’s father, have been banished. There is something attacking Victor’s packs lands, and in desperation he comes to Elijah to see if Elijah can fix the wards or otherwise protect from and/or otherwise remove the danger. In a powerful spell they are unintentionally tethered but not bonded, which makes for awkwardness since Victor thinks of Elijah as his mate. This book was very long, detailed, and built a realistic paranormal world. There are other packs, other mages, and an interesting problem that Elijah and Victor and packmates and mages help figure out and get rid of. Cavet emptor re sex.

The Southerner's Book of Lists by Jim Erskine 2/3/25 2/3/25 128 pages paperback This book was published in 1996 and it hasn’t aged well at all. I’ve removed it from my catalog. Trite, cutesy, perhaps historically accurate in some cases, but ridiculously stupid in others.

Mixed Motives by Leslie Macadam 2/4/25 2/4/25 Kindle

A novella. Henry is cheated upon by his boyfriend and he plans his revenge by trying to seduce said boyfriend’s father Keane. There’s a serious age gap in addition to the ick factor for Keane. However, each is on a gay dating app and they are matched up. They start dating, the boyfriend is reconciled to their relationship, and HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Born Again Sinner by Daryl Banner 2/2/25 2/6/25 Audible audio book 10 hours

Small town Texas, Trey is the gay son of the town’s preeminent minister, who preaches acceptance but ‘needs time’ to process that his own son is gay. Trey hasn’t been with a man. Cody was in the military but got severely wounded and has come home. He’s not dealing well with his injuries. His mother keeps hiring nursing help for him but they all quit until Trey. Trey doesn’t take his crap, is fascinated by him but thinks he’s straight. They spend time together and Cody finally tells Trey he’s gay. After that, they have a secret relationship. I liked this for the demons that each one has and how they overcome them separately and together. Steamy sex scenes, and on audio book they are really hot. What took ½ star away was that at the end there was a lot of religious stuff, Christian in this case, and it … marred? … an otherwise wonderful book for me.

Raising Hell by Daryl Banner 2/6/25 2/7/25 Kindle

This one was so much fun, with so much emotion, too. Mathew is the bad boy of a family of 3 children, living his own life of drinking, drugs, and working as a bartender. He gets the call that his parents have died. He is oblivious through the funeral, but when his older brother Wesley has to return to Taiwan to manage the family businesses, Mathew is forced/agrees to stay at the family mansion to take care of their little sister Helen until Wesley can return. He takes Helen to private school orientation, where he hears three girls trash talk his sister and meets Helen’s new math teacher Charlie. He has the hots for Charlie from the first minute. It takes Charlie a while to realize that he’s interested in Mathew, too, regardless of the optics of him dating a student’s big brother. Mathew says all the wrong things to Helen, is hilariously entertaining in his pursuit of Charlie and his trying to figure out how to get Helen to open up to him and to be less afraid of their older brother. Charlie eventually succumbs, becomes ravenous for Mathew. Helen eventually learns to speak up for what she wants, Mathew and Charlie get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

And here’s what I love about MM romances. They cut to the quick, deal in eternal truths, and usually come out making me happy to have read them. I particularly liked the 7-year-later Epilogue in this book.

You never know where life will take you.
Only that it will.
And you better be ready for every moment of it, because no moment lasts forever, and each and every one of them is a golden, perfect thing to cherish.
I guess this is the part where I say “the end” or something. But it isn’t the end. Don’t you realize by now that it never ends? Even when parents die. Or brothers move away. Or sisters run off to college. They’re a part of you forever, like a tattoo on your soul, or a joke you can’t stop laughing at, or a really hard drink.
Add one ounce of there’s-no-damned-recipe-for-happiness.
Add one cup of don’t-give-a-fuck.
Add one splash of that little devil sitting on your shoulder.
Get out there. Chase that crazy dream. Raise your own hell.
And always drink responsibly.

The Husband Experience by Maya Jean 2/7/25 2/7/25 Kindle

Colby wants to hire a ‘husband’ for a week to see if he can handle the idea of looking for a fake husband after the death of his husband from cancer a few years previously. Eli works at a fake boyfriend agency and after his friend Trevor panics (reason explained in book/next book) and asks if Eli can take the week, Eli agrees. He meets Colby at Colby’s beach house in Florida, and after a few fraught moments where Eli tries to be fake husband instead of acting like a real one, they hit it off sexually, romantically, and intellectually. At the end of the week there are Feelings on both sides. Caveat emptor re sex.

** abandoned Guardian Angel in Leather by KA Merikan **

Too morally ambiguous and actually poorly written for me.

** abandoned Ho Ho Homicidal Maniac by KA Merikan **

Take one kidnapped rich boy who’s rescued by a serial killer who loves Christmas and gives his captive a reindeer onesie and hot chocolate… just no.

** abandoned Notorious by Leslie McAdam - re-read **

I loved this book when I first read it, and I was in a bit of a drought when I decided to read it again. However, there’s too much stuff before the HEA.

** abandoned Bloom by NR Walker **

I go from morally ambiguous to too sweet… I love NR Walker, just not this one.

Crown of Disguise by Lola Malone 2/7/25 2/8/25 Kindle

Dominique’s life was turned upside down when his brother Damien died on the grounds of Saint-Laurent Boarding College 2 years previously. The family didn’t get answers, the death never explained, and things were clearly covered up. Dominique has spent the last two years researching a secret fraternity vaguely hinted at. He then gets a scholarship into the school and becomes involved in classes/homework, making friends with his roommate Maxime, and becoming reacquainted with Gaël, who he met on the day of Damien’s funeral in the woods. Each is fascinated with the other, Dominique not thinking he’d ever see Gaël again, Gaël knowing he’d see Dominique again. Gaël starts seducing Dominique, never non-con, but pushing Dominique hard. Dominique keeps researching the secret fraternity. This book has vivid and excellent psychological suspense in addition to the smoldering attraction between Dominique and Gaël. I needed to know how Damien died, needed to know how the romance could resolve, given the wide chasm in their economic and social classes. They get their HEA, things are explained, and caveat emptor re sex.

Crown of Steel by Lola Malone 2/8/25 2/12/25 Kindle

Second book in the Initiation series also takes place at Saint-Laurent Boarding College. Arthur is cousins with Gaël, and this book starts with Arthur and his twin brother Louis’ stepbrother Régis starting college. Régis’ mother is married to Arthur and Louis’s father, and the power dynamic of the family at home and on campus requires that he live in the on-campus suite with Gaël and Dominique who share a bedroom/bath, and Arthur and Louis, who also share a bedroom/bath. Régis has his own suite. We get vague hints of Régis’ backstory. Arthur has been tasked by his father to take care of his stepbrother and help him learn about his role in the family and the initiation into the fraternity. Régis resists, almost falls apart mentally and physically. Arthur is intrigued with his stepbrother, realizes that his growing attraction is taboo, but I’ve read enough stepbrother trope books to realize that they will get their HEA after a bit of angst and family shock. Régis backstory is tragic, and unlike the next book, which I abandoned, A Different Light, this book ratchets up the tension, both from a college, secret fraternity, attraction, and backstories. These are two characters who complement one another, work through issues, and make the ending believable and satisfying. Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned A Different Light by Morningstar Ashley **

Man returns home to fix up/sell his parents’ house, he gets reacquainted with the neighbor ‘boy’ who’s all grown up. Sometimes I don’t want to learn about all the trauma/backstory of characters within the first 100 pages. There’s no tension, no “Why should I keep reading this when there’s ‘just’ sex and love at the end? Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned Open Mind by Luna David **

Traveling nurse, Jamie, wants to settle down is hired by local doctor. Said doctor is seriously into kink, and his practice serves the kink community almost exclusively. Jamie will get a lesson in kink, both as a nurse and personally. I abandoned it before there was any need to write Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned Sick Bargain by Nordika Night **

Unlike this book, which took me 189 pages to realize that I didn’t want to continue with it. Remiel runs to safety at Vile House, giving up his personal freedom in order to have his tormentors tortured and/or killed. Krypt is his ‘owner’. It really got silly quickly. Caveat emptor re sex. I’ve liked quite a few books by this author, but this one stopped being intriguing well before I abandoned it.

**abandoned Shameless by Lola Malone **

How seriously can I take a book where one Mafia-like gang is called the Void? *snort* Connor and Austin with college backstories that don’t include knowing that the other is a member of a gang family, must go to Paris together to work on solving a problem caused by a gang threatening both of THEIR gangs. Some plots are too trite to be allowed. Abandoned too soon to warn about MM sex.

**abandoned Bonds of Denial by Lynda Aicher **

I stupidly spent money on this Kindle book in December 2022, prior to my Kindle Unlimited enlightenment, saw it here on my Kindle again, and tried to read it again. Rock, working at a Sex Club called the Den, lusts after Carter. Once again I abandoned it before I needed to warn you about MM sex.

CAMBROS by Juliet M. Dixon 2/7/25 2/7/25 Kindle

College roommates turned real-world roommates are chronically poor and decide to have a website dedicated to them having gay sex to see if they can rake in the dough. They do, and start having emotional feelings for each other. HEA, and very, very steamy MM sex. And, all in 49 pages.

Pretty Broken Doll by Bree Wiley 2/12/25 2/12/25 Kindle

Shilo is working as an Uber driver while attending college online. One night he picks up a very drunk man, who offers to take Shilo home. Shilo goes home with him, they do sexual things but Shilo leaves the virgin he started out as. Ryann cruelly kicks him out because he only does hookups. Shilo is traumatized on top of having been traumatized in high school, becoming reclusive and having serious body image problems. They meet again when Shilo is hired to be Ryann’s PA. Shilo is passive aggressive towards Ryann. The amusing thing was how Shilo always ‘accidentally’ got Ryann’s coffee order wrong. They dance around each other. Ryann’s under a lot of pressure to marry a woman to get her company’s proprietary software. However, Shilo and Ryann start a boss/employee with benefits situationship. Shilo starts having feelings, Ryann also starts to have feelings. Parental rejection, parental pressure, etc. and etc., but they come out of it strong and together. Caveat emptor re sex.

Getting Lucky by Daryl Banner 2/7/25 Audible audio book narrated by Chris Chambers and Alex Kydd 12 hours

James is stuck in a boring finance job, and his only excitement is going to the casinos every other weekend with his 3 buddies. He sees this gorgeous young man, chases him down but he gets lost in the crowds. He sees him outside the hotel, but the young man, Lucas, is angry, cruel, and pushes James away. He says his name is Lucky. Next weekend, James goes by himself, and realizes Lucas is homeless. He entices him to eat with him, they play video arcade games, and Lucas spends the night in the only bed in the hotel room. He unknowingly cuddles around James in the night. James persuades him to come home with him, no strings attached, so that Lucas can eat enough, sleep safely, and etc. He starts working on the yard while James it at work. Soon, very soon, it becomes sexual. They’re both tentative but realize that their feelings are strong. There’s pushback from James’ friends, but James’ family embraces Lucas. I particularly like how the author got into the head of a 19-year old homeless man, with his strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics of a man and a boy. I like how the chapters, with one or the other’s PoV identified before the chapter starts, change from “Lucky” to Lucas. I also appreciated the author’s portrayal of James, resigned to living alone, resigned to his job. Lucas lights him up. There’s drama with the friends and with Lucas’ father. There’s a wonderful HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Bad Intentions by Ella Frank 2/15/25 2/15/25 Audible audio book narrated by Tim Paige and Aiden Snow 6.5 hours

Gabe goes to his best friend’s company’s party, where he is absolutely blown away by Marcus, CEO of said company. Gabe introduces himself as his own boss, Logan. Lots of flirting, and they hook up on another floor of the building. Imagine both their surprise when Marcus’s company is looking to have the law firm Gabe just joined as a PA represent them. Marcus is livid when he sees Gabe because of a possible conflict of interest. He realizes Gabe is not Logan, the partner. Logan gives Gabe twenty four hours to calm Marcus down and make sure what Gabe did doesn’t jeopardize the lucrative representation. Gabe worms his way into Marcus’s office and is thrown out. He stays downstairs ‘til Marcus leaves, and by his sheer persistence keeps Marcus from havin him arrested. At that point Marcus gives in to his attraction and agrees to continue the talks as long as Gabe is his personal servant for a week. Not THAT kind of personal servant. However, their attraction becomes physical and they the week together. Gabe wants a relationship, Marcus doesn’t feel he’s worthy of Gabe. Oh yes, and Marcus is 20 years older than Gabe. This book ends HFN, Good Intentions the second in the duet, already cued up on my Kindle.

The Mercenary and the Mortician by Alexandra St. Pierre 2/12/25 2/15/25 760 pages Kindle

760 pages. So much detail, so much backstory for both Ryan, the mortician, who took over after his father died suddenly, and Cal, who was given to Damian after Cal covered for his sister by telling the police he killed their abusive mother. Cal and his two sisters were kept in cages their whole lives before Damian, who gives Theo and Naomi everything as long as Cal becomes the contract killer Damian wants. Sort of like Orphan X… Cal sees a young boy he knows is being abused go into the mortician’s house. The father comes for the boy, Cal realizes he’s abusive, doesn’t let the boy go with the father. He follows the father and kills him, because that’s what he does. The mother is rescued and they are reunited. Ryan has issues of his own, including being able to see and hear ghosts and having a mother who’s a witch. In the meantime, Cal is absolutely gob-smacked by Ryan, who is nominally straight/asexual. Not even. Cal starts wooing Ryan, who is having none of it, but slowly realizes he is attracted to Cal. In the meantime, Damian sees his contract killer becoming lost to him. There’s retribution, saving, violence, kidnapping, torture, moderate BDSM with several kinks most people reading this would ABSOLUTELY not like. The HEA is satisfying even if there are a lot of dead bodies piled up to get there. Caveat emptor re sex and BDSM.

Angels of Wrath Series by Paulina Ian-Kane. Not for the faint of heart. Kidnapped boys used in bizarre government experiments now all grown up, functioning but with issues. There are 7 of them, named after the 7 angels of destruction mentioned in Revelation but only named in the apocryphal book Enoch. They consider themselves brothers. Each has had a number branded on his wrist. Each has a scar on his right palm signifying that they are blood brothers. At the end of book we find out that one of the ‘brothers’ has a twin we hadn’t heard about. So, 8. They all have societal-sanctioned jobs, but there is also the family business – finding people who’ve escaped justice and need to be eliminated. Very, very dark series.Each book is about one of the brothers meeting and either falling love with or otherwise ‘owning’ a romantic partner. Lots of sex, lots of violence, and a high-level plot that will span all books plus sub-plots in each book. Caveat emptor sex in each book.

Book one: One 2/15/25 2/16/25 Kindle Michael and Raph/Raphael. Raph is a fully functioning psychopath. He and the family are very protective of one of their mothers, Meg, and all of a sudden, she’s spending time with a forensic pathologist named Michael. It turns out that Michael is actually one of the original 7, but was adopted and completely lost his memories of his time in captivity. He was never branded with his number and never part of the blood brothers oath.

Book two: Six 2/16/25 2/18/25 Kindle Ollie and Rague/Raguel. Rague fights in illegal/underground venues in order to search for someone the family considers evil and who needs to be destroyed. He meets Ollie, a young man who also fights, because his father, one of the men Rague is looking for, forces him to by threatening Ollie’s young brother Sully. Rague owns his own construction company.

Book three: Three 2/18/25 2/20/25 Kindle Rami/Ramiel and Hunter. Rami designs gaming apps and, at one point tells Hunter that he has less money than Scrooge McDuck but more than Bill Gates. Rami is the family’s computer genius, able to hack and track and etc. when needed to find family members and bad guys. Hunter is now a P.I., formerly a cop, haunted by taking a fall and going to prison.

Book four: Five 2/20/25 2/20/25 Kindle Gabe/Bez and Lori. Lori is Ollie’s friend, a sassy intelligent but haunted young man. Gabe owns a law firm. Early on we learn that Gabriel is also Bezaliel. They cohabit the same body, come out at different times for different reasons. It takes Lori a while to figure out that something’s off about Gabe. I found the conversations between Lori and Gabe/Bez fascinating – beautifully written and balanced.

Happily Never After by Ava Olsen 2/18/25 2/18/25 Kindle

Aaron is the 4th generation CEO of a family-owned company. He’s under his father’s thumb, controlled by his father and the rest of the Board of Directors. He was humiliated in college his freshman year and never forgot the student who belittled and laughed at him at a frat party. Imagine his very unhappy surprise when he sees this young man being hired by his father over his protests, as a Sales Rep ten years later. Aaron is trying to expand the company’s reach, so he and Harrison go to a meet up to get a smaller company to sign with them. It’s the old ‘one bed’ trope. Lust becomes more, and there’s a sweet HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Mighty Quill by Emmaline Strange /2/21/25 2/24/25 Kindle

College student Cassian is desperate to find a room to rent, Thor has one. Cassian is on the hockey team, Thor is twink-sized. Turns out that Thor is part of a shifter family. This one’s different than any others I’ve ever read, though, because each family member shifts differently. Thor’s father is a wolf, his mother a lioness. One friend’s a swan. Thor is 20 but hasn’t shifted yet, hasn’t found his animal to shift to. His family gives him grief and heartache and humiliation over it. Thor and Cassian become good friends. Inklings of romantic interest on each side. When out one night, they come across a grotesque creature, part shifter/part human, dead. They report it. Two more, suspicious behavior by people around them both. In the meantime, they’re really attracted to one another, but Thor cannot and will not have sex with Cassian because it must be with a shifter, and the very act itself binds them for life. There’s danger, suspense, action, and sexy times. Without giving too much away, I must say that Thor’s fauna, his shifter, made me crack up every single time he shifted. It is intrinsic to the success of the story, and Thor eventually embraces his fauna, as does Cassian. Caveat emptor re sex.

Wake Me Up Inside by C Cardeno 2/24/25 2/24/25 Kindle

Wolf Shifter Zev is pack leader, gay in a culture that doesn’t approve or allow. As a young ‘cub’/boy, Zev sees Jonah, a human boy, and becomes his Pup. He knows they’re fated mates, but gay AND with a human mate seems impossible to overcome. Jonah goes away to college, unaware that Zev considers him his. They become more than friends but less than true lovers because Zev doesn’t want to seal the bond until Jonah understands about Zev. Jonah comes home. The bond happens, Zev is amazed at Jonah’s true nature, and we go from there. Caveat emptor re sex.

With This Ring by RS McKenzie 2/25/25 2/26/25 Kindle

Gay sons of rival mafia families are enemies since they knew each other existed. However, an outside threat has their fathers forcing them to marry so that the united families can neutralize the threat. Sexy times start pretty quickly, as do violent, bloody attacks on the families. Not for the faint of heart, lots of serious violence. Did I like it? Yes. Would you like it? Most likely not. Caveat emptor re sex and serious violence.

**abandoned Redeeming Rafe by Sloane Kennedy **

Mafia family (I know, I know…) loses their mother to violence and Rafe to his biological father. Fast forward 20 years and someone’s out to get the family. Turns out it’s Rafe, hellbent on the vengeance he needs because his brothers didn’t come for him like they promised. A few uncomfortable meetings, some violence and Cade follows Rafe, ostensibly to keep him from further damaging his brothers/famiies but which turns into attraction on both sides. Pretty shallow, 20 years hate turning around pretty quickly. Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned Friction by Kindle Alexander**

I abandoned this one at 91% read – 323 pages. Why, you ask? When I went to review the description just now, I am amazed that I lasted 323 pages. I can’t remember a single thing about the plot except that rich boy and poor boy are attracted. This is the first of a 3-part series, and at this point I’d rather it had finished up at the end of this one. I might have actually finished it. Caveat emptor re sex.

Wild by Adrienne Wilder 2/26/25 2/28/25 Kindle

I love survival stories, and this one is a good one. Carter is on a private jet with his boyfriend an entourage for a photo shoot. The plane crashes, and Carter comes to seeing bodies and devastation. He’s rescued by Keenan, who lives off grid, and taken to a primitive cabin owned by a vet, who visits once a year but leaves it stocked for whoever might need it. They need it for sure. Carter’s leg and foot are damaged and he’s delirious for 6 weeks. Keenan nurses him back to consciousness, where Carter realizes the damage to his foot and leg. They survive, clash, and eventually fall into bed together. They are resigned to being alone ‘til the vet returns, which he does in the late spring. Carter returns to civilization, Keenan stays because he’s been pursued for the last 10 years by a cartel owner who’s looking for the books and info Keenan stole from him. Carter unintentionally sets the mob on Keenan when he buys the cabin/land they stayed in. And it goes from there. Lots of adventure, lots of angst, lots of steamy times. A wolf cub named Daisy plays an important role, too. Caveat emptor re sex and violence.

402 books read

1 Masterpiece
79 Stunning
187 Excellent
72 Very Good
47 Good
12 Average
4 Bad
0 Very Bad
0 Don't Bother
0 Anathema

Best Fiction
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Review
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Review
Damaged Like Us by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie Kindle January Lightning Round
Endless Stretch of Blue by Riley Hart Kindle April Lightning Round
The Muse's Undoing by August Jones Kindle September Lightning Round

Best Nonfiction
The House of Being by Natasha Tretheway Review
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S Wood Review
Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by the Countess of Carnarvon Review
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie Review
Johan Amos Comenius 1592-1670 by František Kožík Review

Top five overall for the LT Top Five Books of 2024 List
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt Review
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Review
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder by Salman Rushdie Review
The House of Being by Natasha Tretheway Review
Damaged Like Us by Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie 1/29/24 1/29/24 Kindle January Lightning Round

…...

I decided to not post the poem again, see last thread, >10 karenmarie:.

Welcome!

>9 karenmarie: Okay I laughed out loud at your comics!! My two favorites are Do I Need More Books? and the sounds of "C"! Happy new thread!!

Every time I see "Pacific Ocean" I lie still for a half hour and run through the insanities of English orthography. IPA implementation now.

New-thread orisons, sweetiedarling.

Hi Karen my dear, Happy New Thread. Hope all is well with you and Bill, Jenna and Hwan and of course Zoe and Wash. We are both quite well and Felix is his usual self and as Elliott is with us as i type, he is such a joy the little scamp. Sending love and hugs to you all from both of us, dear friend.

Happy new thread dear lady.

Happy Wednesday, Karen. Happy New Thread. Love the Jenna pic. Adorable.

Sorry to see you getting rid of some good books. You haven't read them, right? I loved Seabiscuit, All the Light and Spying on the South. No comment on the Gaiman books...sighs.

Happy new thread Karen!

I'll have to go pick over your MMs. Did I miss some ones?

Hearts to Jenna, who looks perfectly angelic there! (It was my daddy who used to pitch a fit when Mama insisted on a family studio picture.)

NEW THREAD!!!! Wow! I'll look forward to enjoying it with you. (((((Karen)))))

Happy new thread!

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. I did manage to play PB yesterday and had a blast. It was worth a bit of heel pain. Sadly, no Jackson Day. I am driving the big van and the timing just won't work out. I will miss the little guy. It looks like Sue will run Juno out there after work.

>12 Berly: Thank you, Kim. I’m glad to be able to provide LOLs with my comics.

>13 richardderus: Hallo, RDear, and thank you. It hurts my brain when I see the Cs comic, in a good way. Here’s another fun thing – a card I’ve had since the early 1970s and never sent. I frequently think about it. It originally cost $1.25, and I would have paid CA taxes on it.



>14 johnsimpson: Hi John, and thank you. We’re hanging in there, Jenna and Hwan are quite happy. The kittens are kittenish. *smile* Sending love and hugs to you, Karen, and Elliott. Kitty skritches for Felix, of course.

>15 PaulCranswick: Hello Paul, and thank you.

>16 msf59: Thank you, Mark. I have read all of them – they were upstairs in the Retreat and except for the Harvard Classics 51-volume set, yearbooks, most slipcased books, and audio books, I’ve read every single one. I just decided that they don’t meet my Book Retention Criteria, which are:

Will I ever read or re-read it?

Does this book permanently contribute to my library?

Will my daughter want or need this book when my library eventually goes to her?

Does this book have sentimental value (personal, inherited from a family member, given by a family member or friend, etc.)?

Does this book have intrinsic value (first edition, rare, etc.)?

And, courtesy of Judy, @@fortsa, does this book “belong to another part of my life entirely?”

Sadly, no comments on the Gaiman books, although SF/Fantasy are not my favorite genres, so I'm not feeling particularly heartbroken. A Downy, a Tufted Titmouse and other usual suspects on the feeders, and a male Cowbird just set down to eat some wild bird seed. Uh oh, another one is in the Crepe Myrtle...

>17 quondame: Hi Susan, and thank you. Hmmm. I just looked at my handy-dandy Smut spreadsheet. There are no 5s. However, there are 135 4.5s, just MM, excluding re-reads. If you’d like me to send it to you as a spreadsheet, just PM me with your email address.

>18 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you re my angelic-looking hellion. That’s amusing about your daddy pitching the fit. I wish my parents had actually had studio portraits taken of all 5 of us. New thread, indeed. I look forward to enjoying it with you, too.

>19 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita.

>20 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and sweet Thursday to you ON Thursday. Glad you enjoyed PB, sorry about not getting to see Jackson today.

Wordle 1,363 3/6* trope, slide, chase

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I puttered and read, watched Arsenal play PSV in the Champions League and win by aggregate. They're in the quarter finals and will play Real Madrid on April 8 and 16. I made Low Sodium Beef Barley Soup. It was a huge amount of effort, frankly, and I only liked it, not loved it. I probably won't make it again. We've got leftovers, of course.

...
Puttering and reading, once again possibly working on the interior of my SUV. I might make PB cookies.

>21 karenmarie: How do, sweetiedarling. I hope all the events of your Thursday eventuate in the most satisfactory way. High-effort/modest return recipes get the heave-ho from all sensible cooks. Julia Child's French version of fried chicken leaps forcefully to mind...HOURS of fiddlefarting around when I could've simply made breaded chicken and roasted it with potatoes, rosemary, and garlic.

2 minutes while I can still say good morning, so "GOOD MORNING, Karen!" I wish you a lovely day of puttering, reading, etc.

>21 karenmarie: Hmmm, I did an MM romance tag search on your LT books and only came up with 11 4.5. So, I'll consider the spreadsheet option.
I'm not great with tags, but it's the rare book that hasn't been entered on LT since I came here.

>22 richardderus: Hiya, RD. I agree about recipes needing to be worth it - I made Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon one time ONLY. Good, but way too much effort. *smooch*

>23 LizzieD: 'Evening, Peggy! I puttered, I read, I made cookies, I rested, I cleaned the dash of my SUV. *happiness*

>24 quondame: Ah. You'll need the spreadsheet, then, Susan, because I only use my karenmarie catalog for books I own or ER books that I need to keep to satisfy the ER gods. Never borrowed, never Library, never Kindle Unlimited. Don't use collections either. *shrug*

Happy New Thread!

Here's the Saint Patrick's Day readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369213

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. I am glad to hear that you have read those culled books. I feel much better now and I agree with your "Book Retention Criteria"- similar to mine. I am slowly culling my "keeper" shelves.

Last work day for 3 weeks. Happy dance. I may squeeze in some PB after the "kids" and then the packing begins. Sue has been scurrying around quite a bit. She also has the next 3 weeks off.

>26 SilverWolf28: and >27 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you.

>28 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Happy Friday to you, too. Let's see. I have 1,161 books and audio books in the Retreat. 1,558 are tagged 'read'. The only ones not read are the Harvard Classics, some audio books, some slip-cased books, some yearbooks, and etc. I could go through every shelf up there except the one that the Harvard Classics are on (R52), and cull one or more books. In fact, quite a few of the mass market paperbacks that are tanned, yellowed, fine print, or bodice-rippers (sigh), should be culled sooner rather than later. Shelf R51 has, per Jenna's request, her Breyer and other collectible horses since that room was originally her playroom.

Yay for last work day for 3 weeks. I am happy dancing for you. Be careful with the PB, yay for the packing.

Wordle 1,364 4/6* trope, plume, pence, piece

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Dash, console, and armrests on all 4 doors cleaned. My git up and go got up and went before I could even consider cleaning the inside windows - perhaps today. Perhaps not. I made PB cookies. I made a double recipe and have dough in the refrigerator that I should bake up today.

Bill and I watched an episode of Hope Street. My guess about some sparkage was confirmed. I spoke with Peggy for a while re planning for Stasia/Kerry's and my visit and all sorts of other fun things that we tend to chatter about when we get on the phone. Later, I spoke with friend Karen in Montana, read smut, doomscrolled, and etc.

...
Reading, puttering, baking, finalizing list of things to take 'down south', a few errands and PT.

>29 karenmarie: Oooh, PB cookies! Karen O. just reviewed a cookie cookbook that made me long for an oven, and deeply grateful I don't have one because I'd be the size of a Volkswagen if I did.

*smooch*

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Moving right along with the packing. Some house chores and another load of laundry. The taxi picks us up about 2:30. I doubt I will have many opportunities to go online while Down Under but I will check in when I can. Hugs to my pal.

>30 richardderus: 'Morning, RDear. I just took the cookie dough out of the refrigerator to warm up just a bit, then I'll use it all up today.

I wonder which cookie cook book it is? I have three - Betty Crocker's Ultimate Cookie Book, Christmas Cookies, The Joy of Cookies. None of my standard recipes are in there, though.

I have started making cookies again, and really enjoy the process and the result.

>31 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! I had a hunch that if I scrolled back up I’d find a post from you... Happy Saturday. Yay for packing, final chores, final load of laundry. I’m very excited for you both and hope the trip is everything you dream of. Hugs back at’cha.

I have hungry birds, including finches, sparrows, Goldfinches. I saw two Blue Jays flirting yesterday, just had a Red-Bellied on the suet feeder. Ah, a male Cardinal just arrived.

Wordle 1,365 3/6* trope, slide, ladle

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Puttering, reading, created a 4.5 MM, MMM, MMF romance spreadsheet. Filled my gas tank, got cash for the ladies for Tuesday, went to PT. Bill and I watched two episodes of Hope Street since they're only 42 minutes each.

...
I'm going to finish making the PB cookies today, start packing, read, putter, fill the bird feeders.

I'm honored to be quoted in your culling rules list! I should also take my own advice more often.

>32 karenmarie: None of those, Horrible. The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book: 100 Best Recipes from the Star Tribune's Holiday Cookie Contest by Lee Svitak Dean and oh. my. heck. it looks like a compendium I'd like to bake my way through.

MMmmmmmm.......cookies!

Karen, I'm bouncing in my chair ("Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! is good for you! Bounce! Bounce! Bounce! is fun to do!" -quoting my freshman suitemate who bounced on the floor for hip reduction....didn't work) because you're packing to come HERE!!!! I'm a bit anxious about you and S&K coming through really bad storms tomorrow. I'm keeping an eye on the weather.

I could cull. I should cull. It hurts.

Happy day!
(Wordle in 4 for me today. Once again, a choice of 2, and I picked the wrong one first.)

>33 ffortsa: Hi Judy! You phrased it just right. It's its own category, although I haven't tagged any books with reason to keep.

>34 richardderus: I just went over and saw for myself. For me, 3 cookie cookbooks and a total of 156 cookbooks, many of which also have cookies, probably give enough cookie options. *smooch*

>35 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! Cookies are yum. I just made the last two cookie sheets worth of PB cookies. I accidentally dropped one cookie between the burner grates, so had to scoop it up, of course, and eat it hot out of the oven. *smile*

So many things they conned women into thinking would work for hip reduction, breast reduction, thigh reduction, weight loss, hair straightening, hair curling, and etc. Grrrrr.

Yay for tomorrow. I'll be keeping an eye out for the storms, too, of course. I don't fear driving in non-ice/snow/hurricane weather, though.

Wordle in 4 is not half bad.

>36 karenmarie: ...enough...books...
...
...
...
...it looks like English but I can't make head or tails out of it. "Enough" modifying "books"? *shudder* Sounds like something RFK Jr.'s brainworm would say.

Poverella, having to eat a piping hot peamuntbummer cookie, you're a martyr to your frugality. :-P

TOMORROW is nearly TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Thread, Karen. Cookies are yum, but very tempting. I made some earlier this week for my bible study group, and there were quite a few left over and I am afraid I overindulged. They were like Mexican Wedding cookies, if you are familiar with those, but they had chocolate chips added. My sister's recipe - which she got some where, as she does not create recipes.

>37 richardderus: 'Morning, RDear! Get this - I'm actually considering making myself cull one book for every book brought in. That's not as rough as it sounds, as I wrote to Mark in >29 karenmarie:. In fact, quite a few of the mass market paperbacks that are tanned, yellowed, fine print, or bodice-rippers (sigh), should be culled sooner rather than later.

RFKJR probably has RFK turning in his grave. And yes, of course, yummy hot PB cookie was a necessary way to cull it rather than throw it away.

*smooch*

>38 LizzieD: Yes! Today is the tomorrow I thought about yesterday. I'll be on the road by about 1, I'll text you when I'm leaving. I'm going to avoid going through Fayetteville, taking the chicken's way out and going via 421 to Dunn, then to I95.

>39 vancouverdeb: Hi Deborah! Oh my. "Like Mexican Wedding Cookies" - those sound like my Pecan Puffs and like Russian Tea Cakes. So... perhaps teensy chocolate chips in Pecan Puffs? I need to get some - I always have everything else in the house. BUT, would you consider sharing the recipe?

Wordle 1,366 4/6* trope, spilt, stump, stamp

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Arsenal plays Chelsea in 15 minutes. Then it's a mad dash to pack - everything is on the list, no thinking involved - then on the road to see Peggy and meet Stasia and Kerry. I'm afraid we're all going to be traveling through storms to get to our dear Peggy.

...
Tomorrow will be a continuation of the meetup since I plan on checking into the hotel then going to Peggy's Mama's house to visit.

Very exciting.

>40 karenmarie: Ohboyohboyohboy there's pecan puffs in the future finally I'll get more to replace the ones that damn psittacosaurus ate

Morning, Horrible, hoping all is and goes well on this glorious spring Sunday.

*smooch*

Happy New Thread and safe travels today. You culled some books I would keep but for your criteria it makes sense if you won't reread them. Happy reading!

RoadTrip!! Sounds like fun. Well, the destination and the literarians who people it sounds fun. The drive, not so much. Especially if it is raining. I've been basking in idleness, partly thanks to Bertrand Russell's essay In Praise of Idleness, written in the mid-30s. Book sale Wednesday and I expect to be there. I vow that no book pogram will follow in its wake.

Wooo HOOOO!!!!!

I'm here and waiting. Be safe on the road, Karen! (We drive 211 to Southern Pines, 1 to Sanford, 501 to Pittsboro. That's traditional since way before I-95.)

Keep in touch as you come!!!!!!! *GRIN*

MM and MM+ anthology you might be interested in.
https://books2read.com/beds
Saw a review and thought of you.

>41 richardderus: You’re shameless, you know that, right? Our glorious spring Sunday was rain, wind, and tornado watch filled. *smooch*

>42 elorin: Hi Robyn, and thank you. Prime book-acquisition years are most likely past me except for book sales and the occasional Amazon credit card credit use.

>43 weird_O: Hi Bill. The drive got a bit hairy two times with very heavy rain, but I made it safe and sound. Yay for idleness and a book sale on Wednesday. I’m glad the books at your house are safe and happy to welcome newcomers in two days.

>44 LizzieD: I came, I saw, we conquered. I’m sorry I had to get to the hotel to check in before they finally arrived and look forward to seeing them this morning. Hmm. The only stressful bits of my route are the I95 ones, and if I could get through them successfully yesterday, then I’ll probably be fine tomorrow, although I’ll check out your route.

>45 elorin: Thank you, Robyn! I’m on my way to check it out!

Wordle 1,367 3/6* trope, salon, lasso

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Got to Peggy's about 3:15 or so. We had a grand time, didn't we, my dear? Back at the hotel, I read 'til very late, so got about 4.5 hours of sleep. Not unreasonable.

...
Gonna get some brekkie here at the hotel, and wait to see what the schedule is for today.

>46 karenmarie: Enjoy your meetup activities! I know y'all'll have a lot to chat about. Sending hugs and hoping for pecan puffs.

Hello, Karen, I finally made it over to your new thread! I really hate that I had to miss the meet-up. I sure hope I get to meet Peggy in person before too long. I'm sure you all had a wonderful time!

>21 karenmarie: love that rude awakening!

Also loved today's Wordle, a rare 2 for me

>47 richardderus: Hiya RD. We had a grand meet up. Hugs back, possibly Pecan Puffs sooner than later.

>48 atozgrl: Hello Irene. I missed you yesterday, was sad you couldn't join us. We'll have to have an Irene-Peggy-Karen meet up sooner than later.

>49 LovingLit: Hi Megan. Isn't that a riot? I never found the right person to send it to, so here it is, 50 years later.

Wordle 1,368 3/6* trope, their, timer

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Well, the meet up was quite wonderful. I moseyed on over to Peggy's Mama's house, where Stasia and Kerry were staying. I remembered the last time I was there, with Miz Edens sitting in her recliner. Jenn (@@nittnut) drove to my house then to Peggy's. This was in 2019, before Covid.

We all chatted until we decided we were hungry. I drove. I'm so glad I vacuumed and cleaned my SUV up! We wanted Chinese, but it was closed so happily went to the Mexican Restaurant. We all loved our food, kept chatting and each of us picked out something that pleased us. I had a grilled chicken breast with a salad instead of beans and rice. Sour cream, guacamole, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, yum.

We went to Aldi. I've never been, so it was an eye-opener. There's one within about 30-35 miles of my house and I may go there one day soon. The only weird thing is that they just put stuff out willy nilly, so I saw some of the same things on different rows. But I guess that saves them the money they pass on to their customers.

Back to the house, and we chatted 'til Stasia and Kerry had to get on the road in order to get back home today. They have lots going on tomorrow, so wanted to settle in without stressing it.

Peggy and i stayed at her mama's house til about 7:30, when I came back to the hotel, dinner in hand, ate, read, slept.

...
Peggy just texted and I'll check out of the hotel, go back to her mama's house, and we'll have brunch. After which, I'll head home, remembering a perfect meetup with my dear friend Peggy, who I love so much and now-in-person friend Stasia and her husband Kerry.

>50 karenmarie: Reading this brought a huge smile to my face. Such a wonderful time for all of you!

>50 karenmarie: That sounds like the perfect day indeed, Horrible! I'm so happy y'all got to do this in comfort and style. *smooch*

How nice that you had a perfect meet-up. I love meet-ups.

>50 karenmarie: Your description of the meet-up makes me even sadder that I had to miss it. We'll have to have an Irene-Peggy-Karen meet up sooner than later. Amen to that!

We've got an Aldi not too far from my house. I've been a couple of times, but not recently.

PERFECTION!!!!! The only way it could have been better this time is if Irene could have joined us. Thank you for coming, Karen!!!! I'll let you tell about our lunch. *grin*

I don't know what your thread readers might think, but the three of us can TALK!!!!!! (Hmmm. I had chicken/spinach enchiladas in spinach sauce - pretty and tasty!)

>50 karenmarie: Glad you had a great meetup!

>51 lauralkeet: Hi Laura, yes it was. More below.

>52 richardderus: Hello RD! I’m so glad I took 3 days. *smooch*

>53 Ameise1: Hi Barbara. Yes, it was very nice. I’ve only had meetups with 4 people – Peggy, Jenn (@@nittnut), Irene, and Janet. More than some, less than most, I think.

>54 atozgrl: We did miss you, Irene. Your Aldi is 26 miles from my house if I go through town, 28 miles if I use the bypass.

>55 LizzieD: ‘Morning, dearest Peggy. I agree that only Irene could have made it better. You’re so welcome. I’m very glad I took the three days so that I could visit with you before and after the whirlwind that is Stasia. *looking at you, @@alcottacre!) Lunch description below.

Oh yes, the three of us never had a moment of silence. So many subjects, so much to discuss.

>56 drneutron: Hi Jim, and thank you.

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Yesterday was so much fun. I brought some pretty horrible hotel continental breakfast back to the room and ended up 86ing it except for a banana and Wordled and came here to post on my thread. As bad as the continental breakfast offerings were, the coffee was excellent!!!

Checked out and made it safely back to Peggy's Mama's house. We picked up right where we left off Monday evening, and finally decided it was time to eat something. I wanted to get back home before there was any chance of commute traffic.

We went to the Thai Restaurant where Peggy had taken me before. We each had a lunch special. Mine was beef, vegetables and fresh ginger. It came with a salad, a spring roll, and two crab rangoons, which I don't particularly like, but I ate most of everything else. It was wonderful. Back at the house, Peggy made tea and we each had a coconut macaroon and some dark chocolate. Unfortunately, by then it was time to leave. Goodbye hugs and not specific plans for another visit but the ice has been broken after Covid and the worst of my health issues, so I'll be heading south again sooner than later.

The drive home was uneventful except for missing the exit for 421 from I95 - there's construction all the way from the exit to Peggy's house up to Dunn, probably beyond. I missed it - inadequate signage , hard to see-in-time exits. Grrrr. But I'm good at backtracking, so got on to 421 safely and made it home.

Bill and the kitties were a perfect welcome home party. Peanut butter toast for dinner, two episodes of Hope Street, reading, doomscrolling, and sleep.

...
Once I figured out that the USB connector for my mouse was on the USB hub on my desk and that I'd forgotten it and so had to borrow a mouse from Peggy, gotten everything plugged back into my laptop properly and finally gotten on here, the morning is going well. It's gorgeous out, I've had one cup of coffee, and it's time for meds and brekkie soon.

I'll actually put up the suitcase today after finishing unpacking. Major accomplishment, let me tell you. I'm remembering times it's stayed out a week or more.

Usual reading, puttering, spreadsheet updating. I have a 2:30 appointment with the oral surgeon for a consultation to extract the molar that had the crack/chip... grrrr. I'm hoping that he'll say we can prep for an implant/crown.

On the way home, I'm going to stop at the Library. I want to see the set up for the Book Sale, which starts tomorrow. I'll be a customer in the morning. It won't be first thing though, because the only time my doctor could see me this week for my trigger thumb (🙄) is at 8:40 tomorrow morning or 10:30 tomorrow morning. I'd rather get there a bit late than have to leave after only an hour.

ANY TIME, (((((Karen)))). Come back any time!!!! (We agreed that we won't run out of things to talk about for at least 20 years.)

I'm sorry that you had to backtrack on I-95. I used not to be able to go anywhere without not missing or mistaking a turn at least once. Mama and I used to laugh about our side trips. With my DH, not so much laughing. *grin*

We were posting at the same time on my thread. Wordle in 4 for me; could have been a 3, but I chose the wrong word at 3. As usual.)

Best wishes with the oral surgeon and high hopes for The Book Sale!

(((((Peggy))))) Sooner than later, yes to the next 20 years or more.

Heh. Side trips. And let's not forget the one Sunday night when I left to go back to the hotel and went south on I95 instead of north...

Yay for a Wordle 4. Anything less than a skunk is a win.

Thanks re the oral surgeon. I'll enjoy looking at 17K-18K of items for sale.

I hope you're having a wonderful day getting back into your routine. I really enjoyed saying hi to your DH again, by the way.

>57 karenmarie: Hurray for all the extra time with Peggy!

I'll actually put up the suitcase today after finishing unpacking. Major accomplishment, let me tell you. I'm remembering times it's stayed out a week or more. Boy, can I relate to that statement!

I hope your meeting with the oral surgeon went well, with good news on that front.

Sorry to miss the book sale this time. Hoping for September.

>60 atozgrl: Hi Irene! It was precious, that's for sure. I sure hope you can come to the sale in September, too!

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The meeting with the oral surgeon went as well as it could have, knowing I'd have to have the tooth extracted. I opted for sooner rather than later, April 22nd. I'm going to splurge for the anesthesia. 3.5-4 months after the extraction and using cadaver bone to build up my jaw in case it's needed, we'll see if that makes my jaw strong enough to sustain an implant and then a crown. Sheesh. I did not go to the book sale since I needed to gas up the SUV and pick up prescriptions and OTC stuff at the pharmacy. By then I was fried, so came home. Dinner, Hope Street, then dozing, sleeping for about 3 hours, and here I am.

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I have an appointment with my GP at 8:40 this morning to discuss my trigger thumb (sigh), then I'll head on over to the book sale. I could have had the appointment at 10:30, but I'd still have to get up for the book sale, so thought giving myself more than 1.5 hours if I wanted them made more sense. After that home for a bit then off to get a massage. Home again, done for the day.

Happy newish thread! I was also awake at 4 am but stayed in bed with the cat and read.

Your meetup sounds wonderful!

>61 karenmarie: *eeewww* on the fang-grinding-fest. Sorry your dentition is not holding up.

Happy, however, that you're being so sensible about energy levels and preservation. *smooch*

Hi Karen. Whew, all caught up again. I enjoyed reading about the big meetup. Where are the pictures?!? You are probably nicer than I am. Stasia is camera shy, but I go ahead and take her picture anyway. Oh well, I'll have that pleasure in October this year at the Joplin Meetup. I missed last year because of a terrible reaction to either my Covid or Flu shot or maybe both. Not fun.

It sounds like your life is busy as usual. I'm sorry about your ongoing health concerns. It is no fun going to all those doctors. That massage sounds like the way to go. Good luck on your latest book sale. I hope you snag a few good ones while you are working...as if you need more to read, right? Remember, one can never have too many books!

So here's my doctor's appointment anecdote. I'm supposed to have an annual checkup. I haven't really had one since 2023. My appointment for 2024 is August. Yeah, August 2025. I'm on the list for any cancellation that might happen. I think it's a long list. When I get a text from the office that there's been a cancellation, I immediately reply "Accept." To which I always get the reply: "Oh, sorry. Not available now." Everyone but me is poised beside the red "accept" button, like a game show. August is approaching, yes it is. Until then, of course, my social security and medicare will have been through Elon's woodchipper. Won't be able to pay for said checkup.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369373

>62 witchyrichy: Hi Karen! I’ve stayed awake with a book and the cat(s) near me on occasion. Highly satisfying, isn’t it?

>63 richardderus: Hiya, RD. The fang-grinding will take place on April 22nd, in the meantime, although there’s one edge of the tooth that is noticeable, it’s not sharp. No pain, either. It’s just a many-seniors-fact-of-life that I have to pace myself and consider my energy levels. *smooch* from your Mid-Century-Modern Horrible

>64 Donna828: Hello Donna, good to see you here. Let’s see. There were 4 taken, I think – 2 on my cell phone of Stasia and Kerry, and one or two on my phone taken by Kerry of we three women on Peggy’s cell phone. Stasia’s scary in the-we-love-her-way – I wouldn’t post without her permission. Perhaps Peggy will be brave.

I do hope you get to go to the Joplin Meetup.

Way too busy, and thanks re my ‘medicalized life’ as my doctor so appropriately called it yesterday. I do love the man – although I was just there for the trigger thumb, he spent ~27 minutes or so with me about everything going on and I caught him up on all the new excitements.

Yesterday’s haul was two Great Courses CD sets – The Late Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, both taught by Professor Philip Daileader of The College of William and Mary.
Seven in the Slough House series, #s 3-8. I don’t have 2 yet. Three Aces by Rex Stout – I do not have this omnibus originally published in 1956. This one looks to have been printed in 1971 or later. When did ISBN#s start? It’s got one. It’s in great shape even without the dust jacket.

>65 weird_O: Your 2024 appointment is in 5 months. Mind boggling. Absolutely ridiculous. I’m extremely grateful for my GP, who I’ve had since 1998. This is his third and most likely final office, best yet. He knows me. I got this trigger thumb appointment 24 hours after I sent him a mychart message, could have been seen the next day but was with Peggy and Stasia. I'm very fortunate to be in the UNC Medical System (Duke, too, because of my Blue Cross/Blue Shield), and since Chatham Park is in process north and east of Pittsboro itself, I get the enhanced medical services.

>66 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you!

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GP appointment at 8:40. The trigger finger bits took all of 5-7 minutes, including a cortisone shot (which flared immediately and is still tender but going away). He spent another 15 minutes with me including a confirmation of my last tetanus shot (2016). So, he'll give me one at my next year's annual exam. Peggy - he said I didn't need DTaP, just T. I suppose if there's a whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak here in my county I could get that booster and not get just tetanus next year.

Books. Shopping for perhaps 45 minutes, about 10 of which included telling two men to make sure the boxes on the floor that they were looking through got put back completely under the tables since we've had at least one person fall over a box left out. 8 years later, she still has problems with that shoulder since she's in her 80s now and refuses to get more shoulder surgery. And then, I chatted with another man about the donations and what we do with what we don't keep and the 3 thrift shops in town, and etc. I also renewed my membership, which I do at every spring book sale.

Home again, massage at 1 p.m., then a bit of grocery shopping, then home. I made a London Broil and used the Omaha Steaks method for their steaks (sear and bake). It came out perfectly medium rare just like I wanted. I'm chuffed. Air fryer french fries. Hope Street, upstairs and etc. I wrote above about the cortisone flare, which was extremely unpleasant. It's lingering, and I'll be careful of my thumb.

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I'm officially signed up for the entire effing day although I specifically used signup genius for 1 shift today and tomorrow. Reece, book sale team president although he refuses the official title, told me yesterday that since I'm on the core team he just signed me up for everything. Next sale, I'll just tell him what I can work.

Well, until I just now saw Katie's post, I did not realize it was a triple post. *eye roll*

I really don't like double posts. Grrrr.

Fellow mid-centurian! Your doublepost made me chuckle. Enjoy the day today, and get something cool from the book sale!

Wow! A rare triple post. The LT gremlins are having a field day :)

Glad you have such a good GP. It's so important. Mine is okay but TW loves his, and I am thinking of switching...

Good morning, Best Karen! What a day you had! What a day you're likely having!!!!

That is a great haul from your shopping yesterday. LOVE Slough House as you know, and I hope you do too.

I need to move it to get to the eye doc in an hour. Don't wear yourself out, please.

>57 karenmarie: I am now a whirlwind? That is kind of cool!

I hope all is well there and you are recovered from your travels. I am looking forward to seeing you, Peggy, and Irene next year!!

>65 weird_O: Whilst I slept, a miracle happened. Scanning email this morning, I saw one from the hospital network about my appointment on March 26. Huh? One of the text messages I replied "accept" to didn't toss me into the slo-poke bin. It moved me up into a new slot! I'm just accepting this gift, not questioning it.

Happy new thread Karen

>57 karenmarie: Sounds like you are having a wonderful time!

>61 karenmarie: Glad you are able to get all that work done soon. Good idea splurging with anesthesia. It will make everything much more comfortable.

Happy Weekend reading!

>70 richardderus: Hi RDear! Book sale coolness is not really happening this time – I only found 4 books yesterday. See below.

>71 katiekrug: Hello Katie! Are the gremlins bothering anybody else? I will need to start catching up on threads tomorrow. I don’t think I’m THAT heavy handed. GP relationships of okay vs TW loving his might just be a no-brainer to switch.

>72 LizzieD: ‘Morning, (((((Peggy)))))! Ah yes, I had a fairly strange day. My haul was small but cherce… I hope your eye appointment went well and that your eye is already cleared up for a great day of reading!

>73 alcottacre: Stasia, you do know you’re a whirlwind, right? A force of nature? I’m recovered from my travels, have had almost the busiest week imaginable, and I hope next year brings meet up joy with the four of us.

>74 weird_O: From your mouth to God’s ear, Bill – I’m so glad you might, just might, get in with your GP next Wednesday. My fingers are crossed for you.

>75 ArlieS: Hello, Arlie, and thank you.

>76 figsfromthistle: I’m having a wonderful and tiring time for sure, Anita. I’m fortunate that I have great medical insurance and reasonable dental insurance. I’m trying to be somewhat frugal now that I'm almost 72, but spending money on some things is worth it. Otherwise, why did I save money and invest money instead of spending it as I made it?

I hope to do a bit more reading this afternoon and evening, plus tomorrow is completely free of fun things (visiting Peggy/Stasia), no Arsenal, and no plans to go grocery shopping.

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I worked in the Childrens' Room from 9-12. We do not take money in there, so it was a matter of totaling up purchase prices, either bagging or boxing the books, and putting a pink slip with the amount and first initial, last name if they had intentions on also shopping the adult room, otherwise just the amount. Plus I really like working with Eliza.

At noon I switched to the Lobby to cashier, met a woman who still lives in the neighborhood we built our first house in. It was lots of fun chatting with her. Had some cheese pizza and chatted with folks in the book sort/book sale break room, then went back out to cashier a bit more.

However, my PT texted me to see if I wanted to move my 5 p.m. appointment up to 2 p.m. I immediately said no, but as I thought about it I saw that we weren't super busy, alas, so checked in with the powers that be, got dispensation, and went to PT instead. I didn't go back. I asked one of the volunteers to total my purchases and I'll pay for that bag today.

I'm somewhat irritated and flabbergasted that the Android phone dongles I bought as smart phones stopped having microphone jacks seem to have disappeared, so I couldn't process credit cards. The Treasurer has an iPhone, which he was happy to loan to me, but his screen kept timing out and swiping up only got me to a screen that asked for security. Very frustrating.

I'll buy more dongles, but NOT give them to the Friends until just before next sale.

...
Today I'm scheduled to work 9-2 cashiering. It's $5 bag day, so easy peasy in that we don't have to total up purchases.

My books from yesterday are a measly half bag, which I left there to be totaled and bought today. I hope to find a bag or two.

Off I go! 25 minutes before I need to leave.

OMG!!! A single post. Yay.

>77 karenmarie: The dongles disappearing is really, really infuriating, Horrible. They're not a huge expense but someone losing or appropriating them is still just...well...not on. I'm sorry this is the case for your genuinely beloved organization.

Sending Saturday *smooches*

>77 karenmarie: spending money on some things is worth it.

A friend of mine says that today is the tomorrow he saved for yesterday - and therefore he can travel business class!

>79 richardderus: Hiya, RDear! I ended up not being able to process credit card sales, which is ironic given that the then President of the Friends and I got Board and Book Sale Team approval for Square, and I implemented it.

Sale's over! I'm in jammies. *smooch*

>80 ffortsa: I like how your friend's mind works, Judy. After all, I never promised to make Jenna rich. To be fair, she doesn't expect anything. She'll get an inheritance, but I'm not going to get things on the cheap if I don't want them on the cheap, and not going to stay at home if I want to go out.

...
Happiness: I'm looking at 28 books and 3 Great Courses sets for me, 2 Great Courses CD sets for Peggy, and 6 books for friend Karen:

Peggy
The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Rise of Nations
From Jesus to Constantine: A History of Early Christianity

Karen
The Narnia Code
The Catholic Teen Bible
A Century of Jewish Life
The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom
A Short History of the Printed Word
In Search of Mycotopia

Me
The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts by Karen Armstrong
Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh
The Great Chiefs by Benjamin Capps
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
Bloodless by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Éternelle Egypte by Fernand Nathan
The Early Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
The High Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
The Late Middle Ages by Philip Daileader
Who Were the Celts? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Celts 1000 B.C. to the Present by Kevin Duffy
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing by Betty Edwards
Ephesus by Selahattin Erdemgil
Bad Actors by Mick Herron
Joe Country by Mick Herron
London Rules by Mick Herron
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Slough House by Mick Herron
Spook Street by Mick Herron
dot.dead by keith.raffel
The Great Book of King Arthur: and His Knights of the Round Table by John Matthews
A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions by William M. McBride
Mother London by Michael Moorecock
Homemade Cookies by Nell B. Nichols
Egyptian Antiquities in the Hermitage by B. Piotrovsky
The Pyramids and Sphinx by Desmond Stewart
Three Aces by Rex Stout
The Chicago Record Prize Cook Book: Seasonable, Inexpensive Bills of Fare for Every Day in the Year by The Chicago Record Co.
The Philosophers' Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding by Robert Zaretsky
The Holy Bible

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I had so much fun cataloging my books yesterday afternoon and evening. Cataloging, Hope Street, reading.

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Absolutely nothing I have to do today except to fill the bird feeders and find spots on my shelves for my haul.

>81 karenmarie: What a really amazing haul, sweetiedarling! I'm envious of The Chicago Record one...ancient cookbooks are often more fun to read as cultural objects than use as recipe books. Quite the Mick Herron haul, too!

I am a little surprised to see Mother London on your pile. There's a weirdie...can't even think what you'll make of it. The Hermitage book sounds fascinating, too. The scary amount of culture the west has ripped off from Egypt...*whew*

Sunday well!

Hiya, RD! I was very pleased with my less-than-usual-but-cherce haul.

I knew I already had a copy of Mother London on my shelves, but my instincts were good - this copy, same ISBN, same everything, is in much better condition, to I just deaccessioned the one I acquired in 2009.

Ripped off culture is right, although I must say that I was quite unhappy and am still unhappy that the Egyptian Department of Antiquities did not honor the concession that Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter had when they discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

That 1897 cookbook is a stunner. It was NOT in the cook book section but was in the Oldies and Classics section - possibly the right place - but just sitting there forlornly face up on the table, not even in one of the boxes. The spine is extremely hard to read, so perhaps that's the issue if it was originally placed in a box spine out. I just looked it up on bookfinders, and although listings may never get sold for what the seller asks, the lowest one offered is for $132. I paid either $1.50 or one of many in the $5 bag of books.

If book sorters don't set aside a book for our appraiser Eliza to evaluate during book sort Tuesdays, I can't help it if I see it and acquire it at a book sale. Who knows, it could also have been worth a buck or two at best. And quite a few book sellers came through and missed it, too.

Hi Karen!

Glad to hear you had such a nice time with your road trip and meet-up with Peggy and Stasia (and Kerry).
And good going on the library sale! I can imagine the frustration of not being able to process cards as easily as they could be. Why is it that things always have a way of developing legs and walking away right when you need them?

What a wonderful library haul! If I had more bookshelves I'd be envious. As it is, I'm in deaccession mode, or at least ebook replacement mode. sigh.

Hooray for your fine haul, Karen!!! I have an unread copy of Mother London too. I've taken it down several times but never quite the right one. We'll have to think about braving it together but not in April, please!!!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

>62 witchyrichy: I feel like the cat and I are the only people awake in the world and it is just lovely.

>65 weird_O: >67 karenmarie: Health care in this country is just chaotic, isn't it? Our little town doesn't have a decent grocery store but somehow managed to get a health center and pharmacy where we can get most of what we need, usually in a day or two with the nurse practitioner. I feel pretty fortunate when I hear stories of ridiculously long waits for basic health care.

>84 karenmarie: I can't imagine anyone's eagerly hunting down the Chicago Record's different bits and bobs from its brief life. Maybe a special collection in Chicago, for completeness' sake, but in that event the $132 is cheap. Do let me know if there are any interesting recipes!

*smooch*

>85 PawsforThought: Hi Paws! Thank you. Last week is probably one of the busiest weeks I’ve had in years and years. I’m surprised I’m not more tired than I am.

>86 ffortsa: Hi Judy. I could probably have found another $5 bag worth had I made the time to properly look through all the last-day offerings. As it was, on the way back to the cashier table about 20 minutes before the sale ended, I stopped at the art section and grabbed Éternelle Egypte by Fernand Nathan, rounded a corner, zoomed down the middle aisle, and stopped at travel for some strange reason and got Ephesus by Selahattin Erdemgil. Those were my volunteer books – one for Friday and one for Saturday.

Last night I remembered that at the last minute a gentleman bought 3 Daniel Silva books and realized that I’d never read the 10 Daniel Silva books on shelf L40. So I carefully climbed onto the sofa, reached up and realized I couldn’t get them safely without standing on the back of the sofa, so got the grabber, got back onto the sofa, and grabbed each one. So 10 more deaccessioned. Replacing physical books with e-books is a great way to make those tough decisions. I need to go through my mass market paperbacks in the Retreat.

>87 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you. Perhaps a May or June read if we are both so inclined? Yesterday continued nicely. I hope your day was uneventful, with reading, napping, kitties, and your DH.

>88 witchyrichy: Quiet and kitties are among life’s joys, aren’t they, Karen? I think I’d prefer having the medical stuff close by if I had to choose, actually.

Health care – my GP is 11 miles away, my cardiologist 11.5 miles away, the local extremely good hospital 11 miles the other way, and various and sundry specialties/x-rays/bloodwork/PT 11 miles away. I rarely use Duke doctors or facilities but they’re covered under my BCBS advantage plan too.

We’ve got one decent (the one we go to) and one very good (way more expensive) grocery store within 10 miles, another location of the ‘decent’ one within 12 miles the other way. Aldi, Wegner’s, Publix, Trader Joe’s are all within 30 miles. So far, I’ve been able to boycott Walmart and should be able to continue to do so since the chaos demon got into power and they abandoned their DEI out of pressure.

I just looked at companies abandoning DEI starting last year when they realized who was going to gain power in the election. Not a comprehensive list, obviously, but some seriously large companies. The ones I use are
Amazon
Disney
Ford
Google (our phones and Google Translate)
Lowe’s Home Improvement
Meta
Paramount
Pepsi – Bill’s soda
Smithsonian Institution

So, what’s a poor woman to do? I cannot abandon all of them without seriously impacting my quality of life. Sigh. Disney’s easy, Smithsonian Institution is on my bucket list but not on my radar.

>89 richardderus: RDear, 28 Lters have that cookbook under 6 different works. Sigh. I just looked at it more than just at a glance, and it has one complete menu for each day of the year excluding Leap Year Day for some reason. Each menu was submitted by an individual, who they name, with their address or just town in some cases. My birthday’s offering is from a woman named Ada White from Harvard Illinois. There’s an extensive appendix of recipes by type of food – sauces, meats, desserts, etc.

Here's the advert for the newspaper from the back - wish newspapers today would all have these lofty goals.



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Playing with books, more playing with books, filling bird feeders, puttering, napping, reading. Hope Street. Bill's now calling it a soap opera but is still willing to watch.

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Nothing official on the schedule. Possibly grocery shopping, but I think we can last another day or two without my leaving the house today. Reading, finding physical homes for the book sale books. I also need to catalog nine books Peggy gave me when I was visiting - thank you, my dear! I'm pretty sure I'm going to make two of the Omaha Steaks we got for Christmas from my niece/her wife for dinner with potatoes of some sort. Broccoli for me, possibly corn for Bill, too.

>90 karenmarie: The Chicago Record sounds like the Daily News here in NY. No surprise, then, that the Sun-Times bought it and folded it up in 1914. It was ever thus, no? Broccoli is a fave of mine, too.

*smooch*

>90 karenmarie: In a highly populated area like ours, you would think there would be more options, but when our big supermarket across the (small) park closed and was replaced by a Target, it was a major inconvenience. That said, we have Trader Joe's, Whole Food, and other groceries not too far a walk away. Wegman's opened not too many blocks away, but I haven't found anything particularly special or inexpensive there. The whole first floor is devoted to takeout, to attract the younger, busier crowd and the students. And this past week, I humored my upstairs neighbor by going over to the closest BJ's with her. It's a bit of a schlep, but the cold cuts for our Monday book circle meeting are considerably cheaper than in Manhatan. (BTW, their delivery costs have skyrocketed, so we go in person.) It's one of the reasons we make use of HelloFresh for dinners, to limit our necessary grocery runs.

Of course, 11 miles wouldn't be much if I had a car!

As for pharmacies, we are rich in them for now, but hospitals, not so much. As larger medical centers buy up smaller ones, comprehensive care moves out of the immediate area, leaving precious little in Manhattan below 23rd St. - and there's a lot of Manhattan below that. I get my meds by mail, and am grateful that my PCP is literally across the street from the apartment.

Good morning on your thread, Karen!

I've read your post and Judy's about nearby groceries and health services. I'm grateful to live in a town this size - around 20,000. We have a hospital associated with UNC and visits from Duke cardiac doctors. We have many pharmacies, but they don't always cooperate in a timely manner (I'm still stinging because my DH came close to not getting Paxlovid as soon as he needed to start it), several urgent care locations, and some medical specialists. Again, my eye doctor comes into the eye clinic here once a week. It could be a lot worse!
Our Lowe's Foods closed during the pandemic, and it was our "high end" grocery. We do have other choices, but no Trader Joe's, Whole Food, Publix, or anything similar.
As to the list that should be boycotted, we will have to continue to patronize Walmart, Amazon, Google, and Lowe's Home Improvement. The two with stores here can't avoid DEI unless they want to import employees. Our population is a third each black, Indian, and Caucasian.
What a world!
Enjoy your day anyway, Karen. I am not discouraged by Wordle in 6. I knew better; I was just unwilling to think long enough to make better guesses.

Ooh, I forgot about the avoidance list. Of the ones we are trying to limit or to avoid altogether:

Amazon (limit, use more local when possible, use the library a lot)
Disney (we watch Hulu)
Google (our phones and Google Translate) us too.
Meta (I took Facebook off my phone, but have a buy nothing group and friends who post, so I read them on my computer)
Paramount (streaming)
Smithsonian Institution (we are members and enjoy their talks online)

We rarely if ever shop at Walmart, don't own a car, the Lowe's near us closed (but I try to avoid Home Depot too), and Jim prefers Diet Coke. We don't need fancy lawyers or Columbia degrees either.

I'll keep an eye out for other conveniences to avoid. With too many clothes, too many books, a pretty good library, local hardware stores, and a Greenmarket four days a week just coming into season, we can avoid a lot of big corporate entities.

All this added to buying no plastic, of course, or polluting detergents, using paper bags. If we had any land, I'd buy some chickens and sow some vegetables.

>90 karenmarie: I wouldn't give some of the companies mentioned the credit of saying they dropped DEI because of the pressure, rather that they only adopted it at all due to pressure.

>77 karenmarie: Stasia, you do know you’re a whirlwind, right? A force of nature? If you say so. I do not think of myself in that way at all. I am just me.

>81 karenmarie: Nice! What a great haul for all of you.

>82 karenmarie: I love getting to catalog new-to-me books. One of life's small pleasures, right?

>87 LizzieD: I have a copy of Mother London on its way to me as I have had it in the BlackHole for far too long, lol. Maybe I can horn in on the read with you and Karen?

>32 karenmarie: I just bought a new cookie cookbook, The Ultimate Minnesota Cookie Book, and I'm loving it! Made one recipe so far and it was yummy. Have a friend coming over tomorrow to try another 2 recipes. I'll let you know how it goes. : )

>84 karenmarie: Nice haul at the book sale! I am stunned that no one noticed the cookbook. Good for you for picking it up!

I can't avoid some of those companies abandoning DEI either. Of course, I'm not sure how much is just public-facing changes, or changing terminology, without actually changing that much internally. It's hard for me to imagine Disney really retreating, after the fight they put up with DeSantis. I haven't touched Facebook in years, so no real loss there. And I rarely shop at WalMart, though I recently had to get powdered detergent there, as our local Target has suddenly stopped carrying any. The other Target stores in the area still have it, just not ours, and I'm not driving that far for just one item. That was my first WalMart purchase in I don't know how long.

>91 richardderus: ‘Morning, RDear! So many newspapers gone over the years, more in recent years, alas. Broccoli and cauliflower are two of my favs. I keep forgetting about cooked carrots and may make some to go with the steaks and whatever kind of potatoes I make. Yesterday was not a cooking day.

>92 ffortsa: Hi Judy. I really am surprised at the lack of options in Manhattan, but I guess huge-footprint single use pieces of land are at a premium. Sad. I’ve only shopped at Target twice, I think, when Jenna and I were out and she needed things. Schlepping with your neighbor sounds like fun, plus getting a deal on cold cuts is always good. Nobody will deliver to us since we’re so far from any of the grocery stores. Bill gets most of his meds by mail, but I’m a stubborn creature, and I feel like I’m in less control by doing that. I could use a meal kit company, but so far it doesn’t appeal.

We have 2 pharmacies in town. I use Walgreen’s for everything except vaccines, because the small pharmacy lets you just walk in, fill out the paperwork, wait behind what’s usually only 2 or 3 other people, get the shot, and leave. Within a month or so, the record has gotten to my PCP and updated in my records.

>93 LizzieD: Your town has so many medical, restaurant, and grocery store options compared with mine, Peggy. We still patronize some of the ones I listed, too.

Wordle in 6 beats getting skunked for sure.

>94 ffortsa: I still have FB, but haven’t ever used it for any more than seeing what friends and family post, and quite a bit of that isn’t worth clicking on the links anyway, meaning quotes, or news, or quizzes, etc.

I’m with you on too many clothes, too many books. I’ve got way too much other stuff, too. Our Library is small and I support it wholeheartedly, but they’re not part of an ILL system, so many times I can’t get what I want. Mostly I want books for book club.

I was going to plant a vegetable garden this spring, and might still do so, but it would require our landscape guys to clean out my 4’ x 16’ raised bed and put some new soil in it. That’s doable, of course, so we’ll see. End of April is best for planting here. Can’t do chickens. I have indoor-outdoor kitties, and Zoe is a huntress. *smile*

My grocery store does not offer paper bags any more, and I’m not organized enough to carry in canvas or other totes. I use plastic bags for kitty stuff.

I admire you for all the things you’re doing. I’m doing some, have been doing some for decades, but haven’t extended my repertoire for a very long time.

>95 quondame: Hi Susan. Most companies do what they want when they want and always have. Forcing them to comply never hurt my feelings at all. I guess some of them would have wanted to drop the DEI stuff because they are owned by white males and greedy white male boards of directors, but I’m wondering how much pressure is being applied by the chaos demon and his very dangerous minions on companies who were otherwise either proud of or resigned to their DEI policies.

>96 alcottacre: You are, of course, just you, Stasia, as we all are, but I only meant that in a complimentary way. I admire you greatly. I’m pleased with my less-than-usual-but-happy-making haul.

Cataloging books is definitely a lot of fun for me. I’m also going to deaccession one CD set and 4 audio books this morning.

The potential Mother London read can definitely be a P-S-K one.

>97 Berly: Hi Kim! I think I saw either your mention of that cookbook or somebody else’s, which was the impetus for me to mention the 4 cookie cookbooks I have. Having said that, two of my basic recipes, Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter, are not from cookbooks, but rather from the back of a bag of NOT Toll House chocolate chips and one I cadged together in the 1970s from a couple of PB cookie recipes.

Making cookies with friends sounds like lots of fun. Please do report back on what cookies were made and photos if possible. *smile*

I just went down the rabbit hole of rice-flour cookies for some reason, and used a Gift Card from Peggy for Rosewater (and Orange Blossom Water and fancy Vanilla). I’m adding ground cardamom and rice flour to my grocery store list.

>98 atozgrl: Hi Irene, and thanks. That cookbook was on Saturday, after two full days of folks shopping. It’s karma that it’s now on my shelves.

I use SA8 powdered laundry detergent, have done so since the 1970s. It works with my HE top loading washing machine.

We’ll just use the DEI-abandoning companies.

Wordle 1,375 3/6* trope, leach, shelf

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I played with books, read books, and didn't go grocery shopping or make dinner. It was highly satisfactory.

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I really need to go grocery shopping today, and promised Bill that I would make the steaks. I'm considering scalloped potatoes and cooked carrots to go with. Plus, I have some cooked mushrooms in a tupperware in the refrigerator that I can heat up. Bill rarely eats mushrooms, so more for me.

Reading, updating spreadsheets, putting up more book haul books, cataloging Peggy's books. Enjoying early spring although it leads to late spring and summer, my least favorite times of year.

Peggy broke the ice and has taken the primary hit by posting on her thread after Stasia said ok. It's not currently working, but she did make it her profile picture in the meantime.

Here it is, our meetup on March 17, 2025.


Karen, Stasia (@@alcottacre), Peggy (@@lizzied)

Cooked carrots are a major feature of the diet here. I'd love to have parsnips and salsify and turnips/beets/rutabaga and kohlrabi once in a while, but it's carrots peas squash broccoli green beans on rotation. Considering that's what's factory farmed, no surprise...on any level...there. I like greens unlike most people, so the days we get spinach are happy ones.

Lots of people don't like shrooms...I'm a big fan. Of course my dislikes are the popular corn, yam, other weird stringy grossness. Enjoy your steaks tonight!

>100 karenmarie: The ice is broken and no one fell in!! Thanks for posting the pic and love seeing all of you. : ) Meetups are so much fun!

>99 karenmarie: The potential Mother London read can definitely be a P-S-K one. Yay!!

>100 karenmarie: Well, rats. I really hoped it had disappeared into the ether. I just now thought of how short I am. Wow, it is worse than I feared :)

>102 Berly: I love doing meet ups, Kim, but not a fan of the photos. I have never liked having my picture taken, lol. I am so happy to have the privilege of meeting LTers wherever they are and am hoping to meet many more before all is said and done.

>103 alcottacre: ...too bad I lost my photos from 2009...you look very very short standing next to me.

>104 richardderus: When I was growing up, I was the shortest in my immediate family. When Kerry and I married, I was sure I would no longer be the shortest. Beth passed me in height when she was 12 and Catey was about the same. *sigh*

>105 alcottacre: I am also now the shortest in my family. I love my niece though--she is shorter! LOL

>105 alcottacre: It's not going to make you happy, Stasia, that I've lost a bit more than two inches. My problem was the opposite. I was the tallest person in my class until the eighth grade when Eleanor moved here, bless her! How many times did I go to little dances where the fellow put his head on my shoulder!?!?!

(((((Karen))))) Rosewater, etc. ---- YAY! Enjoy!

I eat either broccoli or spinach or both every day of my life unless we've lucked into other greens. I think I've said that we both ate all the kale we ever hope to in the couple of years when my DH grew it in our garden.

>107 LizzieD: Oh dear, kale! Vile stuff. Give me collards every time.

Morning, Horrible! Happy Wednesday! *smooch*

>100 karenmarie: In looking at the picture again, it makes me seem the tallest, but I’m either 5’3” or 5’4” depending on which doctor I go to, no lie. I’m actually 5’3 1/2” as just measured barefoot against the door jamb.

>101 richardderus: I love cooked carrots, actually, RD, and don’t know why I keep forgetting to make them. I’ve never made turnips or salsify or rutabaga or kohlrabi. I’ve led a sheltered life, haven’t I? I love mushrooms, just not porcini for some reason.

>102 Berly: Yes, Kim, it was a red-letter day.

>103 alcottacre: I need to get started on two books, Stasia – Mother London because I’d like to be a ways in before you power your way through it and The Good Lord Bird for April 13th book club. I need to sandwich them in somehow between my current fav – fantasy MM romance. Not usually a fantasy person, but there you go. Alpha humanoid males on alien worlds seems to be doing it for me right now.

Between Peggy and me it’s been texted and it’s now on my laptop. No ether, alas.

One of my best friends in college was 5 foot tall and she was a pocket Venus and didn’t hate her height except for having to use pillows to raise her up enough to see out of the windshield.

I do not like it when Bill takes my photo because he always catches me in profile.

>104 richardderus: Oh, no! I’d pay good money to see that photo.

>106 Berly: I’m shorter than Jenna but taller than my sister, so mama bear all the way.

>107 LizzieD: Gravity and osteo-anything really cut into a person’s height, don’t they, Peggy? I’ve lost 1 inch. Tallest doesn’t work for girls until they’re out of high school because it takes a while for some boys to get their growth spurts, and I can see how you did not like standing out (or up) that way.

The rosewater – orange water – vanilla sampler is the perfect amount of each, 2 oz. The rose water and orange water will last forever, and if the vanilla is stupendously better than McCormick’s, I’ll splurge on it from now on out. Otherwise, it’s a great experiment.

I love broccoli. Raw spinach not so much, but cooked spinach, yay. I love a specific packaged Sweet Kale Salad from the grocery store – it has dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin seeds and poppy seed dressing. Sometimes I put left-over cut up chicken or steak in it.

>108 richardderus: I tried collards once when Bill’s step-grandmother Pat brought over a dutch oven’s worth for Thanksgiving. It was a Big Deal, a Special Treat. I wasn’t eating any pork at the time at all, much less greasy bits floating on the surface and chunks in a mess of strongly flavored and weirdly textured stuff. I tried them and was glad I didn't have a gag reflex. YMMV, of course.

Happy Wednesday to you, too!

Wordle 1,376 4/6* trope, coven, below, elbow

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Yesterday was sort of productive - playing with my books and finally getting all the book sale books up and tagged properly. Still need to add Peggy's. I did not go to the grocery store again, but did make dinner. Steaks but not scalloped potatoes. The steaks were just as lovely the second time. Now, no more Omaha steaks.

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I will go to the grocery store today come hell or high water. I will also box up some books for Karen simply to get them off the little yellow table in the Sunroom.

Reading, spreadsheets. Puttering. All good things for a gorgeous day.

>100 karenmarie: What a happy group!

>109 karenmarie: I'm not all the way a fan of collards, though I'll eat corn...kernels, never on the cob...before I'll put another leathery, foul leaf of kale in my moosh. I'm glad the steaks were delish, though sorry it will be the last time until next Yule.

Spend a happy Wednesday, sweetiedarling.

Hi Karen. It’s fun catching up with you.

>77 karenmarie: Your bag day reminds me of the time I took 13-year-old Haley to the last day of our spring book sale last year. I paid the $5 for our shared bag and when I found only a few books for me, I let her go crazy in the young adult section. Her mother was NOT happy with some of the books she brought home. I didn’t realize how risqué some of those books can be! Bad Grandma.

>81 karenmarie: Fantastic book haul…and how nice that you found books for friends as well.

>90 karenmarie: “Playing with books, more playing with books, filling bird feeders, puttering, napping, reading.”
Now that sounds like my idea of Paradise!

>100 karenmarie: The meetup picture is a good one of all three of you. Thanks to Stasia for giving permission.

Hope your grocery run goes faster than mine did yesterday, (((((Karen))))). I should be reading The Library at Night now before you and Stasia start, because the P in P S K will be left in the dust raised by your flipping pages. (I like P S K, btw.....sounds like another cat word to me and just right for the three of us!)

I do love collards, but they're better after the first frost and best when they're "run-up," according to my Grandmama, born in 1885, who knew. I've grown to be a fan of turnip greens too. I'm sorry that the pork in the pot liquor disgusted you; they have to be cooked in "strick-o-fat/strick-o-lean", according to the same G'mama. You should, however, cook the meat first and then pull it out before adding the greens.
RobCo, btw, is the home of the Collard Sandwich. (I am having a major trouble posting links. I don't know whether it's my failing brain or my failing computer.) Anyway, the link to an Our State article is https://www.ourstate.com/collard-sandwich/. My only quibble is that you call the "cornbread" "hoecakes" to be absolutely accurate.

Happy Rest of the Day!

>106 Berly: I guess we drew the short straw, Kim! I think even with my extended family I am still the shortest (among the adults, at least.)

>107 LizzieD: No, you are not making me happy, Peggy!

>109 karenmarie: As I do not even have Mother London yet, Karen, I will not be catching you up any time soon :)

I guess it could be worse for me as far as my height goes. My grandmother was not even 5 feet tall.

Count me in with the collard lovers and kale haters, lol.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, Karen!!

>114 alcottacre: Ah Stasia, we have the same short genes. My grandmother also was not even 5 feet tall, and now neither am I. Sigh. The kitchen cabinets have become more of a challenge.

As for the culinary talk, I love greens, all kinds except perhaps lima beans. Jim of course is the reverse, although he does like broccoli. I'll take almost any veggie raw or cooked. And contrary to my childhood disdain, I've come to love roasted carrots. But I need to get more diversity in the bean side of my meals. For some reason my mother never really cooked beans and I never picked it up.

Stasia, if I recall from our one face-to-face, it looks like you have lost a ton of weight over the years, and, dare I say it, look quite cute. Nice to see a current picture. I don't think I've ever met Karen and Peggy, so it's lovely to have an image of them in my mind.

Most people would say Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are more than enough, and to be honest if I were inclined to walk several long blocks in almost any direction, there are others, but not suburban size. I think most New Yorkers are like me - if it's not within a radius of two blocks, it doesn't feel walkable with packages. I could get things delivered, but I rarely buy enough to justify that. If I were restocking a whole kitchen worth of food, that would be the way to do it.

The Greenmarket is expanding now that spring is here. By the time August hits, it's a fantasy of good smells and good veggies. My favorite time.

>109 karenmarie: I'm just the opposite when it comes to spinach. I don't like cooked spinach. We never had it at home growing up because my dad didn't like it. They served it for school lunch fairly often, and that was awful. So I thought I hated spinach until I became a young adult and discovered you could eat it raw in salad. I have some that way almost every night.

I'm not a big fan of most kale either, but baby kale leaves in salad is also good. The Sweet Kale Salad sounds good; I'll have to remember to look for it at the store.

I don't care for cooked carrots by themselves. In a stew or cooked with pot roast, they're fine. But cooked carrots alone? No.

I know about being tall at a young age; you really stick out that way. And feel awkward and clumsy. It takes a while to grow into the long limbs. I had most of my height by the time I was in 7th grade.

Wordle in 4 for me too today.

My goodness, am I wordy this morning! Sorry about that.

>110 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita! We were having such a good time. Only Stasia and Kerry having to leave for their very long drive home cut the visit short. After that I stayed ‘til 7:30 visiting with Peggy, then on Tuesday visited for another 4 or so hours before also having to leave.

>111 richardderus: I always loved corn on the cob, RD, especially here in NC. Silver Queen is my fav, and I even grew it several years. So much fun to grow, better to eat. I used to like making corn the cob until an Unfortunate Incident that has had me never making it again here at the house. Suffice to say that even though I really cannot bear it, other people in the house told a visiting family member they could roll their corn on the cob on top of the butter in the butter dish. I’ve never made it since, and that family member died in 2011. So, at this time, we’re a frozen corn family since canned corn has so much sodium. Fresh corn cut from the cob is best, but I don't bother.

It may not be the last time Omaha Steaks ‘til next Yule if we decide to get some on our own. I’m not sure they’re worth it except as an extravagant gift from my well-heeled niece and her wife. I might get two steaks sometime soon from the butcher shop that supplied the boneless leg of lamb I served in January. It was not overly expensive and was full of fabulous, as our dear Mamie would say.

>112 Donna828: Hi Donna. I guess conservative families don’t like some YA offerings. For the book sales, we put out everything we get that’s in good condition. Period. It’s just a matter of what section it’s in - at this sale, a gentleman brought over two books he didn’t think belonged in the YA section. Eliza and I actually agreed with him, and she took them over to the adult room. Other than that, books by Anonymous, A.N. Roquelaure, Réage, etc. all survive the cut. Most MF soft porn (Julia Quinn, Tessa Dare, Eloisa James, etc.), are mass market paperbacks and we don’t sell those. We let a local used book store owner buy them from us for 25 ¢.

I’m always on the lookout for books for friend Karen. This time Peggy asked for Great Courses books, history specifically, and I was happy to oblige.

Glad Stasia gave permission, too. Peggy ran point on that one. She’s had at least one meetup with Stasia that I know of, perhaps more. Ladies?

>113 LizzieD: My grocery store run usually takes 2 hours, Peggy, but that includes travel time and put away time. Usually about 45 minutes in the store. The only thing I didn’t get was canned tuna because I didn’t want to schlep back across the store after I forgot it and was checking my list.

You know your collards, that’s for sure. Strick-o-fat/strick-o-lean. Figured that out. At this point I might not mind collards if you made them. I just looked up hoecakes. Yes, I had to look them up. I saved the recipe. I have all the ingredients… thank goodness I bought more buttermilk yesterday. From the recipe: If you don’t keep buttermilk on hand, you might not be a Southerner.. Does 34 years here in NC count as a Southerner?

It’s most likely your computer. I frequently have to dicker with posting a link, just never mention how finicky the syntax is for me. That article is fantastic. Info about the food, your county, South of the Border, and etc. *happy dance*

>114 alcottacre: Short straw made me smile, Stasia. My sister is shortest in my family except for my uncle’s third wife, my Aunt Judy. Alas, I haven’t met her yet, having not gotten to Iowa since 2010. First wife cheated on my uncle, second one died, just so you don’t think strangely of my uber-conservative uncle.

I’d be happy to send my de-accessioned copy to you, Stasia – it’s very slightly tanned, and the not-creased-or-broken spine has gotten faded from the sun. Otherwise, it’s the same edition as the new one I have. Let me know.

Thanks re my Wednesday. I hope yours was a good’un, too.

>115 ffortsa: Hi Judy. I have a 2-step ladder that folds nicely and is kept behind the swing door in the Kitchen and another 2-step ladder with a tool platform, extremely lightweight, that I keep in the Utility Room behind the hanging clothes and carry around downstairs as needed. We also have a very good grabber.

I’ll take all your lima beans if we’re stuck on a desert island together, Judy, even though I might have to fight Jim for them. I have switched to dried beans for my chili, and have re-added lentils and barley in the last year. My Koren DiL always makes her rice with barley and quinoa. I forget the proportions.

Stasia does look cute, doesn’t she? Peggy looks tall cute, with that winsome look on her face.

Yay for the Greenmarket. We have farmers’ markets here, two of them in town that I know of, but they are only one day per week during late spring/late fall.

>116 atozgrl: Hi Irene. Yay for Wordle in 4. I was always in the middle-of-the-pack height-wise growing up.

I think I can start eating dark leafy greens again – I just looked at things to avoid eating to prevent kidney stones, and the thinking seems to have changed since 2015 after my second one. I distinctly remember needing to avoid peanuts, dark colas, and dark leafy greens. I still avoid peanuts, have a sugared Dr. Pepper about once every 3-4 weeks, and will now consider eating DLGs again.

Yay for your Wordle in 4.

Wordle 1,377 4/6* trope, testy, least, sheet

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Reading, puttering, LT, playing with my catalog on LT, grocery shopping, napping, and etc. Hope Street. I took a couple of pics of Zoe grooming herself and cropped them. I might use them for next thread's topper.

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I'm meeting friend Jan for lunch at noon at Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe. We both always get the same thing - Greek Salad, no onions, with grilled salmon on top, she gets the house dressing, I get balsamic vinaigrette. It might be warm enough to eat outside. We'll see. I may or may not go to Aldi, which turns out to be only 2 miles from Taziki's. I just pulled a few quarters to put in my wallet, just in case.

Other than that, all the usual. It's a gorgeous early spring day here, so will be nice to get out.

Hope you and Jan are having fun, Karen! I'm off to feed the cats!!!!! (If I had been smart like you, I'd have had Wordle in 2.)

>117 karenmarie: (except, of course, we're past the midpoint of spring which is the Equinox)

Hope all your doins was happy ones! *smooch*

>117 karenmarie: Ah, the best way to butter corn on the cob. Seen it, done it. Bit of a mess, but we've all survived.

Hullo, dropping by to say howdy. I'm a fan of kale and spinach, cooked and raw, but no lima beans or corn for me please. Trader Joe's is a long haul for groceries, with two local grocery stores within 2 miles of the house (HEB), but they are a fun visit when we're nearby. I like the "high class" HEB with lots of imports and a generous sample policy, but rarely drop by unless I need something specific. I like their fresh squeezed fruit juices, and cheese from around the world.
Enjoy your reading. I think of you every time I get my queer SF newsletter and wonder if you would like any of the MM offerings.

>115 ffortsa: I hate Lima beans and have since childhood, so I am on your side on those. I love a wide variety of veggies though which is certainly helpful since I am a vegan, lol.

My weight skyrocketed up to 205 pounds in 2023 and since August of that year I have been working to get it down again. I have lost 60 pounds since then and at least another 15 to go before I will be where my doctor wants me. I am, however, not cute.

I wish I had either a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods near me but I do not. The Green Market (a local health food store) has a decent selection of both food products and vitamins so I cannot complain too much.

>117 karenmarie: Sadly only the one meet up with Peggy for me prior to this year, Karen.

I had already ordered Mother London, Karen, it is just not here yet, if that is the book you are speaking of with the 'de-accessioned' copy. Thanks for the offer though!

>122 alcottacre: It sounds like you and I are about the same size these days. I need (want) to lose another 20 lbs., but the goal is proving elusive, of course.

Sorry if cute is a bad word. It is in the eye of the beholder of course, and I meant it most kindly.

>123 ffortsa: We can compare sizes when I see you in June, right? I am hoping to have lost the last 15 pounds or so by then!

I meant no disrespect, but I have never thought of myself as cute.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369579

>117 karenmarie: >120 quondame: Yikes! I'm with Karen on the butter for corn on the cob. I cringed when I read that. Ick!

And I love lima beans! The best I ever had were the ones my MiL fixed, from home grown beans. Yum!

I hadn't thought about dark leafy greens being a problem with kidney stones. Or peanuts either, for that matter. I sure hope I don't ever get any.

>100 karenmarie: What a great photo!!!!! Thanks for posting this. Stasia is heading to PA and staying with me in June!! We have a lot planned, and I will post photos on my thread throughout the week of activities. After a very nasty year, seeing Stasia and others who are joining us throughout the week has skyrocketed my emotions.

>118 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! At 12:43 yesterday we had been seated for about 15 minutes after placing our order. It says something that I remember the word you always start off Wordle in, then looked back to my guesses. *smile*

>119 richardderus: I always forget what’s when with equinoxes and when seasons officially start and end, RDear. Very few things have leafed out yet here, although I took these pics in the last several weeks. *smooch*



>120 quondame: Hi Susan. I think my maternal grandmother would be rolling in her grave. She was born in 1882, after all, a very prim Victorian. Certain things were just not done, and personal food touching a shared dinner table item would never have been considered. You put butter on your plate, then do with it what you will. I still get the heebie jeebies when I have placed a butter dish with butter knife out on the dining room table and someone uses the butter knife to butter their bread or potato. Having said all that, I realize I’m in the minority and accept that.

>121 elorin: Hello Robyn. There are many vegetables I’ve never tried. But pretty much anything else - artichokes but only marinated hearts, okra only fried, and onions only cooked except for scallions/spring onions. I rarely visit high end grocery stores. I do love fresh squeezed orange juice, though, and have an ancient electric juicer here at the house that I was given by a friend of mine in CA 30 years ago. It was ancient then. It works beautifully. I also use it for lemon and lime juice when more than just a squeeze is needed.

MM offerings on the queer SF newsletter? Do tell.

>122 alcottacre: Hi Stasia. Lima beans seem to be anathema to more people than they are tasty, alas. Friend Karen in Montana can’t abide them either.

I’m glad that you at least have The Green Market. I’m surprised that in a town more than twice/three times as big as Peggy’s and 15 times bigger than mine, you don’t have either.

I guess third time for you will be the charm then, for our four-person meetup next year.

I was speaking of Mother London, and will now donate it to the Friends for our next sale.

>123 ffortsa: and >124 alcottacre: Size/height comparisons at your June meetup. Now that Peggy forced the issue, perhaps a photo might be in order. Sorry/not sorry, Stasia. We love you too much to NOT want see photos of you, if at all possible.

>125 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you!

>126 atozgrl: Great minds, eh, Irene? Lima beans and NOT using community condiments for plated food. You probably won’t get kidney stones if you’re not eating tons and tons every day. I remember when cyclamate, an artificial sweetener, was taken off the market. From Wikipedia:

In 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals. Further research resulted in a 1969 study that found the common 10:1 cyclamate–saccharin mixture increased the incidence of bladder cancer in rats. The released study was showing that eight out of 240 rats fed a mixture of saccharin and cyclamates, at levels equivalent to humans ingesting 550 cans of diet soda per day, developed bladder tumors.

Sales continued to expand, and in 1969, annual sales of cyclamate had reached $1 billion, which increased pressure from public safety watchdogs to restrict the usage of cyclamate. In October 1969, Department of Health, Education & Welfare Secretary Robert Finch, bypassing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Herbert L. Ley, Jr., removed the GRAS designation from cyclamate and banned its use in general-purpose foods, though it remained available for restricted use in dietary products with additional labeling; in October 1970, the FDA, under a new commissioner, banned cyclamate completely from all food and drug products in the United States.

Abbott Laboratories claimed that its own studies were unable to reproduce the 1969 study's results, and, in 1973, Abbott petitioned the FDA to lift the ban on cyclamate. This petition was eventually denied in 1980 by FDA Commissioner Jere Goyan. Abbott Labs, together with the Calorie Control Council (a political lobby representing the diet foods industry), filed a second petition in 1982. Although the FDA has stated that a review of all available evidence does not implicate cyclamate as a carcinogen in mice or rats, cyclamate remains banned from food products in the United States. The petition is now held in abeyance, though not actively considered. It is unclear whether this is at the request of Abbott Labs or because the petition is considered to be insufficient by the FDA.

I hope you don’t get kidney stones either, Irene. I’m pretty sure that the pain from those was right up there with the labor pains I had with Jenna.

>127 Whisper1: Hi Linda. You’re welcome. Looks like you and Judy, among others, will be seeing Stasia this summer. Yay for photos. I’m glad you have the meetup to look forward to. Anticipation is half the pleasure, after all.

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Anticipation was half the pleasure with Jan yesterday, and the actual visit was, as always, quite wonderful. We chatted and ate for 3 hours. I didn't make it to Aldi, alas. Home around 4, nap/reading upstairs 'til about 6. Dinner, two episodes of Hope Street, talked with Jenna and Karen. I think I got around 6 hours of sleep.

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Another busy one, but it's only been two busy days this week, so there's that. Today I'll be having lunch with Rita the Librarian at Virlie's, then hang around in town 'til 3 for my PT appointment. Rita is on the clock and can only take an hour, so I'll either hang at Virlie's and read/have cake (it is Friday, after all, so they should have coconut cake), and/or go to the Thrift Shop or Habitat store and look for books. Because... books.

>128 karenmarie: ...and/or go to the Thrift Shop or Habitat store and look for books. Because... books. There's seriously a question in your mind, Horrible? 0.o

Stasia has no healthy-option grocery store because Texas. I've never been to Aldi's because the closest one's on the North Shore, so inaccessible to me. I know from Kath, an Aldi's regular, that they have wildly variable stock and repay regular shopping.

Stay safe and well.

>128 karenmarie: Only two busy days this week!! I wish. I have to do something to get more free time to just do what I am inspired to do at the time.

Happy Day, (((((Karen)))))!

You have so much going on that I can't keep up. For the record, in case anybody's keeping count, I love spinach and broccoli both raw and cooked. I love and adore baby lima beans and butter beans, especially creamed.
I suppose one could give each person an individual side-serving of butter for rolling a corn cob in. I am with you on either misusing the butter knife or using one's personal knife to get butter from the communal pat or stick or whatever. The most surprising buttering of corn I've ever seen was the woman who put a great slab of butter in the water in which she cooked corn on the cob. The best c-ot-c in my life was when we could put the water on to boil, race out to the garden, pull an ear, shuck it on the way back to the house, and dump it right into the boiling water. Now, replacing silver queen as our favorite is "number corn, baby" according to the farmer's wife, but I don't know what the number is!

>128 karenmarie: Thanks for the clarification on Mother London, Karen. Donating to the Friends of the Library sounds like a perfect solution!

We love you too much to NOT want see photos of you, if at all possible. I am trying to decide if I want to be hated or just not make photos of me possible.

>129 richardderus: But I do have a healthy-option grocery store, Richard - Green Market, which I mentioned above. . .

Have a fantastic Friday, Karen!

Keep up the good work, Karen. I'll be rooting for you.

The sugar industry has a lot to answer for. I miss Fizzies.

Table manners are often just arbitrary, though not using eating utensils to get food from common dishes does make real sense.
In casual parties where chips and dips were featured, the majority seem fine with sharing the dip bowl, though I've seen fights arise from double dipping. Understandable.
I've never seen anyone put a gnawed on corn cob on the communal butter, probably since the point is to get the whole thing buttered at once. The other would gross even me out, and only open mouthed chewing has managed that. Well, and watching someone scarf spaghetti while reading, but that was mostly for the book's sake.

>128 karenmarie: https://www.queerscifi.com/ and the most recent newsletter mentions Guns and Gold by TJ Nichols which sounds like a vampire story, not SF. and Garbage by Reese Morrison which has robots.

Texas has healthy food stores! I can personally locate two Sprouts and a Whole Foods in less than a 30 minute drive from my home...

>129 richardderus: ‘Morning, Rdear. I could have gone for books, I could have stayed at Virlie’s and continued to read, but I went to the grocery store for Goya Rice Flour and you-know-what food before PT instead. Now, of course, I regret not going to Aldi, but at the time I was anxious to be home. A friend of mine shops there regularly. It’s like going to a particular thrift shop, too, I think – go regularly. *smooch*

>130 ffortsa: My time seems becoming more mine again, Judy, for which I’m grateful. This coming week has a chiropractor appointment and a doctor’s appointment and book sort/Virlie’s. The last 3 days of the week are, so far, free of obligations. I hope you can carve out free time more often.

>131 LizzieD: Hi (((((Peggy)))))! Butter beans work for me, too, although I admit that I’ve never them creamed. Here I was thinking creamed meant with dairy.

Your memory of racing to the garden for fresh corn on the cob reminds me of the two times in my life I’ve had it fresh from the garden, both times at my maternal grandmother’s family’s farm in Iowa. First time was in the early 1960s when my g-grandmother was still ruler of the kitchen, and fresh milk was used to cook the corn, which the kids were charged with picking. We brought in armloads. The second time was in 2010 when Bill, Jenna, and I were visiting. Mom’s first cousin George Warren owned the farm by then, and we were visiting. No milk, but freshly picked and shucked corn. So sweet.

>132 alcottacre: I’ll back off the photo issue, Stasia. I appreciate your willingness to share this one.

>133 weird_O: Hiya, Bill, and thank you!!

>134 quondame: Oh my goodness, Susan. Fizzies. I miss them too, along with so many of my childhood favorites. Table manners are just arbitrary, and vary by country, of course. Heck, even by region within the US. When I serve dip and chips, or salsa or queso with chips, I put a spoon into the dip bowl and plates for folks to help themselves to the munchies with. I actually don't mind dipping, just not double dipping.

I really love that the Mexican restaurants, at least out here in central NC, put out a small carafe of salsa and individual bowls to use.

Not even gnawed on corn, but even a new ear of corn, should not be rolled on the communal butter, IMO. Open mouthed chewing makes me absolutely ill to look at. We used to have a member of my book club who chewed with her mouth open, and I absolutely could not look at her when she was eating. For a while her daughter was a member of our book club, too, and she was just like her mother. Otherwise intelligent and wonderful women to be around yet with the grossest table manners imaginable.

Poor books getting dosed with spaghetti sauce. I won’t mention the times I’ve spilled food or drink on a book over the decades. Nope.

>135 elorin: Thank you, Robyn! I’ll check out the website. I’m not currently interested in vampire or robot stuff, but you never know. *smile*

I see that you live in or near a very large metropolitan area, so am not surprised about your options. I live in a very rural area but have quite a few options within 30-45 minutes. When I went to have lunch with friend Jan on Thursday, I was reminded that there was a Whole Foods right there in the same mall complex. i Just tend to forget about it.

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Lunch with Rita the Librarian was wonderful, as always. I asked her about federal funding cuts to our Libraries here in the county, and so far the only thing is that there are several grants that might not be awarded. We each got a piece of coconut cake to go. Rita had a bite before she left and would have moaned had it not been embarrassing. I still have some of mine left and just took a bite to go with my coffee.

Stopped at the grocery store on the way to PT. Worked hard at PT, and on the way home Jenna called on her way home from work. We chatted until she got home. I stopped at the top of the cul-de-sac to continue the conversation without interruption.

I've been in a peanut butter toast mood this week, and had that along with a fruit-juice-only fruit cup for dinner. Hope Street and etc.

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No obligations or errands today. No Premier League soccer. I just got out 2 eggs and a stick of unsalted butter so I can make Nan-e Berenji (Persian Rice Cookies). I already had cardamom, but needed to buy the rice flour and rosewater.

>136 karenmarie: Persian rice cookies! Y.U.M. I hope they turn out perfect.

Blah day here...only the gang-review blog post to post tomorrow at 6am needing a bit of tidying-up work. No book has engaged me for more than 20min at a time so it's not a reading day. Old Stuff fasts today so I get to listen to his TV while I'm eating, oh joy.

Apart from that I'm craving sugar so I'll trip my trotters to CVS and get some wickedness at some point when the ficking TV irritates me enough. *smooch*

>136 karenmarie: Yay for a no obligations or errands Saturday! I hope you get a lot of smut, err reading, done!

>137 richardderus: Hiya, RD, and thank you. I think I'm going to use the stand mixer on the lowest setting. I've also bought the mini-chocolate chips for modified Pecan Puffs... however, do not hold your breath! Sometime soon...

I feel your pain about No book has engaged me for more than 20min at a time... I'm reading a decent MM romance but not a plow-through-it (so to speak) MM romance. I recently started several new series and as many series do, the first one, two, or even three were fascinating, then the next one got all weird.

OS fasts today? Regularly or for a medical thing or whatever? Is he still seeing TMW? Better the devil you know, I guess, than the even worse horror show you could get as a roomie.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if there could be a once-a-year shuffle, with every resident giving their input on what type of roommate they'd like to have and the powers that be giving you a different roommate, still in YOUR room? Somebody who doesn't watch TV all day, come in drunk, and etc?

I got Peeps wickedness - one package for me and one package to give to friend Rhoda on Tuesday at book sort. Trip away, and report back on what comes home with you. *smooch*

>138 alcottacre: Hi Stasia, and yes! No obligations or errands. Smut will get read, never doubt that. Spreadsheets will get updated. Lightning Round got updated yesterday. *happy dance* I hope your Saturday is fantastic, with lots of reading and minimal need for a nap.

>139 karenmarie: OS fasts today because he's spoiled. A picky eater. They serve a dinner of horrifying gloppy salads like pasta or potato or egg slopped up with miracle whip, so I get it on that one; and lunch is a burger, which he refuses to eat because it's not the fast food he so loves. The Saturday menu is set by Yahweh. I eat the burger because, why not eat what they serve...dinner is either Chinese delivery or, if I'm spry, a carryout pizza, for me. Miracle whip's the devil's jizz as far as I'm concerned. OS won't spend money on food, he needs it for booze, so he just fasts.

MW is more a friend now, but they spend time together, so that's nice for all of us.

I don't want a roommate, any roommate. I do not wish to share my space. I wish to be left alone, not required to smell, see, or hear anyone at all unless I have/want to. I've had my nerve worked for decades now and I'd like to end my days in peace.

Won't happen, of course, but a boy can dream.

OMG!!! It's glorious outside. Temp in the 70s, sunshine, bit of a breeze. I must sit outside to read. Hope your weather is as terrific as mine. I'm being quite idle so far today.

Coincidence of the day. Last evening I read about Sarah Wynn-Williams' trip to Myanmar to persuade the ruling junta to lift its constraints on the internet so Facebook could spread across that nation. When I took a peek at news, holy guacamole, Myanmar has been devastated by an earthquake. Yikes.

>131 LizzieD: Hmmm, I always thought lima beans and butter beans were the same thing. I've never heard of creamed butter beans. I looked it up online and wasn't any more enlightened.

I'm thinking it must be another southern thing. The Presbyterian church in downtown Raleigh used to have a short service/message and lunch on Wednesdays, and we enjoyed going down there every week. The first time I saw them list "creamed potatoes" on the menu, I was surprised when they served mashed potatoes. I was expecting scalloped potatoes in a cream sauce.

>140 richardderus: Ah. Got it re OS. Glad he goes to hers sometimes. Sorry about the food. Institutional food is pretty awful as a rule, as we all know. I must say that the hospital I was in twice last September was an exception to the rule. You had to be careful what you chose, obviously, but their salads and some of their entrees were pretty good.

Mostly alone time would be super, of course. For an entirely different reason, I don’t get it either, and even when you’re alone in a particular room, if there are other people in your living environment it means you’re not alone the way you want and need to be.

Dream away, boyo!

>141 weird_O: Hi Bill. Yay for glorious, yay for idle. I hope you did get to sit outside and read. My weather’s not bad. Today is mostly overcast, going to a high of 78F.

I had read about the Myanmar 7.7 earthquake. I don’t believe that I’ve never heard of the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale before – this quake registered at level IX of a total of XII levels. I’m from SoCal and have gone through some strong earthquakes in my life. Even though it’s for a horrible thing, I am absolutely charmed that Roman Numerals are used for levels.

>142 atozgrl: Hi Irene. This is from Wikipedia:

he small-seeded (Sieva) type is found distributed from Mexico to Argentina, generally below 1,600 m (5,200 ft) above sea level, while the large-seeded wild form (lima type) is found distributed in the north of Peru, from 320 to 2,030 m (1,050 to 6,660 ft) above sea level.

The Moche culture (1–800 CE) cultivated lima beans heavily and often depicted them in their art. During the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru, lima beans were exported to the rest of the Americas and Europe, and since the boxes of such goods had their place of origin labeled "Lima, Peru", the beans got named as such. The term "butter bean" is widely used in North and South Carolina for a large, flat and yellow/white variety of lima bean (P. lunatus var. macrocarpus, or P. limensis). In the United States, Sieva-type beans are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type. In that area, lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans, although they are the same species. In the United Kingdom and the United States, "butter beans" refers to either dried beans, which can be purchased to rehydrate, or the canned variety, which are ready to use. In culinary use there, lima beans and butter beans are distinct, the former being small and green, the latter large and yellow. In areas where both are considered to be lima beans, the green variety may be labeled as "baby" (and less commonly "junior") limas.

Live and learn.

I frequently look up recipes via duckduckgo, so 'creamed butter beans' yielded recipes that did not use dairy, just broth.

Creamed potatoes got my attention when I first moved here, too. I know 'em as mashed potatoes.

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I'm very disappointed. The dough for Persian Rice Cookies is so dry it's probably unusable, although I've still got it in the refrigerator. We'll see.

The other disappointment is a blessing in disguise. On Mamie's thread I commented that my toaster oven was still doing great and I couldn't justify getting a new one while it still worked. Guess what? Last night Bill couldn't get it to work. We unplugged it and left it alone, occasionally trying it. Only the toast light came on, but you couldn't adjust and the actual start part of the touchpad didn't work. I've got a new, inexpensive B&D toaster oven coming tomorrow. Not too expensive. In an ideal world I'd get the Wolf that Mamie said they have.

Reading, napping, Hope Street, and etc.

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Reading, working clearing bits of the desk off that have become cluttered, and maybe putting some books into a box to mail to friend Karen in Montana.

>143 karenmarie: That Wolf countertop unit is *superb* (per Rob) but best used by high-volume users to justify the cost. He told me it's so precisely controlled temperature-wise it's better than a big oven for finishing finicky cream-sauce dishes.

"Creamed" anything in my upbringing meant starch plus stock reduced by half and finished with herbs/spices and a dairy. Checking with my CIA-educated pal, that is his understanding too, though he did say his mother would use mashed-up veg as the starch and margarine as the fat...spoken without a shred of nostalgia, I will point out. Margarine is below miracle whip in his esteem, barely above it in mine.

Sunday orisons, sweetiedarling!

Hiya, RD! I do hope Rob is doing well and thriving. I'm not now and have never been a high-volume user of a countertop unit unless you consider toast and baked potatoes high volume. No, of course.

Yup to understanding of creamed, although I have never served anything creamed. Some folks desecrate peas by serving them with pearl onions in a cream sauce. Harrumph. And potatoes, of course, are mashed.

Sunday orisons back at'cha.

>145 karenmarie: "French" peas featured in kidhood. Shred the about-to-go uncrispy lettuce, wash it and a bag of frozen peas under cold water, drain; make a roux with butter and corn/potato starch; add a cup of stock, simmer the stuff until reduced, chuck in fresh tarragon or dill and the frozen/shredded mass, stir and serve.

Rob's scared. So am I, so no help here...but we're both scared by these maniacs.

>143 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen, that's more than I ever wanted to know about lima/butter beans. I'm familiar with the term "baby" for the small green lima beans. It seems that most of us use "mashed" for potatoes. I wonder where exactly they say "creamed potatoes" instead. All of the south, or a more limited region?

>143 karenmarie: >147 atozgrl: My ideal mashed potatoes are boiled, put through a ricer, mixed with butter, salt, and pepper and re-heated in the serving bowl. Calling the smoother sort, moistened with milk or cream, creamed potatoes makes sense to me. In either case, a good gravy is a wonderful addition.

Karen, I can't catch up and now I need to start the last cat feeding so that I get at least 7 hours of sleep tonight!

We mash potatoes (we also mash buttons, but that's another thing) with butter, milk/sour cream/plain yogurt/half&half, and salt and pepper. Our creamed veggies does mean a butter and flour roux, but my folks were never up-scale enough to use stock.
I can now eat garden peas if I must, but smelling the canned ones used to make me gag (sorry) when I was a child, and that's all we ever had. In this land of backyard gardens, I'm not sure why people didn't grow them.

>149 LizzieD: In Texas and the other southwestern arid places, anyone with a lawn ought to be luxury-taxed. Tract houses should all have as landscaping veggie gardens not "ornamental" plants that drink water but return nothing.

Savonarola of the Greens hath spake.

Have a lovely Monday, Horrible.

>146 richardderus: ‘Morning, RD. We never, ever, had ‘French’ Peas. For one thing, my mother rarely used herbs, much less fresh ones. To me, those sound awful. I like frozen peas, sometimes plain, sometimes with a bit of butter and a wave of the salt shaker over the bowl.

I’m scared by these maniacs, too, first on behalf of my daughter and her wife and second on our behalf. Bill and I rely heavily on social security and a sweet little pension I have.

Just - outside the US but still good – Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for the French presidency in 2027 and given four-year sentence in embezzlement trial. Every right-wingnut whack job that can be taken out of the equation is good. *smooch*

>147 atozgrl: I must say, Irene, that I love going down research rabbit holes, and since I love lima beans I thought why not? Find out the difference. Reporting it is another matter, though, and occasionally I love blockquoting and posting things here. The rabbit hole failed me just now – I cannot get a fix on where ‘creamed potatoes’ is used vs. ‘mashed potatoes’.

>148 quondame: Our way of making mashed potatoes is not too terribly different, Susan, although we use my ~1930s potato masher with the drained potatoes back in the pan we boiled them in, along with butter, milk, S&P. No recipe, just ‘til they taste right. Here are two of my favorite kitchen utensils, bought at the same time somewhere in SoCal in the 1970s. I use them all the time.



I usually make mashed potatoes when gravy will be made.

>149 LizzieD: (((((Peggy))))) Your kitties are lucky to have you and your DH. Feeding 7 kitties 4 times a day is truly a labor of love.

Mashed potatoes it is for one of our southern counties. I honestly can’t remember if Bill’s mama, stepmama, or aunt said ‘creamed’ or ‘mashed’. Ah well, another bit of knowledge lost to time.

I still love you even though you can’t bear canned peas and only tolerate fresh peas. *smile* I won’t eat canned any more because of the sodium content, and can’t remember the last time I saw fresh peas in the pod at a grocery store or farmers’ market.

>150 richardderus: I agree with you about using water in a meaningful way, especially in semi-arid or arid regions. (And let’s not talk about golf courses…)

It seemed odd at the time, but when I babysat for a family in SoCal ~1969-1971, they had an absolutely stunning vegetable garden that the father maintained. I can't remember anybody else with a vegetable garden.

When I was little in a different part of SoCal, and before 1964, my paternal grandmother tried to get us to seriously grow vegetables, but it only worked in a limited way. We harvested wax beans and bush green beans and tomatoes, I think, but nothing else. *smooch* again

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Air fryer boneless skinless chicken thighs, fresh carrots, Basmati rice for dinner. Leftover rice and chicken for tonight, perhaps more carrots, perhaps corn for Bill and fresh broccoli for me. Other than that I read, and puttered, and bought a new toaster oven since mine actually died Saturday night after telling Mamie on her thread that very day that I couldn't justify a new toaster oven until mine broke, which would most likely not be any time soon.

I also bit the bullet and bought a treadmill for here at the house, a Schwinn 810. It was on sale for $400 off, and it's one my PT guy uses. I scheduled it for April 11th and have paid for setup and removal of packaging, too. Now all I have to do is get all the stuff off two swivel chairs and a sweet marble-topped coffee table so that when Jenna comes over on the 6th of April to spend the night and be with me for a procedure the next day, she will help me move them to the Library. I tend to move stuff around 'til it finds its final home, so this is an interim step for them.

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Chiropractor appointment and pre-op for next Monday's procedure. Reading, puttering, and etc. otherwise.

>151 karenmarie: Brava for investing in your own treadmill...it will get more usage than one that requires you to drive somewhere to use it. Plus they're behind the rise of ear-reading in the US, I swear, since just pounding along staring at the wall is unspeakably boring even for people who stare at TV. Who'd-a thunk they could discern a difference, heaven knows I can't.

Stay sane in a world that does not want you to be. *smooch*

Checking in on you today, Karen. I hope the appointments go well today and that you get a lot of reading and puttering done today!

I am planning on starting The Library at Night tonight unless either you or Peggy have any objection. Just let me know!

>151 karenmarie: It's entirely unreasonable, but I have an intense aversion to the wood and wire cooking tools I grew up with. My husband's ancestral cooking equipment gets put in the back of the lowest kitchen drawers, and while he insisted on keeping them, I never find one in the dish rack. OTOH, my ricer is, aside from being stainless steel, identical to my mother's. It would have been so much better for my mother to have had a good stainless steel pot. I'm convinced she could have made the loveliest clear yellow chicken soup that would have tasted just as divine as the brownish stock to come from her aluminum one. Such a simple luxury to do without for a woman who wore furs and jewels when she could.

Karen, I'll have to come back, but Stasia and I are going to go ahead with The Library at Night. I'm not going to rush through it, but I will intend to read it in April!

>152 richardderus: Thank you, RDear! It’s only taken 3 years (after I graduated cardio rehab in March 2022) for me to actually get a treadmill for here at the house. I used to listen to podcasts and occasionally Queen via wireless earbuds, but then brought in the Kindle one day because I'd left the earbuds charging and the Kindle was in the SUV, and that was it. I love reading while using it. I’ll start slow at 5-10 minutes, then rejoice when I get to my last time of 47 minutes, then perhaps surpass time or speed or both.

Sanity requires less than 20% reading of the news. Most times, lately, unless it relates to soccer or some local news, I just look at the unbelievable and scary-beyond-belief headlines.

>153 alcottacre: Hi Stasia, and thank you! Appointments report below, much reading done, much puttering done.

No objection to you starting at all. I will start The Library at Night soon – perhaps even today and will be way behind your reading pace, closer to Peggy’s. I’ve got it on the desk, along with The Good Lord Bird for April 13th’s book club meeting.

>154 quondame: Emotional reactions are always valid, Susan. Sentimental keeping of things is what has most of our closets, dormers, and attic filled with stuff. I remember you saying what a phenomenal cook and baker your mother was. She sounds fabulous and very much like someone I'd love to have met. Didn’t she do a lot of entertaining, too? Furs and jewels reminds me of Bill’s Mama and Grandmother – I still have their mink stoles and have some pretty nice jewelry.

Well, darn it, I just went to look at ricers on Amazon, found a good one, used my Amazon/Chase credit so that it’s ‘free’, and am getting it Friday. I like the idea of using it on sweet potatoes and trying it on white/yellow potatoes.

>155 LizzieD: The no rushing it bit makes me happy. Stasia will read us into the dust, of course.

Wordle 1,382 3/6* trope, fecal (a valid and as-yet-unused word), jewel. I was definitely channeling the Wordle Gods today.

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Chiropractic visit went well with much adjusting. I always tell my chiropractor that her thumbs are deadly - they always find the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and adhesions that need relaxing, tweeking, attacking. I like her a lot, too.

The appointment with the surgeon (No panic! No panic! Prevention of a problem down the road with (perhaps TMI) my female bits - a thickening of the endometrial wall in my used-once uterus. Biopsy, removal of whatever's required not including major surgery unless there's one of those one-in-a-million things they always have you sign away your rights by acknowledging that they can happen, and perhaps a D&C. Unconscious, thank all the Goddesses and Gods, Jenna taking me, staying, and returning with me. A jolt of welcome Toradol just before I wake up in recovery, but he says that all I should need later/next day are tylenol and ibuprophen. I may take some ibuprophen, which I don't normally do. The thing I like about him is that he's emotionally available unlike the female doctor who I saw in January, and explains without explaining too much.

Home and then the new toaster oven showed up. Bill got it out of the box, I set it up. I like how it looks. I will, however, most likely move the air fryer to the pantry to keep the clutter on the counter down since this one's larger than the old one.

Hope Street, chatting with Jenna and Karen.

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Book sort, book sale after sale meeting, Virlie's. Cleaning ladies. A busy one. I'll be glad when it's 4 p.m., and I'm home and the ladies have left.

Got up late-ish, so will have to visit a few threads later.

>156 karenmarie: Fondle those innocent unprotected books well, reward yourself with Virlie's, and process the upcoming Body-Part Follies. Yep, it's Tuesday at yours!

I'm doing a review for a book I wanted to love but ended up liking. More difficult that one I hated or loved unreservedly, like all middle-ground opinions. Being wishy-washy does not come naturally to me. *smooch*

Well, my dear. You had another busy day, and I'm glad that you're home - past 4:00 PM and trust you are doing as you please. I'm off to feed the cats!

>156 karenmarie: Dinner parties were a regular entertainment that I recall from my pre-teen through high school years and probably started sometime earlier, though there was a certain level of domestic chaos that would have prevented much in my very early childhood. The big Christmas bash was already well established though, and it was the age of cocktails—accounting for some of the domestic chaos—so partying among the adults was pretty standard. Small, closed one company (the govt.) town, distinct group of scientists and engineers, not much else to do.

Once I'd developed into a reliable assistant and after-care specialist (the kitchen required a lot of after-care), formal dinners for 2-4 guests and 4-5 family members were quite regular. Once every 3 years, a British/Australian/USA group of rocket scientists would have a week-long meeting and be invited for a special dinner.

One year, late in the evening, a British guy told a very interesting story. 3 years later, when I asked if he had any more such stories, the whole table went quiet. Apparently funny nerve gas episodes weren't meant for little pitchers with big ears.

My father would go to Australia when the meetings were there and London when they hosted. When I graduated from HS and went on a European tour, I was able to meet him in London.

Most people who met my mother found her charming. She was lively, witty, and knew how to draw people into conversations. I believe she was mostly fueled by high energy and high anxiety over severe manic depression. Also a chaos source.

The food was beyond amazing. The brown chicken soup was always overlooked.

My dad loved jewels and brought home opals from Australia on his 2 or 3 trips there. I still have some of them. His family had been upper-middle-class small-town folk, and furs and jewels of a modest sort were just how it was done.

Well, isn't that more than you wanted to know!?

Enjoy the ricer. No worries about lumps in the potatoes, if you worried in the first place.

>157 richardderus: RDear, I love 'Body-Part Follies'. When I went to my GP for my trigger thumb on the March 20th, he said that my life had become medicalized, and he’s not wrong. However, I anticipate things settling down soon. You’re definitely not wishy-washy. Meh or liked books are okay, but the emotional sparkage with a loved or hated book really gets the blood going, right? *smooch*

>158 LizzieD: Hi my dear Peggy, and yes, I did. When 4 p.m. came I was a happy camper. When you or your DH feed the beasts, who’s the most vocal? Who’s the most demanding, if it’s not the same kitty? At our house it’s Zoe Rose, who is very noisy in the kitchen and tries to herd me there starting around 4:30 in anticipation of my usually feeding her/them at 5:00.

>159 quondame: I found everything you wrote fascinating, Susan. I can’t imagine having to live with a manic-depressive parent, plus your father’s job and travel had to be disruptive, too. I love your description of yourself as a reliable assistant and after-care specialist. For all the chaos you describe, IMO you’ve come out of it remarkably well. *smile*

Brown chicken soup – I only see one recipe online that may be like what your mother made. In this case the brown refers to deeply browning bone in/skin on chicken thighs as the basis for the soup. Do you have it and other recipes of your mother’s? Or do you keep the cook books the recipes are in? For me, most cook books have, at the most, one or two recipes that I use. And of course I have metal recipe boxes with recipe cards from my mom, Bill's mom, his grandmother, and his Aunt Eloise.

I’ve never worried about lumps in mashed potatoes, although the masher I use does a really, really good job of getting lumps out. Well-boiled potatoes, mashed with ingredients, then mashed some more. Daughter is usually the person wielding the masher.

Ooh, opals. I love ‘em. I have a few teensy ones. Bill’s mother’s family was upper-middle-class small-town folk and had the 'modest sort' of jewels and furs, too. I have the two mink stoles, mink hat, which I'd like to sell, and a fox stole with head and feet. *shudder*

Travel, drama, glitzy living. And the nerve gas story…

Thanks for sharing.

Wordle 1,383 4/6* trope, rinse, nurse, curse

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I fondled many a book yesterday. I came home with one, The Book of Knowledge: The Keys of Enoch, for me and 5 Bibles or books about religion for friend Karen in Montana. We had a post-book sale meeting, then it was off to Virlie's. We got there later than usual, and were there 'til about 12:20. Went to the drive-through at the bank, then got home just after the ladies arrived. I took down all the pots and pans from the overhead rack and Esmerelda cleaned the rack in addition to all the regular cleaning she and Adela did. I was glad when the people part of the day ended. Just as they left, the Arsenal - Fulham game started, which was perfect timing. Arsenal won, 2-0, and Saka, just returned after 19 missed games, scored the second and winning goal. After, I read, watched Hope Street with Bill, and did a little bit of work on my YTD stats through March and March Lightning Round.

...
I don't have to go out today and won't, but will do a bit of online adulting. Otherwise, reading, puttering, filling bird feeders, and etc.

>160 karenmarie: How's the new B&D behaving?

I'm incapable of wishying my washy. I've tried. It's worse when I'm faking it because I *look* angrier and more judgmental than I feel. Best to express it and modulate my tones as best I can.

Your book-fondling discovery is...well...icky. That kind of deep dive into religion ought to be restricted to PhD-level students who are atheists. (That's the modulated version.) Hooray for Saka, whatever that is when it's at home. Enjoy your day at home, even though you're not a Saka...or are you....

>160 karenmarie: The brown chicken soup was only relatively so; the broth was not a clear yellow but a sort of muted tan, which I blame on the aluminum stockpot, which had many purposes in the kitchen.

I have a recipe box with some of her recipes and a selection of the same cookbooks. She was willing to spend weeks perfecting recipes—I won't eat chicken veronique after having it for dinner once a week until it was ready for one of her French club teas. It left me with an aversion for all white sauce.

Because we lived in the high desert, she had to test and retest all candy recipes and sometimes nearly filled a shopping cart with sugar, which raised a few eyebrows at the exchange.

I am not at all interested in food perfection, unless it is a matter of eating the food.

My mother's mink stole was remade for me into a leather/mink jacket, which was never of much use. I still have her sable stole—light brown. Her other furs went to the niece who was living in Chicago. What my father brought home from Australia with the money I gave him, which I'm sure he augmented, is a graduated string of 4mm-8mm fire opal beads. I also have his 25th anniversary gift to my mother of a bracelet of 7 oval fire opals separated by columns of small sapphires.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. We are safely back home. Plenty of details over on my thread. Good times. It is also Jackson Day. We sure miss him and we will both be going to scoop him up. I NEED to tend to the much neglected feeders. It rained all day yesterday.

I hope all is well with you, my friend and thanks for your visits over on my quiet thread.

>161 richardderus: Hey, RD! I’ve done exactly the following. Toasted one piece of multi-grain bread and 2 pieces of Italian bread. It’s quieter than the old one with regard to the actually toasting/baking noises but louder after the setup beeps the old one required because the toast dial ticks its way then rings when the toast is done. I’m still getting used to how much to move the dial to get the darkness I want. It looks good on the counter.

Because of the B&D’s width, I’ve moved the air fryer to the pantry. This is a good move because less counter space is being used overall and the air fryer is just that much closer to the end of the island where I use it.

Since the B&D is wide enough and deep enough for a 9” x 13” pan, I just may test out the bake function today with a pan of brownies. Or blondies. I haven’t decided.

The book-fondling discovery has a gorgeous cover and some stunning color plates, regardless of the whack job content. I keep books for purely aesthetic reasons in addition to the following:

1. contributes to a well-rounded Library
2. sentimental reasons
3. intrinsic value
4. needs a good home instead of getting pulped
5. will be read or reread
6. comes from another part of my life entirely (courtesy of Judy)
7. because Jenna wants it for whatever reason

Bravo for not being wishy-washy. *smooch*

>162 quondame: Ah. I still might make the brown chicken soup recipe I found the other day. My stockpots are Calphalon, with non-stick interiors. I think my Calphalon dutch oven would work better for this recipe because it’s not non-stick, so can cook the skin properly for the brown bits and the flavor.

Huh. I’ve never had chicken veronique and having just looked up 4 different recipes, cannot think of a single reason I’d make it. Cooked grapes don’t appeal, especially in a white sauce. At all. Poor you.

I used to use white sauce but don’t any more because of the sodium content. Tuna noodle casserole, and shit on a shingle come to mind. Pastitso for lots of reasons, not the least the bechamel sauce.

Oh my goodness. Candy recipes. I rarely make candy but have my grandmother's divinity recipe and my mother's fudge recipe. My sister lived in the mountains and all recipes had to be modified for the altitude.

Shopping carts filled with sugar would be a fun thing to see while out shopping. Depending on who was pushing the cart here in my little Pittsboro world, I might ask.

I can’t think of a single recipe that requires perfection given that my palate is not that refined, but baking, of course, requires specificity for perfection. There's a Nero Wolfe novel, Too Many Cooks, where the premise is that renowned cooks are all tested with the same dish with only one ingredient missing and they have to identify the ingredient. I would fail abysmally.

The mink stoles I have are mahogany and champagne. Those might not be the official colors, but you get the idea. The hat is mahogany. Sigh. Fire opals. The very best. That ring sounds gorgeous, too.

>163 msf59: Mark! Welcome back and happy Thursday to you. I’ll be over visiting soonish. Yay for a Jackson day. I’m sure the birds will be happy you’re home. I’m doing fairly well – lots of events that were wonderful and are now over. A medical procedure on Monday, a tooth extraction on the 22nd. Sigh. But on the upside, book sort, book reading, and the birds, among other things.

Right now the feeders, although filled, don’t have any customers. I need to put out a hummingbird feeder, but that means sacrificing the suet feeder, at least where I can see it.

Wordle 1,384 2/6* trope, shear. Channeling the Wordle Gods for sure!

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All sorts of puttering and reading and spreadsheet/lightning round work occurred yesterday.
I also cleaned up all the clothing on the coffee table and chairs in the master bedroom in anticipation of needing the bay window area cleaned out for the treadmill arriving on the 11th. I found things I forgot I had. *smile*

We started watching the new Reacher series based on the book Persuader last night. So far so good. I must say that Alan Ritchson is a fine Reacher, even if a bit more buff than as portrayed in the books.

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Another day in Paradise. No outside obligations and I did the adulting bits on the 1st and 2nd. So, reading, puttering, more prep of the space for the treadmill. Possibly baking a 9" x 13" pan of brownies or blondies. I'll be finalizing and publishing my YTD through March stats and March Lightning Round later today.

>164 karenmarie: Blondies in the B&D sounds like a fabOO way to christen it.

Second quarter hoooooooo as I whittle down my DRC population's reviews. It's a simple value equation. I woke to a completely bricked Paperwhite, so am considering the options. None of them are good and happy ones. The Felonious Yam's tariffs have already added $75 to the Paperwhite's prices. Bezoselzebub waited ten seconds. Can't risk his standing within or lose his place among the world's 8,023 billionaires, after all.

This timeline stinks.

Hiya, RDear!

Eggs and butter are out, coming to room temp. So's the 9" x 13" pan, checked to make sure it fits. It does.

i'm so sorry about your Paperwhite. I got mine in December 2023, so I should still be good to go for a while. Although, when I said that just last Saturday about my toaster oven, it chose to die that very afternoon. Check out your email...

XO

YTD Statistics through March

86 books read
73 ebooks, 9 audio books, 4 paper books
20373 pages in completed books
77.25 hours in completed audio books
32 books abandoned, 3227 pages abandoned, 16.5 hours abandoned

23600 total pages read

Avg pages read per day, incl books abandoned: YTD = 262
Avg pages read per book, only those completed: YTD = 237

Book(s) of the Month: Call of the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener
Honor, The Duel, and Indiscretion by M. Davenport Robertson - genealogical paper

Books by Month
January: 26 books read - 18 ebooks, 4 audio books, 5 paper books
February: 24 books read - 21 ebooks, 4 audio books, 0 paper books
March: 36 books read - 34 e-books, 1 audio book, 1 paper book

Author
Male 10%
Female 77%
Undeclared * 12%
Non-Binary 1%
* - can't find info anywhere

Living 99%
Dead 1%

US Born 32%
Foreign Born 12%
Undeclared * 56%
* - can't find info anywhere

Medium
Audio Book 10%
e-Book 85%
Paper Book 5%

Source
My Library 20%
Library 0%
Kindle Unlimited 80%
Borrowed 0%

Misc
Galley Proof 0%
Re-read 0%
Series 77%

Fiction 98%
NonFiction 2%

Author Birth Country
Australia 3%
Canada 4%
New Zealand 2%
Puerto Rico 2%
UK 4%
Undeclared * 53%
US 32%
* - can't find info anywhere

Original Decade Published

1940-1949 1%
1990-1999 1%
2010-2019 24%
2020-2025 74%

Genre
Historical Fiction 1%
History 1%
Humor 1%
Memoir 1%
MM Romance 96%

Average Rating
2.0 - Bad 1
2.5 - Average 1
3.0 - Good 4
3.5 - Very Good 29
4.0 - Excellent 43
4.5 - Outstanding 8
5 - Masterpiece 0

Average Rating 3.79
Books acquired YTD (last year 306) 101
Books culled YTD (last year 219) 57

5895 books cataloged on 12/31/24

March Lightning Round

Any in bold are NOT MM romances, few and far between as they are.

Quite a few of the smut books have warnings about triggers that I don’t mention here. Caveat emptor re triggers if you want to dip your toes in.

It was not deliberate, but last month was mostly space operas and werewolves.

Out, Proud, and Prejudiced by Megan Reddaway 2/28/25 3/1/25 Kindle

Fun gay retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Bennet is a young and struggling student. Darius is a rich and aloof lawyer. I particularly enjoyed Bennet overhearing Darius tell his friend that Bennet isn’t even fuckable, starting the prejudice Bennet has for Darius. I enjoyed the names, veiled references, and plot lines, always looking for parallels with P&P. Ultimately it fell a bit short, as one would expect anything except the original would. Caveat emptor re sex.

Shelter Me by Megan Reddaway 3/1/25 3/2/25 Kindle

Leo was taken at age 6 to be studied and experimented on by the government because he’s an empath. He escapes when he’s 20 with a 6-month old baby named Jason, called Jae. He’s taken in by Cole, who lives off the grid. They’re looking for Leo and Jae, Cole and Leo are seeking shelter at a post-apocalypse … commune … that Cole’s herd of where they can be safe. There are advantages and disadvantages to being there. Insta lust on both sides, caring for a baby and Leo’s total innocence about the world outside the lab he was held in. I liked the empath connection between Leo and Jae and Cole’s resourcefulness in keeping them hidden. What ultimately was the best thing and the scariest thing about this book is how the future is portrayed – we’re beginning to live it right now with the chaos demon and his minions ruining our country and threatening our freedoms and privacy. Scary, scary. Caveat emptor re sex.

Honor, the Duel, and Indiscretion: The Life of Elizabeth "Betsey" Pollock Devereaux Jones (1818-1879) by W. Davenport Robertson 3/5/25 3/5/25 40 pages paper published in "North Carolina Historical Review," vol. CI, no. 4 (October) 2024

Written by a friend of mine who’s on the book sort team. This paper is erudite, interesting, and, more than Betsey’s life, discusses the South before the War, the South and North during the war, and how Betsey overcame the stigma of what may or may not have been cheating on her husband. Her husband challenged Dr. Johnson to a duel. They had to go to Maryland to actually have the duel, and it appears from the details that the husband fired early. Dr. Johnson was going to delope – fire harmlessly into the air. He died. Nobody seems to have much felt bad about this. Betsey moved to the north, became a seamstress, and at various times had one or more of her four children living with her. She considered herself a very old woman when she died at the age of 61. Photos, maps, footnotes, and letters are included. It is absolutely fascinating.

The Killer Who Kept Me by Davidson King 3/5/25 3/6/25 Kindle

Em is a prisoner of the head of a mob family and his wife and punished when he doesn’t perform errands as expected. One errand includes giving a box to another mob boss, Soros, and Soros is entranced with him. Em refuses to stay, fearing serious retribution on Soros. Em is punished for being late returning from this errand anyway. The second errand takes Em to Soros again, and this time he accepts the sanctuary. Instalust on Soros’ part but he has his doctor care for Em, gets him clothing, and gets him properly fed and rested before starting a romantic relationship. Em has been smitten from the beginning, of course. This is one of those extreme, barely holds together books, but hold it does. Soros takes down the family but saves the son. A ten year later epilogue has sweet and happy times, even though Soros is still the boss of a mob family. Cavet emptor re violence and sex.

Run To Me by Ashlynn Mills 3/6/25 3/6/25 Kindle

I admit it. I’m a sucker for the stepbrother trope. Jace’s parents divorce, his father steals him away and keeps him a prisoner while he kidnaps young men before trafficking them. Jace is in constant terror of his father killing him so does what his father says until he’s rescued. His mother has remarried and has a stepson living with her and her second husband. Nate’s a year younger than Jace. She either never tried to find Jace or couldn’t, but 3 years after he’s rescued and has been in a group home because of his trauma, he moves in with his mother, his step-father, and his stepbrother Nate. Jace feels guilty for helping his father and has nightmares and is still traumatized for at least a year or so. Nate helps him with small behaviors to help him adapt, protects him at school, and when they are seniors, they start a romantic relationship. The author captures teen angst and poor decision making, but the boys are slated to go to the same university, sharing an apartment. That is, up until Jace’s mother discovers them together in Jace’s room. She immediately packs him off to her husband’s brother’s farm in another state. Jace never responds to any of Nate’s texts or phone calls, wanting Nate to get on with his life and not settle for Jace. Seven years later he comes home when Nate is put on the spot by his boyfriend Glen, who proposes on bended knee. Nate tells him right then and there that he’ll never love Glen the way he should be loved, but Glen seems to take that as a challenge. Jace has become used to living on the farm and is trying to expiate his father’s sin in a socially unacceptable way by kidnapping and torturing rapists and serial killers. He doesn’t kill them, but they wish he had. Jace and Nate have one weekend to get each other out of their systems, then Jace goes home. Nate can’t bear it, comes to the farm and eventually stays. This one was complicated and had lots of religious and judgmental overtones. I was rooting for them the whole time, even with violence and motivations that I don't feel intrinsically. Caveat emptor re sex and violence.

Estranged Heart by Ashlynn Mills 3/6/25 3/3/7/25 Kindle

Silas is the recipient of a heart transplant, starts having nightmares, dreams, almost memories. He finds himself outside a book store and he and Elijah, a widower and owner of the book store. Elijah’s husband Landon was murdered. As the romance continues and they both start realizing that Landon’s heart beats in Silas’s body, they are also involved in organ trafficking and a profound betrayal. They get their HEA, but not until there’s quite a bit of angst and anguish. The plot was intriguing and kept me compulsively reading. Caveat emptor re sex.

Taken By My Dad's Bodyguard by Candace Lark 3/8/25 3/8/25 Kindle

Myers and his father Kevin are in WITSEC. Myers has been there since he’s 12. A private video of him is shared with friends of his hookup, he is humiliated and can only think to run away and hide. Not cool while in WITSEC, and his father’s bodyguard Otto knows where he is and goes to him. Hidden feelings come out on both sides, there’s a bit of discipline/spanking, a bit of danger, and a wildly improbable HEA. Ridiculous when all's said and done. Caveat emptor re sex.

Vile Heart by Lola Malone 3/8/25 3/8/25 Kindle

First of two in the Vicious Valentine series, a fantasy novella that has Camren participating in a college tradition of chasing someone down, figuratively speaking, and having their way with them before dawn. Camren knows his best friend Davian, who fled from him two years previously, will be there and he entices him and they get the HEA they want. Caveat emptor re sex.

Distant Heart by Lola Malone 3/8/25 3/8/25 Kindle

Second of two in the Vicious Valentine series, is a fantasy novella that has Illya participating in a college tradition of chasing someone down, figuratively speaking, and having their way with them before dawn. Rexton has shown up, and there’s a nice plot twist at the end. In the meantime, Illya chases Rexton down, takes him to his upstairs apartment and they go from there. Caveat emptor re sex.

Caught by Leo Rivers 3/8/25 3/8/25 Kindle

One night a year, humans can sign up for the Mating Run, where they agree to remain within the boundary of the woods and fend off or allow werewolves to have their way with them. Cheesy, right? Evan’s friend Lila signs up, yet chickens out and comes to Evan’s cabin just outside the boundary. Evan takes her place. Silas has been looking for his mate for years, never participating in the Mating Run just for someone to take. Werewolves being what they are, he smells that Evan is his fated mate, chases him, and for the next 60 or so pages there’s sex and a HEA. Caveat emptor re the sex.

Rivals by Leo Rivers 3/8/25 3/9/25 Kindle

Viktor is a were wolf, Nick is a human. They work in the same department, are rivals, and act like they hate one another. Nick is in a financial hole, and needs the money that he’ll get from surviving the Mating Run. Victor participates every year, yet this year he smells Nick and runs him down. See above – “… for the next 60 or pages there’s sex and a HEA.” Ditto here. Caveat emptor re the sex.

**abandoned Be Mine, Bloody Valentine by Skyler Snow**

Too depraved. Too bloody. I can’t see how I can possibly like either character although they were both victims when young. Just… ugh. Two murders within the first 43 pages.

Pounding Skin by LA Witt 2/15/25 3/10/25 Audible audio book narrated by Michael Ferraiuolo 9.5 hours

Matt is a tattoo artist, recently broken up with his girlfriend. Jon is a fighter pilot and lost a bet on his football team. He has to get a tattoo, place determined by his fellow pilots, only excluding certain places and types of tattoos. He has a fear of needles. Matt tattoos a rival squadron’s symbol on his left butt cheek. Jon’s attracted to him, Matt is wondering if he’s really bi from a three-way with his now-former girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Jon asks Matt out, there is instant attraction, Matt realizes that he’s bi. Jon is insistent that it’s a friends with benefits only, no chance of a relationship, yet over the next several months there are feelings on both sides until Jon is scared away from a relationship with Matt because of a friend’s breakup with his husband. Several weeks apart, misery on both sides, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Shifter for Brains by F.N. Manning 3/9/25 3/9/25 258 pages Kindle

I love the title of this one, because, of course, I immediately thought of S*it For Brains. Lucas is finally recovering from a car accident. Chase works for a supernatural affairs police department and after saving Lucas from what appears to be an accident, realizes that Lucas is under attack. There’s an interesting mystery here, with plenty of clues and a good resolution. Lucas and Chase are attracted to each other even though Lucas is human and Chase is a werewolf. They cross the line from attraction into action, the bad guys show their hand, there are interesting revelations, and they get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Black Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Faukes 3/10/25 3/10/25 Kindle

Colt is a wolf shifter, part of a political family in Washington D.C. His family requires his appearance at family events promoting his father’s support of the shifter community, of which they’re part. He’s invited to write a story about a shifter pack in Virginia, where he meets Linden. The pack has suffered a kidnapping and death of their alpha, Linden’s father, by another local pack. Colt learns about the rescue attempt by Linden and other pack members and goes to where the pack has entered the other pack’s lands. Somehow or another he comes across Brook, the kidnap victim, and rescues him. This puts him in good with the pack. Then it goes into Mpreg stuff, which I don’t particularly like, although I liked the characters by this time and tolerated it. Fated mates, bonded, and etc. Caveat emptor re sex.

Lost and Pound by Lilo Quie 3/10/25 3/11/25 Kindle

Nico is sold to another shifter pack because omegas are rare these days due to an illness that cannot be explained and that is devastating packs. He’s in a magic-ed collar, but there’s a car accident and everybody except him is killed. He’s assumed to be a wolf/dog, is sent to a kill shelter, and just avoids being killed when Shilo is taking a donation of kibble. Shilo recognizes the type of collar and that Nico is a shifter, adopts him, and takes him home. Shifter politics between packs have Shilo having to stand up to Nico’s father and the pack who still claim him. I've never read a shifter book where a wolf shifter is kept in a human dog pound... Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned NOX by Adrienne Wilder**

Description on Amazon: A nude man invades Luca Suarez's home and protects him from creatures who cannot exist. Creatures hunting him. The stranger can't tell Luca why. He can't even tell Luca his name. He remembers nothing until the moment he sees Luca. The only hint Luca has to the stranger's identity is a tattoo on his wrist: N o X. Nox doesn't know who he is, but he's sure of three things, his memory loss is temporary, the monsters chasing Luca are called Anubis, and his Alpha, Koda, sent Nox to protect him. There's just one problem… Koda is Luca's brother who was murdered five years ago. With each passing hour, Nox fills in the pieces painting an impossible truth. And with each passing hour, both men find themselves unexplainably attracted to each other. Something Luca is willing to embrace because he has nothing left to lose. And one Nox can't let happen because it could get Luca killed. Nox is a HEA/HFN m/m paranormal, science-fiction romance. But be warned, these are NOT the shifters you are used to reading about.

*A fast pace, twist and turns, edge of your seat, dark paranormal suspense, passionate, high-heat, Egyptian lore, protective alpha male, size difference, hurt/comfort, reluctant lover, mm, m/m gay romance, that will "knock your fluffy socks off" (according to readers).*

Too convoluted, too irritating, too medical weirdness for me. I didn’t get a strong sense of either NoX or Luca. And that’s after 178 pages.

Reckless by Nicole Edwards 3/11/25 3/12/25 Kindle

Cam owns a lakeside marina with 3 friends, is happy with his low-key, sports/water oriented life, with no separation between his personal and business life. He’s the reckless one of the title. He loves extreme sports. Gannon is a type-A gaming corporation owner, always busy, with no personal life to speak of. He doesn’t like the water, doesn’t like new experiences very much. Each has trauma in his past. Cam’s is losing people and getting panic attacks when friends or family or lovers fly. Gannon has abandonment issues because his parents kicked him out when he was 17 years old for being gay. Gannon’s PA decides his (nerdy) team needs a bit of relaxing team building, so heads to the marina with him to book a 2-hour lake cruise. Instalust on both sides between Cam and Gannon. The trip goes well. Gannon pursues Cam, Cam is willing to be pursued until the point where Gannon announces that he’s flying to California for 4 days. Cam panics and dumps Gannon. Ganon keeps coming back, they go back and forth with their insecurities. Sexy times galore, both dancing around commitment. I enjoyed the way their personalities were developed, the sexy times, how they worked on resolving the issues, and the major interference by Gannon’s PA in a good way. Caveat emptor re sex.

Hunter Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes 3/12/25 3/13/25 Kindle

Another shifter romance. This one continues where Black Moon leaves off, with Linden pack alpha, Colt his fated mate. Linden’s brother Aspen abandoned the pack ten years earlier, because he knew he wasn’t best suited to be pack leader and felt pressured by their father. He joined the Navy, didn’t keep in touch with anybody but one of member of the pack, who writes to him when their father is killed, Brook taken, rescued, and returned to the pack. Aspen and Brook had been in love and had been lovers. Brook is traumatized by the kidnapping after being traumatized by Aspen leaving ten years earlier with no explanation to him or communication with him. Aspen returns, on leave from the Navy, and after lots of folks castigating him for his abandonment of the pack and Brook, start accepting him again. He and Brook cautiously get reacquainted. They start seeing each other again, there’s a threat from the pack who took Brook, and Aspen settles into an enforcer role with the pack and he and Brook get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Wolf Lost by Sam Burns 3/13/25 3/14/25 Kindle

Omega Sawyer is on the run from the pack that killed his alpha father and tried to force him to be with the new alpha. Two betas are hunting him down. He runs into a café being renovated and there is Dez, an alpha wolf bitten and wounded in Afghanistan but who immediately scares the betas off. Dez is immediately attracted to Sawyer, and Sawyer is immediately attracted to Dez. Two other alphas are in the back room, Dez’s pack. One’s a born werewolf, the other two, Dez and Gavin, are made. They have created their own small pack, taking over abandoned pack lands. They are renovating the café. They take Sawyer home, to Dez’s very expensive home. Dez inherited from his grandfather. The romance moves apace, the renovation moves apace, Sawyer’s old pack still tries to take him. Eventually the alpha, Mark, comes to get Sawyer on his own and fails miserably. HEA for Sawyer and Dez. Caveat emptor re sex.

Werewolf in Shining Armor by Minerva Howe 3/14/25 3/14/25 Kindle

Werewolf Symon has bought a dating app for shifters company, shiftr.com, and on the day he takes ownership he comes to a meet-and-greet. Adrian is a coder, working for Helene. He’s tripped up by a salesman, who says derogatory things about omegas. Symon immediately fires him. Insta lust by Symon of Adrian, of course. There's also hacking into the code and danger to Adrian. Symon takes Adrian to his well-secured house. Symon’s two brothers, Rian and Quin, help, as well as Isaac the Pallas Cat shifter. If you've never seen a photo of a Pallas Cat, (unless your RichardDear), please find one - they are wild cats but about the size of house cats and I want Fated mates, HEA, solution to the hacking problem. Caveat emptor re sex.

Such a Good Omega by Loralei M Hart 3/14/25 3/15/25 Kindle

Talon and his partners are opening a shifter sex club and hiring. Rowan is hired to be a bartender, but Talon immediately recognizes him as his fated mate, lets him work for a couple of weeks, needs a new PA, and shifts Rowan over to be his PA. Insta lust and sexy times. Unfortunately for my preferences, this is an mpreg romance, with Rowan getting pregnant, Talon having him move in and etc. Baby wolfie born, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex and implied BDSM.

Werewolf in Leather Armor by Minerva Howe 3/14/25 3/14/25 Kindle

Rian, Symon and Quin’s brother, responds to Quin’s request to help a fox shifter, Eyre – pronounced Eye-ree as we’re immediately told. Eyre’s down on his luck, homeless, but proud. He and his friends have a check in plan, but several are missing and Eyre vows to try to find them. Riann takes him home, and Eyre tells him about missing omega friends. Turns out there’s an omega trafficking ring. The three brothers and Eyre figure out who it is and take him and the ring down, rescuing 10 omega shifters in the process. Fated mates, insta lust.

Cold Moon by Sam Burns and W.M. Fawkes 3/15/25 3/16/25 Kindle

4th in the Wolf Moon series, 3rd one I’ve read. Skye is a male omega, born after The Condition had decimated Omegas world wide. He survived, as did his mother, but is considered frail and fragile by his pack. He works with Linden, pack Alpha, in the pack’s clinic, and has discovered that food and drinking choices help him survive and remain healthy. Dante is an omega from a pack that attacked him and Skye’s pack. Under much protest from the pack, Dante is saved and brought to the clinic to be healed. Healing and caring and lust and etc., have them spending time and planning together. Dante was a biology student before coming back to his pack, starts working with Linden’s pack to figure out what’s causing The Condition. Long story short, they discover the source, there’s adventure and danger, and Dante and Skye get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Lone Wolf by Tessa Kane 3/16/25 3/17/25 Kindle

Standalone by a different author, Keir is a rare male omega, kicked out by his pack at 17 for being an abomination – gay. He survives on his own for 4 years, then Julien sees him working at a bar and realizes he is his fated mate. Way too many pack politics, I thought when I started it, way too many at the end, but they actually work in the end. Danger, adventure, Keir’s old pack claiming him, Julien claiming him, and etc. Ugh to the kidnapping and etc. Caveat emptor re sex.

Cinderella in the Sheets by Reece Pine 3/17/25 3/17/25 Kindle

A re-read, this has Presley, the stepson of the President of the United States, secretly having hookups because his stepfather is super conservative. Presley works for his stepdad but isn’t particularly happy about it. Privately he uses his fortune to fund projects close to his heart. One night, eyes covered with a silk scarf as always, Presley meets his hookup, a gentle man with a marvelous Southern accent. He admits that he’s won a prestigious award yet has a hard time telling his family. He’s brought food, he and Presley hit off in every way, but he's gone in the morning. Presley wants to discover who he is, and on the slim clues he’s been given, has his security team try to track him down. Hilarity and false leads ensue, eventually Presley’s team tracks him down and they meet up at Louis’s family’s home. I found this one particularly sweet in addition to being spicy, with the HEA well deserved and nicely attained. We see that Presley will leave his stepfather’s orbit and start working on the projects he really wants to pursue, and Louis gets his day in the sun receiving a very prestigious award indeed. Cavet emptor re sex.

Carnal Heart by Emmy LaRoux 3/17/25 3/18/25 Kindle

Third in the Vicious Valentines series has Devyn, a Black Hart, supposedly being forced by his father to pursue one man while he’s fascinated and obsessed with another. Zaiah had stayed at the school but changed departments 2 years previously, and Devyn is stunned to see him at the Cor Night, a night of debauchery and exploration of Black Hart vices. The man Devyn’s supposed to pursue turns out to be the man Zaiah changed departments for. He was controlled and abused by this man, and once Devyn figures this out, he ‘rescues’ Zaiah and they get a HEA. Cavet emptor re sex.

Blinding Light by Lola Malone 3/19/25 3/20/25 Kindle

Fostered as a child, Cyprian feels compelled to leave his planet in search of his parents. He has information about who they might be, and his planet of choice is Helion. On the space ship taking him to Helion, under an assumed name, Moargan, an Imperial Prince, sees Cyprian and is immediately attracted to him and feels a strong bond. Cyprian moves into an apartment he's arranged for ahead of time, but Moargan arrogantly steps in, buys the apartment building, and takes Cyprian to his home, to live there. Cyprian attends art college, but is troubled by dreams and feels a growing bond with Moargan. Turns out they’re fated mates. Cyprian has a hard time accepting this, but after a serial killer is found and brought to justice and Cyprian understands who his parents were, he and Moargan get their HEA. There’s magic and special powers, and all sorts of fun fantasy. Helion is believable within the scope of fantasy, as are Moargan and Cyprian’s powers. My only real quibble is how to pronounce Moargan – Mor’gan or Mo’Ar’Gan. I chose Morgan, but had to look at it every single time. Caveat emptor re sex and violence.

The Hunter's Heart by Minerva Howe 3/20/25 3/20/25 Kindle

Well done short story has Jason, an omega shifter, running from an alpha. He takes refuge in a cabin but is captured by the alpha. Sweet and unexpected ending. Caveat emptor re sex.

Echo by Chani Lynn Feener 3/20/25 3/22/25 Kindle

First in the Devils of Vitality fantasy MM romance. The author states in the preface to this, as well as subsequent books, that the protagonists are not nice or good people. It’s a made-up world in a made-up universe. Rabbit Trace is a musical prodigy, son of a worlds-famous performer. She pushes him, abuses him, torments, him, and controls him, but he doesn’t fight her. One day Baikal, heir apparent to Vitality’s mafia, sees Rabbit perform and becomes obsessed by him. He’s playing a long game and doesn’t immediately approach Rabbit. Eventually he does, though, and although his methods are morally gray, draws Rabbit to his side. They become sexually and romantically involved. In the meantime, Rabbit’s mother tries to control him one too many times, which doesn’t go well for her. The most fascinating thing about this book is that the instrument Rabbit plays, a bieska, interacts with his emotions and skills so that colors are released as he plays. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? A performer and his/her instrument providing music and color. Baikal is an alpha predator, wants Rabbit. My kryptonite – alpha male, alpha predator. Not an accident that Kal calls Rabbit his sweet bunny. Baikal protects and cares for Rabbit, and they get a very steamy and happy HEA. Caveat emptor re sex. Quite a few typos, and a fair amount of repetition of personality traits.

These Silent Stars by Chani Lynn Feener 3/22/25 3/23/25 Kindle

Second in the Devils of Vitality fantasy MM romance. Rin runs up against Kelevra, an Imperial Prince, third in line after his older sisters. Rin is from another galaxy, living on Vitality with his twin brother while both pursue their academic careers. Rin is supposed to take over his father’s political activities, and Sila is supposed to take over their father’s medical practice and legacy. They have persuaded their father to let them study on Vitality but he controls the purse strings. Rin studies at the military academy, where he meets Kelevra. Kel, of course, is immediately attracted to Rin. Kel has a visual enhancement that allows him to differentiate between Rin and Sila, the only person who can do so. This gets Rin’s attention. Rin is an extremely emotional person yet controls it rigorously. However, once Kel gets him in the bedroom, Rin gives up control easily, because it allows him the freedom of relaxing and not being forced to keep up the persona. Politics, attraction, Kel fixing the issues preventing Rin and Sila from staying, eventually putting the father in the position of leaving his sons alone forever. Once again an alpha predator is obsessed with an ‘innocent’. The personalities of this second in the series are strongly delinated as in the first. The identical physical appearance of the twins causes all sorts of confusion and strange plot twists, but once the author lets us in on the secrets, it makes a lot of sense. Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned Guns 'n Boys by KA Merikan**

Ugh. Younger son of a mafia don, left alone in the US until the father wants to make him his heir, is kidnapped then returned to his mafia life. When he’s named successor, his father’s best assassin takes on the task of teaching Seth to become the strong mafia don he’s never thought he had to be. Over the top alpha male Dom and whiny Seth. Not worth continuing.

**abandoned My Only Regret by Leigh Lennon**

It says a lot about this sickening sweet story that I can’t remember anything about it.

**abandoned The Measure by Nikki Erlick**

Oh how I wanted to continue loving this unique fantasy. Everybody in the world 22 and over receives a box in the early morning, in their time zone. Some people open the box, some don’t. Eventually the world realizes that each box holds the answer to when the owner of the box will die, although not specifically and not how. Long string, short string – the measure of a life. After the initial shock of the premise, I just wasn’t interested. Perhaps it was because there are so many protagonists? Perhaps because it started slowing down? Regardless, it’s abandoned. I own it, so might try to listen to it another time.

Call of the Sea by Chani Lynn Feener 3/23/25 3/25/25 Kindle

Bay Delmar is a professor at the University Sila attends although Sila doesn’t have any classes with him. Each is obsessed with the other, stalking. Eventually Sila makes the move by last-minute signing up for one of the Criminal Psychology classes Bay teaches. He dominates Bay, who feels dead inside since his adoptive grandmother is murdered and her house stolen out from under him. He goes to work, tries to feel alive by illegally racing his hovercar down by the docks. Sila doesn’t promise more than seduction and obsession in exchange for Bay giving up autonomy in exchance for Sila finding revenge. Once again, strong personalities clearly delineated. Sila and Rin, his twin, have been exchanging places the entire time they’re on Vitality, and Bay can see who is who, as can Kelevra in the previous book. The action intertwines with the action of Rin and Kelevra’s story, obviously told from the perspective of Sila and to a lesser extent Bay. Sila is a psychopath, which makes it interesting. They get their HEA, which works for them, but would be appalling for ‘normal’ people. Caveat emptor re sex and violence.

Devil May Care by Chani Lynn Feener 3/25/25 3/26/25 Kindle

Nate is also a racer at the illegal races at the docks. He gets on Kazimir’s radar and Kazimir figures he needs a fake boyfriend in order to appease his boss. He coerces Nate into being his boyfriend. Honestly, I liked it a lot, but finished it two days ago, and it’s rather blurry. Suffice to say alpha male, enemies to lovers, HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

**abandoned Devil May Fall by Chani Lynn Feener**

Next in the Devils of Vitality series seriously squicked me out and I abandoned it after 127 pages. Too much Childish alpha male. Kidnapping, torture, then ‘punishment’ by forcing a porn scene. Ridiculous.

Kick at the Darkness by Keira Andrews 3/26/25 3/27/25 Kindle

Parker is an entitled freshman at Stanford, shocked when he gets a C- on a paper in a supposedly easy class not in his major. He goes to the TA, Adam, who won’t change the grade and tells him to do better on the next paper. In the meantime, everybody’s communication devices are blowing up with news of zombie-like creatures attacking people. Parker’s brother and he talk, Parker and his mother text. And then, communications stop, news stops, the internet stops. Parker and Adam barely escape the ‘creepers’ and decide to try to get to Parker’s parents’ cottage on the Coast. Eventually Parker finds out a pretty big secret that Adam has, but which works to their benefit as they escape creepers and avaricious humans. This is the first book of three, and they’re still alive at the end of this book, in love, and trying to stay alive. The bioterrorism is as yet unexplained, Parker’s parents are missing, his brother hasn’t been heard from, but Parker and Adam are doing fine, thank you. Parker is absolutely fearless in his caring for Adam which surprises Adam. Caveat emptor re yucky zombie-like stuff and sex.

His Secret Alpha by Chani Lynn Feener 3/27/25 3/28/25 Kindle

An Omegaverse book without mpreg. Sky has had a crush on Kian, his best friend’s older brother forever yet hasn’t seen him in 3 years. Kian is back on their home planet, and when Sky sees him, he immediately goes into heat early. I know… I know… and then, of course, Kian tracks him down and they get stuck in Sky’s pottery studio during a blizzard. Sex ensues, feelings emerge. I actually liked this one because Sky is so sweet and Kian is home to tell his parents that he’s quit his job as a detective and is ‘settling’ for a mechanic’s job and staying on his home world. This works out well for him and Sky. Caveat emptor re sex. One particularly cute plot device is that Sky’s holiday presents for friends become necessities while they’re unable to get out because of the blizzard. Pajamas, food, and etc.

**abandoned The Wolf's Wounded Omega by AJ Kane**

Some books are more preachy and more consent – you really want to, you REALLY want to, you’re sure – and it really bludgeons the idea into the ground. We get it. Yes, consent. Preachiness rarely appeals to me.

**abandoned Chasing Mr. Wright by Aimee Nicole Walker **

This one is too cutesy. Not enough sexual tension in the first 173 pages, and a plush animal named Spunky Monkey caused me to abandon it.

**abandoned Betrothed to the Emperor by Kai Butler**

Twins are sent to another planet to broker a peace with the betrothal of the sister to the Emperor, but as soon as Tallu sees the brother, he chooses him as his consort. All well and good, but way too much weird politics, bits about dragon’s eggs and angst. And really, not enough steam by page 197.

Who Said Mobsters Were Scary? by Aria Clark 3/28/25 3/30/25 Kindle

Leo is a morally challenged college student who gets in bad with the mafia in NYC. He gets an international school place in Japan to flee the bad guys. There he meets Chai while taking out some bad guys attacking Chai in the alley behind a club. Chai is the heir-apparent to a mafia organization. Both are smitten, although both are nominally straight. Fast forward a week or so, Chai finds and seeks out Leo and wants him to be his bodyguard. Silly, I know, boy-on-boy rom-com. Secret relationship because of Chai’s father, trying to find the mole in the organization that Chai’s father doesn’t believe is there, budding romance and commitment. Fun, light-weight, and with a satisfying solution to the mole problem and they get their HEA. Caveat emptor re sex.

Kestrel by Adrienne Lothy 3/30/25 3/30/25 Kindle

The Kestrel is killing prominent people all over the galaxy and nobody has a clue as to why. He is a crack shot and gets his target every time. Zann, in charge of the investigation, asks his brother Niko to come out of retirement as a bounty hunter. Niko has not been a bounty hunter for 3 years and is in a wheelchair as a result of the last hunt. Zann got him a special set of armor that allows him to walk and run and perform as a bounty hunter, but Niko has refused so far to get back into it. Until The Kestrel, when he sees himself performing one last bounty hunt and retire positively.
As he figures out who the targets are and eventually why the Kestrel is killing them, he comes to sympathize with the Kestrel. Sympathy turns to lust turns to switching sides. The Kestrel’s and Niko’s backstories are doled out in tantalizing pieces, as are the reasons for the Kestrel’s murders. I loved the tech, loved the love story, loved how it ended with a HFN and I’m looking forward to the second one. Caveat emptor re violence and sex.

The Alpha's Heir by Wolf Specter 3/30/25 3/31/25 Kindle

Zeke, an alpha wolf shifter, who should have been heir to his pack but has been sidelined because he cannot sire a child, is tasked with picking up a delivery from another, rival pack. The delivery is an omega, Mathias. Mathias’s pack has agreed to give him drugs in order to put him into heat, to be delivered to Zeke’s father. A series of mix ups and the realization that they are fated mates has Zeke hiding out with Mathias. They have sex, and as they are hiding out, Mathias realizes that he’s pregnant. Mpreg, I know, which I usually don’t read but have read a lot of this month. Anyway, Mathias tells Zeke he thinks he’s pregnant, and it ends on a HFN and hopeful note between the two of them. Supposedly a sequel, but after 9 years none so far, alas. Caveat emptor re sex.

>156 karenmarie: Stasia will read us into the dust, of course. Well, not on purpose.

>167 karenmarie: Wow, those are some stats!

>168 karenmarie: Blinding Light looks like the one of those to try!

>166 karenmarie: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369744

And I was proud to have read seven (7) books in March! Good grief, Woman! You really got into those wolf shifter books......

I'm glad you had a good day. We're still waiting for a negative test result, and I'm still not exactly right in the foot. Otherwise, we're keeping close and doing the needful. My hair person decided that she'd rather wait until next week to trim and shape. I hope we'll both be back to ourselves by then.

Sleep well!

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Sue has a cold so we did not get to see Jack yesterday. I will spend the day with him today. It has been 3 weeks. WTH? Hey, I saw my first cowbird in the yard yesterday, along with a stray robin. I gotta go...

>169 alcottacre: Of course not, Stasia! We all read at different rates. I suppose that if I was so thrilled with a non-smut book that I devoured it like you seem to devour ALL books, I could keep up with a shared read. Last time I did so was with the Dick Francis Shared Reads with Julia. Thanks re my stats.

>170 quondame: Space opera fantasy is definitely up your alley, and I know you’re dabbling with MM romances occasionally. It is a good one for sure.

>171 richardderus: *smoochiesmoochsmooch* back at’cha!

>172 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you.

>173 LizzieD: You had a Very Busy March, what with the Stasia/Kerry and Karen visit and then your DH’s Covid x 2.

Shifter books seem to be fulfilling a need right now. I’ve already read 11 this month, although 8 of those are one series, each only 40-55 pages long. And I paid $3 each for those, something I rarely do.

Fingers crossed for a negative test result. And what’s going on with your foot? I checked your thread for the word foot because I didn’t remember your foot being a problem, and I see you mentioned it on the 26th of March. Your compression sock was twisted and you’d done a lot of walking. Is that still the issue? I hope it’s fine by the time your DH tests negative and you can take walks together again.

Delayed haircut sounds familiar. Jenna doesn’t see any time soon where we can do the 'daughters/US mom schlep to Winston-Salem for a haircut for her and a haircut for me' trip. She’s going to get one in Carrboro or Chapel Hill because her hair is making her crazy, and she’ll drive with me to W-S sometime later in the month or even May so we can have lunch at The Village Tavern like we always do up there while I get my hair back to where I want it. I must say that the last hair cut I got in W-S still works, although I prefer it shorter and curlier.

>174 msf59: 'Morning, Mark, and happy Friday to you. Three weeks since you've seen Jackson! I bet he's grown another clothing and shoe size... I'm sure you want and need grandson hugs and hope your visit is super. I'm sorry that Sue has a cold. I have no birds on the feeders right now. I'm going to move the nyjer seed feeder to a place I can't see it from here - there are only 4 available feeding stations, and I want to try to lure the hummindbirds in, albeit a bit later than I wanted to.

Wordle 1,385 3/6* trope, brick, krill

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I didn't bake brownies or blondies yesterday and didn't do some of the things I wanted to do, but I did enough to not feel guilty. Reading, puttering, and posting stats and Lightning round were the highlight of the day.

Bill and I watched 2 more episodes of season 3 of Reacher. We were very happy.

...
Groceries and PT this afternoon, perhaps actually make the brownies. I've decided on brownies since it's already a recipe I'm familiar with and can check out the baking capability of the counter-top oven with it.

Other than that, catching up my spreadsheets and April Lightning Word document with April reads.

>175 karenmarie: I hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend, Karen!

>176 alcottacre: Hi Stasia, and thank you.

Wordle 1,386 3/6* trope, nomad, foamy. Went alphabetically - it could also have been loamy

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Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. I enjoyed my time with Jack yesterday, although it was mostly watching him play and perform Star Wars. When the weather gets better, I want to start taking him outdoors. I am meeting my birding buddies this AM. We will see if we can spot any new arrivals. It will be mostly a chill weekend with Sue recovering.

>175 karenmarie: Brownie report? I'm obvs let down by the absence of blondies though of course your reasoning is impeccable. I'd do the same. But no blondies just feels sad.

I think I'm having a craving. Pay me no mind.

Are y'all through the current season of Reacher? I think young Mr. Ritchson *gets* Reacher in a way you can only hope to see an actor fit into a role rarely. I hope Lee Child is pleased. Can't think he wouldn't be but people are funny about their own creations for some reason. Saturday orisons, sweetiedarling.

>178 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Happy Saturday to you. Just being around them has to be enough sometimes, doesn't it? Yay for a birding buddy adventure, I hope Sue continues to recover.

I just put out the first hummingbird feeder of the season, a bit late for here, actually, but not by much. I moved the suet feeder to the nyjer seed feeder hook, and the nyjer seed feeder to a hook on the front porch that I can't see from here. Haven't had too many visitors there recently, so have more activity with this new setup.

>179 richardderus: Well, I finally put out the other 2 eggs and 1/2 stick of unsalted butter a while ago. The butter will get melted, but room temp eggs are important.

We will watch the last two episodes tonight. Ritchson absolutely nails Reacher. Saturday orisons to you, too, RD.

*smooch*

>180 karenmarie: I do not know about the birds around your place, but man, the birds here are going through their food at a record pace!

>181 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! Funny, I was just thinking that there must be a lot of natural food right now since my feeders aren't active at all. I've got one finch lollygagging around the wild bird seed feeder and that's it.

Wordle 1,387 4/6* trope, claim, daily, villa

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I made the brownies, testing the toaster oven's baking function. I put my ancient-but-handy-dandy Ecko oven thermometer in to test the temp. It was accurate, so there's that. Brownies put in, original temp of 25 minutes reduced by 5 minutes just in case the oven ran hot. 20 minutes was perfect. The oven doesn't run hot, but the small enclosed space and my using a Wilton cake pan instead of a glass pan made the reduced time perfect. They came out perfectly.

We finished watching Reacher. Highly satisfactory ending. Of course, now we can't wait for the next season.

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Jenna's coming over this afternoon, spending the night, then taking me to, staying with, and bringing me home from. the hospital after an outpatient procedure. See the spoiler in >156 karenmarie: if you want the detail. Otherwise, suffice to say I'm a bit stressed but not unduly so and hope to be back to my regularly scheduled programming Tuesday morning.

Today will be a bit of straightening of the Kitchen and Sunroom, reading both smut and The Good Lord Bird. We're having the prime rib that I got when my grocery store was having them on sale just before Christmas. Pulled it out of the freezer in the garage on Wednesday, and it's been slowly defrosting since then. Baked potatoes and vegetables for dinner, brownies for dessert, of course.

Jenna and I have to report promptly at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow. Thank goodness the hospital is only 15 minutes away.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Enjoy your visit with Jenna and I hope you are enjoying The Good Lord Bird. I really liked that one.

I had a good time with my birding buddies yesterday. We saw 32 species and I added several FOY birds. Things are picking up. I also played pickleball in the afternoon. I really missed playing. Not much planned for the day, which is fine with me. I didn't get much reading in yesterday. I saw a song sparrow at the feeders yesterday. Not the first time but they don't show up very often. I think I will wait another week before hanging the hummingbird feeder.

Best of wishes for a quiet day and a successful procedure tomorrow.

>183 msf59: Hi Mark! Thanks. I have barely started The Good Lord Bird and need to get a move on if I'm to have it read by next Sunday's book club meeting. It's vivid and dense and rich and downright funny so far.

Yay for your BBA. Wow for 32 species and FOY birds. Glad you're back in PB mode - how's the plantar fasciitis?

Waiting another week makes sense. I'm not quite sure, perhaps Irene would know - they migrate through here to get up north, but some hang back so we have some during the summer months. There's occasionally a lull between waves.

>184 elorin: Thanks Robyn. By tomorrow afternoon I should be settled down.

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And, Poetry came up on RD's thread, indirectly. I won't sully his thread with a positive opinion about poetry, but here's mine on my own thread.

The creation of poetry is just as enmeshing and therefore valid as is the creation of narrative fiction.

Having said that, I personally do not like not-rhyming poetry with the exceptions of E.E. Cummings and authors of haiku, perhaps a few more I'm not thinking of offhand.

I do appreciate poets who take up the challenge of poetical structures to express themselves. The poets I like are few and far between even though I have 119 books tagged 'poetry' on my shelves. Rhyming poets include but are not limited to Shakespeare, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, Dorothy Parker's Enough Rope, and Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales From Here and There. Oh, and two first cousins, one maternal and one paternal, both self-published.

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Bookmark report: I'm using a tatted Christian Cross with tassel for The Good Lord Bird and my favorite flamingo bookmark, a leather one given to me by Jenna for Christmas 2015, for The Library at Night.

Morning, Karen! I was all caught up here back when you had just gotten back from visiting Peggy, and when I went to post, I lost my internet connection. Never made me back to try again. I loved reading about your visit to Peggy's place - sounded so full of fabulous, and how wonderful that you also got to meet and hang out with Stasia and Kerry.

>100 karenmarie: This is such a sweet photo of the three of you. Thank you, Stasia for letting it be posted. I love putting faces with names.

>144 richardderus: We love our Wolf countertop oven, and we do use it all the time. It can do everything, and we use it in place of the regular oven most days. We really only use the regular oven when we have something too big to fit into the Wolf. We got it during Covid when our oven quit and we could not get another one in any kind of reasonable time frame. At the time it was a compromise, but it has turned out to be one of our favorite things ever.

>151 karenmarie: Hooray for the new treadmill!!! Most exciting - you will love having one at home.

>156 karenmarie: So glad that Jenna is coming to be with you.

>168 karenmarie: "It was not deliberate, but last month was mostly space operas and werewolves." Delightful!

>182 karenmarie: I will be thinking of you tomorrow - please know that we will be with you in spirit and holding you in our hearts. I have set my phone alarm for 6:30am. Hoping it goes smoothly.

Your flamingo bookmark is charming.

>167 karenmarie: Excellent stats! Lots of fantastic reading and well past the 75 book goal!

Catching up here today.

>185 karenmarie: I'm afraid I don't know much about hummingbird migration. I actually haven't thought much about it. I mostly see hummingbirds here during the summer, so had mostly thought of them as a summer bird. I guess I need to get my hummingbird feeder out.

>182 karenmarie: Sending lots of good wishes for everything to go well for your procedure tomorrow! I'm glad you're not unduly stressed. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

>185 karenmarie: I hope your procedure has gone well by the time you read this. I've survived quite a few D&C's to remove polyps, mostly in my 30's, 40s, and 50s. Not fun, and I've had some issues with anesthetics, but nothing major.

Good luck on your

I'm happy I caught up with your thread before you started a new one, Karen. Nice to see the meet up pictures! I hope your procedure goes well.

Morning, Karen. Well, back to the grind, after a perfect vacay. I will also be back to PB. You asked about the plantar fasciitis. My heel is still bothering me a bit, when I push it too much but I am going to tough it out. Waiting for this weather to warm up, so we can play back outdoors. Mostly cool this week but things might turn around next weekend.

Getting more activity at the feeders. I saw both a starling and a grackle at the feeders yesterday.

Just got a text from Karen. It's done, she's awake, and Jenna is taking care of her. THANKSGIVING!

Thank you Peggy!

>193 LizzieD: Peggy, thank you for this.

>193 LizzieD: HUGE sigh of relief! TYVM Peggy.

*smooch* to you Horrible.

>193 LizzieD: Great news! Thanks, Peggy!

>185 karenmarie: Love the bookmark report!

>193 LizzieD: Wonderful news!! Thanks, Peggy! I came by just to see if there was an update.

Hi all! Thank you for your kind messages and wishes.

I'll catch up tomorrow - right now I'm not in pain, but still exhausted from the anesthesia. I napped most of the afternoon, but had to come here to not break my Wordle streak. *eye roll*

Wordle 1,388 3/6* trope, leach, hazel

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I probably won't go to book sort tomorrow.

Book sort? I should think not! Give yourself at least a day to recupe, Wonder Woman!

Glad to see you here and to see that your Wordling powers remain undiminished even with leftover anesthesia. (I was happy to do it in 5 with no excuse whatsoever!)

Sleep well!!!!!

Morning, Karen. I hope you got plenty of rest yesterday and are feeling more chipper today. Doing my usual today...

>186 Crazymamie: Hi Sister of My Heart! I had so much fun when I went to see Peggy and meet Stasia and Kerry. I’m glad Stasia relented so that we could all see her here on LT.

My little old B&D has so far worked fine on toast, a 9” x 13” pan of brownies, and baked potatoes. I don’t think I realized that your oven quit during COVID.

Jenna’s 'the pro from Dover' when it comes to helping me out at the hospital, having gone through 2 knee replacement surgeries and now this procedure – which went well, see below.

The treadmill will come on Friday, and I’m ready for it! Jenna and I decided, after Bill wondering why I didn't set it up in the Library, to actually put it in the Library. We moved a couple of marble end-tables into the Library, and a rickety plant stand out of the Library, measured the footprint of the treadmill, and I know exactly where to have it set up.

Thank you for being there in spirit with me, my dear. I know that my LT friends, family, and RL friends all helped make my journey through the stress and anesthesia go better than it would have otherwise. Plus, I asked my Guardian Angel to help me, in addition to a prayer to the God of Abraham and his Son and his Prophet.

So far this month’s reading has been 8 werewolf short stories, 3 werewolf novels, and 3 novellas in the dark college universe created by Chani Lynn Feener, see The Initiation Series in March. I'm reading the 4th and final novella now.

Thank you re this bookmark. I’m so glad I noted that it was from Jenna, Xmas 2015, otherwise I would not have remembered. I seriously love flamingos and have quite a few of them here at the house – not real ones, of course, but ornaments, metal works, bookmarks, Beanie Babies, etc. I used to have the infamous lawn ornament flamingos, originally in my large, enclosed vegetable garden, then eventually guarding the raised bed vegetable garden. Their names were Harry and Sally.

>187 figsfromthistle: Hi Anita, and thank you. I’m still happily reading MM romance, a.k.a. smut, along with the occasional nonfiction and other fiction. In addition to feeding my feelings, I’m reading my feelings…

>188 atozgrl: Hi Irene. You’d be amazed at how many folks are interested in the migration of hummingbirds each spring. Here’s one map, although there are many. As you can see, the sightings have been moving north on the east coast.

2025 hummingbird migration map

The hummingbirds will appreciate you – there are still quite a few migrating up north, plus the ones that will hang around through the end of the season. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. As I told the pre-op nurses and anesthesiologist yesterday, I was stressed but not scared. My BP was 97 over 65… absolutely do not understand that. Almost too low, but not quite.

>189 quondame: Hi Susan, and thank you for what’s in the spoilers. I’m finally, after almost 7 months, realizing that getting the incidental findings from the Sept. 2024 CT scan are good, not bad. The ob/gyn said that there could easily have been a dangerous/bad discovery in 5 years had there not been that finding. I’m feeling fine, if still pretty tired from the anesthesia, and since book sort would be a fair amount of lifting – even though with my back problems it’s only a few books at a time, not heavy boxes or bags – it just didn’t make sense to rock the boat today.

>190 Whisper1: Hi Linda! Thank you.

>191 Familyhistorian: Hello Meg, and getting caught up deserves an award. I can say this from personal experience, as I currently have so many threads to get caught up on, including yours. I’m happy about the meetup photo and thank you for the wishes re my procedure.

>192 msf59: ‘Morning the next day, Mark! Happy Tuesday to you. I’m so glad your vacay was perfect. Yay re PB. I hope the ‘a bit’ goes away sooner than later. I had plantar fasciitis twice while still working, both times both heels. Not fun, but it eventually passes.

Yay for the grackle and starling. I’ve seen hummingbirds twice now, although not yet today. I’ve got an aggressive male Cardinal chasing everybody away from the sunflower seed feeder, other Cardinals, and a few finches. Yesterday afternoon I saw a Downy on the suet feeder, among other visitors. I also saw a hawk circling over the pasture on Sunday, but couldn’t identify which one.

>193 LizzieD: Thank you for posting here, Peggy. You’ve got that right, both the thanksgiving AND Jenna taking care of me.

Thanks for checking in Laura, Mamie, RD, Irene, Stasia..

>198 alcottacre: I have soooo many bookmarks, as I bet most of us here have. Gifts from family and friends, occasionally ones bought/acquired by ourselves. Sometimes I just pick one randomly or even use an old Friends bookmark that we use to advertise our sales.

>200 LizzieD: Hello again, Peggy! I took your advice combined with my laziness, and here I am, an hour into what should be book sort, at home, in jammies, drinking coffee and getting caught up.

>201 msf59: Hi Mark! Happy Tuesday to you. I did get plenty of rest, I do feel more chipper. Glad, however, that I decided to stay home and not venture out into the wonderful world of books and book sort friends. I hope your usual goes well today.

Wordle 1,389 3/6* trope, parse, spare

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Jenna and I left at 6:07 to get to the hospital for my 6:30 check in. The procedure was scheduled for 7:30 and it apparently started right on the dot as they wheeled me into the OR at about 7:25 or so...

Woke up in recovery. Jenna tells me that I responded to the doctor when he came to chat with Jenna and me earlier in recovery. I appreciated the sips of water and my darling daughter sitting to my left, being my rock. Things went well, no surprises, although I got it wrong when I thought they'd the biopsy results would be then and there, not 3-5 business days later. The ob/gyn wasn't unduly bothered and thought there would be not be unhappy news in 3-5 business days. About 30 minutes into recovery they said Jenna could go get the SUV and bring it around to Outpatient Pickup (just past the large, metal cow). Next time I go to Siler City, I will drive around and take a pic of the cow and Outpatient Pickup. It's been there forever, and it's just how they describe where to go. *happy dance*

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig, then jammies, scrambled eggs and toast, then bye-bye to daughter, a bit of this and that, then upstairs for about 6 hours. I mostly napped until I got hungry enough to come downstairs. We had leftover Prime Rib and toast - I forgot that Jenna took the last of the baked potatoes home, along with some prime rib and sauteed mushrooms. I had the last of the sauteed mushrooms, too.

We watched the first two episodes of Bosch:Legacy. We got sucked right back up into it, loving Titus Welliver and the rest of the cast. I, of course, loved seeing my hometown.

I turned the light out early - midnight - and slept 'til the alarm went off at 6:30.

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I decided to not go to book sort, so will just hang out here. Arsenal plays Real Madrid in the first leg of their quarter final at 3 p.m. My sister and I are going to chat at noon. Good things to look forward to. It's a good day to just relax.

>202 karenmarie: As smooth a surgical experience as one could ask for! I'm glad it's your plan to stay home and just *be* today. Lotsa wolf-y stuff goin' on RN w/the dire-wolf de-extinction and your smutty reads. (I joked to my equally werewolf-novel-enjoying sister that at least these books have an excuse for not varying beyond doggy style. She was Not Amused.)

Your six and a half hours is almost exactly the same duration as my ideal sleep. Last night was a whopping nine for me and I woke up miserably groggy. I hate that muzzy softedged feeling! Like living inside a sweatsock.

*shudder*

Rest well!

Afternoon, Sister of my Heart! I am so glad that it went well and that you have stayed home both yesterday and today - good for you!

Daniel also has a thing for flamingos, and he wore socks with flamingos on his wedding day. We also flocked him when he and Kaitlyn bought their house - just mini flamingos, and they were so cute. Flocking is a thing our church used to do to raise money - if you made a donation, you could send a flock of lawn flamingos to someone in the congregation's house. Then, they could either leave them there for a set time (I think 3 days) or make a donation to move them along. Here is a photo of Birdy with our flock from many years ago:



Like you, I love Titus Welliver as Bosch - Rae and I are currently in season 5 of Bosch and plan on going straight into Bosch Legacy once we finish it all up.

Hoping today is kind to you, dear one.

I'm so glad everything went well, Karen. Three cheers for Jenna, too.

Hey Karen - I've not been to see your thread for a while, but I'm glad to read your surgery has been successful and your recovery (so far) seems to be straightforward. Long may that continue!

>202 karenmarie: Such good news! It sounds like your procedure went as well as it possibly could. Hurray for Jenna taking such good care of you. And I'm glad you stayed home today.

I hope I will get the hummingbird feeder out tomorrow. I'm surprised to hear of your aggressive cardinal. The only aggressive ones I've ever seen is at mating time when male cardinals are chasing other males. I've never seen them chase other birds at all. Usually it's quite the opposite, they're the ones easily scared off by other birds.

Wordle in 2 for me, even though my first guess left me with a pattern that could have had many possible solutions. I guess the Wordle gods were with me today. It's been a while since I got one that fast.

>203 richardderus: It did go well, RD. And yes, it was good to stay home and just *be*.

I didn’t know about the dire wolf de-extinction but just read an article about it. Sort of like Jurassic Park but for wolves. Scary. So what are they going to do with these three pups?

Hahaha about not varying beyond doggy style. Yay for your 9 hours of sleep the other night, although waking up groggy isn’t any fun.

I actually didn’t sleep more than an hour or two last night because I was listening to an audio book and lost track of time. When I looked at my cell phone, it was 4:43. I decided to NOT sleep and come downstairs because coffee was calling. Living in a sweatsock… hmm. I’m feeling muzzy and softedged, but not like living inside a sweatsock. More like feeling like I got hit over the head with a 2’ by 4’. Fortunately, there can be naps.

>204 Crazymamie: Hi Mamie! Thanks, and I am glad I stayed home yesterday.

I love Daniel’s wearing flamingo socks on his wedding day, and such a sweet pic of Birdy getting flocked. I’ve never heard of flocking. Not quite like TPing a house, right?

Sense of humor at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman MT.



Titus Welliver is perfect as Bosch.

>205 lauralkeet: Hi Laura, and thank you. Yes, three cheers for my darling daughter.

>206 Jackie_K: Hello Jackie. Thanks re the surgery and my recovery. No problems…

>207 atozgrl: Yes indeed, Irene. It did go well. I hope you can get a hummingbird feeder out, too. The Cardinals get snippy here when it comes to food and frequently chase away other birds, even other Cardinals. Yay for your Wordle in 2.

Wordle 1,390 3/6* trope, cleat, wheat

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The only thing I did yesterday was to put all the deaccessioned books into 6 bags. 5 will go to the Friends, one to the Thrift Shop.

I chatted with my sister as planned, and watched Arsenal upset Real Madrid, 3-0. 3 goals in 17 minutes, two by Declan Rice from set pieces. He got player of the match. Merino scored the other one with an assist by Lewis-Skelly.

Bosch: Legacy, chat with Jenna on her way home from work, and then, for some reason, as mentioned above, I only got 1-2 hours of sleep. Sigh.

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Nothing planned for today except to read. I'm going to finish my current MM romance, Finding Lord Landry and then continue reading The Good Lord Bird for Sunday's book club meeting.

Morning, Karen. Happy Wednesday. Glad you got plenty of rest the other day. Hooray for an Arsenal upset. Last work day for me and then PB again. My hamstrings have been a bit tender but the heel issue seems to have subsided. Sue is hoping to get back to work tomorrow. Still dealing with the cough. Things have been quieter at the feeders but I haven't been able to observe much.

I hope you feel like yourself again soon. Get well soon.

>208 karenmarie: Howdy, smoochling. I hope you're going to get in at least a nap. Lucy Lennox's series didn't do much for me. I'm less and less able to ignore the power politics of money.

Somehow I think valorizing stuff that the Felonious Yam likes has something to do with it.

Morning, Sister of my Heart! Oof to only 1-2 hours of sleep. I love that you got lost in an audiobook, though. I would have chosen coffee over going to bed, too. I have started mixing coffee back into the morning routine - so far just on the weekends, but it is working!

We have the same plans for today, so we can be twins. It's gorgeous again here - the sun is out, but I don't mind it when the temps are so nice.

And right about the flocking - not like TPing a house. Much nicer, and they come back and remove the flamingos, so also no clean up.

Hoping that your day is full of fabulous. And napping.

In fact, dear Karen, I hope you're napping now! I'm sorry that you don't sleep even if you were into something good. I sleep. Even in college when I needed to pull an all-nighter, I'd drink coffee so strong the spoon stood up in it - and I'd wake up to go to the bathroom only to go right back to sleep.

3 Sisters if not tripleting the reading day. Enjoy!

>202 karenmarie: I’m glad Stasia relented so that we could all see her here on LT. Grumble, grumble, grumble. . .

I am happy to hear that you are allowing your body time to recuperate!

>208 karenmarie: Happy reading today!!

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Looking forward to a Jackson Day. I plan on taking him back to the Kids Museum. Sue is still not doing well so I will not be bringing him back here. She sure is missing him.

>209 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! Yay for 2 days of not working AND the weekend. I’m glad that the plantar fasciitis has subsided, and I hope the tender hamstrings become untender soon, because PB. I hope Sue’s able to get back to work today, although from your post today it doesn’t sound like it. 😟

My feeders need SERIOUS attention today. I don’t see a single bird right now. They’re voting with their feet.

>210 Ameise1: Hi Barbara, and thank you. I’m getting there.

>211 richardderus: Hallo, RD! I was upstairs for most of yesterday reading, dozing, doomscrolling.

IRL, the more-than-ever-overt-in-our-lifetimes power politics of money make me feel unable to control my destiny. In the Billionaires series by Lucy Lennox it’s just 5 guys who happened to invent a stunning piece of software that made them billionaires. The one who comes from a rich and titled background leads the way in donating – both publicly and anonymously – serious money to favorite charities, mostly LGBTQ+. Are you changing the books you choose to read as we sink deeper and deeper into right-wing nationalism and chaos?

The chaos demon doesn’t read, and I don’t think that, given the chance, he’d read MM romance, aka smut, anyway. Heck. He doesn’t even read the Jewish/Christian Bible, although he’s held it up to whip up the MAGA nuts. Doesn’t know a single book of it, however, like most of his followers. *smooch*

>212 Crazymamie: Hello Sister of My Heart. I think I caught up via napping and not doing hardly anything yesterday. I’m thrilled that you’re starting to add coffee to the beverage mix again. Lazy twins day always works for me. We have blue/hazy skies. Thank you re the napping and fabulous.

>213 LizzieD: Let’s see… I was definitely upstairs at noon yesterday, dear Peggy, possibly napping, possibly reading what turned out to be a rather silly were book – a werewolf and a werebear as fated mates. There was one scene that was very well written, though, and it was NOT a sex scene.

>214 alcottacre: It goes against the grain to do a whole bunch of nothing, but except for a bit of prep for the treadmill setup/delivery tomorrow, I’m not doing too much. Thanks my reading. I hope you had your usual-stellar day of reading.

>215 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and sweet Thursday to you. Yay for a Jackson Day. The Kids Museum sounds like a great outing. I do hope Sue can get on the other side of this crud soon. She hasn’t seen him since you returned from your trip, right?

Since I wrote Bird Report I above, I’ve gained a couple of finches.

Wordle 1,391 3/6* trope, throb, turbo

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I was upstairs more than downstairs yesterday, which is extremely unusual. I napped, read, pondered the mysteries of the universe, and watched endless replays of the two stunning goals scored by Declan Rice against Real Madrid. I watched a bit of the Aston Villa - PSG Champions League match, but it wasn't as high energy as the Arsenal match and I didn't have as much invested in it emotionally. We watched two more episodes of Bosch:Legacy and are all caught up. Bill says another one airs tonight.

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I need to fold and put up all the clean laundry, which is threatening to overtake the Utility Room. It's unfortunate that I still have clean socks and underwear, which usually drive the folding/putting away. I also need to fill the bird feeders and have decided to put a few small lightweight furniture pieces upstairs in the Media Room - a small wooden table, a small wooden plant stand, etc. The lightweight rickety wooden stand needs to go to the garage, as does the newspaper rack. We don't take a paper newspaper anymore, and it's just not needed for anything. I'm also considering getting rid of a small wine rack brought from California in 1991. I keep bottles of wine in the Pantry now. I'll read, update spreadsheets and the Lightning Round, and ponder life's mysteries and dangers, especially the shit show that started on January 20th and will continue for the next 2 years, 9 months, and 10 days. I think I got that right.

I'm still a bit tired from Monday's events, but did get about 8 hours of sleep last night.

>216 karenmarie: It's good to feel tired after any kind of surgery, reminding one to rest up for optimal healing. Your heeding the call makes me feel calmer about the world.

My reading is changing indeed, a lot of it away from things I never paid the least attention to before like money's power dynamics in the pro direction. I'm a lot less sentiment-tolerant (see today's post), and a lot more demanding about story logic. I expect the changes to accelerate as the Felonious Yam and Muskolini continue to pillage our society for their appalling, disgusting selves.

Hiya, RDear. You're absolutely right, and I have the luxury of not having anything planned this week so I won't overdo. R&R.

My reading changed thanks to you, on 6/14/21 when I started reading Love, Hate, and Clickbait. And the rest, as they say is history. I'm also not reading as much muckraking, and certainly not much about the political situation here in what is dangerously close to not being the United States of America.

I'm sad - Amazon Logistics called to say my treadmill was damaged in shipment and they completely cancelled the order. Full refund in 3-5 business days. So I re-ordered the same damned thing and set the delivery/setup date to Thursday, April 17, because I have something on Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday. Crap. Sadness. I told the woman how unhappy I was, then called Amazon main customer service back to tell a different woman the same thing.

>218 karenmarie: that is SO annoying, Karen! Why wouldn't they give you the option to cancel or replace? Ugh.

>218 karenmarie: It must've been dust particles for them to've done that! So sorry, smoochling. *grrr* for their carelessness.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/369905

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Yep, Sue has not seen Jack for over a month. Of course, she really misses him. I had a good time with him. I bought a new hopper feeder. My old one was getting rusty and the plastic panes were cracked and falling out. It was time. This is a nice one and squirrel proof too. The only way to go. The birds took to it right away. It is warming up a bit this weekend. Looking forward to it.

>219 lauralkeet: Honestly, Laura, I don't know. The last big item that we ordered with setup was the LG TV in September of 2017. They called to say it had been damaged in shipping, said they'd ordered another, and then all Bill had to do was schedule the date for them to come out.

>220 richardderus: At least they didn't try to foist off a defective treadmill on me, although it's phenomally irritating that I have to wait 6 days. *smooch*

>221 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you!

>222 msf59: 'Morning, Mark. Happy Friday to you. Sue must be going crazy without Jackson cuddles and cute-i-tude. I hope she gets to see him soon. Yay for the new hopper feeder. Glad the birdies like it. I've got a male Cardinal and had a Downy, a Red-Bellied, and a Carolina Chickadee earlier.

Wordle 1,392 4/6* trope, arson, armor, arrow

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Let's see. What did I do yesterday? I did actually fold and put up the laundry and took the bottles of wine out of the wine rack and put them in the Pantry on a shelf of their own, along with the other two bottles of wine already in the Pantry. I got the two things I'm taking to the recycling center's swap shop out to the garage near my SUV - a rickety plant stand and a newspaper stand. Bill wasn't particularly pleased that I wanted to get rid of the newspaper stand, but he acquiesced. Honestly, it just takes up space, and we have lots of other things from his mother and grandmother.

Read, updated spreadsheets and Lightning Round, dealt with Amazon, chatted with Karen a bit.

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Now that the treadmill won't be here today, I've got the day completely open. I was going to do all the normal things until the treadmill got here, so will just do the normal things the entire day.

>223 karenmarie: Irritating way to have to reorganize your time. It seems like a pretty pleasant new organization, though.

*smooch*

Sailing by before feeding cats! Enjoy your day!!!!!

If you haven't yet, go watch Dylan convert to Nebraskanism:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/V7cTRh9ulGQ

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Sue is hoping to see Jackson tomorrow. We are getting together with the kids and playing outdoor PB. There is a playground right next to it. I am meeting my birding buddies this AM. I have got to slot my birding in somewhere, right? Enjoy your day.

>224 richardderus: It passed pleasantly, RD. *smooch*

>225 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! I hope the kitty feeding(s) went well.

>226 richardderus: OMG. Eggs, cornbread MIX, and Manwich. Words fail me. More surprising than the ingredients is that he likes it. BTW, I’ve already pre-ordered his second book.

>227 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! That’s what you get for being retired – not remembering which day of the week it is. Sometimes I have to figure out what day of the week it is logically. Anyway, Happy Wednesday Saturday to you. Enjoy your BBA. Of course you need to slot the birds in. I hope you see many species and many FOYs. I'm sure Sue's chomping at the bit to play with Jackson tomorrow.

Downy on the suet feeder, Carolina Chickadee on the sunflower seed feeder.

Wordle 1,393 4/6* trope, glare, reuse, nurse

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I filled bird feeders, went through accumulated Blue Cross/Blue Shield and other mailings and shredded most and kept a couple from each source. I staged the little wine rack in the breakfast room to take to the garage. I listened to The Good Lord Bird. I read smut. I brought down 3 books to bag for the Friends - 3 by Charlaine Harris that I bought aeons ago, thinking that I had paperback copies and wanting to upgrade. I realize that I already have hardcovers.

Bill and I watched 2 episodes of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, the season based on The Master of the Moor and starring Colin Firth. It's awfully dated, and we might drop it, although Bill would also like to watch Taggart, and I'm so not wanting to do that. Ugh. 1983-2010, another police procedural, and will also start out awfully dated. I really need to find something else.

No Marple, no Poirot, no cop shows, possibly a PI show but advisedly... help. We're current on Reacher, are waiting for new episodes of Bosch:Legacy.

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Arsenal plays Brentford at 12:30. The world stops during that time. I'm also expecting a call from a friend whose brother just went under hospice care.

I am slowly realizing that I may not probably won't finish The Good Lord Bird by tomorrow at 2 p.m. Sigh. I will give it a good go today. It's entertaining, especially since I'm listening to it.

>228 karenmarie: Happy Saturday! I hope you can just leave while the TV blares.

*smooch*

Hiya, RDear. Happy Saturday to you, too. Bill doesn't blare the TV, but it's always on and if I really concentrate, I can hear it from here in the Sunroom. Upstairs, I do not hear it.

edited to add: Of course, if soccer is on and there's a particularly good goal or play and he loudly cheers on one team or another, I hear that.

*smooch*

Coming out of retreat, I hope. I've done some book-sorting and fighting my way out of clutter. I do suppose I must knuckle down and do those taxes.

>231 weird_O: It's nice to see you here, Bill. Sorting books has to be fun, and I hope that getting rid of clutter makes you as happy as it makes me.

Ugh to taxes. Just, ugh. Good luck.

Wordle 1,394 3/6* trope, cavil, laugh

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For some reason, I decided to clean out two slide-out drawers under the counter in the Utility Room. Got the wine rack to the garage and got all 3 pieces of furniture into the SUV that I'll take to the swap corner at the dump sometime this week. Read, watched Arsenal draw with Brentford. Found next month's book club read - my book - Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet. I guess I ought to actually read that one, right? Alas, I will not get The Good Lord Bird finished before today's 2 p.m. book club meeting.

So, of the 10 members/books in our book club, I will have finished 5 of the 10 books. Sigh. And I was doing so well, too.

We finished watching The Ruth Rendell Mysteries version of The Master of the Moor and are now watching Vanity Dies Hard. Bill was shocked that I have 37 books by Rendell. I've read 19 of them.

...
And today is book club, where I'll have to admit that I didn't finish TGLB. However, four of ten won't be there, and I was planning on going regardless of whether I'd finished it or not, and now it's even more important that I go.

Other than that, reading and puttering. And reading and puttering. *smile*

Wednesday? How in the heck did that happen. My mind must have been drifting as I typed that. LOL.

As usual I had a very nice walk with my birding buddies, enjoying a beautiful early spring morning. I finally got to see a nesting GHO but I could not see the chicks. A FOY for me, along with a hermit thrush. They are migrating through.

Looking forward to hanging with the family this afternoon and getting to enjoy the Grandma/Jack reunion.

Happy Sunday, Karen. Enjoy your day.

>232 karenmarie: A television that is turned on is, by definition, "blaring." Doubly so if it's tuned to westerns or football.

I've got a Kindlebook of The Good Lord Bird but I can't remember why. Enjoy book club this afternoon!

Hi Karen! Sorry to hear your order got cancelled - hopefully nothing will happen to the new order and you’ll be able to enjoy the treadmill soon.

I stopped by on the off chance that you might be back from book club with comments on the comments on *GLB*. Hope it was an invigorating discussion and that the refreshments were yummy!

Karen, just a quick message to say I am thinking of you.

>233 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark! Yay for a good walk with your birding buddies. Fantastic about the nesting GHO. And FOY. Hermit Thrushes are here during non-breeding, but I haven’t seen one to recognize it. My birding activities are mostly watching my feeders and seeing birds on the road as I’m out and about.

Hope the PB and reunion went well.

>234 richardderus: That’s what my mother always said, calling it The Idiot Box. Thanks re book club. I want to finish The Good Lord Bird, especially after the discussion. Books just migrate in to my house, so migrating on to your Kindle are no surprise.

>235 PawsforThought: Hi Paws, and thank you for the same wish that I have – no cancellation, no damage to it when it was delivered, and no problems with set up.

>236 LizzieD: Hello Peggy! I got back around 4:10. Book Club report below.

>236 LizzieD: Thank you, Linda.

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I finalized my grocery list in anticipation of going after book club. I turned right onto Hwy 64 instead of left, so that errand didn't get run.

Book Club was only 5 of us. One of the women had thought she'd be able to come, but her previous event went long.

Two of us loved it, I loved it as far as I read/listened, and want to continue with it. We'll see. Another person read it a long time ago, remembered liking it but didn't remember a single thing about it. Not surprising since she reads voluminously and doesn't retain much. Pretty much her standard comment. The last person liked it, skipped a few pages here and there.

Those of us who commented intelligently on it, and I include myself in this three-person group, said that it was a dense, rich, howlingly funny, and tragic read. Sarah had a few quotes she wanted to share, and I said that I started writing down quotes when I was reading it, but by the time I started listening to it instead realized that almost the entire book would be quotes or portions of scenes so stopped.

We chatted about the author, about how and why he wrote this book, about Deacon King Kong, which is unread and on my shelves. Of course we got around to The Civil War, or as quite a few people down here call it, The War of Northern Aggression. Funnily enough, most major Confederate players called it The Civil War, as did Abraham Lincoln on occasion.

Judy, the woman who was hosting and whose book choice it was, is now living in the kitchen of the plantation house she and her husband bought in the 1970s, along with 500 acres. It's the Alston-Degraffenried Plantation if you want to look it up. Judy and her husband restored it, working closely along with all NC permit granting/historical agencies. She lived in it until about 5 years ago when she moved to what was originally the kitchen, turned into a rental house with the original restoration, and let one of her children/families move into the big house.

We discussed the slaves who built it, papers found in the attic, wills found in the attic, house and property/buildings, the history of the Alston and DeGraffenried familes, and etc. This transitioned into a talk about slavery in general and how NC was actually split in its allegiances during the war. Judy is from Yadkin County, which was one of a few counties that did not pledge allegiance to either side although the state-wide vote in 1861 narrowly voted to join the Confederacy.

We reluctantly wrapped a few minutes before 4. Next meeting is at my house on May 18th. Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet was my choice - I also brought North Woods, but the group preferred this one. I didn't mind too much, otherwise I wouldn't have brought two to choose from.

Bill and I watched the last episode of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries season of Vanity Dies Hard, which sort of seems rather silly now, actually. However, apparently the rest of the seasons available to us are based on the Inspector Wexford series.

...
I'll stop at the pharmacy at about 11:10 in order to pick up some OTC items with my 2nd quarter credit from BCBS, drop off some things at the recycle center's swap shop, then have a chiropractor appointment at 11:45. Grocery shopping after that. I think that's enough for one day. Then, reading, and etc.

>238 karenmarie: It sort of feels like we're stops on a migratory pathway for books, doesn't it. Thousands and thousands of them end up perching in our ambit, waiting patiently (or not) for their time in the eyeline.

It sounds like book club went well, and good conversation was had. I lived in one of the few counties in Texas that did NOT vote for secession. Ironic...I was always going to be a misfit and live in places that were themselves misfits. *smooch*

Hiya, RD. Good analogy. Some catch our eye, some don't. Some circle back later on and then catch our eye, some caught our eye but are now released.

It did go well. The food was okay, but I wasn't terribly hungry since I'd eaten about noon. Except for Stasia (are there any other 75ers from or in Texas who would mind the following?): I wish Texas had seceded from the US after the Civil War or even would now.

I do have a friend whose daughter married a man from Dallas and she lives there with him and their son, but for secession purposes they don't count.

...
Separately, my doctor just called, and no cancer from the procedure last week, which required a biopsy. I saw that there was a test result out there Friday night, but just couldn't handle the idea of what I might see, or as Jenna put it, what I might see but not understand, either positive or negative. Thank goodness he called pretty much as soon as he could this morning.

>240 karenmarie: That's a relief of biblical proportions! Yay!

HOORAY! HOORAY!!!! Live in good health for a long time now, dear Karen!!!!!!!

As to the name of that wrenching conflict, I grew up hearing "The War Between the States." Oh well.

Happy day to you!

Karen, your book club discussion sounds fascinating, especially as you digressed into local history. When we moved to Virginia I was surprised to learn about some pro-Union factions in the northern part of the state, mostly due to an influx of Quakers from Pennsylvania (another bit of history I didn't know about).

Happy Monday, Karen. We had a great family day, yesterday. Good time playing PB and then came back here- for pizza, ice cream cake and to play a few games. The reunion went well, after a moody start. Back to my mini-grind today.

>240 karenmarie: I'm very glad your test results were a confirmation of health, rather than the rather not, positive results.

>240 karenmarie: Glad to hear about the test results!

Happy week ahead.

Just so you'll know, Karen..... We are 2 Wordle Triplets with Jim. Irene came in with a 3 after her 2 yesterday.

I wish you a very good night!!!!

>238 karenmarie: It sounds like your book club had a fascinating discussion yesterday. I don't know how I'd feel living on an old plantation property. And honestly, I've never heard anyone here refer to the Civil War as the War of Northern Agression, even the natives. I guess I haven't been running with the right groups.

>240 karenmarie: Great news about your test results. Hurray!

Yep, Wordle in 3 for me today. I couldn't join you all with a 2 this time.

Thank you Rdear, Peggy, Laura, Susan, Anita, and Irene. I’m so relieved I can hardly stand it.

>242 LizzieD: You ‘just off I-95’ and Judy, who grew up in Yadkin County. Central NC, now that I actually look at a map of NC, although north and south. You with The War Between the States and Judy with The Civil War heard descriptive, rather than emotive ways to call the conflict. Insurrection. War. Or whatever.

>243 lauralkeet: Hi Laura. Oh, it was, and Judy’s knowledge of her house and land were fascinating. I actually did not realize that about Virginia until just now. Well. A rabbit hole of epic proportions for this afternoon or another day. Book sort and Virlie’s and getting cash for the ladies are this morning.

>244 msf59: Hi Mark, and happy Tuesday to you! So glad Sunday was a great family day. Real pizza… ice cream cake… games. One of my ideas of heaven. I got a bit of the games bit in last Sunday playing 6-dice Yahtzee with Jenna. Was the moody start toddler tantrums or truly punishing Grandma for being gone for so long? Sorry about the mini-grind, hope it goes well.

>245 quondame: Confirmation of health. I needed to hear that, Susan. Thank you.

>247 LizzieD: 2 Wordle Triplets??!!?! Sweet. I’ll have to go visit Jim after I return from my fun stuff/errands this morning. I hope you had a good night. I slept pretty well, as you can imagine I would after the good news.

>248 atozgrl: The way Judy and her husband Ken reconciled their feelings with the history of slavery was to honor the slaves was by restoring their work and taking care of the land they lived on. Other than that, they wanted a goodly property to raise his children and their children on. They also sold off quite a bit of the land they had bought in order to pay for the extensive and expensive restoration. Judy's now a widow, but several years ago Judy petitioned whoever the State powers are that control the names of roads to change the street name she lives off of from Plantation Walk to Wagon Trace in order to bury some of the trauma.

Unless you built the house you’re living in, it’s entirely possible that the owner(s) before you were child abusers or the husband beat the wife or the wife beat the husband. Or other crimes against people. The only houses I’ve lived in NC in the almost 34 years I’ve lived in here were either built by Bill or by us.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3.

Wordle 1,396 4/6* trope, abled, apnea, ashen

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Chiropractor, picked up prescriptions for Bill and OTC stuff for myself. Dropped off the stand, the newspaper rack, and the wine rack at the recycle center's swap shop and brought home some adorable small nesting canisters. I'll research them and post the picture today. They may not be ancient, but they're certainly old and in perfect condition.

Nap, dinner, an Inspector Wexford season of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

...
As mentioned above, book sort, Virlie's, and cash for the ladies. Home, happy they'll clean my house, happy they'll be gone.

Morning, Karen. It is damp and chilly here, so I came right home after tending to the kids. I will snuggle up with the books until my afternoon shift. I just spotted 2 juncos in the yard. They are still hanging around. There was also my resident flicker, furiously pecking on the ground.

>249 karenmarie: Our house was owned by one couple before we bought it. The husband, as far as we've learned, didn't get along with any of the neighbors, and seemed to us to be looking to take offense. All I know about the wife is that I deplored her taste. Rather mild vibes, and no bodies have been discovered. Homes built in the last decades of the 20th century can have sparse histories.

>250 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Glad you will snuggle up with the books. Yay for the juncos and the flicker. I can't see the ground under the feeders from where I sit here in the Sunroom, but know there are quite a few ground feeders. There's a holly bush close by where they can take refuge. I saw a hummingbird at the feeder last night.

>251 quondame: Hi Susan. You're right about sparse histories, of course. In SoCal I lived in a bungalow in Inglewood, but can't remember anything of those times. Moved to Hawthorne in 1955 where Mom and Dad bought a tract house. There was a neighborhood tragedy there that I've been told about but don't remember. A woman named Mary, who lived one across and one down from us, committed suicide by walking into the ocean ... 1957? ... I also remember stories of her running around the neighborhood naked. Her husband and daughter moved away quickly, and I remember several other sets of neighbors in that house.

Moved to a new house in 1967, then eventually my boyfriend and I bought a house built in 1937 in Tujunga on the Sunland side in 1987. Broke up, sold that one, then after a stint in an apartment in Glendale, I bought a house built in 1953, also in Tujunga but on the Altadena side, in 1989 but sold it in 1991 to move here. The house my sister and her awful husband bought in Rialto was also built in 1953. I have lived other places - several places in CT, two of them old mansions made into apartments.

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Book sort was fun and draining. I got a lovely and strange book for myself - Wah'Kon-
Tah. No DJ, but a 1932 First Edition. From Amazon:The first book by this Osage writer, a history of his tribe and an account of life on the reservation during the tenure of its first federal Indian agent, Major Laban J. Miles, whose journal entry recounting his coming to the Osage reservation provides the book's introduction. An early book in Oklahoma's "Civilization of the American Indian" series. Illustrated by May Todd Aaron with woodcuts and mapped endpapers.


Brought home a 1955 edition of Pictorial History of the Jewish People. I already have the 1953 edition on my shelves, so this one goes to friend Karen. Brought home a SourceBooks Casablanca trade paperback of False Colours by Georgette Heyer in case I didn't already have it on my shelves, but I already did and my copy stays there and this one goes back. Reception in the sort room is not always the best, so couldn't check my catalog there.

There were 8 of us at Virlie's, so had a lot of fun. The cleaning ladies came and went. I watched a bit of a Champions League match, but quickly lost interest when it turned into a rout. Bill and I watched a two-parter on The Ruth Rendell Mysteries. Meh.

...
Nothing planned for today except for the Arsenal Real Madrid Qtr-final match in Madrid. Their stadium holds 78K and was built in 1947. That's at 3 p.m.

Otherwise, Reading, spreadsheets and Lightning Round. I'm drifting around a bit - shifters and a romance between a mechanic and a cop. A lovely rom-com by Jax Calder over the weekend, too.

I need to fill one feeder and replace the sugar water in the hummingbird feeder.

>249 karenmarie: Unless you built the house you’re living in, it’s entirely possible that the owner(s) before you were ...

We're friends with a couple who live about a mile down the road. Only recently did he tell us that when they were about to move here with a young daughter (~10 years ago), they checked the sex offender registry and found someone at our address. This would have been one of the previous owners or their son. Ewww.

Further back in time, census records for our 1791 farmhouse indicate there were 3 enslaved people living here. And yet the owner's cousin was an ardent abolitionist. Imagine their Thanksgiving dinners ...

>252 karenmarie: Fascinating books! I hope you find some interesting new ones often.

*smooch*

>252 karenmarie: Once I moved to LA I lived in apartments, two pre-WWII with quirks, but 3 pretty ordinary post WWII, though I fondly remember the understairs spaces of the last one.
The most interesting house I lived in was a large craftsman style 2 blocks west of UCB. The 3 large rooms on the north side of the first floor had been converted to an apartment where a rather reclusive bachelor was probably milking a remittance into late middle age when he got a job at Berkeley Hardware down the corner. There were 6 bedrooms of various sizes on the second floor and 3 more rooms, 2 usable on the 3rd. I only officially lived there during the summer of 70, but was actually there about 18 months. My mailing address was the next building to the south where I had a dismal ground floor apartment and a very neglected roommate who didn't appreciate the privacy.

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. Not a whole lot to report on my end. I plan on meeting Bree somewhere in the middle to scoop up Jackson. I will hang out with him until Sue gets home after work. Robins and grackles in the backyard and I am still seeing juncos.

>253 lauralkeet: Ewww is right, Laura. Sex offenders and slave owners. However, you and Chris have only brought happiness and renewed purpose to that house. If houses could hum in contentment, I bet yours would.

Those Thanksgivings might have resembled current Thanksgivings where followers of the chaos demon and Muskolini have been invited to share with, or have invited to share with, people who voted for someone who wouldn’t start destroying our democracy.

>254 richardderus: Some book sorts are more interesting than others, RD. Our donations are interesting when we get donations from seniors downsizing their libraries, family members donating books from a deceased senior, or, as frequently happens here, professors from UNC Chapel Hill or their families donating books in their area of expertise. We also get a lot of nonfiction books – family/self help (only keep if published less than 4 years ago), foreign language, history/biography/memoir/informational nonfiction, science, nature, hobbies, business, sports, and travel. I think those are all the nonfiction categories… *smooch*

>255 quondame: Sad that the Craftsman got converted, but glad you got to live there, Susan. The first mansion was where my friend Marie and her husband lived. They had an upstairs apartment that was originally a bedroom and sitting room with a large bathroom added in the 1930s. I stayed with them until I found a job waitressing and got an apartment at what we called The Happy Hempstead Homestead, an apartment in the second converted mansion that was in the back, downstairs on the right. I shared the bathroom with the couple who lived in the front apartment. I’ve never been able to figure out what the original purpose of my rooms was, but I had a nice large living room, reasonably-sized bedroom, shotgun modernish kitchen. Tall ceilings, high baseboards. Don’t remember if there was crown molding or not.

Summer of 70 I was getting ready to start my senior year of high school and lived at my parents house.

>256 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Sweet Thursday to you. A Jackson Day is always good, right? Although it's work, I'm glad to see that Sue is well enough to go back to work or fully recovered. Juncos, Robins, and Grackles are all wonderful to see.

Wordle 1,398 4/6* trope, ghost, stool, stood

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We were thrilled to see Arsenal beat Real Madrid 2-1, for an aggregate of 5-1, so they’re in the semi-finals. They’ll play Paris Saint-Germain on April 29th and May 7th.

We’re still watching The Ruth Rendell Mysteries but it’s still meh. There are quite a few words or phrases I get that Bill doesn’t – chalk it up to my serious reading of British mysteries over the decades. 6.5 hours straight sleep.

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The treadmill is still scheduled to be delivered today with ‘deluxe delivery and assembly’. Other than that, filling or topping off the bird feeders, puttering, reading, and a few final things to move around or out of the way in order to get the treadmill box safely into the Library for setup. Oh, and wear clothes not jammies, starting at 10 a.m. *smile*

>257 karenmarie: Actual clothes! Heavens, you'd think those delivery people are important somehow.

I was never a Ruth Rendell fan. I never liked the chill, the detachment, of her lead characters. Never felt they were anything but constructs as a result. I tried watching The Agatha Christie Hour and, like reading her books anymore, found the gender politics too appalling to ignore. Weird how fifteen years ago I simply did not notice them. I guess that's what growth looks like...?

Happy Thursday, sweetiedarling.

Here's the Easter readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/370178

>258 richardderus: Hi RD! Clothes seemed like a friendly gesture. They came, they assembled, they left.



My favorite by Rendell, hands down, is A Judgment in Stone. I'd keep the books I have by her on my shelves simply to keep that one company.

I've never been able to watch anything by Agatha Christie without wanting to hit something, but I have a sentimental and intellectual liking for the books. Except for Tuppence and Tommy for some reason. I keep the five books about them on my shelves simply because they're part of the set my mother gave me. I also keep a couple of others that are not crime fiction that I also keep for the same reason.

>259 SilverWolf28: Hi Silver, and thank you!

...
So here's a question. I've been considerating the consolidation of fantasy and SF under the tag 'speculative fiction'. I've already consolidated suspense, thriller, and mystery under the tab 'crime fiction'.

Any thoughts? I do realize there is a difference, but for purposes of my collection I don't think it makes that much difference since it's such a small subset of my catalog.

>260 karenmarie: I guess clothes are a friendly gesture, looked at in a certain light. I myownself refuse anything more restrictive than sweats. Maybe I wouldn't greet King Charles that way, but even that is subject (!) to in-the-moment alteration.

SF as "speculative fiction" makes All the sense in the world to me. Being precious about subgenres is for young people who still have the illusion that control is possible. The ones who fantasize that control of others is good will have to learn the hard, painful way how that plays out.

>260 karenmarie: Your books, your system. It's you it has to work for.

>260 karenmarie: >262 quondame: I'd agree with that. Mind you, my fiction shelves are categorised 'fiction' and that's it! :D (non-fic shelves are a bit more ordered, but fiction is just 'those shelves over there'. The closest I've got to sorting the shelves are 'read' and 'unread').

>263 Jackie_K: Our bookshelves are categorized as space to put books. The paperback wall is mostly sorted by author/title, and is mostly SF, but that's mostly what we bought.

>260 karenmarie: Have ya taken it for a walk?

>260 karenmarie: How handsome!!! I'm very glad that you didn't have to wait all day for them. Enjoy!!!!

Speak not to me of categorizing bookshelves. I know in general terms where quite a number of my books are likely to be. For a practitioner of the RANDOM like me, that's enough.
Enjoy the rest of your evening, (((((Karen)))))!

Hi Karen. I'm stopping by to see how you are feeling today. I send all good wishes for a healthy life!

>260 karenmarie: Now that's a great service- delivery and set up! All ready to go. Hope you enjoy the new treadmill .

I think that there is nothing wrong with using 'speculative fiction' tag. It's a good idea.

Happy weekend!

>261 richardderus: I don’t own a pair of sweats right now. The ones I had became too large so I got rid of them. I guess having a pair isn’t such a bad idea. As to meeting King Charles, I’d much rather meet William or, even better, Harry. And all 5 of their children, of course.

Being that I’m not young, I changed my tags fantasy and SF over to speculative fiction yesterday evening.

>262 quondame: I made it happen last night, Susan. Theoretically I could change back to two tags, because I recently downloaded my catalog as an Excel spreadsheet.

A long time ago in LT time, I got complaints about how I used tags from The Tag Police, who complained that my tag kph skewed things. Harrumph and bad cess to them.

>263 Jackie_K: Hi Jackie! I’ve got things tagged fiction, nonfiction, reference. I also have abandoned, read, ssh (shelf space honor – don’t plan on reading them), and tbr. You could always tag your fiction ‘those shelves over there’. *smile*

>264 quondame: As long as you can find what you need when you need it, it’s all good, right?

>265 weird_O: Not yet, Bill, and it’s now been almost 18 hours since it’s been set up. I just brought the quick start guide, manual, and spare parts/allen and Phillips head screwdrivers into the Sunroom and am looking at them. I shall get at least the quick start menual before I use it. There are also Spanish and French manuals. I got up on it and looked at the display. Best not to rush into these things…

>266 LizzieD: Hi Peggy, and thank you.

I like RANDOM, too. We both have location tags, although mine are more specific than yours. If a book has been read, it’s most likely upstairs in the Retreat. However, my Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, Bibles, and etc. are in the Library. I put books on shelves mostly by height, mixing fiction and nonfiction, old and new, and etc. I can find where all books by a particular author are by searching. I can also physically find the book by searching for the title. I do have a small percent of books that are MIA, as it were, but quite a few of those are in a box or two I have on the Media Room stairs or in the Media Room itself.

>267 Whisper1: Hi Linda, and thank you Except for my lower back, I’m mostly pain-free. I have a full spine MRI on May 1st, and my doctor and I will figure out what to do after that.

>268 figsfromthistle: It couldn’t have gone better, actually, Anita. All ready to go, and I will christen it today. Thanks re the speculative fiction tag, and happy weekend to you, too.

Wordle 1,399 4/6* trope, glare, surge, dirge

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Treadmill, reading, puttering, and etc. I had a fine evening. I read and napped from 4-6 upstairs, talking with Jenna on her way home from work. I had dinner, and watched yesterday's Inter/Dortmund quarter-final match with Bill. It was rather boring, actually, compared with the Arsenal/Real Madrid match, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

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Today's a busy one. I will christen the treadmill. I will meet two women I used to work with for lunch, then go to the new Goodwill Store that I keep forgetting to go to. Major excitement, eh? I have a prescription to pick up via drive-through on the way to 3 p.m.'s PT appointment, then home for some upstairs napping/reading before 6ish.

I'm going to see if Bill will agree to try Apple TV. They have a 3-mo/$2.99 per month offer, and then it would be $9.99. I'm interested in Ted Lasso and Slow Horses.

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday. Hooray for the new treadmill. Let us know how the christening goes. I am not much doing much today, just trying to shake the rest of this virus. I enjoyed both Ted Lasso and Slow Horses, so I say pull the trigger.

>269 karenmarie: I think you'll get the most out of Apple TV if you can talk him into it, sweetiedarling. Slow Horses alone might convince him, it's got so much good buzz. I myownself don't see Ted Lasso's appeal, but....

Have a fun day out, too. I'm so pleased the weather here's turned sunshiney. It's on the warm side but not weirdly so. I won't be going out to enjoy it much but it looks very pretty.

>269 karenmarie: Tag police? There is someone/something monitoring tags?

My way of finding books other than on my two upstairs shelves is to pose it as an indirect query to my husband, who has thus far always located the volume in question though he claims, and has amply demonstrated, a comprehensively bad memory for events past and future. I sometimes know a book is shelved in his study on the paperback shelves, but there is an array of flotsam washed up against them that has deterred me from attempts at retrieval.

That's my question too, Susan. Good grief!!!!

Hope you sleep well after having enjoyed a busy day - with treadmill!

>270 msf59: ‘Morning the next day, Mark! Happy Saturday to you. I hope you were able to continue to shake off ‘this virus’. Thanks for the feedback on both shows.

It's just getting to be dawn, and although I see a bird-shaped lump or two in the Crepe Myrtle, I cannot identify the lumps. My feeders once again need serious attention.

>271 richardderus: Hiya RD. The appeal of Ted Lasso for me, obviously, would be soccer/Premier League. Thanks re my outing. The weather was gorgeous for sure. Way too hot, of course, since it got to 79F. Today’s supposed to be 84F.

>272 quondame: I use the term metaphorically, Susan. However, I got called out rather early on in my LT career because I use the tag ‘kph’ for my books, which is currently being used 6,223 times. I just spent about 10 minutes looking for that thread but can’t find it.

I had to defend my use of tags the way I wanted to use them by asking in July of 2009 if I had to keep my ER books in my Library in order to have reviews count towards my ability to continue to receive ER books. The amount of irritation, judgment, almost vitriol and implication of control was staggering. Here’s that thread, although it doesn’t directly address my use of the tag ‘kph’. I was given to understand that my not using Collections was just plain stubborn and irrational.

Why I didn’t use Collections in 2009 and why I still don’t use them in 2025

I think RichardDear has run into “This is how you should use LT” recently (late last year or this year?) and just kept going on his merry way, regardless of the “Should”ers.

I’m sorry your tag-equivalent husband’s memory is not 100% accurate. My equivalent to ‘husband’s memory’ is a series of tags that have TBFound in them, currently at 2.5%, a high. However, there are several boxes of books whose location tag didn’t get switched to that box number, so I have high hopes of reducing that %. In fact, I might make the time to look at the boxes of books I have on the Media Room stairs and actually in the Media Room and see if there's a tag for that box.

>273 LizzieD: Hi Peggy! No official tag police, and I will keep continuing to try to find the pushback I got for using tag ‘kph’.

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Yesterday was productive and fun. The productive was using the treadmill for the first time. it was only for 5 minutes, but I haven't used a treadmill since the week before my May 2, 2024 right knee replacement surgery, so am easing back into it as I did after my left knee replacement surgery in 2023.

I had lunch with my former coworkers/current sporadic friends, which was good. We got caught up on each others' lives and things relating to other of our coworkers. I then drove up to the new Goodwill north of Pittsboro but south of Chapel Hill. Extremely disappointing, frankly, with just a few shelves, not grouped in any meaningful way. I saw and resisted four leaded-crystal wine glasses. They were gorgeous and only $1.99 each, but I have, at a minimum, 3 dozen wine glasses, 12 of them leaded, and some of them etched, in addition to the everyday sort. Nothing else that captured my attention, but I might go there again sometime if I'm in the mood to look for clothes. Probably 75% of their floor space was dedicated to clothes.

Picked up a prescription and hung around a bit before going into my PT appointment. Home again by 4:15, upstairs to read/take a nap, then downstairs for dinner and two episodes of Bosch:Legacy. I think I got around 6 hours of sleep.

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Nothing on tap for today except for replenishing my bird feeders, reading, treadmill, puttering. Arsenal plays tomorrow at 9 a.m. Bill will be watching soccer most of the day. I may or may not make dinner.

>274 karenmarie: We’ll, I’m happy to say I’ve never been the victim of the LT police in regards to how I use the site (though I have had pushback when I’ve made suggestions for change or explained how I do things, which is different).
On the contrary, I’ve mostly come across people fiercely defending everyone’s right to use tags however they please. I personally don’t really use tags (only to order series because series don’t work how I want them to) but I really don’t see how it’s anyone else’s business how you use tags. Unless it’s a book that basically no one else has tagged, it won’t matter if you add a tag that someone else thinks is “incorrect” because it will most likely be hidden due to low use.

>274 karenmarie: A good treadmilling to atone for the sin of gossiping sounds warranted. I must say the way they left the object in its space is exemplary.

The Shouldrs are a constant on every social site. I suspect some significant fraction of them are agitators looking to sow division and distrust because it works. My best effort at resistance is simply not engaging or changing. Factual errors I want to know about; what you think I should do, no. If I need advice or assistance I'll ask for it.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. I am meeting my birding buddies very soon. Cool and damp at the moment but we are hoping to see some new arrivals. Sue had a great day with Jack yesterday. She got her fix. I had 2 female red-wing blackbirds at the feeders yesterday.

I confess, (((((Karen))))), that I don't know what kph means for you or for them, but I'll be interested to read your link about collections. Agitators! It obviously falls in the "Whom cares?" category for me.

I had no idea it had been a year since you've been on a treadmill. I applaud your going and going easy!

Leaded crystal wine glasses, wow! If you ever go back and they're still there (Ha!), get them for me please! (It's not as though I need them either.)

Enjoy your day!

>275 PawsforThought: Hi Paws. Push back for suggestions IS different, granted. I’m a very stubborn person, as most folks here already know about me. I use tags and don’t use Collections. In my RL book club, I do not read the book I’ve chosen prior to the month before my hosting. We had a gaggle of newbies in 2002 and some time after they joined that year I started hearing the ‘rule’ about having to have read the book prior to choosing it. Nope. Not then, not now.

>276 richardderus: Wash was on the treadmill this morning, scoping it out while I was reading Ferocious about Rowan and Charlie. *smile* I admit to being passive-aggressive by not engaging and/or not changing. *smooch*

>277 msf59: ‘Afternoon, Mark! Happy Saturday to you, too. I hope your birding buddy adventure was fun. Glad Sue had such a good day with Jack. Oooh, Red-Wing Blackbirds. They always please me.

>278 LizzieD: (((((Peggy))))), kph are my initials. Once upon a time I was going to add all Jenna’s and Bill’s books, so would also have had fwh and jmh. I just looked, and I have 6 books that are tagged fwh and none tagged jmh. Theoretically, I could get rid of the tag kph, but there’s no real need to and I’m so used to adding it.

One of the books that is Bill’s is Get A Life! by William Shatner. It’s Easton Press, and is a signed first edition.

I knew as soon as I left that I should have bought those wine glasses. If I had, they’d be on their way to you on Monday. Sigh.

Hello Karen and happy Easter weekend. The treadmill looks good, easing into use sounds reasonable. Happy reading!

>279 karenmarie: Hi Horrible! I'm not sure I ever knew that Shatner coined "get a life!" before now. I also don't remember the first time I ever heard it, since it seems so universally useful and apt that it might as well be the Grail Poet who coined it.

Iiinteresting how one's mind does its work. I *know* when gay became the word for me and my brethren but honestly don't recall the first time I heard that either. Stay sane until you get your fix of hot boys in short shorts tomorrow!

>274 karenmarie: Having strong opinions about the way in which things should work I nevertheless abhor shoulders. My own systems are breached as often as enforced, and I adore that so much of what I want to send my eyes over is on the Kindle and so easy to find from my recliner.

I am happy to include all loaned and borrowed reads. The question of whether I've read a book, or any book by an author, comes up often enough in my life that having easy access to the answer is wonderful. Not to mention that the largest percentage of titles read are library loans.

Oh for pity's sake! KPH, of course!!! Maybe the lower case letters threw me, or maybe I'm just slow.

I went back and read the thread for the great tag debate. Again, you explained very clearly that you knew what you were doing and understood alternatives. What I don't understand is why people take that as some kind of personal challenge or attack. WHY would you or anybody else care what they think about your method????
I'll let it go, but I'm flummoxed.

(Believe me, I do not need four other wine glasses.) Enjoy your evening. I'm off to feed the cats! *grin*

>249 karenmarie: Unless you built the house you’re living in, it’s entirely possible that the owner(s) before you were child abusers or the husband beat the wife or the wife beat the husband. Or other crimes against people.
That is certainly true. Fortunately, it doesn't apply to our house. Where we live was a new subdivision under construction when we were house hunting. We were able to pick out our lot and the house model we wanted, so we are the only people who have lived here so far. I really hadn't thought about that for any of the houses we lived in when I was growing up.

>260 karenmarie: I am personally picky over whether something is science fiction or fantasy, but that is neither here nor there when it comes to your library. Use whatever terms work best for you. Especially in this case where it doesn't amount to a large part of your collection.

>274 karenmarie: How bizarre about the "tag police." I thought tags were specifically for the purpose of LTers using them however they wanted. It's for your own personal library after all.

Hurray for the treadmill arriving, getting set up, and you using it. It's so nice you won't have to go out to use a treadmill. Like Peggy, I didn't realize it had been so long.

We had nice weather most of this week, but today was hot AND humid. Blech!

>281 richardderus: I saw the episode of SNL where Shatner told the Star Trek fans at the (SNL recreated) Star Trek convention to "Get a life." I am sure he did not originate that phrase, it was just shocking to some that he directed it at supposed Star Trek nerds. Being one of those myself, I didn't take any offense. I thought it was funny.

>284 atozgrl: How cool to remember such a major moment in fan culture! I must've been in my "no TV at all" years or I'd've seen it or at least known about it, Irene. Sorry about y'all's weather.
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Sunday orisons, Horrible, have a treadmilly day! *smooch*

Morning, Karen. Happy Easter. Good times yesterday with my birding buddies, despite it being damp and chilly. We scored another GHO and I added a couple more FOY birds, like the rusty blackbird.

We are going to Bree's for the holiday dinner. This will include Sean's family. We hope Matt joins us. He doesn't care for big groups and I don't blame him. Enjoy the day, my friend.

>280 elorin: Hi Robyn, and thank you. The same to you. Thanks re my treadmill. Lots of good reading happening, too.

>281 richardderus: Hiya, RD. Looks like Shatner didn’t coin the phrase, but he popularized it in a SNL sketch. First documented use is supposedly in a WaPo article from January 1983, and then in a book called Baby Anger in 1986, then the SNL sketch in 1986.

I don’t know when I first heard the term gay used for not straight people. Wasn’t it first also used for lesbians? All LGBTQ+ people? Or am I misremembering things.

Yes. My hot boys in shorts play at 9 a.m. against Ipswich Town.

>282 quondame: Library loans and borrowed reads and audio visual materials in catalogs work for most people, granted. That’s one of the beauties of LT – the freedom to use it the way YOU want to use it. That’s why the Should-ers make me crazy.

>283 LizzieD: *smile* Yes. KPH, kph. I was flummoxed about the unhappiness over my use of the kph tag, the thread which I still can’t find. Okay. I will not search out the wine glasses for you. Or myself.

>284 atozgrl: Hello Irene! We have some friends who bought land in a subdivision three years ago, chose one of the approved builders and floor plans, then went through hell with the builder, the HOA, and etc. before finally getting their house built and moving in. My HOA is 15 owners. We like it like that. Even there, some people want to control things beyond the scope of what the Covenants say with what’s stupid, irrational, and controlling, and Stepford-wife-ish.

Like you said, I don’t own enough of either subgenre to make combining into ‘speculative fiction’ more than a small blip that’s important only to me.

See below re use of tags. Thanks re my treadmill. Hot definitely continues today, high of 86F.

>285 richardderus: ‘Morning, RDear. Sunday orisons back at’cha. *smooch*

>286 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and Happy Easter to you, too! Or, for me, Happy Candy Day, not being Christian. I know lots of folks were up for early, early services, but friend Karen in Montana is grateful that her church has 9 a.m. before-services breakfast/fellowship then services.

Glad you had a good time with your BBs, scored another GHO, and got a few FOY birds. Apparently Rusty Blackbirds are here in NC during non-breeding season. I've never seen one to recognize it. And, from alllaboutbirds.org : Rusty Blackbird is one of North America’s most rapidly declining species. The population has plunged an estimated 85-99 percent over the past forty years and scientists are completely puzzled as to what is the cause. They are relatively uncommon denizens of wooded swamps, breeding in the boreal forest and wintering in the eastern U.S. In winter, they travel in small flocks and are identified by their distinctive rusty featheredges and pallid yellow eyes.

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Fangirling: One of the most important things about this website for me, since I found it and joined in October of 2007, is that Tim and his team have created a safe and vigorous and intelligent space that follows a few simple, kind, and rigorously-enforced rules.

LibraryThing Privacy and Terms of Service

and, useful stuff:

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Yesterday was reading, puttering, using the treadmill, but not replenishing the bird feeders, not making dinner.

Bill, based on the info I gave him that Apple TV had a 3-months for $2.99 then $9.99 ongoing special and me wanting to watch Ted Lasso and Slow Horses, easily joined for us through my Prime account.

On NOT Apple TV, we watched what is currently the last-episode ever of Bosch:Legacy, but you never know.

We then watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso and were completely entranced. Love, love, love it! Bill is thrilled at something or another about how it was filmed or how it's being streamed, the particulars of which I don't undertand and don't interest me. *smile*

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Arsenal vs. Ipswich Town at 9 a.m., reading, puttering, treadmilling. Filling bird feeders, maybe boneless/skinless chicken thighs for dinner, researching Hasselback potatoes.

Sounds like a happy day, Karen!

We will have BLT sandwiches today before our lettuce bolts. We are also enjoying our huge bucket of local strawberries. I wish I could get some to you.

>287 karenmarie: “We then watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso and were completely entranced. Love, love, love it!”

I am so glad to hear you say that! I just finished up a rewatch of the whole series, which I love to pieces. I catch new things every time I view it, and treasure the old things.

Did you know there will be a fourth season coming?

I should go check out Slow Horses. I’ll put it on my list.

Karen O

>287 karenmarie: oooo you'll love hasselback taters! The texture's just nummy.

I hope Arsenal got the job done for you. I'm pretty solidly indifferent but for your sake I'll offer up prayers. You certainly seem to have transferred your fandom to Ted Lasso readily enough!

I hope they give Titus Welliver more work...he's a great Bosch.

Sunday *smooch*

As a citizen of the nation that invented Hasselback potatoes, I feel duty bound to offer my services regarding any searches or information (thought they’re super easy to make).

>288 LizzieD: It was a happy day, Peggy. Yay for pre-bolt lettuce. Local strawberries sound wonderful. I saw a stand with strawberries when I was out the other day, but didn’t stop. I could have and should have.

>289 klobrien2: Hi Karen! We’ve re-watched several series several times so I completely understand rewatching Ted Lasso. I’m happy that there will be a fourth season. And we’re definitely going to watch Slow Horses after we finish Ted Lasso.

>290 richardderus: Hiya, RD! They came out nummy. I could have used less EVOO, believe it or not.

Arsenal beat Ipswich Town 4-0. It made us happy.

Titus Welliver is the perfect Harry Bosch. I hope they get another season even though it’s supposedly cancelled.

*smooch*

>291 PawsforThought: Hi Paws. I thought you either lived in the Very Snow Parts of Canada, or somewhere Very Snowy in Europe. Sweden. The potatoes required a bit of time cutting, of course, but I used two wooden spoons with the same handle diameter to cut them. Followed the directions on the recipe I found online, and I was more than pleased with the result.

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As mentioned above, Arsenal beat Ipswich Town 4-0. I made Air Fryer Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs and Hasselback Potatoes. There are enough leftovers for dinner tonight.



I filled all 5 bird feeders.

We watched three episodes of Ted Lasso. They are so engrossing that we blink when one ends.

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I'm picking up friend Rhoda to take her to the Friends Board Meeting, which is at 10. When I take her home, she is springing for lunch at Galloway Ridge, then I'll meander on home.

Otherwise reading, and etc.

>292 karenmarie: I do live in the very snowy parts of Europe known as northern Sweden. For next time, the tip I’ll give you is to put the potato in the wooden spoon instead of between spoon. That’s how we always do it. Glad you liked them - they’re a staple in my family when we want to make something that feels fancy but doesn’t require that much effort.

Morning, Karen. We had a nice holiday dinner with the family. I hope you had a Happy Candy Day. Thanks for the info on rusty blackbirds. I didn't realize they were in decline, although nothing should surprise me. They are nice looking birds. Not sure if they are feeder birds. Probably not.

Tending to the kids this AM and then PB. Cloudy and about 60F today. It starts warming up nice tomorrow, just in time for my bird walk. Looking forward to playing back outside.

>292 karenmarie: ...too...much...EVOO...
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...it *looks* like English...the end result looks great, Horrible. It's a faff with the knife, I grant you, but the lovely texture of the base's skin is *chef's kiss*

Monday orisons, sweetiedarling.

Morning, Karen. I am leading a bird walk today and fortunately it will be a decent AM. Chllly right now at 40F but should creep into the 50s on the walk, with plenty of sunshine. It is supposed to reach 70F later. Hope I can find some birds for this eager group. 🤞🤞

I just mixed up the nectar for the hummingbird feeder. 😀

>293 PawsforThought: I like that tip, Paws. Thank you. I will definitely be making them again. I don’t have a lot of time this morning, but while looking at a climate map of northern Sweden, I see that it’s sub-arctic with a bit of tundra along the west coast.

>294 msf59: ‘Morning Mark! I’m glad the family dinner was nice. Yay for PB and bird walks. I just saw a Tufted Titmouse, a male Cowbird, a male Cardinal, and a few finches. Otherwise the feeders are empty.

>295 richardderus: I know… like butter, there can never be too much EVOO. Oh yes, that crunchy, crispy bit, the creamy fans. *smooch*

>296 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, and happy Tuesday. I’m glad you’ll have good weather for the bird walk. I hope you see many species and FOY birds. Yay for hummingbird nectar.

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I had a great time chatting with Rhoda on our way to the Library for the Friends Board meeting. The meeting was productive but really long. Unfortunately, the major topic- the federal and state thread to Libraries - was top of the docket. We also reviewed 3rd quarter/YTD financials. Rhoda and I went back to Galloway Ridge and met her husband at their very fine cafeteria. They treated me to lunch. Home, reading, and etc. More episodes of Ted Lasso, leftovers, bed.

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Sigh. I'm getting that dratted molar extracted at 10 a.m. No food, no beverages. Since I'm a baby, I'm having them put me under. I hope to be home by about noon unless they're running behind, although I hope they aren't already THAT far behind. Color me cranky and stressed. Bill's taking me, waiting, bringing me home.

>297 karenmarie: Yes, we are in the sub-arctic zone. Despite the northern latitude (about the same as Alaska), our climate is fairly similar to that of southern Canada/northern contiguous US - thank you Gulf Stream.

Sorry about the fast before molar extraction. I'm the opposite to you regarding being put under - if it's possible to get something done under just local anaesthesia, I'll go with that. My cheek swelled up when I had my molar pulled and I looked like a one-sided hamster. I hope you don't get that - although it went back down again fairly early.

>297 karenmarie: "Cranky and stressed" are simply the normal and natural responses to having strangers poking around in your mouth with sharp things and forceps.

I hope it's as boringly uneventful as such a bodily insult can be. *smooch*

Hi Karen. I'm still sorting books (I bet you're surprised by that), but as you know, a growing library must be tended it. And I 'tend to tend to it.

I seem to have been swept into the borg-like medical empire. I was seen by a cardiologist Saturday morning, and now I'm working through the wickets that are sooo sticky. Get a blood pressure gadget, for example. Not on drug store shelves, but present in the supermarket. If anyone can sympathize, it's you. I'd say you know these ropes.

Reading is going pretty well, though I haven't segregated enough time for.

Well, pip pip! :-)

Hi all. Will reply to your messages later today.

Everything went fine, I'm back home in jammies and going upstairs to sleep and read.

I also need to create a new thread later today.

>301 karenmarie: Jammies and sleep seem like efficient antidotes to dental extractions. Have a good nap and wake up ready to keep going.

>298 PawsforThought: Yay for the Gulf Stream. We loved a movie called The Day After Tomorrow about the effects of the failure of the Gulf Stream. Dennis Quaid walked through his role, but Jake Gyllenhaal and others all did fine work.

Wow, just local anaesthesia. I’m impressed, the one-sided hamster effect aside. Once again, they were all cheery and I wasn’t. When the second Oral Surgeon and the nurse asked me why I was so stressed – and this was after they said everybody’s stressed when they come to the office, I just decided to say “severe childhood trauma” and left it at that. I’m a tad swollen on the left side.

That childhood trauma includes a dentist putting his knee in my chest when I was about 9 or so to pull a tooth. It was not my regular childhood dentist but in the same office. They usually had to drag me into the office kicking and screaming, not a good look, and it had to been really hard on my mother.

>299 richardderus: It was uneventful, RD, thank goodness. *smooch*

>300 weird_O: Sorting books is so much fun! Tend to that book garden.

I like my cardiologist and am confident in her abilities after our most recent discussion that my syncope in September was NOT due to meds in her opinion. She then explained what she saw in the limited echocardiogram they took then, and although I didn’t understand the medical jargon, I did understand that SHE understood the medical jargon. I hope your cardiologist makes you feel comfortable and attended to by someone who knows their stuff.

I have an OMRON BP7100. I use it about twice a week these days. Sorry about the sticky wickets, I hope you can get one paid for by insurance AND that’s easy to use. I do not use the Bluetooth stuff to record stuff and send it to the cardiologist’s office, but your mileage may vary.

More reading! Less stuff not related to books!

>302 quondame: Hey Susan! I’m downstairs and icepacked with a cute little scarf-like thingie that velcros around my head and puts the cold exactly where it’s needed.

I’m contemplating some chicken broth with orzo for dinner. So far I’ve eaten some ice cream.

New thread being set up – give me a few minutes and come on down!

>303 karenmarie: I've seen The Day After Tomorrow. I was not a fan ( I refer to it as one of the most inaccurate films ever made).

I prefer staying awake so that I know what's happening (hello, control issues) - having people doing things that I'm not aware of terrifies me.
Sorry about the dentist from your childhood being so ruthless with you - that's awful! I was lucky and only had good dentists as a kid so no trauma.

Hi Paws.

I usually have to suspend belief when I watch movies, so I didn't delve into the true science of it. I went more for the emotional stuff, except that Dennis Quaid fake emoted. Or, as Dorothy Parker said about Katherine Hepburn:

Which calls to mind the latest sweetly venomous remark of Miss Dorothy Parker anent Miss Hepburn (the Miss Hepburn principally of the lamentable “Christopher Strong”). It was delivered as Miss Parker swept or lolled recently into a cocktail party:

“Come,” she said, “let’s all go to see Miss Hepburn and hear her run the gamut of emotions from A to B!”

from this article - I pulled the source I liked the best: Emotions from A to B quote

I frequently have control issues, fewer now that I'm almost 72. I am happy to give up control to someone I trust who manages a visit with any doctor/hospital/dentist and to those doctors/hospitals/dentists who've proven to me that I can trust them. I've vetoed various and sundry in the past and one whose continued care I vetoed quite recently.

>305 karenmarie: Aw, both Dorothy Parker and Katharine Hepburn are among my favourites!

I love them both, too. Hepburn mostly for her 1930s and 1940s comedies, although I love The African Queen and her book The Making of The African Queen.