2026*2: Lizzie's out of the game but still keeping score

********************

It might as well be SPRING
(The last crocus that my DH's mother planted here decades ago)****Our old rosemary blooming this year

Since other people introduce themselves anew, I guess I will too. I'm happily retired for 18½ years after a working life of exploring the accepted careers for women in the mid-60s through the aughties. (Well, I never tried to be a nurse; I would have fainted during the first procedure.) I have directed the education in a church, done AFDC casework, gone back to school to get a teacher's certification, taught in the county school system, taught private piano lessons, and finally taught high school English and Latin in our local high school.

My DH and I have been married for 55 years and are enjoying year 56. We walk every day unless the weather is awful or medical appointments take precedence. Those walks kept me sane while I taught and while I cared for my dear mother, who died almost two years ago at 102. We have somehow acquired 7 indoor cats, and they take up a lot of our day. I retired to read but somehow seem to have less and less time although that doesn't prevent my adding to my library. There. That's more than enough.

OPEN FOR READING IN MAY


I'm not dipping into and out of Courting India or my old companion Life: A User's Manual. Maybe this will be the year for it though! Of course, I won't finish many of these this month. I don't care. In fact, if I decide not to read any of them now, I'll replace them with what I do take a shine to! I have freed myself from the target number, having spent a couple of years aiming for it. Mostly, I enjoyed reaching the goal, but it possessed me. I have exorcised myself.
I am reading Byron and Don Juan with a Bea Hyde-Clare (thanks to Richard) and other goodies on my horizon.

BOOKS READ IN MARCH

9. Good Company
10. The Night Window
11 The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother)
12. Cast in Courtlight
13. How to Read a Book
14, The Mars House

INTO THE HOUSE IN MARCH

36. Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original - Stasia - THANK YOU!
37. Life Regained
38. The Mongol Empire - Kindle deal through BookBub
39. The Formation of Christendom - Kindle deal through BookBub
40. BRITAIN AFTER ROME: 400 to 1070 - Amazon, after a long, long wait
41. Lily - AMP
42. Mickey7 - Kindle deal
43. The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons Kindle deal
44. Women in Purple - AMP
45. The Bastard Brigade - PBS
46. Shadow & Claw - AMP - Not catalogued in 2009 when I bought it
57. Ancillary Mercy - Another long-time resident uncatalogued
58. The Last Town - PBS
59. Denmark Vesey's Garden - Kindle daily deal through BookBub
60. The Iron Garden Sutra
61. A Brazen Curiosity ✔
62. A Scandalous Deception ✔
63. Across the Nightingale Floor - PBS
64. This is How You Lose the Time War - PBS
65. The Prey of Gods - PBS
66. The Mesopotamian Riddle - Kindle deal

BOOKS READ IN APRIL
15. A Brazen Curiosity
16. The Pines
17. Cold Earth
18. The Light Between Oceans
19. A Deadly Education
20. A Scandalous Deception

INTO THE HOUSE IN APRIL
67. There is no Antimemetics Division - Kindle deal through BookBub
68. Latro in the Mist - AMP
69. Cold Earth ✔
70. The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn - Kindle deal through BookBub with Prime $
71. George IV: The Rebel Who Would Be King - same as #70
72. The Wizard of the Kremlin - Kindle with Kindle Points
73. Caravan of Desire - AMP
74. Chile: Travels in a Thin Country - Kindle deal
75. This Marlowe - RHC - THANK YOU, Generous Friend!
76. Queens at War - Kindle deal through BookBub
77. Maisie Dobbs ✔
78. Queens of the Conquest
79. An Infamous Betrayal

BOOKS READ IN MAY
21. Maisie Dobbs
22. Remarkably Bright Creatures

INTO THE HOUSE IN MAY
80. Isola - Kindle deal through BookBub
81. Writing in the Dark: Bloomsbury, the Blitz and Horizon Magazine - AMP
82. The Life of the Mind - Kindle daily deal through BookBub
83. Remarkably Bright Creatures ✔ - Same
84. Few Eggs and No Oranges - missed in 2008
85. Out of Time - Kindle deal through BookBub
85. Birds of a Feather
86. System Collapse - I hadn't catalogued this???
87. The Tigress of Forli - Kindle deal through BookBub
88. The Invention of Nature - Kindle - from 2020 and not catalogued
89. The Origin of Language - PBS
90. Your Table is Ready - Kindle daily deal through BookBub
91. The Hidden White House - Same
92. The Meaning of the Bible: What the Jewish Scriptures and Christian Old Testament Can Teach Us They really got me today.
93. Crown of Stars - AMP
94. In the Ruins - AMP
95. Planetfall - PBS
96. The Beheading Game
97. Is a River Alive? - Kindle deal through BookBub
98. The Fate Of Rome - " " " "
99. Hell of a Book - " " " "
100. The Fall of Light- " " " "

BEST OR MOST SIGNIFICANT IN 2026

First Quarter
Yellowface
Wellington: The Years of the Sword
In the Morning I'll Be Gone
First Sign of Danger
Good Company: diaries: January 1967-December 1970
The True, True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother
How to Read a Book
The Mars House

So I get this next one? Yay.

I started posting this morning but got diverted. Congrats on Wordle in 4 yesterday AND today. Me too! 4 and 4, yesterday and today.

Yay, Karen!!! I'll be fine driving a 4x4 with you!!!!!

>1 LizzieD: Very cheerful

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Peggy.

Happy new thread, Peggy!

Happy new thread, Peggy.

>1 LizzieD: The yellow crocuses are lovely, and your MiL's planting them makes them even sweeter. *smooch*

Things look pretty good here, Peggy. Love the crocii -- so not happening here! Low was around -7 last night.

'Morning, dear Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Wordle in 3 for me today. I have nothing outside the house that I have to do, so will indulge in reading, puttering, lollygagging, and etc.

Good morning, dear, good friends! Thank you for the visits!!!! You are welcome here again and again, any time at all, Karen, Lucy, Richard, Beth, Susan, Paul, and Anita!!

I am having the devil's own time setting up this thread and trying to repair my profile page. I must have been asleep still from my nap when I tried to set this up last evening. This morning I am slow, slow, slow!
We will be seasonably cool today and tomorrow - high 50s - and then in the high 70s/low 80s for the rest of the week if the weather people know what they're talking about.

In reading news I'll finish this volume of Frances Partridge's diaries, 1967 through 1969. Bloomsbury continues to fascinate me although I'm not the greatest fan of their output.
I have also started a reread of Don Juan. One of my favorite courses ever was a survey of satire, starting with The Golden Ass and ending, I don't remember where. We read a chunk of *DJ*, and it was one of the first things I read as a young adult, free to read what she wanted. I'm not very far into it, but I absolutely cackled when I read the couple of stanzas introducing Donna Inez. Good times to come - I'm sure I'll pick up more allusions now than I did nearly sixty years ago, but the important thing is simply to sweep along and enjoy!

LOOK
Wordle 1,717 2/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, slime

Happy new thread, Peggy!

From your last thread, Wordle in 4 yesterday, we are still thinking alike. I had your third word at 2, so I got it in 3.

>14 LizzieD: I join you at Wordle in 2 today, but your result is much more impressive than mine. I had the first, second, and last letters in place. The first word I thought of for 2 turned out to be the right one. But you got it with only one letter, and that one not in the right place. Impressive!

'Morning, Peggy! I hope you have a wonderful day.

>14 LizzieD: Wow for your two! Just... wow.

Took me 6 today, but I avoided the Dread Skunk.

Book sort, book sale planning meeting, Virlie's, cleaning ladies. Major busyness early, then reading, and etc. later.

Dear Karen, you handle the busyness and deserve the calm when it comes! YAY!!

Irene and Karen, thank you for the congrats and kind words. Irene, congratulations on your 2 also!!!!! I was doing what I always do - trying to place at least a few of the most commonly used letters. The m was serendipity. From there to a squeak like Karen's. I'm betting that we did the same thing, doggone the Wordle Mistress's time.
Not a skunk is not a skunk.
Wordle 1,718 6/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, loden, lumen, liken, liven, linen

---- I'm not finding funny quotations easily this morning. I may have to start quoting Don Juan.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you, kind regards to your DH, and many skritches to the septet.

I'm glad you avoided the skunk.

Dare I say that I've pulled up Don Juan on my Kindle, and while not run screaming into the night am seriously considering it later today? I do not have the patience for it these days.

Wordle in 3 for me today.

I'll be picking up 2 books for Karen today from a local retired pastor. I've also bought several books from him in the past, so am looking forward to seeing what he's giving up this round.

As to Don Juan ---- if you are moved to try it, I suggest that you skip the dedication and plunge right into the first canto. Knowing something about Byron helps, but isn't essential. You see that I found his introduction to Donna Inez plenty funny without realizing that her original was his poor little wife of less than a year. Lucy pointed that out, and I see that I need to go ahead and jump into my massive Byron bio now. I do believe that I will!

I'll be interested to see what the retired pastor lets go.... What denomination is he?

YAY for your 3, Karen! I don't know whether not repeating a letter in the wrong place would have put me at 3; I doubt it. I'm happy enough with 4 after yesterday's narrow escape. I see that we did the same thing for the last 3 tries at least.

Wordle 1,719 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩learn, those, theme, theft

I should at least go to the PO today and should pick up a few grocery items, but last night was fraught with the kinds of disasters older cats can produce, so I slept late this morning again!!!!!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you. Much warm weather coming our way.

I have no idea what denomination Jimmy Pharr is. I didn’t ask and can’t find out anything online.

Thanks re my 3. Your yesterday Wordle 4 and my today Wordle 4 makes us Wordle 4 sisters.

Ah, sorry about older cat kinds of disasters.

Hi, Karen..... And my Wordle 3 today and your 3 yesterday make us 3 Sisters, I think. Anyway, Sisters!

Thanks for sympathy......I'm sure you know. (It's bad enough when cat loses his meal, but human stepping in it and tracking it through the kitchen doesn't improve matters. That was a start.)

Hooray! For several days I've been emailing myself a second phone picture that I want to use for a topper. Three of them finally showed up in email today! Picture to follow here soon!!!!!
Wordle 1,720 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, shine, sheep HA!

>17 LizzieD: Interesting pattern, that one, and skunk less days are good ones.

Quoting Don Juan *shudder* well, guess you ain't want me round these here parts no more. *shudder harder*

Happy new thread, PA!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday.

>21 LizzieD: Ugh. Tracked urp. One of my favorite things. 🙄 I hope the 'culprit' is okay.

Nice new pic of the ‘old’ Rosemary.

Congrats on yesterday’s three – I got it in three today.

Nothing I have to do today. I’ve been lazy since Tuesday and may continue the trend.

Good afternoon by a minute, Karen, Stasia, and Richard!!!

Karen, the culprit is 16, going on 17 (in a cat it's not sung to *Sound of Music* tune), but he keeps on keeping on. If only he wouldn't YOWL. He's not in pain, at least not yowling pain; he just knows the feeding schedule.

MY BOOK is due to arrive today!!!!!!! I've been waiting since January 19th, and USPS better get it here, and I'd better see it before any porch pirate!!!!! That will command my day when I finally have it in hand, or so I hope.

Thank you, Stasia. Yours has grown so long that I'll have to devote my morning to it. Oh. It's afternoon already. I'll get there.

Richard, of course I want you here when you'll come. I won't quote *DJ*, but I can't understand why you don't think it's funny, clever, and wild with occasional bursts of beautiful writing in spite of himself.

Big congratulations on your 3 today, (((((Karen))))). I barely managed it.

Wordle 1,721 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stony, nippy, junky, gunky I consider my second guess very, very lucky.

SNEEZING

Florence felt the swift on-coming of a sneeze. She fumbled in her bag for a handkerchief, and rattled richly among the nine coppers. Several violent explosions followed, and when the spasm subsided, she found her father spraying the air round him with his flask of disinfectant.
'Perhaps it would be wiser if you sat a little further off,' he said.
~ E.F. Benson

THE NOSE

Jimmy Durante: Hey, where are my glasses?
Friend: They're on your nose.
Jimmy Durante: Be more specific!
~ Jimmy Durante

'Tis the season!

>25 LizzieD: That sounds like something Benson himself would have said. Lots of people are shudderingly appalled at the...bodyness...of life. It's always made me impatient. Animals are messy, and we're all of us animals.

*smooch* of thanks for not committing poetry *shudder* on your thread.

‘Morning, Peggy!

Ugh. The 16-year old culprit. The culprit at our house this morning had to have been Zoe, because Wash rarely eats wet food. I found it, I cleaned it up. I was not happy.

Last night I was telling friend Karen about spring pollen season out here. It’s a comin’…

Wordle in 2 for me today. Luck plays a major role in Wordle. IMO.

Richard's remarks about the animal factor apply here too with cats and dogs and clean-up. Hope all 9 of our felines eat only what they're supposed to today and process it into the appropriate receptacle.
I agree, Karen, about luck in Wordle. BIG CONGRATS on your 2! I muddled around again and was relieved with my 5.
Wordle 1,722 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, loden, moxie, coupe, vogue

I'm now at the point, after my big Saturday breakfast of omelet+, of sipping the last bit of my coffee as a mocha latte - less than half a mug since I had 2 mugs of the good stuff. *sigh*
I announced on your thread, I think, that THE BOOK I'VE WAITED FOR AND FUSSED ABOUT arrived yesterday. I've started it, of course, and will be taken with it. Today I got a copy of a 5 year-old Rose Tremain that I didn't know about, Lily. It's rather a short one, and I know that I'll think, whatever it's like, that any Rose Tremain is better than most of the stuff being published these days. That's saying a lot. So, happy days - especially when I finish my doggone *Jane Hawk4* by Dean Koontz, thus polishing up that little quartet and taking care of my DK craving for another year or so.

I am really enjoying *Raja the Gullible* with thanks to Richard for reminding me of how much I really, really love Alameddine's writing. (I've checked the spelling of his last name 3 times now. I hope I remembered long enough this last time to get it right. Talk about short-term memory!)
I'll confess that I'm not best pleased when somebody sneezes over the food in serving bowls at table, but I hope I'm not missish.
I will state one of my real head-shakers over the development of crowd reactions to our animal nature. At some point in my fairly long teaching career, teens realized that teachers would let them out of class to blow their noses. (Not me.) More and more of them asked to until now, if somebody dares to sniff into a tissue in class, the whole class gives a genuine "EEEEEEEeeeewww!" A mid-point was when a girl, usually, would address the tissue box on the teacher's desk and pull, pull, pull, pull many tissues, blow one delicate blow, throw away the mass and continue to pull, pull, pull, pull, etc.

I have to say that I'm sorry that you deprive yourself of Byron's satiric wit because he chose to express it in poetry, but so be it, my WBL. I grin widely at least once a page and often laugh out loud!
BTW, I just stumbled across a lengthy and thoughtful review by an Emily in Washington state, who thanked Richard for recommending the book in 2011. I assume that she isn't here any longer. That's a loss to us all. *smooch*

Speaking of *RtheG*, I just watched several Zaouli dancers from Ivory Coast on YouTube that Raja mentions in passing. HOLY MOLY!!!!

If this is new to you and you have a minute, check out THIS!

>29 LizzieD: Wow. Such profound ability to separate what is happening to his legs with the stillness of his upper body! Quite remarkable.

Indeed, Judy! I was just reading a bit about it. Apparently, it takes 7 years to learn it.

>28 LizzieD: Oh good, Raja's working his magic on you!

>29 LizzieD: Annoying as that vuvuzela-sounding thing honkin' away is, the dancer's amazing!

*smooch*

Hi Peggy! Happy Sunday to you. 9 felines or 7 felines?

Congrats on your 5. It took me 4 today.

Yay for your book arriving. I gave Alameddine’s An Unnecessary Woman 4.5 stars. I haven’t read anything else by him, but The True Story of Raja the Gullible sounds intriguing and I’ve just added it to my wish list.

Teens sure can be passive-aggressive, can’t they? Love the pull pull pull of tissues.

Funny you mention Zaouli dancers – for some reason I’ve been getting YouTube shorts of Zaouli dancing for about 2 months now.

The time change has delayed the start to my day. It’s already 11:39, but my body is saying 10:39.

Good afternoon, Karen and Richard - even though we all know it's not yet!

Karen, your felines and mine equal to 9!!! Hopes again for a nice, clean day for us all! Meanwhile, I need to go ahead and feed ours.
How odd that you should be targeted for Zaouli mask dancers! I have a hard time imagining anybody who wouldn't fall in love with Raja, so I expect you will too!
Teens!!!!!!!!!

Richard, see my note to Karen! *smooch*

Congrats on your 4 today. I was very lucky, as you see!

Wordle 1,723 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, lusty, lobby WhoooHooo! Also "Sea of Green."

'Morning, Peggy!

I like your sea of green and your 3. It took me 4, with a rookie mistake in my 3rd word.

I've got an appointment in Sanford for steroid shots in my left L3-5. The last set is still about 90% in force, which makes me very happy.

Zoe either brought in a mouse yesterday or found one already in the house. She presented it in the Pantry for Bill to find. *smile*

The YouTube algorithm is like the LT Early Reviewer algorithm - unfathomable to an outsider. Zaouli dancers, kitties, hockey, details in art work... that's just the current stuff.

Good afternoon, Karen. I think I'm early here, and I look, and it's after noon again. Have I mentioned how much I hate DST???
I read what seems to me to be a fair compromise about time and our clocks. We could put all our clocks back a half hour in November and never change them again.
I'm happy that the steroid shots still work for you, and keeping them going before you need them sounds like a good decision to me. If you have to wait, you can scroll, right? (I was curious to see what the Zaouli dancers looked like from the rear --- they are slightly bent forward but nothing else I could see addressing the stillness of their upper bodies.)
CATS!

Your rookie mistake and mine sometime just lately keep us in tune. Happy that you made it in 4. I'm boosted today.
Wordle 1,724 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, haste, pasty

THE NIGHT WINDOW by Dean Koontz

Whew! I finished it. I had a sudden yen for Jane Hawk, and read this one to satisfy it. It went beyond satiety. Jane and her helpers finally outwit and overcome the Techno Arcadians, whose plan was to take over the world with a nano-brain-net that made adjusted people into their puppets.
This one wasn't nearly as good as the first book or so in the series of four books. Jane wasn't taking positive action in this one; she had all the information she needed. She was mostly evading the bad guys who were getting too close. I'm happy to say that I doubt that I'll need to read any more Koontz this year.

>34 LizzieD: I love a good Wordle pattern :)

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. It took me 4 today, but it's all green.

Off to book sort and Virlie's.

I've only read Koontz's Odd Thomas series. I'll have to check out Jane Hawk.

>36 LizzieD: It's good to have The Fix℠ you needed. I love books because they wait for us to need them before adding to our store of brain-food.

*smooch*

Good afternoon, Richard, Karen, and Megan!

Richard and Karen, I'm not sure about brain food or whether Jane Hawk would suit anybody but me. I will say that the disaster in these books was taking my mind off the real disaster we're experiencing now. Then I heard on NPR a day or so ago that the Russians have perfected a small short burst micro-wave emitter that apparently caused Havana Syndrome there and maybe among other US diplomatic staff. I guess that only scratches the surface.
I enjoyed Koontz's earlier monster-type horror more than his later psychological stuff. Karen, you might or might not like Jane Hawk.
*smooch*, Riccardo, my WBL!

Megan, I used to like craziness; now I'm more attracted to balance, but I'm guessing that the Japanese would like that pattern too. I do, now that you mention it!
Come back and see me sometime!

Happy Regular Tuesday to you, Karen! We're 4 Sisters today as you see. Good for both of us even though I don't have the Green Sea!
Wordle 1,725 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, fatal, vocal, shoal I kind of like this pattern too. *grin*

>40 LizzieD: 60 Minutes has been reporting on Havana Syndrome for years. I've seen at least 3 different reports, including this past Sunday when they told the news about the weapon. It's been obvious to me from the beginning that the Russians were behind this and attacking American officials, even though the CIA kept denying it for years. But now they have the weapon, so they can't keep saying it's psychosomatic.

Last year I read The Spy in the Moscow Station, a true story written by Susan's (quondame's) brother, Eric Haseltine. The main point I remember is how relentless and clever (also devious) and detailed the Russians are. Their reported creation of this micro-wave emitter doesn't surprise me at all.

Wow, Irene and Bill! I suspect that I first heard about HS on 60 Minutes, but I missed it last night. I knew that Susan's brother had written a book, but I hadn't followed it up. We obviously have no idea what they're up to. A local woman who claimed to have been something in DC told our very staid study club about the Russians' studying/developing psychic phenomena for spying. Sheesh. It's hard not to demonize that regime.
I'm going to go read some history.

>40 LizzieD: My brother recently published an article about Havana Syndrome - though I've heard him talk about it before. His take is that the CIA have never taken the Russian technological approach seriously since it isn't what their mode of operation is. As he was head of NSA research and more honest than egocentric, he probably has a fairly accurate take. CIA can't be accused of covering up what they can't make, and don't want to make, themselves believe.

(((((Peggy))))) !! Happy Wednesday to you.

Congrats on yesterday’s 4. I got it in 3 today, with lots of spreadsheet help.

Trevor’s coming over to do some things for us, then Arsenal play at 1:45.

I bought Susan’s brother’s book last year, and should bring it into the Sunroom. It’s currently out of sight out of mind.

Thank you for that, Susan. The son of one of my high school group was CIA. I know that he is a very, very smart man, but that was not an area he worked in (I hasten to add that I know very little of what he did), as you say. I can't imagine his believing that sort of thing without compelling proof. Apparently, they have it now.
I'll also add what another friend's son says is in the "Bro' Sphere" - that Epstein was an Israeli asset and that Bibi now has "Polaroids" (!) of 45/7 in the most compromising situations. Has anybody else heard this??? I won't automatically believe it, but I wouldn't be surprised. What a commentary on today's world! One reason I trust the news sources that I frequent is that they haven't asked me to believe ridiculous conspiracy theories. I see that I need to read your brother's book.

Good afternoon to you and good wishes for you, Trevor, and Arsenal in that order. (I check the selection of 9 books from my library on my profile page here for that very reason, Karen. Sometimes I go so far as to add one to the READ RIGHT NOW pile, otherwise known as "Everest," which contains more books than my Open for Reading message.)
Congrats on your 3 today. I fumbled around, as you see, before I got it after my lucky 2nd guess. Green Sea again though!
Wordle 1,726 4/6*

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I AM going to quote part of a line of Don Juan that I read yesterday. (There's fair warning, WBL.) After praising beautiful, charming Donna Julia and remarking that she is tall, the narrator says, "I hate a dumpy woman." He's always catching me with little snarks that are both contemporary and classic.

>36 LizzieD: I meant to comment on your time change compromise, and I forgot. My DH heard something about the 1/2 hour idea. IIRC, he heard that someone in Florida submitted it in their legislature. He thought it sounded like a good idea. I did too, until I started to wonder if the US being 1/2 off the hour marks from Greenwich Mean Time would cause problems. So we would be 4.5 hours off of GMT, rather than 4 or 5, depending on whether we're on daylight savings or not. I honestly don't know if that would cause problems or not.

Hmmm. I hadn't considered that aspect, Irene. Thanks for mentioning it! My first choice would be to stay on Standard Time permanently, but I don't remember anyone asking me.....

>48 LizzieD: And of course, I would prefer daylight savings time, because I hate it when it gets dark early. Which is why the 1/2 hour compromise seems so appealing.

>46 LizzieD: "Dumpy" is a pejorative I'd completely forgotten. To me, everyone's short so singling that out as a thing to insult would shock my system into shutdown.

Dear old George. Always good for a hot take.

*smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

Congrats on your 4. All green is always fun. Took me 4 today, not all green.

>48 LizzieD: Nobody asked me about staying on standard time either. Hawaii, Arizona, and US territories American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands lie in the tropics and do not observe DST.

Congrats on your 4, Karen. I'm still in the Wordle game but not by a lot as you see below!

Ah, Richard. "Dumpy" implies so much more than short, but I'm still giggling at every page. I've barely started the Byron bio that I just got. He had a horrendous childhood and was an unholy terror. His father once claimed paternal rights and took little George home with him over the mother's protest. Her maid assured her that he wouldn't be gone long. In fact, daddy sent him back the next day.

I guess, Irene, that I'm always ready to go to sleep, so early dark would be depressing if it happened at mid-day, but not here. On the other hand, I used to hate getting up in the dark in the early days of DST.

Wordle 1,727 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, swine, selfy, spell, smell

Off to get read for study club. The cold front with wind and thunder storm is about to come through.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

Lots of wind and .64" of rain here at the house yesterday. We're in a moderate drought, so the rain's helpful.

Anything NOT a skunk is a victory. However, I do admit to being happy when I get 3 or less, as I did today.

Chiropractor, and possibly making soup for dinner. That's if the lazy gene doesn't kick in. *smile*

>52 LizzieD: I've always synonymized "dumpy" and "short" so I got an education indeed looking into it. What a typically male insult to craft. ::eyeroll::

Friday orisons, smoochling.

I more than agree that "dumpy" is a typical male insult, which makes it perfect for the narrator of Don Juan. Of course, "short" is the first essential.
I wish you a lovely Friday too! *smooch*

A massage and the chiropractor and a steroid shot in the same week, Karen! I hope all your hurting parts are singing in harmony instead!

Again with the 5! Congrats on your 3!!! The WORD was the obvious choice, but I searched the used list briefly and didn't see any other past participles ending in -en. I could have missed them though. Oh well. No skunk skulking hereabouts today.
Wordle 1,728 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, haven, oaten, paten, eaten I did use a word list for the middle two although, as I say, the word occurred to me after my second guess.

THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine

I LOVE AND ADORE THIS BOOK!!!!! I expect that I love it more than I did An Unnecessary Woman, and I loved and adored that one. I used to cry easily, but now I don't. I cried for the last 10 or 12 pages of this one though. At its heart is Raja, who calls himself gullible but is also kind, principled, and loving. He is the neighborhood homosexual, and he teaches philosophy to high school students, his 'brats.' At his side is his mother, a tiny force of nature, who in Raja's eyes always loved his older brother more. At her other side is her best friend, another female force of nature and a sort of Lebanese godmother in the Marlon Brando sense.
The story is about life in Beirut at the end of the 20th into the beginning of the 21st century. These people endure, and I laughed with them as much as I cried. Alameddine won the National Book Award for this one, and I applaud the choice.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

My hurting parts are hurting less after massage and chiropractic, that’s for sure.

Skunk sulking… you’re the best. 5 isn't even close to a skunk...

Wordle in 3 for me today.

Arsenal play at 11:30. I got a text from your friend Bev last night. I wasn’t downstairs at the time, where my desk calendar is. After I finish up here on LT for a bit, I’ll respond. She wants to meet at the Belted Goat, one of my favorite haunts, for coffee and a cookie.

Yay for you and Bev! She said that she had texted you, but I didn't know when. Enjoy!!!! (She and I were co-valedictorians when we graduated from high school - tied to the hundredth of a point. I'm glad that they didn't go to the thousandth.)
Hooray for massage and chiropractic!!! I could use one or both this morning, but a walk will take care of a lot. It may engender more, but that's another story.
Wishes that Arsenal may play well!

We're finally 3 Sisters again!!!!!
Wordle 1,729 3/6*

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Grrrrr. I hate when the Wordle controller reuses a word, especially when unused words that fit the pattern are available. Never you mind. I'm still not skunked.

Wordle 1,730 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, trace, graze, grape, grade Although I was right there, I didn't look to see that #4 had not been used. I thought it had. The outcome would have been the same, but I would feel better about it.

I meant to quote Don Juan yesterday. This is what I think is the best-known line of the poem with the one before it.

A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whispering "I will ne'er consent" - consented.

COURTLIGHT by Michelle Sagara

I liked the first half of this one a lot more than I did the first book. Kaylin, the streetchild turned policing Hawk, is called to use her magic healing powers in the High Halls of the Barrani. If you haven't read the first book, that's a meaningless sentence. I'm going to write about my objections, but I know that I will continue the series for what I do enjoy - the world building and some of the other characters.

I think I used to have a greater tolerance of magic being worked. Much of the fantasy that I love is based on magic, but it's mostly magic as a basis for a culture - that is, magic that has already been done. Kaylin has four big blocks of magic work to do, and Sagara explains them in great detail as they happen. The problem is that magic isn't really explainable. It's a flight of imagination that could go any way at all. I am just impatient with following the author's choices and stopping cold without much understanding of what really went on. Contrast this with the schooled magic with which the emperor in Hands of the Emperor, for example, has created the sea trains, the light ships, etc. We see the results; we can accept them and get on with a plot. The fixes things; they now work; I don't need to know how. That's my preference.

I also find Sagara's writing elliptical in a way that reminds me of C.J. Cherryh, who is certainly a favorite. With Cherryh though, I feel that she is in control, that she, in fact, knows what is going on with her characters and that we will know too if we trust her. I don't find Sagara trustworthy. I was happy to feel her better control in this book than in the first, so I hope that her skills grew with the series, and that is one reason I'll continue to read them.

>55 LizzieD: Peggy! Anyone not utterly familiar with your demure, ladylike upbringing and lifestyle would think you're expressing acceptance or even *hisses* approval of that...deviant...the story's shoving in our perfectly straight faces! Now *I* know better, but goodness knows who might see this post....

*fans self* I'm sure you're even now revising it.

>59 LizzieD: The aspect of the author's knowledgeable control of the story is one I find intriguing. There have been at least a couple of books I've read which have been subjected to author re-writes, and while I understand in both cases why they were reformed, I have felt the emotional chaos of the originals more involving, more compelling than the more craftsmanlike retakes.

Oh, my poor WBL! There. There. You will be all right.

Susan, I've long suspected that you and I likely dislike what the other likes most in the fantasies that we both enjoy. That's OK. Fantasy always gives us plenty that we both enjoy. I'm always interested in hearing what you think!

>62 LizzieD: Well, there's a good deal current me doesn't like that past me gobbled up like candy. Now the strongest draw is "competence core" characters presented in a writing style that not only doesn't get in my way but pulls me from chapter to chapter. I recall prioritizing exotically strange new worlds, and still think I do, but those seem so much more the plate than the meal these days. I've rarely found characters that really appeal that weren't exotically set.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you. Gads, yester was another day of brain rot and not posting here.

>57 LizzieD: Bev and I are supposed to meet at 3 at The Belted Goat, weather permitting. Congrats on your Wordle 3 on the 14th.

Wordle in 5 for me today.

Wow! I can still say good morning to Karen and Susan, so I do! "GOOD MORNING, KAREN AND SUSAN!"

I'm excited for you both, Karen. You are friends well worth having as I know to my great joy. I definitely hope that weather permits!
I promise you that getting distracted while you're here and realizing that your available time has fled is not brain rot. I can give you examples if you really want to hear them.

Susan, we are alike in everything that you say. I'm pretty sure, for example, that I could never read Melanie Rawn again, and I adored her in the 80s. I'm a snotty snob (snobby snot?) about competent writing at the very least, and I read mostly for characters and how their exotic environments shape them. That's one reason that I love contemporary women's harder scifi, and I need to get back to some of them.
Well said, good reader!

Wordle 1,731 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, learn, chair, drama I am happier than usual to see a 4, Karen. Your 5 is typical of my Wordle world lately, and I congratulate us both that we haven't been pushed to 6 or worse.

>65 LizzieD: Ah, Melanie Rawn’s 20th century books barely made it past OK for me, but I found Glass Thorns really worth the multi-volume trip!

>65 LizzieD: drive-by *smooch*

I'm wafting a *smooch* to you, WBL, as you have sailed by already.

Thanks for that update on Rawn, Susan. I'm not likely to follow up on it anytime soon, but I never know from one day to the next. Saturday I wouldn't have dreamed of taking Assassin's Apprentice off the shelf, but here it is book-marked and ready for a reread.

Wordle 1,732 3/6*

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Hi Peggy! Happy cold Tuesday to you.

Congrats on your 4 yesterday and your 3 today. I got it in 3 today.

Today has been crazy and I’m just now settling down. Arsenal in an hour. Jammies in the meantime.

>68 LizzieD: Both Robin Hobb and Melanie Rawn are authors I recommend with cautions. I don’t often complain about chapters spent getting to know the characters and/or the world, sometimes it’s what I like most. While I love uber competent main characters, I’m fascinated observing what an author can do with persistent character flaws and limitations.

'Morning, Peggy! Another cold Tuesday.

Bev and I are meeting at the Belted Goat on Friday at 2. Both of us have set alarms. 😊

Wordle in TWO today. It was a logical guess based on assuming the yellow letter in my first guess might be the green in the third position. it worked.

I really need to go into the pharmacy and then grocery shopping. Sigh.

Good morning, Karen and Susan!

In my mind I call Hobbs "easy, older fantasy." That's true for Rawn too although what I read in the 80s was highly romantic. I'm enjoying *AA* from time to time; no demands at all. I guess the only perfect characters I love are Francis Crawford and Lord Peter Wimsey. Otherwise, I'm most interested in those whose flaws make them feel real. A good author can make me pull for perfection though (witness Jane Hawk, who is always one step ahead of her enemies or has helpers who are; the exception is Vikram, the computer genius, who makes only one colossal mistake). I see that everything I've referenced is not in the realm of fantasy. Oh well.

Yay for Bev meeting! We are grocery shopping+ sisters and Wordle 3 Sisters today. How nice for us, Karen!!!

Wordle 1,733 3/6*

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>72 LizzieD: I’ve not considered Lymond anywhere close to flawless. Always interesting though. Wimsey comes closer, but then he’s an older more settled character. But Hobb as easy? She puts her characters through almost as much torture as Dunnett. The writing styles don’t wear on the readers though, and like Berg she doesn’t waste her characters.

Morning, Peggy, you doing okay? *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday. It's brisk out there but gorgeous.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. That's what I got today.

Reading, puttering, lollygagging, and etc.

Hi, Karen, Richard, and Susan! I am so behind, mostly thanks to Wordle, that I'm going to speak, record, and run. I'll hope to be back later!!!

Wordle 1,734 4/6*

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Congrats on your 3, Karen!!!!!

*smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you.

Congrats on your 4, even with segar. I know it accepts words not on the original list of 2,309 words, so segar wasn't a bad guess at all. It nailed down the vowels. Wordle in 5 for me today.

I hope that Bev and I can actually meet today at 2 at The Belted Goat. I've got other errands after that before I can get home, probably around 5:30 or so.

Now then. I can still wish you a good morning, Karen, and hope that you and Bev meet, enjoy each other and the coffee and cookie - and I hope it's a big one!

Good morning, Richard! The time is growing near.... I can't tell you how much I hope you'll enjoy the peace that you crave and deserve, good food and surprisingly good company when you eat your required meals there, and an interesting neighborhood to explore. *smooch*

>73 quondame: Susan, maybe "light" was the wrong word although I do mean it. "Traditional" might be better... I always know that the characters are fantasy characters, and I forget their names almost immediately. They do undergo hardships; there's no literature of any kind without conflict. I may be fully invested while I'm reading, but entertainment is the goal, not character development. I am entertained, and that's why I read them.
As to Francis, he's always right. Much of what he does looks and feels wrong and may not pan out as he expected, but he sees clearly. Contrast him with Jerott, who is almost saintly and often wrong. Of course, Francis is also brilliant in mind and body. He'd be impossible to live with if he were real, but I think he's perfect.
*Who is Berg???

We are back on our see-saw today, Karen. Relief for your 5; grins for my 3!
Wordle 1,735 3/6*

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HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood

If I'm not the last of us to read this, then I say to those who haven't, Get It and Read!!!
I loved and adored this story of the retired English teacher who brings books and conversation to a group of incarcerated women. We follow her story, that of one of the book club who is released early for good behavior, the widower of a woman killed in a car crash, and a lab devoted to understanding the intelligence of parrots. Oh! A good bit about Spoon River Anthology, which I loved to open to my English classes (and Stasia). It's 'feel-good' but not unrealistically good. ***** from me because I read it at the right time!

“I am a reader. I am intelligent. I have something worthy to contribute.” That's our mantra here, isn't it?

>79 LizzieD: How funny, I just finished How to Read a Book on Tuesday. I enjoyed it, but I didn't like it as much as you did. We read some of Spoon River Anthology when I was in school. I think it was Junior High rather than High School.

>79 LizzieD: Of course Francis is exceptional, but I’d say he made some very questionable choices. Jerott (did autosmash give you a hard time on that name too) is a prick wrapped in self-righteousness, not the least wee bit saintly in spite of his vows. As you can no doubt tell, I do take character hardships to heart. I don’t at all require that level of battery to enjoy a story.
Carol Berg is a fantasy author comparable to Robin Hobb - I’d recommend the trilogy Books of the Rai-Kirah to start or maybe the standalone Song of the Beast. Lots of character battery that you don’t have to take seriously.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

>79 LizzieD: Congrats on your 3. It took me 4 today.

I’m going to ignore your comments on How to Read a Book because it’s my choice for our April discussion and I’ve just started it.

Bev and I had very animated conversations about where we’ve lived, her career as a harpsichordist, and, of course, books. We had to cut it short. I didn’t get any feel as to whether she wanted to meet up again. I’ll have to text her.

>79 LizzieD: Mama really wanted me to like Spoon River Anthology but, being poesy, it failed to win me over. Poetry and religion have, from earliest youth, repelled me for some reason.

Saturday *smooch*

Best of Saturday afternoons, Richard, Karen, and Susan!!!!

I'm sorry that *Spoon River* isn't your thing, my WBL. I've loved it from teen years, and I think my students really enjoyed what they read of it - or maybe they were mostly teenagers who most love talking to each other. I selected a person for each of them to read and react to. Then I gave them a list of the other people that their person interacted with and invited them to talk and discuss the wider story. They didn't do much with the poetry as poetry, but I think it deepened their reading ability.

I'm glad that you and Bev got together, Karen, even if you don't do it again. Of course, I hope you will. I have said and will say again that I didn't mention politics to either of you and am a bit surprised that you didn't feel each other out there. I would NEVER introduce you to a right-winger; in fact, Bev has been the one who most rejects our own right-wing friend. As I say, maybe you both wanted the conversation to remain pleasant!

Susan, this is really fun for me..... I love that we both love fantasy and disagree so strongly about what makes the same books good.
I'm not sure where you got the idea that I have to have "character battery" to make fantasy good. I did look up Carol Berg and see that I read the first of the trilogy you mentioned and traded it. I don't remember a thing about it now except the cover, but I didn't care to continue.
As to Jerott ---- Your passionate reaction does rub against mine like 2 tectonic plates! I see him as totally buying into his upbringing and education; he's smart but not quite smart enough to see outside what has seemed complete. I don't recall finding anything hypocritical about his piety. Francis opens new ways of looking at the world, and Jerott has a hard time. Then, of course, there is Marthe. It's been a long time since I reread these; I stopped right in the middle of *Pawn* on my last reread, and I'll need to go back to Niccolo first.
Meanwhile, you know that Victoria Godden is my favorite new fantasist.

Congrats on your 4, Karen! I had good Wordle thoughts again - Woo Hoo!
Wordle 1,736 3/6*

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>84 LizzieD: I don’t have any idea about you requiring character battery in fantasy - or historical fiction. It’s -possibly- more of a difference in terminology. I’d never describe a book as easy or lite if characters in whom I was invested underwent severe physical or emotional damage. That I felt.
I do consider Victoria Goddard as easy and lite because the wreckage is mostly in the past or presented wrapped in humor. Also her writing-pacing is smooth and pushes the story right along. Well, maybe not Stargazy Pie, that one’s just weird.
I have been enjoying the Tuyo books as much as Goddard’s except most of the Lays of the Hearth-Fire, and Neumeier is much better at getting the books out on schedule. I don’t find the books a lite as Goddard’s, but not as wrought as Hobb or Berg.
I took against Jerott, but then piety never attracted adult me, and he’s so bloody blind and righteous with it.

We're in more agreement than I thought, Susan. I can't say that Jerott is attractive exactly, but I have more patience with him I guess. He does have most of what he has built his life on undermined.
I did like Tuyo with thanks to you, but I haven't gotten back to the series. I felt that she had written herself into a corner with all the rites and proper behavior, and I was tired of it before the book was over. I felt much the same about Goblin Emperor although I liked it more.

That's just funny because I do consider VG much heavier than the ones you love. I heartily agree about Stargazy Pie. If I had read that first, I'd never have read another one. Now I'm compelled to ask whether you enjoy her legend/myth making. I haven't been able to read Bride of the Blue Wind although I've tried and guess I'll make it eventually.

>86 LizzieD: I think you might find that the walls Neumeier's corner don't quite meet and that there is a passage to a huge cave system beyond. But maybe not if it's the way she handles the social interactions of the Tuyo world. Sometimes the long sections of mannered interactions in the Liaden books feel like wasted space to me.
I did love The Goblin Emperor, but found The Cemeteries of Amalo books even more congenial.
Goddard has given horrendous back stories to her characters, but in the timelines of the novels - Til Human Voices Wake Us, The Hands of the Emperor, The Bone Harp - Rafael, Artorin, and Tamsin all function without the damage they've taken internally wreaking harm on those around them. And whatever damage Cliopher has taken before HOTE, he too is not shown as the dark form of damaged. Which is why they seem lighter to me.
One more tug in hope of adjusting your take on my stand - I like Hobb and Berg - and others, but I love Goddard, Neumeier (at least Tuyo), Bujold, Addison, McKillip, Prachett oh - and Wolfe who I do not consider lite at all! I'm sure there are other, but Hobb & Berg came up when I was discoursing on lite vs dark.
I do love what Dunnett does, but I have different expectations of historical fiction.
But then I dipped into a "grimdark" book once and noped out super fast, so what do I know about dark.
I did read Stargazy Pie first, but had read so much praise about The Hands of the Emperor that it didn't get in the way - even if I noticed that it was the same author which I may not have.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

Wordle in 3 for me today. Congrats on your 3 yesterday.

>84 LizzieD: Somehow, I was going to say something about The Idiot in Chief and paused. I asked Bev if her politics aligned with yours, which would mean that they align with mine, and she assured me that we’re all blue together. My words, not hers, but you get the gist.

I’ll be off to play with books in a while as we start setting up for Thursday-Saturday’s book sale.

Hi, Karen and Susan!

I'll hope to be back.... Everything is fine here; I'm just pushed as usual.

Wordle 1,737 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, easle, basil 3 Sisters - YAY! I'm surprised that Wordle forgives me for not being able to spell.

Now I'm back!!!
I trusted that one of you would settle that, Karen. Good enough!

Susan, I always find what you have to say interesting, and I do still think that each of us has her own approach to the same book. That is perfectly fine! I will be encouraged to get to *Witness/Dead* sooner rather than later. Funny that you should mention Liaden. I think I've read the same two at least a couple of times. I like them and want to read more, but I don't like them as much as most people. It may be your mannered interactions; it's a long time since I tried another.
I can't read Pratchett. I say to myself, "Oh. He means that to be funny," but for me it's like reading Confederacy of Dunces. I read it, but I didn't find it particularly funny either. Lucy has given me a copy of Guards! Guards!, but I can't make myself try it quite yet. She promises that it's better than the first couple that I read about Rincewind.

What I am reading and enjoying right now is Natasha Pulley's The Mars House. It's more science fiction than fantasy, I guess, but she poses serious questions in a compelling story.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

I got my first sighting of pollen yesterday on the hood of my SUV after I was at the book sale and it accumulated for 3 hours in the Library parking lot.

Congrats on yesterday's 3. I got it in 3 today.

>89 LizzieD: Morning, Peggy! Happy week-ahead's reads

Good morning, Richard and Karen! Happy Monday and week-ahead's reading to you both!!

We are, as usual, at least a week ahead of you. When it rains, the gutters run yellow on top; the river does the same, but I don't think we've had the worst yet. Then we'll have Blackberry Winter and the Easter Cold Snap, and then it will be Summer. Our temperatures bounce around too.... high 70s today with a low in the 30s, high 50s tomorrow, and then mid-80s on Wednesday. Then it repeats.

Wordle 1,738 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, reset, germs, serif Congrats on your 3, Karen!!! I had to use my list to eliminate after the 3rd try.

I continue to read The Mars House and Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame with not much of *Don Juan* in between. I really need time to read and enjoy that one for even a stanza or two.

>89 LizzieD: The first two Pratchett books were close to mean spirited spoofs of current fantasy tropes, a clever writer showing off, though more clumsily than he thought at the time. There is a transition period before the books which cemented his reputation - Sourcery, Equal Rites, Mort all have some charm, and Wyrd Sisters is occasionally falling on the floor funny. By Guards! Guards! he'd almost got past what I see as a critical narrative voice that still distanced him from his creations.
Does that seem like a lot to suffer through to get to what we fans call "the good stuff"? You may find a Pratchett fan or two who will defend the initial Rincewind books. The inept, cowardly Wizzard does have his fans. But you probably haven't run across many, while you have encountered at least one person who thinks not liking the first books is a sign of good taste - but who still likes Pratchett's oeuvre as a whole.
As to the Liaden™️ books - they do have an intense fan base. And the "most people" you hear from are likely in it. I entertain the opinion that most SF readers read one or two at most and generally forgot them, not speaking up much. I'm in a middle ground - my father really liked them and introduced me to them - and I've followed them since, but they aren't books I'd nominate for awards.
Mars House is great. Of the books that came out in 2024 - that I read in 2024 - the only one I liked better was Glorious Exploits. I've liked a number of Natasha Pulley's books and loved The Hymn to Dionysus.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday. I hope you got your errands run yesterday. I was successful in mine.

Congrats on your 3, I got it in 3 today.

The pollen's arriving. My SUV was in the Library parking lot for 1 1/2 hours and the hood had a serious green haze on it. Sigh.

Have a lovely Tuesday!

Thanks for all of that, Susan! I will read *Guards!2ce* because Lucy gave it to me, and I will make every effort to be fair. That's all I'll say about that!
I have a copy of *Exploits* thanks to Richard's praising it. Now you have added extra incentive for me to get to it. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying *Mars H* a LOT, trying to choose between the powerful person who speaks fair and feels foul and the one who speaks ill and feels good. January was appealing from the start. I'm a third of the way in, and the huge dust storm has just hit. The lack of gender specification is driving me a little nuts. I realize that this is a judgment that I need to loosen.

I had only two errands yesterday, Karen, and accomplished them both. I see from my blood results that I need to drink a bit more water. Otherwise, I'm a lot better off than I deserve!
Congrats on your 3 today! Behold below!
Wordle 1,739 4/6*

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>95 LizzieD: I guess it wouldn't be at all inaccurate to say that the lack of gender specifics drives me nuts, but its a sort of brain rewired nuts that I relish and crave. It's one of my favorite aspects of Imperial Radch. I also the same magnitude of brain rewiring in The Knight, something in Wolfe's language splintered my reading mind so that it had 4 or more inward turned points of view all trying to figure out what was going on. I think I read it back to back 4x before I was content to be in my "right" mind again.

Hi, Susan! I have to say that my age is doing as much to upset my wiring as I can take at the moment. I realize that I'm about 10 years ahead of my mother at this point as far as I can tell. The gender business is a change that I'd welcome the chance to understand at least, so I identify with your attempts to be back in your "right" mind.
That said, I see that I never catalogued, much less read, the first 2 books of *New Sun*, which have been on the shelf since I joined LT in 2009.
I'll also say that I very much enjoyed Ancillary Justice but haven't kept up with Leckie for reasons I can't explain at all. I will read more of her. Wolfe, I'm not so sure of at this point.

Wordle 1,740 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, screw, wiser.......I thought that the W was the letter I was going to have to lose Happy Day with much satisfaction!

>97 LizzieD: Gene Wolfe has quite a varied output. The Knight is very much different than everything else, including its sequel. The New Sun books have been found particularly problematical, especially the first volume before he rotates the entire world(s) out from under the reader. My major issues were with caring about anything in the later volumes of that one. Maybe try his short stories if you're feeling adventurous.

Here I am at last! A non-75 LT friend assured me that I needed to read Wolfe, and Sun was what he recommended. Our tastes have been similar often, so I'll see sometime, I hope. I simply don't have enough life left to read short stories. If I'm going to invest time, I want at least continuing characters.
Back to *Mars House*!!!!!

Wordle 1,741 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, glent, tempt, befit Really????? I certainly used a list.

>99 LizzieD: Book of the Long Sun has a long character span. Soldier in the Mist is also a long character arc. Wolfe's short stories are good, though.

Doggone you, Susan, Latro in the Mist pulls every chain and pushes every button I own. I just ordered a used copy of it. Well ------- thank you.

Wordle 1,742 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stork, ivory I certainly wouldn't have gotten this one in 3 had I not missed it in the used word list!

Walk now before it gets too hot. Then feed them. Then do a bit of the grunt work on income taxes. THEN if I'm not completely asleep, I'll read a little. I am loving The Mars House so much - just dealing with the mammoths at the moment! ♥♥♥♥♥

>101 LizzieD: You’re most welcome. Enjoy. Then, there’s Pirate Freedom. Different as shale from basalt.

'Morning, Peggy! I've emerged from Book Sale craziness. I will go in today, but only to do the last bit of Bag Day shopping and pay everything I owe for books and my membership renewal.

Wordle today was 3.

I forgot to fix my cell phone alarm so I could sleep in, but didn't do it right and it went off at 6. Sigh.

*sigh* indeed, Karen. I've reset my old clock radio to get me up at 7 in the morning because I want to sing my very favorite anthem with the choir. I'll stand on the steps where the choir goes in so that I don't breathe any budding disease.
Congrats on your Wordle in 3. I was stupid and hasty after #2 if you care to look and would have had 5 if I hadn't stopped myself at 4. DUH!

Hi, Susan. I believe at the moment I can safely evade Pirate Freedom although the premise is tempting. You have only to visit my profile to see how disastrously many books I have here unread. *sigh* again

Wordle 1,743 4/6*

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
🟨⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, float, aloft, afoot

We were talking about the AI haptics and proprioception in The Mars House on our walk yesterday when we said at the same time, "We lurch." From now on I'll say that we're going for our lurch, and we are.

>104 LizzieD: Okay Peggy, I'll bite. What's your favorite choir anthem?

‘Morning, Peggy!

You’re better at disease avoidance than I am. I only saw a few people with masks at the sale, and I wasn’t one of them.

Congrats on your Wordle in 4. I got it in 3 again today…

Depending on the time of day and where I am, I lurch, too.

I did sing my anthem today, and I did sing the descant. Joy! I'm going to try one more time to post it another way.

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkv6yIrssDc&list=RDjkv6yIrssDc&start_radio=1* "My Song is Love Unknown" with music by Edwin Childs and using a poem by Samuel Crossman, a 17th century English poet. There is a better known hymn tune by John Ireland, but I love the way the Childs's music reinforces the words.

Hi, Karen! Graham is better at disease avoidance than I am. (I see, btw, that an omicron variant of COVID is increasing after a year of lying low. It's not a match for last year's booster.) I stood out of sight on the steps into the chancel and didn't wear my mask.

Congrats on your second 3 in a row - that I remember! Wrong word at 3 for me.......I'm well content with 4.
Wordle 1,744 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stock, chimp, chump And so it goes!

I don't know that one, Peggy, in either version. I'll check it out!

Honestly! I have finally made the URL show up. Hope you find it and listen, Laura!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Your 4 had a pleasing greens pattern. Congrats.

I lucked out today and got it in 2.

The only thing I'll be doing outside the house is possibly replenishing the bird feeders. Only possibly, however. I should go get cash for the ladies for tomorrow, but will end up going tomorrow morning.

Dashing around...crashed now because I slept poorly. Will be getting up to do more here directly.

Dash and Crash is not at all surprising, Richard. Be as good to yourself today as you can possibly be! I'm thinking about you with a *smooch*!

TWO! Congratulations AGAIN, Karen!!!!! You will see that checking the used word list got me because I wasn't thinking that way at try 2.
Wordle 1,745 4/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, point, motet, comet

Enjoy the rest of your day. I wish you lots of smut!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you. Kind regards to your DH and many kitty skritches to the Marvelous Menagerie.

Congrats on 4. I got it in 2 again... I'm on a roll. The Wordle Gods are being kind to me.

No book sort/Virlie's, but cleaning ladies, which entails going out to get cash, and a Neighborhood Women's Luncheon that I RSVPd to a couple of weeks ago. FOMO all the way.

(((((Karen))))) and a return greeting to Bill and chin smoothies to your Marvelous Menage! (2 doesn't make a menagerie!)

You are on a Wordle roll. 2 back-to-back is almost unheard of. YAY, YOU!
I'm pleased with my 3. I had sort of thought that a person would need to live hereabouts for the word to spring to mind, but you've put paid to that.
Wordle 1,746 3/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, boast, swamp

THE MARS HOUSE by Natasha Pulley

I loved and adored this book all the way through!!!! I'd characterize it as mostly scifi with a bit of fantasy's whimsy to make a most appealing experience.
Earth's gravity is three times more than that on Mars. After several generations, Mars Naturals are taller, lighter, and more fragile than the Earthstrong that arrive there to escape Earth's environmental catastrophes. Earthstrongers may choose between wearing a cage that protects Naturals from their unconscious, uncontrolled strength or undergoing surgery for Naturalization, that always does some physical damage and may kill the patient.
Mars has legally ended gender classification, and I was most amazed at my own dependency on being able to pin some gender ID on every character. I'm clearly not as woke as I had thought. Pulley plays with this concept throughout the plot.
I was also interested in the question of what a rational, emotional person does when confronted with political opponents who want his (in this case, "his") support. One says everything that he hates but projects kindness and compassion. The other says everything that he adheres to but projects manipulation and wrongness. How do we decide who deserves our support?
I was delighted with the use of halos. These are instruments that allow the operator to understand what a person is thinking while he is wearing one. They work on people, but they also work on animals. Not to spoil, but an example is the family dog who thinks that watching fish in the aquarium is the best way of calming anxiety. We know this because of the halo.
On top of this (and my reading experience won't be yours), it's simply a super story!

>116 LizzieD: Mars House is one of my favorites. I did feel the Mammoths were a bit over the top, though fun.

Hi, Susan. I categorize them as fantasy elements but very necessary for the plot!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

>116 LizzieD: Two 2s made way for a 5 today, but I’m not complaining. Congrats on yesterday’s 3.

A quiet day at home is planned. No lifting, no pushing or pulling. Reading, spreadsheets, and March Lightning Round updates are in order.

Good morning, Karen! I'm happy to hear you taking care of yourself. I hope you're smarter than I am about taking a standing and moving break every now and then while you read, work on spreadsheets, and compose your MLR updates! After Prolia, I need to pick up a prescription and a few groceries.

You can certainly afford a 5 now and then. It doesn't happen to you often, and it's not a six or skunk. Meanwhile, I'm not displeased with my four.
Wordle 1,747 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, dimly, finny, fizzy

I'm reading for fun Pines, which I've had on my Kindle forever, and A Brazen Curiosity, which grows on me the more I read. It is a cozy mystery set in the Regency period, recommended by Richard sometime back. I was a bit put off at first because L. Messina's writing was a bit repetitious with tedious detailed conversations that couldn't possibly hold clues. Now, either she has improved, a bit over the half-way point, or I'm forgiving her because of interest in the plotting.

I'm not sure what my April reading will include beyond fiction. I'll certainly continue the Byron bio along with Don Juan. I didn't realize that the prototype for a Romantic poet's appearance weighed over 200 pounds at eighteen when he was only 5'8". Yikes! In a letter he says that his doctor prescribed exercise, animal food only once a day, no white wine, (only a glass or two of port), only water at meals - or Imperial Cream of Tartar in the water, which he had to drink at other times, daily baths, and several applications of unspecified medicinal powder in water each day. This, Benita Eisler assures us, was also a treatment for STDs. Ahem.
Otherwise, I'm dithering over several extremely interesting books: Courting India, Britain After Rome, Courtesans and Fishcakes, or maybe even The Swerve. I should decide quickly, but I like the looks of all of them.

Wordle 1,748 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, store, sober Fine with me!

'Morning, Peggy!

No obligations. Spreadsheets, March Lightning Round, reading. All the fun things.

I'm reminded of hummingbird feeders from Mark's thread. I think I still have one; if so, it goes out today. Otherwise, Amazon here I come.

Congrats on your Wordle in 3. I got it in 3 today.

GOOD for you, (((((Karen)))))! Happy Day to you all around. Except for a bit of cleaning at Mama's for tomorrow's overnight for niece and nephew, I --- guess I should do some more of the grunt work on our taxes so that my DH can spend less time on it. Boo. Likewise Hiss for again missing books. *sigh*

Congrats on your Wordle in 3!!! I'm content enough.
Wordle 1,749 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stein, sinew, singe

A BRAZEN CURIOSITY by Lynn Messina

'Morning, Peggy! I hope your niece and nephew's visit is a good one.

Yay for Wordle in 5, because anything less than a skunk is cause for celebration. I got Wordle in 4.

Quiet day reading and watching Arsenal at 3.

Good afternoon, Karen! I'm unvisited and skunked! Heard from Lizzie this morning that she pulled her back and ought not to travel.

I thought that I had eliminated a much-used letter that I hadn't, and that led me to the skunk. OH well. Nor did I leave myself enough guesses to try a used word even if I had had that letter.
Wordle 1,750 X/6*

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 roast, salic, sauce, samba, savvy, sappy I will be back.

Hi, Peggy!

If it's any consolation, when I bomb out at Wordle, I consider the fact that now, the pressure is off, I can start rebuilding my number.

I like your attitude -- "I will be back."

Karen O

>125 LizzieD: Sorry you had a skunk today. Better luck tomorrow. I would have had it in 2 today, but the first word I thought of had been used already, according to the list (and especially because that one had been used relatively recently, compared to the other reused words so far). So I tried something else. When that wasn't it, my first guess was the only thing I could think of that still fit, so I did get it in 3.

I'm also sorry your niece couldn't come. Maybe she will reschedule soon.

Happy Easter!

'Morning, Peggy, and Happy Easter to you.

Sorry about the skunk.

Wordle in 3 for me, a new thread, and a day of R&R.

>116 LizzieD: I've loved every one of her books, to date the least delightful to me have been the Filigree Street ones though not by that much. Bunny Day orisons, Peggy!

I'm happy to be here at last and find that kind folks have visited!

Richard, *Filigree S* is the only other one I've read. I liked it a lot and have picked up others as I could. I loved *MH*, and I see that I need to say a word about it. I'm churched, walked, napped, fed, and have rejoiced at a little rain. We need every drop we can get right now. *smooch* to you!

Thank you, Karen, Irene, and Karen!!!! Yesterday and today my brain has been assuming the words in orange are in the right place. ????? I was lucky to pull this one out today after I caught what was going on. I hope I'm only distracted..........
Wordle 1,751 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stone, ozone, envoy SHEESH!

ETA: Nope. It's *Brazen* and *Pines* that I haven't commented on. To quote Karen's mom, "I miss my mind." It's too late at the moment to comment now; maybe tomorrow if I'm fresh!!!!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

Wordle in 3 for me today. I like the pattern of your 4 although 'm sure you didn't. But all yellows then all greens is pleasing.

I'll be heading to the chiropractor this afternoon. My back is better, but that may only be drugs and judicious use of a heating pad.

Ah yes, "I miss my mind." *smile*

Good morning, Karen!!! I'm proud to have "morning" rather than "afternoon" in my first message of the day!!!
I very much hope that the chiropractor does your back good. Meds and a heating pad are well and good to get you through a weekend, but now it's time for real relief! I slept better last night with a slow-release Tylenol rather than one extra-strength.
Congratulations on your 3! And BEHOLD! It definitely makes up for two days of sadly stupid!!!
Wordle 1,752 2/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, sworn

>132 LizzieD: ...and with a not-intuitive word, at that! *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday.

Yesterday posting before noon? Brava.

Congrats on your two. Took me 4 today, but I was happy with my result.

The chiropractor told me I should ice my SI joints but can use heat on my upper back. That helped last night. I see him in a week.

I just can’t make it to book sort/post-sale meeting/Virlie’s. It makes me sad, but oh, well. I’m not going to aggravate my back today at all.

Morning, Peggy! Hope you're having a lovely walk and have a splendid, relaxing afternoon of reading planned.

Good afternoon *sigh* Richard and Karen! I wish you both good, calm days. This is my last free one at home until Saturday - cousin visit, study club, and eye shots coming up. I worked on taxes a bit yesterday and should grit my teeth and get on with it. I have always been privileged to do our share for the decent things that the country was doing. I hate watching all the good being trashed with nothing left but military force and hubris - you know.

We haven't walked yet, but we will. Glad to see you here TWICE, my WBL! *smooch*

You don't say that the chiropractics actually helped. I certainly hope so, but I'm glad that the ice did. It would be nice if the weather were a little warmer!!!
I'm sorry that you won't get to the library today too, but you're wise.
Meanwhile, we are 4 Sisters! At least I have all greens, and I'm never sorry for 4.
Wordle 1,753 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, swish, geese, dense

Hi Peggy!

Yay for your Wordle in 4. I had Wordle karma this morning and got it in 3.

Trevor and his son Braxton (are 7) are here, and we're getting lots of things check off the list.

>136 LizzieD: Merry Wednesday, Peggy me lurve! *smooch*

Greetings, Richard and Karen! I'm full of cousinly love and shrimp, so I need a nap! It was a lovely visit.

We are 3 Sisters today, Karen, rare as that has been lately!
Wordle 1,754 3/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩learn, uncle, inlet

>139 LizzieD: Hard to know if the shrimp or the cousinly luuuv is the real culprit....

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you.

Yay for 3 sisters!

It took me 4 today, but I'm not complaining.

Good MORNING again, dear Karen and my WBL!!! Thursday is always a good day because my first piano lessons were on Thursdays. Today I get what is normally my one social outing, study club this afternoon. Tomorrow, eye shots - but a call with a friend afterwards. (Karen, we should just set up a regular call time.)

Richard, theoretically, I can always get shrimp, but not with cousins too. I was overcome with goodness! *smooch*

Always happy enough with a 4, so good for you, Karen. LOOK at my wonderful (today) first word!
Wordle 1,755 2/6*

🟩🟨🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, laden

Look at you, Wordle in two!!!

I'd love to set up a regular call time - I'll text you in a bit to start figuring it out!!

My dotes the Mets got their book reviewed today. I do love them, despite my increasing ambivalence about pro sports as a concept. *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy!

Wordle in 4 for me today.

Lots of doing nothing planned - reading, resting, napping. Possibly the teensiest bit of book club prep.

Hi, Sister 4 and Richard the Mets lover!

I'm off to get ready for the eyes.

Wordle 1,756 4/6*

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, adore, labor, carom

Whoo HOOOO! After much trial and error with O and I, here I am!

Wordle 1,757 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, roset, prude

Checking in on you, PA! I hope all is well there!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks, Stasia. Everything is good here. Hope you're feeling better!!!!

Hello Peggy! Happy Sunday.

Wordle in 4 for me today.

I'm so grateful I cancelled book club. We're going to discuss my book, How to Read a Book by Monica Wood, in May and move our book selection meeting to June.

I'll read and possibly work on spreadsheets and my Lightning Round today.

>147 LizzieD: Sunday orisons, Miss Peggy ma'am. *smooch*

Good afternoon, Mr. Richard sir *smooch* and (((((Karen)))))!

I didn't make it to SS or church today - slept from 3:30 or so until 10:00 after not sleeping much otherwise. I don't know what was wrong; I wasn't hurting, anxious, stuck with an earworm .... just couldn't sleep. Now I'm awake and all is good except that my DH is finally doing his job on our taxes and what I did earlier seems to have confused rather than helped him. Oh well.

Karen, we're 4 Sisters. I am very pleased that you canceled book club. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!!!
Wordle 1,758 4/6*

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, steal, addle, alley

I freely confess that I used a list this morning. I was in a hurry and wanted to get it done.

Wordle 1,759 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, elfin

Stasia and I talked about my sudden craving to know something about Christopher Marlowe. I have no idea where that came from. I can't easily find my copy of A Dead Man in Deptford, but I have Lightborne in hand, and my Fairy Book Sister is getting Dark Renaissance to me. That should take care of it. Meanwhile, I haven't read above a word of any of Marlowe's plays. I can fix that too if I will.

Reading Right Now ----> Don Juan, Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame, The Light Between Oceans, and Cold Earth. I'll pick up Soldier of the Mist again when I've finished the Jimmy Perez. I seem to go mystery, fantasy, mystery, fantasy, mystery, scifi.

>153 LizzieD: Miss Peggy Ma'am, May I recommend looking into a story that ***almost*** beat out Margaret the First for 2016's six-stars-of-five spot: This Marlowe by Michelle Butler Hallett. My goddesses what a gorgeous object it is, what beautiful waters the Marlowe in it swims through full of images that glisten and shine...it really was tough competition for Danielle's book. I'm disgusted to find that I never catalogued or reviewed it! What a travesty. Must fix that soon.

*smooch*

Many thanks, Sir Richard, WBL. I shall certainly look into This Marlowe posthaste! *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you. Kind regards to your DH, and many kitty skritches to the clowder.

Wordle in 4 for me today - Congrats on yesterday's 3 for you.

I've got cleaning ladies, spreadsheets, and my April Lightning Round to work on today. In addition to reading, of course.

We have finally finished our tax returns and I am about ready to go mail them and a PBS book.

Congrats to Wordle 4 for you. I was lucky yet again!!!
Wordle 1,760 3/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stole, cycle

>157 LizzieD: Hooray for unpleasant chores being done! And, of course, your literary good citizenship as well.

*smooch*

>157 LizzieD: Wordle in 3 for me as well today. Hurray for finishing taxes! We got our refund last week, quicker than expected.

Have a great week, Peggy!

Wow, Irene!!! That's great. And WHEW for us. Congrats on our 3 yesterday!!! We are 3 Sisters for sure.

Many thanks, my WBL. *smooch* for the Hump in your new house. Hope your day is easier on the foot than you expect.

Wordle 1,761 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, clime, penny, begun

There is a new Victoria Goddard short story available. In Lonely Lands.

Thank you, Susan!

Thursday orisons, Peggy! *smooch*

And the very same right back to you, Richard, thou WBL! *smooch*

Wordle 1,762 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spite, tight, vomit, cubit I knew 5 was a better guess than 4 (given the woman's antipathy toward anything negative), but I did 4 first anyway.

COLD EARTH by Ann Cleeves

I liked this one better than I did Thin Air. I continue to read more for the characters than for the mystery itself. I'm happy to see Jimmy functioning better and Sandy becoming stellar. I like Willow. I don't feel any great need to say anything else.

>165 LizzieD: I'm fairly sure those're the high points, though it's been quite a while since I read that book. Friday *smooch*

I'm always happy when we agree, Richard. I'll finish Light Between Oceans today - a real soap of a book but with glimpses of writerly talent. *smooch*

Wordle 1,763 3/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, belle At my age I consider what I did today with Word Hippo semi-cheating. Rather than take time to expect my poor brain to come up with words, I plug in the likely letter combinations and choose from very short lists because of excluded letters. Doing that saves a LOT of time. I guess I should say when I don't use the help.

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L. Stedman

I liked the book. I couldn't love it. We still live in a perilous world. Everybody who lives long enough is going to experience tragedy. Some people do endure more than the rest of us think we could deal with. Tom has suffered from childhood; Isabel learns suffering only in her otherwise happy marriage. Then Hannah, who has lost both husband and child, cannot regain equilibrium. In the aftermath of WWI, life in Southwestern Australia is hard. Complication upon complication move this book into soap opera territory for me. It is saved because I care about the characters and because Stedman shows promise as a writer. I love sentences like (and this, unfortunately isn't a direct quote), "The thunder grumbled to be left behind by the lightning."
I haven't rushed out to find Stedman's second offering, but I will get it if it comes close to falling in my lap.

Here's where I wish I could give quarter stars. I'd give this one ***¾

Wordle 1,764 3/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, boast, toady All, all my own, but I doubted she'd use such a negative word.

'Morning, Peggy! Have a wonderful day.

Not quite as hot as it's been, thank goodness.

Congrats on your Wordle 3. It took me 4 today.

I liked The Light Between Oceans much more than you did, but I am glad you did like it.

Arsenal play today, there are books that are calling my name, and naps to be taken.

>168 LizzieD: I would swear an oath that I read that book! It's not in my Kindlebrary, I don't see it in my Netgalley files...I don't have access to my prior library records, so did I borrow it...? I recall clearly thinking Isabel was being astoundingly selfish and unthinking, doing what she did. However hard things were, doing that thing was reprehensible at best.

But there's no indication of my possession of the book! Maybe I got it from the Little Free Library, but why I never made note one about it is weirdly uncharacteristic.

Sunday orisons, anyway, and *smooch* for a good week-to-come's reads.

Here at last, Richard and Karen!!! Thank you both for visiting and speaking!

That is so, so frustrating, Richard! Like Karen, I'll give Isabel a bit more leeway than you are willing to. She has convinced herself that what is a plausible lie is truth, but she has been crushed three times, and she doesn't have anybody to talk to but her husband who can't connect with her desperation. Of course, by the time she finds that it is a lie, it's too late. I'll agree that she is more frantic for herself than for Lucy when she does see truth. It's just too much! (Cut to commercial and wash the whole thing away.)

Congrats on your 4 today, Karen!!! I didn't have much of a streak to lose, but I lost it. I wonder whether my 3rd guess is on your used list. It's not on mine, and I'm flummoxed once again that SHE would pass over a perfectly good, common unused word for a used one.
Wordle 1,765 X/6*

⬜⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨 roast, stale, stamp, stagy, stats, stain Skunks SWIM in alphabet soup!!!!!

>171 LizzieD: Oh, Peggy, I'm so sorry about the skunk! I wanted to try that same pattern you chose and there were so many possibilities that I looked at the used words list (online). The first word I thought of had been used but, as far as I could tell, every possibility had already been used, so I went with my first guess and got it in 2. I was lucky today. And yes, your third guess was on the used list.

Sending wishes for a great week!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy and glorious Sunday to you. Skies are blue, and it's not too hot.

>171 LizzieD: I'm sorry about the skunk. I like it - skunks swim in alphabet soup.

Okay, here is the info about each word you chose:

roast - not yet used, on the list of 2309
stale - used 6-11-22
stamp - used 3-16-25
stagy - not on the list of 2309. However, they've started using words not on the list in addition to reusing words, sly dogs.
stats - not on the list of 2309.
stain - used 10-12-24

Wordle for me today in 3.

>172 atozgrl: Irene, I am a retired systems analyst. Computer used to be my forte and spreadsheets are now my forte. I have a spreadsheet with all 2,309 words in one tab, and all words used in a second tab.

1767 games played
11 words not on the original list of 2309
8 words used again

Thank you for the heads up about STAMP, Karen and Irene! It's now safely on my used word list too. I hope that you are both freer of backache today than yesterday. I had another pretty good night with a knee pillow and the e-r Tylenol. I hate to depend on even that much extra medication, but it surely beats shifting and turning in vain for a comfortable position to sleep.
Oh, this wonderful cool!!! If we got so much as a drop of rain yesterday, I missed it. However, this morning I am back in sweats and comfortable and looking forward to our walk.
Irene, CONGRATULATIONS for your Wordle in 2!!! Karen, Congratulations for your Wordle in 3!!!

Wordle 1,766 5/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, clame (What a surprise when this was accepted - for all the good it did me!), inane, phage, weave I now have a 1-day streak. Excitement!
Karen, I'm behind you with 1396 games played.

>165 LizzieD: That is the next one up in the series for me. Glad to see that you liked is better than Thin Air.

Have a marvelous Monday, Peggy!

>174 LizzieD: I was in alphabet soup from my first guess today. After three guesses of words not on the used list that got me nowhere (no additional letters), I gave up at 5 and tried a completely different word, hoping to find some more letters. I got nada again. But with the few letters that were left after that guess, I could see only one thing that fit, so without checking the used words list, I put it in, and that was it. Phew is right!

I am well behind both of you with only 1216 games played. I didn't bother with trying to create a spreadsheet since there were online sources for used words and the Wordle words list if I wanted to look at them. I try not to, but I've started using them more often the more I play. Unfortunately, the Wordle words list that I was using suddenly changed its format today, and is now virtually useless, so I went looking for a different one.

We were getting sprinkles as we left church yesterday, but that was all I saw. I don't know if we got anything at all at the house. Something could have come during church, or after we got home, but I didn't see it if we did. We are desperate for rain here. Nice weather today; I wish it would last.

Oh! I can still say good morning to Irene and Stasia! GOOD MORNING!

Irene, being 5 Sisters is better than being 6 Sisters; we won't allow the possibility of the worst. I hope you did better than my 4 today, but I am pleased to have a one day streak again. I'll be happy to send your the Google Doc with my used word list if it would be useful to you. You know that it doesn't go all the way back, and that sometimes it's inaccurate.

We are also desperate for rain. April showers - HA!

I hope you like Cold Earth when you get to it, Stasia. I confess that I'm reading A Deadly Education now .... it's my first Novik. You know I normally don't want to spend time in the YA world, but so far I'm entertained.

Wordle 1,767 4/6*

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spoil, plume, clump

‘Morning, Peggy! Barely morning, but still.

Gorgeous day, great temp. I hope you and your DH can get a good walk in.

According to our new-at-Christmas handy-dandy weather station, we’ve gotten .11 inches so far in April, 6.76 inches this year.

I know I’m late getting to your thread when you’ve already posted today’s Wordle. Congrats on your 4.

I was lucky with a 3 – I went down the not-yet-used words list and was fortunate.

Reading, lollygagging, possibly some spreadsheet or Lightning Round Word doc updates today.

Zoe is currently on my desk calendar, facing away from me. She’s been especially clingy lately – I think she senses that I’m not 100%.

>178 karenmarie: 6.76 inches doesn't sound like much. Is it about standard, or are you in a drought?

My Wordle buddy struck out the other day after a 320 day streak! My highest streak was 196...I *really* wanted to make it to 200 and then get less intense about Wordle...but it was not to be!

>171 LizzieD: Skunks SWIM in alphabet soup!!!!!

LOL

ROFL

I love that, though I'm sorry you were driven to utter it. *smooch*

I just had a lovely catch up in your last thread and here you are nearly at the end of the next one. I loved the quotations about failure, your review of "Yellowface" (a Kuang I haven't read and might not), and your Wordle successes. I must check on how many games I've played although I don't think I'm in your league.

Anyhoo, happy April. My daffs are out at last!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday.

Wordle in 2 today.

Restville again today, heading off to the Library after I finish typing this.

Good morning, Karen, Tui, Richard, Megan, and Judy! I LOVE to see so many of my favorite people dropping by!

I had a better night than Monday's, but if I walk, it won't be the whole thing. *sigh* An old body deteriorates quickly, given half a chance.

Tui, I've been too pressed for time to add quotations this thread. I still have a few and hope to get back to them. I've read only the 2 Kuangs, but I think she's an interesting writer, and I look forward to her maturing craft. Many thanks for stopping by and saying you liked being here! *See below for more Wordle news.

My WBL, I love to make you laugh on purpose. That makes me feel more like my witty daddy and granddaddy. Alas, I'm more like my dear mama, who made us laugh inadvertently. My favorite was when she said about a rising UNC basketball star, "They say he's going to be the next Michael Jackson." *smooch*

Oh, Megan! *Wordle streaks are so trivial and compelling! My first huge disappointment was when I was skunked trying for 100. Then the NYT lost another long streak and my record with it. Now I'm at 3 again, having lost out trying for 323. I enjoy trying every day, but now I allow myself to cheat - I guess that's a form of less intensity.

Judy, the whole state is more or less in a state of drought. I'm not sure where we are in southeastern NC (as opposed to Karen and Irene's central location), but the river is way down and the grass will crunch underfoot if we have no rain with hot sun for another week.

Good Wednesday, (((((Karen)))))! CONGRATULATIONS on your 2 again!!!!!
Wordle 1,768 3/6*

🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, senor, snore The only cloud on my satisfaction is that I have often used today's word as a second try and didn't think of it today. Oh well.

>177 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy, I appreciate the offer, but I don't see the point of having a local file when the used words list is available online. Also, if I had my own file, I'd have to keep it up, and it would inevitably have gaps, because I don't have access to Wordle at times when I'm on trips away from home. The online list works better for me.

For today's Wordle, I somehow missed the correct word at 3 and picked an almost identical word, so I got it in 4. I am very surprised that one hadn't been used already.

I just saw a story today that said Cook Out is coming to Apex! I look forward to its arrival.

I hope you enjoy Cook Out from time to time when it gets to Apex. I find it hard to believe that a food chain is here in RobCo and not in Apex.

I didn't read your post about online Wordle list carefully enough - just remembered your saying that a change made the one that you had been using unusable. Glad you have found one you like.

How's your back? I'll check at least your last few posts to see... I'm way behind!

>184 LizzieD: *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>186 LizzieD: The online Used Words list is fine. It's still giving me everything I need. It's the other online list that has all the Wordle words that went wonky on Monday. Instead of having the words alphabetically, they suddenly switched to random order, and it's now useless. I did find a different version of the Wordle words list that is still alphabetical, so I solved that problem.

ETA: I almost forgot to answer your question. My back is fine now. It was strained for a day, and I could still feel it a little bit the next day, but I haven't had any issues since then. I'm doing OK.

Irene, I'm glad to hear that your back is good again! Do all you can to keep it strong!!!!! I certainly used a list to get THE word at the fourth attempt today.

Wordle 1,769 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stoke, timed, tweet

*smoochiesmoochsmooch* right back to you, Sir Richard, WBL.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday. Happy warm Friday. Ugh.

Congrats on your Wordle in 4 yesterday. It took me 4 today, but that was just alphabet soup lite.

I must resist Doing Things. Trevor's coming over this afternoon - he'll pick up our grocery *order* at the FL in the Pitt (*smile*), replenish my bird feeders and bird bath, and take the recyclable glass out of the house and recycle it.

Hooray for Trevor, who will prevent your doing too much if you can stand it! We're 4 Sisters, at least all on my own.

I'm about to walk a little. Yesterday wasn't great after 20 minutes, and I had Advil. I'll see today.

Wordle 1,770 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, north, runny, drunk

A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik

Behold! I've read my first N. Novik!

>19 LizzieD: I was delighted by A Deadly Education - the entire trilogy, really, it does deliver, and a lot more than quirks on the magic school tropes. It readdresses them to different ends.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday. Kind regards to your DH and many skritches to the clowder.

Congrats on yesterday's Wordle 4. I was able to get it in 3 today.

Trevor came over and did all the things on the list. I wandered around a bit, but didn't really do much besides 'supervise'.

Arsenal play Newcastle at 12:30.

Reading, lollygagging, and etc. otherwise.

>192 LizzieD: And a most excellent one to start with! I hope it was enjoyable for you - I really liked that trilogy.

Hi, Mary, Karen, and Susan! I've been napping and letting my @(!@)^&^@@$%!!! knee/leg/back recuperate after walking a little less than half our normal outing.
I did enjoy *ADE*, Mary and Susan, and will have my little say about it later.

Karen, I hope you're better for having taken it easy again. Go Arsenal! Congrats on your Wordle in 3!

Wordle 1,771 4/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, voile, woken, women

>192 LizzieD: I read, and loved, her Temeraire series. Might need to read this one, too...curse you, Peggy me lurve.

*smooch*

'Morning, Peggy!

I'm so sorry that your knee/leg/back needed to recuperate after walking yesterday. Forced rest is absolutely no fun, as I can attest. I hope you're doing better today.

I keep feeling less horrible... but still Richard's Horrible, of course. Arsenal won. Thanks re Wordle.

Congrats on your Wordle in 4. I got it in 3 today.

Another day in Restville, with a few desk things. Sitting up since 10 hasn't been awful, so I'll spend a bit more time here in the Sunroom eating breakfast and reading.

Leftovers for dinner, possibly starting Agatha Christie's Seven Dials. Martin Freeman as Superintendent Battle and Helena Bonham Carter as Lady Caterham sound delicious.

Hooray, Karen! Once again we are 3 Sisters, legitimate ones!!!!!

I'm glad that you're feeling less horrible except in the RD sense. I guess I'll be resting too since we still have a little drizzle. My DH fed the cats their late supper and I got to bed at 11:04 last night instead of 12:34! That got me up in time for SS and church, but I can't do that often because it's not fair to him. Now I have to feed them lunch, which he also did yesterday because I needed to rest the leg after the walk. Grrrr. May we both rest well and feel more the thing tomorrow!!!

Curses accepted and returned in the best of spirits, my WBL! I haven't read Temeraire, but I know I'll have to. I've never been quite a dragon fan, but I do love closed community settings. *smooch*

Wordle 1,772 3/6*

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, spoil, gloss HA!

>199 LizzieD: Hi there! I'm confused by your Wordle solution--the words don't match the picture.

Checking everyone's Wordles is one of the first things I do on LT each day! I am an addict, I guess.

Karen O

Thank you, Karen!!! Just that quickly I forgot what the target word was. I knew what I had done for the last 2 letters, looked back, and fixed it. I'm glad you spotted it!

*smoochiesmoochsmooch*

what a lot of wordling!

‘Morning, Peggy!

Yay, Three Sisters. Took me 4 today.

I’m glad you and your DH can work together on getting all the kitties fed. It’s definitely a labor of love.

Jenna called a while ago and we had a wonderful chat, as always. They’re so happy… it makes me happy.

I’ll be making dinner and baking a frozen pie for dessert, so am pacing myself until I need to start it all.

In the meantime, it’s a gorgeous day here, I hope it is there.

Whew! I didn't do all that much today. I just didn't get here. I packaged 3 books and mailed them for PBS, picked up a prescrip., and did a bit of grocery shopping. I don't think I have to go out again this week except on Wednesday morning when our newer Honda gets some recalled parts replaced. I'm still shuffling stuff around trying to make it look as though I have fewer books.......
I love to hear from you how happy Jenna and Hwan are. All 3 of you make me happy too!!!!!
I took a Tylenol to do my errands today and it helped while I was walking. It's worn off now, but I'm no worse than I was.

Wordle 1,773 4/6* 4 Sisters are good too, Karen!

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, liner, bride, eerie

Wordling has become a necessity, Lucy!

*SmoochieSmoochSmooch* right back to you, my WBL!

Hey Peggy, I've just dropped by to share some Dick Francis love. No doubt I've done it before, but here it is again. I've rereread and so many of his books. Especially the ones from the 80s and 90s, but there are outliers on either side.
If I had them all on my Kindle I'd probably dive into them every few years myself, but until that's the case, it will be only an occasional indulgence. Then most of them can be read in any order, so it's not like I need to commit to a series.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday.

Congrats on your Wordle 4, it took me 4 today.

I'll take a Tramadol, then head to Virlie's in a while to catch up with the book sort team. I can't do the book sorting right now, but hope to get back to it mid-May.

A few other errands to run, too, then my cleaning ladies come at 1. Busy day.

Hooray for Tramadol and Virlie's, Karen!!!! Congrats on your 4 today; I went through a list for my 3. Take care of yourself in this busy day. I intend to stay right here!!!!!

Susan, I'm happy to meet another DF fan. I reread the older ones and have maybe his two last, one with his son, that I haven't been able to bring myself to read. I'll keep all my old mass copies with the block covers: here's one of my favorites -



Wordle 1,774 3/6*

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, moats, quack

>208 LizzieD: The copies on my shelves are quite miscellaneous and there are some I relied on the library for. I noticed a decline in my level of involvement in the books produced after his wife died, and another when his son co-authored. I may have read 2 with Felix - but I PR’d the last one I opened.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

I love the symmetry of your Wordle 3 yesterday. I got it in 3 today.

Today will be quiet. We'll watch Arsenal play in the semifinals of the Champions League today at 3, first leg.

Other than that, reading, lollygagging. I just worked on my April Lightning Round for about an hour, so there's that.

Susan, my later copies are miscellaneous editions too. I should check to see that I have all the novels; I'm close, I think. He was definitely failing after his wife died, but I'm loyal.

We're 3 Sisters today, Karen!!! That was a pretty pattern, wasn't it! (Not so pretty today) Glad you're back into the swing of things and hopeful that you'll be 100% soon! Best to Arsenal and hurray for April Lightning Round!
Sheesh! I could be Louise Penny.

Wordle 1,775 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, rally, rural

I hope you're even now diving into those emergency-reserve Dick Francis novels to get some extra joy into your life as felonious yam and fellow-travelling scum suck it out.

*smooch*

Thank you, Richard. The lovely thing about owning books is that I can pick them up when I want them. At the moment I don't need that level of rereading comfort. I've read mostly fluff this month, and I'm still well-placed for escape. (See below!)

Extra joy to you too! *smooch*

A SCANDALOUS DECEPTION by Lynn Messina

I enjoyed this one even more than number one. We have a smart, self-deprecating, ordinary-looking Regency heroine, a perfectly handsome Duke, and another cozy mystery. Bea is amazingly straightforward for any age.

I'll try very hard not to dive right into number 3 so that I don't get tired of her.

>213 LizzieD: I'm very glad you're finding Bea good company. I'm always pleased when someone makes a story on such...time-tested, let's say...lines that doesn't feel stale.

*smooch*

My thanks again, Richard, for guiding me to a series I wouldn't have touched otherwise. *smooch*

I'm amazed to say that I slept well last night. The one time I woke up, I went back to sleep immediately when I realized that my knee wasn't aching enough to have waked me. How I hope this bout is really over! I hope for an ordinary day. I'm afraid we may have missed our chance for rain, but it certainly remains cooler. I'm not walking again just in case, but So far no aching out of the ordinary!

Well, if I were so inclined, I'd ache a bit about this Wordle mess.
Wordle 1,776 X/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ roast, flour, grown, promo, droid, broch ... I would have sworn that I looked for crock in the used list, but I must have seen crook twice

>215 LizzieD: It took me 6 today, aided by a mistake at 3 when I used an R at the beginning of the word, when I had just identified at 2 that there was an R in the word but not in the first place. Since I'll be offline for the next few days, my current streak is about to end anyway.

I'm glad to hear that your knee is getting better. I hope that continues to be true!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you, dearest.

>211 LizzieD: Ah yes! Exclamation Points! She.Also.Does.This.For.Emphasis, which always irritates me. *smile*

Yay for 3 sisters. Arsenal tied on the first leg of their semifinal match up, which is not half bad. I’m working on the April Lightning Round and am about 30 books behind. I doubt I'll post before Monday, what with book club coming up on Sunday and all.

>215 LizzieD: A good night’s sleep is nothing to sneeze at. Yay.

Sorry about the skunk.

>216 atozgrl: Yay for Wordle Sisters, even with 6s and skunks. My current streak is 112, but of course writing that has jinxed it.

Good morning, Sisters Karen and Irene of Wordle Fame!!!

As to L. Penny, it's the sentence fragments I most hate. I'm not sure that she really knows what a sentence is. I.Do.This. here in conversation, but I'd never, ever do it in something that I was writing to be sold or read formally.
Good luck on your Lightning Round again. You are a hero to do it!
Not such good sleep last night, alas, but not the worst. I didn't sneeze at it.

Thank you, Irene, for when you come back. I trust that you're there by now and having good family time.

Wordle 1,777 4/6*

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stole, clime, plume I'm glad for 4, but I hate reusing words.

I think I'll start a new thread today. My New Books In list is out of control.

ETA: Maybe not.... All the Touchstones just loaded. I'll see what happens when I add my new Kindle deal.

>192 LizzieD: I still need to get to that one!

>213 LizzieD: Looks like a series that I need to read at some point.

Thank you again for all of your help with my recent Internet woes.

I hope you have a super Saturday!

Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday to you.

I joke that Penny gets paid by the punctuation mark.

Thanks re the Lightning Round. I’m still working on it. I’m still working on stats, too.

Congrats on yesterday’s Wordle in 4. It took me 6 today. Whew.

I’m getting ready for book club here tomorrow, doing a FEW things. Steph is coming over early tomorrow to help.

Arsenal play Fulham today at 12:30. 🤞

>219 alcottacre: When you're ready for something light, Stasia, either of those series will be fun for you.

>220 karenmarie: That's a very good joke, Karen: cutting right to the chase. I see a busy day ahead for you, and I'm very glad that Steph is coming early tomorrow. Enjoy your day, and good play to Arsenal!

Bless your Whew. I HATE reused words. I just stopped looking after the the third guess.
Wordle 1,778 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, snort, runny, bring

>221 LizzieD: Their list has 2309 entries of acceptable-to-them words, nothing like "aalii" which would send people to their Wikipedia tab, so why are they reusing words already?! Enjoy your new-thread building, smoochling.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy gorgeous Sunday to you.

Wordle in 5. Congrats on yesterday's 4. One of these days soon I'll report on how many of the original 2,309 words haven't been used, how many have been used twice, and how many aren't on the original 2,309.

I'm getting ready to do some book club prep. Nothing heavy, nothing cumbersome.

I finished the book at 5 this morning. Nothing like cutting it close!

I'm glad that you finished the book, Karen, but I hope you didn't read straight through until 5:00. Horrors! I could never pull an all-nighter in college however much I needed to. I'm also glad that your preps are relatively easy. AND I'll be very interested to see your stats when you've had time to look at Wordle, not that it's any kind of priority. Enjoy your afternoon!

I must say that "aalii" certainly sent me to google, Richard. Do Scrabble players use that one???? I enjoyed the randomness of machine-generated words from the list. I don't think the woman, I think it's a woman, who does it now even makes an effort to be random. She leans toward the pleasant, but who would choose puffy over puppy when both were unused?
Wordle 1,779 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, liege, punch, puppy, puffy.

I'm happy to be enjoying Maisie Dobbs and being among the majority on this one.

>224 LizzieD: I learned "aalii" in the Scrabble-playing years...I won a game we played in Hawaii by a single point with "aalii" on a triple word score, and have never forgotten it...so I'm all for allowing all five-letter words without tight boundaries placed around them.

*smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you.

>224 LizzieD: I didn’t pull an all-nighter, thank goodness. I had about an hour and a half to go when I woke up about 3 or so. Tried to go back to sleep but that wasn’t successful, so I finished it.

Okay, Wordle. To the best of my ability, here are the stats:

1780 games
1759 first use
10 words used again
11 words not on original list of 2309

Today is Restville. Bill's off for his annual exam, so I have a bit of time here alone at the house.

Congrats on your Wordle in 5. I got it in 4.

Good morning (((((Karen))))) and Richard *smooch*!

I'm off shortly to visit both your threads before scooting away again.

Thanks for those stats, Karen. That's interesting for sure, and I'm surprised that only 11 words not on the original list have been used in almost 2000 games.
I'm for unboundaried word opportunities too, WBL. I remember a site years ago that offered rice to 3rd world countries for the rest of us logging on to improve our vocabularies. I have no idea now what it was, but I played and played to the outer limits and encountered words that I had never imagined (like "aalii") and don't remember at all. I felt a lot like my students who reported back from the SAT with this dialogue:
Kid: Oh, Ms. McLizzle (some of them actually called me this a long time before I became LizzieD) a lot of our vocabulary words were on the test!
MMcL: GREAT!!!! So you knew most of them, right?
Kid: No, I didn't remember what they meant, but I knew we had had them.

Wordle 1,780 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, rites, riser Lucky day! I hope we're 3 Sisters, Karen!

I keep adding books and reading less. *sigh*

>227 LizzieD: The 9th grade English teacher made her vocabulary lists from words harvested from SAT etc. I did remember the meanings, though my pronunciations are questionable.

>227 LizzieD: Reading and book collecting are, famously, different activities. List-making is in that mix as well. *chuckle* at that really relatable anecdote...I ***know*** the word "epistemology" has entered the chat in my mind a squillion times over the past 55 years since first encountering it in the Encyclopedia Britannica but can I tell you what it means? No. I can not. But I recognize it!

*smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

Congrats on yesterday's 3. Took me 4 today.

I made the mistake of only getting about 2 hours of sleep because I needed to finish a book. I will, undoubtedly, suffer today. No book sort for sure, and I may even blow off Virlie's. We shall see.

Good afternoon, Karen, Richard, and Susan!

Susan, my smarter students learned the words and also took advantage of my offer of extra credit on the next vocab quiz. The first person in each class who reported where they heard or read a word on that week's list, identified the source, quoted the sentence (hence pronunciation for once at least), and gave the definition, got an extra point on that week's quiz - or chose to save it for another week. The same kids, who didn't need the extra point, were naturally the ones who came back again and again. Vocab lists are not among best practices nowadays, but when kids don't read, they are not going to pick up more sophisticated vocabulary unless somebody requires them to.

Ah, Richard. I don't think of myself as a book collector! I go after books that I want to read, and I'm not picky about the format as long as it's reasonably clean with font I can handle. As to words, epistemology and ontology are both outside my grasp as being greatly philosophical. Philosophy is a closed book to me. Theology, now.... that I can get into. *grin* also *smooch*

We are 4 Sisters today then, Karen. I'm trotting over to see what you needed to finish ... smut??? I'm about to finish Maisie Dobbs, and I'm delighted that Lucy led my way to her. I didn't sleep well because of my #()()@#*(@!!!! back/knee/leg. I'll leave Brownie a message on MyChart today about ibuprofen.

Wordle 1,781 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, tally, (stupid guess, but I couldn't get it out of my head until I tried it), natal, latch

>231 LizzieD: Well, Mrs. A didn't do more specific vocabulary building that I noticed, but I was so not a noticing teen. I was a reader though, and few of the words were entirely new to me. I was still getting the hang of nailing good grades. Where simply doing the work would have worked for me, had I been tuned that way, I did find various tactics for covering for short falls and would have graduated 2nd if not 1st, if I'd pulled from one course and been able to avoid the early morning PE.

Early morning PE sounds ghastly to me even now! I'm sure that you were a reader and likely started early. If everything else in our world were fine, I'd worry about how our kids' brains are changing because they don't read or "cipher" or learn much of anything really because of teachers who don't know much themselves. At least, that's true here. I trust that RobCo is not typical.

>221 LizzieD: I read light stuff, don't I? Lol

Have a wonderful Wednesday, PA!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday to you.

>231 LizzieD: Speaking of “reasonably clean with a font I can handle”, I have between 100 and 200 mass market paperbacks that are either yellowed or tanned, with a font it’s not easy for me to read any more. I really need to cull them.

And of course the sleep stealer was smut. The Scent of Sin by Halle Dawson. I’m really sorry about not sleeping well because of your back/knee/leg. I do hope you can take ibuprophen. Congrats on your 4 yesterday – it matches my 4 for today.

>232 quondame: and >233 LizzieD:. I had first period PE at least one of my high school years, and it was not pleasant. At least I wasn’t wearing makeup at that time, so didn’t have runny makeup that needed to be reapplied. Last period PE, of course, was always best.

My last PE class (until college!) was 9th grade, thank goodness! We wore the shapeless 1-piece white gym suits. Horrors! Now I'll probably have nightmares.
I can and do still read my old mps, Karen, so I can't lose them yet. I do put series that I strongly suspect I won't read again on PBS, but I seldom have takers. That's OK. Who knows but I might change my mind.....
I hope you slept well last night. I put another pillow behind me, and that made all the difference - even more than the one supporting the knee. Maybe that's the secret.

Stasia, I'm not really sure what you don't read except horror, I think, or Westerns????

Congrats on your 4, today. We are on the seesaw again.
Wordle 1,782 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, loden, liken I thought the word was unlikely, but behold!

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
I'm very happy to have found Maisie! I liked the book better than most people who claim to love Maisie and the series. I didn't mind that the mystery itself was a little thin. I wanted Maisie's backstory. Maybe what I liked most were the "people" techniques that Maurice taught her. I hope that JW won't repeat the description of the process quite as often in the rest of the series, but I did appreciate it in this first one.
In fact, it's hard to realize that this was a first book for her.

>233 LizzieD: >235 karenmarie: >236 LizzieD: The PE course was at 8:00AM, an hour earlier than any other classes, and available to those who wanted an extra academic class. I was trying to sneak an early graduation, which didn't pan out, and as I got a B in the extra class, I unknowingly blew my chance at one of the two top spots. Oh, and since my ride to PE was super-flakey and I wasn't willing to bicycle in the desert winter winds, my (lack of) attendance got me a D, which spiked it. I think PE wasn't counted except for ties.

‘Morning, Peggy! Yay for rain. Happy Thursday to you. My county has moved to Extreme Drought, while yours is ‘only’ in Severe Drought.

>236 LizzieD: Ugh. Shapeless 1-piece white gym suits. We wore red shorts, white shirts with snaps for buttons, white sox and white tennis shoes. We were supposed to take these home on the weekend and wash them. I rarely did yet fooled the PE teachers into thinking I had when we were inspected on Monday. The secret was folding them nicely in my gym locker and not cramming them in as some girls did. I took basketball and archery in college but don’t remember how we dressed out.

I have soooo many MMPs. There are quite a few MF romances I’ll never read again that are eligible for culling.

Congrats on your 3 yesterday. The Wordle gods were looking down at me kindly and I got it in 3 today.

Restville today, with perhaps a MMP search in the Retreat.

Oh, Susan. How awful for PE to ruin your chance to salut or vale! Third in a good school, as I'm sure yours was, is better than first in mine.

Yes, Karen, it's raining at last! I'm sorry that your drought is extreme. We're hearing on the scanner (my DH's constant companion) wreck after wreck on I-95. Apparently the new barricades along the highway are channeling the water so that vehicles are hydroplaning all over the place. I'm astounded that no engineer could foresee this happening.
I wish I were staying in, but I have a dental check-up and cleaning. While I'm out, I'm off to the 2 grocery stores. I will do my best not to hydroplane, and I will certainly stay off I-95.

Congrats on your 3 today. Our seesaw continues.
Wordle 1,783 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, fiend, delve, budge

>239 LizzieD: I consider it a just cost of my utter cluelessness. My friend who took the top spot re-took freshman algebra to raise her GPA and needed, as I did not, all the financial perks of coming in first. She took advantage of the NMS scholarships to Michigan (State? University?). The other young woman I didn’t know well, but in our community my family, both by my father’s position and his parents comfortable circumstances, was among the most prosperous, so my guess would be that she too had reason to stratagise for success. I was short sightedly just winning bets about grades with my mother, so she was the one with the plan.

Yes, those short puffy hipped gym suits were a crime.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday to you. I hope you and your DH were able to get a walk in this morning. It is absolutely gorgeous out.

When I lived in LA, rain after no rain for weeks or months at a time caused cars to slide in the water-covered oils left on the roads. Accidents everywhere.

Whenever Bill sees any crazy road design, parking lot design, or stoplight pattern, he always mutters “NC State Engineers”.

>239 LizzieD: Congrats on your 4 yesterday. Yes, we’re seesawing with my 4 today.

That is interesting, Susan! I'll now recount my 2 stories that yours called up. (I'm not sure that you ever want to do that with me.) I was a member of a very smart group - 5 of us graduated within a point and a half of each other. I had been chief marshal our junior year, but by the end of our senior year, one of my best friends had tied my GPA to the hundredth of a point, so we graduated as co-valedictorians. (She is the one who, in the 8th grade had a chart posted on the inside of her closet door, "My Grades --- P.A.'s Grades." Friends found it when we were having a slumber party at her house.) I wasn't seriously trying to be first, but I did make sure to do everything that was required, and I've always been good at spotting the teacher and taking tests.
When I was teaching, the boy who was naturally first in the class was bumped out by a girl whose prominent family insisted that her violin grades from private lessons with a prof at the local-ish college be considered. I walked into graduation practice in the gym to see the girl seated by herself in a section of the bleachers and the rest of the class all in the next section. (Think Catiline and the Roman Senate.) Then the newly named salutatorian walked in and went straight over to sit beside her and congratulate her. I've rarely respected a student more.

It is gorgeous, Karen. We haven't walked yet. DH needs to do some errands first. Yes, within the first half hour of rains, the number of wrecks increases because of oil slicks, but they increased this time the more it rained, coming in so fast at one point that the city didn't have enough officers to cover them all immediately. Sheesh. And Bill is right.

We are now 4 Sisters! Good for us!!!!
Wordle 1,784 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, abort, sabra, umbra

>236 LizzieD: No horror. I have read 2 westerns in the past couple of years :)

I am a big fan of the Maisie Dobbs series, Peggy, so I hope you enjoy them as you go along.

Have a fantastic Friday!

>242 LizzieD: Friend-competitors were something all three of my siblings had and were very much aware of. I had been considered slow and kept out of the first gifted class in 6th grade, possibly I was mildly dyslexic. My mother took me to a private tester after her complaints (how could one of her children be slow) got the middle school to test me. Before the school's testing, I was left to wait an hour outside in mid-day, and during the look over the shoulder testing I was regular berated. I believe both of the testers knew their mandates and delivered the desired results. In any case I was put in the 7th grade gifted program. I remained an outsider to the group who'd been selected in 6th grade. My friend who eventually took the top spot came from the Catholic school in the town outside the base.

It took me a year and a half to orient myself to get the grades that delivered goodies (nice shoes and a bit of cash) from my mother, and that was my focus until I landed, very much disoriented, on the UCB campus.

I think the music grades should have been considered - discipline and achievement should be recognized, but not only for one student.

>236 LizzieD: I'm finally, slowly getting back around to the threads after our quick trip for the funeral last weekend.

We had shapeless, one-piece gym suits too, but ours were blue. I don't remember ever having PE first or last period. It seems like ours was always somewhere in the middle of the day.

You slept better with an extra pillow? Have you considered getting an adjustable base for your bed? We went to a split king with adjustable bases, and that has been helpful for us.

>242 LizzieD: I join you and Karen as 4 sisters in Wordle today (oh, I guess that's actually yesterday now). I need to get to sleep.

>245 atozgrl: I also endorse an adjustable bed. As a back sleeper it makes all the difference - I never worry about my pillows going awol anymore - or wake up with an immobile back. I do have to keep my left arm supported in a curved shape on a soft pillow, but that's my elbow issue, and that pillow seems remarkable stable.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday. Another gorgeous day here in NC.

Congrats on yesterday’s 4. I channeled the Wordle Gods and got today’s in 3.

I was going to place a grocery order today but am not organized enough to, plus the idea of lugging in stuff with Bill's immobility and my back seems daunting. Oh well, we'll just have to eat what we have here.

Good afternoon, dear friends. I'm here after an exceedingly hearty and delicious breakfast! I slept late and prepped long for my Saturday omelet.

Karen, we're 3 Sisters today. How about you, Irene? It's especially gratifying when logical thought gets there in 3! I'm pretty sure that you and Bill could eat from your freezer(s) for months and be happy. I'm happy to hear you taking care of yourself.

Irene and Susan, thank you for your suggestion of an adjustable bed. I don't much want to do that. I'm a back sleeper only when I have to be and much prefer to adjust myself and the pillows. Stubborn much? I may try Mama's wedge if we can air the perfumy smell from it. I'm sorry to hear about your elbow, Susan.

Susan, I don't think I'd want to open the can of worms for deciding when extra-curricular activities might be considered in academic averages for high school students. I might have added in the example I gave that the boy (Mr. 800 on math SAT) audited advanced math classes at the same university, but it didn't occur to his parents to insist that they be considered. In the case of piano lessons, what would they have done about my co-valedictorian and me? Her parents could afford to send her to a college prof for weekly lessons. My parents could afford to send me to the same man a couple of times a year in addition to my weekly lessons with a local teacher with a BA. We both played in the same adjudicated piano festivals, but I remember one piece that brought my score down considerably because neither my teacher nor I had ever heard anybody else play it. That was in the ninth grade before going out of town for a coaching lesson entered our minds. What would you do about the kid down the street who worked hard for a voice major who had had one semester of basic piano? Or a kid who danced? Or one who had private art lessons? Hmmm. I must still feel strongly about this one!

Wordle 1,785 3/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, salty, satin Maybe I should have gotten it in 2, but I didn't. So there.

Good afternoon, smoochling. It's one of Those Days, cloudy enough to feel dark and just enough spots of rain to feel humid...so Napzilla is my kaiju name now. Forty-five minutes until dinner, which was so uninspired I forgot what was being served. *yawn*

>248 LizzieD: The playing field is so full of dips and humps that equality of opportunity, let alone results, is a direction not a place. But if universities and colleges were really looking for capabilities their filters shouldn't be so automatic as to only look at placement, but combine that with economic factors. It really doesn't matter much who gets first place unless that is the primary selection for later advantage.
Ideally all academic, athletics, and arts should be part of the evaluations.

>248 LizzieD: I hope you can use your Mama's wedge. Is the odor strong?

I join you as 3 sisters in Wordle today. I might have had it in 2. After my first word, I was going to look at the Wordle Words list for something starting with SAT, but then just decided to guess SAINT instead, without looking at any lists. That gave me all the letters, and I only had to rearrange them to get the word in 3.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you.

Yay for our 3 sisters yesterday. I followed a new rule and got it in 2 today.

Hmmm. Months. Between pantry and freezer possibly a couple of months, but not happily. It would quickly get boring. Grocery shopping tomorrow though – order at FL and pick up, of course. It won't be cheap, because I was unhappy with myself that I didn't have any chicken that I could defrost and use for dinner last night. Chicken, salmon, possibly steaks.

Arsenal play in half an hour and major laziness will ensue thereafter.

OOOOO! 3 3 Sisters!!!! Good for all of us, Karen and Irene.
Karen, what's the new rule??? Is it something that we could use!?!
Wordle 1,786 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, roast, parch, parka

Irene, the wedge isn't strongly smelly to me, but my DH has a very sensitive nose, and since it's right next to my face, I think I'd be bothered too. I'm unwilling to get a new one until I see how helpful one would be.

Karen, I understand about the frustration of having no chicken to thaw, especially when I have misremembered. Glad that you can eat tonight!!
Good luck to Arsenal. I'm home from church and feel a short nap hovering.... We'll walk at some point too.
One high point of today's service was my friend's 7or 8 year-old daughter's comment during the children's sermon that included mention of water into wine: "I'll bet Jesus got a lot more wedding invitations after that."

>253 LizzieD: Oh, that's funny! Thanks for sharing that.

Good luck with the wedge. I hope you can get it to the point where you can test it. Wordle in 4 for me too today.

‘Morning, Peggy. Happy Monday to you.

>253 LizzieD: The rule is to use the first word that hasn’t been used yet regardless of whether I like it or not. The first word not yet used that I saw yesterday was PARKA. I usually try to find a word that doesn’t have 2 of a new letter, but the new rule overrode and it worked.

Arsenal won, I had taquitos for dinner. We watched Remarkably Bright Creatures. It was good but not stunning.

How cute about what the child said.

I got Wordle in 5 today.

Any update on the wedge?

No wedge update, but I thank you both for speaking about it, Karen and Irene. It needs to hang in sun and air a little longer. Meanwhile, I'm finally almost getting back into normal uneasiness with knee/back/leg, thank goodness!
The quotable child will continue to be. Her mother is a PhD., teaching at UNC-P, and her father, who works for Amazon, is the son of a well-off family in Hyderabad. She is a perfect combination of their beauty, intelligence, and wit.

It has RAINED here this morning!!!!!

Not only did I not use the new rule, Karen, but I floundered, not paying attention to letter placement again. Oh well. The streak continues at 11, and we're 5 Sisters. Irene?
Wordle 1,787 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, elven, knelled, newly

>256 LizzieD: Wordle in 3 for me today. Since they started reusing words, I went back to using my normal second guess for when my first word gives me just L and E, but neither in place. The second guess led me to the correct solution today, but I did check the used words list.

You got rain? I'm jealous. I don't know if we got a drop here today. It was very cloudy this morning, but I didn't see anything when I went out.

Congrats on your 3 today, Irene! That is definitely the way to be in a class by yourself!

We had a couple of showers this morning. The second was almost nothing but was enough to send me home after having walked only a couple of blocks. Oh my leg! I'll try again tomorrow. BTW, I see that somebody is putting a Wordle game on TV with Savannah Guthrie as host.

Morning, me lurve. I do not know the house opinion on Romantasy as a genre: Are we pro or con, or in the nuanced "if it's good enough" camp, or some combination/variant thereupon? Inquiring minds and all that.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

5 on Wordle is not really floundering, of course. I say this with confidence because it took me 5 today. *smile*

>257 atozgrl: Congrats on your 3, Irene. We didn’t get any rain.

>259 richardderus: Gads, RD. I just looked up gay romantasy and one set of offerings is gross.

I’m busy today, Peggy – possibly Virlie’s, chiropractor, cleaning ladies.

Romantasy? Book by book, Richard, but lighter on the romance and it better be "good enough." By that standard almost every fantasy would be in the running, so I'm back to the book by book. Now I'm intrigued by Karen's gross set of gay romantasy! ?????
*smooch*

Good Tuesday to you too, Karen. I'm amazed still at having mostly a real spring. This morning was absolutely cool!!! Hope your morning included Virlie's along with the chiropractor and the cleaning ladies!
We are 5 Sisters as you see. I really HATE using the word the second time with a repeated letter! I think I floundered.

Wordle 1,788 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, toils, cloud, clomp, clock

I am succumbing to Kindle deals right and left. I could save my $, which adds up, to get some of the really wonderful stuff that I need and want, but I can't resist really good stuff. I continue to suspect active denial of eye health down the road. *sigh*

>261 LizzieD: The Kindle deals you're succumbing to are the reason I unsubscribed to those stuffed newsletters advising what's on Kindlesale!

Romantasy needs to be low steam/spice for me to put up with it because there's oodles of purpose-made smut if I want that. The ones I reviewed today were decent-plus because I ended up interested in their take on being Chosen. I won't start seeking any out but am not going to set up an "I Hate Romantasy" group here, either. I haven't peered into The Green Dragon in years, but I'll bet there's a thread with that purpose if not title in the group!

>260 karenmarie: It grosses YOU, O Smut-a-rincess?! I'm clearly out of that loop!

‘Morning, Peggy! Gorgeous out, isn’t it?

>261 LizzieD: I only like shifter or omegaverse gay romantasy. I don’t like witch, fae, or mage. I think I was looking at a different list yesterday, can’t find the ‘gross set of offerings’.

I passed on Virlie’s, but drove to Raleigh – up by Rex Hospital – for the chiropractor. Clean house when I got back.

Sorry for the 6, but it became alphabet soup, right? I got it in 3 today.

>262 richardderus: Like I wrote above, RD, I can’t find the gross offering looking at lists this morning. No more time shall be spent. Note to self: write down details.

I’ve gotten very picky with the smut I read. I need to think about it more and write something on my thread soon about how I’ve evolved in the world of MM romance, aka gay smut.

Good afternoon, Karen and Richard! As to romantasy, I need to look at Richard's reviews. I just saw a note that Prime is producing the *Fourth Wing* saga. I rather enjoyed the dragons, but the heroine's repeated references to "my clit" drove me absolutely wild and drove it down into YA territory for me. I've resisted the second one so far.
I tried looking at gay romantasy here too, but I didn't have time to track down the tag or tag mash...

As to Wordle yesterday, Karen, I was at 5 too but made it in 4 today. Congrats on your 3!

Wordle 1,789 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩learn, stoic, dough, dowdy Good enough for me.

>264 LizzieD: The romantasy reviews I mentioned are finally posted, so y'all can go judge the offerings. I got a widget this morning for Bromantasy, which TBH sounds like I'll be using it for target practice.

That utter claptrap Yarros crapped out of her head getting a TV deal at all, ever, offends every sensibility I can find. The death-games idea is stupid, the way these kidlets think about their bodies and their "relationships" is ridiculous for an adult to purvey to impressionable youths, and as for her thinking about her clit, is that meant to titillate the innocent and substitute for actual body positivity?

I might not be watching the bloody thing. I have an inkling it might not be aimed at me. *smooch*

ETA I forgot to tell you Wordle's coming to your TV set next year because the Times is going deeper into TV production.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you. It's a gorgeous day here.

Wordle sisters - your yesterday's 4 and my today's 4.

Not much else - Restville today after doing a bit too much yesterday.

Happy Thursday, Karen and Richard!!!!

Congrats on your 4 today, (((((Karen)))))! I had the 2 unused words at 4 and thought of the right one first but didn't use it in deference to the Chatham County Library memorials. *grin*
I'm sorry that you did too much yesterday. I woke up this morning with no ache or pain at all. It was so lovely that I went back to sleep for the longest lie-in of the past ten years. I'll have study club's last meeting until fall and then maybe a sub from somewhere for lunch. Whoopeee!
Wordle 1,790 5/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, large, namer, paver, waver

You might not be watching the bloody thing, my WBL??? I think that's probably a wise decision. I might check out the dragons which I usually don't like, but I won't be staying long. I was hot to read it because our Mamie loved it so much. I miss her!!!
I did enjoy the first *Scholomance* but lots of schools in fiction are out to kill their students these days. I wonder if that's done because our RL schools kill so many from sheer boredom if not worse. ........nah. The thought is true enough, but I doubt that's what these fantasy writers have in mind.
Anyway, *smooch* for your Thursday!

>267 LizzieD: I think the trend towards murder-academy stories is telling, don't you? If death by boredom was the analogy there'd never, ever be a time without the plot being common as pig tracks.

I miss Mamie as well. I hope she finds her way home again. *smooch*

‘Morning, Peggy! It’s a wonderful day out here, with tolerable temps.

Thanks my Wordle in 4. Congrats in getting it in 5, or, congrats in not getting skunked. 😊 The Wordle gods were looking kindly at me today and i got it in 3.

>267 LizzieD: and >268 richardderus: My favorite murder/school mysteries are Miss Pym Disposes and Gaudy Night. No romance in the first, serious non-smutty romance in the second.

I desperately miss Mamie, too. I send Christmas cards every year but birthday cards for her June 1st birthday less frequently than I should.

>267 LizzieD: Checking in on you for today, Peggy!

As far as the *Scholomance* books go, I have some on the way to me - the first three (the only three?) but they will not be here for a while yet. It is a boxed set due to be released later in the year.

Have a fantastic Friday, PA!

>269 karenmarie: I hope we can in combination summon her back.

Morning, Peggy! *smooch*

I slept in again, and it's making me stupid.....or maybe I'd be more stupid if I hadn't. Anyway, I'm barely hanging on with Wordle as you'll see below. Luckily, I don't have to go anywhere today or tomorrow.

Ah, Mamie. I'm glad that you have her address, Karen, and I'll hope to get it from you maybe in time to send a birthday greeting too. We should start a Mamie Campaign, Richard and Karen!!!
I join you in dearly loving both Miss Pym and Gaudy N. I think Cat Among the Pigeons may have been my first in-school one. I'll give any mystery in a closed community a closer look.
I just finished my first viewing of A Passage to India. What a gorgeous film! Of course, Art Malik is gorgeous anywhere.
Congrats on Wordle in 3, btw.
Wordle 1,791 5/6*

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🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, tries, proem, erred, breed Brother.

So you really like *Scholomance*, Stasia!!!! I wish you a Fantastic Friday too. Mine will be fantastic because I'm enjoying Child of Flame so much. I'm not wildly enthusiastic about it, but I can't put it down. It's also so huge (subsidized, no doubt, by the pulp paper industry as my friend Edward characterized my reading years ago) that unless I press, I'll never finish it. I also have the third of the last 3 in the series on the way, and they are also whoppers.

Fantastic Friday to you too, my WBL! *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

>272 LizzieD: I watched A Passage to India a long time ago but don't remember very much about it.

Yesterday's 5 looked painful. I got it in 4 today, with the help of my handy dandy spreadsheets.

I've got nothing scheduled for today except to get my Lightning Round under control - 3 books finished and 5 books abandoned. A bit on the spreadsheets, but not too much.

Happy Saturday right back, Karen-mine! You know, I guess, that I am fascinated by anything Indian from any part of India. *Passage* is particularly beautiful, dated a bit, but to my mind lacking only the smell of the place. I don't guess he would have cast Sir Alec Guinness as a Hindu holy man (?) today, but otherwise, it was beautifully done. I haven't read the book, but I may. I liked the ambiguity.....

I need to do something with chicken today so that we can eat a meal or two - I'm thinking mostly chicken salad. It is getting warm!

We're 4 sisters, an improvement for me!
Wordle 1,792 4/6*

🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, loner, mower, mover

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday to you, kind regards to your DH, and many kitty skritches to the clowder.

Yay for yesterday's 4. My 4 today matches it.

Ooooh, chicken salad. I bought the ingredients the other day - a rotisserie chicken, dried cranberries, celery, and I already had pecans and mayonnaise. I'd almost forgotten about my plan. Otherwise, Restville.

Many returns of Sunday wishes, Karen!

My chicken salad is like yours except that I prefer white meat and don't use dried cranberries or grapes, etc. but I do use sweet pickles - sto'bought bread and butters in this case. It's pretty good and will be better today and tomorrow. Then it will be gone.

Wordle 1,793 4/6* We remain 4 Sisters, and I'm happy for that!

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟨⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, salty, allyl (obviously from a list), bylaw (suddenly obvious without help) Sheesh.

I continue to enjoy both *Bright Creatures* and *Flame Child*, and they are about all that I'm reading now. I miss Byron and DJ and everything else, but I don't have time for more. *sigh*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Monday to you. It's a gorgeous, if already hot, day. 84F now, going to a high of 93F.

Congrats on your "suddenly obvious" 4. I got it in 3 today.

I've got a few errands in town, then Arsenal play Burnley at 3. 🤞

Hi, Karen! We walked at 10:00 before it was unbearable. My unbearable has sunk to 85° or so, I'm sorry to say. We did the lower, shadier, longer half again.

I'm about to finish *BC*, but I needed to check in here first. I'll be back.

Meanwhile, BEHOLD!
Wordle 1,794 2/6*

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, loath Right first word. Congrats on your 3. Things are looking up.

>272 LizzieD: Glad to hear that Child of Flame has been a good read for you, Peggy!

I hope you have a marvelous Monday!

I'm finally going home and deeply glad to be doing so. No huge problems to monitor just one adjustment to my meds.*whew*

>280 richardderus: So happy for you! I deeply recall that sense of freedom, getting out of the hospital! Have a wonderful day!

Karen O

>281 klobrien2: ...if only it wasn't 90°...

>278 LizzieD: I join you as 4 sisters on Sunday and 2 sisters today. After my first word, I think there wasn't anything else it could have been.

I do not like this heat for this time of year. Two more days to put up with before it cools down slightly on Thursday. I hope they're right about rain over the weekend.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Tuesday to you.

>278 LizzieD: Way to go! Congrats on your two.

I hope to meet up with the book sort team today at Virlie’s before I head on over to Raleigh to my chiropractor.

Yikes. 96F here today and tomorrow. I want spring.

GOOD for you! I'm delighted that you feel well enough to get to Virlie's before going on to Raleigh. Hope your chiropractor still comes through for you!

We're about to walk while it's still 80. Spring was mostly amazing this year; maybe it's not gone quite yet.....

Wordle 1,795 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, hoist, musty, dusty At least I didn't try fusty, which was my first thought!

REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES by Shelby Van Pelt

Like the rest of you, I was charmed. I resisted this one because I feared it would be cutesy. I think she pulled off a good balance. This is two women's books this year that I thoroughly enjoyed and likely wouldn't have read even last year. Good for me!

>285 LizzieD: I'm so glad you enjoyed it too! I expected it to be so twee as to cause tooth decay. I think the film on Netflix gets closer to that but skirts the dreadful "old-person-acts-mean-is-totes-adorbs-really" farrago. That old-man-out-the-window thing is my platonic ideal of that story, and I hate it with burning fury. So condescending, so disrespectful, so dismissive.

Well, having unloaded both barrels, I guess it's time to figure out which reviews to work on. *smoochiesmoochsmooch*

>285 LizzieD: Yay for finishing Remarkably Bright Creatures, Peggy, and glad to see that you enjoyed it.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday. Gorgeous out, sad that it’s going to be so hot today and tomorrow. I’ll be glad when it cools down on Friday.

>285 LizzieD: Congrats on you 4. I got in 3 today, with judicious use of my spreadsheets. Fusty is a word, just not a 2,309 Wordle word.

I’m so glad you liked Remarkably Bright Creatures.

I'm glad to be a member of the GPO Party, Karen, Stasia, and Richard! I'm glad to have read it now, and it probably means more to me now than it might have even 3 years ago. We've walked, and I've finally eaten and will have my last bit of coffee with a bit of doctoring. Then it's back to the usual!

Wordle 1,796 6/6*

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, horse, timer, prexy, creek, wreck Whew indeed!

'Morning, Peggy, and happy Thursday to you.

>289 LizzieD: Whew. Saves your streak.

I got it in 3 today.

Don't have to lave the house today. Will R&R and try to avoid doing too much.

Good morning, Karen, my 3 Sister! We're late for our walk but on the way. I wish you a very lazy day.

Wordle 1,797 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lager, agree

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Friday. I hope your walk was good. Thanks re my lazy day. It was lazy. We got 1.5" of rain last night, heard thunder in the distance, and had a few power flickers. We definitely needed the rain.

Yay for your 3, and I got it in 3 today.

I have a doctor's appointment at 1:30, will chat with my Aunt Joyce at 4, and other than that R&R and The Gilded Age.

>292 karenmarie: Once again we are 3 Sisters! YAY!!!!! I wish you a good, quick - but thorough enough - doc's appointment, a pleasant conversation with Aunt Joyce, and the rest of the day as you please.

Walk was good yesterday; at least the mile I feel like doing right now. Otoh, I'm sleeping without Tylenol, and I consider that a bonus. Ot3rdh, I stayed in bed an extra hour, so I'm even further behind than usual.

Wordle 1,798 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, atoll, vocal I can't believe that one hadn't been used before. Everything else I tried had been.

As to reading. *sigh* I'm about to the half-way point of my current epic fantasy (which happens at p. 456 if you care to do the math). I wish I had read these when they came out and I was more in love with huge fantastic experience and read faster. As it is, it's constantly pushing me on with a bunch of interesting characters who are in precarious situations. Although I'll be bereft when I finish it, I definitely will not go on to book 5 of the series immediately. Uh oh. I just checked: book 5 is the longest at 989 pp, then the last 2 lose 300 or so.
oh --- I'm currently reading Child of Flame.
(Note to self: Self, you've never finished the last *Wheel of Time* either.)

'Afternoon, Peggy!

Yay for 3 sisters!!! The doctor's appointment went fine, and I don't have to see him for a year.

two of the three 'ocal's had been used. *smile*

At one point I had the first three Wheel of Time books on my shelves, but I released them back into the book sale wild.

>293 LizzieD: There were very few interesting chapters in A Memory of Light. I don't find fights or battles absorbing. It remains the only one I've read only once.

>293 LizzieD: Glad to hear that you are making progress on Child of Flame, Peggy.

Have a super Saturday!

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Saturday.

Yesterday's 'ocal' could have been focal, local, or vocal, but the other two had already been used..

Four for me today.

Trevor and Braxton are here. Yay.

Morning (!), Karen!!! Yes, I understood what you meant in 294; I tried a LOT of other words that didn't end in -al. I had 4 today as you will see below.
I wish you a happy, productive time with Trevor and Braxton!!!

I know you're getting a lot read today, Stasia. I didn't read much yesterday, but I am at the half point of *CoF*. I need to stop and read something else though before I get into a part I don't particularly fancy. If I stop then, it will be hard to start back.

That's what I was afraid of, Susan. Like you, I tire quickly of battles except for the Honor Harrington ones. How odd is that?

Wordle 1,799 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, leaky, chink, chuck

Super Saturday all around! The big event for the day?-------Amazon delivers Lulu's canned food.

>298 LizzieD: I tired of Honor Harrington. After reading 3-5 of them, it felt like the only novelty was Honor's nominal gender and the tone and plot would work just as well with a male central character but then its ordinariness would be obvious. The Elizabeth Moon space operas were much more agreeable to me.

Hi Peggy! I'm awaiting my burger and tots for dinner without much joy since I am being assaulted by a resident with a phone addiction playing hymns. He's new here so I'm planning to talk to the director on Monday. This gotta stop.

OH NO, Richard! OH NO! OH NO! OH NO! Surely you're not the only one there who objects. I wish you patience - again - and selective deafness. *smooch*

I love Moon too, Susan, but I love my Honor. For some reason I also love grazers and LACs and superdreadnaughts and all of that. Very strange for an almost-Pacifist!

‘Morning, Peggy, and happy Sunday to you.

Congrats on yesterday’s 4, which matches my 4 of today.

Trevor and his son Braxton rehung a suet feeder. Some critter had completely pulled the eye hook out of the soffit. I picked up all the components before my rib became a problem. That eye hook had been put up 20+ years ago, so it being pulled out is not surprising. They filled all the feeders and bird bath, replaced a light bulb in a light/fan fixture, tightened the arms of the chair I’m sitting in here in the Sunroom, removed the dead mice from 3 traps and re-baited them, and picked up my FL grocery order and a prescription. Not half bad. I enjoyed hearing Braxton ask his dad about allen wrenches, a.k.a. hex keys.

>300 richardderus: Sorry about hymns invading your silence.

>302 karenmarie: The noise was the real issue, that they were hymns merely added insult to injury.

Morning, Peggy me lurve. It's chilly and rainy today. Suits me!

We hope for rain, my WBL, and are enjoying a bit of cooling. You'd find it too warm, no doubt. We're off for the walk we missed yesterday. Maybe our double mojo will bring on a shower. *smooch*

I got a kick out of the aliens and hexing, Karen. My DH laughed too and reminded me that we have both Carter pins and and Terry Carter pipes around, but they were named by adults. You may also recall Colorado pants, brown new ones*.
4 Sisters today too!
Wordle 1,800 4/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stone, indue, niece

*corduroy pants, brand new ones

I'll add that I myownself am "eat up with Oscar Borosis." ENOUGH!

>304 LizzieD: It's been rainy and got up to 56° so yeah...I'd find it too warm fer sher. xo

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Memorial Day to you.

Congrats on yesterday's 4. I was lucky today - I got arbitrary in selecting a word that made sense, discovered that it hadn't already been used, and that was my third guess.

Happy Memorial Day right back, Karen. I'm remembering my cousin Edward who had so much wrong from his time in the navy that it's miraculous that he lived to 75.

We walked just a bit ago and got soaking wet. I didn't realize how small a window we had between showers until it shut (or do I mean "opened?).
Congrats on your 3 today!!!!! I used the wrong word as my first one today, it I might have been as happy as you - or maybe not. I'm not displeased with the 4 at all!
Wordle 1,801 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stogy, twist, visit

Richard, I'm back because I thought I hadn't spoken, and I was right. You wouldn't have liked our temps, but we were fine. We didn't really mind the rain either. We have gotten an inch maybe over the past couple of days. Wonderful! *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy. Happy Tuesday.

I hope to go to Virlie's this morning to meet the book sort team for a meal and then pick up cash for my cleaning ladies.

Otherwise, being respectful to my rib's slow recovery.

It is recovering, dear Karen, however slow the process feels. Baby yourself!!!
We've walked, breakfasted, and I'm finishing coffee #2 before I go back to finish breakfast dishes #several.

I have nothing in mind today but playing through the hymns for Saturday and reading a little. I'm at p550 of 913 in The Child of Flame and sneak-reading a lot of other stuff. I'm very ready for something else.
One thing I dip into is The Beheading Game, which is not like anything else I've read. Anne Boleyn wakes up in her arrow box before she's buried, takes her head ("tucked underneath her arm" for you Kingston Trio fans), leaves the Tower and manages to sew it back on. Now she's off to pick up her hidden jewels and get revenge on Henry and Jane Seymour.

Wordle 1,802 4/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, noble, pouch, couch The greens are nice..........

*smoochiesmoochsmooch*

Ah, my WBL! *smoochiesmoochsmooch* right back for your Wednesday!

Wordle 1,803 4/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, hoist, musty, stuff

Happy Wednesday, dearest Peggy.

Congrats on Wordle 4 x 2. I'll add my 4 for today.

Today's total Restville for me. Wash's vet appointment is rescheduled for June 17th.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday to you. It's gorgeous, but going to be hot today for you, Irene, and me. Indoors, AC!

It took me 5 to get the Wordle word today.

Restville, chatting with you this afternoon, and etc.

Sounds very good. I look forward to resting on the phone with you this afternoon!!!!!

We're about to walk. Glad you stopped at 5; my words 1 & 2 were luckier for me.
Wordle 1,804 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, pilot, divot

>314 LizzieD: ENJOY your walk! It's perfect out-for-a-walk weather here. It's just about 72 and sunny with a little breeze. *Happy sigh*

We did some of our best, Richard. It was almost too hot for me, but the next few days are supposed to be cooler. I devoutly hope so. I also hope that you're able to get out into your p-f-a-w weather. *smooch*

Wordle 1,805 4/6*

🟨⬜🟩⬜🟨
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, snail,clank, clang I'm happy.

‘Morning, Peggy! Happy gorgeous Friday to you.

Congrats on yesterday’s Wordle 3 and today’s 4. It took me 4 today.

Thank you for the wonderful chat yesterday! It’s always good to hear your voice and have wide-ranging discussions.

'Morning, the next day, dear one.

Wordle in 4 today.

Arsenal play in 55 minutes. Other than that, Restville, although I'm tempted to bake something, anything, to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Good morning to you twice, (((((Karen)))))!

I'm off to practice one more time, but I felt I had to leave today's Wordle attempt here first. Oh well. And congrats on your 4. Have I mentioned that I HATE using words the second time? Somewhere before my 5th guess I thought that it was the perfect answer, but I didn't try it.

Wordle 1,806 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟨⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, sleet, selfy, sidle, smile I'm not.

>320 LizzieD: Happy Saturday, Peggy! I was annoyed by Wordle today too. After my first word, I could only come up with two words that fit, but both had been used. So I picked the one that had been used earlier, and that was the wrong one.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Sunday.

>320 LizzieD: and >321 atozgrl: They've gotten tricky since early February - using words not on the list and reusing words on the list.

I'm slowly recovering from Arsenal losing to PSG... reading, working on my May Lightning Round and etc. today.

It took me 4 today.

Ooh no, Karen. I'm sorry about Arsenal's loss. May it unify them for the big games!!!!!

Wordle 1,807 3/6*

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stove, etude I didn't even look to see whether my third guess had already been used since I couldn't think of anything else and it just doesn't matter! I hope that Irene/Karen/Peggy are a threesome today!

'Morning, Peggy. Happy Monday to you. We've got blue skies and puffy white clouds floating by.

Congrats on your Wordle 3. It took me 4 today, but I did get it with greens and misses only. None of the occasionally-irritating yellows.

Lots of nothing strenuous today, all the other good things - reading, spreadsheets, Lightning Round, Bridgerton.

Good for you, (((((Karen)))))!!!

I found today's Wordle a trial - something about double vowel and the last letter Behold!

Wordle 1,808 5/6*

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
🟨🟨🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, lined, vigil *not the brightest!*, icily, chili I used a word list.

I'm closing in on Child of Flame, only 200 more pp. Once I would have eaten this one in days and done a happy dance that the next in the series is even longer. Now I amaze myself that I'm spending 913 pp on a '90's style fantasy. I like it though.......and I've bought the last 3.
I'm sneak-reading both The Beheading Game and The Dickens Boy. *BH* is weird in premise but authentic, I believe, in Tudor English details. As for *DB*, it's T. Keneally, and I really enjoy T. Keneally.
As for Lord Byron and the Steppes.... there they sit waiting patiently as only books can. I love owning books!

Happy Monday, Peggy! I joined you with Wordle in 3 on Sunday; got it in 3 again today. Letters eliminated and letter placements helped me with both puzzles.

there they sit waiting patiently as only books can. So true! It's the best!

'Morning, Peggy!

Wordle in 3 for me today. I used both the 2309 word list and the words already used list.

Off to Virlie's in a few.

Hello, Karen and Irene, Wordle Sisters!!! I dumped cookies yesterday and feared that I had lost my Wordle stats. Happily, stupid as I am, I was able to get them back. At any rate, I wish Irene at least a 3 too with congrats to Karen, and I'm satisfied with my 4 since my second guess was out there - but it led me to the happy third try since the word itself didn't occur to me.
Wordle 1,809 4/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, stupa, oasis, basis

I have some errands to run today. With a walk and the cat feedings, reading time is pretty much gone. *sigh*

>328 LizzieD: I had a Wordle in 2 today. I started looking for words with A in second place and S in third, and came across this one pretty quickly. I was surprised it hadn't been used yet.

Today was a nice day for a walk.

WHooo HOOOoooo! Good for you, Irene!!!!!!!! I was a surprised too that it hadn't been used.

It was a lovely day for a walk. It's going to be a great night for sleeping too.

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Wednesday. It is absolutely gorgeous out. Blue skies and reasonable temperatures. I'm glad you got your Wordle stats back. Congrats on your 4.

>329 atozgrl: Irene, congrats on your 2! The Wordle gods were smiling down on me because I got today's in 2.

May Lightning Round and a chat with my Aunt later this afternoon, nothing strenuous.

Well, you two 2 Sisters!!! HOORAY for you BOTH!!!!!!!

I'm glad that you can take it easy today, Karen. I slept very well last night and liked it so much that I couldn't get up. I'm just finishing the dessert coffee with the leavings of my breakfast two mugs. I've just arrived at a bit past p 800 of the 913. If all goes well but as slowly as I anticipate, I'll finish it tomorrow.

Wordle 1,810 4/6*

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 roast, token, month, notch

You've already dropped your white quartz pebble on my tombstone to show you've passed by, so I'm returning the courtesy. *smooch*

Passing by is one thing. Passing on is quite something else. Stay with us. (I'm doing some of my best.) *smooch*

'Morning, Peggy! Happy Thursday.

Your 4 yesterday and my 4 today make us 4 sisters again.

Quiet day, working on May's Lightning Round, and various and sundry small and non strenuous things.

Good afternoon, Karen! I wish you a happy day. Mine will revolve around an appointment with Brownie at last and picking up a few grocery items while I'm out. I am within the last 100 pp of the EPIC fantasy, thank goodness. I'm afraid I'll be drawn into the next ones just because I want to see what is going to happen to the characters, but surely not enough to brave another 989 pages!!!!!! At least not now.

Here's an unanticipated surprise. I'm glad to be 4 Sisters with you and I'm sure you've been a 3 since I have. We persevere!
Wordle 1,811 3/6*

🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 learn, fatal, alloy