gritkitty | herding cats

Yesterday evening, I made a lovely pan-seared steak for dinner, and today I roasted a chicken. It was more expensive, but I bought one that came already spatchcocked, which meant it cooked in about 40 minutes. I used this recipe and the white meat was quite juicy and good. It's annoying to have to flip the whole chicken in the frying pan though, so I don't know if I will do it this way again, especially since I don't really care about crispy skin since I don't eat the skin. [obligatory quote: "any demons with high cholesterol?... You're gonna think about that later, mister, and you're gonna laugh."]

I also did the first part of this chocolate chip cookie recipe and now they're in the fridge chilling. Tomorrow I will bake 2 off and then do the same thing for the next 3 days too, since it only makes 8 extremely large cookies and they are supposedly best when freshly baked. I will report back on how they taste!

Tomorrow, I plan to make a nice herb and cheese frittata for dinner and lunch for a couple of days too, and of course, there will be leftover roast chicken to eat too.

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Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Cowboys vs Bears on tv

runpunkrun

Like many things this year, my Japanese study has been greatly reduced by time and circumstance. In January I stopped doing my daily work on WaniKani (where I'd reached Level 9) and KaniWani but kept up with my lessons on Duolingo. Much of my vocabulary has slipped away from me, but the grammar persists, and the vocabulary's easy to look up, so I'm not that bad off, and I can pick WaniKani back up whenever I want because I have a lifetime subscription. I'm just gonna be SUPER BEHIND when I do. ウヘッ。

Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4
References

Volume 4

Describe a wedding | Make plans to go out

( Vol 4 )

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Current Mood: awake

china_shop

I posted my unexpected-kink fic for the Riddle round of

fan_flashworks, and today I archived it to AO3. It's part of my Breakage and Repair 'verse which is Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives (mostly), Canon Divergence, but all you really need to know is that it's early-relationship Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan.

Title: Experiments in Dynamic Translation (9003 words) [Explicit]
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Chu Shuzhi/Hei Pao Shi
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Relationships with complicated history, Being closeted in some spheres, Domestic, Unplanned/Impromptu Kink, Identity Porn (literal), Dom/sub, soft D/s, Dom!Shen Wei, Envoy!Shen Wei, Sub!Chu Shuzhi, (Zhao Yunlan enjoys the show), Fealty, Orgasm denial/delay, Dark-Energy Sex Toys, Low-key impromptu bondage, Dixing-Powers Powered Sex, Anal Sex, Voyeurism, Frottage, Long Hair
Summary:

It’s been just over ten weeks since his and Da Qing’s return to the land of the living, and in that time, Shen Wei has not yet had occasion to don his robes of office in front of Shuzhi—or indeed, to conduct any Envoy business at all in his presence. He’s visited the SID once or twice on official matters, but only in Haixing clothes, and he’s been sure to keep his manner light and casual in the public areas. Formal liaising is for the privacy of Zhao Yunlan’s office.

Now, faced with the prospect of a Dixing state dinner, Shen Wei discovers he’s slipped into—not so much keeping secrets, as compartmentalising. Again.

As I said in my end notes, it’s hilarious to me that my first E-rated fic in this ‘verse is something I usually DNW (D/s, especially when it leans into existing power dynamics). For some reason, it worked for me in this specific scenario.

twistedchick

If I wish upon a star will Disney-ABC bring back Kimmel? Unlikely. But when their stock prices keep dropping, and fewer people visit their parks or go to shows or buy toys...

musesfool

If you are interested in checking out Dungeon Crawler Carl but don't want to buy the first book (or the wait list at your library is very long), there's a webtoon version you can check out for free to see if it's up your alley. It's making me want to start a reread of the series even though I just read it last month. *hands*

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Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Mets losing to the Nats

neotoma

Leek-mushroom turnover, lemon tart, hard kiwifruit, American persimmons, bell peppers, purple UFO peppers, shennadoah pears, honeycrisp apples, pink pearl apples.

I'm going to try making salsa morada with the UFO peppers, and see if applesauce made with the pink pearl apples has a pink tingle to it.

runpunkrun

ALSO, long time no see, but I've been quiet because I've been WRITING. Stay tuned for Kirk & Spock bonding in their shared bathroom.

runpunkrun

Set in a place that is probably not Earth, or Earth at a very different time, where kaiju rise up out of the ocean during the wet season and head for land. In the Empire, the Engineers maintain the sea walls that keep the leviathans out; the Legion fight them back; the Apothetikals develop organic means to alter the plants and animals—and people—that make it possible to survive in this hostile land, and the Iudex investigate the crimes. The wet season's coming and Dinios Kol, Imperial engraver and (apprentice) assistant investigator, has been sent to the scene of a ghastly murder to engrave it in his memory and report back to his master, the reclusive and eccentric (and possibly autistic) Anagosa Dolabra.

This is a plot-driven mystery, more focused on the details of the investigation than the development of the characters, and for me that made it feel a little empty. The ad copy wants you to believe Din and Ana have a Watson and Holmes thing going on, but that is barely the case. The characters are mostly a means to an end, a collection of characteristics rather than actual people, and this includes our first person narrator, Din. He's a nervous little (queer) guy, basically, only tall, did he mention he's tall?? He's tall, gang. And dyslexic. I liked him well enough, but I never felt like I really knew what he was about.

The book has a fantasy science-fiction vibe, and a bunch of new guys, like whenever RJB needed to explain a crime he just invented a new type of guy. It was starting to feel a little silly. Like, "Oh, didn't you know about this type of guy? It's the only way this mystery makes sense!" I don't think the mystery is the kind that can be solved just by paying attention, rather it's the kind with an extensive drawing room scene near the end that explains it all.

And I guess I've been reading exactly the right amount of Adrian Tchaikovsky because I kept wondering what was up with the leviathans, like what's their deal? Has anybody bothered to ask why they want to come on land? Maybe it's part of their life cycle, maybe there's something there they need—but this is not that book. It's a fantasy murder mystery set in the middle of a seasonal kaiju attack that must be stopped, and that's fine, it's just one more way the story lacked depth. But the mystery and the world building were enough to keep me engaged, and I'm curious to see what happens next so I've already checked the sequel out from the library.

Contains: body horror; a lot of blood; fear of contagion; sword violence.

twistedchick

WTF is in Smarties? I thought it was sugar and citric acid. I had 3 little rolls of them yesterday; I'd found them in a bag in the front closet left over from Halloween.

This morning -- ewwwwwwww

It has been like the worst of PMS, as if all the PMS that I might have had since my hysterectomy nearly 20 years ago decided to gang up on me all at once and say WE'RE BACK--SEE WHAT YOU MISSED???

That and no energy, which is actually a godsend because in this mood I'd be more likely to do drastic unforgivable things than not, like look up my infamously terrible ex-boss from years ago and tell her exactly what I thought of her then and still think of her.

Oh yeah, and the trots.

Meds have helped. Chocolate has helped. Coffee with molasses has helped. Toasted whole-wheat flatbread is helping. I'm no longer mad enough to fight the Goauld and winning without a staff weapon (if I had the energy).

But sheesh. I wanted to get things done today and when I stand up I'm a bit too wobbly to go anywhere.

I'm off Smarties forever at this point.

twistedchick

This is a prayer for the Witches’ Thanksgiving. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for mead and cider, for cornbread and collards. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for visits, for gratitude, for families. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the deliberate decision to establish connections, to reach out, to take joy in watching others eat. This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for wheat sheaves and pumpkins, for turkey and turnips. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for taking stock, for settling in, for facing the dark. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the courage to say, “There is a place set for you at our table,”* the fire to fight for what we love, the refusal to allow hunger to win. This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for cheeses and ale, for cherries and chestnuts. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for re-establishing balance, for reaching out, for doing more. This is a prayer for Resistance.

Mabon is an act of Resistance, the belief that bounty should be shared, that people should be fed, that “only justice can undo a curse.”** This is a prayer for Mabon.

This is a prayer for squashes and pies, for and rhubarb and roasts. This is a prayer for Resistance.

This is a prayer for the act of sharing, for sitting with guests, for stories by the fire. This is a prayer for Resistance.

May your Mabon be blessed. May you continue to Resist. This is my prayer for you.

-- Hecate Demeter

the_shoshanna

We booked the aisle and window seats and even though they announced it was a full flight, no one has shown up for the middle! We would have offered them the window so that Geoff could have the aisle, but now we have the whooooooole row, and I'm pretty sure they've now secured the cabin doors! WIN.

yhlee

Ah, the art yarn of it all. :3

handspun yarn

2-ply from these singles:

china_shop

Just a quick one today, because I'm trying to write half a dozen other things. :-)

Previous poll review
In the phone poll, 61% of respondents hold the phone to their ear, 40.7% put the call on speaker, and 28.8% wear an earpiece or headphones.

In ticky-boxes, cats with resting blep face came second to hugs, 61% to 69.5%. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
More of Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, read by Candida Gubbins. Andrew has started listening with me, so I needed a solo listen and, accordingly, am trying Black Water Sister by Zen Cho, read by Catherine Ho, which is great so far. (I've heard it contains one of my DNWs, so I'm approaching with caution.)

Kdramas
Finally finished Nothing But Love (it's so good!). Also finished Aema, which was fantastic, dramatic, pacy, with tons of complicated female relationships and femslashiness (fair warning: gets very dark in places). Two more episodes of Mystic Pop-Up Bar, which continues to be delightful, I did not see that romantic pairing coming!! (It's doing the Gobin "who is the reincarnation of whom??" mystery thing.)

In theory I'm still watching My Youth in the hopes it develops some/any dramatic/romantic tension... but now You and Everything Else is out, who knows. Viewing time is limited.

More Low Life this evening, yay!

Other TV
Mostly Dark Winds and Bluey. We would have watched more Chief of War and Prehistoric Planet, but my Apple app is refusing to stream, grrrr.

Guardian/Fandom
So much is happening! It's great! The Slo-Mo Guardian Rewatch is delightful,

guardian_wishlist is in its creating period (which is always much too short, argh), and I still haven't caught up with

fan_writers comments. Also, omg, my tabs!!!

I nominated for Yuletide and am having some earnest conversations with myself about signing up. Last year was my first year; it was a blast, but it was a lot. I could always just treat...

Writing/making things
I'm very close to finishing the unexpected-kink fic (still needs a title), but most of my focus is on

guardian_wishlist. I've finished one gift and started another, which is threatening to get long (the joy and curse of rarepairs), and I have a laundry list of things to write after that. I'm aiming for, like, six or eight in total, by 6 October, but it will depend on whether I can write short.

Anyway, the current one is at least doing that delightful thing of occupying my brain when I'm not at my keyboard, making me jot down notes and dialogue when I wake up. I've missed this level of engagement.

Life/health/mental state things
Andrew's taking some time off work, which is an adjustment for both of us, and also great and much deserved.

Good things
Tuesday was a glorious sunny summery day. My new glasses are nearly ready. So Many Kdramas! TV-watching dates. Biking again. Bluey! Writing. Fandom and you all. <3

Poll #33633 Muppets

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 48

View Respondents

It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights

View Answers

Kermit
18 (37.5%)

Fozzie
9 (18.8%)

Gonzo
13 (27.1%)

Miss Piggy
9 (18.8%)

Animal
18 (37.5%)

other / none / what?
13 (27.1%)

ticky-box full of I keep biting my lip, ow
9 (18.8%)

ticky-box full of paper tigers prowling stripily through their 2D jungle
22 (45.8%)

ticky-box full of Yuletide nominations
13 (27.1%)

ticky-box full of so many WIPs, so little time
15 (31.2%)

ticky-box full of hugs
36 (75.0%)

the_shoshanna

our last real days in Wales

Yesterday was forecast to have much better weather than today, and yesterday and today were our last days in Wales, so yesterday we did our last big hike! We caught a bus to Borth, on the coast about twenty minutes north of here, and spent four hours walking back home along that section of the Wales Coast Path. (We'd considered going south, but the description we found of the path south from Aberystwyth basically said "you immediately start by going steeply upward for a six-hundred-meter rise without a break" and that was it for that option, buh-bye.) It was a lovely day! No rain except for a brief misting just as we started, a strong breeze that kept us cool even on the steep upslopes where we were working hard, and it was always coming off the ocean so we didn't, you know, get blown over the cliff to our deaths. (I did get almost blown off my feet landward once or twice, and I always kept my hiking pole on the cliff side, so that it would always be pushing me toward safety.)

I mean, it's not that dangerous! People hike it constantly, including the trail runners who passed us over a different section a few days ago, and we met another runner on the path yesterday! But I can get a bit freaked out, and I'm always a little nervous about bad footing even when I'm not on a cliff edge, so I (we) take it slow.

We also take it slow because we want to admire the amazing views! Here's Geoff on the trail about half an hour after we started, still kitted up for rain although it had stopped by then:

We had started from the near/right end of the beach that's just over his head, so you can see we'd already climbed a fair bit. The day involved a lot of ups and downs; check this out:

Wales Coast Path between Borth and Aberystwyth

If you open the actual picture rather than this thumbnail and zoom in, you can see the path, just on the outside of the main fence (for pretty much the whole way, we were walking with a fence on our left and a cliff edge on our right). Unusually, there's a fence between the path and the cliff edge for a little way here as well, where the cliff edge has eroded even closer to the path than usual. Then the path descends very steeply to sea level, where there's a track from a field out to the water; there's a little footbridge over a small stream (and also a bunch of rubbish someone dumped there, which was upsetting to see but thankfully was also unique in our experience), and then the path climbs equally steeply up the facing cliff, which you can't see but you can see a bit of it right at the top (bottom left of the picture), where it's contouring around the rise so that the dropoff is briefly on the left (as you walk southward toward the camera) instead of on the right.

Down at the very bottom, by the footbridge, this sign was posted:

an isolated shoreline with a warning sign

saying, in Welsh and English, "CAUTION: There is no lifeguard service on this beach," and all I could think was "No kidding."

We'd read that there can be seals and dolphins in these waters, but we didn't see any: only sheep in the fields, and seagulls, and a kestrel hovering absolutely motionless in the air, almost even with us and far above the shoreline below, close enough that we could watch all the constant tiny motions and adjustments it was making to hover so perfectly motionlessly in one spot. It was like a bird of prey version of a hummingbird!

We had the usual cheerful exchanges with other walkers, and the usual rest stops to drink water and eat trail mix. I bought bags of mixed nuts and mixed dried fruit a few towns ago, and so we mix them together and that's our trail mix; but the mixed dried fruit I found was really meant for baking, not snacking, so it has raisins, sultanas, currants, and also bits of candied lemon and orange peel. It makes the trail mix feel rather posh!

The last bit into Aberystwyth was a hard climb up the hill at the north end of the bay we're on, but worth it for the views (and also the sense of accomplishment). We did see a seal on the beach as we walked along the promenade back to our hotel, but sadly it was dead.

We had a very tasty dinner at a hotel restaurant just up the beach that was recommended by one of the staff here, and then we had a great treat! When we were walking around town the day before, just looking around (and buying me new gear), we'd passed a bar/event venue called the Bank Vault, and the schedule posted outside said that the next night would be performances by members of the Aberystwyth Folk Music Society! Well, we couldn't miss that! So we skipped our usual local beer with dinner (we told the waitress we were going to a bar with live music after dinner, and she immediately said, "Oh, the Bank Vault? That's a great place."

There was no cover charge, but we shared four half-pints of three different beers, and when we ordered the last one we told the guy pulling them "and one for yourself as well," which the waitress at dinner had told us was an appropriate way to tip. (She said they wouldn't expect it but would be pleased, and his reaction bore that out. I saw someone else leaving a few coins on the bar when he picked up his drink.)

a few comments on masking

I forgot to say that, on the bus from Fishguard to Aberystwyth, we saw the first person masking, other than us, that we've seen on this entire trip! Just some guy, our age or a little older, he got on and rode for a few stops and got off again, but I almost did a doubletake.

And we've been eating indoors without masking because we don't have other good options, but we did mask in the Bank Vault, briefly lowering the mask to take a sip of beer and then replacing it before inhaling again. And we've masked in all the shops we've been in, and -- jumping ahead to today -- while we were looking around the National Library. And once again nobody blinked an eye, or did a doubletake, or acted weird about interacting with us, even though we are being, statistically, very weird. I've really appreciated that.

The music last night varied from "that was definitely a song, I'll say that for it" to really, really good. Nearly all the performers were older (or just plain old) men, but there were a couple of younger people and a couple of women in the mix. (Literally two women, in two make/female duos. Those duos had the best songs by far.) The first performer played an accordion, most of the rest had guitars, and here's a picture of a guy with a harmonium:

It was a pretty small space; what the picture shows is almost the whole ground floor. I took the photo with my back against the small bar, and then there was a stairway behind that going up to a second level, from which our waitress had said you could look down on the performance space, but we didn't go up there; we liked our seats at the bar, where we had a great view and also could keep trying local beers! They had fourteen options on tap, and the bartender was happy to let us sample anything before committing to it:

And then around ten pm we staggered home to bed.

Today was forecast to be much worse weather, meaning rain all day, but it turned out to be lovely! It did start out raining, and I made the unpleasant discovery that my new rain pants are slightly too short, and allow water to run off the bottom of the pant leg into the front of my boots. Fortunately, we had bought short rain gaiters for this trip, although we hadn't ever actually used them! But I put mine on and they fixed the problem perfectly, which is of course what they're meant to do. And then it turned into nice weather anyway.

Today we stuck around town; my knee was bothering me a little and we didn't want to try another strenuous hike anyway. We wandered through town some more and then climbed the steep but short hill up to the National Library of Wales! They had a couple of exhibits on; I was particularly interested in the one documenting protests against the flooding of the Tryweryn Valley in 1965 for the sake of Liverpool's water supply, which meant destroying a Welsh village, but I was also curious to see whatever was included in the "treasures" on display. In the end, though, we mostly just wandered around the building, admiring old books on display in beautiful cabinets. The Tryweryn Valley exhibit was smaller (and the story less well documented, for those of us who knew nothing about it) than I'd hoped, and I completely forgot to look for the other ones! And then we wandered home along a new route, just to see some different things, and now are back in the hotel catching up on blogging before dinner.

So mostly today was a winding-down day. Tomorrow we take a train to the outskirts of London, so that we can easily get to Heathrow the next morning!

musesfool

Last night at this time, I was on what ended up to be a 90 minute (or more - I left after 90 minutes) call with other shareholders in my building to discuss options for complying with local law 97, which is all about reducing carbon emissions. It was informative, though as usual, the people running these meetings are bad at it it, and 2 people basically monopolized all the Q&A time with very specific-to-them concerns instead of applicable-to-all-tenants stuff, but at least nobody accused the board of being racist for muting them, which is what happened the last time I joined a building-related zoom call. Still only about a quarter of the people who live here showed up, which I find inexplicable considering the financial considerations involved. While no final decision was made, it seems like there will be a recommendation to take one of the incremental measures while continuing to explore the more expensive (but not the ludicrously expensive most expensive) options. So we'll see how that goes. If it helps my apartment not to turn into a sauna going forward, I am interested!

*

Baby Miss L is still trying to finalize her Halloween costume, but as with last year, there may be multiple outfits as she has a very full social calendar. She has gotten better about school, too - apparently she waves hello to everyone as she enters, and I imagine they all appreciate her attention. *g* I have also started compiling a list of books to buy her for her birthday and Christmas, which I guess I'll start shopping for soon.

*

I complain about work fairly often, but today I learned that 1. they've confirmed that our insurance will cover covid jabs for everyone who uses it, and 2. they're giving us 2 extra paid holidays this year since both 12/26 and 1/2 fall on Fridays. So I know I have it pretty good despite...everything happening in the world to try to ruin public health and nonprofits.

*

I can't remember if I posted about the very addictive phone game I recently downloaded, but after several lelvels where the only way to advance was to spend money to get helpful items, I deleted it. I can't be spending that kind of money and I am definitely the kind of person who needs to defeat the puzzles, even though I can see they are specifically designed to not be beatable without those helpful items. It's one reason I don't gamble or play "real" video games - I tend to get feverishly obsessive about winning and neither sleep nor money matter to me in that state. *hands* At least I know this about myself? Idk, but it felt good to delete the game even though I am still craving it.

*

The Mets snapped their losing streak on Sunday and still control their destiny in terms of a wild card spot, but given how poorly they've played for so long, this series with San Diego feels like a playoff game already. We'll see if they can hold the early lead. ....and now Lindor goes deep! <333

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Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Mets vs Padres on tv

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

the_shoshanna

We can hear the surf crashing just outside our window!

So, yeah, we got to Aberystwyth with no problem on a scenic three-hour bus ride. I have no idea how drivers manage big vehicles on these roads, and the secret is, sometimes they don't; at one point one lane of the (theoretically) two-lane road (one lane in each direction, that is) (well, two-thirds of a lane in each direction) anyway one lane was closed, and the driver couldn't turn the bus into the other lane, avoiding parked cars and cars waiting to come the other way, until he got out and moved one of the "lane closed" signs a couple of feet back. And there were plenty of times when the roadside hedge was audibly brushing the bus windows as we went by, and a couple of times when we came around a corner to find ourselves abruptly almost nose to nose with an oncoming car, which usually had to back up to let the bus complete the turn. Disconcerting to those of us used to wide North American roads with generous sidewalks or breakdown lanes; utterly unremarkable to the locals.

Aberystwyth is the big city compared to where we've been! According to Wikipedia, the twin towns of Fishguard and Goodwick, that we just came from, have a population of about 5400; Aberystwyth has maybe 18,000 depending on where you look? (And whether you're counting the university students, who won't arrive until just as we leave.) We went from the bus station first to the tourist info, where we picked up some flyers on coastal walks and such; then we staggered into the extremely strong wind coming off the ocean to our hotel, which was half a block from the shore.

Well. What we expected to be our hotel. It turned out to be a "self-check-in" place, meaning unstaffed; you walk in the unlocked door and the front desk has no human, just some folders with people's names on them, and you find yours and in it are your room key, hotel info, etc. You know you're in a low-crime area when! But there was no folder for us.

I poked my head further into the hotel and found a couple of guests in the lounge, who showed me the rather tucked-away button on the desk that might summon a staffer. It did not. So I phoned the number on the hotel's business card, a stack of which were also on the desk, and the guy who answered said a) he had no record of ever receiving our reservation through Booking.com, and b) the hotel was full, no vacancies. He was apologetic about it (while also anxious to assure me that he wasn't holding my money; Booking.com was), but there was flat-out nothing he could do.

I've never had that happen before! (Not that I use B.c that often, I always prefer to book direct, but sometimes either a hotel has completely outsourced its booking to third parties like B.c or B.c just has better rates and cancellation policies.) I had multiple confirmations from B.c, but apparently they were all auto-sent without the hotel's involvement.

So that was stressful! Geoff and I camped out in the hotel's wee lobby for a bit. I had my printout of B.c's confirmation in one hand, their website open on my ipad in my lap, and with my other hand I was phoning B.c customer support. Fortunately I did connect quickly with a human, who put me on hold briefly to call the hotel himself and confirm that they couldn't house me (I presume to ensure that I wasn't just trying to scam an upgrade) and then told me that B.c would cancel that booking and email me some possible alternatives, and I could book one of them and B.c would pick up any extra cost above what the original place would have cost.

He said the email might take 30-45 minutes to arrive, but in fact it took only a few minutes -- which I expected to be the case, since it's all automated; it's not like there was someone hand-curating my options, although the agent's spiel made it sound like there was. I picked the one with the best B.c reviews that was close by and on the shoreline, hastily booked it, and off we went into the wind again!

The new hotel is actually in a slightly better location and has an actually staffed front desk (by incredibly cheerful and friendly young women), and we're on the second floor ("first" to Brits) with a bay window looking directly out at the beach and the waves rolling in. (Today they're rolling. Yesterday they were crashing. Either way it's a lovely sound to fall asleep to.) There's also a small table and two chairs in the bay, to sit in and watch the ocean, but frankly Geoff has dumped his stuff all over them (my stuff is dumped all over the floor on the other side of the bed) and we like to just sit in bed, from which we have almost as good a view. And the bathroom is large, and has plenty of flat space on which to put toiletries etc., and also has a tub. Yay!

The only difficulty now is that I am absolutely morally certain that the agent told me on the phone that if I chose one of the options B.c sent me, they'd pick up the whole price difference; but the email actually says that they'll pick up up to £51 and change. The actual price difference is £105. I'm prepared to fight them on this (the phone call "may have been recorded for training and verification purposes," after all), but if we lose, well, worse things happen at sea.

Once we'd successfully checked in to the new place, we went out to stretch our legs and look around the center of town a bit. And we started by going back to an outdoor-gear store we'd walked past on our way to the tourist info, that was having a going-out-of-business sale!

I'd realized a few days before that the coating that lined my rain pants was disintegrating; they were shedding a fine white grit. And they had eventually soaked through, in that storm we were in. Durable water repellency doesn't endure forever. Also, my everyday backpack is a basic Jansport school bag; it's fine for its intended use, and I like that it's big enough to serve as weekend luggage (I'd say it's thirty liters) while still small enough to fit under an airplane seat, but when I load it up with rain pants, rain jacket, one or two midlayers, one or two water bottles, lunch, emergency first aid supplies, and so on for a serious day's hiking, I really regret its lack of a waist belt. Also I only have a cheap third-party rain cover for it, which you may remember proved totally inadequate against a real rainstorm. (I sure remember.) And, the other day, I noticed a thinning at its bottom where the material was beginning to think about wearing through; not immediately, but that's not something I want to run risks with. And I don't have a rain cover for my big (seventy-liter) hiking pack at all.

So we stopped into the store and I scored heavily discounted replacements for all of the above! Including a thirty-liter daypack with not only a proper waist belt and ventilated back panel but -- what I didn't realize until I got it back to the hotel and was exploring all its pocketses in detail -- its own integrated rain cover! Win.

After that we just wandered around a bit, and spent a good amount of time clambering around the ruins of the coastal castle, which was fun and dramatic and also very windy omg. We eyeballed a bunch of restaurants, but nothing screamed out "eat here" to us.

So we went back and had dinner in the hotel restaurant, because we were not up for researching a place; I had done enough frantic internet juggling for one day.

me at dinner last night: I think I'll have a big glass of wine.

Geoff: You should. You deserve it.

me: I had a very stressful five minutes!

(He did loyally remind me that in fact it was longer than that.)

princessofgeeks

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

yhlee

A particularly hilarious example of low-effort spammer/scammer.

Seriously considering how much spam I could effortlessly screen out if I set up my email to automatically delete ANYTHING with the word "Amazon" in it that isn't on a very small (like, a half-dozen people small) whitelist of family and close friends.

herding cats

tips and overthrows - gotta have it

Duolingo Japanese Vocabulary, Vol 4

Volume 4

eyeroll

Guardian fic: Experiments in Dynamic Translation (CSZ/SW, CSZ/SW/ZYL)

New Substack post

and that might have impact in the ninth

Farmer's Market -- 20 September 2025 (Festival of Honors, Year 233)

(no subject)

The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1), by Robert Jackson Bennett

wtfff???

This is a prayer for the Witches’ Thanksgiving. This is a prayer for Resistance.

I’m not sure that’s ever worked before!

latest spinning

Me-and-media update

winding down

a 2-run bomb from brett baty

3 things

More on the pluses and minuses, and some more pluses

signal boost

lolnope

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December 2021

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