book burn

"Although having a girlfriend or wife didn't exempt some of the men from being assholes, they were usually more comfortable with me"

That's a quote from a book I'm currently reading. [Hotshot: A life on Fire]. It's a memoir written by a woman who'd worked several seasons as a wildland firefighter. (Note: they currently identify as nonbinary, but during the firefighting days, "they" was "she").

I'd originally picked up the book for tips on building trails and managing the surroundings at our boonie property, but it's interesting learning her experiences in such a physically grueling, male-dominated job. I purposely chose a book written by a female author for those latter reasons. 

It's also interesting to me since we live in a state that gets its share of wildfires. In fact, our new property is in recovery mode from a 2012 fire. The book isn't just memoir, it gets into ecology and pros and cons of wildfires. I'm learning stuff.

It also marks my 26th book of the year. Recall I'd set a goal to read 26 books in 2026, and I'm ahead of the pace. Here are the books I've completed since my last update in April. Recognize any?

 

Goodreads profile pic

I will note that none of these scream "Favorite book of the year!" for me. They were all fiction except for "Eager" and "Cheap Land Colorado.

For the most part, I liked all of them well enough or I wouldn't have finished them. But they're quite a mix. "Bunny" is super weird, for lack of a better term. The two books by Emily Austin deal with pretty flawed main characters and read like a series of random journal entries. Some readers don't like that, but heck, I read blogs, so that works okay for me.

Whacha readin'?

no filter

"Is that why you like True Crime? Because you're happy you're not the victim?"

"Yeah", I say, "but it's also because I'm happy I'm not the perpetrator".

In the latest novel I'm reading, the main character likes to listen to true crime podcasts in her spare time. I also like me a good dive into certain true crime stories, and I know I'm not alone (otherwise, I'd be a little paranoid about the interest). It's my understanding that many, women in particular, are into the genre. 

The character in my book is mainly into serial killers, which don't hold much fascination for me. What I sometimes get caught up in are the people who appear to be "normal" - or exceedingly above normal - who turn out to have a whole 'nother thing going on beneath the surface.

Ruby Franke, Chris Watts, Kouri Richins, and Elizabeth Holmes are of the criminals whose stories I dove into a bit further than the surface. 

I think what I find so interesting is their ability to lie and keep on lying, creating huge snowballs of lies that eventually crash into them. Do they think the stories will just "go away"? I get stressed out just hearing about their actions. Heck, I get stressed out when I see a friend on social media who has used an obvious filter for their profile pic. I mean, aren't they worried about people running into them in real life and wondering what happened?? 

This morning, we met with Wolfgang and Meego for breakfast. We do this about once a month. As was typical, there was a waiting list for seating. I didn't want to get on the list until we were all there, and Wolfgang was running late. He let us know he was on the way, and the restaurant host told me there was about a 20-min wait. 

So I went ahead and gave my name, table for 4, and painfully stated, "yes", when asked if all 4 of us were there since I was 90% sure Wolfgang would arrive within 20 minutes.

Damn if that host didn't text me TWO minutes later that our table was ready! So the three of us checked in. I had to confirm 4 people. 

"Yes, he's in the parking lot...", omg, what is happening to me?

Wolfgang did arrive a few minutes later, before I was completely overcome with guilt. But still, the ordeal was enough to swear me off the lying. Enough criminal activity for me.

bunnies, books, 'n' beavers

Happy Easter to those who revel!

It's a lovely sunny spring day here. We went for a coffee bike ride this morning. A happy Easter Bunny waved merrily to us from outside a church, possibly muttering quietly at the bicycle-riding infidels.

This past week felt a little off for some reason. Tutor students struggling more than the usual. On Wednesday, I commented to one, "is it a full moon or something?" Lo and behold, it was. And now we've got the Artemis crew stirring the pot.

In 2026 Reading Challenge updates, I am now 16 books into my goal of 26 books on the year, so a bit ahead of the pace. Here are my latest that didn't end up in the DNF pile. Descriptions mine:

Shy Creatures - a single 30-something art therapist in the 60's tries to help a man who'd been "hidden" for decades and her teenaged niece while having an affair with one of the doctors. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Coworker - Typical Scooby-Doo type mystery from Freida McFadden. Audiobook while doing mundane things around the house. ⭐⭐

Flashout - some weird "artists" doing weird things in the 60's, not all that comparatively weird to other things from the 60's. ⭐⭐⭐

The Raven's Nest - Memoir from a woman who went to Iceland, fell in love with an Iceland man, married him, became an Icelander, divorced the Icelander, wrote a book ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I'm currently reading a couple of non-fictions. One is Cheap Land Colorado - interesting book about off-gridders living cheap in Colorado. I happened to see it while loitering around a bookstore. I've been through the area, and the book reminds me a lot of where I grew up.

The other is this book about beavers, recommended by my Step Mother-in-law during our recent visit.

SMIL is a retired chemical engineer, and loved learning about nature's engineers and recommends this book to anyone who will listen.

Beavers are pretty badass, I've been a fan for a while.

BUC-EE

feels like

Happy February! It's not that I necessarily love February, but nice to know we're a little closer to spring, days are getting longer, bit by bit.

Last weekend was FREEEEEEZing cold. Today, it's forecast to be in the high 50s. Magnum and I plan to bike to some coffee shop in a little while. This to say, that I am not yet caffeinated while posting this, so bare with.

• This week felt like a productive one. Tutees are starting to fill my schedule at the college. So far, I have a couple of returners from last semester, and the rest are newbs.

• I worked yesterday in testing with Kitty. A little toward the end of the shift, Work Study stopped by. She was on campus for a class and found "everything is closed on Saturday!" Well, everything but us. She'd come by to use our microwave.

She told us that last week was her final week working with us. I'll miss her, but I'm happy to see her go because (1) we don't need a work study in testing - there is not nearly enough for them to do because of limitations in what the testing world allows student workers to do, and (2) I think her new (non work-study) job is a better fit for her. So I'd felt it was a waste of funding and a waste of her talents to have her in testing, but she'll be missed.

• In entertainment news, Magnum and I recently finished watching the Netflix series [Katla]. Watched it? It's "Nordic Noir" based in Iceland, and that's all I will say. I really liked it, although it can be dark and disturbing at times. Now I want to visit Iceland. 

• The [P.E.O.] year is wrapping up. As such, I'm required to write the year-end "President's letter". I had it pretty squared away, but was having trouble with a satisfying final paragraph. Not gonna lie, I asked chatgpt for a little help, expecting it to return something bland and/or irrelevant. But damn, I liked the suggestions and went with them, paraphrased. 

And speaking of not trusting the internet, I just checked my weather app to see about our bike ride. It says it's 38 degrees and feels like 52. Uhm... what?

Whatever, coffee's calling.

layered up

 "How many layers of bottoms do you have? I've got on three. I'm going to start unzipping now"
~ heard while standing in line for the ladies room last weekend.

We went away for an arctic adventure weekend, rented a cabin in Estes Park with Meego and Wolfgang. We'd planned it about a month ago. Little did we know last weekend would be one of the coldest in a long while. 

So we bundled up and headed to the mountains. It so happened to coincide with a [skijoring event].
I'd heard of skijoring, but had never seen it live. What a rush!

Skijoring is a lot like water skiing, except the water is snow and the boat is a horse. 

SOURCE

It looks really really fun... if you know what you're doing... whether driving the "boat" or skiing. For people like me, it's a guaranteed trip to the ER or worse. 

We layered up good since it was snowing and the temperatures were in single digits. Like my bathroom line companions, I also had three layers of bottoms (not counting the bottom bottom) - leggings, pants, snow pants. Thankfully, all my layers had elastic waist, no unzipping necessary.

The cabin we rented was on the grounds of a large YMCA camp, so there were other activities at our disposal. Since it was so blustery and cold, we did mostly indoor things - shoodoops at the basketball gym, play card games, cook, eat...

So a fun filled getaway for a couple of days. Then it was hit the ground running back home. The spring semester has begun, and my tutor schedule is filling.

On to February.

spring fever

I'm waiting for my hair to dry so I can do a grocery run. Exciting, right?

Despite pulling a few extra testing shifts, I've had a lot of free time during this lull between fall and  spring semesters, and classes thankfully start next week. I really should have planned better and done some projects around the house. For instance, every wall could use a new coat of paint. 

As I've mentioned, I've been reading more and have logged 5 books on the year. Technically, it's more like 4 books since I finished one on new year's day that I'd started in December, but let's not get obsessive.

I don't have particular genres or authors I adhere to, just go with whatever inspiration hits me. I check them out from the library, so if any is a dud, it's only wasted time. Here is what I've shelved so far

The Listeners. My favorite book of the year so far. I'd never heard of it, it just showed up when I did a random search of whatever was available.

The Mad Wife. Oooooh, this one was... eerie? Twisty? Is either the right word? Historical fiction based on real things in the 1950s. Could use several trigger warnings.

My Last Innocent Year. It's about a (silly) college undergrad having an inappropriate relationship with a (perve) instructor. 

Ghost Eaters. While riding the bus to work one day, the person across from me was reading this. Curious, I picked it up. It's about ghosts... or 'shrooms... or both?

The Make-Up Test. Formulaic rom-com about rival grad students. Not a typical genre for me. Truthfully, I picked it up because I liked the author's name.

In other winter break "accomplishments":

• I came in 4th out of about a dozen in our extended family's fantasy football league. I changed my email since our league was set up a few years ago, and I never was able to log in this season. Therefore, I never did a darn thing to my auto-generated player roster. That's the secret to my success.

• I have a doctor (nurse practitioner) now. I had been doctorless for about the last five months. The practice I was established with changed hands and was no longer in our insurance network, but I had a physical a couple of months before the switcheroo. When I tried to get into a different practice, I was told I couldn't because I "need 366 days since your last physical". 

The 366-day rule has not been met, but I'm now close enough to where I could at least get on someone's schedule. So there's that, I'm a name in a database now.

And... my hair's dry enough. On to more excitement.

HR logjam, diversions, over here gagging

I've got extra shifts in the testing center again this week. Our new coworker was scheduled to start last week, but they have to make it through all the HR onboarding tasks. Since everything came to a standstill over the winter break, nothing happened with the onboarding, so the start date was pushed out two weeks. So... more shifts for me, which works out nicely since tutoring has yet to begin. 

I'm about to finish another book. This will be number 4 for the year. It's all part of my staving off doom scrolling and social media. Who knew it could be so easy?

I often think I should just chuck the f4cebook account, but it is useful for some things. We don't have a good source of local news around here, so I follow the local law enforcement pages for news I shouldn't ignore. Then there's marketplace, which has come in handy, damnit.

In other diversions and despicables, we'd been watching Peaky Blinders, which is really well done IMHO, but with much violence and darkness and repulsive characters. I finally threw in the towel in the last season. I just googled the ending and decided, okay, no need to watch anymore.

I'm like our cat, Napolion, trying to hide in my mug. Okay, he was actually going after the dregs of my tea. 

I can't imagine he actually wants it, and he does have plenty of water bowls for pets to choose from. I think he's just asserting his alpha-ness and displaying his lack of respect for boundaries...

...and clearly I let him, snapping a pic instead of shooing him away. 

He kills mice with that mouth. Such a jerk.

don't take this personally?

I just had a look at my Spotify Wrapped. I'm not a daily listener, but I have the free version of Spotify for listening to music and podcasts. At the end of the year, it provides a fun little slideshow of the past year's activity - hours listened, favorite artists, favorite genres, etc.

From those stats, it comes up with a "listening age", and this is what it calculated for me: 

I'm an old soul?? Okay, what about the fact that I'M ACTUALLY 61 YEARS OLD. 

Okay, fine, whatever. I'm not bothered by the fact that my listening age matches my physical age. And hey, there was good music in the 80's!

But the previous slide before revealing my listening age? 

"don't take this personally" - HA! Uhm, what're they tryna say?

In other news, I've been basking in slothfulness this week. No tutoring after the frenzy of finals week. At least I have testing center duty tomorrow and Friday to perk things up.

When a semester ends, we typically get inundated with EMTs and Paremedics who have just finished their programs and need to get their official certifications. If there was ever a good time to have a medical emergency at work, it's during the couple of weeks after a semester ends.

Our college has a program for paramedics/ first responders. They have an ambulance simulator that I've only ever seen from afar. But it looks like fun.

The students get in there and practice securing the patient and gurney, taking vitals, jotting notes, all while the "ambulance" simulates rushing through traffic. I'd love to go for a "ride".

But considering my advanced age, it's probably too much of a liability.

Trash

 A good declutter, how I love thee.

One of this week's highlights: we went to the dump. We had a few items that we'd gathered over the years that needed the heave-ho. They weren't useful to donate and were too big for the weekly trash bin. It was time.

The last time we'd been to the dump was probably about 5 years ago after we'd lived here for a few months. Back then, the fee was 9 or 10 dollars. The current fee is $35, so the price has increased, but it's still bargained-priced therapy if you ask me!

We backed the truck up to the designated spot and tossed that garbage with reckless abandon. Afterwards, I felt like Nicole Kidman in that famously supposed "divorce photo" after her divorce from Tom Cruise.

On a side note, I learned that Ex Mrs. Tom Cruise denies the photo is her celebrating the divorce, but I didn't care enough to dig further. 

Speaking of Nicole Kidman, we've been watching the second season of Nine Perfect Strangers. Anyone else? 

I gotta say, it's not doing much for me. We watched the first season, which was okay, but pretty forgetable - as I realized I'd mostly forgotten it. But so far, I'm finding the second season almost embarrassingly bad. A f&cebook friend says it gets better after episode 4. Well, we watched episode 5 last night, and it's still not doing much for me.

Heading into the week ahead, there are only 3 weeks remaining for summer classes. It's a densely packed timeline, and the tutees are feeling it. Hopefully, they'll all be celebrating like Nicole soon.

eyeballs

We've had lots of rain the last several weeks. We typically welcome the moisture, but now the new fear is that all the rain has produced piles of fire fuel for when/if Mother Nature turns off the faucet.

Oh well, one day at a time. I did get caught in a major downpour bicycling home from work recently. As I was heading out, the clouds were moving in and rumbling a bit, but I thought I could beat it. Wrong!

Once the drops started, I quickly became drenched - DUH-WRENCHED - as that drenching deserved two all-caps syllables. As I soakingly approached our house, next door neighbor guy was also in the midst of his bicycle commute home, seemingly without a care. In fact, I think he was enjoying it. 

"He's got the right attitude", I reflected, "at least it's not hailing"

...just as hail started smacking us in the helmets. Thankfully I was in the driveway by that point.

Coworker Blossom had recently returned from a work conference. She brought little gifts for each of us upon her return. For me, she bestowed two sturdy, attractive bookmarks. 

"You like to read, right?", as she held the little paper bag out for me.

Shortly afterwards, I was enjoying a bike ride while not getting drenched. I decided to swing by the library and play Staff-Picks-Shelf roulette. I often read books on my Kindle, but since I had two virgin bookmarks, I thought I'd get an actual physical book.

Our libraries, like many, have a "Staff Picks" shelf where rudderless patrons like myself can check books out without having to put much thought into it. I've had good luck in the past, and I'm not one that HAS to finish a book once I start it. If it's a dud for me, it goes in the DNF pile.

[Hench] is the book I ended up choosing.  It's science fiction with superheroes and villains and regular people employed by superheroes and villains - not my usual thing, I'm not sure I have a usual thing.

But it's so good! Smart and witty and strangely deep at times.

Another win at Staff-Picks-Shelf roulette!

Thank you, library staff member Leah.

I am trying to read more - fiction and non-fiction both. Social media gets old, too much news is not good for the soul. I'll listen to audio books as well. I often feel, "this could be a good book with a different narrator". It's me, not them.

My libby app tells me I've checked out 34 books this year. PFFFT - proof that I have no qualms about DNF-ing, as I've not read nor listened to anything close to 34 books. 

This morning, I'm off to the optometrist to pick up some new specs. At my recent eye exam, the dr. told me my prescription had actually gotten a little weaker. I contemplated just continuing to strain my neck with the glasses I have, forever searching for the "sweet spot" in my old-lady progressive lenses. But then my spare pair decided to retire by dramatically severing a hinge. 

Well, they'd had several years of service. These were the frames I had during my middle school lunch lady days [when that cart fell on my face, and my glasses took the bullet for me]. Good times.

Whacha reading?

scratchlings

I was working at the testing center earlier today. We had a tester call us from the parking lot, saying she didn't think she'd make it in for her test. Apparently her back had seized up, and she couldn't move. 

As she stood, inert, bracing against her car, the head of the nursing department happened by. The nursing school doesn't have a summer session, but luckily "Angie" was there for the rescue. Angie alerted security who contacted paramedics. Our tester was taken to the hospital. 

I've noticed similar on previous occassions. Once, while out running errands, an elderly woman tripped on a curb and couldn't get up. As I contemplated what to do, a woman approached, "I'm a nurse..."

Recall that I recently came upon a [collision between a car and a bicyclist] while on my way to work. Then again, "I'm a nurse..." appeared within seconds. Nurses. Seemingly everywhere when you need them. Thankfully.

I thought I'd share some testy artwork here. Most testers are allowed scratchpaper or whiteboards for scratchwork while testing. We collect it all before they leave us, and some of their "scratchwork" seems too fun to throw away, and lives on a while longer, tacked to a corkboard in the breakroom:

Hmm, what's that there above? Toaster Pastry Kitty?

I also enjoy the notes they often leave for themselves. Some recent ones I recall...

"She believes in you"

"Here we go, one team one fight"

"I can do hard things"

"Don't be dumb"

Then there was [that one guy] who'd written 

"F**k you b*tch  MotherF***ing b*tch..."

We're not sure if that was a calming affirmation or... something else.

nerds, netflix

School's out. Monday was the last day of spring semester. I had a final meeting with a tutee, because nothing like a last minute cram sesh. 

So, after a whirlwind of tuting and testing - the two areas where I work - the tuting's come to an abrupt halt. Not gonna lie, I feel a bit rutterless. At least testing is still hopping. We typically get a wave of testers at semester's end. Newly pinned EMT's getting their certifications, educators getting their licenses, etc.

On Tuesday...

Magnum: No more tutoring?

Me: *SIGH*, not until summer session starts... but in the meantime... (gesturing to the whiteboard, because, yes, we have a whiteboard).

I'd put up a thought provoking math problem, to keep our brains exercised, nerd that I am. Nerd that he is, he couldn't wait to try to solve it.

Since that, there've been more brain teasers appearing on the whiteboard. Some from me, some from him. I had to get more markers, we'd expended the others.

So this is what happens when nerds collide, get hitched. This, and that offspring who liked to do experiments and once blew stuff up and melted a poop bucket - but at least it was outside the house - and that's another story.

Meanwhile, we finished the Netflix series Four Seasons since it was getting a lot of hype. 

It was... all right. It's about a group of friends, 3 married couples, who take regular vacations together. One of the husbands asks for and gets a divorce, then takes up with a much younger "girlfriend", thus changing the vacation group dynamic. It's based on the 1981 movie, which I've never seen.

It was entertaining enough. I didn't always relate to the characters as I found them too neurotic in general. But it did remind me of a couple I met years ago. 

J and A were good friends with Magnum's dad and stepmom. The four of them went on vacations together, etc. Then it turned out that husband J was having an affair on wife A with a younger woman. 

J and A got divorced, and J eventually married the other woman. I remember FIL telling us they'd received an invitation to J's wedding.

"I threw it in the trash!", he said with a chuckle.

I didn't know my FIL that well yet at the time, and I remember him moving up a few rungs on the moral ladder in my mind with that remark. 

But really, I think I may have gotten more into that other viral Netflix series - Tiger King. 

This concerns me a little. 

did she know?

When I was in high school, I ran on the track team. I was a sprinter. Ours was a small school, and the girls' team was not well populated. As it happened, we had three sprinters on our team - myself and two of my good friends. These friends were Carolyn and Debbie, and the three of us were inseparable and each others biggest cheerleaders. 

We did pretty well for ourselves, gathering a pile of ribbons between us. We also did all of the sprint relays together, the main hitch being that relays consist of four runners, not three. But we were okay with the fact that we would not be finishing near the top in the relays. Coach would find a 4th participant - a distance runner or shot putter or something - and we'd go do our thing.

In fact, I enjoyed the relays the most - the excitement of the baton exchanges. It turned out that I was the fastest of us, so I always had the anchor position. Debbie always ran first, Carolyn ran third, and the [insert 4th runner here] ran second. By the time the baton got to me, we were inevitably behind, but not necessarily last. This was extremely motivating for me. I always had at least one other girl to chase down. 

One race was at the state qualifying meet. The three top teams would go on to compete with the best in the state. We NEVER went to state in a relay nor had any expectations of it. In that particular race, we finished fourth.

As we hugged and congratulated ourselves at our decent showing, Debbie suddenly stopped and said, "Omigod, we got fourth. Just think if one of the teams that beat us dropped their baton or did something else to get disqualified..."

Carolyn and I pondered, realizing, "Omigod, we would go on to compete at state".

Then we all heaved a great sigh of relief over the fact that we would NOT be progressing to the state track meet to be shamed by the best relay teams in the state. Yikes, that was close!

I'm thinking about that because of all the hype about Raygun, the Olympic b-girl from Australia. Clips of her breakdancing performance have been all over the internet. She earned a grand total of zero points through 3 rounds of competition.

I'm just curious, was she truly excited about being selected to compete at the Olympics? Did she realize how embarrassing her "dance" was? Or did she really think she belonged there? Her showing was truly bad, and a bit upsetting, but I'm starting to feel sorry for her for the viral backlash. As such, I will not post one of the many many many related memes to decorate this post. 

But really. What WAS she thinking?

distraction

Since the semester's winding down, I've been able to indulge in more playtime/ escapism/ however to categorize it. When I'm playing with my art toys, I typically stream a movie to keep me entertained. Perhaps, more importantly, it gives me a time limit, so I don't get lost and totally neglect my adult responsibilities.

Recently, I watched the movie [Waiting], which was a silly movie I'd never seen but had heard of. It's about a staff of young restaurant workers, and pretty realistic (been there, done that) Ryan Reynolds comedy. I kept that in mind and had low expectations, so it worked out and I drew some apples.

Magnum and I have been watching the [Shogun] miniseries on Hulu. Or I should say, Magnum's been watching it. I'd taken to doodling while it's on, and I've got big gaps in my following along because it's mostly in Japanese, and I don't speak Japanese. I understand it's quite good. I'll vouch for the cinematography and costuming being well done, and I got a spider kid drawing out of it. 

Yesterday, I streamed [Border], which is Swedish, but I'd seen it before while not distracted, so I was able to follow along even though I don't speak Swedish. 

"Border" is an interesting story for lack of a better word. Have you seen it? It's realistic fantasy? If that's even a thing. It pulled me in, having me wondering where the heck it's going. Then it goes somewhere, and I was all, "What??", and it goes somewhere again to where I was all, "WHAAATT??"  Add a few more "WHAA-HAAAAATT??", and that's the movie Border.

I can't even really explain the plot, and I think it's best to watch it, not knowing a thing. I will say that I did not watch the final one third or so during this second viewing.  The subject matter becomes too disturbing for my taste at that point. I still recommend attentively watching it, though.

Anyway, I got a Bucee Beaver statue out of it.

escape

Fangirl confession: I've been rewatching the Syfy series Haven again. Yes, rewatching again as in I've watched it several times. And maybe "watched" is not the right term since, after truly watching it one time through, I now indulge myself by streaming episodes while I'm going about mundane tasks around the house. What better way to clean bathrooms, do laundry, and such?

Is it a guilty pleasure, or just a pleasure? I don't carry any guilt about it.

The show ran for 5 seasons from 2010 to 2015. It's loosely based on a Stephen King novel, "The Colorado Kid".  

Nothing to be taken too seriously, but I enjoy the creativity and the Stephen King vibe -  a fun escape. I enjoy the characters, the writing, and, probably most of all, the setting.

It was filmed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, a place I've never been but would like to. In addition to the drama, the episodes include wonderfully scenic views of fishing boats, lighthouses, beachfronts, quaint little seaside shops... things we don't have here in Colorado. I love the sounds of seagulls, lapping waves, and those boat bells - there's probably a specific name for "those boatbells", but I don't know what it is. I'm Colorado, so I know cowbells. 

Haven Trailer

Magnum and I watched the series originally back when it was more fresh, but we lost interest somewhere in season 4, I think. I've never watched to the end. But I stream the earlier seasons now and then, like today when the kitchen needed a cleaning.

A more recent show we watched is The Wilds, which ran for two seasons. Teens sent off to a "retreat" for troubled kids become stranded on an island after their plane crashes... or did it? Decent premise, but I once again lost interest before the last episode, and we stopped watching early on in season 2.

Currently, we're a few episodes into Deadloch, which is starting to grow on me with it's catchy deadpan one liners. I found one of the main characters overwritten and highly annoying early on, but her role has shifted a bit, so I'll stay in for now. 

As with books, I have no problem ditching a TV series when it's not working for me. The purpose of both is to be amusing escapism, right? It's not like it's for a work/school assignment. I can think of other shows I enjoyed for a while, but they ended up dragging on for too long without going anywhere, or went off the deep end. 

First world problems, I know.

So excuse me while I go pretend I'm cleaning a bathroom in Nova Scotia, just not a season 5 bathroom.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. What are you watching? Share your favorite summer programming so far.

end of week bullets

• Last Sunday, I went for a run in the rain. It was actually quite nice - just rain. No lightning, no hail. A couple of weeks prior, I'd got caught in a rainstorm while running. At the point of getting rained upon, I knew if I turned around to go home, I'd become fully saturated anyway, so I just kept on a-going... and got fully saturated.

So last Sunday, it was already rainy when I left the house, and I wore my nylon shell, which did a good job of keeping me relatively dry - between waist and neck. My shoes got fully soaked, however, from all the puddles. Add the soaked shoes to the fact that my left sock had a small hole from which my pinky toe had pooched out, and I ended up tearing a small patch of skin from said pinky toe.  

Surprising how annoying a skin patchless pinky toe can be. Talk about your first world problems.

• Work at the testing center was very slow yesterday during my shift. I was there for four hours and gave three tests. But there were a few other tasks to catch up and occupy my time, so I ended up feeling quite productive. Plus, Work Study - our student employee - was there with a pile of math homework.  Summer classes are more concentrated than Fall and Spring, and she's in the thick of it. So I got some tuting done, and she got her homework done (while getting paid). Win-win (win).
  
  
• A Youtuber I check in on now and then (I don't subscribe to any Youtube channels) announced this week that he's going to stop doing daily vlogs. And I was all, "Good for you!" He's vlogged every day for the last seven years! 

He's a likable guy, and his channel is centered on running. That's how I found him - via his well done, informative shoe reviews. He lives in nearby Denver, and he attended the same university I did, so there's a local flair. He makes his living off  Youtube and supports his family of wife plus five-with-a-sixth-on-the-way kids, so it's clearly a lucrative gig.

But EVERY DAY??

I wonder how that affects a person's off-camera life: to be on camera every day for a channel with a large following - while raising a family, no less. Out there every day with the selfie stick and whatnot. His growing family is naturally often featured on his vlogs as well. So I'm glad for him and the family that he's decided to back off. 

• We've been watching Beef on Netflix. Seen it? Finished it? We made it to the final episode last night and were about halfway through it when - ZHOOOP - power outage.  By the time the power was back, I'd shut off the laptop and was ready for bed.
  
  Ironically, the title of that last episode is "Figures of Light", of which we had none.

tan lines and pelicans, nope

Happy Easter, or Ostara for the pagans, or Sunday for all. We are enjoying pleasant springtime weather to coincide with the holiday.

I enjoyed a happy morning run along the creek where I met up with tan lines and pelicans. Two firsts for the year.

The pelicans seem to be happily cohabitating with the ducks and geese of the neighborhood. But they typically don't hang around for very long

It does feel like spring fever is kicking in for many. Tutees are dragging their way, just wanting to make it to the end of the semester. That one student who had covid about a month ago is still dealing with the aftermath - secondary infections - as the semester marches on.

We watched Nope last night. Seen it? Jordan Peele movie about aliens? Or rather, more specifically, Jordan Peele movie about UAPs  or unidentified aerial phenomena. 

I guess UAP has replaced UFO as the term of choice because people connote UFO with big-eyed aliens.

Anyway, I liked the movie well enough. It was entertaining, not mind blowing, but entertaining. Likeable characters except for the... well... y'know.

pretty and babies

She and I are the same age. I remember idolizing her when we were teenagers.  I had my subscription to Seventeen magazine, and Brooke Shields was wearing Calvin Klein jeans, so every girl wanted some CK jeans.

She was just too pretty. And I could relate somewhat and aspire because, in addition to being the same age as me, she was brunette, unlike Farrah Fawcett - the iconic blonde babe of that time. 

But I was no fool and knew I didn't hold a candle to Brooke Shields and that she lived in a whole different world from mine.  A world I would NOT trade for! Yeesh.

There's a Brooke Shields documentary streaming on Hulu now. I doubt I will watch it, but have read some of the highlights, that are sadly not surprising. Sexual exploitation starting before she'd even reached puberty.

Speaking of pretty things, we had another spring snowstorm this week, not quite as messy as last week's that had me stranded on a transit bus. I was out walking an errand in it and came upon a couple of geese honey badgers not giving a *hoot*

The two of them hanging out on the side of the path paying no mind to walkers, joggers, bicyclists, plows... "go around, losers".

It occurs to me that it's about that time for the annual goose nesting, when the geese become downright nasty if anyone dares come close to their nesting babies.  I wonder if these two were scoping out a site.

That's my excitement so far this week. That and learning that dry erase markers are the BOMB for erasing "permanent" marker. Just write over the permanent marker with a dry erase, and wipe. 

I'm as old as Brooke Shields and never learned this 'til now?!

behavior

Happy April, we are a fourth of the way into 2023. There are neighbors around the corner from us who still have Christmas lights up that come on each night. I wonder if they're really into Christmas or lights or have them on a forgotten timer?

This week, we had Chaco's pooch, Ella, boarding with us while Chaco travelled for work. She's a fun dog who blends in well with her "cousins", Penny and Merlin. And what's one more dog adding to the extensive pile of pet hair?

So, the dogs enjoy these sleepovers. The cat, Napolion, not so much. He expects to maintain his status as the Alpha pet at all times, but Ella has yet to get the memo. It's a bit of a furry juggling act for us resident humans.

Speaking of animals, we watched Nocturnal Animals, and The Shape of Water in movie news. Both were entertaining - I stayed awake throughout. 

Nocturnal Animals is a revenge story-within-a-story. I'm not a big fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, but he was well cast in this one. Amy Adams and Michael Shannon did well with their roles, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson is an it-don't-matter actor for me... As in, if he's in the movie, none of the other details matter, I'll gladly watch. 

I was aware that The Shape of Water won the Academy Award for Best Picture the year it was nominated, but had never seen it. I liked it well enough, but honestly, it was a bit too whimsical for me. Great plot, too much whimsey, and the soundtrack grated on me for a lot of it. It was like a kids' movie that included sex and violence. And again, the actors were great.

And speaking of violence, a month or so ago, a house not far from us was a total loss in a fire. Once the embers cooled, a deceased woman was found inside, and a man against whom she had a restraining order was located at the scene. 

I often run along the sidewalk that backs up to what is left of the house. The fence is gone, exposing the charred remains.

I don't know of any updates in the investigation, apparently I'm not in a need-to-know position. Sad, though. It's a quiet residential street - bicycles, basketball hoops, walk chalk, etc. And now this.

I will gladly opt for Christmas lights in April.

a star

I typically have a couple of books I'm working through at any given time.  And I'm not one that "must" finish a book if it's just not doing it for me.  It's been a long time since I've read one that's left a lasting impression.

In fact, I had to go to my goodreads shelf to see what I've read recently. Most all have been mediocre at 3 stars out of 5. The most memorable recent read, I didn't even add to my goodreads shelf because it was SO ridiculous. 

The ridiculousness is what made it so memorable. Here are a few tidbits:

• The main character takes a job as a nurse practitioner in a corrections facility and is advised not to give out any personal information to the inmates she treats. She immediately divulges personal sh*t to just about everyone she meets on the first day.
• The main character does all sorts of other stupid/ditzy/weak things, too many to mention. How did she graduate nursing school let alone become a NP?
• A ten-year-old boy gets off the school bus after school, walks to his house. The people inside know he's home when he RINGS THE DOORBELL. To go into his own house. 
• Main character wants to find two people who walked into the forest from a house after a fresh snowfall. But she has no idea which way they went... WALKING AFTER A FRESH SNOWFALL.  Gosh, if only they'd left some sort of clue.
• The 10-year-old boy, who is small for his age, manages to shake a tree hard enough to have big ass icicles fall from the tree. A tree large and sturdy enough to have 3-inch diameter icicles form on it would be very hard to budge. Then the small boy manages to kill a healthy grown man with one of those big icicles. He's apparently a good baseball player.

I mean, c'mon! Is proofreading not a thing?? Editing??

I'll admit that the kid ringing his own doorbell bothered me for longer than it should have. 

I'm not even going to say the name of the book or the author because it was just SO so bad. But I'll include this blurb:

#1 Amazon bestselling author [blankity blank] is a practicing physician specializing in brain injury who has penned multiple Kindle bestselling psychological thrillers and medical humor novels. She lives with her family and black cat in a centuries-old three-story home overlooking the ocean, with staircases that creak and moan with each step, and nobody could hear you if you scream. Unless you scream really loudly, maybe.

She's apparently published 22 books, which is 22 more than I've ever published. This one has an average rating of 4.19 stars. 

Maybe I have a brain injury.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt

4. Book review!