Dr. S: Five wires? FIVE wires? How? WHY? One outlet, one switch, one fixture....
[Somewhat later]
Dr. S: What are you doing?
Me: I'm filtering paint through a stocking. It's kind of old.
Dr. S: WHY.
Me: This is a thing people do!
Dr. S: Yes. During the Depression.
So my in-laws are moving here permanently in 9 days and I both advocated for this and am glad. However.
First, I acknowledge that I am a bossy, take-charge kind of person.
But second: there are many moments when I am forcibly reminded of my mother in law washing the (new, unused) disposable silverware before my BIL's wedding while the rest of us frantically set out the CHAIRS and TABLES and FOOD.
These Deadly Prophecies: teen sorcerer has to figure out the mystery of her mentor's death. Fun, well written, not scary. Recommend.
Vaster Wilds: book club book which manages to be both grim and wholly unrealistic, as if the author had never set foot in a woods. Hated every page, 0/10, definitely not for me.
Three Kinds of Lucky: new series from Kim Harrison, great premise, but has such bad Famous Author Syndrome that I started checking halfway through if it was going to be over soon. Would be amazing at half the length; I abandoned ship near the dramatic ending due to not caring about any of the main characters any more.
Dreaming Spies: I read this during the early pandemic and, like, didn't form memories due to the everything. Good, but not as good as the first ones in the series. I feel they get increasingly unlikely. Emperors and Cole Porter, really?
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands: A delightfully strange fantasy novel with wonderful characters, second in a series. Liked it even better than the first.
The Blighted Stars: decent story which would have been better without the mild romance shoehorned in. Sci fi with alien fungus.
The Unspoken Name: weird and interesting portal fantasy, with liberally borrowed elements out of many world folklore. Recommend.
Bookshops and Bonedust: okay, but much less charming than the first one. Would borrow from library, but not buy.
Starter Villain: unserious popcorn. I enjoyed it. There are cats.
Between keeping track of the children's activities and needs, my in laws closing on a house here in a week, the city board I now run, work fires, plumbing repairs, and everything else.... well, it could always be worse but it's a lot.
So naturally today I suddenly came over all peculiar and had to lay down for most of the day, because that was my body refusing to let one more barnyard animal in the house.
"I'm not sure all stakeholders here are fully aligned": Come get this dodo out of this meeting before I reach through Zoom and do violence.
"There may be additional business implications": I could have told you what a bad idea this was six months ago but here we are.
"I'm concerned that if we can't identify a root cause this will continue to be an issue": Last time you didn't listen and we spent three months managing a comms fire.
"I'm concerned that this may have a serious impact on customer experience": I will be looking at job ads as soon as this call is over.
"I'm not sure this level of effort is sustainable on the contracted timelines": I am looking at job ads RIGHT NOW.
This month we must:
Do our taxes
Arrange for a revised will and trust, including nominating guardians and arranging a financial trustee
Deal with an electric meter code violation (possible by cutting a hole in the porch)
Good times!
