Reading

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migraine

[migraine] ... mrgh

Today has been. the first time in A While that I have spent mostly horizontal and mostly asleep on account of migraine, despite drugs. I am Not A Fan.

( Read more... )

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This month features Trieste, Venice, Durham, and ice cream, as well as the usual dosages of children and cats.

On another note, I have just sent an e-mail to the wrong person with the same name *three* times. I think I need to step away from the keyboard for a bit.

How to Catch Creation is a very smart, cross-generational take on relationships and creativity

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/05/01/how-to-catch-creation-is-a-very-smart-cross-generational-take-on-relationships-and-creativity/

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To-read pile, 2026, April

Books on pre-order:

Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May)
Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May)
Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec)
Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027)

Books acquired in April:

and unread:
1. Greater Good (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy 2) by Timothy Zahn
and previously read:
1. Warhorse by Timothy Zahn

Borrowed books read in April:

Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey
Like You've Nothing Left to Prove by E.L. Massey
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Rereads in April:

Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

April had a lot of ice hockey and a lot of driving (including two separate Nationals tournaments), and thus relatively little reading. One day I will actually read the Thrawn books, honest ...

Entry tags:

just one thing

Just One Thing (01 May 2026)

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

creatures!

Went into town this afternoon to post some things, and observed Several Creatures. The blue butterfly around the lilac near the top of the hill was very welcome; the Egyptian goslings are starting to look almost grown up, with eye markings and a general reduction in fluff and increase in sleek!

(Elsewise today: SLEEP, post-gym Spatzen, more free electrons and therefore more laundry; both social and solitary wiggles; good therapy; and some Tentatively Positive Communication re Admin: the LRP.)

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clouds,
sunset

Post Storm Sunset

We had some severe storms come through our area this week, and had tornado sirens going off both in the morning and evening. Luckily the first set of storms had a mild tornado farther south of us. The second set had a potential formation going over us but luckily nothing actually came together and we only got a bit of hail.

( Read more... )

Upcoming Don Giovanni at the Redwood

Don Giovanni might be an ironic choice for a fund raiser for a women's shelter but....

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/04/30/a-special-shout-out/

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just one thing

Just One Thing (30 April 2026)

some good things!

DID make it to the post office and get A Parcel into the post!
DID make it to THE GYM, and was Charmed to notice that one of the other regulars was wearing unexpected-by-me nail varnish.
We brought home many Field Treets and I am continuing to merrily vacuum them up with my horrid little mouth!
Saw the bat! Hello bat. What a good bat you are.
Very much enjoyed the Graun on a photographer who spent a year following the ZSL veterinary team (NB multiple images of post mortems in there).
Negative electricity prices for a while in there today meant: Much More Laundry (most of which is dry), surprise and delight at A running the underfloor heating in the bathroom (WOM FEET); b r e a d; experimental autopyrolitic oven cleaning.

The Division; personal, insightful, brave

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/04/29/the-division-personal-honest-and-very-very-brave/

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meme

Meme from @muccamukk

The Last...

Movie I watched:
in the cinema: Project Hail Mary (2026)
on (my friend's) TV: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
Series I finished: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 (2026)
Book I finished: Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan (2021)
Book I bought:
bought outright: Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn (1990)
pre-ordered: Call Me Traitor, by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec 2026)
Book I received as a gift: Amsterdam, by Russell Shorto (2013) - given for Christmas 2023 according to my booklog, still languishing on the TBR
Food I ate: pressed nut+fruit snack bar to finish off my post-hockey-practice meal in the small hours this morning
Meal I cooked: porridge for Nico's breakfast this morning
Drink I had: pepsi max
Song I listened to: "Castle of Glass" by Linkin Park
Album I listened to: Hadestown OBCR
Playlist I listened to: "three-plus years in love (with hockey)" - which reminds me I need to figure out where Living on a Prayer fits into it, as we ended up belting it out as a team on the bench on Saturday, and yes it needs to go in (unless I start a new playlist for my fourth season ...)
Concert I went to: my friend and teammate's gig in Jesus College bar last month
Game I played: does ice hockey count? does Duolingo count? (though I gave up on it last year for being too gamified and no longer teaching me). I literally can't remember when I last played a board game and I don't really do computer games.
Person I talked to: Nico
Person I texted:
Individual: Charles
Groupchat: Kodiaks 2 leadership

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just one thing

Just One Thing (29 April 2026)

Entry tags:

vital functions

vital functions (ish)

Last week I:

finished weaving in the ends on A's gloves (before we hit site for the first event of the year)
read more She's A Beast
ate a bunch of food I didn't have to cook (current experiment: do Lichfield brownie bars only taste That Good in a field?)
explored Steeplechase LRP Centre when it had PEOPLE on it (and also when it didn't)
including seeing a green woodpecker!
and SO many birds of prey
made a bunch of unilateral decisions about where tents would go directly affecting two other departments in response to external constraints, and redesigned internal tent layout on the fly in response to different external constraints, and... it all worked???
rethought several steps in the lost property process and goodness that works way better and is much less stressful

and then today has been about half and half "sleep" and "endless lost property paperwork". And Now: To Bed.

Current Mood: photographical
Current Location: ici

Bridges!

Stirling is on the River Forth.

This is the old bridge (no, not the one the battle of Stirling Bridge was fought on, which was there before this later medieval one)

( More pics! )

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just one thing

Just one thing: 28 April 2026

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

Current Mood: excited

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it's been storming a lot recently...

But at least the lilacs and violets are happy!

There was also a double rainbow a while ago. :3

I've also been preparing to start a garden for the first time, pretty excited about it! I've got some fence container-things set up in my backyard, filled with fresh potting soil and some seeds ready. I've been talking to a coworker about it; apparently, tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans are good starter plants that basically grow themselves. I also have a pack of red strawberry popcorn that I bought on a whim a year or so ago that I'm hoping will still be viable.