The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. I have come back to it as an adult more than once and I’m always thrilled that it holds up. The growth of the main character through the series and his commitment to being a good person makes me come back to it over and over.

Owls are just sky cats after all

You’re not wrong, necessarily, but how did it work out for that relationship afterward? Did she become a better friend? Sometimes I wonder if it’s worth the effort. It doesn’t feel like a lot but many of us are problematically conflict-averse so it is a lot of effort in that way. If the “friend” in question isn’t presenting much value to me as a friend, I’m probably not going to invest a lot of effort into improving the relationship, especially if I have other, better options. Maybe that’s mean in its own way but then again, it’s just a different kind of setting boundaries, I suppose.

A Trade of Blood just came in on Libby and I’m pumped, started it this morning. It’s the third in the Ana and Din series by Robert Jackson Bennett. I loved the first two so I’ve been waiting for this one with bated breath, as they say.

I’ve definitely witnessed a few people do that swerve, and then do it again a few seconds later because they didn’t put their fucking phone down. Comparing them to drunk drivers is absolutely correct.

This is obviously not at all important but Simpson was an (American) football player, not basketball.

As a Californian, I assume I am not alone in being really fucking sick of Gavin Newsom’s particular brand of “democratic” also. He is in bed with all of the big corporations, including ones who have actively killed people (looking at you, PG&E) and isn’t even bothering to hide it anymore. I want politicians who care about me, not big business. The asshole is even against the billionaire tax “because it’ll drive big business out of the state.” Tell me clearer who you really care about, Newsom.

I wanted to learn to play HR#2 after watching Bugs do it for years. Little did I know that Liszt had giant hands and twelve fingers.

Lots of Tannhauser in that one too. “Weeeetuuun, my wuv…”

Fucking around and finding out

I know I’ve been saying “this weather is abnormal” for years but the Bay Area weather lately is so completely different than normal that I’m kind of reeling. Not that it’s unexpected or anything, just super surreal and sad.

Wool knitters generally wash their sweaters only when they’re truly dirty. Otherwise they tend to air them out and rotate. Here is a super basic set of suggestions; I found it just by searching “caring for wool sweaters.” I know there’s probably a sense that base layers and socks which are very close to the skin (and near areas that tend to get smelly) might need more frequent washing, but since you have enough sets to rotate, I would try rotating and airing out first to see if they really hold on to the stink as much as one might fear. If they’re really wool, I think they’ll work themselves out. And it’s worth noting that wet wool has its own funky smell that detergent isn’t going to cover, so don’t freak out if it smells while washing when you do resort to it.

Okay sorry this is gonna come off as snarky but, how much merino wool stuff are we talking? Like one sweater? A couple? How much detergent do you really need? Wool also doesn’t need washing constantly, not like “regular” clothes like cotton or polyester. It has some of its own antimicrobial qualities as far as I know. I’m a knitter, I work primarily with merino and honestly I don’t wash my stuff all that often. (I don’t like knitting socks though; maybe they’d need it more often.) A small bottle of soak lasts me a loooong time.

We had a cat hated the dog until her dying day. Spat vinegar at her every time the dog dared to look in her direction. After she passed, we got another couple of cats, one of whom really wanted to make sure the dog knows who’s boss.

Now the poor old dog won’t look any cat in the eye. We have a cat that seems to want to rub up on the dog and the dog looks so uncomfortable and always walks away, it’s so sad! Poor traumatized pup.

My kids recently got the idea to give our old lady cat fresh cold water from the fridge, and now she begs for it and shuns the water already in the bowl.

Welcome, relative newbie!

I had a similar incident; I was in the second lane of a freeway and a truck was going to merge into the first lane from a cloverleaf, and my Tesla freaked the fuck out and slammed on the breaks. I was lucky there wasn’t a car behind me for a bit.

Now that I’m in my 40s with small group insurance, I, too, am more focused on the 63 year old who wants to go after big pharma than I am on some faulty idea of youth. Godspeed, my friend.

My purse got stolen once and my Sony Ericsson T300 (and my favorite lipstick) were in it, and nothing will ever emotionally live up to that phone. I loved it and I probably love it more because it was taken from me before I got tired of it.

A) If the tree is old, how the heck do you keep it so clean? B) If the tree is new, how the heck did you get her to take to it so fast??

No snark, genuinely impressed by either situation!