September 2022 – The Owl Underground

Symmetry and Balance

As you get further into the craft of knitting, you begin to get into the mechanics of it, how a stitch is made and what makes a stitch look the way it does. From there it’s a short jump from why a k2tog (knit two together) looks different from a ssk (slip, slip, knit). Which brings you to the idea of “leaning” — left leaning decreases and increases and right leaning increases and decreases. and that brings you to the idea of symmetry.

To use this shawl as an example, the right border (that’s the direction you’re knitting from) is (ssk, yo) x 3. The left border, however is (yo, k2tog) x3. In the first place, you want the border lace on one side of the shawl to be the mirror image of the border lace on the other side, so you have to reverse the stitch order on the left border in order for that to happen. But there’s something else going on here: stitch orientation. Even though they’re both -1 decreases, an ssk is different from a k2tog because of the orientation of the stitches. In the ssk,, the two stitches are slipped knitwise before they’re worked, which turns them around to the right, so instead of being oriented parallel to the needle like a knit stitch, the worked ssk stitch “faces” 45 degrees to the right. This affects how the stitch looks and how it hangs. On the other hand, a k2tog “faces” 45 degrees toward the left. So, when you are working with left/right symmetry, you need to know your left/right pairs of increases and decreases.

One of the first things you learn in knitting is front/back symmetry. You learn that the opposite of a knit stitch is a purl stitch when you learn to work stockinette stitch. The lace panel at the center of this shawl is a case in point. The right side is worked: k1, (k2, yo, k2tog, k1) x 3. It would seem logical that the wrong side would be: p1, (p2, yo, p2tog, p1) x 3. Nope. Turns out that p2tog is not the exact opposite of a k2tog. Turns out that the exact opposite of a k2tog is a ssp tbl — slip two stitches knitwise and purl them through the back loop. That’s the only way you can get the stitch before the “crisscross” to lie flat. If you p2tog, it’s twisted and doesn’t look right.

I’m contemplating ripping out and reworking a whole half of another shawl I’m working on because of the way the p2tog doesn’t look right on the wrong side. I’m trying to decide how bad that bugs me.

In other knitting news, all that’s left to make this a FO is to weave in one last end. The pattern is here if you’re interested.

Books Read in 2022

94.	*Crystal Dragon, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve (re-re-re-read)
93.	*Crystal Soldier, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve (re-re-re-read)
	(93 & 94 are 1st and 2nd  of the 3 novels published together as
        “Crystal Variation”)
92.	*Scattered Among Strange Worlds, de Bodard, Aliette (short stories) 
91.	*Rarely Pure and Never Simple, Martinez, Angel
90.	*Fireheart Tiger, de Bodard, Aliette (novella)
89.	*Derelict, edited by Coe, David B and Palm, Joshua (short stories) 
88.	*Deven and the Dragon, Grayson, Eliot
87.	*A Liaden Universe Constellation, Volume 5, Miller, Steve and Lee,
        Sharon (short story collection) (reread)
86.	*The Firebird and Other Stories, Cooper, R.
85.	*Like a Gentleman, Grayson, Eliot
84.	*Forest of Memory, Kowall, Mary Robinette (novella) (reread)
83.	*Talking to Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
82.	*Calling on Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
81.	*Searching For Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
80.	*Dealing With Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
79.	*Drowned Country, Tesh, Emily
78.	*Deliberation, Cherry, C. J. (short story) (xreread)
77.	*Invitation, Cherryh, C. J. (short story) (xreread)
76.	*A Case of Possession, Charles, K. J. (re-re-reread)
75.	*The Magpie Lord, Charles, K. J. (re-re-reread)
74.	*Touch Not The Cat, Stewart, Mary
73.	*Realm of Ash, Suri Tasha
72.	*Empire of Sand, Suri Tasha
71.	*Dreams of Distant Shores, McKillip, Patricia
70.	*Heart Stone, White, Elle Katharine
69.	*Meat Cute, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread) (novella)
68.	*Ambush or Adore, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
67.	*The Missing Page, Sebastian, Cat
66.	*Hither, Page, Sebastian, Cat (reread)
65.	*How to Marry a Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
64.	*Defy or Defend, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
63.	*Poison or Protect, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
62.	*Manners and Mutiny, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
61.	*Waistcoats and Weaponry, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
60.	*Curtsies and Conspiracies, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
59.	*Ettiquette and Espionage, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
58.	*The Botanist’s Apprentice, Powell, Arden
57.	*Of Books, Earth, and Courtship, de Bodard, Aliette
56.	*The Tea Master and the Detective, de Bodard, Aliette (re-read)
55.	*Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, de Bodard, Aliette
54.	*The House of Binding Thorns, de Bodard, Aliette
53.	*The House of Sundering Flames, de Bodard, Aliette 
52.	*The House of Shattered Wings, de Bodard, Aliette
51.	*Of Dragons, Feasts and Murder, de Bodard, Aliette
50.	*The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, de Bodard, Aliette
49.	*The Memory Theater, Tidbeck, Karin
48.	*Little Wolf, Cooper, R.
47.	*Lore and Lust, Nikoll, Karla
46.	*Snowspelled, Burgis, Stephanie
45.	*A Psalm for the Wild Built, Chambers, Becky
44.	*Song For The Basilisk, McKillip, Patricia
43.	*First Blood, Grayson, Eliot
42.	*Quiet House, Morton, Lily
41.	Cloud’s Rider, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-read)
40.	Rider at the Gate, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-read)
39.	*Lost and Found, Grayson, Eliot
38.	*The Witch’s Familiar, Nichol, T. J. 
37.	*The Alpha Contract, Grayson, Eliot
36	Whiskey and Water, Bear, Elizabeth (re-read)
35.	Blood and Iron, Bear, Elizabeth (re-read)
34.	When Blood Lies, Harris, C. S. 
33.	The Book of Atrix Wolfe, McKillip, Patricia (reread)
32.	*Captive Mate, Greyson, Eliot
31.	*A Very Armitage Christmas, Greyson, Eliot
30.	*Alpha’s Warlock, Greyson, Eliot
29.	*Lost Touch, Greyson, Eliot
28.	The Faded Sun:  Kutath, Cherryh, C. J.
27.	The Faded Sun:  Shon’Jir, Cherryh, C. J.
26.	The Faded Sun:  Kesrith, Cherryh, C. J. 
25.	*The Long and Winding Road, Klune, T. J.
24.	*The Art of Breathing, Klune, T. J.
23.	*Who We Are, Klune, T. J. 
22.	*Bear, Otter, and the Kid, Klune, T. J. 
21	*Under the Whispering Door, Klune, T. J.
20.	*The House in the Cerulean Sea, Klune, T. J. 
19.	*A Shadow in Summer, Abraham, Daniel
18.	*Fluke and the Faithless Father, Burns, Sam
17.	*The Fantastic Fluke, Burns, Sam
16.	*The Tale of Two Seers, Cooper, R. 
15.	*A Boy and His Dragon, Cooper, R. 
14.	*Time’s Convert, Harkness, Deborah
13.	*Killashadra, McCaffrey, Anne
12.	*Crystal Singer, McCaffrey, Anne
11.	*Clay White, Cooper, R. 
10.	*Ravenous, Cooper, R. 
9.	*Change State, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve
8.	*Bread Alone, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve
7.	*Od Magic, McKillip, Patricia (reread)
6.	*Spells and Sensibility, Noone, K. L. and Murphy, K. S. 
5.	*Revelry, Noone, K. L.
4.	*Fire and Ink, Noone, K. L.
3.	*Some Kind of Magic, Cooper, R. 
2.	*Wyrd and Wild , English, Charlotte E. 
1.	*The Book of Life, Harkness, Deborah (reread)
 
* Ebook
(xreread) – reread more than four times.

Because Prednisone

I periodically like to point out odd quirks in the evolution of our native tongue, Ameriglish. Back when people studied English grammar instead of “Language Arts” in school, they were taught that there is this grammar thing called “a state of being.” It is an either/or concept. You are either in that state of being or not; when a thing changes from being to not being (or vice versa), you “become.” “Extinction” is a case in point. A new example of this I have run across is “pregnancy.”

Gratuitous picture of a faun on a unicorn from The Day of the Unicorn ©2022 by Manuel Arenas

I mention this because sometime between when I attended school during the previous century (The 1960’s. Yeah. That was last century.) and the current time, “extinction” mysteriously transmogrified from a state of being to a destination. Nowadays things go extinct. T. rex has left the building. And lately, I’ve noticed that pregnancy has undergone a similar and mystifying change to I’m not sure what. Nowadays women don’t become pregnant, they fall pregnant — Is that like if a woman doesn’t fall off the bed while having sex, she won’t become pregnant!? (Or, what is much worse, is pregnancy now like falling from a higher state to a lower state, like a fall from grace?!?!)

And prepositions. Prepositions are being quietly murdered and replaced by imposters! Things used to happen “by” accident. But “by” was disappeared and quietly replaced by “on” and now we are supposed to just accept that now things happen “on” accident. No. Just, no.

These few examples are just the tip of the iceberg, folks (another of those pesky non-gendered collective nouns!) A great iceberg of a conspiracy between the American public education system and those Millennials to corrupt our mother tongue.

I mean, Millennials are always being problematic. They even chose a problematic name. First off, it’s a booger to spell. (Aren’t two “L’s” and two “N’s” a bit too, Snowflake?) (And even when you spell it right, it looks wrong.)

To be fair, though, one notable contribution to the language the Twitter-pated have made is the “because (noun)” construction. It’s a kind of linguistic shorthand for condensing a long convoluted explanation or long list of reasons or justifications into a very brief synopsis (a Tweet is limited to 140 characters), to save space, time, and/or character count, and not occasionally to level up the irony or sarcasm. Whence the title of this post. This is my brain on a whacking great dose (100 mg) of prednisone. Going 90 mph(145 kph) in second gear. For, literally, days.

(Left turn into a brick wall at race-track speeds segue) So today my 5 tabs of prednisone was the chaser to a bag of rrrrRuffles Cheese and Sour Cream potato chips (rrrrRuffles have rrrrridges!). Cushioning my tum with food first seemed like a good idea at the time — right up until it got to the part about available food choices. (Knocking back a handful of prednisone on an empty stomach is like that first part of the roller coaster ride where the chain is ratcheting you up that really high, really steep hill, and you know you’re not getting off until the ride’s over.)

(No segue at all) In previous posts, I have mentioned the eclectic assortment of gratuitous sound effects my apartment is subjected to at inopportune moments, like the morning jog of the garbage cans to the dumpsters and back. Since I live near the Marsha Sharp raceway, on weekends, we typically have scattered motorcycle attempts at land speed records, particularly in the early morning hours, with a chance of low-flying helicopters. (I live within four miles of three tertiary care hospitals and a level I trauma center, three of which have helipads.) But this Saturday, at about 7:00 a.m., we had a rude awakening. The cover spontaneously fell off the (not so) mini-split in the front room beside my desk.

It made a noise like a giant hubcap being tossed like a Frisbee onto concrete. I was sound asleep at the time, but I am proud to say I calmly peeled myself off the ceiling, rolled over and went back to sleep.

Unflappableness. I haz it.

Somewhat later, at a more seemly hour (11:00 o’clock), I got on the phone to the front desk and called in a maintenance strike, and today while I was having fun with needles and plastic tubing at JACC, Care Bud the Maintenance Man put humpty-bumpty back together again. I am curious to know what the lady in the apartment below thought had caused that noise. It was so loud that I’m a little surprised that Security didn’t shortly thereafter come knocking on my door to politely inquire if my mobility issues were experiencing technical difficulties. (Or if I’d lost the stone out of my diamond ring or something . . .)

Was texting with my BFF Sunday, and humorously remarked about my problems with knitting with a long circular needle while watching YouTube videos on my tablet while in bed, and having video interrupted because the needle cable hit the tablet and started some random video playing. She texted back that the transmission on her car had self-destructed in the middle of the drive home from work, she had to have it towed, and now she is damned if she does have to spend big buck$ to get the tran$mi$$ion replaced and damned if she doesn’t have a ride to work. She only just recently found out (a) she’d had a heart attack at some point, probably last January when she blacked out and did a standing face plant in a parking lot, and (b) that she has foot drop because of nerve damage from the ankle she broke years ago, and has tripped and fallen badly several times since then because of it (She is a self-deprecator because issues, so she just assumed she was clumsy and was tripping over her own feet.) (Speaking of heroes preemptively beating the crap out of themselves . . .) Giving emotional support over the phone is about as easy as giving technical support over the phone and, unfortunately, just about as effective. Remote hugs are rubbish. She lives northwest of Houston, and there’s like 600 miles of TX between us. My arms aren’t that long. Sigh.

Oh. And because I am bouncing off the walls at the moment, this non sequitur is for the orthographically challenged: If the spell check/auto-correct function highlights as misspelled a word that is a simple plural or has a suffix or prefix, the root word may not actually be misspelled. Insert a space between the word and the simple plural (simple plurals add -s or -es to form the plural) or between the suffix (-ly, -ment, -ness, -able, etc.) or prefix (un-, dis-, re-, in-, non-, etc.) and the root word. If the word is still highlighted as misspelled, then it probably is. Spell checker/auto-correct glossaries take up RAM. Therefore many such glossaries only include the most commonly used prefixed and/or suffixed forms of the most commonly used words, and the variant prefix/suffix/plural forms (the exceptions to the basic spelling rules), and do not include the simple plurals. (duh!) E.g., In the paragraphs above, spell check recognized “millennial” as spelled correctly, but not “millennials” and recognized “flappable” and “unflappable” as spelled correctly, but not “unflappableness.”

Stopping now. Must correct misspelled name in the previous post.

Feetnotes: 
* Taking a "bolus dose" of medication is like chugging multiple shots of alcohol all at once.  Only with alcohol, the articulated lorry hits you head-on at 90 mph(145 kph); with prednisone, the eighteen-wheeler only grazes you close enough to snag your suspenders(braces**) on the wing mirror.  At 90 mph(145 kph). 
**this is a British English inclusive and metric-inclusive blog. Bite me.

First World Problems

Now that I’ve got the deadline knitting out of the way, I can work on some shawl WIPs. I actually started jonesing to work on this one, which is a simple, straightforward, bottom-up triangular shawl with a center lace panel.

The yarn is three 550 yd/503 m skeins of Mohonk Light, 100% lamb’s wool, colorway “Wet Bluestone,” that I got on closeout because the colorway was discontinued. It’s hand-dyed yarn. All that in the picture above is out of the first skein, with what’s left of it in the bowl, and a whole skein beside it for comparison . . . .

It’s basically a one-page pattern, worked bottom-up, with 29 rows to set up the lace border, and establish the center lace panel. Once you’ve done that, there’s a 2-row pattern repeat. The top edging is a knitted on lace panel with a 2-row pattern repeat. The only complicated thing about it is the ssp tbl (slip slip purl through the back loop) in the center lace panel. It’s the exact reverse of a k2tog (knit two together), which you have to do to get the vertical stockinette bits in the lace panel to look right.

There is a garter stitch section on either side of the center lace panel. At the point between the garter stitch section and the lace border (where the outer white markers are), you increase 1 stitch on each side on the purl rows, so the shawl gets wider by two stitches every other row. You are supposed to have the same number of stitches in each of the garter panels.

I did want to mention this little trick. See that yellow marker? Once I got the shawl going, I counted the number of stitches in each garter panel and made sure I had the same number on each side. Then I put a yellow marker on each side at that point.

I know my stitch count is correct up to the yellow marker. As I continue to work the increases, I’m adding a stitch between the white marker and the yellow marker every other row. To check that I haven’t left out any increases, instead of having to keep counting all the stitches from the center lace border out to the end of the garter section (there’s 90 now), I count the stitches between the white and yellow markers on each side. If that number matches, I’m still cool. When there are 11 stitches between the white and yellow markers, I move the yellow markers over 10 stitches.

The problem comes when I want to knit on this shawl while I’m in bed with my feet up (like after I’ve had chemo and I’m trying to keep my feet and ankles from swelling) and I’m watching videos on YouTube on my Kindle tablet. It’s on a 60-inch circular needle, and the excess needle keeps hitting against the touch screen and starting some other random video. So annoying.

Yesterday while I was out at the nail salon, I stopped by Market Street to pick up toothpaste (among other things), and while I was checking out, somebody called my name. It was a lady who had worked as a dental assistant for my late dentist (who died of COVID). He’d been my dentist for at least 15 years and he was so great. It was such a shock when he died. It’s nice she remembered me.

One More Time . . .

Mom’s 98th Birthday was yesterday. Her dear friend CK organized the cake and goodies, and got the activities room on her floor at Carillon set up. I got her a new top and some clip on ear-rings (she’s let her holes close)(just as well). There were over 20 of her friends present, including her nephew and niece-in-law from NM. Mom has been working with her walker (and I have a sneaking suspicion that said dear friend may have put a bug in her ear), and she very proudly walked from her room up the hall and around the corner and into the room, making quite a grand entrance. (She did forget to put on her shoes, though!)

The activities director decorated the room so nicely, and there was cake and ice cream and punch. She had asked that there be no gifts, but evidently edibles are not considered “gifts” — she got candy and munchies galore. She had great fun opening all her cards and visiting with friends.

Mom has made friends with the young son of one of the activities ladies who came to work with his mom over the summer holidays, visited and made friends with mom and the others on her floor. He still often comes by after school to spend time with his new friends. He got out of school early so he could attend her party! He has made several pictures for her and they have become great friends. He had his heely shoes on, which students are allowed to wear in school!

Because my oncologist “threw in” an extra week between my treatments, the treatment that was scheduled for the 19th was moved to the 26th, and I was able to attend mom’s party (so long as I behaved myself and kept my mask on).

I went over early and got to help decorate and set things up, and serve goodies and visit with folks. It’s the first time I’ve been able to go over there since the end of January when I started treatment. It was a chance to see people I haven’t seen in a while, including my cousin and his wife.

Happy but pooped, the birthday girl took a post-party nap. (and so did I!)

I picked up mail on the way back including some Nivea skin cream I ordered for mom off Amazon (the local Walgreen’s was out and back-ordered). I had turned her on to it a while back and she loves it as much as I do.

I had supper when I got back and crashed out at 6 p.m. (!) Of course, then I woke up at 2 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep until after 4 a.m. As I start my last(!) cycle of chemo Monday, I had some errands to run today. There’s this nail salon I’ve been going to for years now. I went there today just to get my toenails cut — no spa treatment or pedicure, or anything, just a cut. I’ve pretty much given up trying to cut them myself. For one thing, there’s too much me in the way, and for another, I don’t seem to have enough pinch strength in my hands (or else my toenail clipper isn’t sharp enough) to cut my big toe nails. Anyway, as I was coming along 50th Street to where the nail salon is, I noticed that there was a Goodwill truck in the Market Street parking lot across the street (which there hasn’t been for months!). I swooped in and emptied my trunk of three trash bags full of items which have become “surplus to requirement” since I moved.

And speaking of moving, I realized the other day that 1 September marked my one-year anniversary of living here at Pointe Plaza. I did change apartments in January when mom moved over to Carillon House and I moved to a 1-bedroom. At the time I moved, only three of the six apartments in this hallway were occupied. Then my next door neighbor slid off the couch one time too many while trying to stand up and was moved to assisted living, and the lady at the end of the hall (aged 98) had to have emergency (damned if you do/damned if you don’t) gallbladder surgery and didn’t make it, and there were just two of us.

Then, three weeks ago, we were besieged by power tools for over a week while the renovators got the apartment across the hall (which I had been shown, but didn’t take) ready for occupancy. Took him three days to move in (rumble rumble bang bang). Then just as things were calming down, an army of renovators and carpet layers occupied the apartment next door and we had a brisk couple of days of heavy hammering. Now she’s finally all moved in (rumble rumble bang bang).

What makes all this activity even more fun is that stuff (like flooring, carpet, furniture and household goods) goes in and out of this floor via the freight elevator at the end of the hall one load at a time. And every time the elevator doors close, they make this CLANG! noise like whacking the side of a 500 gallon propane storage tank with a 10-pound sledge hammer — and if the elevator foyer door is open (which it invariably is), you can hear it clear to the other (my) end of the hall through closed doors (or at least I can). This might explain why the other apartment at that end of the hall has remained unoccupied for years now.

I will also report that I have finally (mostly) succeeded in teaching myself to sleep through the daily rolling of the trash cans from the kitchens to the dumpster which kicks off smartly at 8:30 every morning, passes en route through the doors right across the patio from my window and proceeds up the concrete walkway between the two buildings (and back again).

I’ve been pretty much resting up for my last go-round with chemo, which is Monday. I’ve been doing some knitting, but mostly I’ve been reading. I re-re-reread Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon. Every bit as satisfying a read as the other two times I’ve read them. I read them practically back to back. They are not the first two novels that were written in the Liaden Universe/Clan Korval series, but they are the first two in terms of internal chronology. So if you want to begin at the beginning, so to speak, read those two books in that order, as they are the stories of the four founders of Clan Korval and how it came to be founded: The genetically engineered soldier M. Jela Granthorn’s Guard, spaceship pilots Cantra yos’Phelium and Tor An yos’Galan, and the sentient tree.

I kinda want to read up onto Seanan McGuire’s new October Daye book that just came out, but it’s the 16th in the series (and reading 16 books in a row is a serious time commitment). (Goals. I haz ’em.) McGuire does write herself some serious page-turners, but she is so hard on her protagonist. Beats the crap out of the poor girl physically and emotionally every durn book. I’m not sure I’m up for sixteen straight books of that just right now. I might read up onto the latest Murderbot book by Martha Wells, which I’ve just gotten. There’s only six of them in the series. But I’ve gotten some other new books I might read.

Or I might just sit and knit and listen to music. Or not.

Gratuitous picture of a faun and a unicorn from The Day of The Unicorn ©2022 by Manuel Arenas

Books Read in 2022

89.	*Derelict, edited by Coe, David B and Palm, Joshua 
88.	*Deven and the Dragon, Grayson, Eliot
87.	*A Liaden Universe Constellation, Volume 5, Miller, Steve and Lee, Sharon (reread)
86.	*The Firebird and Other Stories, Cooper, R.
85.	*Like a Gentleman, Grayson, Eliot
84.	*Forest of Memory, Kowall, Mary Robinette (novella) (reread)
83.	*Talking to Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
82.	*Calling on Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
81.	*Searching For Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
80.	*Dealing With Dragons, Wrede, Patricia (re-re-reread)
79.	*Drowned Country, Tesh, Emily
78.	*Deliberation, Cherry, C. J. (short story) (xreread)
77.	*Invitation, Cherryh, C. J. (short story) (xreread)
76.	*A Case of Possession, Charles, K. J. (re-re-reread)
75.	*The Magpie Lord, Charles, K. J. (re-re-reread)
74.	*Touch Not The Cat, Stewart, Mary
73.	*Realm of Ash, Suri Tasha
72.	*Empire of Sand, Suri Tasha
71.	*Dreams of Distant Shores, McKillip, Patricia
70.	*Heart Stone, White, Elle Katharine
69.	*Meat Cute, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
68.	*Ambush or Adore, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
67.	*The Missing Page, Sebastian, Cat
66.	*Hither, Page, Sebastian, Cat (reread)
65.	*How to Marry a Werewolf, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
64.	*Defy or Defend, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
63.	*Poison or Protect, , Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
62.	*Manners and Mutiny, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
61.	*Waistcoats and Weaponry, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
60.	*Curtsies and Conspiracies, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
59.	*Ettiquette and Espionage, Carriger, Gail (re-re-reread)
58.	*The Botanist’s Apprentice, Powell, Arden
57.	*Of Books, Earth, and Courtship, de Bodard, Aliette
56.	*The Tea Master and the Detective, de Bodard, Aliette (re-read)
55.	*Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances, de Bodard, Aliette
54.	*The House of Binding Thorns, de Bodard, Aliette
53.	*The House of Sundering Flames, de Bodard, Aliette 
52.	*The House of Shattered Wings, de Bodard, Aliette
51.	*Of Dragons, Feasts and Murder, de Bodard, Aliette
50.	*The Citadel of Weeping Pearls, de Bodard, Aliette
49.	*The Memory Theater, Tidbeck, Karin
48.	*Little Wolf, Cooper, R.
47.	*Lore and Lust, Nikoll, Karla
46.	*Snowspelled, Burgis, Stephanie
45.	*A Psalm for the Wild Built, Chambers, Becky
44.	*Song For The Basilisk, McKillip, Patricia
43.	*First Blood, Grayson, Eliot
42.	*Quiet House, Morton, Lily
41.	Cloud’s Rider, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-read)
40.	Rider at the Gate, Cherryh, C. J. (re-re-read)
39.	*Lost and Found, Grayson, Eliot
38.	*The Witch’s Familiar, Nichol, T. J. 
37.	*The Alpha Contract, Grayson, Eliot
36	Whiskey and Water, Bear, Elizabeth (re-read)
35.	Blood and Iron, Bear, Elizabeth (re-read)
34.	When Blood Lies, Harris, C. S. 
33.	The Book of Atrix Wolfe, McKillip, Patricia (reread)
32.	*Captive Mate, Greyson, Eliot
31.	*A Very Armitage Christmas, Greyson, Eliot
30.	*Alpha’s Warlock, Greyson, Eliot
29.	*Lost Touch, Greyson, Eliot
28.	The Faded Sun:  Kutath, Cherryh, C. J.
27.	The Faded Sun:  Shon’Jir, Cherryh, C. J.
26.	The Faded Sun:  Kesrith, Cherryh, C. J. 
25.	*The Long and Winding Road, Klune, T. J.
24.	*The Art of Breathing, Klune, T. J.
23.	*Who We Are, Klune, T. J. 
22.	*Bear, Otter, and the Kid, Klune, T. J. 
21	*Under the Whispering Door, Klune, T. J.
20.	*The House in the Cerulean Sea, Klune, T. J. 
19.	*A Shadow in Summer, Abraham, Daniel
18.	*Fluke and the Faithless Father, Burns, Sam
17.	*The Fantastic Fluke, Burns, Sam
16.	*The Tale of Two Seers, Cooper, R. 
15.	*A Boy and His Dragon, Cooper, R. 
14.	*Time’s Convert, Harkness, Deborah
13.	*Killashadra, McCaffrey, Anne
12.	*Crystal Singer, McCaffrey, Anne
11.	*Clay White, Cooper, R. 
10.	*Ravenous, Cooper, R. 
9.	*Change State, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve
8.	*Bread Alone, Lee, Sharon and Miller, Steve
7.	*Od Magic, McKillip, Patricia (reread)
6.	*Spells and Sensibility, Noone, K. L. and Murphy, K. S. 
5.	*Revelry, Noone, K. L.
4.	*Fire and Ink, Noone, K. L.
3.	*Some Kind of Magic, Cooper, R. 
2.	*Wyrd and Wild , English, Charlotte E. 
1.	*The Book of Life, Harkness, Deborah (reread)
 
* Ebook
(xreread) – reread more than four times.

Isn’t That Always The Way

First off, I’m really bummed about the Queen passing away. Tears in my eyes bummed. Watching the Queen’s coronation (in B&W) on our floor model Motorola TV is one of my earliest memories. I had just turned 4. My brother was at the “cruising” stage of learning to walk and kept getting his head in front of the TV screen. The Queen was two years younger than my mother, who will be 98 in about two weeks. Stay tuned for that.

One of the things that has been holding up my transfer to the new computer was finding a feed reader that worked as well as the old NewsFox reader that FireFox had. I follow a bunch of blogs and webcomics, and NewsFox organized them all in one place and made it so simple to keep up with them. I think I’ve finally found one: QuiteRSS. Which is good, because this evening I was trying to clean up my NewsFox feeds so I could export only the feeds I actually wanted and accidentally deleted a bunch of feeds I didn’t mean to. Fortunately, I had already exported the “dirty” version of the feeds, but when I tried to reload the feeds in NewsFox (which runs in the FireFox browser I stopped updating about three years ago just before it was going to stop supporting NewsFox), it discombobulated.

So I set up QuiteRSS on my Windows 7 machine and imported the great mishmash of past and present blog and webcomic feeds I had on NewsFox. Then I spent about two hours going through and deleting the defunct and abandoned feeds and completed webcomics and then I had to go into properties on each and every cotton-picking feed and untick a box so QuiteRSS would display the whole webpage instead of just a “headline.” Then I could export a clean copy of the .opml file to the other machine.

QuiteRSS does almost everything NewsFox did, except it’s not set into a browser so I can’t use the browser “Find” feature to find words in the text, and when I want to look something up, I have to go to another program (web browser) instead of to another tab. It only took me about an hour to set up QuiteRS on my Windows 11 machine. Unfortunately, I still had to go into the properties on every stupid feed and untick the box so it would display the way I want it to. I also figured out how to resize the type and change the font. The font that comes off the rack with the program is some off the wall typeface I’ve never heard of and the size was miniscule. I changed it to good old Arial 11 so I can read it without binoculars. The date was given in European format (2-digit day.2-digit month.2-digit year) and I figured out how to fix that, too. So. That’s one more thing I’ve moved over to the new computer.

The hard drive on the new machine is only 250 GB, which isn’t big enough for all my music and graphics and photos. I’ve got two hard drives in the old computer, one of which is a Seagate 1 TB. I’ve decided to get an external hard drive. It would be easier than schlepping my computer tower to someplace so they can look at it to see if I can transfer the Seagate drive from my old machine to the new one. I can get a 6 TB Western Digital external hard drive for about what it would cost me to pay somebody to switch out the drive from one computer to the other — assuming the new computer even has a slot for a second drive — which it probably doesn’t. My final chemo session is the 26th. An external hard drive would be a perfect “good girl” treat for FINALLY finishing chemo.

I’ll be glad to stop straddling computers. Gmail doesn’t work on my old one anymore, and I have to boot the new computer up so I can check my email. I’ve got this jicky little Bluetooth keyboard and mouse hooked up to the new computer, and I’ve been operating for months with two mice and two keyboards and only one monitor per computer. I’m so used to having two monitors that it’s like doing everything with one eye closed.

Maybe once I get done with all the chemo stuff I can settle down and finally sort this computer mess out. Trying to write on one monitor is the pits. I’m juggling between the time line document and a dictionary app, the reference document and the actual story manuscript. So much easier when I don’t have to play peek-a-boo between what I’m writing and some other document I’m referring to. I can have references and the dictionary app, and a browser and some kind of music app open on one screen and the manuscript open on the other and I can revise and change the reference document and the time line as needed. Or I can listen to a YouTube video like a TED talk or scholarly lecture, or some music playlist on one screen while I’m working a puzzle on Jigsaw Planet on the other. My amigo Shoreacres found a version of my old werewolf monitor widget (it has a little graphic of the moon that displays the phases) that I could get to run on Windows 11, and now I’ve found a replacement for NewsFox.

Except for my writing, which is going to be a booger to transition from Word 2010 to the newest version of Word*, and transferring some programs, the rest of the computer change over is mostly just moving files – lots and lots of files – and setting up the external hard drive and the little (4 TB) external backup drive. And then when I grab a mouse, I won’t have to stop and remember which mouse goes to which computer, and I won’t have to use that jicky little keyboard anymore. (I have this lovely Logitech gamer keyboard that has a wrist ramp, a 10-key pad and a feather-light touch.)(This is my third. I’ve already worn two out — good thing I’m a touch typist. I had worn the letters off most of the keys before some of the most-used keys just quit working. Logitech has been making them for a while. I got the first one while I was still working as a medical transcriptionist. )

In the knitting news, there isn’t any. Now that the most urgent baby knitting is off the needles and gone to Garland, I’ve been taking a breather.

*I’m going to take the opportunity to work out a “universal” manuscript template so all my manuscripts will have the same margins, line spacing, font, etc., which means I will be reformatting everything. Sigh.

The Penultimate Chemo Session

This time has been an exercise in frustration. Every other time, I go in, they access my port and do a lab draw, then I go see the oncologist, then I get my chemo. It’s a long day, but it’s one and done. Then the next day, I get the Udenyca. So Monday, I’ve had my lab draw, I’ve seen the oncologist and I’m all accessed and sitting in the waiting room waiting to go back to get my chemo. And I’m waiting. And I’m waiting. And then after about two hours, the person who checks you in and gives you your arm band comes over and says, she can’t find me on the schedule for chemo until tomorrow. So I call the scheduler and go round and round with her, and that’s the way the oncologist’s office has me scheduled, to come back tomorrow for chemo.

Turns out this is the new policy that the local people come for two days instead of the one, which would be fine IF THEY WOULD JUST TELL SOMEBODY THEY WERE GOING TO DO IT ahead of time instead of springing it on you out of the blue. And by now, it’s already too late to get me rescheduled for the afternoon, and I can’t go home with my port accessed because I can’t sleep with a gigantic IV rig in my chest, nor shower, so I have to wait another half an hour until they can call me back to the lab and take the access out.

I had to come back the next day and get chemo and the Udenyca on the same day, and instead of having a wanking great half-inch long needle stuck into my port once, I get the wanking great needle stuck into my port two days in a row. If I had known ahead of time, they could have drawn my labs from a vein in my arm and saved me a stick in my port. Now I get to do the Rituxan deal where I feel like I’ve rolled down a mountainside while I bounce off the walls from the prednisone for the next two days.

You better believe I insisted on going back to having the labs, doctor’s visit and chemo all on the same day for my last session, which will take place on the 26th.

Friday, I got my first fluid bolus and guess what? I’m not home half an hour when I get a text alert saying the water in the building is going to be shut off starting at 1:30 and it’ll be off most of the afternoon. I’m full of fluid (over 2 liters in two days) and I can’t flush the toilet for four hours. What fun.

One good thing, though, I was able to get the extra week in between this session and the last one as originally my last session was scheduled for the 19th, and mom’s 98th birthday is the 23rd. However, the oncologist said he thought with the extra week, I would be OK to go over to Carillon House briefly for her party so long as I wore my mask and was extra careful.

My cousin JP is coming over from NM for a brief visit around noon on her birthday. I told him he could stay in the guest room overnight and drive back the next day, but he said he couldn’t stay as his wife recently had hernia surgery (that she should have gotten years ago but kept putting off, and no surprise that she isn’t doing as well as she might have done had she not waited so long) and he didn’t want to be away overnight. But at least he’s able to come.

We’ve been rainy of late, and the playa lakes around town are filling back up again.

In the knitting news, I have stuff finished! One more thing to finish before the package goes to Garland. I just need to sit down and do it. Poorly motivated, though. I’m just so tired of all this chemo business and of having no energy and having chemo brain since February.