Brain currently booting in Safe Mode

Uh, Murderbot? SecUnit? YOU NEED THERAPY. While your inorganic parts are running as optimal as ever, it's your squishy human bits that need some love. After everything you've been through, your PTSD is showing. Get some help, or I'll ask ART to sit on you. No hugs, because you don't like/want to be touched, but you're worrying your humans and that has to stop now.

(So many of us identify with Murderbot: it's just doing its best, you know? And it's often surprised that humans want it around and value more than just its processing speed and security protocols. Emotions are hard, okay?)

Also, go watch the show. It's pretty great and is hitting all the right beats, even if "it's not the same as the book" it has the feel of them. And of course it's not the same! It can't be! What I imagine when I read is not what the author, Martha Wells, imagined when she put down the words, and it won't be what the showrunners imagined when they started the heavy lifting of translating text-to-visual. The special effects are top notch, Corporation Rim is as awful as you expect, and the acting is superb. Like SecUnit (who often wonders what it's doing with its face) I don't know if Alexander Skarsgård knows what he's doing with his face (and if he does, he's conveying that "not knowing" perfectly).

Some things:

- Declan came home with his most recent math test, and got 100%. Can I mention how incredibly fucking proud I am of him? Because I am.

- Bored of my usual Christmas decorations and having zero monies, I went through my stash of beading supplies and got creative. Then, when I was setting up the tree, I went through my fabric stash to find something to cover the red clay pot I use as a stand and the burlap around the bottom of the tree. Free is my favourite price and the result is endearing.



- I was pilling the cat this morning and fumbled the capsule. Into his mouth. I thought it had gone somewhere when I noticed him swallowing it down. Score one for me today.

My apartment is decorated, my kid is home today (blended learning day, which is a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning), and I am *le tired*. I have things to do (the laundry waits for no one) and maybe some baking later, and that's enough for today.

My kid wasn't feeling great, so he's home today, which means I've had to work around two people to get shit done instead of just one.

I have:

pilled the cat, fed the cats, scooped both litterboxes

done my laundry (washed, dried, AND put away - minus the things that need to air dry)

vacuumed

set up the portable AC unit because it is going to be STUPID hot this week

installed a window fan in the kid's room (this included getting to the window, clearing off the sill, cleaning the sill and radiator, washing the window (ew), adjusting the curtain to block light without blocking the fan, vacuuming under the window, putting everything back

I wanted to be done everything by noon, but I'm happy enough with being done before one. Now I get to relax and put my feet up or fuck around on my laptop. I am *le tired* and overly warm from all that work. At least I do not have to make dinner tonight, since I made a massive meal yesterday for Father's Day and there are leftovers.

Last year, I made the lone resolution to read more books than I did the year prior. I had 62 entries for 2022, and, with a quick count that adds the same both up and down, 68 for 2023. Resolution achieved! Go me! :)

I think for this year, I will make two resolutions:

Resolution One: Read more than the year prior. I like this, as even failing means I am reading somewhat consistently.

Resolution Two: Get my knee back to what it was before I strained/twisted it. This whole "being defeated by a sufficient number of stairs" nonsense is getting tiresome. Before, I could do a full squat AND get back up (handy for cleaning the cat boxes) as well as kneel on the floor to look under furniture or into bottom cabinets. Now? *bwahahahahahahahahaha* No. It's such a weird thing to miss, but it made me feel less decrepit. Time to amp up the physio I was doing when it was only patellofemoral syndrome and not whatever this nonsense is.

I'll tell you one thing for free: no one ever complains when you say you're going to bake something.

Well, if you're halfway decent, that is. If you're terrible and you come *this close* to blowing up the kitchen when you try, then okay, there should be a complaint. If only for the health and safety of the baker.

I'm halfway decent. It sounds like a humblebrag, but it's not, as there are still things I can still fuck up. Exhibit A: the Kanelbullar I made this weekend. Everything came together nicely (or so I thought) and then I ignored my instincts and they burned. WHOOPS. Despite that, they were still edible AND I have some tweaks that I think will work nicely, thanks to looking up recipes for challah with marzipan.

Today, I had some leftover coffee (that I reserved for baking) and two sad lemons that I got from my mom. Since I didn't want to throw out either and if I left it for much longer I would have, baked goods it is!

Coffee goes in my go-to brownie recipe. So I made brownies and they're currently cooling on the stove. The lemons meant I had to go hunting in my cupboard for something else: poppy seeds! And wouldn't ya know it? I have some of an indeterminate age that still smelled like poppy seeds. Good enough!

Lemon Poppy Seed Poundcake also needs light cream, but you can fake that well enough by using milk with some butter to bring up the fat content. And I wasn't going to pay [insert exorbitant price here] for an ingredient that shows up on substitution lists for a reason.

The cakes are currently baking in the oven and once they're out, brushed with lemon syrup, and fully cooled, it's to the freezer for them. Despite the limited freezer space, I like having emergency cake on hand, especially now that the weather's getting summery and soon turning on the oven will be anathema.

EDIT: The cakes fell in the middle. I wish I could be sad about that because they still smelled fantastic. They were wrapped, bagged, labeled, and currently reside in my freezer as emergency cake. Because there are days when you just want cake, but have no fucks to make one.

For my mom's birthday, we (that being me and mine, plus my sister and her spouse) went over to hers to DIG! as a gift. Mom has more stuff than she needs and yard work is much more valuable to her than a trinket.

We all met for lunch at a local Croatian schnitzel place that was hella tasty, then after, it was work. Can I just say that I am fucking sore? I don't move like that often enough and I'm paying for it now. The week prior, we had pulled down the majority of the Dutchman's pipe. Yesterday, we dug up the roots. Or most of the roots? The damn thing was trying to take over the garden and was in there DEEP. Some of the roots were as big around as my wrist.

Lesson learned? Don't plant Dutchman's pipe anywhere it can spread. Because it will take over if you give it a chance to.

We also started pruning out the dead vines from the grape arbour. Being as tall as I am, I can reach with the loppers to cut them free to be pulled down. On the one hand, great, no lugging around a ladder or step stool. On the other? My shoulders and arms and back are not fans of me raising my arms up right now.

Is the work done? Pardon me whilst I'm over here laughing myself sick. In mom's garden, the work is NEVER done. There's only "needs doing" and "good enough". We got some things to good enough and that's fine with me.

Two more sleeps until I go on my first vacation in twenty-one years.

I've got my room booked, my second COVID booster, and two separate BBC radio plays loaded on my phone for the road trip.

TWO MORE SLEEPS.

I had a can of sweetened condensed milk in the cupboard that I did not know what to do with. It's also summer now, and some days are so fucking hot it's crazy, so why not make some ice cream. I do have a machine, but I wanted to try a No Churn recipe. Based loosely off this one from Glen and Friends I came up with something that I think is going to be fucking fantastic. Also, this was a perfect opportunity to have kid help, as the recipe came together in less than 30 minutes.

No Churn Ice Cream

Ingredients:

3 c 35% cream (also known as heavy cream or whipping cream)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

12 mint Oreos, roughly chopped (it worked out to 2/3 of a standard package)

1 1/2 tbsp vanilla (or thereabouts as I don't measure vanilla and haven't in years)

Method:

1. Stick your container of choice in the freezer (I didn't, as I was using a couple of plastic, reusable take out containers and not a glass dish) to prechill it. It will still work without doing so, just take longer for the finished product to freeze.
   
2. Whip cream to just soft peaks.
   
3. Add in condensed milk and vanilla, whip to combine fully.
   
4. Fold in Oreos (or just dump them in and let the hand mixer do it's thing).
   
5. Pour into container, freeze for at least 4-5 hours.
   
6. Om nom nom nom.

Not gonna lie, the bits that I did taste (off a beater and from the bowl) were so fucking good. Not too minty, although the chocolate was pretty subtle. We'll see what it's like when it's finally frozen.

I went out for a bit, wandered down to the local Value Village to look for a king size bedspread to convert into a futon mattress cover of sorts. Whilst there, I had a glance at the yarns hanging there. Often, I don't find much, but when I do find something? I FIND SOMETHING.

Today, I spent more money on yarn from there than I have ever spent before. Why? It was, for the most part, sock yarn.



Sock yarn that is often conservatively priced at $12 a piece. That, right there, is seventeen sock yarns (all are superwash merino, two of that being 100% Uruguayan merino, whatever the heck that means aside from $28/skein), and one mohair/acrylic blend in blush pink that I will turn into a shawl for my sister. There were a few others that were scooped up by an old woman who came up behind me. *shakes fist*

I paid a fraction of what that would cost if I had gone to a knitter's fair or retail store. Even the sale prices for it are much higher than what I paid. Should I have bought all of that sock wool when I still haven't finished making my OWN socks and am stuck wearing boring compression socks? Probably not. Do I care? I most certainly do not care. I loves me some sock yarn, and I can do other things with it besides socks, like make super warm, super thin winter hats.

Yeah. I spent a lot, true. But that's a lot of yarn for ~$80.

My reading has really dropped off. Between my old tablet going fuckobazoo and my new one taking time to arrive, I just...stopped. I'm still half-way through Cinnamon and Gunpowder, and although I was enjoying it, I've lost temporary interest in reading.

Why, you might ask?

I've been editing. I'm not great at it, but reworking a 50+k NaNo novel is hitting that sweet spot right now. I've written new scenes, deleted others, and added over 25k words. O.O

I am not done, but the end is in sight and I'm pushing myself to get this done before the new year (not likely, but I will settle for early January). I have two new scenes to write, one from each POV, and another portion to edit/rework/cannibalize. All of that should be it for this book. Hopefully. I want to add a kind of epilogue from a completely new POV at the very end, linking this book to the next (that I have yet to write). I have loose plans to write a trilogy of superhero romances. I know the heroes involved, I have a common villain, and I know who the next pair is going to be. (The last pair is a bit more nebulous. I know one, but the other is a WIP.)

So, yeah. I've been busy creating. I'll get back to that book. I swear. I still have to set up my ereader app, after all. :D