allekha: Two people with long hair kissing with a heart in the corner (Default)
Allekha ([personal profile] allekha) wrote2025-09-13 04:00 pm

Household adventures

Z and I are picking up new household repair skills. A couple of weeks ago we learned how to patch holes in the driveway, because getting our bumpy one entirely redone is not happening anytime soon, and after pouring two bags of cold tar into the biggest hole and punching it down as best we could, we have a slightly less bumpy driveway! We're hoping to take advantage of the warm weather to do the other big ones. I've also been trying to clear out the plants attempting to invade it.

Our attempts to repair a window screen did not go so well. We'll have to give that one another go at a later time.

We bought a water softener earlier in the week and were going to install it this weekend, but we ended up having issues with the filter pitcher we had been using to make our water palatable. Might have gotten some sort of bacteria or something growing in it. So right after my skating lesson finished, we went to buy all the parts to install it and did so in a marathon plumbing session last night. Had a bit of an issue getting the fittings to/from the softener to tighten enough, but we managed it on our second try, and no leaks! And our tap water now tastes perfectly good! Certainly learned a lot installing that. We're hoping it will also help with issues we've had with our laundry.

(This plumbing work ended up delaying the posting of the next chapter of my WIP, sorry readers! Tasty water came first.)

Z has also decided that he wants to learn how to cook more, and he spent quite a while on Wednesday working on herb bread from the machine and tomato soup for dinner for both of us. It smelled amazing, and I love tomato soup, so you can imagine my surprise and disappointment when I ate one spoonful of soup and had one bite of bread and discovered both were far too hot-spicy for me to eat. Poor Z found a recipe for an Italian herb mix that advised adding a disproportionate amount of red pepper, and he used it in both. At least he was able to eat it, and he made up for it with a delicious pasta dish the next night!
claudeb: A white cat in purple wizard robe and hat, carrying a staff with a pawprint symbol. (Default)
Claude LeChat ([personal profile] claudeb) wrote2025-09-09 07:00 pm
Entry tags:

On the warpath

Two months ago when I posted the previous entry in my concept art series, there were actually two planned scenes. The second one was meant for the cover of volume six (which is finally out) but as you can see plans have changed, and I'm now free to use it here:

Photorealistic render of three spaceships in a dieselpunk style, ominously coming towards the viewer, under a strange moon. One resembles a submarine, another an airship, and the largest one is reminiscent of a streamlined locomotive.

It's a space opera story of grand-scale conflict that ties together previous installments, and moves the setting to a new stage by the end. There are more stories coming, too, so hopefully that means more art to go with it. But not just yet.
elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
elainegrey ([personal profile] elainegrey) wrote2025-09-09 07:10 am
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(morning writing)

Optometrist visit yesterday did not take forever, leaving me spinning a little with the extra hour, which then dissolved into audiobook listening and poking at things.  I definitely had part of my brain saying, "I didn't plan anything, oh well, can't help but fritter this away!" I am giving myself a tiny pass in that the workday was packed and i did work over the weekend to meet a deadline in the style i wanted.

The optometrist office is on my Do Not Trust With Data list ever since they seem to have hooked up with some for profit optometry management business. That year i was asked to sign a data release that signed off on releasing medical data to a for profit company. I am not sure they had read their release. They ask for my medical insurance and i decline to give them that. I'm not sure what nefarious use could be made of it, but decline under the theory that the less data people have, the less correlating information can be amassed when they eventually have a breach.

Then, my favorite new thing: you are asked to sign a note that they gave you your prescription.  "But you haven't seen me yet." "It was being forgotten." PFFFFFTTTT. I suspect they are sick of people calling up and asking for a prescription to use at one of the inexpensive glasses places, then pitching a fit when they don't get one, pointing to state law requiring they give it. Well, now one has pre-signed a document saying they did give you the prescription. It's a nice signal that making money is more important than eye health.

I'm not excited about any frames, but i think the new ones will be comfy. I will continue to wear the current pair for yard work. I do really like these frames, but they are heavy, and a bit of the metal inlay (in the metal) has snagged and broken off. I forgot to have them readjust the nose pieces before i left. Piffle.

elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
elainegrey ([personal profile] elainegrey) wrote2025-09-07 09:29 am
Entry tags:

(morning writing)

Spent a remarkably long time making email filters yesterday: too many things i don't want to unsubscribe from but are frustrating when mixed in with different messages. Hopefully tagging and sorting by those tags will create an easy to skim, easy to purge alternative inbox.

Then worked on the work thing.

I sat on the couch all day and think that did in my lower back. I didn't want to sit at the desk.

Spicebush berries are coming in. I haven't used the ones from last year: too much waiting for a special occasion. I'd mashed the fatty fruit part up with sugar creating a rosy orange sugar i kept in the fridge. I'll probably do that again as well as a dehydration batch.

Meeting my dad and sister to celebrate Mom's birthday today. I had completely forgotten it. Which has no emotional significance for me - just the relational piece of being surprised with the need to participate in a gather.

elainegrey: Inspired by Grypping/gripping beast styles from Nordic cultures (Default)
elainegrey ([personal profile] elainegrey) wrote2025-09-06 07:54 am
Entry tags:

(morning writing)

Dad's heart surgery on Tuesday went very well, the mitral valve flap modified so there is no more backflow. Sister L was at the hospital during the day Tuesday and Wednesday. I came in Tuesday evening and helped him with dinner and various needs. L got him home on Wednesday.

I've spent the past Wednesday and Thursday evenings with Dad, slept the night on the couch, and drove home to be at work on time. This was to be there in case the surgical incision location had issues or the lingering effects of anesthesia needed counteraction by a clear headed person.

Work has been intense although i couldn't really say why.

The long Labor Day weekend had some yard work, an obsessive analysis about Louisiana Irises to identify ones that bloomed late and would give me color diversity -- and then i questioned whether i should spend money that way. (And whether i would complete the plant removal needed to create the home for them - -would having them need a home be motivation?) I also made fig jam with pectin which had irregular setting. I think the pot isn't getting hot enough in the top level, and that the first jars filled are the ones that didn't set. I will need to re-address this batch, too.

vass: Small turtle with green leaf in its mouth (Default)
Vass ([personal profile] vass) wrote2025-09-04 07:12 pm
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Things

Books
Finished the Danny Lavery book, except for the missing pages. (I told the librarian, and she ordered a new copy and put a reserve on it for me.)

Started Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy's The Bottoming Book. (I bought The Topping Book too, and decided to, well, start from the bottom.)

Fandom
The Lays server (Nine Worlds fandom) held a bingo-themed prompt fest for the month of August: there was a grid of prompts (anonymously submitted to a google form, then posted on AO3 by the exchange mods), a 500 word minimum, and a collective goal (which we met) of blacking out the whole board. I wrote part 1 of Peer Review, and hope to write and post the concluding part soon. I hope the anonymous person who posted that prompt isn't too upset with me. (It was me.)

Music
Went through a few days of listening to Vienna Teng's 'We've Got You' a perhaps concerning number of times.

Games
Spire-slaying continues: have now unlocked (but not beaten yet) Ascension level 9 for all four characters.

Crafts
Secret!cross-stitch still in the design phase, but I've made progress.

Did a weekend DIY project of painting my clothesline and restringing it.

Garden
It's September, which means that the grass/weeds have exploded almost overnight, and it's raining often enough that mowing is tricky to manage.

I planted some lavender and rosemary near the clothesline, and they are still alive so far and even (the lavender) flowering.

Hope you're all doing okay.