louiselux | reading

This weekend seemed especially short. I woke up this morning with a headache and spent a couple of hours just lying down with my eyes covered, waiting for the Excedrin to kick in. Then I planned to make cranberry orange scones but my heavy cream was frozen, so that was delayed until it was liquid enough to pour. The funny part is that the recipe wants it to be almost frozen when you use it, but not quite as frozen as mine was.

Anyway, after waiting a bit, I made the scones and they turned out well (pic - that is also my new grey "spatter" pattern quarter sheet pan, lined with parchment).

I didn't make the glaze because I'd planned to sprinkle the scones with cranberry orange sugar, but then I forgot to do that. *hands* They still taste good!

I also made that garlic and bread soup again, but I got distracted and burned my croutons. *sadhair* Soup is still delicious, though. I wish I'd remembered to buy some arugula so I could have soup and salad, but alas, I didn't think of it when I was putting my grocery order together.

Speaking of grocery orders, when did Costco stop selling the 3 lb brick of Philadelphia cream cheese? I need it for the frosting for the red velvet cupcakes for Christmas, but I guess I will have to spend a little more and get what I need from Stop and Shop instead. *hands*

*

mood productive
music Rangers vs Vegas on tv

musesfool

I was so glad to log off last night and put a period on this work week. This morning, I had to be up for the cleaning service at 9 am, and they told me the company is closing, but the team who has been cleaning my place for the last 7 years is going out on their own and wants to keep me as a client, so I will get in touch with them in the new year to set up the new arrangement. I hope it all goes smoothly!

I also made another 2 lbs of candied pecans, so I have six jars filled and have to wash the other jars so they can also be filled.

Then I took a nap that felt way longer than it was, and so even though it's only like 8:20 I keep thinking it's 11:30 pm or something. Time is so weird.

*

mood sleepy
music Miss Moneypenny - Placebo

thawrecka

littlerhymes asked: "Standout books/comics/manga you read this year"

I was like, what did I even read this year? I feel like I've had more trouble this year than ever remembering what I actually experienced within the calendar year.

Goodreads to the rescue! I gave up on my reading spreadsheet early but I did dutifully log books on GR.

My favourites of the year:

Colette Decides to Die, volumes 1 to 3 by Alto Yukimura - the title makes it sound very grim, but this is a charming shoujo series about an overworked apothecary suffering burnout who decides to jump in the well when she's particularly exhausted, and instead of dying she meets Hades who is also overworked and suffering burnout and needs medical help. Through the relationship they develop, they learn the importance of delegating! And they have adventures! There's also a bit of a romantic element, but that hasn't progressed far in the volumes I've read.

It's a particularly soft & kawaii version of the Greek gods, but why not after all. I'm charmed by it. (I see a lot of discourse on the tumbles about how Greek gods are terrible and shitty in the ancient texts and therefore should only be terrible and shitty in modern fiction, but like, when I want terrible and shitty iterations of the Greek gods those ancient plays and poems already exist for me to enjoy...)

I did catch up on the last three volumes of Natsume's Book of Friends and it's still excellent and amazing and heartwarming & etc.

The more I think about A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon after the fact, the more I appreciate it. Such neat and tidy plotting, a nice spot of social commentary, and a fun story with cute illustrations, all in a slim 176 pages.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki is the best book about a female serial killer I read all year. I like how messy and textured it is, how atmospheric, how rounded the characterisation feels, the insights it has into Japanese culture and the way it treats women, bodies and food. It doesn't come to any comfortable conclusions, and yet the ending still feels optimistic, and I appreciate how much space it allowed for ambiguity.

cimorene

Medium Man is a large size. It has more fabric in it than Small Woman (the size of me). It doesn't have more fabric than a sweater for

waxjism, but she is too warm-blooded to wear sweaters really, so the last time I knitted one for her was over 10 years ago.

It's a lot of knitting. It's going. There are setbacks.

There are gauge issues. And challenges of imagination.

( Knitting Talk )

musesfool

I keep meaning to post and then being too tired to string two thoughts together. Work remains stupidly busy, but I just need to get through Tuesday and it'll all be downhill from there. *crosses fingers* Even if so far only 6 board members have agreed to come in person to the suddenly in-person board meeting. I'm hoping a bad showing will discourage the folks who keep insisting we do stuff in person, but I guess we'll see what happens.

Outgoing CEO keeps trying to orchestrate the first half of 2026 and my boss and I are both like, wtf? but incoming CEO seems to be okay with going, nah, we're not doing that. I haven't been in those meetings, but the stuff coming out of it makes me feel like she's trying to prop up other internal candidate who wasn't chosen to be CEO, which would be 100% on brand for both of them.

In better news, my raise was in my check today, and allegedly the catch-up payment (it's retro to July 1) will be coming in the next pay period, just in time to start paying off Baby Miss L's Christmas gifts. I got a most delightful video of her singing "Let It Go" last night. <333 She's so cute!

*

mood exhausted
music Rangers vs Senators on tv

glitteryv posting in

recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool podfics/fancrafts/fanvids/fanart/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here

lexin

Today Carys (my cleaner) and I discovered that Geraint has become exceptionally protective of me despite being with me for less than a week. And he bites. He really can bite hard.

We did seem to resolve the issue after Carys fed him a few handfuls of his kibble. He appeared to accept her then, though he stuck close to find out what she was doing. He didn’t, however, react badly to the vacuum cleaner or the spot cleaner I have.

In other news, I have bought a bin for my living room that he shouldn’t be able to get into. I grew very weary of putting the rubbish back in the living room bin after he’d dug it all out again.

I told her that if he bites poor Opal and there is blood, I’m going to have to tell the ASDFR people that we’re not a good fit. So far, I have been holding off introducing them.

location Bangor, Gwynedd
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/331879.html

cimorene

Yesterday Wax had to quit work early and drive into Turku to see a doctor because it felt like something was poking her in her left eye but there was nothing there! And then she had to get up early and go to Turku today to see a specialist. She got some eyedrops prescribed, but there's nothing majorly wrong with her eye. It's just that her eyes are too dry. Apparently when your eyes are too dry one of the things that can happen is that they stick to your eyelids when you're asleep and if they're too stuck, when you open your eyes a few cells from the cornea can get torn off it and stay stuck to the eyelid, which creates a little micro hole in it and feels like you're being constantly stabbed in the eyeball. Isn't that great?

When we were talking about this last night I said, "You know, for a bunch of years, like maybe five to ten years ago, I felt like my eyes were too dry all the time and I was putting saline drops in them frequently, but a few years ago instead it started being like they overcompensate and make a lot of tears and now my eyes are more likely to be running when I've been asleep or lying down..." and with her new knowledge she was able to devastatingly inform me that this is just a sign of my eyes being dry, and even though it makes them hurt less, the tears are the wrong kind of moisture or something and not actually helping the eye themselves. So apparently in addition to the drops Wax needs for the inflammation and pain, we both have to start moisturizing our eyes now.

The other quixotic thing that happened this week was that my sister forgot about Brexit. Again.

To be specific: last year my sister ordered me a holiday present from a UK etsy shop that cost more than the minimum you can import without paying import taxes now (which I think is like under 20€ - it might even be 10?). As a result I got a text informing me that a package I didn't know about previously was at Customs, and in order to free it I had to fill out an online form indicating exactly what it was (which is a hassle in itself because they're in a taxonomic tree list) and provide a receipt or proof of purchase, in this case, the email receipt from the webshop that my sister had to forward, which obviously sort of spoiled the surprise. With a small present the amount you have to pay to release it from jail is only a few euros typically, but it is a hassle and it spoils the surprise.

And then this week she FORGOT THAT THAT HAD HAPPENED and ordered me a present from another UK shop.

(My parents & sister and I have pretty much given up on mailing back and forth anything larger than a padded envelope due to the delays and the fact that postage for the regular-sized boxes we typically used to send has gone up to generally over 100€.)

rachelmanija

Thirteen-year-old Ali gets a chance to spend the summer with her aunt Dulcie and five-year-old cousin Emma at the family's long-abandoned lakefront property - over the strong objections of Ali's mother, who hates the lake. Ali is delighted to babysit Emma and get out from under her mom's over-protective thumb. But why do both her mother and Dulcie act so weird about the lake and their past there? Who's the mysterious girl who was ripped out of old family photos? And what's up with Sissy, the strange girl who hangs out at the lake and encourages Emma to behave badly and blame it on Ali?

Sissy's real identity won't come as a surprise to any readers over the age of 10, but there are some genuinely chilling moments and Hahn's trademark realistic family dynamics and exploration of guilty secrets and how parents' childhood trauma gets passed down to their children. I actually got stressed out reading about Ali trying to protect Emma while Dulcie blames Ali for all the weird stuff going on and accuses Ali of refusing to take responsibility for anything. (In fact, Dulcie and Ali's mom are the ones who are failing to take responsibility and projecting it on the kids.)

A good solid middle-grade ghost story with unusually complex family dynamics.

viridian5

Three times in the last month I had to give a kind-of brief presentation on my health issues to trainees at a doctor's appointment, twice at pain management and once at dermatology. It was especially weird at pain management since I'm talking about Chiari I malformation, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and my brain surgery and aftereffects in detail while my doctor sits there silently. Somehow, it always goes from the doctor asking if the trainee can sit in to me giving a mini dissertation.

I automatically slipped into my work voice every time.

Aside from forgetting the words "vertebra" or "vertebrae" in the first time I had to do it--though I think "you know, the small pieces that come off the spine" got the point across--I sounded very professional and knowledgeable! Me, the professional patient.

Other moments from my pain management presentations to trainees:
One trainee saying Chiari only manifests obviously in childhood if it ever does, which was so wrong, especially since I manifested in my 30s, which is actually the cliché for Chiarians who don't show it in childhood, so I politely set her straight.
Explaining my horrific adventures in trying traction and why it led to me absolutely refusing to try a Halo or get my neck fused.
Remembering not just the name of the hospital that did my surgery 19 years ago--and that it's different now--but also my neurosurgeon. (I mean, considering that I couldn't recall the words "vertebra" or "vertebrae" for the life of me in one visit.)

I had no idea walking into these appointments that I needed to study first.

+++

Yesterday, my neurologist prescribed a migraine-related painkiller. When I talked to my pharmacy today, they said my insurance doesn't cover it, and paying out of pocket for 40 tablets would be... $6,000. My reaction was literally "PFFFFFFT!"

mood sore

rachelmanija

A sensitive, well-written novel about a young girl coming of age at the end of the world. 11-year-old Julia lives in California suburbs with her doctor dad and fragile mom when the Earth's rotation begins to slow, and gradually gets slower and slower and slower.

Days and nights stretch out. Birds fall from the sky. Some people become severely ill, apparently from disruption of circadian rhythms. Crops fail. But life goes on, and Julia experiences all the ordinary milestones - a first love, her parents' marriage breaking up, becoming more independent - against a backdrop of larger loss and change. It

This is an apocalypse novel almost entirely without violence, apart from some light persecution of a scapegoated neighbor. There's some death, but it's all from natural or accidental causes. It's science fiction but marketed as literary fiction, and feels a lot more like the latter. The book has that melancholy, nostalgic, sepia vibe of looking back on times when you knew something was wrong but were young enough to be focused mostly on yourself, and knowing you'll never be that innocent ot experience the same time or world again.

trobadora

fandomtrees sign-ups are closing on the 5th! There's still time to come and join!

(This is purely selfish, you undestand. As far as I can see, so far there are a just two or three requests for things I could write for - I'm really hoping for a bit more in my fandoms. *g*)

cimorene

An order for tea was understood by this person to include a plate piled with bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, and chips, three or four kinds of jam, scones, a heavy fruit cake, a loaf of bread, a dish of stewed fruit, and one of radishes.

— Georgette Heyer, Detection Unlimited (1953)

There is some context to this scene that I understand from other reading about the period - rationing, for example. And I've often come upon fictional hotels and pubs in the country serving much more generously than more urban and sophisticated visitors are used to.

But I don't really have a sense of how unusual this is - what a normal pub or hotel would serve for tea. I would have guessed a combination of something like beans, meat, or fish with bread and then scones or cakes, perhaps, but the beginning of this sounds more to me like an English breakfast than my understanding of a tea.

Also: is a dish of radishes just washed radishes for snacking? Or is it more slices with some kind of dressing? My parents were both fond of radishes and grew them in our garden, but I've never encountered the idea of a whole dish of them (and nothing else) on the table at a meal. (Recipes that include them, yes, but would you refer even to roasted radishes as "a dish of radishes"?)

cimorene

1. Wax's fatigue and stress

Wax had a breakdown about a year ago after Snookums died and we lost Anubis, the same as I did. But she hasn't really rebounded, just been scraping along as if she had the flu since then. She recently told me she thought it wasn't burnout, or anxiety, but maybe something physical related to menopause or thyroid perhaps, and she finally went to a doctor and had a bunch of bloodwork done. But it looked like it wasn't anything like that, and the doctor who gave her the results said she needs to probably see a gynecologist to check if it's related to hormones next. That was a couple of weeks ago, and she hasn't done it yet - she seems to have been alarmed by some vagueness about how the referral process is gonna work. This is her work health insurance, so completely differently from how it works for me.

2. Me seeing a doctor

I got up early yesterday to call between 8:00 and 8:01 am and actually got a record-fast callback in less than 40 minutes, and this time they ACTUALLY GAVE ME AN APPOINTMENT!!! The appointment is in a week and a half, shortly after my birthday. I have a whole list of questions unrelated to this medication to ask the GP while I am there.

3. Cat training & cat divorce

The other day Tristana and Sipuli were briefly sitting calmly on opposite sites of the gate looking at each other! It only lasted for about one minute. While I was still talking to Wax about it, as we watched, Sipuli jumped down, turned in a circle, then jumped back up and tried to grab Tristana through the gate, and Tristana jumped away of course. But it's still a milestone. (I think I've seen this twice before maybe.)

Sipuli is focused enough on training now that she will keep her attention on me even if Tristana is right there staring through the gate! She only ignored me to jump on the gate once, and I ended the session immediately. Since then she has kept her attention on me in spite of gross provocation from Tristana several times.

I think I will try training them to turn in a circle next, and I've started doing this with Tristana by moving the target around to the side next to her hip so she has to twist after it a bit. (Tristana has not even realized she can touch the target with her foot instead of her nose yet. Sipuli seems to switch sort of randomly.)

4. Attempting to become less sedentary

I was doing pretty well with stretches and exercises in the last few months up until I got my driver's licence, but the week before last which I spent at that job-hunting course caused me to drop all the balls I had been juggling (balls of daily routines I mean), and I have not managed to get back to the exercise yet. Which is extra annoying because at the same time I started knitting a sweater for an 18-year-old nephew, so doing shoulder- and arm-focused stretching routines would be more useful now than it was a month ago. I spent all last week feeling exhausted and didn't get past cleaning and knitting. But at the same time, it's now pitch black by four in the afternoon and doesn't lighten until after eight. I need to dig out my sunlamp and get it set up in a good position, probably. In twenty years I've never managed to establish a lasting routine with it, but maybe I just need more practice.

snickfic posting in

recthething

Four fics, all Liam Gallagher/Noel Gallagher, between 5k and 47k, at my journal.

rachelmanija

Another mystery with light horror/urban legend elements and a heavy use of images by the mysterious and pseudonymous Uketsu. If you like creepypasta, you will like this.

An abandoned blog with sketches of a woman's future child may reveal a horrifying secret. A child's drawings of his apartment building worry his teacher. A mountaintop murder has a clue in a sketch by the murder victim. How do the images reveal the solutions? Are these three weird stories related?

I enjoyed this very much. It's exactly as fun and bonkers as the first Uketsu book I read, Strange Houses, but feels more confident and assured. It also reads more like a normal novel, with actual scenes rather than solely relying on interviews and exposition.

I'm excited to read his next two books (forthcoming in English) Strange Buildings (originally published in Japanese as Strange Houses 2, which the translator says is more dark/disturbing than the first two) and Strange Maps, which the translator says is more of a classic mystery.

Content notes: Child abuse, animal in danger, brief but graphic violence.

Spoilers!

( Read more... )

lexin

Geraint continues with his weirdness.

I actually caught him trying to steal fudge this afternoon. He has learned nothing from being sick four times on my living room carpet - fudge is not a suitable food for cats. I really think that he and Opal have a brain cell between them, and currently Opal has it.

location Home (Bangor)
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/331525.html

musesfool

Meant to post this earlier, but got distracted, but I'm back now! November 2025 recs update:

unfitforsociety has been updated for November 2025 with 11 recs in 4 fandoms:

* 7 Batfamily, 1 Batfamily/Criminal Minds crossover
* 1 The Bear, 1 Star Wars, and 1 Stranger Things

*

I also made a cute little chocolate cake with chocolate ermine frosting (pic). I'm happy with how it came out. It's just enough cake for 1 person for like 5 days (refrigerated).

*

Stranger Things, season 5, episodes 1 - 4!

( spoilers )

I think this "drop 4 episodes, then do another 2-3 episodes 2 more times" is the worst of all possible distribution patterns, but I guess Netflix will never do a weekly series, which I can honestly say after years of binge-watching seems preferable to me. But at least it's all within a month instead of half in August and half in November or whatever. As much as I dislike the amount of time it's taken for them to put out each season, I am still enjoying the show and want to see how it all wraps up.

*

mood ditzy
music Broncos vs Commanders on SNF

lexin

Picture of Geraint stealing treats

location Bangor, Gwynedd
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/331425.html

thawrecka

I won't do a more formal version of the December talking meme, but if you leave prompts in the replies to this post about topics you'd like me to talk about I'll try to get through them during the month.

musesfool

I arrived at my sister's on Wednesday, just as she left to pick Baby Miss L up from school, so I got to spend an afternoon with her and my middle niece, who as previously mentioned, had to work on Thursday and wouldn't be joining the holiday dinner. We had a fantastic time - Baby Miss L opened her birthday presents and declared the clothes, "Cute!" She also liked the books - she can identify Batman on sight - "Batman!" - and also really liked "Peekaboo Who?" She played with the magnetic tiles I gave her, and then we had a Sesame Street-themed dance party. She also acted out "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" when it came on.

Thanksgiving dinner itself was also lovely, though since one of my cousins invited herself since she had nowhere else to go, we were better behaved than we might normally be.

I once again floated the idea of pajama Christmas, which my sister and niece were 100% into, but my brother-in-law was not, so unfortunately, much like apps and dessert Christmas (my other perennial suggestion that gets ignored), I don't think it's going to happen.

Then I came home yesterday morning and napped for like 3 hours, and then I watched the third period of the Rangers game and the Bears-Eagles game, so it was kind of a weird day - was it Friday? Was it Sunday? It was hard to tell.

I did finally open the box of mason jars I ordered to use for my work holiday gifts and realized I ordered 8oz jars instead of 16oz ones, so I only need half as many pecans as I thought. Which my wallet appreciates. I'm running the first set through the dishwasher, and then I need to do a test run of the recipe to make sure I know how to do it - the comments recommend using ziploc bags instead of bowls and that seems like a wise plan to me, but I also think maybe a bowl for the egg whites and a bag for the sugar might be the way to go, using a slotted spoon to transfer from bowl to bag.

We'll see how it goes.

*

mood thoughtful
music Rangers vs Bolts on tv

lexin

Geraint, my new kitty, has arrived. I’ll post a picture when he stops hiding underneath the table. He has not yet encountered Opal.

location Bangor, Gwynedd
Crossposts: https://lexin.insanejournal.com/331141.html

raven

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

trobadora

✨ holiday love meme 2025 ✨
my thread here

glitteryv posting in

recthething

Every Thursday, we have a community post, just like this one, where you can drop a rec or five in the comments.

This works great if you only have one rec and don't want to make a whole post for it, or if you don't have a DW account, or if you're shy. ;)

(But don't forget: you can deffo make posts of your own seven days a week. ;D!)

So what cool fics/fancrafts/fanvids/fanart/podfics/other kinds of fanworks have we discovered this week? Drop it in the comments below. Anon comment is enabled.

BTW, AI fanworks are not eligible for reccing at recthething. If you aware that a fanwork is AI-generated, please do not rec it here

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louiselux

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June 2019

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Page Summary

musesfool - trying to change momentum
musesfool - on the first roll of the dice
thawrecka - Best books & manga I read this year
cimorene - Knitting a (Medium) Man Sweater
musesfool - so he takes it to the net
glitteryv in recthething - Community Recs Post!
lexin - Geraint
cimorene - Dry eyes in the house
rachelmanija - Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn
viridian5 - Patience
rachelmanija - The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thomas Walker
trobadora - fandomtrees reminder
cimorene - Comment sought on fictional 1953 rural British hotel tea
cimorene - Updates
snickfic in recthething - Oasis RPF recs
rachelmanija - Strange Pictures, by Uketsu
lexin - More Geraint
musesfool - it's picked by the veteran
lexin - Geraint - picture
thawrecka - (no subject)
musesfool - start back the other way
lexin - Geraint
raven - holiday love meme
trobadora - Holiday love meme
glitteryv in recthething - Community Recs Post!

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frog princess

the Iberio-Swiss divide

reading

trying to change momentum

on the first roll of the dice

Best books & manga I read this year

Knitting a (Medium) Man Sweater

so he takes it to the net

Community Recs Post!

Geraint

Dry eyes in the house

Deep and Dark and Dangerous, by Mary Downing Hahn

Patience

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thomas Walker

fandomtrees reminder

Comment sought on fictional 1953 rural British hotel tea

Updates

Oasis RPF recs

Strange Pictures, by Uketsu

More Geraint

it's picked by the veteran

Geraint - picture

(no subject)

start back the other way

Geraint

holiday love meme

Holiday love meme

Community Recs Post!

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