Time for More Movie Ratings! November, December, Start of January

It's been a while since I did these! If you're new, though I live in Florida now, I still read the Boston Globe, and I discovered at some point that their movie reviews add often hilarious notes to the ratings of new movies, so I started sharing them here.

Onward!

1.

Okay, okay...what?

2.

I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

3.

My goodness, PDA in a Trolls movie?

4.

In this one, the notes aren't really funny, but my eye fell on this sentence in the review itself:

Oof!

5.

This one isn't funny either, but they could just have written "No, this is not the movie for you, ccr" and stopped there.

6.

Another one that isn't really funny, but the review, whoa:

I don't usually read the reviews themselves, but that's some kind of scathing.

7. This one isn't from the Globe, but the headline in my local paper caught my eye.

Another oof!

8.

I understand why they want to specify which version they reviewed, but I don't think that should be part of the rating--I assume that the subtitled and dubbed versions would get rated the same. Wouldn't they? Thoughts on that?

9.

Vocabulary word! And what a word it is. Ahem.

10.

Around the world?

11.

That's one where the rating is good but the headline might be better.

12.

Watch out, there's language!

13.

Unless that's a typo, wow, half a star! Not even one star, but half!

So...have you seen any good movies lately?

Road Trip! Yarn Store!

I'm getting used to living in a seasonal destination, and that a lot of my friends who are snowbirds are only here for "season." My group of knitting friends is about 80% not here in the summer, but while they are here, we have weekly meetups, a monthly lunch, and once a season, we travel to another city to visit a yarn store. Yesterday was this season's trip, and we went over to the east coast to visit the wonderful Sheep Thrills. Details:

To start, it tells you how much I wanted to do this that I was willing to set my alarm on a weekend, particularly after last week being full of rude awakenings. To be up and out of the house by 8, well, you see.

There were nine of us traveling, so we went in two cars, meeting up by geographical grouping. I was delighted for some sitting and knitting and chatting time--next time it has to be my turn to drive, but oh, I appreciated not driving this time. We met the others, and one more friend who was on the east coast already, for brunch at First Watch (yum), and then headed to the store.

I had such fun shopping! Most of the group is much more disciplined than I am about buying with a purpose--for this pattern or that, they look for the yarn they need--whereas my purchase "plan" is pretty much, look how pretty! Feel how soft! And since I was fresh off Christmas and Mom's go-have-fun-money gift, I went wild. As you can see.

I made my own rainbow!

(They gave us a discount, too, which was super nice of them. And in case you're wondering, of the group, I bought the most--I win!)

Funnily enough, the only photos I took at the store were in the bathroom. How you know you're in a yarn store's bathroom:

We stopped at a Dunkin Donuts before heading west again, and were tickled that they have a conference room for rent. How funny to have meetings there!

The drive home featured some weather, yuck.

But we got through it and home safely. And I made a lot of progress on my shawl, which I think is beautiful even from the wrong side and crumpled into the knitting bag.

Someone was unimpressed by my being out all day.

But she came around.

Talking About the "Ten writers of whom I've read more than five books" Thing

Recently on Bluesky*, I ran across people listing their "Ten writers of whom I've read more than five books" and of course had to look at my bookshelves to put together a list. 

*Are you on Bluesky? I have some invite codes if you want to join. I'm trying to get myself off Twitter, but it's hard, as most of the Hockey People I want to follow are still there. And yet the site is such a disaster...

I started to pull together a list, and realized that I could very, very easily--pretty much without trying--make it a list of all women, so I did.

Anne Bishop

Patricia Briggs 

Sara Donati

Victoria Goddard

T Kingfisher

Anne McCaffrey 

Tamora Pierce

DE Stevenson 

Shanna Swendson 

Martha Wells

I stopped myself there, but looking at the shelves again, and at my Kindle and books-read spreadsheet, I could easily have listed more:

Lois McMaster Bujold

Frances Hodgson Burnett*

Elizabeth Cadell

Gail Carriger

Dorothy Gilman

Elizabeth Goudge

Charlaine Harris

Georgette Heyer

Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison

LM Montgomery 

Elizabeth Moon

Dorothy Sayers

Patricia Wrede

*Not just kids books, she wrote a number of adult books--in the sense of not-kids, not in the "adult" sense.

Nothing against Ben Aaronovitch, or Douglas Adams, or Dave Barry, or Dick Francis, or AA Milne*,  but that list is considerably shorter for me.

*Not just kids books, either: he wrote plays and novels before the whole kids thing got started; I particularly enjoy Two People, and Four Days Wonder, as well as his autobiography.

I was actually kind of impressed at how unbalanced the list is, considering that I don't make an effort to read more women. It just seems that, these days in particular, women are writing more of what I want to read.

How about you?

After the Holidays: A Little Looking Back

This sums up my main hope for the year:

Or, wait, how about this one, too?

Yes, please. 

My five-year journal has a space at the end of the year to write anything more, and at the end of 2022, gods help me, I wrote, "Another not-the-best-year done. May next year bring better health for Mom, and no surgeries! And better coping skills for me." Ha! Ha! Oh, past me, would that that were funny. 

Our holidays were in fact peaceful and quiet; believe me, this is not a complaint. Of the 10 days before this one, I didn't have to set my alarm for eight of them*, which was bliss. The alarm going off this morning was both literally and figuratively a rude awakening. And then to find out that someone else won the Powerball! Humph.

*The holidays, weekends, and a couple of vacation days.

While I have enjoyed reading the various summaries some bloggers are doing about their year, whether it's books specifically or about their year overall (though I did not keep up with commenting), I am not pushing myself that way, not this year anyway. Maybe I should make my motto for 2024 be The Year of Not Pushing Myself. Well, that needs workshopping. I don't usually do a motto/word/whatever of the year anyway, so why start now of all times?

General life update: Mom's health continues to improve, but very slowly and not in the perfect linear way of improving every day the way we would like. She is having less constant/debilitating pain in the post-surgery hip or in the also-messed-up-by-falling shoulder, but she is frustrated by how little energy she has. She starts PT next week, and I'm hoping that will help her.

Exercise not-much-of-an-update: I basically haven't been exercising, with the slight exception of the online stretch classes that I learned about through Engie. It cracks me up that a healthcare system in Wisconsin lets me log in to this class from Florida, but they have been completely welcoming, and a few minutes of stretching a few times a week is very much better than nothing. Even with all the craziness of 2023, I still attended more than half the classes, and that honestly does feel like an accomplishment.

Reading update: I finished 113 books last year (I don't keep track of ones I don't finish). Since I don't rate them*, I don't have a definitive list of 5-star reads, but I can say, looking over my list, that I really really liked (in chronological order by when I read them) Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, by Victoria Goddard (though you have to have read The Hands of the Emperor first**); Love & Saffron, by Kim Fay; Nora Goes Off Script, by Annabel Monaghan; the Digger comics, by Ursula Vernon; the Saints of Steel series, by T Kingfisher; Thornhedge, by T Kingfisher; and the last two that I read in 2023, in the Ladies Occult Society series, A Magical Inheritance and A Ghostly Request, by Krista Ball--it's basically Jane Austen but with magic, and so so so well done. I can't recall the last character I was rooting so strongly for, and please tell me at once if you read them because the third book comes out March 1 and I am really hoping for a scene where Elizabeth gets to tell her father, in front of others, just why she (redacted redacted spoilers argh).

*But maybe I should: it would save me from looking over the list and trying to decide in hindsight if something was a 4 or a 5.

**I don't know if anyone else reads Goddard's books, but I love this series and would be happy to discuss them, suggest reading order, etc.

Maggie update: She continues to be practically perfect. Of course.

Happy Day!

Merry Christmas, if you celebrate the holiday! If not, dare I say, happy holidays? Maggie will say it. Front of the card:

Don't miss the line underneath.

And on the back:

[Imagine it says ccr before "(and Maggie)"]

What do you think? Are you a more traditional card person, or do you also do silly ones with pets? Or no cards at all? I have missed a few times over the years, but I do like sending them, when it doesn't feel insurmountable.

Knitting, Thwarted

The knitting part of my Saturday started with knitting through a pedicure. As one does.

The remaining colors go well with the project bag.

I got a few rows done, no problem, but then in the yarn just ahead, what did I see? A knot. I pulled on it, firmly, and it came apart.

Sigh. Damn it. That just shouldn't happen with yarn this expensive. Take a little care.

I tried to get the ends to felt together, after we were home, and they just wouldn't. I'll figure something else out, but I was too annoyed with it to do so last night (ask my mother how mature I sounded as I threw the bag to one side and snapped, "I just want to knit!"), so I grabbed something else. I was thinking about making myself some fingerless mitts, so I had the pattern and yarn together already. I grabbed them, and the gorgeous set of needles I got from a friend for Christmas:

And I got to work.

Yep, that size should fit.

Meanwhile, Miss Maggie shifted around and put her paw on the pattern, which I had laid beside me on the couch (on top of the needle set, on top of the iPad). 

Heaven forbid we disturb the cat, so I leaned my phone over that way and took pictures of the pattern, so I could see what to do. Shortly thereafter, Herself decided to settle down on top of the pattern pile.

"What, were you trying to look at this?"

She next tried to have a bath on the pile.

But eventually she found that unsatisfactory, and moved back on to my lap to bathe and then nap again. And I knit on.

The Rare Perfect Mail Day

Right, so this post is about Monday's mail, and I certainly intended to write about it on Tuesday, but work-mood intruded, and this has been Quite A Week work-wise*, so work being so crazy really cut into my "taking pictures in daylight" time: let's have a cheer for the solstice and the turn toward more light every day, phew. 

*I think the "winner" of the Deluded Deadline game had to be the person who sent in an 80-slide deck on the night of the 20th and didn't even mention she wanted it published this year. You crazy person!

So anyway! Let's ignore the work week, as it is now OVER and I am using my last few vacation days for the days after Christmas, so I am happily looking at five whole entire days in a row off (plus by the time I go back, all the deluded people who think they can publish just one more thing this year will hopefully have run into the brick wall of reality already, stopping them in their deluded tracks). I have jotted down notes about things I would like to get done during this period, but some of them are simple and others are, you know, enjoyable: watching Christmas specials, knitting, and reading, so not too arduous. No big projects. It's not the year for that for me.

Meanwhile, back on Monday! First of all, I took half a vacation day for a friendly get-together and ornament exchange, so I worked a few hours before and a few hours after. Can I just say, that's so much less annoying than working a full day? Amazing. The ornament exchange was great fun; it's a good group of people.

The mail came before I left for my knitting group meet-up Monday evening, and it was perfect. No pointless catalogs, not even a "This is not a bill" mailing, just Christmas cards and yarn. I do enjoy getting cards, and I had gotten only a few, so it made me happy to get some more. I've put them up, along with a few ornaments, on these shelves that already have some photos and other oddments on them.

We're not really decorating for Christmas (if you've been reading the last half of this year, you can imagine why), but this make me smile. Oh, and the Charlie Brown wreath I got on Monday night: it's scrawny and sad, but it smells good, which is what I hoped for when I got it. (The clerk at the big-box store looked at it and said, "We're not charging you for that, are we?" and then rang up the bag of potting soil I was also getting and just charged me for that.)

Then the yarn! Two orders came in. First, from A Chick That Knitz, this lovely yak-blend sock yarn, in my favorite color, blue, and my favorite-color-to-go-with-blue, green.

It's so soft...

Then, in my other favorite color, rainbow, this glory from That's My Color Yarn Shop:

Isn't it gorgeous? It's a cotton-bamboo blend, DK/light worsted weight, 10 mini skeins. No idea what it wants to be yet, but it's so, so pretty.

Speaking of what yarn wants to be, I'm still having a marvelous time with the Radiata shawl in the rainbow yarn from the Blue Brick (last update here). I brought it to a doctor's appointment yesterday, even though it's a bit big for that, and I was glad I did, as there was a LOT of waiting involved. I got several rows done, and as the rows approach 400 stitches, that means something. This pattern suits me so well: I can see where I am, and it builds upon itself in a very satisfying way. I'm counting the stitches after every pattern row, to catch if I missed a yarnover or anything, but it is working for me and I am loving it.

It's currently in the middle of a row and not on a long enough needle to spread out well, so this is blobby but does show that I'm well into the yellow yarn.

Oh, wait, I did take a picture of it last week, all stretched out! It's a few rows back, but gives you a better idea of how the thing will look after it's done and blocked.

Come on, green and blue! Earlier, I was kicking myself for starting with the red end, when I had just finished months of work on the red sweater, but no regrets now. The colors are like a glorious sunset, and then I'll finish the piece on my favorite color. Nothing wrong with that.

I wish you all the best whether this is a holiday weekend for you or not. I know blog-reading won't fit into everyone's schedule this weekend, but I'll probably post again, so come back when you can. Happy Season of the Light Returning.

But I Don't

Tonight, I finally boxed up presents that I am mailing to a few friends and family. This is something I've been meaning to do, but just ... haven't gotten done until now. I told myself that I would wrap and box last weekend, and I got some of it done: presents wrapped and boxes picked, even addresses written on index cards. But I didn't finish the boxing.

Tonight I made myself do it, so I can mail them when I'm out for an appointment tomorrow. And you know, it didn't even take half an hour.

But here's the thing: I don't feel bad that I didn't get it done earlier, so that they might arrive before Christmas. It would be easy to say, I had half an hour on Sunday, I could have, should have pushed through and done it!

But you know what? On Sunday I couldn't. Not for any reason. I just couldn't. And that's okay. None of the recipients will mind "extending the celebration season" until after Christmas Day. I don't mind when I get presents, and they won't mind when they do.

I don't feel bad about it. I feel as though I should feel bad. But I don't. Be easy on yourself when you can, okay?

Deluded Deadline Bingo

Or maybe it should be Delusional Deadline Bingo? Either way, it isn't a real game, but a lot of the people at work seem to be very, very deluded about how much can get edited and ready to publish before the end of the year. December generally and this week in particular are full of it (in more ways than one, ha).

Some of them are so delusional, they think they don't even have to mention when they send something in that they want it back fast--like, this week, maybe mention that this is your dream? When you send it in for editing?

Anyway, this afternoon I found myself "aggressively," to use Nicole's word, eating ice cream to improve my mood. The funny thing is, this morning I was thinking about how I had something happy to write about! But then I started working and poof, there went the happy thoughts.

I'll try to be back to that mood and topic tomorrow.

Gifts, Coming and Going

First off, I took part in a secret Santa swap this year (Secret SANta, actually, #SecretSANtaSwap2023), and I have to show you what a fun package I received! 

It started with the box, even:

Which was also fun on the inside, and had cute cat-Santa tissue paper! 

(I clearly need to up my game next year, I never even thought of this level, but it was so fun to get.)

A nice big mug with my initial, fun things to try, and cat toys for Maggie!

And I'll put the pretty spools-of-thread-tree ornament up along with the other ornaments I've bought recently.

We're not decorating for Christmas this year--we've had Too Much Going On--but a few ornaments, a few cards, and they'll make me smile.

Plus Christmas candy:

There is absolutely nothing intrinsically Christmassy about this candy, but we always used to make it at Christmastime, so it feels that way to me. They're kind off odd-looking, I know*, but when you melt chocolate and butterscotch chips together, and then put in cashews and chow mein** noodles, well, it is delicious!

*I used to make them for potlucks and I called them "haystacks" because they do kind of look that way, and calling them Christmas candy seemed to make people expect peppermint to be involved.
**Spellcheck really wants that to be "mien" but it isn't--I checked the package to be sure! But now both look wrong to me.

In other gift news, here are a few festive things I bought myself (that are not yarn). I was in the hardware store, of all places, and had a coupon to use if I spent over a certain amount, so I got this necklace to use it.

It lights up! It makes me feel that we aren't entirely grinching the holiday season. I'm going to wear it to an ornament exchange that I'm going to on Monday. And I plan to wear it over the Christmas weekend.

And I'll also wear this bracelet, which is a bit more "holiday-themed jewelry that one could wear to a grown-up situation" and less "lights up."

Isn't that pretty? 

Now, I need to get to finishing/wrapping/boxing some presents. I'm going to be listening to this song, and there's a backstory.

(If that doesn't play, it's Boney M. - Mary's Boy Child.)

So, my first three years of high school, my Dad drove me (it was very much not on his way to work, but my parents chose the school they did, so). Dad was, like me, not a morning person, so we generally weren't talking*, but listening to the radio. 

*I remember one time, he told me that the roads were the most slippery when the rain just started, before it soaked in, so be more careful then. Seriously. That's how little we talked on these drives, that I remember that specifically.

He liked WBZ, which was mostly news, traffic, etc., but the host of Maynard in the Morning, Dave Maynard, also played a song now and again. And one day, for reasons that escape me if I ever knew, at every song break, he played this song. Over and over! I liked it then, and for some reason it came into my head this week, and I found it online.

And no, I won't be listening to it continuously for an hour or anything. But a few times.