I mostly knit, sometimes crochet or cross-stitch. I read, a lot. I love cats. I love hockey, especially my no-longer-local team, the Boston Bruins. Want more? Read on.
It came up in my knitting group last week that someone had used and loved a yarn that was now discontinued, and that she highly recommended it if one could find it left anywhere,
The yarn is from The Fibre Company, and is their Road to China Lace (as opposed to Road to China [aran] or Road to China Light [fingering]. It is ... are you ready? ... 65% Alpaca, 15% Silk, 10% Camel, and 10% Cashmere goat.
It is ridiculously soft. And is this my color, or what? It's called Blue Opal.
I don't remember where I heard about Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell, but given that the cover has a blurb by Martha Wells, that recommendation was probably what brought it to my attention, though it might also have been from the Tor blog via the newsletter.
What is it? It's a new book, it's sci-fi, and it's the author's first. It sounded good (read an excerpt here), so I requested it from the library, and it came in last week.
The two main characters, Kiem and Jainan, are so different, I love them both, and I was fascinated by how well she shows, not just how each of them thinks of himself, but how each of them is seen by the other (spoiler alert: very different!)
The world-building is very complex, and given that there are seven planets in the Empire, it's a lot to get hold of, places and people and relationships. I think the audio will help me a lot there; I often find that to be the case with sci-fi and fantasy, especially with naming styles that I can't parse easily. But I love it just the same.
Author's website, which does have a content warning for domestic abuse, FYI.
I've used GMail for my email for many years, and have mostly been pleased with it, or perhaps satisfied is a better word. It works. But once in a while, it does something odd and inexplicable.
I frequently will 'star' messages in my inbox so that they don't get lost in the shuffle: bills that need to be paid, other things to follow up on, and links that I want quick access to. Several of these are for my regular Zoom-knitting meetups, which is why I want them there.
However.
One of these messages, which does appear as starred in the inbox on the computer, does not come up that way on my phone or the iPad. If I search for the message, I can find it, and it shows the star and says Inbox, but if I go to the starred section, it ain't there.
At this moment, I have 8 starred messages when I look on the computer, but 7 if I look on either device.
I am baffled.
One possibly related bit of additional weirdness: I usually have the computer inbox set to show the top 5 of these messages, and when it's set that way, it says I have 7 (which does not and should not include the message in question, as that is older). But if I tell it to display 10, then it says I have 8.
Even so. Baffled.
Any ideas? Because I am stumped.
The weather across much of the country is so terrible right now (and in so many places that are not prepared for it [Texas especially]). I just feel awful for them. Look at this from Monday:
Meanwhile, not to downplay that, but this made me laugh:
"Hmmm. This might do. Let me check it out and I'll get back to you."
I ran across this video today, by an Englishman who, it turns out, records videos on various transit- or architectural-related things in London (I think just London, don't quote me on that), and I found this one, which is of him walking through a tunnel that is technically open to pedestrians, but maybe shouldn't be, to be oddly compelling.
What do you think?
While the northeast digs out from a whopper of a snowstorm, I'm down here like this:
I have been knitting away on the Top Notes poncho, and making good progress.
I look forward to finishing it; onward!
