Thanks for the Recommendation

Someone wrote about the magic of packing with compression cubes, and I decided to give them a try, but this is the first trip where I've used them. Magic! Who do I have to thank for this knowledge?

My winter coat is the kind that compresses down to pack into a pocket, which is great, but it's slippery, and though there's a drawstring to the pocket, it doesn't have a clip or anything, so although it's easy to squeeze the air out and get it into the pocket, it starts trying to decompress right away. Not without a fight, I managed to stuff it into this cube:

But I wasn't sure it would want to compress more. Turns out that, though it was a struggle to get all the air out of it, when I did, it was a much smaller, tidier package:

Isn't that magic? I'm off to use the other cubes for the rest of my packing. Time to get to it! I leave tomorrow, and it looks like I may never take my coat off:

Bubble Lights

When I was a kid, our Christmas tree was always a real tree---some years we even went out to cut our own (we have some pretty-funny-in-retrospect home movies of those treks). The house where I grew up had a large living room and the front, round end, was perfect for the tree. 

We had colored lights, mostly what I consider regular bulbs:

But also some of these snowball ones (not a whole string, but mixed in):

And some bubble lights mixed in as well:

Once I was old enough to "help," I got to help Dad put the lights in the tree, which made me feel very important. I loved watching these once they warmed up and started bubbling.

In our current situation, Mom doesn't want a tree enough to deal with the bother, so I haven't had a tree for a few years now. Which, given the last few years, is fine, but I was happy to pull out my bubble light night light this year. It gives a festive feeling. It looks like this:

Where are you on the lights spectrum? 

A Work Story with a Satisfying (and Funny) End

I have worked at my current company longer than I ever worked anywhere, which is a funny thing to have happened considering my work history includes four layoffs. I worked there from 2012 to 2014, then elsewhere for a year, and then came back in August 2015 and have been ever since.

When I re-started, I was given a laptop, and it was not new-out-of-the box, but it worked, I wasn't complaining. I had to send it in a couple of years ago to fix something, I don't even remember what now, but otherwise, it has continued to work, mostly---the battery wouldn't hold much of a charge, making it less portable than it should be, but I largely work from home and can keep it plugged in, so it was fine.

A few times this year, the battery stopped charging, and the first time I mentioned it, someone asked if I had tried plugging it into a different outlet. My expression at the question would have been something like this:

But I tried it, and I'll be damned, the battery started charging again. (There's no reason I understand why that would work. It's the same power source.) So when it happened again a few times, I did the same thing.

Then last month, that didn't work, and the battery dropped lower and lower, until finally I reached out to IT to ask what I should do. They asked if I could try a different charger to see if that was the problem, but my personal laptop has a different plug shape, so no. They said I could go to Best Buy and buy one and be reimbursed for it, or they could send me one. I wasn't in a rush, as the machine was working and this was right before my vacation, so they said they would send it, and it arrived during Thanksgiving week.

But when I was back to work and looked at it, oh, surprise, it wasn't the right kind of plug for my machine. I sent them this picture to show why this wouldn't work.

One of these things is not like the other...

The IT person who answered said that the person who could send me another was out on vacation, and would be in touch. At some point this week, someone asked me to look for and send them the specs for my computer, which I did.

Then on Thursday, I got an email from IT saying they had sent me a message in Teams, please respond. (I don't keep Teams open, unless it's for a meeting; the editors use Discord for our chats.) I opened Teams, and the chat literally just said hi. I said hello, and he asked if my laptop was an HP. I said yes, and then nothing for a while. (I admit, I was a bit miffed. We needed to use Teams for this?)

A while later, though, he came back into the chat and said, "would you say your laptop is pretty old" and "judging from these specs and the info I got, it seems a little outdated"! Oh, do you think? Are we just realizing that now? I said yes, it is old (I got my years mixed and told him it had been given to me in 2014, not 2015, but honestly, close enough), and he asked if I'd be okay with getting an updated one---he did not say new, but it has to be newer than this one. Of course I agreed, and he said great, he'd send it out. I thanked him, and said just tell me what to do with the old one.

His first answer was, "is there a trash can near you?" I just about fell off my seat laughing! He went on to say he was kidding, he'd give me the info to mail it back to them. I can only assume they want to destroy it themselves. Which is fine with me.

The new machine arrived safely on Saturday. When I saw that it didn't have the right kind of port to plug in the separate monitor I use, I put out a call for help on Facebook, and one of my friends knew exactly what I needed to get to make it work (I figured there had to be some sort of cord-plug-converter thing that would work, but had no idea what to search on). Now that should be all set, too! It remains to be seen how much of a pain it will be to set it up, but one thing at a time.

Preparing for This Crazy Trip

Okay, the trip itself is not crazy. I'm going to see my second family, and go to a fun party with a big friend group, and it will be very fun, I know.

Boston in December, however? For little Florida me? Is looking pretty crazy. This is the forecast as of Saturday morning:

Holy cats.

It is a week out, and that may change, but you know, better for me not to expect it to.

So my plans this weekend involve organizing my packing, and I am pulling out allll the hand-knits. For instance, I kept three hand-knit hats when I moved: should I just bring the warmest one, or the medium-warm one as well? To go with the leather gloves I kept, pull out the knit wrist-warmers to wear under them. Fingerless mitts to wear inside the house? Cowl(s), scarf(ves), shawl(s)...how much can I cram in a carry-on? We'll find out!

I Can't Regret the Lost Hour

I mean, I could have used another hour of sleep last night, sure. But this view was worth it.

Where

Where in hell did I put the holiday cards, when I was tidying up for my brother's visit. Where are they?

Okay, I've been looking for days, but apparently it took planning to blog about it to made them come out. Good grief. I am so tired.

Now I just have to find the holiday stamps. Sigh. 

Uncertain Center of Gravity; Yarn

I've had some sore spots on my feet recently, and finally got myself to the podiatrist on Thursday. As is so often the case, treatment makes things temporarily worse, and I was very wobbly walking on Thursday afternoon/evening (turns out, you really use your big toes a lot for walking). They've been a bit better each day since, and we'll see how things are this Thursday, when I go back to see him again. 

Hopefully things will have fully calmed down before I go up north for the weekend before Christmas, as obviously I will be wearing closed shoes that whole time! I got some warm-and-dries to wear.

They're pretty cozy. And I have a warm winter jacket; no, I don't need it down here, but it's good to have one ready for the need. And I will bring lots of warm, cozy layers, as many as I can fit in a carry-on.

Meanwhile, almost two years ago, I wrote about an enormous yarn windfall that came to me, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier this year, but the same woman said she was going to have more to give me. Sign me up! 

We agreed that I would be happy to come pick it up, and leaving it in bins was also fine (rather than her rebagging it and bringing it to me, as she did last time). After some delays, Friday was the day, and I went to her house to pick up what she had; she said she 'only got through about half of it' and it did fit into my car, but only just.

So....lots of nice yarn for ccr, some set aside to mail to my knitting friends up north, and making plans for my local knitting friends to come by in January and "shop" here. Then I'll contact the woman I know locally who has a charity knitting group, and she can take the rest for that.

Oh, and at some point, there might be that theoretical other half. Phew!

Maggie This Morning

We have had Florida-chilly weather recently, with temps going down into the 40s overnight, meaning that last week we had the air conditioning on part of the time, and this week it's the heat! It warms up nicely during the day, but that warmth doesn't come inside well enough for this working person at her computer.

The reason I start with this is that, while Maggie likes to be on my lap year-round, these mornings, we are deeply into a mutual heat exchange. She was extra-cute, progressively, this morning. Look:

My baby girl.

Deep Post-Vacation Thoughts

Wow, working for a living sucks, doesn't it?

Meet It Is I Set It Down*

I have much to catch up on, but I wanted to make note of this one thing, for my own future reference. 

Any time we have someone stay, the "guest" bed is an air bed (which it's about time to replace, so if anyone has a brand to advise for or against, hit me up), and in the past, I have had to wrestle the damn thing to get the air out after, so that I could pack it away again.

This morning, I didn't feel like fighting it, so I turned the gauge thing to where it would let air out, and walked away.

I just came back into the office, and all (or almost all) the air had come out. I was able to easily fold it, and roll it down, squeezing out the last little bit. It was approximately 105% easier, for less effort. How about that! I hope that I will remember it for next time.

*You knew I was an English major, right? This is from Hamlet. Because of course that's what sprang to mind when I was thinking of writing about this.

Explain

So, yeah. We're (mostly) fine here, but there have been Things. 

• Like Mom was just in the hospital for five days, and is home now and slowly getting better but yeah. 
• Things. Like my brother arrives Saturday, which is a good thing, but still a thing I need to get ready for. 
• Yeah. Mostly that. Just a lot of things within those things.

Overall, fine! But posting might be light for a bit. 

New Katherine Addison, yay

I've been a fan of the author Katherine Addison since The Goblin Emperor came out; to quote myself, "excellent world-building, with its own language and speech conventions that are conveyed without confusion (or without much, anyway)." And as much as I love it, I have been equally-if-not-more pleased by her subsequent related-but-not-directly books, The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones (not to mention her supernatural take on Sherlock Holmes, The Angel of the Crows, which is also great but very different). The books are great, and the audio versions are wonderful: honestly, I think I would struggle a lot more with the names of people and places, except that I can "hear" them from the many times I have listened to the books. 

Anyway! As a member of her Patreon, I saw recently when she gave away a few copies of the new book in the series, The Tomb of Dragons*, which comes out in March, and though I wasn't quick enough to win one of those, she next gave away advance copies of a new novella, The Orb of Cairado, which is in the same world but with different characters, and comes out in January (Subterranean Press is printing a limited, signed run). And guess what, I won! 
*One of the reviews on Goodreads states, "The Tomb of Dragons did not disappoint me in the slightest, except that it ended" which is very promising!

It arrived yesterday:

I liked that she signed it with both her name and her pen name (that's Sarah Monette).

I read it (of course), and I quite liked it, though I would not at all suggest jumping in with this one if you haven't read the series. You could read the books about Thara Celehar without having read The Goblin Emperor first, though I would argue you shouldn't, but in my opinion, you'll really want to understand how this world works before reading this novella. If you have read the others, then yes, I recommend this one!

I Did One Thing

In the spirit of both "just one thing" and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the done (I know, I'm mangling that), yesterday I ordered my holiday cards. As in the past few years, I used a Groupon to get half off cards at Staples, and in fact my order was ready to pick up last night, when my knitting group meets, right next to Staples. So now I have the cards, and they can wait until after Thanksgiving to be addressed, but I have them. Phew.

You'll see them on Christmas day here, as is my habit! In the meantime, perhaps you would enjoy this total piece of randomness.

I know, I'm a Shakespeare nerd, but the idea of Hamlet and Othello switching plays and each taking care of business very competently just tickles me.

One Tiny Silver Lining. Really: Tiny

It's not that I didn't know what I was getting into, politically speaking, when I moved to Florida. My mother had mentioned many times how she couldn't understand how people who were otherwise so pleasant were so very different from her, politically. This has only become more true in the last decade, and it really is unnerving to live here sometimes. One can feel very alone, a blue dot in such a red state.

However, the local paper this morning listed all the vote totals for Florida, and while it doesn't change the end result at all, it made me feel just slightly better about living here.

Yes, he got over six million votes, but she got over four and three-quarter million! That is not nothing.

And one of those is me. 

The Thing Is Though

J's comment on my post yesterday made me think of this cartoon.

This is from Emily's Cartoons*; I found her years ago from her take on Harry Potter, way back before JKR was revealed to be such an awful person (sigh), but her non-HP stuff is also very funny.
*That link is to her shop, but she's also on Instagram and Facebook and has a Patreon page.

I am actually not doing that this time, I really can't talk about it, but I've definitely been there in the past, so I wanted to share this anyway.

I also want to share something J put up today, because boy does this nail what I'm feeling:

Yeah, Yeah, I Know. Let's Talk Books Instead

I can't talk about the election results yet. I don't know when I'll be able to. We fight on, but for today at least, for my mental health (and my blood pressure), I'm pretending it didn't happen. 

I've read some good books recently, so I thought it was time to share them here! 

First up is a fantasy book I got an advance copy* of, Miss Amelia's List, by Mercedes Lackey. This is in her Elemental Masters series, which is the kind of series where the books are related but don't have to be read in sequence; I haven't read them all**, and this is book 17, but all you have to know is the basic principles. As her website describes them, the books "are a mix of historical fiction and fantasy, with a big scoop of fairy tales stirred in. Most of them are set in the late 1800s-early 1900s."
*Thank you to DAW for the ARC! #MissAmeliasList #NetGalley
**My favorite of those I have read is Reserved for the Cat

I really enjoyed this book; Amelia is a believable and realistic character, comfortable with her power while coping with her anxiety, and her cousin Serena, though less fully developed, is often unexpectedly competent. It was interesting to look at Regency England from the perspective of American characters, which I haven’t seen a lot of.

Looking back at the ending, it felt a bit rushed: reading an ebook, I’m not always aware of how close to the end I am, and it came as something of a surprise to realize we were there, at the climactic events and then the end. There is some implausibility to how things wrapped up, but I actually can see how it could have been even more so and wasn’t, so although that’s a backhand compliment, I do mean it well. A book I’m glad to have read, though not the one I would recommend for jumping into this series.

~~~~~

Next up is a different kind of fantasy book, basically a romantic comedy book with shapeshifters! I know, sounds implausible given how dark a lot of shifter stories are, but when you have a bunny shifter, it's hard not to make it cute, and that's Emmy! Somebunny to Love, by Zoe Chant, is in the Virtue Shifters series, which I will definitely be checking out more of. Light, fluffy, intelligent, happily-ever-after: what's not to love? I don't need dark and gloomy right now. Good silliness is called for.

~~~~~

Lost & Found by Jane Glatt is something that I find refreshing: a book with an older woman protagonist! While I do read books from younger perspectives (see my recent adoration for Prince of Fortune), there's something about putting an older woman front and center that pleases me. This book is mostly not a fantasy (rare for me these days, right?), with one twist. As the description starts out:

"Homeless. Broke. Shunned by friends and neighbours. This was not what sixty-two was supposed to look like for Barbara Baker.

As a member of Toronto's exclusive Rosedale society, Barb was a fixture on charity committees and an accomplished hostess whose dinner invitations were coveted by Toronto's elite. Her comfortable life ended when her husband's criminal activity was discovered—he'd been stealing from everyone for decades, using her exceptional hostess skills to reel in new victims."

As Barb starts to figure out where her life will go from here, with help from her best friend, something unexpected happens, which I won't spoil except to say that's where the fantastical element comes in. It may not be 100% plausible, but I found it very entertaining, on a night when that was just what I needed.

Note that while I didn't think of this as an advance read, according to Amazon, it's not out yet. I bought it as part of something called The Never Too Old to Save the World Bundle, which runs for another 15 days, according to the website. It includes 10 books, if you're willing to pay at least $20, which I was.

Read any good books lately?

Too Early for Christmas Music, But

I have no idea why this song came into my head this morning, but I have to share this silly Christmas song with you. Please forgive me.

Love it!

Powerful Words

I'm not someone who venerates actors as special or extra-important, but that doesn't mean that a person who is an actor can't say something that strikes me. And in this case, when Harrison Ford endorsed Kamala Harris, this is the part that hit me: "Kamala Harris will protect your right to disagree with her."

The election is almost here. Soon, soon, we will know soon. 

Although, as the Globe warned:

I appreciated this, in the Guardian the other day, in the "tell it like it is" sense of appreciation:

But most of all, this ad made me laugh.

Given the way the Bruins had been playing going into the weekend (short answer: very, very poorly), I was starting to worry about my election night plan of watching the Bruins game. But they won yesterday and again today, so I'm more comfortable with the idea. Certainly no guarantees, but at least if they play well, it will be entertaining. I'll just need to put down my phone and tablet, and keep my hands busy with knitting instead of doom-scrolling.

All right, having rousted her highness off my lap:

It's bedtime.

A Few Images: Voting, Supporting Journalism, Maggie

I turned over the Sandra Boynton holiday calendar today, and had to laugh. First, for the overall sentiment.

But also for what's on next Tuesday and Wednesday:

Hoo boy, yeah. I feel that already. (Did you vote yet? Please do!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, with all the nonsense coming from journalism in the US these days (I almost want to say "journalism"), I decided to subscribe to The Guardian, to broaden my reading.

After I created my account, they offered me these newsletters:

My, that last one is ... specific, isn't it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, Maggie needs to get her share of time. From the lap this morning:

She does know how to spread out.

Happy Halloween

I've probably put this up before, but this is from the last time I dressed up for Halloween, in 2014.

(I was trying not to laugh, which explains the face I was making.)

Honestly, I haven't worn the costume since, and it's on a shelf in the closet; I should probably pass that on to someone who wants it. It's good quality, but I think my dressing-up days are done.

Do you dress up? Have kids that do? Or celebrate by buying half-price candy on November 1?

A Friend Indeed

I'm going to put this on my posts until election day:
No shame if you haven't made a plan to vote yet, but today would be a great day to do it! Is there early voting in your state? (I learned today that almost all of them do! Just not in Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire.) If you got a mail-in ballot, can you drop it at early voting instead of relying on the mail to get it there in time? Or do you want to go on the day itself? That's November 5, next Tuesday! Why not look at your schedule now and see what works best for you?

Actually, this is a story of two friends indeed! I mentioned recently that I was having trouble with a knitting project: I couldn't find where I had made a mistake, but the stitch count had gone wrong. Last night, my knitting group met in person again (yay!) after spending the summer on Zoom*, and I said that I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it, try again or just move to a different project. 
*Though actually, we had Zoom open too, for the sake of the people who aren't here yet.

A couple of people who are better than I am at 'reading' a piece of knitting* offered to look at it, and discovered that yeah, it was my mistake (I am not shocked). They suggested that I could run in a lifeline, rip back to it, and go on from there. Which is good advice, but I said that no, I could guarantee that if I tried it, I would mess up getting all the stitches from the same row, and end up flinging it across the room in a fit of fury (knitter, know thyself), so it was either frog the whole project and start over, or frog it and go with Plan B.
*I'm really not very good at that, especially in lace.

One of these friends actually loves straightening out tangles (seriously, her eyes light up when someone says "hey, I have something for you" and it's a tangled mess), and she offered to take it home, do it herself, and get it back to me. How awesome is that? I will report back on how it goes.

Ask the Blog: Smartphones When Traveling Overseas---Oh, Yes, I Am Doing That!

I'm going to put this on my posts until election day:
No shame if you haven't made a plan to vote yet, but today would be a great day to do it! Is there early voting in your state? If you got a mail-in ballot, can you drop it at early voting instead of relying on the mail to get it there in time? Or do you want to go on the day itself? That's November 5, a week from Tuesday! Why not look at your schedule now and see what works best for you?

A long while ago, back when she blogged frequently, I read something by the Yarn Harlot in which she mentioned that she was talking about something with her husband and he said, "Did you ask the blog?" Once in a while, I too "ask the blog" for suggestions--and sometimes, y'all know answers to something I'm just venting about, which is cool, too. So here I am.

I haven't been out of the US in recent years, which coincidentally means during the years I have owned a smartphone. It occurred to me that when I go to Curaçao next February---wait, did I mention that yet? No? Okay, back up!

Back in 2022, I took a trip with the Newcomers Club, to Sarasota, Florida. The club plans a "spring fling" trip every year, and as this is my last year in Newcomers*, I was interested to know what the destination would be. And the answer was, Curaçao!
*As a club designed for new people to meet other new people, you can only be a member for five years. My group and some others got an extra year because for a while during the pandemic, nothing much was happening. But we will "spin out" in April.

My experience in that part of the world is limited, especially if you don't count where we lived before Boston, which we moved to when I was about two and a half. That means I don't remember Brazil, Grenada, Guyana...we did go to Barbados twice when I was in high school, but I think that's it.

Gratuitous high-school-me photo, taken with my Kodak Disc camera in the mid-80s:

So I am excited to go to Curaçao, and I will add that if there isn't a planned trip to the ostrich farm, I will be going to that on my own, because how can you not?

Anyway. My original point here is that I haven't been out of the US with a smartphone, so I need to find out if mine will function there the same way it does here. Before I do actual research, does anyone know offhand? Not Curaçao specifically, but in general? Or do I actually have to (ugh) call AT&T?

I don't plan to spend a lot of time using my phone, btw. I will take plenty of photos, guaranteed. I don't plan to be worrying about keeping on top of my email or reading blogs, etc. But based on previous trips, I will want/need to be able to text and/or chat, for meeting-up purposes, and perhaps will need the map feature, too. Completely unplugging won't work.