Her, Again

I know that I just did a Maggie-on-my-lap photo sequence recently, but this morning she was just ridiculous, and I have to share. Enjoy!

What a life.

Audible? Are You Okay?

I got an email from Audible with my recent listening stats, and it shows that these are my most-listened-to titles, which is accurate.

(I listen to audio books to fall asleep, so I tend to listen to the same ones a lot, because I know them well enough that the need to follow the plot won't keep me awake.)

However! It then goes on to suggest these titles for me:

What on earth?

I am perplexed.

Like Dad Used to Say

My dad was a bit of a wiseass, and one of his sayings was, "I made a mistake once. I thought I was wrong." In fact, I think he had it on a sign on his desk! I was reminded of it this morning when I was trying to figure something out, and thought that I had made a mistake on my "books read" spreadsheet.

Back in 2013, I started this spreadsheet to keep track of what I read when (some day I plan to write about all the things I use spreadsheets to track). Over the years I have added more and more things to track about each book I finish (I don't track the DNFs). I don't necessarily know what items I added when, but as of today, I put:

• the date, title, and author
• whether I read the book for the first time or it was a reread 
• was it from the library
• was it sci-fi/fantasy, YA/YR, non-fiction
• was it on the tablet/e-book
• was it an advance copy

At the end of the year, I copy the date/title/author fields onto a tab called "combined," so that I can sort by title or author to see when I first read a book, when I started reading an author, how many times I've read a book, that kind of thing.

So, an author I have discovered this year and greatly enjoyed (listing those is another blog post on its own: I've found a bunch this year) is KJ Charles, and she has a new book releasing this week, which is a sequel to the first of hers that I read. I wanted to read the first one again, but it wasn't on my Kindle, AZ doesn't show I bought it, and the entry on my spreadsheet doesn't say I got it from the library. In fact, I didn't check off tablet/e-book either, so I was very confused about how I read the thing: I read more and more e-books these days, so that was where my mind went first.

Finally, I thought to check my actual, physical bookshelf. There it is!

Oh, that's right! I bought the physical book from the UK. They had it on sale, with free shipping. Now I remember.

And now I can read it again before the e-book of The Duke at Hazard drops into my Kindle on Thursday. (I generally prefer not to mix formats, but the e-book is $2.99, and the paperback is $17.99, and for that much of a difference, I can stand it. Well, it's not as expensive from the UK, oddly enough. I may end up ordering that too.)

A note about the series, btw, which is Regency period romance that the author called "Heyer but gayer" (any Georgette Heyer fans reading?): they are neither straight nor straight-laced, so if men with men and on-page sex is not your thing, pass on by. The author has a whole page on content warnings for other items in all her books as well. I very much like her writing style, but everything isn't for everyone.

Nap/Lap Level: Expert

This morning, herself really threw herself into napping.

Would that I could relax half as well.

Naming Things

I turn to the blog for serious answers to serious questions, so brace yourself:

Does your family name things around the house? 

I was thinking of that this morning, when I went to get ice from the fridge-door ice maker and it gave me far more than I needed. "Jeez, Fred, calm down!" I said, as my cup runneth over.

Because, yes, we call our ice maker Fred. No, I don't know why Fred, specifically. But it clearly needs a name so that we can either thank it, or chide it for being overly enthusiastic. (Fred is a giver.)

So, do you name things? Appliances, cars, anything?

Library Woes

Before I start this story, I want to stress that I love the library. Libraries are awesome. I borrow tons of books that I want to read, or at least try, but don't want to own, and I appreciate that so much.

However.

I requested a book a while back, and for some time now, a few months at least, it has shown that I am hold number 1 of 1 for the one copy that is checked out. I've been meaning to ask them about it, so when I went in on Saturday to pick up a hold, I stopped at the desk first (holds are self-serve, across the room) and asked the woman there if she could tell me anything about it.

She looked up my account while kindly explaining to me that sometimes, if there are a lot of holds, it can take a while for it to be your turn. Uh, yeah, don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs, honey. I repeated that I have been hold 1 of 1 since at least April. 

She looked at my holds, and once she confirmed which title I meant (that would be, again, the one that I'm hold 1 of 1), she said ah and called another person over to confirm that, as the book had been billed, it was apparently not going to be returned at this point, and they should cancel the hold because I would not be getting it. As we circled around this point, one of them mentioned that it had been billed in October.

At this point, I am thinking that if the single copy of a book has been billed for months, the system should not have allowed a hold to be placed on this book. Which I still absolutely believe, but I didn't bother mentioned it to them in that moment, because it's not their fault that the system is set up in this stupid way.

I also did not get into why they wouldn't be reordering the book, which only came out last year, because I do understand that if there isn't demand, they might not. Just because I want it. I do get that.

So they kept saying that they should cancel the hold, should cancel the hold, and I said fine, and went to get the book I was picking up. When I scanned my card, though, it told me that I owed a fine of 50 cents. Now, the fine was real: I was a day late returning two books last month, and since I hadn't returned anything late in a long time, I was surprised that they charge a quarter a day for that. But okay, fair enough, that's the rule and I was late.

But I paid the fine, a week prior, when I was in. I remember that I was pleased that I had two quarters with me to pay it. 

And now it's saying I still owe it. On top of the previous interaction, I was kind of pissed. But okay. I checked out my book and went over to the desk, where the first woman still sat. I told her that it was showing I had a fine, and that I paid it last week, but here's a dollar, could you be sure that comes off. And god love her, I don't know if she's new or she assumes that no one knows what they're doing, but she looks at my account and starts explaining to me which titles it was that I returned late.

Bless her heart. I KNOW.

I put the dollar down and said, I know, here is the money, could you just please take it off the account, and I walked away, probably leaving her thinking I was rude, and maybe I was. But I use the library all the time*, I know how it works, and it's not that I can't afford to pay it, or even to pay it twice, and maybe they do get a lot of people trying to claim they paid when they didn't, but I paid it, I did.
*I have borrowed 50+ books from them in the first half of this year. Didn't finish all of them, but it does indicate I am familiar with how it works.

As I drove home, I was thinking that if the system still says I owe it the next time I'm in, I'm going to have to stand at the desk until they can prove to me that it's really off this time.

And then I got home and when I looked at my account, the hold is still there. That they said multiple times they would have to cancel now. Still there.

Okay.

I checked the other library I have a card to, and they have the book, so I'll get it from them. But do I have to be the one to cancel the hold at the library here? 

Why, Yes, I AM a Crazy Person. Knitter. Whatever.

When I was writing up my recent guest post for NGS, one of the things I mentioned knitting was the 2-in-1 socks, and apparently thinking of it woke the I-should-do-that-again feeling that had been slumbering in me since I finished the first ones. I can't really explain why. You do it once to prove you can, but doing it again? Hmmm.

The pattern strongly suggests using yarn that you can start in two different colors, like different points in self-striping yarn, and that is totally true. My yarn choice the first time was not good in that regard, but this time, I knew better.

I wound up this beautiful colorway, trifolium, in the Continuum yarn from String Theory Colorworks.

So pretty. It rolls through red, orange, yellow, green, purple.

I wound that off into two balls, and cast on. Separate at first:

And then combined.

And a while later, I had this:

See? One inside the other.

I checked frequently to make sure they weren't crossed anywhere.

The ribbing is...well, it's a total PITA. When you get to the body of the socks, you're knitting the inside sock and purling the outside sock, so the two working yarns stay where they are, front and back. But in order to do one-by-one ribbing, you have to move the front yarn in, knit a stitch, move the yarn back, knit the inside stitch, purl the outside stitch, then bring the back yarn forward to purl the inside stitch, then put the back yarn behind again. And then do it again. And again.

The pattern says to do an inch of ribbing, and adds: "You could work for longer, but you probably won't want to." Word.

By the time you give up on the ribbing and switch to the plain stockinette, it almost doesn't seem like a crazy thing to be doing.

Almost.

So. I have no reasons. But this is what I'm doing. Apparently.

From Schoolhouse Rock for the Holiday

When I was a kid, I loved the Schoolhouse Rock segments that played as part of Saturday morning cartoons (IYKYK). They were fun and I learned things from them without feeling like a lesson was being pushed on me (set it to music and I'm halfway there). I'm Just a Bill, Conjunction Junction, so many great ones.

For instance, this is why I know the words to the Preamble to the Constitution:

And for some reason, this week, with Independence Day as well as the recent "Supreme Court"* ruling, I am also thinking of No More Kings:
*Not feeling so supreme right now, I have to tell you.

Hmmm, yeah. I mostly loved the word ones, of course, but this week, history is more pressing. As someone on social media put it:

I Wish I Had This Pie Today

Happy 4th of July to the Americans reading, happy Thursday to anyone else. (I guess there might be a few readers from Canada? Happy belated Canada Day to you. Does anyone read from anywhere else?)

The topic of holiday desserts came up in a recent chat with friends, one of whom has to bring something to a 4th of July event, and I remembered that I had made a stars-and-stripes pie one year. I checked the blog, because of course I did, and yes, I wrote about it! Good girl, ccr, who needs a memory when you have a blog.

Bonus Carlos picture at the end of that post, bonus Maggie picture on this one.

"Every day is a holiday to me, but if Mom has extra lap time, I'll take it."

The Joys of Anticipation

I am, as I have written before, a person who really enjoys having things to look forward to, whether it's lunch with a friend or a vacation or just yarn in the mail ("just"). I took a look at my remaining vacation time for the year, and had a good think about plans and possibilities.

A few years back, my company started giving us an additional day for our birthday, to be used on the day itself or the nearest workday if it's on a weekend. My birthday is on a Wednesday this year, so that starts things off. I'm hoping to get up to Apple Festival around then (it's always over Columbus Day weekend, aka Indigenous Peoples' Day), though I'm not making reservations yet. But hey, you know ... I could just go ahead and take off the Thursday and Friday after my birthday ... and the whole week after that ... and have flexibility and a REAL break from work!

I look at that on the calendar, and the week at Thanksgiving when my brother is here, and know that I should have some time left to take in December...ahhh. What a good feeling.