Join us at our happy place. Or not.
Many thanks to everyone who commented on my last post about Nala. ♥ She is still with us for now, mostly because by the time we were able to sit down and come to a consensus, it was already too late for Saturday. Also, we had gorgeous weather Fri and Sat and carried Nala outside to enjoy the fresh air. It really did perk her up for a little bit - she even walked around some without falling down, and she always tries to bounce back to you when you call her in, even if her "bounce" these days is more of a hobble. Unfortunately, there are scheduling problems every afternoon this week, and I'm not free on Sat morning, either, so she may be with us a full week longer, as long as there's no emergency. It's too important to MiniPlu to be able to come along to the vet, so I'd rather not compromise on that if I don't have to. We're mostly focused on giving her extra love and treats right now.
As for that gorgeous weather ... well, let's just say that it was about 80/27C, or a smidgen over for Fri and Sat. We went around in shorts and sandals. All the blooming trees went POOF into bloom (MiniPlu's allergies are not amused), and it was gorgeous out. Today was about 45F/7C, damp - misty but later full-on rainy - and very windy, so it felt closer to the freezing mark. I know we're lucky not to be in the upper midwest, where they had a blizzard, but still - it's mid-April. Frigid weather is no longer permitted!!
I've been having a hard time dealing with many of my housemates recently. Will was extremely grumpy and antisocial for several days after dealing with a combination of taxes and a urologist appointment (kidney infection 10 days ago, possible kidney stones although the latter has not yet been verified). It was more that the doctor's office called him three times in the same day to remind him of the upcoming appointment, and pestered him extra to remind him to bring any test results (which he did not have yet), and he was grumpy that medical forms often require you to regurgitate the same information multiple times. To me, this is just kind of a "duh" thing, but then, it's been ages since he's had to fill out any medical forms, whereas I'm used to it. Anyway, there were a couple of evenings when I was basically, "Uh huh. Move along. Go be a grouch somewhere else."
Also, my BIL is routinely a jerk. He deals with a lot of stress at work, so some short-tempered-ness is understandable, but some of it is also completely unnecessary. He'll yell at Karen for no reason, except that he's convinced after 25 years of marriage that she won't listen to him talk, so now he has to yell. And, yes, sometimes her choices are irritating. But yelling only makes her more annoyed, and accomplishes zero. Other times, Rob is just pig-headed, totally black-and-white about things, insisting that something HAS to be done a certain way, or acting like someone (usually Karen, occasionally me) is an idiot for not knowing something. I'll call him on it, but that only makes him grouchier, sometimes to the point that he'll just walk off and slam the door to his room. I knew Rob could be irritating to deal with sometimes - and I admit I'm not the most patient person in the world, either - but there are times I really hate living here and listening to his shit on a regular basis.
(And yes, I've frequently wondered why Karen stays with him, but love is blind. She loves him with her whole heart, even if she does get annoyed sometimes, and would never ever EVER think of leaving. Ever.)
So, that, coupled with my FIL's fretting, and two hormonal teenagers, and I do sometimes wish I could just run away from it all, sigh. Will's sister Lise was visiting for us for about 4 days the week after Easter, but she's a low-key guest. In fact, she was very helpful, getting Dad's medical stuff organized and helping him feel more pulled-together about everything. Unfortunately, we're about to trade that in for the NC crew: my BIL Paul is helping a friend set up a business server, and so everyone - including my college niece's hyperactive dog - will be here for the coming week, starting late tonight. None of us are happy about this, except possibly Karen, who values family above everything else. (Although even she gets annoyed by Heather.) Two enjoys spending time with his cousin M, but is otherwise just as unimpressed by the adults as the rest of us. But, anyway, just to sum up: for the next 5 or 6 days or thereabouts, we will have TEN humans (7 adults and 3 minors) and TEN animals (7 cats and 3 dogs) in this house.
On a brighter note, Two went on the 8th grade class trip to DC on Thurs/Fri. They visited Arlington National Cemetery and then the MLK, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean memorials. They got to stay at the Embassy Suites Hotel (same chain we stay at in CA - spacious all-suite rooms and a fantastic free breakfast), have dinner at the hotel, and then the next day they had a class photo at the Jefferson memorial, walked past the White House, ate a picnic lunch on the Mall, and visited a couple of Smithsonian museums before they came home again. The weather was glorious, many of the cherry trees were still in bloom, Two nabbed the sofa in the "living room" of their suite - (he and MiniPlu routinely argue over who will get the sofa, so they can have their own space) so, in general, it sounds like he had fun.
Will's kidney infection meant he was not well enough to come with me to see the political parody musical troupe The Capitol Steps on 6 April in Philadelphia. His ticket went to waste, which was a shame, but nothing for it. The performance was brilliant, a combination of stuff from their previous album (which I own), but updated slightly for current events, stuff that I'm sure are on the current album (Orange is the New Barack, heh), and stuff that was unbelievably current. Like ... Stormy Daniels. The student gun protests. The speed the performers must have to learn their materials is staggering. There were five performers (3 men, 2 women) who did the full range of Trump, Pence, Bernie Sanders, Obama, the governor of AZ, Supreme Court judges, Hilary Clinton, Melania Trump, Betsy Devos (our cruddy Secretary of Education), Stormy Daniels, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (White House spokesperson) - the list went on and on. Brilliant and cutting political humor, as always. (They mock everyone, in both parties.) The only thing that sucked was the parking - I had prepaid for parking in the nearby 9-story garage, but it took me forever to actually inch my way into the garage and up all 9 floors, then back down to the 5th floor before I finally found a semi-cruddy spot (car next to me had parked crooked). I had arrived at the parking garage 30 mins before the performance started, but by the time I had finally parked, sprinted down 5 flights of stairs and over a block and a half and was shown my seat, I only had 5 minutes to spare. So - I could have done without that stress, and I really wish Will had been able to come, but at least I made it. (Oh, and Wake Me Up in Mar-a-Lago is sung to the tune of Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. *g*)
I recently finished reading Hexbreaker, Jordan L Hawk's first book in their Hexworld series. I confess I hadn't really been interested in the series until now, but I'm chomping at the bit to get their next - and final - installment in the Whyborne & Griffin series, so I figured, eh, I'd give it a try. It's set in turn-of-the-century (20th C, that is) NYC, but a NYC where magic is possible. Basically, shapeshifting magic-wielders bond with magic-capable "witches" (of either gender); the witches can create hexes, (a generic term for spells, good or bad) - pieces of parchment that have the sigil for a particular spell drawn on it. The hex is triggered when the parchment is applied to the target and activated with a particular phrase. Shifters and witches can bond regardless (and unpaired shifters are often at risk of being force-bound to corrupt witches), but every shifter has a particular witch out there - think "soulmate" - with whom they will make much better magic.
Anyway, the main m/m characters in the story are a large, genial Irish cop on the "regular" force, who is hiding a somewhat murky past he would rather pretend never happened, including the fact that he does, in fact, have magical ability and a rare hexbreaking talent, to boot. The other man is a petite (I kept picturing John Leguizamo) bohemian British-Italian cat-shifter named Cicero who is dismayed to realize the uncultured Irish oaf is "his" witch. They are both involved in separate cases with alarmingly similar details, and so the magical police chief puts them together to work on solving the mystery. Sparks eventually ensue - you get the idea.
Overall I liked the story, although not as much as SPECTR or W&G. Honestly, I think my biggest disappointment was in looking over the other books in the Hexworld series and realizing each book features a different m/m pairing, rather than, as SPECTR and W&G do, following a single pairing over the course of the series. Although I like most of what the author did with Tom and Cicero, I feel like there's a lot more character development that could be done, both for them as individuals, and as a couple, and I feel like there's a lot of wasted potential in not doing so. Also, I'm feeling less inclined to read the others in the series, at least right now, because it feels like they're going to be mostly carbon copies of the same sort of premise: witch/shifter pairs who dislike each other for some reason are partnered together for [insert plot here] and fall in love along the way. More like your regular Harlequin Romance series, rather than allowing a single pair to develop more depth, you know?
So, anyway - although there were some clever ideas and cute lines and definitely some hot scenes, and I was so engrossed in the story I inhaled it in 2 days, I'm kind of conflicted as to whether I'll read more Hexworld or not.
When I went back last night to Amazon's webpage for Hexbreaker, to make sure it, like Jordan L Hawk's other books, could be freely lent to other Kindle users (yep!), the author bio caught my eye, mostly because it used a drawing of a hawk in a top hat, rather than the photo of Hawk that I remembered seeing before. The bio read:
Jordan L. Hawk grew up in North Carolina and forgot to ever leave. Childhood tales of mountain ghosts and mysterious creatures gave them a life-long love of things that go bump in the night. When they aren't writing, they brew beer and tries to keep the cats from destroying the house. Their best-selling Whyborne & Griffin series (beginning with Widdershins) can be found in print, ebook, and audiobook at Amazon and other online retailers. Non-binary queer.
I had to read the sentence about writing and beer twice, because I kept stumbling over "they." They who? There was no mention of a writing partner, so what did she mean by... ohhhhh. When I got to the final sentence, it all clicked. "They" as a single, gender-neutral pronoun. What threw me was that Hawk's original bio - in fact the one that still remained on their personal website - used she/her pronouns. So, for years, I have thought of Jordan L Hawk as "she". But - wow, yay! Another person who was stepping forward, and being truthful about their identity. I had to write her immediately to wave my flag in support (although I confess I also took the opportunity to ask her about the final W&G's publication date while I was at it) and they graciously wrote back promptly this morning. And they thanked me for pointing out the bio at their website still said she/her; by the time I went back to look, it had been updated. This is the first author I think I've been aware of who has been open about their gender identity, and I made sure to point it out to Two. Pretty cool!
(Also, if you like m/m stories, paranormal stories, and those set in other time periods - late 1890s, mostly - I do recommend the Whyborne & Griffin series. If you have a Kindle, I'm happy to lend you the books for free. Just let me know.)
Incidentally, I also recently re-read W&G #5, Bloodline, which is one of my very favorite books in the series; it started because I wanted to re-read a favorite scene, but then I decided to just go back to the beginning and re-read the whole thing properly. This means I've skipped #4 (I re-read 1-3 last year) and will need to go back and do that at some point, but since these are re-reads, that's ok.
MiniPlu is taking the state driving permit exam tomorrow. She was supposed to take it on Friday but stayed home with a migraine. Although she only needs an 80 to pass, she's super nervous because a) there's apparently both an easy version and a hard version of this test, and it sounds like her class got the hard version because several of her friends - who are very smart - failed or got low-passing scores, whereas other classes earlier in the year largely aced it and b) her good grade in gym is keeping her GPA afloat in a semester where US History Honors has been kicking her ass, and if she doesn't do super-well on this test, her gym grade will drop for 3rd quarter, as will her entire GPA. Oh, and she also has a History test tomorrow. Send her good vibes!
And that's more than enough blather from me tonight. Ugh - how'd it get so late already?
As for that gorgeous weather ... well, let's just say that it was about 80/27C, or a smidgen over for Fri and Sat. We went around in shorts and sandals. All the blooming trees went POOF into bloom (MiniPlu's allergies are not amused), and it was gorgeous out. Today was about 45F/7C, damp - misty but later full-on rainy - and very windy, so it felt closer to the freezing mark. I know we're lucky not to be in the upper midwest, where they had a blizzard, but still - it's mid-April. Frigid weather is no longer permitted!!
I've been having a hard time dealing with many of my housemates recently. Will was extremely grumpy and antisocial for several days after dealing with a combination of taxes and a urologist appointment (kidney infection 10 days ago, possible kidney stones although the latter has not yet been verified). It was more that the doctor's office called him three times in the same day to remind him of the upcoming appointment, and pestered him extra to remind him to bring any test results (which he did not have yet), and he was grumpy that medical forms often require you to regurgitate the same information multiple times. To me, this is just kind of a "duh" thing, but then, it's been ages since he's had to fill out any medical forms, whereas I'm used to it. Anyway, there were a couple of evenings when I was basically, "Uh huh. Move along. Go be a grouch somewhere else."
Also, my BIL is routinely a jerk. He deals with a lot of stress at work, so some short-tempered-ness is understandable, but some of it is also completely unnecessary. He'll yell at Karen for no reason, except that he's convinced after 25 years of marriage that she won't listen to him talk, so now he has to yell. And, yes, sometimes her choices are irritating. But yelling only makes her more annoyed, and accomplishes zero. Other times, Rob is just pig-headed, totally black-and-white about things, insisting that something HAS to be done a certain way, or acting like someone (usually Karen, occasionally me) is an idiot for not knowing something. I'll call him on it, but that only makes him grouchier, sometimes to the point that he'll just walk off and slam the door to his room. I knew Rob could be irritating to deal with sometimes - and I admit I'm not the most patient person in the world, either - but there are times I really hate living here and listening to his shit on a regular basis.
(And yes, I've frequently wondered why Karen stays with him, but love is blind. She loves him with her whole heart, even if she does get annoyed sometimes, and would never ever EVER think of leaving. Ever.)
So, that, coupled with my FIL's fretting, and two hormonal teenagers, and I do sometimes wish I could just run away from it all, sigh. Will's sister Lise was visiting for us for about 4 days the week after Easter, but she's a low-key guest. In fact, she was very helpful, getting Dad's medical stuff organized and helping him feel more pulled-together about everything. Unfortunately, we're about to trade that in for the NC crew: my BIL Paul is helping a friend set up a business server, and so everyone - including my college niece's hyperactive dog - will be here for the coming week, starting late tonight. None of us are happy about this, except possibly Karen, who values family above everything else. (Although even she gets annoyed by Heather.) Two enjoys spending time with his cousin M, but is otherwise just as unimpressed by the adults as the rest of us. But, anyway, just to sum up: for the next 5 or 6 days or thereabouts, we will have TEN humans (7 adults and 3 minors) and TEN animals (7 cats and 3 dogs) in this house.
On a brighter note, Two went on the 8th grade class trip to DC on Thurs/Fri. They visited Arlington National Cemetery and then the MLK, Roosevelt, Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean memorials. They got to stay at the Embassy Suites Hotel (same chain we stay at in CA - spacious all-suite rooms and a fantastic free breakfast), have dinner at the hotel, and then the next day they had a class photo at the Jefferson memorial, walked past the White House, ate a picnic lunch on the Mall, and visited a couple of Smithsonian museums before they came home again. The weather was glorious, many of the cherry trees were still in bloom, Two nabbed the sofa in the "living room" of their suite - (he and MiniPlu routinely argue over who will get the sofa, so they can have their own space) so, in general, it sounds like he had fun.
Will's kidney infection meant he was not well enough to come with me to see the political parody musical troupe The Capitol Steps on 6 April in Philadelphia. His ticket went to waste, which was a shame, but nothing for it. The performance was brilliant, a combination of stuff from their previous album (which I own), but updated slightly for current events, stuff that I'm sure are on the current album (Orange is the New Barack, heh), and stuff that was unbelievably current. Like ... Stormy Daniels. The student gun protests. The speed the performers must have to learn their materials is staggering. There were five performers (3 men, 2 women) who did the full range of Trump, Pence, Bernie Sanders, Obama, the governor of AZ, Supreme Court judges, Hilary Clinton, Melania Trump, Betsy Devos (our cruddy Secretary of Education), Stormy Daniels, Sarah Huckabee Sanders (White House spokesperson) - the list went on and on. Brilliant and cutting political humor, as always. (They mock everyone, in both parties.) The only thing that sucked was the parking - I had prepaid for parking in the nearby 9-story garage, but it took me forever to actually inch my way into the garage and up all 9 floors, then back down to the 5th floor before I finally found a semi-cruddy spot (car next to me had parked crooked). I had arrived at the parking garage 30 mins before the performance started, but by the time I had finally parked, sprinted down 5 flights of stairs and over a block and a half and was shown my seat, I only had 5 minutes to spare. So - I could have done without that stress, and I really wish Will had been able to come, but at least I made it. (Oh, and Wake Me Up in Mar-a-Lago is sung to the tune of Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. *g*)
I recently finished reading Hexbreaker, Jordan L Hawk's first book in their Hexworld series. I confess I hadn't really been interested in the series until now, but I'm chomping at the bit to get their next - and final - installment in the Whyborne & Griffin series, so I figured, eh, I'd give it a try. It's set in turn-of-the-century (20th C, that is) NYC, but a NYC where magic is possible. Basically, shapeshifting magic-wielders bond with magic-capable "witches" (of either gender); the witches can create hexes, (a generic term for spells, good or bad) - pieces of parchment that have the sigil for a particular spell drawn on it. The hex is triggered when the parchment is applied to the target and activated with a particular phrase. Shifters and witches can bond regardless (and unpaired shifters are often at risk of being force-bound to corrupt witches), but every shifter has a particular witch out there - think "soulmate" - with whom they will make much better magic.
Anyway, the main m/m characters in the story are a large, genial Irish cop on the "regular" force, who is hiding a somewhat murky past he would rather pretend never happened, including the fact that he does, in fact, have magical ability and a rare hexbreaking talent, to boot. The other man is a petite (I kept picturing John Leguizamo) bohemian British-Italian cat-shifter named Cicero who is dismayed to realize the uncultured Irish oaf is "his" witch. They are both involved in separate cases with alarmingly similar details, and so the magical police chief puts them together to work on solving the mystery. Sparks eventually ensue - you get the idea.
Overall I liked the story, although not as much as SPECTR or W&G. Honestly, I think my biggest disappointment was in looking over the other books in the Hexworld series and realizing each book features a different m/m pairing, rather than, as SPECTR and W&G do, following a single pairing over the course of the series. Although I like most of what the author did with Tom and Cicero, I feel like there's a lot more character development that could be done, both for them as individuals, and as a couple, and I feel like there's a lot of wasted potential in not doing so. Also, I'm feeling less inclined to read the others in the series, at least right now, because it feels like they're going to be mostly carbon copies of the same sort of premise: witch/shifter pairs who dislike each other for some reason are partnered together for [insert plot here] and fall in love along the way. More like your regular Harlequin Romance series, rather than allowing a single pair to develop more depth, you know?
So, anyway - although there were some clever ideas and cute lines and definitely some hot scenes, and I was so engrossed in the story I inhaled it in 2 days, I'm kind of conflicted as to whether I'll read more Hexworld or not.
When I went back last night to Amazon's webpage for Hexbreaker, to make sure it, like Jordan L Hawk's other books, could be freely lent to other Kindle users (yep!), the author bio caught my eye, mostly because it used a drawing of a hawk in a top hat, rather than the photo of Hawk that I remembered seeing before. The bio read:
Jordan L. Hawk grew up in North Carolina and forgot to ever leave. Childhood tales of mountain ghosts and mysterious creatures gave them a life-long love of things that go bump in the night. When they aren't writing, they brew beer and tries to keep the cats from destroying the house. Their best-selling Whyborne & Griffin series (beginning with Widdershins) can be found in print, ebook, and audiobook at Amazon and other online retailers. Non-binary queer.
I had to read the sentence about writing and beer twice, because I kept stumbling over "they." They who? There was no mention of a writing partner, so what did she mean by... ohhhhh. When I got to the final sentence, it all clicked. "They" as a single, gender-neutral pronoun. What threw me was that Hawk's original bio - in fact the one that still remained on their personal website - used she/her pronouns. So, for years, I have thought of Jordan L Hawk as "she". But - wow, yay! Another person who was stepping forward, and being truthful about their identity. I had to write her immediately to wave my flag in support (although I confess I also took the opportunity to ask her about the final W&G's publication date while I was at it) and they graciously wrote back promptly this morning. And they thanked me for pointing out the bio at their website still said she/her; by the time I went back to look, it had been updated. This is the first author I think I've been aware of who has been open about their gender identity, and I made sure to point it out to Two. Pretty cool!
(Also, if you like m/m stories, paranormal stories, and those set in other time periods - late 1890s, mostly - I do recommend the Whyborne & Griffin series. If you have a Kindle, I'm happy to lend you the books for free. Just let me know.)
Incidentally, I also recently re-read W&G #5, Bloodline, which is one of my very favorite books in the series; it started because I wanted to re-read a favorite scene, but then I decided to just go back to the beginning and re-read the whole thing properly. This means I've skipped #4 (I re-read 1-3 last year) and will need to go back and do that at some point, but since these are re-reads, that's ok.
MiniPlu is taking the state driving permit exam tomorrow. She was supposed to take it on Friday but stayed home with a migraine. Although she only needs an 80 to pass, she's super nervous because a) there's apparently both an easy version and a hard version of this test, and it sounds like her class got the hard version because several of her friends - who are very smart - failed or got low-passing scores, whereas other classes earlier in the year largely aced it and b) her good grade in gym is keeping her GPA afloat in a semester where US History Honors has been kicking her ass, and if she doesn't do super-well on this test, her gym grade will drop for 3rd quarter, as will her entire GPA. Oh, and she also has a History test tomorrow. Send her good vibes!
And that's more than enough blather from me tonight. Ugh - how'd it get so late already?