The rain outside is doing its raineth every day thing. Put out my garbage early but not the dead vacuum, given there's no guarantee they'll take it ( Read more... )

Dream of vaguely Edwardian setting except for Mother's friend Mrs. O'S in an emerald green 50s dress with patch pockets over the chest whose flaps stuck out at a 90 degree angle. Problem was actually who would inherit the throne of England, there being something wrong about George V. Possibly that his name wasn't in fact George ( Read more... )

As always when the temps first go below 10C/ 50F, everything feels cold cold oh so cold. I toy with the idea of turning on the heat. But checking the thermostat, turns out the heat is actually on and will kick in if things go below 15C. Thermostat currently thinks it's 20C/ 68F so the cold is pretty much psychological ( Read more... )

Reading Daemons of the Shadow Realm before bed yesterday got me a very unpleasant nightmare of being a Japanese girl being stalked by a something, or a menacing someone, in an obscure city landscape. This will not stop me from reading vol2 because I'm such a sucker for backstories, but yes, this manga is quite as unpleasant as James Nicoll said it ( Read more... )

1. Rainy autumn nights are cozy. This has to do with an obscure memory from childhood, something to do with the warm lights of Bedford and the shiny black streets outside, and dinner, and homework at the dining room table, and the grandfather clock ticking in the hallway, sounding the quarter hours and playing a tune at the half ones: which always ( Read more... )

Which was essentially my lie-in dream this morning. The war was something vague happening outside the space station(?) we were in, because I was on the lower level dealing with the daycare kids. But then the war was won and we needed to tidy up the left-over supplies in the gleaming chrome kitchen, which happily involved disposing of many small ( Read more... )

My grasshopper memory means I can't easily read WIPs. I need that 'in our last thrilling episode/ manga chapter/ tankoubon/ volume' reference for absolutely everything. I do want to read the ending of FMA, but I hesitate because it involves reading the last ten vols of FMA. At least. And every new Aaronovitch requires rereading the previous ( Read more... )

1. Walked down to Spadina's Chinatown in search of sunshades. This now qualifies as A Trek, and I'm mildly pleased I managed it without knees screaming at me as much as they might have. Bought a sunshade in white with writing on it-- calligraphic Chinese, I think, and no notion what it says. But the handle turned out to be way too short. The ( Read more... )

August is always work-heavy, so no wonder I read so little. But I'm now happily embarked on Kafka on the Shore, in translation and hardcover, an absolute find from the neighbourhood Front Lawn Library. Evidently Murakami isn't someone's cup of tea, but he seems to be mine. Or Kafka does. I like it better than the emotionally phthistic narrator of ( Read more... )

Whoever told me there were 25 volumes of FMA lied like a rug. There are 28, and I must wait yet a while to discover what happens. I could order it in Japanese, I suppose, but money is currently being funneled into Teeth, the perpetual bugbear. How a twenty year old root canal can develop an infection of the bone, I do not know, but it has and I ( Read more... )