life is sweet
Reading: Still working my way through the Brother Cadfael series, and loving it. #The Devil's Novice (#8), which I just finished, was not my favorite - probably tied with the first for least favorite so far, but my least favorite books in this series are still damn good. So. If you haven't read this series and like medieval monk mysteries with Sutcliffian scenery porn and excellent female characters within the constraints of the period. Currently reading Dead Man's Ransom (#9), which, so far, loving it!
I also recently finished Broken Angels by Richard Morgan, which is the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. I read the first, Altered Carbon, almost exactly two years ago so I'd forgotten a lot of the bits of Kovacs' backstory, even though the second book has very little to do with the first. The first is sort of noir cyberpunk, this is sort of space-war horror cyberpunk, and my major takeaway is that Morgan's Law seems to be that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from religion.
Watching: We have been marathoning S2 of The Borgias and are about to start in on S3. It's just so delicious - the costumes, the sets, the gorgeous and strange-looking people (I find myself strangely attracted to Julian Bleach's Machiavelli), the juxtaposition of sex and violence.
Listening: I'm still 'reading' the audio version of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann. I think it's trying to go too deep for its breadth, or conversely is too broad for the level of detail, and sometimes my eyes glaze over at the exhaustive backstory into the various issues (the history of Chinese coinage, Goodyear's business failures) but the overall story is a worthwhile one.
I'm also up to episode 25, 'One Year Later', in Welcome to Night Vale. Still enjoying it, and damn, 'The Sandstorm' episodes were the best thing ever, weren't they? Still not really feeling fannish about it, though - most of the fic doesn't hit the notes I'm looking for, and the weirder bits of fandom (on Tumblr, fortunately, which I don't do, so I only know about it when something is linked) entirely fail to appeal to me.
And of course pursuant to the icon, cat news: A week ago Friday evening I came home from running an errand and my husband said Henry had snuggled onto his lap - unusual, because he seems to be 'my' cat - and then peed on him, at which point B shooed him off to the basement, where the litterbox lives. I went down to the basement to do my core exercises and Henry, as usual, came up to 'help' by lying under me as I did push-ups. When he moved away, I saw that he'd peed on my yoga mat, too.
Immediately I knew something must be wrong. And of course it was after 5:30 on Friday. Still, I got him an appointment at the after-hours clinic at an animal hospital. They found that his urinary tract was blocked, and man, is that ever expensive to get taken care of, especially after hours, with an overnight stay. The vet politely told me that male cats often are put down for urinary problems. I couldn't do it. But I also found it very hard to spend more money on my cat (my stupid cat! That my neighbor gave me! That I've only had since March, and he hardly sits on my lap or anything!) than I spend on my own medical problems. But...MY CAT. It's only money. It's not like I'm poor. I handed over my credit card and said, "Just fix him up, okay?"
I got him back the next day, with samples of the prescription diet I have to feed him now, and four different kinds of medicine to give him. He moped around in the downstairs bathroom, peeing bloodily all over the floor, for two days. Slowly he recovered, and I finally let him out into the house. Now he seems like his old self again, only more affectionate ♥ - he seems to appreciate his humans more after having been locked away from them for a while!
I hope hope hope the new diet does the trick.
Henry is fine now, though, and back to helping me do my core work:
Also posted on Dreamwidth where there are
comments.
I also recently finished Broken Angels by Richard Morgan, which is the second book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. I read the first, Altered Carbon, almost exactly two years ago so I'd forgotten a lot of the bits of Kovacs' backstory, even though the second book has very little to do with the first. The first is sort of noir cyberpunk, this is sort of space-war horror cyberpunk, and my major takeaway is that Morgan's Law seems to be that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from religion.
Watching: We have been marathoning S2 of The Borgias and are about to start in on S3. It's just so delicious - the costumes, the sets, the gorgeous and strange-looking people (I find myself strangely attracted to Julian Bleach's Machiavelli), the juxtaposition of sex and violence.
Listening: I'm still 'reading' the audio version of 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann. I think it's trying to go too deep for its breadth, or conversely is too broad for the level of detail, and sometimes my eyes glaze over at the exhaustive backstory into the various issues (the history of Chinese coinage, Goodyear's business failures) but the overall story is a worthwhile one.
I'm also up to episode 25, 'One Year Later', in Welcome to Night Vale. Still enjoying it, and damn, 'The Sandstorm' episodes were the best thing ever, weren't they? Still not really feeling fannish about it, though - most of the fic doesn't hit the notes I'm looking for, and the weirder bits of fandom (on Tumblr, fortunately, which I don't do, so I only know about it when something is linked) entirely fail to appeal to me.
And of course pursuant to the icon, cat news: A week ago Friday evening I came home from running an errand and my husband said Henry had snuggled onto his lap - unusual, because he seems to be 'my' cat - and then peed on him, at which point B shooed him off to the basement, where the litterbox lives. I went down to the basement to do my core exercises and Henry, as usual, came up to 'help' by lying under me as I did push-ups. When he moved away, I saw that he'd peed on my yoga mat, too.
Immediately I knew something must be wrong. And of course it was after 5:30 on Friday. Still, I got him an appointment at the after-hours clinic at an animal hospital. They found that his urinary tract was blocked, and man, is that ever expensive to get taken care of, especially after hours, with an overnight stay. The vet politely told me that male cats often are put down for urinary problems. I couldn't do it. But I also found it very hard to spend more money on my cat (my stupid cat! That my neighbor gave me! That I've only had since March, and he hardly sits on my lap or anything!) than I spend on my own medical problems. But...MY CAT. It's only money. It's not like I'm poor. I handed over my credit card and said, "Just fix him up, okay?"
I got him back the next day, with samples of the prescription diet I have to feed him now, and four different kinds of medicine to give him. He moped around in the downstairs bathroom, peeing bloodily all over the floor, for two days. Slowly he recovered, and I finally let him out into the house. Now he seems like his old self again, only more affectionate ♥ - he seems to appreciate his humans more after having been locked away from them for a while!
I hope hope hope the new diet does the trick.
Henry is fine now, though, and back to helping me do my core work:
Also posted on Dreamwidth where there are
comments.