My 20-year-old Revereware kettle is nearing the end, so I need your advice, Friendslist. The model is still available, but it is now made in China and I am extremely leery about boiling water in stainless steel of dubious provenance. I am not sure that a plastic kettle would be much safer. Whatever I buy will get a moderate amount of use since ( Read more... )

Hello, LJ! Long time no see.
Meme borrowed from curiouswombatA - Age: old enough to remember girdles but never had to wear one (which, at least in the US, pinpoints my age rather exactly ( Read more... )

I can't tell whether Kimba is genuinely traumatized after a weekend at the boarding kennel or is simply trying (with great success) to make me feel guilty for abandoning her with strangers. She whimpers if I try to stroke her fur, though she did perk up when I brought her canned catfood to eat on the sofa. Now she is sitting, with her back ( Read more... )

Batten down the hatches--here comes Frankenstorm! The windchimes of doom are clanging on the front porch, and the wind in the trees sounds like the roar of the surf. Even out here on the edge of the storm, the weather is getting wild. We've had several momentary power outages and are keeping our fingers crossed. Wishing everyone safe and warm ( Read more... )

Next weekend, a friend is hosting a movie party, and one of the films will be Ridley Scott's The Duellists. I've never seen it, so I found an online of J. Conrad's "The Duel" which was the inspiration. This was the first Conrad I had read since "Heart of Darkness" back in high school, and to my surprise, it was not nihilistic and depressing ( Read more... )

No year-end retrospective for this blog, except to say good riddance to bad rubbish.

Not satisfied with playing with the laptop, Kimba managed to sneak into the attic yesterday. There is a half-height door leading from the upstairs bedroom into storage space under the eaves. We made the mistake of giving her a moment of opportunity, and she took it with astounding speed. She was very excited to discover this new place and ( Read more... )

It turns out that the unearthly screeching was probably a raccoon fight, lol. I had never heard one before, but people describe the sound as demons fighting in their backyard. I heard quieter trilling and clucking sounds outside the window last night which may have been a mama and her kits drinking from the birdbath.

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Some marketing executive who probably washes with facial cleanser from a plastic tube has decided to change the formula of Pears soap. They've altered the lovely thyme scent, and the bar doesn't last as long or have the same distinctive shape (the top is no longer concave ( Read more... )

Something--and I still don't know what--was making a racket at 4 this morning. The noise was outside but was still piercingly loud and woke me out of a sound sleep. I've never heard anything like it--like the scream of a dying animal mixed with the shriek of fatigued metal. Our black cat fled to the cellar, Kimba stared at me wide-eyed. I woke ( Read more... )