Except for one good day (more on that later), December has absolutely sucked. I would say let's fast-forward to January, but I'm pretty sure things will only get worse then.

Back in September we signed a contract to have our chain-link fence and rotting wood shed replaced. I tried to be a good citizen and apply for a raze permit from the county, ( Read more... )

→ Comment with "Questions, please!"
→ I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
→ Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
→ Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

Questions from ioplokon on Dreamwidth (who asks very good/hard questions!)

1. What is your favorite opera ( Read more... )

I didn't read much this month. I took about two weeks off after the election and have just finished books I started earlier in the year.

The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages, François-Xavier Fauvelle
This book was recommended by the Baltimore Museum of Art curator, who also did the African art course we took via Smithsonian ( Read more... )

A couple of weeks ago, Science published a pair of editorials reacting to the US presidential election results. Marcia McNutt, former editor-in-chief of Science, wrote that "science, at its most basic, is apolitical." This is, of course, absolute horseshit. Modern science is intensely political. Governments are the largest funders of scientific ( Read more... )

The two things in the subject line are related, I promise.

I've been an annoying contrarian for a really long time. I went to college in Los Angeles and was so tired of hearing about the entertainment industry (purely by osmosis) that I rarely watched tv or movies and never went to a taping or stood outside the theater (which was across the street ( Read more... )

Several years ago I wrote that the world could stop manufacturing Christmas-themed stuff and it would be years before we noticed. We're almost at that point with Halloween stuff, and I didn't even set foot in a Spirit Halloween.

Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded-Age New York, Marge Piercy

To be honest, this was a little disappointing. My favorite Piercy ( Read more... )

We had a month's worth of rain in one week in September and nothing since. There's no rain in the 10-day forecast, either. Leaves are dropping because it's so dry. Here are some photos to pass the time.

I think that I had seen this building in Richmond (Virginia) before, but I couldn't find a photo in my archives.

( Read more... )

It was back in June when I decided to buy a bicycle for the task of picking up our vegetable share every other Tuesday. It only took me four months to actually enact the plan. I guess that I didn't get the current bike until late July, but still. I am slow. I am also still slow on the bike, wearing out the brakes on the downslopes so that I don't ( Read more... )

Trust, Hernan Diaz

I have a theory that some writers mess with structure to draw attention away from the flaws. The first part of this book is a book about a Wall Street tycoon and his wife in 1920s New York City; their fairy-tale life is cut short when she succumbs to mental illness and is institutionalized in Switzerland. The second part of the ( Read more... )

I had a work retreat from the 16th to the 18th, at which I caught a cold that lasted about a week. I did recover in time for our annual trip to the Richmond (VA) Folk Festival, which was held early this year to avoid conflicting with Jewish holidays. We took it easy (Brent is still not feeling 100%) and only saw three performances: Lonnie Holley ( ( Read more... )