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We were delighted by Shadow’s response to his first visitors last night. We kept him crated until they’d seated themselves ready to watch the first two eps of Slings & Arrows. He made not a peep when they arrived nor during our typically uproarious dinner. Once we let him out of the crate, he observed them closely. One guest had recently enjoyed a hot-and-sour sauce on her egg roll. She invited him closer and he licked her hands! He permitted the other to pet his back. He curled up in his bed (immediately below the TV) and peacefully admired the assembled multitude.

Early this AM MyGuy placed one of Shadow’s beds on my side of our bed. Around 6AM he tip tip tap tipped into the bedroom and curled up in it, keeping me company for 45 minutes.

He was in the breezeway with MyGuy 20 minutes ago, having just come back from his evening constitutional. Just as his lead was unhooked, the leonine March wind blew open the door to the backyard. Shadow was out like a shot. MyGuy called him back, but he kept backing up. At last, MyGuy leaned on the garage holding the door open, and Shadow scooted right back in to the breezeway.

The wisdom around rescues is a rule of 3: 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to learn routines, and 3 months to feel fully at home. We’re on track.

(Got to get some Shadow icons!)

mildred_of_midgard

After 3 rest days for leg soreness, I ran 9.75 miles today, i.e., 7.5 loops. I was hoping for more, but for whatever reason, I struggled mentally, and that was the best I could do. I got through a constant "This is not happening! What was I thinking??" by dint of:

- Loops 1-5: "Well, you don't want to stop *now*, do you? Just before we get to 10.5 miles?" "Right! Stopping now would feel bad." "Okay, so you can definitely do 4 loops, right?" "Right!" "Okay, 4 loops."
- Loop 5: "This is technically loop 4, because you stopped after loop 1 to go to the bathroom."
- Loop 6: "If you do one more loop, you'll be at what you did last time, minus half a loop. And if you do that loop, there's no way you're not going to do half a loop to catch up to last time. And last time was 8.2 miles, pretty respectable."
- Loop 7: "I can do this! I've got this!"
- Loop 8: SEND HELP.

I did half of loop 8, which put me at 9.75 miles. The idea was to finish loop 8, but hey. 9.75 miles is pretty good! Still a personal record.

I then walked the rest of the loop home (.75 miles), showered, breakfasted, walked to a friend's house (2.2 miles), got driven to a trail, and hiked (2.8 miles)*.

Time: My time seems to have been slightly better than last time: 9.8 minutes per mile, though there's some estimation in there, because I had to stop after loop 1 and go to the bathroom. Last time, it was just under 10.

I had stretched my right quads, and indeed they did not hurt anything like last time during this run. My right groin muscle was a bit tight, probably from the quad stretching. The worst was my left glutes, which I realized what's up with that: when my injured hamstring flares up when I'm sitting at the computer, I tighten my left glutes to make the pain stop. It makes the pain stop, but it means that when I run, my left glutes are *really* tight. And it's very hard to stretch that without messing up either my very fragile knee or my still-injured hamstring.

Hamstring continues to be strung, but much the same run after run, so I think I can keep going, I'm not making it worse. Next up: 11.7 miles (9 loops)???

* Before you get too impressed, though, the friend is 82 years old with heart trouble. She's not allowed to get her heart rate above a certain level. So we have to go really slowly and stop a lot. But she walks 3 miles a day, travels a lot, and is very mentally active (distinguished research professor still publishing in prestigious journals). So I hope we have her for a lot more years! <3

oursin

This week's bread: Elizabeth's David's Light Rye Loaf, which turned out nicely even though I discovered that the fresh yeast had finally given up and I had to fall back on Allinson's Easy Bake Yeast (which is not, horrors, the same as their former Active Dry Yeast).

Friday night supper: grocery order came early enough that I was able to put in hand the makings of a sardegnera with pepperoni.

Saturday breakfast rolls: brown toasted pinenut, with Marriage's Golden Wholegrain Bread Flour, turned out quite well.

Today's lunch: game casserole - mixture of pheasant, venison, duck and partridge with onion, garlic, bay leaf, juniper berries, coriander seeds and red wine; served with kasha, warm green bean and fennel salad, and baby pak choi stirfried with star anise

umadoshi

Having a week's break from the spring crunch (and a couple of those days as actual days off, not just regular workdays) meant I was able to get some reading and a bit of watching done!

Reading: On the novel(la)s front, two by Seanan McGuire and one by Rachel Reid. Butterfly Effects (the newest InCryptid) was good and also one of the major "wow, the reality (or maybe the scope, rather) of this series bears almost no resemblance to the impression given by the first handful of books" installments; the existence of multiple dimensions comes up very promptly in the early books (I think in the very first), but it was still a big shift to have that become part of the hands-on reality that the characters are dealing with.

Next I read Game Changer, the first book in Rachel Reid's Game Changers series, AKA the Heated Rivalry source material. I expected this to have far more detail on the Scott/Kip relationship than the show did, what with it being a novel that basically got turned into a single episode, but was a bit surprised by how many (most) of the detail in the show was completely different than the book, while the broad strokes are the same. (Also, I feel like I saw more than one reference to show!Kip being very physically different from book!Kip--I'm very sure I saw the word "twink" in play for the book iteration--and am baffled by where that came from, because...no? Anyway.) It was fine. I didn't love it, although I did appreciate many moments that were particularly fun in the context of the show.

And then I read Through Gates of Garnet and Gold, this year's Wayward Children novella. The sheer cost of these novellas made me decide within the last few years to just go for the digital versions rather than hard copies, and this year I opted to simply get the ebook from the library, which is why I read it a couple of months after it came out. I'm just not invested in this particular series. Ah, well.

For manga, I read the fifth omnibus of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, which includes the three volumes available in English that I hadn't previously read at all. (Did I buy vol. 13 and 14 in their original single-volume release and then have to buy this omnibus volume to get vol. 15? Yes. >.<) A sixth omnibus English volume has been scheduled and delayed repeatedly, so I knew there was still at least a fair bit to go--the three volumes to be bundled in that one--but after this catch-up was the first time I actually checked for info online, and I was not braced to see that it's up to 31 volumes in Japan and ongoing. o_o I have no clue what's going on with the English release, but I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say it's probably a mess.

Non-fiction: still reading a chapter of Braiding Sweetgrass here and there, and I've also started (but not gotten far into) Crystal Wilkinson's Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.

Watching: We're caught up on The Pitt and have a couple episodes of Frieren yet to watch. (Am I right that this season of Frieren is over now?)

We also finished our watch of Heated Rivalry--my second time, and basically

scruloose's first, except for the part where they saw most of the finale with minimal context back when I watched it. They also had some random bits of info in advance for their watch, because when I was initially watching it I wasn't at all thinking in terms of "this is a thing they may wind up watching" (they have much less interest in watching things in general than I do), so I'd been blithely telling them random stuff here and there before we got to the point of "perhaps

scruloose will watch Canada's new national export after all". La? But they really enjoyed the show, which is the important thing. ^_^

Current Mood: restless

james_davis_nicoll

One determined man struggles to save humanity from the mutant scheme to avert doomsday.

Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak

sushiflop

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

siderea

[requires both audio and video]

Jonasquin on YT (previously) has written a wholly original motet in the 16th century style after Desprez upon the cantus firmus "Seven Nations Army", for the words of Psalm 10, verses 2, 3, 7-11.

Comment would be superfluous.

2026 Mar 20: Jonasquin YT: "A 16th century motet for the US President"

Watch on YouTube

Click through to the video on YT to see the translation in the description.

kenjari

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
by Helen Simonson

This quiet, lovely novel takes place during the summer of 1919. Constance Haverhill is spending the summer in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, acting as a companion to Mrs. Fog, who is the mother of Lady Mercer, a friend of Constance's late mother. Constance meets Poppy Wirrall, daughter of a local baronet and head of a motorcycling club for women and runs a women's motorcycle taxi service. Constance and Poppy become friends, and Constance is drawn into her circle, and to her brother Harris, a wounded war veteran. Constance, Poppy, and the other members of the club must contend with a return to peacetime that also threatens their new freedoms and prospects.
I really enjoyed this novel. It's mainly driven by the characters and their relationships rather than by a big, sweeping plot. Constance is such a wonderfully sympathetic character. I really related to her desire for independence and with the way she chafed against being considered useful and instead wanted to be considered attractive and desirable. All the other characters are interesting and well-drawn. I especially liked Mrs. Fog, who makes her own bid for the life she really wants, and Tilly, a librarian turned mechanic. The way Simonson explores how women negotiated the way the war shook up the hierarchies of class and gender is very deft yet pointed. Her points about how the toffs treat the working classes were sharp.

Current Mood: peaceful

primeideal

( link contains actual spoilers, this is not really spoilery )

boxofdelights posting in

wiscon

WisCon 48 exclusive art 'The Gatherer' is presented by Rachel Quinlan.
To view more of her work go to https://www.rachelquinlan.com/

( The Gatherer )

kiya

PSA

Did you know
Mental health is worse
In the population
We're trying to kill?

It's why
They can't be allowed
To be
Like that.

It's for their own good,
You see.
These laws
Are protection.

Left to their own devices
They make bad choices,
Which lead to
Negative outcomes,
Like living.

sarajayechan posting in

ladiesbingo

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Current Mood: accomplished

flo_nelja posting in

ladiesbingo

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malurette posting in

ladiesbingo

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kiya

Rat

The poem says
Hope is a sewer rat
Adapted
For survival

Despite the plague
And the filth
And the hate

And I
Got the t-shirt
The one with the rats
That says
"You will not
Exterminate
Us"

That they
Resurrected
For rats
Like me

But I am
Sick
Of gnawing
A way
Out

And so tired
Of the stench.

oursin

And I don't think I've had Edna before??

Recuerdo

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed, “Good morrow, mother!” to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, “God bless you!” for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

james_davis_nicoll

13 books new to me, and save for one mystery, all fantasy. Man, fantasy is just eating SF's lunch. Not that that will be reflected in what I actually review.

Books Received, March 14 — March 20

Poll #34393 Books Received, March 14 — March 20

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36

View Respondents

Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi (October 2026)
8 (22.2%)

Twined Fates: Tangled Hearts, Book Three by K. Bromberg (October 2026)
0 (0.0%)

Light of the Song by Joyce Ch’Ng (September 2025)
8 (22.2%)

The First Flame by Lily Berlin Dodd (November 2026)
1 (2.8%)

A Destiny So Cruel by Amanda Foody & C. L. Herman (November 2026)
1 (2.8%)

Find Me Where It Ends by Cassandra Khaw (October 2026)
11 (30.6%)

Bad Company by Sara Paretsky (November 2026)
7 (19.4%)

The Kings’ List by Jade Presley (May 2026)
2 (5.6%)

My Unfamiliar by Mara Rutherford (December 2026)
8 (22.2%)

Ghosted by Talia Tucker (November 2026)
3 (8.3%)

The Mystic and the Missing Girl by Vikki Vansickle (September 2026)
6 (16.7%)

The Scarlet Ball by Nghi Vo (October 2026)
12 (33.3%)

Chosen Son by Adrienne Young (November 2026)
2 (5.6%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (80.6%)

dancing_serpent posting in

c_ent

The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

siderea

I knew that other contemporaneous cultures than those of Europe had unfathomably higher numbers of books than Europeans did, but I didn't know about this in retrospect obvious reason why:

2026 Mar 19: Dwarkesh Patel feat. Ada Palmer [DwarkeshPatel YT]: "Why Medieval Books Cost as Much as a House" (1 min, 7 sec):

Watch on YouTube

Without papyrus, what you're writing on is a dead sheep. And if you think of the price of a head of lettuce and the price of a leather jacket, you're understanding the difference between a sheet of papyrus and writing on a dead sheep. So every page of a medieval book is as expensive as that much of a leather jacket. And a medieval book hand written costs as much as a house.

And so to have a library is to be not just rich but mega rich. So only the wealthiest cities contain anybody who has a library. The great library of the University of Paris, the library from Europe's perspective, has 600 books.

There's definitely more than 600 books in this room. Every kiosk at an airport selling Dan Brown novels has more than 600 books. This is nothing.

And at the same time as that, in the Middle East, sultans have libraries of over a thousand books or 5,000 books. There are libraries in Sub-Saharan Africa with thousands of books.* There are libraries in China with thousands of books. Because they in China have cheap paper and rice paper. The Middle East has papyrus.

Europe, and only Europe, is writing on a leather jacket.

* Three hundred thousand. It's been thirteen years and I am still not remotely over that fact. Every time I encounter it anew, my SCA persona gets acrophobic trying to imagine a library that big and has to sit down and put her head between her knees so she doesn't pass out.

siderea

The previously expected ICE enforcement surge never materialized. Curious.

I wonder if this just means they're short-staffed. Or perhaps distracted.

(I also wonder if somebody made a judgment call not to try what they did in MN in MA, but have largely rejected the notion. It would not be to anybody's advantage if they did, on either side, but I'm not seeing a lot of good judgment in evidence anywhere.)

kenjari

Sounds Beyond: Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground
by Kevin C. Karnes

This book looks at a pivotal point in Arvo Part's career and how that point intersected with the underground music scene in Soviet Estonia and Latvia. In particular, Karnes looks at underground festivals and discotheques in Riga and Estonia and their role as important venues for the performance of Part's emerging tintinnabulaton and religious works.
I am a huge fan of Part's music and found this book fascinating. It looks at a particular moment in Part's career and compositional development and the role of a set of underground musicians and presenters in that moment. I loved seeing that slice of musical life and what it meant for Part and his contemporaries. I loved getting another glimpse into Part's compositional activities and methods. Plus, it's always heartneing to see how artistic expression finds a way even under oppressive regimes.

Current Mood: tired

redbird

It turns out that changing Medicare Advantage plans is not costing me significant money: it looks as though the money I paid for prescriptions at the beginning of the year counts for a calendar-year maximum, even though I switched plans. I ordered another dose of Kesimpta on Wednesday, and they aren't charging me for it. As I said to

cattitude and

adrian_turtle, I'm glad that I could have afforded to pay that twice, but there are plenty of things I'd rather do with the money.

As a side note, this plan will pay for $65 per quarter of over-the-counter medications and some related things. I used part of this quarter's today to order Mucinex, Imodium, and an under-the-tongue digital fever thermometer. I think I can get them to pay for non-emergency transportation to medical appointments, and I should check what dental coverage I have.

jesse_the_k

From that reliable source of journal prompts, thefridayfive

1) What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

Volunteered for WisCon in 2007, clearly LJ was where everything was Happening. Took me a year to figure out the culture. Moved to DW on 1 May 2009.

2) How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

79! Most are evidently dormant. (DW comms never die.)

3) Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

I love the questions and answers at little_details, where writers seek specifics about an infinite assortment of facts: paint manufacturing, historical Chinese tornadoes, NZ slang for three examples.

4) How did you pick your user name?

It’s a riff on my wallet name which I’ve been using it since 2001.

5) If you could change your user name, would you?

Nope.

nanila

The preceding two weeks of Friday Five questions didn't pique my interest, but this week's are great. Love a bit of meta-blogging. Thank you for the opportunity to navel-gaze.

What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

I started off on LJ in 2001 because everyone was doing it. I created an account and then let it sit for a couple of weeks while I figured out what it was for. I think it was victorine who prodded me into posting regularly and then I just…never stopped.
How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

A few dozen in total. Most of them are dead, the LJ communities in particular. The only one I participate in regularly is DW community awesomeers, because I'm one of the two people who puts up the daily “Just One Thing” posts. I find it easier to write a short comment about my day there than to write up a full post, especially during the work week.
Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

See above. I also enjoy thefridayfive, and I like reading threeforthememories during its annual spate of activity.
How did you pick your user name?

My current username is a play on my actual name. My original LJ name was “lilith” as that's the pseudonym I first adopted when I started interacting with online communities back in the 90s. Eventually I felt I'd outgrown it, and I've been nanila ever since.
If you could change your user name, would you?

That would genuinely be a big decision after more than 15 years of using this one, in a lot more places than DW and LJ. I'd have to do substantive additional navel-gazing to work out what it would be.

quomodocumque_feed

Posted by JSE

https://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/sad-badgers/

http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/?p=8567

Since 2013, a 12 seed has upset a 5 seed in the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament 20 times. Four out of those 20 games were lost by Wisconsin.

https://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/sad-badgers/

http://quomodocumque.wordpress.com/?p=8567

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Madeline the Edifying

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Those watched by zdashamber

Network

Shadow Update: Hosting & Bedding

9.75 miles

Culinary

Weekly proof of life: media intake while catching my breath in a break in the crunch

Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak

You Like It Darker

"Dum superbit impius" [music, pols]

Book Review

Very minor spoilers for "Project Hail Mary" (book and movie)

The Gatherer

Really, really winning.

PSA

BINGO: Diagonal Line

BONUS: Straight line

[bingo] line

Depression is winning today

Rat

World Poetry Day again, apparently

Books Received, March 14 — March 20

Weekly Chat

The cost of literacy [medieval hist]

Massachusetts not the next? [Ω, MA/US]

Book Review

Medicare advantage, again

The Friday Five: Journal History

The Friday Five

Sad Badgers

Profile

October 2011

Style Credit

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