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Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-25 10:58 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Got my hair cut this morning.

2. I just remembered next Monday is Labor Day, so I've got a three day weekend coming up! And Carla has a very early doctor's appointment that Tuesday at a location that's not super far but also not really close, so I offered to drive her, and was at first thinking I'd just go to work after that, but then decided to put in a sick day request for that day and just take the day off, so I've now got a four day weekend. :D

3. Molly has been really into my chair lately.

twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
twistedchick ([personal profile] twistedchick) wrote2025-08-26 12:23 am
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well, I still have a cousin or two

No, nobody died.

My elderly aunt -- who is the youngest and only remaining member of my father's generation, his little sister -- said something in an email that indicated that she, treasured and pampered last child, did not know the full story about her father's travels around the world. I grew up hearing stories of Grampa's travels from Dad and from his brother; I know all the details about what it was like to sail in a four-masted barque from Bremen to Cape Town to Sydney through the Straits of Magellan (in winter!) to Rio de Janiero to Genoa, a two-year voyage.

She took my offer as an insult; of course she'd been told everything (her version was "Nobody can know what happened."). And called me a liar, and worse. She said I was making it all up, or Dad had invented it, because nobody who wasn't there could know. (This is the woman who had a free ride to Purdue but dropped out after 1 semester because she couldn't be that far away from her mother. She has no idea about studying anything, let alone history, or about research. I'm amazed she got out of high school.)

I let out some of the head of steam this built in me (that has always been the worst insult for me, as a writer and journalist). Then I told her I was not a liar, nor did I invent family history. All that I knew had been verified not only by my father but by one of his brothers, and was truth. It was known, just not to her. All the family stories were softened when they were told to the baby of the family.

And just as I wasn't around in the 30s, she wasn't around at the turn of the century when Grandpa was on that trip.

She had also called me by my birth name, which is now an insult in the world; who wants to be a Karen these days? I told her my name has been Kit for more than 50 years, and signed the note that way.

I have never been one of her cherished nieces; they got all the attention long before I was born, and by the time I came around she had no room for anyone else.

So, if I am lucky, she will no longer leave snarky notes in my FB comment if I mention family history on that side of the family. She cannot put me 'in my place' as she sees it; I am far and away out of her range.

It is more of a relief than anything else, the thought that I probably will not have to deal with her. And, as I said in the header, I still have a cousin on that side of the family whom I get along with well, and several on the other side. None of them within 400 miles or so, but that's how it goes.

I do miss the departed members of that generation, that family, ones who accepted me as I am, who listened and to whom I listened, and who I know loved me. They're gone, but never forgotten.
marina: (don't leave me here)
Marina ([personal profile] marina) wrote2025-08-25 10:23 pm

(no subject)

A life update in no particular order:

depressing things )

- My one shred of Nice Things. Before leaving my wonderful supportive boss got me a little vacation time over the holidays. So, this is by no means advisable (but neither is living through *gestures at the news*), but I'm going to be in London in the middle of September.

So, let me know if you:

- would like to meet in London
- would like to meet in some other part of England?? I don't think I'll make it up to Scotland but I could maybe do a daytrip somewhere outside of London
- Would like to meet in Paris? (I haven't been back there since I was 12 and am vaguely considering for that to be my daytrip)
torachan: cats looking at a crow out the screen door (cats and crow)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-24 08:13 pm

Daily Happiness

1. The heat was not as bad today as yesterday (in fact we went for a walk a bit ago and it was quite pleasant) and it's supposed to be either high 70s or low 80s for the rest of the ten day forecast, so hopefully that holds up.

2. I made a rhubarb custard pie this morning before it got too hot. Now that we have the Breville oven, it doesn't heat up the whole house to bake things the way the regular oven did, but I still wanted to get it done early, especially since it always takes so long to cool and set up (it was good and ready by this evening for dessert, though). I still have a bunch of bags of already chopped up rhubarb in the freezer, so can make the pie (or something else) another couple times.

3. I finished another puzzle this morning. This is the first one of this brand I've tried and it was very interesting. The pieces were very irregularly cut, including some with straight edges that were not border pieces. It made for a little additional challenge, but for some really odd shaped pieces, it made it easier to find where they went just by shape rather than color.



4. He looks like he's having a good dream.

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Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-23 07:55 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. Got a decent farmer's market haul this morning. The lemonade place did not forget their lemonade twice in a row, and they've added some flavors, too, so I got a yellow watermelon lemonade (not sure if it will actually taste any different to the regular red one) and a cucumber lemonade. I did drink the latter already and it was a bit disappointing as it was too chunky for my liking, but the flavor was good.

2. It was hot today but aside from my trip to the farmers market in the morning (I went right when they opened at eight but it was so muggy and gross already) we stayed in the house and kept relatively cool.

3. Ever since we had the pizza pockets with cajun ranch dip at DCA, we've been on the lookout for that kind of sauce in the store and could not find any, but the other day Carla finally did find some (Hidden Valley Kickin Cajun Blackened Ranch) and we got pizza tonight and it was perfect!

4. Look at this little face!

torachan: (cartoon me)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-23 06:14 pm
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Weekly Reading

Currently Reading
What Happened to Lucy Vale?
5%. A girl and her mother move into a house where sixteen years ago another girl disappeared and her mother was found hanged in the house. The story will be told in alternating timelines, but I haven't gotten that far yet, so it's just present day. Sounds interesting. I read another book by this author and liked it, though I blank out on what book it was literally seconds after looking it up each time, so I don't think it was that memorable.

Our Hideous Progeny
41%. A sort of Frankenstein fanfic. Victor Frankenstein's grand niece decides to follow in his footsteps and try to create life, but this time since she and her husband are paleontologists, they decide to create a dinosaur rather than a human. That said, while that is the main plot, it's only a small part of the book, which is more about the MC's struggles to be taken seriously as a woman who is interested in science. I'm really liking this so far. I'm listening to the audiobook and the narrator is great.

Suddenly a Murder
9%. A group of friends from a ritzy high school go to a 1920s themed party and there's a murder. I decided to pick this up because the 1920s themed party aspect sounded interesting, but I have quickly (within the first few paragraphs) become annoyed by rich teens being obnoxious (though the MC is a scholarship student and not rich herself). I'll finish it because I dislike not finishing things, but I doubt I'll really like it that much.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
No progress.

Recently Finished
How to Survive a Horror Story
This was an interesting premise but I never felt like it really got good and I didn't think the twist was all that. It was fine, but doesn't make me want to run out and check out more by the author. Also, this didn't really have an impact on my enjoyment of the book, but I could not believe that the author couldn't take two seconds to google to see if a store they are mentioning by name exists in the place they are saying it does. No one in LA is going to the Piggly Wiggly, because it is very famously a southern grocery store chain. She could have just said grocery store, or she could have checked to see what stores exist, but nah. (The same character also lives in his parents' basement, which is not quite as unbelievable as the Piggly Wiggly, because I'm sure there are at least a couple houses here that have basements, but it just added to the general vibe of carelessness.)

Newcomer
I found the format a little tedious at first, but ended up enjoying this.

Shady Hollow
This was definitely a miss for me. Too much focus on describing the animals and their town compared to the rest of the story.

DeadEndia vol. 1-3
I reread the first two books because the third is finally out! Apparently it came out last year, but I just realized it was out a week or so ago. It's been too long since I read the others, so I had to refresh my memory, and I'm glad I did, because I would have been struggling to keep up if I'd just jumped right in to volume three. This was a good conclusion and I really love this series.

Skip to Loafer vol. 12

Hen na E vol. 3
twistedchick: watercolor painting of coffee cup on wood table (Default)
twistedchick ([personal profile] twistedchick) wrote2025-08-23 03:19 pm

(no subject)

Putting the Substack on hold has already had some effects. Since I'm not thinking about politics when I fall asleep, my dreams have returned -- in living color.

Night before last I was dreaming about an enormous library or bookstore that had been made out of a former doctor's office, with all the little office areas being different topics, and the books on the walls looked different colors and styles in each.

Last night I dreamed I was talking with Dolly Parton before she went onstage and noticed that her hair was not only touching the floor, it was long enough to trip her up. I managed to trim off about five inches that was in floor contact. Then after her concert she came back and asked me to go on a trip with her as thanks for keeping her from falling off the stage -- and we started off on a road trip. Somewhere in there she turned into Meryl Streep and wanted me to try a tiny heart-shaped hallucinogen as we drove off on the Southern Tier Expressway (which is not a place to go tripping.). And at that point I woke up.

Thanks for returning, Imagination!
yourlibrarian: Merlin Reading (MERL-MerlinReading - sallymn)
yourlibrarian ([personal profile] yourlibrarian) wrote2025-08-23 01:40 pm

Various Goodbyes

1) Finally saw the last episode of Vera and the Farewell Pet documentary extra about the series. Interesting that the show has been so successful in so many countries. I will miss seeing new stories and it's particularly unfortunate that the last season was only 2 episodes. But I'm glad it had a long run and was satisfied with how it left off.

2) When I went to cancel Britbox earlier this week, they offered me a free month to continue. So why not? As a result I had more time to get through House of Elliot and finished S3. They clearly expected to go onto another season, which is unfortunate because without the final scenes they could have wrapped the story up fairly well. Read more... )

3) I also forged ahead up to season 19 of Silent Witness. Read more... )

4) I can't say I miss mass market paperbacks, largely because I read e-books and their costs have risen considerably. But their decline does upset some for a variety of reasons. I definitely think it's a shame they've been replaced by paperback copies in a hardback size, due to storage space, cost, and reduced titles. Read more... )

5) Some more trip photos at [community profile] common_nature, these at Agate Beach and nearby areas. Also a lack of whales.

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torachan: a cartoon bear eating a large sausage (magical talking bear prostitute)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-22 10:29 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. So glad it's the weekend!

2. One nice benefit of the timing of my promotion/role change is that I don't have to help with inventory. People are busy with inventory this week and next week, but not me! It's not my problem anymore!

3. We had a nice time at Disneyland and I'm glad we went today instead of tomorrow, despite the heat and crowds, because now I have a weekend with no big plans so I can just rest and relax.

4. Jasper!

torachan: (Default)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-22 10:19 pm
Entry tags:

2025 Disneyland Trip #57 (8/22/25)

It's officially the start of Halloweentime at Disneyland. It was also in the mid-nineties today, so crowds and heat, not a great combination, but we still wanted to go, and we had a great time despite the heat (crowds weren't actually too bad once we were actually in the park).

Halloween! )
torachan: maru the cat sitting in a bucket (maru)
Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-21 10:42 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. It has been warm and will be warm through the weekend (tomorrow is supposed to be the peak) but then is cooling off through the rest of the month. Thankfully it hasn't been super hot yet, but September is always the worst, so I'm sure that's coming.

2. Chloe and Gemma were so sweet and cuddly today! *_*

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Travis ([personal profile] torachan) wrote2025-08-20 10:04 pm
Entry tags:

Daily Happiness

1. We got dinner from Shake Shack tonight and they have a really good banana shake right now.

2. I finally got all our lego sets catalogued, so now we can keep track of what we have. (You know you have too many when you need a site to keep track of them.)

3. Molly looks so sweet here! (It's because she is sweet.)