Here are five things about the warmer weather that make me happy, or that I look forward to, every year.

1. More greenery on the trees

2. Outdoor craft markets and farmers’ markets

3. Yard sales

4. Outdoor cafe seating and picnics

5. Dog owners spending more time outside with their dogs, and giving me more time to make friends

I would probably love to enjoy any of these things with you, if we can.

Quote of the Day:

"Take time to be bored. One time I heard a coworker say, 'When I get busy, I get stupid.' Ain’t that the truth. Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I’m bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts—it’s so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you’re out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take a really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can. As the artist Maira Kalman says, 'Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind.'"

Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative (Workman Publishing, 2012)


My Check-In:

Some work on the Neverending Project...*thud*.


Tally
( Days 1-12 )

Day 13: annavere, badly_knitted, carenejeans, china_shop, cornerofmadness, dswdiane, goddess47, luzula, sanguinity, sylvanwitch, trobadora, ysilme

Day 14: china_shop,


Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. And remember, you can join in at any time!

Early, but I'm away for over a week, so I won't finish any more of my current projects.

Welcome to “Tennis Tuesday”, my new series of recurring posts with a weekly round-up of news and updates about Italian tennis.

Featured this week:

• “Prince” Jannik Sinner Claims Monte-Carlo 2026 Title & World #1
• Berrettini’s astonishing double bagel on Medvedev in Monte-Carlo
• Sinner’s Records: Sets + Matches Streaks
• BJK Cup 2026 Qualifiers: Italy to the Finals!
• ATP/WTA Titles Won so Far (Italian players only)
• Current ATP/WTA Rankings (Italian players only)

( Tennis Tuesday — Week #15 )





See you next week with Tennis Tuesday! 🎾

April not quite 365 d ays

14.  It’s International Laverbread Day (here’s the Wiki entry). Have you ever tried it?

I have never had it. I'm going to go look it up.

Crunchy questions

If you're fannish, are you a one-fandom person, or do you love a variety of fandoms at once? Or have you only ever been in one fandom?

I'm a one-fandom-at-a-time gal. I've written in many, but I always end up back at my first love.

90 discussion questions

1. What more do you wish you would have learned in high school?

I think they should have Native American History class. I learned so much after school on my own. It's a good idea. Someone should run with it.

Quotes

I told my boss three companies were after me and I needed a raise to stay at my job. We laughed and laughed. Anyway, I start at Apple next week.” – Unknown

Questions

2. Do you like pineapple on your pizza?

No, I don't.

23. Have you ever been caught cheating on a test?

Never have cheated on a test.

Jokes

* Why does it take pirates a long time to learn the alphabet? Because they can spend years at C!
* Why can't a nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot.
* Why can’t you put two half-dollars in your pocket? Because two halves make a hole, and your money will fall out!
* Why does a moon rock taste better than an Earth rock? It’s a little meteor.
* How much do rainbows weigh? Not much. They’re actually pretty light.

Is anyone noticing that Dreamwidth loads really slowly these days? Sometimes I have to wait almost half a minute when all my other sites are almost instantaneous. So, it's not my computer.

I've been keeping it to myself, but the reason I haven't been engaging as much lately as usual because I've been having some health issues. I'm very stressed out about. I'm trying to remain positive, but I'm afraid it may not be anything simple this time. I even have a bag packed, in case I end up with a hospital stay. The worst part is, I'm so poor I can't afford this shit (yes, even with insurance, our hours have been cut at work and I can barely afford food). I'm not certain what's going to happen if a lot of bills get run up. Keep me in your prayers, thanks.

I've been distracting myself with Miami Vice. Still haven't finished my rewatch but I'm on the last episode now. I'm mad at Rico, my beloved has pissed me off. 😉 I'll get over it and forgive him, though.

What the heck, I'll post the memes I just did here.




Then there's Castillo, Rico, Sonny, and the vein in Sonny's forehead: 😉
He's just a little bit protective...

I really struggle to have breakfast these days.

I have my morning coffee and then I kind of forget to have breakfast until midmorning...

I got a very nifty gift around Maria and several other women of the MCU (Pepper, Jane, Nebula). My gifter took all the threads of my request and tied them together beautifully!

a piece of history in space
A mysterious fragment of an alien world threatens Earth, and four women must stop it before it fully awakes.

Literally, S.H.I.E.L.D in space!

So today was a cinema trip so this is a post about that.

When I got to town I only went in a few places. I went in Poundland to get lightbulbs (the one at the top of the stairs has gone) then Aldi to get pasta (I picked up a leaflet and the new pasta sounded nice.) Then popped in Asda. I had some luck again! They had the new Mandalorian visual guide, which I didn’t even know was out, and it was half off! So naturally I grabbed it. And they also had copies of Project Hail Mary so I got that too.

I read some of the Mandalorian visual guide between films and I’m so looking forward to going through it properly.its hefty covering all three seasons of the show (plus some of Book Of Boba Fett) and it starts with a new map. Damn I love it when a book starts with a galaxy map, I love looking through it, spotting familiar plants and also seeing things and wanting to know what they are,

The trailers before Exit 8 were a bit puzzling, in that only one was a horror.

Micheal: A new one, again it looks like it’s well done but not something I’d go watch
Power Ballad: A few with Paul Rudd and one of the Jonas brothers. It seems the latter stole a song the former wrote and made it a hit
Two women: A French film, about two women that seem to be unhappy with their lives. Probably won’t see feels it could be funny
Backrooms: I’d seen this trailer online but ahh seeing it on a big screen (twice!) was so good especially since it’s confirmation we’re getting it! I’m so sold on the concept of a strange space, plus it’s part found footage which I love, plus it meant I got to see the Backrooms twink on the big screen

The trailers for Undertone were pretty much the ones I’ve seen for recent horror things (with Undertone switched out for Backrooms): Scary Movie, Passenger, Obsession, The Mummy, Hokum.

Thoughts on both under the cut.

( Read more... )

Next cinema trip should be Saturday for record store day but I’m not sure what. I was hoping to see the new Mummy film, but the earliest showing is 3 and the films before that are kinda… lacking. I could see Mario Galaxy again, or Project Hail Mary, or I could see the magic faraway tree but I’m not sure. We’ll see.

After that it’s Hokum, then The Sheep Detectives.

Now I’m gonna bundle up a bit.i had considered watching something but I don’t feel I have the energy.

I saw this in the bookstore on Friday while I was idly browsing for something to buy so I didn't just walk out with my drink from the cafe and nothing else, and I remembered that I had meant to read this for a while. By Sunday night, I was done with all 500+ densely typed small-print pages.

I needed something different from the light, forgettable books I've read so much of in the last few months, and this definitely filled that need. It was absolutely immersive in the best way. The writing is gorgeous, not just on the wordcraft level (although that, too; this book is a lavish feast of description) but also thematic and structural and just generally ... good! Good in the way where you feel that every choice was deliberate, every thematic styling meaningful. It was a really good book about incredibly compelling, terrible people. I did almost nothing on Saturday except read this book.

Also, in a twist that will surprise no one, it made me think of Babylon 5 in a couple of very specific ways. I'll put that at the end.

The other thing it reminded me of was The Great Gatsby, which .... knowing that the book is almost 40 years old and has been widely dissected, I don't know if this is something that's been talked about to death (is it widely known by basically everyone that it's sort of a Gatsby retelling? is that like the most obvious of obvious comparisons) but in any case, it was a similar reading experience (for me) of being slam-dunked into a world of terrible rich people who I want nothing more than to follow and find out what new entertainingly terrible thing they'll do next.

Also, the narration is lovely. This book has some shatteringly beautiful descriptions of fall/winter/spring in New England.

( Spoilers galore, I mean really, so many spoilers )

( Babylon 5 vs The Secret History )