I dreamed that I was in a group of adults being taught as first graders by Mariska Hargitay. She was making us diagram sentences, which seemed REALLY inappropriate for that age, even though we were all grown-ups who should have known how to do it. \o?

I finished Dungeon Crawler Carl, which was lots of fun. Now I'm reading the second book. There are several of these, so I might have to take a break from the series here and there.

Viewing-wise, I mentioned a while back that we'd added Ashes to Ashes (Amazon and Britbox) to our list of TV series to watch. It's a follow-on to Life On Mars, and is really just an excuse to let the Gene Genie and his sidekicks run riot in London. We are all on board with that idea, and have just started Season 2. :D We also finished Continuum (Amazon) a couple of weeks ago, and the conclusion was satisfying even if that wasn't necessarily the ending we were hoping for. But it made sense, and was consistent with the series. Always an important factor, especially for shows involving time travel.

And finally, we're flying to San Diego to visit our daughter this weekend. Nervous about what's happening with the TSA and wait times, but very excited about seeing her! \o/

The repair shop finished late on Tuesday, so it was gone almost a whole week. That's the longest I've been without a bike apart from vacations and when our garage burned up.

When I got it back, the seat post was jacked up about 3/4 inch too high. The mechanics never put it back after testing the gears, in spite of the blue painter's tape that shows exactly where to set it. The rear tool kit was also upside down (?), and they'd returned the handlebars to the neutral position. The shop had previously advised tilting them up a little to reduce the reach and the strain on the nerves of my left hand. I'd wondered if that had helped at all, but yesterday's ride produced numbness sooner than before, so clearly it did. I've restored the tilt again.

The ride itself was kind of brutal, due to the sudden jump in temperatures. I had to cut it short by 3 miles, and it was getting pretty tough by the end. It was only 87F, but that is a LOT until I start to get acclimated. My maximum temperature starts at 88F early in the season, and by August it's at 94F— and I will actually start a ride at 89F if it's not going to get too much hotter. But yesterday? Much too soon.

I finished watching Doctor Foster. Not terribly happy about the ending. Then I tried and rejected a bunch of BritBox comedies that were 1) unfunny and/or 2) too stupid to tolerate. One even had a laugh track. So I started Without Motive, a police procedural set in Bristol. Interesting mystery, but the characters are unlikable and it features a Welsh DCS who is incompetent and an alcoholic. May not finish it.

Bookwise, I've started Dungeon Crawler Carl. It was recommended to me, and so far so good. An alien species comes back to Earth to make good on the minerals/elements claim they filed (in a galactic office) 50 years earlier. All of the buildings/structures are flattened, so the only survivors are people and animals who were outside. They're eligible to play the Dungeon Crawler game, an 18-level challenge with increasing difficulty and reducing eligibility. The sole winner gets... to live? I think opting out (or not getting one of the limited admission slots) also equals death, so playing is advisable. Carl is accompanied by his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, for added fun. Also? Level 1 contains goblins. \o/

I need to line up my next book. I have some free Amazon thing, but the quality is never guaranteed.

A big relief, as always, and the California state returns are in a manila envelope, waiting to go to the post office. The combined federal and state returns are the size of a substantial pamphlet now. I mentioned earlier that we had significant capital gains this year. I don't know what gets into our financial advisor sometimes (though she's really good at her job), but every 5-6 years this happens and our AGI suddenly balloons. This year? We owe about $2500 in federal taxes and $2300 in state, and that triggered a need to pay estimated tax payments in 2026. What a pain! Note that if the government(s) owed us this much back, we wouldn't get interest on the extra withholding, so why the panic?

I tried to go to our company's website to adjust my W-4 instead, but none of the links were working yesterday. Might be under maintenance. I also wanted to use the employee benefits webpage to rent a car for our upcoming trip to San Diego, but it was misbehaving too. More crap deferred onto my never-ending TODO list!

I finished reading Terminal Chaos, the second book in the Station Eternity series. That was fun— and only took me 4 days, as opposed to the 11 days to read Adventures In Calamity Physics. I knew Calamity was taking a long time, but geez! And now I'm a third of the way through the second book in the How To Become A Dark Lord And Die Trying series. It's also fun, though with way too many footnotes. My main complaint is a common issue for a lot of male authors writing female main characters: the women are highly sexed and also bisexual. It's like they're fanficcing their own creation. \o?

My bike is still in the shop, where the earliest I could possibly get it back is late tomorrow. Feeling antsy! But I got some errands done Friday and Saturday that I would normally have to split across weekends. Friday, I bought Easter candy. Saturday, I took my broken violin bow in to have it repaired and rehaired, and saw that I was near a Home Depot, so I went there afterward. I bought some CLR for the hard water stains we get, some of which showed up about 4 months after we moved back into our house. I also got a new salvia plant for the one in the front yard that 1) Died last year and 2) Whose replacement the gardener killed with Roundup. Plus some morning glory seeds (to replace the plants near the garage we lost in the fire), and a houseplant to put in the clay pot our daughter hand-painted for me as a gift. That means I have some gardening to do this afternoon...

I've been staying up too late watching Doctor Foster on BritBox, because it's an addictive train wreck. Need to get back on DST newtime again.

I finished reading Adventures in Calamity Physics yesterday. There was a major plot zig around 85% of the way done, and then a zag after the 90% mark. Did not see either of them coming! Now I'm on Terminal Chaos, the second book in the series that starts with Station Eternity. I like the characters in it— especially the rock-like aliens.

This weekend, I photographed a bunch of stuff and posted it for sale on Craigslist. It included a damaged antique Victrola cabinet, which I thought I'd be lucky to give away for free. Hah! I probably should have charged something for it, just to cut down on the number of flaky people messaging me about it all weekend who couldn't seem to actually follow through. But! It went to someone who is going to strip it and restore it to its former glory, and I couldn't have asked for a better recipient.

Saturday night, HalfshellHusband and I watched Letters To Juliet, in which Amanda Seyfriend was woefully miscast (too callow) and Vanessa Redgrave made up for it. \o?

Sunday afternoon, I went for a bike ride out on the parkway. BIG surprise there— they have finally opened the rest of the lower parkway after closing it for 3 1/2 years while they, IDK, added a lane or two to the Business 80 over-crossing there? It's really nice to have the rest of that downriver option. There are always fewer people there, and I can't go very far upriver on weekends because of the increased amount of idioting that makes biking there (in clip-in pedals) dangerous. This means I don't have to do a bunch of tight loops over and over again to get my 20+ miles in on downriver days anymore. \o/

Not looking forward to the summer heat, though. Two weeks ago, we had our random 53^o day. Next week? It's supposed to hit 89^o. NOoooooooooo!

In fact, I own two of them! I purchased a random LEGO Harry Potter minifigure from ebay, and it also wound up being this: Professor Sprout with mandrake. How cute is that?

It is, of course, all about the mandrake. Because I love absurdity. AND I just discovered that there is also a Sirius Black minifigure with ball and chain! Ahahahahaha!

After our random winter day last week (53^o), we're now having more springlike weather. A little TOO springlike—Saturday's high is supposed to be 76^o, which is awfully warm for the end of February. It makes me worry that the summer temps will come early, like in March or April. Please, no!

I finished Station Eternity recently, which was a fun read. It's a combination of comedy, mystery, and sci-fi. The main character is a young woman with an uncanny gift for solving murder mysteries, who notices that a LOT of those murders involve people who are somehow connected to her. She pleads with a sentient space station to grant her refuge, so she can get away from humanity and stop triggering more murders. There are only two other humans on the space station with her... until the station decides to invite a human contingent for a visit. More murder ensues!

I also finished T. Kingfisher's Hemlock and Silver, which is kind of a desert-based light fantasy with loose ties to the Snow White fairy tale. The main character is a poison expert, which is unusual. An enjoyable read over all. Someday, I'll get around to reading The Raven and the Reindeer, which I forgot I bought on Kindle at some point. This is good, as our county library still refuses to buy the digital version of it.

This weekend: I'll be building the coffee table, gathering some more items for Goodwill, and I might finish my pseudo-LEGO mini-brick Starry Night set! \o/

I was in labor. And not only dreading the progression, but also kicking myself because we gave away our baby-bucket/stroller combo years ago, along with all of our other baby stuff. For perspective, our youngest child is 26. :O

The springlike weather continues here in Sacramento, with highs near 70^o all this week. I've had some great bike rides, and the one on Monday even included a half-mile stretch of the bike path that smelled like pot stickers and their dipping oil. Mmmmm!

TV-wise, I started a one-season show last night called Chasing Shadows (with Alex Kingston and her fabulous hair). I made myself go to bed in the middle of episode 4. It's far more captivating than I anticipated.

Earlier this week, I watched Dance With A Stranger for the Rupert Everett experience. It was one of his early movies, in which he played a petulant cad (boo) while looking absolutely gorgeous. Wow. The sound quality, though-- this was Amazon with ads, and it was like having an industrial fan or airplane going in the background.

Book-wise, I finished the last of the T.L. Huchu YA magician series that centers on a young ghost-talker named Ropa Moyo. I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, even as I sometimes got frustrated with Ropa for making impulsive decisions (the character ages from 14-16 during the series). Huchu's cycle is set in near-future dystopian Edinburgh, and rich with humor and slang. Dosh. Cheddar. Knapf. And those were some of the ones where I didn't Google the terms.

I also read Daniel H. Wilson's Hole In The Sky. Not as good as his Robopocalypse series, but it has his usual great mixture of sci-fi, horror, and soulfulness. It looks like The Clockwork Dynasty is the only remaining e-book I haven't already read, but I'll wait on it. Instead, I put a hold on Joe Hill's King Sorrow.

On tap for this weekend: more yard work, and posting a Craigslist ad for a pair of bookcases we need to get rid of. I want them out of here so I can build their replacements1 And that doesn't even account for the shelves, desk, etc. being stored in the garage. :O

This is the last day to vote in this week's Idol poll. Only the top 3 writers advance, and I could really use your help. Thank you for your support all of these past months!

We're nearing the end of the year, and I've been looking at my Goodreads stats. Last year, I didn't make my goal (I think it was 70 books? It was ambitious). This year, I backed it down to 60. But! I seem to have read a lot of longer standalone short stories and some unexpected novelettes. So, I'll easily make 85-86 "books." I got in a few extra while we were in Hawaii (I always read more on vacation), but I've increased my reading time each day by pairing it with foot exercises for the plantar fasciitis that returned with a vengeance in May. That has definitely helped.

I'm currently reading the second book in the 2 Sisters Detective Agency series (and hoping there will be more at some point). But I recently finished The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, which was fun. It involves a school for magical creatures, or those who can do magic, and is told from the POV of one of the parents who is dealing with petty social circles and politics in an atypical setting. At some point, I'll read the fourth book in T. L. Huchu's series that starts with The Library Of The Dead. It will tank my stats— those books are gripping, but on the long side. I'm pleased to see that there's a fifth one now!

How's the holiday prep coming? I've wrapped most of the presents, but I'm afraid to put them (and their curly ribbons) under the tree. See yesterday's post...

Today is the last day to vote in the Idol polls for this week. We wrote two stories, and the two polls are HERE and HERE. All of the entries can be found off of those links. Thank you for your votes and your support!

I'm now at 10 consecutive days of garage-biking. Ulhhhh. I'm about to finish S2 of Orphan Black, which has been fun. I think my favorite characters are Cosima (the geeky imp) and the lost, feral Helena. Though I get a kick out of Alison too, because she's so unintentionally funny. :D

For family viewing, we may be adding S5 of Stranger Things next. OR, since we finished Life On Mars (what an ending!), we may dive into the Gene Genie 2.0 on Amazon, AKA Ashes To Ashes. No idea what to expect there, though I hope Gene stays true to form.

Bookwise, I finished In Other Lands last week. It was VERY hard to put down. Then I read When Among Crows (novella) and am now reading the sequel, To Clutch A Razor. Next up, Michael Connolly's new book, though none of his other characters have grabbed me the way Harry Bosch did.

I did most of my Xmas shopping last weekend, but wanted to mention something our daughter gave me for my birthday. Courtesy of Shutterfly, you can use one of your own photos to make a jigsaw puzzle! She chose a picture she took at the American River bike path, where we walk together. If you know a puzzler, that might be a nice option for them. :)

First, if you haven't already done so, please vote for me in the Idol write-off poll. Thank you!

We're nearing the time of year in Sacramento where sunset happens earliest and stays nearly fixed even though sunrise comes later each day. On November 28, sunset is at 4:45 for four days and then at 4:44 for ten days before going back to 4:45 on the reverse path on December 12th. This always interests me, because it's so much earlier than the equinox. The total amount of daylight is shortest on December 21st, but that's due to the sunrise time. The latest sunrise is December 29, and stays put for 15 days before it starts to creep back. By then, sunset is already 22 minutes later than its lowest point.

I hate the short days, but sunset gives me grief because in previous years I would run out of daylight while biking, and this year it's all about avoiding riding into the setting sun. The difference is probably due to the three years we were in the rental house? My bike route was different then, so I would still be going East later in the day, and then West as the sun was going down below the trees. Now, my last 7 miles are right into the sun. I miss my old helmet, where I could pull the visor down REALLY low and blot out most of the glare. But it burned up with everything else in the garage. :(

Speaking of biking, I had to dig into my store of exercise gear yesterday and get out my winter stuff. It was in the mid-70s two weeks ago, low 70s last week, and now it's in the upper 50s/low 60s. Somewhere around 4-5 weeks ago we had our last day near 90^o. This is typical, too. We get maybe two weeks in the 70s for spring and fall, and then the temperature jumps 10 degrees toward either heat or cold. But thanks to global warming, our typical winter days are usually in the mid-50s. About 30 years ago, I would wait to bike until the temperature reached 50^o (dependent upon the fog burning off). Now, my lower threshold is around 54^o, but I'm biking the same amount. And while I can't complain about those temps, it's the effect on summers that kills us now. 98+ over and over. At least it's not Phoenix. \o?

Today? Thought I was biking, but got sucked into reading In Other Lands until I lost my daylight window. :(

After losing in the head-to-head Idol poll the other day, I got sent into a write-off with two other authors. My new story is here, with a link to the poll at the bottom. Please read and vote if you can, and thank you for your support!

I just finished a book by "James Patterson." I say that because I'm never sure how much of the work on his co-authored books is actually his. This was 2 Sisters Detective Agency, and I'm guessing the bulk of the story was written by Candice Fox. This came up because I recently finished Lion and Lamb, co-authored with Duane Swierczynski, which I read for Duane after liking his Secret Dead Men so much. And how does this work? Random people approach Patterson and say, "I've written a book, and I think it would sell better with your name on it?" Or maybe, "I have a detailed idea for a book, but I want you to write it?" (Bill Clinton) Is Patterson a glorified ghost-writer, or more of a finishing editor? Or a pimp?

I wish I could 1) write novels instead of just short stories, and 2) be as prolific as this guy (maybe?) is!