lunabee34

1. We went to see Downton Abbey. It is glorious and exactly what I was hoping for--basically a two hour episode with a little drama which is entirely resolved by episode's end. ( spoilers ) Delightful.

2. Emma and I watched Into the Spiderverse last night. OMG! I mean, I knew it was going to be good. You've all said it's good. Everyone I know who's watched this movie has said it is amazing. And it *still* exceeded my expectations. Wow. I really hate that I missed this one on the big screen.

3. I have finished Carnival Row but am balking at typing up my notes for the final ep. Soon! Loved the hell out of the whole thing.

4.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is such a good book--the world building, the characters, the plot! Wow! I am blown away.

I wish I could give it 5 stars but the relentless and unremitting child harm made this an excellent novel I struggled to read at times rather than an excellent novel I could lose myself in.



View all my reviews

( spoilers for the child harm ) I would not recommend this series for anyone who has issues reading child death and harm which makes me sad because it's really that damn good.

( spoilers for actual plot ) I would recommend this series for anyone to whom the previous trigger warnings do not apply. It's incredibly well written.

IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!! I WILL POST SUBSTANTIVELY LATER ABOUT HOW AWESOME, BUT FOR NOW, I WILL SAY,IT WAS AWESOME!!

Downton Abbey

( SPOILERS )


Gotham

( spoilers )

1. Fiona started Pre-K! She is thrilled. On the very first day only, the school allows parents to park and walk the children in to their classrooms. I asked Fiona if she wanted me to walk her in or drop her off at the car-riders' line like I'd be doing the rest of the days of the school year. She said, "I want to do it by myself." She was grinning when I let her out and grinning when I picked her up. She doesn't have an ounce of anxiety about anything in her. I didn't even have time to tear up at all; I bawled like a baby when we dropped Emma off for kindergarten. I think some of that is because it's a second child, but mostly it's because Fiona was too happy and chill about it all for me to get a tear in edgewise.

Emma started high school! At orientation earlier this week, we were both flummoxed at her schedule which had her taking Advanced Band (without ever having had any kind of band whatsoever). We asked to have her moved to a different class, but I didn't have much confidence they'd do so. The middle school forced her to take the same exact class with the same exact content two years in a row and forced her to take chorus when she has no interest in it, so I was worried we'd run into the same thing. Fortunately, they switched her to Intro to Health Care. Georgia has a handful of career paths they make HS students choose; naturally, none of them map on to what Emma wants to do. There's art, agriculture (which is the one she chose; there are a couple classes in it that seem like they might be at least tangentially helpful or related to the marine biology she wants to pursue), health care, and a couple more. The health care one is really cool because if you know you already want to go into that field, when you graduate HS you will have a certificate degree (like an LPN or something like that) that will allow you to immediately work. It's just weird to me that they don't have a separate college prep track and that they force the kids into these tracks they're not going to use. Oh, well. It's not advanced band. I hate to be That Parent, but I didn't want her stuck in some class that's guaranteed to lower her GPA. (She's probably not going to be Valedictorian, but she *could* be, dammit.)

2. One week with onions and no problems!!!! Now I'm getting antsy to try something else, but I will be good and remain committed to my two week trial period for each new food.

3. Josh's physical therapy is going well. I think he's feeling a lot better.

4. Screw you, pants! I am having such an issue with pants. ( cut for talk of weight and clothing sizes )

5. Finally, Downton Abbey is looking up! ( SPOILERS )

1. Emma's baby fan musings crack me up. Yesterday, she told me she hates incest pairings (although she has to admit it makes a great deal of sense for SPN), and that while people should be able to write what they want, they should do it away from her. LOL I told her that's why God made the back button. She also told me she doesn't get why people ship pairings that don't have a lot of subtext or canonical support, especially the characters that don't interact in canon. She has gotten waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay into Undertale--as in Undertale is all she's been able to talk about for what seems like our entire lives at this point--and she cited some examples from that video game. I told her she'd have to just take my word for it that those stories can be a lot of fun.

She told me she's not really looking for fanfic right now because she'd probably have to wade through too many fics written by 11 year olds with horrible SPAG.

And then she closed by telling me that one time she accidentally found some drawings of skeleton porn where they had ectoplasm genitals which is the funniest thing ever.

2. Downton Abbey watch continues. ( spoilers )

3. Fiona's birthday is tomorrow. She'll be four!!!!!!!

4. I am exhausted in the last two weeks, like way more than usual. My energy levels have been good for awhile, and I'm wondering if my thyroid levels have dropped. I hesitate to move up my August 31 endocrinologist appointment; I've done so every year for the past three years when I've had worsening symptoms, and the tests have always come back with a "Nah, not sick enough for us to do anything" verdict. I'm on the verge of starting my period, so I'm wondering if that's a factor. If I don't start to feel better in the next week, I guess I will up the appointment. I just feel so beat, and working out is a chore. :( This is definitely not normal.

5. I am done teaching for the semester! Whoooo! Grades are turned in, and now all I have to do is relax and work on the novel.

1. Gotham is back! ( SPOILERS )

2. Downton Abbey watch continues. ( SPOILERS )

3. I got the sweetest letter from kaleecat and a sweet card and picture of L. from zulu and bell. L. is the cutest little man ever.

4. Sometimes parenting is awesome. Fiona is having her little graduation from daycare in a couple weeks, and they've taught her the cutest song. "I'm a little graduate. Aren't you proud of me?" Adorable.

5. I had started just riding the bike so I could read the whole time I'm exercising, but I decided I needed to start running again, too. The bike doesn't engage my core much or my arms at all, so I've gone back to running two miles or so and then following that with the bike.

1. Downton Abbey watch continues. ( SPOILERS )

2. I have been enjoying The Walking Dead so much more now that we've gotten past the "must establish Rick's manpain" portion of the season. ( SPOILERS )

3. NCIS just did an episode where someone has cancer, and it pissed me off. Everyone keeps telling the patient to keep fighting and not to give up, and I don't think that's always good advice. A person has the right to decide she doesn't want to do X horrible thing that may not work. Also, they dangled an experimental drug trial in front of her like a miracle cure, and that is just not the way it works. First off, you might not qualify for the trial, you might end up in the placebo group, and the drug might not even work or it might have terrible side effects (give you a different kind of cancer or make your kidneys explode, who knows?). Bah.

4. Emma and I finished season 1 of Dollhouse and loved it. ( SPOILERS )

1. havocthecat told me how she makes ginger tea, so today I bought a knob of fresh ginger, chopped it up, and steeped it in hot water. Delicious tea!

2. The Great Towel Search of 2017 concluded with the purchase of Fieldcrest towels from Target. I bought half of the towels in a dark gray and the other half in a lighter gray. I washed and dried them before use; they haven't shed any fibers at all. They are super soft, and the color is very rich. They are not quite as absorbent as my 20 year old towels, but how could they be? I think once we've washed and dried them a dozen times, they'll be just about perfect, and they're just fine now.

3. Downton Abbey watch is plugging along. ( SPOILERS )

4. I'm about a third of the way through Wilkie Collins's The Dead Secret and loving it. He's such a good writer. Also started Kate Chopin's The Awakening which I've only read once and long ago.

5. Josh saw the gastroenterologist today. He's scheduled for an endoscopy in two weeks. He also saw an allergist who tested him for all the allergies. No food allergies (and she said what's going on with him doesn't sound like a food allergy anyway because those almost invariably present with hives and swelling and redness and trouble breathing, etc, and he's had zero of those symptoms), but he does have a pretty severe dust mite allergy. So he'll start getting allergy shots to take care of that in a couple weeks; doc says this should help his general health overall and keep him from getting so many colds and respiratory stuff, so that's good. I really hope we'll have an answer from the endoscopy rather than needing to do additional tests. Josh is really worried that they just won't find anything, and he'll have to find some way to live with this. But for now, optimism!

I'd have been hoarse within a month."

Downton Abbey watching continues. We watched the season three finale last night. ( SPOILERS )

In other news, executrix sent me an awesome package: two pairs of fleece lined leggings, a Wilkie Collins book, and a gorgeous red shirt (literally off her back). Exec, that red shirt does indeed look a bombshell on me. I'm going to try to get some pictures soon to put up. :)