alchimie | And somewhat longer...

I am attempting to emulate Jane Austen, who apparently could write despite continual interruption -- not that I aspire to her novels, but surely another DW post is possible? It has been months since I have heard myself think, although I am reasonably certain I have done it occasionally. I have taken care of children and pets and made certain we were well stocked with household supplies like toilet paper and toothpaste and celebrated our spouse's birthday

I have read Gideon the Ninth twice this year and adored it, and read Harrow the Ninth once and did not adore it -- I am not sorry I read it, but it was not at all the book I wanted it to be. Just now I am halfway through Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones, which is marvelously queer but a slow read for me, and also halfway through Yoon Ha Lee's Hexarchate Stories which is fun.

My not-at-all smol daughter (she is almost as tall as I am now and she can suddenly wear my sandals) tried the first Tiffany Aching book at my suggestion and loved it, so we both read the 2nd together, and now we are on the 3rd, although I got distracted by the Ninth books and really need to pick it back up again as she is starting to become understandably impatient. I have read lots of Pratchett previously but not those and I am loving them thoroughly.

Spouse and I have almost finished watching The Handsome Siblings on Netflix and it is extremely enjoyable. I will be sorry when it is over, but excited to begin the next series with him, which will probably (finally!) be Untamed which I did not get past the 2nd episode of on my own because no time.

Dinner tonight is likely to be delivery Greek food and I am looking forward to it.

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*waves* good to see you around these parts!

And excited for you to finally watch The Untamed!

How are you holding up with all this smoke? I'm afraid its really stressing me out!

The smoke has been really awful, and there was a point in which the evacuation zone for the SCU fire was close enough to where I live that I made spouse pack bags with me because I thought it possible (not likely but possible) that we would have to leave the house. Fortunately I was wrong and the fire did not spread into our hills, but I did not sleep much for a few nights.

Here the smoke has improved some, but not enough to open the windows -- my house is apparently air-tight enough that the inside air is always manageable, but it feels (and smells!) very stuff after so many weeks with everything closed, and my children are stir-crazy from not being able to go outdoors. I hope that after the terrifying heat event this weekend the winds change enough that the smoke clears at least for a few hours at a time.

I am so sorry for your stress and I hope you have some good ways to take care of yourself and lessen it while you wait it out!

You have had terrible time of the smoke -- its really bad down there! I'm glad its been a little better recently.

It's been much better for most of the last week, maybe 7 good days out of the last 10, so I am generally relieved and feeling in a good place in case it gets bad again with the heat next week.

Spouse and I are now 5 1/2 episodes into The Untamed and loving it! It is definitely a much less pleasant world to be a peasant farmer in than the wuxia series I've seen. I'm enjoying the building cosmology and some hints about how things ended up the way they seem to have for Wei Wuxian -- and the characters are fantastic! I am hoping to write more about it here if time ever permits.

Yes, having good air back for a bit really helped lift my mood.

And I'm so glad you are loving the The Untamed. I've been obsessed with it for a while now.

(she is almost as tall as I am now and she can suddenly wear my sandals)

I remember the start of this phase with mine, and it was kind of cool and disconcerting at once. all of a sudden she could wear the dresses I'd kept from my college years, and when my husband or I saw her out of the corner of our eyes we kept double-taking thinking that it was me (in my case, in a mirror, of course). It was kind of uncanny!

tried the first Tiffany Aching book at my suggestion and loved it, so we both read the 2nd together, and now we are on the 3rd

Really cool that you're reading them together! A Hat Full of Sky is probably one of my top 5 Discworld books overall, and I think the Tiffany sub-series as a whole is really strong. My daughter sadly did not stick with it, because she was not won over by Wee Free Men, and in fact has been reluctant to try more Pratchett since, even though she really loved Good Omens when she finally read it, and I am pretty confident she will like Vetinari as much as I do. Hopefully someday!

I am continually surprised by the height of mine; we were out together recently and I felt odd in myself, like I was shorter than usual, and eventually traced it to the fact that she is so close to my height -- my brain couldn't figure out which side to land on, am I my normal height with a slightly shorter adult, or is this my child in which case I have clearly shrunk? She is also wearing a number of my pre-pregnancy tshirts quite successfully, but her colouring is different enough from mine I don't have that mirror-moment that you describe so well.

Regarding Pratchett, mine got about halfway through Wintersmith before stalling, although she says she's just waiting for me to catch up, which I am trying to do as time permits. I hope yours does try Vetinari, they are some of my favourites also!

am I my normal height with a slightly shorter adult, or is this my child in which case I have clearly shrunk?

Yes, this feeling! The thing that STILL trips me up, after a couple of years, is my son -- he is now pretty much a head taller than me, and it's always so weird when I hug him, for both of us, I gather, because I remember being able to sort of rest my chin on the top of his head when we hugged, and now he can just about do it to me XD So I keep being jarred by things being backwards, and he keeps commenting on how short I am, probably due to the same sense of incongruity. So weird!

(I also keep thinking back to something my mother said when my younger brother was around this age, late teens/early 20s -- that with me, she never had sense of discontinuity, I was small, and then I was a little bigger, and then I was grown, but it was a pretty smooth progression, no drastic changes. But with my brother, he was a little boy and then POOF he was a GUY all of a sudden. And yeah, that's pretty much how it was with my two as well XD)

I hope yours does try Vetinari, they are some of my favourites also!,

Both I and one of her best friends from high school are huge Discworld and specifically Vetinari fans, and both the friend and I are convinced L would take to him immediately. We just need her to agree to read Going Postal, or maybe Jingo...

It has been months since I have heard myself think, although I am reasonably certain I have done it occasionally.

I want first of all to sympathize, but also to comment that you emulate Austen in her wit, if nothing else!

This made me blush, so kind of you!

How are you and yours doing?

I think we are doing about as well as anyone can in these times -- we have been safe from plague and natural disaster so far, and we have recently adopted two adult cats, who generously provide us with a string of small pleasant developments every day alongside the ongoing commotion of the world. Today we learned that the elder cat likes to nap as a small lump underneath the comforter! Truly there is some good in the universe.

Oh excellent for the cats! What do they look like?

I already have two so have been resisting the urge to get kittens, but it is a constant tug at my mind & heart -- they would be so much fun! But as it is the two existing cats are good company.

They are both lovely tabbies with black stripes over warm pewter fur, and one has charming white patches at paws and chest and throat that help us distinguish between him and his sister, although I am assembling a catalogue of smaller differences as well: she is smaller and rounder and has a sharper muzzle, while he is longer and leaner with wide imploring eyes. They're still a little shy in their new environment, but very affectionate, and I love them tremendously!

Kitten are terribly tempting, aren't they? I'm glad for the feline companionship you do have, even if there is something about kittens in particular.

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