Lose 10 Pounds of Ugly Fat... Cut Off Your Head

Our yard has been spared this year, thank goodness. But there's a spot where I frequently rest out on the bike path, and somewhere nearby is a nest of baby birds screaming their heads off. Have I mentioned how much I hate that sound? It's high-pitched and torturous, a sound akin to squeaking styrofoam, or basketball shoes screeching on a wooden floor, or dry-erase markers shrieking on a whiteboard. Ughhhh. Part of me wonders if cats hunt out birds' nests just to make that noise stop.

OTOH, I do love seeing fuzzy babies out and about this time of year. I have yet to see ducklings on the parkway, but I've already seen turklets, baby quail the approximate size of chicken eggs, and some adolescent Canadian geese. The geese were too far along to be cute, but the other chicks were fun.

The rest of life has been work-work-work and despairing of how many boxes still aren't unpacked. The whole thing exhausts me. I got my office filing cabinet assembled (god, EVERYTHING is DIY these days), and put the returned files away after sorting through them and discarding a ton of stuff. But framed pictures? There are two hanging up in the entire house, plus 1 mirror. Other wall decorations? Ahahahahaha! On the plus side, I used the Neighborhood app to advertise free moving boxes, so I have now gotten rid of anything that would be useful for other people (apart from the tons of packing paper). That means we can have someone come and cart all the remaining stuff off to the recycling center. That will free up room in the garage for one of the cars, and also allow us to try to sell the furniture we decided not to put back in the house.

Bookwise, I finished This Is How You Lose The Time War (lovely, and reminiscent of Catherynne M. Valente), A Drink Before The War (currently reading the sequel), and The Staircase In The Woods. I'm reading much slower than before we moved back home, though. I used to get through a book in about 6-7 days, and now it takes me twice that long. :(

In viewing, we have seen The Accountant 2 and The Ballerina in the theater. That last movie is everything I could have hoped for in a John Wick-adjacent universe, and it also has flame-throwers. Whoo! On TV, I finished The Hidden (good series overall), Agatha Raisin, and My Life is Murder, all on Acorn. I sprang for Apple-TV short-term so I could watch Severance S2. That was good, though I think it wallowed a little too much in minor character backstory in the middle episodes. We also watched Slow Horses, which we've really enjoyed. And similarly, I'm paying for BritBox for a few months, so we've watched The City And The City, we're watching Thorne, and we're rewatching Shetland with our son. I will also watch The Pembrokeshire Murders, some other version of S1 of The Hidden, and Criminal Record, before we cancel the service.

Our son is staying here while he studies for the California Bar, which is great for us! I would like to plan a family vacation for after he takes the Bar and before he starts his new job. But first, I have to figure out what our options are for our ridiculously high-maintenance scarf-and-barf cat. \o?

A new season of LJ Idol is starting up here on Dreamwidth.

Idol is a 'weekly' writing challenge where mad (and maddening) topics get posted, and then you have until the deadline to write your entry and post it. Entries are gathered onto a ballot, and votes determine who is eliminated and who survives to write another week longer.

With this post, I'm officially signing up for this season, and I hope you'll join me!