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It's pretty much going to be Ghost lyrics for subject lines for the next couple of weeks. The concert is in 10 days, and I am hyped.

Well, that's done. We got up at ass o'clock and slipped out of the hotel to drive from the Brighton Courtyard Marriott to the Detroit/Fort Wayne airport. It's not bad, about a forty five minute drive. Especially in our acid green car.

I really loved that car. It was super quiet and super smooth, and I never forgot which car was mine.

The handoff was super simple, and soon we were on the bus to the airport...which was packed. They were giving free trials of Clear, though, so we did that, and were through the packed security super quickly.

Our gate wasn't super far this time, so we trudged over, stopping to get my sister her requested Detroit keychain and some fudge and then continued onwards until we found a likely place for breakfast. It was solidly meh, but definitely fuel. Then, continued to the gate, and plopped our ass into the seats to wait.

The flight itself was pretty smooth and super quick. We were really lucky with flights this weekend. They left on time, they didn't have much in the way of turbulence, and they landed 20 minutes early both times.

Then, home again to decompress. Around 5pm, Shelly mentioned that she'd like to get a new key and fob for her car. I looked up and found a fairly good rated locksmith that would come to you. It was a total clusterfuck. IT took him 3 1/2 hours (most of which, I was standing out in the heat) to not be able to do the complete job. We have keys, but no keyfob, and they charged us $700 for the privilege of not getting what we wanted.

I was so disgusted when I went to bed.

Today, it's back to work. I'm not sure I'm going to be taking a ton of calls, but we'll see. I can't call out because we've got a date for Jess' top surgery and it's going to be 9/11, which means I'll need to hoard every hour of PTO that I can for the surgery, recovery and follow up visits. It'll be tight, but we'll make it.

It was a whirlwind weekend, but thankfully, it's done now, and we can get back to regular life. And now, I shall go take a nice shower. I was so disgusted by the time I was done with the locksmith that I didn't bother, but today I feel kind of gross, so off to the showers it is. I hope everyone has an awesome Monday!

Today's annoyance with YouTube auto-craption:

"Current university"

Locals, who know what the tiny set of options are, can possibly identify what 'Current' is relatively easily. In my case, given that I was watching this from within Curtin University, it was even easier, once I worked out that that was what is going on.

But oh! it annoys me that people don't review the captions for even that level of obvious mistake (I'm not calling that one egregious. The ones that mess up the name(s) of Country included in an Acknowledgement of Country are egregious. I've never seen the same error for a Welcome to Country, which I assume is because the Indigenous people associated with the production of such know too well how badly it can be messed up).

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typo-ish

Immediately starting the entry with spoilers, so it all goes under the cut.

( Mirror Dance )

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We watched the Car-Go-Fast: The Movie today (F1 movie) and it was fun.

As a note to future self, bigger theater the front row of the back section is too far forward, and at the smaller theater the back row of the back section is too far back.

I appreciate how much they did as practical. They just had used the existing races and plugged in a fake team for a season. They worked out moments where they could get their cars on track in the inbetweens, and sometimes they had teeny little cameras on cars on the track so they could pretend that was their driver and just CGI the livery.

It was interesting to watch them blend movie with reality. Because they used existing races I had seen those races! Also because all the other drivers were real drivers it led to weird moments of wanting to cheer on the actual F1 driver I knew over this new person, or running into actual F1 driver knowledge vs Hollywood script. I kinda want to go back and watch the races to see which shots they used and who they 'took over' for some of the other shots (Pretty sure they called George Russel's car Lewis Hamilton's in the final race, for example)

It did have the annoying woman has to sleep with male lead, but was otherwise entertaining. Will probably rewatch when it comes out on streaming.

Next theater movie is going to be Superman!

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I read a lot of MASH fic recently, and while most of it was very good, there were also a ton of inaccuracies about what mid-century America was like. I'm not an expert, but at the same time, I did listen to my parents and grandparents when they talked about what life was like when they were younger. And also, I know what's changed within my lifetime (born in 1982), and quite a lot of things people today take for granted are actually new within my lifetime, and thus not around prior to the 1980s. Now, this is fanfic, and if you don't care about historical accuracy in your fic, that is a fine and valid choice and I salute you. If, however, you do want to at least try to avoid major gaffes, here are things I've noticed that people get wrong a lot:

( Women's rights: Ms. )

( Travel )

( Money and Credit )( Alcohol )

( Childcare )

( Phone Calls )

( Progressive Ideas )

( The Ad Council )

( Entertainment )

( Police )

These are just a few of the things that have changed in the last fifty years. And, of course, I'm only one person and might have got things wrong. Let me know if you see things I missed

Rebloggable on tumblr

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So I have tendinitis in my wrist, which means I now need to wear a brace. This is really annoying because it gets in the way of doing anything. I can't draw with it on :( Even typing is a fucking hassle. Wearing it in the heat makes me feel like a sausage. A sweaty, sweaty sausage.

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life

Now that I've written up the six month summary of how my 2025 New Year's Resolutions have gone, I'm looking at what I want for the next six months. Which might turn out to be a 12 month set of goals; I'm kind of being flexible with whatever works.

But!

One of my intentions is that I have goals for each of the areas of my life that are important to me--there is no rating of how big that area has to be, just that I see it as an important circle. Two of these I did not manage to get a coherent goal for across the last six months. I'm not sure that it is possible to have coherent goals, but that might be me looking from the wrong perspective.

Which is where my question comes in: what suggestions do people have as to goals for 'Family' and 'Social'? I'm okay with drive by commentary from people who aren't familiar with the limitations of my life, because not knowing those details might be an important part of different perspective.

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goal setting

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Given that the last three weeks have been a completely different pace, and my expectations of my self for the rest of the year are quite different to where I was at the beginning of the year, I'm going to close out the set of goals I set myself at the beginning of the year (Note: I'm not working from that page, but from an offline edited version). The last update I did was May 20th. I contemplated writing a new set of resolutions in this post concurrently with wrapping up these, but have decided instead to create an offline document of Mid-Year Resolutions. I might get around to posting that, but chances are low.

( Lots of details, possibly only interesting to me )

tl;dr: great progress for work; good progress on craft, reading, physical - exercise and health; not great on house, organisation, decluttering, writing, garden, learning, money. No goals to compare to for family or social. Having a list continues to be useful.

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Well, that was a day. That is now concluded. I'm sitting here in my comfy nightgown, relaxing before I begin going through the room like a tasmania devil, of the cleaning variety. Once I'm done that, I'll realize that I packed something I shouldn't have and will cuss and extricate it. Then, It'll be off to the rental agency to start the long trek to our gate. (We are 100% using the tram this time, now that I understand that the terminal is a big H. It's just too damn big. And last time I looked we ere at gate 74, which is kind near the end of the row. And then, we shall be flying home to the babies.

I'd like to do more of these mini trips, a quick hop up to Boston or Drive to Philly and DC, especially as it gets a bit cooler. But next up, Ghost concerts, the first of which is not this coming week, but next week on the 9th.

Yesterday was rough, y'all. 8 hour is entirely too long for a viewing/funeral thingy. IT went okay. Jess was amazing, There were a few passive aggressive look what you missed things, but never any direct bullshit. Lots of somewhat redneck stories, about this cousin's ex being a bitch, and This cousin doing this and that.

We managed, but it wasn't easy.

JEss' brother asked them to do a reading-which turned out to be their nemesis--their mother's favorite poem, "Wild geese," by Mary Olliver. Lots of cryging during their brother's speech. And then it was over and they put on some of Dale's favorite music to end the wake. And proceded to talk loudly over it, which was sensory hell.

Then, it was all over but for a nice trip to dinner with Jess' brother. It wasn't bad. We had very good bbq.

Then, it was back to the hotel for a nightcap. I am never gettign a hotel without at least a small bar or a evening reception with booze, because that was super nice. We did it noth days, and it provided a little buffer between the family and getting back to the room.

Now it's time to get myself together and start packing up what needs to be packed, and preparing for departure in just under an hour. Everyone have an excellent day!

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Current Mood: sad

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acelightning

James' annual leave is nearly over but we've had some good days out.

Monday was class, but we decided to go to the gym before hand, which maybe wasn't the best idea I'd ever had as by the time the end of the morning came, I looked like I'd dipped my head in a bucket of water. Which wasn't the best look as after class we were heading off to Newcastle so James could go to his appointment at the limb centre to check his false leg.

That went well, and a bonus, they've put a liner into his stump cover so he only has to wear one stump sock now, instead of two. Why they didn't do that before I have no idea as it's much cooler for him.

Tuesday, we headed up north to Cragside which is a fantastic National Trust property. It was so beautiful up there and we had a lovely day exploring the house and grounds. I would have loved to check out more of the walks, but sadly, as the name suggests, a lot of the paths were very steep and rocky and no way would James have been able to manage them safely. But, we did walks to the lake and between the buildings and had a picnic in the sunshine before ending with a drive through the one-way Carriage Drive route through the grounds.

Wednesday we took my MiL out for the day. The carvery at Toby was on promotion again, so we went there for dinner before having a drive, ending up at a farm shop/cafe we like. Where there were donkeys to pet and highland cows to look at and very delicious cakes and cold drinks.

Thursday we headed a little south and ended up at Preston Park Museum and Butterfly world. I enjoyed both, and as we got there for opening managed to explore the museum while it was quiet, leading to a long talk to the man in charge of the iron mongers shop. Then a walk through the grounds to the Butterfly building where we spent a lot of time sweating in the heat and admiring loads of butterflies, and especially enjoying the meerkats who had just checked out and were basking in the heat. You can see them in my insta post here. The one in the tube still cracks me up.

Yesterday was a planned cinema day and we went to see F1: The Movie, which I enjoyed loads, even though it was nearly three hours long. Leaving there we called in to see Corey, then went on to Kayleigh's as I said I'd watch Bodhi for a bit as Kayleigh and Lucy first went grocery shopping, then picked up their new kittens, Millie and Mollie.

Today James picked up an overtime community visit shift, which means he's helping run the NE ambulance stall at Sunderland Pride. Last I heard from him he was having a great time, and sent me a picture of him beaming from behind a cut out of a rainbow decked cardboard ambulance front. Meanwhile I've been getting the house in order with Glastonbury as background viewing as I do so. So far, my favourite performance has been Lewis Capaldi, what a return.

I've also been waiting for two parcels, one of which was thrown into the back garden, which baffles me as it would have taken the delivery guy more effort to walk around the house than actually knock on the front door. While the Amazon guy knocked ridiculously hard and then was walking away before I even got to the door. Turned out he'd left the parcel on the front door step so it's good I was actually in being as I have no front garden.

During the week I also heard from Rosie and from the week coming class will be on a Wednesday at 9am, and has changed from one hour to two. She's also going to start running an exercise only evening class from August, which is great, but I must admit, I can't help be a bit intimidated from going from 30 mins exercise to 60, and with another class to come.

Greetings from Brighton Michigan! Michigan is very pretty, much easier to drive in than Maryland, and I never would want to live here for all the money in the world.

The trip in was super smooth. The flight left on time and was smooth as hell. I think I will always go for first class if I can afford it. It was so much easier. On first, off first, bags first. We touched down in Detroit 25 minutes early.

The Detroit airport is tough. It's enormous and I am out of shape and have bad knees. I did a lot of walking. We finally found the airport shuttle for our rent a car, and headed off to their lot. I had requested a small SUV. There were a few to choose from, but I picked the neon green Hyundai Kona. I can't lose it in a parking lot for sure. It drives really nicely, too, I would definitely consider one as a future car.

After that, we drove the hour to Hartland (with a brief stop for coffee and Timbits from the Tim Hortons that we don't have near us) Then a stop at a brew pub for food. (Meh. The sandwich was okay, but nothing to go gaga over. Then, we pulled into our hotel, and found out that it's actually a motel with exterior doors.

I melted down a bit. Nowhere in the listing did it mention that. Personally, as a woman, I don't feel safe in those type of motels. I immediately hopped online and found a Marriot not too far away and booked that. It's not the best hotel--the ac isn't great, the bed is hard and the shower sucks, but our room is off an interior corridor. It means driving a bit further, but I'm not fucking around with our safety. This weekend is going to be difficult enough. I need to actually get a little sleep. Once we got back to the hotel room, I called the site and bitched until I got a refund on the sketch motel.

Then we visited with the BIL for a while, went on a drive and headed back to the hotel, stopping at cracker barrel for dinner.

Today, the funeral is sure to be a boatload of fun. The family viewing starts at 10, then the regular viewing at 11, and goes til 6pm. Apparently the funeral home serves food? So we don't even need to go get lunch. This is not something I've ever heard of before, and frankly, it's a little weird to me. I don't know if this is all in one room, or if the food is in another room? Are we just chowing down next to the coffin? Inquiring minds.

Then, there'll be some sort of after service dinner, I'm sure. At least, unlike when we came for Jess' mom's funeral, we've been assured that it's not going to be at a Golden Corral.

Okay, I am in desperate need of coffee, so I'm going to sign off for now. Everyone have an outstanding Saturday!

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Powis Castle

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picspam:castle

This one has multiple genres.

Books for sale, mostly $1 to $3

Hit the "Genres" button at the top of the page to narrow your search.

Happy reading!

ETA: Jesse_the_k notes that "This is a meta-search engine, compiling deals from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google and Kobo." I didn't realize that was note-worthy, but yeah. Whatever platform you use to read, you're covered.

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e-books

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Current Mood: busy

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garden

OK, who should be the next Bond? I’m impressed by the wide range of suggestions here. I especially liked the suggestion for Rege-Jean Page. No one mentioned Joseph Mawle, Edward Bluemel, Harry Lloyd, or Matthew Goode, though. Or Tobias Menzies!

What do you think?

Guardian readers make nominations for the next Bond

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burning questions

thestory inside is doing July signups. I'm not taking on any extra commitments, not even suggested reading, at the moment, but I have very much enjoyed the suggestions I have had from this group. If you have a TBR list you can share, you too can have this excitement in your life!

It works on a buddy system - they pick three books from your list for you to read, you pick three books from their list for them to read. Sign ups close on the 1st July.

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signal boost

It's Friday and it's Flyday as well! I'm up ungodly early to get ready to fly out to Michigan for Jess' Dad's funeral. Not looking forward to it.

It's not going to be a fun weekend by any stretch, and I hate that Jess' stuck doing it. They hadn't seen their father in nearly a decade (because he was an asshole who tried to bribe them into leaving me). I was not good enough in his eyes, being lower/middle class and a woman. I was just going to bring them down. And I won't lie, we've struggled, but we struggled together and that's the important part.

I don't really think anyone is going to throw a fit at the funeral. They're too midwest for that. Might get a few backhanded pokes, but nothing more. If anyone does want to throw down, I will probably punch them in the throat, but we'll see.

Tomorrow, we have the long-ass visitation. I am as ready for it as I can be. I've got a dress, tights, shoes and a fuckton of makeup, so I look presentable. Then Sunday, we fly home. I sprung for first class tickets, so we should have priority security and boarding, which will be nice. We'll be in around noon, and home by 1pm is there are no major delays.

Yesterday was busy. I ended up cancelling our game, because there was no way we were getting everything done if we had to do that as well. I'm sorry, because that's 3 games cancelled for this, but it needed to happen. Otherwise, I'd have been rushing this morning and that's how things get forgotten.

As it is, I need to open the suitcase and pack a couple of more things. I forgot to pack my tights and I think my makeup is going in there as well. That way I have room in my bag for my kindle and the sound machine.

I had a really bad brain night last night. Just completely melted down over the state of the house. The money from the estate means that we got a lot of stuff, and a lot of it requires assembly. So we have a ton of boxes, plus the problem our normal tendency to put stuff down on every single surface and never pick it up again.

We're going to work on that when we get home. I also couldn't reach my toenail clippers, which fell behind my dresser, which is kind of what set me off. All the frustration just bubbled over.

But today, I am goal focused. We will go to the airport and park, and then we will fly out. We will get to the Best Western, and then we will go see Jess' brother for a bit, maybe dinner, and then we will go back to the Best Western and relax.

Okay, time for that shower. Do I want to put on makeup today? I might a little bit. Just a little foundation and blush, maybe eyeliner. We'll see. Definitely moisturizer.

Everyone have an excellent Friday!

And he is insurrection, he is spite, he's the force that made me be

'Typo' of the day

Vorkosigan Saga - Mirror Dance - Lois McMaster Bujold

(no subject)

Life in the Mid-Century US: a primer for writers of MASH fic

A sweaty sausage

Goal setting question(s)

too hot

New Year's Resolutions - close out

Sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse, and I just about snapped, don't look back.

In memoria

(no subject)

Old heat of a raging fire come and light my eyes, summer's kiss through electric wire

Random Doctor Who Picture

Random Castle

Ebook sale, today only, Friday 27th

Garden update.

The next Bond?

Signal boost

People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening

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