Many things

I keep feeling like there's a lot of things I want to post and then forgetting some of them.

- First iris started blooming yesterday. That's our first flower for the spring. So very happy to see it.

- Speaking of flowers, I bought an egregious number of seeds. So many seeds. I'm going to see if the school wants some (they have a gardening program with the kids on the roof, and they're starting it back up again.)

- On the other hand, Michigan Bulb Company is impressively not on their game. I ordered a grapevine and a clematis. Instead of grapevine, I received...gladiolus bulbs? Entirely unlike grapevine. I did eventually receive the grapevine. I also got the clematis, fully leafed out, weeks before it was possible to put it in the ground in our region. Like, the ground was completely frozen solid and still had snow when it arrived. I've been nursing the poor thing along in a pot. Trying to harden it off this week to plant over the weekend.

- I have tried to order Easter candy. That was thoroughly ineffective. For example, I want one package of Peeps. I can order Peeps from Target to pick up, but not for delivery. I can order them from Amazon Fresh to show up in an hour for like $1 (we don't usually use Amazon Fresh, and don't have enough other stuff to fill out an order). But I can only order them for regular delivery in packs of like, 3-4 packages. Walmart, but for like $5. Same for Cadbury eggs. I want one four pack, not 20. I'll have to actually stop by Duane Reade.

- I'm using vacation to fill out the rest of the month (there are bonus implications for staying on payroll to the end of the quarter).

- I've used some of that time to do a ton of outdoor chores this week. Resanded and repainted both the back deck and the front porch. Went out on the roof to clean ARR's windows and clear out the gutters.

- We've been trying to get onto vaccine registration lists. No luck so far.

- It's been a rough first quarter, and we've been struggling a lot. ARR's had some rough times--he's old enough that I don't really feel comfortable sharing much of stuff related to him online. But it's been hard, and wearing on us all. We've made some changes that are working really well for him--the teachers are delighted--but others that aren't so successful.

- I want so much to have some time of just...silence. I think over the summer, as travel maybe gets easier, I want to see about Chuckro and I each getting a weekend of not having anyone around. I'm dreaming of renting a hotel room or tiny house or something and going and sitting by myself without my beloved boys who are driving me completely bonkers. And then a week or two later, taking ARR somewhere and letting Chuckro just have the house completely to himself for 24 hours. The other day, I misremembered a doctor's appointment time and so ended up sitting on the waterfront by myself for 45 minutes and oh my god I need some more time without the psychic pressure of other people. And without coffee shops and commutes and stuff, dear god, I have basically never been alone in a YEAR and I am losing it.

Update

Chuckro managed to snag us appointments next week! Because he is awesome.

Books

13. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett. 4.5. A lovely wrapping up of the Tiffany Aching tetralogy. (Includes a cameo from the heroine of Equal Rites, which is a nice throwback for longtime Pratchett fans.) One note - the series started out kind of middle-grade-ish, and this is pretty thoroughly YA. I'd forgotten that, which meant there had to be a couple slightly uncomfortable explanations to my 8-year-old.)

14. Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro. 4.5. Some of the allegories here are obvious to the point of on-the-nose, but overall, this is a lovely, melancholy book with some beautiful imagery and very creative worldbuilding. Post-apocalyptic but sufficiently post as to be about something beyond simple survival.

15. The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism by Thomas Frank. 3. I think I'd hoped for a little more on business culture and hip consumerism, but this is mostly a (fairly repetitive) history of advertising in the 1950s and 60s, with a chapter or two on fashion. I got led to this through a podcast's referencing it, and honestly, the hour long podcast covered most of the interesting bits. This could have been a very long essay, and much of the book feels like filler. (Although the essay would have been very interesting.)

16. How to Catch a Queen by Alyssa Cole. 4. I continue to love Cole's spin on the "imaginary tiny country's prince takes a commoner wife" using African fake countries instead of knock-off Genovia. The male lead is kind of infuriating, although he's got some good reasons to be and he gets better in a sufficiently satisfying way. The female lead was an antagonist in a previous book - I love it when we get a more sympathetic view of a prickly character we enjoyed hating earlier, in ways that don't negate their prickly qualities.

17. The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal. 4.5. This third book in the Lady Astronaut of Mars series happens concurrent to The Fated Sky. It's tense and clever, and continues to handle issues of sexism and racism with realistic optimism. Kowal doesn't paper over how badly real people would handle this stuff, but there's also the can-do energy that I loved about original Star Trek without requiring people to be utopian. The one problem really is that the ending feels a bit anti-climactic, especially given how tense everything us up to that point.

18. Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson. 4.5. Revisiting a friend's book from a decade ago. Still delightful. First contact through video game reviews.

19. Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Sarah Morganthaler. 3.5. Cute if slightly forgettable romance featuring jet setting business woman and shabby Alaskan pool hall owner. A little overstuffed in terms of cast (especially potential antagonists who are set up as impediments and dealt with far too easily). But I appreciated that while she has to make choices about priorities, she goes in already thinking her family's priorities are messed up (scruffy pool hall owner doesn't melt her ice queen heart or teach her the true meaning of Christmas or any of that nonsense) and she ends up making some choices but not actually giving up her career for him. (Which is good, because he's a terrible business man and can't support himself let alone her.)

20. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. 5. Pratchett takes on the Sweet Polly Oliver trope. I particularly like how Vimes is a background character here, and we mostly see him through other people's eyes.

21. Thud! by Terry Pratchett. 5. Back to mystery-style Watch books. Notable for the legendary included children's text "Where's My Cow?". ("That says, "Buggrit! Millenium Hand and Shrimp!" That is Foul Ole Ron. That is not my cow!")

22. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. 4. Delighted to see how well this held up. My 8-year-old son loved having it read to him, especially since I did voices for all the dragons.