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Book completed
Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. In the far distant future, a world originally colonized by humans now has feudal societies and a low level of technology. A warrior princess, the fourth daughter of the ruler, hopes she can get more respect from her family if she successfully helps a neighboring society get rid of a strange demon plaguing its ( Read more... ) -
Christmas 2025
Let's see. As usual, we celebrated Christmas Eve by gathering at 4 pm, posing for photos with the tree and the cats, then opening gifts. We had a big difference this time, though - S joined us! I've already told about my main gift from J (along with books and other fun things); my main gift for him was a sparring katana I ordered for him from a ( Read more... ) -
A gift
We had a lovely Christmas Eve, but there was a part that made at least two of us tearful. A month or so ago, J had commissioned a digital artist he knows to create a portrait of Ajani and Sorin, curled up together. He sent her dozens of pictures of the two of them, and she worked on it quite a bit, and came up with a stunningly evocative portrait ( Read more... ) -
Book completed
The Towers of the Sunset, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Recluce #2. The first five Recluce books pretty much comprise a single story - what was happening with Lerris, how the world got that way, and then finally back to Lerris for the resolution. This is the first of the three books about how the world got that way, jumping back 950 years to when ( Read more... ) -
Christmas Eve eve
Today I did tons of cleaning for Christmas, so that opening our presents tomorrow will be nicer, and when I was finally done with that I wrapped all the presents. I also went to the library earlier in the day during a brief respite from the rain. There was another brief respite around 1 am, when J finished wrapping his presents, and now ( Read more... ) -
Piano
Today I attended a second concert by our favorite local Russian pianist seeking political asylum, Andrei Andreev. This time it was at our nearest bookstore, Tsunami, which has a quality piano formerly owned by a woman I've met via the youth orchestras (Friedl Bell), and which also has an owner who's been eager to support Andreev as he waits for ( Read more... ) -
Saturday - getting stuff done
I did a bit more shopping today, and now I have everything for Christmas except for the food, which I'll probably buy on Monday. Also, J and I did a bunch of cleaning in his library, especially, and also his office - the library is where we do the stockings, and there was too much lying around from previous festive occasions, as well as all of his ( Read more... ) -
Book completed
Captain's Share, by Nathan Lowell. We catch up with Ish after a 10-year time skip - he finally gets to become a captain, but he's assigned the worst ship in the merchant fleet. There's nothing wrong with the ship itself, but its crew is definitely problematic. We know he has fabulous people skills, though, and we've seen him learn a lot in the ( Read more... ) -
Our water leak
Today someone came to investigate the leak that is causing J to waste 20 gallons of water an hour, and probably some similar amount for me. I had thought the timing of this leak was suspiciously close to when they installed our new smart meters, but the location he identified for the leak (blowing helium through the pipes, I think?) is probably a ( Read more... ) -
Unseasonably warm
Today may have been my final meeting with the youth orchestra board - I've now completed four two-year terms, with a break between the third and fourth. It's an enjoyable thing, but I will probably appreciate having some of my time back, so I didn't continue. Maybe I'll rejoin in the future someday.
I did quite a bit of walking today. First I ( Read more... )