thanks again

I've just repaid everyone who sent me money for my car insurance payment (with one exception, and that's because I'm waiting for the money to transfer into PayPal from my bank). You should all be getting a notice fairly soon. Sorry it took me a few days--I wasn't able to get internet access again until today.

Thanks to all of you!!

various

It's a rainy day here, which is unusual enough to be enjoyable. I'm in Starbucks again, drinking tea, watching the rain, and wishing I didn't have to go to work later.

1) Books

I just found out that Ruth Rendell died. She and Reginald Hill (who died last year) were my two favorite mystery writers, and among my favorite contemporary writers full stop. It's sad to lose them, although both had long careers and lived to a good age.

I've been reading various things:

Ann Leckie's Ancillary Sword (enjoyable and I'm eager to see where the plot is going, although AS had less depth than the first book).

Bruce Holsinger's A Burnable Book and The Invention of Fire (liked the first one very much, as I am a sucker for proper research and Holsinger, a professional medieval scholar, has definitely done that; the second one was less interesting, rescinded the happyish ending given to my favorite character in the first book for the sake of a minor plot point, and--which isn't really the book's fault--inevitably called to mind comparisons to Terry Pratchett's Men At Arms, which while not really fair, are nevertheless not always to Holsinger's advantage).

Radley Balko's Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces (important, timely, marred perhaps by being a bit too long on journalism and short on analysis, marred definitely by a quasi-libertarian perspective that at one point equates US attempts to regulate private ownership of assault weapons with the worst excesses of the "war on drugs").

Also a lot of other things, chosen on my principle of "I saw it on the new release shelf at the library" and not memorable enough for discussion.


2) Cooking

I seem to be making meatballs a lot lately. I've made Spicy Freekeh Soup with Meatballs and Kofta b'siniyah, both from Ottolenghi and Tamimi's Jerusalem. The soup was excellent; the kofta didn't quite work for me. What made me want to try them was the combination of meatballs and tahini (I adore tahini), but I didn't think they went together all that well. I'm planning to use the leftover kofta in various ways (with yogurt sauce, perhaps, or simmered with tomatoes and eaten with pasta) that I hope will turn out more to my taste.

I also baked a big batch of chocolate rugelach the other day, because I had a pound of chocolate I'd acquired in a fit of baking ambition and wanted to use before the weather got too hot here for it to keep well. (The weather has since turned sharply colder, of course.) For half the batch I added walnuts to the chocolate filling, and I used toasted coconut for the other half. They're yummy, though I think I'd prefer the more traditional rugelach filling with raisins, in part because the rugelach dough is so rich already.

I still have over half a pound of semisweet chocolate left. Any suggestions?

Yesterday I seem to have bought a pineapple. They were on sale and they smelled so nice! Hopefully the sudden craving for pineapple the smell brought on will last long enough for me to consume the entire beast.


3) Fannish stuff

I was underwhelmed by the season finale of POI--so underwhelmed that I didn't even realize it was the season finale until I looked it up. I see the show has been renewed for another season despite a drastic decline in ratings in S4. I hope that (a) the show will improve and (b) the blame for the decline will be placed where it belongs, on slipshod and uncreative writing, and not on the inclusion of more women characters or making those characters canonically queer.

I've started rewatching POI from the start, which is making me love the show enough again to search out fanfic. But from what I can tell, there's still next to none that's any good.

As for other fandoms, I badly want to see Age of Ultron, but it will have to wait until I'm less broke. And the end of The Thrilling Adventure Hour is approaching. I just downloaded what's probably the last ever episode of "Captain Laserbeam" and am hoping, hoping, hoping the Captain Laserbeam/Philip Fathom becomes canon. Apparently there's going to be one more "Colonel Tick-Tock" segment as well, and I am equally hoping that the Colonel and Bob McCrumbs will reunite and happily travel the timeline together. Right now these are the stories I'm most invested in, because I haven't loved the direction "Sparks Nevada" has taken.

Okay, this is probably enough rambling. Talk to me? I miss you all, even when it's hard for me to reply/comment in a timely way.

Lewis box set for sale

Anybody want to buy a DVD box set of Lewis, aka Inspector Lewis, complete through S6? It's this one, which has the PBS logo and stuff but includes the original full-length episodes as they were aired in Britain. It's in excellent condition and is Region 1.

I'm asking $50 US plus $5 for shipping in the US. If you want it shipped elsewhere I'm willing to do that, but I'll have to research the shipping cost and let you know.

Reply if you're interested; comments are screened. Please be aware that I have limited internet access and can't check for replies every day, so it may be a few days before you hear back from me.