I’d signed up for two meal deliveries this weekend, and Trader Joe’s got their kosher turkeys in yesterday, so I decided it would be easiest for me to cook a turkey this weekend.
1 13-pound turkey became:
2 trays with a turkey breast and a drumstick each, topped with peach chutney, slow baked over diced sweet potatoes* and chickpeas
1 tray of turkey thighs and tail, topped with Shepherd Herb Mix, slow baked over minced onion*, bits of sourdough bread, and a bit of sage* salt
1 tray of turkey wings, topped with Xinjian Spice Mix, slow baked over minced onion*, sliced carrots*, diced golden beets*, and the end of the peach chutney
1 pot of turkey soup, using the frame and the neck, also leeks*, carrots*, sweet potato*, and purple-top turnips*
1 pan of turkey gribenes, some put away for later, the rest sauted with onion*, spinach*, potato, and the bits of turkey left from a rather imperfect carving job on a not-fully-defrosted bird
The status around here is STILL RESTING LIKE A POTATO, though yesterday I did give in to "this needs to be done, it is a safety issue, and I'm the only one who's likely to do it." Thus the two small stumps at the edge of the yard are now decorated with strips of rag tied around them in a way that, one hopes, will convey the notion that there is something here which should neither be mowed over nor tripped over. Also I stuck a few sunflower stalks in a brush bag. And then I came in to potato some more.
They're not kidding when they say this loom folds up easily (a few seconds) and can be wheeled WITH A PARTIALLY WOVEN WIP STILL ON THE LOOM, ditto unfolding and your project's ready again. (The wheels are extra, but worth it to me.)
Note that this loom is lightweight, my preference (~30 lbs) but that means it will "travel" if you treadle hard. Likewise, by default it's only two harnesses. I unironically love plainweave so this is fine for my use case but if you have more complex weaving in mind, maybe not so much. (You can buy a spendy attachment to convert it to four harnesses, but...)
I haven't yet tested it, but the design of the "ready-made warp" tabletop system is fiendishly clever. Frankly, warping is potentially so annoying that it was worth the cost. I am considering a Frankenstein's monster modification that MIGHT make warping easier as well but I haven't yet tested it.
Yesterday was the last day the US Mint made pennies, completing a 232 year run. I understand why (the cost to produce being three times the face value), but there will always be nostalgia. Given how many transactions these days are cashless, will it actually affect pricing, or will there be an informal “rounding if you pay cash” (in whichever direction) instead? (I suppose I’ll see soon enough given my day job.)
I wonder whether this will make pennies more collectible, for the numismatists who are enthusiastic about them? I have a *lot* of pennies I’ve found in the streets in the last years, not brought to either of the financial institutions I bank at, because one doesn’t do coins (!!!), while the other switched from a free coin counting machine for customers to one that charges some percent (I’m far too cheap to pay for the privilege of having the coins counted, but haven’t yet picked up the paper sleeves needed to roll the coins myself).
On August 12, 1971, my 16-year-old self mailed the first story I ever wrote off on its first submission. The publication I hoped would buy that story, my dream market, was The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
[...]
...earlier this week, after what by my count were 23 back and forth emails between me and the new owners of F&SF as I attempted to transform that initial boilerplate contract into something acceptable, I had no choice other than to walk away from my dream.
Let me explain why.
But before I do, I want to preface this by making it clear I have nothing but good things to say about editor Sheree Renée Thomas. Her words of praise as she accepted this story moved me greatly, and her perceptive comments and suggested tweaks ably demonstrated her strengths as an editor. It breaks my heart to disappoint her by pulling a story which was intended to appear in the next issue of F&SF. But, alas, I must.
Short version: Must Read Magazines offers garbage contracts. I'm not in contracts or law, but I started in sf/f short stories 20+ years ago and IMO Edelman correctly refused to sign.
Based on this account and others, I would not go near Must Read Magazines (or F&SF, Asimov's, Analog under their current ownership) with a 200-foot anaconda, let alone a 20-foot pole.
Apropos of recent attic archaeological finds (no, I mean from my actual attic*), there was a time when Mike and I were talking about funnymen and who-knows-what, and I conflated two names. This yielded "Victor Borges" instead of Victor Borge, and THAT yielded a good several minutes of improvisatory Fordeana covering labyrinthine comedy and surrealist punctuation.
Anyone else remembering points of departure to Mike-spiels is invited, nay, implored, to post them here.
Sincerely, Elise, who is still recuperating from COVID by RESTING LIKE A POTATO
* Yes, the attic of which Lois McMaster Bujold said, at first sight, "It really IS the attics of Vorkosigan House."
We borrowed Valerie Sainte-Agathe from SF Girls' Choir in preparation for this performance. Valerie breaks things down differently from Ash, but I like how she pushes us in certain ways that make us realize we know things better than we think we do; it's a confidence builder. Of course, that's a double-edged sword when it's the case where you actually don't know things as well as you know you need to, but I think overall most of us are benefiting from that presumption of a musical capability baseline, that we can read notes and lyrics at the same time and don't always have to start with one or the other. The occasional singing in mixed formation; the times when she tells us to just put the sheet music down and trust our memory.
We did a "retreat" a couple of weekends ago to basically cram in the equivalent of two additional rehearsals, and I think it helped to just run almost everything in order, to realize that yes, we actually have touched on all of the sections where we sing, and now it's just a matter of linking them together into one performance. (And, um, warming up sufficiently; some of my sopranos have definitely not been feeling warmed up enough for some of the high notes we've got in the Verdi; apparently the tenors have a similar plaint.)
Rehearsals Wednesday and Thursday; performance Friday night, along with a world premiere from Cava Menzies to open the show. I believe there are still tickets available for anyone local and interested. Guess I'd better dig out the concert blacks soon and make sure they're clean :) And figure out a lighter-weight folder for the Verdi, lord is the new edition heavy, but it still needs to be in a black music folder to blend in!
(Note to self: obviously it won't arrive in time for Verdi, but if you're thinking about trying to find a lighter-weight concert top before Break Bread, look at Blackstrad? Occasionally, the algorithm deposits actually relevant things in my feed. I'm currently intrigued by their Vesper top and their Elektra top, though I suspect given dress code the Vesper's a better option. There's even a petite section!)
And Break Bread will be upon us faster than a blink: rehearsal next week, break for Thanksgiving, two more regular rehearsals, and then dress rehearsal and performance all on Sunday, December 15. I'd better hurry up and order my music for our February concert, haven't done that yet, naughty section leader!
This is crossposted from Curiousity.ca, my personal maker blog. If you want to link to this post, please use the original link since the formatting there is usually better.
Going with a spooky kitty theme this month, since I had a pair of good spooky kitty sticker sheets from last year’s stickii Halloween countdown. (I didn’t get this years halloween countdown because I still had plenty of spooky stickers.)
Stationary for journaling in November 2025. There are two stickii sticker sheets with ghost cats, witch cats, then a fall mushroom themed set of sheets from MU and another stickii sheet with happy raindrops on leaves and stuff. There are four fountain pens and ink swatches below that: a Pelikan Pura with Diamine Baltic Breeze (blue with pinkish sparkle), a Pilot Metropolitan with Diamine Twilight (dark grey), a Monteverde Ritma with Van Dieman’s Last Light (purple-blue), and a Pilot E95S with Sailor Mayo Asagiri (pink). Below that are a set of 4 thin washi tapes in blue/purple/pink.
Stickers
Fountain Pen ghost cats by Yudoart (from stickii halloween last year)
Witchy sticker sheet by November Rush (from stickii halloween last year)
MU “print on stickers” (transfers, really)
Droplets sheet by Starriesena (also from stickii)
Pens and Ink
Pelikan Pura <b> with Diamine Baltic Breeze (blue with copper? sparkle)
Pilot Metropolitan <cm> with Diamine Twilight (dark grey)
Monteverde Ritma <flex> with Van Dieman’s Last Light (purple-blue)
Pilot E95S <m> with Sailor Mayo Asagiri (pink)
The Van Dieman’s Last Light is a new sample I picked up from their line of two-tone inks. I actually really like the way this ink works other than the fact that I keep thinking it’s too light to read while I’m writing but it does dry darker as so many purple-ish inks do. It’s especially nice in this particular flex nib, which basically lets you pour out more ink with bit of extra pressure, and a bit more ink in this case gets more of the dual colour effect.
Using the Metropolitan right after using the Maple pen last month has cemented that the Metropolitan is significantly easier on my hands, so my ranking continues to stand.
Thoughts on last month’s selections
Some thoughts on what worked and what didn’t from last month. The architect nib in that maple pen is very fun to use but definitely tires my hands out. Not sure if that’s primarily due to the nib or it’s also the heavier and larger pen. It worked really well with Southwest Sunset except that I’d forgotten that this particular ink leaves little dots that take forever to dry, so I smeared it a few times. I had this trouble with the other noodler’s ink I had as well, and wound up giving the rest of that sample away. I like the colours of Southwest Sunset enough that I’m keeping my last tiny bit of sample but I’ll try to remember that it’s kind of annoying to use even if the shading is super pretty.
The combo of Wearingeul Frankenstein and my TWSBI Eco worked, but it was clear that all the shimmer was getting stuck in the feed and very little made it to the page, so next time that ink goes in the Pelikan to see if I can get a better effect. It is really nice without the shimmer, though, so not too sad.
Using KWZ All that Glitters Firecracker reminded me how much I enjoy their easy to use shimmers that work in all my pens. Since they’re only $10 per 30ml bottle, I just went ahead and bought the two colours I didn’t have. I don’t think they’re as pretty as the two I bought first, but I think I’ll enjoy using them anyhow!
The Pelikan Pura made Diamine Pine Needle work much better than last time I used it. Very happy with how much the Pura improves my ink collection!
The Leuchtturm1917 is working well. The paper definitely is a bit thinner so I found myself rearranging inks so the dark purple Frankenstein was mostly used on the left hand page and I wasn’t writing on something with seriously visible ghosting. I don’t find it too disruptive but it’s there and I notice and think about it regularly. It’s been nice enough for writing, though — not too slow to dry or anything. I do really love the pre-numbered pages and the way the top and bottom have wider margins, though, so the layout is great. I think my perfect notebook would be this dot grid page layout with thicker paper in a smaller page count, but I’ve still got a small collection of notebooks to try so maybe I’ll find something I enjoy even more.
Pen collection changes
Three fountain pens: the first one is a large, teal Jinhao 100, the second a dark blue marbled Noodler’s flex nib, the third a light purple Hondgian M2 that is a pocket pen (as in, much smaller than the other two pens).
I passed 3 pens on to a friend this month. From left to right:
Jinhao 100 <fude>: This one has to be held at a steep angle for the width of line I want, which made it not super useful for regular use since my normal writing angle produced very thick lines. It’s probably tuned for calligraphy? It would have been nice for making cards or something, but I seldom do that. It’s a pretty pen but it really wasn’t working for me, and I have a few other fudes in my collection. My friend is a lefty and it worked better for her, so off it goes.
Noodler’s Creaper <Flex>: This is actually the only fountain pen I’ve ever had which I hated the feel of the pen body rather than the nib. It constantly gave me the vibe of one of those cheap conference giveaway pens that didn’t quite fit together right. No idea why, it wasn’t actually loose, maybe it was something about the shape. But it’s been sitting in a cup because I don’t want to use it, so I’m glad to pass it along where it might get used!
Hongdian M1 <ef>: The extra fine nib in this felt like I was writing with a toothpick, scratchy and too small. Actually, I think I’ve painted with toothpicks that I liked better than this. I’m not a huge extra fine fan, but the other ones I have don’t feel as bad as this one did to me. Could have replaced the nib but I decided it was better to give it away.
I’d intended to reduce my pen collection by not replacing these, but then Fountain Pen Day sales happened and I picked up a couple of cheaper pens on my wish list. A paragon of restraint I am not, this month. Which is fine, my unemployment can cover a few pens and inks if a bit of retail therapy is helping me survive a month of solo parenting and all the preparation for an international move and dealing with job interview stuff. I’m still feeling less burned out as a whole, but the past few weeks have been A Lot.
Countdown time
In other related news: I wound up buying both the Stickii Advent and the Diamine Inkvent calendar.
The stickers were an easy choice: I’ve used most of last year’s, and with my regular usage at around 2.5 sheets per month a December countdown isn’t so many stickers that it’s going to overwhelm me for the year. Unlike the halloween collection, these aren’t all wintery so I used last year’s year-round easily. I love picking out stickers and matching inks every month, and the stickii ones are a bit thinner, smaller and more convenient for journal use than some of the others I get from individual artists. I’d probably like their subscription club too but that one is more stickers than I use per month so this fits my life better plus I get a cute binder to store my sheets in. I use last year’s a lot.
The inkvent calendar was a harder choice: I use maybe 2ml of ink in the average month, so I strongly debated just making myself a 12-sample pack to enjoy over the holidays which would match up better with my ink usage. But then I kind of overwhelmed myself trying to pick 12 colours and the ones I chose kept going out of stock and I realized I wasn’t actually having that much fun with that plan. So in the end I decided to just get the Inkvent set and stop fussing over picking things. It’s “too much ink” but I really loved the experience last year and the excuse to swatch and use a new ink every day. And I know I won’t be sad about having more colours to use in my monthly palettes, since I know I sometimes struggle with finding something to match my chosen stickers. In hindsight, I should have just planned to trade ink samples with my friend and use those, but I didn’t think to do an ink swap until nearly a month after I ordered the inkvent calendar. Whoops.
Not sure how I feel about the sparkle-sheen gimmick for Inkvent but now that I’ve got the Pelican pens that seem able to take advantage of my shimmer inks, I’m sure they’ll get used.
Also, it’s got me thinking about painting with fountain pen inks as a way to enjoy them more. I’ve been doing a bunch of watercolour painting by going through lessons in various books I’ve gotten from the library, and it’s been really pleasant and I’m starting to get some paintings I’m proud of even if they’re just duplicating the exercises. Inks are more complicated pigments than I’m used to using but I can learn and experiment. So ink painting might go on next year’s “fiber goals” though it’s a little less fiber-y.Speaking of fiber, I skipped out on bigger yarn advents but did get the 8 day Chanukah set from ChemKnits again because I love supporting her videos and 8 minis isn’t too much yarn. I haven’t always knit with these right away because I’m usually doing advent stuff that starts earlier in the month, but since this will be among the yarns I have with me when I get on the plane in December, it makes sense to plan some socks in January or something. I have to actually plan a few months of projects in advance so I have the right yarns and tools on hand during the move. I usually do have rough plans of what I want to knit next, but it’s definitely different when almost all my yarn and half my tools will be packed and on a truck! So far I’ve got a half formed plan to do Grand Opening with a mini set from my stash, but I’ll figure out more soon!
...warping is indeed 99.99% of the physical work, moreso than with a pin loom or rigid heddle loom! After that, the physical work of weaving (plainweave) is stupidly easy.
Joe is getting the world's jankiest tiny blanket out of this. :) One has to start somewhere!
I know, two baking entries in a row, but I really do need to write down my riffs and recipes when I make them so that I actually remember what I did! Especially when I use up the tail end of things I don't always keep in stock. So playing a little bit of catch-up here.
Cramming one last recipe riff in here while I'm thinking about it: yet another choir bake, furikake marshmallow bars. Basically crispy rice cereal treats with added furikake, black sesame, and a little sesame oil.
SciShow did a collab with Tom Lum and ESOTERICA and delivered a deep dive into the history of the relationship of chemistry and alchemy and the politicization of the distinction between the two: "In Defense of Alchemy" (2025 Oct 17).
I cannot tell you how much I loved this and what a happy surprise this was. It ties into a whole bunch of other things I passionately want to tell you about that have to do with epistemology, science, and politics (and early music) but I didn't expect to be able to tie chemistry/alchemy in to it because I had neither the chops nor the time to do so. But now, some one else has done this valuable work and tied it all up with a bow for me. I'm thrilled.
Please enjoy: 45 transfiguring minutes about the history of alchemy and chemistry and what you were probably told about it and how it is wrong.
I have been dealing with some health stuff. I recently got a somewhat heavy medical diagnosis. It's nothing life-threatening, and of yet I have only had the mildest of symptoms, and seem to be responding well to treatment, but it's a bummer. My new specialist seems to be fantastic, so that's good.
Meanwhile, I have also finally started having a medical problem I've been anticipating ever since my back went wonky three years ago: my wrists have finally started crapping out. Because I cannot tolerate sitting for long, I have been using my laptop on a rig that holds it over me on my bed. But this means I haven't been using my ergonomic keyboard because it's not compatible with this rig. I'm honestly surprised it's taken this long for my wrists to burst into flames again, but HTML and other coding has always been harder on my arms than simple text, and the research and writing I've been doing on Latin American geopolitics has been a lot of that. And while I can use dictation for text*, it's useless for HTML or anything that involves a lot of cut-and-paste. Consequently, I've gotten really behind on all my writing, both here and my clinical notes.
So I ordered a NocFree split wireless keyboard in hopes that it will be gentler on my arms. It arrived last night, and I have been relearning how to touch type, only with my arms at my side and absolutely not being able to see the keyboard.
You would not believe how long it took me to type this, but it's all slowly coming back. Also, I feel the need to share: I'm doing this in emacs. Which feels like a bit of a high wire act, because errors involving meta keys could, I dunno, reformat my hard drive or crash the electrical grid.
Here's hoping I get the hang of this before I break the backspace key from overuse or accidentally launch a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia.
* If, you know, I don't too dearly value my sanity.
Not my catten but isis's catten's contribution! So very soft. :3
Not much yet as it's a slightly tricky spin, mostly in that one has to pay attention instead of watching anime while spinning on inattentive mode. :D It feels different of course (silkier/floofier), but the spinning technique, like huacaya alpaca, is surprisingly similar to cotton in some ways!
BTW, isis, Cloud has been sniffing my hands VERY SUSPICIOUSLY ahahahaha.
Happily, there's more of this so I can spin up more for a 2-ply. Destined for weft for the Saori loom - I have promised Joe a smol, semifunctional blanket. :3
At our house, Opportunity Food is defined as what you can make when you can't stand up that long today.
Currently, is Bowl o' Cronch:
take bowl spread some nut butter on bottom/sides of bowl (note: INsides, not OUTsides) - today is peanut butter throw some dried fruit at nut butter if you got some - today is raisins and some crystallized ginger put in puffed brown rice (or whatever you got) add milk, or if no milk, a couple really big spoonfuls plain yogurt anything else you got that seems appetizing get big spoon eat
We are still getting through COVID. We are still resting LIKE POTATOES. (Still funny. Every time.)
A helpful person pointed out it is still open enrollment time for health insurance. Well then.
Have inquired with health insurance broker. (It doesn't cost anything. If you are in Minnesota or Wisconsin, and need one, I have references.) There are things that can be done, it looks like.
For right now, though, my tasks:
Wash a few dishes - DONE Have brekkie - IN PROGRESS Take meds - IN PROGRESS Sit Up because it helps breathing - IN PROGRESS
Americans, as I hope you know, on Nov 1st, the Federal government, being shut down, did not transmit the money to the states to pay for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, aka "Food Stamps". In many states, SNAP money is supposed to hit recipients' EBT cards on the first of the month. It didn't. There is in the SNAP budget funds to cover emergencies, but Trump said he would not release it; lawsuits ensued, and as of right now, partial payments are going to be or have been made.
I commend the following video to you. It's longish - 26 minutes – but worth your time.
Hank Green, of vlogbrothers fame, invites Jeannie Hunter, Tennessee regional director of the Society of St. Andrew (aka EndHunger.org), on to his personal chanenel explain how the US's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, aka "Food Stamps", actually works.
Hunter turns out to be a great interview subject and the resultant conversation was fascinating. I highly recommend it - not just to understand what's at stake in the goverment shutdown, but for your own simple enjoyment of learning how things actually work, and also so you can more eloquently advocate for this system.
Just finished:Emily of New Moon, on audiobook from Librivox. Dean Priest is sketchy as shit from Day One. Teddy is white-bread. Ilse and Perry at least have personalities. And Jimmy is darling.
Currently reading: Number 5 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl (slowly), and I'm partway through the audiobook of Jamaica Inn by Daphne duMaurier, which is hella gothic and really well-written. I'm mildly entertained by DCC but I cannot keep all the fancy spells in my brain and the body count is pretty excessive (especially once you know that all the NPCs are real people!)
Up Next:The Nameless Land by Kate Elliott, sequel to The Witch Roads. Happily it's available on Bookshop.org DRM-free, so I could download it and sideload it onto my Kindle.
*+*+*
In other news, work is insane and and and. But at least Prop 50 passed, and at least some of the Dems are figuring out that we need them to FIGHT BACK. But this shutdown sucks. I can't be more specific than that.
2 big bags of spinach (I swapped one for 4 more leeks; I still have tons of spinach left)
0.75 pounds of mixed salad greens (a winter salad mix: there’s not-quite-young red kale leaves in there)
take-what-you-want herbs and jalapenos (still didn’t take any) First thoughts: more slaws, more baked root veggies, more sauted greens, something deliciously leek-y (potato-leek soup? leek frittata? caramelized leeks with baked butternut squash?)
Also, I ran into Talia at the distribution; it was good to catch up. And then she saw me walking, and offered a ride (their new place is approximately down the street from me), so we had more time to talk, plus I didn’t have to carry the veggies as far: win!
called my mayor, state rep, or other local official 0 (0.0%)
voted 15 (78.9%)
did get-out-the-vote work, such as post-carding or phone- banking 4 (21.1%)
sent a postcard/email/letter/fax to a government official or agency 9 (47.4%)
went to a protest 8 (42.1%)
attended an in-person activist group 1 (5.3%)
went to a town hall 0 (0.0%)
participated in phone or online training 2 (10.5%)
participated in community mutual aid 2 (10.5%)
donated money to a cause 11 (57.9%)
worked for a campaign 1 (5.3%)
did textbanking or phonebanking 1 (5.3%)
took care of myself 13 (68.4%)
not a US citizen, but worked in solidarity in my community 1 (5.3%)
committed to action in the current month 2 (10.5%)
did something else (tell us about it in comments) 3 (15.8%)
As always, everyone is free to make posts about any issues and actions they think the comm should know about. You can also drop information into a comment to our sticky post if you'd like the mods to do it.
If you're looking for information on anything else, you can use our tags to check for any ongoing actions or resources relevant to the issues you care about. I try to keep the tag list up-to-date. If you need a tag added, you can DM me.
sandboxdiva pinged me this weekend wanting to ensure that I'd seen the latest Binging with Babish episode since it focused on chocolate chip cookies, so of course I promptly had to sit down and watch it.
1. Did I pause the video to take note of exactly how fancy the ingredients were for the Level 8 cookies, ( yes I did. )
2. Did I also factcheck Babish on his assertion that "regular old homemade chocolate chip cookies probably cost like $6/batch to make," why yes I did. Come on, buddy, you're based in Brooklyn, groceries aren't cheaper there than in the Bay Area.
3. Am I doing all this to distract myself from all of the elections going down today? Of bloody course I am.
4. Is my version of the Guittard Super Chip cookie recipe still my go-to? Yes, because 72 hours is a long time to wait for cookies. Also, converted to weights, a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar, and no nuts.
5. What am I baking for choir tomorrow? Um. I should probably figure that out, shouldn't I. Of all the bougie things to have on hand, I actually currently have a glut of hazelnut flour that needs to get used up, and we do have some gluten-intolerant choir members, so I may end up with a flavor variant of these hazelnut chocolate chip cookies, probably converted to bar format, possibly with the spicing and inclusions changed up.
6. Reminder to self: you'll be in rehearsal tomorrow and will have to miss it, but Community Kitchens is doing trainings for home chef volunteers to cook meals for the Town Fridges in Oakland. Ping them to find out when the next training is.
7. Oh thank god, results are coming in for the major races and I don't know of any truly disasterrific results yet.
Have had food. (Soup!) Have had meds. Vented on Bluesky, where I am lionesselise. Am about to rest again for a while. LIKE A POTATO. If a potato could crochet, anyhow. I'm in a mood for a little crocheting before sleepage.
Because I recently turned 65, there were changes in my insurance. I now have Blue Cross Blue Shield, which I used to have some years ago before I got switched to a different insurance. They have now denied a med that is a cornerstone of why I am feeling better and breathing better these days.
The switch happened after my August birthday. All the other meds are (allegedly, and I do believe them) on the way from the mail order pharmacy (who were good when I used to use them). This med has been denied by insurance, which is BCBS. Even after special authorization, which they told me I needed, they denied it.
Am almost out.
(Yes, this is the med that the other insurance company kept only filling for one month, despite my doc writing a three-month scrip every frikkin time. Yes, this is one of the things I worry about running out of, because it matters a lot.)
Also you may imagine bitter laughter as various med and scheduling people explain to me that the insurance is apparently requiring the patient, me, go in to meet with the doc. The agoraphobic patient, these days. Though we did get to "virtual visit is acceptable," which is good, before we got to "the first virtual visit possible is a while after patient runs out of meds" which is not.
This stuff is what I was already making calls on and trying to handle before I got COVID. The two together is just a really horrible coincidence.
(Even if we did try to switch me to the insurance that was fine with it before (like Blue Cross Blue Shield was actually fine with it a few years ago when I had it!), there's no guarantee we won't run afoul of some new rule.)
There are options being looked into, for which details will be scant and the passive voice, for the moment, will be employed.
I do not have words that will cover exactly how I feel about this insurance bullshit. However the person just now taking the note to give my doc did write down faithfully that "patient is worried that without this med, she may not be around to keep this appointment," which is at least something I guess.
I am hungry. (I am the king now and I want a sandwich?) Actually what I want right now is soup. I wonder if I can stand up long enough to microwave some. Gotta put some food in or the meds might bounce, and it's meds time.
Still have COVID. Still continuing. Still resting like potatoes. (With the caveat that I do get up and sit in a chair for a while each day, because my body needs that for some things.)
Today's things included talking on phone with multiple people at new insurance/pharmacy/et cetera. Cried twice. This is harder than it actually needs to be. Told them, when they asked if med was medically necessary, that I like breathing and wished not to give it up. (I DUNNO, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU GUYS THINK, IS A MED THAT HELPS WITH MY ALLERGIES AND MY ASTHMA POSSIBLY IMPORTANT WHEN I AM IN ACUTE COVID RIGHT NOW? WHY COULD THAT POSSIBLY MATTER, RIGHT GUYS?)
Paxlovid mouth-taste is evil. Only have to get through tonight and tomorrow and however long the aftertaste lasts. Am combating it with gummy candies. Decided why the heck not. About to open bag of jelly turtles that tells me they are from Spain. O jelly turtles from Spain, I put my hope in your benevolent tastiness.
Thank you all for being here. Good words help a lot. Maybe tell me something good from your life today? I like hearing about good moments.
I do have plans. They are not vengeance unless vengeance is making really good art. I just have to get well enough to realize them. Meanwhile, jelly turtles from Spain, and also some weird blueberry planets that are freaking huge. And you all. I like you people. Hello, people! I may be slightly giddy again.
I slightly less half-assedly fixed the warp on the Clover Sakiori loom (Japanese).
I didn't bring a comb for the weft and was using a tapestry needle, but catten remains unlikely to mind imperfect weaving.
Also, further adventures in dyeing wool yarn. I'd like to test on dyeing combed top for cotton, ramie, and silk (mulberry/bombyx, eri, tussah, and maybe a small sample of my treasured stash of muga); and then try some on alpaca or mohair after I've processed some more.
Later in the season, in natural dyes, I might experiment with the traditional hoary old standby of onion skins; rose hips (several of my roses shrubs produce them); and find out if windfall figs from the no-longer-quite-so-baby fig tree do anything interested as dyes. Osage orange, common madder, true and false indigo, hibiscus, and elderberry grow in Louisiana so making a dye plant plot might be entertaining. That or I sacrifice e.g. a bunch of beets lol. For personal use, I don't care about consistency (I prefer chaos ball colors) and I'm not that fussed about reliable fastness. "Throw it in a pot and also an ~appropriate mordant" for personal experiment promises to be very entertaining.
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yhlee Nov. 13th, 2025 12:10 am)![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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sandboxdiva pinged me this weekend wanting to ensure that I'd seen the latest Binging with Babish episode since it focused on chocolate chip cookies, so of course I promptly had to sit down and watch it.
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lionesselise. Am about to rest again for a while. LIKE A POTATO. If a potato could crochet, anyhow. I'm in a mood for a little crocheting before sleepage.
