What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie and Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) by Elizabeth Peters.


What I am Currently Reading: After finishing the Amelia Peabody book on Monday I didn’t really feel like starting anything yesterday, but I plan on starting System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells today.


What I Plan to Read Next: I have more library books out, so most likely one of those!!




Book 40 of 2025: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)

This book was really good!! spoilers )

I've already requested the next book in the series; I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥




Book 41 of 2025: Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) (Elizabeth Peters)

This book was really good! spoilers )

I enjoyed this book a lot and must go request the next in the series. I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
([personal profile] spikedluv Jun. 11th, 2025 06:59 am)
I planned to visit mom, but since she’s in the ICU and visiting hours don’t start until 11am I had some time to kill. I did not go downtown, but stayed home to do some chores and stuff on the computer.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

I typed in edits, coded and posted the [community profile] smallfandomfest fic I’ve been working on!! It’s Murder, She Wrote crossed over with V (1983). To make it work, I gave Jessica another niece, lol! I read some fanfic and watched some HGTV programs. It still feels really weird to not call mom in the evening to talk about our respective days.

I saw my brother (and his GF) and my sister S (the nurse) while visiting mom. There can only be two at a time in the ICU so we took turns.

I fell again. *head desk* This time inside the house (slipped on a puddle of wet on the floor), but I landed on that same knee I keep falling on and bent that same big toe. It hurt and I swore a lot. And I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of my first fall when I scraped my knee so badly, pulled every muscle, and cracked my big toe.

Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 82.6. It rained all morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got in a short walk with Pip and the dogs when he (they *g*) got home from work. Within a half hour of that the clouds moved in and the temps dropped 12 degrees before it started raining again for a bit.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing pretty well when I saw her. She was so out of it, thanks to the drugs. Her voice was very raspy (because of the tube, which they removed before I got there) (if I wasn’t facing her while she was speaking, I never would have known it was her) and she slurred a bit due to the drugs. Sometimes she forgot what she was saying. She talked about Matlock a lot. *g*

They gave her an epidural for the pain and her nurse (she seemed awesome) said that they were going to keep the epidural in for a few days, and that while it was in she’d remain in the ICU. I’m happy about both; no pain, and great care.

The bad news came later in the evening when my sister S passed on (in the Family Group chat) that the surgeon thinks that my mom may have originally had pancreatic cancer that jumped to the bile duct. She won’t know for certain until the labs come back. I do not fucking want it to be pancreatic cancer. As you may have guessed, I had a knot in my stomach the rest of the evening and didn’t sleep super well, even though I doubled my melatonin to make sure I would fall asleep.

All positive thoughts welcomed.
hannah: (Interns at Meredith's - gosh_darn_icons)
([personal profile] hannah Jun. 10th, 2025 10:42 pm)
At some point in between sitting down to write and finishing the night's wordcount, something went nasty on the right side of my neck. Suddenly and without any seemingly inciting cause, too. Not even lifting more weight than I should've tried or falling and landing badly. The oddness of it doesn't help the pain, but at least it seems to point to an acute cause that should, ideally, clear up after a hot shower and some sleep.

Waking up to hail this morning was a surprise; getting out of the subway after the day's rains had all passed to leave the air in one of those hauntingly fragile summer afternoons was just as much a surprise, if a far more pleasant one.
Another Jessica crossover! I hope you enjoy it.


Title: One Good Hoax Deserves Another
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983) (tv)
Rating: PG13/Gen
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Juliet Parrish (appearances by Mike Donovan and Elias Taylor)
Length: 3,380 words
Spoilers: Takes place during ep 1.04 Hooray for Homicide of Murder, She Wrote and during the first V (1983) mini-series.
Summary: Jessica Fletcher’s trip to Los Angeles turns out very differently than she’d expected.
Author’s Notes: Written for Round 37 of [community profile] smallfandomfest for the prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983), Jessica & Writer's Choice, Jessica happens to be in LA when the truth about the Visitors is revealed
Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Posted: June 10, 2025

Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66375037
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
([personal profile] spikedluv Jun. 10th, 2025 07:17 am)
I spent most of the day at the hospital, which I talk about below if you want to skip it. I did some hand-washing of dishes and scooping of kitty litter when I got home. I finished the Amelia Peabody book while sitting in the waiting room. It felt weird when I was finally sitting on my bed, NOT to make my daily call to mom.

Temps started out at 59.2(F) and reached 75. It was weird coming out of the window-less waiting room (for trips to the cafeteria or restroom) to see that it was still light out.


Mom Update:

Thank you so much for all of your good wishes for mom's surgery yesterday! I really appreciate it.

cutting for those who don’t want to read )
hannah: (Library stacks - fooish_icons)
([personal profile] hannah Jun. 9th, 2025 10:31 pm)
The day's major accomplishment was getting some hand-holding for my hard drive problem and getting the man on the other end to laugh a bit when I said I knew enough to get myself into trouble but not how to get out of it. Hopefully I can get my act together enough to send it out for repairs in a day or two.

The secondary accomplishments were taking the stairs to the gym, and making an attempt to reach out when I felt myself going down a spiral.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
([personal profile] spikedluv Jun. 9th, 2025 07:09 am)
It's surgery day. All positive thoughts welcome. Thank you!!
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
([personal profile] spikedluv Jun. 9th, 2025 07:07 am)
I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and then emptied it (!!), did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and made brownies. I mowed the lawn.

For fun stuff I watched the current ep (season finale *sniffle*) of Leverage: Redemption and an HGTV program, read more in Amelia Peabody, and talked with mom on the phone.

The water in the pond has gone down to normal levels, thankfully. Pip used the shop vac in the basement, but stirring up that water made the entire house stink. Not sure what else we’ll need to do.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 78.4. It was nice and sunny all day, with a slight breeze. Tomorrow: more rain. Ugh!
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hannah: (On the pier - fooish_icons)
([personal profile] hannah Jun. 8th, 2025 10:12 pm)
Today's luxurious disappointments are in the fields of scheduling issues and data preservation.

The latter is because a hard drive stopped working. I got a couple error messages about moving and deleting files - "Error 0x8007045D: the request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" - which was soon followed by Error code 43, then "Cannot open drive for direct access". At this point, I'm pretty secure in saying it's not going to get fixed by trying the hard drive on another computer, or that I can fix it myself. As such, I'm going to leave it alone in the hopes it doesn't get worse and look into local data recovery centers to see which one can best help me.

In the former's case, it's because Escapade is scheduled opposite a few movie screenings at the MOMI I'd very much like to see. I can probably juggle them around, pick which movies versus which panels, and it's more than a little annoying to have to choose between two fun things to look forward to. As I said, luxurious disappointments.
Leverage: Redemption: Good ep! spoilers )


Murderbot: This ep was just okay for me. spoilers )


Resident Alien: Good ep! spoilers )
Today was supposed to be parade/chicken dinner day at mom’s. Unfortunately, we had a huge amount of rain that caused ditches and creeks to overflow their banks. The parade was canceled because of flooding but the chicken bbq was still on so my siblings and I gathered at mom’s for chicken dinners. My brother came, when he doesn’t normally come for the parade and other festivities, because he wanted to see my mom before her surgery. We sat on the screened-in porch and listened to it rain outside, which was surprisingly nice when we weren’t getting wet.

I managed to do three loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I also watched the current ep of Resident Alien and an HGTV program, read some more Amelia Peabody, and still talked to mom on the phone. I also got extra sleep because I slept in until 8am for the first time in ages! (Going back to bed after getting the dogs back inside, of course.)

In bad personal news, we even had flooding at our home, which is unheard of because we’re not near any creeks. What happened, in two instances, was a matter of blocked drainage. The drain outside the basement got plugged, so our basement flooded for the first time ever. (Back when Hurricane Irene gave us about 13" of rain, a tiny bit of water entered the basement through a crack in the floor, but nothing before or since, until now.)

The other was the pond. Pip puts a mesh wire over the spill pipe in the spring so the baby geese don’t get sucked down it, and that mesh got blocked, so the pond built up until it spilled over the banks. A lot of fish were caught in the spill, unfortunately. And that’s in addition to the normal build-up of water we get in a line across the property (where the slight down hill from the house meets the down hill from the hill where the pine trees are). There was so much water.

Pip has been squeegeeing the basement, but a squeegee can only do so much. He’s going to have to jack hammer an actual hole into the basement floor for a sub pump and squeegee the water into it. What a pain in the ass. (Thankfully Pip had a change of plans! He’s going to try to vacuum the water out with a shop vac ~before he goes to the effort of jack hammering a hole in the floor!) He also had to go in the pond several times to unclog the mesh so the water could flow out the way it was supposed to. (In addition to the rain, the pond fills with run-off from the hill above it, and there was a LOT of run-off.)

Temps started out at 63.0(F) and reached 76.4. Thankfully the rain ended mid-afternoon and the sun came out.
Tags:
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
([personal profile] spikedluv Jun. 7th, 2025 09:08 am)
I hit Walmart, Price Chopper and the Bakery while I was downtown and got in a short walk around the park. I hit Stewart’s (for gas and milk) on the way to pick up the dogs, and hit the bank drive-thru on the way back home (because the dogs get treats). Most of my shopping was to stock up on some items in case I couldn’t go shopping next week. It was a small step in reducing my stress.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and changed kitty litter.

I added ~1,400 words to my [community profile] smallfandomfest fic!! It’s a comfortable place to end it, I think, so just need to give it a re-read/edit. I started the next Amelia Peabody book, watched the current ep of Murderbot, and attended Baby A’s dance recital.

(Their 'number' was adorable! It was basically their teacher helping them form a bridge with their body, then laying down and rolling along the mats, then helping them 'stand' on their hands before lying them down to do somersaults to the end of the mat. They performed to Circle of Life from Lion King. (The theme was broadway.)

Mom and I left during intermission (we'd seen about a dozen performances and there were about that many left), but my niece Ireland remembered me mentioning that I'd have to miss them do 'Dancing Queen' so she recorded it and sent it to me, which I thought was nice.)

I browned ground beef and boiled pasta to make ziti for tonight’s supper.

Temps started out at 65.1(F) and reached 73.4. We were supposed to have patches of rain and thunderstorms all day, but we only got some rain in the afternoon (no thunder or lightning, thankfully, because the dogs hate it).
I hit Agway while I was downtown (to pick up a GC for Pip’s dad for Father’s Day – I wanted to make sure I had it on hand because I don’t know what the next week is going to be like; for the same reason I picked up more dog treats so I’d have them on hand and wouldn’t need to make another trip anytime soon) and got in a short walk around the park.

I stopped by the library to return and pick-up books on the way to visit my aunt and deliver some checks to the nursing home (one for her personal savings account so she can continue to get things like pizza, massage (on her feet and lower legs because of the swelling), and hair appointments).

I stopped at Tractor Supply after visiting my aunt (Pip called; his usual supplier of corn for the geese and every other animal who eats it, let him down again), then stopped to see if the beef sticks had been restocked as I had been told they would be. Shocker, they hadn’t been. (TBF, they got more of the singly packaged sticks, but I want a bag of them. The person I talked to this time said they’d put it on the order. So I’ll check back next week.)

I did a load of laundry and the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, emptied the dishwasher, scooped kitty litter, and calculated & e-filed the quarterly sales and tire tax for the garage. (I wanted to have that done before everything happened with mom.)

I went on two short walks in the afternoon. Instead of doing the ‘crazy 8' I did a short-ish walk that I usually don’t do by myself. I’d seen flowers growing on the side of the road and was like, we have those! So I did the walk where I could see those flowers. Then I did another shortie when Pip got home and took the dogs for a walk to make up for not doing the longer walk earlier.

I got some more writing done!!!!! I added 1,100 words to my [community profile] smallfandomfest fic. I also re-read All Systems Red because I’ve already forgotten some of the details and I wanted a refresher before I watched more of the show. I watched a couple HGTV programs and talked with mom.

I grilled Italian sausage for Pip’s supper; I had more French toast. What can I say? It hit the spot.

Temps started out at 70.7(F) and reached 88.2. There were some periods of straight sun, but also a lot of haziness, which helped keep the temps below 90, at least. The temps didn't get as high as yesterday, but there was more humidity. We were originally supposed to have thunderstorms today, but they’ve been moved back to tomorrow.
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hannah: (Sam and Dean - soaked)
([personal profile] hannah Jun. 5th, 2025 08:56 pm)
I went to a master's program's commencement ceremony at the Apollo Theater today, and while I left after two hours and didn't see it end, based on how those first two hours and the setup went, I doubt anyone blasted any James Brown.

What a wasted opportunity.

I'm glad I went, though, for all its wasted opportunities and long-winded metaphor-straining speeches and a prerecorded speech from a chancellor that included a plug to sign up for the alumni association while detailing its many features. My sister in law E. and older brother J. seemed happy about it, and I'll know I was willing to make an effort to show up.
This one got long. Sorry about that. o_O

I had a chiropractic appointment and a pedicure this morning. I was relieved about the chiropractic appointment because my back started bothering me this morning in the shoulder blade area, to the point where I got up early because I couldn’t get comfortable and back to sleep. The pedicure was lovely and I chose a salmon-y color for my toenails.

I hit Price Chopper while I was downtown and Stewart’s (for milk) on the way to pick up the dogs. I got in a short walk around the park and did another ‘crazy 8' walk with the puppers (.50mi). (It’s a combination of two other trails that resembles a figure 8, hence the name. It’s my favorite and takes me around the pond and through the orchard.) I realized this morning that the next few weeks will be less than ideal for walking, since I’ll be going to the hospital the first week, then spending time with mom (split with my other two sisters), as she can’t be left alone for long because she’ll need help getting around and with the tubes.

(We’ve been told she’ll need care for three weeks, but we’ll see how that plays out in actuality. My one sister has already offered to take night duty and will be spending the nights with mom, so my other sister and I will just need to figure out the days. It helps that we won’t need to spend every minute of the day with her, so there’s some leeway for one leaving before the other arrives to take over.)

(Those who know me well know that I’m already dreading this, despite loving my mom very much. Not only the disruption to my usual schedule for an entire month, but also having to spend more time than I like ‘people’ing’. *bites nails*)

Speaking of my mom’s surgery, I have just found out from the surgeon (via my sister, the nurse) that the operating room has been reserved for ten hours. Ten frelling hours! For some reason, that makes me more nervous about the surgery.

In other unhappy-making news, I have sores in my mouth. The tongue sores from being burned by the pineapple went away and I had one glorious day without sores, and then, whammo!, more sores. I have a sore on the top of my tongue, inside cheek, roof of mouth, and at least two canker sores on the gum on the bottom front. I don’t know if it’s related to the pineapple, or if it’s from repressed stress, but I’m salt-water-rinsing like a fiend.

(I had a ball of anxiety in the pit of my stomach last night that kept me awake for a while, so another vote for general anxiety over everything that’s coming down the pike in the next few weeks.)

I did a load of laundry (more dog sheets), ran a load in the dishwasher and did the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, paid a bill online, placed an order online, wrote out checks for my aunt, baked chicken for the dogs’ meals, and scooped kitty litter.

I finished the Duncan Kincaid book, watched an HGTV program, and talked with mom.

I grilled steak for Pip’s supper and made French toast for myself before Pip got home (he likes French toast, but we haven’t found a good GF bread to make it with and I didn’t want him feeling left out, even though he was getting steak).

Temps started out at 62.6(F) (quite a difference from yesterday morning!) and reached 93.7. (I feel the need to remind everyone (myself) that this is the temp in the shade. It’s probably ten degrees warmer in the sun. *melts*) Pip put the AC in the bedroom last night.
hannah: (Sam and Dean - soaked)
([personal profile] hannah Jun. 4th, 2025 08:42 pm)
Less than eighteen hours to go and still no texts, emails, or other forms of communication about my sister in law E.'s graduation tomorrow. It's information I can look up fairly easily, and that strikes me as being somewhat beside the point when I don't have anything beyond a verbal "come if you can" offer. It's not exactly sitting peacefully with me. I know a closed mouth doesn't get fed, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to open my mouth or not.

I plan on going, and it's feeling a bit like it's under protest.
nilchance: original art from a vintage print; art of a woman being struck by lightning (Default)
([personal profile] nilchance Jun. 4th, 2025 12:00 pm)
this isn't an update or a TTRPG-related post, but I've been obsessed with this mashup lately and I wanted to share it:

What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells, Out of the Deep I Cry (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells.


What I am Currently Reading: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie.


What I Plan to Read Next: I have three more library books out, and four more on request, so definitely one of those!!




Book 37 of 2025: Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

So good! spoilers )

So good! I'm trying not to read these all at once, but I'm already getting the final two books from the library, so it's going to be hard to hold back. I'm giving this book five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥



Book 38 of 2025: Out of the Deep I Cry (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries) (Julia Spencer-Fleming)

I really enjoyed this book!!! spoilers )

Really good book. I've requested the next and am giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥




Book 39 of 2025: Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

So good! spoilers )

This book was really good. I'm giving it five hearts, natch.

♥♥♥♥♥
I did zero shopping while I was downtown \o/, but still got in a short walk around the park. I did run to a local shop on my way home to get the meat sticks that Pip likes, and of course they were out of them. I got a yogurt parfait to try and was impressed to see that they used fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries). It was good, and filling.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, scooped kitty litter, hit the bank drive-thru, and paid a bill online.

I finished Network Effect and started the next Duncan Kincaid book, and talked with mom. For my walk with the dogs, I went on a different trail, one that’s .50 mi instead of .25. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to add on a 1/4 mile each week. If so, by next week I’ll be doing a mile a day, which is good, considering. I also did some more writing, ~900 words on a brand new fic for [community profile] smallfandomfest. (If you guessed that it’s a Murder, She Wrote crossover, you’d be right. *g*)

We had leftover pulled pork (from Sunday’s b-day party) for supper, so another night I didn’t have to cook!

Temps started out at 39.9(F) (I know! I was o_O about it too!) and reached 84. It was very nice out, but still cool inside the house, so I wore a sweatshirt most of the day while iside.
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