This journal has moved to https://ghoti-mhic-uait.dreamwidth.org/

It's been a blast,and I'll miss this journal, but it's time for a change.

( SpoilersCollapse )

Now we have two new games - Ghostbusters, which is also a campaigny game but a bit less long term and the littles are more enthusiastic about it, and Atlantis, which is a game lots of people may age played while I was playing Labyrinth and Fang Den Hut and other games whose English name I didn't know. I played a lot of Cluedo and Risk, too. Fang den Hut is sort of like a better balanced Ludo. Often it comes down to the last turn before it's obvious who wins, which I like, but it is mostly chasing players around the board trying to capture their pieces. Wikipedia says its English name is Coppit. Labyrinth is called that in English too.

Aldi has chili and pepper plants in their specials this week, and add I've had good experiences growing chili, I thought I'd give both a chance. They said transfer asap, so Judith and I did that this afternoon and I thought maybe it was time for one of these posts again. So.

6 chilis, 6 bell peppers.
2 clumps of chives
1 rosemary. My rosemary was stolen last year at mother's day but not this year!
2 strawberry plants, I think I might plant some more later.
5 raspberry canes
2 redcurrants
1 blueberry
1 blackcurrant
1 jostaberry
1 miniature fig
1 tiny almond, with blossom!
1 Mirabelle tree, blossom in by bud.

I was thinking of planting lateral thyme or chamomile to fill the gap between the big things, too.

I had a lovely mother's day, and I hope you had a good day too, and much sympathy for those of you who find it hard.

We had a bit of a rough start and got to church late, but then we went out to lunch, at Pizza Express where i rarely get to go but where the salad is the nicest of all the pizzerias so i had bruschetta con funghi, pizza with a hole in, and tiny spiced figs, which are all my favourite things from the recipe, and we talked and talked. And then we came home and i was given presents, Survival: Escape from Atlantis, which is a sort of rerelease of Atlantis but better balanced, you have to get your meeples to safety, while an island collapses and sea creatures try to eat you.

Benedict gave me the first Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) book and some sugar mice, which is both awesome and a perfect pairing.

Now I'm having a cuddle with Andreas.


So that's got me thinking - what superheroes pair with what confectionary? I'm thinking nut brittle for squirrel girl, Werther's Original for Captain America (because it's old guy candy) and salmiakki (adult, dark and quirky) for Watchmen. What do you think?

This week I cleaned the fridge and inventoried the freezer. And i was talking about it and said to my friend "shall i put it on LJ?" And they are like me, curious about this stuff so says yes.

( listCollapse )

Monday morning means Emerald City, which is Oz for grownups. It's based on not just the first book, but subsequent books, and I'm less familiar with those. I think there's some new stuff thrown in, and certainly I can think of at least one character where they've amalgamated two and I'm pretty certain they were separate in the book. But it's gripping, I'm loving it.
Content note: there's a trans* kid who gets forced off his meds. It's so emotionally hard, and that's the point, to show how he really needs that help.

I'm reading Magic for Nothing by Seanan McGuire, which is the latest InCryptid and told from Antimony's perspective. Lots of roller derby and lots of fun. Also Taking the Village Online which if you like academic parenting books, you might be interested in, but otherwise, maybe not? IDK.

Playing: Colin just got the Ghostbusters boardgame so we haven't played that yet but it's our next plan. I haven't been playing so many games recently though.

Also, yesterday I made blackbean enchiladas which made Colin happy, and Jack cooked for me so that made me happy. A nice salsa though, finely chopped onion, tomatoes, mixed salad leaves, lime juice and a lot of pepper. And lime and black pepper soured cream, I normally just offer plain soured cream or yoghurt, but that was a good plan. Also in recent menu, mixed nuts fried with rice wine and rice vinegar, they were really good.

I made cheese pudding for tea, because I suddenly thought it might be a good idea, and although Judith said she liked it a bit, and ate about half of what I gave her, the general conclusion was that cheese pudding is for feeding to cartesiandaemon (and not the people who live in this house).

I finished the Emily trilogy by LM Montgomery. Unlike the Anne series, this is deeply creepy and uncomfortable. It's a story of the grooming of a young girl, how she was broken and how it affected everyone around her.

Judith and Bärli and I watched Hidden Figures at the flicks, and it was glorious. Judith is just starting to notice racism, and of course loves space stuff and she described the film as 'fascinating'. I find I don't have a lot of words, but it was wonderful and if you think you might like it you want to see it.

I started a knit along for the Iditarod, but I haven't got very far. I think April is going to be finishing months, I've got so many left gloves and bits and pieces! Maybe lots of months will be.

I've mostly been forgetting to read a lot lately. Colin an I watched Interstellar, which I found emotionally difficult but, apart from an unfortunate resemblance of one of the minor characters, not for any good reason. We all went to see Sing for Andreas' birthday, which was rather lovely. But books not so much. I put my short story collection down somewhere and don't remember where, which is a sign I should move on and come back to it later, but I keep forgetting to do that step.

Anyway, in February I read 5 books.

4 written by women
1 written by a man

Not sure on ethnicity of all the authors (whch is a thing we discussed last month as being not always obvious)

2 fantasy
1 poetry
1 slice of life
1 biography

which is also 3 aimed at adults and 2 aimed at children.

Apart from the biography - the story of Togo, the dog who was lead dog for most of the Nome serum run - which I read to Judith because we both wanted to read it - all of those were read before the 16th.