Thursday, June 19th, 2025 08:34 pm
1. If you were a fruit, which would you be and why?

2. If you wake up and smell smoke, and you have to get everybody (pets included) out of the house safely, but you have time to grab one item, what would you grab?

3. If you were stuck on an island, who would be the one person you would want with you and why?

4. If you could change one thing about your physical appearance, what would it be?

5. If you could spend the day with one famous person, dead or alive, who would you choose?

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Thursday, June 19th, 2025 09:51 am
Two weeks ago, with the pool open and blue and clear and easy, I told Gen we could do an end of school pool party on the 26th.

On Monday the pool turned green.

I have a week to put in all the chemicals and hope I can get it blue again.

Pray for me.
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2025 07:29 am
Because I am an ambitious mad-woman, I ordered some yarn for a new bedspread I want to make to go with our new bedroom. So three shades of brown and three shades of green for the forest glade vibe. That's around 75 skeins of cotton (which as it turned out was on sale AND pretty cheap to begin with). Which is apparently being sent in SIX packages! With a 'ready for shipment' email for each individual one. I expect there will be as many again for each step of their journey to me. I am drowning in emails from this company. My inbox has not had so many emails in it since I learned to keep it tidy with the archive function.

I'm uncertain about whether this is far too much or not enough. I based the number of skeins on a different project made with the same yarn where that person said they had used 80 and on the picture it looked like it might be a similar sized bed to ours, but bedspread itself a bit smaller than I would like mine to be. I'm planning on a rather looser and more open pattern in mine, though, so that should take up a little less yarn. We'll see how far I get with this.

Can't show you a pattern, it's all in my head. I'm going to do a number of long strips in a mix of the different colours and join them together at the end, and then probably some sort of border around it. So sort of very basic patchwork-y, only in crochet.

(pretty certain I'm going to need more yarn, actually...)
Friday, June 20th, 2025 02:24 am
I honestly should stop by the ETG thrift store and see if I can get a different dress, though - my options are long pants and sleeves, or a bright red dress, which seems... well, anyway. It's a great dress in most other contexts, though. (Maybe a skirt? I could find a skirt and a nice short-sleeved top? Then again, if this weather continues the way it has been I might be better off bundled up! It's mid-June and my heater is on.)

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Saturday, June 14th, 2025 04:04 pm
Minnesota House DFL leader Hortman, husband killed in apparent ‘politically motivated’ shooting; Sen. Hoffman, wife wounded

Authorities still searching for suspect in shooting of 2 Minnesota state lawmakers

Apparently he dressed up like a cop, because of course he did, and residents are advised not to open the door to police unless there are multiple officers present. I'd go one step further and say that you should never open the door to an unexpected official until you've confirmed that they're supposed to be there. If they are legit, they have an ID, and you have a phone number you can call - your local precinct, if they're cops, your gas company, whoever it is. (Uh. Maybe step out the back door to call if they say they're from the gas company. I mean, use your best judgment.)
Saturday, June 14th, 2025 04:01 pm
If I'm typing a URL and I then use the scroll wheel to middle-click it in the address window it will open in a new tab rather than on the same tab I'm on.

Now, when I open a new tab by clicking a link to open a new tab it opens right next to the tab I'm on. If I do it via the address window or the new tab button then it opens all the way at the end of my tabs, which is annoying and disorienting if I'm not already all the way at the end.

Is there a setting, perhaps in about:config, that I can adjust to change this behavior so it always opens new tabs next to the one I'm on?
Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 11:25 am
The last season of The Strange Case of the Starship Iris is finally here.

Okay, only the first episode so far (and two pre-season teasers) but... omg.

I've summed this one up for you all before as "Everybody is gay while fighting fascism in space" and "Turns out, fascism is both racist and inefficient", so yes, that does make it the perfect thing to listen to while heading out to protest. (Speaking of....)

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Saturday, June 14th, 2025 03:49 pm
Yesterday, we went to the British Museum to see the Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road exhibition, which was spectacular. It was a warm day (29C/84F) in London, but not an unpleasant walk from Charing Cross station to the museum as we could keep in the shade.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was a very prolific artist and the exhibition contains examples of his landscapes, natural world studies, and studies of all walks of life in Japanese society at the time.  A memorial portrait by Utagawa Kunisada.
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Hiroshige was orphaned at age 12 and inherited his father's title of fire warden. A superior in the fire department taught him to paint in the Kano school style. By the 1830s he was focusing on his best-known subjects, tranquil views of famous places, city life and the natural world.  Living during the Edo period when there was urban growth, but also famine, social crisis and foreign military incursions, HIroshiga concentrated on the positive side of life at the time.

There were a LOT of examples of his work (it's a large exhibition) and so there are many photos under this cut as I adored far too many not to share.

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It was a fascinating exhibition and we enjoyed it very much.