kaberett | vital functions (Reply)

Reading. Wicked Problems, Max Gladstone. I want to have loved this but I... didn't. I care deeply about all of the relationships, and a fair bit about most of the characters, and I do want to know where it goes... and I'm increasingly noticing the extent to which the worldbuilding is superficial vocabulary reskin over All The Same Technology We Have, which is making me a bit sad. I don't know why the golem carts and the golemwings specifically bother me so much on this axis but they do and I'm sulky about it.

Watching. Farscape has definitely shifted into the category of "will prompt A to consider whether Watching A Farscape is an appealing activity", which is a significant upgrade from "quietly never mentioning it and hoping A forgets we're theoretically watching it". (We have just had S01E21 Bone to Be Wild.)

Listening. WAVES. I have been making the wave sounds go, since recalling they existed. They Are Good.

Playing. I Love Hue: The Alchemy/Philosophy/15. Hitting the point of remembering that some of the last round of Giving Up In Frustration was finding that the size of the tiles at this stage means I'm inaccurate enough about what I'm moving to frequently end up introducing extra moves I absolutely did not need because I couldn't see what I was doing. BUT I am pretty much bang-on half-way through The Alchemy and I am definitely having another burst of COMPLETIONISM.

Cooking. Several More Things, good grief. From East: sweet potato momos (meh, but I have learned to pleat dumplings!) and, to use up a half block of smoked tofu left over from the ill-fated kale & celeriac gado gado, smoked tofu, mushroom and almond 'kheema'. To my astonishment this was actually palatable-to-me despite both the smoked tofu and the mushroom (it was a migraine day); I'm not going to buy smoked tofu specially but should it be forced upon me this is now I think at the top of my list of Things To Do With It.

Also: Ottolenghi shawarma cauliflower, which was alas fairly nondescript; some flatbread to go with it, which I overcooked; and (using, I hasten to add, a discounted-because-stale key ingredient) pistachio croissant strata, which is ridiculous and made for some very indulgent breakfasts. Will we do it again? Probably, subject to adequate supply of marked-down-because-stale end-of-day pistachio croissants...

Eating. An Ottolenghi trip justified by the ridiculous amount of travel for the five-minute ultrasound! Feat. a pea and mint quiche; green beans with mustard, marmalade and chervil (v tasty!!!); roasted aubergine with curry leaf oil and coconut crunch (more dubious about this); and various bits I nicked off A. Cake, brought home and enjoyed over the rest of the week: two "cooked fruit tarts" (one pear frangipane, one plum frangipane); cheesecake with ginger-poached rhubarb (primarily A's); and another lemon and bay cake (my beloved).

Exploring. Managed several poking-gently-around-the-local-area walks with A, to enjoy the various exuberant displays of blossom.

Making & mending. Fixed some netting that I'd wound up knotting through itself. Joined the two existing panels together. Removed some spare from the bottom of one of them, and moved it over to the other end. Made a bunch more progress including working out short rows before getting myself hopelessly confused and In A Right Tangle; happily I remembered the existence of curtain rails, and having hung it out I have been able to go "... I have no idea how the fuck I did that but I can at least fix it". I think I have now done most-to-all of the necessary unravelling; sorting out the wildly inconsistent edge and getting it back to the point I can recondense it and resume the smaller-scale operation is a Tomorrow Problem.

I got confused about the glove, and then fixed the glove, and am now -- having finished up the hand flap but not sorted out the thumb -- having A Strop about ~~life, the universe, and everything~~ tension woes. I am NOT allowed to frog the current actually extant most-of-a-pair but I am going to make Adam's (first skein of yarn currently installed upon the swift) and then I'm allowed, if I still have time, to knit myself up a whole 'nother pair.

Netting is first priority, though. I have peas that need it for climbing.

Growing. Lots of pricking out this week. Still plagued by fungus gnats, AUGH. Two of six beetroot taken to the allotment shrivelled up and died of neglect, but the remaining three are now in larger containers; I got a taker for one of the properly rooted jostaberries; have potted up the blueberry and generally continued pottering. I am Indignant that some of my tomatoes do not seem to have come up, buuuut I am going to hold off on sowing replacements (and indeed the ludicrous selection of basils I have planned) until such time as the latest round of nematodes have shown up and been applied. :|