• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Tor.com (genre benders, scifi, fantasy, YA SFF) Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• On mass market paperbacks.
• Agatha Christie changed mysteries forever.
• What if “Earth is the space Amazon Rainforest”?
• Looking a little bit deeper into Cinderella.
• “Some useful new tech terms” (humor).
• “Typical airliner seating chart”. Hover/long-press for caption.
• This is what 2.2 mb looked like in 1966.
• The comments about this game are extremely funny.
• I like this cowl. Here’s the Ravelry link to the pattern.
• Hot chocolate cupcakes.
• Cool MCM trailer.
• Cute, although a bit too much white. Those high bookcases – eep.
• Well done church conversion in Minnesota.
• Live in Glacier National Park.
• Nice converted bakery.
• An odd little castle house.
• A strange one, with terrible photos.
• I find the interior of this one disconcerting – maybe it’s all the mauve.
• Crazy.
• This not really a castle is a weird mix of too white and tired. And what’s up with the toilet that’s not against a wall?
• Castle house that probably has mold.
• Conversation pits look weird with their custom furniture removed.
• The outside doesn’t scream “grotto”, does it?
• The pool must be seen to be believed.
• I find the kitchen to be quite terrible.
• It’s really weird, the staircase encroaching on the kitchen like that.
• Yikes.
• D’oh.
• Hmm.
• A real leg breaker.
• This bathroom has way too many stairs.
• Looks like some contortions may be required near the bottom.

Harry and Polly checking out the new (larger) pet warmer. I think they like it. 😉

Mayhem on the old (smaller) pet warmer.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, last week), Book Riot (best out this week, best out last week, graphic novels/comics, nonfiction, YA, mysteries/thrillers, horror, SFF, romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more!
• “[T]he more I think about it, the more sure I am that Tolkien actually deconstructs most of the clichéd fantasy tropes he supposedly originates.”
• The trick to socializing feral humans?
• The USDA recently updated the plant hardiness map for the US. Reactions to that.
• If your body image needs a boost, take a look at My Body Gallery – you can see people of your age, weight, clothing size, etc, and realize that, since they look great, you probably do, too.
• “Girlhood is a spectrum“.
• Engraved plastic waste that looks like scrimshaw.
• “Kazoo of the Valkyries“.
• LOLOLOLOLOL.
• Cheryl sent some information about basement or “hope houses” (remember the house that was just an attic/roof on the ground?). Search for “basement house” here. Thanks, Cheryl!
• Cool MCM.
• Danger! There’s a craft shop on the first floor!
• If you’ve ever wanted to live on a train…
• An unusual MCM.
• Two bedrooms, zero bathrooms.
• Huh.
• If you were doing all that to a house, why wouldn’t you remove those patio doors so there’s no chance of a terrible fall?
• Starts boring but then…
• The decorating choices are… interesting.
• I was not prepared for the kitchen cabinets.
• My favorite part is the giraffe. 😛
• WTH bathroom.
• That’s a very odd shower/tub.
• Ick ick ick.
• NO.
• Umm.
• Just no – I picture stuff falling from above (dirt from shoes, spilled coffee, etc).
• Nope.
• Oh dear.
• You’ll need to maintain your flexibility to live there and shimmy on to those stairs.
• From Denmark.

Some completed socks for me! These are both Lang Super Soxx – the rainbow ones are the “Parrot” colorway and the others are the “Lion” colorway, using the Vanilla Latte stitch pattern. Thanks to BookWyrm Knits for the inspiration!

All three cats working together to reapply the fur I had just washed away.

Harry and Polly napping on my lap and legs.

No linkity next week due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “A chair for readers“.
• Ficlet.
• And another!
• Tracy Chapman made country music history with “Fast Car”.
• Check out some of the flags in the new Minnesota state flag competition…
• Cheetos bath bombs?!
• 34 gluten free baking recipes.
• Cute!
• I kinda like it.
• An unusual MCM.
• Has a very fancy movie theater.
• This is cool, as long as those mirrors aren’t starting fires.
• Just a bit odd.
• Seems wrong that the barn is nicer than the house.
• Reminds me of the Connie Willis quote (“The reason Victorian society was so restricted and repressed was that it was impossible to move without knocking something over.”).
• Could be used as a mall – it has the right vibe.
• That’s too many patios – put some back.
• The stairs are fine, but wtf is going on with the lights??
• YIKES.
• Dangerous luxury.
• There should be railings.
• Please no more optical illusion steps.
• They sell slide kits for stairs??
• It is indeed an amazingly cursed chair.

Harry thlurrrrp.

Polly’s “helping” me take photos…

Mayhem asleep on my lap.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Tor.com (YA SFF, fantasy, scifi, SFF crossover), Book Riot (best out this week, nonfiction, manga, winter holiday romances)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Dealing with wyrm infestations“.
• Explore ancient Rome in 3D.
• Apparently a book from 1910 make calculus much more approachable.
• Turkey dinner flavored ice cream??
• I had no idea there were hobbyhorse shows like this.
• A practical demonstration of the gravity of various objects in our solar system.
• 34 gluten-free baking recipes.
• No-bake pumpkin delight.
• MCM that comes with a reel-to-reel tape deck and a bar shaped like a boat.
• Very colorful!
• Little pink houses for you and me…
• “Attractive home balanced above a rocky .29 acre lot.”
• The difference between the first and second floors breaks my brain.
• A strange one in Utah.
• Another strange one.
• Home, furnishings, art, gold records…
• A very griege MCM.
• I have a much better appreciation for the importance of landings after seeing this.
• I can’t tell, but there must be some sort of actual clear steps in that frame?!

Skeptical Harry is skeptical.

Polly tummy!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Gizmodo (SFF), Book Riot (YA, mysteries/thrillers/true crime, romance, best new books out this week, SFF)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• LotR truck home.
• “Mary Shelley and the noodle that created science fiction“.
• Meet the Northern Pygmy-Owl.
• ADHD and decision fatigue (so many things I do can be traced back to avoiding decision fatigue).
• If you need weirdly specific background noise to focus…
• Stuffed caramel apple cookies.
• Very colorful.
• Now this one is actually livable!
• Castle-esque chateau with poorly photoshopped furniture.
• Must like branches.
• Why the heck is there an unenclosed bathroom?
• 1970s horror show.
• The slide is a nice touch.
• You could fall down or through on these.
• Stairs from 1600. Yikes.

Oh no, a vampire! 😉

Serious Harry is serious.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (and last week’s romance), Book Riot (best new books out last week, best new books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more!
• What it’s like to read a Terry Pratchett book.
• You could own a Carnegie library.
• An amusing ficlet.
• Another ficlet.
• Knitters are all too familiar with this.
• “A clever way to ‘restore’ ruins without actually restoring them“.
• A memorable take on fall.
• Bottle cap dragon.
• Maybe we should all pool our funds and buy this lovely English manor house.
• An actually nice dome home.
• Cool, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
• Interesting, but I wouldn’t want to live in this one, either.
• Pretty nice kind of MCM.
• Has its own lighthouse.
• Blank slate converted stable.
• Converted boiler room.
• Must love orange, red, and hot pink.
• MCM decorated in a sort of Florida boho style.
• Another colorful MCM, but in an odd way.
• An odd one in Utah.
• Too much white.
• Too much stenciling.
• A weird ‘un.
• Has an entertainment complex built right in.
• Those kitchen cabinets look hard to keep clean. And some of the rocks in the walls do look pretty rough – another surface to be injured by!
• Completely over the top and not in a good way.
• If you’ve always wanted to live like a Viking…
• The entire house that a recent death hallway was from.
• Camouflaged stairs.
• Carpet burn special.
• Mysterious stairs.
• There shouldn’t be ladders involved in kitchens.
• Huh.
• D’oh.
• What?!
• If you don’t mind climbing stairs on tiptoe.
• Scary, but probably better than the alternative.
• Are those also the stairs for customers to use the bathroom?!
• WTH.
• :shakes head:

Serious Mayhem is serious.

Polly “helping”me take art journal pictures.

Blurry Harry in his Halloween bow tie!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Book Riot (best out this week, manga, YA, YA graphic novels/comics, horror, mysteries)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Very relatable comic about reading.
• A very sweet ficlet.
• Before you read this ficlet, you need to be familiar with this meme.
• On casting Frodo.
• xkcd on the earth’s layers. (Hover/long-press for caption.)
• A candle saga.
• “Sharks are older than the North Star”.
• Home gym equipment that generates power from your workout.
• Pumpkin snickerdoodles.
• Check out the cool Zork cross stitch BookWyrm Knits did!
• Nice one in NOLA.
• Another nice one.
• Lovely, but so weird the guest house has more bedrooms than the main.
• “Modern rustic” seems a contradiction, doesn’t it?
• Interesting MCM that desperately needs to be less brown.
• Now this is a nice MCM – assuming you have a drivable mopping machine.
• Another vineyard! This one has a kitchen that barely looks like a kitchen.
• Cute, but the loft is terrifying.
• Very unusual, but not enough photos.
• This house is having an identity crisis.
• The exterior is terrible, but the interior doesn’t look that bad… at first. When you start looking closer – hmm. And the gentlemen’s lounge is just awful.
• Please, no more optical illusion stairs.
• Where are the railings??
• Creepy secret stairs.

The Lady Miss Princess Mayhem!

Intense Polly is intense!

*blank* -Harry

• New releases: Tor.com (SFF crossovers, YA SFF, scifi, fantasy), Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, mysteries/thrillers/true crime, SFF, romance, comics/graphic novels, nonfiction), Gizmodo (SFF)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “Orbit is curating a series of free craft talks with sci-fi and fantasy writers“.
• “Exclusive revelations from Sauron the Dark Lord’s forthcoming memoir“.
• Merriam-Webster’s time traveler feature is fun. (Big hair, emergency medicine, Grinch, ranch dressing, yuck.)
• “The top comedy wildlife photos of 2023“.
• Some famous sound effects were not what I expected.
• Amazing embroidery.
• Converted barn that’s pretty cool but has a dangerous bookcase.
• Very nice.
• I really like this one.
• Well, it’s colorful.
• Kinda cute cabin.
• Bright white remodeled Victorian in St Paul, MN.
• Definitely for the aesthetics.
• Comes with a carousel and a train.
• Comes with a business (a bar).
• Before and after Tudor.
• They should definitely take the turkey statuary with them.
• Huh.
• That’s a lot of air conditioning units.
• Pre-ouch.
• I think I broke my leg just looking at these stairs.
• Yikes.
• You can tell snow is a rarity in Florence.
• There’s a painful story behind that, I’m sure.

Mayhem having a think.

Polly has Things to SAY!

What the heck are you looking at, Harry?!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, Fall YA, )
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Finding magic in the unexpected: The fictional worlds of Emma Bull“.
• “Write a horror story in the format of an Internet search history“.
• “Reading Calvin & Hobbes for the first time as an adult“.
  • “Inscrutable exhortations”!
• A dragon comic.
• Check out goblin.tools to create magical checklists for doing things – you choose the level of detail required.
• Exercises and stretches to strengthen your upper back and help you maintain flexibility as you age.
• LOL!
• Knit a sweater with [knitted] fossils on it.
• If you’ve ever been curious about pre-Columbian Tenochtitlán…
• Black cat house.
• Very nice MCM.
• Nice Victorian.
• A fun houseboat.
• A converted train station.
• An actually nice school conversion.
• A fun house, although I wouldn’t have put that particular wallpaper in the dining room (many other places, just not the dining room).
• The Clock House.
• Comes with a vineyard and a guest tower.
• Another vineyard, but much less expensive (and with dangerous steps in the kitchen).
• Victorian work in progress in Minneapolis.
• Has the Fanciest Tower.
• Indeed – how do these people survive without window coverings?
• House with a bit of a split personality.
• Remember the Henry Ford house? Here it is again, after a bit of brightening. Why did they leave that terrible orange carpet??
• Before and after gothic.
• Has its own sports complex downstairs.
• Besides how dated it is, I would feel very claustrophobic in this house.
• Hmm.
• Well, that’s not a very useful closet.
• DIY speakers stairs.
• :blink blink:
• Has a little bonus to make tripping more likely.

Mayhem and Polly!

Harry and Polly looking out the window.