• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, SFF, graphic novels/comics, horror, mystery/thriller, romance), Gizmodo (SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• May the Fourth is Free Comic Book Day.
• “Y’all, the world is sleeping on what NASA just pulled off with Voyager 1“.
• NASA’s best photos of 2023.
• Everyone always forgets Gen X.
• Needle felted leaf dragon.
• How to make Pop Tart milkshakes.
• Nice MCM in the Twin Cities area – I really like the colors of the kitchen.
• Interesting MCM, but I firmly believe bedrooms should have walls that go up to the ceiling.
• A dome home that’s not too bad, but definitely needs some more color.
• Ok castlesque house – I was not prepared for the wallpaper in the kid’s bedroom.
• Fascinating mixture of things they completely redid and things they left alone.
• This one includes an actual helicopter converted into a flight simulator.
• A truly terraced house.
• They REALLY liked tile.
• Converted gas station.
• Perfect if you love sports-themed bedrooms.
• The slide was certainly an audacious design choice.
• MCM with floors that look like wet blood.
• They didn’t even touch the dirty old bank carpet.
• Another poorly flipped bank.
• One hopes they can squeeze some blinds between the tub and the window.
• Weird.
• They look slippery, plus no railing.
• At least the carpet doesn’t have a confusing pattern?
• Whoops.
• No.
• Ouch.

Polly being exceptionally cute.

Serious, slightly malevolent looking Harry.

• New releases: Book Riot (best out this week), Smart Bitches (romance)
• LInkity from Smart Bitches.
• Ficlet.
• And another ficlet.
• One aspect of being part of an online community.
• Lego has lovely new space sets coming out.
• NASA’s best photos of the year – number ten is my favorite.
• “Cities scramble to find trees that will last the century“.
• Some Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang, decoded.
• For the book lovers.
• A lighthouse! But I think I prefer the ones that are on land.
• Bigger on the inside.
• Needs work but it’s cool.
• Very cute, very tiny.
• Very bright!
• Very colorful.
• Very strangely located.
• Very odd.
• Very unique – the choice of a garage office is fascinating.
• Unusual MCM.
• Cute, but the price – ouch.
• Interesting earth ship.
• Why all the windows in the walls?
• Not bad dome home with a weirdly located fireplace.
• The exterior is very castle. The interior… is not.
• Disappointing castlesque house with only one good room in the entire thing.
• Another major interior/exterior disconnect here.
• And another!
• I can’t believe this isn’t a converted store.
• Completely over-the-top.
• Over-the-top purple house in Plymouth, MN.
• There’s just so much stuff.
• Everything’s mirrors and zebras.
• This home is a time capsule.
• MCM that is definitely not a treehouse and needs work.
• Lots of rocks and a living room that could kill a person.
• It sure does look like a former crime scene.
• This is crazy.
• Ummmmmmmmmmmm…
• You might break a leg just looking at these.
• Huh.
• The more you look, the worse it gets.
• An excellent question.
• “Decor” is being kind.
• Really, I have more concerns about the appliance mortared into the wall than about the stairs.

Polly!

Harry, always curious about what I’m up to.

• New releases: Book Riot (best out this week, best out last week, comics/graphic novels), Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. Last week’s linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “Nora Roberts going off“.
• Very good vaccine news.
• Amazing 3D graffiti art.
• Fascinating to see what they did so the place would sell.
• Lovely home on the Isle of Skye, although it does have some killer (blue) stairs.
• Nice MCM.
• I love this MCM spaceship house.
• This castlesque house works better than most.
• Partially underground MCM that’s a compound unto itself.
• This is a quirky one.
• Just a little strange.
• Must really like mosaics.
• House or human habitrail?
• Too many mannequins.
• Just a very creepy building.
• Unusual MCM that needs work and has a room I can only call “the brown room”.
• Dome mansion with the world’s ugliest gazebo.
• So-so castlesque house with the wine cellar by the front door.
• Castlesque house with two stables.
• Disappointing castlesque house, although it does have a lovely library.
• It’s something alright, but definitely not “Medieval Aesthetic”.
• Expensive and you really have to love turquoise.
• Well, at least it’s not all griege.
• It is indeed very extra.
• Ugly.
• What the what happened here?
• One I think we’ve seen before, but not with the picture of the balcony overlooking the bathroom.
• Big Cabela’s vibes.
• You didn’t even try.
• Yikes.
• Yikes again.
• Picturing knocking a hot beverage over on someone climbing the stairs.
• Eeek.
• Nope.
• How DO you use the dryer?

Very Focused Harry.

Out-of-sorts Polly.

Siblings! (That is absolutely Mayhem’s spot in the middle.)

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, nonfiction, romance, SFF, mystery/thriller, horror), Reactor (scifi, fantasy), Gizmodo (SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• The 14 biggest LEGO sets.
• NOPE.
• Pickle jelly beans.
• Cute Craftsman.
• You could live in a funeral home decorated like the worst of the 60s/70s!
• Or your very own tiny shipping container!
• Nice sort-of MCM, but way overpriced.
• Another nice MCM, but the shag carpet has to go.
• Converted A-frame church.
• Oh look, a church conversion that’s not awkward.
• A small earth ship in Taos.
• So-so castle house.
• It has a mall/soulless office complex vibe.
• Too. Much. Stuff.
• This one’s mostly notable for the exceptionally terrible photos.
• Confusing.
• D’oh.
• It looks like an Escher.
• Railings! Needs railings!

Mayhem peering down into the space between the benches.

Polly sitting on my torso during my online Mat Pilates class.

Same Mat Pilates class, but I turned on macro, which distorted poor Polly’s ears.

Macro is fun! Hi, Polly!

And one last macro shot…

• New releases: Book Riot (best out this week), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Aragorn’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.“
• “Cursive is making a comeback“.
• A comic about Chinese-American school segregation in 1885.
• So true.
• Humble knitting book bundle: 30 ebooks for $18 through (I believe) April 5.
• New limited-edition Oreo flavor: Churro.
• Pickle-flavored jelly beans.
• Dolly Parton’s peanut butter pie.
• An attractive MCM.
• Lovely one in the Twin Cities.
• Fairly nice dome home in Joshua Tree, California.
• Confusing and intriguing.
• Somewhat strange modern castle house.
• Surprisingly nice underground house.
• “Have you ever wished you could live in the ‘It’s a Small, Small World’ exhibit at Disney?”
• Tudor with a dungeon.
• Dramatic and somewhat confusing.
• Why the vinyl siding??
• If you love that mall vibe…
• Must be seen to be believed.
• Hot mess of a dome home.
• An MCM featuring some deadly stairs we’ve seen before.
• Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
• Does no one believe in railings anymore?
• Another one without railings.
• Aesthetics over sense.
• Seems like it would have been easier to make regular stairs.
• Ouch.
• Eeep.

Blurry Mayhem blep!

Harry on the chaise. looking out the window.

Polly on the new heart-shaped catnip toy.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “The high cost of ebooks has libraries struggling and seeking legal action“.
• Learn about Carnegie libraries.
• “New documentary on the untold story of black librarians“.
• Some crafty memes inspired by a fashion show unraveling.
• “Unpopular opinion but Joe Biden is literally everything Americans say they want in a president“.
• Five-ingredient lemon bars.
• Gluten-free strawberry muffins.
• I like the library.
• Lovely converted mill.
• Nice MCM.
• The pastel exterior won’t prepare you for the bright interior!
• Very colorful.
• Quirky.
• Nice dome home in Minneapolis, MN.
• Lovely Victorian in St Paul, MN.
• The house is mostly quite nice but the kitchen is dissonant.
• The singer from Third Eye Blind is selling his San Francisco home.
• Parts of this are cool, but nowhere near enough for the price.
• Very strange MCM.
• I don’t think I could live in a boob house like this.
• I have just learned I despise shiny ceilings that match the walls.
• Well then.
• Weirdness.
• You could own an ATV park.
• Crime scene house????
• Odd outside, very unfinished looking inside.
• What a microscopic toilet room – can there possibly be a sink? The “double bannister” is probably a mobility lift.
• Nooooooo.
• Hmm.
• Umm.
• Oh my.
• Yikes.
• I don’t like unpredictability in stairs.

Serious Harry is serious!

Here we have Polly trying to make the best of what is obviously a too-small fabric basket…

…or is it??? Good job, Polly!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, horror), Reactor (YA SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Ooof. It me.
• How spongy is YOUR city?
• Peanut butter popcorn.
• “Rice Krispie” treats made with popcorn instead.
• I like this one.
• Cute round MCM.
• Fun MCM but the shag carpet has to go.
• MCM that’s mostly ok, but something about the interior colors just feels off to me.
• Oddly laid out MCM with an exceptionally cold feeling kitchen.
• That’s a lot of purple.
• The Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge house was redone after the challenge and put on the market. Some more on that house.
• The statue thing is weird.
• One in St Paul, Minnesota, that’s been interestingly renovated.
• Seems like a renovation fail.
• NOLA shotgun house that’s a reno disaster.
• Creepy basement is creepy.
• Very odd and angular.
• This one’s just weird and ugly.
• Has a spaceship in the living room.
• Who thought that kitchen was a good idea?
• There’s a lot going on here – I particularly hate the kitchen counters.
• WTF.
• Huh.
• Why?
• When faucets become a tripping hazard.
• D’oh.
• Absolutely not.
• So many opportunities for disaster.

Some socks I recently gifted.

Harry, trying to figure out what I’m doing, plus the second pair of socks I recently gifted.

Polly’s such a sweet and goofy girl!

Mayhem *thlurrrrp*.

• New releases: Tor.com (scifi, fantasy, genre benders, YA SFF), Book Riot (best out this week, nonfiction, comics/graphic novels, paranormal romance, romance, mystery/thriller), Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Gizmodo (scifi/fantasy/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “Good Omens lines that I can’t believe are canon“.
• “The 2024 Audie winners for best audiobooks“.
• “10 iconic fantasy books ripe for rediscovery”. I read most of these when I was growing up.
• You can pay your fines with cat pictures in Worcester, MA.
• Ways to celebrate National Reading Month.
• There’s a trailer for the Reading Rainbow documentary.
• This quote from the second season of The X-Files is still very relevant.
• You’ve heard of FOMO – now get ready for JOMO.
• Environmental storytelling indeed.
• Tiny trees!
• Lemon cloud cookies.
• Nice Minneapolis loft. The HOA fee includes heat, AC, internet, and cable, so it’s not as bad as it sounds initially.
• Gorgeous MCM, but I think it needs more barriers around the edges of that conversation pit.
• Comes with manatees.
• Funky little MCM.
• Another nice MCM.
• And another not scary dome home.
• Quirky Gothic Victorian.
• Interesting, but how do you get out of those bedrooms in case of fire?
• Converted convent.
• Round house is cool, but the decor will haunt you.
• Castle on the outside, boring on the inside.
• It has a “living roof”.
• You’ll notice they don’t show the basement of this former funeral parlor…
• The bedroom isn’t contiguous with the rest of the apartment.
• Wouldn’t railings be nice?
• Must be acrobatic to stay there, apparently.
• D’oh.
• Bad kitties!

Polly is very subtle about asking for chin scritches…

Is Harry yawning or yelling?

Mayhem!

• New releases: Book Riot (best out this week), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• A ficlet.
• Another, about the Arthurian femme fatale.
• Cute little comic.
• This was good to read, about how Minnesota company Minnetonka is dealing with their history of cultural appropriation.
• I bet the Lego set for Walt Disney’s original animated Snow White sells out quickly.
• Spinning 243 ply yarn (aka rope).
• Cool art.
• Snickerdoodle cookie cake.
• I like this.
• Cute and actually nice dome home (usually they’re disintegrating).
• Interesting place in Taos.
• Nice, kind of fancy MCM.
• Absolutely not my style, but it looks great.
• “Inside, it’s absolute drama”.
• Has an indoor pool just off the kitchen.
• I’ve never seen a house shaped like this before.
• A bit odd and very pink.
• There’s over the top and then there’s this place.
• You can definitely see why it needed some help to sell.
• Mansion with an apocalyptic bunker.
• In which I learned that “portable fireplaces” exist.
• I can’t believe the location of the washer.
• Own your own strip club…
• I can’t even tell if we’re looking up the stairs or down.
• Hmm.
• Ah, our old friend, the glass door at the bottom of the stairs.
• When those get icy, yikes.
• Nope.
• Also nope.

Some Regia socks for me from yarn I got for Xmas.

Poor sleeping Mayhem – when she went to sleep, I was in the midst of a Pilates class a few feet away. When she woke up, the living room was dark and I was reading in bed!

Polly is a very chatty kitty!

Usually Polly’s the goofball, but Harry has his moments…

I tweaked some blog settings yesterday, specifically related to email. Here’s hoping I didn’t bork things up! 🙂

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, graphic novel romance), Book Riot (best new books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Dictionary.com’s new/updated words for 2024.
• Part of the Merril Collection (“a research collection of speculative fiction [science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism]”) has been digitized.
• Ficlet… wait for it…
• “The best friendship duos“.
• Tumblr as commonplace book.
• Every year nonasuch does a fabulous job reviewing the Miss Universe national costumes – here it is for 2024.
• The saga of the airport cheese.
• Intarsia in the round.
• MCM, complete with flocked wallpaper.
• The Coca-Cola house.
• Plaid cabinets – WHY?
• This house “has a wing that’s a replica of the wild west town Tombstone, Arizona, circa 1800s”.
• The sellers had a decorating vision alright.
• This one has some mysteries.
• Converted grain mill that’s sadly boring.
• Just odd.
• Boggled.
• A barn with a Tudor inside.
• Micro condo on the upper floor of a mall and the front of it is all glass…
• Careful of that first step!
• How much weight do you think a vanity is designed to hold?
• Nope.

Polly grooming her tummy.

Annoyed Harry with Polly in the background.