• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week, cozy mysteries coming out this year)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• A ficlet from T. Kingfisher.
• There’s an upcoming game called Tiny Bookshop in which you are a bookstore owner.
• Short story dispenser at an airport.
• What about wizard technicians?
• Summary and updates on Disney vs DeSantis.
• “You will soon be able to book Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse on Airbnb“.
• That butterfly is a jerk.
• “TL;DR: James Cameron is not being interviewed because ‘he made Titanic; he’s being interviewed because he’s a well-known and verifiable submersible engineering and undersea expert.“
• “Everyone gets ‘the 90s’ look wrong and I hate it“. Part 2.
• Four-ingredient blueberry dump cake.
• Confetti gooey butter cake.
• Margarita lime bars.
• Fancy house in Minnesota.
• Castle esque.
• Cute.
• Cute and a little fancy.
• Has its own cemetery.
• Includes a mini pyramid or two.
• Nice turret but the interior is quite dated.
• The inside does not match the outside.
• Has a pool on the roof.
• Hot mess of a house.
• Strange adventures in painting.
• Mushroom house includes deadly stairs.
• Huh.
• Flying saucer house that needs a lot of work.
• My first thought is that’s a lot of money to pay for a condo that’s going to be obliterated because climate change.
• Children’s bed and ladder to said bed over a staircase.
• Just no.
• NO.
• HUH.
• Ladder or stairs?

Serious Mayhem is serious!

Harry, skillfully hiding his shaved spots.

Polly, sleeping in a most unattractive and alarm position.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Some LotR trivia.
• “Google, Amazon , and Meta are making their products worse – on purpose“.
• Tour Barbie’s Dreamhouse.
• Apparently paper dresses were a thing in the 1960s.
• Blueberry cookies.
• Includes a cute vintage camper trailer.
• Quirky.
• Rotating house.
• Very sculptural.
• I hope those giant marbles in the kitchen are secured to the floor.
• This sure doesn’t seem worth the asking price.
• Someone needs their Photoshop privileges revoked.
• Mirrors should not be steps.
• A different take combining mirrors and stairs.
• Open stairs should not be over kitchen counters.
• Pipes should not cross stairs.
• :facepalm:
• Stairs? Or a slide with bumps at the bottom?
• Definitely a unique take on cat quilts.
• There is a line, and these strawberries crossed it.
• You don’t expect pink to be sinister, but…

Harry and Polly hanging out in the living room.

Polly rolling around on the window ledge.

Mayhem, slightly annoyed that I continue to take her picture.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (romance, new books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Pratchett and philosophy: The Tao of Sir Terry“.
• “Illinois has officially banned book bans“.
• Free collection of short fiction from Tor.com.
• “We were the liminal kids. Alive before the internet, just long enough we remember when things really were different.”
• A mysterious strain of COVID, which just one person in Ohio has… and they don’t know who.
• A couch that fits in an envelope?!
• GF strawberry chocolate chip scones.
• 18 vegetarian recipes for grilling.
• I gasped at the first interior photo.
• It’s just nice.
• Get away to the Adirondacks.
• Lots of great murals.
• Looks like an art installation.
• There’s just something about this one…
• The shark comes with it! (And it’s in Minneapolis.)
• The decor could definitely be hindering sales.
• The picture from the top isn’t soooo bad, other than the obstruction at the bottom.
• That’s a big step down.
• You just know they’re very slippery.
• The top steps look especially unsafe.
• Style over common sense.
• Huh.
• They didn’t even try.
• FAIL.
• NO.
• Wonder Woman… scissors.

It’s a terrible photo, but it’s of Polly and Harry reconciling! WHEW.

Polly snoozing on my lap, with snoozing Harry in the background.

Mayhem and Polly on some warm laundry.

• New releases: Tor.com (horror/genre-benders, YA SFF, scifi, fantasy), Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (new nonfiction, SFF, horror, manga, books out this week, mysteries/thrillers, comics/graphic novels), Gizmodo (SFF and horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And from last week.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “28 fascinating, fun facts about books and reading“.
• The Good Omens 2 trailer is finally out! The title sequence was released last week.
• Tips for dealing with wildfire smoke, including (at the end) a link to how to make your own air purifier.
• “The Barbie movie is so pink, it cause a global paint shortage“.
• Miniature yarn shop.
• Gluten-free strawberry rhubarb crisp.
• Dairy-free chocolate ganache.
• That floor!
• Converted knitting mill.
• An actual castle.
• House made of corrugated metal.
• Pseudo lighthouse in Minnesota.
• The corner window is awesome!
• Very airy feeling.
• Very cozy.
• Very unusual.
• That’s quite the condo.
• I kind of love the green bathroom.
• Wee castle esque off-grid.
• Castle esque Tudorbethan.
• My favorite part was Bill the Cat.
• The Brady Bunch house.
• The inside is a surprise.
• Perspective is hard.
• There’s something funny going on at the bottom of these.
• Hmm.
• Spectacularly stupid place for a laundry chute.
• “Jenga stairs“.
• Nope.
• At least they look cushiony so it might hurt less when you tumble down them.
• You’ll need to be flexible for these.
• “The fault in our stairs“.
• Whoops.

These two! I kept Harry isolated until the pain killer wore off, which was sometime on Tuesday. Started trying to reintegrate him yesterday. Mayhem took it in stride and was pretty much, “Whatever, he’s still a jerk.” Polly kept hissing and growling at him – in the photo above (in which Harry is expertly hiding his shaved spots), Polly’s growling at him because he twitched or something equally offensive. :EYE ROLL:

Mayhem in contemplation.

Chatty Polly, with her brother nowhere in sight.

(She will get brushed! And she will get Churu!)

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Andy Serkis also narrated The Silmarillion – it comes out in June.
• Multipart liveblogged reaction to watching The Lord of the Rings for the first time.
• A twist on the usual “humans are weird” post.
• “The reckless fantasy of ‘life after COVID’ and why people are pushing back“.
• LEGO Mars Rover Perseverance!
• If you’ve ever wondered about the origin of the term “mansplaining”…
• “Life cycle of the Maple Leaf Shawl“.
• S’mores cookies.
• Triangle-wheeled bike.
• A most unexpected interior.
• Lovely.
• Pink Gothic Victorian cottage.
• Love how airy it is.
• I am not cool enough to know these people.
• The yellow really pops.
• “Cruise ship home“.
• Pirate-themed house.
• Soooooo ugly.
• One of the photos in the main bedroom makes it look as if the bed is mashed against the closet doors, but the next photo shows that’s not the case.
• Unexplained stairs and door in the pool.
• So much wasted potential, with bonus deadly stairs.
• Some “creative” stairs.
• LEGOesque stairs.
• WHY.
• NOT an acceptable railing – and you really need a railing for these.
• Ouch.
• FAIL.

Another photo of Mayhem being brushed! She turns 17 on the 27th. 😮

Polly snuggled under a fuzzy blanket.

Polly and Harry watching birds.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, “new and upcoming nonfiction and poetry by AAPI authors“), Tor.com (YA SFF, fantasy)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more!
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “LEGO Ankh-Morpork“.
• An interesting difference between LotR the movie and LotR the books.
• “35 must-read works of nonfiction by AAPI authors“.
• 2023 Pulitzer Prize winners.
• 20 books about dragons.
• “How to support your library in the wake of rising fascism“.
• How Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood turned a four-year old novel into a belated bestseller.
• Good Omens 2 will be released on July 28!
• A ficlet.
• And another.
• And yet another.
• Get free crochet patterns from the National Park Service.
• How cool – geode cakes.
• Three-ingredient chocolate cake.
• SERIOUSLY.
• The last house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
• I love the backsplash in the pantry.
• Kind of cool, with an odd dining room table.
• Cool but chaotic.
• Must love bricks.
• Has a staggering amount of detail.
• Fairy tale cottage in Minnesota.
• Another Minnesota one, but in Minneapolis.
• Nature and bookshelves.
• The kitchen has an amazing amount of storage.
• Has an indoor tire swing.
• Bold color choices abound.
• Boring on the outside, party on the inside.
• Little pink houses for you and me.
• Peek inside a historic NYC brownstone.
• An expensive cave house.
• Is it just me, or does the outside look like a highway rest stop?
• I bet those kitchen cabinets are sticky in the summer.
• Over the top.
• Somebody wanted the stairs like that?!
• Yikes.
• WTH.
• Awkward.
• Constant awareness required.
• I’m sure these are very easy to navigate in the dark theater…
• FAIL.
• At least put some no-slip grips on those stairs.
• D’oh.
• :facepalm:

Harry wondering what the heck I keep taking his picture for.

Polly “helping”.

Mayhem getting brushed, which is one of her very favorite things.

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Re-Generation is a short epilogue to Star Trek: Generations.
• “[Tolkien] elves can’t do science.“
• A tease of a ficlet – I would love to read more!
• Blueberry muffin cookies.
• Oh, the built-in bookshelves!
• The Tile House.
• The Saxophone House.
• Not actually a fairy tale house but nice anyway.
• Castle on the inside only.
• Has a privacy boulder.
• Too many mirrors, plus zebra striped bathrooms.
• Very, very old stairs.
• More optical illusion stairs.
• Why.
• Huh.
• NO.

Mayhem and Harry on my lap.

Harry on the track toy.

Polly blep!

• New releases: Tor.com (horror & genre-benders, YA SFF, SF, fantasy), Book Riot (mysteries/thrillers/true crime, comics/graphic novels, romance, best books out this week, SFF), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• The background of #gnu terry pratchett.
• A good ficlet.
• Trivia from The Matrix (1999).
• Interactive map of Mars.
• Cement factory conversion.
• Cool, but not a treehouse.
• If only they’d turned that pseudo tower into a real one.
• That’s too many kitchenettes. Put some back.
• A condo with a trippy bathroom.
• Built into rocks and has a terrible kitchen.
• Stupid stairs to a tiny tub.
• Hope you’re never in a hurry.
• :blink blink:
• At least there’s a good reason for these dangerous stairs.

Mayhem!

Polly, on April Fool’s Day, with the 8″/20.3cm of snow we got overnight in the background.

Harry and his muzzle puffs!

• New releases: Book Riot (best books out this week, best books out last week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Organizing one’s home library.
• Portland “castle with a two-story turret library”.
• Ficlet about a portrait artist and a vampire.
• Ficlet megapost, with more links than the last one I included.
• LEGO has a massive Rivendell set.
• On Aragorn and Sauron’s perception of him.
• “We must take the Ring to Jacksonville“.
• Read “the letter CS Lewis sent to JRR Tolkien describing Aslan”.
• A riveting review of Disney’s Return to Oz movie (1985).
• “A history of the ‘This Is Fine’ comic“.
• “How Tumblr turned social media polls into a game design challenge“.
• Dragon tea kettle.
• Enjoy a little stop-motion needle felted animation.
• An interesting post about astronauts attempting to express their wonder and awe when they get back to Earth.
• What is Fata Morgana?
• Make your own cinnamon extract – apparently handy for recipes where cinnamon settles out.
• Cream cheese lemon blueberry pound cake.
• I think the price on this one reflects its location at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
• Some Tudors just have castle vibes.
• Stately condo in Boston.
• Rustic but extravagant.
• Nice dome home.
• (Compare to this not nice at all double dome home.)
• Another, very different nice home.
• Maximalist condo, must love pink.
• Delightful pink Victorian.
• Another condo, very white.
• Too. Much. Wallpaper.
• Kind of cool, but the nasty carpet needs to go.
• Mysteries plus water slide.
• Just kind of weird.
• …The Easter bunny was a mistake.
• Hollywood-themed house.
• What a guest suite.
• Big airport mood.
• What?
• That can’t possibly be the apartment’s entrance, can it?!
• All the steps are too tall, but that top one…
• “At least it had railings before.“
• Functionally invisible.
• Hmm.
• Huh.
• Yikes.
• Eww.
• Of course that’s where the cats hang out.
• These might actually be for cats and not people.
• Poor kitty – what a terrible place to live.
• Crocheted elephant… life sized.
• Indeed, a crazy art installation.
• Disturbing keyboard.

Harry upsidedown cake!

Polly upsidedown cake!

Mayhem, apparently look at the horrors.