Since Mother Eve in the Garden long ago

Did the Friday evening shift, so I get tomorrow off, and a three day weekend! Yay! I did not get a lot done, boo, because JeanMarie asked me to slow down giving her things to put away. (The majority of the backlog is archival.) While I spent a decent amount of time futzing around on the internet, I also investigated grants to get necessary PastPerfect updates (they only have it on one computer, it's madness) and worked on writing for a "mini-grant".

Around 7:30 I decided to go look at the dress room because why not? Pulled up the 1840s dress I thought might be a costume, and I'm about 99% sure it's not. It's just in fantastic condition. Wool, slightly crepey, printed with chiné pink flower-blobs on an apple-green background. Fan front, belled sleeves. Just gorgeous.

Last night I made a loaf of ricotta whole wheat olive oil bread with this recipe, plus some sunflower and flax seeds thrown in while I was kneading. It has a bit of a funny taste to it, but it's so nice and soft compared to my last whole wheat loaf (which didn't even really rise). I also let the dough sit a while before I started kneading, which I've read lets the whole wheat flour absorb more water.

I finished Raising Steam today when I popped home for a short break around three. I've been holding off writing about it until I finished. It feels awful to have such a low opinion of it - I mean, I started reading it on the day Pterry died - but it was so aggressively dull. (I'm assuming Pratchett dictated the book, but some people have suggested it was ghostwritten.) ( cut for spoilers I guess but I think I'm the last person to read it )

Why does it have an average of four stars? The five star reviews seem to be real ones. My only thought is that there are a lot of loyal/pitying people there.

I hate Vimes now. After this, and Snuff, I'm not even sure I could reread a Watch book. IDK, maybe I will try to see if I hate him less in Guards! Guards! But what I really want to reread is a Susan book, several Witches books

So I finally read I Shall Wear Midnight. IDK. ( cut just in case anyone's even later than me )

Recently, I decided to pick up a series I read when I was in high school - it's called The League of Jewelled Men, by Patricia Veryan - to see if it held up. It's set post-second Jacobite rebellion, starting in 1748. The League are some rich guys who want to something something take over England, and the heroes of course need to foil their scheme. And do you know? I think it did hold up fairly well, at least for romantic historical adventures written in a Heyeresque vein. At least the first one did, Time's Fool.

( an humorous synopsis )


OKAY. That was long-winded and I probably still left a ton out, but I needed to explain how shenanigany and fun the series is. There's a lot of evil scheming that I didn't quite get, but that's because I was seduced by the character interaction. Rereading the book and remembering oh, right, Morris and Falcon's conversations that go nowhere are actually brilliant was just a lovely feeling, especially as I was worried I'd hate the book on a reread. Mostly what I was worried about hating was clothing stuff and language. Fortunately, clothing is hardly described, and the little there was was mostly right, so gold star there. (Many good clothing descriptions > hardly any clothing description >>> bad clothing description.) The language is Heyer influenced, in Morris especially, who has a lot of the Edwardian about him, but the street slang isn't overused the way it sometimes is in Regencies. Tummet was way over the top, though, and like I said, rhyming slang in the 1740s is an anachronism, but I like the character, so. *shrug* They are fun books and I highly recommend them for light reading.