musesfool: Rachel Roth (Raven)  from Titans (it will take all your breath)
[personal profile] musesfool
I'm off work today because I had to go get a tooth crowned. They've streamlined the process since early last year, when I had to go one week for the preparation and then back again a week later for the installation - they did it all in one day today, with about a 30 minute break between parts 1 and 2, where I just sat in the exam chair and read my book on my phone. This time I had to stop them a couple of times during the first part because they just spray water everywhere without sufficient suction so I felt like I was drowning a couple of times. The dentist warned me about it ahead of time and was apologetic about it, so I didn't feel like I was too much of a problem patient for stopping so I could, you know, breathe. One of the things I like about this particular dentist (there's a bunch of them at the practice and I've seen most of them over the last 5 years) is that he tells you what he's going to go ahead of time and answers questions, and then he tells you each thing he's going to do during the process right before he does it, and he gives you a heads up as to how far along in the process you are/how much more time it's going to take. Because it's unpleasant, at best. I mean, I was all numbed up for it (so numbed that my right EYE was feeling numb - the tooth being crowned is on the top right way in the back - which is a real fucking weird feeling), but ugh. I'm sure there are probably other crowns in the future - they want to get out all those old, old silver fillings, and he said this tooth did crack while he was removing it, so we caught it before it happened on its own.

I'm glad I didn't get new glasses this year - that left $950 in my FSA, which I had to supplement to pick up the rest of the cost, because I do not know what my insurance will cover as the dentist is out of network. I know I should find someone in network (and preferably near my apartment instead of in Manhattan), but as mentioned above, I like this guy and I think that is an important factor with any medical practitioner if you can get it.

So I came home and took a 3 hour nap because I didn't sleep much last night due to anxiety over all of this. Oh, and I mailed my ballot for Mamdani. I'm very curious to see if his lead in the polls translates to winning the election or if all the people who are scared because he's Muslim will turn out for Cuomo (or Sliwa, I guess, but I cannot take him seriously as a candidate). We have tended to pick terrible mayors recently, so it'll be interesting to see how this all turns out.

And I guess I mentioned reading up there, so yes, I am in the middle of a reread of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which I am enjoying! ♥BLUE♥ remains my favorite.

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AWS outage

Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am
alierak: (Default)
[personal profile] alierak posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance
DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

but that's not the case

Oct. 19th, 2025 08:30 pm
musesfool: Eli Bradley, aka Patriot, of the Young Avengers (he does not lose himself)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made some chicken thighs in the slow cooker today with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and some tomato paste. The chicken shredded nicely, but mostly what I tasted was salt - it was low sodium soy sauce too, so I'm not sure why. Maybe the balsamic? But that was only 2 tsps. Kind of a disappointment, though now at least I have some room in my freezer for other things. *hands*

Finished my reread of The Dream Thieves and now it's onto Blue Lily, Lily Blue. Still enjoying myself. I guess at some point I'll read something new to me again, but not just yet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In other news, man, the Giants looked good for 3 whole quarters before completely unravelling and losing. the fact that they led for so long, and even came back to retake the lead once they fell behind, and still lost just makes it worse. At least the Rangers finally won last night.

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visions i vandalize

Oct. 17th, 2025 05:55 pm
musesfool: (it's good to be the queen)
[personal profile] musesfool
[personal profile] runpunkrun mentioned that there is now a graphic novel of The Raven Boys, which ignited in me a fierce urge to reread the series, so I've started that, and I still love it (♥BLUE♥! ♥RONAN♥! #the same impossible stuff), but I also kind of wish now that I didn't read the Dreamer trilogy (or that Stiefvater had written it differently), since it kind of recontextualizes (and potentially retcons) some stuff that I don't think really needed it.

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here's what took place moments ago

Oct. 16th, 2025 08:35 pm
musesfool: close up of the Chrysler Building (home)
[personal profile] musesfool
The Rangers haven't scored in almost 8 periods (if this 2nd period in Toronto ends without them scoring in 2 minutes, it will actually be 8 periods) - and it's not even like they've been shut out by top tier goalies! - but Chris Kreider has 5 points in 3 games so far for Anaheim. They definitely sent the wrong Chris away over the summer. Sigh.

[eta] A goal! For the Rangers! Huzzah!

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musesfool: a loaf of bread (staff of life)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made a version of this garlic and bread soup (WAPO gift link), substituting oregano and rosemary for the paprikas because 1. that is my preferred flavor profile, and 2. I only had smoked paprika (I would swear I had sweet paprika also, but if so, I couldn't find it). I also used the whole eggs instead of just the whites, and I did it sequentially all in one pot instead of using both a skillet and a stockpot because 1. my stovetop is smaller than a regular stove, and 2. fewer things to wash afterwards. Anyway, I definitely recommend it if you like garlic and soup. The croutons are excellent and the soup is delicious and I have enough for 3 more meals now.

I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner yesterday, so I also have some sauce and meatballs leftover, which is another couple meals. I also baked some oatmeal cookies.

I was off today for Indigenous People's Day, and I took tomorrow as PTO, so I've enjoyed being cozy during all this rain.

Yesterday, as I sat in my west-facing living room, I was like, is this nor'easter even happening? It seemed like it was just raining on and off. And then I went into my east-facing bedroom and oh yeah, there was the wind, howling and whipping around. Anyway, I think it's mostly over now? Though I guess it might rain for the rest of the night.

I haven't really had any side effects from the double vax on Friday except my arm was stupidly sore and itchy, and my left-side lymph nodes are a little swollen, which always happens (I got both shots in my left arm). *hands*

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(no subject)

Oct. 10th, 2025 04:40 pm
musesfool: NY Giants helmet (big blue)
[personal profile] musesfool
I had to wait about 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment because CVS's internet was down intermittently or something (and several customers got a little shirty about it) but I finally got this year's covid and flu shots.

In sports news, my friends from Philly, I still love you, but I enjoyed last night's Eagles and Phillies losses tremendously (lbr, I also enjoyed the Yankees getting eliminated but that's not quite the same). I especially enjoyed the Dart and Skattebo show for the NY (football) Giants! Gosh, I'd almost forgotten what it felt like to enjoy a football game my team played in! And then the post-game show with Dart showing his Star Wars fan bona fides (all with prequels questions too, which was funny) and Skattebo ripping his shirt off with Ryan Fitzpatrick! Not only did they win, they were fun! Though Dart needs to learn how to protect himself better on those runs. Yikes. Not that I expect them to win many more games this year, but boy it was enjoyable that they did last night.

In other fannish news, it sounds like book 8 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series is supposed to come out in June 2026, which I guess is ok. Still no word on Alecto the Ninth though.

And now I kind of want a DCC/TLT crossover...they are incompatible canons but oh boy it would be fun.

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I have an icon for this!

Oct. 9th, 2025 05:48 pm
rivkat: Bruce and Johnny investigate (bruce and johnny investigate)
[personal profile] rivkat

I’ve been rereading Stephen King for comfort reasons, and I have a couple of observations. First, The Dead Zone—which posits political assassination as an actual solution to a potential presidential madman—hits a bit different these days. Second (and not unrelatedly), while I am happy enough to get the expanded version of The Stand, it was a huge mistake for King to try to change the setting from 1980 to 1990; random updated pop culture references can’t disguise the fact that America changed substantially in that decade, such that characters and settings that made sense in 1980 were no longer plausible in 1990. The teenaged, white Nick Andros would almost certainly not have used the word “Negro” to describe an old woman in 1990. The singer Larry Underwood would have different beliefs about music from the 70s, when he was a young child rather than a teen/early adult. From attitudes towards single mothers to how racism was expressed to the dumping practices of fabric mills, the revised version still reads like 1980, but with a mention of rap on the radio, and it’s not good.