Quarantinewhile:

[bironic]

(as Stephen Colbert said until recently)

Doing: Move-related stuff. thedeadparrot helped me haul the world's greatest secondhand bed frame across town. My dad and sister came up for a few days for an initial round of painting. We did a nice gray in the main area that doesn't turn blue in the northwestern light, unlike in my current living room; an awesome purple-gray in the bathroom; and a bright yellow-green in the kitchen, something I'd wanted for ages.

Then we experimented with doing an ombre accent wall. The mid- and dark grays I picked are not quite in the right family, but the final product is growing on me. It looks like storm clouds or a misty forest canopy. Some pix.

stultiloquentia borrowed me to go strawberry picking. Yum! The farm had seven varieties. The one called Cleary was far and away my favorite. Sweet and bright, with a little white crown at the stem. Another called Cavendish came in second. I ate some fresh. The rest await the right recipes in the freezer. We had lunch under a tree.

(Did I mention the condo has a real fridge/freezer? The apartment freezer can't be more than 2 cubic feet and goes through unpredictable temperature cycles so everything ends up thawed and refrozen and speared through with ice crystals.)

This weekend I will be attending a small BBQ for the first time in two years. Inside? With multiple people? Honestly, I'm not sure I'm ready.

Going: The day science deemed me fully vaccinated against COVID, I drove to NY to see my family, who'd been ahead of us on the vaccination front. My sister and I then flew to Florida to visit our grandfather in anticipation of his 100th birthday! So I went from staying in the house except for bike riding and occasional double-masked grocery runs to sitting in a packed airport and visiting an elder care facility. Then spent time at both parents' houses unmasked. Zero to 60. What felt weirdest was how weird it didn't feel. Neither terrifying nor joyful. Like the pandemic had created a buffer between me and reality without my noticing, tamping down reentry emotions.

Fortunately, everything turned out fine. He was so happy to see us. The cold my sister came down with on the second day proved by virtue of both rapid and PCR testing to be indeed just a cold, and no one else caught it. His actual birthday went swimmingly last week, he reports. And now I'm back to staying mostly at home while getting more comfortable visiting with one or two friends at a time in their homes or in a car.

I also "went" to con_txt this past weekend. A lovely time, as usual, and extra sweet after having missed vidukon and wiscon. So proud of my friends for putting it together in its second virtual incarnation. Need to catch up on the vid shows.

Watching: A reality show called Secrets of the Zoo on Disney+, which follows veterinarians at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. It's great for animal cuteness and education, but not great whenever they lose a patient.

Then I finished the first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, inspired by cinco and celli at their panel on new Trek incarnations at con.txt. It did grow on me. As they promised, it talked back to TOS and TNG while showing a deep knowledge of and fondness for the franchise. The episode inspired by "Space Seed" and The Wrath of Khan did what JJ Abrams' Star Trek and Star Wars reboots should have done: taken a beloved original and told a new story while still paying homage to it visually/linguistically/thematically.

Next up, Discovery season three while I have this oops-I-forgot-to-cancel-after-the-free-trial month of Paramount+? Seasons one and two left me cold, but the panel did make a case for giving the show another try.

Reading: Sort of nothing? It's taking me ages to finish How to Be an Anti-Racist, which has nothing to do with the book and everything to do with my pandemic brain and lack of commute. I would like to read the Golem & the Jinni sequel that just came out. I'm in the queue at the library.

Vidding: On hiatus. It'll be interesting to see which idea breaks the dam.

How are you?

Comments

[isis]

the Golem & the Jinni sequel that just came out

Eeee! I knew it would be happening but didn't know when.

[bironic]

It snuck up! I only found out when the local bookstore announced a virtual event with her a week or two ago. https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-hidden-palace-helene-wecker?variant=32894727684130

[selki]

I listened to a good podcast episode about it with the author on The Incomparable. I can dig up link if interested.

[bironic]

Ooh, good to know. Sounds like it will be easy enough to find. Thanks for the tip!

[yhlee]

Your walls look fab! :D

[bironic]

Thank you! To be improved when the furniture gets added, one hopes.

[grammarwoman]

How tall are your ceilings? DAMN. Love the colors! Congrats on all your successful verbing! Or gerunds, what is grammar. ;)

[bironic]

It's a LOFT. Which I will love until the heating bills hit.

Real estate agent in April: You don't want a loft; in the northeast you're just heating the ceiling all winter

Real estate agent in May: Get this loft! It's a steal!

*shruuuuug*

[jesse_the_k]

quarantinewhiles helped us maintain whatever sanity we have left during the last year-or-so.

Your condo colors are lovely!

Many congrats on your high-speed reentry into Social Life.

[bironic]

Thanks! I definitely dialed it back after that first burst, which feels much more comfortable.

And, heh, I miss "A Late Show" with its pared down content and lack of ... show-iness. No band, no audience. But that's exactly what Colbert missed about hosting the show, so it's not like I can begrudge him and the crew being able to return to the set.

[grammarwoman]

Ditto on the A Late Show feels - not gonna lie, Evie's giggles made me laugh more than the studio audience.

[bironic]

They look like they have a solid and wonderful relationship, yeah? <3

[jesse_the_k]

That was the best part!

[grammarwoman]

Not only is he completely in love with his wife, he exudes joy and awe at her having married him. It is the sweetest to see.

[minoanmiss]

Me three

[minoanmiss]

*bounces with excitement for you*

[bironic]

Thank you, frienddddd. I'm looking forward to having you over and going for sushi when the world rights itself.

[serrico]

Congrats on the condo!

Can confirm that s3 of Discovery is very worthwhile, especially if the reasons s1-2 left you cold are like mine, ie they leaned too much into grimdark. S3 is almost like a soft reboot. I hope you'll share your thoughts once you've seen it!

[bironic]

That's three or four times they've started over since the series began, eh? :)

One of the things that bothered me was all the telling-not-showing about character development and what felt like inconsistency from episode to episode, like Michael and Saru having to reestablish trust and relearn how to work together one week and then saying they'd always considered each other as siblings soon after. Michael and Ash are in love? Okay. The android we were just introduced to now faces a life-or-death situation? Okay. It made it hard for me to care about most of the crew, especially the secondary characters. But it doesn't seem to have been a barrier for many of my friends. I know fandom often likes to play in underdeveloped spaces; it's just that there wasn't enough there there to make me want to expand anything or take in others' expansions.

And there was something terrible about the ethics of the Saru's-planet episode that I can't remember exactly... Lack of consideration of the biological process they were forcing everyone through?

(There were some episodes or parts of episodes that I liked -- sometimes a lot -- which helped propel me through the end of S2.)

[serrico]

Oh, there's still some very "Really? ...okay." stuff in s3. But the things I liked left me feeling more positive about the show than neutral or negative about it, which was not the case with s1-2.

[bironic]

Oh, that's promising. Thanks! TBD.

[lilysea]

I would like to read the Golem & the Jinni sequel that just came out. I'm in the queue at the library.

Oooh, I'd not heard of this, and I loved the first book!

Thank you for the heads up! ^_^

[bironic]

Glad to spread the word!

[china_shop]

Ooh, your walls look wonderful! Congrats on the loft! *\o/*

I enjoyed season 3 of Discovery -- at least some aspects of it -- much more than season 2. /another data point :-)

[bironic]

Thanks! And thanks. This is promising.

[aurumcalendula]

Your walls look neat!

*reminds self to check out Lower Decks*

I really enjoyed season 3 of Discovery (which worked much better for me than seasons 1 and 2).

[bironic]

Thanks!

I got up to episode 6 of season 3 before the subscription ran out again, and really enjoyed them. As Spock would say: Fascinating.