Sunday Post – 6/10/2018

June 10, 2018 Sunday Post 19

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimba, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!

 My Week

Last Sunday’s Haydn concert went very well. I’m so blessed to be able to sing great music with a group like this!

On the home front, it’s been a relatively quiet week, except for the ant invasions at both the front and back of the house. All the rain has them looking for drier quarters with food nearby, and apparently our house fits the bill. We’re trying to combat them with bait, but so far they seem more interested in moving the colonies (into our walls, which is not acceptable!) than in eating the bait. (You may remember we’ve had similar problems in previous years.)

Our kitty, Tasha, went in for another set of steroid shots into her mouth to control the tumor. Amazingly, the appears to be shrinking, though clearly her mouth still bothers her. We’re not expecting a total cure, but it’s encouraging that she’s doing better. It took her about a day and a half to shake off the sedation completely, though, and she’s still not jumping as well as before the sedation, though that’s improving. I think she may have pulled a muscle in one hind leg while she was still groggy.

Other than that, I’m indexing (as usual!) and trying to get the house cleaned up a bit before Robin comes home next weekend. Yay! Just for a visit and a family vacation together, but it will be good to see them. I’ve got to get the index done before we go off on vacation.

I also wove the ends in and blocked two knitting projects that I finished recently, plus one I finished six years ago. SIX! It got shoved into a bag and I forgot about it… but I’m always terrible about doing the final finishing work (I’d rather be knitting!), so it’s not the only older project I have lying around. I’m trying to get caught up on them this summer. I’ve only got so much space available to block them, so I can’t do more than one or two at a time. (For you non-knitters, blocking means washing or dampening the knitted piece and laying it out flat to dry, with pins holding it in place, so any lace opens up and the piece holds the right shape once it’s dry. It doesn’t work on acrylic yarns, but it makes a big difference with natural fibers.) Anyway, I’ll try to put together a WIP Wednesday post for next week, so you can see the FOs (finished objects.)

 

Last Two Weeks on the Blog

 

Upcoming on the Blog

 

What I’m Reading/Watching

What I’m Reading: I finished rereading The Wounded Sky (Diane Duane; purchased) and read Heather Graham’s new Krewe of Hunters book, Fade to Black (library.)  I also read went on a romance binge and read four new-to-me Jill Shalvis books: Rainy Day Friends, which comes out on June 19 (ARC), and Animal Magnetism, Animal Attraction, and Rescue My Heart (all purchased); the latter three count toward my Backlist Reader Challenge, assuming I can get review posts done for them! And I started Island of the Mad (Laurie R. King; ARC.)  I still need to get back to Someone to Care by Mary Balogh (ARC) and The Underwater Ballroom (anthology ARC).

Listening to: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. It’s so good, and the narrator is terrific with accents. I also finally signed up for a free Spotify account, and I’ve been listening to the Year of Wonder playlists that go with Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day (due out in the US next November; it came out in the UK last October.) I got the ARC this week, so decided to listen to each day’s piece after I read about it.

Watching: 

 

New Additions to the Hoard

Cover links take you to Goodreads.

For Review or Review Consideration

Thank you to HarperCollins and Crooked Lane Books!

Purchased for Kindle

I read Rescue My Heart this week, and it’s the only book that wasn’t on sale. The rest I haven’t read yet, although I have read all the other books in Emily March’s Eternity Springs series.

 

Have a good week, and happy reading!

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19 Responses to “Sunday Post – 6/10/2018”

  1. Berls

    Glad the concert went well! I’ve never been very musically inclined, but how cool to have that talent.

    Good to hear Tasha seems to be responding to treatment. It’s the worst when a pet is sick and there’s only so much we can do for them. I hope her jumping/leg improves soon too!

    I’m LMAO because I’m kinda-sorta a knitter and I didn’t know what blocking is. I’m self-taught and yeah, never learned that part. Haven’t knitted in a couple years though either, hence the kinda-sorta. I have lots of yarn and needles waiting for me though 🙂

    Have a great week!
    Berls recently posted…Sunday Post with Berls | What a Week!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      No worries about the blocking thing; I didn’t know about it until I’d been knitting for years. It’s not really a thing with acrylic yarn, unless you steam block (which is tricky because you can end up with totally limp, non-springy yarn.) But when you’re working with wool or other natural fibers, it can make a big difference in how the garment or piece looks. And if you’re sewing seams in a sweater or blanket, you can block the pieces before you sew, so the seamed sides will match in length. I’m relatively new to blocking; I’ve only had to block a couple of shawls, a couple of scarves, and a cowl so far.

  2. Michelle @Because Reading

    I am glad Tasha is responding to the medicine, I hope it make her feel better. I hate when the furbabies are sick. It’s like regular babies.

    OMG Ants are EVERYWHERE! Like I can’t seem to stop seeing them. At work we have black ants I swear you can ride on! They seem to be the pest of the summer at the moment.

    I am a crocheter not a knitter and I have tons of projects I will finish one day. I stink at it but I still like to do it. 🙂

    Have a great week, Lark! Happy Reading!

  3. Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library

    Glad the concert went well but I’m not surprised! I can see where the finishing work would be a bit tedious and I think I’d probably have a hard time making myself do it! Glad Tasha is responding to the medicine! That’s wonderful.

    You have so many great books. I really need to catch up on the Mary Russell series and I just picked up the Balogh on a whim from the library. Not sure I will get to it but my intentions are good. I’m hoping to start Rainy Day Friends soon. I’ve really enjoyed this series from Jill Shalvis quite a bit. Have a great week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I’m looking forward to a family vacation in a week or two — enforced downtime! I won’t even have internet for most of the 10 days, so I’ll be forced to (mostly) unplug. 🙂

  5. Literary Feline

    I am so glad the concert went well. I knew it would. 🙂 I am glad Tasha is doing better, although I know it is still difficult. We wish we could save them altogether from the pain and the illnesses. Your mention of Heather Graham’s book reminds me I have a few on my shelf I need to get to! I hope you have a great week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      We are so thankful that Tasha’s condition (probably cancer but not biopsied) seems to be be more chronic than life-threatening at this point. That’s not what we thought when she was diagnosed. Our the other kitty, Thomas, went downhill pretty quickly after a similar diagnosis, and we had to put him to sleep once it got too bad; he was in a lot of pain. But Tasha is holding her own, and we’re grateful for the additional time with her. Her mouth bothers her sometimes, more as an annoyance than real pain, but she still seems happy with life in general. As long as that’s true, we’re grateful to still have her in our lives!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Tasha’s jumping better, so I’m pretty sure it was just a pulled muscle, plus the residual effects of the sedative. The vet said it takes longer for that to wear off in older cats. As for the ants, at least they are just little sugar ants (the tiny black ones), but they’re still pretty much ignoring the bait, which is annoying.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I hope you meant ants aren’t invading your home! And thank goodness for that. I wouldn’t want to deal with fire ants… but I know they’ve already reached an area quite near to us, so it’s probably only a matter of time. 🙁

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Knock wood, we managed to stop the ants coming inside the house (for now) — but I know they are moving a whole colony inside the walls where we can’t get them. And they are just ignoring the bait we put down, and the bait Orkin put down, too. I don’t know what else to do…

  10. Rita @ View From the Books

    I’ve read The Winter Sea and A Dark and Stormy Murder, both very good in their own respective ways.

    So glad to hear Tasha is doing a bit better. If she just pulled a muscle or similar, she’ll be back to jumping around soon. Cats are nothing if not resilient!
    Enjoy your knitting adventures!

    { I saw a comment that you couldn’t access my site? It goes through fine when I click it, but here goes: https://viewfromthebooks.blogspot.com }

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thanks for the link! It’s going through fine now; must just have been a temporary glitch. Tasha is doing better with the jumping, so I think it was a combination of her age making it take longer to shake off the ketamine plus probably a pulled muscle.