Sunday Post: January 30, 2022

Hello, my lovelies.

Up way too early on a Sunday morning, watching the finals of the Australian Open. Rafa is the only person who can get me to set a 3 am alarm, but I don’t think that this one is going to go the way we want. I guess we will see once it starts to cool off a little in Rod Laver Arena…but right now, the conditions aren’t optimal for my Spaniard. So, rather than torture myself watching him get beat, I thought I’d come hang out with you guys.

This week was largely taken up with books and tattoos and a little bit of snow. I think that we have already exceeded our snow predictions for the entire winter…but am still a little nostalgic for a big storm—I wouldn’t mind 30 inches one of these days. The only issue is digging out enough of a space for the dog to go potty in the backyard—he is pretty particular in his old age. 🙂

I did NOT, in fact, chicken out on the tattoo…which still amazes me. I’m 55…and this is my first tattoo. Like I was warned, though, it probably isn’t going to be my last. The process was pretty…I don’t want to say painless, because of course it hurt. Quite a lot in some places. But it was never unbearable, never so bad that I contemplated stopping, never so bad that a little meditative deep breathing wasn’t all I really needed. And so far, the healing process has been nothing—it itches a little, and I did take two Tylenol the first night, but so far the worst part of the entire experience was peeling off the first piece of Saniderm, which actually caused bruising on the part of the skin that was not tattooed. I have had less painful bikini waxes.

But, the Saniderm is doing its job, the tattoo is healing pretty well under there, and the second piece of film comes off tonight. I’m going to peel that one off in the shower, as recommended for less agony.

We did make some minor design changes before we started, so here’s the final product—

I also splurged a little and bought myself something fun…and a little awe-inspiring this week. I pay all of my end of year “big bills” (property tax, HOA dues for the year, home owners insurance for the year, etc) on a credit card, and that usually gets me a pretty big chunk of points to spend in January. This year, I had about $100 in points from those late-year transactions. I wasn’t sure what I was going to buy…I had been thinking about getting some color-changing filament for my rooomie’s 3-D printer, but I hadn’t pulled the trigger yet.

And then one of my FB friends was talking up her “night sky” in her bedroom, and I was intrigued. So I did a bunch of research (at 1:30 am, cause insomnia), eventually snagging a couple BlissLights—a Sky 2.0 and an Ark. The Sky light provides some background lighting along with stars, and the Ark provides kind of a nebula…it’s like my own aurora borealis, right here in the living room. It’s pretty freaking neat, and worth all the points it cost me—which really weren’t THAT many. I even had some left over to put toward that rainbow filament I was jonesing for.

Anyway, here’re the lights in action, first with lights on, and then with a HUE profile called “Blood Moon” which switches all my lights to dark blues, purples and pinks.

Gorgeous.

As a wee baby blogger, one of the things that I did is sign up for Net Galley, like you do. I have reviewed a couple books for them, mid-list titles, as I would expect for someone of my inexperience. I get denied for 80% of what I request, again as I would expect.

But yesterday, I got approved for the new Harlan Coben book, The Match. Not gonna lie, it’s probably one of the two or three books that I am looking most forward to this year, definitely a front-list title, and…I mean, SHOCKING. How did I get approved for this book?

But I did not question it, just sent it to my kindle before Hachette changes their mind.

I guess the lesson here is to always request what you want, even if you think you don’t have a shot at it because there may always be a drunk intern pressing buttons they shouldn’t be pressing.

I read five books this week, none of which really lit me on fire. Three of them were two-star reads, and the other two were only three. Not my best work. But I have so many books for this week that I have super-high hopes for, so fingers crossed.

The Lucy Score books were…I mean, they were good. They were what I expect from Lucy, which is smart and funny and steamy. But there was nothing particularly noteworthy about them. I liked both books fine, but I didn’t love them. I also didn’t love the cliffhanger ending (although I get that she wasn’t going to publish an 800-page romance novel), and I didn’t find the setup for the second book credible at all. However, entertaining in their own ways. I picked up Jon’s Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case on a FB whim—a story about a gay psychic detective seemed right in my wheelhouse, but the characters never really gelled for me, the primary relationship was not allowed to build, and the whole thing fell a little flat. That doesn’t mean that I won’t read the second book—many series that I love had rough first books. But I’m not really enthused about it right now. I did a full review yesterday of All The Feels, and the ways that it let me down, so nothing more to say there. While the Sun Shines was the biggest disappointment of the week, though. I was really, really, really looking forward to this one. I love Kit Oliver, and I loved these characters when they were the supporting cast in Cattle Stop. But, again, the relationship just never fired on all cylinders in this one, and the snark and the banter was dialed up to eleven, which would have been fine if the relationship were strong enough to compete…but it got completely overshadowed.

But, I have an Alafair Burke book on the offing this week, plus Weather Girl and the afore-mentioned The Match, so I have MUCH higher hopes for next week.

OK, that’s all from Center Court, where my guy is at least making things interesting.

Till next week, stay safe, wear a mask and do something decadent for yourself. You deserve it.