By: Revanche

The fun we had: Winter 2018

March 21, 2018

What I read

I’ve been subsisting off Kindle First and borrowing from Amazon for months because my Kindle is broken and I haven’t found a replacement yet but we finally made some time to get to the library and get our new library cards. SHEER BLISS!

I’ve been reading up a storm, and losing sleep at night, which coincides with some massive pain flares that make me lose sleep anyway so at least I wasn’t bored. The bad thing is that my phone is too heavy during those flares too, so it’s being bored or hurting my hands a bit more.

The Birdwoman’s Palate, Laksmi Pamuntjak
(free Kindle First book) I didn’t know what to expect but I saw “food” in the blurb and hopped right on it. It did not disappoint. The translation was excellent, the prose was straightforward and imminently readable, the food coverage made me want to visit Indonesia for two weeks. It’s never been on my list before but it is now!

The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin
Well written, engaging, recommended by Alison Green, and totally depressing. The premise is thought-provoking – if we knew the date we are fated to die, are we driven to our fates? Or can we change them? Or are we so bound to them that the act of trying to change them simply ensures that we’d arrive there? It was engaging enough to keep me through 3/4 of the book before I gave myself permission to stop as a depressive brooding came nibbling. It’s absolutely worth reading if you don’t have any sibling issues or parenting worries about multiple kids.

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Issa Rae
This was a great read. I loved the peeks into African culture that we simply don’t get here in America. Everything you hear here about Africa is negative and stereotypical. Issa Rae shares her family and history in this book that made me chuckle and shake my head over common customs between the Senegalese and my family’s culture.

The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency), by John Scalzi – I am annoyed that I read this now because it’s the first of a new series. I’m going to have to wait a really long time to read what’s next!

Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life, Chrestomanci series, I requested all the rest of the books in this series from the library. I want more!
Fire and Hemlock: Bewilderingly good. Amazing. The ebook included DWJ’s piece about her process in writing this and the sheer craft involved was breathtaking.
Howl’s Moving Castle
Castle in the Air, Howl’s Castle Series Book 2
House of Many Ways, Howl’s Castle Series Book 3

Lois McMaster Bujold
The Curse of Chalion (Book 1) Loved it, devoured the rest of the series as they became available.
Paladin of Souls (Book 2)
The Hallowed Hunt (Book 3)

Beguilement, The Sharing Knife Book 1
Legacy, The Sharing Knife Book 2
Passage, The Sharing Knife, Book 3
Horizon, The Sharing Knife, Book 4

Terry Pratchett
Raising Steam: The way that Moist fought was erratic, since he took the view that if you didn’t know what you were going to do next, neither would the enemy. After all, it was a mêlée and nobody owns a mêlée. You might as well try to control a hurricane.
Unseen Academicals: Apes had it worked out. No ape would philosophize, ‘The mountain is, and is not.’ They would think, ‘The banana is. I will eat the banana. There is no banana. I want another banana.’
The Wee Free Men
A Hat Full of Sky
Wintersmith
I Shall Wear Midnight

Nnedi Okorafor – Nnedi is a fabulous writer. Her stories were so mentally satisfying I had to read them twice which I almost never do with new books. Anxiously awaiting the sequels to both books to be available at the library. I hope you’ll request them from your library if they don’t have them.
Binti
Akata Witch

Where we went

We had a quick little day trip to Monterey but that was IT. I really needed this long stretch of being home without packing our bags and hauling ourselves all over this green earth. We support the Monterey Bay Aquarium with an annual membership but have been terrible about going there more than once a year, this is our attempt to remedy that.

Highlights of the Aquarium:

• The Tentacles special exhibit: multiple octopi! Bonus: a moment of guessing whether that was MY child that just wrapped themself around my leg, in the dark. Yes it was.
• Watching the mesmerizing Pacific sardines in the Open Sea Exhibit, and the enormous green sea turtle, was oddly soothing.
• We missed the sea otter feeding time but did get to watch the goofballs chase each other through the waters and surface suddenly just on the other side of the glass. The 15 minute video about Luna the baby sea otter was a nice break, too.
• The kids’ area was overrun, though, so JB wasn’t into playing there in the crush. We went out into the chill instead, eating snacks and looking for sea otters.
• JB slinging zirself around a parking meter belting out I AM MOANA.
• I’m incredibly pleased with my photos with the surprise crab. Look at it popping in!

Costs: $130 membership costs, $30 dogsitter, $220 hotel, $100, food. Total spent, $480.

Not sure if it’s fair to count the membership in this trip’s total cost but it’s the first trip this year, so it makes sense to do so to me! If we go 3 more times, I’ll average the cost across those trips.

This was an expensive overnighter, in hindsight. It would have been cheaper if we’d not happened to run into some friends and gone out to dinner with them. But PiC was really happy that that happened so I won’t begrudge the cost of that meal.

:: What’s your favorite aquarium? What are your fun plans for this spring?

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