No Slippery Slope

Otter sliding down a hill (AI image)

I’ve been continually piqued by the complications of commenting on Wordpress blogs as opposed to the ease of commenting at Blogger blogs. This irritation reached a peak the other week when WP insisted that my gmail address was already used at WP, so I had to sign in with a password in order to comment. I deleted my account there in 2024 and do not want the hassle of another one. I really despise them and how, even if you pay, there are constant glitches and problems. I know this because I blogged at WP for many years as a paying customer!

The issue is that I enjoy some WP blogs and like to comment every once in a while ~ I don’t want to quit them because I hate WP itself. So, this morning I took a peek at other options, one of which was using Gravatar. I don’t hate Gravatar, even though I know its owned by WP, so I created a PW and uploaded a pic. Voilà! That seems to be working fine, with the only caveat being that I need to type my Blogger addy in my comment if I want it to show up, since Gravatar doesn’t appear to have a way to add a link. That’s not a huge deal though.

This is not a slippery slope toward a return to WP, with sincere apologies to anyone who has asked me to. Yes, I understand that technically I have a WP account now that I use Gravatar, but I am not going to create another WP blog. I prefer the simplicity of Blogger, which is integrated with my Google/ gmail account and its tetramegabyte of inexpensive storage. Now that I’m using an image in every post, I’m even more adamant about staying here.

PS: I see I can add a link to my Gravatar, yippee!

~*~

Inspired by Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt (peak/ peek/ pique).

Flashback Friday: Homonymy

Somewhere in time...

I'm participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday today with a post from my old WP blog from June 26, 2011. I found it on the Wayback Machine. The internal link is no longer available.

Homonymy

My daughter and I were noodling on love and relationships, how they mean different things to different people, and how it can be hard to settle on a definition that remains solid over time. During the discussion, I thought of this post at Gekko’s and said, “Some consider a relationship to be a vessel and love fills it up. Well, ideally love would fill it. The vessel might crack and love spills out. Maybe it can be repaired. Or maybe something else fills it up. “

My daughter said, “You mean a blood vessel, like to the heart?”

I laughed, “No!”

“A ship?”

“No, no. A goblet. A vase. How interesting you came up with the other possibilities.”

Isn’t it though?

Five Prompts Haiku Style (100 words)

Me and my (almond) Snickers

Stuffing or dressing 

Either way bring on the carbs

Oysters optional 

My top ten candy

Cadbury choccy creme egg

Retro Chunky bar

Peanut M and M’s

Original M and M’s

Hot Tamales too

Peanut butter cups 

Coconut Jelly Bellies

And English toffee 

A Snickers of course 

Frango Mints from days of old 

I think that makes ten

Paddled a canoe

In the Dells of Wisconsin 

But it flipped over 

That was lucky though 

Next up was the waterfall 

And we couldn’t steer 

Great piece of advice

Never go out on a boat 

With a stupid jerk

(John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop)

Summer Reading Bingo 2

Reading challenge bingo card

Welcome to my summer bingo book series, where I post five short reviews at a time. I'm giving myself the whole summer to finish the bingo card, not just the month of June. This is my second set of reviews; you can find the first set here.

1. Free space. Guarded by the Grizzly Bear by Reece Barden. This book was recommended by Mary, and it sounded fun, so I grabbed it off Kindle Unlimited. It had been some time since I tried to read a shifter romance, and this one got three stars, which is a good rating from me for this type of novel, where I find it impossible to suspend my disbelief. While the male main character was a stereotypical possessive jerk, though of course totally hot as required (it's never acceptable when a non-handsome man stalks you), the female MC (a cop) was strong and interesting, until the end anyway, and that was a treat. The setting seemed to be in the USA, maybe Montana, but around the halfway point there were a few UK spellings (favour, pyjamas), so maybe it was set in Canada. Unclear. This kind of thing throws me out of the story because I need to understand the logistics. Even a fantasy novel should be consistent with details. Bad proofreading, assuming there was any.

(I wouldn't normally use the "free space" so soon, except I had already started this book when I decided to join in on the summer reading bingo suggested by my book club leader.)

2. Ice cream on cover. Ice Cream and Incidents by Agatha Frost. I really wanted to like this book because it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a cozy mystery. It began in a promising way with some unexpected characters, but it soon turned into a boring drag (not punning). The writing was simply flat with loads of telling not showing. There was zero chemistry between the main character Julia and Barker, her fiancé; in fact, I thought they might be headed for a breakup given their lack of affection (I know cozies don't do explicit love scenes, but there was nothing here). They were happy with their cardboard existence, apparently. The only reason this novel gets two stars instead of one is because some of the drag queen scenes were fun. The description on Goodreads is incorrect, btw: there was no murder, just a stage “accident.” Finally, the title had nothing to do with the story. Yes, they had ice cream a couple times on vacation, but Julia was a cake baker. Why not Icing and Incidents?

3. Has June in the title. June by K. Nicole. Despite all the typos (what is it with books lately not being properly proofread and edited?!), I really enjoyed this book! Gave it four stars. It was a very atypical romance novel with fresh writing and interesting characters. And chemistry, whew! There was lots of graphic sex in this book, which was important to the plot. Another strong female lead carried half the story, with the hot criminal dude taking the other half. As in Grizzly, the female MC was a cop, but in this case the male MC truly was a bad guy. Some of the Black lingo was a little hard for me to follow, but I got the gist of most of it from the context, especially as the story progressed. The writing was full of vivid detail, which I always appreciate. I have a huge TBR pile, but eventually I want to read more books by this author.

4. NY Times Best Seller. Never Leave the Dogs Behind by Brianna Madia. This memoir was hard to read from an emotional standpoint, but it was very well-written and ultimately satisfying. Since her marriage fell apart, Bri is suicidal, manic-depressive, and dissociative. The only thing keeping her going is her love for her dogs. She isn’t a likable person, but the reader can understand why she became so bitter and ran off to the desert to get away from everyone. Internet popularity is always a double-edged sword, and it was great to see Bri finally quit caring about hateful Instagram comments and root her sense of self in the physical world. Four stars.

5. Published in June. The Beach Holiday by Nina Manning. I had mixed feelings about this book. First, it annoyed me with the now/ then narrative. I understand that a lot of thrillers do this, but I find that it lessens the suspense factor. We know Sadie is safe because there’s a “now,” so we may not be as invested in the “then.” Just tell the dang story as it happened! Why is this so difficult lately? Second, the narration was in first person, but we were only privy to some of Sadie’s headspace. She kept secrets from us and lied to us. If you want to create distance from the reader, use third person. All that said, I ended up enjoying a big chunk of the story only because it was so different and weird, though of course preposterous. There were a lot of unanswered questions too, the main one being… why the heck couldn’t Sadie have told her family about Bruno?! I guess that would have wrecked the flimsy premise of Sadie “needing” to go to Fiji. Three stars.

Alrighty then, I have completed 10 bingo squares, yay me! Onto the next set of reviews…

The Other Side (flash fiction)

Mysterious doorway image created by AI

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Of course I knew it would happen sooner or later, but I wanted something dramatic and spectacular, as would befit my superior status, not this slow, insignificant fade. I had always been vastly different from other humans and possessed an extraordinarily towering intellect, which generated heightened emotional responses to common situations. My giftedness had been a source of envy to many, and occasionally that resentment escalated to where I had been targeted, harassed, or shunned simply for being me. 

Nothing had changed at the end. People were too awed by my dominance to even bother visiting me, much less pay me the deference to which I was due. Obviously I had deserved a much greater degree of success than had been bestowed by the universe, but even the alleged higher beings failed to recognize my greatness! As far as the lower beings, I magnanimously forgave them for their lack of appreciation, for they were much too ignorant to even begin to comprehend my complex nature. Naturally, I would punch them in the face if I had the chance again.

Anyway. Enough dillydallying. It was time to go, and I wasn’t sure why I hesitated at this late date, as I would certainly not miss this wretched place nor any of these lesser creatures.

The door was closed, and as I put my hand on the doorknob, I felt afraid of what I might find on the other side.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter 252 (this time as an ending) and inspired by recent events.

Father's Day Hodgepodge

Dad and me in 2011, RIP

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week. Happy Father's Day!

1. Summer's here!  In the northern hemisphere anyway. If you're in the southern hemisphere substitute winter for the word summer. What do you love most about summer? What's your biggest summer pet peeve? 

I love that my commute gets better because school's out. I love the Orange County Fair. I love warm days and popsicles dripping down my hand.

Toward the end of summer, the beastly dry and hot Santa Ana winds return. Instead of wind blowing from the ocean, it blows toward the ocean, filling our coastal air with all the dirt and dust from Inland California. It's really disgusting and gives me a migraine.

2. What song always reminds you of summer? 

Anything by the Beach Boys, of course! 

3. What's something you remember about your childhood summers? Do you think kids today get to enjoy summer the way you did as a child? Elaborate. 

Going to the beach with my mom. Trying to learn how to draw dogs from a book. Playing Battleship and Clue with neighborhood friends. Pretending our picnic table was a pirate ship. Riding my bike to Dairy Queen for a Mr. Misty. Reading romance novels. Watching TV. Trying to get a tan. Spending a lot of time alone.

I'm not one who likes to wax rhapsodic about the olden days when everything was supposedly better. I think that's BS, honestly. I had a lot of lonely times, and I was bored a lot too. Maybe today's kids are scheduled a little too much, but overall I think it's cool that parents try to make sure they have fun things to do with other kids during summer, while also learning new skills and getting exercise.

4. We celebrate Fathers Day on June 21st. Do you favor your dad in looks or temperament? Tell us something about your dad. Or your husband as a dad. Or a son/son-in-law as a dad. Or your grandpa. 

As you can see from the above pic, I look a lot like my dad. My temperament is similar to his as well: I'm introverted, introspective, and wordy. Usually I'd make fudgy brownies or chocolate chip cookies for my dad on Father's Day ~ he had a big sweet tooth, as I do. I miss him.

5. Let's wrap up with a summer this or that:

flip flops or sandals

beach or pool 

watermelon or peaches

shorts or sundress

iced coffee or ice cold lemonade

amusement park or water park

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My ex-husband, the father of my children, is dying in hospice. It's a tough time for us right now, and I may not post or comment much this week. 

Thanks for understanding.

The Rainbow Cake Disaster

 

AI generated image of a rainbow layer cake

I tripped and fell down up the stair

And smashed the rainbow cake to bits

I cried and yelled it was not fair

I tripped and fell down up the stair

I made this scrumptious cake to share

Now splat upon the ground it sits

I tripped and fell down up the stair

And smashed the rainbow cake to bits

~*~

Triolet written for Sammi Scribbles Prompt #473 (rainbow). I used the title as part of my 64 words, which might be "cheating," but I couldn't drag out the lines any further. This is a true story, btw. In June of 2024, I took a class at Sur La Table where we made rainbow cakes. There were five layers of different colored sponge cakes, and we glopped frosting atop each one to make them stick together. Then we frosted the top and sides, plus decorated the whole thing however we chose with more frosting and sprinkles. Who knew that this would turn into a super heavy monstrosity? The cakes were each so light! I could barely lug the thing to my car, and then I made the bad decision of carrying it up the stairs at my place instead of using the elevator. I tripped and fell on top of the cake, which was a total loss, plus I was all bruised up in a variety of places. I even went to the doctor because I thought I had broken a rib. I know, it's hard to imagine how my ribs were involved in this mess, but I fell frontward onto concrete steps, and cake does not break a fall as much as one might think! Anyway, no broken bones resulted, just bruises that took a long time to fade, plus a dented ego and a ruined cake. (I did hobble back out there and clean it all up.)

PS: This is the first time I've blogged about this or mentioned it in public. In June of 2024, I was on a blog break ~ actually I thought I would never blog again, but a couple months later I had an insatiable need to write about a movie I'd just seen, so here we are.