(no subject)

Jun. 10th, 2025 10:42 am
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
[personal profile] seekingferret
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza

I wasn't quite sure what this book wanted to be, it was doing three genres of middlebrow novel all at once and not quite pulling any of them off, but in the end I was not too unhappy to have kept with it.

Sara Marsala, our heroine, is the daughter of a messy Italian-American family. She is dealing with a divorce, the failure of her restaurant, and a general sense of failure and helplessness. When her beloved aunt dies, her aunt's will sends her back to the Old Country of rural Sicily, to Find Her Roots and see if an old deed for a plot of land in Sicily, passed down from her great-grandmother who never made it to America, is still valid. When she arrives in Sicily she is informed that her great grandmother was Murdered, contradicting family lote, and the plot is afoot.

The book tries to be a historical fiction novel about life in early 20th century Sicily, an action packed murder mystery, and an eat pray love European adventure, and the three visions of the book war with each other, not helped by lazy plotting with unjustified expository leaps obscuring story details I wanted to see fleshed out.

But it's the wanted to see fleshed out that frustrated me, because the story concept works and there are some really great characters both in the historical flashbacks and the modern narrative and I really was hoping that things would get worked out with just a bit more craft.
buttonsbeadslace: A white lace doily on blue background (Default)
[personal profile] buttonsbeadslace
Photos on Tumblr here.
My only regret... well ok I have two regrets. The socks don't perfectly match bc I forgot that I did an optional thing on the first sock and on the second I just followed the pattern as written. But whatever, they're done. My only actual regret is that I didn't get to find out that this yarn would've had cool pooling on a normal knit-in-the-round sock until I was almost finished with these, since the cuffs are the very last part.
I do have yarn left over though, which is especially nice since based on the pattern info I was worried about running out. Maybe I misunderstood and the estimated yarn was for the larger size.

I finished them yesterday and immediately started on the citrus slice pattern again. I wenr in thinking I was gonna have to give up completely on the concept I was working on, and I was thinking about moving on to a completely different idea, but I got it to work! I ran with it and I'm now 3/4 done with the lemon plush.

(What is the concept? OK so basically, for the first fruit slice plush, to make the segments of the grapefruit I knitted a bunch of separate triangles and then I had to sew them together. The new concept lets me knit the whole segments-and-white-bits-between-them part in one piece and I only have to sew one little seam at the end. Pictures and some more details here.)

After I finish this, I will probably push right on to Fruit Slice Concept number 3, where the middle part of the fruit is all one color and if you want the fruit to have segments / seeds / etc. you can embroider it on after you finish knitting.

Apartment update: furniture

Jun. 8th, 2025 06:39 pm
feuervogel: photo of the statue of Victory and her chariot on the Brandenburg Gate (Default)
[personal profile] feuervogel
My friend Ricki and I assembled all the cabinets. The planner lady didn't trust me when I told her the kitchen in the model felt wrong; there was, as I suspected, another 40 cm for a cabinet. But because of the radiator, doors or drawers wouldn't open there, so I bought a 4th upper cabinet and am committing Frankenkitchen with an open cabinet from the Enhet line. (Also to leave the outlet in that wall accessible. I think it's intended to be for a dishwasher, but I have no idea how you'd fit one there. See: radiator, door. Unless they want you to put a minifridge in? fuck that, I need a real fridge.) They also sent one extra of the 20 cm drawer fronts, instead of 2x10cm, so I had to exchange that.

(I went to IKEA 6 times in the last week, I think. I am SO done.)

My cute, retro-look fridge was delivered, and I got it plugged in and running. It's 144 cm tall (shorter than me, slightly) and has a top freezer with a door rather than the more typical bottom drawer freezer. I don't like them! It's hard to put cookie sheets or any sort of baking thing I need to freeze first in them.

I also installed clip-on blinds in the large, south-facing windows. We're not allowed to drill in the window frames, but they sell blinds that attach with clips that go over the top and bottom of the frame, so I got a few of those.

Saturday, Ricki and 2 derby friends came over and built my bed and desk, and after they had to leave, Ricki and I built the last 2 pieces of furniture. So I'll be able to occupy the place once the kitchen is installed (after I get back from the US).

Today I went over to the new apartment to break down the assload of boxes into smaller pieces that will fit in the mailbox-sized paper bin (they open to a vault below the street; I have no idea how that works). A lot of the previous boxes only got sort-of broken down, and I own a box cutter (more like a craft knife, really, and I didn't think about it until this morning, of course; having it over there for the last week would have made my life easier). So they're currently stacked up in my new apartment waiting to be taken down at some point when the vault has been emptied. (I think I filled it a lot.)

The main reason I went over was to meet with a guy from TaskRabbit to get an estimate on the kitchen install. He thinks it'll be a full day's work :| but I have no confidence in my ability to do it correctly myself, so I'll happily pay someone to do it for me. (I'm not even thinking about moving again for at least 5 years, if not 10. Moving is a huge pain in the ass.) And since I was paying him for an hour's work for just the consultation, he connected the one lamp I have installed.

The movers are coming July 11; I will probably spend the entire previous week (except when I'm at the new place waiting on the kitchen) putting everything into boxes. I've already started the task, but it's hard when you're still using a lot of the things.

I have an electricity contract and an internet contract. I'll get more lights and figure out a washer and vacuum when I get back. I have a few washers, vacuums, and toasters faved on Saturn that I can decide on later. Or go look at in person and then decide.

And in 2 days, I go to the US for 3 weeks. This timing is not great!

Knitting update- Ziprelexagon Socks

Jun. 2nd, 2025 11:40 am
buttonsbeadslace: A white lace doily on blue background (Default)
[personal profile] buttonsbeadslace
This weekend I knitted the last of the hexagons for the second Ziprelexagon sock, and I finished the toe of one sock. One toe and two cuffs to go, and I can move on to the next thing! I'm already making plans for the purse I want to make, and considering new ideas for the citrus slices.

(no subject)

Jun. 1st, 2025 01:22 pm
seekingferret: Two warning signs one above the other. 1) Falling Rocks. 2) Falling Rocs. (Default)
[personal profile] seekingferret
My VidUKon premiere for the GPOY show. I've had this idea for years and given the prompt I couldn't help myself.

Its premise is Magneto explaining Jewish trauma to Kitty Pryde in the context of the muddle that is the X movies' Mutant Metaphor. Also Jews dance in this vid in spite of the fact that they don't dance in the X Movies. Nothing in the world could stop me from including Jews dancing in this vid.


The Sweet and the Bitter (8 words) by seekingferret
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: X-Men (Movieverse)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Kitty Pryde
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Kitty Pryde
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Holocaust
Summary:

They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat: An intersectional tale from Erik to Kitty.




Shirt update: shirt finished!

May. 28th, 2025 03:15 pm
buttonsbeadslace: A white lace doily on blue background (Default)
[personal profile] buttonsbeadslace
(Previous update here)
I did finish the shirt! Info below.
Read more... )
feuervogel: photo of the statue of Victory and her chariot on the Brandenburg Gate (Default)
[personal profile] feuervogel
After I got the keys, I went over to IKEA for a kitchen planning session. I had extra time, so I wandered the showroom a bit to test out desk chairs and look at some bed frames I'm interested in. (The one with two drawers under it is just too high.) The kitchen we put together is 1500 Euros.

It's got oak veneer cabinet fronts, black handles and countertop, and a black faucet. Naturally, the ones I liked the most were out of my price range. The way the kitchen is laid out means there has to be a cabinet between the stove and sink and another between the sink and wall. I opted not to get a dishwasher, because I'd rather have storage space (and I'll probably get a hanging drying rack to save space). The cabinets are each 40 cm wide, so I'll have a grand total of 80 cm of counter, which is less than this apartment (which has 120 cm). There's 120 cm under the window, but cabinets won't fit there because they're too tall, so I'm going to have to get a shelf of some sort. (The floor to sill height is 86 cm.) It'll probably be a 3x2 Kallax, because there's only 125 cm between fridge and wall.

I've also ordered a fridge but I have no idea how/when it will be delivered; there's supposed to be an email or SMS about making an appointment, but I haven't gotten it yet. I still need to figure out what washer I want to get. That can wait until I'm back from the US.

I'm picking up my huge Ikea order (kitchen + furniture) Friday morning with a derby friend. I might ask around if anyone is available to meet at my new place and help unload, because that will go faster with >2 people.

Germany doesn't include any lights in your apartment, not even in the hallway, so I'm going to have to install my own. But I'm finally getting the Ikea death star lamp I've wanted for 10 years. And I need to get 3 more fixtures: one for the sleeping side of the main room, one for the foyer, and one for the kitchen.

I've contracted movers for July 11, which gives me a few days after I get back to put everything I didn't get boxed up before vacation into boxes. And hopefully take a load or two over and my cat, so she can be safely locked in the bathroom while moving happens (open doors, cat under foot, etc.) I'd like to spend a couple nights there before the big move so Musya can get used to it, which means assembling all that furniture before I go.

(Seriously, this timing is SUCH a nightmare.)

I've got some photos up here. (Location sharing off) I want to get an air mattress so I can offer hospitality when people need it. I think the layout I'm planning will allow it!

And the life update: I took the train 3 hours each way to take the citizenship test so I can submit my application in fall. (It takes 3 months to get your certificate. Because ... of course it does.) The test took me about 5 minutes to take and a few more to go back and make sure I didn't miss a page or anything. There are 33 questions, and you need to get 17 right to pass. They're taken from a set of 300 possible questions plus 10 specifically about the state you live in (30+3), and the questions are all available online, even in an interactive mode so you can see whether you got it right immediately. There's also a practice test, on which I got 33/33. The questions aren't hard if you know German history, current politics, and how a republican democracy works.

I actually went to Leipzig yesterday afternoon on short notice because Zelenskyy made a state visit today, and that potentially would throw trains into chaos, and I didn't want to risk missing it. So I texted the 2 people I know who live there, one of them said I could stay with her, and I got on a train a few hours later. Which was delayed enough that I would miss my connection (with the next train in 2 hours), but Deutsche Bahn did not completely fail this time, and the other train waited. (About half the passengers of my train got out and scurried across the platform.) Leipzig is about half an hour from the place I took the test, so it was much less anxiety inducing.

I finished the test in enough time to rush back to the station (15 min walk) and get the same train I came in on (the RE13 to Magdeburg), which runs once an hour. Then I changed in Dessau and read on my tablet for 2 hours.
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