You're Doing It Wrong

There is no good way to show my digital TBR so here is a screen grab that shows part of it. I purchased or downloaded for free a total of 97 books on Kobo last year. If you are keeping track, I read 38 so you can see the evolving problem.

But wait, there’s more.

Do you know about Humble bundle?

Do you know about Story bundle?

I purchased from them, too, not part of the 97 book total.

I know! I have a problem.

Screen grab of a portion of the Humble Bundle — I think it was 65 books but some are novellas. (To clarify, the 67 Humble Bumble is part of my 2026 purchases. Not part of the 97 I mentioned above.)

Then there is Bookbub.

Bookbub is a daily newsletter. You pick the categories you want, for example: romance, non-fiction, mystery.

Every day they send you a list of book in those categories that are on sale or free.

You can also follow authors and when they have a book on sale or give a book recommendation that’s on sale — you get a newsletter for that, too. Most of the books are $2! Why wouldn’t you buy a book for $2?!?!?!

That is the bulk of my book buying. And the sad part is that I often resist buying a book. I open the tab so I can buy the book but I wait and if I still want it at the end of the day, then I buy it. You can’t dillydally too long because the books go off sale. And I end up wanting most of them.

I almost forgot. Do you know about Standard Ebooks?. These are classic public domain books that you can download for free although donations are appreciated because they make the books really nice. I also downloaded a few from here.

I also read a very small quantity of library books. I am currently reading a YA for my book club with some writer friends. I am not loving the book so I won’t name it. Next I’m going to read a Colter Shaw Tracker novel so I can finish my fan fic. The books on the top of my to read next pile are: Fan Services by Rosie Danan (also for book club), These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean, and I am paging through Korean American, a cookbook by Eric Kim.

That’s today’s book report. Hope you are having a reading kind of day.

First a quick update on the ocean rolls to tell you that this is still a project. I actually made them last weekend but I messed up and used the wrong kind of yeast. When I took them out of the refrigerator after the first step I was thinking: this is just cold dough. But I went ahead and did all the steps. They didn’t rise. When I baked them, it was basically boiling them in butter.

Did they taste good?

Yes, amazing. But visually and texturally they left a lot to be desired. I will try again but not for awhile.

Now: the book case.

I have probably posted a photo of this book case at least a half dozen time in the last 15-20 years and I bet some of the same books are still on it. I try to stay on top of them but I don’t do a very good job.

I’m not sure the last time I took a photo of this bookshelf. The two on this post are my main shelves with the “to read” or “I intend to read” or “Sure, someday I’ll get to it.” I don’t often take paper books on the bus just because I already carry so much stuff. I’m always in awe of the people who carry hardcovers on the bus. I want that to be me.

When I look at the books I already own, I always want to read them. It’s always a thrilling moment when I finish a book and it’s time to pick the next book. What am I in the mood for?

Besides the books I already own, I have a huge list of book that have been recommended that I want to read. I foolishly listen to the Fated Mates podcast where I could add a half dozen more books every week. I have friends with great taste in books. What about the Reactormag website recs? Defector also has good book recs. I also recently went back into my Goodreads (and penname’s) and found a whole bunch more books I wanted to read that I forgot about.

What an amazing problem to have.

I had coyote visitors how up on two different nights at the beginning of the year. I haven’t caught them on camera for awhile.

I wish I had better shots but I have to do with what I have.

Look how fluffy they are.

Also the opossum climbed on the deck. Look at it’s feet!

We got a gift basket from some friends for the holidays. I joked that it’s not a gift basket, it’s a gift boat.

Tonight we are building our dinner around opening this up. I think it’s going to be fun.

I got a puzzle caddy for Christmas!

I already finished one puzzle and this is a second my brother-in-law loaned me from his stash.

I have never had such a challenge doing the edges. Usually I do the edges first. But the edge is almost entirely black or very dark and some of the pieces look like they fit together but then maybe don’t fit together so I went from the top down. Now I’m at the very last hardest part.

I listened to a bunch of podcasts and saved TedTalks and I finished an LLM class on how to write prompts. And I finished the wonderful The Ministry of Time.

Final update: my bootie is better!

Last month I wrote about how I injured a muscle that resulted in severe bootie pain. It hurt to stand up, sit down, and lie down. It was hard to walk. At 8 weeks I am at a solid 95%. It does spasm or ache sometimes and there is still limited mobility and strength but it’s getting better every day. I am faithfully doing PT strengthening and stretching exercises. And whew! Because that has been very unpleasant and I do not recommend.

I have been trying to write a longer post about books but I’m not getting very far. Hopefully I can posts next weekend.

My favorite winter food is hot chocolate. I have written about this before. I make it with milk and cocoa — not the sugary packets.

Many years ago we were in Bend, Oregon and my husband brought me an ocean roll from the local bakery. It was a life-changing delicious treat.

I have a recipe — I’m not sure where I got it. Maybe it’s a different cardamom roll. That’s not the story.

The story is how I plan to bake these every holiday season and every holiday season passes and I did not make the ocean rolls.

Bob won a frother like this at some conference and it sat in a drawer for years until one day I tried it in my hot chocolate. My hot chocolate has never been the same. The frother finally died and I had to buy a new one which was still inexpensive. Little gadget that’s actually worth it.

This year I finally cleared up how this happens.

At the beginning of the holiday season I get out all the baking I plan to do. Usually 2-3 cookies and 1-2 pies depending on where we’re going or who is coming over for what.

Most of the baking is at the beginning. Then we have all these goodies sitting around plus what people gift us.

Then I’ll decide to make the ocean rolls later – maybe for New Year’s Day.

Except by then we have been eating treats every day for weeks. Plus my birthday treats.

Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about treats but there is a point when I’ve had enough treats and I want to be done with treats and cut back to more normal consumption so I can continue to button my pants.

So the ocean rolls get put away to make next year.

Maybe I’ll try to think of ocean rolls as something I make at the end of January or for some other time of year because I’d really like some.

I couldn’t let the last post of the year be a rant about shrinkflation.

So here is a quick backyard animal wrap up.

Skunky is still a regular as are a number of raccoons and opossum. I haven’t caught Bunny on camera for awhile but when my sister was here, she reported a bunny hopped away when she took the dog out one night.

I need to think about where I place the camera and try some new tricks. With the raised beds, it’s not the same but I haven’t problem-solved on this yet.

The bird feeder is very active at the moment with the usual backyard birds you’d expect plus squirrels. I changed the bird mix I use in hopes of discouraging the squirrels but they are not discourage-able. I have a couple regular visitors to the hummingbird feeder. I did have a Cooper’s hawk out there a couple of weeks ago and everyone cleared out while it hung out.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope all our dreams come true.

I thought I wrote a post about the Christmas cactus at the office but I can’t find it.

I inherited a plant at the office. I did not find it particularly impressive and it sat in a corner.

At some point I wanted to learn what it was and found out that if I kept it away from the window for a certain part of the year and then put it by the window in winter, beautiful flowers would bloom. I tried it and it worked and I learned to love this plant.

But also, I am bad at taking care of plants and the dirt always looked dried out and I dutifully watered it each week and then one day, the branches all collapsed because they were rotten from over watering.

I felt terrible.

The Internet said I could take a little cutting and try to grow a new plant. I made 6 cuttings because I don’t think I’ve ever successfully made a new plant from cuttings and I now have 4 Christmas cacti and even 1 flower! I need to re-pot these and if you would like a Christmas cactus let me know, because I don’t want 4. I like plants out in the garden but I’m not a big house plant person.

Just this week, as I was baking cookies, I became aware of chip shrinkflation.

FOR SHAME!

I was having trouble with my photo software so if you can’t see, the normally 12 oz packages are from top to bottom: 11, 11.5, and 10! BOO! The butterscotch recipe on the back adjusted the amount of chips from 2 cups to 1 2/3 cups. DISGRACE!

Here’s a clip I took the other morning of the crows downtown. This accompanies my post from last month about the crows in Portland.

I keep finding notes for posts I intended to write last month but apparently never did.

I have a really old sourdough that I bake with pretty regularly all year long. Over the summer I really noticed how much more robust the sourdough is when the weather is warmer. I understand how sourdough works and I know my kitchen is cold. I have never successfully come up with a trick to help in the winter.

Tips often say to put in the oven and turn the oven light on. My oven is ancient and has no light. I’ve read other tricks and they seemed fussy or created other complications that didn’t work for me.

I thought I would just buy one of the fancy bread proofing pads but when I went to buy it, it was over $100 and I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much. In the process of searching for that I found another gadget that’s like a little plastic tent you unfold and can use for proofing bread. I went to put that in my cart and that was over $200!

Then I heard that there are heating pads for dogs and cats that aren’t as strong as the ones for humans. I went to the pet store and couldn’t find anything so I found someone to ask for help.

Him: What kind of pet is this for?

Me: Sourdough.

He did not miss a beat and took me to the reptile warmers that seems like they might be too warm so I settled for a terrarium heater for insects. I’ve only used it once and I need to refine my technique but it might work.

My friend Hannah said: That’s the most Pam story I’ve ever heard.

I might also try a seed warming mat.