• New releases: Tor.com (SFF crossovers, YA SFF, scifi, fantasy), Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, mysteries/thrillers/true crime, SFF, romance, comics/graphic novels, nonfiction), Gizmodo (SFF)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “Orbit is curating a series of free craft talks with sci-fi and fantasy writers“.
• “Exclusive revelations from Sauron the Dark Lord’s forthcoming memoir“.
• Merriam-Webster’s time traveler feature is fun. (Big hair, emergency medicine, Grinch, ranch dressing, yuck.)
• “The top comedy wildlife photos of 2023“.
• Some famous sound effects were not what I expected.
• Amazing embroidery.
• Converted barn that’s pretty cool but has a dangerous bookcase.
• Very nice.
• I really like this one.
• Well, it’s colorful.
• Kinda cute cabin.
• Bright white remodeled Victorian in St Paul, MN.
• Definitely for the aesthetics.
• Comes with a carousel and a train.
• Comes with a business (a bar).
• Before and after Tudor.
• They should definitely take the turkey statuary with them.
• Huh.
• That’s a lot of air conditioning units.
• Pre-ouch.
• I think I broke my leg just looking at these stairs.
• Yikes.
• You can tell snow is a rarity in Florence.
• There’s a painful story behind that, I’m sure.

Mayhem having a think.

Polly has Things to SAY!

What the heck are you looking at, Harry?!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week, Fall YA, )
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Finding magic in the unexpected: The fictional worlds of Emma Bull“.
• “Write a horror story in the format of an Internet search history“.
• “Reading Calvin & Hobbes for the first time as an adult“.
  • “Inscrutable exhortations”!
• A dragon comic.
• Check out goblin.tools to create magical checklists for doing things – you choose the level of detail required.
• Exercises and stretches to strengthen your upper back and help you maintain flexibility as you age.
• LOL!
• Knit a sweater with [knitted] fossils on it.
• If you’ve ever been curious about pre-Columbian Tenochtitlán…
• Black cat house.
• Very nice MCM.
• Nice Victorian.
• A fun houseboat.
• A converted train station.
• An actually nice school conversion.
• A fun house, although I wouldn’t have put that particular wallpaper in the dining room (many other places, just not the dining room).
• The Clock House.
• Comes with a vineyard and a guest tower.
• Another vineyard, but much less expensive (and with dangerous steps in the kitchen).
• Victorian work in progress in Minneapolis.
• Has the Fanciest Tower.
• Indeed – how do these people survive without window coverings?
• House with a bit of a split personality.
• Remember the Henry Ford house? Here it is again, after a bit of brightening. Why did they leave that terrible orange carpet??
• Before and after gothic.
• Has its own sports complex downstairs.
• Besides how dated it is, I would feel very claustrophobic in this house.
• Hmm.
• Well, that’s not a very useful closet.
• DIY speakers stairs.
• :blink blink:
• Has a little bonus to make tripping more likely.

Mayhem and Polly!

Harry and Polly looking out the window.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Happy 30th to The X-Files! (With eight book recs)
• Some thoughts on Thranduil.
• A very cute knitted Aziraphale.
• “Ding Dong” cake.
• Snickerdoodle blondies.
• Remember the Evergreen meme?
• Ham and bananas hollandaise (a vintage recipe indeed), and then a few more (including a “bridal meat doll”).
• Lovely house in Brooklyn.
• Fairytale house in Brooklyn, with some horrible realtor “this is what it could look like if you destroyed the charm of the house!” thing going on.
• Nice Wisconsin contemporary, although the bedrooms seem small compared to the house.
• Gorgeous, even if it has deadly stairs.
• Lovely MCM.
• Castle-esque – must like reds.
• Also castle-esque.
• Definitely not a castle. (Thanks to Cheryl for the head’s up on this one!)
• Must like bright.
• Haunted gothic AirBnB.
• Lots of little mysteries in this one.
• Former telephone exchange, former Masonic temple…
• Adobe houses just seem odd to me.
• I can’t imagine why they removed the photo of the shrubbery…
• Bathroom fail.
• Looks like a real leg-breaker to me.
• Perfectly deadly hazard for those of us who don’t have our glasses on immediately after showering.
• Just add mirrors.
• Mind how you go!

Serious Mayhem.

Polly asleep on my lap.

Thoughtful Harry.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week, SFF, poetry, comics/graphic novels)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Sometimes it’s very hard to choose the next read.
• Sweet comic about a knight and a dragon.
• Time travel ficlet.
• I like this one.
• Real castle, with 49 bedrooms. (That’s too many bedrooms – put some back.)
• Cool, but I bet living there would be annoying.
• Nice MCM, with perhaps too many sitting rooms.
• Fancy dome home.
• Fake castle home.
• 22 bedroom Tudor, with adjacent castle towers.
• Henry Ford’s old house.
• Really hate the wallpaper in this MCM.
• I can’t imagine eating in the mirrored dining room.
• Huh. It’s in Minneapolis.
• “Death pantry“.
• Excessively creepy.
• WHY.
• Hopefully this is in the process of being torn down and the stairs are temporary.
• Hmm.
• Yikes.
• Nope.
• More stairs that blend too well.

Sleepy Polly on my arm.

Harry, very intent on the kitty hammock.

• New releases: Tor.com (genre benders, YA SFF, SF, fantasy), Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (YA, horror, manga, best new books out this week, mystery/thriller/true crime), Gizmodo (SF, fantasy, horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• Some ficlets about changelings.
• Ficlet about the defeated demon king.
• “20 trailblazing comic strips that changed the game“.
• A few of the world’s most dangerous beaches.
• Some of the best bird photographs of the year.
• “My favourite [knitting] patterns that make me slightly uncomfy and/or ready to star in an absolutely CRACKING sci-fi miniseries“.
• Very nice MCM.
• And another nice MCM.
• An MCM with rotating walls.
• Love the entryway ceiling of this NYC townhouse.
• A very cute pink kitchen.
• I love the staircase and the starry ceilinged bedroom.
• Definitely has an Epcot monorail vibe.
• Nice, but with overkill.
• Colorful Victorian, but not really in a good way.
• Interesting as a vacation rental, but living here would be a nightmare.
• Boring, except for the surprise football level. 😮
• Boring on the outside, odd on the inside.
• Well, he tried. I guess.
• WHY.
• Hmm.
• Nope.
• The desperately important handrail looks hard to hold on to.
• Something about the central part is making me deeply uncomfortable.
• I’d be injured so fast.
• These look like they’ll fall apart as soon as they’re used.
• Hope no one ever needs the bathroom in the middle of the night.
• Same concept as the previous, but ickier.

Love how Polly’s yawn makes it look as if she’s yelling.

Meanwhile, Harry’s just a chatty guy.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Stash busting with Lady Pudding“.
• Nice MCM.
• Castle house – but why would you have a balcony overlooking the main bedroom?!
• Hot pink Victorian.
• A mod party pad.
• Ostentatious.
• It’s the 1950s.
• OP is right – the bed setup in the main DOES look like a giant magnification tool.
• Bathroom with a kitchenette, and then there’s the very strange closet entrance.
• Huh.
• Hot mess of a house.
• Umm…
• D’oh.
• Good luck! (You’ll need it.)
• Cruise ship stairs.

Siblings hanging out together by the window.

Polly!

Harry!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Some cute jokes about writers.
• “You are living in a fairy tale…“
• Amusing ficlet.
• “Fun random facts about the LotR soundtrack“.
• The tale of the Swedish warship Vasa, which “sank in 1628 less than a mile into its maiden voyage”.
• Salted caramel apple pie bars.
• An upside-down restaurant.
• Very nice.
• Colorful MCM.
• Bright!
• I like this Minneapolis house – pretty sure I’ve driven by it.
• Has a little bit of everything.
• Quite lovely, although the stilts make me nervous.
• Castle-esque with potential, although the location…
• Interesting, but kind of strange. (Also, that is a stock pond, not a swimming hole.)
• Very dramatic.
• Funhouse vibes.
• It has themed bedrooms.
• Has before and after photos so you can see how they made the house more bland to sell it.
• How do you deal with tree growth and death in houses like this?
• Needs work and has a jail in the basement.
• Huh. I guess it’s an efficient use of space.
• Nope.
• How do you even end up with a situation like this?!

Polly looking worried about something.

Harry thinking deep thoughts with a hair hanging out of his mouth.

Last Friday, we had a severe thunderstorm with hail. My poor car! 🙁 It’s challenging to get a body shop estimate at the moment because of how many vehicles were affected. But at least it was just body damage – there were broken windshields elsewhere.

• New releases: Book Riot (best new books this week), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Comic about the two types of stories.
• Ficlet about very annoying magic. (Be warned there are spiders in the ficlet.)
• I like the bursts of color.
• Very colorful.
• It has an ice cream shop.
• That lion is… something else.
• So brown. (And it probably has a basement [MN has tornadoes], but maybe not under the whole thing.)
• Very beige.
• Really, no words.
• What was the goal here??
• Why is there a bathroom just sitting out in the open?
• Hmm.
• The stairs are bad, but the opening in the ceiling… 😮
• Huh.
• Sure to be deadly when wet.

Awww, Polly.

Handsome Harry!

• New releases: Book Riot (best books out this week), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• “Fewer than 10,000 steps a day needed to keep death at bay, study finds“.
• Twin Cities Victorian with some vintage comparison photos.
• Very colorful and fun.
• Cool.
• An actual castle.
• Ugly castle esque house.
• Well then.
• Another house living on the ragged edge of disaster.
• Completely ridiculous.
• Definitely has creepy vibes.
• Odd and has a dubious set of stairs.
• WTH.
• Might’ve been worth it, enlarging what was probably an attic trap door, in order to fit real stairs.
• Hmm.
• NO.
• Yikes.
• :shakes head:

Harry making biscuits on the fuzzy blanket.

Polly!

The Lady Miss Princess Mayhem!

• New releases: Book Riot (SFF, horror, graphic novels/comics, romance, best books out this week, nonfiction, mysteries/thrillers), Smart Bitches (romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Libraries are under attack because they are anti-fascist“.
• On the Great Lakes.
• “Why Earth is the only planet with plate tectonics“.
• “I’m a Luddite (And So Can You!)“.
• Lovely.
• The cuteness of Curious Zelda.
• Cute house, but I have questions about what’s going on in the vintage half bath – are they using it as a kitchen extension?
• Great little treehouse in the back yard.
• Nice MCM in MN.
• And a nice Tudor.
• A most unusual property.
• Partially converted school.
• Very disappointing castle esque house.
• Has a bizarre fireplace and trippy kids’ bedroom.
• I don’t think this was ever intended to have stairs – just to add some help to a challenging hike.
• “Jenga stairs“.
• That optical illusion will take you out.
• Cursed pictures of cats wearing tights. Can’t be unseen.

Harry and Polly looking out the window, with Mayhem drowsing in the background. Harry and Polly are going to be three on August 5th!

Harry considers the ceiling.

Super cute Polly on the couch.