• 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.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, romance from last week), Book Riot (best books out this week, best out last week, science books out this summer), Tor.com (SFF titles out in 2023)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. From last week.
• Barack Obama’s summer reading list.
• Some LotR meta.
• It’s been a while since we had a ficlet!
• “The very hungry rust monster“.
• Learn about The Public Universal Friend, who lived from 1752 to 1819.
• I’m intrigued by hybrid calisthenics.
• Philharmonic flash mob on the Copenhagen Metro.
• Love this Zork cross stitch!
• A silly one from xkcd. Hover/long-press for additional text.
• “Make a quick peanut butter cup in your freezer“.
• Twix cookies.
• Easy gluten-free lemon cookies.
• Cute MCM but I wouldn’t want to live in it.
• Another nice MCM.
• Wee MCM.
• The first house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son on his own.
• This one’s in Minneapolis.
• Lovely one in nearby Stillwater, MN.
• There’s one photo that reminds me of Escher…
• I would love this place after some repainting and moving it to a different state.
• Manor house esque.
• Has castle esque elements.
• Has a natatorium.
• Has a hair salon.
• Where’s the ladder for the giant bookshelves??!
• Versace’s NYC townhouse.
• Former power station and the location reflects it.
• Three bedrooms in 770 square feet?!
• Amazing asking price for a “house” without a kitchen or bedrooms.
• I abhor the salmon kitchen.
• Too many patterns.
• The wallpaper is Just Too Much.
• Don’t take your house photos on a cloudy day.
• The Whale House has a dangerous lounging loft.
• Hmm.
• Oh dear.
• One that will be toast in a tsunami.
• A hellhole.
• Ick.
• The owner commentary…
• Actual death stairs.
• Bad time for perfect tile matching.
• Ummm…
• Huh.
• So many questions.
• “Cling wrap fixes everything“.

Harry and Polly keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Polly upside-down cake!

Very. Alert. Harry.

No linkity next week! I have an MRI of my knees (patellofemoral instability, surgery not expected to be required) scheduled late on my linkity-making day. I expect that by the time I get home after two hours in the tube, I am going to be cranky. 😀

• New releases: Tor.com (YA SFF, horror/genre-benders, SF, fantasy), Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week, mysteries/thrillers)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Welcome back, AO3! Whew.
• “12 DIY book nook kits“.
• Why movies from the 1970s and 1980s feel so different from today’s movies.
• “Barbie has always been about storytelling“.
• Hot weather tips imparted with humor from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
• “All the reasons you might not want to join Threads“.
• Whimsical doorknobs.
• Ghost sculptures.
• The most absolutely horrifying men’s suit I have every seen. Cannot be unseen.
• GF blueberry crumb cake.
• GF blueberry quick bread loaf.
• A lovely MCM house. (As promised, Cheryl!)
• Very dramatic.
• Not quite a castle, but nice.
• I like it, but I think the greenhouse might be a total loss.
• Hope it comes with a ladder for the sitting room bookshelves!
• A Tudor… ranch?
• Quirky, a bit dated, and no central air.
• Interior and exterior disconnect.
• Good luck trying to set that up as a pantry…
• D’oh.
• NO.

Harry and Polly looking out the window. (Also, the windows have been washed since this photo was taken. WHEW.)

Harry is a LARGE kitty. He’s larger than Chaos was! Apparently one of my superpowers is picking black male kittens who are going to become LARGE.

• New releases: Tor.com (YA SFF), Book Riot (YA, SFF, manga, nonfiction, horror, best books this week, comics/graphic novels), Smart Bitches (romance), Gizmodo (SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Bookish quotes from BookWyrm Knits.
• The monarch dragon is my favorite.
• Fox Mulder and masculinity as performance.
• The original “humans are space orcs” post from 2013!
• And a more recent one.
• Love it!
• SO TRUE.
• A tale worth the read.
• “The invention that made beer cans even better“.
• An orchestral performance of “The Typewriter”.
• Castle backpack.
• It IS very cozy.
• Cute.
• Another cute one.
• Interesting, but not a tree house.
• Time capsule Mid-Century Modern.
• It’s possible for floors to be too shiny.
• Still don’t understand why someone would want to live in a decommissioned missile silo.
• Hmm.
• I wonder how many drunks fall down those stairs every week?
• Huh.
• Yikes.

*blank* -Mayhem

Meanwhile, Polly has a lot to say!

And Harry looks annoyed.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week, cozy mysteries coming out this year)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• A ficlet from T. Kingfisher.
• There’s an upcoming game called Tiny Bookshop in which you are a bookstore owner.
• Short story dispenser at an airport.
• What about wizard technicians?
• Summary and updates on Disney vs DeSantis.
• “You will soon be able to book Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse on Airbnb“.
• That butterfly is a jerk.
• “TL;DR: James Cameron is not being interviewed because ‘he made Titanic; he’s being interviewed because he’s a well-known and verifiable submersible engineering and undersea expert.“
• “Everyone gets ‘the 90s’ look wrong and I hate it“. Part 2.
• Four-ingredient blueberry dump cake.
• Confetti gooey butter cake.
• Margarita lime bars.
• Fancy house in Minnesota.
• Castle esque.
• Cute.
• Cute and a little fancy.
• Has its own cemetery.
• Includes a mini pyramid or two.
• Nice turret but the interior is quite dated.
• The inside does not match the outside.
• Has a pool on the roof.
• Hot mess of a house.
• Strange adventures in painting.
• Mushroom house includes deadly stairs.
• Huh.
• Flying saucer house that needs a lot of work.
• My first thought is that’s a lot of money to pay for a condo that’s going to be obliterated because climate change.
• Children’s bed and ladder to said bed over a staircase.
• Just no.
• NO.
• HUH.
• Ladder or stairs?

Serious Mayhem is serious!

Harry, skillfully hiding his shaved spots.

Polly, sleeping in a most unattractive and alarm position.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Some LotR trivia.
• “Google, Amazon , and Meta are making their products worse – on purpose“.
• Tour Barbie’s Dreamhouse.
• Apparently paper dresses were a thing in the 1960s.
• Blueberry cookies.
• Includes a cute vintage camper trailer.
• Quirky.
• Rotating house.
• Very sculptural.
• I hope those giant marbles in the kitchen are secured to the floor.
• This sure doesn’t seem worth the asking price.
• Someone needs their Photoshop privileges revoked.
• Mirrors should not be steps.
• A different take combining mirrors and stairs.
• Open stairs should not be over kitchen counters.
• Pipes should not cross stairs.
• :facepalm:
• Stairs? Or a slide with bumps at the bottom?
• Definitely a unique take on cat quilts.
• There is a line, and these strawberries crossed it.
• You don’t expect pink to be sinister, but…

Harry and Polly hanging out in the living room.

Polly rolling around on the window ledge.

Mayhem, slightly annoyed that I continue to take her picture.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (romance, new books out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “Pratchett and philosophy: The Tao of Sir Terry“.
• “Illinois has officially banned book bans“.
• Free collection of short fiction from Tor.com.
• “We were the liminal kids. Alive before the internet, just long enough we remember when things really were different.”
• A mysterious strain of COVID, which just one person in Ohio has… and they don’t know who.
• A couch that fits in an envelope?!
• GF strawberry chocolate chip scones.
• 18 vegetarian recipes for grilling.
• I gasped at the first interior photo.
• It’s just nice.
• Get away to the Adirondacks.
• Lots of great murals.
• Looks like an art installation.
• There’s just something about this one…
• The shark comes with it! (And it’s in Minneapolis.)
• The decor could definitely be hindering sales.
• The picture from the top isn’t soooo bad, other than the obstruction at the bottom.
• That’s a big step down.
• You just know they’re very slippery.
• The top steps look especially unsafe.
• Style over common sense.
• Huh.
• They didn’t even try.
• FAIL.
• NO.
• Wonder Woman… scissors.

It’s a terrible photo, but it’s of Polly and Harry reconciling! WHEW.

Polly snoozing on my lap, with snoozing Harry in the background.

Mayhem and Polly on some warm laundry.