• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Book Riot (best out this week, manga, YA, YA graphic novels/comics, horror, mysteries)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Very relatable comic about reading.
• A very sweet ficlet.
• Before you read this ficlet, you need to be familiar with this meme.
• On casting Frodo.
• xkcd on the earth’s layers. (Hover/long-press for caption.)
• A candle saga.
• “Sharks are older than the North Star”.
• Home gym equipment that generates power from your workout.
• Pumpkin snickerdoodles.
• Check out the cool Zork cross stitch BookWyrm Knits did!
• Nice one in NOLA.
• Another nice one.
• Lovely, but so weird the guest house has more bedrooms than the main.
• “Modern rustic” seems a contradiction, doesn’t it?
• Interesting MCM that desperately needs to be less brown.
• Now this is a nice MCM – assuming you have a drivable mopping machine.
• Another vineyard! This one has a kitchen that barely looks like a kitchen.
• Cute, but the loft is terrifying.
• Very unusual, but not enough photos.
• This house is having an identity crisis.
• The exterior is terrible, but the interior doesn’t look that bad… at first. When you start looking closer – hmm. And the gentlemen’s lounge is just awful.
• Please, no more optical illusion stairs.
• Where are the railings??
• Creepy secret stairs.

The Lady Miss Princess Mayhem!

Intense Polly is intense!

*blank* -Harry

• 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!