- The Outlaw Nuns - delightful read on an order of nuns that was determined not to let the bishop break up their order, disperse the nuns to other orders and sell off their priceless collection of art and holy relics.
- From Battlefield to Vineyard: The French Foreign Legion’s Wine - You joined the French Foreign Legion, you served your time, you're ready to retire - what do you do? You go to the Institution for Invalids of the Foreign Legion, a home for the retired, wounded and elderly, and make wine. Much like monastaries selling items as a means of financial support, the ILLE uses the proceeds from their vineyards to cover a considerable portion of their budget.
- Campus FM - tired of listening to the same 10 songs on commercial radio? Or is Spotify not meeting your musical needs? Try listening to college radio stations - you might find something totally unexpected! Almost 200 stations and while the list is mostly American sites, there are several international stations listed, too. Don't see your favorite college/university station? The website creator is more than happy to add them.
My cross-stitch order came in - I ordered some DMC thread and various colors of Aida cloth. Very happy with this company - if you have cross-stitch supply needs, I can recommend 123stitch.com.
Best Son and I went to another play put on by one of the local community college theater departments. This time it was The Wedding Singer. I have never seen the movie so I wasn't sure what to expect. This was a musical and Best Son said it captured the spirit of the movie but there's a lot less singing in the actual film. The theater usually has a couple matinees and several evening shows and I usually opt for the matinees. They tend to be a quieter crowd but this showing had a very vibrant audience which just made it more fun. I think there were a lot of friends and family of the cast in the audience.
Listening
- Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me - Sterling K. Brown takes us on an ayahuasca trip to Paradise
- The Find Out Podcast - Why democrats can’t ignore the “woke” debate
- It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton - Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love, Death
Reading
Still looking for my next book. I took another look through my Libby wishlist and, while I do want to read all those books eventually, I just don't want to read them now. Finished Clarksworld #219 - I think my favorite out of this issue was The Coffee Machine.
Watching
You know I love my big cats episodes on the PBS channel. I watched a new one this week, Katavi: Africa's Fallen Paradise (it's streaming at the link until 4/30, if you want to watch it). The previous big cat episodes were in Botswana but this one is in Tanzania. Same kind of set up, though, with the big cats sharing the land with other animals, this time with hippos and crocodiles. There was a drought in this area, which must've been hard on the lions because these are some of the skinniest lions I've seen. The Botswana lions were definitely more well-fed.
Found another surprisingly great watch on PBS, SAS: Rogue Warriors. This is a 3 part series and I watched the first episode this week. Through re-enactments, archival footage and interviews, the story of the creation of the British Special Air Service is told. Man, this was such a great episode and the story is just WILD! I don't want to say anything about it in case you do decide to watch but wow ... this is a journey!
I feel like this is a fairly brief entry but someone has waited until the last minute to do her taxes so I should really go get that done since the 15th is around the corner. I don't think anyone likes paying taxes but this year in particular I have all kinds of feelings about it.
My mom was a single mother, living paycheck to paycheck (barely) during the recession in the 80s. I remember one year she had a tax bill of over $2000. I was a kid, I don't know exactly what happened. She ranted about politicians stealing money from parents trying to feed their children and then ... just never again filed her yearly taxes. From then until she died was over 20 years. How did she not get caught? I was always so worried the IRS would come after her. She waved away my concerns saying she had taxes deducted from her paychecks so "they owed her" so it was OK. I mean, taxes don't work like that but whatever. Sometimes though, especially years like this when I'm salty about what my taxes will be going towards, I kind of wish I could follow in her footsteps.