rebness

1. Definitely seem to have like a pinched nerve or something in my hip from too much driving, so tomorrow and Thursday I am going to try not to drive anywhere if possible.

2. Today I got through with everything I needed to do by like 2pm and was just like, you know what, I'm just going to go home. So I did! I answered a few more emails and messages once I was home, but was able to enjoy a shorter day and actually feel like I got some time to rest, which was nice.

3. Took Chloe to the vet this morning for a checkup and some shots, and also asked them about a little bump we'd noticed on her back. The vet confirmed what we'd been hoping, which is that it seems like just a skin tag, and not anything to be worried about. We'll keep an eye on it, but that's definitely a relief to know. Then she got some roast beef as a treat for being brave at the vet.

4. She also got those sharpies trimmed (photo taken pre-trimming).

1. All this driving hasn't been great for me and my right arm and leg were still not feeling great this morning, but it seems to have gotten better over the course of the day. Tomorrow I only have to drive to Gardena at least.

2. It was not nearly as hectic at the new store today but still very strong sales. Hopefully we can settle into something more like this than the intensity of the first week.

3. Molly!

1. Yesterday's total sales for the new store was just slightly less than grand opening day, and today looks like it might end up higher than yesterday.

2. I really do feel refreshed after yesterday, even though it was just one day off. Hopefully I can have two days off next weekend, though.

3. I went down there to help out today, but was able to make it a short day and meet up with Carla at Disneyland afterwards for a late lunch.

4. Jasper is such a handsome house panther.

I didn't do a reading post last week due to being swamped with work, so this is two weeks' worth of reading.

Currently Reading
The God of the Woods
71%. In the mid '70s, a teenage girl goes missing at camp, in the same woods where her brother went missing years before and was never found. This is told through multiple POVs, of the people investigating, the camp counselor, a friend, the mother. It's really good so far and a very quick read, despite being almost 500 pages. I'll probably finish it tonight.

A Death at the Dionysus Club
5%. Sequel to Death by Silver. Also listening to this as an audiobook and very disappointed that the narrator is different and not nearly as good as the first book's. If I'd previewed this before buying it, I might have decided to go with the ebook instead, but I just assumed that same series = same narrator!

Drop Dead Sisters
9%. The MC goes camping with her semi-estranged family, only to have to join forces with her sisters when they find a dead body. I'm liking this so far, though I've only just started.

The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State
11%.

Recently Finished
Sister Outsider
This was good. Not really much to say about it.

Kill Her Twice
Just all right.

Nikhil Out Loud
This was so cute!

Just Happy to Be Here
Also just all right.

Trust Me When I Lie
By the author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. The creator of a true crime documentary finds himself tangled up in the case when his documentary gets the suspect a retrial and then his lawyer turns up dead in exactly the same way as the previous victim. I liked this a lot, though not quite as much as his other series.

Malice
A Detective Kaga novel. This is the fourth in the original publication order, but first in the English translated series. I thought maybe it was done first because the chronological order is different from publication order, but that doesn't seem to be the case so idk why they are going out of order. I read this in English and the translation didn't blow me away but was generally well done and not overly stilted. It was a very quick read and I'm looking forward to reading the next one.

Death by Silver
First in a historical murder mystery series with a sort of Sherlock Holmes vibe. M/M romance, but the mystery is the primary plot. Magic is a thing, and I liked the worldbuilding for it. However! I did this one as an audiobook and I loved the narrator's voice but he often sounded like he had a lozenge in his mouth while reading, which was very distracting. It was most pronounced in the first chapter and I almost decided to switch to reading instead of listening, it was so bad. But I was in the middle of a long drive, and it got better as it went on (though never fully went away), so I stuck with it. I much prefer this narrator to the one for the second book, who is very overwrought and distracting, though at least not constantly making wet mouth noises on a lozenge.

The Night Librarian
Cute middle grade graphic novel about kids who take their dad's rare edition of Dracula to the library to find out how much it's worth, only to have the characters come alive and escape the book, which is when they find out that the library has a special department for that, and periodically lets characters out of old books to give them a break. The kids and characters try to track down the book and the person behind the rogue escape.

Upstaged
Cute middle grade graphic novel about a nonbinary teen at an arts camp, trying to navigate putting on a play and confessing their feelings to their best friend.

Shiba Tsuki Bukken vol. 1
Cute manga about a girl who rents an apartment haunted by a ghost shiba. In fact all the rooms in the building are haunted by shiba ghosts, because before being turned into apartments, it was an abusive puppy mill. So now the MC and the other residents have to give the ghost shibas the love and affection they didn't get in life. Sad background when you think about it, but it's really cute. I'll probably read more.

Dokudami no Hana Saku Koro vol. 1
Fifth-grader Shimizu has never paid much mind to his classmate Shigaraki, who is awkward and often has meltdowns, but little by little he becomes obsessed with Shigaraki's art, and decides to befriend him. Shigaraki definitely reads as autistic, though no one uses that word, but even though it's his art that Shimizu is drawn to, it's not like he's some artistic savant or anything, just a creative kid. I really like this so far.

Shadow House vol. 20

The show was amazing and I had so much fun, but I'm still so exhausted from work I don't have the energy to write about it in much detail.

I never saw them perform the Black Parade live the first time around, so this anniversary tour was a really exciting opportunity and I'm so glad I was able to go. I bought the ticket so far in advance I'd forgotten that it was a pricey one. There's this area above the loge seating called "party box", which has just six seats per row instead of eight, and they're not regular stadium seats but stools (with backs) and a counter. Very nice. Would definitely pay the premium for these seats again. They're also raised up high enough over the last row of regular loge seats that even if those people are standing, it doesn't block the view at all.

The opening band was called Wallows and they went on at seven. I'd never heard of them before, but they were pretty good. They didn't play that long, so between the opener and the break, MCR was on stage by about 8:30, just as it was getting dark.

( Setlist )

I loved that they played Helena for the final song. I did leave while they were still playing, to get a jump on the traffic leaving the parking lot, and it was cool to hear "so long and good night" as I was walking out. As for the other songs, I'm Not Okay and Na Na Na are two favorites, so that was nice. It seems they've really been mixing it up on the set list for the second half, and if I hadn't had another exhausting day of grand opening at work on Sunday I'd have been tempted to buy a last minute ticket to that show as well.

( Pics! )

Overall definitely worth dragging my exhausted ass up to Dodger Stadium from Irvine on grand opening day.