• It's pistachio season! Sure, they're available all the year 'round, but for reasons related to obsolete seasonal supply chains, I will forever associate them with fall & winter holidays. Ditto smokehouse almonds (Mmm, yummy.) There's no explaining why I like those two tree nuts but LOATHE walnuts, pecans and most other seed-derived things, but there it is. I am not a logical being.
• Peanuts don't count as nuts, by the way. 1, they're legumes. Fancy peas. 2, I eat them mostly as fuel-food/meal replacements or in the childhood-comfort-memory  form of peanut butter toast.  I don't see them as treats.
• The latest in searches:
  • seashell geometry
  • rag content paper manufacturing
  • verses this land is your land
  • Vietnam hands bridge
• I love the undo feature in Gmail.  So much love. No more stomach-dropping moment of horror accompanying thoughts of "DID I REMEMBER THE THING?" or "DID THAT GO TO THE RIGHT PERSON?" an instant after clicking "send." Just click undo, check & double-check one last time, and resend. No mess, no fuss, immediate relief. (If you never have thoughts like those in all-caps above, I envy you. Phone cameras and patient pet sitters have also made my life infinitely less stressful. Stove knobs and door locks are among my many travel nemeses. )
• Due to vision issues, it's MUCH easier for me to read on-screen, especially a small screen with good contrast and no glare. (thank you Kindle Paperwhite, for FINALLY coming through with that technology.)  Due to me being able to read much faster than I can earn $$ for books, I am a devoted library patron. As a writer I am a huge supporter of library access because many book lovers are not made of money.SO. Two things are torquing me off right now: 1) Tor Book's misguided decision to freeze library purchases of ebooks within the first 3 months of release, and 2) my library's increasing reluctance to purchase science fiction or fantasy in any/all formats...not to mention treating science fiction as a genre but not including fantasy in it. (that's been a WTAF issue for me for two decades now.)
• Let me tell you my saga of attempting--at my health care provider's recommendation--to get a flu shot from sources offering "free flu shots*" (the asterisk means"free if covered by your health insurance.") Nah. It's too long and annoying a saga. I'll roll with, "administering health care via a splintered system of competing profit centers is a major societal FAIL." Future generations will think us as crazy for supporting it as we consider the Romans who used lead pots for boiling down grape juice. HARUMMPH.
•  Random cat pic:
• I evidently grump about the exhausting task of dealing with humanity every two weeks, give or take. It's a remarkably consistent cycle--I have a couple of years of data. (thanks, creepy FB) This bears further study. Why that time frame? What's the unknown variable? Enquiring minds are always curious about these things.

And that's all the all there is for this time.