Surprise, it's a beetle. A stag beetle, or so the internet informs me. And as we all know, the internet is always right. Right?

Anyway. This chonky critter attempted to invade my house tonight, evidently attracted by the light from the TV. Just as an FYI, a 2" long chitinous insect makes a shocking amount of noise, while banging into window glass and scrabbling around on vinyl siding.

I had no idea what it was, so I grabbed a flashlight & went outside to investigate as if I'd never seen a horror movie in my life. (It did occur to me that wandering around pointing a flashlight at things might get me skunk-sprayed, but it worked out okay this time.)

Investigating weird noises outside the window in the dark of night was the most exciting part of an otherwise unexciting, highly restful day. I made excellent progress on the Immortality story, did some online interaction, and did a fair amount of reading.

CLAWS & CONTRIVANCES. Stephanie Burgis. If you enjoy a bit of cozy & delightful fantasy, you need to get yourself this series. I read it too fast, but it was a perfectly lovely diversion. High recommend.

In other non-exciting news, laundry got folded, walks were taken, and I had grilled cheese for supper. Solid food. Not a whole grilled cheese, my jaw got tired halfway through, so I didn't finish the sandwich, but it was tasty, and even though my face hurts again, I regret nothing.

Tomorrow there will be work at the 'brar, and with luck I'll think of a good ending for the short story between now & then. I don't expect another surprise beetle, but you never know. If I expected one, it wouldn't' be a surprise, now would it?

(stream of consciousness posting is fun. I don't know how much sense I'm making, but I'm having a blast.)

Enough digression. Until later.

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Below is a new graphic I made for the website this week. It's included in the footer of most pages, but footers don't show up in the mobile version of the site. So just this once. I'll plonk it in an actual post to show off.