Persistent earworms: Bette Davis Eyes / Kim Carnes, I’m Still Standing / Elton John. I am getting tired of these songs.
Joining Kat and friends. Go see what the others are up to.
Knitting.
Reading.
Letters from Side Lake: A Chronicle of Life in the North Woods / Peter Leschak. I have always had a fondness for books about living (or surviving) in the wilderness, in particular, the North Woods. Hence, my enjoyment of this book. The author grew up in a small mining town in northern Minnesota. In 1969 he left the Mesabi Iron Range to attend college in the city of St. Paul. The author never felt comfortable with city life, however; so, after earning his college degree, Leschak returned to rural Minnesota. He and his wife settled near Side Lake*, where they built a log home and began to explore the wilderness around them. Their experiences form the core of this book — the difficulty of handling 12-foot logs, the swarms of mosquitoes and deer flies, the encounters with bears and moose, and the simplicity of rural life that centers on local taverns. 4★
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Wild Dogs / Helen Humphreys. I only read a few pages of this one. It is probably a fine book, but it was way too literary for me.
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The Fifth Season / N.K. Jemisin. Once again, I only read a few pages. I find it to be too much work to follow the world-building that is central in many fantasy and science fiction books. This is probably an excellent book, but not for me.
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Sorrow and Bliss / Meg Mason. The protagonist is a young woman from a dysfunctional family — failed poet father, drunken sculptor mother — who suffers from what appears to be depression. She sees many doctors and takes the endless pills they prescribed, but nothing changes. Her only ally is her sister, with whom she is close. Eventually, almost by chance, she finds a psychiatrist who diagnoses her condition correctly; frustratingly to the reader, the author never names the condition. This blog post talks about it. Spoiler alert: the condition is bipolar disorder, aka manic depressive disorder. As one who is a lifer on anti-depression meds, I found this book fascinating… and hard to read. 4★
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The Cartographers / Peng Shepherd. I am having a hard time knowing what to say about this one, other than that the bit of magic employed did not fit the rest of the book. It seemed like something the author needed to resolve the plot. So I will refer to the Goodreads synopsis. 3★ (barely)
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Listening
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The Damage / Caitlin Wahrer. I finished this audiobook. The resolution of the plot and the actions that led to it were not what I expected. A decent time-killer. 3★
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Watching.
Smokey discovered that we could watch Jeopardy! and Wheel on YouTube later in the day. No more quitting whatever I was doing at 4:30! An added bonus is that the people who record and upload these skip the commercials 🙂
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I am closing in on the end of season five of Suits; Mike just got arrested by US marshalls for conspiracy to commit fraud. In one episode this week it came out that Donna can tell what another person is thinking. So that’s how she does it! She is one of my favorite characters. Sixteen episodes in this season; I will be starting season 6 tomorrow.
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kmkat & her kneedles 
I think I have one of those dropped stitch gadgets somewhere. I have never used it! (and dropping a stitch in garter means I am ripping back to fix it. I just never quite get it right!)
I have a couple of those gadgets, and they work really well. But I have to watch a YouTube video (or two) to remember how use them again. And I tried The Cartographers, but set it aside . . . (it seemed overwrought, or something). Love your baby blanket! 🙂
I adored Jemisin’s book, but I listened to the audiobook. (And I’m a big fantasy/scifi reader anyway. Come on folks, build me a world!)
Now I’ll have to go look up how to use the garter stitch correction hook…
I want to read The Cartographers, but I’ll keep the comments I see here in mind when I start it and will keep my expectations low. Maybe that will help.
The blanket’s looking good!
Your earworms have become mine. Aarrgggghhhhhh!! Let’s do Deep Purple, “Highway Star” instead….
Your blanket is lovely, and it makes me feel better to read that you have to check each row (so do I), and that Kat isn’t terrific at fixing garter stitch (neither am I). Solidarity, knitters!
The blanket looks great! And gosh! What a lot you’ve read. I’m in the middle of “Sorrow and Bliss” but am fairly bored with it.
When I see very quickly that a book just isn’t for me, I almost feel guilty.
My husband and I listened to The Measure by Nikki Erllick together. I think you would enjoy it, too. Roadkill by Dennis E. Taylor was also a fun listen.
The blanket looks very cozy. Fixing garter stitch is a challenge. Sometimes I can do it and sometimes I end up ripping back. I’m listening to The Cartographers. It’s not great literature but is entertaining. The audio is a little over dramatic.
I’m curious to know what ply you used and how many stitches you increased to for the baby c2c – it looks comfy (and very warm). Breaking up the colours as you’ve done is giving it a very stylish look.