Good morning!! It's Friday, week is ending. But ape has a headache. groans
So I'm keeping it simple. Coffee is McCafe, teas are Tetley's and Earl Grey. Kettle is on for other fine bevvies. Cold drinks are there if you need 'em (we actually got there yesterday, with 27C and a bit humid).
And there's brownies if you're a mite peckish.
Finnish bassist and vocalist Marko Hietala is a bit of a journeyman musician nowadays. He has his solo career, he guests with other bands, he has been touring a lot with his former bandmate Tarja and reliving some of their Nightwish glory days. And he has become the lead vocalist of Bearwood, a new Finnish hard rock band whose founder and guitarist is another Marko; Marko Karhu. Both Markos are fantastic musicians so, needless to say, I am really loving this new project of theirs. Here's the latest video.
Hey good morning, all. How's things where you are? I am single for a couple days so my wife can help out with a math competition at a university out of town. I am surviving.
Coffee du jour is Tobermory Grotto. Teas are Assam and Sunday Tea (vanilla). Kettle is ready for other hot bevvies. Fridge is stocked with lemonade, iced tea, and sundry sodas.
Hope all have a good day.
Later, alligators.
Blackbriar is considered symphonic metal rather than goth metal but, dang, their videos are often dark as all hell. Gothic symphonic metal or maybe symphonic gothic metal? Anyhow, "The Fossilized Bride" (yeah, you can see where this is going already, right?) is classic Blackbriar with the guys as a band of ghost hunters or urban explorers and lead singer Zora Cock as the mysterious titular character. And who is that weird guy in the old clothes? The widow's lost love?
She's amazing. It's great how many old classic artists are still hanging in and sounding pretty good into their seventies and even eighties. John Lodge, ex-Moody Blues, dropped a pretty good new EP a couple months ago and he's turning 82 this year and wrote at least one of the songs while recovering from a stroke.
New Evanesence and it's pretty good. Apparently it's from the soundtrack of Netflix's live action remake of the anime Devil May Cry.
One wonders if bobcats glare at us and go "It's Robert Cat, you fools." 😊
Apparently someone wanted to use plastic eggs at the White House but the orange-haired one said no. The egg producers backed him up, too, not surprisingly. The number of eggs used is apparently a pittance relative to what is eaten in the US every day. The article I read gave the figure of 9 million eggs a day, which actually feels low to me for a country with well over 300 million people where eggs are widely used either directly or in things like baking.
Love Dido. There's some newer singer-songwriter I was listening to recently who had a bit of her vibe but I forget who now. My brain is saying beebadoobee but her sound is a bit different, really, so it is probably someone else. Here's beebadoobee (real name: Beatrice Laus) anyway. Good young singer-songwriter born in the Philippines and raised and schooled in the UK. Hot off the presses from Coachella 2025.
I have heard rumours of a special badge being awarded. Something about Writergirl being prolific (as a writer, that is)? Congratulations. WG is a real asset to this site and being prolific is only part of that. Her stuff, at least what I have read, is also pretty dang good generally.
So, to celebrate,
And to go with that, we've got Fire Roasted St. Drogo coffee on. The teapots are filled to the tippy top with English Breakfast and Duke of Earl tea. Kettle is ready for other hot beverages. Pitchers are washed and filled with fresh lemonade and iced tea. Sodas are stocked up.
Been mostly reading e-books for their better portability and the ability to adjust the font size to accomodate my crappy up close vision but going back to paper is tempting me. Tabs offer too many distractions. Maybe a dedicated e-reader?
Big birthday coming up: Make a big deal of it or celebrate quietly?
A mystery starting with a death. Gee, that never happens. 🤣 I am focusing on something for another site right now but have a story on the go that would probably end up here if I ever actually finish. Kind of a romantasy (I actually hate that portmonteau but it fits this one so I'll wear it) about a merchant's niece and a young prince both seeking to escape their lives, or at least find ways to make them better.
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Taxes and every other government agency are all broken here now. They weren't very efficient before, but now you can't even get the information you need in anything approaching a timely fashion. Or any info at all, since most agencies aren't answering their phones. Grrrrr!
Ours isn't great but at least we don't have DOGE messing things up even more than they are already messed up. My sympathies to my American friends.
Have a great trip. I was in Germany a couple days on my Baltic cruise last year. Visited Warnemunde, Kiel, and Lubeck. And I've been to Berlin once, too (wife had a conference there just after our wedding so it became part of the honeymoon). Still more there I want to see, though.
I've put on fresh coffee and tea. Here's some Easter goodies for those seeking a chocolate fix.
Patty Gurdy is a German who plays hurdy-gurdy (hence her stage name) and sings, both quite well. She played gurdy in the song I posted above this one. Here is one of her own, the latest single/video from her 2024 album Tavern.
And all that sword-swinging and dancing in the water looks like hard work and it apparently was, based on Patty's behind-the-scenes vlog about the shoot. Yeah, 4C water wearing just a bikini bottom. 😲
How is Easter going, folks? Weather for Good Friday (day off around here) was better than expected so I got some work done. Have more but today I am working on tax returns. Our idiot revenue agency introduced the ability to download our slips into our software a few years back, saving me some effort. However, they broke the f-ing system this year and slip issuers are having trouble uploading the data so I'm back to keying in everything myself. Watch them fix it the day after I submit or something stupid like that. I'm done keying and have checked. My laptop stand proved to be a very good document holder so I could get the dang things closer to my eyes, at least.
So, I need a nice hot cuppa tea and maybe others need the other caffeinated beverage. So here's some Fire-Roasted Dark Roast Guatamalan coffee. Teas are Yorkshire Gold and Raspberry Royale. Kettle is hot and ready if you're craving other hot drinks. Fresh lemonade and iced tea are in the fridge along with our stock of selected sodas (if you select it, it's there, presto).
Between yard work and taxes, not doing much writing this weekend but I'll get there, I hope.
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Cold, wet, gloomy day here.
Kind of going there here now. Wasn't bad in the morning so I started cleaning the window screens and then with three left to go, a shower came in.
Coffee is on. Nothing fancy. Just a dark roast Colombian. Teas are Red Rose and Vanilla Earl Grey.
