Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.. Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

May -- the Victoria Day long weekend, at least -- is traditionally regarded as the kickoff to summer in Canada.  This doesn't necessarily mean the weather will be summer-y!  The rule of thumb, at least in the parts of Canada where I grew up, is you don't plant your garden before Victoria Day, because frost is still a distinct possibility.

By mid-May, I'd abandoned my long sleeves & cardigan. The Friday of the Victoria Day long weekend was sunny, warm and humid enough for dh to turn on the air conditioning. I optimistically wiped down the balcony furniture and hopefully pulled out my capris & sandals... only to have to put my long pants & socks back on again (and consider turning the heat back on!), when the weather turned grey, chilly and rainy on Sunday (and mostly stayed that way for the rest of the month...!). In fact, it hadn't been this consistently cold in late May since 1967!!  Thankfully, slightly warmer temperatures (if not the sun itself) returned just before the end of the month.  

This month, we: 

• Drove to a bookstore about a half-hour north & east of us on Sunday, May 4th, to attend a book signing by an old friend. (I wrote about her book here.)  
• Went to the mall to walk & shop (May 5th, 13th, 20th & 27th). 
• Spent most Friday mornings this month with SIL & Little Great-Niece at BIL & SIL's house. 
• Some explanation: SIL has been taking care of her granddaughter (Little Great-Niece) two mornings a week, since her mom returned to work part-time last summer.  The other grandmother takes care of her the other three workdays.  Both parents mostly work from home, and the office space in their small townhouse is simply not big enough for both of them, let alone LGNiece and SIL too -- so Younger Nephew started going to the office at his parents' house to work!  Then LGNiece learned to climb stairs (lol) and kept heading up to see what her mother was doing!  So Younger Nephew started bringing LGNiece to his parents' place instead. So far, she's left her dad alone to work -- at least, more than she did with her mother!   
• We wanted to spend some time with LGNiece (as we did with LGNephew #1 before he started school), but didn't want to add to an already-crowded situation by going to  Younger Nephew's townhouse, even though it's not very far from us. Visiting at BIL & SIL's house, however, is a different situation!  
• And so, we joined SIL & LGNiece for a walk to the nearby park on May 9th, then returned to the house for tea & snacks. Younger Nephew also came downstairs for a few minutes to say hello (one of the perqs of working remotely!).    
• Went for a walk around the neighbourhood on May 16th, with SIL & LGNiece (it rained overnight, so it was too wet to spend much time at the park), then back to the house, where BIL (who had the day off work) grilled hot dogs for us all for lunch (including Younger Nephew).  
• It was raining AGAIN on May 23rd, so we mostly played in the basement. :) 
• We missed going to the park with SIL & LGNiece on May 30th (they'd already been by the time we got there), but had fun playing in the back yard with the water table & helping SIL water her tomato plants. 
• LGNiece is much fonder of the women in her life -- happily, including me! -- than the men (not including her daddy)!  It took her a long time to warm up to her nonno (BIL), and for some unknown reason, she is afraid of poor dh (!) who is generally a kid magnet. "I don't want you here," she will sometimes tell him with 2-year-old frankness. She has shown some signs of thawing, but I think it's going to be a long, slow process...!  (But then, when we first started going over to SIL's to visit him (after being largely absent from his life during the worst of the pandemic), LGN #1 used to hide behind his nonna's legs when he saw us coming! -- and he certainly came around!)  
• After visiting SIL & LGNiece on May 9th, dh & I went out for an early Mother's Day brunch (his idea!). :)  Then to Reitmans (women's wear shop), Chapters (bookstore) and then home. 
• Went to the bank on the morning of May 21st to arrange an RESP (registered education saving plan) for Little Great-Nephew #2 (as we've done for the other two great-niblings).  
• A signature from Older Nephew's Wife/the mom was required within three business days -- so dh called her and we drove up there (about an hour, one way) after lunch (takeout pizza slices from the supermarket). (Dh called SIL too, to see if she'd like to come along, but she was busy.)  
• We only stayed for half an hour or so, but we got to spend time with the baby and take turns holding him.  Also got to see the dog -- albeit I think he was a little miffed that I was holding the baby and not petting him, as I usually do when I'm there, lol.  (LGN #1, of course, was at school.)  The baby is such a happy, smiley little guy, and we hadn't seen him (or LGN #1) since Easter. (Still haven't seen LGN #1 since then!  :(  )  DAY MADE.  
• Had my first mani-pedi of the year/season on Friday, May 23rd!  :)  (The salon was PACKED and I immediately put my mask on when I walked in... for the fumes, as well as the germs, lol.)  
• Went with SIL to a lovely bridal shower on May 25th. The wedding is in August;  the bride is marrying the son of a cousin of dh & BIL's, and all of the female cousins & remaining aunts on that side of the family were there. The groom is the same age as Katie would have been -- his mom's pregnancy and mine briefly overlapped. (Her baby shower happened shortly after we'd announced my pregnancy, and I received almost as many congratulations as she did!)  Not sure how I'm going to feel about this one...!  But I did have a pretty good time at the shower!  

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 3 books in May (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"):  

• "Miss Austen" by Gill Hornby. (3.5-4 stars; my review.) 
• "A Burning" by Megha Majumdar (the June selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (3-3.5 stars;  my review.) 
• "Anne of Windy Poplars" by L.M. Montgomery (called "Anne of Windy Willows" in the U.K., with some text variations). My L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group started reading & discussing this book together on Jan. 6th;  we just finished this week! (Previous review here;  most recent review here. 4 stars..) 

This brings me to 16 books read in 2025 to date, 36% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind pace to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "Rules For Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane (the July pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club -- just started;  currently 6% completed).  
• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, the current slow read with Footnotes and Tangents, which began May 5th and runs for 20 weeks (until Sept. 15th). Currently 17% completed. 
• "Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson, for my D.E. Stevenson group.  Our group discussion began on April 21st, and I'll count this as another re-read once we're finished (in July). I've read the book twice before on my own (once in 2015 and again prior to the start of our group read & discussion -- see above! Currently 52% completed.  (Original 2015 review here;  most recent review here). 
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  I'm once again taking part in a chapter-by-chapter group read of this CNBC classic!  The most recent Zoom meeting covered Chapter 10.  This is the 5th (!) time I've read this book, or the earlier version of it ("Rocking the Life Unexpected").  (Most recent review, with links to earlier reviews, here.)  
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "Drive Your Plow (Over the Bones of the Dead)" by Olga Tokarczuk. (August) 
• "The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole. (September) 
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan. (October) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• The Two Mrs. Abbotts (likely starting in mid-July -- my original 2015 review here).
• Crooked Adam
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe -- starts Sept. 29th, for 5 weeks. 
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the other books he's selected were all ones that she loved, so he figured they would probably be worth reading!) 

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  

• "On Freedom" by Timothy Snyder 
• "Look for Me There" by Luke Russert 
• "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver 
• "Missoula" by Jon Krakauer 
• "Whale Fall" by Elizabeth O'Connor 
• "Table for Two" by Amor Towles 
• "Paris Undercover" by Matthew Goodman 
• "Why We Act Like Canadians" by Pierre Berton 
• "Rental House" by Weike Wang
• "Isola" by Allegra Goodman 

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Watching: 

• "Miss Austen" on PBS Masterpiece, which began May 4th and ran for 4 episodes, based on the novel by Gill Hornby (see "Reading," above). 
• "The Handmaid's Tale" (the sixth & final season, which wrapped up earlier this week!). My thoughts here!   
• NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoffs -- at least until the Winnipeg Jets & Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the second round (sob). :(    Cheering for the Edmonton Oilers as the finals (against the Florida Panthers) get underway -- a rematch from last year!  (Even so, I do think hockey in June is pretty ridiculous...! -- the season never went this long when I was growing up -- but then, the league was much smaller then...!)  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of May 31st:  
• Heardle 60s: 75.2% (708/941, 276 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 77.8% (527/677, 299 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 38.8% (212/547, 77 on first guess), up 0.6% from last month. Max. streak: 5 (up from 4 -- fist increase since May 2023!).
• Heardle 90s: 31.4% (204/650, 48 on first guess), up 0.5% from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections:  
• By April 30th, I'd completed 276 games and won 83% of them, including 140 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  And I maintained my maximum winning streak at 30!  :)   
• By May 31st, I'd played 307 games and won 85% of them, including 156 "perfect puzzles," including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first (unchanged from last month)  And I ended the month by matching my maximum winning streak of 34! (On to 35!  lol)  

Following:  

Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January,  after less-than-stellar bloodwork last fall earned us both serious chats with our doctor. We'll be doing more bloodwork later in the year to check again -- so we've continued our efforts to eat healthier -- reduce portion sizes, cut back on fatty & processed foods (fewer casseroles, more chicken and beans/lentils), eat more fruits, vegetables and fibre, snack less (and make better snacking choices), and be at least a little more active. 
• Since then, I've continued to yo-yo a bit, but I still ended the month almost a pound lighter than at the end of April. (I'll take it!)  Overall, I've lost about 12 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October (dh has lost about 22), and 24 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• As mentioned above, dh took me out for brunch on the Friday morning before MDay -- the same place where we went on the Friday before Valentine's Day. ;)  (Much less busy! -- and less expensive than dinner out!)  We both had omelettes (ham & cheese for me), which came with home fries and toast. 
• The bridal shower menu on May 25th included a lovely salad with berries, chicken with roasted potatos and vegetables, and a creme brulee tart with berries. Plus a traditional Italian cookie table.  :) There was a mocktail bar with a large menu when we arrived, which was fun, and wine was served with lunch. Not quite as elaborate as some of the Italian showers I've been to, food-wise, but it no one starved, and the food was good! -- and it was a lovely setting (at a golf clubhouse) and all beautifully presented. The company was great too! 
• Notable recent takeout meals: soup, pizza slices and teriyaki rice bowls from the supermarket takeout counter;  wood-oven thin crust pizza, and Swiss Chalet rotisserie chicken. (Trying to avoid the stuff that's really calorie & fat-laden!) 

Wearing:  Earlier in the month, with the weather (finally!) starting to warm up, I put away my long-sleeved shirts in favour of shorter sleeves, and by the Victoria Day long weekend, I was wearing yoga capris and a tank top and ready to bring out my denim capris & sandals!  Alas (as I mentioned at the beginning of this post...!), it turned chilly and rainy and I had to bring out my long pants, socks and cardigan again!  :(  (boo, hiss...)  I finally got to bring out (and wear!) the capris earlier this week, when milder (if not sunnier) weather finally returned! 

Buying (besides books, lol): 

• More Canadian products (or, failing that, international) products (vs American -- you can probably guess why...! It's not always easy, though, given how intertwined our two countries' economies & supply chains are...!).  
• Cute summer outfits for the great-niblings (including matching Canada Day T-shirts from Old Navy, lol). 
• For myself:  some black denim shorts (Old Navy), and some soft, colourful 100% cotton T-shirts (Gap).  
• Also for myself, from Reitmans (Canadian women's wear chain):  two shirts & a pair of white linen pants, plus a couple of pairs of yoga pants (all on sale). I wore the linen pants with one of the tops (black linen -- couldn't find a link for it to show you?) to the bridal shower on May 25th, mentioned above.  
• Not just one but two dresses at Laura (another Canadian women's wear chain).I'll wear one of them to a wedding in August and save the other for another wedding next year. 
• The first one I tried on (which I sadly couldn't find a link for?) was absolutely gorgeous, and looks great on me (if I do say so myself...!) -- navy blue, short, fitted, sleeveless with a portrait collar, and some ruching and a rhinestone embellishment on one side. Simple and classically elegant. The only drawback is the fabric is a bit heavy, and might be a bit hot for an August wedding. But I could not resist it. :) 
• As backup, I also decided to get another dress I really liked  ;)  -- it's a much lighter fabric, also navy (background) with a floral print (pink & plum tones), sleeveless, high-low hemline and a fuller skirt. Here's a link. :)  

Anticipating (nervously):  Our next visiting to the dentist (!), in mid-June. I've been anxiously obsessing about my front teeth ever since I took a(nother) fall in mid-April.  I'm 98% sure all is well, but I will feel much better once the dentist has had a look! 

Appreciating: The lack of extreme heat & humidity so far (while still hoping for some more sun than we've had to date!). It's been very hot & humid out west where my parents are, and there have been some terrible forest fires that have affected the air quality where they live.  One fire, in a "cottage country" part of the province, got within six miles of my cousin's place. So far, they're okay! (They don't live there year-round, but they do spend a fair amount of time there, particularly in the summer.)   

Noticing:  It's staying lighter outside a lot later these days! -- sunset isn't until almost 9 p.m. now (and it will keep getting lighter until the solstice, later this month! (It's also getting lighter a lot earlier, too!)  And I'm noticing more (and more colourful) sunsets again, too!  :) 

Speaking of which...! 

 

Enjoying:  Sunsets, again!  :)  Yes, I know, the sun sets every day, year round!  But it seems like they're not as noticeable (or as pretty) during the winter! And we do get some pretty great views of them from the windows & balcony of our condo!   

Wondering: Why my eyes have been so dry lately??  (especially when it's beginning to get more humid outside!) I'm going through eye drops like crazy (and they're expensive!). 

Trying:  Not to worry too much about getting through my emails every day -- prioritizing the urgent/most interesting ones, and letting some of less important ones sit on the back burner (or go altogether!). 

Wanting: To start making plans for the next few months, for a trip west to see my family, for our upcoming wedding anniversary -- and hopefully for a nice trip somewhere later in the fall!  (Now to corral dh and get him to help me make some decisions...!!) 

Loving:  The weekly photos Older Nephew's Wife posts of LGNephew #2 every Friday. (She often posts others during the week, of the baby and his big brother -- but always one on Friday marking how many weeks old the baby is)(now 23!).  And he always has a huge smile on his face too!   

                              

Feeling: Glad that winter is finally behind us!  Looking forward to the summer, to our wedding anniversary, and to going "home" in July to see my parents (and to celebrate a significant anniversary for them!). 

Blessed be the series ;)

 (**CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE TV SERIES & THE ORIGINAL BOOKS**) 

The sixth and final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" reached its conclusion earlier this week. I've spent a lot of time since then browsing related posts and comments on social media (I'm clearly a glutton for punishment!  lol)  -- and I have some thoughts...! 

• Several of my predictions for the last few episodes of the season were right! 
• ...But not all of them. The finale was much lower-key than I had anticipated, and a lot more people survived than I anticipated. Which is not a bad thing (especially if you're trying to make viewers happy!), if not entirely realistic.
• Janine not only being freed but also getting Charlotte/Angela back was one of those things I didn't think was entirely realistic, particularly in the way it unfolded (so abrupt, no explanation??) -- but it certainly made people happy. As many commenters said, if anyone in the series deserved a happy ending, it was Janine! 
• I saw Alexis Bledel (Emily) listed in the credits for this episode in advance, but I thought  she would show up in a flashback. So I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised when she actually did show up!  
• A lot of commenters felt Serena Joy got off lightly, and many were not happy that June forgave her. There were also a lot of predictions of a future romance with Mark Tuello, the American rebellion leader (!).    
• While I loved Aunt Lydia's rant from the scaffold in episode 9 -- and it clearly shows her evolving into the person she becomes in "The Testaments" -- I'm not entirely clear how she'll get away with that and still maintain a powerful position in Gilead (as depicted in the book, anyway)?  
• A LOT of fans were LIVID that Nick got killed off at the end of episode 9!!  I saw more than one wishful suggestion that Nick (and sometimes Commander Lawrence) somehow survived the explosion -- he parachuted out of the plane!! Or it was all a dream!! (a la Pam Ewing and Bobby in the shower on "Dallas," many moons ago, lol).  
• Many saw Nick as a romantic hero and felt he'd been unfairly portrayed in the final season.
• Others pointed out that Nick/Nicole's father is part of "The Testaments" (albeit just a small part), so how could they kill him off?  (I would say that's Hollywood/showbiz...!)   
• Personally, I always thought of Nick as an ambiguous character. His allegiances in the first book are unclear -- when he nods to June at the very end of "The Handmaid's Tale" (the book -- also the ending of the first season of the TV show), indicating she should get into the van, she doesn't know whether the van is taking her to freedom or to punishment. In the second book, we don't hear much about him, only that he is indeed with Mayday -- but his role is not quite so clear in the TV series. He does co-operate with Mayday, and what's left of the American government, but seems increasingly reluctant to do so, and (with a wife, a powerful father-in-law, and a baby on the way) increasingly enmeshed in the life and leadership of Gilead. 
• Some pointed out that he had plenty of opportunities to escape Gilead (having helped June go back and forth across the border multiple times) and join June and their daughter in Canada or in Alaska -- but he remained in Gilead. 
• Some people were mad that June didn't wind up with Luke either (!), and the ambiguous nature of their parting. I didn't get the feeling that they were splitting for good, more like they were taking a break while they continued their work with the resistance (and continued the search for Hannah). However their marriage evolves, they seemed to be in a good place as friends and co-parents, which was nice to see.   
• Of course, it's "The HANDMAID's Tale" -- it's not "Twilight" or "The Hunger Games" (Team Luke or Team Nick), as one disgruntled commenter put it (lol). The book and the show are not about romance and not about the men.  Essentially, both are about women -- one woman in particular -- and their fight to survive in a brutal patriarchal system. 
• The takeaway message, I think, came in a conversation June had with her mother, Holly, midway through the finale, explaining her decision to leave her daughter (again) and continue the fight:  

“But the thing is, mom, I’m not safe. And neither are you. And they’re never going to stop coming for us. And even when we’re gone, they are going to come for our children…and our grandchildren. Fighting might not get us everything, but we don’t have a choice. Because not fighting is what got us Gilead in the first place. And Gilead doesn’t need to be beaten — it needs to be broken.” 

(Anyone paying attention??)  

• I was bemused by the number of people insisting that, in "The Testaments" (the book), Nicole and Hannah are reunited, not only with their mother but with their fathers (and therefore Nick should not have been killed off). 
• Okay, it's been a while (almost 6 years!) since I read the book, but I had absolutely NO  memory of the fathers showing up. I don't have time to re-read that book right now, and I gave my paper copy to the thrift store, but I did a search of my e-book for the word "father" -- and while there are references to both girls' fathers, I found no father-daughter reunion scenes. 
• I commented to that effect on a few social media comments -- and got thoroughly taken to task.  Which reminded me why I usually don't comment on public posts...! 
• Several people pointed me to a dedication ceremony at the very end of the book as evidence of a reunion. I went back to my ebook and looked it up, and yes, the sisters' mother AND fathers are mentioned in the wording of a plaque, which is cited by the speaker at a symposium, years into the future, as evidence that the two girls were reunited with their parents (and also went on to have children and grandchildren). But unlike their mother, the fathers never actually make an appearance in the story.  (I did NOT go back to argue that point, though!)  
• Many people were upset that there was no June-Hannah reunion (which would have been the traditional Hollywood happy ending, of course). I saw several comments along the lines of "Wasn't getting Hannah back the whole point of the show??:  Others begged for a season 7, with a mother-daughter reunion.
• They obviously haven't read the books  or any of the publicity about the upcoming sequel series, "The Testaments" (no one who has was expecting a reunion) -- in fact, many admitted they had no idea there's a sequel book, or a sequel show in the works.  
• I mean, I know I'm retired, I have more free time to read & follow things than some people do -- but you're a fan of the show!! you're on social media!! -- how can you not know?? 
• Also, Gilead being Gilead, you had to know that happy endings are far and few between...! and that some questions will never have answers...    
• A lot of people were also demanding to know what happened to Esther (played by Mckenna Grace -- not a character from the novel), last seen at the end of season 5, pregnant and shackled to a hospital bed. She did not reappear this season. 
• I noticed a LOT of references to mothers, children and the maternal relationship, in the finale -- and in the series generally.  
• I wasn't the only one who noticed!  I got a chuckle out of this review from Den of Geek.  The header reads (in part):  "This show grants itself a valedictory tour built around a heavily insisted-upon message that the children are our future."  Relevant excerpt:  

Nothing in the finale mattered so much as its heavily insisted-upon message, which was all about parents fighting to create a better world to keep their children safe. June readied herself to leave little Holly again, bolstered by Emily’s assurance that it didn’t mean she was abandoning her family. Luke planned to reach Hannah by liberating one state from Gilead at a time. Naomi Lawrence returned little Charlotte to her mother to keep her out of a warzone. Even Mark Tuello was conjured up an off-screen son to motivate his military moves.

By the time Holly Sr had declaimed over not being able to keep June safe, and Serena had promised to dedicate herself solely to the raising of her precious baby Noah, it was hard not to feel a little Gilead propaganda going on in terms of children being the only reason that anybody does anything. I don’t recall that being the point Margaret Atwood was making back in 1985. 

 

[Note from Loribeth:  Touchez!]

• I wasn't sure why June returned to the Waterfords' house (what was left of it) at the end... I thought that perhaps, when she went into her old room, she'd look in the closet and see "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum" (the ersatz-Latin phrase for "Don't let the bastards grind you down"), carved in the wall by the Waterfords' original Handmaid (who killed herself).  
• She did not do that. 
• But it all made sense when she pulled out a tape recorder (although, really, she just happened to have one in her bag??) and started speaking the words that open Margaret Atwood's original novel.  (Both her mother & Luke encouraged her, in previous scenes, to write a book about her experiences in Gilead.)  
• Several people pointed out that the first episode of season one ends with June speaking the same words in voiceover... and that you can actually hear the "click" of the tape recorder being turned on. (Elisabeth Moss, who plays June, says she went back to that episode to make sure she matched the tone and pace of that speech as closely as possible for the finale.)  Which brings the series full circle, and also brings it back to the novel.  Perfect.  
• June/The Handmaid's first words in the book (the beginning of the speech which ends the show):  "A chair. A table. A lamp." But did anyone notice that Serena's final (or near-final?) words in the show echo this?  "A chair, a table, a bed -- that's all you need, I guess." (And her son, of course...!) 

What did you think?  

#MicroblogMondays: Survivor, Gilead style ;)

I've been slogging my way through the final 10 episodes of the final season (#6) of "The Handmaid's Tale" on TV. (Episode 7 airs on CTV Drama tomorrow night, and I believe new episodes are also being released weekly on the Crave streaming service here in Canada, where past episodes from past & current seasons are also available.)  

Frankly, it's time -- it feels like the show has run out of steam. The increasing confluence with current events frankly hits WAY too close to home for comfort -- and, as I've said before, just how many times can June get away with sneaking in & out of Gilead??  You can see the arc of the show slowly starting to bend towards a climactic ending -- and towards the storyline of Margaret Atwood's follow-up novel, "The Testaments" (link to my review), which will also be adapted for television once "The Handmaid's Tale" wraps up.

It's pretty obvious, I think (Gilead being Gilead), that not all the characters are going to survive the end of the season. (If you think everything is going to be tied up with a neat bow -- with Gilead vanquished and happy endings and reunions all round -- you haven't been paying much attention, lol -- and you certainly haven't read "The Testaments!")  I don't want to give away too many spoilers for people who haven't read "The Testaments" (and if you haven't, you should!), but we already know Aunt Lydia will survive this season, because it's been announced that Ann Dowd will play the character again in the new series, which (in the book, anyway) takes place about 15 years after the events of "The Handmaid's Tale." There are a few more characters that we know survive (assuming the TV version adheres to the book), and a couple that I'm guessing might turn up -- because there are characters in the book who might not go by names we'd recognize, but (from their descriptions) might be people we already know (it's not clear).  

I have a couple of guesses/predictions about who might not survive these last few episodes, though.  I'm going to go out on a limb (and be unpopular, lol) and say that either Nick or Luke -- and possibly both! -- might not make it. Likewise, I have my doubts that both Janine and Moira survive -- although one of them might. (Sorry, girls, I love you both.)  I'm unsure of Rita's fate.  And while I enjoy Bradley Whitford's conflicted and sarcastic Commander Lawrence, I'm not sure he's going to survive either.  I'm guessing that if he doesn't, he'll make his exit while doing something heroic that redeems him.     

I'm not willing to make bets on Serena Joy, one way or another. On the one hand, killing her off would seem like justice, given her role in building Gilead and her personal abuse of June -- but they've tried to make her more sympathetic in the last few season (with mixed results), and I would have mixed feelings about turning her into some kind of martyr.  I will say, I'm hoping her new would-be husband (who proposed at the end of the last episode/#6), the morally indignant Commander Wharton, gets his come uppance. ;) (Josh Charles is normally so likeable, I'm having a hard time seeing him as this unlikeable character, lol.)   

What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree with my theories?  Have any of your own??  I'd love to hear!  (And it will be fun to revisit this post and see whether any of my theories/guesses were correct!)  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

Right now

Right now...* 

*(an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

(Note: I omitted a couple of regular categories this month because I was drawing a blank as to what to write in them...!  But I added a few, and this post is plenty long as it is, I think!  It's all good...!) 

April went by in a blur.  On the negative side: politics! (Federal election on April 28th, and weeks of campaigning before that.)  On the plus side:  dh's birthday, and Easter with the family (including the great-niblings).  And by mid/late April, it was FINALLY starting to feel like spring!! 

Pandemic diary/update: After five (!) years (!), I've decided not to continue monthly pandemic updates, since there really hasn't been anything new to write about in a long time. (Which doesn't mean that covid isn't still out there.)  I'm still masking -- most of the time -- in stores, malls and other such indoor public spaces, especially if/when there are lots of people around -- and I intend to keep on doing so (there are plenty of germs floating around to be concerned about right now besides covid, too!).  (I'll admit, though, I'm not QUITE as much of a stickler about it as I was a while ago.)  

Dh has not been masking when he goes out by himself for a while now, and increasingly, he hasn't been wearing the ones I've handed to him. He does say he intends to keep masking on airplanes, though.

If our covid-free status changes (and I'm knocking wood, LOUDLY, that it won't...!) I'll write about it, and I'll continue to share any articles of interest on the topic that I run across.    

This month, we: 

• Went to the mall to walk around and shop once a week, usually on Tuesday mornings (April 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th). 
• Had passport photos taken (April 3rd). 
• Stopped en route home from the mall at the drugstore postal outlet on April 8th to mail our tax returns! & buy some large envelopes. 
• Returned the next day to arrange to courier our passport renewal applications to Ottawa (current passports expire in early May), then went to the bookstore for a browse. 
• Returned to the post office AGAIN on April 19th to courier our passport renewals BACK to Ottawa, after they were returned to us (on April 17th -- one week after they were originally sent) -- we both forgot to sign the forms in one spot. (Oops!)
• (I checked the tracking on the package -- it got to Ottawa and I notice my credit card was charged the fees for both passports, so I guess they're being processed!)  
• Attended a celebration of life for a friend from our pregnancy loss support group (April 6th). (Maskless.) 
• Went with BIL & SIL to BIL & dh's cousin's house on April 12th. He's an accountant and does BIL & SIL's taxes every year. BIL & SIL brought takeout lunch -- and we were happily surprised that the cousin's daughter was home from school in the UK!  As always, a great visit (my own klutziness notwithstanding...). 
• Went to the bookstore and then stopped at the drugstore en route home to pick up a prescription (April 16th). 
• Voted at an advance poll for the April 28th federal election (on April 18th/Good Friday). 
• After dropping our passport applications at the post office on Saturday, April 19th, braved the crowds at the supermarket to pick up a fruit tray to take to BIL's for Easter dinner the next day. 
• Spent the afternoon/early evening of Easter Sunday with BIL & family. Aside from a brief but (thankfully) relatively civil argument about politics and the upcoming federal election, it was a great afternoon, and we had a lot of fun with the three great-niblings -- who all showed up wearing the "Egg Hunting Squad" T-shirts I'd put in their Valentine's Day goody bags!  (Little Great-Nephew's was a little too small/tight! -- erk! -- but he still wore it!)  Needless to say, I was tickled!! (We got some really cute group photos too!) 
• Stopped at the drugstore, en route home from the mall on April 22nd to pick up another prescription. 
• Returned to our old community for haircuts on the afternoon of April 25th (with a stop at the cemetery to visit Katie en route). It was later in the day than we would usually go (but we were desperate, lol), so we didn't hang around the mall afterward to shop (trying to avoid the worst of the Friday afternoon traffic), although I did duck into the dollar store and drugstore for a few minutes while dh was getting done. 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 3 books in April (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books"):  

• "Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson ( (re)read in advance of our DES group chapter-by-chapter discussion, which began on April 21st. (3.5-4 stars;  original 2015 review here;  latest review here.) 
• "Can’t We Be Friends" by Denny S. Bryce & Eliza Knight (the May book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (3 stars;  my review.) 
• This book -- which I've decided not to name here (!), as the author is a personal friend.  I don't want to tempt fate by naming her and the book, and then having her (or mutual friends) stumble onto this blog, if/when they Google the book. However, the link posted here goes to my review on Goodreads, and I've also reviewed it on StoryGraph. (4 stars, explanation & review link also posted here.) 

This brings me to 13 books read in 2025 to date, 29% of my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) on track to meet my goal.  :) 

Current reads: 

• "Miss Buncle Married" by D.E. Stevenson, for my D.E. Stevenson group.  Our group discussion began on April 21st, and I'll count this as another re-read once we're finished (in July). I've read the book twice before on my own (once in 2015 and again prior to the start of our group read & discussion -- see above! (Original 2015 review here;  most recent review here). 
• "Anne of Windy Poplars" by L.M. Montgomery (called "Anne of Windy Willows" in the U.K., with some text variations). My L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group started reading & discussing this book together on Jan. 6th. (Previous review here.) Currently 60% completed. 
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  I'm once again taking part in a chapter-by-chapter group read of this CNBC classic!  The most recent Zoom meeting covered Chapter 8.  This is the 5th (!) time I've read this book, or the earlier version of it ("Rocking the Life Unexpected").  (Most recent review, with links to earlier reviews, here.)  
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "A Burning" by Megha Majumdar. (June) 
• "Rules For Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane (July) 
• "Drive Your Plow (Over the Bones of the Dead)" by Olga Tokarczuk. (August) 
• "The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole. (September) 
• "The Secrets of Blythswood Square" by Sara Sheridan. (October) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  This list of upcoming books should keep us busy through 2025 or even into early 2026!  (A couple of the books are ones we covered shortly after I first joined the group back in 2014 -- you know you've been around for a while when....!)  
• The Two Mrs. Abbotts (likely starting in mid-July -- original 2015 review here).
• Crooked Adam
• The Four Graces (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs planned for 2025 include:
• "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel -- starts May 5th, for 20 weeks. 
• "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe -- starts Sept. 29th, for 5 weeks. 
• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- starts Nov. 3rd, for 7 weeks. 

(Simon is a big fan of the late great Hilary Mantel, and the other books he's selected were all ones that she loved, so he figured they would probably be worth reading!) 

• Culture Study (Europe): next book TBA. 

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points): 

• "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live" by Susan Morrison 
  
• "The Age of Magical Overthinking" by Amanda Montell 
• "The Small and the Mighty" by Sharon McMahon 
• "Cue the Sun!" by Emily Nussbaum 
• "Right-Wing Women" by Andrea Dworkin 
• "So Now What?" by Lana Manikowski 
• "Missing Persons" by Clair Wills 
• "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig 
• "The Stolen Queen" by Fiona Davis 
• "The Certainty Illusion" by Timothy Caulfield 
• "Caledonian Road" by Andrew O'Hagan 

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Watching: 

• "Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light" on PBS (in six parts). In discussing the book after I finished it last December (my review here), I told my fellow readers at Footnotes & Tangents, "I held it together at the end until Rafe (Sadler, Thomas Cromwell's protege and essentially his adopted son) started crying" -- and that was the point where I lost it while watching the final episode as well. Both book & filmed version are absolutely amazing feats of storytelling, and Mark Rylance (as Cromwell) and Damien Lewis (as Henry VIII) are superb. I don't give ratings here to the things I watch, but this one would definitely get 5 stars.  
• "The Handmaid's Tale" (the sixth & final season!). Currently up to episode 6 (of 10).  This show is even harder to watch than it was when it first began -- especially given current events! I continue to wonder just how many times June can pop in & out of Gilead/New Bethlehem, lol.  I can see the arc of the storyline gradually beginning to bend towards Margaret Atwood's 2019 sequel, "The Testaments," which I read and reviewed here, and which is also being turned into a series (in which Ann Dowd will reprise her role as Aunt Lydia). I'm hoping they don't stray too far from the book in that one either. 
• Too much pre- and post-election coverage (mostly on CBC/CBC News Network). ;)  (At least THAT's done!)  

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: Stats as of April 30th:  
• Heardle 60s: 75.5% (688/911, 266 on first guess), down 0.5% from last month. Max. streak: 15.
• Heardle 70s: 78.1% (505/647, 287 on first guess), down 0.3% from last month. Max. streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 38.2% (198/518, 72 on first guess), down 0.7% from last month. Max. streak: 4. 
• Heardle 90s: 30.9% (192/622, 42 on first guess), up 1.1% from last month. Max. streak: 5. 
• NYT Connections:  
• By March 31st, I'd played 246 games and won 84% of them, including 123 "perfect puzzles."  And I increased my maximum winning streak from 21 to 30! 
• By April 30th, I'd completed 276 games and won 83% of them, including 140 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 6 where I got the most difficult/purple category first.  And I maintained my maximum winning streak at 30!  :)   

Following:  NHL playoff hockey ;) (particularly when the Toronto Maple Leafs or Winnipeg Jets are playing!) -- albeit not religiously. 

Eating/Drinking:  

• As I've mentioned before, we achieved our goal of lowering our cholesterol levels in late January,  after less-than-stellar bloodwork last fall earned us both serious chats with our doctor. We'll be doing more bloodwork later in the year to check again -- so we've continued our efforts to eat healthier -- reduce portion sizes, cut back on fatty & processed foods (fewer casseroles, more chicken and beans/lentils), eat more fruits, vegetables and fibre, snack less (and make better snacking choices), and be at least a little more active. 
• Since then, I've continued to yo-yo a bit, but I still ended the month 1.4 pounds lighter than at the end of March. (I'll take it!)  Overall, I've lost a little over 11 pounds since our chat with the doctor last October, and about 23 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight a few years ago. 
• For dh's birthday (April 11th), we indulged in his choice:  takeout California Sandwiches -- a treat we hadn't permitted ourselves since our chat with the doctor about diet and cholesterol last October -- as well as red velvet cupcakes for dessert. (I stuck a candle in dh's, lit it and had him blow it out.) 
• (I can only ever eat half of my chicken cutlet sandwich in one sitting -- they are HUGE. I saved the other half for dinner two days later.) 
• BIL & SIL brought takeout Portuguese chicken, potatos, rice and veggies from a local restaurant to BIL & dh's cousin's house for lunch (really tasty!), after which the cousin (an accountant) went to work on BIL & SIL's taxes while the rest of us visited. 
• For Easter dinner at BIL's we had pasta alfredo, barbecued steak, lamb & sausages, potatos with peppers, sauteed rapini, corn, and salad.  Two kinds of pie for dessert, plus fruit. 
• Some (other) notable recent takeout meals: soup, pizza slices and teriyaki rice bowls, all from the supermarket takeout counter, and takeout rotisserie chicken (with a baked potato for me, fries for dh). (Trying to avoid the stuff that's really calorie & fat-laden!) 

Wearing:  I'm still wearing long-sleeved tops, yoga pants and socks inside the house -- and slippers still too, on most days. But the weather HAS been gradually warming up, especially later in the month, and there have been several days when I've been able to venture outside in just a denim jacket (and I might not have even needed that!). I even wore a short-sleeved T-shirt to the mall this past week, no jacket!  Hopefully I'll be able to bring out the capris & sandals within another few weeks!      

Buying (besides books, lol): 

• More Canadian products (or, failing that, international) products (vs American -- you can probably guess why...! It's not always easy, though, given how intertwined our two countries' economies & supply chains are...!).  
• Goodies for the great-niblings' Easter baskets/bags, including clothes, stickers, little rabbits that hop around after you wind them up, and (of course!) chocolate (for the two older kids at least!). 
• I've continued to buy stuff for them since Easter too ;)  including matching Canada Day T-shirts from Old Navy. 
• Several pretty tank tops for summer at Reitmans (a Canadian women's wear chain, which has fairly reasonable prices). There's a store near where I live, but they also just opened a large new one at the nearby mall we frequent (yay!). I used a gift card dh gave me for Christmas to pay for part of it (even better!).  
• (I also had my eye on this pretty blouse that I thought would be perfect to wear to an upcoming bridal shower in May -- but alas, they were sold out of my size, both in-store and online.)  

Mourning:  The demise of Hudson's Bay Company (HBC, or just "the Bay"), which has been around since 1670 (!! -- not a typo!) and played a critical role in my country's early exploration and development (with a particular interest in the fur trade). The Bay department stores, along with Eatons, was one of the pillars of the Canadian retail experience when I was growing up. Hudson's Bay was purchased by an American private equity firm several years ago... and you can probably guess the rest of the story. :(  They've closed several stores in recent years (including the magnificent century-old Bay store in downtown Winnipeg -- which, happily, is being renovated and repurposed for mixed use -- unlike the big Eatons store a few blocks away, which was, sadly, torn down completely), even before this announcement -- and now all the rest will soon be closing (as well as Canadian Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off Fifth stores, owned by the same parent company). 

It's not unexpected -- over the past 20-25 years, Canada has lost Eatons, Simpsons, Sears Canada and Nordstrom Canada (not too many years after it entered the market here). It's been a few years since I've been to the flagship store at Queen & Yonge in downtown Toronto (which was at one time a Simpsons store), but I was often there on my lunch hour when I worked downtown. There aren't any Bay stores close by us now, but I always took a quick walk/browse through the (much smaller) store at the mall in our old community whenever we were there for haircuts.  The last time I did so, a few months ago, there were (sadly) a lot of bare shelves and few customers (or staff, for that matter).

I miss department stores. :( 

Procrastinating: I need to call a plumber about a few fixes in both bathrooms. The tub faucet in one bathroom is totally stripped -- has been for more than a year now -- just goes round and round and is difficult to turn off completely, which has rendered that tub/shower completely useless. Thankfully, the spout it is not dripping (right now) -- unlike the same fixture in the master bathroom glassed-in shower enclosure, which has been dripping for MONTHS now, and is creating a lot of mildew on the tiles and caulking, which I am constantly wiping and scrubbing with Clorox. :p  

The sink in that bathroom is also starting to drain more slowly (again -- despite dosing it with baking soda & vinegar, followed by hot water after a few minutes), and I'm afraid it's going to plug up completely -- which is what happened last year right around this time. We called the plumber who takes care of the common plumbing structures in the building then, and he got it draining freely again. I actually asked him to look at the tub/shower faucet then -- he did, but he didn't have the right part to fix it, and said he would get back to me. 

Of course you know what happened -- crickets.  (He was actually back here again with the property manager a few months later, flushing taps after the city turned off the water main for repairs -- and I mentioned it to him again then and asked him to give us a call and let us know when he could come. Again, crickets.)  Do I try calling/messaging him AGAIN and give him one more chance?  Or take my chances with a completely unknown plumber?  (Sigh.) (Why didn't one of the nephews become a plumber?? lol)(One of dh's cousins is actually a plumber! -- but we don't know him very well, and geographically, he's way on the other side of the city/region.) 

Anticipating:  Starting to think about whether we should plan a trip this fall to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary (which is actually in July) -- where we should go (likely somewhere in the UK/Europe), how we should do it, etc.  -- i.e., group tour? pre-package self tour? (dh's cousin's wife recommended the experience they had via Costco Travel last year  -- they did London, Dublin & Paris with their kids) -- or try to plan something out ourselves?? I feel confident figuring things out for travel within Canada, and even to most places in the U.S. -- but Europe, an ocean away, seems positively daunting.  

Also feeling somewhat anxious about the prospect of travelling so far away, at a time when the world is in such a state of upheaval, and the economy is in such a state of flux.  Fall seems like such a long time away; who knows what things will be like then??

But there's never an ideal time, is there??  -- plus (ahem) we're not getting any younger -- if we ever want to see some of these places, we need to do it sooner vs later...!   (Decisions, decisions...!) 

Appreciating/Enjoying:  The days when the weather is nice enough that we can once again open our balcony door, even for a while!    

Trying (and mostly failing...!): To get to bed a little earlier! (Especially if we need to set an alarm and get up early!) When we were working, we were up every morning before 5 AM, so 10 PM was bedtime, with few exceptions. Dh often still turns in early, but lately I've been up till 11, 11:30, 11:45... (I still draw the line at 12 midnight!).    

Noticing: The leaves on the trees are starting to bud out!  (Yay!)    

Hoping: That the weather continues to improve. (Some more sunshine would be great, even if the temperatures take a little while to warm up...!) 

Loving:  Any time we can spend with the great-niblings.  :)  (Never enough, of course...!) 

                              

Feeling: Relieved that all the electioneering is FINALLY over!! (Hopefully for another few years...!)  Relieved that spring FINALLY seems to be on its way!