Erm...

I'm currently reading Brian Fagan's The Little Ice Age, on a recommendation from desert_vixen. I haven't gotten very far yet, but it's been interesting so far. However, I just ran into the following passage.

"Every man should have a lord", proclaimed the Treaty of Verdun in 843. Only the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor in Constantinople were exempt from this stricture, and they were vassals of the Lord.

Um, the Holy Roman Emperor did not sit in Constantinople; that was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...

Ah, well, I'm not reading the book for political history, but for climatological history.

The Main Chance

Most commonly, the treats I give Buster and Gracie are Alpo Variety Snaps, Little Bites. They come in various flavors, and different containers have different combinations. The boxes contain (among others) peanut butter flavored snacks; the big bags do not. Gracie has no problem with the peanut butter treats, but they seem to make Buster throw up, so I make a point of only giving them to Gracie.

The current box is just about empty; I bought a bag today, since I had the big grocery box with me and wasn't buying milk (which usually takes up a good deal of room). Just now, wishing to give out treats, I checked the box. There were only two whole treats left, and numerous fragments. I took out the two whole treats - one PB, one, um, beef I think - and handed the PB to Gracie. She accepted happily and trotted off with it. I then offered the other to Buster. I was still holding the open box in my other hand. Buster sniffed at the offered treat, and then looked at the box. After a moment's consternation, I closed the box and put it back on the counter. When I offered the treat to Buster again, he accepted it.

Did he think I would offer him the remaining contents of the box? (Sometimes I do dump the fragments into their food dishes....)

So, What Am I Doing Today?

Things that I enjoy. Things that make me happy. Productive things, and frivolous things.

At the store today, I bought a box of Keebler Pecan Sandies. I almost never buy cookies, doughnuts, pastries etc., but I felt the need. (Unfortunately, on returning home I discovered that I'm low on milk.)

People on the LMB list have been posting spoilered comments about Penric's Mission, so I went online and bought an e-copy, which I am now reading. I also picked up Connie Willis' Crosstalk, Becky Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit (loose sequel to The Long Voyage to a Small, Angry Planet), and The Gate of Gods (the last volume of Martha Wells' Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy).

I've begun constructing the new version (#4) of my library database - designing forms one by one, adding and testing features one by one... This one will be much better designed than its predecessor - smoother operating, with far fewer dinky special-purpose forms. I learned a lot from the finances and Skyrim projects.

The dark shadow lurks in the background, popping up and distracting me at vulnerable moments, but I begin to see the road ahead. I couldn't find any large safety pins at Shop'n'Save, but I'll get one soon.