These were the good things

1. I made a chocolate souffle for Rowan and Eilidh, neither of whom had ever had one -- or indeed, apparently, anything so delicious -- before. In short, it was a hit. The middle was a bit raw because I used a 12" casserole dish rather than six individual ramekins, but nobody seemed to mind. Karolina said she even preferred that part, which was apparently similar to some sort of Polish Christmas eggnog-adjacent delight.
I need to get my ramekins from my parents basement.
We'd originally intended to do a souffle of some kind when we had our chicken petsit, but it turned out the people did not own any kind of electric beating device and I have to draw the line somewhere. Have you ever attempted stiff peaks by hand?

2. Vampires vs. the Bronx. Not one of the world's cinematic masterpieces -- I called (what can generously be described as) the twist early on. I even called the baseball bat. But still. Sometimes you just want to watch scrappy kids doin' the right thing and learning a bit of lore along the way.

3. Georgette Heyer. I've read two? three? of her romances so far and thoroughly enjoyed them. But of course it was always going to be the detective ones that really got me. Started the first one (well, actually book 2, as 1 wasn't available) yesterday. In my hammock, in the dappled sun, on a glorious day while Rowan was at the adventure playground. And then got an email from FuckingAmazon saying that as of May 20th they would no longer be supporting my Kindle, which meant I wouldn't be able to get any more library books on it... So I immediately began loading it up. Thank you, Brooklyn Public Library, for your 20 loans at once. And wtf, NYPL, for your 3. But anyway I plan to max them both out multiple times:

• - Borrow the books from the library.
• - Turn off airplane mode on the kindle and download them.
• - Turn airplane mode back on.
• - Return all the books and borrow more.
• - Repeat.
• - Repeat.

That should last me a while. At least until the Kindle does actually die, which I don't think is all that far off. Already I can't navigate forwards with the right-hand button; it jumps 3 pages instead of 1.
So far I've got another 15 Heyer books lined up. All the mysteries (except, still, the first one) and a smattering more romances. Hit me with your best recs now!

4. Music. Music is good, you know? I like walking without it, and I like podcasts and audiobooks, but... I sort of forgot about music. I mean, I listen at home when I can -- ie when Rowan isn't using the iPad, so pretty much for 20 minutes at dinner -- but I haven't done it while out and about in ages. I started getting back into it a little bit when I made my Life playlist, but then it took a while to listen to all that and it didn't occur to me to just... listen to some random albums too.
Turns out I don't need more quiet, necessarily. I just need less noise.
Further sound thoughts from one of the podcast greats.

Recipe: Aforementioned chocolate souffle(s).