Finished reading: In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae 📚

A lovely place-based friends-to-lovers second chance. As often happens, the third act breakup made me want to yell at the main character but the book had me happy-teary by the end.

A hand holding a book titled “In the Event of Love” by Courtney Kae in front of a colorful Christmas tree, with a rose and lights visible in the background. The book is a romantic novel set in a winter wonderland.

Finished reading: Eight Kisses by Mindy Klasky 📚

Eight Hanukkah romance stories. I read one each night. My favorites are the one with the Frisky Bean coffee shop and the one with empty nesters reconnecting.

A hand holding the book “Eight Kisses” in front of a window with a menorah on the sill, showcasing a cover featuring two people embracing and a lit menorah. The book is a collection of eight stories of Hanukkah romance by various authors.

📚🗨️

When people who don’t have fibromyalgia ask me how it feels, I tell them to imagine the last time they had a bad flu, then to picture going shopping, cooking, or exercising while feeling like that.

  • Ginevra Liptan, The FibroManual

Me: My heel hurts.

My doctor: Have you tried using that ointment I told to use for pain on it?

Me: I will now.

🔖📚 Read How To Get Started Reading Romance Novels by Stephanie Fallon (The Good Trade).

This is an excellent guide. Also? If you have unkind things to say about romance as a genre, please say them somewhere else. They’re not welcome in my replies.

Me: I’m going to take a 20 minute nap (sets alarm)

Narrator: She took a 90 minute nap. She did not hear the alarm.

I have 3 one -month gift subscriptions to Jami Attenberg’s Craft Talk to give away. Let me know if you want one.

I just don’t feel like writing a year-in-review post, y’all. So I might not.

🍿 Watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

My kid’s first time seeing both. Home Alone is, of course, a classic. Home Alone 2 isn’t a revelation but is super fun.

🕎🖖🏻 I would like to thank s-h-a-s-e on Tumblr for this Hanukkah gift of Sarek, Amanda, and Spock celebrating.

In the words of Adam Sandler:

You don’t need Deck the Halls or Jingle Bells Rock ‘cuz you can spin the dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock—both Jewish!

A photo of Mr. Spock celebrating Hanukkah with his parents. On the left, Spock's father Sarek wears a blue and white sweater with a menorah on it. In the middle, Spock's mother Amanda is wearing a blue head covering and a blue dress with a small dog in her lap. On the right, Spock wears a white robe and a menorah-shaped crown.&10;&10;Bing's AI assistant helped me write this alt-text.

Book Character, Age 25: Seeing her has me feeling seventeen again.

Me, Age 42: Please. You’re only 25. You’re barely not 17.

2006 Me, Age 25: (shaking her fist at 2023 Me) Stop being so ageist.

🍿📺🎄 Watched The Christmas Train.

Based on a David Baldacci novel & bringing a bit of star power with Dermot Mulroney, Joan Cusack, and Danny Glover. A journalist runs into an old flame on The Christmas Train. Cute stuff. Almost too high-quality actually, for the vibes I’m looking for.

Happy Hanukkah from this honorary M.O.T., whose 41% Jewishness is all on her dad’s side. 🕎

Happy Hanukkah from this honorary M.O.T., whose 41% Jewishness is all on her dad's side. 🕎

Today’s stay poor slowly scheme: open a romance-only bookstore. 📚

I was using Bing to play with ChatGPT-4 and I asked it who I am. It returned what is perhaps the most truthful answer.

A chat window for Bing creative mode. Question: Please tell me who is Kimberly Hirsh? Answer: Kimberly Hirsh is a person who has a website at kimberlyhirsh.com.

📚 Today’s library haul. Catching up on Holigays22 and some other holiday reads, plus a YA biography of my hero Sarah Bernhardt - quand même!

A stack of holiday romance novels sitting on top of a biography of Sarah Bernhardt, next to a gingerbread house that's sitting on top of a holiday tin.

Finished reading: Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur 📚

The first holiday rom-com of a month where I hope to read many. Elle is an astrologer who dreams of a big love. Darcy is an actuary who’s terrified of having one. This book’s heat level is sensual, a couple explicit scenes. A lovely book but I wish the third act break-up had been resolved more quickly so I could’ve had more joyous reunion time.

The book Written in the Stars in front of a Christmas tree

It reveals something about my character that I’m really psyched about being on someone’s dissertation committee.

🔖 Read Bring back the blog by Alan Jacobs.

Hear, hear.

Fun with migraines: in the past year or so I’ve started having vertigo in the prodrome stage, tilting involuntarily when I walk. In the past couple of months I’ve developed olfactory hallucinations. I don’t like migraines, y’all.

🍿 Watched Airplane!.

Super fun. I can’t begin to imagine how delightful it must have been for the people who saw it when it was first released.

🔖💻 Read The Indie Web Manifesto.

Before the IndieWeb, there was the Indie Web. This was published in 1997.

🔖💻 Read The Hacker Manifesto.

the beauty of the baud

I love this turn of phrase.

We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons…

This was published in 1986.

🔖 Read True/useful by Seth Godin.

Seth shares a handy matrix for helping us stay resilient and cultivate belief, shaking off cynicism and avoiding traps.

📺🍿🎄 Watched The Naughty Nine.

This is a heist movie about kids on the naughty list breaking into Santa’s workshop. It honors all the heist tropes and is super fun. Watch with a kid if you can.