Author: tozka

Late 30's former librarian traveling the world as a catsitter. More about me here!

reading log: my love affair with england by susan allen toth

Book Info

My Love Affair with England: A Traveler’s Memoir by Susan Allen Toth (1992)

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/56906/

Acquired from: Capitol Hill Books, Denver, Colorado, USA ($7.50) [see also: Indie Bookstore Visit Log]

Started reading: October 31, 2025

Finished reading: November 4, 2025

Review

I picked this up because I nearly bought it from a UBS in Milwaukee a few months ago. It caught my eye again, mostly because I’m planning to go to England for a few months next year AND I adore pre-internet travel memoirs, so I decided to get it!

It’s a very charming book which focuses mostly on the bits of England that the author enjoyed, mixed in with some memoir-type stuff about her personal life and how it intersected with her visits to England and how that affected her time there. I enjoyed reading about the specific things she likes, as you can tell she REALLY likes them– but not to the point where it sounds like ass-kissing.

I also liked that she said specifically she only likes visiting and doesn’t want to move there; often I find that actually living somewhere is way different than being a visitor, often to the location’s detriment because now you have to deal with things like sorting trash and paying electricity bills, when really what you want to do is wander around looking at old buildings and eating bacon sandwiches.

Having been to England myself several times I recognized a lot of the stuff she was talking about, and that was fun, too. Overall I really enjoyed this book!

Reading Notes

Page 9:

I do not blame the English. If they keep to themselves, I also keep to myself. At home in America, I guard my privacy, cherishing the easy and congenial company of my husband or quiet time alone. When I am in England, I need even more meditative space. Since I travel quite intensely, looking and listening and walking hard, at night I am ready to stop. I have to absorb what I experience and gather my energies for the next day. I want to sink into bed with a book, not traipse down to the pub to talk about politics or football. So I do not usually make social overtures.

Same!!

Continue reading “reading log: my love affair with england by susan allen toth”

[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)

Life Updates

This week had some bummer personal things happening– mom went briefly into the hospital and had several tests done for potential mini-stroke, but luckily(?) it turned out to probably be an autoimmune thing instead. She got some meds for the symptoms and is doing better! (Or so she says, anyway.)

I had headaches 3/7 days and am sure part of it was the pillow I’m using, which is insufficiently cushion-y. But probably also partly the stress, and dehydration.

🐈‍⬛ The most curious cat, Mr W, has started going up onto the counters and sniffing every single food item I make, plus then trying to touch it and/or eat it. If I put a dirty dish in the sink, he tries to get in there at it. He also started drinking dirty sink water, which is gross, so I put a water bowl up on the counter to distract him from that and it seems to have worked.

Miss K is a little more chill but only because she doesn’t like jumping higher than the bed OR going into cabinets. She does like to sit on my lap for 5-8 hours a day, though, and despises my laptop. ;D

Continue reading “[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)”

bathroom art, bot-blocking, trains

Hello, happy Friday! Some more links for y’all to peruse:

On Dreamwidth

casey28 posted these cute (mostly vintage) Halloween icons. And here are some Addams family icons (90’s movie version) from chocolatefrogs!

melannen has a guide for how to make your own fanfiction archive on Neocities (or other free indie site hosts similar to). (h/t ysabetwordsmith in newcomers)

Continue reading “bathroom art, bot-blocking, trains”

reading log: enemy feminisms by sophie lewis

Book Info

Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation by Sophie Lewis (2025)

Genre: Nonfiction

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/32671363/

Acquired from: Library (ebook)

Started reading: October 8, 2025

Finished reading: TBD

Reading Notes

0%: Started reading this to give my brain a little workout and so far it’s working! This is also the first ebook I’m doing a reading log for, and I haven’t decided how to mark down the annotation locations. Based on how my KOreader Sync plugin downloads things (eg without percentages), looks like it’s gonna be grouped under chapter titles.

Continue reading “reading log: enemy feminisms by sophie lewis”

puppetry, poetry, rewilding the web

Hello! Once again I found tabs and links I’d saved for way too long without sharing (this time since MAY), so here, for you:

Misc. Interesting Bits

I really liked this story of attempting to bicycle from Bangkok to Chiang Mai with a cat.

World Encyclopedia of Puppetry Arts fulfills my love of very detailed, very intensely documented weird subject matter, and now I share it with you all.

Opinion: Put Your Magic Where Your Mouth Is, activism from a witchcraft/pagan POV.

Continue reading “puppetry, poetry, rewilding the web”

weeknotes (sept. 28-oct. 4, 2025)

Life Updates

Another week gone by, and now it’s a new month! The end of the year is racing towards me and it’s very annoying(/stressful) to think about, so I’m trying not to.

Another overall mellow week where I mostly stayed home and read/wrote, but I did go to a clothing sale this weekend and got two pairs of shoes for $8: one pair suede booties, one pair corduroy sneakers.

I’m not entirely sure they actually go with my current wardrobe, which is very summer-focused. These shoes are definitely more fall/winter.

I think I can make it work if I get one new pair of dark-colored medium-weight pants (or skirt), so I’m going to keep my eyes open at the thrift stores. On the plus side, if they don’t work out, I spent so little on them I won’t feel bad for donating them if I have to.

🐈‍⬛ I still haven’t done the cat info post for this sit (apologies) BUT rest assured these cats are adorable and friendly and want to me near me without being annoying about it. Their food must have some kind of anti-hairball thing in it because I haven’t found one yet, despite one cat being long-haired.

Media Consumption

📺 Got a Peacock promo subscription for a month (for free) and while I haven’t started watching these YET, I do have them on my watchlist and am looking forward to watching them at some point:

  • Poker Face (TV)
  • The Paper (TV)
  • The Phoenician Scheme (movie)
  • Drive Away Dolls (movie)
  • Honey, Don’t (movie)

📖 Still deep into the Star Wars fanfics and ignoring everything else. ;D

Beloved recent fanfics: Why Not’s and How To’s by Trixree; And Back We Go by miyaji_08; The Force of My Love by Quarra; Second ‘Verse by LauraBWrites; Your Smile In Stone by ecarian

🎮 Started playing Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds on my 3DS, which I’ve played at least once before AND completed! It’s one of the easier Zelda games, I think, but the mechanic is really fun (you flatten out onto walls and go through cracks into another reality) so I’m enjoying it. It IS a little strange to go back to the simpler style Zelda games compared to, like, Breath of the Wild, but it’s still got a good story/gameplay.

Food & Dining

Tried a new-to-me brand of soy milk and it’s horrible, curdles weirdly in my coffee and has a sweetness to it that makes my mashed potatoes taste weird. Bleh.

Web Updates

Gave up on completing the change-over in a timely fashion and put the Docuwiki version of my site back up for now. I think the bots are still attacking, but I have it set up on Cloudflare and I blocked Brazil (where most of the bots were coming from apparently) so that should help.

Looking Forward

I’m currently working on a) setting up various emails tied to various personal domains and b) swapping over everything I want swapped from my Gmail to those new emails.

Some things are harder to change emails for than others AND one of my domains refuses to update its DNS records for some reason, so it’s annoying on both ends. However, I’m hoping to mostly have everything forwarding into my Fastmail account by the end of the week. And perhaps I can even close some of my lesser-used Gmail accounts!

watched: black barbie (2023)

🎬 Black Barbie: A Documentary: Directed by Lagueria Davis. With Lagueria Davis, Beulah Mae Mitchell, Maxine Waters, Shonda Rhimes. Tracing the origin of the first Black Barbie doll to the filmmaker’s aunt, who asked why Barbie couldn’t look like her, this documentary explores her quest for representation and diversity. 🔗

I really enjoyed this! It’s a combo of Barbie history and social history, with a focus on Black American history and culture (obviously).

Has interesting interviews with people directly involved in the creation of the original “Black Barbie,” people working on the then-current Barbie line, and kids who do or do not play with Barbies. I also liked that they talked about other Black dolls available before/after Barbie came out.

It’s a very personal documentary, too, as the director’s aunt was one of the creators. And there’s personal thoughts/statements about Barbie from the director threaded throughout the doc, which I also liked.

Recommended!

💗 Film’s website / All Watched posts

weeknotes (sept. 21-27, 2025)

Life Updates

This week has fairly flown by but honestly I’ve been spending most of my time petting the cats, wandering the neighborhood, reading fanfics, and doing a BIT of work.

It’s a very enjoyable life, but at the same time I wish I’d gotten more done than I had. Oh well! There’s always next week…

Media Consumption

📺 Tried watching several movies and nothing much caught my eye, so instead have been putting Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on in the background. Some of the newer episodes– including the very newest ones that were audience-funded– are now available on the Shout TV streaming channel (or Tubi) which is interesting because there’s a whole new host!

📖 Currently halfway through a very fun Star Wars fanfic, The 212th Attack Battalion’s Guide to Staging Rescues by antigrav_vector and Quarra, and am very much enjoying it.

🎮 I have my (hacked) 3DS with me, and am currently playing a fan translation of Rocket Slime 3 (not as fun as Rocket Slime 2, but okay) and Animal Crossing: New Leaf (which will get its own page on my website eventually).

I also have Sanrio Characters Picross going, which is super cute– you get “stickers” for finishing puzzles and can use them to decorate the backgrounds IN the game.

I’m planning on writing a post later about my 3DS because a) I decorated it and want to show off, and b) there’s some fun homebrew stuff which came out recently and has made the 3DS community more active than it was a few years ago when I first jailbroke it.

Food & Dining

Went to the farmer’s market and splurged on a few things, including a packet of “Reaper” flavored cheese from a local dairy farm and a $10 loaf of jalapeno cheddar sourdough (yum).

Also stopped by a coffee truck and got a honeybun latte, which was good but perhaps just a little overpriced ($7+ yikes).

Web Updates

I need to get back into the habit of posting again! I have so many drafts, but very little energy to finish them. Until then:

Looking Forward

Next week is several fun local events, including a flea market. I’m also planning to go to a thrift store and perhaps a Little Free Library. And of course, reading lots of fanfic (and maybe finishing a book or two).