Reading, Watching, Playing

Reading

I finished Mary Robinette Kowal's The Spare Man. I was a bit slow getting in to this, but warmed up to it in the end. Suitable homage to The Thin Man (see Watching) and a fun little murder mystery. I then went on to Naomi Novik's Scholomance series. I don't read much YA/teen but this was very good. I'd read the first two already and was a little surprised that there was a third, but it was a satisfying conclusion to a decent modern fantasy series. I've just started Book 8 of Sarah Painter's Crow Investigations, having caught up with Book 7 late last year. Not sure what I'll read next. I seem to be reading more lately. Partly due to dropping off Twitter and finding Mastodon a less interesting replacement.


Watching

Inspired by The Spare Man I've watched through all of the Thin Man series of films. I'd seen the first, and maybe the second, before, but not the rest. Fun, slightly old-fashioned comedy of manners with a mystery tacked on. Dean Stockwell (yes, Quantum Leap/Battlestar Galactica DS) as the young son in the last one from the late 40s in what was probably his first major role. My depression has been flaring lately and these have managed to take me out of myself when I've been watching them.

Also caught up on The Flash Season 9 (final season as The CW/DC kill off the Arrowverse) first four episodes. Star Trek Picard first few episodes. Watching Carnival Row slowly with $WIFE (not up to date). Still watching The Librarians with $DAUGHTER.


Playing

Alan Wake Remaster in Nightmare Mode and daily fitness with Ring Fit Adventure.

Dental Woes

At the back end of last year a crown came off. I went to the dentist hoping it was just an attachment failure, but no such luck. Decay underneath it needing cleaned out and a temporary crown put back on and a few months waiting to see if it needed a root canal. That doesn't appear to. When I had an appointment for the net stage on that one, though, just before the same tooth on the other side starting giving me some pain a bit like a developing abcess. The dentist was a bit surprised as that tooth is a lower pre-molar and had already had a root canal done a while back. You can still have problems right at the base of the root. They investigated including a CAT scan and some digging around and found that the tooth had cracked under the crown, and that it unusually had a second root spur. Today was the third weekly appointment to deal with this. Last week they dug out the gum that had pushed into the crack (moderately painful for a few days while that healed). Today they did the root canal on the extra root spur, which was infected. I've now got topical antibiotics warring with the infection in the depths of the tooth, which is somewhat painful. Got to wait for the infection to clear (hopefully) and everything to calm down again. So, three weeks before the next treatment to, I think, put a permanent root filling in. Then it'll be a wait until I can get the new permanent crown on that. Not sure if we'll do the original tooth's crown in the mean time or just get both measured and fitted together later.

Painful and expensive.