productive

Someone from my neurologist's office called this morning, to discuss my new MS drug prescription (Kesimpta). This was mostly things like, the next step is that I will hear from a specialty pharmacy, and what I should do if they are asking for a large copay. There are ways to get the drug company to cover all or most of that, but I'll have to ask, and I don't know how complicated the process is. The woman I spoke to said that the doctor's office doesn't know what my copay will be, because the insurance companies and pharmacies won't give them that information, they'll only tell the patient.

The drug will be shipped to my home, with ice packs to keep it cool, because it needs refrigeration. I'll be getting the first three doses (weeks 0, 1, and 2) at once, and then monthly doses, shipped one at a time. In this case they do mean monthly, rather than every four weeks, which may be easier to keep track of.

This afternoon, I filled out and submitted the "FinCEN" report about my Canadian bank account for 2023. I'd already collected the data, so this was a matter of doing a couple of calculations, then going to the appropriate website, and entering things like my name, address, and social security number, plus the information about the bank account (account number and maximum balance during the calendar year).

Wednesday reading

Books that I read in the last month:

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older: This is a sequel to The Mimicking of Known Success: Pleiti and Mossa's relationship is going more smoothly, but still unettled enough that the uncertainty is a plot thread, along with the mystery, and more good world-building. (Well, good given the implausibility of the whole living-on-Jovian-railroads premise.)

Demon Daughter, by Lois McMaster Bujold: Another Penric and Desdemona novella, this one with less adventure and more about family, inclyding chosen family. I like ( massive spoilers )

Dark and Magical Places: the Neuroscience of Navigation, by Christopher Kemp: The book is about the different things that are part of navigation, and the ways they interact, and some of the ways people get lost when one or more of those things doesn't work right. Kemp himself has little sense of direction (on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is best, he rates his own navigation ability as a 1). Also, "everyone knows" that men are better navigators than women, and this is sometimes explained by a "men hunted, women gathered" story, and Kemp describes the story and then says that the problem with this idea is that it's complete nonsense. I don't remember who recommended this book to me, but I'm glad I read it, and if the subject sounds interesting you'd probably like the book.

The Shortest Way to Hades, by Sarah Caudwell: Another mystery read aloud. I remembered some but not all of the key plot bits; we discover at the end that Prof. Tamar really did figure out the answer partly through Scholarship [sic].

The Way Home, by Peter Beagle: two linked fantasy stories. The first is set some years after The Last Unicorn, with some of the same characters; Molly Grue makes more of an impression on the narrator than either Schmendrik or King Lir. Good.

Backpacking through Bedlam, by Seanan McGuire: the thirteenth InCryptid novel, picking up where Spelunking through Hell left off, this time with Alice as the viewpoint character. (I'd somehow not noticed this one existed until Adrian brought _its_ sequel home from the library.) I'm continuing to enjoy the series, but this isn't a good place to start. The book includes a bonus novella, "Where the Waffles Went," a slice of life about James, Sally, and the Aeslin mice.

current reading:

After-Market Afterlife, the newest InCryptid book, in hardcopy
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels on the kindle