Hello everyone!
It is finally cooler, so I guess they were just a few very hot days.
I loved the story about the squirrels 

I think I did not tell you the other day I went to a Museum, it is the Latin American Art Museum here in Buenos Aires. I am ashamed to admit that I had never been there before, even when it opened more than 20 years ago. I finally decided to use one day of my holidays to go there. It is not a big one, but it has some interesting pieces and I enjoyed it. There are a couple of Frida Kahlo's works, one of Diego Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, one Botero. Of course, several Argentinian ones.It was a pleasant visit, and there was an exposition of a female artist who does things Nature related, mainly with water and seeds. I had a good time, but it was a torrid day, so the commuting was tiresome. I arrived home more tired than I should, but AC was a good thing.

Hello everyone!
I watched one other episode of What if...? and I really liked it. It is about a new superheroine, an original one, called Kahhori, who is from a Mohawk tribe when America was first conquered by Spain. I liked that all the episode was spoken in Mohawk or Spanish and it featured a full change of history. Also, there is a Heaven like place which has an Avatar (the last airbender) vibe.
I have a friend who is into Korean series and has the same problem about the names. She laughs at herself because sometimes she is very confused.
I hope your mother is well, and that she enjoyed her beer, even if she had to drink it fast. The story made me laugh.
We finally watched Oppenheimer (it is on demand now). I think it was excellent and very interesting.

 
It is fun to watch.
I've finished American Gods, a show I had abandoned before, and I am sad to report that the show ends without resolving anything, as if it was expecting a new season that never came 
I am playing a Nancy Drew game I bought a few months ago and had no time to play before. These Nancy Drew games are story and puzzle centered, which is right in my alley. They still sometimes frustrate me, like when I need to do a quest so my silly character can learn the Greek alphabet or when she refuses to see what is obviously happening, but in general I like them. I am also planning to caught up with Stray, the game about a stray cat that was a hit a while ago. i bought it, played it for a while, got frustrated in a part I could not pass, and abandoned it. I will try again, perhaps with hubby help.

I’m wondering if Jim’s defense for the misspellings is the story is taking place far in the future after some cataclysmic event made the world the way it is in the books.  Languages can change over time, with different spellings, different pronunciations and even different syntax and tenses.

That could be total nonsense, but if I was in Jim’s shoes, that would my excuse.  It would be more believable if there are slightly different spellings for ships with English names or English noble names.  I only listened to the audio book, so I can’t tell.

As I said, most TOA names are written like nowadays, except for some Spanish names. That means, yes, spelling can change in many years in the future, but apparently it only affected Spanish names.
Of course I imagine Jim is not fluent in Spanish and that is perfectly ok, but you can check the spelling in Google or just ask someone who knows. I am surprised not the betas, not even the editor thought in suggesting a change of spelling for the ship.
Also, you are entitled to your opinion that this is a minor issue, as I am entitled to my own opinion.

I had not thought about that in the audiobooks. How did they pronounce "conquistodor"? I wish I had a list of ALL the character and ship names, but all those I remember use the current spelling or are perfectly common ones, except for some Spanish ones.

Fcrate!!!
I am so happy to see you!
I am truly sorry about Rex and Minion. I had a couple of cats who died of poisoning due to neighbors like 25 years ago and it still pains me when I think on them. And of course having to put a pet down is one of the worst experiences ever. The only consolation left for any of us in those situations is that we gave the pets our love and that we did we best we could to help them or to have them comfortable. I am sure they know.
On the other side of the wheel, puppies! Did you read that Regen had three kitten too? So cute. I hope the treatment help the mom of your puppies.

Me and hubby are more of less fine. I had a fall several months ago (just a common fall, nothing serious per se) that left me with an annoying but not incapacitating pain in my left foot. The technical name is sesamoiditis, it is like a bruise in small "floating" bone. It also somehow increased a previous issue that I think it is called a bunion (hallux valgus), which was only a minor inconvenience before. In short, I have a pain in what i think you call the ball of the foot. It has been getting better. I did kinesio, magnetotherapy and I finally decided it was not helping me anymore so I stopped doing that. Now, precisely today I have an appointment to have some special soles made for me, which should be softer and help with the position of the toes. So I expect I will be even better.

Also, we have a new president and things are quite dire in my country. Savage devaluation, inflation, recession, all is terrible. The followers of the new president think we are facing a few bad months, like growing pains, and then we will begin to improve. I do not share their vision, but perhaps (hopefully) I am wrong. I will let you know next year (for example)

On the bright side, I am on my leave and I've been sleeping in and being lazy.

Oh! I've also read The Olympian Affair, the last JB book (and previously, the novella Warriorborn). I liked both of them.

Enough for now, hope to see you soon!

I can field a few of those.

Point 3. The reason why Grimm had to duel Valesco is because that intel wouldn't have had any value a fight between Bayard and him. The thing they learned is that the Baron likes to toy with vastly inferior opponents and then insta kill them. Against anyone he thought was a threat, he wouldn't do that. He did it against Grimm because he knew Grimm wasn't on his level and it never occurred to him that someone might just accept so grievous a wound to land a strike, or have the ability to parry his strike in the first place.

Point 4. Whether it was noble of Valesco or would be considered an honorable move was irrelavant. The point was to show that Aurora could bully Albion and they couldn't do anything about it. Plus, whether anyone else thought it was a valid reason was irrelevant. Valesco knew that Bayard would never allow that to pass without a fight to the death.

Point 6. They couldn't just blow Ransoms ship. It was clearly established that trying to use the cannons would have been suicidal. In fact, they nearly did use the cannons to kill both ships before the Pikers showed up

Point 7. I am not sure they have to rebuild Preddy, just repair her. The whole reason Gwen went down with the ship was to make it land relatively intact and light signal flares so it could be found. Since they were bound together, that also means it's likely Mistshawk went down mostly intact too. So, we are most likely going to see an Albion flagged Mistshark in the next book, given that it's whole crew is dead and Calliope captured.

Point 10. Where did you get that idea?

Point 11. Abby's actions were perfectly in character for someone who is a covert agent of the Spire, is emotionally attached to Bayard and is not an honor bound duelist. She couldn't let that duel happen because Bayard would probably lose. She would lose the love of her life AND it would have been a massive blow to her spire. So, she stopped it from happening by subterfuge, like the spy she is.

point 13. It was established at the end of the first book that Grimm would accept the parole of an Auroran that acted honorably. He also knew that while Espira was clearly not on board with the Mistmaw plan, he also would never betray his spire so there was little point in taking him back for questioning. With Espira free, he could be a potential ally against Cavendish's master at a later date. Plus, as Grimm said many times, he isn't a fleet ship and there isn't officially a war yet. He didn't actually have a legal ground to take him. It's the same reasons why no one tried to start a fight with the Conquistador. Neither would go down easy and they acted like honorable men in the fight

Thanks for your answer!

I think you are probably right in pojnts 3, 4 and maybe 6. That one (6) I am not so sure because I think I remember then stating destroying it as a possibility.

I do not know about 7 but I hope you are right.

Point 10, oh, Ferus last words. When he said to Folly that friends kept you sane and made the difference between "you and your mother" or something like that. It implies that Folly's mother is or was an etherealist going crazy and with no friends. Someone comes to mind? I thought it was clear. I am not sure if Caveendish is aware though.

Point 11. What you said in not against what I said. I stated that I totally get why Abby poisoned Bayard. I do mantain that she could have offered to make amends to Grimm or something. She is rich and socially powerful, she could help Grimm, to try to make up a little for what she did. Bayard would appreciate it. Regardless of that, I think the whole arc (Abby, Grimm and Bayard actions and reactions) was very well written and plausible.

Point 13, that one I disagree.

Thanks for saying Conquistador, 

Hello there!
Fireworks are being less and less frequent here, in part for the campaign about noise being bad for pets, children, and some  mental conditions, and part because of the crisis. Not many people can invest in fireworks. Even when I understand all that, I miss when they were tons of them. It was fun. I always loved them.
Today was nice, warm and sunny but not too much on either thing. I hope it remains like that tomorrow when I am back to work (today I was excepted due to a medical appointment, which actually has been for December, but they rescheduled me and the first available time was the first workday of the year.

I loved that so much! Thank you 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!