Rebirth Of The Red Lantern: Volume 2, Chapter 9

WHAT’S ON MY MIND

Health matters. Soon I’ll mostly restrict my diet to the things that helped me lose a ton of weight nearly two years ago. The 2025 Wines Challenge (52 bottles in 52 weeks) is still on, but don’t be shocked if I only drink whites until I have my blood work done in roughly three months. It would be nice if I showed up to my annual exam weighing less than I did last year.

WHAT BOTTLE I OPENED THIS WEEK

Daou 2023 Sauvignon Blanc ($17 retail price) This 92 point Wine Enthusiast Best Buy was good but requires special treatment. Check out the 2025 Wines page for the deets.

WHAT I BOUGHT

Three sets of MINI Night Jack valve stem caps. Miku and Artoria have their own sets, and I have a spare set in case someone rips them off. As of this writing they’re all present and accounted for.

WHAT MADE ME LAUGH

Tudor isn’t included in Wordle’s five letter word base but the word shart is. I’m guessing that’s happened to whomever’s in charge of the game?

WHAT ALSO MADE ME LAUGH

Tom Brady’s reaction to being lustily booed by the Indy 500 crowd. He never played for the Las Vegas Raiders but he knows how to be the villain.

WHAT SACRED TEXTS I READ

• High School DxD (light novel), Volume 16
• The Shiunji Family Children, Volume 4
• Oshi No Ko, Volume 10

Also from J-Novel Club:

• The Poison King: Now That I’ve Gained Ultimate Power, The Bewitching Beauties In My Harem Can’t Get Enough Of Me, Volume 5
• My Tiny Senpai (manga), Awaiting Volume 2
• An Introvert’s Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels For Me!, Awaiting Volume 11
• The Villainess Is Dead! Long Live The Empress! Redoing The Story After A Poisonous End, Volume 2
• Notorious No More: The Villainess Enjoys Feigning Incompetence, Volume 1
• Blade Skill Online: Crushing The Competition With My Abysmal Stats, Useless Class and Garbage Weapon! (manga), Volume 1
• Make It Stop! I’m Not Strong… It’s Just My Sword! (manga), Volume 1

WHAT I’M WATCHING

The four part documentary on Dale Earnhardt on Prime Video. I watched the first episode yesterday afternoon and I’ll finish it out by Friday. It's nice to see guys like Darrell Waltrip, Danny "Chocolate" Myers and Richard Childress on TV again.

THE SIMON BENOIT SUPERMAN PUNCH GOES TO…

The shuttle bus company that took my brother to a recent doctor appointment but never picked him up. He’s lucky I accompanied him to help fill out his paperwork and that I wore my walking shoes. I had to hike nearly a mile to retrieve Artoria so he wouldn’t be stranded at the doctor's office.

FIST BUMPS GO TO…

It was nice to see Alex Palou win his first Indy 500 and Pato O’Ward finish third. Both competed in Super Formula back in 2019.

WHAT KINDA SORTA BUTCH THING I DID

Artoria finally needed a repair and it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg. The holes in the rear license plate mount on the right were stripped, so I bought a brand new one on the left. All it took was a torq (six star) screwdriver bit and a DeWalt drill to switch them out.

WHAT’S UP WITH MY WRITING

I was stuck on Chapter 10 for quite some time, so I took a much needed break during the holiday to figure things out. On Monday morning I got “unstuck” and finished the rewrite. I’ve still got a long way to go but I love how this new chapter reads.