So we finally left Dulles around 6:40 (our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:59) and got in to Hartford an hour later.

Writing wasn't really possible, but I will try to do the first kisses anyway. For the fandoms I actually write in. *grins*

Um...does anyone remember how the old Yuletide site went up and down like a tart's knickers the last couple of years? Because I've seen people bitching and I know it's annoying that AO3's so slow, but honestly, if it comes to a choice between that or no Yuletide at all....

ETA: Yeah this is what I'm talking about, with links.

First off, I had a lovely Christmas with my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, Nancy's cousin and her cousin's daughter. We had enough ladies and no mens! :) Someone had obtained a screener of Blindside which was sweet and funny and I kinda liked it, which was good as it's not something I'd have seen otherwise.

We had ham, turkey, broccoli casserole, cabbage, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, rolls. It was all good and we haven't even sliced into the cheesecake we got for dessert, probably because we have some left over cheesecake bites from the other night.

Secondly, sga_santa is doing a Madness thing where they're throwing all our prompts open for anyone to grab. Details are here.*



*My letter is here. You know...if you're interested. *halos*

Thank you to zvi for the awesome link to the Retro Cocktail Hour's Holiday Music Show. Check it out! You'll be glad you did!

You know what I think would be cool? A field on the AO3 header for the year the fic was written.

Also, holy crap, I'm about to upload my 117th fic. O.o

ETA: Thanks to mrkinch and seperis for explaining that you can change the publication date, which I totally should have noticed. Now I just need to figure out when I wrote some of this stuff....

So, Yuletide Madness is open!

I actually managed to write a little something for someone. It's so painfully obvious that I feel like offering ficlets or something to people who CAN'T figure out what I wrote. :)

I thought about doing something else, but it's 5am, so maybe tomorrow if we don't have too much running around to do.

Well, we're in VA* now. We got in just fine after just missing what's being called the Blizzard of 09. There's snow everywhere and it's very pretty. And cold. Really fucking cold. In spite of that, we had the window open for a while last night, Nancy's cousin keeps the house pretty warm and between the forced air heat and a massive hot flash, I was burning up.

I've actually been writing, mostly poking at "A Friend of the Devil."

Not much else to say. Hope all of you are doing well!




*Near DC. And while I would have loved to arrange some kind of meet up with those of you on my flist who live in the area, for a lot of complicated reasons, it's really not possible this time around.

I'm not going to go into all the icky details, but the 24 hours before this trip have been...well kinda crappy. But! We're packed and ready to go and apparently, there will be a runway for our plane to land on once we hit the Right Coast.

We're not entirely sure what our internets access will be like for the first part of the trip so I might be even worse about answering comments than I usually am.

Because I won't be here on the 21st...


Blessed Yule to all of you!



*facepalm* I don't even know what day it is anymore

[comments enabled all over]

First off, I want to say "thank you!" to whoever sent me the Hungry Lucy CD. :) I'mma make sure to load it onto my Nano for the trip!

Secondly...OMG, you should see the scarf I got from wyomingnot it's all fuzzy and purpley and glittery and fun!

Thirdly, while we made cookies the other night, we opened presents because we're not taking gifts for each other on the trip. I got some chocolate (including a Vosages bacon bar that I haven't tried yet), a tie-dyed shirt, a pair of fleece arm warmers with gears and hearts silk screened on them, a very cool steampunky wire-wrapped key necklace, a bead necklace and a ginormous book about food. It's a collection of essays on food and taste in history and it's a a lot bigger than I expected and heavy; I won't be taking it on the flight.

And that's about it.

Thank you again Wyo and mysterious CD giving person!

'sup internets?

I've had a couple of bad days, topped off by the car (the old one, not the newer one) not starting this afternoon.

We're kind of rushing around frantically to get ready for our trip. We'll be gone from the 20th through the 1st, so I'm trying to get enough laundry done so we have clothes. It's complicated by that fact that we're going places that are much colder than Sacramento, so that part's fun.

Xpost from http://telesilla.dreamwidth.org/103681.html | comments | You can comment there anonymously (please sign a name) or using OpenID if you do not have a DW account.

... will be held primarily on DW.

Every post after this one will direct comments back to DW. Anon commenting will be enabled as long as no one abuses it and, as always on DW, you can comment using OpenID.

God, I am SO tired of watching LJ do STUPID STUPID stuff and having people in fandom just shrug and go on with business as usual because, as someone recently said: "LJ's where the conversation is."

Right now a bunch of us are pretty pissed off that LJ's gone from three gender options (female, male and unspecified) to two. And if you guessed that those two are "female" and "male" give yourself a pat on the back. You know why they're doing it, don't you? So they can do a better job targeting ads.

Read all of Syne's post, too. You can't just get out of this by choosing one option or the other--specifying one of two genders will be mandatory on account creation.

And if you don't get that this is offensive, then really, I've got nothing to say to you. Fortunately, both rm in a post here and thingswithwings in a post here do have things to say.

I'm sure this will mean a few more people come over to DW or even IJ, but for the most part, fandom won't care. I'd love to be wrong, but each time LJ does something stupid, fandom's just shrugged and kept the conversation where it is. I don't know what it is and God I wish I did so I could figure out what to say to get people to realize that things like this hurt people.

We could host the conversation here on DW, if, you know, fandom gave a damn.

ETA: Supposedly this was a mistake although LJ's response sounds a little like backpedaling. See the ETA on this post and the question in the comment I linked to.

Some of the guys either next door or across the courtyard are yelling excitedly every once in a while. Based on the timing, it sorta sounds more like a football thing than a basketball thing.

In other news, I have a headache and I hate hate hate social anxiety. The amount of time I had to spend talking myself into making a simple phone call is ridiculous and absurd. On the good side, I made it and have an appointment with an optometrist on Saturday, the day before we leave.

Happy Chanukah!!

You didn't give me your name, but I want you to know that the note you wrote meant a lot to me and made me tear up just a little. Thank you!

And yay cast iron frying pan! Corn bread! Pan Seared Rib Eyes!!

Thank you again.

♥

Just one tonight:

From the 2009 Yule LE Line:

Sol Invictus -- "A radiant blend of solar oils: golden amber, saffron, heliotrope, hibiscus, citron, frangipani, frankincense, tangerine, mock orange, and orange blossom."

It's a somewhat heavy floral with just a touch of ambery spice under it. Mostly what I'm getting is the frangipani and the orange blossom grounded by the amber. I'd say this is an almost tropical floral for people who don't like florals. In other words, me. :)

...replace the milk the cheese sauce for baked macaroni and cheese with mostly heavy cream (I thinned it with a little milk)?

Don't.

God, I think I'm gonna die.

Thing is, other than that the fact that it was insanely rich, it was incredibly good. Half sharp cheddar, a quarter jack and a quarter blue cheese made for a nice mix of cheesy taste and melty goodness.

Oh also? It had bacon in it.

Die, I tell you. I'm gonna die.

*dances* SGA Santa is done and off to the beta!! Only chibi!John can express my glee!

Seen all over my flist...

If I came with a warning label, what would it say?