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Yuletide 2017

Dear Yuletide Author

General notes on what I like and dislike which I am copy and pasting from a previous post:

( Dear Yuletide Author )

Entry tags:

yuletide

Dear Yuletide Author,

It's that time of year again, and you know what that means - desperately trying to winnow down requests and offers and trying to figure out how to make this Yuletide The Best Ever for us all. Apologies in advance if this letter is longer than 90% of Yuletide fics!

( Likes, dislikes, wishes, and wants beneath the cut )

Happy Yuletide, ALL!

I overcome the obstacles before me

Happy Monday!

It's the coldest day of winter here so far, so I bundled up like Paddington Bear. Except that I tried to put my coat on in the car and managed to thread it through the seatbelt and got trapped and then had to do some sorta circle dance and remove half my layers outside and unthread the coat. Thus negating the WHOLE point! Oh, for shame.

But I still had hot coffee warming my belly, so I managed not to freeze to death. SCORE!

Sick!Coworker is back in the office today, CLAIMING he is better and that his fever broke on Sunday. Which is all well and good but he ALSO said he got so tired walking across the parking lot he almost had to sit down to rest, which DOES NOT SOUND BETTER TO ME!!!

So we're all eyeing him with suspicion and Strongly Hinting that we hope he decides to go home early to get more rest.

Also, I WISH I HAD BACON HERE!! I don't. This is the current tragedy of my life.

Oh, SHENANIGANS!

One of my coworkers is at home sick with a 103 fever from the flu. I feel bad for him.

On the other hand, watching my OTHER coworker run around like crazy freaking out about how he doesn't want to get sick is absolutely DELIGHTFUL. He's googling how long it would take before he shows symptoms and borrowing lysol to spray around and PUTS HIS SHIRT OVER HIS MOUTH WHEN WALKING BY SICK COWORKER'S DESK.

It's like living on a sitcom right now, guys, a delightful, delightful sitcom.

It's also supposed to be in the mid-sixties today! With tomorrow's high of 30, so you know, FREAK WEATHER. Which is fine, as long as I can duck out of here early in order to enjoy some of it. I could maybe open up a window at home and breathe in FRESH AIR. Yes, please, let it be so.

*loves*

Tropes, tropes, how fantastic are tropes!

Happy Wednesday!

SO, I signed up for Trope Bingo! I AM SUPER EXCITED except of course, also a little freaked out, because it takes me very much outside my comfort zone. Still, I love, love, love reading trope fic with a mad passion, so how could I not give in?

And I got an absolutely FANTASTIC card, with the only problem that omg, I do not even know where to begin or what line I want to do or even what fandoms! Eeek.

( My card, is huge, I did not realize )
SO MUCH EXCITEMENT. So many possibilities for procrastination, right?

Now to make myself a cup of coffee and try to make today productive in other ways. The ways that involve keeping swmkit in kibble and cardboard scratching pads.

I am counting down the HOURS til couchtime

Good morning, darlings.

Oh man, last night was my FIRST NIGHT of solitude and relaxation in SIX DAYS. It was glorious and wonderful - I mean, people are ok and all, but I am BUILT to be a solitary recluse much of the time, just me, a bottle of wine, a kindle full of words, and maybe a swmkit IF he isn't meowing loudly about things I can't help him with. And last night that was ALMOST ACHIEVED. (The almost part is because swmkit WAS meowing loudly about things I could NOT HELP HIM WITH, sorry swmkit, it's BELOW FREEZING OUTSIDE which means no, I will NOT leave a window open, omg)

Despite not having seen a SINGLE EPISODE, I am now reading Merlin fanfic like it's crack. I'm starting to think this wacky rollercoaster I'm riding is NEVER going to end, because I seriously just keep overdosing on fandoms until I can barely rub two brain cells together, and then I bunny-trail off when I start to reach my threshold and notice an author I like wrote long stories in another fandom, then I read massive doses and then ...

It's just totally, 100% opposite of any way I've approached fandom and fics in the past and while it's GLORIOUS, it's SUPER WEIRD.

Anyway, this weekend I need to take my car BACK to the shop because the check engine light has RETURNED despite it having been fixed two weeks ago. DO NOT BE MY NEW NEMESIS, CAR!! I can't afford to combat you! Please, please, let it be cheap.

Have great and glorious (and inexpensive) weekends yourselves, my dear flist!

This year, in 2013

Happy 2013, my darlings!

It's been a crazy-hectic couple of weeks, which would make you THINK that I would have some fun/entertaining stories of shenigans and yet, no, instead it's just a blur.

In No-longer-breaking-news, I posted my Yuletide story AND the WORLD DID NOT END. I know. I'm shocked as well!

Anyway, I wrote in The Unusuals, which is one of those shows that got canceled before it even got out the gate (10 total episodes) a few years ago, and seriously, if you can track it down, EVERYBODY SHOULD WATCH IT, because it's a supergreat ensemble cast with great plots and snark and quirky characters and I loved every one of the (too few) episodes.

If anybody IS already familiar with the show, my humble offering is here:

A Virtual Pandemic

As always, I wish I would have had like 5 more hours to work on it, but I didn't, because I suck, so ta da, done is done. Procrastination is my NEMESIS.

In other news, I've seen The Hobbit (which I enjoyed THOROUGHLY and felt like it didn't feel long at all, except for the bit in the middle where I really, really, really had to use the restroom). I still can't believe it's been split into 3 movies, but so far, so good.

We also keep having WEATHER and so today I am wearing snowboots and wishing for magical mystery beings to shovel my driveway. Good luck, self, good luck.

Stay toasty, kids! Let's all have an amazing year! (My breakfast is secretly butter cookies, shhh)

It's the moooooost wonderful day of the year!

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dearest meeeee, happy birthday to me! I am going to wear my birthday crown ALL DAY LONG.

Oh man, I have been just swamped with doing nothing. I don't understand how this whole time thing works, it keeps moving forward when all I want is for it to STOP! Not in an 'i'm getting old way' - that's exciting, because holy cow, we're only a couple of decades away from me being able to yell at lawn-kids properly - but because I blink and it's been weeks since I updated and oh yeah, I still have SO MUCH TO DO BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

I am ready for my time freeze ray, stat! Or actually, if one does a time machine, I'm ready for it at your leisure, I'll just set it for two weeks ago.

HAVE GLORIOUS DAYS! Everybody should have a special treat in my honor. You're not doing it for you, you're doing it for ME!!

Current Mood: sleepy

STOMP SMASH

Rarrrr!

This morning roar brought to you by the makers of strange red tea with asian pear and something I can't remember. That's right, it's caffeine free and it's supposed to SAVE ME.

I did have coffee earlier, though, so don't worry that I'm completely zombiefied. The lurgy and I are still in mid-battle and my victory WILL BE SO. Plus, last night BFF invited me over for chicken tortilla soup to help cure me, and it was delicious! And then I curled on my couch and read lots of Sherlock fic.

However, I am not sure I'll make it through the day today - I have a meeting this afternoon but after it's over, I'm going to try to take off early. Maybe get a nap in. Oh sweet, sweet naps, how you beckon me. PLUS, my check engine light went on in my car this morning, which is YET ANOTHER THING to deal with *shakefist*. I need a Jeeves.

I hope everybody is having lovely and less sniffly days than I am!

Current Mood: chipper

Cyber Monday? You mean SPAM Monday!

Goood morning, darlings!

I had a lovely Thanksgiving day - I was invited over to my neighbors' house (not BFF, different neighbor) and they smoked turkey and had all the trimmings and we drank lots of wine and played Life with lots of sarcastic comments (I kept losing my job and my husband kept trying to jump/falling out of my car, but good riddance, I am KEEPING THE KIDS). Their girls are still just young enough to get excited about board games and going to the park (6th and 7th grade) and it was thoroughly entertaining. And then we watched Dark Shadows, the movie, and it was absolutely dreadful, what a terrible, terrible movie, what where they THINKING? I mean, I remember the original and I even remember the REBOOT that they did somewhere around what, 89 to 91? I don't remember the exact year, but it lasted only like a half season before getting canceled and IT was far better than that movie.

I swear, I mean, I LOVE the concept of reboots (I am not in the 'get new ideas, hollywood, because nostalgia is AWESOME) but if you're going to reboot, you need to NOT SUCK at it. (Oh, I just checked, it was rebooted in 1991. And apparently they tried in 2004 but it didn't get picked up, boo, that would have been a GOOD TIME FOR IT. Also, the 1991 reboot was a LOT OF FUN. Grrr.

Anyway, to continue my rant, that movie was just awful, it didn't know if it wanted to be comic or dark or whatever and it sorta failed at everything. Boo, Johnny Depp, boo. Just sad. I didn't have high hopes for it, but even my low expectations weren't even met!

After that, the rest of my weekend was spent with me developing lurgy AGAIN (nephbo was so super sick on Wednesday and I cuddled him and then it developed into me being sick late late thursday after I got home) and then I sorta huddled on the couch and slept all day Friday and Saturday. Yesterday I started to feel human and I watched The Amazing Spiderman which was also really bad (seriously, Peter Park was an ASS and a jerk and a bully in it, this is not the kind of superhero I want. I can take him emo, but not him being a jerk)

And today I am back at work! With lots of hot coffee and the coffee is helping and later today I might go get Korean food because the pork and kimchee stew at the nearby restaurant is divine and I am pretty sure can cure anything under the sun. And there will be much rejoicing.

Also, my inbox is FLOODED with SPAM from every single vendor that has ever heard of me, darn you cyber monday.

Current Mood: groggy

A litany of disasters

First, I was rushing out of the house this morning and I left my half-drunk second cup of coffee on the counter instead of taking it with me into the car as I planned to finish it. The ENTIRE DRIVE I could feel my body just going 'c'mere coffee, c'mere' and I kept trying to drink it except it was FICTIOUS, INVISIBLE COFFEE and I didn't get a single sip and it was traumatic and terrible.

Second, and this is actually something that started last week with the time change (DAMN YOU, THE TIME CHANGE) - it's getting dark earlier, OBVIOUSLY, and my schedule is staying the same and I was on my way home and realized that it looked like one of my headlights had burned out. And I was like, oh, crap, do not want.

But that was almost it for driving in the dark, if I don't stay a little late at work, I can still get home before dark so I put off thinking about it (swmbo = terrible and lazy person) and then yesterday I was like, weird, things seem even dimmer on the car in front of me at not-dark (this maybe only makes sense to me but go with it) and I looked and now BOTH headlights are out, GRRRR. (They work if it's brights but of course you can't do brights all the time so really yes, I have to figure out getting them fixed this week before it continues to get DARKER. Also, I just hate driving at night anyway, it is wretched)

There really isn't a third disaster, unless the headlights count as two, but I feel like MAYBE IT DOES. Either way, the world is all impending doom, what could be NEXT?! Perhaps I'll swallow a fly. Perhaps I'll DIE! (this will now be going through some people's heads, SORRY)

Current Mood: indescribable

HAPPY MONDAY

NEPHBO 2.0 TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!

I got the text from BFF and shoved my feet into sandals (despite the fact it was FREEZING, shoes would take to long) and ran across the street and then proceeded to never get to see him walk, the rascal.

Nephbo 1.0 was the BEST baby when it came to doing things on command. Nephbo 2.0 really is NOT. He is very much like, whatever, I do what I want when I want it. So we kept holding things for him and/or calling to him and he would stand and grin at us and then plop down and crawl really fast with this LOOK on his face like "I know I am thwarting you, but you can't resist me anyway!"

Worst.baby.ever.

Other than that, I spent the weekend hideously obsessed with One Direction fic (I HATE YOU SO MUCH,

estrella30 what is *wrong* with me? I woke up at 3am on Saturday morning UNABLE TO SLEEP and just read through the entire day. The only reason I didn't spend EVERY waking minute reading it was because I had already committed to going to a housewarming party on Saturday evening. I don't even remember Sunday (well except for the hour or so I was over watching Nephbo 2.0 refuse to walk for me), it's all a blur.

So, really, my life is currently in a shame-spiral :) Don't worry, I'm already shaking my head at myself and saying 'oh, swmbo' - so you don't have to!

Current Mood: optimistic

Scared now ...

I VOTED! I HAVE A STICKER!! MY CIVIC DUTY IS COMPLETE!!

*collapses*

Also, yesterday I was exploring for a new lunch place, in the one that one does when one isn't really hungry but knows one needs to eat so they think, maybe something will catch my eye, and something DID catch my eye.

Not, however, a place to eat. Instead, a strip mall location named "Miracle Sisters Lice Removal'

That just seems to me to be an UNUSUAL business and also the BEST freaking name in the world. How do they get enough customers to stay in business? Do people NORMALLY go somewhere for lice removal? I thought you just ... bought a kit in the store or something? So now I want to investigate, except that my imagination might be more fun.

Tonight is going to have me on the edge-of-my-seat, ugh. It's the one time I will actually MISS having television reception. GOOD LUCK, USA. WE NEED IT.

Entry tags:

yuletide

Dear Yuletide Author

Dear Yuletide Author,

I am super excited about YOU! I really hope you have fun with the exchange, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. This is actually my first Yuletide letter, so I hope it's more helpful/reassuring than confusing.

The first thing you need to know about me is that you can probably put your mind at ease - there's almost no idea that's too cracked-out for me to enjoy.

( Read more meanderings )
In short, wherever your bunnies take you, I'm happy!

Current Mood: feverish

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEEN!!!

I have the dreaded lurgy, so that's why this is supershort. I spent the weekend huddled on my couch, tried going into work on Monday and left early, and spent yesterday home sick as well.

Today I'm in the office but waffling between strangely clear bursts of productivity and glazed staring.

Later today, I HAVE to sign up for yuletide before the deadline, which means that my signups will also be potentially fevered. I'm less worried about my requests (which I had fairly well solidified pre-lurgy) and more worried about what my crazed brain believes I will be able to write when I'm clicking.

So anyway, upcoming will be a space for a Yuletide letter I have nothing but sympathy for the reader on.

BUT! Nephbo tonight is going to be a Lego Scientist (chemist) and Nephbo 2.0 a Bear. Both of them are obviously godless killing machines!

This coffee is DELIGHTFUL

Morning, my darlings!

This week has been a weather-roller-coaster ... it actually got hot enough that the other day I had to turn on my AC. In October. LATE October.

And this morning it turned into crazy-stormy-weather and it's supposed to dip down into supercold. Which, GOOD. My AC SHOULD NOT BE ON!!

The sheer amount of (non-TeenWolf) fandoms who are doing alpha/omega werewolf AUs is making me giggle. I think it's EVERY current fandom. So far, I haven't actually tried one, because I don't know if I want to know who I will turn into when I go down that path but ...

I'm reading Sherlock Holmes fic now, and long, plotty fic seems to be EVERYWHERE there (I just dipped my toes in at this point) and that is really satisfying. GIVE ME MORE, WORLD!!

My plans this weekend involve going to see Cloud Atlas, because I loved that book so much - and yes, I am TERRIFIED of how it will turn out in movie-form, and how they can condense it into movie-form, but excited anyway. Even if each layer will have to be like only 15 minutes long.

HAPPY THURSDAY!

Current Mood: geeky

In which I continue to make poor choices

Dear self,

Staying up late/getting up early to watch meteor showers is a GREAT idea in theory but oh man, it makes Monday mornings difficult! Last night BFF brought Nephbo 2.0 over at midnight and we hung out on my deck and looked for meteors and only found a few, but the peak was supposed to be the last few hours before dawn. So we said if we woke up, we'd do it again this morning. And swmkit woke me up at 5:45 and so instead of going back to bed, I texted her and she was indeed awake (BFF never sleeps, we think she's a vampire) and she went and got us coffee and then we watched more.

And the morning definitely was better, I saw a couple of really nice ones, but I am definitely toothpicking my eyes now, despite the extra large coffee.

In SUPER SHINY NEWS, my new Kindle Paperweight is SHIPPING SOON. Maybe (hopefully!!) even RIGHT NOW!!

(My old kindle is the 2nd generation one and is completely giving up the ghost, it runs out of juice every two days if I don't remember to charge it every night and that's just ridiculous and also the new one looks sooooo beautiful. I can not wait! Also, LOW LIGHT READING! I won't be stuck in just a few specific locations!)

Yours in tiredness,

swmbo

As an antidote to said-tiredness, I now post a picture of Nephbos 1&2, taken right a few weeks after Nephbo 2 was born. Because I heart them so much.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: sleepy

Insomnia, Day 2

Up past 2 am again last night. This time I made a CONCRETE EFFORT to go to bed before that. I turned off the light. I lay in bed. I pushed my feet at swmkit.

I stared at the wall. And stared. Then I closed my eyes, but I think I was still staring behind my eyelids. I felt not-sleepy, so I couldn't even lull myself to sleep with daydreams. Just my brain doing that countdown where it tells you how many hours of sleep you'll get if you manage to fall asleep in the Next 15 Minutes.

So eventually I knew it was hopeless and I turned the light back on and read for another hour or so.

On the plus side, swmkit only woke me up FIVE minutes before my alarm this morning, not 30! So yay!

AND I CLEANED MY KITCHEN. That's right, I deserve a GOLD STAR!!

Tonight I have to do my spare bedroom (an old friend/ex-roommate is coming to stay with me for a week and a half or so and he's going to arrive super late Wednesday or sometime Thursday but Wednesday is Nephbos night so I won't be home to do any tiding) and then I can proclaim myself Queen of the Minionless. Which may not be as cool as Queen of the Minioned, but is arguably more within my reach.

Happy Tuesday!

Current Mood: sleepy

Good Monday!

Good morning, darlings!

I am gritty-eyed and wan this morning, which I totally realize is my own fault for still being up at 2am reading. But I wasn't TIRED yet! I kept wanting just one more cracky-AU! And then for some unknown reason I woke up BEFORE my alarm so I only had like 4 and a half hours of sleep. Seriously self, learn to sleep.

Yuletide signups are apparently up and I plan to sign up again this year! That makes my second year, I feel so fannishly accomplished and connected!

I also finally lived up to my own expectations and watched more pilots - Elementary and Revolution.

Elementary:
( Read more... )

Revolution: (FIRST TWO EPS ONLY!)

( Read more... )
Tonight I absolutely have to clean my kitchen :( :( :( WHY DO I NOT HAVE MINIONS?!

I hug my Nephbo and I watch TV

Good morning, darlings!

Yesterday my poor nephbo 1.0 was on a field trip to a farm and had a really bad asthma attack :( :( :( (He is fine now!! BUT STILL) But he was only getting something like 48% oxygen when the EMTs showed up (also, how stupid is it that kids aren't allowed to carry their inhalers at school but have to keep it with the nurse? This makes NO SENSE to me and I don't like it and it scares me!)

Anyway, BFF called me after and asked if I could come over and hang with him and 2.0 for a few hours while she ran errands and of course I said yes. He was doing much, much better ... to the point where he tried to use it as an excuse not to go to bed :p But it was a worrisome afternoon.

I am finally watching pilots! The first 3 episodes of Last Resort (with BFF), Arrow, and Beauty and the Beast.

First, Last Resort:
( When a submarine loves an island very, very much ... )

Arrow:

( Bows and Crossbows are ALWAYS my heroic weapon of choice )

Beauty and the Beast:

( Whatever happened to a face only a mother could love? )
So that's actually a pretty decent 3 for 3, particularly after the Chicago Fire/666 Park Avenue blahs I had.

I STILL need to watch Revolution, but that may actually be it on my Fall Drama Pilot tour, unless I wander across a hidden forgotten gem.