| AO3 + writing |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|12:06 pm] |
So I've been a very busy bee the last few days.
~I helped ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) alisanne by tagging some of the ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif) adventdrabbles from the last two years (which starts again on Tuesday--mark you calendars!! *\o/* ).
~I finished (FINALLY) my Kinky Kristmas fic for daily_deviant (thanks to jadzialove for her expert beta skills ♥)-will email that in tonight.
~I just uploaded a bunch of fic to AO3. I have to say AO3 is pretty shiny. I haven't tagged my fics properly yet. But I did put up my collection of last year's adventdrabbles for example.
Here's my list of works I've added so far. It's really cool to see the variety of fic all in one place. From fluff and romance to chan dub-con incest or bestiality. *vbg* |
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| Poem for Sunday |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|12:04 am] |
( Monday )
We spent most of Saturday at the Maryland Science Center, which has the phenomenal Da Vinci - The Genius exhibit, an enormous traveling collection of reproductions of machines, artwork, writings, and devices either designed and produced by Da Vinci or proposed in his notebooks. My personal favorite part was a roomful of exhibits concerning the Mona Lisa, which was photographed extensively by a French photographer who designed a camera specifically to take high-resolution images without needing light that would damage the canvas -- he was able to prove, for instance, that the sky was originally painted with lapis lazuli, meaning that when Da Vinci painted it, it would have been a deep, glorious blue. There were reproductions of the painting showing how it looks under infrared and how the colors would have looked during the Renaissance, which makes the painting seem much more contemporary. There's also a reproduction of the back of the painting, which has some inexplicable marks on it, and an entire wall of close-ups of the Mona Lisa's eyes to show how the photographer proved she had eyebrows and eyelashes when she was first painted. But the entire exhibit, which has hands-on machines that kids can try, movies on the Sforza Horse and Vitruvian Man, and a long feature at the end with Mark Rylance playing Da Vinci.
Since we were in the museum, we also went to the planetarium show on dark matter, which talked about new theories about the Big Bang and the Large Hadron Collider's work in figuring out whether we can create particles whose existence we can't yet prove. Then we went up on the roof to the observatory, where the telescope was aimed at the sun, which had visible prominences but no sunspots that we could see. The Science on a Sphere projector was showing a film about the sun too. We visited the Chesapeake Bay exhibit, the dinosaurs, the weather station, and the hands-on science lab on the first floor before leaving for Silver Spring, since Daniel was going to his robotics team's alumni dinner at the Macaroni Grill there. Originally we had planned to drop him off, but we ended up parking in the lot connected to City Place Mall since we arrived early, and we decided we should go to Lebanese Taverna and shop while waiting for him (Burlington Coat Factory is still having a big sale and wasn't very crowded, and the mall has a terrific holiday display with model trains, Santa, and exhibits on Chanukah and Kwanzaa).
( Maryland Science Center )
We missed today's football games entirely but I understand that Maryland lost and Georgia beat Georgia Tech, so no big loss...and Notre Dame lost again! If anything else happened in the world or online, I missed hearing about it. Will try to catch up tomorrow. |
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| Stuff of a stufflike stuffness |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|07:23 pm] |
As we say in these parts. Another pretty mellow day; got up late, and decided not to grocery shop today since we had sufficient milk etc. to hold us till tomorrow, and fridge space was still at a premium with various leftovers occupying it. (We ate up a few things for dinner tonight.) Ran an errand or two, though, and have done almost all the LIS reading (1.5 more chapters to go) and posted in discussion for one class. Also hung out in the front yard with SO and the neighbors for a while.
Tomorrow I'll grocery shop, then make a whole lot of cranberry nut bread mini-loaves for gifting, and make mashed potatoes for dinner with leftover turkey & gravy and more leftover veggies. Turkey Sun/Tues/Thurs, gumbo Mon/Wed/Fri, I think. Easy. Will just need to make more veg eventually. We're going to throw a little holiday party in a couple of weeks and I'm starting to plot food for that.
Fic-stuff: alisanne is modding adventdrabbles at IJ again this year; she posts a daily prompt from December 1-24, but it's not required to use it, and ficlets as well as drabbles are welcome, in any fandom. beren_writes mods ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) adventdrabbles at LJ, although doesn't do the prompts.
Less than 2 weeks until 3fan_holidays ficlets are due, and I put up the header template post for that today. And hd_holidays starts posting Tuesday, as will daily_deviant's Kinky Kristmas, and I believe also happy_trekmas. Whew - those are just the ones I'm participating in, too, and there are plenty of other fests kicking off shortly as well. |
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| Wow |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|12:46 am] |
Did online holiday shopping tonight too. Now have only a couple of minor gifts yet to find/buy, plus stocking stuff, plus sew waistcoat for SO (which won't happen till the semester is over, but also doesn't have to be shipped anywhere). And I think he's decided on and possibly ordered something for me already. So basically - we are done with gift organizing. Wow. Now, whether we can get in gear with cards/letter remains to be seen.
It is, however, nearly 1 am so I think I'd better head for bed! |
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| Poem for Saturday |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|12:36 am] |
( Ocean )
We spent Black Friday as far away from the mall and box stores as possible -- we went hiking along Rock Creek Park and Lake Frank at Meadowside Nature Center. It was pretty chilly when we left home, since it was overcast and windy all day with occasional fits of rain, but the sun came out just as we reached the lake, so we had some gorgeous views of the winter trees and ducks. The park has some building ruins in the woods and some reconstructed cabins near the outdoor education buildings, and we walked the long loop since it was so nice out. We also stopped at the Oriental Market because younger son wanted to get red bean paste for sandwiches -- most of his friends at school are Asian and they all share food, and he prefers their lunches to his own.
( Meadowside Nature Center )
fannish5: ( Holiday Gatherings )
Speaking of holiday gatherings, we had dinner with my parents and my sister's three daughters -- my sister and her husband always go stay in a hotel the day after Thanksgiving, having had enough of family togetherness -- most people had leftover turkey, stuffing, etc., I had half a bagel with tuna fish and sweet potatoes without the melted marshmallows this time. Having watched the end of Auburn's sad late-game loss to Alabama, we opted to skip more football and watched Princess Mononoke instead -- environmental-themed stories with strong women being much more my thing anyway, and my kids never saying no to a movie where wolves, elk, and boars are major characters! |
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| Drabble: In Vitro, PG, Harry, Kingsley, Severus |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|10:56 pm] |
Title: In Vitro
Characters: Harry, Kingsley, Severus . . . after a fashion
Word Count: 100x6
Rating: PG
Warnings: Unexplained plot, vaguely creepy
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: Originally intended for snarry100 but it got weird. Too weird.
( In Vitro ) |
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| Black Friday |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|07:07 pm] |
In the event SO and I did do a little holiday shopping today. Both of our cars went in to the dealer/mechanic this morning - I needed an oil change and tire rotation, and it turned out that I'd picked up a nail in one sidewall, so also ended up getting a new tire; SO had to get an underneath piece replaced. So that all took a while, and then we went and had a burger for lunch, and decided to check out a couple of galleries/shops in the art district afterward. We now have gifts for all parental units and siblings (although not my BIL and niblings yet). So go us! SO also went to the good local independent bookstore to pick up something he'd ordered, but there was no going to malls or anything of that sort.
I've now written the last quiz for my lower-div class, so that means IIRC I have no more prep in either class to do, though I do have some reading and grading. Also have both reading and work to do for LIS classes, though, which I hope to get to tonight/tomorrow. I could have started on some of it, but I finished a novel instead. Also have started thinking about holiday cards/letters, though haven't gotten very far with that yet.
Turkey breast is roasting and smelling yummy. I'll temp it shortly, and once it's done the dressing goes into the oven (my tiny oven will not hold both a bird and another dish at once). Then make gravy, and all the rest is leftover veggies. *mouth is watering* We had a very nice time with J., C., and F. yesterday, and good food, but I do like having leftover turkey of our own. |
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| Poem for Friday |
[Nov. 27th, 2009|12:34 am] |
( Wood )
Like many U.S. residents, I spent most of the day celebrating Thanksgiving -- Paul's parents arrived at our house early in the afternoon, we spent a few hours with them, then went over to my parents' house where my sister and her family had arrived the day before yesterday. It was a pretty traditional meal -- turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce. I ate only minimal stuffing and potatoes to avoid excess salt -- one thing for which I am profoundly grateful is not having had a migraine for the past six weeks, a situation I did not wish to ruin by overindulging -- not a big sacrifice for me anyway, since roast turkey isn't my favorite, and I made up for it with lots of sweet potatoes, which are my favorite Thanksgiving dish (my mom makes the kind with melted marshmallows on top). Here are some photos of the festivities:
( Thanksgiving Dinner )
We missed the beginning of the Paul McCartney concert, which was very abbreviated anyway due to all the commercials and interview clips -- I am planning to buy the DVD, since it's the same set he did in D.C. minus "Michelle" and with the addition of Billy Joel singing on "I Saw Her Standing There." His voice didn't sound as good at Citi Field as it did at FedEx field -- maybe he gets better the more he plays. He sure didn't sound like he planned to retire any time soon, which makes me happy! On Friday the funeral for the owner of the Washington Wizards will take place at my synagogue. I met Abe Pollin once when I was a kid, when the Washington Bullets won the championship -- he walked around letting people see his championship ring. He was one of the good-guy team owners, and he will be missed in Washington. |
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| Wanted - one drabble/ficlet prompt! |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|03:18 pm] |
Resulting drabble/ficlet to be posted sometime in December.
Usual request - pairing or character, plus a 1-to-3-word prompt. Any fandom you know I write/have written is fine.
Thanks!
[If I get multiple prompts, I will write more than one if the muse is cooperative.] |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|02:42 pm] |
To those who celebrate - and a happy Thursday to everyone else!
We're going to our neighbors' for the evening in about two hours; pretty much all we've done today is take Juno to the dog park (where there were a handful of other dogs), have brunch, and cook stuff to take tonight. SO's worked a bit on his window. So yeah, definitely a holiday.
Tomorrow I'm actually going to roast a turkey breast, just for us, because otherwise there would be no leftover turkey. There were fresh ones in the store yesterday when we stopped to pick up some milk, so I made the decision partly on impulse. I'll make dressing and gravy too, but other than that, it'll be some of the near-infinite supply of leftover veggies, nothing special. Probably won't make mashed potatoes, at least not for tomorrow. Possibly for with leftovers though. I contemplated making rolls (my sister having called about that recipe this morning) but I think maybe will wait and make them at Christmas instead. |
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| Happy birthday! |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|02:34 pm] |
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| Happy Thanksgiving |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|07:52 am] |
To all my dear friends celebrating Thanksgiving I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you', that would suffice." ~Eckhart von Hochheim |
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| Poem for Thursday |
[Nov. 26th, 2009|12:12 am] |
( Thanksgiving )
My kids had a half-day of school, so I didn't get a lot accomplished on Wednesday -- by the time I finished reading the paper, buying the SPP Scottish sheep farm for myself and Adam, figuring out where I saved last year's holiday address label file, talking to the vet (who said that if Rosie's appetite had returned, she was probably fine through Thanksgiving...and her appetite has returned with a vengeance), and talking to my doctor (who said my liver on the ultrasound was normal, huzzah!), Adam was already home. Both kids were in and out during the afternoon playing with friends. I still don't have printed address labels, but I haven't bought stamps either, so I need to do both next week! I had no time to fiddle with photos either, so here are some older pics from Seneca Creek State Park a couple of weeks ago...
( Seneca Afternoon )
Musically, this week's were my favorite episodes of both Glee and Eastwick, though I remain utterly unmoved by the characters on the former -- there are the ones I don't like very much, and the ones I totally can't stand, with the ones I like best (Mercedes, Artie) getting very little air time, and the ones who most make me want to smash something (Terri) doing the same stupid things over and over. ( Spoilers. ) As for Eastwick, I still can't warm up to Joanna, but Roxie more than makes up for that, and I'm so glad Penny is playing a bigger role though I'm also sad because how far can it go with so few episodes left? My big accidental revelation, though, is that the guy playing Jamie, Jack Huston, is Anjelica's nephew, John's grandson! How did I not know that! ( Spoilers. )
Happy Thanksgiving! |
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| Scroll by; collecting quick views |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
   
(plus, for my daughter:)
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| Sweet Potato Recipe |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|02:22 pm] |
I thought I'd share my recipe for sweet potatoes with everyone. They are always a favorite at our table.
( Apple Pecan Sweet Potatoes ) |
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| Poem for Wednesday |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|12:42 am] |
( The Big Sleep )
I had lots of plans for Monday, but Rosie was sick from 3 a.m. on, so I got very little sleep and then decided around 10 a.m. that it was time to call the vet, since she not only hadn't eaten her food but was showing no interest in trying to steal Cinnamon and Daisy's food (usually she heads in the kitchen to look for more food mere seconds after throwing up). So I took her to the vet, who wanted me to leave her for a couple of hours so they could get some fluids into her and do a more thorough exam than merely concluding that she yowled when someone pressed on her belly -- something I could have told them anyway. They said she would probably be ready to go home by 6 unless they found some reason she needed to stay, so I ran out to Office Depot to get address labels for holiday cards, then came home and spent the rest of the afternoon working on our family 2010 calendar now that Shutterfly is finally having a buy one, get the rest for half price with free shipping sale.
The vet said she thinks Rosie has pancreatitis, though apparently it's hard to diagnose without a sonogram, which is both expensive and time-consuming (they couldn't work it in today, though they'll do one tomorrow if she isn't keeping food down by then). Her CBC was normal except for an elevated liver enzyme which the vet suspected was from the pancreas pressing on the liver. She gave her antibiotics and an anti-nausea medicine, and sent us home with more medicine that we must give her twice a day orally (joy). Since Daisy was due for her rabies shot, we brought her with us to pick Rosie up, so now we have two cats who think we are evil and cruel. Meanwhile I have not heard back from my doctor about my tests, but the calendars have been ordered and the holiday address labels are a work in progress, so I will just try to catch up on everything else over the long weekend.
( Huntley Meadows Park ) |
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| Lazy day |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|07:22 pm] |
Walked Juno, did 6 loads laundry, took Juno to the vet (time for a vaccine & also more heartworm med), and read a couple of novels. Now cooking beets (for me)and radishes (for SO) for dinner. Maybe will also make the little bit of broccoli; we've had the beans-and-greens 3 days running, so even though there's still lots, time for a break from those. Also have leftover baked chicken and noodles.
So, yeah. Basically a lazy day, in which no work for either teaching or school got done. I didn't even check those email accounts.
Have some fic to edit, and am gradually developing an idea for my Yuletide fic. Oh, and thanks to cruisedirector for the AO3 invite - of course now I have tons to upload, but that's the way it goes. |
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| Poem for Tuesday |
[Nov. 24th, 2009|12:46 am] |
( Reading Between Points A & B )
I had an early appointment for an abdominal sonogram whose results I won't have for a few days -- possibly till after Thanksgiving -- and for which I had to fast, so although it was completely comfortable compared to a pelvic sonogram (no full bladder, worst I had to do was hold my breath for ten seconds), I came home lightheaded and very thirsty and have felt sort of sleepy and off all day. The fact that it was a very gloomy, rainy Monday probably contributed to that; I don't mind the rain or the chill, but it felt like it was never properly morning, let alone afternoon. So I did laundry and worked on holiday cards, and when the kids came home, I watched Adam spend hours struggling with his math homework while discussing the pitfalls of Animal Farm.
I feel like I need a refresher course in Heroes even to have an opinion on whether anything is making sense these days...no one in my family could remember how Arthur Petrelli died, for instance, or how similar Peter's power is to his (Peter's has changed over time, yes, in how many powers he can have at once and how recently he has to have touched someone, since he lost them all and got it back again twice?). So while I was happy to get Petrelli and Bennett family drama over the Thanksgiving table, which will certainly make any family annoyance with my own relatives seem extremely minor, at this point I'm just watching for a couple of characters and really hoping this is the last season so they can make some attempt to wrap up their many loose ends.
I watched Buffy's "Surprise" and "Innocence" while folding the laundry, which I blame partly on cidercupcakes and partly on New Moon because I'd remembered being irritated when the episodes were new at the "lose your virginity and your boyfriend will turn into a soulless demon!" theme, and given all the Bella-bashing, I wanted to see whether Buffy looked better by comparison. Buffy curls up and cries when her boyfriend dumps her, too, but she has a wonderful support system that Bella lacks -- a mother who loves her, friends who will do anything for her, a Watcher who believes in her and is completely devoted to her. Bella has a dad who doesn't understand her, an absentee mother, and a best friend whose lust for her gets in the way of whatever support he can offer her...a terrible situation, of course she's no Slayer, and I don't think the films are suggesting that Bella should cling to her virginity as the last vestige of her self-esteem -- it's more that she can't get Edward to do what she wants.
( Little Bennett Park ) |
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| More *thud* |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|04:04 pm] |
Read online discussion comments, wrote a recommendation, taught two classes, met w/ two different students re: research paper, revised lecture, wrote up lesson plans for all next week, read two chapters in source reader, wrote up two sets of discussion questions, dealt w/ both work and student email, checked on LIS classes' readings/assignments/due dates (some reading & discussion to do this week and should work on last big assignment).
It's now 4 pm, I'm incredibly stiff and sore from yesterday's gardening, and I'm gonna go home and drink tea and edit ficlets (or else read Yuletide canon). *nods firmly* I can write a quiz and another recommendation at home later this week, also grade a couple of reviews and do a last bit of reading for one of the classes I'm teaching. So yeah. Outta here... |
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| Drabble: Recompense, PG-13, Severus/Harry |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|08:15 am] |
Title: Recompense
Word Count: 100
Pairing: Severus/Harry
Rating: PG-13
snape100 Challenge 309: "Wikipedia, Redux!"
Warning: Reference to homophobia/verbal abuse.
Disclaimer: Not mine. They belong to JKR.
A/N: I wouldn't even believe me, but I swear this was the first thing that came up. :) Pornophobia.
( Recompense ) |
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excited
impressed with myself
mellow
creative
nostalgic
thankful
content
sore