Reading

Entry tags:

ao3,
meme

ao3 alphabet meme

this has been going around and I couldn't resist having a go. It seems to vary whether to include a fic link or not, but I decided to include my links.

Meme Rules: How many letters of the alphabet have you used for [starting] a fic title? One fic per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'A’ and ’T’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A - Anthony J Crowley Fell
B - Baklava
C - Come to Naples
D - darling tonight, i've got you in my sights
E - Esarina Anastasia of Volstov, first of her name
F - the five year plan or if it doesn't count if it's prefaced by 'the' then here's an alternative: Four Names
G - Grim Winter Was Howlin'
H - honeyed
J - Joy Ride
K - Kaffe
L - longing
M - Molasses
N - no gentlemen left
O - Of Gilded Wallpaper and Meddling Dragons
P - patron saint of whores
Q - Quickie
R - Rose Trees
S - somebody else's wallet
T - til solen står op
U - untitled I think this one might be considered cheating, so here's an alternative: Up all night to get Bucky
V - Vasketøj
W - We're Sure to Grow Old Together
X -
Y -
Z -

23/26, which I think is pretty good! I had multiple choices for several of the letters so I tried to prioritise by picking the most recent. Not having one that starts with Y seems odd as it's not that rare, for English, but I couldn't find one on my main account.

Total number of ao3 works: 123 (not all are fics and I can't be arsed to go through and subtract art and fanbindings from the total.)

And I thought...

...that my last shopping experience beyond the border had been bad! But I can tell you that this has been the last time I brought my lazy bum to a German shopping centre! I swear, never again on Saturday! My friend and I left at nine in the morning. Did a short detour to a flea market, where we watched one of our neighbours selling the things she gets bestowed by friends and neighbours. On the way to the shopping centre we found a new Tedi- in the building were once Kik had a shop, which got closed because the building was meant to house apartments. We found a lot of things we don't need but bought them nonetheless. One needs nice things in dark times! Then we arrived at the shopping centre. Fifteen minutes to find a parking space at the farthest end. Twenty to buy lunch for hubby. The grocery shop was swarming with people. I almost panicked- I hate crowds! My friend is short but has elbows made of steel. She fought her way to the things we needed. And since she looks like a grandma gone rabid no one complained. Yet it took us more than one hour to get all things. To the drugstore I had to navigate through a bulk of early Christmas shoppers who now waited to get their meal orders, their carts loaded with toys and decoration. Good luck, the waiting line was now twice as long as before. Finally fresh air! We skipped Lidl and went straight to Aldi, where I finally found those tiny Christmas lights I need for decorating. We bravely fought our way to our house through darkness and cold, for coffee and cake. And chatting, of course. Hubby was at home, fighting the cold inside. Heating was on, but the radiators refused to get warm. Hubby did a tour to all of them. Vented them. Vented them again. Finally he succeeded. Tomorrow he will refill water. Something is very odd with our heating. It has been tested only two? three? weeks ago and got declared fine. Hmm...absolutely not funny when it's only three degrees outside, with not a single sunbeam to be seen but a dark grey sky only. Tomorrow we might get a bit of rain, but rain is better than the fog we have at the moment...
When my friend had left I retreated to the bedroom with a cosy blanket and a Baumstamm- milk chocolate filled with marzipan. I watched the early darkness (pitch-dark at five thirty now) munching the sweet treat. Usually I won't eat chocolate, but there are days when I need sweets for comfort!

Frozen

Not as cold as feared, but not as warm as I'd hoped. Thick fog was all around. It started yesterday evening- when I came down for watching TV I was barely able to see my car. At least temperatures did not go down to zero during night then thanks to the fog! But today it was cool, only five degrees, and so dark that I did only half an hour of jigsawing (after having done all necessary housework, of course) then gave up. Originally I had wanted to do a tour over the border, but then my friend was not able to join me. She had to supervise her grandchildren- bomb alarm at their school. We have so many brain-damaged idiots here leading police on a merry chase! And children who won't be able to attend school, because schools will get closed then. And lots of parents, who have problems to take care of their offspring because of working schedule. Unfortunately those brain-damaged idiots rarely get tracked down. So we will do our shopping tour tomorrow, when considerably more people will be on their way in shopping- and garden centres. And no, I cannot wait until Monday, because I need some drugs which are definitely less expensive over the border. Strictly speaking- practically everything is less expensive over the border. What a blessing that said border is not far away!
I did not do much in the afternoon. Watered some plants with pest killers and put them onto the new shelf in the conservatory. Ordered Schleich horses and a new slide-viewer from Amazon, because Gucki went back to sister mine, and I still have to do the next round of filtering less interesting slides out. I am definitely not willing to scan more than 300 pictures no one wants to see! Hubby left for a concert at six, so it was a free evening for me. Alas, no PCing, the room is too cold for such an endeavour. I don't get it- heating is now on, I did not forget to close the windows- my guess is that hubby has screwed with the supply temperature! Not nice, because we are down to one degree at the moment! I had to put on my Slytherine socks and the polar bear jumper...

Lazy, as always

When daughter is here it's getting up early, doing housework then wait for her coming down from her room to have breakfast. From then on it's mostly doing crossword puzzles, watching silly TV programmes- we found more episodes of Ancient Aliens with the lady straight from the Muppet show! Huzzah! Made our day! Tought daughter how to do Salmon galette (who says that galettes have to be fruity!) then we started another jigsaw, a smaller one this time, in the hope we (or better, I) will be able to finish before Advent starts. Only when daughter packed the things for the birthday party she noticed that we had painted the wrong side
of the colon. More paint mixing, more painting, more cleaning of tools followed. We did blow-dry the colon, so that daughter did not have to pick it up tomorrow- she's getting a visit from her Hungarian friend in the morning. My guess is that daughter dearest has a lot of flat-cleaning to do this evening. Serves her well! Not the cleaning of the kitchen is her problem, that she does immediately after cooking, but her washing machine gets turned on twice a week, and her clothes won't walk into the wardrobe by themselves. But she has plenty of salmon galette to not have to cook dinner- hubby gifted her what was left of today's lunch. After daughter had left, I had a phone call with a friend, before I finally resumed my fight with granddaughter's cardigan. Button border got added, now all I have to knit is the collar. Well, not today- I have been at a neighbour for maybe half an hour, bringing back the baskets she lent the children for Halloween. Had a short chat and one more cup of coffee, went back home and noticed that I forgot to close the bedroom window. It's five degrees outside at the moment, hence we have very low temperatures in the bedroom now. Too low for knitting or using my PC...

Christmas is coming!

You will feel it in the air, but mostly in your purse. Today I bought four Advent calendars on Amazon. Cost me 100 euros. Good that family one does not do the thing with Advent calendars! Number three also sent me a suggestion for a Christmas present for Matthäus- a play table including two wooden trains, a village with trainstation and landscape. Another 100 euro gone. Well, the boy is my godson, so this is acceptable...
I did not do much in the morning- housework, jigsawing, a crossword puzzle and two sudokus. And I cooked lunch- roast pork and dumplings. After-lunch nap got cut short, because son number two with sons snowed in. The father had promised them ice with the apple strudel their mother had baked. Only that there was no ice in the freezer, so son decided he'd do a trip to our house. Apple strudel was so tiny that hubby had to add a cookie in addition to the ice. And we got more grandchildren- supervising time. Boys will be here on Wednesday. And December 5th to 8th. Daddy has to work. Mummy is off to Venice. I told husband that maybe I should have quit teaching to get out of the house without children tied to my apron strings more often, because apparently that's what only non-working mums can do. Hubby was not amused ( because of me, not DiL). Life is not fair...

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

It's back, oh my! On Friday I got up at four in the morning for a tour de loo. That's when that song hit my sleepy brain and did not leave all day long. Today, at the same time, it happened again. I was even humming the tune when waiting for sleep to come back. Hubby was not amused. Me, neither. I don't get it- haven't watched the movie, did not even hear the song on TV recently. Dvarves must have digged a tunnel to my brain and sit there singing and making merry. I hummed the tune until afternoon- when doing housework, while jigsawing, while being outside. When I started darning in Elsa's cardigan I started humming the theme tune of Pumuckl. I think my brain is dying. Instead of being not amused hubby was absolutely bewildered. Understandable...
Since it was sunny and quite warm hubby and I have begun to install garlands of lights under the glass roof of the terrace. Hubby had to bike to the DiY shop twice, because he needed more clamps. Doing the tour twice must be because hubby loves biking, while I dislike to waste away precious working time- sun is behind the mountain ridge at one thirty in the afternoon. From then on it will cool down quickly. Needless to say that I had to hang the washing up late- it had been time for a change of bedding. Now the cloth hanger is in the house, blocking the way to the TV nook. Husband mine always puts it next to the wood stove, the narrowest place in the living room.
Our new guest cat is funny- she does not like to stay inside long but will show up at least ten times a day, pawing at the terrace door or at the windows. Trying to ignore the young cat lady is hard, because she gets quite loud when not let in...

Current Mood: bouncy

Entry tags:

health

[an unintended side effect of the time change]

Waking up *before* my alarm goes off!

Mind you,I go to bed and wake up at the same time(more or less).That probably has a lot to do with it too.

Generally,I am VERY healthy(I was talking to someone and mentioned I had had the beer virus and they said they’d had it but because they’d had the shot it wasn’t *as bad*.

That was MY experience. Was it hellacious?Oh yeah.Would not wish it on anyone.

In any case, I like waking up earlier.I usually have a lot to do over the course of a day so getting up early and starting the day(with coffee.Aways.) works.

Entry tags:

daily: check in

WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 10 -- Monday

Hello on Monday! How's the day going so far for fic? (If you haven't gotten started on your day as yet, how did yesterday go for writing fic?)

- Excellent!
- Terrible
- Somewhere in between
- Nothing doing

How much time have you spent on writing fic today, roughly?

- None
- 30 minutes or less
- 30-60 minutes
- 60-90 minutes
- More than 90 minutes

In five words or less, how do you feel about that?

Entry tags:

movies,
weather

cold (weather) and hot (actor)

This month has been warmer than usual - until this weekend.

It was 23F/-5C when I got up this morning, and didn't go above freezing. cz_moon and I had coffee at 9, and we both broke out the winter coats, hats, and gloves!

Of course I wore my old cloth coat because there's no snow on the ground and it wasn't under 20F. :-). It was windy, though, and when I got home I spent some time sitting with a blank across my lap.

Now I need to put shovel into trunk, as well as the Sno-Brum and the coffee can with emergency...somethings. It should warm up later in the week, but it's best to get these small tasks over with.

After dinner I watched Morocco, the 1930 movie with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper. Some of Cooper's dialogue was a bit on the declamatory side, but he was gorgeous, charismatic - basically sex on legs. Dietrich did her cross-dressing nightclub act, very effective. I mean, her character did the act! :-)

-

Current Mood: amused

Entry tags:

books

[applying oneself to reading..or not]

Some books I take a *while* to read.Others, I speed through. Right now I am rereading Cutting For Stone by Abraham Vergese and am already more than halfway through it. I have another book I am reading at the same time and I can tell that when I read it, I will get through it quickly too.

Entry tags:

daily: check in

WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 9 -- Sunday

Hello on Sunday! What kind of a writing day has it been so far today -- or if today hasn't gotten going yet, how did you fare yesterday?

- I thought about my fic once or twice
- I wrote
- I did some planning and/or outlining
- I did research and/or canon review
- I edited
- I've sent my fic off to my beta
- I posted today!
- I'm taking a break
- I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Sunday Discussion: It's a new writing week, and that means a fresh start. Maybe you had a great writing week last week, or maybe last week wasn't the greatest for getting writing things done -- what kind of goals do you have for keeping up your momentum or starting off fresh this week?

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

Photos: Charleston Food Forest

Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston. These are the food forest pictures. What started out as a beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, clouded over by the time we got out of the house. So the lighting isn't great, but at least the pictures look okay. (Continue with the community garden and the lake.)

( Walk with me ... )

Entry tags:

gatherinrs

IDDD

Today was International Dorothy Dunnett Day, when fans all over the world toast Lady D at (local) one o'clock.

About a dozen of us met for lunch at Merlins Rest, where by chance a new piping group was meeting. (Dorothy Dunnett: Scottish)

I had cottage pie. No alcohol... driving, you know.

-

Entry tags:

[FIC] Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005 cartoon) / Andromeda TV

Title: Between Worlds (Spaceship/Sci-Fi AU, fusion)
Author: Nicky Gabriel
Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005), Andromeda (TV)
Word Count: 14K
Rating: T
Category: gen
Characters: Yue, Bato
Relationships: Bato & Yue, Bato & Hakoda, Hakoda & Yue, Arnook & Yue
Tags: Father-Daughter Relationship, Family, Found Family, Adoption, Established Relationship, No Romance, Angst, Fluff, Podfic Available
Summary: Yue and Bato’s life changing conversation about life, the universe and everything. As they are trapped in the fourth dimension, facing the evilest being that ever existed, the answer is not always 42. Fortunately, they are the luckiest people in the Universe.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67868906

Entry tags:

daily: check in

Check In: Day 8

Happy Saturday!!

How did writing go this week? Focus mostly on brainstorming? Editing? Resting?

How has writing gone today?

Current Mood: contemplative

Entry tags:

don’t fucking tell me what to do

[Saturday ranting and?]

*An actor from an Australian soap was arrested for giving a N*zi salute .This is a problem in Australia. Jesse Spencer from House’s parents haven’t given N*zi salutes in public but they think similarly.

*Gross halloween Oreos.It’s like Nabisco is trying to come up with the nastiest flavours. Ever.

*Interesting to note that Cameron Crowe doesn’t mention Pamela Des Barres once in his book.I feel like they had a falling out or something or maybe it’s just that she isn’t as great as she thinks she is.

*The Louvre password is….Louvre.Really, people? Dumbest dumb that ever dumbed.

*TVLine is just..lame now. None of the original staff are still there.I have had a love/hate opinion of them for a decade or more now and this just confirms it.

*Yes, Booby has his own tag but I have to mention this considering that there are people who don’t have their Snap benefits and when they do they have to try and make it last for a whole month.

He’s out there telling people they NEED to buy an over $100 artisinal,organic,all of the things that are Booby Approved. Yes really.When there are people out there who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. Food pantries have been MUCH busier since the whole deal with Snap. Booby is just making it worse.And he also posted a soup he made that, no word of a lie, looks like vomit.

Entry tags:

my writing: fics: other fandoms

First Let's Go Karaoke! fic: Stained (Kyouji/Satomi)

Watched the 5 episodes-long "Let's Go Karaoke" anime a few days ago, immediately lost my sanity (also managed to grab the ankles of a couple of friends as I fell to my doom mwahahaha we suffer together now 😌). If you like age gap relationships and yakuza danger & protectiveness antics with the occasional blood splatter... you're welcome in our hole XD

I'm stuck on 3 lengthy(ish) projects that all need massive edits at the moment, annoyed about the 2 fics in there because this wouldn't have happened if I had actually outlined with the snowflake method! Which I know always works well for me!! But here we are. I suspect this is why I'm writing drabbles, because editing a drabble is more like rereading with maybe minor tweaks. As much as possible, I don't get stuck in rewrites when editing drabbles or it's basically like starting from scratch. At least that's how it is for me!

Stained | Let's go karaoke! | Kyouji/Satomi | 600 words | rated T

Summary: Satomi is going to have to pull away from him first, because Kyouji just can't. He's tried, honest, but he just can't.

Read it on Dreamwidth or AO3.

Entry tags:

[FIC] Lord of the Rings (series), The Hobbit / Chronicles of Narnia (Movies)

Title: For a While
Fandom: The Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Rating: T
Category: Gen
Characters: Edmund Pevensie, Peter, Thorin Oakenshield, Fíli
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61930630
Summary: Edmund knows that he needs more efficient weapons than just steel and iron, for the evil around is trying to reach deeper under the skin than any blade ever would.

Title: Of Arrows, Scars and Inside Jokes
Rating: T
Category: Gen
Fandoms: The Hobbit, Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Relationship: Susan Pevensie & Aslan
Characters: Susan Pevensie, Aslan, Thranduil
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62670400
Summary: Susan and Aslan’s life changing trip conversations.

Current Mood: content

Entry tags:

memes

[Friday Five..of a sort]

1)What was your first concert? I’ve talked about this before-Duran Duran.

2)First album you bought with your own money?Honestly I can’t remember.Duran Duran?

3)An artist you never get tired of?David Bowie.

4)Do you own any vinyl records?Yep…I have a record player but told myself that I was not going to buy a lot of albums.

5)Are there any genres you don’t like?Most contemporary(shit kicker) country music.

Entry tags:

movies

flicks

Morning productive, afternoon self-defeating. That was today in a nutshell.

I did watch a movie in late afternoon, not what I mean by self-defeating. It was Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which I rented because I wanted to see history changed. It was very long, sprawling, and of course the ending was violent, but I liked the mixture of history and fiction. (Unlike a movie by P...r B..g....ch that I refuse to watch because it calls as fact a 'murder' that wasn't a murder.) ("Orson told me" - idiot - as though Orson couldn't spin a yarn!)

Anyway, this was on my Netflix disc queue.

Looking at the list of discs rented does bring up some surprises. I watched The Lady in the Lake? Inside Daisy Clover? Butterfield 8? I guess so!

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