Catherine is not eating her cat food - hasn't eaten for over 24 hours and is sleeping non-stop. I did manage to get her to drink some milk by sitting with her and patting her. The Vet says she is not in pain, just old and tired and it may be her time to go. So sad.

My sister and I carpool to work together (we work at the same place), and she told me she was working only a half day today. Now, normally this would be absolutely fine with me, as I have the most flexible schedule in the world, except for the last two months of the year. And especially the last week of the year.

( grah grah blah blah )

Let's see, what was going on 10 years ago?

• I was married (to that handsome British guy that I'm still happily married to).


• I was living in the house that we had purchased. (We're still living in it.)


• I had recently started working as a technical editor for Microsoft, and alternated between feeling competent and feeling like I had tricked someone into giving me the job.


• I had been writing a monthly gothy advice column for gothic.net for about two years, and had really started finding my writing voice and style.


• I had finally started really trying to learn how to sew and tailor clothing that I found at thrift stores.

In some ways, not a lot has changed. But the things that DID changed rather spectacularly. And mostly for the good. For the next decade, I'd like more writing, more happy times (for myself and for my loved ones), and for my world domination plans to work.

If you had me alone, locked up in your house, for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to, what would you have me/you/us do?

If you could ask me to write one thing, what would it be?

(Not screening commens, but you can PM me your answer if posting it here would make you uncomfortable.)

I've shared this before, but I'm doing it again, because I think it is really well done and should any of my friends who are not Orthodox be interested in my beliefs, it does a good job of explaining some of them. One of the things people ask me a LOT is "How are Orthodox Christians different from (Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, etc)?" This does a much better job that I ever could of answering the spirit of that question.

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/orthodoxyheterodoxy

I got a call at about 2 yesterday afternoon that my sister was in labor! I don't know how it can be that this kind of news is always so shocking and amazing, even when you've been seeing the enormously pregnant person daily for weeks talking about how she's due any day. But it is. So I went and got Brian and about 6 hours later I had a call - she had a little girl! AT HOME! We SO NEED MORE GIRLS, so this is good.

I got there when she was 30 minutes old, with midwives still all over the place. She was wrapped in the quilt I sewed for her *melts*. She looks EXACTLY as my sister did as a newborn, it's nutso. Laura didn't tear this time, and the baby was already nursing well and calmer than Brian was, and sheesh. It is just great. Frank was all excited.

He actually said, "I'm ready for the next one, let's go for broke!!" I was laughing. As we went through all the things they can say now - "childREN, kidS, son AND DAUGHTER", with a lot of "whoa"ing.

I love for Ananda (who came with me) to see NORMAL birth, happy healthy birth.

( Also true )

ETA: My intuitive Aaron, I swear. I came home with Brian and he said, "Laura's in labor?!" and I said, "Yep". He sat down suddenly, looking wide eyed and serious. I said, "It's going to be ok!" and he answered, "I'm not thinking about you, and I'm happy. It's just going to really hurt a lot for her."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Badgerish/~3/y5hIqHFX7CM/

http://badgerish.net/?p=58

Last night I tried to start work on one half of the story that was Amaranth, pulling out the crucial pieces and renaming it Evening Primrose. I’m hoping a re-christening will give me a fresh perspective.

I shouldn’t be stressing yet. But last night a question occurred to me that is causing me some consternation. The first inklings of this novel in my imagination consisted of three elements: a forbidden love, a medieval cozy mystery with fantasy elements, and a castle full of inhabitants who all play a part in the story, including servants.

The troublesome question is this: It feels like a series to me, and I have never read a mystery that wasn’t part of a series. (As for “fantasy-mystery”, which this book is, I have no point of comparison by which to judge.) But if it’s to be the beginning of a long series, I want to pace the forbidden love element out to span the series. In otherwords, the characters involved shouldn’t marry in the first book; I want the feeling of sustained tension. However, the way I was taught to write (and the stance I generally agree with) is to never save anything “for the next book in the series”, because that next book may never be written.

So I’m in a bit of a quandary. Maybe I can resolve smaller questions about the relationship during the course of this book? But how to create the necessary dramatic tension to break the reader’s heart?

I will miss the title Amaranth, but I think it may be best to leave it behind, at least for now.

Like every other post that anyone is going to see I'm going to be wishing everyone I know (and don't know for that matter) a happy and safe New Years. Even if you don't plan on drinking for the holiday, be careful on the road and on the lookout for people that think that they can drink and drive.

Well, now that that's out of the way...
So I've been trying to do at least one post a week both on here and my new website (because I can't remember most of my passwords... ^^;).  The posts will mostly be the same, but I hope to eventually get them on different tracks soon.

Speaking of doing new things lately, I've been trying to cook more, with the help of my Vegetarian Cookbook.  Last night I made a haphazard minestrone soup with random vegetables that I could find in the fridge (found the carrots AFTER I made the soup.. sigh..), some Italian seasoning, macaroni noodles, pepper, and water because I didn't have any vegetable stock.  It was pretty tasty, but I think it would've tasted much better with some vegetable stock to give it a fuller flavor.  I hope to make some vegetable stock on my own as soon as I can get all the ingredients and I'll post my escapade on here after I'm done. ^_^

Along with almost2blank I've been trying to cook more and figure out different things I can use tofu for.  almost2blank made a WONDERFUL tofu Parmesan for Christmas dinner for me that even the carnivores agreed was awesome. ^_^ I need to steal that recipe from him because it was AMAZING!

We'll I'm off now.  almost2blank and I are going to see Avatar.  So maybe next week you'll see a little review of it.
Cheers!

Can we PLEASE stop inventing and circulating fucking creepy memes like this one:

If you had me alone, locked up in your house, for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to, what would you have me/you/us do?

*sigh*

(Don't even joke around by pretending to answer this in comments. Not in the mood for it.)

Back at home base in Cheshire - home base as in home, not a DIY store!!

It was a very lucky return journey where the most dodgy bit was getting out of parental lane onto normal roads. Little Ka is now full of road salt and needs a good clean but it has been a great travel bug.

Now, tidying. Lots of tidying. Washing and hoovering and soon twill be the Hogmanay!!

We have two cats at our house, here, which belong to one of my roommates. All of us were gone over Christmas, so we got a friend to cat/housesit, which seemed to work out well. Until I got home (first of us) and realized that I didn't see one of the cats at all, and there was extra food in the automatic dishes.

He got out. And we don't know where he is. Please pray that he finds his way home, and is safe meanwhile. He's big, has all his claws, and is a gorgeous sable gray with a white chest. Name of Pixel. He's also the world's biggest scaredy-cat. I'm sure he's terrified, wherever he is.

www.tempus_alt.insanejournal.com


You are hereby invited to joing an upcoming wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey Whoniverse AU RPG on InsaneJournal:

Tempus Alternat

-----

Setting: Cardiff
Time: 2010
Snapshot:
Jack and Ianto have returned to Cardiff after some very timey-wimey time away. Though there has been a period of relative peace and quiet, the Rift suddenly becomes even more active than normal. The team of Torchwood Three, still understaffed, finds themselves stretched thin, even when the Doctor pops in to offer assistance.
Meanwhile, in Pete’s World, Rose and Her Doctor have grown a new Tardis, and are taking their baby on test runs. With the help of some adapted technology from their Torchwood, they discover a way to breach the walls between realities once more. However, the effort drains the power in their young ship, so they detour straight for Cardiff and the energy of the Rift to build her strength back up…
Meanwhile, old friends and old enemies seem to be appearing in Cardiff out of nowhere…
What is pulling everyone to this one place and time? What will happen when everyone reunites?

Canon compliance: Post Series 2 of Torchwood and Series 4 of Doctor Who. CoE has been conveniently ignored. Being that this is sci-fi, our game canon is very flexible (or wibbly-wobbly). If you want to apply as someone who should be dead, you just need to add a “explain to us how your dead charrie can plausibly come back” section to the application. It’s a big sandbox, the more kids in it the better castles we can build!

Plot: It’s Torchwood and Doctor Who. There will be aliens. There is not currently an over-arcing plot, but the mods will certainly occasionally supply alien threats and timeline crises to up the excitement and game play. It can’t all be orgies in the Hub (sorry Jack).

Taken Characters:
The Doctor (Tenth)
The Doctor (Metacrisis Tenth)
Rose Tyler
Capt. Jack Harkness
Ianto Jones
Capt. John Hart

WANTED Characters: (Anyone else, really, but especially the following)

Gwen Cooper
Martha Jones
Mickey Smith
Donna Noble
Toshiko Sato
Owen Harper
PC Andy
Rhys Williams
The Master
Any Torchwood or Who or SJA character you want, really, as long as you make it justifiable

P.S. Did I mention it'll be awesome and that you're awesome? Because you're awesome and it'll be awesome.

P.S.S. - Game start date will be...sometime after the new year. I have not even inserted the description or rules onto the rpg community yet (will do that by the end of today). But we are trying to have as many spots filled with quality peeps we know before we dive in. :)

P.S.S.S. - Yes, there is every possibility the game could end up slightly cracky. Like you expect anything less from me.

Title: Three Vials of Veritaserum
Characters: Snape, Umbridge
Rating: G
Notes: Picture 3 of 13 for the Thirteen Days of Severus leading up to the Professor's 50th birthday. Not quite as heavy as the last two in the series, but I've always wanted to try my hand at Umbridge. More firsts up tomorrow, when the marauders make an appearance.

( You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter. )