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Wishing You All Joy
Dec. 25th, 2011 03:12 amI have finally finished wrapping and stuffing stockings, and fixing my lj from its disastrous unasked for, unheralded, sudden change from a three column style to a two column style, and now I have a moment to stop, gather my thoughts and speak to you all.
![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
not_a_zatarc and rgcraeg, I wish you both a belated happy birthday. I hope that everything came in actual birthday wrapping, and not slightly anticipatory Christmas wrapping, and that you each had a whale of a day.
And to all and sundry I wish a very lovely holiday, whichever one you happen to celebrate. The solstice is past, and for those of us up here in the northern climes, the long slow climb back into the light has begun, and for those of you in the summer hemisphere, the days will draw down. This process is a source of continual fascination to my Whirlwind, who asks frequently about what people would be doing on the other side of the world, and what time of year it is for people in the Southern Hemisphere. So I'm reminded fairly regularly that for some of you the Christmas season is cheek-by-jowl with your Midsummer's Eve.
We're culturally Christian here, which means there will be stockings and presents (my Muslim stepfather learned to play along years ago) and the singing of Christmas carols. And because in my family Christmas is a matriarchal holiday, we are all down here at my mothers, and there are siblings and nieces and nephew to visit with and enjoy.
The Whirlwind is still a True Believer, but is worried because due to the damage in the wake of tropical storm Irene, Santa was not at his local venue this year, and she wasn't able to sit in the great man's lap and tell him personally of all her nine year old desires and hopes. She's a little concerned that he won't get her anything as a result. After the holiday is safely done for the year, and the chances of her contaminating her cousins with apostasy is over, I'm going to have to have a little word with her. Nine is old enough. I've only put off having this chat because I didn't want her disillusioning any of her True Believer classmates, but this is getting silly.
In the meantime I told her about the year I was six and living in Greece, and very concerned because a)our 5th floor apartment had no fireplace, and b)I wasn't at all sure that he had my forwarding address. He managed to find me anyway.
So whether you celebrate Christmas, the Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or any of a host of other festivals, whether you are coming into winter or summer, as this year draws to an end, I hope you are all with the people you love, that you have joy and hope, that the walls that surround you ring with laughter and delight, and that the year to come will be better still. You have all brightened my life and I carry the pieces of you that you have shared with me through every day. I think of you all more often than you would think, and wish only the best for each and every one of you.
And so to bed!
not_a_zatarc and rgcraeg, I wish you both a belated happy birthday. I hope that everything came in actual birthday wrapping, and not slightly anticipatory Christmas wrapping, and that you each had a whale of a day.And to all and sundry I wish a very lovely holiday, whichever one you happen to celebrate. The solstice is past, and for those of us up here in the northern climes, the long slow climb back into the light has begun, and for those of you in the summer hemisphere, the days will draw down. This process is a source of continual fascination to my Whirlwind, who asks frequently about what people would be doing on the other side of the world, and what time of year it is for people in the Southern Hemisphere. So I'm reminded fairly regularly that for some of you the Christmas season is cheek-by-jowl with your Midsummer's Eve.
We're culturally Christian here, which means there will be stockings and presents (my Muslim stepfather learned to play along years ago) and the singing of Christmas carols. And because in my family Christmas is a matriarchal holiday, we are all down here at my mothers, and there are siblings and nieces and nephew to visit with and enjoy.
The Whirlwind is still a True Believer, but is worried because due to the damage in the wake of tropical storm Irene, Santa was not at his local venue this year, and she wasn't able to sit in the great man's lap and tell him personally of all her nine year old desires and hopes. She's a little concerned that he won't get her anything as a result. After the holiday is safely done for the year, and the chances of her contaminating her cousins with apostasy is over, I'm going to have to have a little word with her. Nine is old enough. I've only put off having this chat because I didn't want her disillusioning any of her True Believer classmates, but this is getting silly.
In the meantime I told her about the year I was six and living in Greece, and very concerned because a)our 5th floor apartment had no fireplace, and b)I wasn't at all sure that he had my forwarding address. He managed to find me anyway.
So whether you celebrate Christmas, the Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or any of a host of other festivals, whether you are coming into winter or summer, as this year draws to an end, I hope you are all with the people you love, that you have joy and hope, that the walls that surround you ring with laughter and delight, and that the year to come will be better still. You have all brightened my life and I carry the pieces of you that you have shared with me through every day. I think of you all more often than you would think, and wish only the best for each and every one of you.
And so to bed!
Signpost to the Fic
Dec. 16th, 2011 12:37 amJust in case anyone was curious, I've posted fic over on lj, which I didn't get around to posting here, because one was written as a birthday gift for someone with an lj but not a dw account, and the others were written for ![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sj_everyday's Advent calendar.
If you're looking for more fic I've written, here they are:
***************
Title: Chinese
Author: Thothmes
Pairing: Sam/Jack. This is forsj_everyday people!
Summary: You can run, but you can't hide, and the company is what is important, not the meal.
Season: Early. Sam's still a captain, but after Cold Lazarus
Warnings: UST. See season, above.
Story here
***************
Title: The Gift of the Magi
Author: Thothmes
Pairing: This is forsj_everyday so it's not gen, for those who care about such things.
Season: Futurefic. Ten years from now
Spoilers: Teeny-tiny ones for Abyss, Emancipation, and One False Step. That's all, I think.
Warnings: Beware the literary allusion.
Synopsis: You can't always get what you want, and if you try sometimes you find, you get what you need.
Story Here
***************
Title: The Eyes Have It
Season: Early. After First Commandment, at a minimum.
Spoilers: Stargate (the movie), Children of the Gods, First Commandment
Warnings: Well, angst for one. Whether there is s/j depends on whether you are wearing your ship!goggles today. Fig, take those off! Those are someone else's goggles. I think these are yours, they seem much more gen.
Synopsis: It's there to see, if you know how to look.
Story Here. Written as a gift for someone who wanted angst. Not fluffy.
sj_everyday's Advent calendar.If you're looking for more fic I've written, here they are:
***************
Title: Chinese
Author: Thothmes
Pairing: Sam/Jack. This is for
sj_everyday people!Summary: You can run, but you can't hide, and the company is what is important, not the meal.
Season: Early. Sam's still a captain, but after Cold Lazarus
Warnings: UST. See season, above.
Story here
***************
Title: The Gift of the Magi
Author: Thothmes
Pairing: This is for
sj_everyday so it's not gen, for those who care about such things. Season: Futurefic. Ten years from now
Spoilers: Teeny-tiny ones for Abyss, Emancipation, and One False Step. That's all, I think.
Warnings: Beware the literary allusion.
Synopsis: You can't always get what you want, and if you try sometimes you find, you get what you need.
Story Here
***************
Title: The Eyes Have It
Season: Early. After First Commandment, at a minimum.
Spoilers: Stargate (the movie), Children of the Gods, First Commandment
Warnings: Well, angst for one. Whether there is s/j depends on whether you are wearing your ship!goggles today. Fig, take those off! Those are someone else's goggles. I think these are yours, they seem much more gen.
Synopsis: It's there to see, if you know how to look.
Story Here. Written as a gift for someone who wanted angst. Not fluffy.
Fic and A Story From My Life
Oct. 7th, 2011 04:22 amSo recently a_loquita posted a lovely little (sam/jack) fiction involving ridiculous instructions, The World's Dumbest Instructions, to which I replied with a snippet of comment fic. In the replies to that the subject of warning labels came up, and that inspired this:
Title: Caution. Coffee Is Hot.
Season: While Jacob and Selmac are blended, Daniel is alive, and Jack's a Colonel
Spoilers: Uh...No!
Warnings: Nope. And Fig? It's Certified Shipfree. Maybe even FairTrade.
Synopsis: It's a universal constant, along with death and taxes.
( Caution. Coffee Is Hot. )
***************
I also have a humorous little vignette from my life to share with you all. It's a look into what makes parenting so rich, varied, and unpredictable.
( In Which The Whirlwind Gets A Record )
***************
Sorry if I may have ruined anyone's illusion that life in the country is placid and slow-paced, but come on up to Vermont and spend your tourist dollars anyway. After all, there are some 255 towns in Vermont, and only one of them contains the Whirlwind!
a_loquita posted a lovely little (sam/jack) fiction involving ridiculous instructions, The World's Dumbest Instructions, to which I replied with a snippet of comment fic. In the replies to that the subject of warning labels came up, and that inspired this:Title: Caution. Coffee Is Hot.
Season: While Jacob and Selmac are blended, Daniel is alive, and Jack's a Colonel
Spoilers: Uh...No!
Warnings: Nope. And Fig? It's Certified Shipfree. Maybe even FairTrade.
Synopsis: It's a universal constant, along with death and taxes.
( Caution. Coffee Is Hot. )
***************
I also have a humorous little vignette from my life to share with you all. It's a look into what makes parenting so rich, varied, and unpredictable.
( In Which The Whirlwind Gets A Record )
***************
Sorry if I may have ruined anyone's illusion that life in the country is placid and slow-paced, but come on up to Vermont and spend your tourist dollars anyway. After all, there are some 255 towns in Vermont, and only one of them contains the Whirlwind!
Enough Real Life! Time for Fic!
Aug. 31st, 2011 12:52 amI wrote this while Irene was still down in the Bahamas, but then it was late, and I was a bit too tired to get it posted, and then life got busy. Just a little bit of time travel, but not the kind that is all head-hurty.
Title: Summer Mornings
Seasons: Pre-series, Season Eight
Spoilers: Fishing?
Warnings: Sorry Fig. Not gen. Het. Anybody hate Charlie? Good. Then we'll proceed. PG-13 if you read between lines.
Synopsis: A bit of time travel on a summer's morning.
( Summer Mornings )
Title: Summer Mornings
Seasons: Pre-series, Season Eight
Spoilers: Fishing?
Warnings: Sorry Fig. Not gen. Het. Anybody hate Charlie? Good. Then we'll proceed. PG-13 if you read between lines.
Synopsis: A bit of time travel on a summer's morning.
( Summer Mornings )
First off, I'm okay. We're okay. The pets are okay. Our stuff is okay.
The surroundings, well, not so much.
Until pretty recently, we lacked the capacity to say we were okay, because we lacked phone and power (and thus water, because the pressure tank cuts out), and we've been in our little quiet safe house, going about our business. Here's what we found when we ventured out of our little den:
Roads have been swept away. Bridges are gone. The propane storage tanks that resupply our gas stove went bobbing down river. Our kid's favorite seasonal hamburger and ice cream hut has been washed away. One of my middle daughter's friends had to evacuate her trailer park last night via swift-water rope rescue, and several of the homes were washed away. When I was finally able to see on TV some of the scenes of flooding and disaster from other areas of the state, they almost all were familiar places. Two nearby towns are among the eleven "island towns" in the state, so-named because the roads in and out have been so damaged, that for the time being, they are on their own.
I went to do my usual 5 mile loop, and there were two bridges out, one of which sent two sizable concrete pillars downstream to wreck the road were the next curve lay. This in a stream that usually can be crossed by getting one foot wet, if that. After 4 miles I faced the choice of doing a little wading to get back to the main road, or turning around, going back up hill, and making it an 8 mile trip. I chose to wade, since the water was receding and not very deep.
Our little mini (but registered!) covered bridge acted as a dam on the small stream that runs behind our house, causing a major portion of our back yard to become fast-moving but shallow stream, but it was still sound once the waters retreated, unlike most of the full-sized covered bridges around here. The ones that weren't carried off outright, are taped off pending eventual repair.
Our house has a small stream in back of us, and a medium size creek across the road from us, and down a steep 15 foot slope. The creek began to rise, and eventually got within about 3 feet of the roadway, although if it had gotten that high, it would have had to go 1 1/2 feet higher to cross the road and get to the house, given the camber of the road. When the flash flood warnings went out, we went across to take a look at the creek and make our decision about whether we needed to evacuate. There was a rumbling which sounded like distant thunder, and a series of clicking noises. It was more than a little disturbing when we realized that this sound was not thunder, but the sound of big boulders rolling downstream.
The sport of the day was going around to all the various neighbors, checking to see that everyone was okay, and rubbernecking at the various repair crews at work. Around our neighborhood, there was sizeable property damage, but no damage to family, pets, or livestock, so everyone was in an upbeat mood. My husband's clinic had power and telephone, but the town had no water, so he didn't have to work Monday. Tuesday is his day off anyway, and hopefully by the time Wednesday rolls around, water will be restored. They had plenty of new silt deposited on their front lawn, though.
School was supposed to start on Wednesday, but it is now postponed until September 6th.
We are all ridiculously happy now to be able to do simple things, like flush the toilets, take showers, and refrigerate food, but basically for our family, this has been the equivalent of a run-of-the-mill storm-cum-power-loss, without the added joy of having to huddle under blankets to keep from freezing, or having to worry about the state of our pipes.
Please spare a thought or a prayer for those families in Vermont that were not as lucky as we were. At last count there were 3 dead, and one missing, presumed dead, and there was the expectation that that number could well rise.
The surroundings, well, not so much.
Until pretty recently, we lacked the capacity to say we were okay, because we lacked phone and power (and thus water, because the pressure tank cuts out), and we've been in our little quiet safe house, going about our business. Here's what we found when we ventured out of our little den:
Roads have been swept away. Bridges are gone. The propane storage tanks that resupply our gas stove went bobbing down river. Our kid's favorite seasonal hamburger and ice cream hut has been washed away. One of my middle daughter's friends had to evacuate her trailer park last night via swift-water rope rescue, and several of the homes were washed away. When I was finally able to see on TV some of the scenes of flooding and disaster from other areas of the state, they almost all were familiar places. Two nearby towns are among the eleven "island towns" in the state, so-named because the roads in and out have been so damaged, that for the time being, they are on their own.
I went to do my usual 5 mile loop, and there were two bridges out, one of which sent two sizable concrete pillars downstream to wreck the road were the next curve lay. This in a stream that usually can be crossed by getting one foot wet, if that. After 4 miles I faced the choice of doing a little wading to get back to the main road, or turning around, going back up hill, and making it an 8 mile trip. I chose to wade, since the water was receding and not very deep.
Our little mini (but registered!) covered bridge acted as a dam on the small stream that runs behind our house, causing a major portion of our back yard to become fast-moving but shallow stream, but it was still sound once the waters retreated, unlike most of the full-sized covered bridges around here. The ones that weren't carried off outright, are taped off pending eventual repair.
Our house has a small stream in back of us, and a medium size creek across the road from us, and down a steep 15 foot slope. The creek began to rise, and eventually got within about 3 feet of the roadway, although if it had gotten that high, it would have had to go 1 1/2 feet higher to cross the road and get to the house, given the camber of the road. When the flash flood warnings went out, we went across to take a look at the creek and make our decision about whether we needed to evacuate. There was a rumbling which sounded like distant thunder, and a series of clicking noises. It was more than a little disturbing when we realized that this sound was not thunder, but the sound of big boulders rolling downstream.
The sport of the day was going around to all the various neighbors, checking to see that everyone was okay, and rubbernecking at the various repair crews at work. Around our neighborhood, there was sizeable property damage, but no damage to family, pets, or livestock, so everyone was in an upbeat mood. My husband's clinic had power and telephone, but the town had no water, so he didn't have to work Monday. Tuesday is his day off anyway, and hopefully by the time Wednesday rolls around, water will be restored. They had plenty of new silt deposited on their front lawn, though.
School was supposed to start on Wednesday, but it is now postponed until September 6th.
We are all ridiculously happy now to be able to do simple things, like flush the toilets, take showers, and refrigerate food, but basically for our family, this has been the equivalent of a run-of-the-mill storm-cum-power-loss, without the added joy of having to huddle under blankets to keep from freezing, or having to worry about the state of our pipes.
Please spare a thought or a prayer for those families in Vermont that were not as lucky as we were. At last count there were 3 dead, and one missing, presumed dead, and there was the expectation that that number could well rise.
In Which Real Life is... Real
Aug. 10th, 2011 08:29 pmOkay, so we had a lovely, lovely vacation, marred only by the fact that the Whirlwind of Destruction dove into the lake wearing her glasses, and I spent several hours diving in a grid pattern to try and locate them. Somewhere under the moldering leaves at the bottom of the lake are some lovely wirerim glasses which had only recently been totally replaced under warrantee. Otherwise, there were many relatives, much laughter, interesting tales, good food, swimming, loafing, and games of all sorts. All four of my kids were there (a rarity now that two of them are grown), a niece and a cousin announced engagements, and a cousin who married last October announced that he and his wife are expecting a baby in March. Good times.
( And on the way home, things got complicated )
I love living in Vermont, where even the crooks aren't (by and large) too dishonest, and where life is lived on a human scale.
( And on the way home, things got complicated )
I love living in Vermont, where even the crooks aren't (by and large) too dishonest, and where life is lived on a human scale.
Where I've Been, Where I'll be
Aug. 1st, 2011 05:19 pmSome of you may have noticed I was kind of... absent.
July is the only month I work outside the home. By the time I'd put in over three hours in teaching swimming in our sometimes less than roasty-toasty lake water, and then gone home and run, and took offspring to lessons and appointments, and then made dinner, I spent a great deal of time falling asleep on the keyboard. For the most part, I managed to read all your postings, but I usually read everything first, and then comment, and it was about then that I often fell asleep. I've been enjoying your offerings, though.
In retrospect, maybe signing up for thesg1friendathon during July was foolhardy, but I got it written, spellchecked, and beta'd before the deadline. It was just a bit more reminiscent of my college experience than I would have wanted it to be...
I missed some birthdays, so happy [belated! :( ] birthday to![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beatrice_otter, badkarma, and misswelles. I thought of you all, I didn't manage to post. So sorry. badkarma and misswelles, you share a birthday with my beloved youngest daughter, the Whirlwind of Destruction, who turned 9. Needless to say, that was a busy day at the Thothmes household!
Speaking of the Whirlwind, we had a bit of excitement when she got suspended from hockey camp for a half day, and finished out the last two days on probation, but we got through it all. I really expected that hockey camp, of all places, would be a place that could handle a child with a little too much energy and initiative, but I was wrong. Who knew?
Now I am on vacation in Maine, so I won't be so present for the first week of August, either. All four of my kids are here, and much other family is coming and going, as well as assorted friends of the family, guests, and hangers on. I will be more focused on swimming in the lake, watching the loons in the cove, and joining in the games and conversations than hanging out here. The best part of summer is here, and real life is in bloom!
Right now middle daughter is playing a Mozart sonata on the grand piano. Earlier my husband and his mother were playing Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and God's time is the best in a two piano four hands version. I taught the Whirlwind how to dive a couple of hours ago. Life is good.
Enjoy your own vacations and keep cool, and I'll be back next week.
July is the only month I work outside the home. By the time I'd put in over three hours in teaching swimming in our sometimes less than roasty-toasty lake water, and then gone home and run, and took offspring to lessons and appointments, and then made dinner, I spent a great deal of time falling asleep on the keyboard. For the most part, I managed to read all your postings, but I usually read everything first, and then comment, and it was about then that I often fell asleep. I've been enjoying your offerings, though.
In retrospect, maybe signing up for the
sg1friendathon during July was foolhardy, but I got it written, spellchecked, and beta'd before the deadline. It was just a bit more reminiscent of my college experience than I would have wanted it to be...I missed some birthdays, so happy [belated! :( ] birthday to
beatrice_otter, badkarma, and misswelles. I thought of you all, I didn't manage to post. So sorry. badkarma and misswelles, you share a birthday with my beloved youngest daughter, the Whirlwind of Destruction, who turned 9. Needless to say, that was a busy day at the Thothmes household!Speaking of the Whirlwind, we had a bit of excitement when she got suspended from hockey camp for a half day, and finished out the last two days on probation, but we got through it all. I really expected that hockey camp, of all places, would be a place that could handle a child with a little too much energy and initiative, but I was wrong. Who knew?
Now I am on vacation in Maine, so I won't be so present for the first week of August, either. All four of my kids are here, and much other family is coming and going, as well as assorted friends of the family, guests, and hangers on. I will be more focused on swimming in the lake, watching the loons in the cove, and joining in the games and conversations than hanging out here. The best part of summer is here, and real life is in bloom!
Right now middle daughter is playing a Mozart sonata on the grand piano. Earlier my husband and his mother were playing Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and God's time is the best in a two piano four hands version. I taught the Whirlwind how to dive a couple of hours ago. Life is good.
Enjoy your own vacations and keep cool, and I'll be back next week.
Phone-y Unwanted Radio Silence and a Possible One-Way Ticket to the Funny Farm
Jun. 15th, 2011 01:44 amI just wanted to post to let folks know why I have been rudely ignoring them.
I haven't really.
On June 8th we had a couple of sizeable thunderstorms come through here, and this caused us to lose both power and phone. When the phone came back on a few hours later, it was at best unreliable. On our end, sound kept dropping out. The folks we were talking to heard plenty of crackling and static.
This made connecting to our dial-up internet an impossibility. I got about an hour in while sitting with our laptop at one of my kids' weekly appointments, because the building has free wi-fi, and I mostly used that to answer my personal e-mails. We finally got connectivity back here a few hours ago, and then I had some business transactions I needed to take care of before I could get down to socializing.
So if you asked me a question or sent me a response, and you got no reply [*How rude!*] it wasn't because I was lazy or ignoring you. I just was "away".
Back now. Hopelessly behind. I'll be working hard to catch up about in time to go out of town for a week for the last week of June. At least then I'll be able to take the laptop with me, and I'll be heading into the land of wi-fi and fast internet!
So anyway, I'll be getting back to you all as soon as I can, provided I don't have to take too much time out building an empty padded room for the Whirlwind of Destruction to bounce from wall to wall in without wrecking anything. School ended today, and she's been in rare form lately.
( Exciting Adventures of the Whirlwind, and Floral Enthusiasm behind the cut )
I haven't really.
On June 8th we had a couple of sizeable thunderstorms come through here, and this caused us to lose both power and phone. When the phone came back on a few hours later, it was at best unreliable. On our end, sound kept dropping out. The folks we were talking to heard plenty of crackling and static.
This made connecting to our dial-up internet an impossibility. I got about an hour in while sitting with our laptop at one of my kids' weekly appointments, because the building has free wi-fi, and I mostly used that to answer my personal e-mails. We finally got connectivity back here a few hours ago, and then I had some business transactions I needed to take care of before I could get down to socializing.
So if you asked me a question or sent me a response, and you got no reply [*How rude!*] it wasn't because I was lazy or ignoring you. I just was "away".
Back now. Hopelessly behind. I'll be working hard to catch up about in time to go out of town for a week for the last week of June. At least then I'll be able to take the laptop with me, and I'll be heading into the land of wi-fi and fast internet!
So anyway, I'll be getting back to you all as soon as I can, provided I don't have to take too much time out building an empty padded room for the Whirlwind of Destruction to bounce from wall to wall in without wrecking anything. School ended today, and she's been in rare form lately.
( Exciting Adventures of the Whirlwind, and Floral Enthusiasm behind the cut )
Happy Birthday Sue!
May. 26th, 2011 12:06 amA happy birthday to sue_c who is kind, considerate, caring, and writes some of the best Sam/Jack fiction out there: mature, thoughtful, in character, and delivered with a deceptively simple, lucid style. I hope there were family and friends, appropriate levels of fuss and attention, and joy all around.
Alas, I get to these things when I can, so I'm posting at (a little past) the last second here in the East, when I know you will be sound asleep, and I bear no fic as of yet, but I have been thinking of you, and hope that this will extend the holiday glow into the beginning of your next year!
Who me? Procrastinate? "Never!!!!" she asserts, employing the Jack O'Neill patented Denial of Great Unconvincingness and Red HandednessTM.
sue_c who is kind, considerate, caring, and writes some of the best Sam/Jack fiction out there: mature, thoughtful, in character, and delivered with a deceptively simple, lucid style. I hope there were family and friends, appropriate levels of fuss and attention, and joy all around.Alas, I get to these things when I can, so I'm posting at (a little past) the last second here in the East, when I know you will be sound asleep, and I bear no fic as of yet, but I have been thinking of you, and hope that this will extend the holiday glow into the beginning of your next year!
Who me? Procrastinate? "Never!!!!" she asserts, employing the Jack O'Neill patented Denial of Great Unconvincingness and Red HandednessTM.
Okay, so these are the conditions of the meme for which I was tagged by tielan:
1. People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any questions they dislike with a new original question.
2. Tag eight people. Don't refuse that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I don't particularly to be a party pooper. I'll gladly do the meme. I replaced a question I thought was a little silly with some alternate silliness. I'll even tag eight people. But since Ihate to won't demand that people pass it on if they don't want to, and there are no stated restrictions on changing the rules, here are my rules for the meme, changes bolded:
1. People who have been tagged may write the answers on their blog and replace any questions they dislike with a new original question.
2. If you want to, tag eight people.Don't refuse that. The originator would certainly like you to, if you could do it in good conscience. Don't tag who tagged you.
3. If you see this and want to play, but I didn't tag you, join in! The more the merrier!
All right and tight? Okay. Ready, Steady, Go!
--
( meme here )
Tagging:
sue_c because she seldom posts here. Come play!
beatrice_otter because you often have very thinky thoughts.
kirsty841 because she enjoys a good meme from time to time.
a_loquita because I'm sure her answers will entertain.
not_a_zatarc because sometimes she forgets to come and play on live journal.
wanderingsmith because your recent post on seal slaughter lead me to a headline about the mention celebrity's forthcoming album, story here dated April 15th not April 1st and that's just wrong on so many levels!
ansostuff because she enjoys a good meme from time to time.
and last, but certainly not least:
bluewillowtree because she too often likes to join in and play, and somebody needs to join in!
tielan:1. People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any questions they dislike with a new original question.
2. Tag eight people. Don't refuse that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I don't particularly to be a party pooper. I'll gladly do the meme. I replaced a question I thought was a little silly with some alternate silliness. I'll even tag eight people. But since I
1. People who have been tagged may write the answers on their blog and replace any questions they dislike with a new original question.
2. If you want to, tag eight people.
3. If you see this and want to play, but I didn't tag you, join in! The more the merrier!
All right and tight? Okay. Ready, Steady, Go!
--
( meme here )
Tagging:
sue_c because she seldom posts here. Come play!beatrice_otter because you often have very thinky thoughts.kirsty841 because she enjoys a good meme from time to time.a_loquita because I'm sure her answers will entertain.not_a_zatarc because sometimes she forgets to come and play on live journal.wanderingsmith because your recent post on seal slaughter lead me to a headline about the mention celebrity's forthcoming album, story here dated April 15th not April 1st and that's just wrong on so many levels!ansostuff because she enjoys a good meme from time to time.and last, but certainly not least:
bluewillowtree because she too often likes to join in and play, and somebody needs to join in!Happy birthday, Pepper, there is birthday fic, which I posted on the 25th over on LJ, and for which you are included. I tried to post this link on your day, but due to the elementary school Spring play, and my middle daughter's new boyfriend having a series of crises, all of which had to be handled by phone, I couldn't get the line to post in time!
It is here, Bad Birthdays. The link to the second part is at the end of the first part. I posted it over there because so many of the recipients were over on lj.
Seeing as you are settling into life with a new kitty, you might enjoy this bit of comment crackfic Ohhhh the Cat Came Back over atlolmac's more.
Traycer, I am so sorry to come empty handed, but Bad Birthdays is the one that you helped me to get unblocked on, so you can feel responsible for the fact that it is there at all, and go over and enjoy what you have nudged along! I hope your birthday is delightful and not bad!
I hope that both of you, writers whose work I admire, are having/have had a very special day, surrounded by those you love, basking in their diligent attention, and feasting on decadent and delectable delights!
It is here, Bad Birthdays. The link to the second part is at the end of the first part. I posted it over there because so many of the recipients were over on lj.
Seeing as you are settling into life with a new kitty, you might enjoy this bit of comment crackfic Ohhhh the Cat Came Back over at
lolmac's more.Traycer, I am so sorry to come empty handed, but Bad Birthdays is the one that you helped me to get unblocked on, so you can feel responsible for the fact that it is there at all, and go over and enjoy what you have nudged along! I hope your birthday is delightful and not bad!
I hope that both of you, writers whose work I admire, are having/have had a very special day, surrounded by those you love, basking in their diligent attention, and feasting on decadent and delectable delights!
Last year you told me that I managed (by being a night owl by nature) to be the very first to wish you a happy birthday.
This year I may have been the last.
I wrote fic by way of apology to all the (many) people whose birthday's I'd missed, but it is posted over on lj, where most of the other recipients are hanging out.
So wander over and enjoy.
It's a series of ficlets gathered together and entitled "Bad Birthdays", and it's long enough as a whole that I broke it into two separate posts. It is a collection of less than stellar birthdays for the Stargate [SG-1] characters, starting Pre-series, and running as far as Season 7.
Introductory stuff, and "Bad Birthdays, Part 1" - here
"Bad Birthdays, Part 2" - here
For those who worry about such things, it is gen, and slightly AU, because I fudged a little on timing and dates to tell the story I wanted to tell.
This year I may have been the last.
I wrote fic by way of apology to all the (many) people whose birthday's I'd missed, but it is posted over on lj, where most of the other recipients are hanging out.
So wander over and enjoy.
It's a series of ficlets gathered together and entitled "Bad Birthdays", and it's long enough as a whole that I broke it into two separate posts. It is a collection of less than stellar birthdays for the Stargate [SG-1] characters, starting Pre-series, and running as far as Season 7.
Introductory stuff, and "Bad Birthdays, Part 1" - here
"Bad Birthdays, Part 2" - here
For those who worry about such things, it is gen, and slightly AU, because I fudged a little on timing and dates to tell the story I wanted to tell.
I'm Baaaaaack! Did'ja Miss Me? Did'ja?
Mar. 18th, 2011 11:38 pmAfter coming down with a influenza-like illness (my husband the doctor simply calls them I.L.I.'s, and I insist that it could not possibly be proper flu because I got my flu shot, damnit!, and I simply refuse to consider the possibility) and being under the weather since Monday, I have finally crawled out from under my rock and started facing life again. Thank goodness that hockey and figure skating ended on Saturday and we are in the pre-lacrosse and field hockey lull! Minimal chauffeuring duties and simple dinners were the order of the day(s).
Two things I noticed while I was lying blearily in the comfy chair, but still (apparently) wearing my fannish goggles:
Norfolk Southern says they provide "Shippers with a path to prosperity", or words to that effect. Sounds good to me. I am awaiting their check with some eagerness. ;)
A new catalogue came this week from Hearthsong, a rather upscale toy concern. They are offering Flying Space Monkeys in spring toy collection. I giggled especially hard because although there are unisex ones in the background of their picture in blue, tan, and red, the one in the foreground is pink, with long curved lashes and very eye-catching red lips. Perhaps a Space Monkey for the BadFic! Jack/Daniel stories which make Jack horrifyingly OTT macho, and Daniel a total queen?
**************
I have glanced over the goings on while I was "away", but if you have anything in particular you want my input on, lemme know, and I'll go back and comment.
Two things I noticed while I was lying blearily in the comfy chair, but still (apparently) wearing my fannish goggles:
Norfolk Southern says they provide "Shippers with a path to prosperity", or words to that effect. Sounds good to me. I am awaiting their check with some eagerness. ;)
A new catalogue came this week from Hearthsong, a rather upscale toy concern. They are offering Flying Space Monkeys in spring toy collection. I giggled especially hard because although there are unisex ones in the background of their picture in blue, tan, and red, the one in the foreground is pink, with long curved lashes and very eye-catching red lips. Perhaps a Space Monkey for the BadFic! Jack/Daniel stories which make Jack horrifyingly OTT macho, and Daniel a total queen?
**************
I have glanced over the goings on while I was "away", but if you have anything in particular you want my input on, lemme know, and I'll go back and comment.
As some of you may know, I majored in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology because I wanted to be an Egyptologist. It was my ambition from the time I was eight, and my passion, but ultimately I decided that some of the things that went along with attaining that goal (like being away from my husband for months at a time because he would be a settled primary care physician, and I would be digging in Egypt, or the fact that we would need to live in or near a major city where the academic jobs are, which neither of us wanted to do) meant that ultimately I never pushed on and got my PhD. It didn't help that being at the tail end of the Baby Boom, I faced a situation where the likelihood was that I would graduate with my PhD to find that the jobs were already held by those in the beginning wave of the Baby Boom. Still, the study of Ancient Egypt is something I care passionately about.
I have seen pictures of the looting at the Cairo Museum, the priceless statues broken, the cases smashed, the objects scattered about. This is not just Egypt's heritage, but the heritage of the whole world, because to understand Ancient Egypt is to understand a vital important part of human history and how we came of age as a species. Things which have come down to us through thousands of years lie broken, never again to be as they were because of a moment of anger at a modern dictator who has no real connection to the products or the rulers of the past.
I wept when the Bagdad Museum was looted. I weep now.
I have seen pictures of the looting at the Cairo Museum, the priceless statues broken, the cases smashed, the objects scattered about. This is not just Egypt's heritage, but the heritage of the whole world, because to understand Ancient Egypt is to understand a vital important part of human history and how we came of age as a species. Things which have come down to us through thousands of years lie broken, never again to be as they were because of a moment of anger at a modern dictator who has no real connection to the products or the rulers of the past.
I wept when the Bagdad Museum was looted. I weep now.
A Rather Delayed Bit of Crack Fic
Jan. 20th, 2011 05:22 amA long time ago (January 1st!) on lolmac's journal entry here, I made a comment in reaction to her posting and the mouseover on the picture as follows:
"If he really wants to outdo Mac's shirt, he just needs to get Carter to figure out a way to get his hair to change color in waves like one of those fiber optic desk-lamp thingys. I'm sure she could figure something out...
Can't you just see Hammond during the briefing trying desperately (and ultimately futilely) not to ask what the hell is going on with the Colonel's hair and why, lest he encourage them by reacting?"
lolmac asked me to write this bit of crack fic, and suggested that some alien technology might be responsible.
I was going to immediately fire back with a little comment fic. But I fell asleep instead.
And then rl got hoppin' and it's taken me until now.
So without further ado:
Title: A Hair Brained Scene
Season: Sometime after both Legacy and Shades of Grey, probably 4th Season
Spoilers: Minor ones for both the above mentioned episodes. And it isn't a shocker that SG-11 is not the good karma team of the SGC, right?
Warnings: Silliness. Do not take seriously. Seriously. I mean it. (Anybody want a peanut?)
Disclaimer: I'm messing with characters that don't belong to me, and putting them in my bizarre off-kilter sandbox. Since I'm not charging admission, and they can go right back when I'm done, if these shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended...
Synopsis: He is the very model of a modern Major General. He knows things.
( A Hair Brained Scene )
lolmac's journal entry here, I made a comment in reaction to her posting and the mouseover on the picture as follows:"If he really wants to outdo Mac's shirt, he just needs to get Carter to figure out a way to get his hair to change color in waves like one of those fiber optic desk-lamp thingys. I'm sure she could figure something out...
Can't you just see Hammond during the briefing trying desperately (and ultimately futilely) not to ask what the hell is going on with the Colonel's hair and why, lest he encourage them by reacting?"
lolmac asked me to write this bit of crack fic, and suggested that some alien technology might be responsible.I was going to immediately fire back with a little comment fic. But I fell asleep instead.
And then rl got hoppin' and it's taken me until now.
So without further ado:
Title: A Hair Brained Scene
Season: Sometime after both Legacy and Shades of Grey, probably 4th Season
Spoilers: Minor ones for both the above mentioned episodes. And it isn't a shocker that SG-11 is not the good karma team of the SGC, right?
Warnings: Silliness. Do not take seriously. Seriously. I mean it. (Anybody want a peanut?)
Disclaimer: I'm messing with characters that don't belong to me, and putting them in my bizarre off-kilter sandbox. Since I'm not charging admission, and they can go right back when I'm done, if these shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended...
Synopsis: He is the very model of a modern Major General. He knows things.
( A Hair Brained Scene )
Happy New Year to all. May 2011 be a year of wonder and delight, and may it lay the foundation for still brighter and better things to come in the years that follow!
I found and snurched a year end summing up meme frommayogate and filled it out. It was kind of an odd fit for me, but it was kind of intriguing to fill out. ( There be answers here. Some at length. Oh, stop rolling your eyes. I know I can be verbose. )
I found and snurched a year end summing up meme from
mayogate and filled it out. It was kind of an odd fit for me, but it was kind of intriguing to fill out. ( There be answers here. Some at length. Oh, stop rolling your eyes. I know I can be verbose. )
I'm Baaaaaack! Disorganized, But Back.
Dec. 29th, 2010 12:42 amI am back from Christmas away, and thoroughly enjoyed having all four of my kids under one roof again for a few days. The food was good, the small people were adorable, the laughter was abundant, and none of the mishaps were disastrous.
We got back just in time to take the Whirlwind of Destruction of to the pediatric ophthalmologist, and she returned with glasses, which she really likes, and was sooo pleased with. She got to see a clear night sky full of stars with the new specs on and was awe-struck and amazed. She'd never seen anything like it before! Then her fifteen year old sister told her she looked like a total dork in them. Crestfallen doesn't begin to describe it. Clearly the beatings must continue until morale improves and we learn the lesson that honesty is not an excuse to trample on others! Frankly, I think the glasses look pretty cute. Besides, teenagers behind glass rectangles shouldn't throw stones!
And those of you who are concerned, and wish to report me, just remember that my eldest daughter came home one day to say "Mom? You know what? You guys are different from the other parents. I do something and the other kids say 'Oooh! Look out! When your folks find out, you're so gonna get it!' They never believe it when I tell them that all you are gonna do is talk to me about it until I realize why it was wrong and apologize and agree not to do that again. They say that if that's all their parents did, then they'd never behave. They just don't get it. When you guys have to talk to me I feel really bad! It's worse than being spanked, 'cause it isn't just over and then you can ignore it again. It makes you think about what you did and not want to do it again ever."
Anyway, the point is, I'll be looking through the backlog, now that things are going more back to normal, but if you have anything that you want me to take a look at right away now, YES NOW!, lemme know here. Otherwise, I'll be getting there. Soon. Well, less not-soon anyway.
Oh, and-
Glee for the day:
We got home after a significant snow event, to discover that our driveway had been cleared for us. We suspect our neighbors who have chickens. We have fed the chickens on several occasions when they were away and refused to accept payment for it, since it really is only a matter of moments to swap out the old water for new and scoop a few measures of grain. It's a bit of a hike up their hill, but it's not like we can't use the exercise. So now we are involved in a grand old Northern New England tradition - the Favor War, in which the object is to do more good than you receive - and in my opinion, they currently have the upper hand!
I love living here.
Icon is because I don't have many icons showing glasses. This is one of them.
We got back just in time to take the Whirlwind of Destruction of to the pediatric ophthalmologist, and she returned with glasses, which she really likes, and was sooo pleased with. She got to see a clear night sky full of stars with the new specs on and was awe-struck and amazed. She'd never seen anything like it before! Then her fifteen year old sister told her she looked like a total dork in them. Crestfallen doesn't begin to describe it. Clearly the beatings must continue until morale improves and we learn the lesson that honesty is not an excuse to trample on others! Frankly, I think the glasses look pretty cute. Besides, teenagers behind glass rectangles shouldn't throw stones!
And those of you who are concerned, and wish to report me, just remember that my eldest daughter came home one day to say "Mom? You know what? You guys are different from the other parents. I do something and the other kids say 'Oooh! Look out! When your folks find out, you're so gonna get it!' They never believe it when I tell them that all you are gonna do is talk to me about it until I realize why it was wrong and apologize and agree not to do that again. They say that if that's all their parents did, then they'd never behave. They just don't get it. When you guys have to talk to me I feel really bad! It's worse than being spanked, 'cause it isn't just over and then you can ignore it again. It makes you think about what you did and not want to do it again ever."
Anyway, the point is, I'll be looking through the backlog, now that things are going more back to normal, but if you have anything that you want me to take a look at right away now, YES NOW!, lemme know here. Otherwise, I'll be getting there. Soon. Well, less not-soon anyway.
Oh, and-
Glee for the day:
We got home after a significant snow event, to discover that our driveway had been cleared for us. We suspect our neighbors who have chickens. We have fed the chickens on several occasions when they were away and refused to accept payment for it, since it really is only a matter of moments to swap out the old water for new and scoop a few measures of grain. It's a bit of a hike up their hill, but it's not like we can't use the exercise. So now we are involved in a grand old Northern New England tradition - the Favor War, in which the object is to do more good than you receive - and in my opinion, they currently have the upper hand!
I love living here.
Icon is because I don't have many icons showing glasses. This is one of them.
Well, I finally finished the Christmas shopping today. I still have a to-do list that is too long for the time remaining to do it in, and nothing that can really be left out. Par for the course.
All the same, I can toddle off to bed after a very loooooong day of shopping secure in the knowledge that at the very least I won't be disappointing anyone by not getting them anything, and that the gifts that had to be sent are all on their way soon enough to make it there in time.
Since Christmas in our family is a matriarchal tradition, almost all of my Christmasses have taken place at my maternal grandmother's house. She lived in southern Vermont, all very Norman Rockwell snowy and set in picturesque rural New England scenery, in a house built up in the hills in the late 1700's and old enough to have age-blackened massive hand-hewn beams, wide pine flooring, and a fireplace with a bread-baking to one side and a swinging iron hook to hold cooking pots over the fire. She died at the age of 97, and this means that Christmas is now in northern New Jersey. Not nearly as picturesque and stereotypical, alas!
It will be a big crowd gathering, at least 17 of us at last count (not including my sister's baby in utero), with all the hustle and bustle and chaos that that entails.
We will all be competing to produce the most succulent and elaborate dinner when it is our turn to cook, and the cousins will be weaving in and out of the adults' feet, desperately trying not to burst with anticipation, while everyone tries (it sometimes seems) to dredge up those moments when we were each most embarrassingly and undeniably ourselves, and the missing are remembered with fond pangs. None of the things served will be American traditional. No Turkey with all the trimmings. No Roast Beef and oven-roasted potatoes. There will be stuffed vine leaves, there will be leg of lamb. There may well be Asian dishes, Mediterranean dishes, and most of them will be the original recipes of the cook for the night. For many years my Grandmother took us out for Chinese for Christmas dinner, and my kids are still a little indignant that Christmas dinner no longer has Peking Duck and hoisin sauce!
There will be breakage, and frayed patience, and tears of joy. There will be the inevitable broken toy tragedy, a gift that everybody marvels at because it's just so right that really we all should have thought of it, and far too much candy.
There will be no room to move by Christmas afternoon, between the people, the stuff, and the bags of ripped and discarded wrapping. The best wrapping will be carefully and reverently folded, and put upstairs by my mother for re-use.
There will be stockings for every blessed one of us, and some of them, thanks to a competition some years back that got a little out of hand, will be simply ENORMOUS.
There will be singing of carols acapella, since my mother doesn't have a piano, with harmony. My husband was in the choir for years and knows the base parts to so many carols! Two of my daughters between them know many of the alto parts, although they are both more comfortable as sopranos.
We'll eat Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner on the Royal Copenhagen china and with the silver service that we have always used, because my mother has my grandmother's dishes and silver now.
Some of the gifts will be labeled with tiny writing well camouflaged in the pattern of the paper, so that the children sorting and delivering will have to hunt, and the orgy of greed cannot begin too soon. This will be a good thing, because we always have to wait for a sleepy night-owl of an uncle to drag himself into the day, bleary-eyed and feeling blindly about for the strong cup of coffee someone will thrust at him.
Some of the packages will have to be carried off to the people in the family who read Arabic to have their labels read aloud so we know who gets them.
Every few years there will be a gift so fascinatingly and horrifyingly hideous that it will echo around the family for a few years, finding its way into a stocking of the unwary. For some fifteen years it was a can of haggis. We are a gastronomically adventurous family, but we just couldn't imagine that that could possibly be improved by canning.
Just about every year someone gets a gift that becomes a family obsession for a while, because it is so silly, or so fun, or so difficult, that everyone wants a turn with it.
Some will go to Midnight Mass. Not all of them will be Christian. Some will simply be the curious and the gregarious.
Jokes and allusions will be made in at least five languages, sometimes in order to speak of stocking matters without testing the faith of the true believers. Somehow we always seem to have a supply of them, because just as my mother's got old enough to outgrow that, I had some of my own. Now my sister is enlisting us for at least the next eight years, and after that my kids may well be starting to provide!
In short, we'll have the rollicking bustling Christmas that is common in large families.
I'll be a little busy, so if I don't see you before New Years, I wish you the joy of the season. As the sign outside the hardware store down town says (rather dryly - this is a small town, overwhelmingly Christian, and inclined to think that the world has always been and will always be as Norman Rockwell painted it from the life) "May your personal choice of a seasonal celebration be empowering!" I say it with irony too, but mine is warm, inclusive, friendly irony, because really, inside, where we are all just people, I mean it.
Please don't be offended by any silence. Know I'm just to busy in real life for a while. I'll be back and being verbose again before long. I promise!
All the same, I can toddle off to bed after a very loooooong day of shopping secure in the knowledge that at the very least I won't be disappointing anyone by not getting them anything, and that the gifts that had to be sent are all on their way soon enough to make it there in time.
Since Christmas in our family is a matriarchal tradition, almost all of my Christmasses have taken place at my maternal grandmother's house. She lived in southern Vermont, all very Norman Rockwell snowy and set in picturesque rural New England scenery, in a house built up in the hills in the late 1700's and old enough to have age-blackened massive hand-hewn beams, wide pine flooring, and a fireplace with a bread-baking to one side and a swinging iron hook to hold cooking pots over the fire. She died at the age of 97, and this means that Christmas is now in northern New Jersey. Not nearly as picturesque and stereotypical, alas!
It will be a big crowd gathering, at least 17 of us at last count (not including my sister's baby in utero), with all the hustle and bustle and chaos that that entails.
We will all be competing to produce the most succulent and elaborate dinner when it is our turn to cook, and the cousins will be weaving in and out of the adults' feet, desperately trying not to burst with anticipation, while everyone tries (it sometimes seems) to dredge up those moments when we were each most embarrassingly and undeniably ourselves, and the missing are remembered with fond pangs. None of the things served will be American traditional. No Turkey with all the trimmings. No Roast Beef and oven-roasted potatoes. There will be stuffed vine leaves, there will be leg of lamb. There may well be Asian dishes, Mediterranean dishes, and most of them will be the original recipes of the cook for the night. For many years my Grandmother took us out for Chinese for Christmas dinner, and my kids are still a little indignant that Christmas dinner no longer has Peking Duck and hoisin sauce!
There will be breakage, and frayed patience, and tears of joy. There will be the inevitable broken toy tragedy, a gift that everybody marvels at because it's just so right that really we all should have thought of it, and far too much candy.
There will be no room to move by Christmas afternoon, between the people, the stuff, and the bags of ripped and discarded wrapping. The best wrapping will be carefully and reverently folded, and put upstairs by my mother for re-use.
There will be stockings for every blessed one of us, and some of them, thanks to a competition some years back that got a little out of hand, will be simply ENORMOUS.
There will be singing of carols acapella, since my mother doesn't have a piano, with harmony. My husband was in the choir for years and knows the base parts to so many carols! Two of my daughters between them know many of the alto parts, although they are both more comfortable as sopranos.
We'll eat Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner on the Royal Copenhagen china and with the silver service that we have always used, because my mother has my grandmother's dishes and silver now.
Some of the gifts will be labeled with tiny writing well camouflaged in the pattern of the paper, so that the children sorting and delivering will have to hunt, and the orgy of greed cannot begin too soon. This will be a good thing, because we always have to wait for a sleepy night-owl of an uncle to drag himself into the day, bleary-eyed and feeling blindly about for the strong cup of coffee someone will thrust at him.
Some of the packages will have to be carried off to the people in the family who read Arabic to have their labels read aloud so we know who gets them.
Every few years there will be a gift so fascinatingly and horrifyingly hideous that it will echo around the family for a few years, finding its way into a stocking of the unwary. For some fifteen years it was a can of haggis. We are a gastronomically adventurous family, but we just couldn't imagine that that could possibly be improved by canning.
Just about every year someone gets a gift that becomes a family obsession for a while, because it is so silly, or so fun, or so difficult, that everyone wants a turn with it.
Some will go to Midnight Mass. Not all of them will be Christian. Some will simply be the curious and the gregarious.
Jokes and allusions will be made in at least five languages, sometimes in order to speak of stocking matters without testing the faith of the true believers. Somehow we always seem to have a supply of them, because just as my mother's got old enough to outgrow that, I had some of my own. Now my sister is enlisting us for at least the next eight years, and after that my kids may well be starting to provide!
In short, we'll have the rollicking bustling Christmas that is common in large families.
I'll be a little busy, so if I don't see you before New Years, I wish you the joy of the season. As the sign outside the hardware store down town says (rather dryly - this is a small town, overwhelmingly Christian, and inclined to think that the world has always been and will always be as Norman Rockwell painted it from the life) "May your personal choice of a seasonal celebration be empowering!" I say it with irony too, but mine is warm, inclusive, friendly irony, because really, inside, where we are all just people, I mean it.
Please don't be offended by any silence. Know I'm just to busy in real life for a while. I'll be back and being verbose again before long. I promise!
What I Am Thankful For
Nov. 24th, 2010 11:43 pmWell, it's Thanksgiving again here in America. Today was an orgy of cooking ahead so that there will be time enough to get the rest of it done tomorrow. Today was the sweet potatoes, which will be microwaved and garnished on the day, and portobello mushroom, summer squash, tomato, onion, pinenut, parsley, and mint stuffed vine leaves.
The sweet potatoes are not a big to do, but they hog the microwave at a critical time if they aren't prepared ahead of time. Stuffed vine leaves are one of those dishes that were invented by women living in small villages. They are a pleasant excuse for a good group gossip, many hands making light work, in that kind of setting. For one woman working alone while keeping an eye on an overly active child, they are a pain in the neck to make. But yummy.
Tomorrow will be roast lamb, broiled herbed snow peas, green beans with toasted pine nuts. My aunt will also be bringing kale and a celery-lemon salad.
My poor dear husband (who is not back from work yet, and it's after midnight here) will be making an apple and a pumpkin pie and putting them in the oven for me to take out before he toddles off to bed. Tomorrow he'll do most of the remaining cooking and whip up some diabetic-safe chocolate crepes with espresso whipped topping for my aunt and me, since we can't eat the pie, while I watch the Wirlwind of Destruction and so some last minute cleaning.
But that's not the important part. This is:
In a world where so many go hungry, where one third of my countrymen struggle to feed their kids, we will feast. Yeah, we too are cutting back on spending, and it looks like we will have to sell some stock that we were hoping to save for our daughters' college to finish paying for our son's final year, but the fact is, we have stock. I am thankful.
I love my family of origin, as eclectic and eccentric as we all are. I love our humor, our intelligence, our widely divergent interests, and our ability to enjoy each other. I won the in-law lottery and married into a family that is loving, welcoming, witty, boistrous, fun, and close-knit. They have a talent for loving, committed, deeply devoted marriage that has to be experienced to be believed. My children have the enormous privilege of knowing their second cousins as well as they do their first cousins. I am thankful.
I have four bright, healthy, energetic, interesting, and wonderful kids. Their strengths, their passions, their challenges, and their beauties are all quite different, and they have led me into worlds of experience I never could have predicted or imagined. It takes every bit of intelligence and wisdom I have to stay a step ahead of them until they are launched. One of the greatest joys of spending my days with them has been to watch their wonderful, unique and individual, and clever senses of humor develop before my delighted eyes. I am so very thankful.
I have a handsome, gentle, clever, funny husband who met me at 19, and has watched the 125 lb. competitive swimmer he first knew morph into a 215 lb. mother of four and then back into an active 135 lb. middle-aged woman, and the love and desire in his deep blue eyes never waned, but has always grown. At a family wedding last month he told the groom, a younger cousin of his "You look at your bride with so much love, but you will never again love her less than you do this day." I am humbled, and very, very thankful.
And although I have much to be thankful for, I still have days when I am tired or discouraged, days when parenting has been stressful, when the news I hear has been depressing, days when my molehills have swollen into mountains, days when my soul aches with or without a reason. No matter the depths of my self-pity, the degree of my discouragement, the heat of my frustration, at the end of my day, when I can steal a bit of time to myself to come and play here and turn away from the cares of the day, I have never, ever failed to find something to amuse me, intrigue me, soothe me, or carry me off to the safer worlds of fantasy in the offerings of my f-list. I am thankful for you all.
The sweet potatoes are not a big to do, but they hog the microwave at a critical time if they aren't prepared ahead of time. Stuffed vine leaves are one of those dishes that were invented by women living in small villages. They are a pleasant excuse for a good group gossip, many hands making light work, in that kind of setting. For one woman working alone while keeping an eye on an overly active child, they are a pain in the neck to make. But yummy.
Tomorrow will be roast lamb, broiled herbed snow peas, green beans with toasted pine nuts. My aunt will also be bringing kale and a celery-lemon salad.
My poor dear husband (who is not back from work yet, and it's after midnight here) will be making an apple and a pumpkin pie and putting them in the oven for me to take out before he toddles off to bed. Tomorrow he'll do most of the remaining cooking and whip up some diabetic-safe chocolate crepes with espresso whipped topping for my aunt and me, since we can't eat the pie, while I watch the Wirlwind of Destruction and so some last minute cleaning.
But that's not the important part. This is:
In a world where so many go hungry, where one third of my countrymen struggle to feed their kids, we will feast. Yeah, we too are cutting back on spending, and it looks like we will have to sell some stock that we were hoping to save for our daughters' college to finish paying for our son's final year, but the fact is, we have stock. I am thankful.
I love my family of origin, as eclectic and eccentric as we all are. I love our humor, our intelligence, our widely divergent interests, and our ability to enjoy each other. I won the in-law lottery and married into a family that is loving, welcoming, witty, boistrous, fun, and close-knit. They have a talent for loving, committed, deeply devoted marriage that has to be experienced to be believed. My children have the enormous privilege of knowing their second cousins as well as they do their first cousins. I am thankful.
I have four bright, healthy, energetic, interesting, and wonderful kids. Their strengths, their passions, their challenges, and their beauties are all quite different, and they have led me into worlds of experience I never could have predicted or imagined. It takes every bit of intelligence and wisdom I have to stay a step ahead of them until they are launched. One of the greatest joys of spending my days with them has been to watch their wonderful, unique and individual, and clever senses of humor develop before my delighted eyes. I am so very thankful.
I have a handsome, gentle, clever, funny husband who met me at 19, and has watched the 125 lb. competitive swimmer he first knew morph into a 215 lb. mother of four and then back into an active 135 lb. middle-aged woman, and the love and desire in his deep blue eyes never waned, but has always grown. At a family wedding last month he told the groom, a younger cousin of his "You look at your bride with so much love, but you will never again love her less than you do this day." I am humbled, and very, very thankful.
And although I have much to be thankful for, I still have days when I am tired or discouraged, days when parenting has been stressful, when the news I hear has been depressing, days when my molehills have swollen into mountains, days when my soul aches with or without a reason. No matter the depths of my self-pity, the degree of my discouragement, the heat of my frustration, at the end of my day, when I can steal a bit of time to myself to come and play here and turn away from the cares of the day, I have never, ever failed to find something to amuse me, intrigue me, soothe me, or carry me off to the safer worlds of fantasy in the offerings of my f-list. I am thankful for you all.
I have commited Five Things again.
Title: Five Movies Janet and Cassie Watch Together
Season: Seasons 1-7
Spoilers: Well, if you don't know what movies Jack and Teal'c have mentioned or how Janet's character left the show...
Warnings: *sniff*
Synopsis: Uhhh... So, didja read the title in passing?
Disclaimer: The standard, as read. Profit? I laugh at your profit. Prophets, on the other hand, deserve respect.
The fic can be found ( here on dw )
Or here at The Pentangular Gate.
Title: Five Movies Janet and Cassie Watch Together
Season: Seasons 1-7
Spoilers: Well, if you don't know what movies Jack and Teal'c have mentioned or how Janet's character left the show...
Warnings: *sniff*
Synopsis: Uhhh... So, didja read the title in passing?
Disclaimer: The standard, as read. Profit? I laugh at your profit. Prophets, on the other hand, deserve respect.
The fic can be found ( here on dw )
Or here at The Pentangular Gate.
