The Super-Seekret Treehouse

Read David Benioff's City of Thieves. It's not that long -- about 250 pages, set during the Siege of Leningrad in WWII. A good read with lots of nice details ... the ending is very Hollywood, but maybe that's because Benioff is a screenwriter. Still, it kept me interested all the way through.

Forgot to mention I had also finished Lorrie Moore's A Gate At the Stairs -- excellent read except for two big plot devices that I found just unbelievable (as did the NY Times reviewer, heh). Moore's such a good writer, though, so I just rolled my eyes and went on. *g*

So tired. Haven't slept well at all the past few nights.

8" x 6" pastel on paper.  Yes, she really is that sweet.  Not terribly bright, bless her little heart, but so, so sweet.

Hazy sun, 33 degrees. New laptop is in transit and is supposed to be here tomorrow. Otherwise doing housely stuff and catching up on reading.

( Tweets back here! )

Moon Rock

To celebrate my freedom since my car is back now, I took Chase to the dog park for some much-needed outside fun for us both. We met up with a couple of friends and their doggies. Then another set of doggies came to the park, including a big-ish dog. Big Dog ran around for a bit and then ran RIGHT by me, and wouldn't you know it: stomped directly, and I mean *directly*, on my broken toe.

I immediately knelt to the ground and just held my foot for a while, moaning. The pain was incredible, similar to when I broke it the first time!

And yup, I was wearing my ortho shoe, but it offers protection below and in front of the toe. None on top of the toe.

So now I'm back home and I took the prescription painkiller again for the first time in something like 1.5 weeks. A few days ago I became convinced at least one (maybe both?) of the "questionable" spots on my x-ray really was a fracture, because while the bruising has been gone for *several* days, the pain is still here. So... yeah. Broken toe got stomped on by a running doggie!

And thus was my introduction back to the outside world. Ha ha. I simply cannot win this last week! :)

 

Portrait of Lola, 8" x 10" oil on canvas. 

( Snapshot and art rambling, under the cut. )

My car is done! My car is done!

YAY YAY YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

:-D :-D :-D

I can't wait to go get it. Yay, car! :-D

Authors:  blackmare_9 , perspi , and hannahrorlove
Rating: R; Violence and illness, language
Characters: Wilson, House, OFC; no pairing
Summary: The pessimist says 'it can't get any worse.' The optimist says 'yes it can.'  4,909 words.
Notes: For nightdog_barks, as a holiday gift for just being awesome. Sparked by a random, irreverent comment from perspi in Nightdog's LJ. She'll recognize it. Many thanks to our fellow Collective members pwcorgigirl and deelaundry, and verbal_kint10 for their cheering and feedback.

She spots him early in the evening ...

Title: Bait and Switch
Authors: blackmare9 and perspi and hannahrorlove
Rating: R
Warning: Violence and vomiting
Word Count: 4909
Pairing: none
Summary: The pessimist says 'it can't get any worse.' The optimist says 'yes it can.'
Relates to Episodes: Set sometime after "Wilson"
Disclaimer: House MD was created by David Shore and not me. Me, I own nothing.
Notes: For nightdog_barks, as a holiday gift for just being awesome. Sparked by a random, irreverent comment from perspi in Nightdog's LJ. She'll recognize it. Many thanks to our fellow Collective members pwcorgigirl and deelaundry, and verbal_kint10 for their cheering and feedback.

( She spots him early in the evening and knows — he's the one. )
 

Hello all!

I need some help. 

Imagine you want some kind of art done in your personal home or business, and then tell me what you'd enter into Google to find someone to do it.  What words would you search to find someone who does what I do?  ETA that I mean murals, which is -- or was until the housing market crash -- my main source of income.

That's all.  I am not using a poll because I don't want to influence your answers.  Comments will be screened for that same reason.

Thanks in advance to anyone who participates.  It'll help me figure out which five words -- that's all Google gives me -- to use as keywords with them.

Bright sun! And 31 degrees, but that will seem warm later this week, when by Thursday night it's supposed to be 14. Gah.

Housely stuff to do today, and we'll see how long my laptop decides to stay up. New one is on its way, though.

( Tweets back here! )

2009 was apparently the year of the ficlet. I wrote 38 pieces, for a total of 35,618 words (only three fics longer than 2,000 words), and four mini-DVD commentaries. My shortest piece was "Any Afternoon" at 100 words; longest was "Milk, Silk, a Bedspread or a Quilt" at 5,822 words.

( Fic Roundup and Fave/Most Fun/Most Sexy/Holy Crap That's Wrong )

Today at the Hithah Wiki: Squirrel

son_of_darkness, who is a great go-to guy for things kinky & thinky, has an interesting topic up for discussion today. He writes:

Most of the geeky people I meet are kinky, but not a lot of the kinky people I meet are geeky. [...] I wanted to ask if any of you had noticed something similar, and if so, why do you think there seems to be such a correlation between being a geek and being kinky?

I replied: I know I found a lot of consolation in geeky settings because I didn't feel I fit in to mainstream culture -- which included, in large part, things that turned me on. There's a huge overlap for me between wanting to explore the subtext of movies/TV/books/etc. and wanting to explore the kink lurking in things like villains and vampires and intergalactic space exploration and what have you.

Fannishness and kinkiness have always been intertwined for me. I told ticcyyy once that the most important, life-changing thing about fandom for me has been to meet people, from home and from the other side of the world, who share a fierce love of the same things I do, that I was told when I was younger -- by my parents, by my best friend, by teachers, by culture -- were strange, deviant, not okay. I never had confidence in myself like I've had since finding fandom. For one thing, I can read wonderful, amazing, hot, kinky fic whenever I want, and share my own when I want, and we have this community that celebrates it.

There is so much more to say, some day. But I thought some of you might want to share your thoughts and experiences, here or there. I know I want to hear them.

Overcast and cool at 45 degrees. Have just ordered a new laptop (a Toshiba) from Newegg.com. None of the local stores (Best Buy, Office Depot, etc.) had anything actually in stock that was within our price range, so I didn't mind giving Newegg my business.

So ... bzuh.

Hot damn, I love this "Classic Alternative" music channel, even though this particular song is reminding me just how much I miss ska. (A lot.)

2009 fic year in review later today, probably.

( Tweets back here! )

On Mr. N's laptop briefly. Mare, this is the New Yorker cartoon I was referencing. I adore Roz Chast. *g*

Google Magazine

ETA that here is a great interview with Chast from 1980.