There's been some casting stuff for True Blood which has made me happy. In my pants. No, really, I can't wait for the next season because we're going to get [redacted] and [redacted] and those are some of my favorite parts of the books. UNF.

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I'm having trouble with the two non-fic projects I'm supposed to be writing today, so I thought I'd warm up by writing a mini-fic for catalinay, as her prize for guessing three of the fics I wrote for Yuletide.

1100 words later, the first section of five is done. *facepalm* Short and sweet! This was supposed to be short and sweet!

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I am going to try to go to the doctor today, to the free clinic. We'll see if I can get in. You have to wait outside for it to open, because they don't open the doors until 5 and it's on a first come, first served basis, and I just don't know if I can handle a) being outside and b) being around so many people. If I don't go, though, my dad is going to kill me, so there's that.

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It is so cold in J's house. Well, in this state in general, which is wrong. Last night I went to get dinner (because he didn't come home from work until after 9:30 p.m. [he went to work at 7:30 a.m.] and neither of us wanted to cook). I was outside for maybe ten minutes, tops, in the car and running into and out of Subway, probably more like seven minutes if that, and by the time I got back inside, my hands were numb. I was wearing multiple long-sleeved shirts, jeans, heavy socks, shoes, a ski jacket, a scarf, fingerless gloves, and leather gloves on top of them and my hands got so cold when I pulled a soda out of the fridge, it felt warm. I expect this shit in Michigan, but not here.

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J and I were talking about Hawaii (where his mom lives) and I told him we should have gone there for the holidays. If it's good enough for Obama, I said, it's good enough for us. We were in public at the time and he looks around and tells me not to say that so loud, I'll get jumped here. I told him I feared no conservative. Oh, small town Missouri.

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I really have to get to work on non-fic stuff now.

I owe a few people some major apologies, and some private emails will be going out later, but I just want to say here, in public, that I am so sorry for disappearing and especially for disappearing without doing some edits I said I would do. There has been major drama in both my personal and professional lives. Things finally look like they're turning around, which I appreciate. I would like to have energy again, and time, and both fannish and holiday spirit.

Work

Word of advice: if your car is due for new plates, don't wait until the day before the end of the month to get it inspected, learn you need a new windshield, call to try to schedule a last minute appointment, and then scream at me because we are already booked with other people who knew ahead of time they were going to have to replace their windshields before the end of the month.

Screaming at me will not get you an appointment. In fact, the second you start yelling, I clam up and I won't send you to the one guy I know who is taking same-day appointments still. So while the people who were nice got their windshields changed, their cars inspected, and their license plates renewed, I hope you--well, to be honest, after the past few months, I hope you fuck off and die and would be glad to help you on the way, but I'll settle for making sure you don't get your windshield done.

In happier news, I'll move on.

Family

Mom came home from the hospital. She has been in since 13 October, but she came home yesterday, a day earlier than they planned because the weather was supposed to be so bad today. (It is very bad today, so they were right to do so.) She's still very weak, but she can hold a fork and move her arms and walk (with a walker, but still, lots of improvement).

Fandom

I have nothing really coherent to say, except that I loved last night's episode of Bones, Ugly Betty continues to please me, I'm in love with Supernatural, and I haven't watched Heroes or Battlestar Galactica since Mom went into the hospital. I really miss the latter, though I haven't noticed the loss of the former.

I saw Happy Feet, and though it wasn't quite what I expected, I loved it. My icons from it make me smile.

Weather

Okay, the weather sucks. It's icy and cold and we're due a ton of snow. I hate ice, cold, and snow. I'm moving to Hawaii the first chance I get. I was able to come home early today, but will be heading back to work bright and early first thing tomorrow no matter what, because the boss is out of town and the other office guy is going to be late. Have I mentioned I hate driving on the snow? I can do it, but I don't trust other drivers, and I absolutely can't stand to do it. I would ask J. to give me a ride, but he'll be coming off of a double shift which includes an overnight shift and will need his sleep. I don't trust anyone else I know on the snow (and actually, I currently am not friends with very many drivers right now, which is strange for me). Well, I would trust my father, who taught me how to drive on the snow, but I won't ask him to get out in the cold.

(On one of the trips back from the hospital [about an hour and a half drive in good conditions], I let my brother M. drive in the fog and the semi-rain. This is a big improvement for me, I don't trust many people to drive my vehicle.)

marenfic is hosting the Battlestar Galactica Frakkin' Ficlet Battle over in her journal. As I received my season two point five DVDs yesterday, I plan to watch them (at some point...I don't know when) and participate in this challenge. Yes, I know I swore I wouldn't write BSG fic, but the girl slash! Starbuck! Starbuck having the girl slash! The president! Older Adama! Cylons!

Okay, obviously I have been sucked deep into another fandom.

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Tornado warning. Tornadoes touching down. Equinox. Mom's birthday. Working all weekend (main job today 8-5, CogCon 5-11, main job 8-12 tomorrow, CogCon 12-11, CogCon 8-6 on Sunday). Want to watch my new DVDs. (BSG and Supernatural!)

Woo, slightly stormy day and the power has already gone out twice in 58 minutes. WOO.

Bring it, storm. Bring it good. I was smart enough to bring the Blazer to work instead of my bike and my work computer is on a battery backup. I have nothing to fear. (Except typing with my brace on, which I haven't done in far too long, but even that I can deal with without much trouble.)

We need a good, hard, long rain. The world is drying up here, too hot and dry. The trees are shedding their leaves, the grass has been brown since June, and it really looks like we're baking the world here in the Midwest.

Edit 9:01 THREE TIMES!

Wow. Usually storms build farther south on I-44 and head north past me and on to St. Louis, but today we had gorgeous, sunny, warm skies and the storms built on top of St. Louis and headed into Illinois. As strange as Missouri weather can be, that's unusual, and I hope everyone is okay. There are unconfirmed reports of at least one small tornado touching down.

I can very nicely float Baileys on Buttershots, I learned tonight. Beautiful combination.

Does anyone have any recommendations for wine racks? I'll need one when K. and I get a place this summer, and I'm looking for something in black metal and preferably with an unusual shape.

Laundry put away, cleaning done, and now it's time for dinner, a shower, and bed so I can go to the gym in the morning.

The Red Ranger from the original Power Rangers is doing gay porn now, plus has buffed up some (they say, I don't remember what he looked like before). I used to watch that show once in awhile with some of the kids I baby-sat, and once had a fabulous dream about the Red Ranger. It was dirty and delicious. In the dream, he was damn buff, so I think that's why I'm not seeing the weight lifting change to him, because as soon as I saw the picture, the dream was what I remembered. How strange. (links from that link not too worksafe, I guess)

The New Blue is an a capella group from Yale and you can listen to their songs online. Though some of the versions are a little too forced-dramatic for me, I have fallen in love with their version of "Both Hands" by Ani DiFranco.

In non-link news, I am alive and untouched by the tornados. The weather has been strange, sunny during the day which fades to wicked stormy at night (Saturday night it was pissing down rain and the sirens were all going off and of course my sister and I were on the road at the time, because that is just how things work for us), but we've had no damage.

Busy weekend, no time online until just now, so I'm behind. Probably won't have time to catch up until next weekend, when I work again (and will miss the St. Pat's parade, but that's okay). (I work this week, too, I just mean I work on a weekend again, because I agreed to take it from one of the guys so he can see his kids go play basketball.)

Really need to finalize my travel plans for Wiscon here sometime soon.

We were just hit with a storm out of the blue. Today? Gorgeous, clear skies, warm weather, wonderful breezes. Just now? Boom, lightning, thunder, power outage. Weird. I'm probably risking things staying down here and with the computer on, but damn it, I have things to do. I just won't write on here, I'll move to the laptop just in case.

I've just signed up for netflix. I'd debated it for awhile, because on the one hand, I don't rent a lot of movies, but I would if I wasn't so lazy about going to the store. On the other hand, I usually rent movies because I have a craving to see it right then and there, which won't work with netflix. On the other other hand, I love getting mail and buying DVDs via mail, so this might be good too. And on still another hand, it's only a free trial, so if I don't think it's going to work, I'll just cancel it. No harm, no foul.

I'm exhausted, but when I went to take a nap, I couldn't do it. I thought I would, because today was my parents' anniversary party (they've been married fifty years this past Tuesday), but when I got home to relax, no dice.

Had better get back to it. Bill paying and laundry and cleaning my desk, oh what a hot Saturday night.