Many happy returns, snegurochka_lee!

07:07 pm - Black Friday
In the event SO and I did do a little holiday shopping today. Both of our cars went in to the dealer/mechanic this morning - I needed an oil change and tire rotation, and it turned out that I'd picked up a nail in one sidewall, so also ended up getting a new tire; SO had to get an underneath piece replaced. So that all took a while, and then we went and had a burger for lunch, and decided to check out a couple of galleries/shops in the art district afterward. We now have gifts for all parental units and siblings (although not my BIL and niblings yet). So go us! SO also went to the good local independent bookstore to pick up something he'd ordered, but there was no going to malls or anything of that sort.

I've now written the last quiz for my lower-div class, so that means IIRC I have no more prep in either class to do, though I do have some reading and grading. Also have both reading and work to do for LIS classes, though, which I hope to get to tonight/tomorrow. I could have started on some of it, but I finished a novel instead. Also have started thinking about holiday cards/letters, though haven't gotten very far with that yet.

Turkey breast is roasting and smelling yummy. I'll temp it shortly, and once it's done the dressing goes into the oven (my tiny oven will not hold both a bird and another dish at once). Then make gravy, and all the rest is leftover veggies. *mouth is watering* We had a very nice time with J., C., and F. yesterday, and good food, but I do like having leftover turkey of our own.
Current Mood:

mellow

Tags: holidays, shopping

leela_cat

04:32 pm - FIC: A Happy Memory (Bill/Neville ~ PG)
Title: A Happy Memory
Author: Leela (

leela_cat)
Pairing: Bill/Neville
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 3 x 100
Prompt:

neville100's challenge #97: Patronus
Summary: All it takes is a happy memory.
Beta:

the_minx_17
A/N: For

alisanne. Hope this makes your week a little better.

( Click to read A Happy Memory )
Current Mood:

stuffed up

Tags: bill/neville, fanfic, hp

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

ciraarana

10:47 pm - Can't buy books - again!!
Torquere Press is having a big sale. And lots of books that I want are 25-50% off. I want to buy those books! But I can't. For some reason, when I go to check out, the order form says: "We are unable to find a USPS shipping quote suitable for your mailing address and the shipping methods we typically use."

That isn't true. Back in July, my mailing address worked just fine. And even I know that they have a standard of $ 13,95 for oversea shipping. Why doesn't the stupid form know that?

The lady from TP told me they haven't changed anything and I should be able to order. Yeah. Should be. But I'm not.

I'm very annoyed, to put it mildly.
Current Mood:

pissed off

02:29 pm - Drabble: The Benefits of Rank
Title: The Benefits of Rank
Author:

alisanne
Character(s): Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Pairing(s): Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): m/m sex implied.
Challenge(s): Written for

slytherins100's prompt #98: Art School
Word count: 100
Author's notes: Severus is always the teacher.
Beta:

sevfan
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

( The Benefits of Rank )
Current Mood:

calm

Tags: drabble, severus snape/harry potter

(16 comments | Leave a comment)

11:29 am - Birthday Greetings
Happy Birthday to

triceybabe!

Many happy returns, sweetie! :)
Current Mood:

recumbent

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

leela_cat

08:57 am - At this time in the morning...
...after I've been up for the requisite number of minutes or hours (they were always as changeable and unpredictable as the mood of a cat), I'm supposed to have an annoying white cat trying to curl up on my work laptop. (Which, if this were a normal Friday morning, would be open because I'd be trying to get actual work done on it).

I'd be half-annoyed and half-amused, and trying not to give in to the urge.

On Wednesday, I gave into the urge and let the Luna-chick sleep with her head on the keyboard of my open laptop. Later that day, a vet gave up part of her lunch and we had Luna, our beautiful white cat, put to sleep.

We only had her for about a year and a half, but she clawed her way into our hearts and claimed space in our lives and our home.

Miss you, LunaTiCat.
Current Mood:

thoughtful

Tags: catses

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

ciraarana

04:48 pm - It's like a list, isn't it?
1. The numbered-post posting, I mean. I like lists. :)

2. My Snarry Swap fic is progressing nicely. Added about 3k today. And a bit of solo smut. I'm at a total of 24k now, and half-way through my outline. The old outline. Today, I added #14 to the outline. But that's a bit of an epilogue, so it doesn't count.

3. Thought about writing a sequel to my

hp_yule_balls fic. Probably should wait until it's posted.

4. Talking about the

hp_yule_balls fic: it's due tomorrow and still needs a title. *ponders*

5. The other day, I once more came across an old post of

jodi_payne on

torquere_social. In that post she said that she and

chrisowen are working on a fifth Deviations novel. It will be set after the series, will be novel-length, and mostly about Phan. I am full of squee.

6. I won a book! In a contest over on

torquere_social I won one of

tc_blue's contests. I wished for Matchmen, Ltd. Finished the first story. More squee. I think I've found another TP author to fangirl over. Which is brilliant. I love having authors I can buy blindly. :)

7. I went to the post office just now to mail a bunch of books. The post office was closed. Because it's Friday afternoon. For some reason, I was still on Thursday. Stupid post office.

8. On the way back, while I was waiting at a stoplight, I saw the add for a horse show. There was a bunch of white horses in it, and the pale images of a boy and a girl. My reactions to the add went something like this:
a - Oh, pretty horses!
b - Something is wrong with that add.
c - Hey, that boy looks a bit like the Scorpius from

hp_cross_fest!
d - The girl looks like a stupid bint.
e - There ought to be a good-looking, dark-haired older gentleman with glasses next to the boy.
f - Think you're reading too much HP fanfiction?
g - No, bunny, GO AWAY!!!!
h - Oh, it's green.

9. Remember my Assessment Centre report? A week ago, I had another appointment with a Minion and I got to read the Top Sekkrit Report that psycho-man wrote. It said almost exactly the same things that I wrote in that post. And then the Minion offered to xerox it for me. Top Sekkrit. Uh, yeah.

10. I discovered a new writer on fictionpress, too. The name's Qui, or

qui_te. Will stalk journal now.

Tags: reading, rl, writing

cluegirl

09:02 am - Nobel Prize? For a human rights activist in Iran? U Can Not Has!
You stay classy, Ahmadinejad, you just stay classy...

November 26th, 2009

10:05 pm - Drabble: Past Time
Title: Past Time
Author:

alisanne
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG
Challenge: Written for

snupin100's prompt #236: Teeth
Characters: Remus/Severus
Beta:

sevfan
Authors Notes: Just once I wish we'd seen this side of Remus in canon.
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are not mine. No money is being made from this fiction, which is presented for entertainment purposes only.

( Past Time )
Current Mood:

calm

Tags: drabble, severus snape/remus lupin

(10 comments | Leave a comment)

cluegirl

10:28 pm - And six days later, she exploded in a great cloud of superannuation!
That's right! In six days, on December second, I, Cluegirl, shall spontaneously become The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. (Line forms to the right, gratuities are appreciated.) For those hoopy froods who don't speak Hitchiker, I'll be turning 42.

I expect it to be nothing at all like being 41 has been, but just in case, I've liquidated my assets, put everything into canned goods and shotgun ammunition, and have stapled my towel firmly to my elbow. With that, and my wand in my back pocket, I expect I'll be ready for anything. Except possibly zombies. Zombies take a little more preparation.

As for what I want for my birthday?
No frelling idea.

I mean, there are the old standards, of course; I always get a bit giddy at just the notion that someone might illustrate one of my stories, or conversely, might write a story for one of my drawings. Collaboration is highly squee-some in my little world, y'see, and I swear that one day SOMEONE will illustrate the mirror scene from Pink Slip, and I shall expire of Happy on the spot.

I could wish for world peace and the brotherhood of man, but I've noticed how shittily brothers treat each other, and as we all know, the last time the matrix was configured for world peace, it crashed and we lost whole crops to the logic failure. So that's out.

But reining things back into the realm of the distantly plausible, I'd say I want for more or less nothing of note. I want to keep rolling on Tempus Fugitive. I want my cats and my snakes to stay healthy in the coming year. I want the resources to close up the hole in my house properly, and to begin the next major set of repairs (Hopefully before the porch falls entirely OFF Mandala House, thanks!)

And most importantly, I want my friends who are in reach to join me for a Solstice party on December 19th, to celebrate both my birthday, and the Sun King's in one swat. The date is positive; December 19th. Save it, and if you can possibly make it to Troy, NY, do consider coming! And don't worry if you're not of the witchy persuasion -- I plan no heresy, just cake and shenanigans.
Current Mood: Sated
Current Music: She Moved Through the Fair -- Enter the Haggis

(1 comment | Leave a comment)

aliciajd

05:40 pm - How to ruin Thanksgiving
As I was basting the turkey about half way through the cooking time, I noticed that my oven's clock was still set on daylight savings time. So I reset it. When I went to check what should have been a finished turkey, I found that the oven had been turned off in the clock reset process. Everything is ready to serve but the turkey...

I apologized to my family. No one said that's ok. My nephew said, "I'm really, really hungry."

I feel like an idiot. How many years have I been cooking turkeys and never screwed up?

Edit: It was the best turkey I've ever made ... very, very moist. Maybe I should write down what I did! LOL!

(4 comments | Leave a comment)

03:18 pm - Wanted - one drabble/ficlet prompt!
Resulting drabble/ficlet to be posted sometime in December.

Usual request - pairing or character, plus a 1-to-3-word prompt. Any fandom you know I write/have written is fine.

Thanks!

[If I get multiple prompts, I will write more than one if the muse is cooperative.]
Current Mood:

creative

Tags: drabble offers

(1 comment | Leave a comment)

02:42 pm - Happy Thanksgiving!
To those who celebrate - and a happy Thursday to everyone else!

We're going to our neighbors' for the evening in about two hours; pretty much all we've done today is take Juno to the dog park (where there were a handful of other dogs), have brunch, and cook stuff to take tonight. SO's worked a bit on his window. So yeah, definitely a holiday.

Tomorrow I'm actually going to roast a turkey breast, just for us, because otherwise there would be no leftover turkey. There were fresh ones in the store yesterday when we stopped to pick up some milk, so I made the decision partly on impulse. I'll make dressing and gravy too, but other than that, it'll be some of the near-infinite supply of leftover veggies, nothing special. Probably won't make mashed potatoes, at least not for tomorrow. Possibly for with leftovers though. I contemplated making rolls (my sister having called about that recipe this morning) but I think maybe will wait and make them at Christmas instead.
Current Mood:

nostalgic

Tags: food, holidays

02:34 pm - Happy birthday!

Many happy returns, snegurochka_lee!

Tags: birthday

(1 comment | Leave a comment)

11:22 am - Yay, Birthday!
Happy Birthday today to a fabulous writer and reccer

snegurochka_lee!

Many happy returns, my dear! :)
Current Mood:

thoughtful

(2 comments | Leave a comment)

11:04 am - Happy Thanksgiving!
To all my who celebrate this holiday, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Photobucket

I am thankful that I have all of you wonderful people in my life.
*hugs everyone*
Current Mood:

grateful

Tags: hols

(14 comments | Leave a comment)

cluegirl

10:43 am - Kitchin Witchin! -- Clue Hash; it's what's for breakfast!
A note of explanation: Dominus is a boy scout. As such, he has the requisite Scouting addiction to Corned Beef Hash. Anywhere we go to eat, if it's got hash on the menu, I immediately know what my husband will be ordering, no matter what else they may serve. Seriously, he loves the stuff so much that from time to time, he'll scratch the hash itch with tinned. Clearly, this was a situation I could not abide. I mean, if you're gonna feed your monkey, feed it the good stuff, right? So here's what we're having for breakfast today.

* Go to your deli, and ask for a butt end of corned beef. Anything over a quarter of a pound is great, and they don't need to slice it for you. You'll be mincing it up at home yourself.

* If you are pork-compliant, then chop up three good, fatty strips of bacon, and put them in a BIG, flat-bottomed pan on low heat. (The object here is to render their fat, not to cook the bacon; cooking the bacon is a side effect of the rendering.)

* If you are pork-resistant, then do the 2 - 1 mix of olive and sesame oils here, to add the smoky taste of the bacon.

* Peel a few cloves of garlic, and crush them with the flat of your knife. Throw those in with the bacon to render.

* go out to the sage bushes, and get a handful of fresh leaves. Throw those in whole too.

* Add a generous drizzle of oil into the pan to help the bacon give it up in case it's a bit chary. I think I put about two tablespoons of olive (because I keep olive oil ready to hand. You can use whatever kind of oil you fancy, really.)

* Rough-chop a medium onion (red ones are tastiest!) and enough potatoes to match volume, then half again. In my kitchen, that was three small blue potatoes, and one large red. (I have goth tubers. No one's surprised, I know.) You want to cut them fairly large, but fairly thin -- that is to say, quarter each potato longways, and then slice the pieces about half an inch thick at most. They need to be large enough that they'll hold together, but thin enough to cook all the way through. In my case, the blue potatoes were a bit elderly, so they didn't need any pre-cooking, but I slung the red in the microwave for two turns at 30 seconds apiece, so its texture would match the others. You do as you see fit.

* Take your biggest kitchen knife -- this is the time to break out your cleaver, if you've got one, -- hack your corned beef into crumbles. There's no rhyme or reason to this, you just whack away, and try not to let it fly all over the place.

* Once the bacon's not showing any white anymore (that is, all its fatty rind should now be caramel coloured and kind of translucent) you can dump the onion, potatoes, and beef into the pot. If you don't have enough oil to lightly coat everything, then add just a little more, but otherwise, just turn the lot to get it evenly mixed and coated, throw in salt and pepper to taste, pat it all down flat in the pan, and walk away.

* Ignore the sizzling, and the searing smells from the pan for a good long time. Hash is SUPPOSED to be kind of scorchy and burny, remember? If it really distressed you, you can fuss it about for awhile first, to try and get everything to cook up, but that's kind of redundant, since you're going to settle it to scorch soon anyway, and when you flip it over to do the other side, everything else will cook up then.

* Fry up an egg for each person you'll be feeding. (From our stovetop, it looks like this is going to feed four, which means two for us today, and two lunches for Dominus later on.) Scrape all the good stuff up from the bottom of the pan, and ladle the hash into the plates, then slap the egg on top.

* Serve with tabasco, worchestershire sauce, and ketchup on the table, but don't be surprised if your guests don't even notice they're there all.

* Make this noise: OM NOM NOM!!!

* Wish you were eating breakfast with Clue and Dominus today!
Current Mood: Hungry!
Current Music: No More Stones -- Enter the Haggis

Tags: recipes

torino10154

07:52 am - Happy Thanksgiving
To all my dear friends celebrating Thanksgiving I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you', that would suffice." ~Eckhart von Hochheim
Current Mood:

thankful

Tags: holiday

(6 comments | Leave a comment)

ciraarana

12:46 pm - Car Dealer donates washing machines
... for the Lebenshilfe Verein (Life-Aid Society). The Lebenshilfe Verin is an organisation that organises, runs, and oversees house sharing for mentally disabled people. Some time ago, the chairman bought two cars for the society. He told the car dealer that there were three houses that still needed washing machines to be ready for occupation. The car dealer contacted the owner of an electronic shop, and together they donated the lacking washing machines.

I loved that story for the headline alone. :)

Tags: the good news