Brightstar Reserve

Yours truly now has one book of her deal complete!!! All drafted, edited and good to go to the publisher for a Christmas release.

The other two are around halfway done on draft one, yes, but this is my big achievement of the year and I think I've earned myself a break.

Your fingers have finger tips, but your toes don’t have toe tips. Yet you can tip toe, but not tip finger…

I read this this morning and it's messed with my head all day. FFS!

Back from Scotland on team business, and find a Knarl nested in the twigs of one of my spare brooms in the shed when I went in there to check it out. Lucky for me he got cross, really, or I might not have noticed him. Lucky for him I live with an excellent vet who can check him over before I have to remove him from what are apparently his new favourite playthings. Back home they say to look out for hedgehogs before Guy Fawkes Night because they like to hang out in the wood piles people set up for bonfires. Don't know if there's an equivalent thing here, but looks like I'll be needing to better protect the equipment shed from equally spiky little fellows in future.

Did you know religious websites carry three times more malware threats than porn? The average number of security threats on religious sites was around 115, compared to adult content sites which carried around 25. Only 2.4% of adult sites were infected with malware. Hypothesis is that porn sites need to generate a profit, so there’s a financial interest in keeping them virus-free to encourage repeat business.

Strange things received in the mail today:

Three different copies of the bible - one annotated.

Two pairs of typically female underwear.

One pair of typically male underwear.
Thank god none of those were used

A box of anonymous chocolate.

Some rather questionable fan art.

That was quite the postbag, I can tell you.

Nora

How are you feeling?

I'm back from Charleston! I deliberately left my journal here and just took my phone for emergencies, because I definitely wanted to focus on family time. It was worth it, too. I think mom felt like she was happier with my decision to come and do training more than she ever has ben, which was a relief, and Dad didn't have a whole bunch of territory events like the last time I was home. Really, really nice.

What was less good was bumping into some of the new seniors at Roanoke. God, I really hope I wasn't that annoying this time two years ago... I can't decide which sassy comment was more rude, the one saying I'd wasted the opportunities from doing cotillion and stuff, or the one implying that herbology was a lazy career and it showed how I was never cut out for pageants and competitions. Come to think of it, the second one was just bitter because three girls from the class below her completely smashed her in competition last year, so it's the first one that was just downright rude.

Flying Creatures staff, Proudfeet

Well, this week I discovered that a herd of thestrals were to be delivered to the reserve... when they showed up. That was a fun time.
Thank god Laura and I have been preoccupied this week, otherwise I definitely would have lost my shit.

Our bizarrely located Jobberknoll pairs have taken wing and headed back towards Botswana. While it's been incredibly unusual for them to be here in the first place, we're proud that they felt safe enough to return this year. And next summer, who knows? We'll have to wait and see if they make it three years in a row.

So today your boy here decided to finally choose a group of creature to work with - Dragons. I've worked all over the Reserve, trying to find a fit for me and nothing gets my blood pumping than the dragons. I mean, who doesn't get excited over dragons? But for me, it's just something that seems to call to me.

Anyway, I've put in the paperwork to be fully placed in the Dragon enclosure and I should be starting there tomorrow or the next day.

I can't wait.

So, ummmmm, when I woke up this morning, pretty much everything in my house was floating about an inch above its respective surfaces. I got it all settled with a few spells, but when I came back home after lunch, it was doing it again.

This happening to anyone else, or have I officially lost my mind?

All quiet on the Snowcap front! Yep, haven't had a whole bunch to write about of late, apart from my actual job writing. On the plus side, I'm a good 3/4 done on my editing project and 1/3 done on each of my other two. After Pride month was so busy elsewhere, July was, fortunately, very productive. Thank fuck for that!

I have to give a big congrats to my cousin on her well-deserved permanent job over in Colorado. Knock 'em dead, lass, and keep that Scottish incursion moving!

As many of you are aware, I started working with the fairies just under two weeks ago, covering a maternity leave of abscence. While I was quite happy to remain here at Brighstar, as you have been my home for two years, I recently learned of an opportunity in Colorado that is working with a different herd of Laurentian Redbones. Or rather, they recently learned about me and extended an offer of permanent employment as their Director of Breeding Programs.

I submitted my official letter of resignation to HR on Friday and my last day is the 26h. Matt and I will have a portkey out on the 2nd.

We've had a lot of very kind messages over the last few days about our future arrivals - we both want to thank you profusely for the lovely words. We are, of course, very excited by the news.

On a much less exciting note but a relief nontheless, the office radio (the one that forced us to listen to Parry Naysmith whether we wanted to or not) has now been fixed and we can listen to people who don't make anyone who stops by want to throw up in disgust. Success!

So I finally gave in and decided to open the mystery box. No bomb, thank god. But man, what was inside was the bomb! . By that i mean that it was one of the best gifts I could have received. Inside were season tickets for Quodpot, best seats in the house! HELL TO THE YEAH!

Also, the tickets came with not one seat, but two. I can take a date or friend each time I go.

Best gift ever! Thanks to the person who made my day!

Picture Isn't Warded (Warnings for Dad Jokes)

So... I officially have to move out of my apartment on June 28th. My house's closing day is June 28th.

That means I only have the whole day tomorrow to finish packing... around work. I still don't even have all the furniture I need but that can wait... Even with magic, I don't think I'm going to get it all done.

I might be panicking now because I won't have time to panic tomorrow.

So... I might have forgotten my birthday...again.

There are belated birthday treats in the break room - because I am an idiot. One day I will remember to set a Google Alert to remind me of things like this.

Also - I suggest knocking if you are entering my office. I am brainstorming using my dartboard and darts.

It's a process.

This is stupid. Neither one of them deserve this. Shame on whoever set it in motion. Go fuck yourselves. You don't punish people for trying to do their jobs or getting assaulted. Idiots.

What. The. Hell.

[Tony and Stevie]

Did you see the memo? What the hell happened?

[Njall]

Are you okay? Do you need anything? I just saw the memo.

So, a while back I heard this name being mentioned while two people were in a fight. Nobody who works on the reserve, so I didn't think much of it (and left, obviously, because it was kind of awkward). It was familiar, though. Then I heard one of the President's staff being interviewed on the radio today and it made me realise where I'd heard it before - Amirah Head! Dad got asked to do her show once, on one of those live debates, but the time clashed with one of his prior engagements back home so she got one of the other governors on instead. And then, I remember being almost glad he didn't go on, because Ms Head is really feisty! She was in strong mood. Didn't know she knew anyone on the reserve, though. Seems like there's a few folks here with celebrity connections?