neonnurse:

12:14 On the 6th day of vacation MrMike gave to me: 6 feet (& a bit) of sweetness. (He surprised me by cleaning the cat box without being asked!) #

13:25 On the 7th day of vacation MrMike gave to me: 7 hours of sleep! (Almost) #

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swooop:
“If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy, all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?” Laura asked, and Ma said, “Yes, Laura.”

~On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder

penwiper26:

Merry Christmas, everyone! And to all a great New Year.

neonnurse:

15:46 Errands=DONE! Spun out in but didn't ditch Dreamcloud=WIN! BEST, Marisa sailed thru spinal surgery w/o problems! NOW we can haz Christmas!! #

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neonnurse:

11:07 "Mike, the Christmas Fly" is a great title. Now we need a story to go with it.... #

11:21 That post I just retweeted was trainboymike's FIRST TWEET! Awww.... #

12:09 "This is the holiday that never eeeennnds, it just goes on and on my frieeennnds...." (Why, yes, there IS stuff I should be doing....) #

22:48 On the 5th day of vacation MrMike gave to me: Five COLD things! (Well, it was the snowstorm aktually, but that should count.) #

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nlbarber:
Found a newspaper clipping with this title in Grandmother Lee's files. Perhaps 1950's or 1960's vintage--there's nothing on the clipping to date it.

I won't be trying this one.

Here's an idea to add to your salad file. It uses the menfolk's favorite, a can of pork and beans with tomato sauce. Mix 1 can (1 pound) pork and beans with tomato sauce, 1 cup diced cooked ham, 1 tablespoon minced onion, 1 tablespoon prepared mustard, and dash black pepper. Chill. Serve on crisp lettuce, garnished with mayonnaise if desired. Makes 4 generous servings.

penwiper26:

pendrecarc has written Megan Whalen Turner fic. About the magus! And Eddis, and the library! And it has a myth-story included! Go read it here -- that's Part I, and Part II is here.

What are you still doing here?! You could be reading excellent excellent fic right now.

penwiper26:

5500 words on the Wesley-renaissance fic this past five days. I'm enjoying it a great deal, plus it's starting to tell me why it wants to be written now. When I conceived it, it was mostly a nifty way to bring Wesley into my 'verse (and give some of my characters either laughs or orgasms or both), but now, while still pleased with the general plot of the thing, I think I sort of want to write a story about Wesley, one that carries him past all the Jossian Daddy-schmerz without denying it. That happened when I decided to keep Pyke's Lea in the background; at first it was to provide a different perspective on established characters, and then the foreground started popping of its own accord.

I'm also sort of feeling the Charles Williams influence, which is no bad thing, and fortunately I'm not tempted to imitate his style. Not that I'm extremely pleased with my own, mind you: the perennial irritations obtain -- to adverb or not to adverb? Dialogue tags, should I has them? Stilted action sequences are stilted!

On the other hand, I've been spending a lot of time in Brian's flat, and entertainingly hearing from him how much he really is getting rather tired of living like an undergraduate bachelor, thank you. Listen, pal, I say, you're the one who bought the train pajamas and shelved those books up there. That's not my fault. He thinks it's asking too much to be a foodie with such a tiny crappy kitchen. I say, well, copperbadge can do it! And you can always move. That's when he looks at me mutinously and walks away muttering.

Then he misuses a quote from Augustine and I melt into a little puddle of love.

So it's been a pretty joyful return to fiction, I have to say.

peacockharpy:
I was pretty balanced about the gift knitting this year ... I chose a few projects, started early, and made good progress ... until the end. There I was, basking in the glow of projects completed in a timely fashion, and what did I do? Cast on for another gift project. On December 18th.

Was I crazy? Possibly... but the project is now blocking on my bed, and will be delivered tomorrow (right before the recipient, one columella, leaves for a holiday in colder climes). (Yes, she already knows about it; I 'fessed up last night.)

I'm not insane. I RULE. ( See? )

neonnurse:

14:44 "Silver snails..., silver snails..., it's Christmas SLIME in the city...." #

20:20 On the 4th day of vacation MrMike gave to me: Four failing bulbs (you know how the rest goes). We found his ceramic village, de-lighted. #

20:54 Yikes! The storm is here, spitting tiny ice balls like the world's blechiest flavor of Dippin' Dots. Current prediction, 6-11" + drifting! #

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nlbarber:
Classic Carrot Cake

English Gingerbread Cake

Lemon sauce for gingerbread (or, explorations in family recipe files)

Ginger Cheesecake with Gingerbread Crust

Christmas cookies and candies for this year

wynnsfolly:

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neonnurse:

20:38 On the third day of vacation MrMike gave to me: Three helps on errands (etc etc)! He really is being extremely good so far! #

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penwiper26:

Not to embarrass her or anything, but sometimes kivrin just friggin makes me laugh to tear-point.

Me: The Dove chocolates my mother sent have entertaining advice from Martha Stewart on the inside of the foil wrappers. I mean to say, advice on entertaining.
Her: What sort of gems is she sharing?
Me: Stew is a good idea in winter.
Her: NO SHIT!
Me: Try a tried-and-true recipe for an important get-together.
Her: So, they could have saved on printing costs by having every wrapper say HAVE AND USE TWO FUNCTIONING BRAIN CELLS
Me: LITERAL LOL
Me: I would LOVE a chocolate whose advice was that. Snark chocolate. I think it's an idea whose time has come.
Her: I agree!

*grabs another kleenex* Oh, God.

penwiper26:

I can hardly stand it, so many good books are coming down the pike this spring.

Let's see, off the top of my head--

Blackout, Connie Willis's new Oxford History book. *FLAIL*

The aforementioned Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner.

LRK's God of the Hive, in which I hope to God the cliffhanger from The Language of Bees will be resolved!

And that's not even counting erinbow's Plain Kate which is coming out WHEN WHEN WHEN??

It's going to be an awesome spring.

penwiper26:

Yesterday's brass and organ concert was excellent. There's something about live music that just turns one's whole living life to an icon, breath-suspended and stark like the winter trees against the gloaming.

And if that weren't enough, thanks to vonnie_k's recent music post, I now have a new band to be interested in: Florence and the Machine. Here's a link to the youtube of the song I downloaded (embedding is disabled) -- Rabbit Heart. (I note there are a few cuts to the track for the video; it's better to have the song.)

I've been thinking about the next year, and about what the theme of it will be; around this time is always when I start to feel the change as the theme clicks over, and I begin to think about it consciously so that I'm going to the change by will. Living itself is a sheaf of stories.

Also this weekend I wrote 3200 words of stuff I've had in the dreaming works for Quite A While, and it was oh so fun. I'll start posting some of it once I've got the connective tissue in place.

Hm. Another cup of tea before work?

ljrags:

I'm a bit nervous. It is 8:45 am and the kids are still asleep. Unheard of, especially for Elizabeth. However, Sean and Elizabeth were tired babes last night. Between a busy last week of school, one sleep over, trip to Grandparents for early birthday celebrations and general Christmas/Birthday buzz going on, they are on overload. Sean just can't stand the fact that his birthday cannot get here any faster. Still, the kids usually wake up unnecessarily early on school holidays and it feels strange {G}.

Lots of fun had at my in-laws this weekend. It was lunch and presents for our birthday boys. Clint's brother celebrated his on the 16th and Sean will this Wednesday. Both "boys" enjoyed their presents. Sean FINALLY is the owner of an Enterprise that lights up, makes very loud noise and with a touch of a button, Chris Pine's or Zachary Quinto's voices bellow out commands.

Christmas shopping mostly done. I do have to pull off a trick on Wednesday in which Sean's birthday gets celebrated to his 12 year old satisfaction, finish the Christmas shopping with them underfoot and get Clint's last day of work out of the way for the week. Hmm. Good thing stores stay open late. :)

I also need to finish Christmas cards. I love doing cards. I really do. Life has provided distractions these last few days. Also sticking to the theory that the Wise Men were a wee bit late too {G}.

How are your holidays going? East Coasters---have you made it out of the snow?

Hark! What is this? Girl Child has emerged. Time to find some breakfast.

neonnurse:

20:29 On the 2nd day of vacation MrMike gave to me: 2 subtle hints (and etc.) He will NOT be staying up late on Christmas eve, for example.... #

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yunitsa:

Mostly this is the tale of me hiding from the snow in my house - it's cold out there. It's not even that warm in here, though I have Christmas cake and tea.

( Many images )

At a ridiculous hour on Tuesday morning I will be flying home -- by which point my Yuletide story will hopefully be uploaded and my shopping and errands done! -- where I will probably be without 'net access until the 29th. Happy holidays, everybody! If you want to guess what I wrote for Yuletide, please feel free - it's not a very obscure fandom, and there are semi-colons. I'm sad I'll likely be missing the excitement on Christmas morning, but I look forward to doing lots and lots of reading when I get the chance.

neonnurse:

19:28 Household tip: When you get a new stove, check EXTRA HARD for bits added for shipping. Melted tape is hard to remove from the oven surface. #

21:37 On the 1st day of vacation MrMike gave to me: A lot of help carrying up the tree!! (from the Basement O' Doom). #

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