elanya

Today was chilly and rainy - it was hard to get out of bed, were I was so cozy and warm. Part of me was like, is it May 21st or March 21st? I like it being cooler at night, but I'm so tired of all the rain.

I was supposed to go into the office yesterday, but my meeting got moved to tomorrow on Zoom, so I didn't have to go in. Luckily, my boss understands that I'm much more productive at home, and doesn't demand my presence more than once a month or so (if that). It's just been stupidly busy with the search committee stuff, though she and I are getting ourselves through it by clinging to the idea that once the search firm is on board, there will be significantly less of that work on our plates. *fingers crossed*

Meanwhile, I read another book:

What I've just finished: Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano, the second book in the series. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't think too hard about any of it - just keep it light and breezy - because otherwise it's very hard to believe some of the things the characters choose to do.

What I'm reading now/next: Probably the next book in the series, Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun, since I don't want to lose momentum (okay, I did lose momentum between books 1 and 2 - I had 2 open in a tab for weeks before I actually settled into reading it; sometimes all I want is Batfamily, which is still my main interest in fic-reading these days, for whatever reason).

*

 I am less impressed with Brittany the professional organizer this time around. She did mention feeling a little under the weather today, so maybe I can chalk it up to that. When she was here organizing the kitchen with me she had lots of good ideas and helped corral my ADHD self so I wasn't spinning off in fourteen different directions. But both yesterday and today it felt more like I had to use a cattle prod to get her to do anything. I asked for suggestions a few times, and she made vaguely helpless noises and commiserated about it all being overwhelming. I not only had to tell her what to do at every step, but I also did most of the work while she watched unless I explicitly told her to do things. I won't lie, that's not what I was hoping for, at the price I'm paying for her services.

She was a little better today once we started tackling the basement, at least. I am hoping that tomorrow goes better too. There's more to pack and organize in the basement, and since we still had a little work to do in the garage we didn't get as far as I would have liked in the basement. We still managed to pack up about six boxes, filled four garbage bags, broke down two shelving units, and filled a giant Rubbermaid bin with stuff to donate. There are two bins full of KK's stuff that I've brought to the living room so she can go through them, because I honestly think that most of it is stuff she can likely get rid of. Whether she does or not will be up to her, I guess, but there won't be enough room in the house for them. She's taken next week off work, but she told me she has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so that will be at least half the day gone for her. I'm not confident she can pack up all her stuff in three and a half days, but I am trying not to stress about that. Her stuff is her responsibility, and I don't think it's fair for me to have to pack up my stuff, all the common areas, *and* her stuff too. 

I'm grateful at least that packing up the basement is proving less back-breaking than the garage. Given how limited my remaining packing time is, I think I'll try to start packing up my room tonight after I put the dogs to bed. I need to do several loads of laundry, and after I've done that I will be sorting out my clothing in order to pare down my wardrobe to the bare essentials. KK pointed out a detail that I missed, namely that my bedroom doesn't have a full closet but only a sort of cubby in the wall, so it will be even more important now to have as few clothes as possible. Otherwise my stuff simply won't fit in my bedroom, because there's nowhere else to put it, unless I hang it from the ceiling somehow. I'm going to have to investigate ways to expand that space: it might be just a question of cutting out a bit of drywall, or it might be more complicated than that. We shall see. 

God, there is still so much to do. *lies on the floor* It will get done, but my God, I wish there were less to do, or maybe a bit more time in which to do it.

I'm writing from the future! *ooOooOooh* *spooky future noises*

I was so exhausted after yesterday's packing session that I could barely string two words together. I had to have a guy come in and replace the water meter first, and that was a whole ordeal of trying to corral the dogs and run the water and supervise the guy while he was in my basement. He took longer than I thought he would, so I had to request that Brittany, the professional organizer, delay her start time by half an hour.

We cleared out a huge chunk of the garage yesterday. There was so much recycling and garbage, it was actually pretty shocking. I think a lot of stuff had just gotten tossed in there to be dealt with later and then just never got dealt with. Also KK has a tendency to squirrel away garbage and recycling in various unexpected containers and then not tell me about it, so that I get a garbage-y surprise when I open said container months (or in this case, years) later. None of it was perishable, luckily, so it was just a matter of getting rid of it.

Yesterday was garbage day, but we have a three-item limit for garbage pickup, otherwise you have to buy very expensive city-produced yellow garbage bags, and I did have some on hand, which I bought knowing we'd likely need them for the move. I had bought two packs of four, and we filled five bags, which are annoyingly difficult to tie, incidentally. There's also a bunch of larger things that wouldn't fit in a garbage can and therefore count as "large" items. Each "large" item counts against your three-item limit for pickup, and you can't arrange for extra pickup for those, so I will be taking all this stuff to the dump, probably on Friday. 

I thought there would be more packing involved with the garage, but it turned out that once I cleared out all the garbage and recycling, what was left was already mostly packed up or not the kind of thing to be boxed up anyway. So that was a bit of a relief. There's still some work to be done: I have to empty the small pantry and also empty and defrost the freezer, but that will be a job for next week, especially the freezer. The small pantry can be packed into a couple of boxes pretty easily.

I wanted to take a very hot shower after I was done, but KK left to go to the pharmacy and decided to run the dishwasher, which meant I couldn't take a shower until well after she was back. I must say, the hot water felt glorious after the day spent clearing out the garage. I collapsed into a puddle in my bed after dinner, and that was the end of it. I did remember that I should post an update, but I decided it wasn't worth losing more sleep, and that I would backdate an entry today once Brittany was gone, which is what I have done!

Fandom: Lucky Star
Rating: G
Format: GIF icon
Characters: Tsukasa Hiragi
Challenge: Nap
Summary: there is so little to say abt the gif but like. i made the border and edited it

Our new challenge is:

NAP

As always, you can interpret the prompt literally or figuratively, in whatever way works for you.

Each work created for this challenge should be posted as a new entry to the comm. Posting starts now and continues up until the challenge ends at 4pm Pacific Time on Sunday, 1 June. No sign-up required.

Mods will tag your work with fandom and challenge. When you've posted entries to three consecutive challenges, you will earn a name tag, and we'll go back and tag all your previous entries with your name.

All kinds of fanworks in all fandoms are welcome. Please have a look at our guidelines before you play. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to contact a mod. And if you have any suggestions for future challenges, you can leave them in the comments of this post.

Also, keep an eye out for the next ffw_social post, which will go up in the next couple of days. If you haven't joined the ffw_social comm, it's never too late to come and check it out. (Posts are locked, which means you have to join to see them.)

The Underwater challenge is now closed. Here are the entries:

Original: Haiku: Still by ixajaw
Babylon 5: Fanfic: The Drowning Deep by sholio
S.W.A.T.: Fan Fiction: Coming Up For Air by darkjediqueen
Ducktales: Tanka: Briar and Bramble Just Want to Play by infinitum_noctem
Torchwood: Fanfic: Gone Fishing by badly_knitted
The Double: fanfic: in another life by teaotter
Original: Poetry: A Plea for the Planet by smallhobbit
Epic: The Musical: Fanfic: Back to the Water by drabblewriter
Iron Man comics: icons: wish it would rain down by highlander_ii
Torchwood: Fanfic: That sinking feeling by m_findlow
No fandom: Fanart: In the Deep (9 icons) by veronyxk84
Original Fiction: Made For Destruction by analogbasilisk
Original: poetry: turbulence by china_shop

Also, congratulations to teaotter who earned the 12 Challenge Streak (SILVER) badge.

\o/ \o/ \o/

Thank you to everyone who participated! You're now free to post your entries to your journal or wherever else you'd like. If you're archiving on AO3, you can add your work to our fan_flashworks collection there.

New challenge coming right up.

Title: turbulence
Fandom: Original
Rating: G
Length: 200 words

( turbulence )

Prompt: 479. Underwater
Word count: 1,025
Rating: Mature
Summary: Dominick has heard sometimes parents don't know why they're punishing their children, but the children know why they're being punished. Dominick wasn't one of those shildren.
Warnings: child abuse, suicidal tendencies (ish), mentioned A/B/O dynamics
A/N: Dominick is around 14 at this point, even if her age is not stated in this piece. The A/B/O is barely mentioned. This is a ficlet with a character from a longer project that is currently abandoned.

( Read more... )

Went out to visit a friend at Malvern this evening - a FB friend who I've been chatting with about the last six or seven years. Faith and gardening, mostly, but his family was instrumental in some early missions to a section of Indonesia, and there were a bunch of people from those churches who had come to Melbourne for a visit, and so there was gathering and food and company and sharing of stories and theology.

It was great. I was a little apprehensive - I've never met this friend before in person, he's about 70, I think, maybe 75. Still pretty hale, and unfortunately still working. His daughters are my age and a little bit older (the older one was at the dinner tonight and we got talking about perimenopause), so he must be at least 75. But he's lovely, his wife is lovely, it was delightful to talk to a bunch of people and to watch the exchange of stories and histories.

At the daughter's suggestion, I caught two trams back, and I'm glad she made the suggestions she did. A lot better lighting and not so much walking past areas that are a little bit of a problem...

But now I'm back, it's nearly 11pm and I haven't had a shower yet. Need to get to that and get to bed.

No more social dinners. (I did one last night, too, with a writing friend from, oh, 20 years ago. We talked a little bit about stories and people and politics and so forth, and there was duck laksa and so much of it I ended up having half of it for lunch today!

Oof. Anyway, last two nights will be 'quiet' (ie. not social, that's the plan, let's see if it pans out hahah) and then it's HOMEWARD HO.

I'm like this after two weeks. Imagine me after seven weeks...

Title: In the Deep
Fandom: none
Author: veronyxk84
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Content: 9 icons (100x100) with stock images from Pixabay (artist credits below the icon table) depicting sea turtles, corals, fish, jellyfish, a scuba diver. Made with GIMP.
Disclaimer: This is a fanart created for fun and no profit has been made. All rights belong to the respective owners.

Challenge: #479 - Underwater



( SHOW: 9 Icons - In the Deep )

Title: That sinking feeling
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,324 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 479 - Underwater
Summary: Jack and Ianto have a slight problem, and Ianto is largely to blame.

( Read more... )

So, it's been good to meet some of the colleauges I'm working with. Others…well, they're typical 'guys in tech' and, moreover 'South Asian/West Asian guys in tech', which is to say they're very insular socially, and very closed when it comes to including an East Asian female in their outings.

( people gonna peop )

--

Spent a great weekend with friends I haven't seen since their kids were much smaller. I've known B for over 20 years - since before she met her husband C (internet dating back some twenty years) - and although we've moved through very different stages of life, we're still good friends.

I gave her a draft (very drafty draft) of the novel, which I've started to fix/adjust/rewrite. Still trying to work out some of the details about the various characters, the various moving parts of the story, and where everything lands up.

We went out on both Saturday and Sunday, which is a lot for her - she has CFS and struggles with her energy levels. We went for a walk around the area on Saturday morning, and then out for dinner that night. Sunday was markets and then taking me to the station, and by the end of it, I think she was pretty exhausted and sore. At least she gets today off - she doesn't work, is on disability (FWIW). Her husband works, currently the service rep at a local mechanic's place and he's got the knowledge for it, but not the body. They've had a lot going on the last 18 months and are hoping for a stretch of quiet.

--

So the hotel is not as nice as last week's hotel in terms of the room and appointments (tile flooring all the way, no carpets, no rugs, and the layout of the room is kind of peculiar), but the location is considerably better for going out and eating and stuff.

Eh. I'll take it.

--

Tonight, I'm catching up with a friend for dinner, and hopefully another friend on Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday will be scrounge days, although someone has recommended a place in the city

--

Back home, we have a chicken ( possible graphicity )

--

Electorate next door has fallen in favour of the Independent. By 40 votes.

WHEW.

That's "automatic recount" territory, of course, but it's been very carefully scrutinised, and so the counts are unlikely to change.

( In which a visitor )
 

I have one of those twice-weekly reports to write for work tonight, and it's time-consuming and annoying, so I can't spend too long updating this journal just in case work gets busy later and I don't have time to get the report done. I do not want to have to explain that I didn't get my work done because I was blogging. That would look bad. ;)

I probably shouldn't stress too hard about it, because I routinely take, like, five hours or longer at work to update because I keep getting interrupted anyway. So I'm sure I'll get it all done. This report in particular stresses me out because there are no explicit instructions for how to prepare it, but it's somehow still extremely important to get it done exactly right. *headdesk* Also, I only write one once every four months or because it's specifically a night shift duty and my shift partner and I take turns to do it, so I am woefully lacking in practice. Nothing stresses me out more at work than being asked to do something I'm not familiar with AND for which I have no reliable blueprint. It is objectively the worst.

Tonight is my last night shift, and then I am off until my day shifts next weekend. So far no coworkers have agreed to a shift trade, although I am waiting for that one coworker to get back to me tomorrow (he won't be in until 3pm, though, so I won't find out until late in the day if he's accepted the trade). If he says no, which he likely will, because going from an evening shift directly to a 12 hour day shift with no break is goddamned brutal, I will simply have to suck it up and go to work next weekend.

That give me five days this week and four days next week to get everything packed. Normally I would spend the Monday after my night shifts sleeping, but obviously I can't waste all those precious packing hours on something as silly as sleep, so I'm going to take a brief nap when I get home and then get up and start packing. I have asked KK to help me with packing tomorrow because it's a statutory holiday, but I'm not sure how much help she will actually be. Tomorrow being a stat holiday means that I won't be able to go to U-Haul to buy more boxes, because I'm 99% sure they'll be closed for everyday purchases (albeit likely not for van rentals and that sort of thing), and rightly so. Employees deserve their statutory holidays, and should have the day off like everyone else.

So, yeah. I should probably make some aspirational packing goals for this week, so I'll know how hard I failed by the time the weekend rolls around. ;)

Okay. Report writing time! Wish me luck. Catch you on the flip side, friends!

Daughter's favorite animal is the pangolin and she moved last week so I hunted down a pattern and made her one for a housewarming present


It's based off the lemon-pangolin pattern here but I made a bunch of changes (and actually took notes!) so if anyone wants to try their hand at it, let me know, I can write up my version.

Weather here has been nuts, it went from a highs of 94 to 48 in only a few days. I loathed the heat and high humidity but that kind of temperature change is nuts and hard on the body as well. Santini isn't thrilled with the weather change either but that's because he's of the belief windows should always be open just in case he wants to properly stalk the bunnies or squirrels (does he ever get off his pile of blankets on the couch to do so? No, of course not. Does that matter? No, of course not. He is cat. His opinion is all that should matter)

Moths got into the chest we were keeping some random linens and clothes in so had to toss the chest and then decide what to do with all the now not wearable/donatable sheets and shirts and whatnot so, of course, it's all going to be rugs. I spent most of the week prepping it about half of it -cutting in strips and then rolling the strips into balls/disks depending for easier use later (after washing, of course)- but then decided to start a blanket instead of a rug. Maybe I'll switch off between a skein of blanket, do a rug, another skein, more rug, etc.

And, last but not least, two weeks of recthething tumblr recs (DCU, MDZS/The Untamed, Sherlock Holmes-ACD, ST:DS9, Star Wars, SPN, X-Files)

DCU
- Every tender shrimp needs a soft space to recuperate, amiright? (very tender Bruce/Clark moment)

MDZS/The Untamed
- mdzs fandom, long time no see! it’s been almost five years since i last drew wei wuxian, so please accept my offering now (wonderfully eerie Yiling Patriarch era WWX)
- Nie Mingjue and Baxi-huahua The Unrelenting (absolutely love this idea of how Baxia would be in a swords->dogs modern AU)
- Wangxian lightbox (very neat)

Sherlock Holmes - ACD
- Holmes and Watson overlooking the moors (lovely yet eerie Hound of Baskervilles moment)

ST:DS9
- Quark Study (Quark and tribbles, love it!)

Star Wars
- happy star wars day!!! may the 4th be with you!!! (adorable grogu doodle)
- Skywalker Twins comic (hilarious Leia being better with the force than Luke comic)

Supernatural
- Destiel (I think I like the alt background under the cut better but this is a wonderful scene from a hunt either way)

X-Files
- Mulder and Scully in the rain (lovely painting of these two)

(I'm honestly surprised I managed to find stuff to rec these past two weeks. I keep thinking that I'm going to break my approximately 4yr long weekly reccing streak but have managed to squeak in a few. I doubt I'll keep it up, but oh well, it was a fun challenge while I managed it)

Title: wish it would rain down
Fandom: Iron Man (616) comics
Rating: G
Content notes: None apply
Summary: icons of Tony Stark in the shower, in a bath, in the rain, in the ocean... he's been in the water a bunch of times over the years


( wish it would rain down )

I enjoyed this week's Leverage. ( spoilers )

I also watched the first two episodes of Murderbot. It was cute. I like Mensah a lot. I only read the first novella and thought it was fine but not at all memorable, so I have no real dog in this hunt. ( spoiler )

Ugh, I just found out the Mets are on ESPN next Sunday night too. ESPN is the worst broadcast.

*