the girly who shall end all girls

( health update )but there have also been some nice moments. i normally take a bath before bed, and during this time most evenings C uses my water when i'm done. (he is not a Bath Person when he is healthy.) i hang out in the bathroom and we talk a little, and then i read him some lightweight Star Wars fanfic while he soaks.

so here's the sick partner rec list so far:
Operation: Secret Girlfriend (10887 words) by SendPseuds( Read more... )
^ I think you have to have seen The Clone Wars episode Voyage of Temptation for this one to land properly. Regardless, chapter two is *chef's kiss*

Flowers for the Emperor (7642 words) by Fialleril( Read more... )
^ this is from a series that I highly recommend, but stands alone nicely.

Ghastly, revolting, mind numbing... happiness (4369 words) by WhatisWithin( Read more... )

PRojects IN Controlled Environments, version Sith (5192 words) by Beth Winter( Read more... )
^ this one works even with the lightest ambient pop-culture awareness of Star Wars.

Drinks with Friends (8338 words) by SendPseuds( Read more... )
^ this one references events from a series of explicit year-on-the-run fics* but is a funny slice-of-life; C enjoyed it as a standalone but if you like het porn with plot/feelings i recommend starting the series from the beginning.




* let me sum up: there is a whole world of fiction built on events referenced in a handful of episodes from The Clone Wars where we meet Obi-Wan's ex, the Duchess of Mandalore (who fans of The Mandalorian may know as Bo-Katan's sister). pretty sure you could enjoy the story without having seen any of The Clone Wars; it's young Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon on an extended mission during a civil war.

now that US Thanksgiving has passed, it is time to soothe away the last of 2020 with Hallmark Christmas movies.*

there is a whole sub-genre of them set in some made-up tiny European country that really loves Christmas, which C has declared is Latveria. it pleases me to refer to each bland royal love interest as Doom (and his friend/close advisor as Doombot).




*only the main Hallmark Channel where it's G-rated romance with almost no conflict; tear-jerkers are from the Movies & Mysteries brand and not what i am looking for even in a good year

1. unconditional PTO. i was ill this weekend and i think that lack of actual restorative time hit me hard. yesterday when i woke up i couldn't anything. and i talked through it with C, and he said "it sounds like you need a vacation". and so i did.

2. C and i talked a lot yesterday and that was really good.

3. Patrick Tull reading Post Captain. i had completely forgotten about Stephen's 60k of bees, who have learned to like cocoa. plus all of my kayak-related reading has made all the bits about slack tide and sand bars make so much more sense. bonus: C has really gotten into this one, and requests replays of parts he missed.*

4. making the things. i don't think i've done any spinning since some time in July, and i've been making the same stupid pair of socks for several months. well, i finally finished those this week and wore them yesterday. after a few chilly a/c days at the office, i decided to knit a lace stole. which turned into looking at the three variations of the pattern and hacking together two of them to put together all the motifs that i liked. i spent a good chunk of my rest day working on it, and i'm into the second chart section. i don't know if it's just that fall is coming or what, but i'm glad to have my mojo back.

5. it hurts a little to say it, but the Channel 4 version of GBBO is actually fine. i've watched two episodes so far, and since someone else has already cut out the commercials, the only thing wrong is the lack of the wacky historical digressions. i feel like a traitor for not being gutted by the lack of Mary, Mel, and Sue, but the people playing Mel and Sue are really good at being Mel and Sue.



*it's only taken about ten years. *cries*

it's starting to really feel like fall. the sky is grey, and the rain is here. the tree in the courtyard is waving around and i think the drip cups for one of my planters blew away.* C and i both have colds, so i regretfully put our Sounders tickets up for sale this morning. i thought i could manage standing for a couple hours, but standing in the rain for a couple hours isn't very wise. i will take an extra-hot shower and put on my jersey and my lucky socks** and we can watch from the couch while wrapped in blankets and sipping throat coat tea.

***
earlier this week Seattle was splashing out with the last perfect days before the long nights arrive. last month one of my coworkers took a group of us out on his sailboat on Lake Union. we just lazed around in circles, but it felt amazing just to be on the water. so i started prodding C about going canoeing - it's something he loved as a Boy Scout that we would talk vaguely about and not actually do. it's not like it's hard to get to a body of water here, or even to rent a canoe.

the University of Washington main campus is bounded by Lake Washington and the ship canal (which connects to Lake Union and the Puget Sound). UW rents canoes by the hour. so it was kind of brilliant - i walked from work to the train station, got off at UW, and walked less than five minutes to the rental desk. the process felt way too easy: can you swim? give us your ID, here's your life jackets and your paddles, that dude will help you get in the boat, pay up when you get back. so that was it.



we puttered through the wildlife sanctuary past dozens of waterfowl who were completely unconcerned about our presence. C was reasonably good at giving novice me paddling lessons. it was peaceful and quiet and profoundly good. i was nervy about how high i was sitting and turning around to get stuff from the middle of the boat and not dropping my paddle. once i got over feeling like i was going to tip over, i started to feel connection with the paddle and the boat and manouvering it where we wanted to go.*** no mishaps, other than stumbling as we returned the boat. i'm sorry we tried it so late in the season; an hour of paddling is definitely $10 worth of fun but i don't know if we'll have a chance to go back together before they shut down for the heart of winter. next time i'll be willing to risk the good camera and take wildlife pictures. we've started some tentative talk about paddle-in camping :D

both of us left bubbling with happiness - endorphins from the exercise, peace from the water, the pleasure of working together. we got tacos on the way home, and sat at the bar where C made enthusiastic small talk with the bartender, which is how i know that he was pretty much giddy because he is not one to talk with strangers. it was a grand evening, i'm glad to have had it.

*sorry downstairs neighbors. or perhaps they welcome sky tupperware.
**they have not lost when i have been watching and wearing these socks. go go correlation.
***i went home and looked at buying canoes. we don't have a place to put a 12-16ft anything. but i looked. they make folding ones...

this is the worst spring allergy season i've ever had. maybe at this point i have a dollop of con crud on top. sneezing, itchy eyes and ears, running nose, postnasal drip that leads to sore throat--the gang's all here.

* * *
Norwescon continues to fill my cup. i think when it comes down to it, a few thousand people are busy being happy for a few days and that's infectious. i periodically think that the internet has made conventions irrelevant, then i find myself locking arms with Dr. Doom in a kick line and i get over it. this year we stayed at a boutique hotel off the reservation, which may be what we do every year from now on. we had great food, free ice cream, beautiful grounds*, and a giant bathtub that were all a brief walk away from the crowds. (it's probably no further from the center of the con hotel than the party wing.) i ate well, and i still managed a nap on Saturday when i needed it. i got to lots of space science programming, i saw solcita in rockstar mode backing up Molly Lewis, and the "Supporters Anonymous" viewing event in the con bar was a good time even though my Sounders lost. for the most part the convention runs more smoothly every year, although i worry that the schedule conflict with Sakuracon is depressing attendance in the 15-30 year old bracket. i've heard rumors that a dual-membership pass is in the works. transit between the convention center and seatac is so easy; i'd love to make the light rail a little more surreal for a weekend.

* * *
Molly Lewis graduated from high school in 2008. we're all old.

* * *
i recently learned that a cat is a station master in Japan. why was i surprised?

* * *
i've been trying to make C a pair of socks for a good six months. stuff just kept going wrong with the gauge or my hand health or the yarn tangling into a hideous snarl. i've probably knit and unraveled enough stitches to make three or four pairs. but i finally finished them! the legs aren't as long as C would normally like, but now that i have a pair done and good measurements logged, there's nothing stopping me from doing more. he's wearing them today, let's see if they give him blisters or something.

i am making myself ridiculous sparkly ones.

i've lost interest in my ambitious shawl project. i seem to need to be doing some thumb sucking, and the lace just isn't comforting. nor apparently do i find something endlessly large and complex as satisfying as knocking out a pair of socks.

* * *
i started watching Call the Midwife last night. i described it to C as All Creatures Great and Small with people instead of animals.

i'm also digging into the new Cartoon Network content on Netflix. (frex, we got rid of cable before Adventure Time started airing. so that's all new to me even though all of the characters are familiar sights from using the internets.)

i haven't seen the new Doctor Who yet. or not in its entirety - i caught part of it at the hotel on BBC America and was completely offended by the hack job they do with adding commercials. i liked what i saw of the episode when i wasn't busy putting together the profile of the typical BBCA viewer: cat owner, with a weedy garden and terrible allergies.

* * *
i read some of this a while ago, but came across a hard copy of the original article today: a linkfest about the connection between lead exposure and crime. compelling stuff.










* which included a movie moment of kissing in a cloud of falling cherry blossoms. magic.

C: what are you doing?

J: i'm reading an article about eunuchs.

C: i'm glad.

J: that i'm reading, or that i'm reading about eunuchs?

C: or Linux, whatever. it makes you happy.

J: ...oh.

post a pleasant and peaceful breakfast chez scarlettina, we have spent the rest of today doing domestic things with the LotR movies on in the background. (owning the Two Towers on DVD means never having to watch the Frodo and Sam parts, and pausing to sing taking the hobbits to Isengard.)

C volunteered to make dinner, and that's when i remembered that today is JRR Tolkien's birthday.

C: As soon as I moved it, I saw that the power cord was free. I wonder if it was loose enough to lose contact through the motion of the house.

me: the motion of the house?

C: You know, the way stepping on the wrong place in the floor can unplug the TV?* Just the way all the components of the house's construction are connected to each other, so motion in one area can be transmitted to another.

me: sigh.

C: And, well, the chicken legs, of course. I took it around briefly after you left this morning. Just for exercise, you understand.




*yes, that really happens.

i've been working on coming up with a good formula for cutting down boxy swag t-shirts into more lady-shaped shirts that i would actually wear. (i have one from a work project i'm pleased with that i want to do right. i have several free shirts from PAX that i collected for practice.)

what i've learned so far is that the significant difference is in the length from neck opening to shoulder, and the shaping of the sleeves. i packed it in tonight because the sleeves are confounding me right now and i need time to think on it. i was reporting my findings to C as i cleaned up:

J: the key point where the shirts match is at the base of the sleeve - it's the wide spot - and you need that space for breastland.

C: best. themepark. ever.

today at breakfast, C said "i'm sorry"...and i launched into Marian's speech from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
we kept it going until we paused to remember where the interaction with the Nepalese bartender was and burst into laughter.