Louise

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:20:56 GMT

I will say nothing spoilery about last night's episode of House. I will only say:

!!!

(Hahahaha, less than twelve hours earlier I was saying how I was all up to date on spoilers for one show, only to get completely blindsided by another.)

Meh. Off to make breakfast now.

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:28:25 GMT

Oh, what I wouldn't give to be in Cardiff right about now. A quick perusal of DWF convinced me that I'm not actually above wanting to stalk location shoots. I'm also clearly not above actively hunting for spoilers if I'm willing to go to that cesspit. I knew that already, though.

I can't believe I haven't posted in nearly a year!

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:00:48 GMT

Actually, part of me feels like it's been a lot longer than that, what with having been pretty freaking sick most of the interim.

Less said about that the better, though. The important thing is I'm finally starting to actually get back on my feet once more. I've even made a couple of half-hearted attempts to start writing again, though I haven't gotten very far with it as of yet. But any start is better than none, I think.

Best of all, and this is the real reason I'm posting today, I was well enough to go out tonight with my husband and have a proper celebration for our twentieth wedding anniversary. Hooray! Both the kids are spending the night with friends, even though it's the middle of the school week. Hooray again!

Twenty years ago today we made what we were repeatedly assured was the worst mistake of our lives, and eloped. Didn't say a single word to family and friends. We were called selfish for cheating everyone out of sharing the moment with us (probably true), told we were too young (also probably true), accused of "having" to get married in a hurry (untrue), told that it wouldn't last (obviously not true) and that we'd regret it for the rest of our lives. Specifically, my mother in particular insisted that one day I'd regret not having had a "real" wedding and not having any memories to look back on.

Would I like it if my son or daughter did the same thing one day? Honestly, no. I would feel hurt and yes, cheated. Would I react the same way my family and my in-laws reacted? Possibly, but I very much hope not. I hope if it ever comes to that, I'll be in my right mind enough to sit them down and tell them that I hope in twenty years' time that they'll be able to laugh at everyone and say the same thing that their father and I did: that we don't regret a single thing.

And Piers, if you read this at any point, happy anniversary! I'd do it all over again in an instant.

In which the Major meets the Doctor

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:43:51 GMT

I originally wrote this as an email to a couple of people earlier this week, but I've been asked to share publically. (Because apparently it's becoming “common knowledge” in the DW fandom once more that everyone who likes Rose is a teenage girl who over-identifies with her and has never seen the classic series, and that goes doubly for every Doctor/Rose shipper.)

So practically copy-pasted, here is the story of introducing my dad to the new series.

My dad spent this weekend with us. He came into town to hear John McCain speak at a rally on Friday, and got a chance to be introduced and shake his hand. (Ex-Air Force, so, y'know...)

I was watching the SciFi Channel's Doctor Who marathon Friday, and Dad got there in the middle of “School Reunion.” I don't want to even think how early he must've left New Mexico to arrive here that early. The two of us sat down and chatted with the TV still on in the background. He kept glancing over at the screen, and when it got to the scene where Sarah Jane sees the Tardis for the first time he demanded, “What the hell is this, anyway?”

He used to watch the old series with us when we were stationed in England, or anyplace else that happened to air it, and enjoyed it quite a bit. He had no idea at all that they'd brought the show back and revamped it. So we spent most of the day watching season two, and it was a blast to observe his reactions. He vaguely remembered Sarah from the old days and was very surprised to learn how long it had been since her episodes were made. (“Well, how young was she when she was the assistant, then?”) Zero idea who Tony Head was, though, which I found slightly disappointing if not surprising.

“The Girl in the Fireplace” garnered the slightly shocked, “Since when does Doctor Who go around kissing ladies?” My reply? “Since 1996.” (I know, I know. I just couldn't help myself!) Dad remarked that at least this one was pretty, but was totally uninterested in the backstage romance between the actors. He DID seem to know (vaguely) about one of the previous Doctors having married his assistant. This episode didn't seem to impress him a great deal plot-wise for some reason, but he liked the sets a lot.

The Cybermen two-parter, though, really captured his attention. He used to like the Cybermen anyway, and thought the alternate universe storyline was interesting, although he couldn't get past the exploding zeppelin very easily. (“Dammit, why the hell don't people understand that the Hindenburg is not what zeppelins are supposed to be? They don't just explode willy-nilly.”) He seemed liked Pete, and was impressed by the drama of turning Alt!Jackie into a Cyberman. There were a couple of comments at the end that surprised me. Re: Rose’s confession to Pete: “Well, she oughtta have more sense than that, springing it on him right then.” Re: Mickey’s leaving: “Now is she holding him back, or is he holding her back?” (“Erm, both, really.” *boggles*) Overall review: “Well, that was just pretty good.”

“The Idiot’s Lantern” was pretty much dismissed with, “Now that’s more like the show I remember. Nice and silly.” He also commented (favorably I think) on Rose’s mad detective skills getting her into a jam. And he was definitely smiling at the hug.

We didn’t get a chance to watch the rest of season two as Dad had to leave for the McCain speech, but Elspeth talked him into watching the Sarah Jane Adventures pilot Friday night with her and a couple of school friends she’d invited over for the occasion weeks ago. All Dad said was that it reminded him more of the old Doctor Who series than the new series does. (No, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, either. I was afraid to ask.) Elspeth’s friends didn’t hate the show like I was afraid they might, but I’m not sure they’re likely to stick around to become big fans, either.

On Saturday we watched “Father’s Day” because Dad was curious about Pete (he liked the alternate universe version much better, but thought it was a nice story and helped explain the Cybermen thing better) and “Dalek” because he asked if the new series had Daleks in it. It took him something like 24 hours to remember what they were called, but he really did ask for them by name! :)

Then we watched the new episode. I was curious to see what he’d make of Donna. Aside from one little, “She could get loud and annoying if she wanted to, I bet,” he seemed to like her well enough. However, he said the whole thing would’ve worked better with Rose.

I think by Sunday Dad was getting a little tired of Doctor Who (pity, since I wouldn’t mind seeing his reaction to the Shakespeare one, and maybe “Smith & Jones”), but we wheedled him into watching the series one finale with the promise of armies of Daleks and tantalizing hints of Rose doing marvelous things. He wasn’t AT ALL sure what to make of Jack. (“Is he supposed to be a gay or what?”) There were some pretty seriously raised eyebrows when he kissed Rose and the Doctor goodbye. Given that, I strangely enough chose not to mention the existence of Torchwood....

He wasn’t sure which Doctor he liked better, or which Doctor he liked Rose with better, but after the regeneration sequence he wanted to know if this was the point where they started dating! Hahahahaha! Yep, just your stereotypical D/R shipper: a 76-year-old retired Air Force officer whose only definition of “ship” is a sailing vessel.

I promise I wasn’t trying to influence my dad’s opinions of the show in one direction or another. It was just too interesting watching him react to everything and puzzle it all out.

Doctor Who

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:58:54 GMT

Um...wow?

So was not expecting that!

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:13:34 GMT

Got a new IUD put in yesterday afternoon, and I'm still cramping just a bit. Getting less all the time, but I'd really like it to stop now, please.

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:47:17 GMT

I'd pretty much given up on the idea of watching House last night, what with the "It'll be on when it's on" post-football scheduling and all, but I wandered across it just a few minutes in. Officially, I don't ever want to break my toe. :(

The next episode preview just blew my mind. WTF? Oh, Wilson!

A meme for curiosity

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:30:20 GMT

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!

COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.

(There's a good bit of shouting on the part of the survey writer there. Eek.) Anyways...

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A.

5) Favorite vegetable?
A.

6) What was the last book you read?
A.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A.

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A.

9) Worst Habit?
A.

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A.

11) What is your favorite sport?
A.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A.

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A.

16) Do you have any pets?
A.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A.

18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm...careful!)
A.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A.

23) Ever been arrested?
A.

24) Bottle or can soda?
A.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A.

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
A.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A.

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A.

30) Do you swear a lot?
A.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A.

35) Do you believe in God?
A.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A.

Happy Anniversary to me!

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 23:28:24 GMT

We've been married nineteen years today!

Which is simultaneously a real achievement and a shock to the system. (It CAN'T be that long, can it? Really? Because that's like half my life.)

And my mother-in-law ordered a kitchen table for us as a surprise gift. A real, hardwood table. I can't stress this enough: REAL WOOD. The top is one solid piece of oak, with nary a piece of MDF anywhere near it. (I can't even imagine how much she paid for it, and I'm not rude enough to ask...) It didn't come with chairs, but I'd rather pick my own anyway. See, we've had crappy second-hand (or third- or fourth-) furniture ever since we moved back to the states. We're trying to buy decent stuff a bit at a time, but the kitchen table was the worst of the lot by far (hail, chrome and Formica) and the least priority to replace. I don't think anybody ever told my MIL just how shabby the old table was -- though she's seen pictures of Elspeth perched on it -- but it's so very like her to just replace it out of the blue.

Garnet has this amazing talent for picking just the ideal, utterly unexpected present, and she does it totally by accident. You know what she gave my sister-in-law for Christmas? Tickets to see Hamlet this year. (Let the implications of that sink in for a minute...) GOOD tickets. She just thought it would be a nice gesture since she's studying Shakespeare. And by all accounts, when the package was opened, Garnet pops out with, "And after I bought these, somebody told me that man from Doctor Who is supposed to be in the production this year. I think you like him, don't you?" Okay, I admit it. On the whole, I'm still terribly jealous about that and I'd rather have tickets to see David Tennant in Hamlet than the solid oak table, but the table's still an amazing anniversary gift.

ETA: And dynapink gave me a lovely anniversary gift as well, by posting the fic she wrote for me the Secret Santa exchange at ten_n_tyler. It's amazingly well-written, and presses all my buttons for realistic romance. So check it out if you get a chance!

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:50:19 GMT

I was given a link to a site called SexInChrist.com, which amuses me a great deal. I have no idea if it's a spoof, or if they really are so deadly serious about finding biblical justifications for so-called "deviant" sexual behavior. Either way, it makes me giggle like a 12-year-old.

For instance, the official word of God on oral sex? Totally fine with it, apparently...as long as you swallow. Who knew? My husband's response to this page? "Phwah. Call me a selfish git, when all I'm doing is encouraging you you on the path of righteousness."

Strangely enough, no. I didn't kick him. ;)

How much of a nerdork am I?

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:50:27 GMT

...I kinda called my husband at work this afternoon when I got on the computer and found out about this Rose thing. <.<

Ah well, it takes my mind off dealing with the damn airport people. Grr! Do you know airline security restrictions have gotten so bad that it's now an outrageous hassle just to change a reservation? I mean, a lot more of a hassle than it used to be. My mom was supposed to fly home today, but we all decided switching her flight to Saturday would be a good idea since she could stay over for Elspeth's birthday. She says maybe taking the original flight to Michigan, then getting the first available flight to Texas would have been much easier than trying to change the damn ticket. And I say again, grr!

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:22:54 GMT

According to the local news, the statistics have been gathered regarding our new red light cameras.

In the three months since they installed a dozen or so cameras, traffic accidents on the whole have decreased slightly, continuing a downward trend from the beginning of the year. At the intersections with red light cameras, accidents on the whole have seen a very slight increase. Nothing terribly significant about either of those things, most likely. However...

Rear end collisions at intersections with cameras? Have doubled. Well, fucking DUH! What'd you expect to happen, you morons? I hope all the lovely traffic fine money you've been collecting from those things is enough to pay for the lawsuits you're going to get if someone gets seriously injured in one of those rear end collisions, or if you've ticketed someone whose car was loaned to or stolen by someone else.

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:06:06 GMT

Go to Google, enter "[your name] needs" in quotes, and post the top ten results. If they don't make sense, are mangled or repetitive, skip to the next until you have ten unique entries.

1. Louise needs your vote on Wed 23rd Operation Christmas Child
2. Louise needs to _________.
3. Louise needs professional help.
4. Louise needs a little water, a little food, and a lot of LOVE --!
5. Louise needs to make some nomination slips.
6. Louise needs to get streetwise
7. Louise needs to find a new location for the Help Center.
8. Louise needs a friend.
9. Louise needs a juggling trick.
10. Louise needs new unwrapped toys for all ages.

A very silly meme, but I like number 2 -- hee!

A shipping essay

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 05:34:02 GMT

I’ve been reading some shipping discussions off and on for the last few weeks, and on thinking about it, I’ve come to a fairly inescapable conclusion about my preferences, and why they sometimes don’t gel with those of other people.

I’ve known for a long time that I have a strong preference for realism in fictional relationships. There’s already enough suspension of disbelief involved in fiction to begin with that I don’t want to have to go way above that just to be able to care if the characters ever get together or not. But lately I’ve come to the conclusion that the concept of deserved and undeserved rewards comes into it as well. Basically, I want to see the characters work for what they get.

It’s like that thing your parents keep telling you when you’re a kid, about why you have to do chores for your allowance instead of just being given money. It takes years to actually understand what they meant about it being so much more satisfying if you earn it yourself, but in the end it turns out they were right. There’s just no satisfaction in things that are just handed to you. There’s always some little part of you deep down going, “This is nice and all, but I don’t really deserve it.” And fictional relationships affect me the same way. Where’s the satisfaction in watching if the payoff is just given to them without them having to work for it?

Several Harry Potter characters kind of typify my feelings on this. I was never against Ron and Hermione, but throughout the first six books I never saw a single thing that made me inclined to be for them, either. Possibly if their relationship had been seen through some other point of view than oblivious Harry’s, it would have been different. But since we only have Harry’s viewpoint, there’s nothing there to show us if they’ve really wanted each other all along, if there has been mutual or even unrequited longing. Why? Because if they were, Harry didn’t see it. Until the mutual demonstrations of jealousy in Half-Blood Prince, I still wasn’t convinced there was anything there to see. And although that book made it obvious that there really was something between them, it still wasn’t enough to make me actually care about whether they hooked up in the end or not. I can tell you the instant I first became invested in their relationship: in Deathly Hallows, when Ron has left the camp and Hermione spends every night crying. From that instant, they’d paid their dues. I was sold on it.

On the other hand, the pairing of Lupin and Tonks literally came smack out of nowhere in Half-Blood Prince (at least from Harry’s narrative point of view), and I think I shipped them from the moment it was revealed there was something between them. Both characters had been fairly well established as individuals early on, in spite of barely having any shared scenes. I have heard people complain that, “They barely knew each other!” but that’s patently untrue: they were both members of the Order of the Phoenix, and it was pretty obvious all the members knew each other quite well. We weren't privy to their courtship, or what made them fall in love with each other, but we were certainly made well aware that they had suffered for it. Every time Tonks showed up in HBP she was visibly suffering. Those few lines they had together at the end of the books makes it clear just how much longing and denial they'd both been going through for who knows how long. Personally, I think it shows very clearly how they worked for their rewards.

Harry and Ginny was obvious from the start, of course, and it was more a matter of waiting for them to grow up than it was waiting for Harry to noticed what was under his nose the whole time.

Books, particularly older books in a series, are the best place in the world to watch two characters “wait and work for each other” as Louisa May Alcott put it. TV series have too much external pressure at play to have the leisure of building things up properly. Actors leave, ratings fall and storylines get dropped because of budget concerns and the disapproval of focus groups. It’s primarily television that gets talked about when people claim that every fictional relationship ever turns to crap the second the couple gets together. (Mind you, I don’t think that’s necessarily true in TV either, except for the sort of people who are shipping a couple based solely on UST and uninterested in anything else. That’s a personal viewpoint thing and I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I don’t completely share it.) In a book series, nothing is dependent on the chemistry and offscreen relationship between a pair of actors, and the whole thing is almost totally dependent on what one writer wants to bring into her world. Thus, when two characters end up together a few books into the series instead of in the very last volume, there’s not that sense of “it’s all downhill from here”, because for the most part there’s no UST to be missing.

Case in point: Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, from the Anne of Green Gables series. They were childhood enemies (though Gilbert obviously had a bad crush on Anne from the first moment), then friendly rivals, then close platonic friends. For the first three or four books, the reader sits with crossed fingers, hoping for Anne to wise up and notice that her good chum Gilbert is head over heels in love with her, and that there’s a reason none of the boys she meets really stirs a heartbeat. When she finally has her epiphany, brought on by Gilbert’s near-death, they finally get together in the most satisfying way possible. And then what happens? Why, the series goes on for another four or five books, that’s what! And it’s still good. Assuredly, it no longer has the light-hearted fun of the first couple of books, but that was lost long before Anne and Gilbert hooked up, for the simple reason that Anne grew up. This pair may actually be one of the most truly satisfying ships ever. They suffer for each other, they go through all the longing and the “will-they-won’t-they”, then they get together and have the leisure to collect their justly earned rewards throughout a long and satisfying (but certainly not unrealistically blissful) life together. One of the very last moments in the series has Gilbert buying one of the first automobiles in their area and taking his beloved wife off on a second honeymoon. It’s romance meets realism, from beginning to end.

I think this may come into play in the way I approach writing fanfic. I like happily ever afters, I want the characters I care enough to write about to have their just rewards, but I just don’t care that much for the unrealistic happily ever afters. House fic, for instance, drives me mad. I ship House and Cameron, because of the dichotomy and unevenness of their relationship. But so far, no matter how much I look, I can’t find a single House/Cameron fic that isn’t happy and fluffy, with House suddenly overjoyed to be in a perfect relationship with Cameron. The problem those is that I never feel I’m reading about the characters at all, just some people with their names. Sometimes there’s the coincidence of the character named House having a cane, and sometimes they don’t even have that. If I had time and a suitable plot, I think I’d love to try my hand at a reasonably realistic House/Cameron romance. One that would encompass all the awkwardness and the evil temper and yet still allow them a measure of happiness. Or at least happiness as far as House is capable of feeling it.

On the other hand, there actually is good Doctor Who fic (at least for the Doctor and Rose – I have yet to find much Four/Sarah that’s even remotely what I want to read), but the way the series progressed means that any Nine/Rose stuff has to be either largely gen, or completely AU, because they simply never had time to get to that point before he regenerated. I’m fine with the fact that they handled it that way in the series, because it plays exactly to what I’ve been saying about working for their rewards, and suffering and longing for one another. The entire first season (and about half of the second) was nothing but that very thing, and I loved that. At least with Ten/Rose, a fic can be shippy as necessary within certain parameters and still not feel “off.” Unfortunately, they only had a very short time to enjoy their just desserts before it all came crashing to an end.

I’m sure there are some well done post-Doomsday reunion fics out there for the Doctor and Rose that actually deal with some of the problems they would realistically face, but for the most part it’s all tooth-rotting fluff. Sometimes I like the fluff, just for an indulgence, but I can’t live on a steady diet of it. This is a couple with a whole lot of very complex problems that just aren’t addressed. The Doctor, particularly Ten, is out of his mind in love with Rose, but he’s so uncomfortable with the idea that he can’t even bring himself to say the word. (“She knows,” he said, and thank goodness she’s smart enough to pick up on it, because she certainly wasn’t going to hear it from him.) Aside from that, there’s her age, and the fact that he doesn’t want her to waste her life on him. He’s already gone through the whole marriage-and-children thing centuries before, and he doesn’t want Rose to miss her chance at it simply because she happened to fall in love with a man who can’t give her these things. But at the same time, he did want forever, just as much as she did.

That’s exactly what I feel I have to address in Earthbound. I wanted to see them actually get that forever Rose talked about, to actually have a chance to reap the rewards of what they suffered for since they met, but I didn’t want to do yet another reunion fic. So … AU. They don’t get separated, and yet they’re prevented from continuing with their same old life. Without that distraction, they finally have to come face to face with all the problems their differences can cause. And I’m loving exploring the complexity of that.

I could never manage to ship the Doctor and Romana, no matter how obviously in love they were, because it was all so terribly easy for them. They were a bit adversarial for one story, then they formed a working relationship and a kind of uneven partnership -- with a bit of attraction -- and then they went on holiday to Paris and that was it. There was the whole big relationship right there, fully formed, without any lead up and without any real progression afterwards. It didn't advance and it didn't retreat. It was just there and immutable forever after. They not only had the rewards without visibly striving for them, they were ungrateful enough to take them as a matter of course. The relationship was simply there unquestioned, and I felt cheated out of the satisfaction of cheering them on. There was never any sort of longing, never any sort of biting the lips wondering if they were ever going to notice, dammit. I never had the urge to slap either one of them for being so frustratingly and charmingly obtuse about the other. I just can't summon particularly shippy feelings for a pairing that out and out prosaic.

And like some of the pairings I’ve mentioned, this essay ends abruptly and without warning, because it happens that way sometimes. 

I'm such a doll

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:41:08 GMT

Hee, doll meme! Go to the Eloui site and make a doll of yourself and post it in your journal.

It's a pity that they don't have any kid dolls. I'm dying to make one of these of my daughter.

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:17:41 GMT

Thursday afternoon the world gained another teenage driver, as my son officially got his license. ::sigh:: Plus, I feel old.

He's actually been driving for six months with a learner's permit, and did lots of the driving chores on our holiday, but still! Then he had to have either Piers or me in the front seat with him. Now he's got my car.

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:55:25 GMT

Now, I'm perfectly fine with referring to Ann Coulter as the devil ... but thinking she's Heather Mills? Now that's just RUDE.

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 10:51:29 GMT

Oh lordy, that Doctor Who premiere has given me a really obnoxious plot bunny. A particularly nasty one because it would fit in so very nicely with "Earthbound" if only I could get over my reservations toward doing babyfic. Which, in fact, is a terrible temptation in that story as I plot out later chapters.

But the whole concept of genetic transfer with one simple kiss interests me greatly. One kiss and he left his genetic, um, signature (I-refuse-to-say-genetic-material-on-account-of-the-Clintonesque-factor!) all over her face. What would the ramifications of this on a human who had a longer and far more intimate relationship with the Doctor? Would it have worked some sort of Time Lord mojo on Sarah Jane if they'd been doing it as was kinda sorta implied? And was it changing Rose's genetics a bit? The whole quote about, "She humanizes him and he Time Lords her" just got really literal in my head after that.

Not to mention that it gives the whole, "Are you...?" line a whole different construction suddenly!

Somebody please talk me out of doing what I'm thinking about doing because I don't wanna do it!

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 06:56:27 GMT

We're staying up late this week because it's spring break. Tra la! It's nearly two a.m. and I'm LOOPED, but it feels so damn self-indulgent. It's like being 23 again!

And I'm writing fanfic. Holy cow. I'm halfway through the first of my 7th Doctor prompts for 5trueloves, and I've got the first chapter and a half of my post-Doomsday "what if they'd ended up marooned together on the original Earth" story. I think I'm going to throw caution to the wind and post it as I complete the chapters, as a way to keep myself on track.

My husband and son have discovered the World of Warcraft phenomenon. This would account for my having time to write fic. ;-) Of course, it also accounts for me not being able to get on the computer where the internet actually works, so there's another downside.

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 16:41:17 GMT

I just found this and it makes me all wibbly-fied. Which leads me to believe I shoud ship Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane really really hard.

All this and pretty pretty pictures.

quickie update

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:13:46 GMT

Keeping my fingers crossed that my hubby makes it back by Saturday (our wedding anniversary) as he's hoping. His grandmother's funeral is scheduled for Thursday, and he's hoping to be able to get a plane out sometime Friday.

My MIL is (at least telling me) trying to not keep him hanging around for her sake. She sounds upset, which is natural, but relieved at the same time. I mean she's just lost her mother, but at the same time she was in really bad shape after the stroke. I know she needs all the support she can get, but she's never tried to keep a stranglehold on her kids. I could say something snarky about "grandkids on the other hand" but that would be beneath me.

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:02:00 GMT

I just signed up for a fanfic challenge. I've been wanting to do one for a while now. It's called 5trueloves and I have to do five different pairings for my claim which is the Seventh Doctor. He's the only one I really feel comfortable writing as yet.

I have a couple of story ideas, but I need ideas for the other three. ::puzzles::

pretty much

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 11:49:31 GMT

found via dynapink

What Kind Of Whovian Are You? Your Result: Good natured jumper wearer when two fans get chatting in the line for autographs at a convention, youre the one that flinches when the other swears. you own a cat called sutekh.
Frothing fanboy
Laddyfan
Hard Living Demon Fan
Classic series n00b
New series n00b
What Kind Of Whovian Are You? Make a Quiz

Well, it's official

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:52:48 GMT

Piers left for the airport a little while ago, to catch the earliest flight he can. I wish we had any way of knowing how long he'll have to be gone. :(

If she dies while he's there he'll have to stay on for the funeral, because there's no way his mother will let him out of that. If she lingers for awhile but gets worse, he still may end up getting stuck just waiting. I know emergency leave isn't supposed to be a problem but I still worry about his taking time off work. That's why I'm not even attempting to go back to sleep. Worry worry worry. Nyah!

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:42:31 GMT

We got a call from my MIL late last night. My husband's grandmother had a stroke and is hospitalized in pretty bad condition. Piers is still trying to decide whether to take time off work and fly to England to see her one last time or not. They were fairly close when he was growing up, so he would like to. As she had her 94th the week before we moved we pretty much knew it meant not seeing her again.

WE've both agreed the kids are not going with him if he does go. They didn't know her that well and they've had a hard enough time adjusting to the move and the new schools and everything without being taken out to be flown back to stay with their grandparents and then spend god knows how long waiting around a sickroom with a bunch of anxious adults. MIL is trying the whole emotional blackmail thing about that because she really wants them to come along. I love Garnet, honestly, but that is seriously pissing me off. I have to keep reminding myself that her mother is possibly dying and she's not able to think straight right now.