SQUEEE. I GOT TO PET AND CUDDLE PEANUT EARLIER.

Went into her room to give her some dry kitten food, and she was still hiding, then went to get ready for the staff Christmas party. Went back in about 20 minutes later to see if she'd touched her food, and she was sitting on the bed. At first she looked ready to bolt, but I talked to her very softly and moved slowly and she let me pet her and scratch her neck. She seemed to get into it after a minute, but I had to run meet my ride to the party.

When I got back Mom had already been in there petting her once, and I went in again. I think after about 5-10 minutes she'd had her limit for one night, though, as when I went to get her some wet food (and my camera), as soon as I came back in, she went back under the bed, and she wasn't out when I just went in. While she was on the bed she let me brush her a bit and I was handling her paws; she was probably just getting a little overstimulated.

So, still no pictures. I left my camera in there, though so if I go in tomorrow and she's sprawled out on the bed again I'll immediately snap a couple.

ETA: I HAS PICTURE. Just went in to crack the window open a bit, and she was on the bed again I grabbed the camera and the blinky lights for autofocus didn't freak her out, but I didn't want to push her. Win!


( Meet Peanut! )

Her name is Peanut and she's 8 months old (plurkers, I was mistaken, there was another kitty there that was 10 months, but they have her birthday on her medical records) and she's a brown mackerel tabby. She's also rather shy, which is why I'm writing this from the spare bedroom, as she's hiding under the bed, and I'm in here for a little while so she can get used to me being around. :D The volunteer said she's a real lap cat once she gets a little time to get used to people, though.

Oh, and, um, Mom and I might be in some shots on the Ellen Degeneres show? :D

When we got there we saw all the staff from the Catmobile, Catquarters and the Animal Hospital that runs them standing in a group in front of a guy holding a camera. Turns out they were filming something to submit to Ellen's show. While they were filming the opening bit Mom and I went in the "Catmobile"; an old travel trailer that they'd fitted as a mobile cat adoption center. While we were in there looking at the kittens (OMG SO CUTE) the dude with the camera came in and asked if he could get some shots of people holding the kittens, and, well, Mom and I were there. I was holding a sweet little orange tabby that was just so lovey. He kept rubbing his face against mine and kissing my nose. It was so adorable.

But I was looking for a slightly older cat as with Mom's and my schedules a kitten wouldn't really get the attention it needed. So the volunteers pointed us in the direction of the Catquarters, an apartment in a house just around the corner, where cats can live in a more home-like atmosphere.

And that's where I met Peanut, lying in a sunbeam and napping. :D The volunteer there said it was actually unusual that she didn't run and hide when we came in, as she usually does with strangers. Instead she just lay there, occasionally opening her eyes and looking over at us as we petted her.

So yeah, Peanut came home with us. The volunteer there, Mary, was kind of sad to see her go, as Peanut had come in as a very small kitten with the rest of her litter, and she'd been a little sick when she arrived. Mary nursed her when she sick and had bonded with Peanut, so she asked me to make sure I let her know how Peanut was doing. :D

EEEEE I HAVE A KITTY! Pics as soon as she stops hiding. Though I've been tempted to install my webcam on the computer in the spare bedroom and stream the video so I can watch her from my laptop when we're not in the room.

Probably not the best meme for me to pick as seriously, how much fanfic have I posted in the last year, but...

THE FANFICTION LOVE MEME

OMG you guys, Harlequin made Fandom Wank.

See, Harlequin publishing has teamed up with a vanity press to start their own vanity press, which they insisted would not dilute the brand or mislead readers despite it having "harlequin" in the name. Romance blogs go 'splodey with a few people going "why not" and a lot of people going "OMG WTF, NO." However people also know really well that hi, Harlequin is about making a buck, hence why they've structured the company the way they have (and have done well through the recession), hello.

Then the Romance Writers of America says that because of this, Harlequin is no longer a legit press according to them, which mainly means they won't be publicized in any of RWA's materials, and HQN has to pay for all of the stuff at the RWA conference that they would normally not have to (so conference rooms for panels, etc.? All on HQN's dime) and again, won't be publicized. I have to wonder if this affects eligibility for the RITA awards as well.

Now the RWA can have their head up their ass about a number of things (including their stance on lesbian/gay romance and whether it "counts" as romance) but this is a definite SHIT JUST GOT REAL, YO moment.

Since then, MWA and SFWA have come out and done the same thing, pretty much, so now RWA has a bit more ground to stand on.

Go to the Fandom Wank article as that gives a lot more detail and links, including to Nora Roberts' comments on the situation at...I think it's Smart Bitches, that or Dear Author, as she is awesome as usual.

ETA: John Scalzi has a post of win about the whole thing.

He's doing okay (which is of course a relative "okay") this morning. Mom came home around 8:30 this morning for a shower and said he was a bit better after about 3am. The trouble was that he was having a hard time breathing lying down--even with his BiPap mask on--and he seemed pretty confused, probably due to the morphine they'd had to give him earlier to try and stop one of his coughing fits. He kept trying to talk but it wasn't really coherent, and he's hard to understand with the mask on anyway, much less when he's not getting that much air.

But as I said, he kind of woke u pa bit after 3 and was watching TV for a little while, and this morning was sleeping in more of a reclining position instead of lying down, as it's easier for him to breathe that way.

For myself, I went to bed around 2, woke up a few times during the night, got up when Mom got home to see how Dad was doing and then kind of slept off and on with weird dreams until a few minutes ago.

Good thing I don't have to be at work until 4.

*snugs you all*

Hospice just called. Dad hasn't been doing too well the last hour or so, and while they're not going so far to say that this is it, they figured Mom might want to come over and stay the night even if it's nothing.

I don't think I'm getting much sleep tonight.

EEEEE NEW DISCOVERY CHANNEL COMMERCIAL.

OMG YOU GUYS.



*IS DYING OVER HERE OMG*

Okay, this year I really am sending out Christmas/Holiday cards.  So, to that end, just comment with your name and address here!  Comments are screened, of course.

Rewatching S6 and oh god, I'm only on like ep 5 and I already wanna fastforward more.  I am picking up on a couple things that I didn't know for certain before, but oh man.  Jack's characterization is all over the frigging place.  One minute he's all being Mr. Action Hero and then next minute he's telling Palmer "I'm not sure if I can do this."  And then there's the Milo-Morris bickering and oh GOD NO NOT RENA SOFER.  Not to mention the problems with the themes of the season, but I'm already fastforwarding anything that doesn't really involve Jack as all I really need to do is find out what Jack knows when as well as see his mental/emotional state.

...Oh goddamn, I forgot about all these hints on something that don't really pan out.  Fuck you writers for not giving me better backstory.

Which is such a pain in the ass as there's so much material to work with with Jack at this point.  Seriously, I'm all gleeful and rubbing my hands together at the amount of stuff I have to work with.  How the hell did the writers manage to screw that up?

Thank God they managed to pull it together for S7.

ETA: OMGGGGGG Jack's face during Graem's confession.  AUGH CHARACTER BLEED.  Though I'm noticing Jack's desire to have his father's approval more this time and am trying to figure out the steps to that point.  Not to mention all the vaguery about different events between Jack and his family.  DAMMIT WRITERS.

Two hours later:



Basically was using it to practice a few types of stitches to see how well I remembered them.  Body is in split stitch, wings in stem stitch (which needs work), ribbon in backstitch and beak in satin stitch (which I'm crap at, even in larger pieces).  Need more practice at all of it, as I haven't done much embroidery at all.

I love Jenny Hart's designs. :D

Soooo...

I've got two pairs of socks that I really want to be done knitting, like right now (or at least the heels on one pair as oy, working twisted stitches from the wrong side).  I've got a laceweight shawl I want to be done in a little more than a week so I can wear it to the Toronto Pen Show (Fountain Pen Shawl, y'see).  I've got a kid's sweater I need to finish one sleeve on and weave in all the (many, many) ends.

And what do I do?

Take out my embroidery supplies, which I haven't touched in ages.  Because I really, really, really want to do some embroidery.

*headdesk*

*cackles*  As of last night, there is a post-24:Debriefing Jack inna bar.

the_croupier , do you remember that little bit of evil we talked about ages ago when I was first thinking of bringing a later Jack into the bar?  If you do, did you still want to do it? :D

I just borrowed library books while sitting on the lounger part of our sofa downstairs while watching TV in my PJs.

That is to say, today I went into a nearby city whose library subscribes to Overdrive's audiobook and ebook lending service and got myself an out-of-town library card so I can borrow ebooks from them.  Any time of day, I can download books that I can keep for 2 weeks, as long as I haven't reached my limit of 10 items checked out at once.

And did I mention that said library has a list of TWELVE HUNDRED romance novels one can borrow?

Best $40 I ever spent, srsly.

Of course I also took the opportunity to go to a yarn store in the same city, but I didn't buy hardly anything, I swear!   ...Just some laceweight.  And a pattern book.  But that's it!

Just finished watching Battlestar Galactica.  All of it.

HOLY FRAK, YOU GUYS.

*runs off to read people's reaction posts from the original air date of the finale*

OK I've been bouncing between these two songs all frakking day, so I have to post them. They're from the end of S3 and S4 of Battlestar Galactica, and I don't think they're particularly spoilery (plus the percentage of my flist that has not seen BSG but would also care about spoilers is probably pretty small by this point).



With this one I just love the Chords of Badassery; even though I knew exactly where it's from in the series (it's the last episode we watched), I always picture some slow-mo hero entrance, with the hero carrying a really big gun. The kind of music and shot that just screams "Ohhhhhhhhyeeeeahh, there be badassery ahead, bitches!"



I kinda like this better than the classic Jimi Hendrix version. Oh yeah, I said it.

I seriously need some BSG icons but I'm not looking at any icon comms or anything until we finish watching the series. I also need the scores to the show when we're done watching but the Canadian iTunes store doesn't frakking have them. Grrrr.

 So this was my Central Park Hoodie one year ago:

( Cut for big pics )

Ask me about a pairing I have written (or haven't and you think I should write) and I will give you five facts about them or a ficlet or a song that is CLEARLY THEIR SONG or what they order from the Chinese place down the street, etc, etc.

In other news, oy, my grandmother is here along with her tone-deafness when it comes to conversation (I love her but OMG when we're visitng Dad tpoics of conversaton should not be a) who just died that Dad doesn't even really know and b) who just found out they have cancer that again, Dad doesn't really know) and WOOHOO I GET TO BUY MY SONY EREADER.  COME TO ME MY DARLING, WE WILL NEVER BE PARTED.

Oh this should be interesting.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE KCOUNTESS WHEN...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY  catch22girl !!!!!</span>

I'm so glad we met lo, those many eons ago, and have had the chance to talk and write and see each other so much since.  I <3 you, bb.