This weekend's agenda:

• Cake
• Writing
• Outlining the hell out of Versus/whatever we're calling this spy novel with glasspyramids in preperation for NaNoWriMo.
• Patrick Wilson in scrubs.

It's rare when a meme hits both the J-fandom and the western fandom sides of my flist, so I took it as a sign.

Comment with a fandom and I will tell you my:

+ OTP
+ Runner-up
+ Honorable mention(s)
+ Crack pairing(s)
+ Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't

Picture the scene: The crowded downtown 6 train at 77th St. I've just strolled back from the Whitney, where I both saw the seriously awesome Georgia O'Keeffe abstraction exhibit and then ate some seriously awesome lemon-ricotta pancakes for brunch. I get on the train and promptly spot a woman holding a humane society cardboard box. Then a tiny little white nose pokes out of one of the holes.

KITTY.

I spent the next two stops talking to the cat - along with every other woman who got on at 77th and 68th, and probably 59th, too. Seriously, forget babies and dogs; cats are obviously the best magnet for attracting women of all ages, ever.

Having accomplished today's baking/cooking plans (ham, mushroom and feta quiche), it's time to meme.

Name a character from one of my fandoms, and I'll give you either
(a) three facts about them from my personal canon/fanon,
(b) a reason he/she sucks,
(c) a reason he/she is awesomecakes,
(d) five things that never happened to that character or
(e) five people that character never fell in love with and why
You pick the character. I pick the letter.

I may actually manage to do this one.

Otherwise, today I have purchased tights (that I needed) and jewelry (that I didn't) and resisted a really kickass pair of boots at Urban Outfitters, and watched approximately half of what promises to be a sad movie starring my internet fiance Matthew Goode. (I got past the part where he's naked, though.)

In case anyone was wondering, I am, in fact, alive.

Um, other than that...halfway through stagesoflove . Somehow this time I've managed to go so far over the word limit it's ridiculous. Stage One: 450 words. Stage Two: 530 words. Stage 3: 688 words. At this rate, I expect Stage 5 to be a full-length novella.

ETA: Dear God, there is an entire prompt community for h/c. Someone stop me.

Today, in brief:

8:45 am: Wake up. Chat with people online.
9:15 am: Get up to bake a pound cake. Sift dry ingredients without incident.
9:20 am: Realize the oven is smoking. Turn it off and clean it.
9:30 am: Start seperating eggs. Break the second one. Sigh and begin again.
9:35 am: Break the third.
9:35 am-10:00 am: Continue to fail completely at separating eggs.
10:05 am: Decide to fuck this shit and just beat all the eggs together.
10:10-10:25 am: Finish mixing the cake without problems, put in oven.
10:30 am: Collapse back in bed with a headache. Vow to keep the hell out of the kitchen for the remainder of the weekend.

Stolen unabashedly from eugenetapdance and laney_jane:

• Post ten of any five pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.

• NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.

• They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.

• You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.

( And here we go )

In conclusion: I like pretty men.

I was going to just post the link when it was done, but it may never end, so - fiercesunshine and muzivitch Productions Present: Adrian Veidt: Wal*Mart Greeter

I'll let y'all just absorb that for a minute.

*

I have more drabbles to post and more drabbles to write, which will be finished and posted...sometime soon. Yesterday was a bad day for concentration.


*

My cat has figured out how to open the front door. God help us all, but especially me.

So, um. Hello. Greetings from Washington-Dulles International Airport, where I'm waiting to return to New Jersey for a whole five days before I head for California. This is obviously awesome, although my cat is going to hate me and I fully expect to be exhausted come July.

This doesn't make it any less awesome, however.

Other than that, I've been at a conference + vacation this week and have walked so much that I've developed blisters between my toes, I have to go to work tomorrow and really don't want to see the state of the my email inbox. It may make me cry. I've been co-writing a novel and continue to be obsessed with Watchmen.

So things are proceeding as usual.

Which of you people are on dreamwidth again?

History/Social Studies.  ALWAYS.  All the way through to high school and college.  I should have probably majored in it.  As for now, well, I'm a librarian and font of random knowledge, so...I guess.

Other stuff, in brief: 

1. I actually cleaned my room today.  If you've ever been to one of my apartments, you would know I bring new meaning to the term lazy slob, so this is actually pretty impressive.
2. As part of this process I threw out 15 pounds of clothes I don't wear anymore.  If you'd asked, I don't think I would have said I even owned 15 pounds of clothes.  But apparently I do.
3. I've been RPing Watchmen for an entire week now.  Guess my pairing. \:D/
4. I watched the Kabuto movie last night.  Impressions: Needs moar coherence, needs less Mizushima screaming, needs moar Sato in a tank top, needs less boring.

So I got my laptop back with its shiny new LCD screen! Yes, I am carefully cradling it on my lap as I basically hug the internet.

Of course, my euphoric bubble burst when I opened my email and saw that the utilities bill is inexplicably $90 this month. I almost avoided but, we're going to have to dig into the savings account after all this month. Blegh. Sometimes I really despise being a grown up.

The computer is still broken. I took it to the Apple Store, they got back to me yesterday with an quote that caused hyperventilation and that cold pit in my stomach when I get near a panic attack.

That quote amount, for the curious, was $755, $200 less than a brand new laptop.

So today I will be spending lunch at a repair center that promises to be slightly more reasonably priced. I expect I will still be eating ramen for the rest of the month. Will probably lose weight. (I think I'll call it the Broken Computer Diet. Lose two sizes by dropping your MacBook on the floor and cracking the LED screen!)

Oy Vey.

So yeah, writing projects are on hold until the computer's fixed. This will hopefully be by Monday.

I have had no research to do for WEEKS, and just now got three requests. Weirdness.

Meme from yahtzee63:

When you see this, post your favorite poem.

Short, so un-cut:

It struck me every day
The lightning was as new
As if the cloud that instant slit
And let the fire through.

It burned me in the night,
It blistered in my dream;
It sickened fresh upon my sight
With every morning’s beam.

I thought that storm was brief,—
The maddest, quickest by;
But Nature lost the date of this,
And left it in the sky.

- Emily Dickinson

After all my contemplating last night, I wrote exactly nothing.

Randomly, I think I need a Rahm Emanuel icon.

Home sick with some cold/flu thing that has gifted me with a delightful headache and a sore throat. Earlier there was fever and congestion, but I think I've kicked that part. Thank God.

Would like to write today. Have some ideas for the next part of "The British Billionaire's Secret Son" but am currently feeling too crappy to work much.

The cat is nursing me. If by nursing you mean "sleeping on my pillows and ignoring me entirely," which is about as close to nursing as he ever gets.

I'm now on my fourth consecutive day away from work and I suspect getting up tomorrow morning is going to be a bitch. One thing I've learned since being home more is that I apparently get a telemarketing call EVERY MORNING at 9 am. Which is as good a reason to go to work as any, really.

I should probably register my phone on the Do Not Call list.

*

I have discovered that Merlin is full of an insane amount of AUs. I've also discovered that there's a community called harlequinmerlin, devoted entirely to writing AUs that use romance novel cliches.

...This obviously means that I have a Merlin Secret Baby AU idea THAT WILL NOT DIE. Save me.

*

Tonight I will be making wild mushroom risotto, because I love risotto and never make it because I don't have the energy at the end of the day to spend a lot of time stirring rice into something resembling a pudding. May as well embrace this extra time off

I am now on my second trip through Merlin season 1, having rewatched the first four episodes (am on six now because, while Santiago Cabrera - yes, Isaac from Heroes - is very pretty, and very good as Lancelot...Lancelot kind of bores me :D;;;).

I have written fic.

My layout is Merlin-y.

I'm actually considering getting a region-free dvd player despite the fact that I'm pretty broke right now, because then I could get the dvds.

I am, frankly, doomed.

So, I've watched the first four episodes of Merlin so far.

( How long have you been training to be a prat...my lord )

Anyway, I've only watched the first four episodes so far, so a lot more to go, but so far I really like this. :D

I am posting this from my brother's vacation home in Michigan, where there is at least three feet of snow on the ground. Last night we had seafood stew and mussels (the mussels were less than popular with the parents) and played Life on the Farm, which is apparently the country version of monopoly.

I ended up with $50 and 30 cows. Needless to say, I did not win.

Anyway, I will be returning to civilization late on Sunday night and will be around again after that.

My high school French is getting more exercise tonight than it has since 1998, when I graduated.