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Been a while since a ~pet picture roundup,~ so why not.
Bella wants boba. Bella wants the boba that I have so bad.
Just one more of Bella, because I'm always posting pictures of Bella Curled up as small as she can.
Berry Mad, mighty hunter!
One more of Berry Mad: Alex sent me this picture, lol. Toad Butt!
One more of Guava Splash climbing their plant!
(Most of the Guava Splash pictures were in the last post, ha.)
A picture of Greenbean 2, eating her green beans! (Took this one to try and do a good size comparison.)
I had initially said that maybe Greenbean 2 was maybe a male, because the back end didn't look as prominent as the previous female katydid we had last year. However, in the last couple weeks, the ovipositor has gotten a bit more obvious. Greenbean 2 is definitely a female. :)
She has also remained very quiet; she hasn't made a single click. She is very calm in general; not terribly reactive even when we do reach into her cage to give her her beans or change out the climbing branches.
And now there are three katydids! Just a couple days after finding Greenbean 2, Alex found another katydid on the sidewalk outside. This one is clearly a male, but he is very fussy, lol. He seems to think that literally every single sound is another katydid moving in on his territory, so he sets off with a flurry of clicks. (Pouring cereal, clinking dishes, and crinkling packaging are all very exciting sounds for him.) Due to that constant clicking, Alex named him Clickbait.
Then just last night, Alex came in with yet a third katydid. This one is another male, and I named him Three. He's much less aggressive about posturing, haha. He's temporarily in the old spider terrarium until we get another of the mesh cages, but he settled right in to clicking and eating his green beans.
Clickbait and Three are providing excellent clicks in stereo.
More pictures of Greenbean 2, Clickbait, and Three:
One more of Greenbean 2. :)
This one is clickbait!
Clickbait again, with his partially-eaten green beans.
And here's Three. :) (Mediocre picture from after getting him set up last night.)
Jaspurr! With his one little toof that sticks out.
A couple more pictures of Jaspurr playing
Attack!
Slightly more dignified.
And then...
While I was spending time over at my mom and Taylor's house, they also ended up with a brand new pet.
Their neighbors rescued a garter snake from the window well of their church and brought it home. The neighbor said she thinks this might be a female, though it's hard to tell.
We had a garter snake for about twelve years or so, but he died several years back, and they still had the terrarium setup from before... Mom went back and forth on it for a while, but ultimately decided that she would like to have a snake again.
She's so cute!
More of the snake (as yet unnamed, as far as I know):
It's the all day faculty meeting. Heck I'm just plain ill. It hit me this afternoon at Kroger (I think the coffee didn't play well with my GERD but it cost me most of the afternoon)
I did run around all morning. Spoke to the Post Office because no one (not even them) can tell me if my mail forwarding has ended or not. I had to drive on the dirt roads to get there quickly and I'm not amused to learn 'well the forwarding happens in MI but I'll look into this and be sure they've ended the forwarding.' Yeah and does no one know how snowbirding works.
I did find out that the old ladies who I shared a table with (and wouldn't stop talking to me) were right, they really DID build another coffee shop like 1 1/2 blocks from the one we have had for years (and there are still Starbuck rumors) This one is across from a church so they called it Holy Grounds which is clever. I will check it out but I DO think it has had a bad affect already on The Spot because it was empty today. (and I noticed the menu has not changed since June)
I also set up my thyroid ultrasound for the same day as my neurologist so I don't have to drive up there twice. Yay.
I also went off on United Healthcare who called me to set up home nursing. I'm like WRONG DANA. He actually argued with me, that it HAD to be me and not texas Dana because how else would they have my phone number. I am furious at this point. I said we had this conversation in June. You people promised again to fix this. I'm really beginning to think I need to look into what else I can do about this.
I found a cool open call about appalachian characters and authors and I jumped right into this.
DW community recs
makezines a community for, well, making zines. We want to make zines, and we want to encourage others to make zines! (I honestly didn't know people were still doing this which is kinda cool)
After three year old Jack starts asking questions about his papa, Beverly Crusher makes the choice to leave Starbase 83 and travel with her son to Earth to introduce him to Jean-Luc.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, August 21, to midnight on Friday, August 22 (8pm Eastern Time).
Caroline P. Murphy's The Pope's Daughter is another book I got ages ago, probably at a warehouse sale? I can no longer remember but the pages are weathered with time, which is a shame because I would've read it earlier if it wasn't stuck at the back of the drawer of unread books, under books I've been procrastinating over even more. The book is not about Lucrezia Borgia! It's about a lesser-known Pope's daughter (so is my impression of her relative fame), Felice della Rovere, illegitimate daughter of Cardinal Guliano della Rovere, later Pope Julius II, aka The Warrior Pope.
Murphy's book is well-paced and put together, though she uses conjecture quite a lot on Felice's motivations and emotional state behind some of her actions, and though Felice does on paper come off as consistent in action and intelligence, I'm not as much convinced by the declaration that she was definitely ambitious and arrogant to that level. But what makes Felice interesting, I think, is the contrast she makes to her peer Lucrezia (whose father was pope before Julius II), where when I read about Lucrezia (and Caterina Sforza) that makes Italy feel so vicious and violent and decadent, which it was, but then there's Felice who navigated that same world and didn't get into any scandals, and the major dramas of her life were (1) her youthful resistance to remarrying after her first husband died, though she did capitulate eventually for a husband she worked well with, and (2) her stepson protesting her power over the family to his detriment, which aren't really scandals per se.
Felice was good at politicking, networking, running businesses, running multiple estates, all with keeping a close relationship with Vatican both before and her father was in power. Felice patronized Michelangelo, lived through the Holy Roman Empire's sack of Rome, and saw multiple changes in the Vatican through her own ability to form relationships. She may not have had a passionate (second) marriage, but it was a functional one that worked. She was powerful, but also professional and well-behaved within the constraints of that power and her gender, which doesn't make for a popular historical figure to write about. It gives nuance to what it was like for powerful, intelligent women to live in that era and location, with her crossing paths with Lucrezia, Isabella d'Este and briefly a young Catherine Medici who was warded to her. And I think that's neat.
I took off a week ago Tuesday to fly to Seattle. The trip went well, apart from my flight being moved to 0 Dark Thirty, which was painful. I landed at our hotel, rendezvoused with the Merriams and we headed off to the Chihuly Museum and the Museum of Pop Culture. For those playing along at home, that means that on 4 hours of sleep, I rode in a car, a plane, a monorail and a train in a day. But it was delightful! I hadn't been to the Chihuly Museum before - many of the exhibits were lovely. I had been to the Museum of Pop Culture before, back when my friend Brooks was the curator of the sf and f collection and enjoyed it. This time was fun as well, if a tad crowded.
After that, I picked up my reg stuff and met Nicole Kimberling of Blindeye Books for dinner at the ASEAN Food Hall. We had a long chat and got caught up; we last got to hang out pre-lockdown so it's been awhile. She puts out some excellent books - check them out! And when I got back, my friend and roomie for the weekend, Hugo Award Finalist Heather Rose Jones had arrived so we got caught up. Next day, I was on the queer-coded villains panel, which was fun. Then it was off to a delightful lunch with the glorious "steampunk personalities" (as we were all dubbed in The Steampunk Explorer), Madame Askew and the Grand Arbiter and one of their friends. I puttered around the con running into people, including hanging out with with my pals Rob and Peter from D.C, and dropping books off at the Liminal Fiction table in the Dealer's Room before heading out to meet my friend Brooks and his sweetie Lisa for dinner. Then Brooks and I were off to the Clarion West party at Hugo House. Got to chat with a bunch of folks there, including Casey Blair, who I hadn't seen for a few years, including Charlie Jane Anders and more, as well as hanging out with Jennie Goloboy and meeting Astrid Bear.
Thursday was my "light" day so I went to Concurrent at the Union Theater for an interesting panel on publishing short fiction. A friend who was on the panel became ill so I sat with her for awhile after the panel. Multiple people checked in and fortunately, she was doing better after some rest so after checking a couple of times, I got her a Lyft and sent her back to her hotel. She was doing much better all weekend so I was very glad that things turned around! I think I went to a good panel on Medieval Women Writers after that and the art show and such. I had lunch with my former editor and friend, Evan J. Peterson, an hour or so before he found out that he was a finalist for the Endeavor Award. I did some more puttering about and spent some time with delightful pals Monica Valentinelli, Matt McElroy and LaShawn Wanak. After that, it was off to dinner with Heather, the Merriams, Jody Wurl and her friend Cynthia. Friday was my Table Talk, which was fun! Someone showed up to talk about my gaming, someone else stopped by to ask about the werewolf books and another person wanted to talk publishing. Then I grabbed lunch with LaShawn and worked a shift at the Liminal Fiction table, where I finally met J. Scott Coatsworth in person. Then I got to hang out with Martha Wells and her husband for a nice chat. After that, I went off to a fun-filled Seattle Underground tour with the Merriams.
Saturday was my reading, which could have gone better (I had a coughing fit), but was well attended. I chatted with folks and sold some books, which was nice. I met up with various folks (apologies for things blurring a bit by then), worked another table shift, did some other things, then went and did the Joanna Russ panel. It went well - lot of good discussion and some anecdotes.
I then grabbed dinner and went back to our room to watch the Hugo Awards. A brief pause from general goodwill: I watched the first 45 minutes of the ceremony with the sound on, got tired of the song repetition and the mispronunciations of finalist names and switched to captions. So I missed the part where the editorial staff of Khoreo got skipped over and the Lodestar finalist was skipped completely and a bunch of things covered elsewhere. I will just say that when GRRM mangled multiple finalist names at the 2020 Hugo Awards in New Zealand, there was an understandable hue and cry about it and it was deemed highly disrespectful (which it was). This is no different and the impacted finalists are due an apology. Also: for the love of whatever you hold sacred, Hugo Admins, address the damn issue. Hire transcriptionists, compel the hosts to practice names, record the names ahead of time, but DO SOMETHING so we stop experiencing this frankly xenophobic nonsense every year. EDITED: turns out the Hugo Awards Committee may have done things to address this and the issues lie more squarely at the door of the presenters and possibly the on the ground folks administering the awards.
Sunday, I went to a panel on romantasy, then had lunch with Heather (who did not win, but enjoyed herself anyway). Then we toddled off to the Amtrak station where Jody, the Merriams and I ran into local author powerhouse Pat Wrede. We all hung out until we boarded the bus to Spokane (there were train issues) for a four hour trip across the state of Washington. They did let us board the train and get into the sleepers around 10 even though the train wasn't leaving until 1AM. I got a couple of hours of broken napping, then roused Jody from the upper bunk so we could grab breakfast before watching morning over Glacier National Park. It was glorious!
The rest of the trip was lively. The dining car ran out of most food because they were supposed to stock up in Seattle, but couldn't. Staff was very stiff upper lip about it and did the best they could and we were sympathetic (and tipped). I didn't get much sleep what with the train rattling and all, but Monday night was better than Saturday. All in all, though, it was a fun expedition and I'm glad I did it! Big shoutout to Tony for picking up Jody and Kevin for picking up the rest of us to go home.
I'm currently in the midst of a two day women in publishing virtual conference and scrambling to get caught up on sundries. Still job hunting, but unemployment came through so that helps a bunch. Tomorrow, more conference and other things, before going to the State Fair with my friend Matt. More updates on the conference as soon as it wraps!
First Steps on a New Road By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams Part 1 of 1, complete Word count (story only): 1754 [End of March 179-]
:: Laszlo sets out on his planned trip toward the orphanage in Cluj-Napau. Part of the “Lost Son” story arc in the Frankenstein’s Family universe. ::
Golden light draped over the tops of the trees as Laszlo double checked the latches on every drawer and cabinet. He dusted his hands as he inspected the interior of the vardo again, then put his gloves back on. The sound of a single set of footsteps made him hurry toward the door.
Kálmán walked steadily toward the house and vardo, smiling faintly. When he spotted Laszlo, he raised a hand to wave, and his smile widened. “Good morning!”
Laszlo waved back. “Morning! What brings you up this early?” ( Read more... )
I went to buy groceries today and a clerk was pedaling free pumpkin cookies. I took one. Why would you put chocolate chips in a pumpkin cookie? It’s unnatural. And if you’re going to do that, use real choco. chips, not fake ones. Not a good cookie.
It’s going to be very warm the next few days, so I bought a rotisserie chicken, which has gone up a dollar since last I was in the store. They offer a six pack of mini soda free with the chicken. I got some full sugar root beer, instead of the Pepsi I got last time. The time I discovered I no longer like Pepsi at all.
I bought a hidden key holder to place outside because I’m bedeviled by the thought of being locked out. Now I have to find a super secret place to hide it. And not forget that place.
I caught myself sayin' "Rad" unironically and I was fuckin' HYPED.
I love this, I always felt like even my way of speakin' could be cool, a part of my personal signature, style, even the way that I've started typing. Sets me apart from the crowd of very distinct people who have found their voice and colors. Now I'm here, thinkin' I'm slowly achieving my own understanding of not only fashion but in my design and shit. I still suck ass at design, make no mistake, but I at least am better than when I started. Shit, I can't even show you 'cause half of the designs I made ain't even on the ether!
Anyways, this is really silly. But it made me giddy, alright? It was bodacious!!
Like. There are MULTIPLE videos going round right now - Team Sinner greeting Team Alcaraz, then Team Djokovic, some Jannik training clips. A veritable buffet of content. A smorgasbord. A feast.
And where are my eyes? Where are user <user name=tennisdadsaficionado site=tumblr> eyes supposed to be??
On the players? On the tennis? On the ACTUAL subject of the videos???
No. NO. All I see is Darren. Just Darren. I’m out here losing brain cells like a teenage llama with a crush.
I am not supposed to be like this. I am a grown adult with rent and bills and responsibilities. And yet here I am, screaming at pixels because some Australian man in his 50s tilted his head slightly to the left.
And the worst part? The absolute humiliation of it all?? He doesn’t even have to do anything. He just… breathes near a tennis court and my brain goes feral, like: “oh wow incredible stunning revolutionary showstopping never been done before.”
Sir, please. You are a coach. Why do you have this power over me.
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 07 secrets from Secret Submission Post #971. Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ]. Current Secret Submissions Post:here. Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
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fanlore_tumblr_feed) wrote2025-08-22 01:26 am
ALT
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mistressofmuses) wrote2025-08-21 08:30 pm
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makezines a community for, well, making zines. We want to make zines, and we want to encourage others to make zines! (I honestly didn't know people were still doing this which is kinda cool)
