This journal went Friends Only in June 2005.

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Hi all,

Just to let you know the Handbags for Hearing Dogs auction has been launched: http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/icybluerosepetal

Have a look, consider bidding and maybe you'll get to make a donation to charity and get a pretty bag as a result.

Thanks,
Jo x

I hate having to write this, and I'm sorry I couldn't let you know sooner but I only found out yesterday and needed to let some individuals know personally before I could post to such a wide scale. I'm so sorry if I missed telling anyone personally who feels they shouldve been told - and if you know someone who isn't on my flist who should know, please pass on my apologies.

fairygnomes aka Ruthie died late last week. We don't know the cause, though it thankfully appears as though it was in her sleep, and probably won't till either the end of this week or the beginning of next.

Its a major shock to anyone who knows/knew her and I'm sure you'll all appreciate how hard typng this actually is. I dono't know if there's any kind of protocol I'm suppposed to be following at the moment so forgive me if there's something I should've doe that i haven't.

Maz, Ruth and myself are now in touch with her parents who have our right contact details now. As soon as we know arrangements etc. we'll pass on the details. I'm going to leave comments open on this post because I know some people will need to say something, but I'm going to tick the 'don't email comments' box because I don't know if I'm trong enough to read them right now.

Ruthie, big sister of my heart, best friend and other part of my brain, I miss you so much already and it hasn't even begun to sink in. I love you, hun, so very much.

Title: Friendly Advice
Author: Jo. R
Rating: PG
Spoilers: 'Heroes' and 'Threads', slight spoilers for '100 Days'and 'Divide and Conquer'
Summary: An unexpected though not unwelcome guest joins SG-1 for dinner. Attempted humour :)
Author's Notes: Written for the SJFicathon challenge for matt1969, who requested Janet, friendship and dinner and didn't want breaking regs, presidential approval or Sam and Jack jumping into bed on realising their feelings.
Thanks must go to seadancer for helping me out of a hole and fairygnomes for being a good beta and pointing out the zipper of purpose. (Don't ask.)

( It was the wine. )

Okay, because I'm taking a break from writing and fighting jetlag (I honestly thought I was escaping this year.. until 4am this morning when I was still awake wondering why I didn't feel tired at all..) I'm going to post links to my wee collection of cabin pics and gatecon pics.

There aren't many cabin pics - some of them seem to have vanished from my camera. I'm hoping fairygnomes will have those ones on her laptop so may get to upload them at some point. Anyway, if you want to see 'em, go here and bask in the squeeness that is Jack's cabin. Which, in all truth, isn't that far away from his house or Sam's house despite being in totally different states apparently, despite being in totally different countries. Apparently.

And here are the GC pics - they're not that good as con pics taken by me generally never are - but hopefully they'll do for some of you. Also, as with con pictures, you'll see the backs of people's heads. A lot. Especially a certain person who I don't know but glared at lots because every single time I went to take a picture, her head moved and covered my viewfinder. Grrrr.

Anyway, hope you enjoy - and hopefully there'll be more cabin pics soon. I also have Vancouvery pics if anyone's interested. Just let me know and I'll put them in another folder.

ETA: A few more cabin pics have been addded. There's now 12 cabin pics and 1 pic of Colonel Jack Bear-O'Neill. Who, of course, went to Vancouver with me with his soon-to-be-wife, Major Sam Bear-Carter, who is camera shy and therefore has no photos.

ETA again: Webshots is being evil so I've made a second folder, with about 16 cabin photos in it. For some reason, the new ones weren't showing in the old folder but you should be able to see them if you click here!

Hi all,

Just a quick post 'cause it's costing a small fortune on fairygnomes AOL bill!

Vancouver is gorgeous as always - I've taken almost 100 pics so far, will put them online as soon as I'm able.

The con is fab - bestest part was this afternoon's panel with Chris, Michael and Amanda, specifically the part where Chris asked for an explanation on shippers, slashers, genners and the like. Apparently we're now all slippers, not shippers - he couldn't quite get the hang of it. Hee.

Oh, and the shippy quote of the con? Amanda, as they were asked in turn what they'd most like their character to do if given free reign by the producers "I'm not saying this just to please the shippers but I really would like to spend a whole day fishing!"

Squee!

*happy bounce*

Have met so many fab people, it's so cool. Caught up with Cathy, my twin from times long gone who I didn't even know was coming - and who I was in line with for over half an hour before we clicked who we were! Old timers from the old AIM SJ Chat room will know who I mean when I say Cathy, my twin. Saffy is my P-Twin, Cathy is my birthday twin. So I'll be friending her soon!

Met matteabrit and deaniebtvs before Sekh's Party and they're really cool people! Hee! And I think matteabrit might just have a small thing for Coin Cunningham.. Don't know why I think that ;)

Also saw starfinn - she so totally does give the best hugs! And allisnow and sjhwtolerance this morning - I'm so sorry we missed the meet up. Like I said, I am blond. It seems I get blonder the older I get. Ooh, and I bought a zine from them - if you haven't got a copy of Revelations II, you need to. I'm four stories in and *loving* it. Squee again!

And found calyx, aardie and littlemissscifi so yay!! Rach, if you see this, remind me to get your address for the chocs. aardie, I'm so sorry I haven't seen much of you so far - it seems like after that first night, we ended up in different realities! (Or it could be the blond thing again.. I did mention I'm blond, right?)

All that's left for me to say (before I have to go and spend more money) is that it's fun, very warm and everyone seems to be having a good time which is fab.

Oooh, and hwconundrum!! I've been searching everywhere for blue pepsi to no avail so far - think it might have been a limited edition thing but I'm not giving up yet!!

theangelgirl, I'm looking for the spray in conditioner, too. AM thinking I might have better luck at the downtown London Drugs so will keep you posted!

Ok.. Going now.. Oh, and if anyone's emailing me, I'm not checking my email at the moment - checked yesterday and had over 400 (even though I'm on no mail) so... am not checking again for a while!

*hugs* and *squee* to all!

The Convention..


SJers.
First thing on the line up was the SJ brunch - for me, anyway! Huge thanks to Alli for organising it. It was great to meet and talk to you even if I was a little out of it and it was fab to see Katt and get hugged lots! Hee!

Cocktail party:
We were there for a bit, then left for a bit and got freaked out by the overtly friendly staff at one of the shops in the Richmond Centre. Now, we realised pretty quick that the shop assistants out there were v. friendly compared with the ones over here - we're lucky if we get a grunt out of sales staff in clothes shops near me so to actually have a conversation with one was scary! It was scarier still when the assistant in question offered to drive us around, get us passes to nightclubs etc. - all within a space of five minutes! She was very nice and friendly but it was kinda obvious she was bored and desperate to keep us there. That was why Ruth K was doing covert ops when we went downstairs in the same store to get Ruthie's tights (pantyhose!) - because she was scared we'd get caught again!

We did eventually return to the cocktail party - briefly - to find Heur'ur and Anubis there. Hee. Both very good looking men but we didn't stop too much longer after that. We knew we had to be up early the following morning.. and mixing cold tablets with other tablets does no good to you. Not at all.

Friday convention:
Did it really start on Friday? Doesn't feel like it lasted for almost three days!

Anyway, the guests were all cool - the talks were fun. The more memorable thing about Friday was the Friday night auction, which I'm sure everyone's heard about a thousand times already. Basically, it included Dougie and David doing their best to raise as much money as they could for the Make a Wish Foundation. And by their best, I mean their best. Nudity was involved - and Dougie auctioned off the chance to squeeze David's butt and David was led to believe he had to drop his trousers for the act. *Ahem*. Poor guy probably had no idea no one else who'd allowed themselves to be groped in public for charity had kept their clothes on. Nevertheless, the auctions on Friday were amusing to watch - but the Saturday night one is still my favourite, despite the lack of nakedness. Oh, and this was the auction of Maz's birthday!!! She got a cake, got sang to and also got to lick icing off Dougie's nipple. Seriously. We took lots of photos and plan to use them to embarrass her at every available opportunity. Ha.

Saturday convention:
Very, very cool!
All of the guests were brilliant - Colin (yes, Colin), Corin, Jay, Don, Teryl, JR, Michael, the Goa'uld and the others were very entertaining, very nice people. (And MS doesn't see Sam/Daniel happening. Hee.) Does everyone know Don got married recently? He's very very happy - and his wife is a lovely person, I was fortunate enough to get introduced to her on Sunday at the autograph session when I congratulated him, unaware the woman sitting at the end of the table was his new wife! They're very sweet together so I hope they'll be very, very happy - and by the sound of it, the wedding was lovely. Don mentioned it in his talk with Teryl - and Teryl mentioned several times that the happy couple kissed for the first time in her kitchen!

The photograph session was cool, too. Ruthie and me had pictures taken together - because I'm too much of a coward to get them done by myself - and had them taken with Corin (swoon), Alex (Ruthie has a story to tell..), JR (double swoon) and Teryl (lovely lady!). The pictures came out okay - I never like pictures with me in them so by my standards, saying they're okay is quite high! The Teryl one is my favourite because it's a Charlie's Angel type pose and she was apparently pleased with how it turned out - according to one of the volunteers who stopped to chat to me in the autograph room when she spotted my t-shirt.

The auction on Saturday was, IMO, better than the one on Friday. I don't know why exactly - probably because there were more of the guests involved, probably because Ruthie bid on and won the leather jacket Sam wore in Ascension that I spent the rest of the holiday looking at and grinning at. A whole lot of money was raised for charity - Gatecon broke the $100,000 USD and CAD limit for it's four conventions. How brilliant is that? So anyone who thinks cons are a waste of time or money, think again. And ask someone who was there about the video that showed on Friday night from the Make a Wish Foundation. What a tear-jerker that was.

Sunday convention:

Sunday was a strange day for me. Apologies to Vicki and Ruthie for crying on you both. It was my Grandfather's memorial service on Sunday and I was almost literally on the other side of the country so it was hard.

Studio Tour

The studio tour was on Sunday. It was fun wandering through the hallways of the SGC (seriously, you got to walk through the hallways!) and take pictures of the set - which is totally amazing. We were part of the first group who went at 8:30am and it was just fab. We saw the iris (not on the gate), then walked along a hallway (I love the hallways - can ya tell? Lots of stuff has happened in those hallways!) and into Sam's lab. Well, we assumed it was a lab Sam's used at some point because of all the red and yellow blinking lights that were going off and on and making it difficult for us to take pictures! ;)

Then was the infirmary - yay! One of the best places on base ;) Took pictures of the beds, tried to figure out which one certain people had been in (hee) and saw an x-ray on the screen. Apparently the x-ray was of a smokers lungs - the person behind me said that.

Then we walked along another hallway and up some stairs into the control room. It looks exactly the same as it does on screen - and I think I stood in one spot for about two minutes thinking how cool it was that I was there and staring at the Stargate looking like a dumbass. But hey, it was the Stargate - what would you expect me to do? Anyway, after the initial oh-my-God moment, we took photos and checked out the keyboards - sure enough, the letters had been changed to make messages like we'd heard they were but there was nothing like 'big boobies' spelt out this time, just names of people I don't know and proclaimations that they're hot. *shrug* Hee.

Then we went upstairs to the briefing room - again, very cool. I sat at the table in Hammond's chair. *g* Oh, and I won't mention a certain someone taking one of the many dozen coffee/tea stirrer things from the brimming-to-full pot on the table in front of the Star Chart that looked into the General's office - which, by the way, is wobbly. Ruthie and I looked at each other, then at the chart, then giggled and said at almost the exact same time that we knew why it was wobbly - think Sam, think Jack, think NC-17 and then you have the answer we came up with.

Hammond's office was next - I took photos of Ruthie sitting at the desk pretending to talk on the phone and then wandered off to take more pictures of - yes, you guessed it - hallways. They're cool, what can I say? And I'm pretty sure that when we went downstairs again, we walked passed the hallway Jack's walking up in DaC when Sam calls to him, the same one she was zatted in in Entity. Will put the pic up at some stage so you can help me decide ;)

Our final destination was the gateroom. Wow. The Stargate totally rocks!!! Seriously, it looks so real and is so *big* (although I was told by someone one night of the con that it's not the size that matters, it's what you do with it that counts. 'Nuff about that as she wasn't talking about the 'gate. Minds out of the gutter, people!) So anyway, we had our photos taken. Ruthie had an action shot done - of her pretending to roll down the ramp. Several people later, someone actually did roll down the ramp - twice - despite exclaiming the first time that it really did hurt! Oh, and a couple in our group had their picture taken while they were kissing in the Stargate. Very sweet, very romantic. *sigh*

BTW, the ramp and the stairs? Having walked up/down them, I have no idea how either AT or TR can walk in heels down/up them - seriously. The gaps were big, if I'd been wearing my boots I'd have struggled! It was bad enough in trainers with no grips! ;)

After that, we were forced from the studio - we were going to sit down on the ramp and refuse to but the big security guy and head of security staff kinda scared us so we went relatively quietly - though not before grinning lots at the car RDA was chauffered around in last year, a car we were told by the driver will be coming up for sale on Ebay soon so keep an eye out for it - if you bid and win, I'll be your best friend ;);)

Back to the Sunday Convention.

We made it back just in time for Teryl, Don and the con's second surprise guest, Martin Wood. It was a fun panel with the Stuffy Guard presentation at the end of it. That was cool. This was also where Martin Wood made his comments about Heroes being an unmissable episode.

The talks were, as always, fascinating but nothing's sticking out in my mind as being 'wow' or 'squee-worthy' at this moment in time. If I remember more later, I will share details I promise.

The autograph queues were long. Didn't get to see Teryl as she had to be away for 4pm but there'll be another chance. Ruthie has a story to tell about the autograph session but is forbidden until a certain something makes it to a certain someone. So everyone who knows about the story, stay quiet please!! At least until I give you the okay or else you'll ruin the surprise and have to deal with me. *pauses to look threatening*

That was the convention. We had our own version of a farewell meal on Sunday night with Vicki, Rebekha, Gemma, Ruth and Jen which was fun. That was where the Janet/Teal'c thing was mentioned - ask Ruth King for details as it was all her doing. Heeeee.

The wrap-party for volunteers, I'm told, was excellent. And I've seen the video of the continuation of it in QS and Sekh's hotel room so I can safely agree that it looked fun - and loud. Very loud. *vbg* Despite the fact it was 2am in the morning, I was amused by Maz's tales of what had gone on that night.

The rest of the trip!

And that's that. I won't bore you with details about the rest of the trip - just that if you're in Vancouver, the YWCA is a great (and cheap) place to stay, the revolving restaurant is a must-see and Stanley Park is the most beautiful place I've ever been. If you're going there, plan to spend at least a whole day - two if you plan to go to the aquarium, which was a whole load of fun.

Oh, and beware of mystery illnesses though I'm happy to say those who were taken ill are hopefully recovering and as far as I know (I'm not there anymore so can't be definite!) there've been no new cases of whatever it was that made people ill enough to miss their flight or, in Bex's case, keel over in the middle of the con.

A good thing that came out of the trip for me was a jolt of inspiration that got my muse working (though it seems it was only a temporary thing!). laurajo, vicki595, I promise the VS 7.5 story will be the first out of the five stories I started to be finished.

Am genuinely shutting up now. Am going to catch up on LiveJournal and fic-reading in an attempt at keeping me awake till at least 10pm.

Main points for these dates:

Got there on Saturday (duh) but my suitcase didn't arrive till Monday/Tuesday - Tuesday, I think, but the days are all blending into one for me at the moment!

Room-mate stuff.
Originally, Jen was supposed to be in with us till Tuesday morning and then Maz was supposed to move in afterwards till we switched hotels.

Didn't happen.

Jen's roommate cancelled at the last minute so Maz arranged with someone else to stay in their room for the entire duration so that Jen wouldn't have to pay for a room on herself. This worked for one night. Then Maz and the
people she moved in with realised you can't fit four people into a room that sleeps three maximum - especially not when all people involved are part of the stage crew and need to be up and ready at the crack of dawn to make sure
everything's okay for the con etc. So Maz moved back in with Ruthie and me and Jen found a roommate in the form of Patti, who was travelling by herself and said she'd like the company.

So there you have it. The story of the room switching and how Jen ended up in room 666.

Suitcase stuff.
Ranted at BA staff in Canada. Cried a little. Ranted more. Wanted to get drunk but couldn't. Suitcase arrived unannounced and BA staff were never again heard from. End of story. Ha.


Sekh's Party.
A fab night. Really, really fab. Hugs to the Sekh's party crew for making it so much fun and the biggest thanks possible go to Trish and Sandi for all the hardwork that went into it - both behind the scenes and on the stage.
The music vids were v. cool - there were some shippery ones!! - and the auction was funny - Don rocks and Colin and Dougie.. *giggle* Things didn't get x-rated at that auction but it was definitely fun to be part of.
Even if I did have to sit on my hands for the whole thing!

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Have been threatening to do this since I created this LJ and, with recent evil viruses, I've had the chance to re-read some fab fic and am now able to recommend some of my favourites to anyone interested. Favourites being the ones I can sit and re-read over and over and over.

In no particular order, some of my favourite S/J fics are:

These Things Have a Habit of Going Off by Fairygnomes and also it's sequel, Admonitions.

From Drink Flows Fact by Suzvoy

Unhappily Ever Afrer by Suzvoy

Semiprecious by Suzvoy

Darkness Falls by Linz

A Weekend to Remember by Linz

Don't Think of an Elephant by Alli Snow

Libidinous by Ness

God Forsaken Planet by Jen Sweeney

Of Sons and Daughters by Jen Sweeney

A Deadly Legacy by Sally Reeve and Marcy

Double Discovery by Sally Reeve

Personal Reasons by Sally Reeve

Something Worth Hiding by Sally Reeve

While You Were Gone by Karen

Under the Influence by Ruth M. King

The Truth Between Friends by Ruth M. King

Rockets and Shooting Stars by Ruth M. King and also the missing scene from this story, Stars in Their Eyes by AC.

After the Dream by Ruth M. King.

Second Sight by Noda.

Sam's Story (Link goes to Part One) by Noda

Illusion of Truth by Noda (Link goes to part one)

Contagion by Noda (Link goes to part one)

Kindred Souls by Noda (Again, link goes to part one)

They're the ones I can list off the top of my head. Believe me when I say there *are* others - particularly one by a certain Lynn who has been keeping me waiting for about five-six months for the next part of her as-of-yet unposted WIP.