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September 11th, 2006

06:23 am - Aaarrrrggghhhhh! My computer is having a mid-life crisis, yet again. I'm not going to try and solve it myself this time, so I'll be hauling it to the shop to be poked and prodded by someone more experienced, and much younger, than I. Wish me luck. In the meantime, I hope life is gentle and kind to you all. Current Location: Work Current Mood: aggravated Current Music: Ashes to Ashes, David Bowie

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September 9th, 2006

09:06 pm - Just Ambling Along Anyone see the shuttle launch this morning? Incredible. I've been watching NASA send rockets into space since the Gemini program and it still gives me chills. There was a camera mounted on the booster, and as the shuttle flipped into position, there was a shot of the horizon that just took my breath away. I passed a bit of a milestone a few weeks ago. For the last two and a half years, I've been taking Tamoxifen to prevent recurrence of the fiendish thingee. ( Fun with Science ) Despite my lousy record as prognosticator, here are my picks for the final three on Project Runway: Jeffrey, Michael and Laura, despite the dire 'is the ice princess having a melt down' teaser Bravo is running. I don't necessarily think she belongs in the final three, but I doubt Kayne will be able to overcome his Vegas tendencies and Uli keeps making the same dress, so it'll be Laura by default. I hope your Sunday is joyful. ~~~ Current Mood: mellow Current Music: Modern Times - Bob Dylan

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August 26th, 2006

11:38 pm - Standing Here On My Own Two Hands Diving in... Oh, how I wish I could regale you with tales of intrigue, of having gone deep undercover to investigate illicit botox gatherings masquerading as Tupperware parties. Or something. Instead, it's been stonking huge periods of insomnia and resultant ennui that have stood between me and, well, life. It's getting better. In the meantime, there have been the Wednesday night phone calls with my 13-year old niece to discuss the goodness of House. Yes, she is wise beyond her years. After crashing my computer and my iPod a couple of months ago, I've been trying to recoup my music losses. Typically late to the party, I've only recently discovered Kate Bush, and has a better song ever been written than Running Up That Hill? Maybe Sat In Your Lap because who knew someone had written a song about that particular corner of my psyche? Who else have I missed? Tell me, I must know. My granddaughters have been staying with me this weekend, and I repeat the question: How the hell does anyone do this after the age of, oh, I don't know, thirty-five? I love them beyond all reason, but, yikes! Little energy suckers, they are. Crucible crossed, peace out. Current Mood: good Current Music: Senses Working Overtime - cool 1980's music

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July 26th, 2006

10:41 am Hello, Again. It's me, still alive and one foot firmly planted on the ground. I'd offer excuses for my disappearance, but I can't even come up lame ones. I do miss you and will return soon. In the meantime, Hugh Laurie will be on Inside the Actor's Studio this coming Monday at 8:00. At least one commercial offers the promise of Hugh singing and playing the piano. His long, lithe fingers dancing over the, um, keyboard. Peace to you. Current Location: Ducking the IT police Current Mood: embarrassed Current Music: Mary Had a Little Lamb - Stevie Ray

March 31st, 2006

07:59 pm - Here Comes the Sun... Only not. Today ends the rainiest March since records have been kept. Of the thirty-one days of March, only two have been without rain. I'm expecting a commemorative plaque from Governor Ah-nuld to arrive any day now, depicting the sun breaking through a bank of clouds and proclaiming, It'll be baaah-ck. Wednesday night, I spent two extraordinary hours in the presence of Anne Lamott and Mary Chapin Carpenter. ( Cut for fan-girl gush ) The weatherperson says more rain is on the way. If it can't be here, I hope it's with you. Cheers! ~~~~~ Current Location: Santa Rosa, CA Current Mood: nerdy Current Music: River Boat - Allen Toussaint

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March 22nd, 2006

04:50 pm - Peering Out Toward the Back End of a Century I have had the most extraordinary day. Many hugs and loves from my kids; my co-workers, who took the time to festoon my cubicle with black ribbons and balloons and who presented me with a generous BevMo gift card and instructions to buy myself an excellent French champagne. (Oh, I will, I so very will!) Tonight, it's sushi and tempura with friends. A gift very dear to my heart can be found Here. A Giles/Anya birthday ficlet from the immensely talented ljs. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have these people in my life. For those who worry about getting older. Don't! Getting older helps you shed the unimportant stuff that just gets in the way of who you are. I'm closer to living the authentic life than I ever have been, and that goal is more attainable every day. If you worry about looking older, well, here's what I do. Add ten years to your age. If someone has the nerve (really, how very rude), simply say, Why, I'm 60-years old!. The other person will respond, What! You're kidding! You don't look...Oh, my god, you look FABulous! Blessings on you and yours. And have a glass of champagne. Life always looks good through bubbles. Current Mood: happy Current Music: I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

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March 11th, 2006

02:12 pm - My Apologies for the Long Disappearance. In therapy, I have learned some excellent and very helpful ways to cope with the black dog when he decides to make a visit. Most of the time, I remember to use them, but sometimes I don't and I suddenly find myself in a house with no windows, with only the dog to keep me company. My family and RL friends are well acquainted with my occasional melancholy disappearances from society. But, as a wonderful friend so gently, and very inadvertently, reminded me, not all my friends are familiar with the quirks of Kimmer. It was an excellent boot to the rear, and I thank her for it. Dammitol, nothing much that is new or exciting has happened over the last couple of weeks. I'm still working like a mad fiend, still fretting over school, still working on the final chapter. [An aside. The huge wall that blocking my view is gone now. It will be ready for beta next weekend, if I have to take time off work to do it!] My annual review takes place in a couple of weeks, and I'm gathering notes in anticipation of the battle to come. Mr. P-A has told several people how little he looks forward to it. He can bite me, and I hope the whole thing is keeping him up nights. After some consultation, and a good hard look at the calendar, my friend Shelly and I have decided to push our big UK trip off to next spring. We plan to drive through Scotland for 4 or 5 days, and she's very nervous about doing that in October. So, we're going in May. I was utterly bummed for about 30-seconds, at which point I decided I'd do a week in London by myself. I'm going to see if I can find a deal for this spring, but if I can't I'll go in the fall. I'm just looking for a quick fix. Tonight, the kids and I are off for a quick visit to Monterey for my nephew's engagement party tomorrow. Which is seriously weird, because I'm pretty sure that just last week, he was 12. Time just flies by, doesn't it? Blessings on you all. ~~~~~ Current Mood: grateful Current Music: Stupid Girls - P!nk

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February 19th, 2006

12:35 pm - Incoherent Rant & Other Stuff ( Move Along, There's Nothing Here ) In other news... Work continues to be a black hole from which no light escapes, but my trusty iPod has been cranking out the soul/R&B/occasionally Gorillaz, over the last week and I am calm-ish in the dark. I’ve grown fascinated by the rollicking sport of curling. We have a dusting of snow on our hills. Will finally watch the final disc of Spooks/MI-5 today. I’d put it off due to time constraints, and, I must say, I’ve been looking forward to it with an oddly satisfying mixture of anticipation and dread. (Sniff) After having viewed the previous episodes, I can also say my love for Harry and Ruth (and Harry/Ruth, though, please god, never, ever put them together) remains full and throaty, Adam has well and truly insinuated himself under my skin (took a while, as I am resistant to change), and Fiona is just plain awesome. A&E really did her the worst injustice when they hacked at like Edward Scissorhands edited these episodes. I'm off to color my hair. It's not the gray I object to, for it's really silver rather than gray, and really quite lovely, but the mundane, mousy brown. Red is so much more interesting. Peace to you, my friends. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Soul on Fire - Lavern Baker

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January 26th, 2006

07:54 pm Yay! Things are looking remarkably up. After much discussion between my grandmother and her doctor, it was decided she could go home this weekend. He agreed to this with the proviso that she allow 24-hour care - an idea she resisted, but the power of the discharge pen prevailed. In the midst of the crazy, I went back to the JC to take another stab at the English 1A class I had to drop a year and a half ago. The first night of class was an object lesson in education funding in the state of California. Apparently, there was a 50% failure rate in the English 1A classes last fall. The reason? The PTB cut funding for professional readers, so the placement tests, which consist of multiple choice and essay questions, were reviewed by gerbils. I may have misheard the gerbil part. Nevertheless, they screwed it up. The department instructors are now trying to come up with a test without essays. Ummm. Feels good to be back. Current Mood: content Current Music: She Bop - Cyndi Lauper

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January 24th, 2006

04:55 pm - Defiance, and a Stellar FList My grandmother has stabilized to the point where her doctor is talking about releasing her to hospice this weekend. She remains defiant, giving Death a big raspberry and determined to see her 88th birthday next week. I like that. I'll be catching up with everyone over the next couple of days. In the meantime, hugs and rose petals strewn in your path. You are the best. Current Mood: grateful Current Music: Beyond the Poison - Marianne Faithful

January 21st, 2006

08:58 am - Time is Fleeting ( An Update ) Current Mood: thankful Current Music: London Rain - Heather Nova

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January 19th, 2006

January 16th, 2006

09:12 am LJ-ing is not the easiest thing in the world for me. I have this neurotic mistaken notion that if I'm not writing about something important, well then, it's just not worth writing at all. Okay, what I just wrote was a lie. A big, juicy bit of rationalization to cover the real issue: I'm afraid of being judged as stupid a dork. You know that old adage: Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Well, that's me, except I'm more than happy to offer verbal opinions on every topic under the sun. I'll talk until your eyes glaze over and you fall head first into your soup. For you see, conversations are fleeting, written confirmation that I'm a dork is forever. Intellectually, I know this idea is ca-ca. (See where I struck the word 'neurotic' in favor of 'mistaken' up there? My therapist would be so proud.) Like most things, it's a matter of making the choice. If you had asked me a year and a half ago if I would be writing anything, let alone fanfic, I would have said, "No. No,no. Fuck no. What drugs are you taking, and why aren't you sharing? No." All it took was a little icon challenge and the decision to plug my nose and jump into the deep end to change that answer. (Yeah, it also took a lot of work with the aforementioned therapist, which I won't go into for fear you really will drown in your soup.) Because I decided to take a chance, I am now writing actual stories - something I always wanted to do, but, you know, dork-fear. In that time, I've progressed from being almost incapable of reading my own work (thank god for betas) to occasional moments of true satisfaction, once I screw up the courage to read it. I'm do believe that's progress, my friends. All of the above is just a long and winding way of stating that I recognize the need to get over myself and make the decision to practice this LJ thing. Update more often, even if it's just to state the obvious, like my hair is being unreasonable today, or that Pat Robertson is a hypocritical evil-doer. Heck, I could even try to move past paralysis and into actual commenting on the entries of others. If I practice, maybe it won't take three hours to write five paragraphs. I'm going to post this without reading it over, lest dork-fear will have me deleting it. I'll be in the corner, chewing my nails. ~~~~~ Current Mood: uncomfortable Current Music: The Wall - Pink Floyd

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January 12th, 2006

08:08 pm - This Isn't Good Note to self: Do not try to change LJ format when you should be sleeping. Current Mood: groggy

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January 3rd, 2006

07:12 pm - Rain & Exposition Happy New Year, all! The rains are finally heading out, the waters in Guerneville are receding, and my river-friends have all survived relatively intact. Life is so very good. So, anyone up for a little Chapter 10? Inside you'll find a little snark, a little exposition and a few indications that the end may be in sight. Previous parts can be found HERE. Thanks to headrush100 and ljs for keeping me on the straight and narrow. Punctuation rules continue to elude me. ( Lake Mead Chapter 10 ) ~~~~~ Thanks for stopping by. Current Mood: tired Current Music: Ship of Fools (Live) Elvis Costello

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December 23rd, 2005

01:33 am PEACE Current Mood: content Current Music: Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

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December 17th, 2005

10:36 pm - Fic and a Rec I've posted ljs' birthday fic, House Call, to the Giles/Anya Community. Poor Giles breaks his foot in the wilds of New Jersey, and the closest emergency room is Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. For fans of ASH's Prime Minister in Little Britain, you really need to see episode 3-5. For those of us in the states, it'll be months before it airs, but you can download the clip, Here. It took a couple of hours on dial-up, but it was worth it. Current Mood: good Current Music: Demon Days - Gorillaz

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December 9th, 2005

05:11 am - Birthday Weekend ::Pouring champagne whilst tossing confetti:: Happy Birthday to the lovely and always stylish ljs. Your pressie will be delivered later this weekend. :-) And I would be remiss if I didn't mention my beautiful Gracie turns four tomorrow. She and her family will be spending the day on an airplane, flying home from a visit to Indiana. Sunday can't get here fast enough. Current Mood: busy

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November 25th, 2005

07:41 pm - Chapter 9 - Duh Dum Dum My next story will open with Giles and Anya taking a vow of celibacy. That, or it will be a PWP. Definitely one or the other, because the stuff in the middle is crazy-making. Of course, it's possible I'm overreacting. I've had a cold all week and it's not easy summoning smutty thoughts with a drippy nose and croupy cough. Anyway... It's the morning after the night before. A little schmoop, a little TLC, and a little plot can be found inside. Those of you under the age of consent, kindly avert your eyes. Previous parts can be found Here My thanks to headrush100 and ljs. This chapter is dedicated to Lori, whose generosity has never been more in evidence than these last few days. You are a remarkable woman, my friend. ( Chapter 9 ) Blessings on you all. Stay safe and warm. ~~~~~ Current Mood: cranky Current Music: Ball of Confusion - Temptations Tags: chapter 9

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November 13th, 2005

09:04 pm - Meet My Hobgoblin, Her Name is Consistency For the hardy few who have hung in with Lake Mead, I offer grateful thanks. Seriously, I can't believe you're still here. Previous parts can be found Here. Hugs to Lori & Antonia for the beta. Now, if I'm not mistaken, when we last saw Anya and Giles they were in a very precarious position... ( Chapter 8 ) Current Mood: grateful Current Music: North - Elvis Costello Tags: lake mead chapter 8

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