lightgetsin | Network

I'm pretty worried about Blair.

She gets migraines from time to time; bad enough, and frequently enough, that she has a prescription medication for migraine medicine. Lately, though, she has been getting them almost every day, and that is... not good, and not normal. She's completely taken out by the migraine and then completely taken out in a different way by the medicine she has to take to treat it.

She's going to try to work with her doctor to figure out what's happening and what to do about it, and in the meantime, she's going to take a week-long leave of absence from school and work. What I'm worried most about is the knowledge that she has (has had, for a few years now) a small brain tumor. So far as they know it's benign and she's been on prolactin to shrink it (which is working). Still.

Worried.

On a completely different note, does anyone here use the Finch app? Let me know if you do, so we can be friends!

Current Mood: worried

torachan

1. We had burritos for dinner, along with a pineapple tamale we had gotten from the farmers market on Saturday but hadn't eaten yet, and the tamale was so good! It didn't have chunks of pineapple in it, but rather was solid masa that was flavored with pineapple. Definitely would get that again. (The burritos were very good, too, but I got the one I always get from there, so I already knew I would like it.)

2. They've released the menu for the Food and Wine Festival at DCA, which is starting next Friday. There's a lot of tasty looking stuff and we'll miss out on about two weeks of it because we'll be in Japan, so I'm glad we'll have plenty of opportunities to go in March and then once we're back from Japan can pick up any must-tries that we didn't get to yet.

3. Last nigh Chloe was all snuggled up on my bed when I wanted to go to sleep, and sadly not in any way that I could get in bed with her, so I just scooped her up, blankie and all, and set her down on my desk chair. She protested when I moved her, but seemed satisfied with the results. She stayed snuggled up on the chair for a couple hours anyway!

minoanmiss

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: amused

ranunculus

Today was pepper planting day. Varieties are: Lively Italian (my favorite sweet pepper), King of the North (bell), Jalapeno Black Magic, Paprika, Pimento Sheepnose, Golden Treasure (sweet, Italian style). I need to get Poblano seeds. No, I'm not a hot pepper fan!

It has been raining fairly hard, we expect a couple of inches in about 36 hours. Lots of flooding as the ground is already pretty saturated. Tomorrow the sun is supposed to be out and the temps around 65 warming into the low 70's for the next week or so. That means a lot of little plants are migrating out to the greenhouse.

Tomorrow's chores: Paint on water seal for the woodshed door and put it together. It is way past time for that project to be done. While the wood working stuff is out; build new bench for the greenhouse. Most of the lumber is ready, it just needs to be put together. I'm considering making the bench in two sections so the lime tree can shelter in the greenhouse for the winter. Probably I should just plant the poor lime tree (which is currently completely covered in flowers) outside in the ground.

Thursday is another trip to SF. This time for a walk-through with our contractor and some of his subs. We are hoping to start the project in a couple of weeks, if and only if the planning department, who has FINALLY approved our plans; sends us a bill. Once we get it we can pay it and they can ISSUE said permit. Until that happens we can't start. They have been faffing around not billing us for 12 days already. We are trying to be patient, but it has now been a full 3 years since we started this project. For those who have not been following this thrilling (not) project; we are replacing two enclosed "porches" that are on the back of the Henry St house. We are not trying to add square footage, we are just trying to replace two leaky porches which are not earthquake safe, in as far as anything can be "earthquake safe". We would just like the porches to have a real foundation, and the back of the house to have a foundation that isn't crumbling. Almost anywhere in the country other than in SF we would walk into planning with our architect and plans, ask for approval and walk out with a permit, or at the very least have it within a week. Not SF. We submitted plans at least a year and a half ago; were told to re-do them; then when we resubmitted with changed plans we were told we could absolutely do what we had originally planned; so we redid the plans again and they were sent back for nonsensical reasons. Now we finally have approval, but can't get the actual paperwork out of the department.

aurumcalendula posting in

vidding

Title: Where Love Goes
Fandom: ClaireBell
Music: Where Love Goes by Kai Mata
Summary: 'this could be the start of something special'
Notes: Premiered at Escapade 36!

AO3 | bsky | DW | tumblr | YouTube

starwatcher posting in

fandom_checkin

This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, February 24, to midnight on Wednesday, February 25. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34289 Daily Check-in

Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 11

How are you doing?

I am OK.
6 (54.5%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
5 (45.5%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
5 (45.5%)

One other person.
3 (27.3%)

More than one other person.
3 (27.3%)

Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.

lightreads

Sunward

4/5. Slim scifi novel about a woman from the moon running currier jobs, while on the side she raises up baby Ais, who require care like extraordinarily precocious children.

I’m hard to charm so far this year, but this book managed it. It’s sweet in the right places, thorny in others, and does a fun/interesting tour of parts of this futuristic solar system. This pleased and distracted me during a difficult week with its space parrot and road trip.

I will say that it has odd pacing, which suddenly clicked into place for me when I looked up the author and discovered he’s previously written middle grade. Ding ding ding. This is a novel concerning mostly adult topics, but paced like middle grade. It may be less jarring if you go in knowing that.

Content notes: Violence, robots treated like property while obviously being people (not by the protagonist)

aurumcalendula

...I somehow missed that Escapade was this last weekend, despite sending vids to it (and apparently I overlooked the email about the Discord invite too)

aurumcalendula

china_shop

* I find SMBC pretty hit and miss these days, but today's comic smacked me in the face. :-)

* Idk if 4am!me's brain worries more than it should, or daytime!me's brain worries less than it should. I just know we're in a circular standoff, and I'm very tired.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6990 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
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.

pauraque

This is part two of my book club notes on The Black Fantastic. (Part one is here.)

"Sanford and Sun" by Dawolu Jabari Anderson (2015)

( Sun Ra makes a guest appearance on the 1970s sitcom Sanford and Son. )

"A Song for You" by Jennifer Marie Brissett (2015)

( A girl finds the disembodied head of a singing android who lived out the legend of Orpheus during wartime. )

"Tender" by Sofia Samatar (2015)

( A woman who wrecked her life as a human undergoes a cyborg transformation so she can monitor a radioactive waste disposal site. )

"The Malady of Need" by Kiini Ibura Salaam (2016)

( This is the second time I've read this story and I still don't know what happens in it. )

violsva

So my wife (!!) was here for a week, which was lovely, but limited the amount of time I was willing to spend in front of a laptop. So my

candyheartsex reveals post is slightly belated.

Firstly, I received this wonderful fic, with lots of worldbuilding and people trying to sort out cross-cultural relationships and hair petting.

paradise (2522 words) by WolffyLuna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s), Male Drow Used To Being A Disappointment/His Female Captor Who Thinks He's Pretty Great (OW)
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Age Difference, hair petting, Hugs, Elves, Fantasy setting
Summary:

Rhoklan looked down at the woven liana floor, and held his hands out, palm up.
Every time he apologised, he did that. Real error, false error, something that had nothing to do with him, he always stood like that, hands held out as an offering while he hid his face behind a curtain of white hair.
Suppressed irritation rattled in her chest. The problem was that she could not get angry with him for the habit without him doing it more.
It had taken her a month to work out why. The idea that it would even come up only angered her more. Even if she was purely a heartless pragmatist, why would she strike her secretary’s hands? He needed those to write!

And I wrote for

firecat for the excellent prompt "Fairy Prince/Noir Detective", which I used as an excuse to experiment with contrasting prose styles.

Fae Fatale (524 words) by Violsva
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Original Work
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Fairy Prince/Noir Detective
Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Pastiche, First Meetings, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Candy Hearts Exchange 2026
Summary:

It had been a slow afternoon. There had been a lot of slow afternoons lately.

Excellent exchange experience, as usual.

Now I am considering the Single Syllable Smut Challenge, reveals date April 1st. It would be nice if I could manage Phantom Tollbooth or Alice in Wonderland or some other fandom where it would be thematic, but I'm not sure I'm up to that.

sovay

In the wake of the blizzard, the temperature rose a degree above freezing in the blue-and-white brilliance of sun and the local topography of snow-walls to shoulder-height compressed and calved like ice shelves. I had the impulse to visit the Robbins Cemetery on Mass. Ave. while out running errands and was prevented by absolutely nobody having shoveled within a block of the gates. I took a picture of a leftover slam-dunk of snow instead.

Tickets have hiked considerably in price since the last production of theirs I attended, but I am intrigued that the Apollinaire Theatre Company is currently doing Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge—I assume it was proposed last season because of the topical-political of the undocumented immigrant angle which has only gone Mach 10 in relevance since. I have never seen the play; I read it in 2016 because Van Heflin originated the role of Eddie Carbone in the original 1955 one-act version. I am wondering how I convince their box office that I am actively pursuing a professional arts career.

Current Music: The Pack a.d., "Seasick"

wychwood

Last week was all choir all the time (concert went well, but the Concerts Without A Funny Turn card goes back down to zero, annoyingly) and then I went straight into a weekend of Extreme Socialising because

shreena and

quizcustodet came up for a visit. Friday night I went out with

shreena and A for dinner, delicious food at a Vietnamese restaurant (the marmite-and-peanut-butter-coated cauliflower was especially good!).

Saturday was my birthday treat; the Lego Discovery Centre only lets you in if you have children with you, so

shreena and

quizcustodet donated me their children and bought me a ticket to go with them *g*. I really enjoyed it; there's a mix of rides (and a big soft-play area) and a little 3D film and also a big open area where you can, you know, play with Lego. There were stations for building specific models, stations that were just buckets of Lego for you to play with, a tiny zipline where you could build little machines and see if they could make it the whole way along, a car-building area with test track, etc etc. I spent probably half an hour or so building a tiny house (with contributions from

shreena and their older son J), which was extremely soothing.

And then on Sunday we went to ( Cadbury World )

All-in-all a pretty good weekend, but an inevitably exhausting one. I am now attempting to live a deeply regulated life to try and get back to normal and untrash my sleep cycle, etc etc, so we'll see how that goes...

goodbyebird posting in

fandom_icons

01-04 the x-files
05-12 starfleet academy
13-16 st voyager + discovery
17-20 sw prequel movies + mandalorian
21-26 fallout
27-31 comics
32-36 misc tv
37-40 movies (eileen, inside out, batman returns)

H E R E

Current Music: Ane Brun - Fingerprints

ysabetwordsmith

Space lasers reveal oceans rising faster than ever

A new 30-year analysis reveals that melting land ice is now the main force behind rising global sea levels. Researchers discovered that oceans rose about 90 millimeters since 1993, with most of the increase coming from added water mass rather than just warming expansion. Ice loss from Greenland and mountain glaciers accounts for the vast majority of this gain. Even more concerning, the rate of sea-level rise is accelerating.

Current Mood: busy

goodbyebird posting in

spankulert

01-04 the x-files
05-12 starfleet academy
13-16 st voyager + discovery
17-20 sw prequel movies + mandalorian
21-26 fallout
27-31 comics
32-36 misc tv
37-40 movies (eileen, inside out, batman returns)

A handful are old icons I'd forgotten to post here *hands*

( We tried fun security, but nobody felt safe. )

Current Music: Emilie Nicolas - To The Moon

ysabetwordsmith

This is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "World Cuisine." I'll be soliciting ideas for cooks, fusion chefs, immigrant cooks, eaters, farmers, foragers, food scientists, inventors, recipe writers, famous figures in food history, cooks of disadvantaged groups who should have become famous, superheroes, supervillains, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other people active in the food world, cooking, gardening, harvesting, foraging, preserving, writing recipes, discovering things, decolonizing diets, building or using kitchen equipment, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, kitchens, restaurants, food trucks or carts, campfires, barbecue sites, laboratories, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, picnics, grocery stores, farmer's markets, roadside fruit stands, U-pick farms, gardens, food forests, other places where people make food, world cuisine, ethnic cuisines, cookbooks, online recipe archives, permaculture, heritage diets, climatarian diet, traditional foodways, culinary archaeology, food sovereignty, drought-resistant crops, trial and error, ethnic spice sets, weird food, fusion food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, new ideas in cuisine, alternate agriculture, lab conditions are not field conditions, ethics of food, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.

Among my more relevant series for the main theme:

An Army of One has to figure out how to feed a diverse, far-flung group of people who sometimes have special dietary needs.

The Bear Tunnels introduces modern principles to people in the past, including some aspects of food science.

A Conflagration of Dragons has the Six Races (plus the dragons) who all have different diets. This often poses challenges for the refugees.

Daughters of the Apocalypse has people trying to find and prepare enough food to survive, when city libraries are out of reach.

Fiorenza the Wisewoman uses herbs and healing foods to care for her village.

Frankenstein's Family features two scientists running a valley in historic Romania. Igor enjoys cooking and has gotten at least one of the werewolves curious about cooking the human way.

Hart's Farm is a community with food used as one of the popular bonding methods.

Peculiar Obligations combines Quakers and pirates in the Caribbean, among other groups and places, leading to a wide variety of foods.

Polychrome Heroics has ordinary humans, supernaries, blue-plate specials, superheroes, supervillains, primal and animal soups all of whom need to eat. Primal soups and high-burn soups often have special dietary needs. Comfort food and healing food are also very popular here. The Rutledge thread includes Kardal and his food truck Syrian Foods, along with references to Vermont, French, and hippie cuisines. Pain's Gray, Shiv, and the Finns are all fond of cooking too.

Or you can ask for something new.

Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.

If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.

( New to the fishbowl? Read all about it! )