Can't rain all the time

A different year, a different attitude. One step away from 40, and somehow, I just feel calmer all of a sudden.

Landmarks in the past year:
Got a new job. The first "real" job I've had in over ten years--since I went back to school.
My sister had her baby. Whom I adore like nothing else. Spent yesterday with the two of them. She is the happiest baby... I love them both. :)

Other than that, nothing's really changed much. Still write slash, still do too much at once. I'm trying to be more pragmatic about it, though.

Got sick this past weekend, so I've spent most of this week at home, trying to cough up a lung or something, but I've been able to distract myself with a new game: Spore. It's a lot of fun. I've only made it through the first two levels so far, but I'm looking forward to finding out more about the game, and I've already started three different races. :) If you're a Sims or Sim City fan, I highly recommend it.

Finished my D_D. Just waiting on one beta before I post it. Not what I'd intended to write, but I like it. I think others might, as well.

Plans for my boys today - Harry and Draco are renewing their vows in a legal ceremony today... And I think one of my other boys will be happily distracted as well. We'll see. :D

Thank you to everyone who has so far wished me a happy birthday, and thank you to Ceria and Snapesgirl for the special presents. I enjoyed them both very much. :D

1. Just spent four days with my sister down in Northern California.  Plane trip down was a bit odd--got the wrong tickets.  I usually go to San Jose instead of San Fran, but we weren't paying enough attention so I went to SF.  Except that they were having weather issues that day, and so we were delayed for quite a while, and then eventually re-routed to Oakland.  It was interesting.  But the trip itself was nice.  Not someone who tends to go out and do lots of things, but we actually had a very eventful visit.  We went to the San Fran Genealogy library and spent several hours there, though we found nothing either for our family or her husband's family.  We did find interesting trees that connected to his online, though.  All sorts of interesting tidbits.  Watched all of the first season of Project Runway, which I hadn't seen.  It was interesting to see how it evolved throughout that first season.  Did a bit of shopping, played video games--DS and Wii, and even a bit of PS3, and yesterday we went to see 27 Dresses.  I quite liked it, actually.  And we saw two interesting previews that I'm interested to see: Miss Pettigrew's Day Out, and The Accidental Husband.  They both look intriguingly different. 

2. Wrote another Malcest fic for pornish_pixies's Magical Device challenge.  Will be posting it here tomorrow, I think. 
2b. On a related note...I've been invited to join pornish_pixies, so you will be seeing more of that sort from me, I think. :D

3. Other writing: Starting over from scratch on my daily_deviant fic, but I think it will be better for it.  And I have a bunny for my hd_cup fic, so as soon as the one is finished, I'll be starting the second.  I'm hoping to get that done before the end of the month so that I can start the next D_D fic before the 1st.

4. Still haven't done my review of Sweeney Todd.  I did enjoy it.  Wasn't everything it could be, but I did enjoy Johnny Depp.  I think it's another example of just how versitile he is.

5. Job stuff--might be getting a permanent job soon.  More on that if it happens. :)

6. Caught up on flists for the night, but not on reading things I've tabbed from the list, so if you have something you'd like me to comment on/read/etc, feel free to link me here, and I'll get back to it tomorrow.

*snugs* Missed you all!

Have found myself feeling rather down lately, with no real sure idea of why.  A lot of little things, I suppose, but there's so many great things to counter with that I'm just not sure why the little things are affecting me like this.  I'd assume it was PMS, but that rarely lasts me more than a day, then goes away.  This one seems to be lasting.

Bus never showed this afternoon, so I ended up catching the other route, which means a much longer walk, in the sun, during rush hour.  Luckily there was a very nice man who actually let me cross the street at some point, but still, walking home in the sun is not my idea of a good time.  My face feels burned, and I'm sure it'll be scarlet come morning. :S

So, if I respond oddly to anyone, or don't respond, or respond snippily, you know why.  It's not you.

I just want it to go away.

***

Game stuff... 

Haven't been playing enough lately, and no matter what I do, I can't seem to get into it.  I know I owe at least one tag.  Probably more.  If I do, throw them at me and I'll get to them sometime this weekend.

Ab Dissimilis seems to be off to a good start.  We've got a good large handful of characters to work with, though I still really want to find a Sirius before we play.  But we've got a start date.  August 20th.  Hopefully someone will have shown interest by then. 

***

fannish5:
Describe five ficathons or challenges you'd like to see (like running one, only without the work!)

1. An AU ficathon.  I've actually been considering posting something like this to see if there's any interest, actually.
2. More ship-centric remixes, like hd_remix.
3. A pastiche challenge, where the writers have to base the plot of their story on a classic story, fairy tale, or other well-known story.
4. An unusual POV challenge, where the story is told from a painting, or animal, or some other unusual and usually neglected POV.
5. A Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff character ficathon.  No one writes enough for these two houses, and I'd love to see more.  I know I'm just as guilty as the rest of fandom in that regard, but I'd love to see what people could come up with.

***

Off to Oblivion.  If anyone wants me on IM, nudge me here, and I'll pop on.

So, it's been a busy week.  Seen and done lots of things.

Hubby gave in to the temptation and bought an XBox 360, so he and I have both been trying out Elder Scrolls Oblivion, which I'm quite pleased with, actually.  I love the character creation setup, in particular.  The minute details you can change make it possible to make just about anyone you'd like to.  Sims 2, eat your heart out.  And the fact that you actually play a bit before you choose your character class means that they have enough to base a suggestion for a character class on, which I think is excellent, particularly for beginning players. :)  Haven't gotten far in the game yet, but I am impressed by the details of the world, though I think it will take me a while to get used to th egameplay.

Movies-
Went to a friend's place last weekend to watch a couple of movies:
Enemy at the Gates, and A Beautiful mind.  Both were quite lovely, though not movies I need to own.  We were amused that Ed Harris was in both films, though.  It was a fun, if odd, connection.

( Spoilerage for both ahead )

Also watched Zathura last night.  I avoided this in the theatre because I was sure it wold be bad in comparison to Jumanji, but I was quite pleasantly surprised.  If you liked Jumanji, I highly recommend it.

( and more spoilers )

So, birthday party yesterday...

Bought too much food, but oni_anne made us all lumpia, which we quickly devoured, and there were tons of games.  It was just great seeing everyone, and getting to talk.  I would have liked to play a few more games, but oh, well.  Maybe another time.

Bought a cheesecake, which was barely touched, but it's gone to a good home... ;D

I'm slightly bummed that I didn't get the cake I wanted, but I have no rl slasher friends, so I would have been the only one enjoying it.  Maybe someday...

----

Hubby's birthday today. We went to Patty's Eggnest for breakfast, then came back, and he opened his presents. Hubby seemed to be quite pleased with them, if a little concerned that I got him the same thing his mother might have. Guess we'll see tonight. Then he spent about an hour or so playing Ratchet and Clank 3. But he says he's not allowed to play any more of that until he's finished 2. He wants to finish it by the time 4 comes out in the next couple of months.

Gah. Can we just stop the world now? I really don't want to be 36. 35 was bad enough. If anyone cares, I'll probably be hiding from the world tomorrow, except for dinner with my folks.

Also, starting to pack for Cali. :) This should be fun, though I'm a bit skittery at the thought of getting on an airplane... I haven't been on a plane since 92. But it should be fun. Leaving Wednsday night, coming back Monday. I'm just trying to decide how much stuff that is. :)

----

As I'm going through my old recs to post them to the recs journal, I'm finding broken links, so if anyone knows the location of any of these fics, I'd be most appreciative... If you know the author's taken it down permenantly, that knowledge would be appreciated as well.

( Missing Fics -- Please Help )

That's everything at the moment. There may be more later.

----

Also, I am slowly posting my fics over at:

If any of the authors on my flist would like an invite, let me know. I'd love to see you there. It's a multi-fandom archive, so more than just HP is welcome. :D

to write 20 random facts about me. And to tag as many people as it takes me minutes to write the list.

I will not tag, but anyone who would like to is welcome to do the meme. :)

( Random facts about me )

Please cheer me up....

I had a bad fight with a good friend yesterady that I'm having trouble dealing with, and the game I want to play doesn't seem to want to work any more.

Geh.  In a blah mood.  Probably cause it's that time of the month.  Can't seem to write at the moment, too distracted by other things.  Tried to play Bard's Tale, but I keep dying.

And apparently my stories aren't interesting...

Still need more votes on what I'm going to do come October, and other opinions on my rec-list in general.  Please go here and tell me what you think. :)  I'll give Sev/Narcissa cookies if you do....  Oh, and the reccing free-for all is winning, so unless you don't like that idea, you might want to start thinking of a pairing... :D

I suck at Seeking.

Last year I got Quidditch World Cup for Christmas, and I never got the hand of seeking.  Luckily, my friend Summer excells at it, so between the both of us, we make a pretty good team. :D

Haven't played for a while, but decided to play it again, just to test out the new surround sound system we got (I haven't had a real stereo since I moved from my parents' house 13 years ago.  Quite enjoying it - already watched Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge.  Gonna watch POA tomorrow in honor of Snape's birthday.), and I failed miserably, but I'd gotten sixteen goals, and the Gryffindors hadn't gotten a single goal, so I still won, but still....

So, I'm a pc game player, but I'm rather a wimp.  And I prefer the simulation games.  Started with Civilizations way long ago.  Anyway, got myeself a new game today.  Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.  I was rather disappointed with the changes between 1 and 2.  Mostly because they were few and far between.  There was almost no need to upgrade to 2 if you had 1.  But 3 looks pretty impressive.  They've added all sorts of new stuff, including famous people who come and visit your park, and fireworks displays. :D  Can't wait to try it out.