I've had my niece here for a few days, and now that she's gone, it's really quiet here. Which I was looking forward to, but just seems a little odd now. Denise had surgery on Wednesday, and they let her go home just before noon today--the surgery went better than expected. As Denise's mom said, they were due for something to go better than expected. The day of surgery itself was no fun, though, as her surgery kept getting moved back and back and they were afraid they were going to have to reschedule. And then she didn't get a room until 2 a.m. o.O Mike stayed with her but the rest of us abandoned ship around eight, once her surgery was over and the people who were allowed in to see her (which did not include me or Michaela) had seen her.

Anyway, Michaela was remarkably well-behaved and we both had fun, and Denise gets to sleep in her own bed tonight, so it's kind of a win all around. Although it will be nice to sleep tonight without certain small people taking their half of the bed out of the middle. *g* (Amazingly, she SLEPT--six hours Wednesday night and nearly eight last night--this is pretty unheard of. She didn't sleep at my house when she was a baby, much less since then.)

I've spent the day since her parents picked her up playing with my new toy, which is a USB turntable that makes mp3s out of records. I have my family's old LPs, and I've been merrily recording things and being all content and happy listening to songs that I haven't heard in ages. I will share soon, if anybody but me likes morbid country songs and songs about outlaws that are probably more sympathetic to the outlaws than they should be. Man, I love these things.

I haven't even looked at tardis_bigbang yet, or done anything else online. *goes to talk to people*

So, some time back, donutsweeper and I were discussing what might be on Torchwood's bulletin board. I told her if she'd write the stuff, I'd make the bulletin board, and we collaborated to make this (just keep clicking, it gets bigger):



And some kind soul nominated us for a Children of Time award, and other kind souls voted for us, and we won! We has a shiny banner:



So thank you, to everyone who voted, and especially thank you to my co-conspirator, who did a fantastic job writing the stuff pinned to the board!

I have meatloaf in the oven and fic to post. Life is good. Star Trek reboot, spoilery like a very spoilery thing.


Title: Impossible
Fandom: Star Trek (reboot)
Word count: 240ish
Characters/Pairing/Rating: ( Possible spoiler ) and Chekov, Gen, Rated G, SPOILERS
Summary: A chance meeting in a turbolift.


( Impossible )

So, my friend Denise would like to know what you put in your meatloaf. Or what you eat for comfort food in general. Meatoaf for me (the way my mom made it) is ridiculously simple: hamburger meat, an egg, crackers, and cheese on top when it's almost done. Denise puts crackers or cornflakes and some kind of italian seasoning in hers, and spaghetti sauce or italian-seasoned tomato sauce on top.

(This question inspired by the fact that there are people on my flist who've never had chicken fried steak or chicken and dumplings or cornbread or anything else we associate with comfort food. Which got us curious.)

That was ridiculous amounts of fun, really. ( Rambling (fairly short) under cut, spoliers there and (I hope) in comments. )

No, I have not forgotten about the art meme things--I'm just slow. But having a great time with them! Fandoms this time are Dresden Files/Highlander, Torchwood, and an AU DW RP. Also, there are RP banners from one of Karen's games.

Art for aeron_lanart, rustydog, matsujo9 and skipthedemon, ( under the cut. )

Today did not go as expected. I broke my glasses. Dropped them, and the wire that holds the lenses broke. And a very important tiny bit of metal that holds the wire. They're frameless--the lenses are held by wire that goes through a groove in the edge of the lens. They use monofilament now, which is probably smarter. Luckily I had unopened boxes of contacts--it's probably been a year since I wore them. Anyway, a very nice guy at TSO (Texas State Optical) tried to figure out a way to fix them and then put a call in to the company and they tracked down another set of frames. They had one pair. So I should have them by Monday, and, well, yay credit cards, because that's money I didn't expect to have to spend. But still much less than buying new frames and lenses.

The problem being--I don't sleep in my contacts. So once I take them out, I can't see. On the upside, I may get more sleep. *g* You know the big E on the top of the eye chart? I'm fairly certain it's an E without my glasses although I saw one once that was, sneakily, a K. But mostly it's just a vague wiggly line. Suddenly having two pairs of glasses makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE. Oh, well. Next time. *nods*

So, how's your Wednesday going?

Yay for art prompts! Here are requests from donutsweeper and matsujo9, as well as a shockingly non-angsty Ten banner. (And an older angsty Ten banner that I don't seem to have posted when I made it.) ( Leverage and Doctor Who art here. )

The lovely and wonderful matsujo9 has done it again! She decided I needed a wider banner for my journal, and made me an expanded header that is SO Doctor and Donna. I adore it to pieces (pixels?) and I adore her, too.

Just a quick note to say that I put the Doctor and Donna banner that the wonderful matsujo9 made me for Christmas up as my journal header, started messing with colors for the page, and um, no, I'm not going to leave them like that but it's nearly 2:30 and I don't have the brainpower or the patience to fix them. They are not as brain-searing as they were at first, if it's any consolation. Um, just go with style=mine until after I've slept, OK? Sorry about that.

ETA: Got it. I think.

featherjean is having a fic/video/art/picspam challenge in her journal, HERE.

The idea

Eight seconds doesn't seem like much, but it's enough to change your life. You can go from having a job to not. Go from no one knowing your name to having a room full of people cheering for you. Go from healthy and whole to broken and battered. Find out you've won the lottery. Find out your girlfriend is pregnant. Quit your job. Lose a friend. Get engaged. It doesn't take long for your world to turn upside down.

The challenge

Show it. Those eight pivotal seconds -- write about them, post a video clip, create art, or post a picspam.

All fandoms and characters/pairings are allowed, as are real people and original works.

She's accepting prompts HERE. (Although you don't have to use any of them.)

Happy Birthday, matsujo9, while it is still your birthday! Um. Don't give up on fic yet, but. It's gonna be a bit late. *birthday hugs*

Doctor Who casting spoilers, ( under the cut. )

IT IS FREAKING SNOWING. In Houston. And sticking, even, a little. I just threw snowballs with a total stranger (who is an elementary school teacher, as it turns out) and we were both giggling like little kids. I think this calls for cocoa.

Have a few Doctor Who recs! Two Jack and Nine, and one Simm!Master, ( behind the cut. )

I know there are other things I wanted to say while I was here. And other things I wanted to rec. But that will have to do for now. *goes to gather scattered brain-bits*

Bwahaha! There's nothing like talking to a couple of people and finding out that you all had red-haired telepathic half-Romulan Mary Sues when you were kids. AND that, among the three of you, you had the Big Three ST:TOS set of fathers. I'm still giggling. And loving that, really.

Happy birthday to skipthedemon! Hope it's a great one, Lis, and that your weekend is too.

My friend Donna was down from Arkansas last week and she was staying with me, so I haven't been around much at all lately. So today you get a lot of random...things.

First off, my cat's off at the vet having his teeth cleaned. He's eight, he's never had it done, no vet has ever actually managed to get a decent look in his mouth, so I suppose it's time. On the other hand, sedating him for something elective makes me a bit uneasy. Also, I'm really hoping that they don't have to pull any of his teeth. So I'm chattering at y'all to distract myself from the fact that I probably can't go get him until at least 4:00 or so. (He'll be fine. I know that. I would still like to have him home now, please.)

Second, and this question brought to you by watching Iron Man and re-watching The Dark Knight in the same weekend, if there was a Superhero Olympics (and either of them bothered to show up, which is unlikely in the extreme, but work with me here) who wins, Tony and Jarvis, or Bruce, Alfred, and Lucius? Donna says Tony, my money's on the bat. But Donna did agree with me that if the event was "get your hardheaded boss to actually listen," Alfred would win.

The rest of this had better go under spoiler cuts. ( Forbidden Kingdom spoilers )

While I'm here, ( the big spoilery Doctor Who thing. )

So, earlier today I promised fan_eunice some happy, dorky David Tennant picspam. I hope you're feeling better already, hon, but if not, well, have some happy, dorky David.

( Some are happy and some make me happy because they are dorky. )

Tell me that someone's written the fic where Sherlock Holmes is a chameleon-arched Doctor. Or Master, that'd work too, and has the added bonus that the person he's closest to is a doctor, which is fun.

"I fancy that I understood Sherlock Holmes better than just about anyone, but one thing that remained a mystery to me was how a man with such keen perception and precision of thought kept a broken fobwatch on his mantel which he all but ignored."

Come on, you know it'd work. Watson made Mycroft up. And if it's the Doctor, he made Mycroft up because Sherlock, in his more maudlin moments, talked about the brilliant brother he had who stayed home while Sherlock left, and their home burned and his brother died. And in that case, Moriarty, of course, was Sherlock's vague memories of the Master.