spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I hit Price Chopper, the Pharmacy and the Bakery while I was downtown. I stopped at the library on the way home to pick up a book. I made spaghetti sauce for supper when I got home. I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

For fun stuff I watched the current ep of Resident Alien and some HGTV programs, read some more Lily Adler, and sent more messages to mom. I also wrote ~550 words on a new fic.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 61.2. It was originally supposed to rain all day, but the forecast showed that the percentage was going to drop to very low after 9am, though we weren’t going to have any sun. And that’s sort of what happened; there were still sprinkles, but not a soaking rain. Still it was very chilly.


Mom Update:

Mom had been moved to the SCU when my sister, A, arrived this morning. She’s talkative and actually ‘eating’ her lunch (beef broth and Italian ice – still on liquid diet). My sister said she’s much more herself today, which is great news! She’s getting a roommate, which is not good news as we were hoping for a private room, but what can you do. They didn’t get her up to walk at all, so that must’ve been PT coming around yesterday, not just the nurse. It’s ridiculous that the patients get zero PT on the weekend. Seems like they'd lose some of the progress they made.
luninosity: (adventure)
[personal profile] luninosity

“Portraits” is out now! And on sale for only $1.37 as part of the 45% off sale this weekend at my publisher JMS Books! The first of two bonus stories for Gareth and Lorre from Magician! (Feels like a weird day for book promo, but- reading queer romance = resistance! Love & hope!)

“Portraits” is the expanded (around a thousand words longer) version of the flash fic story I wrote for the JMS Books Love Is Free charity anthology! Here, Gareth and Lorre go to a museum, and discover a relic out of Lorre’s past…

Also, look at that gorgeous cover!

JMS Books link here!

Amazon link here!


That you live and let die

Jun. 15th, 2025 02:53 am
viridian5: (Kazuki (Ambiguous))
[personal profile] viridian5
Father's Day Trip by RoadWith the Boot on my left foot, I can't run the uneven ground of cemeteries, but I can still do window displays in the city. I'm interested in seeing if any of the stores do their usual Pride window displays. So far, no, but it's still early June.

Saks and Bergdorf Goodman Men's had some Father's Day windows, while Bergdorf Goodman itself put up some new stuff. I've posted 19 photos up to my Flickr.


I have a week or two more in the Boot.

+++

Mickey 17 was a somewhat confused mass of interesting ideas with a lot of them left dangling and an ending that didn't land for me, but I can't stop thinking about it. The director said that Mark Ruffalo's character wasn't only based on Trump, but did anyone tell Mark Ruffalo that? Sometimes he was so Trumpy, he was distracting. Some people complained about how cartoonishly evil the character and his wife are, but in our current cursed timeline I don't think it's OTT. Some people felt that Pattinson's voice as 17 was too weird, but it grew on me. Mickey has been used, abused, beat down, and then constantly reprinted back to life by people who are far from conscientious. (I still don't know how he can remember all his deaths though. The movie doesn't say if they can manage to get a memory read from the corpse before they recycle it.) In my opinion, Robert Pattinson had pretty good chemistry with himself as different versions of the same character. The comedy is bleak, but I'm up for that.

I wonder how this movie would've felt if Trump hadn't won a second term.

Plus, Mickey 17 is not an adaptation of an already popular IP, a sequel, or a reboot, and I fully encourage thinky, weird movies.


By contrast, We Live in Time didn't work for me at all. Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are great, but the writing didn't do much for me and the narrative being nonlinear didn't help or add anything for me. What I mainly got out of it is that I felt bad for Garfield's character.

+++

This is the twin of my other birthday gift keychain. I have keys I don't use as often, store loyalty cards, and my NY voter tags that let me check in faster to vote on it.

Dept. of No Kings

Jun. 14th, 2025 05:14 pm
kaffy_r: Princess Jellyfish goes to work (Reporting for duty)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
Hope. Blood. No Kings. 


Our day started far too early, at least as far our aging bodies were concerned, but we had a mission. We headed from our home, our sign in the trunk, picked up our friend Rose, and headed to Evanston's downtown Fountain Square for that No Kings rally. It was lively, peaceful, filled with chants and a happy amount of music. It felt good to be there, and I held our sign up as high as I could (and hoped that I didn't block the view of too many people behind me.) I felt so energized by everyone around me, and by everyone across the country who turned out like we did. 

Estimates of attendance at Evanston's rally was around 1,000 and Chicago's was estimated at about 75,000. Add the various other suburbs' rallies to Chicago, and that number jumps to close to 100,000.  At the end of the day, it appears that the vast majority of national rallies were peaceful; LA's various police organizations appear to have become violent, as did police in Seattle and Portland, although protestors in the latter appear to have been more violent than they should have been. 

And then we got home, and the first thing I saw when I turned on my laptop was the news out of Minnesota. Two Democratic state legislators shot; one killed along with her husband, the other injured along with his wife. And the apparent murderer is, based on what news reports have compiled, a Trump supporter - with a list of other potential targets, including pro-reproductive healthcare activists and Democrats - and probably a Christofascist because of course he would be. 

As of 7:36 p.m. Chicago time, the POS hasn't been captured. I hope he chooses neither self-inflicted suicide, nor suicide by cop. I hope he's caught, given the full benefit of American law, and, if a jury of his peers finds him guilty of two murders and two attempted murders, that he spends the rest of his miserable life forgotten behind bars.  

But let's not speak of him; let's remember those he killed and injured. And let's look at the number of people across the country who attended "No Kings" rallies - my rough and very incomplete estimates stand at well over half a million; others are estimating several million. The Washington "I Wish I was Kim Jong Un" parade? According to the AP, it appeared to fall very short of the 200,000 predicted earlier. Good. 

Now I'm going to finish eating a piece of chocolate, and go hang with the Couch Crew over on Discord. 





password reset and hatebots?

Jun. 14th, 2025 03:14 pm
madimpossibledreamer: Izanagi|Souji in full costume holding out a hand (personatown)
[personal profile] madimpossibledreamer
I know this probably isn't going to get very far because this isn't tumblr or reddit.  Seeing as I don't have either, though, I'm going to post here, and I'm curious to as to whether anyone else experienced multiple hatebots and password request attempts on the same day for Ao3.  Some time elapse between the two, but it was noticeable that it was the first time either had happened to me and that I'd gotten two hatebots and three password request attempts on the same day.

also unrelated, but I think they're finally installing the servers.  I can calibre backup again now.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
Visited mom again at 11am. I didn’t go downtown, but did manage to get some chores and computer stuff done before I left the house.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I made it to the library to return and pick-up a book. I started a new book (the first Lily Adler one), watched the current ep of Murderbot, and sent mom another message. I hope she enjoys them when she’s home and sees them.

I picked up my car from the garage this morning when I dropped off Grant. I forgot to mention it in yesterday’s post, but just when I pulled out on the main road to head to the hospital it started acting up. (Thank goodness I leave early to make sure I can find parking. And thank goodness Pip has a used car he can lend me.) It bucked and sent the dreaded ‘reduced engine power’ message, along with the ‘service stabilitrak’ and ‘service traction control’ messages I’ve gotten before. This time Pip replaced the gas pedal, of all things. He said there are two sensors in the gas pedal and they weren’t lining up. It drove well today, so hopefully that’s the fix.

I also haven’t mentioned that a bird, a killdeer, built a nest in our driveway. At first we spotted the male dancing around trying to attract a female. Then the male chased Pip one day and we joked that he might have a nest nearby. Then we saw the female sitting in our driveway forever, and it turns out, they did have a nest in the driveway. Seems like a weird place to build a nest, especially with cats and dogs living here, but what do I know, nature is weird. I got photos of the female and the eggs when she was off the nest one time.


Photos
~*~


Additionally! On the drive to the hospital I pass a house that has a bunch of irises on their front lawn. Solid dark purple and solid pale yellow. They’re gorgeous and they look so pretty together.

Temps started out at 54.1(F) and reached 73.6. It was hazy most of the day. We’re supposed to have more rain tomorrow.


Mom Update:

Mom was much better today. not long, but cutting for those who don’t want to read it )
madimpossibledreamer: Jotaro pointing at the camera (point)
[personal profile] madimpossibledreamer
Main Points:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure/Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Chapter Summary: They need to evacuate Rush's lab.
Word Count: 1391
Note: HERE THERE PROBABLY BE BUFFY/JJBA SPOILERS

Chapter 379: Prince of Ashes )

Murderbot

Jun. 13th, 2025 11:11 am
marinarusalka: (Default)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
5 episodes in, I'm still greatly enjoying the show, with my one complaint being that the episodes are too short. I'm looking forward to doing a binge rewatch of the whole thing once all the episodes are out, I suspect it will work really well.

some spoilers thoughts on the latest episode )

I really really hope this show gets renewed long enough for us to meet ART. It'll be so awesome.

Hey, guys, look what I got!

Jun. 13th, 2025 10:23 am
marinarusalka: (Knitting: yarn)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
Photo of my 2nd place ribbon tag at the county fair
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
Again, I had some time before I had to drive to the hospital, so I got some chores and computer stuff done.

I did a load of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I finished System Collapse, watched an HGTV program, and sent my mom some more messages.

Temps started out at 67.8(F) and reached 77.7. It was so nice out this morning, I got in a walk before I left to go visit mom.


Mom Update:

Mom was miserable today. more back here )

Dept. of Small Victories

Jun. 12th, 2025 09:57 pm
kaffy_r: Picture of the face of Isha, girl from Arcane S02 (Isha penultimate)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
Yesss ... Suck It, Cheeto!

I needed this. A judge told That Man that he was being an illegal POS in two separate ways. Even though I'm perfectly aware that this administration's playbook is "Ignore the courts," I know this one is probably like a cockleburr under his saddle. 

As I said, suck it. 


spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I did not go to visit my mom. My sisters took it in turns today so I could get some stuff done. I’ll take my turn again tomorrow morning.

I had a chiropractic appointment this morning. I hit Walmart while I was downtown and got in a longer walk around the park. I also stopped in at the Feed Bag to pick up the suet Pip forgot (and to reserve two large metal garbage cans for Pip to pick up on Monday; he got one when he got birdseed this past Monday (the task fell to him since I was a tad busy) and decided he wanted more. They’re big enough that I can’t take them in my car. As it turns out, he doesn’t have any more in stock so will have to order them.)

I hit Stewart’s on the way home, returned a book to the library, stopped to check mom’s mail, visited my aunt (since I won’t be available to do so tomorrow; and complained to the social worker about how they do her hair – it’s such a minor thing, but it would be so easy to keep her hair in curls instead of straight and straggly by not using a hairbrush on the curls and I’d like her to look nice, at least, because she has so little dignity left, you know?), and stopped at Sunnycrest again to check on the beef stick status. If you guessed they ~still don’t have them, you’d be right. I’m going to be annoyed if I found something Pip likes and they won’t carry them anymore, or at least regularly.

I did a load of laundry, ran a load in the dishwasher and emptied it, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter. I baked chicken for the dogs’ meals and fed Pip leftover pulled pork (yes, from the big b-day do a couple weeks ago; mom put it in the freezer) for supper. I did get fresh strawberries at Sunnycrest, so I made biscuits. I had strawberry shortcake for my supper; Pip prefers his biscuits with peach jelly because that’s how his mom used to do it.

(He refuses to eat a biscuit with anything other than peach jelly. It’s very frustrating. You can imagine my shock the first time I made chicken and biscuits for supper and Pip only ate the chicken and gravy and completely refused the biscuit because I didn’t have any peach jelly. Basically a bowl of soup, lol! I had no idea anyone would eat biscuits with ONLY jelly. I mean, I eat my leftover biscuits with butter and jelly, but solely?!! I know now and prepare accordingly.)

The surgeon’s office called today to schedule the removal of the node they found during Pip’s endoscopies. August 11, the day after my birthday, so one heck of a b-day pressie. *g* [I told him when he got home from work and he was like, I'm not having that removed! And I'm like, why not? Apparently he thinks it's not necessary when two different doctors think it is. *shrug* He's going to talk to the doctor himself to get it sorted. He's such a pain in my butt about this sort of thing.]

I finally started System Collapse, watched an HGTV program, and sent mom some messages she'll see when she gets home, in lieu of our usual telephone conversation.

Temps started out at 55.0(F) and reached 82.8. There was a mix of sun and clouds and a breeze, thankfully.


Mom Update:

My sister kept us informed of events as they occurred:

I did bullet points so it got long )

Dept. of Music Says Goodbye

Jun. 11th, 2025 10:48 pm
kaffy_r: Dillons illustration of Nix's Abhorsen world. (The Old Kingdom)
[personal profile] kaffy_r
Sly and Brian

It's tempting to say they received the gift of creating music from the angels. That's not the case. They made that music all themselves. They worked at it, struggled to get it right; just right, as they interpreted "just right."  They worked with others. They worked alone. They got it wrong. They swore. They fell down. They got up. They won and they failed. And they won again.

They both were visited by demons. They fought them. Sometimes they lost. Sometimes they won. They did a lot of falling down and getting back up again. And when they could, they went back to making that music.

And the angels were just a little shocked; just a little jealous. A little glad the music had come into being. 

I hope they're somewhere, exchanging notes about how they made some celestial bangers even before they got there. 





(Don't mind the spotty visual - it's live and it's dynamic, and it's him and his family, so it's just right.)





 

FIC: None of Us Stand Alone

Jun. 11th, 2025 11:43 pm
alexcat: (Default)
[personal profile] alexcat
Title: None of Us Stand Alone
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: PG
Length: 681 words
Content notes: This is post Endgame
Author notes: My grandmother used to say 'Charity begins at home' because she never gave anyone anything.
Summary: Tony has a surprise for Steve at his charity ball.
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie, All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells, and Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) by Elizabeth Peters.


What I am Currently Reading: After finishing the Amelia Peabody book on Monday I didn’t really feel like starting anything yesterday, but I plan on starting System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells today.


What I Plan to Read Next: I have more library books out, so most likely one of those!!




Book 40 of 2025: In a Dark House (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)

This book was really good!! spoilers )

I've already requested the next book in the series; I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥




Book 41 of 2025: All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) (Martha Wells)

I did another re-read because I felt like I had already forgotten what happened and I wanted to compare it to the tv show. No additional comments, just making a note of it.




Book 42 of 2025: Seeing a Large Cat (An Amelia Peabody Mystery) (Elizabeth Peters)

This book was really good! spoilers )

I enjoyed this book a lot and must go request the next in the series. I'm giving this one five hearts.

♥♥♥♥♥
spikedluv: (summer: sunflowers by candi)
[personal profile] spikedluv
I planned to visit mom, but since she’s in the ICU and visiting hours don’t start until 11am I had some time to kill. I did not go downtown, but stayed home to do some chores and stuff on the computer.

I did two loads of laundry, the usual amount of hand-washing dishes, and scooped kitty litter.

I typed in edits, coded and posted the [community profile] smallfandomfest fic I’ve been working on!! It’s Murder, She Wrote crossed over with V (1983). To make it work, I gave Jessica another niece, lol! I read some fanfic and watched some HGTV programs. It still feels really weird to not call mom in the evening to talk about our respective days.

I saw my brother (and his GF) and my sister S (the nurse) while visiting mom. There can only be two at a time in the ICU so we took turns.

I fell again. *head desk* This time inside the house (slipped on a puddle of wet on the floor), but I landed on that same knee I keep falling on and bent that same big toe. It hurt and I swore a lot. And I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of my first fall when I scraped my knee so badly, pulled every muscle, and cracked my big toe.

Temps started out at 61.0(F) and reached 82.6. It rained all morning, but the sun came out in the afternoon. I got in a short walk with Pip and the dogs when he (they *g*) got home from work. Within a half hour of that the clouds moved in and the temps dropped 12 degrees before it started raining again for a bit.


Mom Update:

Mom was doing pretty well when I saw her. She was so out of it, thanks to the drugs. Her voice was very raspy (because of the tube, which they removed before I got there) (if I wasn’t facing her while she was speaking, I never would have known it was her) and she slurred a bit due to the drugs. Sometimes she forgot what she was saying. She talked about Matlock a lot. *g*

They gave her an epidural for the pain and her nurse (she seemed awesome) said that they were going to keep the epidural in for a few days, and that while it was in she’d remain in the ICU. I’m happy about both; no pain, and great care.

The bad news came later in the evening when my sister S passed on (in the Family Group chat) that the surgeon thinks that my mom may have originally had pancreatic cancer that jumped to the bile duct. She won’t know for certain until the labs come back. I do not fucking want it to be pancreatic cancer. As you may have guessed, I had a knot in my stomach the rest of the evening and didn’t sleep super well, even though I doubled my melatonin to make sure I would fall asleep.

All positive thoughts welcomed.

Memories of War

Jun. 12th, 2025 12:34 pm
madimpossibledreamer: Zhuge Liang concentrating and looking thoughtful. (concentrating)
[personal profile] madimpossibledreamer

Desmond actually is doing better than he thinks, but he’s right that he has been half-assing it a little because he wasn’t confident. He did obviously decide to have another existential crisis, this time because he finally realized that people might know who he is now.
Red’s speech about the war is paraphrased because, among other things, he usually tells it at his store.


Main Points: Assassin's Creed/The Secret World
Summary: Desmond follows the lead Krieg gave him and stumbles across another.
Word Count: 2690
Rating: Teen

 

synchronicity )

 

marinarusalka: (marinarusalka: purple hummingbird)
[personal profile] marinarusalka
There were a lot of those too!

soooo many photos )

Also, The Boy's photo gallery is here, and if you see my photos are cool, you ain't seen nothing yet.
spikedluv: jessica at typewriter (msw: jessica at typewriter by sarajayech)
[personal profile] spikedluv
Another Jessica crossover! I hope you enjoy it.


Title: One Good Hoax Deserves Another
Author: Spikedluv
Fandom: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983) (tv)
Rating: PG13/Gen
Pairing/Characters: Jessica Fletcher & Juliet Parrish (appearances by Mike Donovan and Elias Taylor)
Length: 3,380 words
Spoilers: Takes place during ep 1.04 Hooray for Homicide of Murder, She Wrote and during the first V (1983) mini-series.
Summary: Jessica Fletcher’s trip to Los Angeles turns out very differently than she’d expected.
Author’s Notes: Written for Round 37 of [community profile] smallfandomfest for the prompt: Murder, She Wrote (tv)/V (1983), Jessica & Writer's Choice, Jessica happens to be in LA when the truth about the Visitors is revealed
Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me.
Posted: June 10, 2025

Read Fic @ AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66375037

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