senashenta | Entries tagged with baking

Tomorrow is CHRISTMAS BAKING DAY. Literally ON Christmas day because I fucking SUCK at time management this year. I have to at least get Cobin's cookies and Amy's pie done, and then anything else I can cram in I guess I'll cram in. Hopefully at least one batch of lemon cream cheese cookies and one batch of shortbread cookies. I guess we'll see.

I'm currently gearing up to do a total tear-down of the axolotl tank in a couple of days. Take the 'lotls out and place them gently in a bucket, same with the plants. Rinse and prune the plants while I'm at it. Then take everything else out of the tank, all the hides and filters and the air stone and scrub them down and clean them out, too, before washing down the inside of the tank itself because it tends to get icky on the walls. Then siphon out all the water that I can, and start refilling it with new dechlorinated, treated water, bucket by bucket. Once the tank is full again, I can put everything back in and let it run for an hour or two (hopefully) before putting the 'lotls back in, too. And fingers crossed it all goes well.

But it's going to be SUCH a big job, and SO hard on my back, I'm just like... yeah. Not looking forward to it, no matter how much it needs to be done. :|

Anyway.

I ordered a folding buck knife/utility tool a few days ago and it came in today. It's a nice little knife and I'll add it to my Bug-Out Bag, but it's not exactly what I was looking for so I went back and ordered another non-folding buck knife and holster, which I think will be more like what I was going for. I also ordered a pocket knife sharpener.

More on my prepping in another entry. :D;;

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: N/A: "The Walking Dead" on Riptide

I just finished up Serendipity, but I know there's a couple of rough spots in it that need ironing out. I guess that's what editing is for, though. I printed it out anyway to add to my first Storm Season et al binder. Last night I also printed out Ghost In The Machine, Pinfeathers, Teeth and Wayward Daughters even though they haven't been edited, either. Now my whole first Storm Season et al binder is pretty much full and I don't think my second one will hold all the rest. Might need a third. =/

Now that I'm done Serendipity, I really am going to write Temper Tantrums, I swear. :|

Today I have to make approximately a bajillion cookies; lemon cream cheese, shortbread and chocolate chip, as well as possibly date squares, and coconut syrup for Mom. The coconut syrup won't take long, it's like a 15 minute job, but the COOKIES. Ugh. I should have done them ages ago, though, so it's my own fault, really.

I need to go to the Dollarama for bead boxes, bubble wrap and chocolate bars, but today will be INSANE for shopping so I'm kind of like... yeah. But also with the snow and my recently bad ankle (and perpetually bad knees and hips), even walking to the corner is probably beyond me. Mom has to go out to pick up a prescription later so I'm hoping maybe she'll take me with her and we can swing by the Dollarama on the way past? I dunno, maybe not. She hasn't been in a very charitable mood lately, so idk.

I need the bubble wrap to wrap up the candles that I made to sell for Christmas this year. I posted them on FB Marketplace but no one was interested, which was disappointing. Mom bought 2 but I think she largely bought them out of pity. The rest I'm going to wrap up for storage for next Christmas and try again then, I guess. I really wish I could list them on my Etsy, but candles are too heavy and expensive to ship. I think they'd do well on Etsy, though...

My cane pick for my new cane and my copy of The Mean One (on DVD) came in yesterday. I still have to attach the pick to my cane but I'm THRILLED to have my copy of The Mean One, I've been trying to find it for MONTHS now, ever since I found out it existed and watched it for the first time. It's one of my own "classic Christmas movies" along with The Nightmare Before Christmas and Anna And The Apocalypse lol.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: N/A: "The Walking Dead" on Riptide

Yesterday was Christmas with my little brother. The day started off shitty and painful, but that's how most days start for me. Mom was pissed because I hadn't unloaded the cat litter from the car the day before (because I COULDN'T because my ankle is still FUCKED and my BACK is ALWAYS fucked) so I basically had to do that in my pyjamas while she glared at me the whole time.

Anyway, once she and my brother left to do his shopping I brought up some empty cat litter boxes and the scoop and emptied half the cat litter from each new box into an empty one so that I could carry them all downstairs and cripple myself again. :|

THEN it was cookie time, and I baked approximately 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies on my brother's request (I think he wanted to take them to his family in Toronto for actual Christmas) and then I got to sit down for a few minutes while Lee made a cheesecake. I couldn't do any more cookies yesterday or today even if I wanted to because we ran out of vanilla, which sucks because I have approximately twenty dozen more cookies to make over the next day, now. Mom says we can go out for vanilla tomorrow.

Once the cheesecake was done and in the fridge we exchanged gifts, which was nice, I always like watching people open the gifts I've bought them. Lee laughed at the I.O.U. for Red One because literally it doesn't come out until the end of February haha. And I didn't realize when I was wrapping my brother's dragon coaster set THAT THE BOX LITERALLY SAID "DRAGON COASTER SET" on the fffffffreaking side!! So he unwrapped it and was like "I know what's in this box" and I was just GDI. He also loved that I went to the trouble of getting all of SPN onto USB drives for him. I hope he's happy with his SPN marathon. Mom was really tickled with both of her new Christmas trees, so that was good too.

As for me, I got two Michael's gift cards and a Walmart gift card, as well as some Christmas socks, and the BEST axolotl t-shirt that Mom actually bought back when we went to the aquarium in October. I love it. And for my birthday I got two nice shirts and a chapstick, which I am NOT going to turn down. And we'll see what Amy and Brit, and Brad and Kristianna, and Sarah got for me (if anything) in the future. Also Dad because apparently 3/4 of my presents got stuck in the postal strike. :P

After gifts I got to making dinner, Chicken Picatta Casserole, and then while it was in the oven I did actually get to sit and rest my back for a while. Though, when it was time to eat my stomach started acting up and I couldn't finish what I took. It kind of sucked. But tonight I'm going to eat it as leftovers and my stomach feels fine so I can properly enjoy it (I hope.)

.....

Yesterday a few things from Amazon came in as well. Some really cute little Christmas ornaments that I'm going to make into necklaces (Star Wars, Marvel and The Nightmare Before Christmas) as well as deodorant (that I forgot to buy when Mom and I were out shopping on Friday) and cotrisone cream because I have a rash on my foot that I need to take care of and just plain moisturizers aren't helping.

Today I got more Amazon parcels; The Nightmare Before Christmas on DVD, the first three seasons of Fear The Walking Dead on DVD BECAUSE LITERALLY I CAN'T FIND A DOWNLOAD OF THAT SHOW WHERE THE AUDIO WORKS and some glass pearls I ordered a while back. It was nice to see those come in.

I convinced Mom and Lee to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas with me when it came in today but I think they didn't enjoy it as much as I did. Mom got a kick out of some parts, but overall... yeah. I should just stop recommending movies for people to watch, they never seem to work out. My tastes are too oddball, I guess.

I'm most of the way through Season 8 of my TWD marathon and I think it's starting to get to my head. Last night I had this weird dream about being a kid and going to a primary school where they had us act out our worst nightmares, and one kid's was about an invisible monster that tore people limb-from-limb, absolutely bloody and gory, and then left them to be eaten by cats. Does this mean I'm afraid of my cats eating me some day, subconsciously? I don't even know where my brain goes when it comes to dreams anymore.

I desperately need to do a complete water change in the axolotl tank, and clean up everything that's in it and everything, but I'm procrastinating over it because of my back and how much doing that will make it fall apart completely. But the internal filters need a proper clean and the plants need rinsed off, and I have a new hide for the 'lotls to add to the aquarium, too, so I mean. Yeah. I dunno, maybe tomorrow. Then again, baking was supposed to be tomorrow, so...

Either way, the 'lotls are starting to act weird and slugging and they're off their food, and I think it's because of the filters, so I need to get on it.

Current Mood: sore
Current Music: N/A: "The Walking Dead" on Riptide

Right now, as it stands (and will stand, this is firmly IT for the post-SS one-shots) we have the following:

1) When Lightning Strikes (complete, edited)
2) Ghost In The Machine (complete, unedited)
3) Pinfeathers (complete, unedited)
4) Teeth (complete unedited)
5) Nightingale (complete, edited, could probably use more editing though)
6) Temper Tantrums (incomplete)
7) Hunting Souls (incomplete)
8) Shrike (incomplete)
9) Echoes (incomplete)
10) Day Drinking (not started)
11) Mockingbird (not started)
12) Crawlspace (not started)
13) Kindling (incomplete)
14) The Wolf (not started)
15) What Angels Dream (incomplete)
16) Grace (incomplete)
17) Run Hide Die (not started)
18) Hollow Things (not started)
19) The Desert Tide (incomplete)
20) Sudden Cardiac Arrest (not started)
21) Stalactites (not started)
22) Dreamcatcher (not started)
23) Magpies (not started)
24) Supply And Demand (not started)
25) Coyote Country (not started)
26) Creepy Crawlies (not started)
27) Mirrors (not started)
28) Wayward Daughters (complete, unedited)
29) Halcyon Days (incomplete)
30) Serendipity (incomplete)

SO. THIRTY OF THE BLOODY THINGS BUT I HAVE FINALLY WRAPPED THE STORY UP. ...OR HAVE I?? Because there is a very high chance that after all of these and he entire shenanigans with the entire Horror High and Storm Season et al series I miiiiight be writing spin-off series of one-shots following Sam's son (Dean) and someone else who hasn't be introduced yet but will be near the end of the post-SS one-shots. :D The first one is going to be called Controlled Descent, and is followed closely by Lore and then Midnight Spirits.

I know I keep saying no one is reading HH and SS etc. but for REAL no one is going to reach these spin-offs because they involve an original character so like. Yeah. But I might write at least those three just to (hopefully) get the monkey off my back about the entire idea. I'm not going to try to keep a steady Every Thursday update schedule with them, though, I'm just going to write them as I write them and see what happens. I might write the first one and then drop the whole thing entirely. *shrug*

ANYWAY. That aside, the other day I found Run. Hide. Die. (yes I totally ripped that title off), Polaroid and The Mean One on Amazon on DVD and nicked them STRAIGHT AWAY because I loved ALL those movies, but especially The Mean One. If you try to buy The Mean One on ebay it cost straight-up $150, and I got it off Amazon for $35 SO THAT WAS AN EASY DECISION. I'm currently waiting on a bunch of Amazon stuff to come in, but it's to the point now that about half of it isn't going to arrive until after Christmas. That's fine for most of it, but if Amy/Brit, Brad/Kristianna and Sarah's gifts don't arrive in time I'm going to be annoyed. They're supposed to get here the 16th-->23rd? So that should be okay. Just. PLEASE GET HERE IN TIME. Otherwise it's placeholder boxes of chocolates and I.O.U.s I guess.

Today I need to go to the Dollarama and buy some more gift bags, as well as cookie tins and a shit ton of candy for my little brother's last gift. I also need to finish up the Wiggly Foxes for his SECOND-LAST gift, so I need to get back on that tonight. I've just been so tired lately all I've been wanting to do is veg and watch movies. I have made a couple of pieces of jewelry, though, so. I dunno. I started three new necklaces with some chain that I literally can't do anything else with because it's too thick for any of my tools to cut, but they're going to take a WHILE because there's EXTENSIVE beading. I had to order more jump rings to hopefully get the job done. They should be arriving some time today, along with chain that I actually CAN work with.

We were also supposed to be doing Christmas baking this year but?? No one?? Bothered to do a grocery list for the stuff?? MOM AND LEE?? So I'm sitting here like, well I can make shortbread. :| It's frustrating. Like Mom basically wants to dispense of Christmas baking entirely but it's CHRISTMAS BAKING. It's PART OF THE HOLIDAYS. But the may get her way this year just because they're both too lazy to buy the stuff we need for it. We ARE making a sweet potato pie, though, because Amy specifically requested one after the one I made back for Thanksgiving in October. Which means I'm going to be making it, basically, except I can't peel the sweet potatoes because of how jacked my hands are nowadays, so SOMEONE is going to have to help me...

Yesterday my Official Witcher Cookbook and my Unofficial Witcher Cookbook came in, and Mom and my brother immediately confiscated them to look through them before even I'd had a chance too. But they both basically read them out loud so I got the general idea anyway (there are some really good recipes in them, too!); now I'm just waiting for (A BILLION OTHER BOOKS) The Supernatural Cookbook and Cooking With A Serial Killer and I can start snickering to myself. I think I'm going to start collecting pop culture cookbooks. They amuse me. I WONDER IF THERE'S A STAR WARS ONE I COULD BUY FOR DAD! :O

Speaking of Dad, he was supposed to call me last night and never did. I guess I'll message him later and ask what happened. He probably fell asleep or something silly like that.

P.S. The bandages are off my finger and I am typing with minimal discomfort and no bleeding so THUMBS UP.

EDIT: omg the spin-off series is going to be called "Wayward Cousins et al" :D

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: N/A

Oh my Gooooooddddd the new filter with the surface skimmer for the axolotl tank has been in the aquarium and running for like 12 hours and it's already made SUCH a huge difference. Definitely worth the money. I'm thinking about buying another one for when this one inevitably craps out on me, knowing my luck with filters.

I woke up at 4am this morning, which is beginning to become a habit and not one I appreciate, and while I was awake anyway I searched for the pearls I need for making those bracelets for my brother for Christmas. Turns out I was remembering wrong and don't have the right pink ones so I had to order some through Amazon. BUT in the process of looking for pearls I FOUND MY FREAKING BAILS AND WOLF CHARMS GDI. The ones I JUST REPLACED because I COULDN'T LOCATE THEM?? YEAH THOSE ONES. *FACEPALM*

I don't actually mind having the extra bails, I'll use them all eventually, and my replacement wolf charms hadn't shipped yet so I put in a cancellation request on the order, but there's no guarantee Amazon will be able to cancel it because it's coming through a third-party seller, so I dunno. I guess we'll see. Otherwise I'll just have a FUCKTON of wolf charms, I guess. :|

This morning I also actually watched Bill And Ted Face The Music on Tubi because they kept advertising it all over the place on that site while I was trying to watch other stuff, and I was like "okay this is going to be a MOUNTAIN of stupid but whatever" and I actually... really... enjoyed it?? IS THIS AN ALTERNATE REALITY OF SOME KIND WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?? lol.

This morning around 11:30 Mom and I are going to Shoppers to buy my pop for December, because Thursday is Senior's Day and if Mom comes with me I'll get a 20% discount on like a $60 order which isn't nothing. I'm also going to mail my December postcards, but like, who the hell knows when they'll get delivered because of the stupid postal strike going on right now. They all say "Happy Probably Belated Holidays" just in case haha.

P.S. Banana bread turned out great! :D

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: N/A: "Pumpkinhead" on Tubi

I got used to writing in this thing every day, there, but the last couple weeks I've been bad at updating. I've been doing lots of WRITING, just not in my journal. I think because I'm depressed over a great many things right now and I just... don't have it in me at the moment. It's kind of a Catch-22 because writing in my journal and venting usually helps me work things out, so by not doing it I'm just making things worse. I dunno.

Today I had a large Amazon order come in. It had two filters for the axolotl aquarium, some axolotl food and dechlorination tablets for the axolotls, and three DVDs (Deadpool And Wolverine for me, Fighting With My Family for Lee for Christmas and the Dune duology for Christmas for Mom), a new photo album since mine is almost full, some bails for working on my brother's Christmas present, two tiny glass Christmas trees (one for me and one for Mom for Christmas), a tiny sewing tape measure (for Mom for Christmas) and like five tubs of Chupa-Chups lollipops.

I've got one of the new axolotl filters up and running already. I've had a problem with gunk accumulating at the surface of the water, and this filter has a surface skimmer so hopefully it'll solve that problem. I still need to figure out the root cause of it, but I think part of it is that I need to clean the foam underwater filters. Or, at least, one of them, definitely, so I might as well do them both. I should probably also do like a 50% water change, but I couldn't do it until I had the dechlorination tablets. So.

Like I said, I've been doing a lot of writing the last while, the same as ever since I went on my ADHD meds. I'm working on TKA again, I can't remember if I mentioned that in my last entry or not, so that's good. Turns out I basically deviated from the outline I originally wrote ENTIRELY, and only the bones of TKA are the same. That's fine, though, it's still turning into something great, imo.

Other than that, I've been working on the post-SS stuff, and we're up to 30 post-SS one-shots which is RIDICULOUS but also kind of awesome. I wish I could work on them in the right order, though, like I have the first 5 (When Lightning Strikes, Ghost In The Machine, Pinfeathers, Teeth & Nightingale) done, and I'm tinkering with 6 (Temper Tantrums) and 7 (Hunting Souls), but I'm REALLY working on 28 (Wayward Daughters) right now which might as well be the last one because Halcyon Days and Serendipity are largely fluff.

Wayward Daughters is a genderbend fic, though, and while I'm finding the pronouns mostly easy to remember (I've slipped up a few times but always catch myself, though I'm sure I'll find some mistakes when I go back to edit it), I'm... struggling a little writing a f/f Destiel smut scene because my brain is going like WTF!! with two exclamation marks. Also it's my first time writing f/f for anything more than just making out. :| But like also you knew it had to happen because Dean and Cas so like ahaha.

Tonight I might work more on TKA or Wayward Daughters, or I might dig out my jewelry making stuff and start on the bracelets for my brother's Christmas gift, assuming I can find the right BEADS because I literally can't order more of them right now because of the mail strike. I was lucky I was able to find the bails and the charms on Amazon as it is. Goddamn fucking postal strike. Grr.

Today I made banana bread and I used my Best Banana Bread Ever recipe but I made it with whole wheat flour instead, and idk if that will have ruined it or not. It's currently cooling on the counter, but Lee is already circling, so I guess we'll see before the night is out!

I downloaded Venom: The Last Dance the other day but I haven't watched it yet, I just haven't been in the mood. I also have the new episode of Brilliant Minds to watch as well. Still writing that House/Brilliant Minds crossover, btw, I'm thinking on plot ideas even while I work on other stuff.

This morning I bought a bunch of books off Thriftbooks.com. I haven't gone there in a while. Anyway, I picked up several for Grandma:

-When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals
-Gorillas in the Mist
-The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill: A Love Story With Wings
-Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats and Everyday Heroes at a Country Animal Shelter
-Alex & Me
-The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds
-Living Free
-A Zoo in my Luggage
-The Whispering Land
-Menagerie Manor

And I grabbed a few for myself as well:

-Supernatural: Children of Anubis
-In The Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural
-Fell
-The Raven Boys
-The Dream Thieves
-Lily Blue, Lily Blue
-The Raven King

There was another SPN related book that I wanted but when I tried to add it to my basket it like... disappeared entirely. :D;; I'll have to go back and look for it again later, I guess. My copy of Feuds (the newest Valdemar anthology) came in yesterday, which was nice. I preordered it months ago.

Also, I went on AliExpress and ordered a doll to be new!Wren. Unfortunately, the doll that I had originally picked out for her was no longer available, so I had to do some shopping to find a suitable one again, but I think I managed it. We''ll see when she eventually gets here who-knows-when, again, because of the stupid postal strike. Like, dick move to pull this shit RIGHT at Christmas time, you guys. >:[

But yeah, looking forward to new!Wren, and if I dress her up like Wren and it just doesn't FIT, you know, then she can become a different character and I'll keep looking for Wren. It really is too bad that the doll I had originally picked out isn't available anymore, because she was PERFECT and had the SLIIIIGHTLY darker skin-tone that I was originally looking for for Wren.

Speaking of Wren, I need just a plain t-shirt for her to go with the corset I paid an obscene amount of money for. Also a long, flowy black skirt.

Oh, and I nabbed myself a NaNoWriMo mug from the website, to celebrate my winning the NaNo this year. I won't buy something every year that I win (because I'm sure I will again), but this was my first year since trying almost every year since 2003, so I'm kind of jazzed. I wanted a memento.

I want to celebrate the whole NaNo thing with Poe, but they still aren't responding to my emails or messages. When I sent that email to cool off our friendship for their sake, I didn't mean that we shouldn't be friends AT ALL, but that seems to be the way they took it, and looking back at the email I guess I can see why. But no matter what I try to tell them about it I get nothing back, just radio silence.

They won't even message me their new address so I can send their werewolf plush when it eventually comes in. They didn't bother to tell me they'd moved until AFTER I'd already mailed an EXPENSIVE parcel to the wrong address in October, and I had told them ahead of time I was going to mail it. Not telling me and letting me spend $125 to send it to the wrong place was kind of mean, actually.

I'm about to message them again to let them know that their werewolf will be even later coming in thanks to the postal strike, but I'm not expecting a response.

Anyway. I guess that's it for now.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: N/A: "Life Like" on Tubi

Right. Well. After I reached 50k on TKA I was SUPPOSED to take like a one or two day break and then get back at it, but it is day ELEVEN now and I JUST started writing TKA again now. *FACEPALM* After the first couple of days of my brain being MUSH I DID get back to writing, just... not TKA. I worked on SPN fanfic stuff instead, which, like, PRIORITIES?? BUT today's TKA session went well, it was about 2.5k long (ish) and I think I might finally be back at it! I just really want to get TKA finished so I can move on to the editing part.

I've been working on Temper Tantrums in the post-SS one-shots, and also Hunting Souls, and also Wayward Daughters, which is a new one that I just added to the roster. It's up to 30 freaking fics now and I'm hoping to keep it there because that is out of control. :|

I've been working on Wiggly Foxes a lot lately, especially the family of them that I'm making for my brother for Christmas. They're blue with pink tails and white accents. I'm also making a set of bracelets for him for Christmas but I need the bails and charms and I ordered them today, and the bails will be here tomorrow, but the charms won't be here until December 9->19 so that SUCKS. I can make the bracelets and then attach the charms after, but I'm super worried about the postal strike right now so??? The stupid thing is I KNOW I have some suitable charms around here, I just can't FREAKING FIND THEM. >:[

Today I have to make banana bread because I've been saying I'm going to make it for like a week now. Also bread pudding. But first I'm taking a nap because I woke up at 4am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep because NATURALLY. *eyeroll*

I'm hoping to FedEX Sethi's parcel to her and her family FINALLY this weekend. And also send Cassandra-san her little package, too. Turns out FedEX is actually pretty affordable if you don't mind it taking three whole days to get there. To the States, anyway, I'm not sure about the Philippines, I still have to get an estimate for that one.

Anyway, yeah. Not much to talk about today. More to talk about tomorrow when my Amazon parcel comes in. Cya.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: N/A

I didn't get all the things accomplished today that I'd wanted to. I woke up just feeling... despondent, I guess, and couldn't shake it for most of the day. Every time I try to reach out to Poe and they ignore me makes me feel this way. I should probably just stop trying. But it's hard to let go of a friendship, especially one that brought you such great joy like ours did (for the most part.) I just need to learn to let go, I guess.

I was supposed to make bread pudding and banana bread today but neither of them got done. I decided at the last minute that I want to try making the banana bread with whole wheat flour instead of white, so I'm putting it off until after groceries when I can get Lee to buy some whole wheat flour for me. I have no excuse for the bread pudding except that I just wasn't up to it today.

This morning before my mood got really bad I did manage to finish my Christmas Wiggly Fox (Holly), which I made for Mom to put on the Christmas tree. But when I took it downstairs to show her, she didn't even look at it, she just dropped it on the desk and walked away. So that didn't help how I was feeling, either. Two weeks of detailed painting for literally no reaction. Like, fuck me.

This evening I managed to get up enough gumption to work on some writing, and I've written a couple more pages of Teeth, so I'm hoping to get it finished in the next few days. Then it's back to TKA for a bit. I'm at just over 50,000 words for TKA for now, but I took a break and when I go back to it I'm going to shoot for another 15,000 words before I take another break. Hoping to get it finished soon-ish, too. Then it's on to Freefall or My Zombie and the 20 other post-SS one-shots I still have to write.

Tomorrow I have to clean the axolotl tank again. It gets gunky really quickly, especially with three 'lotls in there now. This time I need to use a cloth or something to wipe down the side and back walls, and I also need to take the sponges off the filters and clean them, too, as well as the usual suctioning. It's going to take an hour, probably, and destroy my back, but I mean, bein' a good 'lotl Mom.

I'm having to get some money from Mom, and this time not a loan, I can't afford to repay it. But my finances are screwed and I need help, so she's bailing me out again. It makes me feel like shit. I hate myself for it, but I don't have a choice. Maybe if I can sell TKA I can manage to pay her back eventually. I've got that in the back of my mind, anyway, just a flicker of hope.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: N/A: "Paralysis" on Tubi

This morning I wrote a 6-page Taidan smut scene that will never see the light of day because TKA is aimed at YA audiences. It was somehow both really satisfying to write, and also felt pointless, so it was like... well, I've done that now I guess. I'll just tuck it in the back of the TKA binder For My Eyes Only and be happy with that. I guess I just felt that after everything Tyler and Aidan have been through they deserved to enjoy each other properly. *shrug*

This morning I also added six new projects to my NaNo profile, all of them Valdemar and all of them with over a year for a Complete By date: Brothers At Arms, Marionette and Fallout (all chaptered) as well as Wander, Not Horses and Graceless (which are all one-shots. I think. Sometimes these things have a way of getting away from me haha.)

That's about all I've done this morning, even though I woke up at 5am. I just watched/listened to Dr. Mike Reacts videos and working intermittently on wiggly foxes. I'm almost done my Christmas one (Holly) and the first (test) one of the bunch that I'm doing for my brother for Christmas. Oh, and I did another coat of glow-in-the-dark paint on the green fox, too. I still need to do the GITD paint on the blue one, too. And my ENTIRE idea for my belated Halloween one (Candy Corn) has been revamped, so now I have to... not start from SCRATCH, really, but change some stuff, which is a pain. :P

Last night I took the axolotl tank apart and cleaned it out thoroughly, and while Kaida freaked out a little and was Not Pleased, Haku and Ryuu like FREAKED OUT because it was their first time dealing with it. They hid FOREVER after ward. I think Haku might STILL be hiding, though I saw Kaida and Ryuu out this morning around breakfast time.

The only problem was the tank was extra dirty this time (I was a day late cleaning it), and taking everything out so I could vacuum it out stirred everything up into the water, so after I was done cleaning and put all the hides back into the tank, all the floating particulates sank back down and coated the bottom again. NOT as bad as before, but still. I was like BOO. I guess I'll clean it again tonight and try to get it up to par again. I also have to take the sponges off the filters and clean them out as well.

Yep, life as a 'lotl Mom. :D

This afternoon I think I'm going to make some bread pudding, since we've had the milk to make it in the house for like two weeks now and I found the recipe when I was organizing my recipes binder the other day before I baked cookies. Also, we have a MILLION bread crusts taking up room in the back of the fridge right now, so if I can get some of them used up that's good. I also kind of want to make banana bread, too, though, so idk idk idk I'll figure it out.

I keep periodically emailing Poe but never get a reply, and I've been keeping an eye on them on Insta, and they deleted their Insta a little while back, I probably mentioned it here. They do that when they're going through a hard time, just delete all their social media, so I was worried, but a couple days ago they popped back up on Insta again. And apparently they're having computer problems (as in: they don't have one atm), so that could possibly be part of why they haven't replied to my last handful of emails, because I know they don't do email on their phone. So, I left them a message on Insta.

I guess we'll see if that flies or not, but I'm not getting my hopes up anymore.

Oh, and last night I watched Red One and I THOROUGHLY enjoyed it, except that Chris Exans character didn't join Santa's secret security at the end of the movie. I was like booooooo at that because I felt that was the natural progression. But oh well! Otherwise it was a really good movie, even if it did suffer terribly from being a Christmas film. XD

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: N/A: "Dr. Mike Reacts to The Good Doctor" on YT

Okay, having taken a day off and gotten an actual, DECENT night's sleep last night, I think I'm ready to get back to writing TKA (and other stuff) as well. I still have at least 30k words to go on TKA before it's finished, so I should probably focus on that, buuuuuut... you know how it is, other, shiny things catch your attention and-- no? That's just me. Oh, okay.

(I emailed Poe to tell them my NaNo/TKA news because... they were my TKA cheerleader for years, and helped me out with it a LOT, and I thought they should know I'm FINALLY getting somewhere with it. I doubt they'll respond, but I reached out, at the very least.)

But anyway, right now I have TKA open in word as well as Teeth, Mockingbird and Grace, and I kind of want to work on Echoes, too, just for, like, smut reasons. Because even though I'm personally ace as hell for some reason I enjoy the SHIT out of writing smut. Yeah, figure THAT ONE out! There's no smut in TKA because I'm aiming for the YA audience with it, but I'm considering writing a smut scene anyway and just keeping it for myself, just to... I dunno. Say that I did it once. *shrug* It might be weird writing a Taidan smut scene though, so maybe not. I do like fade to black with them a lot more, when it comes down to it so why ruin that, right?

I REALLY need to ignore my want to write Echoes and close down Mockingbird and Grace and focus my SPN energy on Teeth, though, since it's the next one in line to be written and I already skipped over it once to write Nightingale (which was one long fuckfest lol.) I'm 10,076 words into Teeth so I'm getting there but I'm aiming for around 15,000 (give or take) each for these one-shorts so I have about 1/3 to go yet.

Umm. Yesterday I made Lois Cookies because I FINALLY HAVE THE RECIPE THANK YOU LOIS!! and they turned out SO GOOD like UNBELIEVABLY GOOD, and Mom just complained that there was chocolate in them and how if she was making them she would cut the chocolate in half and then toss in some toffee chips and maybe leave out the coconut and I was like "IF YOU DID THAT YOU WOULD BE MAKING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT COOKIES??" You would not be making "them" anymore. *FACEPALM*

I was so mentally exhausted yesterday that I didn't get the axolotl tank cleaned, so I HAVE to do that today, it is imperative. The boys are all wandering around in gunk and we can't have that, can we? So that's on the slate for this afternoon.

Haku and Ryuu are both adjusting to their new home really well, but Kaida is still being a grumpy gus in the corner. He just comes out to eat and then goes and hides again and that's it. Poor guy, he just suddenly had INVADERS!! ...even though Haku and Ryuu are his own brothers. But he doesn't remember that, and he'd gotten used to being an only 'lotl so it's taking some re-adjusting. We'll get there.

I think tonight after I clean the tank I'm going to do some worms for them (EW EW EW EW EW) since they like them so much. I'm going to have to get more worms soonish, but I'm hoping to stretch the ones I have until the end of the month so I'm not asking Mom to do a separate trip just for worms. I sometimes have to do that with crickets for Itsy and I can tell she doesn't like it. =/

Oh, and then THIS MORNING I downloaded Red One, which means TONIGHT I get to WATCH Red One, and I am really looking forward to that. Literally they shoved my two favorite actors into the same movie, I am SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT. :3

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: N/A

Basically, what happened yesterday is, I punched in my last update that took me over the 50,000 word mark and the NaNo website rained confetti on me and my brain just... died. Like, it immediately fell asleep and even though I was sitting there planning on writing more because TKA isn't DONE, it just refused to cooperate. I think 50,000 words in 15 days was too much for my already OCD/ADHD/Bi-Polar riddled brain and it just needed to rest a while and take a break from TKA.

So last night I just kind of blearily watched some episodes of The Winchesters which I think I'm going to NOPE tf right out of after four episodes because they do not follow established SPN canon AT ALL for ANYTHING and I am not down with that. Also the lead actors playing John and Mary are not very good at their jobs and I don't like them. But mostly the canon stuff. If you're going to do a series BASED ON AN EXISTING SERIES maybe adhere to it's canon, yeah? Like. Fuck me. (I wish they'd done a SEQUEL instead of a PREQUEL.)

ANYWAY. Uhm, in Axolotl Town things are chugging along. Haku and Ryuu are settling in really well (Ryuu is more outgoing and Haku is more shy so far) and eating well, and Ryuu has pretty much taken over the big teracotta pot so I need to get another one of those for the other side of the tank next time I'm at the dollar store/have money. Kaida is... not a happy camper. He's doing a lot of hiding and sulking, but he's still eating so that's a good sign at least. He's just (very slowly) getting used to sharing his tank with other 'lotls again like when he was little(r.) But there's been no in-fighting or anything, to my knowledge, so I think it's going pretty well.

It's a (frustrating) constant game of Spot The Axolotl right now because they're in such a big tank with no many hidey spots. You can usually find Ryuu pretty easily, but Haku and Kaida? They vanish into the ether. It's like, I know they're IN THERE, but WHERE in there? A MYSTERY. (I have to deep clean the tank tonight so that'll get them all out in the open... ish... at least!)

Today I want to work on TKA some more because there's still SO FAR to go with it, but I'm not sure if my brain is up to writing quite yet. It still feels pretty mushy in my head this morning, even after a... well, it wasn't a GOOD night's sleep, I haven't been sleeping well lately, but it was a night's sleep of some kind at the very least. So I'm going to give it a go, but if I end up just staring blankly at the screen for an endless span of time instead I won't be like, SHOCKED.

After TKA is finished, I want to write Freefall, and maybe My Zombie. Both of those are pretty firmly stuck in my brain right now. And if all the word editors would stop telling me that "freefall" isn't a word that would be GREAT because FUCK YOU IT IS NOW I DECLARE IT, IT IS SO. I'm also going to be working on post-SS one-shots, of course, of which I am up to... 22? I believe? Since I added Stalactites (not to be confused with "Stalagmites" which is not longer a thing) and Dreamcatcher. So because my brain works in patterns of fives, I need at least three more or it'll drive me INSANE. But basically:

-STORM SEASON
-When Lightning Strikes (complete)
-Ghost In The Machine (complete)
-Pinfeathers (complete)
-Teeth
-Nightingale (complete)
-Temper Tantrums
-Hunting Souls
-Shrike
-Echoes
-Day Drinking
-Mockingbird
-Crawlspace
-Kindling
-What Angels Dream
-Run. Hide. Die.
-Hollow Things
-The Desert Tide
-Sudden Cardiac Arrest
-Stalactites
-Dreamcatcher
-
-
-
-Halcyon Days
-Serendipity

Yeah this entire series got completely out of control on me and I have no idea what happened but I'm not really COMPLAINING I'm just like... yikes. :| Especially since I'm just writing them basically for myself, the whole HH et al series doesn't have much of a following AT ALL. (There are a handful of people who do follow it, though, and I love every one of them!)

idk maybe I'll work on some SPN stuff this morning instead of TKA just for a change of pace. Maybe my brain would like that more?

Anyhoo, this afternoon/evening I want to make some cookies from the recipe I (FINALLY) got off Lois, since Lee picked up mini chocolate chips when he did groceries yesterday and I'm pretty sure we have all the rest of the stuff for it, oats, unsweetened coconut, flour, eggs, etc. I am SO JAZZED to have this recipe FINALLY after DECADES of asking for it. She kept it really under wraps for a long time, but I guess she's getting older now so she figures why not? I dunno. Either way, COOKIES TONIGHT.

...I have a cough. I've had it for months, but it's been getting worse lately. I think it's a side-effect of my Breztri inhaler, which doesn't even work for me anyway so why am I taking it?? I'm so freaking TIRED of my lungs getting worse and worse and not being able to breathe, and then all the tests coming back that there's nothing wrong with them. It's been like that since 2019 and the first time I had Covid. I just want to be able to BREATHE again, is that so much to ask? Then again, there's a lot of things about my health that are JACKED and I would like to have go away/get fixed but it doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon. My liver and the NAFLD situation are just the newest in a long line of bullshit.

And finally. Poe is back up on Insta again, and posting about a short film that's being made from one of their short stories, they seem excited and I'm SO proud of them. They deserve nice, good things in their life like that. I really hope it works out for them and turns out good. It's nice to be happy for them for a change.

Current Mood: mentally exhausted
Current Music: N/A

Yesterday, my Stepdad did the groceries, the same as he does every Friday. And this week he was supposed to be buying the Halloween candy to hand out to the kids on the 31st. Every year they buy a huge box of like 95 chocolate bars, I buy a huge box of 90 Maynard's candies, then we get six kids, and we end up just divvying almost all of it up between the three of us at the end of the night.

So on Thursday he was going through the flyers and he was like "oh, these ones are on sale for $12, but the ones we normally get are only on for $14" THIS MAN NICKEL AND DIMES FUCKING EVERYTHING. And Mom and I were like "uh, yes, but the $12 box is all peanut butter stuff that SENA CAN'T EAT, GET THE ONE WE NORMALLY GET" and he didn't really say anything. Then he comes back from groceries with the $12 peanut butter chocolate bars box and I was SO. FUCKING. LIVID.

HONESTLY, HOW INCONSIDERATE CAN YOU GET? LITERALLY HE DID IT JUST BECAUSE OF $2 AND BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO SHARE WITH ME THIS YEAR. HE'S A PRICK. So I was like FINE. I'M NOT SHARING MINE WITH YOU, EITHER. And he gave me a LOOK and I didn't say anything else, and it's like... no. If you're going to be like that, then I can be like that, too. Fuck you.

I did share with MOM, though, because it's not HER fault my Stepdad is a selfish asshole. >(

ANYWAY.

I did the math and so far, in completed fics, since August I have written 219,314 words which, as I said before when I was counting PAGES, is TWO freaking novels. And that's not counting all the bits and bobs I've written but not finished yet, either.

I keep doing all this math (TRY to take my freaking calculator away lol) to try to psych myself up for the NaNo next month because I'm starting to get nervous about it, and if I'm nervous then I DEFINITELY won't do well. I just need to relax and write the same as I have been. Obviously I'm capable of it, I just have to do it, even though my brain always shuts off automatically and plays dead the instant the NaNo start bell rings. =/

I just messed around on pinterest for the first time in my life and created the beginnings of a TKA board and linked it up to TKA in my NaNo profile. Something I can look back at when I need inspiration, you know? And I just realized I didn't include any SHOWERS in the board and that is UNACCEPTABLE. XD;; I'll fix that when I'm done here.

I'm 15 pages and 9,703 words into When Lightning Strikes, so I'm about halfway there with it, and I'm going to try really hard to focus on just it until I have it done and then move on to the next one in the series, Ghost In The Machine. My ADHD has been making me jump around projects a lot lately and I have to try to focus down on one at a time despite that. Definitely talking to Dr. K about increasing my Vyvanse dosage when I go in in November because trying to write TKA with my brain doing this is going to be impossible.

Yesterday I finally got the pie made for my brother's (belated) birthday, and it turned out really good! I took a picture lol. He's coming over today to do laundry and stuff, so he'll take it with him when he goes home. I really hope it tastes as good as it looks. I hope he likes it. I always worry about that with pies for some reason, even though they pretty much always turn out fine...

TWO MORE DAYS 'TIL THE AQUARIUM. OwO

Oh, and Poe's parcel was picked up a couple days ago and I emailed them asking them to please message me or something when it arrived so I knew it got there in one piece, but the tracking says it arrived yesterday and... no message. No email. They have well and truly washed their hands of me. Which is GOOD, in a way, but also... it wasn't my intention when I sent that initial email. I said we shouldn't be in CONSTANT communication, not that we shouldn't communicate AT ALL. And it's really... it's rude. For them to not even drop me an email saying "yo it arrived fine." That's all I was asking for. So I dunno, just. I dunno.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: N/A

Storm Season is up to 118 pages and 52,957 words and I'm still going strong. At this rate I'll have it completed by the end of October easily. I did some editing on the first three chapters yesterday but I'll definitely need to edit the whole thing at least twice before I start posting it. (I hate the editing process but I also obsess over it so. There's that.) Then I'm going to move on to working on finishing up the post-Storm Season one-shots, but that might not happen until December.

I've shut down all but like 5 tabs in Word (Storm Season, When Lightning Strikes, Ghost In The Machine, Pinfeathers and my journal) so hopefully I'll stay on-task, but then again I've tried this before and the other tabs just keep... opening. Almost on their own. Like magic! :D;;

Today is the day Mom and I are driving to Elmvale to pick up my axolotl! I'm so excited! The tank is all ready and the right temperature (thanks to the cooling fan) and there are all sorts of hidey holes and stuff! The guy apparently has two and I get to pick which one I want, so I'm looking forward to it. And $50 for an axolotl is a good price, if I was buying one from a PET STORE it'd be hundreds of dollars. (Mom still winced at the $50 though like she doesn't understand pet market pricing AT ALL.)

It seems Poe had got themself at least one new axolotl, now that they're (I think) living in the annex instead of the main house, their Mum can't say anything about them having pets anymore, which is good. Pets are good for Poe, just like they're good for me. I wish I could message them and say how happy I am for them, but even if I did they wouldn't message back, so it's pointless. Still, good news on the Poe front.

I ordered some citrine and tiger's eye chip beads for making into bracelets. I'm trying to get gemstones that have uses in the magic community so I can make Wiccan bracelets, but I can only afford a few beads each month. I got chalcedony and black tourmaline a couple months back, then I got aquamarine last month. They all have their uses. I know this kind of thing is better coming from an actual Wiccan but what people don't know won't hurt me. Besides, I was Wiccan briefly, years back. :|

I have a bunch more jewelry to post to my Etsy, as well as my current buttons (mostly Pontypool and Evil Dead Rise quotes) but I'm procrastinating over it because I hate taking the pics and I hate doing the listing so I'm like... BLEGH. But I have a whole bunch of Ghostbusters (1984) movie quotes that I want to make into buttons, and I want to do some Abigail (2024) quote buttons, so I can at least get started on those... in between... all the writing I'm supposed to be doing?? idek I have too many projects.

Speaking of projects, I have four new Wiggly Foxes like 2/3 done! They started off orange with grey socks and gloves and I painted over the grey in different colors. One is blue, one is pink, one is green and one is half/half metallic purple and metallic gold. They're turning out really good, but it always takes forever to paint a fox. They're tedious. That's why they're so expensive.

Um.

Oh, last night I made a sweet potato pie for the first time! I tried it once way back years ago at Andy and Carolyn's place and really liked it, and I wanted to make something different for Thanksgiving this year. It turned out really good, based on the little dish of extra filling that I baked alongside it.

Speaking of Thanksgiving... my sister and sister-in-law want to host this year and that's fine, but it means my OTHER sister and their mom will be there and I don't know if I'm up for their bullshit right now. Last night Amy called and asked if I was going to be coming and I was like "I DON'T KNOW??" because it is literally going to depend on how I'm feeling that particular day (this coming Sunday.) But even if I don't go, I'm sending a pie! So!

I asked my brother what he wanted me to make him for his birthday this year and he said a deep-dish apple pie so I have to do that on like... Thursday or Friday? Because Mom is getting together with him Friday night so she can deliver it then, or I can give it to him on Saturday when he comes here to do laundry because God forbid he go to a fucking laundromat and not raid our fridge once a week. Anyway.

Also, Dad watched Deadpool And Wolverine and wasn't impressed because the plot was weak and the violence was over-the-top and I was like of like "...do you KNOW Deadpool??" but I just replied to his message "I respectfully disagree! :D" and left it at that.

Current Mood: antisocial
Current Music: N/A

Today I woke up at 5:30am and couldn't get back to sleep so now I'm just... puttering around. I posted Cerulean Blue to AO3, Tumblr and Vanimadin, so we'll see what kind of reception that gets, and I posted my photo for the day for my photoblogging already, and I also did some image editing for covers for some of my writing because I'm super into doing that right now.

I have three things arriving from Amazon today; my Jamieson probiotic gummies, my aquarium thermometers, and my turkey baster. Unfortunately my super long tweezers won't be here until the end of the month so I'm going to have to jury-rig something else for feeding worms to my axolotl when I get it next week. Maybe chopsticks?? idk I'll figure something out.

I keep looking at my huge aquarium and wishing I could get some little fish to go in the tank with my future axolotl, just for visual interest, but sadly... they could potentially pick at the axolotl's gills, which is no good, or, when the axolotl got big enough, it would just EAT THEM, which is also not good, so like. No fishies. Or anything else. Just the 'lotl. But I'm fine with that! I'll just fill it up with plants (inside and out) and make it pretty that way.

(I'm so excited for next week like ahhhh!! X3)

I decided that today I'm going to just... bite the bullet and get down to unpotting Sam to put him in the aquarium. It's such a Job with a capital "J" to unpot plants, I hate it. I learned that doing Cas and Dean. But like... I need to do it eventually and I want to get it done BEFORE the axolotl is actually IN THE TANK so. TODAY IT IS. (My spider-plant, Jack, is going to have to go in after the 'lotl is already in the tank but there's just no getting around that. He's still too little to go in yet.)

I need to get another air pump for the aquarium, this last one that I bought is UNACCEPTABLY LOUD. The PREVIOUS one I got is basically WHISPER QUIET but when I needed a second one I cheaped out and bought a less expensive one and now I regret my life choices. So I have to go back and buy another one of the good ones because the noise is driving me BONKERS. Did I mention I HATE air pumps??

.....

Yesterday I made the rice pudding I've been meaning to make for like a month now and it turned out great as always, and now I have a little bit of 2% milk for two or three teas as a treat since it only takes 3/4 of a carton to make the pudding. I LOVE 2% milk in my tea and cooking/baking but Mom and Lee keep stupid 1% in the house instead and I'm like... blegh. At least it's not skim. For a while they kept THAT in the house and it was just COLORED WATER GDI.

Some time in the next couple of days I need to go at and make the sweet potato pie that I've been procrastinating over, too. I think one of the sweet potatoes is starting to grow mould. They probably should have been kept in the fridge?? But Lee has been really bitchy lately about me having too much stuff in the fridge, so I just left them out to avoid the inevitable conflict. Like, I understand that the fridge is getting full, but I fucking live here too, you know?

Anyway, I'm making a practice sweet potato pie to see if it turns out before Thanksgiving weekend, when my sister is having everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner. If it DOES turn out then I'm going to be making another one for that, though I may just be sending it along with Mom and Lee because idk if I'm going to feel up to going to a huge family get together like last year. Especially if Sarah and Heather are going to be there. I can't handle their stupidity. I mean. It's... nice. Seeing everyone. But my anxiety and depression really don't like it AT ALL, and with how I'm feeling lately I just... I don't want to be there for 30 minutes and then have to beg Mom to drive me home because I'm about to have a breakdown. I dunno. I guess we'll see how I feel on the day. =/

I've been working on a set of Wiggly Foxes the last few days, they're all base orange but I'm painting their socks/paws/ears/parts of their tails different colors. One is Cayman Blue, one is Thistle Blossom Pink, one is Spring Green and the fourth is half Violet Pansy Purple and half Bright Gold. They're coming along really nicely.

I really enjoy doing my foxes, but they cost like $14.99USD each because of the sheer amount of time and effort that goes into each one. It takes me DAYS to paint a fox, so they're pretty expensive. I have a few up in my Etsy store right now but no one's biting. Then again no one bites at anything in my store, so what else is new? I think the foxies would go over better at cons or markets (especially cons) but I don't currently have access to anything like that, so I mean. Etsy it is, I guess.

I really have to get my current buttons up on my Etsy, too. The Pontypool and Evil Dead Rise ones. Buttons are a big commodity and they seem to go over well, and I have all the photos taken I just have to upload them and list them I just fffffffffffucking hate doing Etsy listings. *HEADDESK* But again, I've got to just... buckle down and do it. I also have some new ones that I want to make with Abigail quotes, and I want to do some Captain America and Deadpool ones we well. I wish I could figure out how to insert images as background for buttons, though, I've been trying for months and still can't get it. Frustrating.

A little while back, Poe offered to let me sell their button designs in my shop and I went through and picked the ones I liked and they sent me the files so I could have them made, but then I ended up ending our friendship, essentially, so part of my goodbye letter was to say thank you so much for the offer, but that I wouldn't be using their buttons after all. It's too bad, there were some good ones. But I guess I'll just keep doing my own thing, making buttons my own (shitty) way, and hopefully things on Etsy will pick up, especially since I can't work anymore...

I've managed to get back into working on Storm Season again, I think, not that you could tell it from this morning so far. I'm hoping after I feed the cats I can sit down and bang out a few pages. I'm up to 101 pages and 45,111 words, so I'm getting there. According to the NaNo word tracking bar graph it looks like I'm about 2/3 there. Seriously, though, using the word trackers at the NaNo website have been SO helpful in visualizing my progress and where I am in any given project. I have a really hard time doing that on my own, so. Yeah.

It's only the 3rd of October so I have pretty high hopes that I'll get Storm Season finished by the time the NaNo rolls around in November and I throw my hat in the ring with TKA. Not 100% sure about all the one-shots, but hoping to have at least the first three of those finished as well to give me some padding to finish the other four after I finish posting Storm Season.

I'm PRETTY sure I'm going to start posting Storm Season after the NaNo is over, in the beginning of December, but I might start posting it sooner than that, depending on when I get it finished and how much editing I can get done/how quickly I can get it done. I would love to start posting Storm Season chapters the week after I post Falling Stars, but that's only a couple weeks away now and I doubt I'll have it finished and edited in time for that. Maybe for the beginning of November, if I really push myself, though, then I could post updates throughout November while I was working on the NaNo.

But yeah, I dunno, I guess we'll see.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: N/A

I have edited the Horror High one-shots like six times now and every time I think they're good and I print them and put them in the binder and then I look at them again and find more mistakes or things I want to change and end up editing them again and printing them again and I am going through SO MUCH paper and ink doing this I just. I need to stop. To that end, I edited them again yesterday and printed them (again) and put them in the binder and I have decided I am DONE. THEY ARE WHAT THEY ARE, FOR BETTER OR WORSE.

...I think I'm just hyperfocusing on the editing to keep my mind off of Poe and stuff, though, tbh. They still haven't replied to my last email and their Insta stories are making me worry and I just want to know they're okay. Like I don't know why they moved or where they moved to, but they don't seem to be doing well there and I just... fuck, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have sent that email after all. I know I put the kibosh on our friendship FOR THEM but I hate to see them having such a hard time and not being able to do anything about it. It HURTS.

I hate this.

Anyway.

So I've been doing superfluous editing and working on writing to try to keep my mind off it as much as possible, but it's hard. I'm working on notes for a new original project, The Rabid, which is a zombie apocalypse... ish. Thing. Kind of more classic zombie apocalypse setting than My Zombie, while also not TECHNICALLY being a zombie apocalypse at all? idk I'm just tinkering with the notes for it right now and we'll see where it goes, if anywhere.

I'm back up to 8 tabs open in Word again because I shut them all down and then immediately start opening them back up again, or adding new ones. Part of it right now is that I'm so worried about Poe I need ALL THE THINGS to focus on to try to keep my mind off it, I guess. But I really do need to shut most of them down again. Even TKA could be shut down until November, since I'm going to work on it for the NaNo, which of course means it's officially cursed. :|

I got all the stuff out of my storage bins to make candles like three days ago and I still haven't made any. I need to get on that, really. It's not like it's hard. It's just that the motivation isn't there for ANYTHING right now, except a little writing, so...

It's the same reason I've had the milk in the house for making rice pudding for like three weeks and haven't gotten around to it. And I asked for my parents to pick up sweet potatoes and cream so I could try making sweet potato pie and that was a week ago. I just... don't CARE about anything right now. I think I'm more depressed than I'd like to admit, tbh.

Last night we watched the premier of Brilliant Minds and Lee was bitchy the entire time because we weren't watching Chesapeake Shores but FUCK Lee, Brilliant Minds was actually really good and I am always up for some Zachary Quinto! I'm hoping it catches on because I really enjoyed it, but I think with it's House Vibes and the Zachary Quinto factor it might have a chance. Fingers crossed!

Oh, and my Aunt actually managed to convince Grandma to move to the new care home, so they're moving her on Wednesday, which is, in fact, tomorrow. And by "they" I mean "we" because I stupidly volunteered to help even though they're moving her right in the freaking middle of my Bad Pill Time. So I have to get up an hour and a half early tomorrow to take my pills early and hope they're done making me VIOLENTLY ILL before it's time to leave to move Grandma.

I know she needs to be in the care home, but she's going to be sharing a room with someone and I don't see that working out very well. =/ Also now that she's in Orillia she's really expecting me to come visit her like... A LOT. And I just... I can't handle being around her in the state she's in. Which is a horrible thing to say and makes me feel like a terrible person, but my own mental illness can't HANDLE her dementia and every time I see her now I come home after ward and just SOB.

Like Christmas is my favorite day, when we all get together, and last year was TERRIBLE because of the way she is now, I HATED it, and this year is going to be even worse. I don't even want to go to CHRISTMAS because of this, and I just... I feel like such an awful person. I hate myself for feeling this way, but I can't HELP it...

EDIT: Also, my image hosting site is being stupid and I don't know why and it's really pissing me off. >|

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: N/A

I started writing two more Witcher SPN AU fics today, The Forest and Points Of Origin. The Forest is about the Hunt that's mentioned in What No One Knows, where Lambert ended up in the Velen forest overnight. Points Of Origin is about Geralt and Jaskier hunting a pyromaniac wisp in Los Angeles. But I also still have Don't You Forget About Me, No Matter What They Say and Falling In Love With You to finish as well. SO MUCH WITCHER SPN AU THE LAST FEW DAYS.

Other than that, not much to tell. I made a bread pudding today and it turned out good. Better than the one Mom made a while back, in my opinion, but it's pretty subjective. Also I picked my first two tomatoes off my plants this afternoon, which was nice and also kind of like FINALLY lol. One of them has a tail, which is amusing as hell.

I'm trying to figure out how to organize myself with New Brain, still. Because New Brain insists that I spend 99.9% of my awake time WRITING WRITING WRITING (it even goes so far as to wake me up at 5:45am to get me working, which like. Rude.) and I'm not getting much else done even though I have goals and things I should really be doing. So like...

I think maybe writing in the morning, other stuff (rec centre, cleaning my room, cleaning animal cages, etc.) in the afternoon, and movies/TV and crafts/Etsy after dinner until bedtime (with a brief break to feed/clean the cats at 9pm)?? POSSIBLY?? I really need to get into a proper routine but New Brain is SO focused on writing like... I dunno. It's hard because all I really WANT to do is write, too, but logically that's not possible. I have other obligations.

I'm working on it.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: N/A: "World's Most Evil Killers" on Tubi

About to make Rice Pudding! <333

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: N/A: "Bodies!" on Tubi

I have the sudden, inexplicable urge to bake bread. I have never baked bread before. I do not know how to bake bread. But I want to bake it nonetheless. It's possible I'm just craving homemade bread. :|

Maybe tomorrow I'll look up a recipe and see if we have the ingredients.

EDIT: Aw fuck, I just remembered our oven is broken right now. So much for that! :D;;

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: N/A: "American Horror Story: Asylum" on Riptide

Okay, maybe writing every single day is too much to hope for. So every few days is my new goal for now. XD;;

ANYWAY.

Today I went with Lee to visit my brother and his girlfriend and swap gifts with them. It was really nice. I love seeing B and E, and don't get a chance to visit with them more than maybe, MAYBE once a year. So chatting with them and going to lunch with them was super great. ♥

Other than that, I didn't do much else today. Between the drive there and back and visiting and whatnot, it took up most of my day.

I did go to the pet store to get fish for Gen and crickets for Muffet, though. That took a whole half hour lol. xD;; Tomorrow I have tons to do, though. Grocery shopping and some Christmas shopping, and I need to go to another pet shop for hoppers and reptibark and whatnot.

Also more baking. I've made shortbread cookies and date squares already, but I still have to do macaroons and (fake) peanut butter dainties. But I love baking, so that's something I'm looking forward to. I'd've done it sooner, but I need some things from the grocery store to finish up. :3

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: Orillia, Ontario
Current Music: N/A: "Mask Maker" on DVD.

Today was grocery day. Yay? Yeah, it was typical of grocery days where I, yanno, bought groceries. And stuff.

But tonight after groceries C.A. came over to visit, which was awesome as usual. ♥ I gave her her Christmas gift and made cookies for her fiancee, whom I have never met but love nonetheless lawl. I might be going to see The Hobbit with them on Friday, possibly. Not 100% sure yet.

And now... eggnog. Yep. It's definitely eggnog time. *nod*

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Orillia, Ontario
Current Music: N/A: "Snapped" on the TV.

...yeh. So it turned out that my sis and her family couldn't make it for dinner today after all. Arthur wasn't feeling well, plus the roads were bad because of the storm yesterday. Thusly, we're postponing everything until some time next week.

But I made that special cake, and it wouldn't last until then, so I went over to Mom's anyway and stayed for dinner (we had chili ♥) and we all had some cake anyway. The cake itself turned out REALLY good, but the avacado icing was much too sweet. Oh well, live and learn, right? I'm going to adjust the recipe a bit and then make another cake in a few days when Sarah, Arthur and Leah do make it over. :)

On a completely unrelated note, I broke my computer mouse last night, so I had to pick up a new one today. I stupidly dropped it on the kitchen floor and it just died. I wouldn't have even had it IN the kitchen, except I have no ink for my printer so I had to bring the laptop in there for the recipes when I was baking.

I really need to just bite the bullet and pay for the cartridge refills. ~_~;;

Current Mood: blank
Current Location: Orillia, ON
Current Music: N/A: "House M.D." on Z.

Hokay! My first real entry after months of nothing! ...and it's just a recounting of my day, really. I'm very boring lately. :P

...UGH I JUST BROKE MY MOUSE. *FACEPALM*

BUT ANYWAY.

Today was grocery day. Yay! /sarcasm. >>;

Actually, it's not so bad. Mom and I do groceries together each week, so it's kind of fun to go out and spend the time with her.

So because this is the first shopping trip of the month (for March, even though it's still the 29th of February), I had a TON of stuff to get. I easily dropped $250+ dollars on various things, and that was BEFORE coming home and paying all my bills. =.=;;

So foodstuffs for me and then stocking up on food and litter and other various things for the critters. While I was at the (first) pet store, I also picked up a few fish for my community tropical tank. 2 blue dwarf gouramis, a striped angel fish and 6 cherry barbs. (Already in the tank; 1 pleco, 2 cory catfish, 3 angels, 1 orange dwarf gourami, 2 rosy minnows, 2 gold barbs, 3 rosy barbs, 9 neon tetras, 4 red platys, 1 guppy, 1 tiger barb, 1 redtail shark, 2 zebra danios...) It's a huge 75 gallon aquarium, what can I say? I think my next addition might be one or two congo tetras. They are SO pretty. ♥

When I later went down to J&K to buy rats for Aya and Opal, I asked Dave when I should start worrying about how long it's been since Aya ate; ball pythons will routinely go for long periods of time without eating, but it's going on 10 months since Aya last ate. He seems healthy and isn't losing weight. He's even still shedding, which means he must still be growing. But it's been so long now that Dave said it's probably a good idea to bring Aya into the shop, and they'll hand-feed him for me. If it works, they'll show me how to do it. I might have to buy a pair of feeding tongs, but that's a minor thing when compared to the idea of Aya starving to death. =/

Having done a ton of running around with Mom today during shopping, I then did a bunch more after she dropped me off. XD; I went to the Dollarama and picked up some things for Easter baskets, then to Liquidation World, where I bought a Firefly Jar for part of a Christmas gift for the end of this year.

I froze my tail off with all the walking, since it was blustery and snowstorming when I went out. Now I have wind burn on my face and ears. DX

Tonight was the night that registration for AA at Anime North opened. I sent in my application like five seconds after 8pm when registration officially started, so we'll see if I get a spot. I hope I do, I could really use the money...

Oh, and tomorrow I'm going to Mom and Lee's place for dinner. My sister and her hubby are coming over and bringing my new baby niece, and we're all going to have Chinese takeout together. xD;

So I'm making a cake for dessert! But since my sis and brother-in-law have a lot of diet restrictions, it has to be a really specialty-type recipe. I'm making dairy-free, soy-free carrot cake with frosting made from avacados! O.O The cake looks really good, and I'm doing the icing in a few minutes. Then tomorrow we'll see how it turned out~!

...and now I'll leave you with a brony Cross And Arrow duet dub video, just for shits and giggles:

Current Mood: tralalala~
Current Location: Orillia, ON
Current Music: Panic! At The Disco ~ "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have With Her Clothes On

Baked cupcakes tonight. Starting at 11:30pm. JUST BECAUSE I WANTED TO. XD;;

Anyway, they're confetti cupcakes with white icing and I decorated them with Halloween decorations; orange and black sprinkes, tiny black and white candy skulls and slightly larger candy bones. The bones are white with splotches of red "blood".

idk I just felt like it, even though I can't eat many cupcakes anymore. *shrug* Like with most things I bake nowadays, probably 3/4 of them will go to Mom, Lee and my bro. I'd share with other people, too, but I pretty much don't know anyone else in Orillia anymore. It's a sad state of affairs, really. ~_~;;

Other than baking, I guess the news is Squall and the cats.

My spiffy laptop, Squall, is being a dick again. He won't load windows at all, and the startup diagnostics have literally been running for over 48 hours now. =__=;; In the morning if nothing's changed I'm going to just turn him off. Hopefully MDG will get back to me about having him repaired, since he's still under warranty until the end of November.

So for now I'm back to using my netbook, Z, which means I'm not going through Internet Withdrawl. No, instead I'm going through EVERYTHING ELSE withdrawl, since all my writing. music and bookmarks are on Squall. There is literally nothing on Z's HD since I cleared it out about 8 months ago. -.-;;

I'll have to hook Gale (my external drive) up and transfer some stuff from there, I guess.

In the meantime I've been mainlining two things the last few days; Mantracker and Tokyo Mew Mew. Yes, I am aware that this is about the weirdest combination I could have chosen. XD; Whatever, I'm enjoying them both so :P. I'm watching all the eps of Mantracker that I haven't seen, which is like 3/4 of them, and I'm working my way through TMM since for some reason, even though I have the whole series, I never watched past about episode 20. Must've got sidetracked and forgotten...

As for the cats, Nio has passed his cold on to EVERYONE EXCEPT NEKO AND LILY. *EPIC HEADDESK [HERE]*

Oh, and the other big news is that one of my close friends from highschool had her first baby! She's shared pics of the new little girl, and she's sooooo cute! CONGRATS, P! ♥♥♥♥♥

...this is the closest thing to a baking icon that I have. WHYYYYY?

Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: N/A: "Tokyo Mew Mew" on DVD.

So the last few years, since I started making jam/jelly/sauces/preserves/whatever, each fall around this time Mom takes some sample jars in to her work and takes orders from the people in her department. The last couple of years went okay, but THIS YEAR?

The last two days I've made $200 worth of sales. X3!!

I'm doing things a little differently this year, though. Mom took in the sample jars as usual, but then I put together a list of products that are available, rather than kinds that I happen to have on hand atm. Before, people paid and basically got their jam a day or two later, since it was coming out of current stock. This time they make their orders and pay, and their orders are delivered two weeks later.

All this means is that they can order things that I don't currently have stock of, or even make special requests for flavours/bulk orders/etc. And it's worked out very well, so I think I'm going to do it like this from now on. ♥

$200 (35 jars) isn't a TON, but it will completely cover having Ves and Lily spayed and Nio neutered (assuming his missing testicle makes an appearance, if not then I have to have him done via my regular vet. :P) Then I just have to put out the money for their shots, which is about $90 assuming all three of them get in; $30/cat. (If Nio has to be neutered later, then the jam money will cover Ves and Lily's spays AND their shots, yay!)

Anyhoo, I've got some jam to make over the next couple weeks!

Crab Apple Jelly
Lime-Zucchini Marmalade
Mixed Berry Jam
Pumpkin Sauce
Peach-Cranberry Jam
Apple Butter
Cranberry & Mixed Fruit Sauce (with Walnuts)

Aaaaaand I'm making a test batch of Pineapple-Plum Marmalade to see how it turns out. :3

One of the comments I often get from people who order from me is that I make very unique flavours. This is true of some of my stuff, like the Lime-Zucchini, Peach-Cranberry, Lychee or Pineapple-Plum, but I also do classic things like the Crab Apple, Apple Butter or Cranberry Sauce. I guess I just like to try new mixes, and having some different kind of products is working out very well for me. :)

Oh, and I'm also going to make a foray into the world of pickles and preserves this time; I have beets to make pickles out of (a special request from my Dad and Lois), and I want to try to make Crab Apple preserves, similar to something my Grandma on Dad's side apparently made when Dad was a kid. We'll see how it goes~

Which reminds me, I need to go back down and pick more of the tiny crab apples before they all go bad on the tree. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, if it's not pouring rain...

Current Mood: artistic

HOKAY. I haven't updated in forever but I swear I have a good reason for it. ~A~;;

1) Basically, a little less than a month ago, I got a call from one of Mom's friends that she works with; she and her husband own a bunch of buildings around town that have been converted into apartments, and they had one come up available for the 1st of June.

I went O__O;; because it's totally last minute and I couldn't afford it really, between having to pay first and last and for the movers. Anyway, Mom convinced me to go look at the place anyway... and it's PERFECT. ;A; I was all *GRABBY HANDS* at it, but came home knowing I just wasn't going to be able to deal with the cost.

But when I told Mom all about the place, she kind of made the decision for me and made some calls to Grandma so that she and Mom could help me cover the moving costs. It's a lot of money, but she assured me that this is NOT a loan, it's a gift. Because she wants me out of her house. XD; lol. Not really, but the joking at least made me feel better. I hate having to take money from other people. =_=;;

Anyway, the apartment!

It's basically half of a house. It has a tiny postage-stamp front yard and a picket fence along the side that I'm going to hang flower baskets from. It also has a little strip of grass at the bottom of the fence that I'm going to line with planters as well. I WANT A GARDEN AGAIN, EVEN IF IT'S JUST A TINY ONE. I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO HAVE ONE IN YEARS.

Then the screen door leads into a tiny little sunroom/mudroom where I can keep my recycle bins, trash can, and shovel/salt in the winter. Then the next door is the main one, and it leads into the downstairs part of the apartment. This is supposed to just be an entryway, but it's big enough that I can use it for that purpose AND as another actual room, as well as possibly for some minor storage. I'm considering putting my craft workspace for beading and the like down there once I find another desk.

Then to get to the main apartment, you go up a nice wide staircase. At the top is a bit of wall (a bookshelf will go there), and then the bathroom, which is of course small, but totally nice and clean and modern. ♥

Next is the kitchen, WHICH IS BIG ENOUGH TO FIT MY HUGE 4-FOOT FREEZER AND A TABLE. It's not gigantic, but it's easily at least 4x the size of my last two kitchens, and probably twice the size of the kitchen here at Mom's. She's going to be jealous. XD!

After the kitchen is the bedroom, which is maybe 1/4 again the size of the kitchen. Again, not huge, but still bigger than my room here. In there is going my bed, my reading books, my dresser, Aya's terrarium, the other snake terrarium (I'm getting another sand boa in a few months) and either the piranha tank or the turtle tank (I'm leaning toward the piranha.)

The next room is the living room, which is a little bigger than the bedroom. There goes the sofa, rocking chair, movie shelves, TV stand & etc, reference books and probably the turtle tank. Also the end tables and the goldfish aquarium once I get it set up. FISHIES! X3

Next to the living room and at the end of the hall is a SECOND little sunroom, which is where the bunnies are going to live, where the kitty litter box is going, and where my little indoor-herb-garden will go, as well as my upside-down strawberry planters and tomato planter. The plants will looooove it in there!

And on the wall just outside the second sunroom will be the pet shelves/cabinets where the food and etc. will be kept, and one shelf of those is where the tarantula terrarium will go. And that's it! :D

I'm so excited! I'll take pics and post them once I've gotten all moved in. ♥

2) Mom and Lee... are in Hawaii right now. *EPIC FISTSHAKE* DAMN YOU, PARENTS! Haha, no, I'm kidding. It's their 20th anniversary this year and they NEVER take vacations. They deserve it. And Hawaii is somewhere they both have wanted to go forever, so good for them! They're seeing the cultural center and touring Pearl Harbour, and they're going to go through the international market.

I told them they had to do the following:

1) Go to Pearl Harbour.
2) See a luau.
3) Buy me an awesome souvenir.
and 4) Not get eaten by a shark. O__O;;

3) My new turtle, Genbu! The one that I rescued a few weeks back. Until now, he's been living in a TINY terrarium that is WAY too small for him, the poor guy. But I didn't have anywhere else to keep him. At least he had a little pond and lots of food, right? I still felt guilty though.

Anyway, the pet store downtown that I got Aya from have an indoor pond that has some turtles in it about Genbu's size. Today I was downtown and I asked the owner if he might be willing to take Genbu and add him to the pond so that he would be living in the proper conditions. I explained the situation and everything.

He apologized but had to say no. Turns out like a week ago he went to a turtle rescue out of town and adopted three more turtles for the pond, so now he has six; and this maxes out the pond. He can't put any more turtles in there or it will be too crowded. He said that if he had the room he definitely would have taken him, though.

I told him it was okay, but kind of sighed because it's not that I don't want to KEEP Genbu, it's just not fair to him to have to live in such a tiny unsuitable terrarium. =/

So the owner kind of looked at me for a minute, and then told me that he admires what I'm trying to do, so he's going to DONATE a 170 GALLON TANK for FREE so that I can give Genbu the kind of home he needs. ;A; That is the kind of thing the people from that store do. They genuinely CARE about animals. It's not just a business to them.

I thanked him a million times, obviously. I still have to buy the filter for it, but that's a tiny amount of money in comparison. He even said he would deliver it to the new apartment once I've moved! It was so incredible...

I WILL CONTINUE TO SHOP FOR MY ANIMALS FROM THAT STORE FOR AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN BUSINESS.

4) Today I went downtown intending to go to Blockbuster to look at previously viewed movies, but when the bus arrived at the main street... there was a sidewalk sale going on. O_o;

Twice every summer we have a massive sidewalk sale where the main street is closed off and all kinds of vendors set up shop for the weekend. It's always fun and nice to wander around and look at everything. I usually spend $20 or so and bring apples for the ponies at the pony rides they set up for the kids. ♥

Anyway, so rather than just go to Blockbuster and then home, I ended up meandering around. I talked to the pet shop owner (see above lol) and got to pet their store mascot, Calvin the alligator.

I got a candy and chocolate cookbook, a set of meditation balls, and a couple cheap used DVDs from a bin (The Rats and Darkness Falls.) I also got a couple of leather bracelets for cosplay later this summer, as well as some phone straps for peeps I have packages for. And one of the booths gave me some free popcorn, which was deliciously yummy and buttery. :3

Haha, I did end up going to Blockbuster afterward, though, and I picked up copies of Skyline, Planet Terror, Paranormal Activity 2, Arachnia and Resident Evil: Afterlife for really cheap. Yay movies~!

5) AND! So, to raise some more money for Otakon and the 'States this summer, I've decided to have a huge bake sale. ^_^ I can break in my kitchen and have fun and hopefully make some spare cash at the same time. And then anything I don't manage to sell I can freeze or give away to family/friends or to the various charities around town. ♥

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: N/A: "The Rats" on DVD.

TL;DR version of the last week:

The apartment I was so excited over? Turned out to be a scam. Now I'm down $1200 (most of which Mom fronted me, so I owe her a fuckton of money again), and because I already gave notice at my current apartment the landlord has rented it to someone else starting Feb 1st. So as of Jan 31st I'm out on my ass.

Mom and Lee are letting me move back in with them for the time being until I can find another place, but even knowing I'm not going to be homeless... I hate it. This is the closest I've come to feeling suicidal in about three years. (Before anyone panics, I have thoughts/feelings like that relatively regularly because of the bi-polar, but I would never actually do anything about them.)

So basically, FML. FML SO HARD. =____=;;

.....

On a more upbeat topic, Sarah invited me, Mom and Lee over for dinner tomorrow, so I decided to bake a cake tonight to bring with; lemon cake with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries and a lemon-raspberry glaze. Will be nom-worthy. *nod*

Current Mood: crushed
Current Music: N/A: "Resident Evil: Afterlife" on Squall.

Mom came over today for a little while. I needed her to help me hang some photos, and we needed to go over the Christmas baking recipes so that we knew what we needed to pick up ingredients-wise. So she was here for about an hour... and after we finished everything we realized we messed up with one of the recipes, so we had to go to her place to get it and re-do the shopping list. XD;; *facepalm*

But we did manage to get the list done, and then went out to the bulk food store and picked up all the dry ingredients. Then next Wednesday when we go grocery shopping we'll pick up all the eggs/milk/cream/etc.

While I was at the bulk food place I got some sea salt and vegetable glycerine! 8D ...I know, you're all going "...so?" aren't you? xD; I'm trying my hand at making soaps/lotions/body scrubs/facial scrubs/lip balms and that kind of thing. The other day I made a couple of kinds of sea salt body scrubs (berry medley scented and coconut-ginger scented) and they turned out really good. I need to get some coarse sugar for the facial scrub that I want to try out. And I need beeswax before I can do any of the lotions, but it's kind of fun and I think that kind of thing could make good gifts in the future, assuming I get the recipes down pat. ♥

Hmm, what else...

Oh. =__=;; The fucktard downstairs neighbours? THEY OPENED MY FUCKING MAIL THE OTHER DAY. THAT IS A FELONY. ...unfortunately I have no way to prove it, so I can't do a damn thing about it. I'm really pissed off about it though.

Basically, I have a handful of things ordered for Christmas gifts, right? Well one of them came in on Tuesday. It's this cute little Pomeranian bobblehead for Lois. So I went out in the afternoon to check the mail, and found it unwrapped ON THE PORCH, half under the barbecue. I immediately knew what had happened, but my suspicions were confirmed that night when I was putting the recycle on the curb for the next morning and found the shipping box in their recycle.

So what's happened is they've opened it, decided they didn't want it, and then just tossed it up on the porch in the general direction of my door. You'd think they'd at least be smart enough to put it back in the fucking box. I'm lucky it didn't break. >__O;; Anyway, I have another figure that was supposed to be here a month ago that hasn't shown up, and now I'm wondering if it did arrive, and they just decided to keep that one. >/

But again, no way to actually prove it. So. -_______-;;

Anyhoo, time for a topic change before I feel the urge to bang my head against the desk out of frustration! 8D;;

So, speaking of figures, my formation arts Roxas came in today~~ ♥♥♥ He's only my second formation arts figure (I have Axel from the last batch; and the overdue/missing figure I mentioned above is the formation arts Riku from the same set as Roxas), but I luff him. :3 He's little and cute with his sea-salt ice cream, and I love the detail in the formation arts stuff. ♥

Other than that, I don't really have much to report. The landlord has finally gotten around to getting all the trash in the yard taken care of (thank GOD; it was like living in a landfill), and I've been working on new recipes for dog and cat treats with relative success (the cheese-and-bacon doggy biscuits from last night need some tweaking.) And I've been watching a lot of movies.

GO SEE MASTERMIND. GO GO GOGOGO! I loved that movie! And now I really want to see Tangled~

Oh, and tonight I dug through my books and decided to start re-reading my Animorphs collection. SHUT UP I'M STILL ONLY 12 YRS OLD IN MY HEADSPACE, DAMMIT. XDD;;

But yeah. That's pretty much it. .__. I'm a boring, boring person.

EDIT: MICHELLE DARLING, DO YOU HAVE AN ADDRESS IN JAPAN THAT I CAN MAIL YOUR CHRISTMAS STUFF TO?

EDIT #2: I'm randomly excited at the prospect of mailing things to Japan. idk why. XD;

EDIT #3: Oh... and after two weeks of keeping my lights down so M wouldn't bother me, last night I finally had the nerve to keep them on normal levels... and guess who showed up at my door? And since I'm way too fucking nice of a person, I answered. WHY? WHAT IS MY PROBLEM? I FUCKING KNOW BETTER! ...I think next time he knocks I'm going to answer again and just tell him flat out I don't feel comfortable with him in my apartment anymore. Hopefully that'll deal with it. ~_~;

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: The Brilliant Green ~ "Nagai Tameiki no You ni"

Today I was supposed to go over to Mom's place to discuss Christmas baking with her. Originally she said she would pick me up between noon and 1pm, so when I was still tired when my alarm went off at 10am I just reset it for another hour and went back to sleep... so of course she woke up early and decided to come get me at like 10:30. XD; Oh well.

She had a couple of things to pick up while she was out, so we went to Walmart. She needed yogurt and ketchup and diffuser sticks, and a shower curtain. Then while we were there we poked through the kitchen section and she ended up grabbing a couple of things for me for Christmas. lol yes while I was there. xD

I got a couple of LPS for my (growing) collection (and one that I'm customizing as a Christmas gift for Mom/Lee, but I didn't tell her that), some mini-cookie-cutters, and some catmilk for Tri (every so often he looses weight and I have to give him catmilk for a little while to help him put it back on.)

Then we meandered next door to the Walmart to look through the new dollar store there. It's MASSIVE OMG. I picked up one or two things there and so did Mom, and then we left and went to Subway. For foodz, obviously. Yummy sub was yummy!

We took our food back to her place and ate there, and then I did some laundry while we discussed Christmas baking/plans so that I have some idea what the hell I'm doing over the next month-and-a-bit, as I'm the one that does all the family baking nowadays. I pretty much took over five years ago and slowly everyone else has just... stopped making stuff. Mostly because I have a tendency to make way too much, so there's no point in anyone else bringing baking to the get-together. >.>;;

Anyway! We decided on the following:

-No-bake chocolate macaroons x1 batch
-Shortbread x1 batch
-Date squares x1 batch
-Buttertart squares x2 batches
-Broken-glass torte x2 (one is for Dad, though)
-No-bake fruitcake x1
-Lemon cream-cheese cookies x2 batches
-(Faux) peanut-butter dainties x1 batch
-Lemon-raspberry squares x1 batch
-Tropical cheesecake squares x1 batch

And also some kind of biscotti, but I haven't decided which yet. I'm also bringing two bottles of sparkling cider to the get-together (for those of us who don't drink wine), some eggnog fudge from Mariposa Market, two kinds of home-made cranberry sauce (one is cranberry spice and one is cranberry-orange), and a few different kinds of appetizers, which I have yet to decide on.

I decided to be particularly participatory this year, haha. Usually I just bring the desserts. ♥♥♥

I need a baking/cooking icon. =/

Current Mood: anticipatory

The last couple days I've been feeling kind of icky. Not sick, just... off. Bah.

So I haven't really been doing much of anything aside from watching movies and some rping with Michi. lol we're still rping in KH-zombie!verse. It's been over a year and a half now with the same rp. Then again, we're planning to piece it together into a fic, so the length and detail makes sense given that. And I can actually start doing that now that I have Squall and can load Microsoft Word. Yayz! ♥

Anyhoo, yesterday was groceries and this time I just needed a handful of things. Canned cat food, litter, kleenex, milk and etc. Then at Walmart I got a couple more packs of mini-ornaments because Walmart has a TON of pendant-worthy ones this year. On Saturday (when I have more monies) I plan to go back again as well. I also want to look for some Christmas gift stuff for Lois and Lee.

I'm actually mostly finished my Christmas shopping already. But I don't have anything for Lee yet (I know what I'm getting him, I just have to actually buy it come the end of this month) and I only have half of Lois' gift ready. I might pick up something else for Mom as well, if I can find something small-ish.

I also need more Christmas cards. I only bought a pack of 12 to begin with, and it turns out I need more like 20. xD;;

Aaaaaand then tonight I watched the new episode of Criminal Minds from yesterday, then the movie Dinosaur (an oldie but a goodie!) and now I'm watching Darkness Falls (another older one that I ♥ to bits~)

Tomorrow I'm going over to Mom's place to do laundry and talk to her about Christmas baking, as it's getting close to time for me to get started on it. As usual I'm making chocolate macaroons, no-bake fruitcake (for Mom; no one else eats it :P) and shortbread. I'm also making lemon cream cheese cookies again because they are ASDGH DELICIOUS. But I'm not sure what else. I think I want to try some new recipes this year. Maybe I'll try making some kind of biscotti! 8D

Current Mood: blah

Alrighty! Today was grocery day, as is every Wednesday. Woo-hoo. /sarcasm lol.

I didn't have much to get for actual groceries, but I did have to get cat food at the vet's (prescription weight management/urinary tract care food that Neko and Loki are on) and there were Sena-prescriptions I had to pick up too.

At the grocery store I mostly picked up some dumplings and wontons (they have these frozen ones that you steam and they come out DELICIOUS and taste JUST LIKE RESTAURANT GYOUZA/WONTONS ASDGH! X3), canned cat food for Tri and fresh cranberries for making home made cranberry sauce. ♥ I also actually found some eye-of-round steaks that were 90% fat free. Finding steaks with a low enough fat content that I'm willing to eat them is rare, and they were ON SALE OMG so I got a pack of two. :3 I might cook one tomorrow night!

And since Lee was driving and I wouldn't have to actually try hauling them home, I got another set of shelves at Walmart to complete my movie wall in the living room. 8D I spent an hour tonight putting them together and reorganizing everything and now they look awesome and I looooove it. X3!! Haha, I have room next to them for a small cabinet too, so I might pick one up at some point. Right now I have a stand there that I built out of DIY cubes.

At Walmart we also stopped to have dinner at McD's, and ran into Sarah and her fiancé, so we sat with them while we ate and had a nice conversation. The more time I spend with Arthur the more I like him... he has a very grounding effect on Sarah, and her complete bullshit has gone down a lot since she ended up with him. Just for that I approve of him, though he's also a really nice guy. :)

Oh, and this afternoon (before we ran into them) I got a message from Sarah about the wedding; her mother found out I was doing the bridal jewelry and wanted to know if I could design a piece for her as well, to match a set of earrings she wants to wear. I told Sarah I could probably manage it, but I couldn't say for sure either way until I had a look at the earrings. Basically, her Mom wants a large snowflake broach, which I think I can manage. I even have a basic idea in my head using fire-polished crackle beads and swarovski crystals, but like I said I won't know 100% until I see what I'm trying to match. And Sarah's Mom is like rich, so she's offered to "generously compensate" me for doing the project. I LOVE MONEYS. \o/

What else...

Well, yesterday I was out and about and picking up a few things. I needed rats for Aya-- my baby has graduated from fuzzies to pups!-- and a couple of other items.

I got some cookie cutters from Mariposa Market, as well as a bottle of sparkling cider to take to the Christmas get together in like a month and a half. I'm way the hell ahead of myself. xD;; And while I was there I taste-tested some eggnog-fudge which was just ahguisldfghuiadfgarngvu *DROOL* *A* I am so getting some of it to take to the get together as well. :3

And while I was out I got Lee a gift card to the music equipment store downtown, since his birthday is Friday. ♥

Anyhoo! I started working on some new recipes for dog and kitty treats for Christmas presents, and right now I'm in the middle of a decent maple-and-brown-sugar one. Just a little tiny bit of sugar and mostly maple extract for flavouring. They're pretty tasty. I still want to do one more, I think maybe liver flavour and bacon bits for "sprinkles". We'll see.

Oh, and today other than Squall arriving I also got the books I ordered the other day; two of them are for Dad for Christmas (Dragongirl by Todd McCaffrey and Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff by Terry Brooks) and the other one was a discount book I stumbled upon, Beyond The Body Farm by Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson. It's by the same people who did Death's Acre, which is one of my favourite anthropology/criminology books of all time. Which I lent to C.A. way the hell back in 2004 and still haven't gotten back from her. *facepalm* She's horrible about remembering stuff like that. I might just break down and buy another copy and let her keep the first one lol. So I'm really looking forward to reading the new one~!

I also got a little package from Maddie and Chloe today! Or, rather, from "Rufus and Reno Shinra"! To "Roxas". I LOLED SO HARD WHEN I SAW THAT. It was epically awesome. ILU GUYS, DID YOU KNOW THAT? It had a couple of buttons and some cute stickers in it. And caramels! And a pretty glass star pendant which I put on right away and am still wearing now. =3 Hehe.

And I guess the only other thing is the cats.

First; 'Dion scared the SHIT out of me today. This morning he was sleeping under the desk in the back room, which he does all the time because it's right in front of the baseboard heater. I went to sit down to check something on the computer, and reached down to move him... and he kind of flopped around and looked at me like he was half out of it, but not in a sleepy!kitty sort of way. His fur was also puffed up, which cats tend to do if they're not feeling well. This concerned me, and I took him back to the living room and laid down to cuddle up with him some-- which was when I noticed he was shivering. Not in an "I'm cold" kind of way, but in an "I'm in pain" kind of way. I cuddled him close and fretted over him and tried really hard not to panic while I decided if I should rush him to the vet or not.

Finally, he fell asleep and so did I. A couple hours later when I woke up he wasn't there, and when I went looking for him I found him playing and looking as if nothing was wrong. I don't know what the problem was, but DAMN, 'DION. PLEASE DON'T PULL THAT KIND OF STUFF. YOU NEARLY SCARED YOUR MOM TO DEATH. D8

I'm going to keep an eye on him for the next couple of days, just in case. But now he's acting completely fine, so...

Second; Got a call from the Barrie SPCA today, finally! Way back when I first brought Tia home, I called them and got on the wait list for having her spayed and Juna neutered. They were still too young at the time, but the wait list was about four months long so by the time they got around to me they'd be the right age. Sounded like a plan to me!

So on Friday I'm taking Juna and Tia to Barrie to be fixed, for $50 per cat. Let me say that again; $50 PER CAT. Instead of the $350/cat it would cost me to take them to the vet in town and have it done. They also say they can give them all their vaccines and etc. at the same time. I AM HAPPY WITH THIS PLAN AND THE COST INVOLVED. ^___^

I couldn't book 'Dion at the same time since he's still too young, but tomorrow I can call and get him on the wait list and in a few months when they get to me again he'll be old enough.

I'm really, really hoping that having Juna neutered will calm Neko down a bit; Neko is NOT Juna's biggest fan right now and keeps kissing and spitting and snarling at him, which I keep trying to dissuade of course, but it's not working. Neko seems to think that Juna is vying for Top Cat in the pride, which Juna really isn't. He just avoids Neko and defers to him, acts submissive, but Neko doesn't take that for what it is and beats the hell out of him whenever they cross paths. Luckily no real injuries have happened, just one or two tiny scratches and a lot of flying fur. Still. Hopefully once Juna is neutered things will settle down...

And now I think I'm done rambling. For now. And I have the munchies. So Imma go find something to eat. OMNOMNOM and all that.

*salute*

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: N/A: "Urban Legends: Final Cut" on DVD.

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Stealthy and sinister on the inside.

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