I'm home! A day later than expected due to blizzard-y conditions in Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas, but home at last!
( Star Wars on Hoth... )

I'm a great aunt again for the third time. Just had to share this pic of 1 day old Lilah.
( Isn't she a beauty?  )

Book titles if they were written today, by way of Crooked Timber, http://bit.ly/rKKZ8. Make sure you read the comments, too! There are some hilarious titles in there!

After much arm twisting and other forms of punishment that aren't fit to print, er, well, maybe I won't go so far as to say that... 
welcome the brand, sparkling, new comm for the big guy, your big bear and mine: treatljohnright.  YAY!!!!  wastingyourgum has written some beautiful John fic since she discovered the Robin Hood fandom. Go join/watch right now!!!  

I am shocked. There were so many great entries in the Write Allan Right (WAR2009) competition over on treatallanright.

I can't believe the votes came in and I got first. Many many thanks to everyone who voted. I'm delighted you enjoyed "Where Our Hearts Lie."

And I got a beautiful banner from darkentwisted

I was at a conference the last two days so I'm in recuperation mode today--the brain just does not want to do anything too demanding. (Hm...maybe I shouldn't have worked on the bills earlier today!) Anyway, that means I'm not making progress on my original fic piece, nor do I want to think about reviewing the next chapter of Denial, which should get posted in the next day or two. I must be empathizing with my co-writers who are currently working their buns off in real life.

I did have a splurge of energy last night so I played with icon making. I wanted a new Allan icon for myself so the results are posted over there on TAR. I also made a couple of other icons and looked for pics to make even more. Found some good ones but again, brain freeze is preventing me from thinking about adding any witty or angst-y words on them.

I managed to download over 400 photos from my camera today. Getting those organized took much longer than I expected because the My Pictures folder on my laptop kept sprouting error messages. This is NOT a good thing and hope it is not a sign that I may need a new computer before I'm ready to spend $$ on that. I finally managed to complete that project, which includes some lovely pics of fall foliage
( under the cut... )

Updated the Fic Index and emailed one writer asking that she include previous chapter links on her multichapter works. The notes field allows a limited number of characters and long URLs take up space. :(   Plus, there's no formatting in the notes, so everything runs together, the URLs aren't clickable -- it makes it more difficult for readers to get to them. Sigh.

On the drive back home yesterday we passed a wind farm that stretched for miles and miles...I don't think I've ever seen one quite that large.

( windfarm... )

I still need to go complete the poll over on hllocksley and take a look at the new games/challenges that have gone up. Look at. Yep, nothing more. Won't even attempt to work on them!

It's your birthday, m'dear!! Hope it is the best ever!
( clicky for pretty pic! )

Wow... we are ready to post ch. 38 of Denial. 65,000+ words so far... and you should see the outline!

Our heroes and villains are making their way through 2x12, A Good Day to Die, and we have some interesting twists on the scene in the barn in Nettlestone. We'll be making a radical departure from canon at the end of our 2x12.

Gee, you wonder, what can be more radical than 'Legrand lives'? Remember... this is Denial and there will be happy endings... but there is a lot of angst before we get there! There will be stories about the gang's and Team Leather's travels to the Holy Land, what we call 2x12.5.  The writing crew has also sketched out ideas for 2x13: some chapters are written; others are still in the idea phase. We actually have more fics ready in our 2x14 section (the period between 2x13 and 3x01) than we do in 2x13 so there is plenty of opportunity for others to jump in and contribute to this craziness!

they are hot... and pretty to look at....
( sigh... )

Sorry I haven't commented on individual journals in a while...

thinkpink20 - hope that cold doesn't get you down! and go House!!
aliciabmanley - so glad to hear the doc visit turned out well! I know you must be so relieved!
rochvelleth - dissertations, theses, oh my!! best of luck meeting all your deadlines! 
darkentwisted & wastingyourgum - hehehehehehe - Denial rules! You guys rock my world!
*waves at everyone else on my FL*

Just returned from a trip to Delaware and Virginia around 10:30 last night. I'm exhausted.

My nephew got married, the last of my brother's 3 kids to marry. Steve is a cop; his wife Andrea is an ornithologist who currently is a researcher at a veterinary college at the U of Georgia. The wedding was gorgeous - outdoors at a country club - perfect weather for the lovely couple. The bridesmaids and groomsmen were such a wonderful group of young people. Lots of partying between Friday night and Sunday afternoon, followed by a 4 hour drive back to my brother's house in Charlottesville, VA. I love that part of the U.S. - in the foothills of the mountains - just a beautiful area.

I was able to spend a couple of hours with my Mom on Monday. She's in a nursing home there in Charlottesville. Her dementia is getting worse. She didn't recognize me or my brother, whom she sees every week. But we had a lovely time showing her pictures of the wedding and she enjoyed them though she didn't recognize her grandchildren or great-grandchildren or other relatives and friends. It's sad but Mom is being well taken care of. The staff seem to know her well and treat her well. It helps knowing my brother is able to see her regularly.

Work is going to be crazy hectic the next 3 months. More on that in another post.

Now on to... pimping time. I'm on Team Outlaws in hoodland an online community challenge between Team Outlaws (yay!) and Team Leather (Boo! Hiss!) based round the Robin Hood comms. Check it out!

I don't think I ever believed 2009 would go by quickly while I waited for January 1, 2010. But wow... it's the end of August and in just over 4 months I'll be away from my office, from my job, from the work email... oh joy oh joy oh joy!!!

I was just at the bank today to get a cheque in British pounds to send off for deposit on my short term rental. Did I tell you it's in Nottingham?!?!?  No coincidence whatsoever, none ...  honest! 

Now think about it. Notthingham is rather centrally located, 2-4 hours from many major cities and the universities I'll be visiting whilst in the UK.  Of course, though my sabbatical begins 1/1/10, I won't actually head to the UK until mid-March. : (  Wish I could stay for the entire 5 months but unfortunately my pocketbook can't manage paying a mortgage here in the States and renting a place in the UK for that length of time. So, I'll settle for about 9 weeks - 4 working out of Nottingham, 10-14 days in Edinburgh (where I'm attending a conference) and/or Glasgow, some vacation time in Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon. Hopefully by the end of '09 I'll have my itinerary mapped out - at least for the 'official' research visits I must do.

Why? Well... for JadeCon, of course - my Star Wars pals con within a con - the bigger event being GenCon - 30,000+ gamers.

I'm headed out for 3 1/2 days of mayhem with a group of formerly virtual friends. Many of us met for the first time in 1997. Our numbers have grown. Only a small number are gamers, but others related to our fandom (novelists, comic book writers, artists, non-fic authors, and lucasfilm reps) come to GenCon, so we not only get a chance to see each other, we get to see many 'professional' people who contribute to the Star Wars universe, and many of them are unofficial members of Club Jade (hence JadeCon).

So, I'll peruse the convention floor and scope out the exhibits and programming, and then head to our con suite where we have our own seminars, such as "Assimilate Your Friends" wherein we have 5 minute lightning rounds to win over our Jaders to a new fandom, movie, books, etc. (Guess what's I'll be pitching! Robin Hood - woo-hoo!!)  And then there will be a session on geek craftiness, wine & cheese tasting, filk writing, social networking, tech gadgets, and a discussion about the future of JadeCon.

It will be exhausting!!!

But first... whilst I'm in the middle of doing laundry and packing for the con, I must go proof Denial ch. 27 & 28 so they'll be ready to post over the next few days. Yep, we just keep rolling along... take a peek.... there's some good stuff in there! Remember, it's

I know, I know... I'm a week behind roh_fics rewatch. And I don't intend to do quite the analysis some of the other folks are doing but just wanted to go back to last summer (June 2008) when I saw Robin & the gang for the first time.

I'm not sure how I discovered the series. I don't have cable tv so I know it definitely wasn't something I found on BBC America. I didn't even know about the RH LJ community until early August, so that wasn't it. But I rent from Netflix, so I either: spotted the trailers on ads from Battlestar Galactica or Star Gate Atlantis which I was renting in May '08, or it came up on my Netflix home page as "you like X, you might also like Robin Hood".

Okay... I watched the old Errol Flynn RH when I was a kid (movie reruns) and didn't remember Much about it. I vaguely remember the Disney version though I don't think I've ever seen it. I missed the Robin & Marian movie (was that with Sean Connery?). I like "Men in Tights". I knew just a bit about the RH legends - steal from the rich, give to the poor, takes place in England sometime in the long-ago past (I'm a King Arthurs/Knights of the Round Table fan - okay that was a LOT earlier), a little action/adventure (the type of movies I seem to like best after good romantic comedies). And I like men in tights... so sure, why not! 

5/20/08 - rented disc 1 with episodes 1-4
By 7/1/08 I had disc 5 with the bonus materials in hand.
I had already ordered series 1 from Amazon by that time and pre-ordered series 2 which was to be delivered the first week of August.

And as a side note, my youngest son was home for a couple of weeks at the end of July/early August. He & I did an RH marathon after I hooked him on the first few episodes, and he got to watch the series 2 discs over a 2 day period before he left to go back to school in Texas because they arrived a couple of days before we'd expected. Woo-hoo! 

So... that is my tale of obsession. At noon today (CDT) I'm meeting 2 friends online to rewatch 1x01. I don't know if we'll just insta-squee or plan to post thoughtful commentary. I'll put an update or link (hopefully) over on roh_fics later.

Milo was inducted into the 501st! Too cool!! 
http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2009/07/31/milo-ventimiglia-inducted-by-501st-legion/

Okay... these people know how to have fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Hope you're having a fabulous day! 

( Pretty clicky under the cut... )
and click the pic for a bigger version! : )

You've probably seen these but

1 cool video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jy15r7pgfE

and 1 crappy interview with RTD: http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/07/24/backlash-shmacklash-thats-torchwood-creator-russell-t-davies-reaction-to-the-outcry-over-the-death-of-gareth-david-lloyds/

-- waiting for youngest son to arrive from Texas while there's this massive thunderstorm going on.... it does appear to have died down a bit but there were reports of 60mph winds and hail to the west (where he's driving)

-- waiting to see if I get creamed for posting the Denial update on the fic comm

-- waiting for a report from a contact in Nottingham about the short term rental I've spotted over there for my spring sabbatical - anyone reading this familiar with this place/location: Elm Bank Lodge ??

-- waiting for the boss to return from vacation so we can finally get the reorganization under way... I am reorganizing myself out of my current job but looking forward to exploring new things. Does 'burnt out' sound familiar?  Thank god I am going on sabbatical in January!

-- waiting to hear from my UK friends about their Harry Potter experience

-- waiting anxiously to have Lou post her first Denial chapter! 

-- waiting for this new plot bunny to hatch for Denial - really really want to write ... whoops, can't tell you... don't want to spoil it ...

-- waiting... 


update 11:52pm ... Jeff arrived. whew!

Nope. Won't go read the spoilers... especially after reading thinkpink20 's LJ cut line. NOPE. Not gonna look.  Season 3 starts over here on July 20th I believe, so I'll just wait in blissful ignorance. Waaahhhhhh.......

To darkentwisted 

May your birthday be filled with plot bunnies and lavender... of course! 
( You are the master at birthday banners, but I had to give one a try... )