brightly_lit

We bought a cherry pitter and had a blast yesterday pitting cherries so I could dry them and utilize the bags of cherries I'd already bought from the grocery store that I no longer wanted to eat, because .... We finally got some fruit from our CSA--cherries--and holy shit. Is it just me, or has fruit degraded in quality since we were kids (for me the '70s)? I haven't tasted cherries this good since I was little, but they DID used to taste that good. I guess it's all the importing/exporting of produce, which I read they do because stores get produce cheaper that way, which ... ??? ???? How can EVERYONE be getting it cheaper?? The numbers, they do not add up. Regardless, I'm perfectly happy to pay a little more for produce that ACTUALLY TASTES GOOD that was grown nearby. Like, way more than happy.

Anyway ... not sure how long these delicious cherries will hold up, but the pitter is there if/when there comes a day when I need to dry/freeze them, too!

Meanwhile, I've also been drying the greens we don't like (there haven't been a lot we don't like, but mustard greens are nasty, and fuck kale), crushing up the dried leaves, and then putting some in whatever--smoothies, or today, meatballs. You can't taste them at all (EVEN THE KALE), but they add some nutrition and get used, huzzah!

Please, please, if you have any better ideas for mustard greens, let me know!

Thank you ladies for helping me figure out pesto, especially since I practically lived on the stuff earlier this week. PESTO. I've so far made it with pecans (DELICIOUS), although today I used mostly almonds, because I have a buttload of whole almonds in my freezer that have been there quite a while and probably the only way I would end up using them is in a blender, since they're a pain to chop, and not a lot of recipes call for whole almonds. I did add some pecans later on, though, because I find they're more flavorful than the almonds.

This is spinach, rapini, and garlic scape pesto:

(I added a little extra salt, pepper, and lemon juice to it; that's what's on the top there ....)

It gets thicker every time I make it. (And this was the first time the blender worked the way I anticipated it would! With the almonds and garlic scapes knocking together to help get each other blended; last time, it was really hard to get the garlic scapes to blend. GARLIC SCAPES.)

And then this is what the below-mentioned fruit did to my plate! SUFFICE TO SAY THEY WERE VERY JUICY.

(Hahaa, you should have seen how big those pictures were before I resized them! But actually, not having built-in photo-uploading on this site is proving to be a lot less trouble than I expected, FORTUNATELY. :-D)

I've had the good fortune and pleasure of getting to listen to Queen (and singing along with gusto, naturally) while driving lately, as it finally occurred to us to order their best-of 3-CD collection. A friend gave me a tape of the original best-of collection in high school, and we listened to that thing every damn day on the way to and from school. It made everyone in the car happy ... then and now. The 25th anniversary of Freddie Mercury's death just passed. Freddie, thanks for everything you were and everything you gave to us.

What are y'all's Thanksgiving plans?

Here is a video of Misha explaining why he was going to be late to Burcon. (He had to park his car and walk because he knew he wasn't going to be able to get there any other way!) This is a very cool video for many reasons--for me it's amazing to see 1) the number of protesters, and 2) all these people run up, give Misha a hug and a kind word and then run off again, and see how he responds.

s_c took a turn through our complex the other day and was called over to chat by a black guy ("People call me Q," he told her) and a white guy working on a car together. Q asked how she was doing; she said she was doing the best she could in light of the election. Both of the guys agreed it was terrible. Q asked her if she'd been downtown to see the protests. She said she hadn't. "I'm a person of color," Q told her, "but there are more people of your color there protesting!"

So maybe at least all this has accomplished that much: I've seen many people of color saying how deeply they're touched by how many white people are standing up for them. As a woman, too, to see how many people denounce the orange Voldemort (as a friend has dubbed him) based on his misogyny and racism ... our country really WAS divided, and is still, in one way, but in another, it's bringing people together. And I'm seeing way more people on opposite sides actually talking to each other--talking and listening. Maybe good can come of all this. Let's hope! Love to you all. <3

We're watching an awesome anime at anime night with s_c's brother lately called Dear Brother that takes being a high-school freshman in a "sorority" and makes it the! most! dramatic! thing! that ever! happened!!! Which I love. As long as a show is good, then by god, make it as dramatic as you possibly can. Aaaaand, since I was a high-school freshman once, I can attest (as I'd wager most/all of you could, too!) that being a high-school freshman girl really DOES feel that dramatic, so it's kind of ... extra realistic, in that way.

I voted today. Man, voting is so cool. I was disappointed recently to see that my favorite rock star said, or at least used to say, that voting doesn't matter, but damn, if fandom hasn't shown me how much it does. I may not be able to make our show win an online poll or the cover of a magazine ... but I know my fandom can do it, which is all of us doing our part, all of us together, voting. (And I know some of you have individually had a significant impact on certain voting situations where one is allowed to vote as often as one wants!) I say, if you think voting doesn't matter, look at all these people in the highest current and former positions in government, carefully deciding and then announcing their choice. They believe their vote matters. And their vote has exactly the same weight as yours. I fucking love voting, doing my part, learning what's going on in my community and being part of deciding how we go forward. All these people who take democracy for granted. It's not for granted, dammit! It's a precious right. Exercise it.

I think I'm the only person I've seen who liked 12.2 as much as they liked 12.1? I thought it was great. YASSS, Rick Springfield--sexy AND such impressive acting! More of him, please! Sexy sexy Jared in the sexy sexy sex scene. Of course the consent issue is cruel, but I am a bit surprised that a fandom that so loves their dubcon and noncon in fic is so bothered by it in show. Toni is over-the-top evil, which is kind of tiresome (I preferred her now-dead cohort in 12.1--a more interesting character by far), and yeah, Dean could've been happier to see Sam, but I suppose the number of times he's been dragged into a room to see his brother tied up and bloody has worn down his sense of surprise, maybe, and he kind of already had a lot going on what with mom being back in the picture and all. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they're dealing with both boys so desperately needing a mother, Sam's adorable eagerness just to begin to get to know her in that scene at the end, arrrrghhh. THERE'S SO MUCH FIC THERE, in mother and children getting to know each other as adults, having missed all the time in between, but I haven't been able to find a fic in it to write just yet. I want to see where show goes with it first, I guess, hoping they'll do it right and get out of it all that can be got. Mary really is the only thing that could heal either of those boys now, and god, how I want to see that happen! YAY SHOW!!

The one-word meme, stolen from everywhere, and even more fun than it appears at first glance.

1. Where is your cell phone? Elsewhere
2. Your hair? Messy
3. Your dad? Douchey
4. Your other half? SC
5. Your favorite food? Thai
6. Your dream last night? Stressful
7. Your favorite drink? Juice
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. What room you are in? Mine
10. Your hobby? Quilting
11. Your fear? Inescapability
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Content
13. Where were you last night? Driving
14. Something that you aren't? Ordinary
15. Muffins? YES
16. Wish list item? CDs
17. Where you grew up? Pueblo
18. Last thing you did? Write
19. What are you wearing now? Sweats
20. Your TV? Large
21. Your pets? Dead
22. Friends? Sweet
23. Your life? Expanding
25. Missing someone? Always
26. Car? Awesome
27. Something you're not wearing? Jewelry
28. Your favorite store? Target
29. Your favorite color? All
30. When is the last time you laughed? Now
31. Last time you cried? Noon
32. Who will redo this? Everyone
33. One place that I go to over and over? Parker
34. One person who emails me regularly? SC
35. My favorite place to eat? Nearby

Now then, go forth and prove me right on #32 (if I'm not the last to this party)!

So it turns out you apparently need to update your computer equipment every now and then. My computer's been getting slow and acting kind of weird, so in the process of [a long story about how I've been using various methods to remedy it], I ended up getting a new mouse (a USB mouse! Yes, I am aware this is not new technology, but keep in mind, for some reason I still have the keyboard and mouse from my very first computer 20-some years ago), and whoa! What a difference! Things are working better already. YAAAY!

I've been looking into Imzy, because it seems to have promise, but all I've discovered about it so far is that all the personal interaction and privacy controls I cherish about lj are absent in it. However, if you're itching to get on it, I have some extra invites--just ask if you would like one.

I have so much to tell you, and the backlog is gumming up getting anything out at all, and it's been like that a while. Hard things go on in my personal life, or here, and it's hard to keep at this blogging thing. But I believe in it, and I want to do it, and I really like you ladies, so I'll do my best to keep posting here.

I really love to play video games. Some people consider them a waste of time; I consider them an interactive art form. Plus, I'm really into technology.

There's this super-fun tower defense game I've been playing lately called Defense Grid, in which you're fighting evil aliens with the help of your Jarvis-esque computer buddy, who used to be human and had his consciousness downloaded into a computer. You learn more of his tragic story as the game goes on (the voice acting is wonderful), and it really draws you in emotionally. But the game is also fucking hard, especially this last level I'm stuck on now. I'm caught between my tenacious refusal to stop trying and the feeling that it would be nice to succeed at something for once. (Here is the diagram I had to make to try to beat this f^&*ing level:)

But the expansion packs are even harder, and there's no more Jarvis story in them, which seriously kills it by about 50% for me. :-( I mean, I like a good tower defense game, a lot, but a story makes a big difference. And this also counts for my 100 Days of Happy Day #6!

Another good tower defense game is Toy Defense. Toy Defense is a war game based on technology of the early 20th century, in which you ... basically kill scores of enemy soldiers in WWI/WWII scenarios. Hence the prominence of "Toy" in the title, the careful placement of obviously plastic toy war-game items on a "game board," and spinning wind-up knobs on the enemies' backs, because otherwise, it would be an intensely disturbing game. It's challenging and fun and frustrating and kind of creepy, but empty-feeling in the end, because it has no story. Plants Vs. Zombies, Garden Defense, and Defense Grid are all tower defense games that have good stories to go along with them, which makes them immensely more fun. I recommend any of those games to any of you who like playing that kind of game.

In other news, my SPN-cover EW still hasn't arrived yet. :-(

toratio and I were chatting on my silly post about keeping time via pie flavors, and she wrote an awesome fic! Go check it out: Slice of Life.

I MAY have made last night's series of posts in a state of manic giddiness that has now been followed by a crash of ongoing wakefulness and threatening illness, but hey, you take whatever leads to productivity when life's been sitting on your neck punching you in the head ... or at least dramatically demonstrating doing so, WWE-style.

So I really like watermelon. There's this thing they sometimes do at the store that they call a "premium cut," which I call a "watermelon filet" because it looks and is packaged exactly like a steak, in the styrofoam tray, with even the absorbent pad at the bottom. So after I ate it, it looked like I left a rotting tray of blood sitting around in my room. CLASSY.

Another thing we bought during our epic outing last night was lipstick, something I haven't bought in approximately 1.87 billion years. Not because I don't like lipstick--there was a time when I put some on every time I went out, particularly this one color I had that seemed like it shouldn't work and was really sparkly but also subtle and somehow worked really well. I got that lipstick from my mom, who loved buying Clinique stuff (one lotion in particular), which is so ^&*($# expensive that they pretty much always gave you a free gift when you bought something, which she often passed along to me. This lipstick was one of those freebies. I just wore it 'cos I had it and it wasn't hard to wear like so many of them are, requiring lots of blending or whatever (I'm lookin at you, Wet 'n' Wild); just put it on and go.

And I tell you what, this lipstick lives on. Though I haven't laid eyes on such a color in decades, it inspired then, and continues to inspire. Multiple people, after regarding it a while, would finally conclude they really liked it (that seemed-like-it-shouldn't-work thing), that indeed, it had some sort of mysterious, intriguing appeal. My sister, who had never been a lipstick or even a makeup wearer, started experimenting at that point. More pertinently, P never particularly liked lipstick until recently, and she's now a good-lipstick fiend, and when I brought up that lipstick that was the main lipstick I wore, she said it's the whole reason she's into lipstick now! Which is finally coming full circle, as she's getting me back into lipstick again after all these years.

So never let anyone tell you you amounted to nothing, because maybe you wore a free lipstick or something that had consequences that are still manifesting in multiple variations twenty years later. I AND MY LIPSTICK, WE STAND TALL.

On Tumblr right now, a blog I follow is doing a full week of MCR metas. This has enriched my life an astonishing degree. Meta is where I live.

You know how they used to have cool names for the months based on moons, like the Harvest Moon, and the Hunters Moon? Well, I have my own naming system for the months: the Pies. August is Peach Pie, when delicious Colorado peaches are so briefly in season. You can only eat so many peaches, so the rest get turned into pies (or frozen peaches, which later get turned into pies). August comes around? PEACH PIE. November is, of course, Pumpkin Pie. January is Pear Pie. AND SO FORTH.

Dean would be proud.

I thought I might want fries for dinner, but we were out of potatoes, so one thing led to another, you know how it is, and after four hours and two grocery stores, we returned home with a new vacuum cleaner and a wok.

There was actually something that happened tonight that rather redeemed accidentally running over a snake.

septembers_coda and I were just leaving her brother's house after an excellent evening of anime-viewing. As I opened the driver's-side door, I saw something earthworm-sized crawling past my foot. Very quickly I knew it was no earthworm--it was moving too fast! It was a little baby garter snake!

Naturally, it dashed under the car--then when I attempted to chase it out with a long weed, it curled up against then UNDER the rear wheel. Self-preservation is not the strong suit for snakes around here, evidently.

Fortunately, septembers_coda is the snake whisperer. It was too tiny for either of us to grab off the pavement without hurting it, but with some nudging, she was able to collect it in her hands. He was so fierce, opening his mouth REALLY wide, all ready to fight. When we finally got it, we carried it far into the grass and made sure it was headed the other direction before hurrying out of there lest he yet again decide the car was his refuge.

We saved a baby snake! It really helps a girl feel better.

Today's Top 5 at

spn_bunker was really inspiring, like, REALLY inspiring. I loved the way s_c phrased today's post, because I so strongly believe in that, that only light can drive out darkness, and only love can drive away hate, as MLK Jr. so wisely said in that quote that's been making the rounds.

Because the world is as dark as it's ever been in my lifetime. I take comfort in looking back over history and seeing that dark times occur with regularity in this world. In just the last century, my country and others went through the civil rights movement, and the world faced WWII and the Cold War. Though I'm sure WWII seemed like the end of days as it was happening, the world survived it, along with the Cold War, and we were better off after the turmoil of the civil rights movement, all of which gives me some hope that we'll be better off after these dark days are passed ... or at least that the world will survive.

Still, knowing that doesn't make it less dark to live through, except for the hope of a light at the end of the tunnel. I know we're always wishing there were some way to make things better. Sometimes it seems like there's nothing we can do, but the Top 5 post today, along with y'all's 100 Days of Happiness Memes you've been doing that I've been so enjoying (and at last have been inspired to participate in, myself), made me think of something we could do, however small, to create a haven of happiness and good stuff here in our corner of fandom. With more light in our own lives, we spread light to others, and the world gets just a bit brighter.

So I created this comm, which I hope you join! It's a place where you can share your 100 Days of Happiness posts, or just jump in and post any old thing you stumble across that made you happy that day, whether or not you're doing the meme. I also thought it would be lots of fun to do a Throwback Thursday event (I just love the weekly events at the Bunker, so I couldn't resist doing them in this new comm, too), where you post things that used to be Your Thing when you were younger, even if you can't imagine ever having been into it now; and then also a Future Tuesday event, where you post things you hope to have in the future that you think would make you really happy. I adore seeing your 100 Days of Happiness posts, and I thought it would be great to have them all in one place. Plus, who knows, maybe we'll make some new lj friends there. Here it is:

amilliondays

I called it a million days because, well, a) 100days, 1000days, and 10000days were already taken, and anyway, b) I don't want our good days to stop after the hundred run out!

And please spread the word!

( Read more... )

Dear Women of Letters who are denizens of

spn_bunker,

I love you. I love you anyway, but this post and all its comments fill me with such great adoration for the people you are. Thank you for telling the stories of the libraries that helped shape you.

<3 <3 <3

Finally going back and replying to some old comments in my inbox! Getting it down to a manageable size again. The Vegas trip, followed by the root canals, combined with a stage of great transition, really threw me off my lj game, I guess. And all my games.

That quilt, which spent some months in time-out in the closet, is now almost finished! One of the many things that went wrong with it (the gap in the middle on both ends due to size differences in the top and bottom) turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I somehow managed to leave several safety pins INSIDE the quilt, which I would never have gotten out again were it not for those gaps. I'm usually really careful about that stuff! But it's one of the potential problems of working on a project over a long period. And oddly, now that I'm doing the quilting proper (for me, generally the most challenging part), it's going really smoothly! I guess it got all its difficult-ness out in that one middle stage ....

I've been enjoying the anime Death Note lately quite a bit (one of those oh-so-rare animes that actually get enough attention in the States that Hollywood is making a live-action version of it!), or I was, but then after my precious, favorite character L died, I just didn't have the heart for it anymore. It was a beautiful death, even, and I guess I'm glad he didn't go evil before he died like I thought he probably would, but still ... it broke my heart. :-( Every night when I was watching it, I went to bed with this happy feeling that someone like him was in the world (even if only fictitiously), and now ... he isn't anymore. :-( Oh, well.

Also really enjoying The 100, when I have the stomach for it. And I thought SPN was depressing! I was pretty upset when they killed the one kid character I could stand in the very first episode, Jasper, but then he somehow survived being run through, so it was okay. ;-) The rest of the kids have grown on me, though, especially Bellamy, and of course, the ever-awesome Raven.

What's up in y'all's worlds and lives?

Title: Bloom, bear fruit, sleep
Author:

brightly_lit
Rating: PG
Word Count: 700
Genre: gen, ptsd, angst, hurt no comfort, confusion, memory recovery, remembered/implied violence, character study
Characters: Bucky
Setting: Between Winter Soldier and Civil War.
Summary: Contemplating the life cycle of plum trees, Bucky struggles to understand his own, and to figure out how to live in a normal world.

Ripe plums appeared at the market in late summer. All of the stone fruit did. Strawberries arrived sooner. The long days of winter with only a few oldening apples and pumpkins made the first appearance of strawberries so welcome, it seemed almost magical. Almost impossible.
( Read more... )

Back at the endodontist's today (yes, AGAIN):

Dental assistant: So, did you do anything fun this weekend?

Me: Yeah, actually--I went and saw Civil War.

Asst: Oh? What's that?

Me: It's the latest Captain America movie.

Asst: Oh. [sheepishly] Actually, I saw that, too. I just ... didn't realize that was what it was called.

Me: ...

SUMMERGEN IS BACK. YAAAY!!!

My favorite book for a time as a kid was The House of Thirty Cats. Well,

septembers_coda found it for us at the library and we're reading it aloud right now. It's really quite good, and almost distressingly me. Like, was I already like that and that's why I was so attracted to that book? Or did it significantly form me? It's a bit disturbing.

Anyway, typical of me, it's extremely obscure. I somehow managed to convince my teacher to read it aloud to the class, and everyone was so bored and not into it that she stopped after only a few pages, no matter how much I lobbied the whole class to keep it going and insisted it got much better after the first chapter (which it does, adult-me can confirm!). Those plebeians in my elementary-school class didn't know great literature when they heard it! But s_c is lovin' it. :-) I'm always delighted when I find something I loved in my youth holds up later on, because Bill and Ted ... not so much.

Today I thought, maybe I will be the person who writes the first House of Thirty Cats fanfic and puts it on the internet. And then maybe someone who likes my other fic will see it and give it a try and it'll bring a little more attention to this strange, brutal, vivid, wonderful novel.

... And then I see that my favorite musician is tweeting about the notorious "milk fic" and encouraging his fans to write the most horrifying fic about him they want, that he dgaf.

I got my second (hopefully last) root canal this morning, and learned that these abcesses have been weighing on my immune system a very long time. When you walk out of the endodontist's office feeling better--like, all over--and then you run an errand you meant to run eight months ago and you get to drive around in a different car from usual hearing new music and it's all rainy and your favorite musician is tweeting about obscene fanfic featuring himself ... it's a good day.

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Entries tagged with slice of life

Cherries

More About Pesto (Now With Added Raisins! Not in the Pesto, Though.)

I love grapes

Methinks thou doth protest just the right amount

Dear Brother

One. Word.

Update about updating

Your Own Personal Jarvis, a.k.a. 100 Days of Happy #6

Pie fic!

The Great Lipstick of Yore

It's finally Lemon Meringue Pie and the leaves are starting to turn

(no subject)

100 Days of Happy, Day #4

New comm I created: amilliondays

Bad Friday

WoL

Sundries

Fic: Bloom, bear fruit, sleep