Archive | September 2011

Thursday with the urge to spend

The more time I spend thinking about the new house, the more I want to Buy All The Things for it. Part of this is totally justified – there’s a lot of Things that need buying for this place. But I have to be reasonable (I hate being reasonable) and prioritize the Need It To Live, and the Too Ugly to Bear, and then the Decorating Things can come later.

We ha- I haven’t worked much on the house since Tuesday (T. spent much of yesterday over there, in the pouring rain). The bathroom is the current project, fixing some O_O and some WTF into tolerable, adding towel rods, etc.

The previous owners left stuff, and then for good measure, stuff, all over the place. The current found list includes:

At least 4 toddler trucks (the ride-on-them sort)
Two screw-top bottles of wine
8 gallons of paint, all opened
5 vases
1 set of bedding, incl. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pillowcase
and a bedframe.

***
meeks has illustrated (LJ) my story the Deep Inks; she’s also illustrated (LJ) ysabetwordsmith‘s poem Restoration.

(Comments help sponsor more work on the project; if you have not commented on Meeks’ work before, tell her I sent you! 🙂

ysabetwordsmith wrote a lot of lovely stuff from this fishbowl, but of the stuff that’s public, I like this the most.

***

Links of the day – a very small cabin and

via ysabetwordsmith, and relevant to my fae apoc history writing: a potential ancestor

***

Vocab will return when I’m less exhausted all the time.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/126750.html. You can comment here or there.

Fishing

Sep8

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “28) write a story set in a laundromat “

From dailyprompt: “choose again”

Stranded World.

“Go Fish.” Summer sprawled across the laundry-room table, staring at the cards in her hand, watching Mellie and Bishop over the edges.

“Really? You don’t have a green nine?” Bishop took a card from the pool. “Are you charming your hand again, Sum?”

“You know I don’t do that.” When she was playing with them, at least. “Mel, do you have a blue seven?”

“I do.” Her lovely girlfriend passed over the seven of rain. “This deck makes this so much more fun… ooh, there goes the dryer.” She set down her hand carefully and bounced off the table.

Stalled on her, Bishop and Summer shared a moment of watching the way Mel’s body moved. Under cover of the slamming of doors, he murmured to her. “Sometimes I can’t figure you out.”

“What’s to figure?” she shrugged, trying to keep the little pit of panic down. Lines of conversation like that never ended well for her.

“There’s this,” he gestured at the deck, hand-drawn for her by her sister, “yet you say you don’t ‘do’ that sort of thing. There’s the charms you don’t ever admit to and yet never deny, and that necklace you won’t explain that goes on display when we’re visiting your family. There’s you, acting like you want to be your big sister and your big brother all at once, theatre-business dual major. And you could have had anyone, couldn’t you have?”

“What, voodoo someone into dating me?” She laughed, trying to make a joke of it. “No. Fishing in the wrong pool there, Bish.” Mostly.

The List:
1a) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
1b) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
2) write a scene that takes place in a train station.
3) the story must involve a goblet and a set of three [somethings]
4) prompt: one for the road
5) write a story using an imaginary color
6) write the pitch for a new Final Fantasy styled RPG (LJ Link)
7) prompt: frigid (LJ Link)
8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called “The Long, Dirty Afterwards” (LJ)
9) prompt: mourning dead gods (LJ)
10) write a story set in three different time periods. (LJ)
11) Write a movie trailer style trailer for a story, existing or not-yet-written. (LJ)
12) prompt: sweet iced tea (LJ)
13) re-write a story that everyone knows (LJ)
14) write a vanilla story dealing with kinky subject matter (LJ)
15) prompt: ascension (LJ)
16) write a scene that takes place at the end of a long road trip. (LJ)
17) write an uncomfortable story (LJ)
18) prompt: a step too far (LJ
19) write a story in which something goes BOOM. )LJ)
20) Write the end of the story ‘The Purple Bag. (LJ)
21) Roll a d20 twice. Combine the themes of the two previous stories for those numbers. (LJ)
22) Prompt: White Knight (LJ)
23) write a scene that takes place in a place that is war-torn (LJ)
24) prompt: founding fathers (LJ)
25) write a story set in a library LJ
26) Prompt: Elemental LJ
27) write a story using only one period. (LJ)
28) write a story set in a laundromat

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/126621.html. You can comment here or there.

Wednesday (right?) with clearance and whiffle balls

Sep7

The former owners of our house were, we’re beginning to believe, very short people. Very. Short. We are *cough* not.

The ceilings in many places in the house are at about 6’8″ (2.03 meters). T. is about 6’4″ tall (1.93 meters).

We have spent a fair amount of time measuring things like light fixtures and doorways for T-head-clearance (and a few things for the rather shorter Lyn-head-clearance. It’s surreal.

More surreal? Generally, there’s maybe 6″ between the floor of the upstairs and the ceiling of the downstairs. Maybe a foot.

There’s 30 inches. 30 inches (0.762 meters) between the living room floor and the floor of the finished attic above. Yes, we will be (not this year) raising the ceilings, at least a foot (still not Chandelier heights).

This house has a lot of what-were-they-thinking. Today’s (via gchat):

T:…in here with me my moist and the cat
who thinks I look / smell funny
as I am moisted [[It’s been pouring for three days]]
whiffle ball removed from downspout on house
gutters work much better now
me: whiffle ball?
T: tho the whiffle ball did strain the leaves nicely
which clogged its little holes
yes
a
whiffle
ball
for
Fs
sake
me: ducks
where?
T: gutter over front door

So, yes. There was a whiffle ball in our gutters. O_O

Links of the day: lilfluff introduced me to this lovely short story, and although I’m not a huge organic-textiles place, I like this one.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/126453.html. You can comment here or there.

Against the Planners

Sep7

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “27) write a story using only one period. Bonus: write the story using only one /ending punctuation at all.”

From dailyprompt: “not a cloud in sight” and “set events in motion.”

Planners ‘verse.

There was not a cloud in sight that Sunday, nothing looming on the horizon, nothing at all to suggest that the consortium that called itself the Planners had set events in motion that would change, not only the world, but the future of the universe (this may, of course, be a little bit exaggerated, but at the time of the upheaval, it certainly seemed as if everything in the universe was changing – history was changing, the way banking happened was changing, government was changing, the structure of power in the known world was changing – all in all, it was an unstable and unpleasant time of change, and it was all due to the Planners and their infernal, internal, inheritable planning); the future of society hung in the balance, swinging on one comma in the Planners’ ledger, because that is all that any of us were to those people, commas, balances on a spreadsheet, numbers of acceptable losses (look at the way they planned out for this apocalypse, after all: so much food set aside for each city, so much medicine, put aside, even admitting “we expect an attrition rate of ten to thirty percent,” as if admitting it bald-faced like that makes it better, somehow; it was clear from the very beginning that they intended to set themselves up as the sole power left on the planet, and that only setting aside so much food for the rest of the world was part of their plan – and it worked.

The List:
1a) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
1b) the story starts with the words “It’s going down.” (LJ Link)
2) write a scene that takes place in a train station.
3) the story must involve a goblet and a set of three [somethings]
4) prompt: one for the road
5) write a story using an imaginary color
6) write the pitch for a new Final Fantasy styled RPG (LJ Link)
7) prompt: frigid (LJ Link)
8) write a scene in the middle of a novel called “The Long, Dirty Afterwards” (LJ)
9) prompt: mourning dead gods (LJ)
10) write a story set in three different time periods. (LJ)
11) Write a movie trailer style trailer for a story, existing or not-yet-written. (LJ )
12) prompt: sweet iced tea (LJ )
13) re-write a story that everyone knows (LJ )
14) write a vanilla story dealing with kinky subject matter (LJ )
1 5) prompt: ascension (LJ )
16) write a scene that takes place at the end of a long road trip. (LJ )
17) write an uncomfortable story (LJ )
18) prompt: a step too far (LJ
19) write a story in which something goes BOOM. )LJ )
20) Write the end of the story ‘The Purple Bag. (LJ )
21) Roll a d20 twice. Combine the themes of the two previous stories for those numbers. (LJ )
22) Prompt: White Knight (LJ )
23) write a scene that takes place in a place that is war-torn (LJ )
24) prompt: founding fathers (LJ )
25) write a story set in a library LJ
26) Prompt: Elemental LJ
27) write a story using only one period.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/126059.html. You can comment here or there.

Tuesday? With tired.

Sep6

Too tired for a real post, sorry.

The house is so much cleaner. Pictures soon. Still ugly, but we’re slowly working on that. Soon, Lowes will know us by name (one cashier already recognizes us; T’s height makes us distinctive).

***

Ysabet’s fishbowl seems to still be going – theme is pets and livestock 😉

***

We own a home. *boggles*

Also? If you were wondering, cluudle, CaprioxBovidae, inventrix and daHob are absolutely awesome people.

…we really seriously own a home.

***

Home decorating links!! Via Remodelista…

awesome table Linens (literally!)

Bamboo Kitchen! (have I mentioned that Pandas who are Lyns LOVE bamboo?)

Cork Bath Mat! *giggle*

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/125821.html. You can comment here or there.

30 Days Second Sem, Elemental Love

Sep5

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “26) Prompt: Elemental .”

Started out Stranded world, ended up misc misc.

“You’re wild,” he murmured, his hand tracing the line of her hip and flank, the tattoos inked there, the flesh stretched over the bone. “Elemental. Untamed. Like a volcano, like a waterfall. Unrestrained, untamed.”

“I wasn’t that loud,” she chuckled, both embarrassed and amused by his effluvient praise.

“You know what I meant,” he protested, smiling as if she’d said something very clever.

“I do,” she admitted. Others had said similar things. Others had eventually said those things as complaints, instead of praise. Instead of saying those things, things that were relationship taboo, she said instead, “even the waterfall and the volcano bend to natural law, my love.”

“I’m not sure you do,” he admitted, a little bit of his nervousness showing through. “When you’re dancing, I’m never certain if gravity really applies to you, and when you really get going, I’m pretty sure you break a couple laws of thermodynamics.”

Dancing. She traced his ribs with her fingertip, wondering why it was dancing this time. “Gravity applies,” she assured him. She wasn’t going to lie, but that was different than telling him the whole truth. “And I bow to all of nature’s laws, my beautiful darling.”

“Just not to society’s.” Now, he sounded jealous. “Some day, I worry, someone will burn you at the stake for all of that, wildflower. The outcast can’t live.”

“But I do.” She pressed a kiss to his sternum, and hoped he’d forget. “I do.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/125694.html. You can comment here or there.

Sunday with Waffles… and a house

Sep4

We’re watching the morning shows before we head off for more cleaning. We have new appliances in our now-old house… and a satellite dish.

I took a 4-day weekend for the cleaning; don’t expect too much onlininess from me until Wednesday, really.

Last night I spent time signing up for All the Sweepstakes… mostly in the theory that, say, 25 grand for a kitchen remodel would be awesome.

Speaking of contests, ellenmillion: http://www.kolcraft.com/65-anniversary/sweepstakes.html Baby stuff contest!!

And a daily baby-stuff contests http://win.parents.com/?psrc=S10114EO75D045

And a giant directory of sweepstakes: http://www.winprizesonline.com/

And now I go off to scrub my new bathroom. And figure out where to put the cat box.

How’s your Sunday going?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/125363.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Meme MOAR

Sep2

1. Reply to this post with “UNICORNS”, and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

limiinal gave me these:

Swirls!

Fractal swirls that remind me of tentacles, or trees, or tentacle trees.

Keep Sharp, Live Long.

I made this (image from Wikipedia, free texture, photoshop playing) when I realized I didn’t have an icon for my warrior character Lyuda and I wanted one.

Hammer

My go-to icon for DIY of all sorts, also sometimes crafts, because the line between DIY and crafts is a thin one.

KinkBingo

This is one of the kink_bingo standard icons for the community. Also, I like chains+throats *blush*

snow

I keep meaning to go out and photograph my own version of this (and write more of the story it’s from); it started out as a photo of what, I think, duck-footed walking looks like, but it fits the Blizarded story very well.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124946.html. You can comment here or there.

Icon Meme

Sep2

clare_dragonfly gave me these:

Keyword: Aldersprig.

barbary made this for me! I use it when doing 15-min-fics from Barbary’s website, or for things that seem to suit it’s along-the-waterfront mood.

Keyword: Leaf

An alder leaf, just the color I feel they ought to be. Personal-writing stuff, mostly. Or stuff I don’t have an icon for just yet. This is related to why-I’m-aldersprig, which is a longer story.

Keyword: mermaid2 (I used to have several)
Originally yoinked from somewhere on the web back when I had less-good manners about such things, it serves for both Fish Story and the flood series, and other people’s mermaid stories, and Ysabet’s fishbowls.

Keyword: Bookglasses (i’m so creative)
For readerly things and mechanism-of-writerly things

Keyword: Tea3 (I have several)

For tea-related moments – family/kin/community/comfort stuff. Also, I have that teapot.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124779.html. You can comment here or there.

Kith and Kin

Sep2

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt “25) write a story set in a library.”

Stranded World (LJ), Autumn

The weather was brutal, and the festival had been more-or-less cancelled. Autumn had still shown up, still set up her booth, but once she lost two pieces to the wind-blown rain, she gave up and closed up shop. Nobody was coming out in this weather, anyway.

There wasn’t much in the small town to do – a café, three churches, and a Chinese-take-out-place – so she headed for the library, ducking in just as the rain began coming down in buckets. She stood dripping in the lobby for a moment, not wanting to endampen the books.

“Oh, you poor dear!” A woman in her middle-second-century or so that had to be the librarian bustled out with a towel, wrapping it around Autumn’s shoulders. “Are you here with the festival? That poor, silly farce of a festival?” She moved her free hand surreptitiously in a pattern that, to a layperson, would probably just look like nervous hand-fluttering.

Autumn could see the strands she was pulling, though, warming the air around them, pulling the water out of it, as she patted the towel. “The festival, yes,” she nodded, wondering why it had been a poor, silly farce. “And I have kin in the area, I’ve heard.”

That gained her a sharp look, and then, moving the towel away, a very sharp look at the inkings along her collarbones. “I see,” she murmured, much of the fluttery-old-lady gone. “Yes, I imagine you do. Come in, dear, and have some tea, and I’ll show you our Archives.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/124512.html. You can comment here or there.

Alder's Grove Fiction

The Worlds of Lyn Thorne-Alder

Archive | September 2011

Thursday with the urge to spend

Fishing

Wednesday (right?) with clearance and whiffle balls

Against the Planners

Tuesday? With tired.

30 Days Second Sem, Elemental Love

Sunday with Waffles… and a house

Icon Meme MOAR

Icon Meme

Kith and Kin