My FL is full of Torchwood squee and I have not seen the episodes, so I will babble.

M:TNG-2 is having friends over to watch movies, so I cleared out of the living room and settled down with my computer. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I realized there was only silence and the smell of popcorn in the house. I let in a friend of hers, but the crowd that had been there earlier had vanished. The house had a vaguely Mary Celeste air, with the most eerie touch the bag of fully-popped corn sitting in the open microwave, untouched. Yes, teenagers popped corn and failed to eat it. And the friend said he had only a text telling him to meet them there, with no mention of an excursion.

Before I could call the ghosthunters or some other psychic service, they all reappeared with some explanation I cannot follow. Now, whenever there is a pause in the giggling emanating from the living room, I stop typing and listen to make sure they haven't been wafted off again.

Stuff is happening to me, but it's all boring, so I will link to various things on tabs open on my browser.



( Fish and flush )
( possibly the worst commercial Photoshop ever )
( but let's not mock the Poles )
( I knew it was just a matter of time before Iowa got blamed for Swine Flu )

Writercon is coming up soon (July 31 through August 2 in Minneapolis), and you're coming, right?

I've been put in charge of the fic library for the Con Suite Hospitality Suite. This is a collection of hard copy fics that people can pick up and read during the con. On the last day, most of the fics are put up for "adoption" so congoers can grab something to read on the way home. It was popular at the last Writercon and details for participating are here. I need more fics in a wider variety of fandoms and types, so I'm asking nicely.

Don't make me come after you.

P.S. Please spread the word on fic comms and forums.

Yeah. I never posted this. I wrote most of it, and just had to add a few pictures and never got to it. But I've realized that if I keep trying to get completely caught up with everyone else before I post things myself, my LJ will fade to blankness, so here it is at last.

I left off as keswindhover was bravely shepherding M:TNG-1 and I to Stratford-on-Avon during a bank holiday. We had a great day in spite of the crowds and the touristy aspects because Stratford is just what I always hoped, only prettier. ( click for the pretty )

I'm posting from my cell under cover of answering a text from my daughter. One boor keeps making statements he knows many of us will find offensive, then adding, "But I'm not supposed to talk about politics," and loudly changing the subject, thus ensuring only his opinions are heard.

...Fist of Death

But there is a cute furry caterpillar crawling along the deck where I've retreated. I will breathe deeply and commune with nature.

I've been torturing keswindhover with these; now it's your turn.

I recently found this site, which posts WTF? pictures found on real estate sites. In many cases, the Whatthefuckery comes from wondering how anyone could think that picture could help sell a house.

This is always good for my ego, because although I'm not saying I would never keep a lawnmower in the kitchen, I would have enough sense not to leave it there when ReMax came by.

Then there are the pictures that make me feel better about my lack of decorating skills. I may never do a good job, but at least I didn't do this. Or this. Whatever that is.

But as I look, I develop a reluctant admiration for the adventurous folks who had the nerve to do what they wanted with their abode, damn anyone else's opinion. In fact, some of these houses have a fairy tale aspect.

Oh, and there's a running gag about chairs on the site.

ETA: I want a camouflage bathtub of my very own. And either this house is haunted by the ghost of Dali or someone needs to have their Photoshop taken away.

I have three. Email me or comment if you still need one.

I've been following the situation in Iran, of course, and I'm very afraid for the people who are protesting. A big part of me is sure this will end in disaster. But I also keep remembering how I felt years ago when I heard that Lech Walesa had been put under house arrest. I was sure the Solidarity movement was over then.

I also remember a news report around that time. It was an end-of-the-year show, and someone had asked several prominent reporters what story they'd like to find themselves reporting in the year 2000. One said he'd like to report on President Walesa of Poland meeting with President Mandela of South Africa. I snorted in derision. THAT would never happen!

I know that Mousavi is no Walesa or Mandela, but the real heroes of these protests are not the politicians but the people in the streets. May they defy the odds. It has been done before.

Comment or email me. Let me know what your email is.

Some people should not be allowed to have Twitter accounts. And by "some people" I mean one of my Senators, Chuck Grassley. The Senator is apparently fed up with Obama taking trips abroad. He tweets:

Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND.

Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL.

No matter what you have to say, when your manner of saying it makes you sound more like a sulky middle schooler than a long-serving US Senator, it's time for someone to take the Blackberry away.

Several days into whatever it is that I've caught, it looks like I'm finally getting that day to flop on the couch and recoup, instead of huddling under the covers and coughing and trying to fall asleep because I was too miserable to be awake. It's been a very long time since I've been this sick. I have a Babylon 5 disc from Netflix (I'm up to season 4 on a rewatch) or I may yet try to watch True Blood.

During the brief periods that I was semi-functional and didn't have to spend doing work stuff, I bought a domain name. I'm now considering redoing my website instead of just updating it. Of course, I have no design skills whatsoever.

There is a huge bag full of pastries on the kitchen counter. M:TNG-2 got a summer job working in a bakery. I am just starting to get my sense of taste back and I suspect a daily supply of kolaches is not going to do my waistline any good.

I'm sorry I haven't responded yet to the people who commented a few days ago when I posted that I was sick, but I went and got sicker and am only starting to feel a bit human this evening. I can't talk, which isn't a huge problem at the moment, but presented a dilemma for work yesterday. I couldn't change my voicemail message to say I had no voice and suggest that people email me. Someone kept calling and hanging up instead of leaving a message. After several tries, he did email me, but not before I was tempted to pick up the phone and scare him by making a faint, ghostly, rasping noise.

I'm living on chicken soup, yogurt, tea with honey in it, hard candy, and ginger beer. I'm getting very sick of most of those things. At least today was Saturday and I could spend most of my time in bed.

I think he's given me whatever nasty cold or strep he had last week. I bailed on work this afternoon and I'm actually debating going to the doctor about it.

My family's taking care of me though. He's working tonight but M:TNG-2 is bringing me soup.

If I'm still sick tomorrow and go into veg mode in front of the TV, do I start watching all those DVR'd episodes of Dollhouse or should I watch True Blood? I haven't seen any episodes of either one yet.

George Tiller shot to death at Wichita church

George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.

Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. at Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.

No information has been released about whether a suspect is in custody.

ETA: These are the services he provided. It wouldn't have been easy work, even without the threats, abuse, and legal challenges.

Fetal Indications Termination of Pregnancy Program

ETA: Apparently, they've arrested the guy. Not bothering to link because the story pages are being updated every few minutes.

Okay, I've had a few drinks, but seriously, what the FUCK? Who are the men who think this way in the US in the freaking 21st century and how did they ever gain entry into the same sex that produced my feminist husband?

[M]arriage is concerned above all with female sexuality...The very existence of kinship depends on the protection of females from rape, degradation, and concubinage...This is why marriage between men and women has been necessary in virtually every society ever known. Marriage, whatever its particular manifestation in a particular culture or epoch, is essentially about who may and who may not have sexual access to a woman when she becomes an adult, and is also about how her adulthood–and sexual accessibility–is defined...This most profound aspect of marriage–protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex–is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage...

Few men would ever bother to enter into a romantic heterosexual marriage–much less three, as I have done–were it not for the iron grip of necessity that falls upon us when we are unwise enough to fall in love with a woman other than our mom.

Not to mention this blatant envy of teh Ghey:

Can gay men and women be as generous as we straight men are? Will you consider us as men who love, just as you do, and not merely as homophobes or Baptists? Every day thousands of ordinary heterosexual men surrender the dream of gratifying our immediate erotic desires. Instead, heroically, resignedly, we march up the aisle with our new brides, starting out upon what that cad poet Shelley called the longest journey, attired in the chains of the kinship system–a system from which you have been spared.

Please, spare me your generosity. Please.

ETA: I just saw this gem at the original source. "[T]he illicit or licit nature of heterosexual copulation is transmitted to the child, who is deemed legitimate or illegitimate based on the metaphysical category of its parents' coition." He must be joking. Please tell me he's joking. It is 2009.

Bet you thought I forgot about this.






( here be photos )

I'll continue in another post as this is getting very picture heavy, and I have to make sure I have some documents ready for work tomorrow.

No, not that kind of furry.

I have three bird feeders in my yard. One is old and falling to bits and one is a recent gift that seems to be not only squirrel-resistant but also bird-resistant (although I may just need to try another type of bird food), so I haven't been filling it. A third fell apart recently, and I suspect a squirrel of helping to detach the stand from the base, spilling seeds all over the yard. I replaced that one yesterday, and the birds seem to like the new one.

I also refilled the old one yesterday, deciding it might as well serve its purpose until it actually fell to bits. This afternoon, I found it in this condition:



I thought it had just died a natural death until I saw this on the ground:



It's all gray fur, no feathers and no blood. So, I ask those on my FL with far greater knowledge of natural science than I (that would be all of you), what happened here? Obviously, the replacement of the broken feeder with another that it couldn't access drove the squirrel to the old, decrepit one. But what next? Did one of those owls I hear hooting at night come along and snatch up the squirrel as it tried to raid the feeder? Did it get into a fight with a bird over custody of the sunflower seeds? Or did the stupid thing just fall in and lose a sizable chunk of fur trying to crawl back out?

ETA: I am apparently out one birdfeeder, but I do have a Dreamwidth code if someone wants it.

My mother lives in the same town as these people, but I am pleased to say that her house looks nothing like the one described in this article.

Richard and Amanda Peacock spent five years building their dream home, a 10,000-square-foot, orange mansion overlooking the ocean here. They filled it with leopard-skin chairs, pinball machines, antique Coca-Cola signs and six sports cars. It had a room full of 100 hunting trophies -- including a hyena and the head of an elephant -- and an aviary out back housing eight rare parrots...

They bought a piece of oceanfront property for $4 million and spent the next four years, and another $4 million, building the mansion. It has six bedrooms, seven-and-a-half baths, a gym and a barbershop and salon. Outside there's a waterfall, tiki bar and aviary. The couple designed much of the furniture themselves, including the gold and leopard-skin dining-room chairs.

"Richard likes leopard skin, and I like gold, so it was the perfect match," says Mrs. Peacock.

The sprawling "trophy/game room" is stocked with dozens of antique road signs, life-size statues of Muhammad Ali and Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, antique gas pumps and a cigar-store Indian. Stuffed hunting trophies spill throughout the house, including the fang-baring baboon in the guest room. Mr. Peacock says he doesn't hunt.

The larger story, of course, is how many people who engaged in conspicuous consumption over the past few years are starting to feel the pinch, but this article mostly left me feeling sorry for the parrots.

ETA: OMG, there's a slideshow.

Sorry, I briefly posted here a ficlet that is part of my seasonal_spuffy posts for this round. The fics, based on the poetry theme, can be found here.

When I left off, I was writing about going to Italy and being overwhelmed by Florence. Our last full day there, we hit the countryside and were overwhelmed by Tuscany in general.



( towers, churches, wine and gelato )

Next: England