It's been overly hot in Idaho this week. Thankfully, we had some rain to help keep the temps down a little. But the rain brought thunder and lightning with it. The thunder was a nice distraction but the lightning was a bitch. Dad was out on two fire calls today. Well, he was out on one for most of the day and got home in time to turn around and go back out. I'm off today and thought that maybe I would stay up until he got home but no joy on that front. It's time for bed, no matter if I have to work tomorrow or not! So I guess that means the fire season has started.

RL people keep asking me if I've gone to Facebook/internet for info on the firefighters that lost their life in Arizona. I've actually been deliberating keeping away from that news. As much as my heart goes out to the families those Hot Shots left behind, I just can't. Not right now.

I started watching Eureka tonight and I really, really liked it! Got 7 episodes under my belt and will be back for more!

I also spent $30 on yarn today! Oops!

My goals this weekend:

--Finish the edging on the blue/white afghan (first time doing a finishing stitch so here's hoping it goes well)
--Work on Amnesia fic (something I found in my WIP file)
--Make a list of books I want to give away (more on that later)
--Finish balling all the blue yarn
--Set up Tumblr for Yarn Tribbles
--Finish laundry
--Clean off desk

Can I do it? YES I CAN!

Come and join tv_universe! It's a land comm based on TV shows. Any and every TV show!



Tell them I sent you!

Wow! ( This is me talking about why I haven't been online the last week )

So, anyway, that's why I haven't been online. Amazing how a lack of oxygen keeps me from doing a whole array of things. Pretty much, if it didn't involve sleeping, watching TV or the occasional crocheting, I didn't do it. I even called off work for most of this week!

Funny story though. I just got my Carol Corp tshirt arrived in the mail on Thursday so I decided to wear it, because it was new, on Friday. My doctor walks in and she takes one look at my shirt and says, "Where did you get that? I need that shirt." I'd forgotten that my doctor's name is Carol! She wasn't that impressed by my geekspeach about who Carol Danvers is and why fandom as a whole needs to get behind her because she's a pretty bad ass hero (she and I have a great relationship where I feel free to tell her about geeky things and she rolls her eyes, much like my mother) but she was pretty impressed by the shirt. I hopes she does get one because there just needs to be more Carol love in this world, irregardless of who the Carol is.

We've had two days of miserable cold (for this time of year) and rain so while today isn't exactly off the charts with heat, we're spending as much time outside as we can. Gotta soak up all the rays while they're out. We get paranoid when the sun doesn't come out from behind the clouds for awhile. While we are a fairly sunny area (hence the ski resort being called Sun Valley), we've had summers (and winters) where we don't see the sun AT ALL. 1991, for example. The summer after I graduated from high school was the last truly rainy summer we've had and it was pretty miserable. I'm sorry that we've had a drought since then but we've deserved every sunny day we've gotten since that summer. I had to buy a RAIN JACKET. Like I was onboard a lobster boat off the coast of Maine or something. Not Idaho where we keep our water in our rivers, thank you very much.

I found a video tape of a thing we did back in 2001. That was the height of the Survivor craze. I think it had been around for two years in the States by that time? Something like that. One of the guys I worked with loved the show and we decided to have a Survivor themed birthday party for him. The rest of us made a "voting off the island" video and then we had a tribal council where we voted him off the island. We showed him the cool room and the cool cake and the cool food, played the video, snuffed his flame and made him leave the room. It was pretty funny because we locked the door. Because we're nice people, we did relent and let him back in. The video was my baby because I scripted most of it and then had to coerce the rest of the team into playing along. They're all goofs and were great sports about it but they were also "professionals" so had to be talked into it so they could say they didn't have anything to do with it if it came up. We were all SO YOUNG.

Right now I'm trying to post it to Facebook but, in retrospect, I should have tried putting it on YouTube instead. I think the download would have gone faster! So if I can ever get it online, I'll post it here just so I have a record of the fact that I was once young and funny. I'm still funny... just not young.

Will, the almost 20 month old nephew, walked around the house with one of the old phones tucked under his tilted head, saying a bunch of things we couldn't understand and pausing before saying, "Okay... okay... okay," for several minutes at a time. It was hilarious following after him, trying to figure out what else he was saying. I also think it's beyond hilarious that he comes really close to saying my name, smooshing it together so that it sounds like "AunShay" but still won't say my sister's name. Oh, he'll point her out when asked to say her name but he won't verbalize it. HAH! Got you back for Nic never saying MY name. HAH! The boys definitely have their favorites.

I got Amazon boxes yesterday. It's about time for a monthyly update of all the finds I've found on Amazon. I've started to buy K-cups through Amazon because it's cheaper than what we can find around here. Man, sometimes I hate living in a small town because the prices are OUT OF THE SIGHT but at least we have internet shopping and reasonable shipping. There's something to be said for only having to go through one hub before making it to our little post office. As long as we can get to the desk before it closes for the day (they cut our hours back drastically so it's a challenge), we get our boxes within just a few days of ordering.

Okay, I talked your ear off. *smooshes you all* Man, being unplugged makes me really appreciate you guys!

I am going to tell you a story of the Yarn Tribbles.



Remember back when my nephew was having his birthday and we made blankets for the Linus Project instead of giving gifts? Well, I told the coworkers and Beth loved the idea. She had two ready to go by the time his birthday rolled around.

Flash forward a month later. Beth is having a low point (we don't call it depression because we don't like the word) and starts working on a new afghan to send to our state's Linus Project. She's watching the news about the tornadoes in Oklahoma City and thinks, "I'm going to send this afghan to OKC." But then she realizes that this is her thing as she thinks back to all the things she's created for different charities. These blankets have just been the latest in a long line of things she's done that have made her feel good. Really good.

She told her mom about this and her mom mentioned it at her church, asking if anyone had any stray yarn they wanted to get rid of that her daughter could use to make these blankets (and the hats she makes for St. Baldricks and Operation Christmas Child, two other things I've set her on). I don't know if you have ever mentioned something like this at church before but little old church ladies love this kind of thing. It means they can clean out their yarn closet. Not just one lady. Not just two ladies.

We have Yarn Tribbles! I've brought home the fourth bag of yarn. The fourth GARBAGE BAG of yarn today. I'm spreading it out to two other people and taking some of the random odds and ends for any craft projects that the Littles may decide to make. Tonight, I'm undoing some half done projects and balling a bunch of all different colors. I do love balling yarn!

Yesterday, I ended up teaching two of the Littles to crochet which was fun. Right now, I'm the only one they know that does which makes me sad because I grew up with all my grandmother's doing some sort of yarn based craft nearly all the times.

Anyway, the reason I brought this up was as an excuse for why I haven't been writing much. Or blogging. Or much of anything that doesn't involve a hook in one hand. And also, I highly recommend it as a crafty project! And if you need an excuse to finish something (like I do), find a charity that gives away blankets! Ever country should have one!

I don't know if I can do this again this fire season. So much of Colorado is burning and I have friends who are under mandatory evacuation. The knowledge that places that I love are burning is physically hard for me to handle.

Is it strange that the Idaho fire happened while I was in Colorado and, now that I'm back in Idaho, Colorado is burning?

This could be a long fire season if Colorado is burning so early and Idaho is set up to be kindling by the end of summer. Dad (the local Fire Chief) and the others in areas around us have set up their teams to be certified to help out the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) fight fires on Federal land (around here, that's A LOT of land).

Now it's just a waiting game. Where will nature be responsible for the flames? Where will humans? How many people will be in jeopardy? How many homes lost? How much smoke will taint our air?

*sigh* It makes me physically exhausted to follow the news. So many tears. So much pain.

I let the dice choose the title! This is written for the writerverse An adjective, a noun, and a prepositional phrase walk into a bar... challenge.

Title Chosen: Odd Man For Hire
Word Count: 350
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original
Pairings (if any): none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/etc): none
Summary: She had no where else to turn when she saw the ad in the newspaper.

( She laughed the first time she saw the ad in the paper. )

I am now the proud owner of this print of Pixie, my favorite of all the X-Men. She needs a frame but I'm procrastinating. The artist was at DCC and I actually went looking for her a second time so I could get this print. May have to see about adding the one of Captain Marvel to my collection, as well!

So, I've been investigating the Carol Corps and even purchased the first Captain Marvel comic. If it makes me love Carol as much as I love Clint and Kate thanks to the Hawkeye comic, I may have found my new muse!

Right now, I'm working on several stories in the same "universe" that will eventually resolve into a collection. Not chapters so much as interconnected stories. Every time I say that, I end up losing my resolve after a couple or getting sidetracked. The good news about this particular universe is that the Big Damn Table for writerverse this phase has to either be used for one huge story or 20 smaller stories... all of them set in this universe. I know that some people have discussed the idea of one fandom being a universe but I'm going to stick with this storyline and these particular characters.

But other characters keep pressing to be added. Clint and Darcy may prove to be the only "movie" characters and then I'm stuck in the nebulous world of "it's not movie and it's not comics so what is it" that is going to get me into trouble. Well, not trouble. It can be considered an AU, I suppose. But ignored, for sure. Pity that all my "oooh, write in this shadow" stories get ignored. Sometimes I wish that I could write mainstream like everyone else.

I'm going through my notes from last weekend and purchasing (or wishlisting) the books I heard about on panels. All this effort has me thinking: I wish that I had "two" Kindles. One for books that have gotten good reviews from people I admire and respect for their reading opinion... and one for books that I get for free or from the lists I belong to that have dubious reviews. I'm so tired of wading through free books. It's making me rethink ever giving away my books for free. I think people wouldn't mind paying a couple of dollars for a well-written book. I'm so tired of free crap.

My rec of the morning:

As the River Loves the Sea And the Ocean And That One Big Lake by somehowunbroken - Written for badsexfic 2013: Anthropomorphic Fic/Reader. The fic isn't very good, in fact, it's full of grammatical and spelling mistakes, as well as containing some very poorly chosen metaphors. it tries to get the reader to like it by showing off how ~creative~ it can be.

(actual fic can contain smut as a way of getting the reader to like it, though the smut turns out to be as corny as the fic)

If you need something to smile about this morning, you need to read this fic. And then you need to read the comments where she explains the "plot" for the rest of the story.