Sarcastic Scribblings

09:36 pm - Still living, still babbling

So I was nudged by andrian1 and figured I’d better make good on my promise to post more often. Hey, last time it was 33 weeks since posting, so 12 weeks is an improvement!! ;)

Lessee…. What have I been doing lately? Been traveling to DC a lot to go to Redskins games, which is fun but has been disheartening lately *mutter mutter no offensive line protecting the qb mutter mutter*, dealing with homework and all that fun kid-related stuff. I’ve seen the new Bond, Twilight, and Bolt (enjoyed all three) in the last month or two, and am salivating over the new Half Blood Prince trailer. Salivating, I tell you!!

Speaking of Harry Potter, most of you I met via fandom and fanfic, so you might understand this babbling.

( Fanfic Babbling )

Current Mood: sleepy

07:46 pm - She lives!

Yes, I’m still alive! I’ve been lurking and reading, but it took an intriguing meme to break my 33 weeks with no LJ post streak! That’s down at the bottom, after the babbling.

This summer was great, but busy – Prince Brat joined the swim team and did really well… his whole team did. They ended up undefeated and have moved up a division – woo! We put in an above-ground pool and spent a lot of time out there on the weekends when we weren’t running around. Traveled a bit – Ohio’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and HoF game for our anniversary, Philadelphia for Wizard World, Atlanta for general tourism and DragonCon – man, was DragonCon awesome this year! I even ran into droxy in her full Snape regalia! I’ll get that post up in a few days, once I sift through the pictures :).

Current Mood: chipper

02:25 pm - SW Fanfic: Severing the Past - Chapter Twenty-One

Many thanks to butter_cup_ for her excellent beta services on this chapter!

Darth RL and Darth WB (writer's block) have finally allowed me some respite, and so I give you the final chapter of Severing the Past (well, except for the epilogue).

Thanks to all the readers and special thanks to everyone who's commented :). I hope you can all forgive me for the length of time between the last update and this one – my sincere apologies once again.

Author: Wendynat
Title: Severing the Past
Rating: PG
Pairings: None
Genre: Adventure/Gen
Time Period: RotS and Intertrilogy
Warnings: Possible RotS spoilers
Summary: Two Padawans escape the attack on the Jedi Temple and, in their quest to seek out other survivors, are swept into adventures they never expected.
Disclaimer: If Star Wars was mine, I wouldn't be sitting in this small hovel of a home, writing fanfic and watching my dog lick himself. Instead, I'd be buying small islands and swimming in my seas of gold.

Prologue and Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty

Current Mood: creative

12:36 pm - Sad Post :(

RIP, Robert Jordan.

I met Rand al'Thor in 1993, when I was headed back from college for Winter Break. I needed something to read on the plane, as I'd forgotten my books back at the dorm, and saw The Eye of the World. It looked interesting, a Tolkien-esque style fantasy, and so I grabbed it.

And I was hooked.

I was with Rand through the good times (early books), the slow times (middle books), and the improving times (recent books). Now, I won't be with him at the end, because the end won't come. Yes, RJ made certain to leave notes and taped information for his cousin and his wife, and the partially-completed final book will most likely be completed by his wife, working with Tor. 

But it won't be the same, and we all know it.

Current Mood: sad

04:33 pm - Dragoncon 3 - Sunday

Dragoncon post from Sunday! Need I tell you that the cut below is picture heavy? Need I?? 

Well, it is.

Current Mood: relaxed

04:05 pm - Dragoncon 2 - Saturday

 On with the Dragoncon posts! See last post for Friday and real intro. Click on cut link below for more babbling and pictures... including Phelps twins and Matthew Lewis! 

Current Mood: relaxed

03:28 pm - Dragoncon Post 1 - Overview and Friday

Long time, no see! First of all - many, many thanks to everyone who left me birthday wishes for today despite the fact that I've been largely nonexistant on LJ lately . Second of all - DRAGONCON!!!!

I still owe pictures from Celebration 4 and Phillie ComicCon, but I figured I'd go with most recent first then fill in the oldies but goodies ;). Yes, we did attend Dragoncon last weekend, and it was utterly awesome, fun, and tiring. Took Prince Brat to this one, and traveled with friends who also have a youngster Prince Brat's age. 

Best thing about Dragoncon - they offer childcare via a local professional company. Prince Brat and FriendofPrince Brat LOVED the childcare, and we LOVED being able to go to panels without having to juggle kidling duties. Yay for Dragoncon! 

It was a lot of fun. We drove, which we may rethink next year, as it limited our time at the con for Monday (Virginia schools let back in the day after Labor Day, so had to be back in time for a well-rested Prince Brat to attend his first day of first grade Tues). We stayed at the Residence Inn a couple of blocks away from the three convention hotels, which we'll DEFINITELY do again next year. Great hotel, nice and quiet, and with younglings along I really didn't want to be in the party-all-night-long convention hotels. If we were kidless, though....... ;)

OK, enough babbling! Time for pictures and specifics! 

Current Mood: relaxed

07:21 am - Deathly Hallows

LJ is finally blocked at work, really blocked so I can't get around it ("blog" categories are now bye-bye-bye!) but I wanted to put this out there before this evening when I'll have time to post some piccies from C4 and the DH release party...

Current Mood: cranky

10:28 am - She lives!

Sort of.

First of all, Happy Birthday to leianora (and to everyone else who had birthdays during my absence)!! Thanks for the nudge... I've been so busy I didn't even realize it's been three months since my last update. Yikes!
( Babble Babble Babble )

Current Mood: chipper

08:11 pm - TS-9974 Reporting for Duty

Popping in to report some good news - rualon and I are both official members of the 501st Legion, thanks to our snowtrooper costumes FINALLY being completed. (Now that they're done, I can have more free time to finish my StP chapter! It's almost there, I promise...)

Anyhoo, yesterday we, along with other members of the 501st, headed to the Norfolk R2D2 mailbox for a short troop, then stopped off at Kelly's Tavern across the street where the bartender allowed us to take some fun photos behind his coveted bar ;).

The armored characters are SO MUCH FUN to portray! You can have whatever expression you want underneath the helmet, and people just flock around for pictures. And having a big (fake) gun is pretty cool, too ;). Can't wait for Celebration 4.

Of course, no Star Wars costuming post would be complete without gratuitous picspamming!! Dial-up users, beware!

( Snowtroopers!!! )

Current Mood: pleased

11:12 pm - SW Fanfic: Severing the Past - Chapter Twenty

Many thanks to butter_cup_ for all of her help with this chapter!!

It's true, it's really, really true: I've updated. To make everyone who's following the story (if anyone still is) happier, I'm 85% done with the next chapter already, and it WILL be up within the next two weeks even if I have to play hooky from work to do it. We are definitely on the home stretch – the next chapter will be the final chapter of the main story, to be followed only by the epilogue.

Thanks to all the readers and special thanks to everyone who's commented :). I hope you can all forgive me for the length of time between the last update and this one – my sincere apologies once again.

Author: Wendynat <-- me!!!!
Title: Severing the Past
Rating: PG
Pairings: None
Genre: Adventure/Gen
Time Period: RotS and Intertrilogy
Warnings: Possible RotS spoilers
Summary: Two Padawans escape the attack on the Jedi Temple and, in their quest to seek out other survivors, are swept into adventures they never expected.
Disclaimer: If Star Wars was mine, I wouldn't be sitting in this small hovel of a home, writing fanfic and watching my dog lick himself. Instead, I'd be buying small islands and swimming in my seas of gold.

Prologue and Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen

Current Mood: accomplished

09:11 am - This is why I'm a Data Mgmt Analyst, not an Applications Analyst...

How pathetic is it that I get paid to do computer work for a living, but I can't install the new version of YIM without fubar-ing it all up? I clicked "OK" on something during the install that evidently went to my old Yahoo address book and re-sent invites to everyone (and their alter ego, their pets, and their cars probably). So, my apologies if you get weird stuff from my Yahoo Instant Messenger program.

It's been forever since I posted - I've been trying to keep up with the friends list, though, even when I don't comment I'm reading as much as I can. A summary of major life portions over the past few months:
( Summary! )

04:51 pm - Monday Musings

Yes, yes, been forever since I posted. That might change this weekend, since I've got a few days off (yay Holiday Season!!).

Things that have kept me from LJ this time: Work work work, Star Wars club stuff, Prince Brat's multiple plays (he was the lead in one of them! Total ham. No idea where he gets that from), shopping, working with Prince Brat on his writing (his schoolwork looks like it was penned by a retarded chipmunk on meth, but it's improving).

I don't even have anything profound to write about here. We did the Alzheimer's Memory Walk for the Star Wars club, are working on some new costume events for charity, and hubby and I have ordered our snowtrooper armor and duster jackets. CAN'T WAIT!! WooT! The kids always flock to the armored characters over the plain ol' Jedi and Sith, so it'll be fun to have both options for events.

Only bit of pretend profound-ness I can think up is a sorta meme, sorta I'm curious. I get teary-eyed in certain movies, even ones I've seen a gazillion million times. So I was wondering which movies made my flist get all teary? Here're the official questions:

1. Name one (or more, I'm easy) tear-jerker movie scene that always makes you tear up.
2. Name one (or more, I'm still easy) embarassing-if-anyone-knew movie scene that always makes you tear up.

( My answers )

Current Mood: contemplative

11:26 pm - SW Fanfic: The Dutiful Wife -- PG -- Chapter Seven

A/N: Huge thanks to butter_cup_ for her excellent beta!

My apologies for this post being beyond late – real life hit in a very, very big way but I hope to get on a more reasonable schedule soon. I imagine readers might need to check out the end of the previous chapter to remember where we are at the beginning of Chapter Seven, so the links for all previous chapters are below. I hope it's worth the wait and, as always, I love feedback (even if most of it will be "omg you stupuid wench - why haven't you posted in 10 months???")

Title: The Dutiful Wife
Author: Wendynat
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: PG
Timeframe: Intertrilogy and OT
Summary: The wife of an Imperial officer struggles to maintain her sanity and her vision of the truth while wearing the mask of dutiful wife, but when she meets a member of the Rebellion, her duty and her desires clash.


Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six

( Chapter Seven )

Current Mood: accomplished

07:50 am - Wishing Webb Wins - Election talk

As everyone knows who reads this, I live in lovely VA. The one big drawback of lovely VA is that it's as red as red gets.

Well, maybe.

I have my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed for Webb! Go, Webb! They're in a dead heat, with Webb slightly ahead right now.

This is really a big surprise. Just a few months ago, George Allen was a shoe-in for the seat. He was being talked about as a possible runner for 2008 or 2012. But people seem to want a change, and badly, and his own little "accidental" comments about race, etc, certainly didn't help him any.

OK. That was my cheerleader/political comment of the day. I'll post more later, because the heavy weight of guilt is HALF off me, since I finished a chapter of TDW last night. It'll be with the beta until Sunday or Monday, but I don't dare post before it's been looked over. I learned my mistake ;). Now to work on Severing the Past, and I'll have the other half of guilt off my back.

In short, yep, I'm alive. Yep, I actually had a couple of hours yesterday to write AND didn't have writer's block at the same time. Yep, I'm still working a lot, in the office during the day then dialing in at night after Prince Brat is in bed. Yep, will write a bigger post later.

Hugs to those that need them...

Current Mood: Hoping Webb wins

09:51 pm - It's an SUV, not a Hovercraft, idjit

Yes, even a big ol' SUV can't walk on five feet of water, asshat! That made my morning, seriously. I needed something to make my morning, since my idea of fun does NOT include wading through a quarter mile of knee-deep water to get my son from daycare. Prince Brat, of course, thought it was wildly exciting. "An adventure", he dubbed it :).

( Boring story of water, rolled up pants, and adventure )

Current Mood: tired

10:37 pm - Alaska trip pics - Post 4: Icy Strait and Victoria

We really loved Icy Strait Point. It's a new port, just opened to cruise ships three years ago, and only RCI can go there (and Celebrity, since they're the same company). It didn't have all the jewelry stores and typical port-of-call shops that are owned by the cruiselines - and most of the workers were native Alaskans.

We got dungeness crabs at this AWESOME local restaurant called the Office Bar. It was in town and they cook the crabs, fresh-caught, out in front of the restaurant. A whole crab was 15 bucks, and it tasted WAY better than the frozen dungeness we get here on the East Coast. The owner kept coming by our table, and near the end of our meal she asked hubby if she could get a picture with him - he looks exactly like her younger brother, who she hadn't seen in 20 years. She even got teary-eyed, which made me teary-eyed... We had a great conversation with her, and traded contact info. Her brother looks full Tlingit, evidently, while she looked more like the typical half-white, half-Tlingit.

We did a nature walk and ate crabs, and looked at the local artists' shops. Bought a bone-handled ulu knife and had it shipped home to avoid all the "you can't bring an ultra-sharp blade on board" junk when we got back to the ship ;).

Anyhoo - here's pics!
( Pics - Icy Strait Point )

Victoria, BC was our last port. It was absolutely beautiful - flowers EVERYWHERE, even on street signs! It was also in the 70s, which was nice. Especially since that's the day it was 103 here in Va Beach ;).

( Pics! )

Current Mood: chipper

10:14 pm - Alaska trip pics - Post 3: Skagway

Skagway was a really cool town. Lots of history. It was formed during the gold rush, and sits in a valley at the base of the mountains where the gold rushers were rushin' for gold ;). As a result, it had some pretty active brothels to erm... "help the men relax" when they came down off the mountain. They converted them to restaurants and tourist traps, and were great fun.

Skagway pics - image heavy! I'd stop warning about that, but if I do then someone will whine about their modem whirring like a hamster on speed because of my evil pictures. So - IMAGE HEAVY! ;)

( Pics )

Current Mood: chipper

09:49 pm - Alaska trip pics - Post 2: Juneau

One sea day, with some minorly rough seas, and then we were in Juneau. One more advantage to the inside cabin, for us, was the extra cash left over for excursions. I booked - independent from the ship, for about half price - a helicopter flight to a glacier. We flew to Herbert Glacier that day.

Juneau pics behind the cut - IMAGE HEAVY!!!!
( Pics )

Current Mood: chipper

09:28 pm - Alaska trip pics - Post 1: Seattle and Ship

We left out of Seattle, roundtrip. Royal Caribbean - really loved the cruiseline. Lots of fun, great activities, way too much to do in one day. Which is better than being bored ;). We spent a lot of time in our windbreakers on deck, just chillin'.

Best part of cruising - food, of course. ;)

Seattle was AWESOME. Went in a day early to look around and to avoid the whole "omg the plane is late we'll miss the ship and be out eight gazillion dollars!!1!1" stress. It wasn't really eight gazillion dollars, of course - we got an inside cabin. Cheaper, and considering the sun rises in Alaska at around 4 AM in late July, the last thing I wanted is a big picture window. Curtains don't help - I'm very photosensitive. If it's light out, and no thick blinds, I'm awake.

Enough babbling! Show us pictures!

OK. WARNING - image heavy liek whoa!!! No whining about your dialups, OK? I'm splitting this stuff up into multiple posts, even. I'm a picture whore.
( Pics! )

Current Mood: chipper