navigating tiny scissors in mirror image is SO HARD you guys
Oct. 23rd, 2025 07:57 pmI'm feeling outrageously exhausted, but also I can only slack off so much because I'm in the office tomorrow, out all weekend with the Augustinian no-longer-youths, and then going to Mum's for the week on Sunday afternoon, which means I need to be more-or-less ready for the next ten days by bedtime. This is not in fact going to happen, but at least I've packed my work bag.
Of all the indignities of middle age that I was warned of, the most annoying so far is one that no one mentioned: my nose hair has suddenly started growing so long and luxuriant that it starts tickling the inside of my nostrils. What is this bullshit. Constant random tickling! I did not sign up for this!!
My flu jab went ahead fine (and no side effects except for the bruise) but they didn't have any private COVID vaccine on hand. They were supposed to get back to me about it, but they haven't yet, which I assume means they're having trouble finding it... and I'm not going to be available to pop in until November now anyway so there's not much point chasing right now.
We are solidly into Dehumidifier Season now. I've been trying to get at least some open-window time just for ventilation (it's smelling fairly stale in here) but it's so dank outside it makes the humidity worse if I'm not careful! Although I did manage to get the kitchen hygrometer up to 89% earlier this week, and it's not that wet outside even if it's still raining heavily. Ah, the joys of a damp climate.
Of all the indignities of middle age that I was warned of, the most annoying so far is one that no one mentioned: my nose hair has suddenly started growing so long and luxuriant that it starts tickling the inside of my nostrils. What is this bullshit. Constant random tickling! I did not sign up for this!!
My flu jab went ahead fine (and no side effects except for the bruise) but they didn't have any private COVID vaccine on hand. They were supposed to get back to me about it, but they haven't yet, which I assume means they're having trouble finding it... and I'm not going to be available to pop in until November now anyway so there's not much point chasing right now.
We are solidly into Dehumidifier Season now. I've been trying to get at least some open-window time just for ventilation (it's smelling fairly stale in here) but it's so dank outside it makes the humidity worse if I'm not careful! Although I did manage to get the kitchen hygrometer up to 89% earlier this week, and it's not that wet outside even if it's still raining heavily. Ah, the joys of a damp climate.
Update
Oct. 23rd, 2025 02:27 pmYesterday I went to Llandudno for my annual check up with the oncology team. People may remember that I had a mastectomy in 2022 following a diagnosis of breast cancer.
Getting there is a minor irritation - it involves a taxi to the station (£7) a train to Llandudno (£5) and then another taxi to the hospital (£9). Then I repeat the performance to get back, doubling the cost. I have done this at various times for five years.
This time, I learn that had I ever asked, I could have scheduled the appointments in Bangor, where I live. A taxi to the hospital does cost £9 (it’s probably gone up) but I can get a bus back which costs me nothing because I have a disabled person’s bus pass covering me for buses in the whole of Wales, plus some trains which I have never got to grips with.
So next time, it will be in Bangor.
The oncologist said he couldn’t feel anything, but I will have to have the usual mammogram, and thankfully that will be in Bangor, too.
In other news
That stomach bug is still showing signs of hanging around. I feel a bit poorly and definitely cold, and I don’t think schlepping to Llandudno helped much.
Getting there is a minor irritation - it involves a taxi to the station (£7) a train to Llandudno (£5) and then another taxi to the hospital (£9). Then I repeat the performance to get back, doubling the cost. I have done this at various times for five years.
This time, I learn that had I ever asked, I could have scheduled the appointments in Bangor, where I live. A taxi to the hospital does cost £9 (it’s probably gone up) but I can get a bus back which costs me nothing because I have a disabled person’s bus pass covering me for buses in the whole of Wales, plus some trains which I have never got to grips with.
So next time, it will be in Bangor.
The oncologist said he couldn’t feel anything, but I will have to have the usual mammogram, and thankfully that will be in Bangor, too.
In other news
That stomach bug is still showing signs of hanging around. I feel a bit poorly and definitely cold, and I don’t think schlepping to Llandudno helped much.
...p...p-p-PENIS?!!!
Oct. 21st, 2025 10:56 pmToday Belovedest had to bust the teenagers for playing "the penis game" in the library.
[You say the word increasingly loudly, in turns, until someone loses the game by being told to cut it out or being asked to leave.]
The weather's getting colder, but I have evolved myself an outfit to wear outdoors for lounging while the weather's in the high 50s F -- my slightly ratty plush bathrobe underneath my much more windproof corduroy floor length duster. And the ta'al fingerless mgloves Mama knitted for me, in rainbow stripes. They're just the thing for keeping my hands warm while I'm on the phone.
I've discovered I do enjoy cauliflower "wings", even though I don't enjoy chicken wings.
The scooter has arrived. I am plotting how best to bedazzle it. It does have its own USB power outlet! It also has head and tail lights. It's better for approaching counters than the wheelchair, since the tiller is so close to me.
norabombay points out that given all the poorly supervised international visitors who have been in and out of the White House, they're going to have to take it down to the studs when they refit it for #48 to use. So the general devastation in the East Wing is small potatoes as far as outrage fodder. And anywhere that the last major update was 1947-ish must really need some yanking out of the century of the fruitbat.
My legs are doing better. In part this is because I stuck ibuprofen in my nightly pill box, since I'd been waking up with aching legs and shouting knees pretty consistently.
Medication: the medication definitely has some activity. The main activity seems to be that my appetite has been fading in and out of "did we recently have chemo?!" mode. I'm tempted to give myself a week off every few weeks.
Makeup: currently waiting on a liquid formulation of the eyeshadow that promised to match the eyeliner, because the color is fantastic and I want it in a wide brush. I guess the powder can work for blending it out. (The powder just does not want to cooperate and layer on thick enough to get the color shift effect, even with a wet brush.) My skin continues to behave itself better than my ability to use foundation; there are only a few spots where I want to color correct if I'm doing Full Battle Makeup.
Games: keeping up with all the Gems of War events is sometimes tiring, but it does make winding down my brain at night much easier than other things I could be doing.
Perfume: went through my massive perfume spreadsheet and filled in the formulation for all the BPAL (which is the same except for that one spray). Cracked myself up at some of the descriptions I've left. One particular exceedingly long-lasting one
( Read more... )
[You say the word increasingly loudly, in turns, until someone loses the game by being told to cut it out or being asked to leave.]
The weather's getting colder, but I have evolved myself an outfit to wear outdoors for lounging while the weather's in the high 50s F -- my slightly ratty plush bathrobe underneath my much more windproof corduroy floor length duster. And the ta'al fingerless mgloves Mama knitted for me, in rainbow stripes. They're just the thing for keeping my hands warm while I'm on the phone.
I've discovered I do enjoy cauliflower "wings", even though I don't enjoy chicken wings.
The scooter has arrived. I am plotting how best to bedazzle it. It does have its own USB power outlet! It also has head and tail lights. It's better for approaching counters than the wheelchair, since the tiller is so close to me.
My legs are doing better. In part this is because I stuck ibuprofen in my nightly pill box, since I'd been waking up with aching legs and shouting knees pretty consistently.
Medication: the medication definitely has some activity. The main activity seems to be that my appetite has been fading in and out of "did we recently have chemo?!" mode. I'm tempted to give myself a week off every few weeks.
Makeup: currently waiting on a liquid formulation of the eyeshadow that promised to match the eyeliner, because the color is fantastic and I want it in a wide brush. I guess the powder can work for blending it out. (The powder just does not want to cooperate and layer on thick enough to get the color shift effect, even with a wet brush.) My skin continues to behave itself better than my ability to use foundation; there are only a few spots where I want to color correct if I'm doing Full Battle Makeup.
Games: keeping up with all the Gems of War events is sometimes tiring, but it does make winding down my brain at night much easier than other things I could be doing.
Perfume: went through my massive perfume spreadsheet and filled in the formulation for all the BPAL (which is the same except for that one spray). Cracked myself up at some of the descriptions I've left. One particular exceedingly long-lasting one
( Read more... )
love reaches out and holds open-hearted it demands attention it is in a world of its own
Oct. 20th, 2025 07:19 pmI have been enjoying the slightly calmer pace of life; being back in a work routine has really helped, so that even being out every evening last week was not actually that stressful! However it looks like I'm going to be spending next week, or possibly the week after, at my mother's while dad goes to shut up the house in France for the winter, so I shall be all out of sync again... The plus side is that the main thing I miss when I'm there is my computer gaming, and right now I am doing basically zero of that (well, a couple of hours of The Sims 4 at the weekend, but that barely counts).
The second attempt at my annual diabetic retinopathy check was rather more successful, and I came out with a clean bill of health (yay!). Tomorrow I have my flu and COVID jabs, although the NHS has reduced the criteria so extremely this year (even dad doesn't get one, and mum only does because she's literally just finished chemo!) that I'm going to have to pay for it. There's definitely more fun things I could do with that £75, but I'll take it.
Work has also calmed down slightly, to the point where I can actually find some time to spend on the urgent things my boss wants me to work on, instead of purely on emergent... stuff. I am solidly three months behind on reporting, but the big testing project I was supposed to be doing this month has shrunk because most of the work is not in fact ready for testing yet. The next round, early next year, will therefore be much worse, but that's next year's problem (and hopefully I should have more support from the rest of the team then, because it's not the start of the academic year! or so I can dream).
And now I need to run around and get things ready for the cleaner tomorrow, instead of accidentally doing nothing for another hour.
The second attempt at my annual diabetic retinopathy check was rather more successful, and I came out with a clean bill of health (yay!). Tomorrow I have my flu and COVID jabs, although the NHS has reduced the criteria so extremely this year (even dad doesn't get one, and mum only does because she's literally just finished chemo!) that I'm going to have to pay for it. There's definitely more fun things I could do with that £75, but I'll take it.
Work has also calmed down slightly, to the point where I can actually find some time to spend on the urgent things my boss wants me to work on, instead of purely on emergent... stuff. I am solidly three months behind on reporting, but the big testing project I was supposed to be doing this month has shrunk because most of the work is not in fact ready for testing yet. The next round, early next year, will therefore be much worse, but that's next year's problem (and hopefully I should have more support from the rest of the team then, because it's not the start of the academic year! or so I can dream).
And now I need to run around and get things ready for the cleaner tomorrow, instead of accidentally doing nothing for another hour.
PSA - DW notifications
Oct. 20th, 2025 09:56 pmThe AWS outage is affecting DW notifications - some are delayed, some may be lost.
I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.
(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)
I only noticed I wasn't getting emails about my own comments after I'd already posted a bunch, so I hope they'll get delivered eventually! In the meantime it's probably useful to manually check back for new comments/replies.
(None of the websites and services I used today were noticeably affected otherwise, luckily. I hope everything has come back for everyone else.)
Dear Yuletide writer
Oct. 20th, 2025 01:52 amDear Yulewriter,
thank you so much for writing a story for me!
I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.
My AO3 account is
Trobadora, and it's set to welcome treats.
Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:
General Preferences
( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )
Fandoms and characters
Jump directly to:
( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )
( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )
( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )
( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )
( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )
( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )
Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)
thank you so much for writing a story for me!
I've requested and received all of these fandoms before - some for many, many years - and I love them all. Two of them are related to my current main fandom (Guardian) through the main actors, so I might mention them more on DW, but please don't think that means I want my other requests any less! Regardless of what we matched on, rest assured that you really can't go wrong here. Just the existence of new fic for any of these fandoms and characters will make me incredibly happy.
My AO3 account is
Everything important is in the requests themselves, but if you'd like even more info, general likes etc., here you go:
General Preferences
( Likes & Dislikes/DNWs )
Fandoms and characters
Jump directly to:
- 绅探 | Detective L (TV): Luo Fei & Huo Wensi
- L'Oréal "Time Engraver" Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding
- Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha
- Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas
- Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott
- 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing
- 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson
( L'Oréal 'Time Engraver' Commercials: The Time Engraver, Worldbuilding )
( Nantucket trilogy - S.M. Stirling: Kashtiliash & Raupasha )
( Ring of Swords - Eleanor Arnason: Ettin Gwarha & Sanders Nicholas )
( Starfire series - Various Authors: Zhaarnak'diaano | Zhaarnak'telmasa & Raymond Prescott )
( 长公主在上 | Eldest Princess On Top: Li Yunzhen & Gu Xuanqing )
( 1632 series - Various Authors: John Chandler Simpson )
Ahem. Lengthy as always. But I hope you'll find something inspiring in here, and most of all, that you'll have fun writing! :)
Bohemian Rhapsody flashmob
Oct. 17th, 2025 04:01 pmI'm sure everyone but me has already seen this, but I have to share it anyway - this is amazing!
Background info
Background info
Sick again
Oct. 17th, 2025 12:07 amOnce again I seem to be suffering some kind of 48 hour bug. This time it’s a full D&V. I went to bed at 16:00 and am up because I can’t sleep and thought that a lemon and ginger tea might help.
So far it hasn’t, I’m just being sick again, and my stomach hurts, just under my ribs. It’s miserable.
So far it hasn’t, I’m just being sick again, and my stomach hurts, just under my ribs. It’s miserable.