Biggles promptfic (finishing up the year)
Dec. 26th, 2025 08:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sholioWrapping up this year's prompts! This isn't entirely the last of them, but I think after this one, I'm done with the ones that sparked story ideas, so I'll be declaring prompt amnesty and starting over fresh in the new year.
Gen, late in canon, Erich + team with perhaps slight EvS/Biggles undertones, 1800 wds
Originally posted on Tumblr
( 1800 wds under the cut )
The prompt, which is somewhat spoilery for the fic
[from an anon] Biggles prompt- on a case they run into/are made to work with someone who was nasty to Biggles in his school-days, who tries to renew such treatment, and EvS, also involved with whatever they're investigating, finds himself possessed of both an unexpected protective urge and in the rare position to offer his own "you're better than the people you're working for" speechGen, late in canon, Erich + team with perhaps slight EvS/Biggles undertones, 1800 wds
Originally posted on Tumblr
( 1800 wds under the cut )
River: End-of-Year Summary, maybe, 2025
Dec. 26th, 2025 10:12 pmmdlbearWell, here it is, the last week of 2025. One of my goals for the year was to write an infodump post that I could point to, quote from, or email to people who I've been out of touch with. I never got around to it, and it's late, but maybe this will do.
If you're tuning in late, I need to mention that I moved with part of my chosen family to Den Haag, in the Netherlands, in October of 2024. Specifically myself, N, N's husband G, older kid m, and our four cats. N's younger kid, j, was already here, starting university in Leiden.
We're here taking advantage of the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, which lets Americans emigrate to the Netherlands (or vice versa) and get permanent residency or citizenship provided they start a business here (or bring one with them). We're sort of doing both, with our little indie publishing company HyperSpace Express.
Our plan for the business had been for N to get into sewing and fabric arts, and me to (at long last) record a new CD. The best-laid plans, etc. What's actually happened is that I got very discouraged about my musical ability, and N decided to turn to writing. She's already published her first book, The World As it Ought To Be -- Stories from a Protopian Future. Please buy a copy!
Back in the US, my son R turned FORTY last July. On his birthday I started trying to write a "state of the Bear" post, got nowhere, and abandoned it three days later, a few days before the fourth anniversary of Colleen's death. I have written very little since then. But here I am. The last week has been kind of bleak, and a week from tomorrow will be our fiftieth wedding anniversary. It will be the fifth that I haven't had her with me to celebrate.
Fortunately, Bronx never fails to get a laugh out of me when he jumps up onto the dresser when I'm getting the food bowls ready. And this evening I was mentioning to G how the IBM 1620 has to load its addition and multiplication tables when it boots up, and he said "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?" I haven't laughed that hard in ... I don't know how long.
Um... not really enough, but I want to post this today (see music), and it's almost bedtime. And I have cats to feed.
Book-gifts
Dec. 26th, 2025 02:38 pmmikroI received a lot less books this year, only two, which is probably good because it takes me a while to read them and I am still not done reading last years book gifts. I got Find The Work You're Wired To Do, by Ken Coleman. This one was from my Dad. He likes to get me books I have no interest in, but they are usually pretty good when I do read them. I like this one simply because it comes with a quiz and I love filling out quizzes.
The other one I received was Fashioning Japanese Subcultures(second edition), by Yuniya Kawamura. This one I asked for, from my Mother. I started it as soon as I could, and I plan to read it for a few hours on the plane/at the airport tomorrow. Subculture is a topic I am very interested in, and very probably why I end up doing things like wearing lolita fashion, and having a neocities website. Kawamura, who studied sociology, now works at FIT. She is the "de facto head of the schools Japanese department" according to a person in my local fashion community that was in one of her classes. But anyway, she has a great new and well researched perspective on subculture/neotribes and it is so so very interesting. I would recommend the book to anyone who likes academic writing or niche fashion.
I am not a great writer, and I have a hard time with words. I feel like that comes across in my posts here, but I want to be able to improve my speech and writing, so I will keep trying without becoming too word jumbled.
I hope everyone has a Happy new year and had a good holiday week!
The other one I received was Fashioning Japanese Subcultures(second edition), by Yuniya Kawamura. This one I asked for, from my Mother. I started it as soon as I could, and I plan to read it for a few hours on the plane/at the airport tomorrow. Subculture is a topic I am very interested in, and very probably why I end up doing things like wearing lolita fashion, and having a neocities website. Kawamura, who studied sociology, now works at FIT. She is the "de facto head of the schools Japanese department" according to a person in my local fashion community that was in one of her classes. But anyway, she has a great new and well researched perspective on subculture/neotribes and it is so so very interesting. I would recommend the book to anyone who likes academic writing or niche fashion.
I am not a great writer, and I have a hard time with words. I feel like that comes across in my posts here, but I want to be able to improve my speech and writing, so I will keep trying without becoming too word jumbled.
I hope everyone has a Happy new year and had a good holiday week!
Mopping Up a Few Books from November
Dec. 26th, 2025 02:04 pmosprey_archerAt the end of November, I was racing to the end of a few books to finish them before All Christmas Advent. I finished reading them in time, but ran out of time to post about them, so I’m posting about them now.
First, I finished The Spring of Butterflies and Other Folktales of China’s Minority Peoples, translated by He Liyi and edited by Neil Philip. This is one of those books where the story behind the book is as interesting as the stories themselves. He Liyi started studying English in the 1940s, but during the Cultural Revolution he lost all access to his English language study materials. However, after the Cultural Revolution, he took it up again, and in the 1980s he got in touch with the BBC, which eventually arranged for this collection of translated folktales to be published.
They also held a contest in China to find an illustrator, and eventually narrowed it down to either Zhao Li or Aiqing Pan… at which point they discovered that these two illustrators were actually a married couple! So they ended up illustrating the book together.
I also finished Sarah Rees Brennan’s Long Live Evil. What a ride! What a riot! Our heroine Rae is dying of cancer when she gets the chance to go into the world of her favorite fantasy series and steal the Flower of Life and Death. Of course she jumps at it… only to discover herself in the body of the villainess on the eve of her execution! Aided only by her wits and her somewhat vague memories of the series’ plot (cancer did a number on her memory), Rae sets herself up as a prophetess in an escalating series of schemes that keep steering the story more and more off course.
And then it ends on a cliffhanger! This is the first book in a duology. Not deep but good fun. I usually steer well clear of cancer books (well, any kind of illness books), as they tend to set off my hypochondria so I decide I’m probably dying of whatever the main character has, but in this case the cancer is a fairly light presence after the first chapter so I didn’t feel that. Much. Except maybe a little bit in the days after, whenever I forgot something. Who knew memory loss could mean cancer?
Finally, because I was concerned I would run out of reading material before December, I got Peter Beagle’s Tamsin, and then December and my all-Christmas-all-the-time resolution were barreling down on me and I still have two-thirds of the book to go. But Bramble politely lay on my legs until two pages from the end to ensure I finished, which was suitable, as Tamsin features one of the great cats in literature: Mister Cat, our heroine Jenny’s Siamese cat, who falls in love with a ghost cat and therefore leads Jenny to meet and fall in love with the ghost girl Tamsin.
skygiants recommended this book to me with a comment on Jenny’s massive crush on Tamsin, which I expected to be subtextual. But no! Two paragraphs after they meet, Jenny muses, “I think that was when I fell in love with her.” She’s a BEAUTIFUL SAD GHOST, what more could you want?
First, I finished The Spring of Butterflies and Other Folktales of China’s Minority Peoples, translated by He Liyi and edited by Neil Philip. This is one of those books where the story behind the book is as interesting as the stories themselves. He Liyi started studying English in the 1940s, but during the Cultural Revolution he lost all access to his English language study materials. However, after the Cultural Revolution, he took it up again, and in the 1980s he got in touch with the BBC, which eventually arranged for this collection of translated folktales to be published.
They also held a contest in China to find an illustrator, and eventually narrowed it down to either Zhao Li or Aiqing Pan… at which point they discovered that these two illustrators were actually a married couple! So they ended up illustrating the book together.
I also finished Sarah Rees Brennan’s Long Live Evil. What a ride! What a riot! Our heroine Rae is dying of cancer when she gets the chance to go into the world of her favorite fantasy series and steal the Flower of Life and Death. Of course she jumps at it… only to discover herself in the body of the villainess on the eve of her execution! Aided only by her wits and her somewhat vague memories of the series’ plot (cancer did a number on her memory), Rae sets herself up as a prophetess in an escalating series of schemes that keep steering the story more and more off course.
And then it ends on a cliffhanger! This is the first book in a duology. Not deep but good fun. I usually steer well clear of cancer books (well, any kind of illness books), as they tend to set off my hypochondria so I decide I’m probably dying of whatever the main character has, but in this case the cancer is a fairly light presence after the first chapter so I didn’t feel that. Much. Except maybe a little bit in the days after, whenever I forgot something. Who knew memory loss could mean cancer?
Finally, because I was concerned I would run out of reading material before December, I got Peter Beagle’s Tamsin, and then December and my all-Christmas-all-the-time resolution were barreling down on me and I still have two-thirds of the book to go. But Bramble politely lay on my legs until two pages from the end to ensure I finished, which was suitable, as Tamsin features one of the great cats in literature: Mister Cat, our heroine Jenny’s Siamese cat, who falls in love with a ghost cat and therefore leads Jenny to meet and fall in love with the ghost girl Tamsin.
skygiants recommended this book to me with a comment on Jenny’s massive crush on Tamsin, which I expected to be subtextual. But no! Two paragraphs after they meet, Jenny muses, “I think that was when I fell in love with her.” She’s a BEAUTIFUL SAD GHOST, what more could you want?
(no subject)
Dec. 25th, 2025 05:12 pmadoreHung out with my friend Nikki today! We met for the first time at a get-together for polerinas that my instructor put together. And we were comfortable with each other right away. Today, she had the day off for Christmas. We had lunch at a cafe, a hummus platter and a vegan banana walnut cake. She has similar gut issues as I do so we enjoy ordering food together; neither of us feels like we're making the other person miss out on something else they'd rather eat.
Afterwards, we went to the library. I finished reading the book I'd borrowed, and she browsed for a while before picking out a pile of books and then flipping through them to decide what she wanted to borrow. I borrowed Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and it's the specific edition that I'd been eyeing in Shelfish ever since I worked there and wasn't allowed to read the books. (You know, when you're not allowed to do something you want to doubly do it.) Is the fact that the library had it a Sign? Anything's a sign if you want to give it significance. I'm healing, so it's a Sign.
Nikki had wanted to go to Spinebreaker or Shelfish initially. I told her that both places had traumatised me and that it was a long story. She thought I was joking at first, but I didn't want to go into the whole history of both places and why I wasn't welcome at either. I told her that it was awkward telling people that I was traumatised by bookstores because, when I tell them I was traumatised by school for instance, they instinctively understand, but when I say I was traumatised by bookstores, they think I must be joking.
The part I didn't tell her is that when people react like this, it feels like they're laughing at what I experienced or trivialising my hurt, even though they mostly don't know enough to react aptly in the first place. It's just such a difficult thing to talk to people about that I wish it never came up in the first place. The emotional labour of explaining it and making them understand the impact it had on me just sucks, as a process. For a while, I've been thinking that they can't understand me as a person without knowing this about me, but maybe this isn't as big a part of my self as all that. At one point it defined everything about the way I was, but thankfully that time is behind me. As the heroine of the manhwa Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story says, people heal with time and people are more resilient than they think.
Afterwards, we went to the library. I finished reading the book I'd borrowed, and she browsed for a while before picking out a pile of books and then flipping through them to decide what she wanted to borrow. I borrowed Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and it's the specific edition that I'd been eyeing in Shelfish ever since I worked there and wasn't allowed to read the books. (You know, when you're not allowed to do something you want to doubly do it.) Is the fact that the library had it a Sign? Anything's a sign if you want to give it significance. I'm healing, so it's a Sign.
Nikki had wanted to go to Spinebreaker or Shelfish initially. I told her that both places had traumatised me and that it was a long story. She thought I was joking at first, but I didn't want to go into the whole history of both places and why I wasn't welcome at either. I told her that it was awkward telling people that I was traumatised by bookstores because, when I tell them I was traumatised by school for instance, they instinctively understand, but when I say I was traumatised by bookstores, they think I must be joking.
The part I didn't tell her is that when people react like this, it feels like they're laughing at what I experienced or trivialising my hurt, even though they mostly don't know enough to react aptly in the first place. It's just such a difficult thing to talk to people about that I wish it never came up in the first place. The emotional labour of explaining it and making them understand the impact it had on me just sucks, as a process. For a while, I've been thinking that they can't understand me as a person without knowing this about me, but maybe this isn't as big a part of my self as all that. At one point it defined everything about the way I was, but thankfully that time is behind me. As the heroine of the manhwa Not Your Typical Reincarnation Story says, people heal with time and people are more resilient than they think.
Thankful Thursday (Special Newtonmas edition)
Dec. 25th, 2025 09:28 ammdlbearToday is Isaac Newton's Birthday, so I'd like to start by wishing you all a very Heavy Newtonmas. I am thankful for...
- Friction, and in particular socks with grippy bottoms for wearing around the house.
- Gravity, without which those socks wouldn't work. (Neither would a lot of other things, of course. I'm also looking for a little levity, and not finding nearly enough.)
- The reason for the season -- axial tilt. Also, having just about the right amount of it. (Uranus has way too much!)
- Calculus -- integral, differential, and lambda.
- Number systems in which infinitesimals are, um..., well-defined. I guess you can't say "real", can you?
- Choice.
- Having slightly less mass than I did last year. (Very slightly, but I'll take what I can get.) Good drugs.
Yule Recovery Time!
Dec. 25th, 2025 01:26 amnonesensedI'm finally truly slowing down here at the end of the year. We've got seven days left of 2025 and I hope everyone is having a good end of the year. I certainly am! Vacation is here at last and I can recover from all the things I've put myself through since January 😅
Yeah, this did not end up being the self-care year I had planned. At all. In fact, I've not worked this much overtime since I had my old, shitty job that gave me actual burnout. Wheee. Everything that could go wrong at work definitely did, this year (in ways that no one could help).
Will absolutely aim to take things slow for a long while and to NOT do this to myself again. My loudest wake-up call was now in December when two massages therapists, independent of each other, made the O_O-face when assessing me. Going to take a while to recover but it is doable. I just need plenty of rest.
BUT! I still managed to write 50k words on one of my book projects during November and I finished my Yuletide fic in time, so all is not terrible by any means of the word. And I have plenty of personal plans for next year, to prevent myself from taking on too much work or "work" (+ I've had everyone who would be "picking up my slack" agree to not overwork themselves either, which is the biggest win of this year for me!)🩵🩵🩵
Speaking of Yuletide, I got this wonderful Bioshock Infinite fic 💖Highly recommended!
Yeah, this did not end up being the self-care year I had planned. At all. In fact, I've not worked this much overtime since I had my old, shitty job that gave me actual burnout. Wheee. Everything that could go wrong at work definitely did, this year (in ways that no one could help).
Will absolutely aim to take things slow for a long while and to NOT do this to myself again. My loudest wake-up call was now in December when two massages therapists, independent of each other, made the O_O-face when assessing me. Going to take a while to recover but it is doable. I just need plenty of rest.
BUT! I still managed to write 50k words on one of my book projects during November and I finished my Yuletide fic in time, so all is not terrible by any means of the word. And I have plenty of personal plans for next year, to prevent myself from taking on too much work or "work" (+ I've had everyone who would be "picking up my slack" agree to not overwork themselves either, which is the biggest win of this year for me!)🩵🩵🩵
Speaking of Yuletide, I got this wonderful Bioshock Infinite fic 💖Highly recommended!
Happy Yuletide!
Dec. 24th, 2025 01:03 pmrachelmanijaThe Yuletide collection is live!
Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
yuletide comm!
I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?
I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.
Enjoy browsing the collection! Leave kudos and/or comments if you enjoy a story! Comment here to recommend stories, and/or recommend them at the
yuletide comm!I have three stories in the collection. Can you find them?
I shall now spend the rest of the day cuddling with my cats and reading Yuletide stories.
Wednesday Reading Meme
Dec. 24th, 2025 12:07 pmosprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Christmas books! So many Christmas books. Look, the problem is that so many Christmas books are short, all right? Like Janice Hallett’s The Christmas Appeal, a slim novella that I definitely should have read last year when The Appeal was still fresh in my mind, as I spent about half of The Christmas Appeal remembering who was who. But it was still a fun fast read and there was a cameo by my girl Issy, who remains just as Issy as ever, bless her little heart.
Continuing this murder kick, I read J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White, a fascinating example of the genre in that the closest thing the book has to a detective is a guy from the society of psychic research who keeps murmuring about how it’s like the crime WANTS to be solved… well, that’s one way to explain why the heroes keep literally stumbling upon the evidence. Enjoyed the snowy atmosphere and the character portraits, especially the chorus girl Jessie, who should have gotten David in the end IMO. Not sure they were really that well-suited, but I was annoyed that a more class-appropriate girl appeared three-quarters of the way through the book.
And also Agatha Christie’s Murder for Christmas, known in the UK has Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, but presumably American publishers were afraid that without the word murder in the title American readers might assume that Poirot is having a holly jolly Christmas eating plum pudding without any murder at all. Quite enjoyed this one. Always nice to see a horrible family dynamic play out in a murder mystery.
Also Ruth Sawyer’s The Long Christmas, a collection of Christmas legends from around the world and a reminder that the Christmas Spirit, for all its current holly jolly picture-perfect Hallmark movie reputation, can in fact be pretty metal. The Christmas spirit is not about giving a bit of spare change to a photogenic waif before retreating to your mansion with the gingerbread on the eves perfectly outlined in Christmas lights. The Christmas Spirit says, “Oh, none of you are going to share your fireside and your last crust of bread with this weary footsore traveler on Christmas Eve? Well, then, I am going to raise the floods and drown your entire selfish town.”
Although Sawyer’s This Way to Christmas did not repeat this particular story, some of the other stories overlap with The Long Christmas. Published in 1915, the story centers on a little boy facing a lonely Christmas on a snowy mountain where none of the neighbors speak to each other, for they are of all different nationalities and races: German-American, American Black, Brazilian Portuguese, and small Ruritanian country that just got invaded by Germany.
However, our hero (inspired by a visit from a fairy wearing a squirrel suit) visits each cottage, hears a Christmas story from each person, and in the end inspires his foster parents to invite them all to Christmas, invitations in the form of signposts saying THIS WAY TO CHRISTMAS, hence the title.
And in the archives, I read Lee Kingman’s The Magic Christmas Tree, illustrated by Bettina. Little Joanna is lonely because she’s the youngest of ten and always in the way, until she finds her own special secret place: clearing in the woods with a pine tree just her size. Little Julie is lonely at home because she’s the only child in a vast mansion, but finds solace when she finds a little pine tree in the woods perfect for a hideaway. And then at Christmastime, Joanna hides a beloved doll by the tree… and Julie, thrilled by this magical appearance, brings the mystery doll a little doll bed and fur coverlet… and when Joanna returns with a baby doll so her doll won’t be lonely, she in turn is astonished…
OMG. So cute. I do wish it were longer so there was more time for the girls’ friendship to develop after they finally meet.
What I’m Reading Now
Unable to face another Christmas book, I broke down and started Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle... which turns out to start on Christmas Eve! The German POWs are having a Christmas tree. One of the other zeks is making a Christmas present. I can’t even. I’ll never escape.
What I Plan to Read Next
Non-Christmas books! Anything but Christmas! In particular, I’ve got Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and Mai Ishizawa’s The Place of Shells checked out, while Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin and Elizabeth Enright’s Then There Were Five are on hold.
Christmas books! So many Christmas books. Look, the problem is that so many Christmas books are short, all right? Like Janice Hallett’s The Christmas Appeal, a slim novella that I definitely should have read last year when The Appeal was still fresh in my mind, as I spent about half of The Christmas Appeal remembering who was who. But it was still a fun fast read and there was a cameo by my girl Issy, who remains just as Issy as ever, bless her little heart.
Continuing this murder kick, I read J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White, a fascinating example of the genre in that the closest thing the book has to a detective is a guy from the society of psychic research who keeps murmuring about how it’s like the crime WANTS to be solved… well, that’s one way to explain why the heroes keep literally stumbling upon the evidence. Enjoyed the snowy atmosphere and the character portraits, especially the chorus girl Jessie, who should have gotten David in the end IMO. Not sure they were really that well-suited, but I was annoyed that a more class-appropriate girl appeared three-quarters of the way through the book.
And also Agatha Christie’s Murder for Christmas, known in the UK has Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, but presumably American publishers were afraid that without the word murder in the title American readers might assume that Poirot is having a holly jolly Christmas eating plum pudding without any murder at all. Quite enjoyed this one. Always nice to see a horrible family dynamic play out in a murder mystery.
Also Ruth Sawyer’s The Long Christmas, a collection of Christmas legends from around the world and a reminder that the Christmas Spirit, for all its current holly jolly picture-perfect Hallmark movie reputation, can in fact be pretty metal. The Christmas spirit is not about giving a bit of spare change to a photogenic waif before retreating to your mansion with the gingerbread on the eves perfectly outlined in Christmas lights. The Christmas Spirit says, “Oh, none of you are going to share your fireside and your last crust of bread with this weary footsore traveler on Christmas Eve? Well, then, I am going to raise the floods and drown your entire selfish town.”
Although Sawyer’s This Way to Christmas did not repeat this particular story, some of the other stories overlap with The Long Christmas. Published in 1915, the story centers on a little boy facing a lonely Christmas on a snowy mountain where none of the neighbors speak to each other, for they are of all different nationalities and races: German-American, American Black, Brazilian Portuguese, and small Ruritanian country that just got invaded by Germany.
However, our hero (inspired by a visit from a fairy wearing a squirrel suit) visits each cottage, hears a Christmas story from each person, and in the end inspires his foster parents to invite them all to Christmas, invitations in the form of signposts saying THIS WAY TO CHRISTMAS, hence the title.
And in the archives, I read Lee Kingman’s The Magic Christmas Tree, illustrated by Bettina. Little Joanna is lonely because she’s the youngest of ten and always in the way, until she finds her own special secret place: clearing in the woods with a pine tree just her size. Little Julie is lonely at home because she’s the only child in a vast mansion, but finds solace when she finds a little pine tree in the woods perfect for a hideaway. And then at Christmastime, Joanna hides a beloved doll by the tree… and Julie, thrilled by this magical appearance, brings the mystery doll a little doll bed and fur coverlet… and when Joanna returns with a baby doll so her doll won’t be lonely, she in turn is astonished…
OMG. So cute. I do wish it were longer so there was more time for the girls’ friendship to develop after they finally meet.
What I’m Reading Now
Unable to face another Christmas book, I broke down and started Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s In the First Circle... which turns out to start on Christmas Eve! The German POWs are having a Christmas tree. One of the other zeks is making a Christmas present. I can’t even. I’ll never escape.
What I Plan to Read Next
Non-Christmas books! Anything but Christmas! In particular, I’ve got Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary and Mai Ishizawa’s The Place of Shells checked out, while Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin and Elizabeth Enright’s Then There Were Five are on hold.
Five Things on Xmas Eve
Dec. 24th, 2025 10:25 amoracne1. Work load at dayjob has been low this week; we got out at noon yesterday, and today I can log off at 12:30 pm. We are then off through January 2 for winter break (yay, academia). I had a couple of small things I was able to resolve this morning, go me!
2. I did not send out Xmas cards this year, but I appreciate every one I received. I hope to be back to it next year.
3. I am thawing out a chuck roast to cook later this week, probably Friday. My tamarind-sauce-flavored vegetable soup from Sunday, which includes silken tofu, grape tomatoes, carrot, potato, and green beans, is very delicious, especially with a couple tablespoons of congee dumped in. Last night, I finished off my bag of post-surgery chicken nuggets and baked sliced golden potatoes at 425 degrees F with olive oil and salt.
4. I have been listening to a ton of Xmas music, so at least I am somewhat in the holiday spirit. I did not have energy to pull out my ornament tree and dress it up, but we have a smaller one downstairs so I moved it from the corner onto the dining room table--the ornaments were still on it from last year! We have some cards propped around the base, and I have more on the little desk in the guest room. I didn't use my usual space in the back room because it would block my DVD screen, which I need for the Blake's 7 watchalong and possibly even some Shakespeare.
5. I have tentative plans for Xmas afternoon with local friends. I want to get started on my fancy wooden turtle puzzle (which I have had for several years), and also to do some mending of clothing. I especially want to try needle-felting a hole in a very old black cashmere cardigan (commercially knitted); I was wearing it when I broke my elbow years ago, so couldn't wash it for weeks, and it got a moth hole under one arm before I was healed up. I am not sure if the hole is too big for felting. We shall see. I have washed it after its long storage!
2. I did not send out Xmas cards this year, but I appreciate every one I received. I hope to be back to it next year.
3. I am thawing out a chuck roast to cook later this week, probably Friday. My tamarind-sauce-flavored vegetable soup from Sunday, which includes silken tofu, grape tomatoes, carrot, potato, and green beans, is very delicious, especially with a couple tablespoons of congee dumped in. Last night, I finished off my bag of post-surgery chicken nuggets and baked sliced golden potatoes at 425 degrees F with olive oil and salt.
4. I have been listening to a ton of Xmas music, so at least I am somewhat in the holiday spirit. I did not have energy to pull out my ornament tree and dress it up, but we have a smaller one downstairs so I moved it from the corner onto the dining room table--the ornaments were still on it from last year! We have some cards propped around the base, and I have more on the little desk in the guest room. I didn't use my usual space in the back room because it would block my DVD screen, which I need for the Blake's 7 watchalong and possibly even some Shakespeare.
5. I have tentative plans for Xmas afternoon with local friends. I want to get started on my fancy wooden turtle puzzle (which I have had for several years), and also to do some mending of clothing. I especially want to try needle-felting a hole in a very old black cashmere cardigan (commercially knitted); I was wearing it when I broke my elbow years ago, so couldn't wash it for weeks, and it got a moth hole under one arm before I was healed up. I am not sure if the hole is too big for felting. We shall see. I have washed it after its long storage!