rosewarren

100. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H Winters.

101. Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovitch.

I commented on a post of azriona last week regarding her epic Harry Potter cross-stitch design. She asked what my epic project was.

Right now I'm working on this design.

I'm stitching on beige 16 ct. Aida cloth. It's 51 inches across, and I'm too afraid to measure the length, because then I know it will take forever to complete. :) The pattern itself is 15 pages or so. I've just started the third page, which is mainly the beanstalk:

( the third page )

I started it earlier this year and really would be much farther ahead if I were more focused, but I just have too many interests. Ideally I would stitch at night, but my husband likes the lights off when we watch tv, and you can't really stitch without good lighting.

Title: Split Screen - 3/3
Characters: Ten, Donna, Jack Harkness
Summary: The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The first was: Brave New World, in which Rose was allowed to choose between Ten and the human Doctor. This is the story of what happened to the Doctor after Rose decided to stay with 10.5.
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb

~One~Two~

( the end )

If this wasn't bad enough, the other day I saw a bumper sticker that read "I drive look a Cullen". Once upon a time I would NOT HAVE GOTTEN THAT REFERENCE. The good old days.

And thank you to teruel_a_witch for the cute icon, even though I'm not sure who made it.

Title: Split Screen - 2/3
Characters: Ten, Donna, Jack Harkness
Summary: The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The first was: Brave New World, in which Rose was allowed to choose between Ten and the human Doctor. This is the story of what happened to the Doctor after Rose decided to stay with 10.5.
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb

One

( part two )

nonlinearmusing questions, answered.

1. Why did you decide to become a SAHM?

I loved working. I was teaching third grade with coworkers who were my best friends. A no brainer. I was home six months with my son and was pretty bored and also borderline postpartum-depressed. Two weeks back at work I knew I'd made a terrible mistake. I missed the baby, he was sick all the time, and by the end of the school year I'd used so much sick time that I didn't get a final paycheck. Soon I would have been paying the district to work for them. :) In Texas you lose your license for several years if you walk out of work and break your contract, so I stuck out the year. If I were in the same spot today, I would quit today with no thought to how it affected the school or the students or my certification. Staying home isn't easy, but at least i can do it in my pajamas.

2. Outline any given day in your life? What does rosewarren do when not online doing fandom stuffs? :)

I make breakfast, drive to school and preschool. Do the shopping, pick up form school and preschool. Make sure piano practice and homework gets done. Laundry and cooking. I do lots of genealogy, scrapbooking and quilting. I'm in charge of our church's playgroup. When the kids are in bed we like to watch tv and veg out for a couple of hours. It's pretty nice, all in all. :)

3. If you could pick any place in the world to live, where would you live and why?

We're still working that out. We'll never go back to upstate New York. We loved Maine, but it's too cold and insular there. Texas was too hot. We were in Utah this summer and loved it, and I suspect that's where my husband is leaning. We have eight years remaining here, so we have time to think it over.

4. Do you prefer happiness or money? Why?

Money doesn't bring happiness. I say that as someone who has enough of it to be happy, but I have friends who never have enough. There's always the better house or car to get, the jewelry to impress your friends, and they're so miserable. And money doesn't help if your husband leaves you or one of your children is in trouble.

5. Do you have a guilty pleasure reading other pairings in fandom? Something that might be less than popular? Why? (You don't have to name the pairing if you don't want to just why you like them?) :)

My pairings are pretty traditional, I guess. Han Solo and Princess Leia. Mulder and Scully. Maybe Peter and Olivia from Fringe, if they ever get around to it.

taken from ladychi

• Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

• I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity

• Update your journal with the answers to the questions

Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions (I'll also answer more, if asked)

( this way for her questions and my answers )

It is bad for my karma.

I was at a lunch yesterday for a friend's birthday. Someone asked if I was going to the party that friend A. was throwing.

Me: Which one?
Friend: You know, the book club one.
Me: What party for book club?
Friend. Duh. For Twilight.
Me: We're not reading Twilight for book club! (Because there's no way I would stand for that).
Friend: No, I mean most everyone from book club will be there for the New Moon premiere party. You just seemed like one of them.
Me: One of what?
Friend: Someone who is into Twilight.

Dear lord, I need some new friends if that's what she thinks. Granted, I don't openly bash the books and movies because just about everyone I know likes them, but I have NEVER SAID ANYTHING POSITIVE ABOUT THEM, EITHER.

We were out buying Halloween candy last night when I came across Twilight candy. CANDY. A package of chocolate candies, all wrapped up with Edward and Bella on the front. The world has no shame.

I came across this while reading the Sunday paper yesterday. I have too many friends obsessed by the Twilight craze not to giggle like a loon whenever I read it.

Title: Split Screen - 1/3
Characters: Ten, Donna
Summary: The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The first was: Brave New World, in which Rose was allowed to choose between Ten and the human Doctor. This is the story of what happened to the Doctor after Rose decided to stay with 10.5.
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb

( My love is a lie. )

Wow. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry or just scream.

The first Torchwood episode I ever watched was the one where the Rift has opened and three people from the 1950s drop into Cardiff. My husband and I watched maybe half of it before we gave up. Between the sex, the swearing and the bizarre plot, there was nothing that held our interest.

A year later I started watching Doctor Who and realized who Jack was, and after that I gave Torchwood another try.

But Children of Earth just makes it so hard to decide whether it was my first reaction or the second that was correct.

( Days Three, Four, Five )

I can see the similarities between Jack and the Doctor. They both do what is necessary, even if people they care about get hurt. In the Doctor’s case it was his entire home planet and all his people, but Jack has hurt more than his share of friends and family. I wonder if he’ll bump into the Doctor on his travels, and if he’ll be back. Kind of hard to picture Gwen working at Torchwood with an infant, though.

I don't know if Torchwood will be back. I don't know how they could fix things so the world seems fairly normal after these events. The Hub is destroyed and there's a new baby, and Jack may or may not come back. It'll be interesting to see how that resolves itself.

I didn’t watch Torchwood Children of the Earth when it first aired because we don’t have cable. It was pretty hard to find online, so I just read some reviews and spoilers and sort of forgot about it.

I saw it available at Netflix this week and decided to give it a try.

You know, if the regular series were this good, I would have watched more often.

Spoilers for "Children of Earth".

( Day One )

( Day Two )

99. I just listened to The Eyeless by Lance Parkin, a Tenth Doctor novel.

It’s sometime after the end of season four, though it’s not any more specific than that. The Doctor is searching for some incredibly powerful weapon that needs to be destroyed, and he comes across a small population of humans living on a world destroyed by a mysterious Fortress fifteen years ago. Some telepathic aliens also show up, bent on stealing the TARDIS.

It’s an interesting enough story. Certainly better than some of the other, earlier novels. (Can you say Price of Paradise?) There’s some angst over Gallifrey, and towards the end of the book there’s a point where Ten almost doesn’t mind that he’s about to be killed. What got me, though, were the references to Rose.

( some mild spoilers for Rose fans )
There’s a breathless climax, a few places where you’re not really sure who’s bad and who’s good, and an ending that’s timey-wimey.

All in all, good fun. I think it comes across better on audio. Something tells me reading it wouldn’t be as much fun. It’s read by Russell Tovey, who was Midshipman Alonso in Voyage of the Damned. Also, we actually get to see inside the Doctor’s head. I think the other novels all focus on the companion’s thoughts, keeping the Doctor a mystery. Maybe because there’s no companion, but here we got see some some of his reasonings and thoughts and emotions.

Have just spent fifteen minutes in a rage at Yahoo, Google, and the internet in general, unable to open a google doc to test recipe for the cookbook. Finally requested that I be removed as a tester for that recipe, because clearly I am not meant to try it.

But gingerbread cookies and 2-step chocolate cake? You are MINE.

For those of you who have read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:
Just look at what my awesome girlfriend brought by this afternoon.

yearn4themoon posted this regarding Twilight fever and it reminded me of the strange things I've seen this week.

While at the party store, I checked out the new line of Twilight-themed part goods. Paper plates, cups, napkins, etc. One couple, buying for their teen daughter's party was so excited because they had plastic cups with the Twilight actors on it. The mom actually asked if they had Edward balloons. And the clerk, instead of laughing at them, actually answered that the balloons are due in next week.

Edward and Bella balloons. Seriously.

And after a lunch with girlfriends today, we stopped in to Bath and Body Works. It's a cute bath store here in the States filled with candles and body lotions. They have a new line called Twilight Woods, and supposedly it's a takeoff of the movies.

I want to pull a blanket over my head and not come out until the insanity is over with.

I am very behind in listing books. Here's a quick catch-up.

88. Grave Sight
89. Grave Surprise
90. An Ice Cold Grave
91. Real Murders, all by Charlaine Harris
92. Moon Called and
93. Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs
94. Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair
95. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
96. I Love it When You Talk Retro: Hoochie Coochie, Double Whammy, Drop a Dime, and the Forgotten Origins of American Speech by Ralph Keyes
97. The Serpent’s Tale and
98. Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin

Title: Brave New World - 4/4
Characters: Rose, Ten, 10.5, Donna, Jackie
Summary: This was written for The Shadow Proclamation, who won two fics during the Support Stacie auction. The prompt was: post-JE, the Doctor gives Rose a choice. She can stay with him on the TARDIS, or stay with 10.5 in the parallel world. What will she do?
Rating: PG
Beta: the excellent nattieb

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

( O brave new world, that has such people in't! )