THE OWLERY

Drarry Recs, Anyone?

2018-11-27T02:24:03Z

So I am still reading Drarry, but life has been very busy and a bit unstable. Things will hopefully smooth out after the new year. However, I haven't had time to monitor all of the fests, which leaves me a bit out of the loop for finding the best H/D fics. Capitu and her recs have been inactive, H/D storyroom has been inactive. Does anyone know of another person or site doing recs? I'd appreciate any help.

Fantastic Beasts at IMAX Anyone?

2016-11-12T20:21:46Z

Who's going this week? I have to work on Nov 18 evening, so that's out. There might be a showing on the 17th and I will be there. Will be in nirvana!

Still Here and Still Loving HD!

2016-10-18T00:49:27Z

Man, it seems like it has been forever since I had time to peruse my LJ feed like I want to. I used to work part time (almost full), then I didn't work for four years (not really my choice), and now I'm back working, but now I'm full time! It's not leaving me nearly enough time to keep on top of the fests and all the new fics! Grrr!! So that is why I value recs. When you all pick out the best of the best and rec them, it makes my job so much easier! I still have enough unread fic piled onto my Kindle to last me years, but I'm so afraid of missing something awesome! Keep rec'ing!

So here is the meme I snagged from lijahlover. I wanted to at least feel like I am participating somewhat.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your hair? awesome
3. Your dad? passed
4. Your other half? whatotherhalf?
5. Your favourite food? everything
6. Your dream last night? clueless
7. Your favourite drink? coffee
8. Your dream/goal? comfort
9. What room you are in? diningroom
10. Your hobby? writing
11. Your fear? beingabaglady
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Livinginmyowntinyhouse.
13. Where were you last night? work
14. Something that you aren't? thin
15. Muffins? morningglory
16. Wish list item? money
17. Where you grew up? Spokane
18. Last thing you did? dinner
19. What are you wearing now? jersey
20. Your TV? News
21. Your pets? Lab!
22. Friends? definitely
23. Your life? exhausting
25. Missing someone? yes
26. Car? yes
27. Something you're not wearing? bra
28. Your favourite store? Amazon
29. Your favourite color? violet
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? dunno
32. Who will redo this? dunno
33. One place that you go to over and over? Dutch Bros.
34. One person who emails me regularly? Sandy
35. My favourite place to eat? ThaiCuisine

Aww....The Cuteness!!

2016-01-30T04:52:11Z

Facebook post

Gorgeous Artwork

2016-01-23T03:18:29Z

A link for this came across my FB page today and I was blown away! The artwork is by Gabriel Picolo and he has a deviant art page, too. Go look at all the pretty!

http://theberry.com/2016/01/19/beautifully-illustrated-magic-spells-from-harry-potter/?utm_source=Cybrid&utm_medium=Paid&utm_content=Jote&utm_campaign=Gallery_Website_Click&utm_term=Jan2016_

More Snape/Rickman Feels

2016-01-21T22:43:11Z

Well, I'm sitting here getting yet another of those pesky occular migraines that have been more frequent lately. For those not familiar with them, they are, essentially, the aura that comes with a migraine headache without the headache. The ocular migraine is all sorts of weird visual disturbances, but they are painless and harmless. However, it's hard to read or write during the 30 minutes or so that it lasts. So I will just leave this here. It's a video that consolidates most of Snape's major scenes throughout the whole Harry Potter series of movies. It sort of made me cry a little.

Solstice Greetings!

2015-12-22T20:08:45Z

I can't let it pass without a mention. I'm just thrilled that we can now begin to enjoy longer days and shorter nights. Blessed Be.

We are currently under a big pile of snow that doesn't look to be any better over the holidays. Not sure how that is going to affect my holiday plans. We are tentatively planning to be at my sister's place, but she lives out in the country and the roads getting there are always bad in the snow. Might just end up having out own little celebration here at home.

Hope you are all well and have a perfectly lovely holiday.

Happy Holidays to My Flist!!

2015-12-18T05:36:32Z

My Christmas card to you all! Hope you all have a lovely holiday season. After a very mild fall, we are getting a bunch of snow. It's beautiful, but driving is horrible when you don't have an SUV. I'm finally getting over a long bout of bronchitis. Still have tons of shopping to do. I guess it will come down to a marathon day of shopping and an evening of wrapping.

Hafta say, this is the first time I am staying (sort of) on top of the Erised fics! I haven't read them all yet, but I'm not far behind. I'm loving them! Thank you to all who participated. For those posting Advent fics that can be read as a single fic, I hope you will put them into a single document or chaptered fic and post them on AO3. I'm finding it really hard to keep up with those stories, as there are so many to sort through each day. Mostly I just want to wait until the last week of the month and then marathon read.

Speaking of marathoning. I'm finally starting the Star Wars prequels. I figure I will get roped into seeing the new movie sometime this month, so I better catch up. I plan to watch them all before we see it just to have it all fresh in my mind. I'm not thrilled about the $13.75 price tag on it. It better be worth it!

I will end wishing you all a Merry Christmas and May the Force Be With You!

Because I Just Had To

2015-11-12T19:41:44Z

So I saw this posted elsewhere, but I had to steal it! OMG! So much fun! Daniel is....wait for it....wait....wait for it...CLEAN SHAVEN! Wow! I haven't seen the actual skin of his face in years! Enjoy!

Samhain Blessings

2015-10-31T20:49:23Z

Blessed Be

It Happens Twice a Year

2015-10-31T18:32:35Z

Wishing you all an excellent All Hallow's Eve. This is the best trailer ever!

Kindle Worlds Fanfiction

2015-10-24T00:04:47Z

I knew Amazon was selling fanfiction based on some specific works, but I've not followed it very closely. I was just checking it out today and it has expanded a whole lot in the time since it started. I'm finding quite a lot of stuff to check out! Too bad JKR hasn't allowed fans to take her world and run with it, but I suppose it says a lot that she even allows it at all. Just the same, one can dream. They've actually been selling Star Trek fanfictions in bookstores for many years. This whole thing is just really interesting to me.

https://kindleworlds.amazon.com/worlds

Adventures in Cooking (or epic cooking fails)

2015-10-07T23:54:14Z

No, this isn't a fic. Wish it were. While no one could ever label me a gourmet cook, I'm not half-bad. I love cooking and have far more wins than losses. The thing is, I sort of suck at desserts, and I totally suck at candy making. So when I saw a recipe for Mounds--using just three ingredients (yes, 3), I figured how could it go wrong? No one can screw up three ingredients, right? Ummm...(raises hand slightly).

So I just needed to melt down my 'generic' chocolate chips. I put them in a bowl and popped them into the microwave and set it on power level 5 for two minutes. Pulled it out and they had not begun to melt. So I set it for another minute, still power level 5. Still no melting happening. So then I tried a minute on level 7. Nope. Well, I was getting tired of that crap, so I put it on two minutes at full strength. Ended up burning the shit out of the middle. Like a lazer bore right through it!

Well, I wasn't done ruining it yet. I scooped out the burnt stuff and used a spoon to mix up the rest of it which was actually fairly well melted. Within seconds that started to harden and so back in the mircrowave it went. After a minute on 7 I pulled it out and the whole thing was just crumbly and completely unuseable. GUH! Really?

The take-away lesson here is maybe generic chocolate chips don't really melt? The other--more important--lesson might be, don't try to melt chocolate in the microwave.

Rectober Recs for Week 1

2015-10-07T17:59:35Z

banner by capitu

OK, I'm woefully late with my recs. I couldn't have predicted that my month would be so crazy. I'm in two regular book groups and so I'm scrambling to get two books read for those discussions and I have company coming tomorrow for a week! No clue how I'm going to make this all work, but I will because I totally depend on recs and October recs is a great way for me to give back a little. Both of these fics today are awesome. The first one is a couple of months old and a lot of people have read it, but I want to bring it back for those who haven't. The second one has been rec'd also, but I have to rec it, as well, because it's just brilliant.

Title:The Four Ds of Apparition (or: Destination, Determination, Deliberation, and Dicks)
Author/Artist: eidheann_writes and firethesound
Pairing(s) Harry/Draco
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 36,638
Warnings: none
Summary: After transferring to the Apparition Department, Harry's life becomes one big dick joke. And all his friends are arseholes. So is Malfoy, but what else is new? AKA Harry Potter and the eighteen twenty dicks.

Why I loved it: It's not hard to love this fic. It has so very many memorable moments. It has enough humor to fill a bucket, but I wouldn't call it crack (well, maybe crackish!). I mean, imagine Harry with a collection of animated fake penises piled on his desk and scattered around his office! It was just brilliant.

Exerpt:: Rosemary cackled. Harry was beginning to think this would be her usual response to anything that sucked about his life. "You were saying you wanted something to happen that would be a distraction from eight Obliviators? Well that takes it!" And then she pointed at the cock that was sitting in the middle of his desk. "This will be the talk of the department for centuries."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Someone left a very realistic fake cock at an Apparition Point. This'll be break room gossip for a week at the most."

"Centuries," Rosemary repeated, and Harry didn't think it was just his imagination that she sounded gleeful about it.

Title:measures of our days and nights
Author/Artist: flimsy
Pairing(s) Harry/Draco
Rating: Explicit
Word Count: 40,058
Warnings: none
Summary: Draco returns to London to help the Ministry decipher a spell, but things aren’t quite as simple as they seem.

Why I loved it: Plain and simple, this fic is brilliant! There isn't one thing about this fic that I don't adore! It's beautifully written. The characterizations are fabulous. I love a powerful Harry and this one is just so perfect. The fic could have been named The Curse, because omg...the curse was so incredibly amazing. It was so intricately crafted and so very horrifying. And the sex! Just wow! All the feels. If you haven't read this fic yet, do yourself a favor and DO IT!

Excerpt: “You really goin’ to do it, eh?” he said eventually.

There was one part of Draco that wanted to protest, to shout that, no, he was not, but instead he simply inclined his head in agreement.

“Mora temporis,” Moody continued, jerking his head at the sketched spell in Draco’s lap. “Haven’t ever seen anyone cast that. Dark magic, that.”

“I know,” Draco said. He still didn’t know how it would affect him, but from all the spells it was the only one that would serve the purpose and, in theory, leave the least damage.

“Who’ll cast it?” Moody asked the obvious question. “‘Cos I can’t, boy, it’d break me apart before I’m even done with the incantation.” Draco knew that, too. “You thinking Potter, eh?” Moody was perfectly accurate here as well. Draco had been considering this question for quite a while, and he’d come to the conclusion that it had to be Harry, that it could only be Harry. Not simply because Harry possibly was the most powerful wizard in England, heck Europe and beyond, but because he was the only one Draco would trust to handle his life. Literally.

Kindle and Windows 10 - Anyone Else Having Issues?

2015-09-30T05:43:01Z

For those who have upgraded to Windows 10, I'm just wondering if anyone else is having troubles with downloading fic to their Kindles with the Send to Kindle app or the Download option on AO3. The Send-to-Kindle feature didn't work at all and the AO3 download actually got to my Kindle, but it says Cannot Open File. That's the notice you would get if you were using the wrong format, but I've been doing this a long time now and I always click on the mobi format.

It was all working perfectly until I upgraded to Windows 10. I've had to do a lot of futzing around with the Win 10 upgrade. It immediately disconnected from the router and I couldn't get it back. Had to take the desktop computer to the repair shop and have the guy there download the proper new Win 10 drivers for the little, wireless stick I use in the desktop. Now the Kindle issues are happening. I'm wondering how many more things are going to turn up with the Win 10 upgrade. I really like the new features of Win 10 and the look of it, but I'm almost regretting upgrading with all of the little issues that are popping up.

I was able to get a fic I wanted onto the kindle, but I had to copy/paste it to a document, upload the document to Calibre, convert it to mobi, then download it back to my computer and email it to my Kindle. It was worth the effort because it was a long fic, but I would not go to that much trouble for anything under 20K. So am I the only one with a problem?

Song of Complete Awesomeness!

2015-07-30T02:14:02Z

So this is my new favorite song! It's all stuck in my head today. So inspiring.

Favorites Meme

2015-06-20T00:01:12Z

Favorite Movies:
1) Harry Potter (all seven)
2) Lord of the Rings Trilogy
3) Ghostbusters (the original movie)
4) Gandhi (Ben Kingsley)
5) The Way (Martin Sheen)

Favorite TV Shows:
1) Game of Thrones
2) The Walking Dead
3) The West Wing (old series)
4) Queer as Folk (another old series)
5) Merlin

Favorite Characters:
1) Severus Snape
2) Rick (Walking Dead)
3) Jon Snow (GoT)
4) Minerva McGonagall
5) Tyrion Lannister (GoT)

Favorite Stars:
1) Julia Roberts
2) Alan Rickman
3) Martin Freeman
4) Tom Felton
5) Maggie Smith

Things That Make You Smile:
1) My grandchildren.
2) My labrador retriever.
3) My friends.
4) Fanfiction!
5) Enrique Iglesias

Yes! Helium Snape!

2015-06-19T02:53:13Z

So this was trending on my FB and I just had to grab it and share! I'm gonna have to look up that Rickman Off, too.

Speaking of Which...

2015-06-09T17:55:49Z

This came across my FB today and it looks totally awesome. Due out in the fall.

Suffragette

Is That a Saggy Burrito in Your Pants?

2015-06-05T02:48:58Z

A Letter to Men: The Lesson of the Saggy Burrito in My Pants

http://www.danoah.com/2015/06/a-letter-to-men-the-lesson-of-the-saggy-burrito-in-my-pants.html

How Not to Make a Sale

2015-06-01T22:42:47Z

So I had the following conversation with a salesperson yesterday.

Me: I really like this, but you just have it in small and 3X. Do you possibly have any others?

Salesperson: Um...I don't think so. What size do you need?

Me: Well, I'm pretty busty, so I usually wear a M-L or sometimes XL, if something runs small.

Salesperson: Oh, she says, pulling out the XXXL. Well, you can probably make this work.

Um...just no.

And, by the way, F%#& you!

35 Years!

2015-05-18T19:56:46Z

Just thought I'd post this tribute to Mt St Helen's. My mother was an artist and I remember at one time she had painted a beautiful picture of the mountain and a lovely lake reflecting it. That was long before it blew the top and side of it all over the country. I often wish I had that painting. No clue who purchased it, but I hope it was well cared for.

I'm Excited!! New BBC Mini-Series!

2015-05-18T19:04:05Z

Oh, I found something to talk about! Well, not exactly talk about, since I haven't read the book yet. But I've always wanted to! Does that count? Anyway, I'll just show you! This just looks awesome! With The Walking Dead, Grimm, Outlander, Arrow and Flash on hiatus, I figure I need to fill the empty space with something equally weird and wonderful. Anyone else?

Why, yes! Yes, it is the day after Easter!

2015-04-06T16:45:43Z

MAUI 5/2002-April 1, 2015

2015-04-05T00:11:26Z

Sadly, I had to say good-bye to my beautiful, sweet kitty, Maui. She was a 5 month old stray hanging around my workplace and after no one claimed her, she became part of my family. She was always a little skittish, and nervous with strangers, but I couldn't have asked for a more loving family cat. She adored our labs and always cuddled close for warmth and companionship. She lived a long healthy life and became sick with diabetes last summer. Despite our efforts to reverse the process, she continued to fail. But we were happy to have spent many good years with her and she will be missed.

This was her at around age 4-5, when she was still svelte enough to fit atop her cat tree.

Cubby girl, looking seriously annoyed over her delayed meal.

Maui, enjoying her favorite spot last summer.