topaz119

Due to some blithering idiocy in the real world (completely unrelated to Strikethrough '07, I should add), I need to go friends-only for a while. I hate it, because I love interacting on a community level, but shit happens sometimes.

I'll be happy to add you back, and if I've friended you and you have no idea who I am, I can provide multi-fandom references who will swear that I generally do have my act together and am not a random stalker.

Catching up with my media consumption over the last few months, cutting because it got loooong...

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Virtual cookies to anyone who made it through all that!

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/133537.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

Um, I totally forgot I did this 2016 fandom round-up meme, so it's a little outdated, but it's not like I'm not always running a month behind anyway, right?

( 2016 fandom natteringsCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/132064.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

Finally getting my act together to follow st_aurafina's lead, I present my first Recipe Friday…

Something I've cooked recently:
Skillet Lasagna, adapted from Keepers -- if you're a USian of a certain age, you may be flinching at the very words 'skillet lasagna' but please rest assured that this is NOT of the Hamburger Helper oeuvre. (Actually, I had to debate whether my Italian nonna and her many sisters would haunt me for even considering making this. The pictures looked really good and there's enough cheese to keep a cow in service, so I pressed on.) I even managed to make it on a regular weeknight (not a work-from-home day), twice now. It's better with San Marzano tomatoes and the very slightly spicy Italian sausage that I get at the farmer's market, but then, what isn't? It's pretty decent with store-brand tomatoes and sausage, too. If you follow me on IG, I was so pleased by this that I actually posted a shot of it.

Homemade Starbucks Sous Vide Egg Bites -- I usually alternate between yogurt with granola and hard-boiled eggs for breakfast (both of which are easy enough to carry into the office along with lunch), but when my sous-vide manufacturer covered these in their latest newsletter, I decided I'd give them a try--to great acclaim. Easy AND quite tasty. I did the bacon-gruyere recipe, because I had everything at the house, but I foresee some branching out in the weeks ahead. Also, yay for getting the jars sealed tightly enough that no water got in but not so tight that they explode in the water bath.


Something I have concrete plans to cook soon:
In a little more than 48 hours, the Atlanta Falcons will take on Tom Brady and the Patriots for Super Bowl LI (yes, we're back to the Roman numerals. I guess the NFL decided it was safe to go back for 51? Ugh, who knows with those idiots.) Despite having lived in the ATL for 20 years, I am firmly in this for the food (especially since the Steelers faded and died 2 weeks ago—I could hear my dad screaming at the tv set from the afterlife) and have definite plans to try Serious Eats recipe/method to get crispy baked chicken wings. Then I'll do Bon Appetit's sauces (their wings are pretty decent, but Kenji Lopez-Alt is my guy these days so I'm going to see what his obsessiveness has produced.) I am also doing BA's fried mozzarella. Then it will take me all week to clean up the kitchen, so that's it for anything more than pasta and some grilled chicken and veggies.


Something I am idly considering making:
Smitten Kitchen's Blueberry Bread and Butter Pudding, possibly for Valentine's Day breakfast (baseball season has started; I doubt I will see D for dinner until spring break.) I might also try to sous vide a rack of lamb to see if it'd work for the big Easter dinner…

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/131738.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

I like the idea of Crafting Tuesdays, but all my creative energy is going toward figuring out what the hell to do with my house, so I doubt I'll pick that up. I do resolve to do more with the Wednesday book meme, and to pick up Recipe Fridays, because I am always reading and cooking, no matter what...

finished
Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter – BabyBoy ended up getting this for Christmas, and then it showed up as a possibility for the first week of the 52-week challenge I fell into on Goodreads, so I picked it up and ran with it. Obviously, it's geared toward fans, but I found a lot of interesting stuff in it, everything from the specific hip-hop influences to just the sheer amount of re-work that was going on right up to opening night. The book itself was hell to lug around, though. ;)

Black Widow: Red Vengeance, Margaret Stohl – Her second Black Widow novel, which, I think, addresses the 'there wasn't enough Natasha' criticism of the first book. There's a lot of Natasha here, and the plot does revolve around the Red Room, and the other Widows. Plus, there is a bonus guest-starring role from Captain Marvel, and I am not ever going to say no to more Carol Danvers (especially when there's no connection to Civil War II.) (I would still like more Hawkeye, but that shouldn't surprise any of you reading this.)

Why Kings Confess, Who Buries the Dead, When Falcons Fall, C.S. Harris – The last 3 St. Cyr historical mysteries, though there is one scheduled for release in the spring, and while I'm still enjoying them, I'm happy enough to take a break for a bit. I'm kind of at the point where I'm going yes, yes, murder and mayhem, right, just tell me what's going on with the Earl and the family and have we found [redacted] on the continent yet?

Smarter, Faster, Better: The Secrets of Being Productive, Charles Duhigg – Not a lot of actionable advice here, but it did have actual interesting examples of SMART goals (I do them every year and usually find them a waste of everyone's time) and some higher-level thoughts. I did not ever feel like throwing it across the room, if that helps?

now
A Study in Scarlet Women, Sherry Thomas – This is the first of her gender-swapped Sherlock (Charlotte) Holmes mysteries. I literally just opened it this morning but it has great buzz.

The Unleashing, Shelly Laurenston – The first of *her* Call of Crows paranormal shifter romance series, in which the women are all Norse warrior-shifters. Yeah. Sometimes fandom really does prepare you for reality.

Ghost Story, Jim Butcher – This is … ::squints:: … good lord, #13 of the Dresden series. I seriously can't believe I'm still hanging in there, but here I am. Still just doing the audiobooks with these, so James Marsters' voice is permanently in my head now.

next
I swear I'm going to dig through my TBR stacks, both virtual and real, so who knows. I may just do a random number generator and see where that takes me…

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/131490.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

Good morning, happy Monday, omg, I went to see Rogue One last night at a 10:15 show and I am already staggering around like a zombie. If I don't use my brain over lunch, I will fall asleep with my head on my desk. Plus, there is a sad lack of actual geeks at this new workplace, so I have no one to actually babble at.

Tag; you're it!

First off, we almost didn't make it to the movie at all. #2Son was having a really rough weekend, anxiety-wise, and I had just about given up on him wanting to leave his safe spaces at the house when he came up after 8 pm and wanted to know if it was too late to go. *I* certainly wasn't going to tell him 'no,' but we couldn't make the 8:25 show and there wasn't another one starting until 10:15. That actually was good on the regular part of life, as BabyBoy had some complicated print job he was trying to put together for his lit project (we ended up at Kinko's on the way to school this morning) *and* had just remembered that he needed cookies for a Drama Club party/cookie swap today. You all will be very proud in that I didn't leap in to make them for him, just found the box of Ghirardelli chocolate-carmel cookie mix and yelled answers to his questions while running around dealing with the dogs, etc. But he got them made and Oldest, #2 & I took off for the theater.

( spoilers (and mostly squee. 99% squee. BUT SPOILERS.)Collapse )

As I said to the boys, I must now go and read ALL THE STORIES (and really, truly watch the rest of Clone Wars and Rebels.)

Come babble at me!

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/128943.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

Okay, random reading and writing notes:

I somehow went from #127 on the hold list for Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (this was yesterday evening when I was at the actual library), to having it show up on my account this morning as waiting to be picked up. I don’t actually understand, but I will be going by to grab it before they figure out where they made the mistake!

It is also getting to be time for the fall version of Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, which I have done for the last few iterations and HAD THE BEST TIME EVER. It is super low-key—I don’t actually try to read for 24 hours, but rather treat it as giving myself permission to sit and read all day, which I used to do all the time as a kid/teen, but is virtually unheard of now in my near-dotage. These weeks leading up to it are part of the fun, too: I wander through my out-of-control TBR stack (physical & virtual) and assemble a likely looking set of books, assemble tasty snacks and drinks, put the HoB on alert that I’m not available for chores (this is mostly to reinforce to myself that it’s a Day of Reading, not so much them) and dive in on the day. In the spring, it’s nice to sit out on the deck, but in the fall, I get the fireplace going (pro tip for warmer climates: those fake logs from the grocery store put out next to no heat, and a wooden wick candle picks up the slack on the auditory side. Oh! And this year I have my Bearded!ChrisEvans candle for olfactory excellence.)

On the writing front, it is once again time to sign up for mini_wrimo / mini_wrimo, for those of us who are not quite up for doing full-on NaNoWriMo. (While I might get to the point that 50K in a month isn’t an unreal concept, it’s probably never going to be during the month where I’m staging Thanksgiving and gearing up for the blitz of December.) But I can usually give MiniWrimo a good try, and will be attempting it once more this year. Sign-ups are open!

Also! lostemotion is doing the crazy thing and running a Hawkeye-Squared fic exchange! (That’s Kate/Clint from Marvel comics, aka Hawkeye/Hawkeye. See icon for reference.) They tick all my favorite writing boxes: age differences, found family, super-excellent competence porn (as Hawkeyes) while flailing all over the place as functioning adults, with an excellent setup for friends-to-lovers (and all the good & bad that can call forth.) I haven’t done a challenge all year (except for picfor1000, for which I coincidentally wrote HawkeyeSquared) so I’m in, \o/.

…aaaaand lunch is done, bye!

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/125808.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

books
now
The Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley--it is, like all of her work, very, verrrrry detailed. It also turns out to be about D’s family (the Scottish clan from the 1700s, so nobody we know), which I didn’t realize when I snagged e/audiobook on whatever Deal of the Day I got it on. It was a little bit of a kick when the Countess of Erroll showed up as a character. (I seriously doubt D’s family is from that exact branch of the family, but they were/are that clan. It’s given me renewed interest in digging through genealogy records. After 4 or 5 generations, it’s just so many names on a screen to me, even with my own family.)

Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett & Dave Evans--the book form of their Stanford course on using design principles to figure out what you want to be when you grow up (even if you're already there, ie, old.) I mostly got this to see if it might help #2Son with his less-traditional life plan, but I'm enjoying it on my own, too. (I do enjoy a good self-help book and this one is low on the woo-woo scale, which is even more endearing to me.)

A Second Chance At Paris, Cole McCade--I've completely lost the battle to stop adding to my (already staggering) TBR pile, both virtual and not, and this is one of the romance kindle deals I've been unable to resist. But seriously, the heroine is an astrophysicist with a father suffering from Alzheimers--how could I pass that one up? So far, it's not bad. There is some serious lack of communication in the main couple's background, which usually sets my teeth on edge, but since this case involves high school miscommunication, I'm letting it slide for now.

done
Since the last time I checked in...

Turn Coat, Jim Butcher, audio by James Marsters -- #10 or 11 of the Dresden books; I can't remember the last time I've lasted this long in a series, but now I'm at the point where I'll be damned if I stop. (Also, good on Butcher for letting the Luccio situation play out the way he did. I'm also to the point where I think he actually planned it that way, too.)

When Gods Die and Why Mermaids Sing, C.S. Harris -- #2 & 3 of the Sebastian St. Cyr books (Regency-era badass ex-military viscount with an Irish actress mistress & a former street-rat of a tiger), both of which I very much enjoyed. There was one point where I was a little worried that the actress was ripe for fridging, but in the next chapter Harris set up her agency and involvement so that while I am not entirely sure she'd going to survive much longer, it probably will have more to do with her own (valid, understandable) choices. The setting is spot on, too -- no wonder my mom loved these books.

next
I have a couple of Beverly Jenkins' books on my bedside table so I think those are next up. Also, 2 more St. Cyr mysteries.

tv
You all know I almost never watch anything as it's actually airing, but I'm making an effort for Poldark, if only because of my mom (again.) Even if I can't call and dish with her about this version and even knowing the general plot line (we watched the original series way back in the day), I can't let it air without watching. I have to say that I think this Elizabeth is much more sympathetically written, because I *never* saw her point back in the '70s (omg, Team Delmelza all the way) but now I am rooting for her to find some way to happiness (so long as she keeps her mitts off Ross.)

The boys have been shepherding me through Parks and Rec, which never appealed to me when it was on, but that was apparently because I watched in the first season. We skipped clean over S1 & S2 and I am having a *blast* with S3 onward. We're up to Leslie's campaign for city council and while it is striking a little too close to home these days, I still get all the warm fuzzies from it.

I'm tiptoeing through Daredevil and Jessica Jones, mostly because I fell hard for Mike Coulter in the first episode of JJ and really want to watch Luke Cage with the proper background, but I can only take about 1 episode a week because of the dark (themes, not settings.)

Other than that, all I watch is HGTV and the Food network. :D

movies
For some reason, I have been in this total Bollywood mood. Maybe because Sonali Dev's writing reminded me how much I loved the drama and flair? (She has a new book out right now and I ended up re-reading her first two on various planes this summer.) Luckily, the library has an excellent collection of the genre, because it’s otherwise a pricey addiction. So, yes, lots of giant dance numbers, except my 2 favorites turned out to be straight drama, not musicals. (Dil Chahta Hai, which is a coming-of-age arc about 3 friends and their romantic entanglements; and Monsoon Wedding, which does have the obligatory wedding but where the wedding is the catalyst for the drama in that everyone comes together and Stuff Happens. I am not ashamed to admit I cried through parts of both.) I'm still on the waiting list for Dil Dhadhakne Do (which sounds like the same big family Drama, only with a 30th anniversary cruise) and Band Baaja Baharat (friends to lovers against a backdrop of wedding planners. Dear lord, the bulletproof tropes that one hits for me...)

Sidenote: Last weekend D wanders into the bedroom asking if I had RSVP'd for his friend N's wedding, which, uh, no? Your friend, your chore. I haven't even met the bride-to-be, though I do like the groom a lot. He's adorable. (He taught with D for years.) So, they're a modern couple and everything is set up online, which forces D to go through the (agonizing, seriously, no one ever had to do so much stuff to rsvp a wedding, yes, my eyes are rolling out of my head) process of downloading the app and finding the wedding and then he's all, 'a sanjeet?' (he's spelling it out for me), 'what is that and why do I have to rsvp for that, too?', so yay for cultural diversity in reading and watching and still being able to impress the husband even after 30 years?

games
I am the world's worst gamer--my hand-eye coordination can handle typing & that's about it, but I am managing to play Knight of the Old Republic with much support from the HoB. I'm so proud? Also, on my phone I have been playing Regency Love for a couple of months & might just find myself running off with a most unsuitable beau. Also on the phone, I have just started Fallen London, but I have no idea what I'm doing there, so I'm expecting to die a horrible death at any moment.

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/125334.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

And we’re back for Part 2 of How to [Over] Plan Your WDW Vacation. :D

This part is centered on the Holy Grail of getting all my favorite WDW restaurants in a single Spring Break, which means I kind of have to figure out which park we’re going to on which day 6 months in advance of said day, because that’s when the Disney reservation system opens for restaurants.

I know, I know. It’s crazy. But here’s the thing: *you* really don’t have to get this obsessive, especially if you’re not going during times when schools are on break. I, however, have a husband who teaches and I still have a kid in high school, so I’m stuck going when the crowds are high. And I’m always much happier if I have good restaurants on the plan, so if you’re good with counter service (which is really very much improved around the World) or if you just want someplace where someone brings you your dinner, you probably don’t need to go to this extreme. I usually just think of it as gaming my vacation—I do it almost everywhere (you don’t want to see the spreadsheet I had for the trip to NYC this past summer) but WDW rewards my obsessiveness and creates a vicious cycle.

All that being said, though, if you want to get crazy, here’s how I do it.

( crowd assessments and park selectionCollapse )

( Ok,*now* we finally get to the restaurant portion of all this!Collapse )

( what to do if you don't have 6 months to planCollapse )

( Also, everybody always wants to know our favorite counter-service restaurants so here’s the listCollapse )

Helpful links:
Touring Plans Crowd Calendar
AllEars.net's Menu Index (crowdsourced but often more helpful than official WDW)

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/125035.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.

I’m not sure how or why it’s already Monday, but here we are…

On the plus side, I did manage to finish up that post-Star Trek Beyond Kirk/Pike sequel I’d been playing with (see my previous post), but the rest (ie, the mundane part) of my weekend to-do list is sadly un-lined-through. Priorities, yeah?

So, a couple of people have asked for my Disney World planning strategies, and since I’m in the middle of planning out a trip with my brother & s-i-l for next spring break, I thought I’d do it in a series of semi-real time posts.

( First things first--where to stayCollapse )

This entry was originally posted at http://topaz119.dreamwidth.org/124479.html -- comments are groovy wherever you'd like to make them.