I'm almost finished planting my new berry plants. I bought four raspberries and four loganberries, and I spent my winter break moving other plants from the back garden and leveling out terraces and getting a good space ready for them. (Basically the back garden is just something ornamental that the previous owners of our house put together to make it look pretty before putting it on the market. It's not functional at all, which I intend to change.)

Anyway, pyrocant has predicted that I'm going to get 3 berries for my first crop. :) I am afraid she's right think she's of course totally wrong, so I'll put it to you all.

( Berries! )

So, in X-Men Legacy #230, there's this exchange between Scott and Grown!Up!Rogue,

Scott: Excellent! Let's go hit Logan's room.
Rogue: Logan's room? What for?
Me: Threesome!

...Tell me I'm not the only one who thought that.

From sheafrotherdon, a comparison between Pocahontas and Avatar. I haven't seen Avatar and have no desire to see it. On my uncharitable days, like today, I wonder if this will lead to more people thinking 'who cares if you're black, brown, yellow, red or blue? aren't we all just people?' Hahahaha. And then I wonder how many people would see the movie if the protagonist were non-white and the aliens were white (or is that too out-there to comprehend? -- see (or don't) the other Avatar -- my littlest cousin, who is 8 or 9, is really excited to see it. I don't know if she knows yet that the actors are all white (except for the bad guy), or maybe worse, if that'll seem normal.)

And then I went to the comic shop to pick up three weeks of comics that I missed. <3

So I've decided that I no longer need to wear mom shoes to work every day. I've been wearing sturdy shoes like clogs since my son was born, because it's hard to balance a baby and a diaper bag and my laptop bag and whatever other crap I had to haul around. But he's not a baby anymore and it's time to get out my cute shoes again. Anyway, today's shoes were a bad choice and my feet hurt like crazy. I really love them, but I think I'm going to give them away, along with another pair that I've been in denial about because I adore them, but the truth is they're just plain too small. *sigh* The truth hurts but there it is.

On another subject entirely, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to enjoy a vacation is not to make any plans at all. I had 12 days off for the holidays, and I thoroughly enjoyed them because I didn't visit anyone, didn't run any errands, didn't do much of anything at all except hang around the house and do whatever I felt like doing. I ended up getting a lot of things done, too... much more than I expected. I didn't finish my book, though. I had set myself a goal to read all of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones over the break, but I didn't quite finish it. I'm mostly done, though. Has anyone read it? It's very sad, which I knew, but I want to be prepared for the movie. It looks good from the previews. I think I might need to plan on ditching work for a few hours to go see it. :)

Title: Nothing but Shadows and Vapor
Fandom: Spider-Woman
Characters: Jessica Drew/Logan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "Wolverine. I look at Wolverine and I wonder, how can he even function knowing he's the most screwed over person in the history of the universe? Congratulations, Wolverine. You are no longer the most screwed over human in the history of the entire world." -- Spider-Woman #1
Word Count: 2436
Notes: For likeadeuce! One of her Yuletide prompts was, Spider-Woman/Wolverine, hot superspy hijinks. No Skrull-Jessica please -- either set pre-abduction or after her return from Skrull captivity, dealing with their trust issues. Thank you very much to wizefics for the beta! Title is from Springsteen's "All the Way Home". Cross-posted at AO3, though I'm not sure how the tagging system works for NYR.

( Nothing but Shadows and Vapor )

I don't know when I started to OTP Jessica Jones/Luke Cage, but I think I really am now, to the point where I don't want them to break up, be with other people (unless those people are Danny Rand or Carol Danvers) or die -- I'm even a little wary of reading more of New Avengers in case this happens, but maybe I will check it out in the trades. I don't think I like feeling this OTP about canon pairings.

ETA: I see author names instead of 'anonymous' in Yuletide stories, so I guess this means we can talk about what we wrote? Any guesses I had as to who wrote fics for me were totally wrong. Heh.

I wrote:

1. Bring This Fair City Light -- Ex Machina, set after Hundred's accident and before he becomes the Great Machine. Hundred's all but moved in with Bradbury and has dreams of being a superhero. Hundred-Bradbury friendship.

2. Further On Up The Road -- Preacher, Tulip/Jesse/Cassidy, after the end of the series. (Much in Ennis' fashion, I think I glossed over some of the more troubling aspects of their relationship(s), though I like to think that maybe some years apart took care of a little of it.)

Today, at the bookstore, after my brother bought the comic because most books are shrink wrapped and we're not allowed to open them until after purchasing them, I read ( Marvel What If. . .Karen Page had lived? and Jessica Jones joined the Avengers (spoilers?) )

I also read Spider-Woman #4 and New Avengers vol. 10. I could ship Wolverine/Jessica Drew.

The problem with doing 'end of the year' memes is that my faulty memory interprets 'the year' as the last several weeks, instead of all twelve months.

( meme )

Iron Man

Chaos Magic -- great insight into Tony Stark, the way magic and technology work, and Tony's eventual dealings with Norman Osborn.


The Order

Miracle Worker -- fabulous fic about Kate Kildare and the aftermath of The Order.


Sunshine - Robin McKinley

Beauty and Family -- a Sadie Blaise story, about her life with Onyx Blaise and after. It's an awesome prequel to the story.

Branches -- a Mel-meets-Con story! I never quite thought of an OT3 working between Sunshine, Mel and Con before, but this story sort of makes me want one. Or at least more Mel/Sunshine with a working partnership with Con.

Sunshine, Shadows, and Silence -- Sunshine/Mel, post-No Town. I'd always thought Sunshine's relationship with Mel ended after she and Con started a...partnership, but I like this exploration of what would have happened between her and Mel, if they'd stayed together (or, possibly, got back together, not that they ever had any break-up scenes).


Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Your Front Porch, My Front Seat -- Thunder Road fic! I love Mary in this. <3

No Honest Man -- Atlantic City fic, with an unexpected ending. Very noir-ish.

Somewhere In The Swamps Of Jersey, or, The Courtship of Steven Van Zandt -- E Street Band RPF. The making of Born To Run. "I first met Steve when I was sixteen, and I was trying to give back to my community, you know? So they told me I was gonna be tutoring some guy after school, some other dude from the same school, because the poor son of a bitch didn't know how to read or write."


Beauty & the Beast (Disney)

Bittersweet -- an alternate, not-so-HEA, ending that is, as the title states, bittersweet. I'm not sure what it says about me that I think I love the idea of such an ending more than the HEA version.


Slings & Arrows

By Way of Explanation -- an Ellen Fanshaw story, about the complicated relationship she had with Geoffrey, but it's so much more about *her*.

Follies -- terrific fic about Geoffrey talking to the season one ensemble about putting on a production of Hair and why he would do something seemingly out of character. I love the last line especially.


Cable & Deadpool

The Cable & Deadpool Yuletide Special -- I admit, I got a bit lost in the stories of fandoms I don't know anything about, but the Deadpool voice is spot-on and I love the ending.


...I still have so many tabs open!

I think this is the first year I've been able to do this. Including Yuletide, I wrote 19 fics. Huh. Meme from the flist:

Favorite story this year: I Ain't Here On Business (I'm Only Here For Fun). Waaaaaaaaaaade!

My best story this year: I think my assigned yuletide fic, which is a nice way to end the year, or Reason to Believe, my Brand & Hisako story.

Most underappreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Heh. Any fic that gets even one comment is duly appreciated, I feel.

Most fun story: Anything with Wade in it!

Sexiest story: Prove It All Night. Scott/Logan PWP, without that much porn.

"Holy crap, that's wrong, even for you" story: I don't think I have one of these.

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: The Ties that Bind. It didn't really change the way I thought of Hisako, so much as I just thought about her more.

Hardest story to do: So Say Good-Bye, It's Independence Day. It took me a really long time to find Warren's perspective.

Biggest surprise: Where Aisles and Aisles of Dreams Await You (Original X-Men/Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band). Surprise in that I wasn't expecting to write this and it sort of wrote itself.

Most revealing story: From Small Things. Hisako's personality is more like mine, and Jubilee's background is similar to my own.

A story I want remembered: Any of them?

I got a yule-treat! Data Quality Management! It's an awesome Leverage ficlet about Alec Hardison!

I'm also glad my recipients liked their fics. *whew*


Family is watching The Dark Knight. IDK why it is, but the lack of women in this story is really bugging me tonight -- I mean, more than the other times I've seen this movie.


( Homicide: Life on the Street, seasons 1&2 )

Thinking about the red bird of happiness made me really want to play Super Mario Sunshine again, so I ventured into the storage room a few days ago and searched until I found the old Game Cube controllers (you can play Game Cube games on the Wii, but only if you have the Game Cube controllers.) But I couldn't find the game itself. I was looking all over the place for it until my husband remembered that I had lent it to a friend of mine and he never gave it back. Crap. So all I have is Super Mario Galaxy, which is fun too, but nowhere near as fun as Sunshine. *sigh* Oh well. It's still fun, and I did get some more junk cleaned out of the storage room during this process, so it wasn't a totally wasted effort.

In other news, my son got a new Johnny Tractor book for Christmas. Johnny Tractor (JT) is the cute little tractor in the John Deere series of toddler board books. When I saw the first one, I had a moment of shocked disbelief that John Deere had published this series of books to market heavy machinery to babies, literally, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's a genius idea. What better way to get kids to think John Deere tractors are awesome than to introduce them as fun cartoon characters when they're so young? And I really don't have a problem with it if my son decides he wants a John Deere tractor or grader or Gator (tm) utility vehicle. JT does good deeds around the farm and helps kids learn about animals and farming; it's not like they're marketing sugar cereals or cigarettes. 

I got an awesome fic about Jessica Jones! It's here: pseudological fantastica. Jessica is wonderful in this, sharp and vulnerable and hopeful in all the ways that makes her Jessica Jones. ♥

I think I got a treat too (!!!) but I don't think it's been released yet, due to server overload. I wrote two stories; I think the second one - the treat - has my fingerprints all over it. My assigned story too, but I feel it's much more evident in the second story.