2025 Disneyland Trip #75 (12/1/25)
1 Dec 2025 10:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torachanI headed down to Disneyland after work for one last solo trip before Carla gets back on Wednesday.
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torachan
Daily Happiness
1 Dec 2025 09:32 pmtorachan1. I stopped in 85C on my after lunch walk and saw that they are taking orders for Christmas cakes. Their classic strawberry shortcake looked really good but they also have an ube cake, so I think we're going to try that this year. I'm going to walk over there again tomorrow and put in an order to pick up on Christmas eve, since I'll be working that day and can pick it up after work so I don't have to make a special trip.
2. Had a nice dinner trip to Disneyland after work. The park didn't feel that crowded, and it was nice to see all the Christmas lights.
3. Carla called the dealership and got an appointment to take the car in on Friday morning, so hopefully they will be able to get the AC fixed quickly. Temps have gone back down again but I definitely miss not having it!
4. The other car is parked all the way up the driveway while Carla is out town so I don't have to move it to get the trash cans out to the front for pickup, and it makes a nice spot for Tuxie to hide under.
2. Had a nice dinner trip to Disneyland after work. The park didn't feel that crowded, and it was nice to see all the Christmas lights.
3. Carla called the dealership and got an appointment to take the car in on Friday morning, so hopefully they will be able to get the AC fixed quickly. Temps have gone back down again but I definitely miss not having it!
4. The other car is parked all the way up the driveway while Carla is out town so I don't have to move it to get the trash cans out to the front for pickup, and it makes a nice spot for Tuxie to hide under.
Rec-cember Day 2: Merlin
1 Dec 2025 10:45 pmfalenaMerlin
This BBC show for children is a prime example of one of those fandoms where, for me, fanon clearly surpassed and trascended canon. I don't think I ever finished watching the show back when it was airing, but man, the Merlin/Arthur fic I have saved I have gone back to hundreds of times in the intervening years, especially as podfic. I don't know why precisely the idea of a relationship between a stuckup but brave prince and its bumbling but loyal manservant was right up my alley but it just was.
The Student Prince by fayjay. This is a modern day AU where Arthur is the heir to the British throne and he meets Merlin at university in Saint Andrews, in circa 2010. This is basically the one of the best YA romances I've ever read, better than most traditionally published stuff and it can totally be read with little to no knowledge of the tv show. I re-listen to the podfic version (read by the author herself, who is actually better than most pro audiobook readers) at least once a year.
fayjay has podficced many of my favourite canon era stories, like In Time of Trial by shinetheway; The Beltane Cycle by
astolat/ Naomi Novik (here is the podfic); The Crown of the Summer Court by
astolat/ Naomi Novik (here is the podfic).
The Pitt
I've fallen down the rabbit hole of Mel/Frank shipping and I regret nothing, the quality of the writing for this pairing is stellar. I have 80+ bookmarks for it on the Ao3.
However, I do have a soft spot for another pairing, and that is Robby/Abbot. The two ER cowboys, chief attending of the day and night shift respectively. Old man yaoi at its finest. My interest in the pairing is completely alethia's fault. I've been a fan of her work since Generation Kill and she is just such a talented author I literally cannot choose which one of the 30+ Robby/Abbot fic she's written so far is my favourite. I love them all. Go on, pick one at random and read it, you will be blown away.
alethia gets these two characters in a way the writers of The Pitt can only dream of.
If you're a podfic nut like me, you could start by listening to Safe Haven by andrasteemraldpetal .
Five Things AuroraT Said
1 Dec 2025 02:38 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
ao3_news_feed
Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with AuroraT, who volunteers as an administrative volunteer for Open Doors.
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
I'm an administrative volunteer with the Open Doors Committee, which helps import at-risk digital archives to AO3 in order to preserve fanworks that might otherwise be lost. I'm responsible for project management, walking an archive and its archivist through our lengthy import process. We put a lot of effort into keeping track of the metadata for each work and respecting creators' privacy, so a lot of what I do involves managing spreadsheets and communicating with the archivist, other committees in the OTW, and other teams in the Open Doors Committee. I also write documentation for the committee, updating or writing down our procedures and information about the archives I'm managing.
What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
There's a lot of variety in what an import project requires, so my weeks tend to vary a lot. Sometimes, I'll spend one of our weekly meetings working on a single task, such as preparing the documents we need to initiate a new import or cleaning up a spreadsheet. Other times, I'll jump around from task to task: emailing a different committee, discussing a procedure change with other admin volunteers, responding to feedback on documentation I wrote, creating the AO3 collection where we'll add the works we imported, answering a ticket from a creator wanting to claim works we previously imported, and so on.
What made you decide to volunteer?
I'm a huge supporter of the OTW's mission to preserve fanworks and fight censorship, and I had been watching calls for volunteers for positions I was qualified for in order to contribute to those efforts. I'd recently gotten much more into fanwork preservation when I began working at a library with a zine collection, where I was managing cataloguing and shelving a backlog of donated zines. Project management and working with spreadsheets is a lot of fun! When I saw the application for the administrative volunteer position, it seemed in line with my interests and skills, so I applied.
(Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to me when I applied, the library I was working at is one of Open Doors' partner institutions for our Fan Culture Preservation Project, which helps connect donors with physical fanworks to libraries and archives with zine collections. Some of the donations I was processing were facilitated with the help of Open Doors!)
What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
It's absolutely task management. Our process for importing an archive is over a hundred steps long and some of those require a lot of prep work and communication between people. And that's not even including documentation or other administrative work! Thankfully, through the miracle of digital checklists and automatic reminders, as well as the detailed procedure instructions Open Doors has written over the years, it's not too difficult to keep on top of everything. Plus, I have my lovely fellow committee members to help out when I need it :)
What fannish things do you like to do?
I read a lot of fanfiction these days, especially longfics—the one I'm currently reading is over 430k words long and still being published. I also really like to leave long comments on the fics I read. It's a lot of fun to get that sweet, sweet AO3 email that the author responded to me! Recently, I started writing fanfiction for the first time in several years. Joining a new fandom really helped get those creative juices flowing.
Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out previous Five Things posts.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
Five Things AuroraT Said
1 Dec 2025 02:35 pmotw_news_feedEvery month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer’s personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today’s post is with AuroraT, who volunteers as an administrative volunteer for Open Doors.
How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?
I’m an administrative volunteer with the Open Doors Committee, which helps import at-risk digital archives to AO3 in order to preserve fanworks that might otherwise be lost. I’m responsible for project management, walking an archive and its archivist through our lengthy import process. We put a lot of effort into keeping track of the metadata for each work and respecting creators’ privacy, so a lot of what I do involves managing spreadsheets and communicating with the archivist, other committees in the OTW, and other teams in the Open Doors Committee. I also write documentation for the committee, updating or writing down our procedures and information about the archives I’m managing.
What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
There’s a lot of variety in what an import project requires, so my weeks tend to vary a lot. Sometimes, I’ll spend one of our weekly meetings working on a single task, such as preparing the documents we need to initiate a new import or cleaning up a spreadsheet. Other times, I’ll jump around from task to task: emailing a different committee, discussing a procedure change with other admin volunteers, responding to feedback on documentation I wrote, creating the AO3 collection where we’ll add the works we imported, answering a ticket from a creator wanting to claim works we previously imported, and so on.
What made you decide to volunteer?
I’m a huge supporter of the OTW’s mission to preserve fanworks and fight censorship, and I had been watching calls for volunteers for positions I was qualified for in order to contribute to those efforts. I’d recently gotten much more into fanwork preservation when I began working at a library with a zine collection, where I was managing cataloguing and shelving a backlog of donated zines. Project management and working with spreadsheets is a lot of fun! When I saw the application for the administrative volunteer position, it seemed in line with my interests and skills, so I applied.
(Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to me when I applied, the library I was working at is one of Open Doors’ partner institutions for our Fan Culture Preservation Project, which helps connect donors with physical fanworks to libraries and archives with zine collections. Some of the donations I was processing were facilitated with the help of Open Doors!)
What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
It’s absolutely task management. Our process for importing an archive is over a hundred steps long and some of those require a lot of prep work and communication between people. And that’s not even including documentation or other administrative work! Thankfully, through the miracle of digital checklists and automatic reminders, as well as the detailed procedure instructions Open Doors has written over the years, it’s not too difficult to keep on top of everything. Plus, I have my lovely fellow committee members to help out when I need it :)
What fannish things do you like to do?
I read a lot of fanfiction these days, especially longfics—the one I’m currently reading is over 430k words long and still being published. I also really like to leave long comments on the fics I read. It’s a lot of fun to get that sweet, sweet AO3 email that the author responded to me! Recently, I started writing fanfiction for the first time in several years. Joining a new fandom really helped get those creative juices flowing.
Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you’d like, you can check out previous Five Things posts.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan-run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
Daily Happiness
30 Nov 2025 05:10 pmtorachan1. I keep seeing posts from Sidecar Donuts on my instagram feed and have been meaning to try them out, so this morning I walked over there for breakfast. It's about 1.3 miles and my usual morning walk is 1.5, so even if I went straight there and back it's almost double, so not doable on a work day (which is just as well), but nice for an extra long weekend walk. I actually went a few blocks out of my way, too, to make it more like four miles total.
I was planning on just getting one donut and a drink, but couldn't resist a second one. This is a banana bread latte, Apple Pan apple pie donut, and huckleberry donut. I ate the apple one there and brought the huckleberry one home for tomorrow, but I did have a taste of it already because they had samples out. Both were super tasty. The latte was just okay. I opted for no walnut topping but it still had a stronger walnut flavor than I would prefer.
2. I am bummed to go back to work tomorrow, but I did have a very nice long weekend!
3. Ollie hopped up on this shelf before I noticed! D: Thankfully I was able to extract him before he did any damage (though of course I had to take several photos first lol).
I was planning on just getting one donut and a drink, but couldn't resist a second one. This is a banana bread latte, Apple Pan apple pie donut, and huckleberry donut. I ate the apple one there and brought the huckleberry one home for tomorrow, but I did have a taste of it already because they had samples out. Both were super tasty. The latte was just okay. I opted for no walnut topping but it still had a stronger walnut flavor than I would prefer.
2. I am bummed to go back to work tomorrow, but I did have a very nice long weekend!
3. Ollie hopped up on this shelf before I noticed! D: Thankfully I was able to extract him before he did any damage (though of course I had to take several photos first lol).
Rec-cember Day 1: Veronica Mars
30 Nov 2025 11:37 pmfalenaSo, as I said a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to take part in this challenge where you post recs for the month of December. I'm not sure I'm actually going to be able to keep up with daily posts for a whole month, but I can sure try. Few things fill me with more excitement than proper fic recs. I still miss the golden days of fic reccing, back when crack_van or epic-recs were active on LJ. Anyway, the way I decided to play it is this: I'm going to try and do a different fandom each day (though I might do repeats for those fandoms I have more recs for); I'm also going to do a single story for The Pitt every day as that's my current fandom (and I haven't been this obsessed with a single fandom and pairing for years, lol); I'm also going to add podfic links whenever possible, because podfic makes everything better.
Veronica Mars
Rich Dirt by theohara. Logan/Veronica, spoilers for S1, technically, though this is an AU of Shelley Pomroy's party. 3K words.
I can't believe I'm kicking off this challenge with a fic which is on LJ and actually still accessible. Lol. It's been over 20 years since this was posted. Maaaan, I'm a true Fandom Old. This fic is second-person narration which is something I usually abhor, please don't let it put you off? It's very good. There's a great podfic by knight_tracer (one of my fave podficcers, I just love her voice and accent!) here.
A Strange New Story Every Time by gyzym Logan/Veronica, futurefic, spoliers for the first three seasons only. Almost 20K. Veronica and Logan meet again in NYC, 10 years after the end of the original run. There's a tiny White Collar cameo, btw. Fantastic characterisation and the dialogue is * chef's kiss* perfect, the banter between these two. Also, the character have aged and thank God matured. Love a future fic that actually allows for character growth. Podfic (a collab!) is available here
The Pitt
Okay, this is mostly for those of you who haven't watched The Pitt yet, Noah Wyle's new medical show set in a Pittsburgh ER. If you haven't you totally should, it's the best tv I've watched in a long while, though of course I literally grew up with ER and John Carter was my first tv crush back when I was 12, lol. Still, what really stole my fannish heart is an unlikely and yet absolutely perfect pairing between two doctors: Frank Langdon, canonically known as ER Ken, a heartthrob, cocky, talented and very damaged fourth-year (senior) resident and just-starting-at-this-new-ER second-year resident Mel King, who is neurodivergent (probably autistic), kind, empathetic and such a darling. They have a mentor/mentee dynamic in canon but their chemistry is undeniable.
I'll get you started with an instant fandom classic for the pairing:2:00 AM by orphan_account. 8K words. Frank/Mel. “I don’t understand why you’re letting that asshole crash at your place,” Santos says, flopping back on the couch in the break room. “Seriously, Mel. There's a reason his wife kicked him out.” You can listen to it as a podfic here. Do not read this if you haven't watched the show yet, as it'll spoil a big character development point for Langdon that was a huge plot twist-. As I said, this is already considered a fandom classic even though The Pitt has been around for less than a year. It showcases Langdon and Mel's dynamic perfectly with great characterisation. It also features a lot of medicine and many of the other characters, it encapsulates pretty well what the show is all about while delivering grade-a shipping stuff.
Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!
30 Nov 2025 02:42 am![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
denise posting in ![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
dw_newsHello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.
The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.
( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )
Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.
On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.
Purrcy; Turkey Day; Sarah Monette/Katherine Addison
30 Nov 2025 12:00 ammecurtinPurrcy likes all the people who visited for T-day, and no-one extra was staying overnight here, but it was just ... a lot of feet, and voices, and hands. Today has had to be very clingy and relaxing, to wind down.
I was able to let go completely and have E&P do almost everything for T-day because of a combo of pain & exhaustion from pain. We ate at 5, so early in the day there was dining room table clearing, and giving bills to me in my study to look at and pay. And I remember asking Dirk to bring me the shoulder-shaped ice pack, and later him coming in to ask me a question and all I could was just ... stare at him, because even as the pain went down the exhaustion from it surged forward and there was nothing left.
So Purrcy & I had to lie in bed a lot of the time. I couldn't really fall asleep, but I continued binge-reading.
This week's binge-read was Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths 4-book series, now re-issued under her Katherine Addison pen name, the better to pull in fans of The Goblin Emperor and the other books in The Chronicles of Osreth. I found them a quick read and enjoyable enough, though partly because I could see how many elements there are in these early works that she re-worked for the Osreth books, and which elements she decided meh, don't have to do that again.
Reused elements: stories within the story; labyrinths; lower-class people having important POVs; palaces being full of servants who know stuff & who you'd better get to know; theatrical costumes are a great way for a woman to get upper-class clothing even if she's not upper class; aristocrats are mostly assholes.
Element she realized she didn't need to reuse: POV character who's an asshole. OMG Felix is *such* a yaoi character, I now see why when Melusine came out & I was hearing about it 2nd hand your opinions were *so* divergent. Because on the one hand, he's just the Maximum Poor Little Mew Mew ... on the other hand, when "sane" he's a total jerk and bully toward Mildmay & anyone else in range of his tongue.
So the series as a whole feels like her working out, can I develop Felix's backstory enough to show how he was shaped into a charismatic abuser, and then can I believably show him becoming a better person? And I dunno if I'll read the series again, because it just is too many chapters from Felix's POV. I 1000x prefer Maia and Thara, both of whom absolutely abhor picking fights, *shudder*.
I was able to let go completely and have E&P do almost everything for T-day because of a combo of pain & exhaustion from pain. We ate at 5, so early in the day there was dining room table clearing, and giving bills to me in my study to look at and pay. And I remember asking Dirk to bring me the shoulder-shaped ice pack, and later him coming in to ask me a question and all I could was just ... stare at him, because even as the pain went down the exhaustion from it surged forward and there was nothing left.
So Purrcy & I had to lie in bed a lot of the time. I couldn't really fall asleep, but I continued binge-reading.
This week's binge-read was Sarah Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths 4-book series, now re-issued under her Katherine Addison pen name, the better to pull in fans of The Goblin Emperor and the other books in The Chronicles of Osreth. I found them a quick read and enjoyable enough, though partly because I could see how many elements there are in these early works that she re-worked for the Osreth books, and which elements she decided meh, don't have to do that again.
Reused elements: stories within the story; labyrinths; lower-class people having important POVs; palaces being full of servants who know stuff & who you'd better get to know; theatrical costumes are a great way for a woman to get upper-class clothing even if she's not upper class; aristocrats are mostly assholes.
Element she realized she didn't need to reuse: POV character who's an asshole. OMG Felix is *such* a yaoi character, I now see why when Melusine came out & I was hearing about it 2nd hand your opinions were *so* divergent. Because on the one hand, he's just the Maximum Poor Little Mew Mew ... on the other hand, when "sane" he's a total jerk and bully toward Mildmay & anyone else in range of his tongue.
So the series as a whole feels like her working out, can I develop Felix's backstory enough to show how he was shaped into a charismatic abuser, and then can I believably show him becoming a better person? And I dunno if I'll read the series again, because it just is too many chapters from Felix's POV. I 1000x prefer Maia and Thara, both of whom absolutely abhor picking fights, *shudder*.
Daily Happiness
29 Nov 2025 08:59 pmtorachan1. I had a pretty restful day today, which was nice after two busy (if fun) days. It was pretty chilly, which I wish had been the case yesterday or Thursday, but I'll take now anyway. Tomorrow's supposed to be low 60s, too.
2. I finished another puzzle today. This was a 750 piece one but went pretty quickly as it had a lot of pattern and color differentiation.
3. Carla bought some gingerbread oatmilk recently and I had some tonight in a mug of cocoa and it goes so well together!
4. Found a hidden Molly in the curtain.
2. I finished another puzzle today. This was a 750 piece one but went pretty quickly as it had a lot of pattern and color differentiation.
3. Carla bought some gingerbread oatmilk recently and I had some tonight in a mug of cocoa and it goes so well together!
4. Found a hidden Molly in the curtain.
(no subject)
29 Nov 2025 07:24 pmwaterswordFinally committed to buying myself some solid gold flatback earrings that I can keep in, and got the Maison Miru pavé lightning bar pair, which are almost identical to the Mateo bypass studs, except not diamonds, and about 20% of the price. (Christ, when I bookmarked those earrings, they were almost a hundred dollars cheaper.) I have managed to get them into my ears all by myself (look, I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 30, and push pin flat backs are even harder), and I am pleased to report that they are delicate and sparkly and I look forward to wearing them for the foreseeable future.
It's a shame that Saturday is my long cardio session at the gym, because damn does my hair look great on Sundays, when it is clean but the curl has fallen out juuuuust enough that the ringlets don't look fake. (My natural curl texture in the front is, genuinely, Shirley Temple curls. It is absurd.)
I have made cranberry-apricot cake and poppyseed cake and am restraining myself from making a miso-maple cake. The cod with artichokes and saffron broth did defeat the bag of artichokes that had been in the freezer since the dawn of time, but I actually think the broth isn't great — oddly bitter? — and won't be making it again. (I have leftovers and will eat them, but I won't be happy about it. Thank goodness I didn't waste the second cod fillet on this.) The pesto + white beans, on the other hand, were delicious and will become a new staple.
Sir Tom Stoppard's death is extremely upsetting and I am watching "Shakespeare in Love," "Enigma," and "Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead" and reading Arcadia, The Invention of Love, and The Coast of Utopia about it. And re-reading the cricket bat speech from The Real Thing.
Weekly Reading
29 Nov 2025 03:40 pmtorachanRecently Finished
Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Tilly and the Lost Fairytales
Tilly and the Map of Stories
The Book Smugglers
First four books in a middle grade series about a world where people can travel into books when they read them. I have been enjoying these a lot as audiobooks. There are two more in the series and I've already started the second to last one.
Wayward Girls
Two women get a call that the boarding school they attended is being knocked down and they go to visit it one last time to get closure for the horrible events that happened there. Only a few chapters are set in the present with most of the book revealing what happened back when they were in school. I enjoyed it.
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn vol. 1
Graphic novel about a supernatural investigator who has some supernatural things going on himself, the first being that he seems to be a floating skull on top of an invisible man type set of clothes. He takes care of hauntings while more about his own backstory is revealed. I enjoyed this and will keep an eye out for further volumes.
The Day the Klan Came to Town
Short graphic novel based on a true story of a Pennsylvania town that fought back when the Klan tried to invade them. This is a fictionalized version of events using original characters, but based on what actually happened. I liked the story but the art was awful. :-/
My Home Hero vol. 16
Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Tilly and the Lost Fairytales
Tilly and the Map of Stories
The Book Smugglers
First four books in a middle grade series about a world where people can travel into books when they read them. I have been enjoying these a lot as audiobooks. There are two more in the series and I've already started the second to last one.
Wayward Girls
Two women get a call that the boarding school they attended is being knocked down and they go to visit it one last time to get closure for the horrible events that happened there. Only a few chapters are set in the present with most of the book revealing what happened back when they were in school. I enjoyed it.
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn vol. 1
Graphic novel about a supernatural investigator who has some supernatural things going on himself, the first being that he seems to be a floating skull on top of an invisible man type set of clothes. He takes care of hauntings while more about his own backstory is revealed. I enjoyed this and will keep an eye out for further volumes.
The Day the Klan Came to Town
Short graphic novel based on a true story of a Pennsylvania town that fought back when the Klan tried to invade them. This is a fictionalized version of events using original characters, but based on what actually happened. I liked the story but the art was awful. :-/
My Home Hero vol. 16
Daily Happiness
28 Nov 2025 09:32 pmtorachan1. I had a nice morning at Disneyland today, but I am definitely glad I have two more days off to rest up! Tomorrow I am not going anywhere further than the farmers market.
2. Chloe!
2. Chloe!
2025 Disneyland Trip #74 (11/28/25)
28 Nov 2025 09:22 pmtorachanDespite having spent all day yesterday at Universal Studios, I was up bright and early this morning to go to Disneyland.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Volunteer social thread #159
28 Nov 2025 02:04 ampauamma posting in dw_volunteersI'm about to have dinner (at 2am, as one does).
How's everyone else doing?
How's everyone else doing?
Thanksgiving dinner is cooking
27 Nov 2025 03:15 pmconulyI put my chicken in the oven and fried up the chicken skins and - listen, I gotta say, of all the food items I've tried because I read about them, fried chicken skins are fucking amazing. I don't mind saying that they are, hands down, the most brilliant thing Jews have contributed to the world, and I do hope my various Jewish friends take that in the spirit it's intended, because omg. I don't care if I find out later that you guys invented the wheel, this is better. I am very thankful.
Anyway, we've got chicken, creamed spinach, possibly creamed corn, maybe beets of some sort, maybe couscous, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows, contributed by a guest), stuffing, cornbread, cranberry sauce, and pies. I'm debating making some soup as well, buuuuuuut I think we may have enough food and not enough bowls. Oh, and there's green beans. Oh, and brussels sprouts and a salad.
(Maybe I should've made baked beans? I wonder if I have time to make baked beans. Oh, but the chicken is in the oven. Hm. Can you make not-baked baked beans? Is that a thing?)
Anyway, we've got chicken, creamed spinach, possibly creamed corn, maybe beets of some sort, maybe couscous, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (with marshmallows, contributed by a guest), stuffing, cornbread, cranberry sauce, and pies. I'm debating making some soup as well, buuuuuuut I think we may have enough food and not enough bowls. Oh, and there's green beans. Oh, and brussels sprouts and a salad.
(Maybe I should've made baked beans? I wonder if I have time to make baked beans. Oh, but the chicken is in the oven. Hm. Can you make not-baked baked beans? Is that a thing?)