kate | Entries tagged with this is my life: family

In your own space, Talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

Tropes can be so much fun but if you want a little guide to articulating your favorites you can check a wealth of them on fanlore or TV tropes.

There are clichés, motifs and themes that bring joy to our fannish hearts. Let’s talk about them.

And of course we have kinks which can be more on the non-sexual cliché side or they can be all kinds of sexy. We have ‘em, we love ‘em, we want to talk about ‘em.

( Lots of blathering about found family under here. )

Snowflake Challenge promotional banner with image of crystal snowflakes on green leaves on a dark blue background. Text: Snowflake Challenge January 1-31.

( Cut for sadness to do with a pet. Please protect yourself. )

I should be writing but I am avoiding it. I've just gotten to the porn and, as often happens to me, I'm just not in the right headspace.

I've been backreading my dwircle and want to say: I LOVE YOU GUYS. You're so delightful and thoughtful and also fun and funny and perfect.

There's a lot of politics on my dwircle which is great, but also things I don't have the emotional energy to comment on, so if you're someone posting about that stuff, THANK YOU and I appreciate what you're saying and linking but I probably won't comment.

Life update: We've moved to Milwaukee. We're in a tiny (but cute) apartment with really great light and the ability to walk to literally everything we could need. The vet would be a bit of a hike, but we could get there on foot if we needed to. We're looking for houses nearby, because I expect to get promoted this year and get a huge bonus and raise that will pretty much wipe out our debt and allow us to put together a downpayment in record time.

Cat update: Jeeves went to the vet yesterday. We need to do a blood sugar curve on him this weekend, but we think that 3 units of insulin twice a day is the new normal. He stopped peeing on us on purpose, but he's still peeing on things, so... probably going to keep the cats out of the bedroom, which is both frustratingly hard and sad-making.

Writing update: I made my goal of 250,000 words in May, and it's a good thing because July came and work just knocked me off my feet (and is still doing so, and probably won't end until next year). I'll probably make 400,000 for the year even so, which is great, but I'm not able to write consistently in the mornings, which is frustrating. I also hit 1 million posted words a little while ago, and that was very satisfying. I've also managed to keep up a serial for the better part of the year (it's stuck on the porn) and that ends somewhere around Christmas, so I'm looking forward to diving into other projects next year.

I think that's all that's fit to print. I've not been doing much social media-wise (not even spending time on Twitter or tumblr - it's just been lack of time everywhere), so I'm not ignoring Dreamwidth, I'm ignoring everybody. I'm just now dipping a toe back in, so we'll see how that goes. Hi hi hi!

My cat (my favorite, don't tell the rest) just came into our bedroom and pissed all over our comforter and sheets.

A) I came home not 5 minutes before this. (After a super-shitty week at work culminating in a particularly super-shitty day today.)
B) This is actually the second time he's done it, the last time, he did it while my wife and I were in the bed. He pissed ON US. We weren't really sure what to make of that; he'd been sick and we'd been playing with his insulin to get him back on track with his blood sugars.

I can't tell if he's still sick and letting us know, or if he's pissed at me specifically. I've been stressed from work, so not particularly lovey or anything, but not like, awful? I'm still petting the cats and they sleep with us, and hang out with me on the couch.

You know, I just didn't need this today.

So, y'all remember when I asked my wife on our first date in my journal ten years ago?

This is me asking again. Hey,

soleta, will you go to Cirque du Soleil with me for your birthday?

Those two things aren't necessarily related, though they are at least a little bit.

( Cut for length and whining, mention of violence and nebulous sad-making things and dreams. )

Going back through my stuff for a thing, and saw this:

Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

And it was cool to look at the list of 20-something stories and realize only one or two are still on it! I've posted most of them and thrown a couple away.

So here's my 2016 list:

( Cut for length. )

Aaaaaaaand just so I don't show up and put up nothing than a meme, a heartwarming story:

Last Sunday my wife said "Let's go to Melting Pot!" She had a craving. Okay, so we went. Because fondue! And when we got there, the waiter asked us if there was a special occasion and we were like, "nope, just wanted to come out."

And he proceeded to be the worst waiter in the history of waiters.

But then, something came up about the Oscars. Which I totally missed this year (which is the first year in like, two DECADES that I missed them). And then we realized... our first date was the Oscars. We used to use the Oscars as our anniversary. And then I realized our first date was in 2006. We were out for 10 year anniversary. ON ACCIDENT. Heh. :D :D :D

Sorry I disappeared like that. Things have been nuts over here.

So first, kitties! Fatty is much better. Pretty much all the issues he had are gone, he's eating regularly and chasing Weebl and going in the litter box and everything is working like planned.

Jeeves is... well. Diabetic. We're giving him 4 units of insulin per day, which is just crazy. But, he's also pretty much back to normal, so the kitty household feels back on an even keel. THANK THE GODS.

I, on the other hand, have had a huge work shake-up that... is good? Really good, I think, but still makes me nervous. ( I'm gonna blather about it under here for a while - I think this is cut for length but you never know. )

And that's all the news that's fit to print. What's up with you guys? *goes to check the dwircle*

Fatty is now eating and drinking on his own! \o/ Still force feeding for a while, probably, but shouldn't be long.

( Jeeves is another matter. )

Other than that, things are okay. Thank you all so much for your good thoughts, it means an incredible amount to me, you don't even know. <333

( More pet stuff. )

We got the tests back from the vet (where he was overnight, so they could force feed him instead of us) and it turns out Fatty was fighting off an infection, that's what started all this. We're continuing on with the same regimen, but they've given him an antibiotic, so we should see marked improvement soon, and hopefully he'll be right as rain before too long.

Thanks for all your good thoughts and advice, all much appreciated! <3<3<3

In honor of my return to DW, a meme!

( Cut for the 'how YOU doin' meme. )

Lots of big news around here.

+ I am done in Philly! THANK THE LORD.
- Chicago is a complete and utter lie. I am not doing what they said I'd be doing, and in fact, it is not fun work at all and this is going to be a long and shitty six weeks. WHOOPEE.
- Jeeves is doing that circling thing again.
-- When we took Jeeves to the vet, they found out he was diabetic (new since the last time this happened) and won't give us steroids to fix his circling. We got insulin and a neuro consult. WHOOPEE.
-------------- ( WTAF, scary non-ghost story under here. )

That's all the news that's fit to print, hope my non-ghost story was fun for a laugh, and hiiiiiiii. Life sucks right now, sorry. :(

ETA: Actually - no it's not. There's less than a week to sign up for gishwhes. We're team velociraptor, and we are most definitely not being competitive about this thing, we're in it for the kicks and to get our feet wet. Next year, we'll be playing to win (ha, maybe) but this year, we're just in it to have a good time. So come join us? It's $18.87 to register, but it's supposed to be amazing and lifechanging, and whatever whatever. So.... join? We have six slots left. :D

( I'm not sure how to label this, but I think probably it needs a trigger warning re: death of a family member. )

So we bought a new TV today. A 60" Samsung something or other. The resolution is gorgeous. We're watching How To Train Your Dragon to break it in. It's GORGEOUS. Big Hero 6 is up next.

It was just a warm-up, though, because we're buying a new car tomorrow. Pretty much settled on what we (and by we I mean *I*) want, but instead of trading in the car, my sister wants it. It's really died, it needs over $2k of work, and I don't want to give her a car that's unsafe, because I know she can't afford to fix it and I don't want her driving it unless it gets fixed.

*sigh*

I'm gonna take it to a shop tomorrow, see if they can give me an estimate on fixing it, and then figure out how to get to the dealer - who is half an hour north of here. At worst I can take a taxi, but that'd be pretty spendy. Arg.

Oh, man. Recently someone mentioned the old adage about the internet being made of cats, someone to whom I couldn't just shoot back "and porn!" because it was either my wife's family or someone at work. But it is true! So many cats!

And I don't know most of the internet famous cats, I'm terrible at internet memes, seriously, but I just got a work email full of funny ones (my workplace received 100% score on some index that rates how good companies are for LGBTQ folks to work for (second year in a row, strong work, company!)).

I think I shall have to give pictures of my kitties, though, because they are my kitties and I love them! Here are all four:

( ETA! Sorry! I had not realized how huge this pic is! Cut now. )

We have two sets of siblings. The first set is Jeeves and Wooster. But we call Wooster "Fatty" because he is. He is just a ginormous fucking cat. And he has no idea his name is Wooster, my mother-in-law calls him that because she thinks he'll get a complex, but he doesn't respond to it in any way because we just never call him that. He's just Fatty. But he's a loveable Fatty, and great for hugs (even though he hates it). Jeeves is the smaller of the two (obviously) and I think he was actually a runt? But he's a pretty good sized cat now - 12 lbs last time we weighed him. He's black and fuzzy and personable and purrs loudly and follows people around the house (and by "people," I mean "my wife"). We call him the best cat, because he is. No one else seems to agree with us, though. Most people like Fatty best, and our cleaning ladies loved Weebl (because he is the only one that doesn't go hide under the bed when new people show up).

And that brings us to the second set of siblings. Weebl is the boy - also 12 lbs though he's smaller-ish than Jeeves. He's a more solidly build cat. Ripley is the girl. When we got them, my wife had apparently picked out a name for hers (Weebl) which left me in a bit of a fix because I figured we were going to name them in a pair, like Jeeves and Wooster (whom I originally had suggested the names Sam and Dean for - which would've been totally appropriate as they are the incestiest brothers ever - and that was before I was in the fandom!), so I had to come up with a girl name for a cat when I wasn't expecting it. I think we had recently watched the Alien movies, and Ripley's pretty kickass, so that's where that came from.

( And now, pictures! )

Here is my December meme topics post, if you have something you desperately want to ask me.

Day 1. Discuss something old
Day 2. Discuss something new
Day 3. Discuss something made for someone else
Day 4. Discuss something made just for yourself
Day 5. Discuss something for a large fandom/pairing/character
Day 6. Discuss something for a small fandom/pairing/character
Day 7. Discuss something you're just really proud of

This is hilarious timing! Especially because I've been going back to tag reeeeeeeeeeeeally early posts (imported from LJ) and a lot of them are this weird not-quite-original fic based on a fanfic that a friend wrote. It was this sprawling vampire universe that I still kinda love but needs to be rewritten from the get-go (for the fourth or fifth time now). Even that wasn't written entirely for me, a lot of it was written for or with

gayalithiel. Still, it was really inspiring, and I had a hell of a lot of fun.

I generally write for other people (probably half of my fics are gifts), and even when I write fic that comes from my own plot bunnies, it's because I think other people will enjoy it, too. There is one fic, though, that I started writing shortly after my best friend's wife was diagnosed with MS. Between that and my dad dying a few months before (infection finally overtook him; his heart transplant meant he was immunosuppressed) and my aunt dying a few months before that (of ALS), I started a McShep fic where Rodney had MS. I was planning to trace their relationship from Rodney's first symptoms to his death (many years later). I had many scenes in mind that really helped me deal with all those things, and writing that fic was clearly for me, and it was very cathartic. I didn't finish it - it went stale with all my other SGA stuff, but I posted what I got done and an outline for the rest of the fic as part of my Unfinished and Discontinued series:

Unfinished sick!Rodney fic (12721 words) by kisahawklin
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Additional Tags: Terminal Illnesses, Angst, Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued
Series: Part 26 of Unfinished and discontinued fic
Summary: Rodney starts to have trouble at work and John has to figure out what to do.
Author's notes: Started this when I found out my best friend's wife had been diagnosed with MS. Between that and my dad's death a couple of years before, this fic was extremely therapeutic for me. I meant for it to come out the other side - it was going to end on them being reincarnated and toddling around Atlantis - but I didn't get there. Outline of the whole concept at the end.

Ahahahaha - my best friend just called me! His wife is doing well and we're going to dinner in a couple of weeks. :D

+++ My sister is getting married later this summer, and she asked me to be her matron of honor. :D :D :D

+++ My brother is coming to visit in the next month-ish.

+++ I just had the most wonderful smelling and tasting grapefruit. I picked it up at the store because I could smell it halfway across the produce section. Lovely.

+++ Also I had crackers and brie. Glutino brand gluten-free crackers and other products are amazing.

+++ I'm four or five episodes into Person of Interest. I like it. Probably not going to be fannish about it, but I enjoy it well enough.

+++ Our internets are mostly fixed... I think? I'm posting this, so I think they're basically okay.

+++ First day of project was uneventful. Will hopefully do something tomorrow.

+++ SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE STARTS TOMORROW NIGHT. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Also, betaing and after that I'm going to work on the pinch hit I recorded while I was in the car. I also sort of brought my flist along for the ride and talked to Audacity for like, three hours. I'm going to listen and see if any of it is amusing enough to post for you guys. Totally kept me awake, so thanks, everyone!

So, I'm driving home to Wisconsin for Christmas. I knew I was going to do it at some point, today, tomorrow, whatever. My little sister has made me feel sufficiently guilty that I am packing the car and I am going to drive through the night to get there by suppertime tomorrow (when I will probably finish my Yuletide pinch hit in a daze - that seems to work out well for me).

soleta is flying in on Christmas and we are driving back sometime on the 26th/27th depending if we can get anyone to stop in to check on the kittens (her mom is the most likely candidate at the moment). More guilt trip from the sis on leaving early, which, arg. Whatever.

So, I'll be getting on the road around midnight, armed with Susan Cooper, Jim Butcher, and Terry Pratchett, and maybe one CD of music. Oh, and a six pack of Diet Dr. Pepper. Wish me luck. <3

Five boys playing four video games in one room. Ages 3, 5, 7, 10 and 10. LOUD OMG SO LOUD. But they're all delightful, and man, 10-year-old #2 is one heck of a musician already.

Fun gift exchange thingee in which we went in with a plan and it TOTALLY WORKED. (I got flannel pants I bought myself. :D (No, actually,

the_wanlorn bought all our exchange gifts this year - thank you,

the_wanlorn!))

Comforted younger sister in process of getting a (nasty) divorce twice (and cried when I saw the note her younger son wrote her for Christmas that said "I will be help you when you and Daddy are separated and he makes you cry.").

Let 15.5 year old niece drive me around in my car.

Played with a kitten, a bunny, a gerbil, and a full grown cat. Nearly brought home a miniature black fluffy kitten from Wisconsin (already taken, unfortunately).

Watched most of Princess Bride.

Had a boatload of candy, and also some ham and cheesy potatoes. Hope you had/are having a wonderful holiday, if you celebrate, and a nice weekend, if you don't.

Also, I am remiss in that I did not post this rec first thing: Holding On, my delightful

sga_santa gift! IT IS SO AMAZING GUYS. NC17 OT4, but man, Teyla's characterization is drawn so beautifully, and I just love the four of them together, and the feel of the story, and how it is oh so much more than just porn. It is love. I love this story so much, and I cannot imagine a better story for me, or for the amazingly crappy two weeks I've just had (and I will probably not detail them, just suffice to say, yeah. Crap.). What a wonderful thing - please go read and lavish compliments on my santa!

Crossposts: http://kisahawklin.livejournal.com/95739.html

marina is off to DC for the day, and she'll be sleeping at

synecdochic's tonight and tomorrow because of my brother, ARG. I mean, I love the boy so much, but seriously, his communication and sense of timing suck. He's taking his super duper comfortable bed back to Boston tomorrow, and sleeping on it tonight. With the new potential boyfriend material. I like the new potential boyfriend material, actually, he's sweet and funny and they seem to get on quite well. But still. I wish he could have pushed this back a weekend or two. He's also taking his computer chair back, which means we need to get something for

soleta to sit on.

I just had a massive deja vu; it was this SGA fall meme over on LJ. There's a bit of fic, and then a pic of action figures with a quote, and between that and the response to it, it was SO sharp. I remembered it exactly - so much so I checked to see if it was perhaps the old meme they were referencing, but no. And I remembered the John Hannah thing that was on the TV and the red blanket I'm sitting under (which we just pulled out for Marina last night, so it's not like the red blanket is something that's normally around for me to sit under). So clear, seriously, it was bizarre.

Also, I have a headache I can't get away from. I've tried Advil, stretching, lots of water, and it just won't budge. I don't have headaches like this; dehydration ones are taken care of with lots of water and any other ones I have (eyeball headaches, tension headaches, or slight caffeine withdrawal headaches) are all handled with an Advil or two (and sometimes stretching my neck). I've had four Advil and four glasses of water now, and my head's still pounding. :(

On the other hand, it is a glorious 50° outside. It can stay like this until next spring, please.

So I've been gone for a little while because I took a vacation! \o/ I didn't even look at my work email the whole week. Okay, maybe once, but not for more than half an hour!

( My sister turned 50. )
( First things first: Harry Potter! )
( Speaking of Daniel Radcliffe... )
( Hilariously, we did not stay in NYC, we stayed in... Atlantic City, NJ. )
( Home again, home again, jiggity jig. And Captain America. )
( Surprise: big sis #2 flies out to visit, too! )
( And then soleta's birthday! )
( In conclusion, two days of recovery. )

So now, good folks, we're watching NuTrek and I'll be going to bed soon, as I'm trying to get myself back into my 6am wakeup to write and it's been tough after a week off, I tell you. How are you all, my lovelies? <3<3<3

+++ I am having prophetic dreams! One was a plain old stress dream (I'd rather that wasn't prophetic but what can you do), but in another, my old boss was in it. I haven't seen or thought of her in years. Then, the next day, she called me at work. My face: O___________O

--- I've been having zombie apocalypse dreams. I hope these do not become prophetic. Though we were very well organized for an apocalypse.

+-+ Lots of things have been reminding my of my dad of late, including a story I'm writing (for a crappy reason that makes me sad) and Father's Day today (for a good reason that makes me happy). Happy Father's Day to any dads out there.

+++ OMG

tinypinkmouse MADE AUDIOFICS OF TWO OF MY STORIES, AND THEY ARE AWESOME! :D :D :D :D This post has both (plus seven other stories, including one by

seperis). The stories are The Clusterfuck Job, Criminal Minds/Leverage crossover I wrote for

intoabar last year, and by faith ye stand, my first Yuletide story in 2007. The fandom is Constantine - the movie, not the Hellblazer comics. The audioficcer is

tinypinkmouse, and xie does a fantastic job and has an awesome accent.

+++ This has inspired me to try my hand at audiofic again. I am picky about my audiofic (and yes, I have not forgotten that I said I'd post audiofic recs - I totally will), so I'd like to try it myself so I can see why people do the things they do. And also, hopefully I will create something awesome, but that may be a few tries away yet. Maybe I'll get my first bingo for

kink_bingo! I'd love it if that were the case. :D

ETA 3 more things

+++ Went to Green Lantern with

meansgirl et al and had a lovely time. The movie was... eh. Pretty, plus Ryan Reynolds is nice, but there were issues, and

soleta and I came up with a way better plot on the way home. They should hire us to edit their stupid scripts, I swear.

+++ The last two nights we've made delicious, delicious foods. Last night: salad with teriyaki pork, caramelized onions, avocado, granny smith slices and bleu cheese on a bed of mixed greens. SO. TASTY. Tonight, ribs and corn on the cob with strawberries and chocolate for dessert. NOM.

--- I have the headache from hell, I've had it all day. I rehydrated myself, stretched, and done everything but take drugs. I'm going to stretch some more, take some water and drugs, and try to sleep.

Maybe three. Or four!

1. Today's

solstice_calendar is locked, so if you want to see the recipe, you will actually have to join the community (instead of just subscribing). No biggie if you don't want to, but no obligation if you do join - really, really. And you can always UN-join later.

2. I finally put Four Funerals and a Wedding up on the AO3. I hope the new formatting is helping SOMEBODY out, because it sure is a pain in my ass. Clearly my section markers are not good section markers, they screw things up every damn time.

3. Secret Santa started today at work. It's $1 gifts for four days, and then a $15 gift on Friday. These people do not understand the meaning of $1, let me tell you. It's pretty freaking annoying to those of us who actually stick to the monetary values we're supposed to. We look like massive cheapskates. (The gift I got was more like a $5 gift, so that's nice, but... but... (ugh, I'm so sorry to be a scrooge).)

4. Inlaw function yesterday was relatively painless (fun, actually) and got us home with several pounds of cheese, chorizo, wine, crackers, and other goodies, as well as a bit of cash tucked into some books. All that and a pleasant visit with the sister-in-law, which was quite nice.

Oooh, and 5. My brother is sick. I hate it when he's sick (almost as much as he does). Any good home remedies for colds besides chicken soup?

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This is my life

Come on in and take a seat

Entries tagged with this is my life: family

Snowflake Challenge #11

I need hugs.

pokes nose in here

What the actual fuck.

Doing that thing again....

Today is my birthday, and I am sad.

Meme from 2011

Kitty/life update

Good news!

This can stop anytime

Kitty is doing much better, thank you, thank you!

Oooh, thanks, omens

Fucking hell.

...

That is some gorgeous resolution.

December meme for larissabernstein: Cats, cats, cats, please!!!! :-)

Fanworks meme

Many good things!

Safe and sound and watching Avengers with my mum and sis

Surprise road trip anyone?

What a day!

Deja vu and headaches.

Sisters, Birthdays, and Broadway

Things.

Two things make a post?