Dreamflower's Mathom-house

This time eight years ago today, I was huddled on my couch with a battery operated radio as marigoldg's mother and I were trying to find out what was going on as Hurricane Katrina raged around us. The storm lasted for hours and hours, and when we went outside, here was the sight that greeted us:

( Read more... )

I kept a diary during those long days with no power and no communication. For those of you who are new to my flist, you may not have seen it:
My Hurricane Katrina Diary.

Hurricane Katrina: Then and Now from the Sun-Herald.

The Coast has yet to recover fully.

I'm very proud of my garden this year.( Read more... )

Crossposted frommonthlydiaryday. It's late, but I finally got yesterday's notes typed up.

Really, yesterday was rather boring. A lack of sleep due to thunderstorm and skittish dog, plus more storms through the day made it one for not doing a whole lot.

We got up a little later than usual, around 7-ish. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast and we ate while watching Good Morning America. Then the DH had to go to Tulsa to wrap up some things at the job he is leaving--they want to retain him as a consultant, and they want him to speak to the person who's replacing him.

After he leaves, I have plans for working on the nominations for the "Tree and Flower" awards, maybe get in some nominations myself, and perhaps even get a little writing in. I spend about 20 minutes wrestling with a slow computer, and then just as I am beginning to get somewhere, BOOM! Well, I have to get offline during that kind of weather, plus Sophie is doing her terrified "HOLD ME! SAVE ME FROM THE LOUD NOISE! dance, which involves pawing at me frantically until I sit down in my recliner and hold her. So I watch a little TV--the Food Network, read some fanfic on my Nook, and doze off a bit.

The rain and storm finally slacks off around lunchtime. I grab a sandwich and manage to get back on the computer and get some stuff done. Started some laundry. Started some bread in the bread machine. Pre-baked a couple of potatoes, so we can have twice-baked potatoes for supper. Checked the garden: four more good-sized cucumbers, another half-dozen cherry tomatoes. More asparagus beans. I don't pick those today; there will be more tomorrow--enough for a good-sized mess of beans for supper tomorrow night. My bush beans, however, don't seem to be getting any bigger. I pull an onion for supper. I harvested all the radishes a few days ago. I come back in and switch over the laundry, and start to get back on the computer.

Then the DH comes home and tells me about the consulting contract, which is a nice deal for us! We watch a little TV together, and naturally I doze off again. So does he. When we wake up it's time for him to start the grill. I stuff the potatoes and wrap them in aluminum foil, and he heats them on the grill with the steaks, while I make salad. I have a couple of bananas that will go off tomorrow if I don't use them up, so I caramelize them in a little butter and sugar, and we have them over ice cream for dessert.

We watch some more TV and go to bed early, and hope that the storms don't keep the dog awake (and thus, us too!) again--but no such luck. They start up before midnight.

TODAY was a lot more interesting. It should have been the 12th instead of yesterday.

I was interviewed by Dana Stirling, who is doing an article about fannish crafts!

She said it will be in an issue called "Material Culture" of the journal "Transformative Works and Cultures," which she believes scheduled for spring 2014. I'm one of five fans that she interviewed!

TWC is an online publication of the Organization for Transformative Works, which many of you may be familiar with.

I just got a call from the DH; he always calls to tell me he's on the way home from work.

DH: I'm coming home now...with my blue and green fingernails
Me: What? (thinking I heard him wrong)
DH: Er...some of the participants (that's what they call the elderly folk who take part in the Adult Day Care place where he works) wanted to paint my fingernails...they painted my right hand blue and my left hand green...
Me:...ummm, I'm not sure if I still have any nail polish remover...(I can't use nail polish in my job.)
DH:...oh...Well, they had fun...
Me: That's OK, sweetie. It's cheap at Dollar General if I don't. Drive safe.

I can just see those little old ladies now. Old people, babies and animals all adore my DH.

I have to go to work in a few minutes, but I wanted to take the time to type up a really neat dream I had just before waking up this morning before I forget it.

I dreamed I had a job at the White House. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it apparently involved sitting in a big green room at a table looking through books, so I guess it was some sort of research. There were other people scattered about the room and once in a while President Obama would wander through and say hello. There was lots of art on the walls, and at one point I got up to look at some of the pictures. Then Michele Obama came up beside me, and told me the one I was looking at was one of her favorites. She led me around the room as we looked at different pictures, and she told me about some of them. She was very sweet and kind and warm, and I really enjoyed the impromptu art tour.

When I got off work (still not quite sure what I was doing) the DH picked me up in our Volkswagon Thing, a car we have not owned since 1979. Then I woke up. *sigh*

Also, we seemingly still lived here in Cushing. That's quite a commute.

The fic I wrote for the hobbitstale prompt fest has been posted, and it's not anonymous, so I can post the link here:

Old Friends and New

Bag End is in for a jolly time when some of Bilbo's old friends come for a visit. (Domestic fluff, as requested! Fluffity-fluff-fluff! with some backstory and only a teensy bit of possibly angsty foreshadowing.)

It's kind of a departure for me, being a meld of movie-verse for The Hobbit:AUJ, AU, and book-verse, and it was beta'd for me by the incomparable shirebound, who also gave me the title! And there is a little tribute to the story marigoldg and I co-wrote, "Ho! Ho! My Lads!" as well.

I've been cleaning like a whirlwind this week--we have company tonight in about 20 minutes--it's our turn to host a discussion group from the church.

The house is neat as a pin, in spite of us not having a lot of room. I have homemade sliders and mini-baked-potatoes in the oven as my contribution, along with tea, sugar free lemonade and green mint tea made from my very own mint in the garden.

I'm a little nervous about how many will show up, TBH.

AND in fannish news: I got a new chapter up for In the Court of the High King. No time for formatting links right now--but it's up at SoA, MPTT, and FF.net.

Wish me luck tonight.

Due to various happenings in RL, I did not get the chance to finish and post this on my actual birthday, so consider it a belated birthday mathom to all my friends!

Rating: G
Summary: Bilbo and Frodo celebrate one of their birthdays in the West.
Author's Notes: There are a lot of references in here to my story "Ancestress", as well as to my story with pandemonium_213, "The Prisoner and the Hobbit"! You don't need to have read it to understand this story, but it might be more fun to spot some of the references. (BTW, Pande, I borrowed another of your characters! *grin*).
Word Count: 3,576

A Birthday on the Blessed Isle ( Read more... )

Sick! I had to come home from work when my shift was less than half over; the DH was very nice and did not say "I told you so" when he came to pick me up. He'd told me to call in this morning.

Unpleasant sicky TMI under the cut: ( Read more... )