Distracted By Something Shiny

I’m so on it this year! Christmas shopping is done. Most of it has arrived & is already wrapped. Just waiting for the tree to go up the day after Thanksgiving so I can put them where they belong. I’m still waiting on 3 gifts (have the wrapping paper cut & ready for them!), as well as 3 stocking stuffers for the fur bbs & 2 stocking stuffers for Sis, to arrive. Usually I do all my shopping on the 1st of December, but last year because I knew I would be laid up in December from my November hip surgery, and unable to open packages & wrap things, I did it all in October & I really liked just having it done with so early. So I guess this is how I roll now. Go me!

Things of note: Sis had to throw out a bunch of her geek tees because a certain someone /coughhiccupcough/ put holes in them all because he clings to her like a red panda. And she just went out & bought a stack of cheap, boring, plain tees to replace them. But the next week one of the places I buy geek tees from had a sale, so I went wild & bought her a stack of awesome tees & they’ve been waiting for Christmas in my closet since September. Then oddly she sent me a tee she saw online & was like, “Get me this for Christmas!” so I got her that tee too. I also threw in a how-to make-your-own fairy-house book because she keeps saying she wants a fairy garden next year.

The Nephew is 13, and while still a big geek, is also starting to develop his own personality & ‘cool’-vibe. His dad said he wanted band tees for Christmas, so I found a sneaky way to get a list from TN of his fav bands. The Beastie Boys was on the list. You guys, BBoys totally shaped me as a tiny human person when I was TN’s age. I had multiple BBoys shirts in junior high & high school. Obviously that’s what I ended up getting him, a No Sleep Til Brooklyn tee. I’m so overwhelmed with pride about how he’s gonna be walking around sporting a Beastie Boys tee as the coolest kid in his school, even if those other kids don’t know it (they never recognized how cool I was at 13 in my junior high either, pffft). Anyways, super proud auntie.

I got my little brother, our resident handyman that he is, a magnetic wrist cuff to stick his nails & screws too so he doesn’t drop them all the time while on a job. And Sis & I went in together to get Dad an iron works art piece, a Welcome sign for the house with a black lab dog (Dad’s current & former dogs being black labs), that was made by the little girl (now 37 year old woman) who lived next door when we were growing up & who spent nearly as much time with us as she did her own family. Dad is gonna be ecstatic to have a piece of her work.

But my best find was the dog toy for Diggle, a talking Mr Bill plushie. I’m keeping it a secret from Sis because she loves Mr Bill. And yes, when you squeeze him, he says Oh Noooo. I texted a photo to Sis’ college roommate who assured me it’d be the best present Sis, er Diggle, gets for Christmas.

Can’t wait for Christmas now - my fav part has always been buying gifts for others. If you wanna make someone’s Christmas special, think of picking some stuff off of one of Little Miss Flint’s Christmas drive wishlist to help out the kids of Flint, MI. They were already one of the poorest cities in the country, even before their water turned poison. Help them have a magical Christmas!


https://www.maricopeny.com/help-me-give-back

It was a crazy ass day! Sis woke me up at 6am to ask if I smelled something burning. It did smell a little weird in my room, but not like burning. I went to the kitchen and I didn't smell anything at all there. She wanted to stay home from work, thought something was wrong. I told her staying home from work because you smell something weird is a lame excuse for a sick day. So she goes. I go back to sleep. Hard. I'd taken a muscle relaxer the night before along with my regular sleepy meds because I felt so awful Sunday night and thought I was coming down with something, so I'm out hard.

( More under this cut. )

It didn't even cost $200 though, so that's good. And the house didn't burn down. No one died of gas inhalation. It's all good. The house still smells and we have to get a new furnace and I am pretty sure I have a UTI, but Sis didn't come home to find firemen carrying me out along with five dead animals, so she's calling today a win!

So, I had a good weekend.

On Friday, The BFF came down, after having been sick last weekend. We finally caught up on Arrow and The Flash. I am loving Arrow, except for The Thing That Happened, which was completely needless of them. But the rest of this season has been great. There were a couple of Felicity n Roy moments that were surprising and sweet and the Oliver/Felicity stuff had me squealing like a maniac. The Sister and BFF indulged me while I rewound a few times. The Flash is okay, not great, but the combination of my daddy issues and Jesse L Martin’s face/voice/everything will keep me coming back for at least a few more episodes.

( Under the cut for spaceage. )

Sadly, today The Sister came home early from work with a nasty cold and I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone had stripped three layers of skin out of my throat. But aside from getting sick, a pretty nice weekend, all around. How were all of your weekends?

The R.J. Scheffel Memorial Toy Project is a non-profit that makes and distributes over 10,000 toys a year towards disadvantaged, homeless and other children in need across the state of Michigan. They donate to a wide-range of places; including children’s hospitals, after-school programs, Head Start, child abuse prevention centers, the Salvation Army and other holiday toy drives, just to name a few. I, myself, spent a good percentage of my childhood in and out of a children’s hospital and as a kid, I never thought about where these special toys and craft projects were coming from. I only knew that they were the one bright spot in a long line of doctors, tests and needle pokes.

Here’s what some of their handmade toys look like:



The R.J. Scheffel Toy Project’s workshop location recently suffered a fire, destroying many of their supplies, tools and already-made toys. But they haven’t given up hope yet. They are working to re-open the center and get back on track. With only half of their yearly order filled, they have a lot of work to do. This group of volunteers is made up of mostly retired persons who live by the motto: “People do not stop doing things because they get older; They get older because they stop doing things.” But they can’t do it alone! Besides the call for volunteers, they need money; to rebuild the workshop, to replace damaged tools and supplies.

And you can help! They’ve currently only raised about one percent of their monetary goal, so any little bit you can donate would make their day! And if you can’t donate, please re-post this and spread the word. I swear, I’ve never done a call to arms like this before, but dammit, these people need our help, so let’s show them what the All-Powerful Internet can do!

The R.J. Scheffel Memorial Toy Project homepage and donate button can be found here.

Water and the Impala.

Let’s start with water, because today is World Water Day.

Did you know…780 million people – about one in nine – lack access to clean water.

You can read more here.

I just remember a few years back Justin Timberlake was raising awareness and money for clean drinking water and he said on some talk show, “I’m Justin Timberlake and even I know that people need water.” That amused me, but also we can all agree, people need water!

And now...The Impala. I've been meaning to rec this since it was posted! rockstarpeach wrote what should be a crack!fic wherein Cas asks the Impala for Dean’s hand in marriage. And yet, somehow, she made it so uncracky and just beautiful and touching. I say everyone who loves The Impala, everyone who knows the Impala has been Dean’s constant his whole life, his touchstone, even if you aren’t a Dean/Cas shipper, should go read this story. I mean it, people! Extraordinary.

That is all. Next post, I swear will be fic! It's been back from the beta for a week now, dammit. I'll get on that.

It's tough, the things I ask of you...to take time out of your busy schedules and look at these pretty pictures of Brock Kelly and Matt Cohen.

How could I ask such a thing of you?

So heavenreturned asked me if I was getting excited about convention.

Isn't that a silly question?

HELL TO THE YES!

( I keep having convention dreams. )

( Also, what does my family think goes on at one of these things? )

Now the good stuff...I made autograph pictures. I like to bring something a little original. (Ever since the first time I got an autograph in person when I had a wallpaper printed out that I made of Frodo and Sam and Sean Astin said, "Where did you get this? It's cool." I was all, "I made it." And he goes, "You made it? Wow. That's awesome." Which was awesome.)

So I made quite a few, I maybe got a little carried away. But I have decided what to print for each person...except Brock Kelly and Matt Cohen. I can't decide. I've gotten a few opinions, now I want yours.

So, here, look at my options and tell me which you like best. Colin Ford is NOT going to be there, but I am always prepared for the future, and I love the Little Winchester Brothers. But then I realized the odds of me ever getting Colin's autograph is like 100 to 1, so that seems silly, even though the pictures look really awesome.

( Um, here...PRETTY! )

Thanks, Peoples!

(Also, if you are going to Chicago Con, don't forget to bring something for the food drive! Thanks!)

So "Vortex Productions" is the name liptonrm uses when she puts together books of fan-fiction over on CafePress.

You can see her Vortex Production page here. Check it out, see her work.

She started doing it as gifts for her friends. Then she started offering the service for charity auctions (her most recent work was for help_haiti.)

Now she's offering up her services for help_pakistan.

Her work is outstanding. I've gotten my hands on fan publications before, but hers are by far the best I've seen. I look forward to the day I have my fiction organized enough to have her do this for me. And if you don't want all of your own fics put together in a book (or you are a reader, not a writer), you can have all of your favorite fics you've read over the years all together in one place instead! (with the authors' permission of course.)

Check out her bid thread here

Or go to help_pakistan and see what else there is to bid on.

Other people on my flist who are offering things:

caera1996 is offering Star Trek Fic.

13chapters is offering A Fic and A Handmade Scarf.

Fated Cinderella from over at fatedcreations is offering A Fan-Vid.

EDIT: dugindeep is offering Big Head Icons. She's offering what? Go look at her bid page and see her Big Head Jensen Playing Soccer Icon - it's Jensen's giant head on a little body. It's like a bobblehead in an icon. I, myself, am terrifed of bobbleheads, because I think they are going to eat me. But if you like bobbleheads, you'll love her icons. She's offering up to five Big Head Icons


Anybody else? Got something to pimp for help_pakistan?

Bidding time is almost up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go look at pictures of Jensen.