So you think you're smarter than me? ... Yeah, okay, so you probably are.

So I thought I'd try, too. But something went wrong. I'm not a leader - I'm one of the snide, furtive voices from the peanut gallery. But I like the pretty picture...

( Hera... )

Someone monumentally stupid (who shall remain nameless to protect her pride) recently bought three boxes of canned soft drinks, and then forgot them in the trunk of her car for a few days.  In cold-weather climates, those things turn into weapons of mini-destruction.  At least half the cans exploded (the survivors are horribly deformed), and there's diet-pop-shrapnel everywhere.  I don't know how they managed it - they were inside a box before exploding, but it looks like somebody airburst those things.  Seriously, aside from being annoyed, I'm a little impressed that I have to scrape frozen goo off the roof of my trunk.

I mean, her trunk.  In the car that belongs to that stupid girl.  Because I couldn't possibly be that dumb...

I just purchased a new dining room table and chairs - this will be my first set of matching table and chairs (and will replace the two small tables I had pushed together to make a faux dining room table).

I'd booked Friday afternoon off work so I could have them delivered, but the delivery guys call me on my cell phone this morning to let me know they're dropping it off between 10 a.m. and noon.  Grr!  So I have to skip out of work on short notice, drive all the way home and sit and wait.

At 11:30 the delivery guys dropped off the table and left it for me to assemble, which isn't what the salesman had said would happen, but whatever.  I figure I can install four table legs.  Except the table has built-in extension leaves, so there are actually two layers of wood, and, good lord, the tabletop is fricking HEAVY.  I eventually realized that if I put the legs on while it was still upside down, I'd never be able to turn it over by myself.  Problem was, I couldn't really lift it by myself, either.

Finally figured out how to remove the top part of the table, and turned the frame over and started attaching the legs.  Two legs installed on one side, then balancing the table on my shoulder while I stick the other two legs in place.  I was trying to secure the last table leg and having no luck at all, when I discovered that the table leg is flawed, and the metal piece where the screw is supposed to go is completely solid.  Aargh!

So they're going to send me a replacement table on Tuesday, which not only means I have no table at all for the weekend, but I'll also be bouncing in and out of the office on Tuesday.  Maybe I should just take the day off...

And now I'm back at work, because I had to run out before finishing what I was doing.
>:-(

Do I feel guilty?  Oh yeah.

Real life kind of exploded in my face, and for the past few months I was eating, sleeping and dreaming about work.  By the time things eased up at the end of November and I wanted to get back to writing, I felt like I'd lost my place.  I still had the general outline I'd been working from, but you know when you're writing and you get immersed in the story, and you just kind of have a sense of what belongs where?  That was completely gone.  I re-read where I'd left off, and then couldn't quite connect to it again.  So, I spent a good long while staring at the computer screen, wondering why the darn story wasn't just writing itself.

So, to summarize = yeah, I suck.  I'm a bad person.  People like me are the reason why other people don't like reading WIPs.  Maybe a New Year's Resolution would help.  And you can throw rocks at me if you want... (I don't think any of you live nearby anyway.)

Anyway, I was afraid to come back without some fic in hand, so yes, I'm just getting ready to post the next chapter right after this.

Yesterday, my laptop decided to go all bluescreen of death and then was completely non-responsive - even when I popped the battery out and tried to power up, it just sat there like a brick.  A very expensive brick.  The power came on, but that was it - no hard drive spinning, no fan, nothing.

So I stomped off, went to find the Internet to research my bluescreen error message, came back a few hours later, and for some reason, it had decided to start again (although still bluescreening).  I eventually coaxed it into safe mode and backed up everything I could find.  And now, it's happy.  For no discernible reason.  So happy that you'd never know there had ever been anything wrong with it.

My iPod did the same thing.  Quit working one day, just gave me the "sad face" when I tried to start it.  And every day I'd try to start it up, show people the sad face, and we'd all stand around and sigh sadly.  And then one day it started working again.  For no discernible reason.

Technology is pretty close to magic, I think.  You just have to do the Tinkerbell "I do believe! I do, I do!" and then (sometimes) it comes back to life.

Anyway, this has been a public service announcement to remind you to back up your data every now and then.  Because you never know when your technology is going to go on vacation - and it may or may not come back.

ETA:  And then I topped off the weekend by discarding my perfectly good cell phone along with the recycling.  Doh!  I discovered my error a few hours later, and fortunately someone had found it, saving me from going dumpster diving.  :-)

One of my friends showed me a "Simpson"-ized pic of herself the other day, and so I immediately decided that I had to have one for myself.


As for the ficlet...

Since I’d just written Flashback!Buffy in my last chapter of "All the Things That Have Long Titles", I’d been mulling over Buffy after Chosen.  Sometimes, I'll write out different scenes just to get a feel for the character, or to see whether it would work in a story.  I'm not sure whether this one works as a whole or not, so if you feel like it, concrit away and let me know (I won't get offended).

I don't know if it qualifies as Spuffy - I tend to think it is, since it was that way in my mind, but the spuffiness is all lurking in the subtext.  And, once again, I'm pretty sure that I'm ignoring the comicverse Season 8 (bought them, but haven't read any of them yet - in spite of my icon).
 

I have a mouse in my house (again).  The house is old, and the foundation needs some repairs, so obviously they've found a crack and moved in. I wish they'd just move back out so I didn't have to kill them (because it makes me sad), but them chewing through my wiring (or paper, or whatever else they can get their teeth on), and rustling around at night, and leaving me hantavirus-poo also makes me sad.  We're just not meant to be together.

But either I'm not the mouse hunter I used to be, or the mice are getting smarter.  I put out my trusty, rusty old traps baited with peanut butter (yum!), but so far they haven't fallen for it.  Perhaps they've learned to associate the smell of peanut butter with death.  In which case, they just may be much smarter than I thought.

My coworker suggested baiting the trap with raisins (worked for him), so if the peanut butter doesn't work in a day or two, I might.

It's very hot and still out today - hardly any wind at all - and it feels muggy enough that we might have a thunderstorm tonight.  :-)

I'm sorry - I couldn't resist.  I saw this in zanthinegirl's journal, and after laughing myself silly, decided I wanted one of my very own.  After all, why slave over writing a fic, when a few descriptive words and the push of a button will do it for you?

(I admit to hitting the refresh several times - but this one was the keeper.)


Original generator is at http://www.prillalar.com/drabbles/

I'm a bit belated here with the thanks (because if I'm not running late, then I'm obviously not Kate! :-P ), but the other day I discovered that my fic won a Spark and Burn award for Best Buffy.  Wow - that's amazing!  Especially as I spent so many times bitterly complaining about Buffy through my bitter, bitter tears in Season 6.  (Yes, I got over it.)  Thanks so much to the anonymous person who nominated the fic in the first place, and thanks to the judges (does that sound like I'm buying them off? No money changed hands! I swear!), and my agent and my lawyer and my Grade 2 teacher and my dog.  Thank you, thank you, thank you all!   </end burbling speech>
:-)



P.S.  Ooh, pretty new icon by xevildeadgirlx

Hey, I'm on the internet! What a novelty! It's been a while (at least in a non-work-related sense).

( Let me bore you with boring stories from my life... )

You: Hey, shut up with your boring stories about your life! Where's the damn fic?
Me: Next post, baby. Next post.

:-P

So, those are all my excuses. If you're waiting for fic, I should be able to get back to writing this week.
:-)