If you're writing for me for a Fest or Exchange, you can find a list of my likes/dislikes here.

RIP, Donna Summer.

I hope you're enjoying your holiday, and I hope you have a wonderful birthday. ~smooches~

shiv5468 keeps pointing out that I don't post enough, but mainly that's because I lead a horribly uneventful life. However, I should try to make an effort, so I'll inflict the recent happenings on you (but only if you click the cut). Otherwise, you can skip my boring life. ;)

( New Cat and Sundry Other Things )

I don't normally embed YouTube videos, but damn, this is just freaking adorable:

( Linus Sings The Police )

Thanks to melisande88 for bringing it to my attention. I've grinned every time I've watched it.

If you want to read the most brilliant fic ever, go and read Working on the Chain Gang. My not-so-mystery author has written the perfect story for me. Lots of hilarious banter, scheming Slytherins, awkward Snape, (sort of) noble Gryffindors, smart lawyers, and Smudger. Oh, what are you waiting for? I promise that you won't regret it!

~blinks~ Are you still here? Go. Read. Enjoy! You'll laugh until you have tears in your eyes, and you'll sigh happily over the romance. Who could ask for more?

Whoo hoo! After months of people working feverishly behind the scenes and of artists, authors, crafters and vidders working their fingers to the bone, the sshg_exchange is open for business and the first gifts have been posted!

Erm, I thought you should know, just in case you missed it. ~grin~

Geez, I almost missed it! Happy birthday, sweetie! ~tosses confetti~ I hope you've had a wonderful birthday. ~smooches~

An update to my post yesterday: For anyone who would rather purchase Grace Draven's Master of Crows from Amazon instead of Smashwords (and really, I can understand not wanting to give credit card info to yet another place), it's up on Amazon now and ready for download to your Kindle, and all with that gorgeous new cover. ;)

I have two shinies to bring to your attention (if you haven't already seen them), and both of them are wonderful things, indeed.

The first is a signal boost for fangirl-turned-author, whitemunin (aka grace_draven), who has re-released her novel, "Master of Crows", with a new and improved cover featuring art by our very own Louisa Gallie.

( Pretty, pretty, pretty... )

The second is a belated birthday present I received from melisande88. ~does happy dance~ She's written the lovely HG/SS story "Shepherd's Pie for Two", the tale of one of the worst - but possibly also the best - days of Hermione's Life. They say when one door closes, another opens, and in Hermione's case, the other door is dark and cranky and eating lunch in the Leaky Cauldron. ;) Go and read, and don't forget to leave a review!

knight0fswords and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides yesterday. We didn't pay the extra money to see the 3D version, but since 3D tends to give me a headache, saving that money was a win-win. Yea!

Overall, I liked it. It's Johnny Depp playing Jack Sparrow, so really what's not to like?

( specific spoilers ahoy )

However, as I said, I really did like it, and the Spanish contingent provided lovely eye candy, as did Barbossa's privateer officers. ;)

ETA: There's spoilers in the comments, too. ;)

Honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you skipped this entry entirely. :(

( RIP Lexie Lu )

( House repairs )

( But I shouldn't complain )

You know I don't often read outside my favorite pairings, so a rec from me doesn't mean the world is coming to an end, it just means that you really should read this story. It's Draco/Hermione, and oh, it's sublime:

Dial G for Granger by Anonymous for the moment
Rated: PG
Summary: Hermione Granger is exploring a plethora of career options, such as lawyer, psychologist, and Supreme Dictator for Life. She’s going to make the Wizarding world a better place, whether they like it or not. Post DH, EWE, humor

I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

Thank you for all the good wishes and thoughts yesterday. We came through the storms with no damage at all. Twice the storms were headed right for us, then split into two parts and went around us. The storms farther to the south of us produced several tornadoes, but nothing around here. ~wipes forehead~

I'm not sure what else is on the agenda for today, but there will be napping later. Two nights of rough weather have taken their toll on my sleep, and it was hard to get out of bed this morning. Kitty Boy was feeling cuddly, and it's so hard to disturb a cuddly cat. ;)

Later on, though, it will be time to start working on the modly spreadsheet o' doom for the sshg_exchange. So many people signing up! ~squees~

Also, the fangirl_tour is still in progress, so if you're looking for something good to read or look at, don't forget to take a look over there. ;)

The good is how well the sign-ups are going for the sshg_exchange. Other than the tendency for LJ to arbitrarily decide that some comments are "suspicious" and automatically screen them as spam, it's gone very smoothly, and lots of people are signing up! shiv5468 and I were convinced that it would be a small fest this round, since canon is closed and the last movie is about to be released, but I'm glad to see the Snape/Granger fandom isn't going gentle into that good night. We've had 75 sign-ups so far, and we know there will be more once Aeternitas is over.

The bad is the weather. We're under a severe threat of tornadoes this afternoon. We usually get stuck under the slight or moderate risk warnings, but when the National Weather Service paints a big old bulls-eye over where you live and says, "Severe Threat" in a stern voice, then it's a tad worrying. ;)

Right now, though, it's lovely and cool, and I'm going to go find something for lunch. Have a great day, flist!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday! ~smooches~

Whoo hoo! The Spring 2011 round of the fangirl_tour is underway, kicked off by hjsnapepm. Her post is here, and contains recs for 11 fandoms. ~flails with happiness~ I do so love the Tour. Can you tell? ;P

The sign-up post is up for the Spring 2011 round of the fangirl_tour. Don't you want to play? Thirteen recs, any fandom, any pairing, any genre. ~tempts~

Are you ready for another round of the fangirl_tour? If so, it's time to start thinking about the April round of the Tour. The sign-up post will go up next week, and info can be found here.

~dances around gleefully~ Erm, sorry, but I always get excited when the Tour is gearing up. ;)

I'm not looking for sympathy, because geez, it's just a cold, and there are lots of people who are really sick, but I'm telling you this to explain why I may miss something if it's posted recently. I may not post a lot, but I do try to read all of my flist. However right now, to my poor self-medicated brain, my flist looks like this:

wordswordswordswordsWORDSwordswordswordsPICTUREwordswordswords

So I just close it out and go take a nap. If something important occurs, please email me. And if all this looks like a jumble of words to you, don't worry, I completely understand. ;)

Puppies grow very quickly, and Bitty Bear is no exception. In order to demonstrate to you just how much Bitty Bear has grown in a little over eight weeks, yesterday I convinced knight0fswords to hold him for another picture, since I'd already posted one of her holding him shortly after he came to live with my parents.

So for your comparison pleasure, I present: ( Pics ahead )

Forgive the poor quality of the second picture, I couldn't figure out my dad's camera, and I wasn't sure I was even taking a picture at all. Since he was squirming determinedly in an attempt to kiss knight0fswords right in the mouth, it's a wonder I got a clear picture of him at all.

As you can see, Bitty Bear has evolved into Little Bear, and I foresee a time when he'll finally just be Bear.

~waves at everyone~ We all survived Turkey Day here, although I think I'm still full. We always end up with more food than we can possibly eat, but it's nice that the leftovers mean that we don't have to cook for the next couple of days. I hope that everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a nice holiday, and I hope those who don't celebrate it had a nice Thursday. ;)

I know I haven't been posting much, but mainly it's because I'm actually incredibly boring, and I don't see the need to pass that boredom along to you. ;) However, in an effort to make up for my lack of an interesting life, I bring you pictures of Bear the Puppy. Bear is the newest member of the family. He's half English mastiff and half... Well, your guess is as good as ours. ;) He's six weeks old and weighs 12.4 pounds. At first, his name was supposed to be Casey, but my mom took one look at him and said that his name was Bear. Which, of course, quickly became Bitty Bear. That's the name that will stick, I'm sure, and we'll eventually have a 200-pound dog on our hands that answers to the name of Bitty Bear. ;)

Cody (who has recovered completely from his trauma) thinks Bear is the best thing since sliced bread. They're already playing together, and tug-of-war with a rope toy is their favorite thing to do. So far Cody wins every time, but I expect that to change pretty soon. ;)

( Bitty Bear pics ahead )

Today's the last day to submit prompts to celebrate_sshg! So if you have any anniversary-themed prompts you'd like to toss into the hat, this is just a head's up that you're running out of time. ;)

There's a party in the works in the HG/SS fandom. A 10th anniversary party, to be exactly, and we're all invited!

dreamy_dragon73 noticed the dates first, and well... celebrate_sshg explains it all so much better than I could, so go now and take a look. Membership is open, so you can join if you want, and we'll start getting things underway on Wednesday the 20th. ;)

~does happy dance~ I'm so excited - this should be so much fun!

Oh, and please invite your friends, too. The more the merrier!

There is three two one slot left for the upcoming round of the fangirl_tour. You get to post 13 recs - any fandom, any pairing, any genre, any format - for everyone to enjoy. All we ask is that you follow the few rules of the Tour, and rec stuff that you enjoy. So... Anyone interested in one of those last three slots the last slot?

C'mon. You know you want to. ;P

All the slots have been filled! ~does happy dance~

After talking it over, firefly124 and I have decided to try handling the fangirl_tour a little differently. Because of our schedules, instead of one big round each year, we're going to see how two shorter rounds work out. We'll have one in autumn and one in spring, and we'll limit each round to 30 participants. That should help with tour burn-out, something that happens when a tour runs too long.

Sign-ups will be on a first-come, first served basis. We really don't play favorites around here. Just as all fandoms, genres, pairings, etc. are welcome, everyone is welcome. You'll just have to move a little faster this time. ;)

This year's autumn round will run from October 1st through October 30th (with someone posting each day and the 31st as a wrap-up post), and the spring round will run from April 1st through April 30th, 2011 (with May 1st as the wrap-up post).

Sign-ups for the autumn round will open on September 20th at 1:00 p.m. US Central Time. We realize that will inconvenience someone somewhere, but it's not possible to select a time and date that will work out perfectly for everyone.

However, in the meantime, we need to talk about the fangirl_tour's del.icio.us links. Those links take a lot of extra time and effort, and if no one is using them, then there's no point to having them.

There is a poll in the post here regarding the del.icio.us links, and we'd really appreciate it if you'd add your answer. ;)

~tosses confetti~ The sshg_exchange Big Reveal has been posted here, and there's a pre-reveal post that has gifts for the community members.

I can now publicly thank lariopefic for the wonderful Killing Time and the beautiful accompanying artwork, The Augurey. ~smooches her~ It's brilliant, and if you've not read the story yet, then you have a huge treat in store for you! I adore that story, and it's one that I'll be reading and re-reading often.

And I have to also thank melisande88 for giving the mods the brilliant The Devil in Devonshire. Between melisande88 and lariopefic, I received an embarrassment of riches.

My own gifts were for ferporcel, who put up with my attempt at art and my fic writing by receiving Promise You'll Come Back and Side by Side. ;)

And if you thought the Exchange was over after the Big Reveal was posted, you were wrong. The mods still have work to do. In a bit, I'll start adding the author and artist names to the gifts and then adding everything to the sshg_exchange memories. But first, I'm off to raise my Exceeds Expectations in the reviewing department to an Outstanding. ;)

If you haven't read Killing Time yet, then what are you waiting for? It's brilliant - both funny and touching, with sharp observations on the canon characterizations of Hermione Granger, Severus Snape, and the other disparate characters the author has placed together at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. The war has taken its toll on all of them, and their coming together under one roof makes perfect sense in the context of the story, as does the changes that subtly begin to take place due to their interactions.

I've enjoyed many hg/ss stories throughout my time in fandom, but Killing Time has already taken its place on my "All Time Favorites" list, and I can't thank my (for now) mystery author/artist enough. So go and read! Enjoy yourself, and don't forget to review!

~flails with happiness~ Oh, look at what the sshg_exchange mods received as a gift: The Devil in Devonshire. It's just brilliant, and you should go and read it right now! You won't regret it, I promise. ;)

My internet service went down Sunday night and just came back up. I'm still twitching a bit from the withdrawal, but if I owe you an email, I'll get to you sometime today or maybe tomorrow, depending on how quickly I can wade through my in-box. ;)

Dearest Shiv, I'm so very sorry that this took so long. It grew and grew and became an entirely different story than the one I'd originally set out to tell, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. ~smooches~

My very grateful thanks to whitemunin, who beta read this at the last minute, and it's not been Brit-picked, since the gift is for my Brit-picker. ;P

The Muggle-born Reparations Act by scatteredlogic
Rated: R (for implied sexual situations)
Complete, One Shot (3,633 words)
Summary: Hermione Granger is determined to do whatever she must in order to make Severus Snape happy, including settling her differences with Lucius Malfoy. (HG/SS/LM implied)

( The Muggle-born Reparations Act )