Forty Years
Dec. 3rd, 2025 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouse Like a lot of queer people, Shawn and I are sort of flexible about the day we call our anniversary. We both dated other people as we figured out our love and how the hell it was going to work. It was a messy time, but we were together as "roommates" in college since December of 1985--somewhere in there we both left our assigned roommates for each other, so it's kind of our U-Haul day. Or, as I sometimes like to joke, the day I moved in and forgot to ever move out.
So, yeah, if you do the math, we have been together a STAGGERING number of years.
We usually, officially, celebrate on the first of December, but this year a dear friend who comes for Friendsgiving arrived life-threateningly infected and so we spent that day with him at United Hospital. Someone else might say that our anniversary was "ruined," but that would be a lie. What would have ruined our anniversary is if our friend had died. So, you know, the hospital was right where we all needed to be! No regrets. None whatsoever.
But, I don't want forty years together to go unremarked. So, today I ordered some flowers for Shawn that I hope will be delivered to her office before she leaves for the day at 3:00 pm. I'm going to maybe make something special for dinner tonight. Who knows? But, hopefully, we can think back on that trip to Target for holiday gifts back in 1985 and feel like it was all worth it.
So, yeah, if you do the math, we have been together a STAGGERING number of years.
We usually, officially, celebrate on the first of December, but this year a dear friend who comes for Friendsgiving arrived life-threateningly infected and so we spent that day with him at United Hospital. Someone else might say that our anniversary was "ruined," but that would be a lie. What would have ruined our anniversary is if our friend had died. So, you know, the hospital was right where we all needed to be! No regrets. None whatsoever.
But, I don't want forty years together to go unremarked. So, today I ordered some flowers for Shawn that I hope will be delivered to her office before she leaves for the day at 3:00 pm. I'm going to maybe make something special for dinner tonight. Who knows? But, hopefully, we can think back on that trip to Target for holiday gifts back in 1985 and feel like it was all worth it.
Fancake Theme for December: Amnesty
Dec. 3rd, 2025 09:34 amrunpunkrun posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fandomcalendar
fancake is a thematic recommendation community where all members are welcome to post recs, and fanworks of all shapes and sizes are accepted. Check out the community guidelines for the full set of rules. This theme runs for the entire month. If you have any questions, just ask!
[livre] Trois petits dragons
Dec. 3rd, 2025 05:54 pmmaluretteTitre : Trois petits dragons
Auteure : Yue Zhang
Langue : tranduction française du chinois
Type : album jeunesse
Genre : mimi
1ère parution : 2023
Édition : Lécole des loisirs
Format :
(croisé à la librairie de chez mes parents l'an passé ; ça avait l'air mimi)
Trois petits dragons qui vont à l'école de la météo ne font que des bêtises et se retrouvent sur Terre sous la pluie qu'ils ont causée. Ils vont devoir apprendre de leurs erreurs et les réparer...
Aww c'est tout mimi !!
Very cute children's books about three weather-making little dragons mucking it up and having to fix it.
Auteure : Yue Zhang
Langue : tranduction française du chinois
Type : album jeunesse
Genre : mimi
1ère parution : 2023
Édition : Lécole des loisirs
Format :
(croisé à la librairie de chez mes parents l'an passé ; ça avait l'air mimi)
Trois petits dragons qui vont à l'école de la météo ne font que des bêtises et se retrouvent sur Terre sous la pluie qu'ils ont causée. Ils vont devoir apprendre de leurs erreurs et les réparer...
Aww c'est tout mimi !!
Very cute children's books about three weather-making little dragons mucking it up and having to fix it.
Impending weather | Impending purple | No-longer-impending Advent chocolate
Dec. 2nd, 2025 04:30 pmumadoshiThe season's first storm is heading our way, although our bit of the province is expecting way more rain than snow. (Now it rains. But I think it mostly hasn't been too cold yet, so hopefully the rain will help the water table etc. recover some more after the summer/fall drought.) Maybe scruloose can get the hoses indoors (or drained, if that's the plan) when they get home from work, before the weather arrives.
I've finally gotten weary enough of my natural hair color to buy permanent OTC dye, as opposed to the semi-permanent attempts I've made since it became obvious that covid has settled in for the long haul. ( TL;DR: purple permanent dye has been purchased but not yet applied )
C&Ping and expanding on a bit from Bluesky last night: ( an Advent calendar + supplementary chocolate )
scruloose can get the hoses indoors (or drained, if that's the plan) when they get home from work, before the weather arrives.I've finally gotten weary enough of my natural hair color to buy permanent OTC dye, as opposed to the semi-permanent attempts I've made since it became obvious that covid has settled in for the long haul. ( TL;DR: purple permanent dye has been purchased but not yet applied )
C&Ping and expanding on a bit from Bluesky last night: ( an Advent calendar + supplementary chocolate )
Comment sought on fictional 1953 rural British hotel tea
Dec. 2nd, 2025 02:55 pmcimoreneAn order for tea was understood by this person to include a plate piled with bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, and chips, three or four kinds of jam, scones, a heavy fruit cake, a loaf of bread, a dish of stewed fruit, and one of radishes.
— Georgette Heyer, Detection Unlimited (1953)
There is some context to this scene that I understand from other reading about the period - rationing, for example. And I've often come upon fictional hotels and pubs in the country serving much more generously than more urban and sophisticated visitors are used to.
But I don't really have a sense of how unusual this is - what a normal pub or hotel would serve for tea. I would have guessed a combination of something like beans, meat, or fish with bread and then scones or cakes, perhaps, but the beginning of this sounds more to me like an English breakfast than my understanding of a tea.
Also: is a dish of radishes just washed radishes for snacking? Or is it more slices with some kind of dressing? My parents were both fond of radishes and grew them in our garden, but I've never encountered the idea of a whole dish of them (and nothing else) on the table at a meal. (Recipes that include them, yes, but would you refer even to roasted radishes as "a dish of radishes"?)
Updates
Dec. 2nd, 2025 02:26 pmcimorene1. Wax's fatigue and stress
Wax had a breakdown about a year ago after Snookums died and we lost Anubis, the same as I did. But she hasn't really rebounded, just been scraping along as if she had the flu since then. She recently told me she thought it wasn't burnout, or anxiety, but maybe something physical related to menopause or thyroid perhaps, and she finally went to a doctor and had a bunch of bloodwork done. But it looked like it wasn't anything like that, and the doctor who gave her the results said she needs to probably see a gynecologist to check if it's related to hormones next. That was a couple of weeks ago, and she hasn't done it yet - she seems to have been alarmed by some vagueness about how the referral process is gonna work. This is her work health insurance, so completely differently from how it works for me.
2. Me seeing a doctor
I got up early yesterday to call between 8:00 and 8:01 am and actually got a record-fast callback in less than 40 minutes, and this time they ACTUALLY GAVE ME AN APPOINTMENT!!! The appointment is in a week and a half, shortly after my birthday. I have a whole list of questions unrelated to this medication to ask the GP while I am there.
3. Cat training & cat divorce
The other day Tristana and Sipuli were briefly sitting calmly on opposite sites of the gate looking at each other! It only lasted for about one minute. While I was still talking to Wax about it, as we watched, Sipuli jumped down, turned in a circle, then jumped back up and tried to grab Tristana through the gate, and Tristana jumped away of course. But it's still a milestone. (I think I've seen this twice before maybe.)
Sipuli is focused enough on training now that she will keep her attention on me even if Tristana is right there staring through the gate! She only ignored me to jump on the gate once, and I ended the session immediately. Since then she has kept her attention on me in spite of gross provocation from Tristana several times.
I think I will try training them to turn in a circle next, and I've started doing this with Tristana by moving the target around to the side next to her hip so she has to twist after it a bit. (Tristana has not even realized she can touch the target with her foot instead of her nose yet. Sipuli seems to switch sort of randomly.)
4. Attempting to become less sedentary
I was doing pretty well with stretches and exercises in the last few months up until I got my driver's licence, but the week before last which I spent at that job-hunting course caused me to drop all the balls I had been juggling (balls of daily routines I mean), and I have not managed to get back to the exercise yet. Which is extra annoying because at the same time I started knitting a sweater for an 18-year-old nephew, so doing shoulder- and arm-focused stretching routines would be more useful now than it was a month ago. I spent all last week feeling exhausted and didn't get past cleaning and knitting. But at the same time, it's now pitch black by four in the afternoon and doesn't lighten until after eight. I need to dig out my sunlamp and get it set up in a good position, probably. In twenty years I've never managed to establish a lasting routine with it, but maybe I just need more practice.
Wax had a breakdown about a year ago after Snookums died and we lost Anubis, the same as I did. But she hasn't really rebounded, just been scraping along as if she had the flu since then. She recently told me she thought it wasn't burnout, or anxiety, but maybe something physical related to menopause or thyroid perhaps, and she finally went to a doctor and had a bunch of bloodwork done. But it looked like it wasn't anything like that, and the doctor who gave her the results said she needs to probably see a gynecologist to check if it's related to hormones next. That was a couple of weeks ago, and she hasn't done it yet - she seems to have been alarmed by some vagueness about how the referral process is gonna work. This is her work health insurance, so completely differently from how it works for me.
2. Me seeing a doctor
I got up early yesterday to call between 8:00 and 8:01 am and actually got a record-fast callback in less than 40 minutes, and this time they ACTUALLY GAVE ME AN APPOINTMENT!!! The appointment is in a week and a half, shortly after my birthday. I have a whole list of questions unrelated to this medication to ask the GP while I am there.
3. Cat training & cat divorce
The other day Tristana and Sipuli were briefly sitting calmly on opposite sites of the gate looking at each other! It only lasted for about one minute. While I was still talking to Wax about it, as we watched, Sipuli jumped down, turned in a circle, then jumped back up and tried to grab Tristana through the gate, and Tristana jumped away of course. But it's still a milestone. (I think I've seen this twice before maybe.)
Sipuli is focused enough on training now that she will keep her attention on me even if Tristana is right there staring through the gate! She only ignored me to jump on the gate once, and I ended the session immediately. Since then she has kept her attention on me in spite of gross provocation from Tristana several times.
I think I will try training them to turn in a circle next, and I've started doing this with Tristana by moving the target around to the side next to her hip so she has to twist after it a bit. (Tristana has not even realized she can touch the target with her foot instead of her nose yet. Sipuli seems to switch sort of randomly.)
4. Attempting to become less sedentary
I was doing pretty well with stretches and exercises in the last few months up until I got my driver's licence, but the week before last which I spent at that job-hunting course caused me to drop all the balls I had been juggling (balls of daily routines I mean), and I have not managed to get back to the exercise yet. Which is extra annoying because at the same time I started knitting a sweater for an 18-year-old nephew, so doing shoulder- and arm-focused stretching routines would be more useful now than it was a month ago. I spent all last week feeling exhausted and didn't get past cleaning and knitting. But at the same time, it's now pitch black by four in the afternoon and doesn't lighten until after eight. I need to dig out my sunlamp and get it set up in a good position, probably. In twenty years I've never managed to establish a lasting routine with it, but maybe I just need more practice.
Offhand mishmash: Bucky awakens | "Look, Ma!"
Dec. 1st, 2025 10:01 pmumadoshiI wonder how much of an entry I can write on my phone before it gets too annoying. Still a bit amazed that the best-for-me swipe keyboard I've found is literally still in alpha. (I almost always strongly prefer to use tech/programs that are solidly out of beta, and yet.)
Bucky the Christmas tree has been revived from cold storage! I do still miss some elements of having a real tree, between the traditions and the evergreen scent, but it sure is nice not to have the time constraints of "how long will it look alive?" when deciding to put it up/take it down. And I'm also finding that I like the feeling of This Is Our Tree. Hello, Bucky, old chum. Good to see you again. You look well!
Anyhow, as of yesterday* he's in his place, built-in lights all aglow. No ornaments yet. Plenty of time for that.
*Ginny is not what you'd call a Christmas fan, so I told myself firmly that there was no call to put Bucky up on Saturday right before she and Kas would be coming over.
Today's main excitement was a dental appointment. Everything looks good, apparently. Now to hope once again that this won't be the time I get covid out of it despite the precautions we manage to take.
Bucky the Christmas tree has been revived from cold storage! I do still miss some elements of having a real tree, between the traditions and the evergreen scent, but it sure is nice not to have the time constraints of "how long will it look alive?" when deciding to put it up/take it down. And I'm also finding that I like the feeling of This Is Our Tree. Hello, Bucky, old chum. Good to see you again. You look well!
Anyhow, as of yesterday* he's in his place, built-in lights all aglow. No ornaments yet. Plenty of time for that.
*Ginny is not what you'd call a Christmas fan, so I told myself firmly that there was no call to put Bucky up on Saturday right before she and Kas would be coming over.
Today's main excitement was a dental appointment. Everything looks good, apparently. Now to hope once again that this won't be the time I get covid out of it despite the precautions we manage to take.
(no subject)
Nov. 30th, 2025 07:20 pmkallowayBack to work... I expect the robots to be revolting tonight, for sure...
The one shop that I buy Gundam kits from started a massive Black Friday sale a few weeks back and there felt like there was something a little off about it... Yeah, they just announced they're sunsetting over the next few months because a billion reasons including tariff hell, but mostly peronsal-want-to-spend-more-time-with-family stuff. Better than being completely underwater, at least.
I'm going to try to get holiday cards out over the next week. If you're not on my usual mailing list but would like one, please PM me an address.
The one shop that I buy Gundam kits from started a massive Black Friday sale a few weeks back and there felt like there was something a little off about it... Yeah, they just announced they're sunsetting over the next few months because a billion reasons including tariff hell, but mostly peronsal-want-to-spend-more-time-with-family stuff. Better than being completely underwater, at least.
I'm going to try to get holiday cards out over the next week. If you're not on my usual mailing list but would like one, please PM me an address.