zebeckras

In keeping with my promises to post more upbeat things (and because focusing on those things will only be beneficial), here's mah family.

Yesterday I sent Santa some info about Dorothy and he sent her a video message. We watched it last night on my laptop. Dorothy was enchanted. It was the best thing ever. She answered him when he spoke to her directly and when he alluded to her present, which he said was "unique", she got very excited. "He said I won't be disappointed! And it's unique! I wonder what it is! Oh! And that's the elf who made it! And she's clapping - she must be proud!"

Luke got a similar message today when Dan sent Santa information about him. Luke did not watch it with Dorothy around because unlike Dorothy, Luke does not notice when things seem suspiciously similar to other things. ;)

Today I got to go home early since our department had a holiday lunch (which btw was excellent). I came home and the kids just helped me wrap Dan's Christmas presents. They're very generic and low-key this year which he insists is what he wants... Neither of us is particularly materialistic, and one year when we could afford it I asked him if he wanted a Kindle and he was like "For what?" So... there you go. ;) He had the same reaction to iPods, etc. I ended up getting him tea, slippers, socks (his request), two classical CDs, and a card-case/cigarette holder (for the former purpose) that he found on Amazon and put on his wishlist. A bit sparse I suppose but affordable. Dorothy is a hell of a present wrapper. She's really gotten very good at folding the corners, which is the part I always mess up.

Yesterday before work she wrote me a little letter on an index card. Lots of short sentences, every one ended with an exclamation point. <3 Last night I wrote a note to her and put it in her lunchbox today. I drew a picture of her as a cartoon cat on the back. Boy howdy did she love that. I'm not even sure she read the note. ;D

And lastly, I'm trying like crazy to finish up these crudely-stitched hand towels for my sister for Christmas. I got a kit, and it was pretty inexpensive, and I suppose you get what you pay for; i keep pulling the loops through and unraveling the material, so even when I get it straightened out there's a big white thread or something there. XP But it's the first one I've ever tried, and the thought counts! Anyway, the downside is I'm only about 80% done with the first and still have to tackle the second. I have 12 days left!! And I have other things to make!!! Yikes! :D Though that's all for my sisters/parents, everyone else it's shopping stuff and I'm nearly done. One of my sisters is a vegan and the other is gluten/soy/dairy free (man, and I thought vegan was hard; at least that's a choice, g/s/d free is due to allergies - AND she's a vegetarian so no meat protein here). So I thought I'd do my best to find her a gluten free cookie-in-a-jar recipe, and adapt it to dairy/soy free as well. I found one, and it's AWESOME. It killed. I have two gluten-free coworkers, one also g/s/d free, and the g/s/d free one LOVED the cookies. She ate like, five and no bad reactions. So it works, and it's delicious, and I can thank xanthan gum for how soft they are. :)

If anyone is interested, the recipe is on a blog called "Gluten-Free on a Shoestring"; it's not dairy/soy free but I only had to replace the butter with Nature's Promise soy-free margerine and find soy-free chocolate chips (that was a bit of a headache but some Whole Foods carry them; they're made by a company called Enjoy Life and you can order them off the web as well).

Anyway, that's what's goin' on over here! Hope everyone's having a sweet holiday season/end of the year. My best to everyone and families. :)

Dogs. In Clover.

For those who have known me long enough and remember it, I'm rereading it bit by bit. I just got to episode 5, which is when she explains the title. The meaningless phrase that is the title. It is based around Joxer's misunderstanding of some other bizarre expression and she named the series after it. For some reason, today, this gets me. <3

For those who have no idea at all what i'm talking about:

Dharma Bum (who has Left The Fandom and is No Longer In The Life) was like, the best Joxer writer and among the best "Xena" writers ever born. She's disappeared utterly from the internet as far as I can tell which makes me weep, and sometimes I think I should try emailing her but it happened YEARS ago and I keep thinking "How will I explain the fact that I never tried to contact her before now?" and the reason is because I felt like she must have wanted her privacy or something and I thought I wouldn't harass her, but now I wonder if I should have, because it looked like I just didn't care. I TOTALLY CARED. :(

But anyway. In 2000, this really stupid episode called "Married With Fishsticks" aired and Dharma wrote scripts, FULL scripts in screenplay format, for nine episodes of a spinoff sitcom based around this episode. Not around the concept within the episode but around one little tiny detail at the very end of the ep. It's the sole redeeming factor of this awful XWP episode. She called it "Dogs In Clover" for reasons that remain a mystery for a while.

You're probably thinking "And? Rebecca, we have already established that I'm not interested in 'Xena' fic and I'm not going to read this series, either." But... you're missing out if you don't. Dharma is one of the few writers out there for whom I can say, I always enjoy her fanfic even if I have NO IDEA what the fandom is. Like I found these two Blue Beetle/Booster Gold fics she did a few years back, and aside from vaguely knowing who those characters are I don't know anything at all about the fandom. Yet the fics, they were awesome.

"Dogs In Clover" is hysterical. Dharma's sense of humour is profoundly funny, ridiculous mixed with sublime. There's currently not a single active link left on the internet where you can read it, but I can point you to a couple of Internet Wayback Machine links - AND I AM GOING TO. RIGHT NOW.

In a nutshell, for context, here's the summary of this awful XWP episode "Married With Fishsticks": Gabrielle gets in the middle of a fight between Aphrodite and the (skanky) Goddess, Discord; she gets a bump on the head and falls into the water. When she wakes up, she has no memories, and also, she's a mermaid. And she looks totally different. And there's this guy who looks just like Joxer (not that she remembers that) named Hagar who tells her that she is his wife - even though she's not - and he takes her home and has her be mother to his children. Then she kind of falls for him and he falls for her and they are about to get married for real, only she remembers who she really is and leaves him. But she tells him he's a great guy, and he tells her to keep the engagement ring, and she kisses him - then wakes up on teh dock where Joxer has pulled her out of the water and is giving her mouth-to-mouth. She kisses him and then realizes who he is and decks him. And then she gets up and - GASP! - she's still wearing the ring from the dream.

So "Dogs In Clover" takes this mysterious dream ring and runs with it. And I honestly don't think you need to know any more than that.

Here is the archived landing page for the effing brilliant sitcom series Dharma wrote. The only other link on this page that works, I think, is Episode One: After the Deluge.

If you want to read more, all the links on this page work. But the description on Dharma's show page above is better so start there. :D

I love rereading this series. The only thing about it is that it makes me sad because Dharma's not still around to write more lovely things like this. Maybe she is somewhere, far elsewhere on the Internet with another pen name and another entirely different fandom, and i just don't know it. I'd rather she came back and I could hear from her again though. I'd really love it if we could all get the band back together and revive the GJR fandom. that's what'd really make me happy. Like goddamn dogs in clover. :D

Seriously, this is one of the best wanks I've seen come out of F_W in years. Dude. :D

http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1272829.html