end of the year meme

I do this every year and saw others on the flist doing it so here's my year

ETA - to do this you take the first sentence of the first entry of the month

( crappy ol' 2011 )

what can we tell from this? I travel a lot and bitch a lot about my students

Today was an adventure

I'm not much for taking public transit mostly because it's rarely found in the places where I live and I'm a driver. I have no issues going in to the city and using public parking. However where we were going has limited public parking so we decided to take the T (Pittsburgh's half trolley car, half subway). I haven't been on this since my BFF from college moved away from Mount Washington. Mom, her friend P and Prejudiced Girl head for Pittsburgh (and how much of a nightmare is this for me, everyone feels sorry for PG because of her mother's death last week that they keep inviting her to EVERYTHING. i have to see her two more times. That said, away from her husband's influences, the prejudice talk is almost non-existent).

We wanted to see the life-sized Santas from around the world at PPG place. I have no idea why Mom, a Santa fanatic didn't know they were there. I must have seen them 15 years ago. Pittsburgh Paint & Glass has this amazing complex of glass castles in Market square. ( PPG )

Pretty isn't it?

We drove to Station Square which was the high end mall when I was in h.s. back in the 80's (and amazingly some of the stores were still there 26 years later). From there we got on the T which really is a short drive into town but it spares me having to drive over the river and trying to park. Naturally the only spots open are the ones where i have to ride backwards. Urp. whee motion sickness. Naturally, the stop that is right there in market square is closed so we get to walk a few blocks in the cold wind. Mom and I were loving it. the other two were frozen

Not only did they have the Santas there were two buildings worth of gingerbread inventions by girl/boy scout troupes and schools entered in a contest that raised money for Children's Hospital. they were really neat. Also there was a train set up (well several of them). Also picked up some tourist info there including dining info so I'll be ready for rain_oubliette to return next year. We can find places to eat that aren't insanely overpriced like near that hotel.

After checking out the ice skating rink they've set up outside it, ( here you got Havocmangawip, I was thinking of you )

, we hit Market District. I went into Nicholas coffee/tea importer and got chinese rose congou and indian Nilgiri teas and the kid weighing them out (he was cute, looked a little like BBT's Raj with glasses) was in a chatty mood. He's an animation student and was excited I taught anatomy and had to drag out some of his art for me (I mentioned you yuukihikari as a friend studying the same thing).

We hit the old 5th Ave arcade (it's been renamed but it's one of those things that will always be it's former name until a few generations fade away). I picked up a really neat florite pendant piece to add to the collection of pendant centerpieces I'll never make into a necklace. Then headed back over the river to Station Square for lunch at the Sesame Inn (multiple award winning Chinese place), MMMMM orange shrimp. The mall also had a wine cellar where we could sample wines. Mom bought three including a bubbling strawberry wine for New Years.I got Winter Pear.


And right now, i've had way too much coffee. I'm sort of vibrating in my seat. Wheee

and before I forget again, thanks to evil_little_dog for the really nice gift (mostly books including a signed one, true crime from IN)

Here are just SOME of the Santas (I'll space them out)

( Russia )

Grandfather Christmas travels from house to houseon New Year's bringing gifts usually wearing winter furs or a Bishop's robes.

( Ireland )

St. Stephen. In his honor boys since from house to house with symbolic wrens of straw (I'd like to see that)

( Latin America )

Old Man Christmas (viejo pascero) who brings holiday treats like pinatas full of gifts

( Great Britain )

Father Christmas, he'd be interesting to see traveling on his goat with a yule log

( Germany )

Saint Nicholas. The info says the celebrations begin Dec 5th. Makes me wonder if they still do and how the whole month is celebrated.

Fic - Tincture of Madness

Title -- Tincture of Madness
Author-- cornerofmadness
series -- First anime
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns them
Rating -- PG-13
Characters/Pairing -- Roy pov
Timeline/Spoilers -- set during the flashback to Roy working with taboo transmutation circles
Word Count -- 787
Warning -- Roy's bad frame of mind and the suggestion of something rather disgusting in the buckets in his home.
Summary -- He's just a little bit mad at this point
Author’s Note -- I had figured to do something with Al then I thought, no there are one or two things in the first anime that captured my imagination, and this is one of those scenes. I haven't really done much with first anime in a long time. Thanks to evil_little_dog for the beta and to bay115 for finding the screen caps of the room for me (I'll be using them in fmabigbang as well. Written for fma_fic_contest's 'failed transmutation' prompt and it won second place. The banner is by sonjajade

( there was a debt he still needed to pay )