cornerofmadness

I'll be honest. I hold out very little hope for this year being better than last year. I did the Meriam Webster's thing on bluesky, you screenshot their gif and whatever word you get sets the tone for your year. I got moribund. Are you fucking kidding me? Why is that even a choice? Is it literally just spitting out every word in the dictionary.

But moribund feels right for the 2020s which if I'm continuing to be honest sucked donkey dong. 2020 - covid 2021- nearly lost my leg and took a year to learn to walk again 2022-23 weren't as horrid 24 - lost my uncle 25 - lost my last uncle. So while I'm hoping moribund is NOT my word of the year, it feels right.

Right about now is when I do my good things jar (okay usually it's next week when I get back to Ohio but I know what's in it) it has three things, presented my sabbatical research (at work and at my conference), got a story into an anthology (i'll give you that info tomorrow) and I went to an all inclusive resort for the first time in Mexico. Pretty slim pickings for good things. Mostly 2025 was me trying to not lose my sanity.

So resolutions? Eh, I don't really make them. I've given my writing goals. In addition to that I'd like to see if I can come up with lunches that don't spike my blood sugar, I'd like to get more active but what I need more than anything, a cleaning schedule for my home because this cannot go on as is.

I'm still thinking about doing snowflake_challenge. I got really sideways with this challenge a couple years ago and lost my taste for it. But a lot of my list is doing it...sigh

But here, let me share some cool things about me and my writing

one of the first of probably several archive things I'll end up doing. Got this one from lucy_roman
from AO3

Total works on archive - 894

Works written in 2025 - 74

Longest fic written in 2025 The Porn Star Murders Hazbin Hotel

Fic with most bookmarks (also most hits and kudos)Hope is The Thing With Feathers The Owl House

Shortest fic - Needs Unmet Helluva Boss


And here are my writing stats. I have no complaints here: Original fic count 38,727
Fanfic count 359, 707 for a writing total of 398, 434. My only complaint is I wanted 50K of original fic. sigh.

Thanks to a few of the things on sholio's post today I have some community recs

candyheartsex a multifandom gift exchange with a low minimum and a focus on relationships, both platonic and romantic/sexual

traumaticexperiences a (psychological) trauma themed multifandom exchange that will be run on Ao3. Matching will be done on fandom, relationship/solo character, and freeform. You must be 18+ to participate and maintain anonymity until creator reveals.

And one I'm actually in is allbingo and I'm hosting, the public domain fest bingo. come join us.



And for anyone still on LJ and haven't backed up your old blog somewhere else the news is looking bleak. I haven't fully read up on it. I do crosspost there for the few friends who haven't joined me here on DW but it looks like Russia isn't playing games with it any more. You can check out more here on bluesky. and a bit more here on DW about the importing.

I woke up feeling lightheaded, slightly headachy and hella tired (this is not the good augering part) This is when Mom tells me that the couple I don't like are coming up tonight. UGH. As I told evil_little_dog that I planned to 'go out with friends' when they came up but now I'm sick (and really I am) so mom says just stay upstairs then and don't bother with them.

But they blew my parents off. WOO HOO. Twice now this holiday. My parents might go to my aunt's house (where they're staying as she's actually prejudice woman's real aunt) in the morning. I'm a late riser so I get out of going (in theory) but even if I don't it'll be a short trip because the Steeler game is tomorrow and they want all visitors out (which should tell everyone what they need to know. You rate under football) And they leave monday so I am hoping this is a sign for the coming year where things that upset me are removed from my presence.


I got my official Hazbin merch today, the holiday poster and key chains (all sold out now) and the season 1 DVDs. I am happy to have that (luckily I'm too tired for my why you don't own downloads rant)

It's time for science saturday


One Protein Is a Better Predictor of Heart Disease Than Cholesterol

Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug Discovered Inside Japanese Tree Frog.

Garlic Mouthwash Could Be The New Gold Standard. Here's Why. I need to send this to my research student who is working with mouthwash


New Drug Stalls Alzheimer's Development in Breakthrough Trial

Cats meow more at men to get their attention, study suggests

A huge surprise': 1,500-year-old church found next to Zoroastrianism place of worship in Iraq

Tiny implant 'speaks' to the brain with LED light

See the 100,000th photo of Mars taken by NASA's groundbreaking Red Planet orbiter


( Christmas pictures of the house )









You can click the eggs if you want.

It's that time of year. I'm too tired for thinking about the craft so let's do this. Let's make now a good time to set some 2026 goal as many or as few as you'd like. I know that can be pressure for some. For me I find them helpful. I've been at it too long to get too worked up if I can't make a goal. If you like some accountability you can still sign up for these



or getyourwordsout and if those are too high pressure join us for Write Every Day which is super low pressure and bounces from host journal to host journal (if interested just ask me where it's at this week)

If you're looking for an online critique group (also low pressure) that leans into the urban fantasy/SF/horror/mystery genres again just ask me. I'm looking for people to join us. All I ask is if you decide it's not for you, just let me know, no harm no foul.


As for my goals they are as follows

1. keep looking for open calls, especially for the stories languishing in files

2. finish editing the 1980s monster hunter thing and get it to a beta (same as last year)

3. deep edit the werewolf novel which I finally DID start this year (after years of saying I would and didn't) but found out it was in worse shape than I thought

4. even though I said I wouldn't do this again, I DO want to take my thought monster long short story and expand it to a novella to make it more marketable

5. keep working on the sequel to the 1980s story

6. Decide if I ever want to do another story as Jana Denardo

7. I have so many unfinished novels. maybe I should finish one.

8. Do BETTER at balancing fanfic and original fic and the time spent on both

That seems like a nice fat set of goals. How about you? Let's do this. And if you worry about are you good enough, let me point out I'm currently watching Sharkopus and it makes Sharknado look like Oscar Worthy material. If this crap can make it, there's hope for us all.

Open Calls


Fairy Tale Magazine: January 2026 Window Green Man/Woman, Dryad, Yaksha, Tree Spirit



Crepuscular Magazine Microfiction stories exploring places, characters, and questions buried in the gray areas between


Untitled Anthology About Teeth Eerie, or creepy, or Gothic stories about Teeth

Inner Worlds, January 2026 Window. Science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror prose with a strong emotional or psychological focus.

Horrific Scribblings New Year’s Apocalypse Challenge New Year’s Apocalyptic stories (particularly the apocalyptic fears that defined the transition into the current millennium)!

The Ranger’s Almanac Winter 2025 Window. Short stories that must relate to a forest or park in any genre

30 Magazines Accepting Flash Fiction


From Around the Web


The Difference Between Tricking Your Reader and Surprising Your Reader

Easy Podcast Promotion for Writers

Comps Can Clinch Your Query

How to Track Book Sales and Identify Your Most Profitable Channels

How To Legally Quote Song Lyrics in Your Book

How To Get Book Reviews

How to Format a Book for Publishing

Optimizing Your Amazon Meta Description

Marketing Planning For First-Time Authors

From Betty

Writing a Short Story vs a Novel

Six Common Villain Mistakes, and How to Avoid Them

Seven Common Causes of Reader Confusion

Five Common Motivation Issues and How to Address Them

here.

Busy Writers: When Does “So Much” Become “Too Much?”

Transforming Negative Traits into Powerful Character Arcs

That Blinking Cursor

Panning For Gold

See Why Three Types of Character Motivation Matter

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus: Maladaptive Fantasy

What happens when family and friends don't support your writing?

YouTube for Writers, Part 4: Editing Tips to Improve Your Videos

Why Writers Grow Outside Their Comfort Zone: The Power of Discomfort in the Writing Life

How to Begin Your Novel at the Beginning


And of course have a blessed Solstice!

I tried to go to the foothills festival today (since there was no No Kings near me that wasn't at least an hour away and I'm not convinced I wouldn't have been fired if I had been seen). It was supposed to be at the art deco theater I had tickets for to see 'Night Mother. It wasn't open when I got there. I did see it in the news so where it was I have no idea.

Speaking of those tickets I went to the library to give them back.

Me: sorry I have an obligation friday. If you still have the list from the door prizes you can give these to someone else

Librarian - grabbing more tickets, can you go sunday?

me: nope I'm out all weekend

librarian - we'll think of something.

Me: use them yourself. It's a gift from me Byeeeeee!

So here was the history write up I've been planning to share for two days

Turns out not every ticket holder for the Uptown Upstairs history walk (there was over SIXTY of us, yay for that. They made over a grand on ticket sales) knew that Sixth Sense (the brewery I like in town) was a sponsor AND giving 25% off with the tour bracelet.

That included the bartenders (who asked management without a fuss) but damn, management TELL your bartenders there’s a damn event. Those poor women had no idea they were about to be overrun. I got a pumpkin spice martini (don’t judge) and I’m writing this down for me later vanilla vodka, bailey’s irish cream, cinnamon simple syrup and pumpkin spice liquor (that sounds pricey and unnecessary. I bet I could whip up the same pumpkin puree I use in coffee, yes it would be thicker but you wouldn’t need much). And I ordered their cheesy pickles (I haven’t been there in more than a year because someone new had taken over Arch and Eddie’s and it wasn’t as good. These were all new apps. I wonder if Arch and Eddie’s has these as they may be 2 different owners now) It was cream cheese, mozzarella and pickle spears in an egg roll wrapper. Very good but I got my 10$ app’s money’s worth out of it. there were FOUR of them. (I put those in the cooler in the car)

I can tell a) Lilian Jones Museum was not prepared for this many people b) again no one knows how to communicate. It was a good idea to break us into 4 groups (each group going to each of the four stops) BUT instead of letting the Leos (some young girl group who were our guides to the buildings) to rotate in a certain pattern, it was a fucking free for all and it caused problems.

I purposely joined the one going to the Masonic Temple first because it was the furthest down the hill and I thought ‘you have to hill climb to the rest and your car is at the top of the hill so start climbing while you’re fresh and at the end you’ll be on the same street as your car (as two stops were). I have always wanted in this temple but it IS an active lodge so no women allowed (we don’t have an Eastern Stars any more or I’d consider it. It’s all the way out in Vinton and I’m still considering it)

The temple was built in 1891 and it’s a cool building (I might think about trying the beauty salon in the downstairs as I need one. Mine closed) It was also four flights of stairs to climb. (it had a scary chair lift that no one offered to anyone because I wasn’t the only one with a cane) SO glad I picked this first. Also glad we stopped on the second floor first. It’s their social level with pool tables, kitchen and dining hall.

Upstairs just outside the temple itself is a masonic sword. This sword had been stolen by the Confederate soldiers by Morgan’s Raiders. However, Morgan was a Mason and he made them put the sword back (they kept the jewels and other bric a brac). The temple was interesting with three throne like chairs, some iconography with worlds on poles and naturally they told us nothing about any of that but went into every year of the history (no dudes, short keep it short).

( The Masonic Temple )


We walked to the next nearest building, the former Stiffler building (is it me or does everyone think of American Pie when they hear that surname?) And already it’s off the rails. Another group beat us to it so our guide (the adult leader of the Leo’s) decided we were walking up town and coming back to this. But that’s all the way up the hill and down two blocks. No way I was backtracking. I just joined the other group. Stop me if you can!

Anyhow, Stiffler’s was a department store opening in 1923 but before that it was the IORM building, the Improved Order of the Red Man (oh dear god), another one of those men’s orders that were so popular 150 years ago. It had a sister organization the Improved Order of Pocahontas. One person was shocked that the group didn’t let white people into it until the 1960s (a woman way too old for this to have been a revelation, seriously).

They hadn’t turned on power to the upstairs in years (this is where that new antique shop is. I think I was wrong about it closing, along with the quilt shop and the back in time toy store). I should have brought a mask. Taking pictures it looked like a damn snowglobe. There wasn’t much left (the idea that an exit door was bricked over was haunting). They did warn us it was creepy ….and it kinda was. There was a rack of old clothes. A forgotten piano. A Pocohantas/Redman portrait that was succumbing to the elements), an ancient kitchen and a room that had a large hole in the wall. I looked in there and took pictures. The columns were painted. It looks like silk wallpaper peeling off the forgotten walled up room.

( Stiffler's Department Store )


Now I’m more or less on my own so I hike up to the next building which was the one I wanted to see most. It was a used car dealership when I moved here (Dodge) and now it does a local taxi service but in the late 1800s it was the Grand Opera House. I KNEW it had to be something other than a car dealership in the pasts but I hadn’t known what. This one broke my damn heart. What remains tells you how beautiful this was but they gave us masks due to all the bird droppings inside (is this even safe for the workers down below?!?) We could only go so far because the floor isn’t safe (I repeat my question) .


I took all the pictures. ALL of them. Soon they will be all that’s left. One side had old shelves from the car dealership. The rest was the remnants of a fresco ceiling, hand drawn Greek goddesses and gods, cherubs, oh it had to have been beautiful once.


Funny thing is it never had permanent seating, just chairs that could be moved because a couple times a week they’d pick them all up so kids could rollerskate. It had live shows and in the 1920s-30s it had movies. Under the Gaslight was the last show there in 1937. A decade later it was Coll car dealership (which is what it was when I moved here) Which haha, THIS it the 1890s play that gave us the woman on the train track trope read more here.


I talked to the guide and commiserated. There’s not going to be any saving this building. It would take millions. It’s in private hands which takes it out of the realm of most grants. It’s going to go the way of the Memorial Building (they’re tearing it down right now). It’s a shame. This should have been saved. And seriously WHY if you had a damn business downstairs did you not at least keep the roof healthy?!?

( 1883 Grand Old Opera House )


I had one more building to hit, the old radio station. I’ve been downstairs when it was the radio station (they moved up the street to a less beat up place). I had no idea what this had been originally. I was there alone. The rest of my last group didn’t show up. We waited, the two young ladies so worried about me getting up the stairs. Babies, I’m fine. We waited more, no one showed and I said can I just go up alone?


Nope, they escorted me in case I fell (okay it’s sweet but it was obvious I could walk up effortlessly because either they built the stairs well and wide or they had be replaced sometimes in the century). So I get up there and the guide lit up seeing me (I think people skipped this building because from the outside it’s not as exciting) but as it turns out this was built as a Ford dealership in 1915.


Not only that, it has a ramp to the SECOND floor where the dealership was. Why? I don’t know. I mean there wasn’t much to see but I got some pics of the ramp (wait, girls you wanted me to walk down the ramp?!? Are you nuts?) And with that I was done. It was fun, worth the ticket price.

( Ford Dealership )

Every part of this day was aggravating or downright infuriating. I had to go 80 miles to the surgeon. I leave in plenty of time because I have a gift card for Trader Joes from JK so my plan is to go further north to Dublin to go to TJs and then drop down to the surgeon's appt at 4.

My usual trip to Chillicothe (the halfway point) which is usually 45 minute drive took nearly 1 1/2 hours thanks to construction. I make a pit stop at TJ Maxx there because a) I need to pee and it's hours before the doctor and I don't think Trader's has a public bathroom b) to see if Halloween was on sale yet (yes but nothing I wanted).

It then takes me an HOUR to get to Circleville 20 miles from Chillicothe and 20 miles from the 270 beltloop around Columbus (Dublin and Grove Port are both suburbs of Columbus). This should have taken less than half that. OMG the construction. Holy shit. It's now 3:00 there is NO way to get to Columbus and then all the way up to Dublin and back so I pop in to see the main town square. I found 2 metaphysical stores which cool.

And then the traffic was SO bad, it took 55 minutes to go the 15 miles to the office. I barely made it. And then everything went downhill


The surgeon comes in while his nurse is STILL taking my vitals (in fact she had to finish after he left) he says, 'I'll see you in a year for another ultrasound as these are small now' and he turns around to LEAVE. He has been in the room a total of 60 second and I lose it. Very politely but I lose it.

Excuse me but isn't one of them a TR 4 with a moderate to high risk of cancer?

Surgeon - yes but it's very small

Me - then what is compressing my air way?

Surgeon - it's only as big as a fingernail, nothing to worry about

Me - then what is compressing my airway/ Shouldn't you at least do a needle biopsy on the TR4 ones?

Surgeon -No. maybe you need to see a pulmonologist

Me - or a Gastroenterologist because it's causing swallowing issues and hey I can see the lump in my neck right here (points because I wore a v-neck for that very reason) so there is something there. It's visible by the naked eye. I do have GERD, could this be Barret's esophagus?

Surgeon (eyes light up) when was your last endoscopy

Me - ten years and 20 on the colonoscopy

Surgeon (turns to his nurse) set her up for both and he's out the door.

She tries and the only day I wouldn't have to take off I'd have to go into Columbus and no way would I ask a friend to do that. I say I'll call you and hey, why wasn't this a zoom telehealth meeting? I drove 160 miles round trip for him to say I'll see you in a week.

I leave so damn furious I'm surprised they didn't need to haul me out of there kicking and screaming.

My new plan is Fuck this man and his whole department (if that's all he was going to do he could have worked me three weeks ago when that mix up happened) I wouldn't let him touch me if he was the last surgeon in Ohio. I'll be calling my PCP. I have the name of the ENT who did the work on my coworker's fiance. This needs a second opinion. (surgeons are cutters. That's what they want to do so this might not need surgeon but his cavalier attitude has pissed me the fuck off) I know this guy needs a referral so I'll call my PCP, get that and ask her for a referral to gastro and/or pulmonologist. Anywhere but with this guy.

So I get back into traffic to go 8 miles to the casino (where I plan to eat). 45 minutes later I'm still not there. When I finally roll in, I realize I made an error. I forgot that at the renn fest there was no internet so I had used all my cash. I was down to my last 30 bucks.

No problem, that'll carry me to 5:00pm when Guy Fieri's Trattatoria opens....only it didn't. I guess it's not open on a Tuesday. I didn't see that on the web page (it was there, I missed it) So I leave with my last 2 bucks and head to chillicothe.

Only an hour later and I'm still only 8 miles from the casino because of construction. I finally get past Circleville and to chillicothe and someone nearly hits me on the offramp by passing me on the right (in a construction zone) running me off the ramp and back onto the highway (we all somehow didn't die). No problem I'll get off the next exit. It's closed. I had to go all the way to the historic downtown exit and thread my way up. My sugar has dropped and I decide I deserve a treat: Red Lobster.

What a mistake. I was creeped out. I was the ONLY person there at 6 pm except for a couple they sat me behind (two more groups showed up about 10 minutes later) 6 people in a restaurant with 3 wings...They've changed the menu. Only 2 things were under 30 dollars and most were above 40. I could have gotten a meal and appetizer at Guy's (and that place aint' cheap). The cheddar bay biscuits were burnt and the size of 50 cent pieces and the hush puppies the size of marbles. Yeah there's a reason this place is empty (It used to be good. I go there a few times a year).

I had to make a pitstop in Jackson for money because I have to go all the way to Huntington tomorrow and my bank isn't in Rio or Gallipolis.


And since today was so pissy let me continue in that vein with my Fannish 50. I'm back to 'fans, for fuck's sake, no one owes you a damn thing. You don't get to dictate to the creator who and what their characters are and what they look like, date etc. Case in Point

1. The Amazing Digital Circus - someone decided to draw Jax as Daisy a transgendered woman, no problem. trans head canon is nothing new. However this has somehow stirred fandom who wants it at canon and this Daisy has dissolved into a toxic mess to the point Gooseworx who created it had to step in

2. Knights of Guinevere - remember me wondering if Frankie was trans. I'm not alone (keep in mind the only thing that exists right now is the pilot and that'll be the case for a while). The pilot has had like 10 million views in 10 days and there's a huge fandom already. So Dana Terrance (the creator) said 'Frankie is a cis woman, she just has a lot of nicknames' (even I side eyed that because most often we don't get called Franklin and Francesa, Frankie yes but Franklin? okay then) Anyhow, some of the fans lost their damn minds about that leveling death threats at Dana and the voice actors because Frankie isn't trans (Dana came back to say she's fine with trans head canons but Frankie is cis)

3. Hazbin Hotel - This is Husk (my favorite character btw) Original design pre-series and from the series

There is now fan onslaughts about 'why aren't you portraying Husk as fat?' 'Stop drawing him thin!' 'We all agree Husk has to be shown as fat.'

Eyes the canon art. Side eyes fans. Look, if you want to give Husk a dad bod, go nuts. You want him fat in your head canon? Ain't no one stopping you. You deciding to harass authors, artists and the original creators? Just stop. Husk is thin (dude doesn't eat, just drinks) In the future, I'm going to have to put feederism as a DNW in my challenges as this is not my kink but there is such a push to fatten up Husk (and Angel and Willow over in The Owl House) I do not understand why big vocal chunks of fandom insist their way is the only way to the point of threatening the creators when they don't get their way.



But to end on a happy note I had a break through on a novel I've shelved for two reasons. 1 it was getting too political and angry for the story I wanted to tell 2. the one character of color whose culture I was pulling from a few Indigenous groups was really at odds as well for the job at hand. I was borrowing the Navajo death aversion (for example) but this is a character who is working with dead bodies, adopted siblings with a necromancer and might need to kill in her job. It made her look weak and othered. I didn't like it. I didn't want to change her skin color but I did want a different culture for her and her people.

But seeing the trees changing colors, watching a gathering herb video the other day, I thought, what if their culture believes in animism and pull a page from William Murdoch's book. She doesn't need to do the sign of the cross at a dead body of course but maybe she has a little prayer for the departed, that she believes plants and animals and river etc all have their own spirit as important as her own. I think that would work.

All this week the pressure of whatever's in my neck against my windpipe has kept me from sleeping well especially if I accidentally roll onto my right side. Now after the ultrasound and them pressing on it, even sitting up I can feel that pressure. I didn't want to have surgery in October but at this point if it has to be it has to be. I think this might be getting worse.

Also saw the neurologist who looked at my MRI, my back and my leg. Yes I have issues with so many nerves. Did the gabapentin help with the trigeminal neuralgia? Yes. So why aren't you taking it for the other nerve pain. Sigh, yes, point taken (but it has to be low dose because the upper doses make me too out of it)

There has always been a divide between fan artists and fan writers as long as I've been going to cons in the 80s and when I moved online it was worse. It's not a BAD thing. It makes sense (though I was always annoyed that fan artists could sell their transformative works but authors couldn't) Art can be easily digested. Stories require work to consume. But I'm still shaking my head and laughing because I posted this picture of my ship and based off Husk's expression as he looks up at Angel I called him the Smitten Kitten.

I have gotten dozens of likes and comments off the same hashtags I always use for my own stories which gets 4 likes if I'm lucky Even funnier are the people commenting talking about how people (other shippers natch) saying they're just friends. Yeah we all look at our friends with THAT expression (right before we ask to be friends with benefits

I'm mostly ready for tomorrow, work then drive 2 hours to dayton (easy drive, literally 2 turns in over 100 miles). I'm anxious about it because NOTHING is working right online and I feel pressured. It'll be fine. It'll work out. Dayton has no ghost tours that come up online. Wow. I know I have selected a bunch of stuff I'll be interested in. Nothing but museums and cemeteries for three days.


Community recs

fandomgiftbasket come join us, get some fannish stuff, make some fannish stuff.


spring_renewal A Spring Prompt Fest (okay we're totally going into the wrong season but I'll lose this before spring rolls back around)


no_true_pair loosely, a mad-libs-style challenge. You make a list of characters, a set of prompts is posted that uses all the characters in different combinations, and you create works using those characters. Okay that sounds challenging

Made it to OH and seriously they were working on the white divider line of the two lanes of I-70 W (because it looked like it had been bombed out when I drove back in June) so two lanes of traffic had to become 1 lane on the shoulder because they had both lanes closed. This really slowed me down. I didn't get back here until after 7 pm, a 4 hour trip was about 1 1/2 hours longer.

My neighbors STUFFED Rocket. He's fat as a house. Also he's been obviously playing with her 3 dogs (a teacup chihuahua, a yorkie mix and a shiz tsu mix) to the point where they were playing the my pee is better than your pee game, he went over and peed higher than the rest. Eye roll. BOYS.

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Wood - It was good but the ending felt rushed



What I am Currently Reading:


What Can't be Said - a Sebastian St. Cyr book I love this series

Atlas of Unknowable Things - this is strange, good but weird


What I Plan to Read Next:
The Secret of the Orange Blossom Cake - I bumped this to here




And finally pictures from my trip BUT not the auto museum (mostly because I had put this originally on my dying flash drive and only a few of them are there)

( You know you wanna peek under here )

I made it to Hershey in spite of construction and the fact that half of Hershey is 'road closed' I went to the Hershey Story Museum. Now, I admit it, this is a biased museum of course but probably easily fact checked. If it's all true, Milton Hershey was a good millionaire. He gave like 60 Million dollars to an orphanage, started schools for his workers children, gave them decent wages (mostly), made a community for them including golf courses (and one for the kids) theaters etc. It was a nice museum.

I hit Wendy's for lunch for the first time in like 15 years. You all can guess why. I wanted the Meal of Misfortune. It was a surprising number of chicken nuggets like 8 of them (I don't like nuggets) but there was no cartilage in them and it was tolerable with the dips (a spicy blackish/dark purple one and one obviously raspberry base) and my sundae needed more goo but it was good.

From there I went to the Hershey Gardens, a tiny bit pricey for a small garden (but I know how much it is to take care of a place like this) They had a butterfly collection, you the know the type. Lots a blue morphos floating around but there were ones I've never seen before like a dead leaf butterfly (which looked just like a dead leaf) and had some other insects and reptiles, including the bird poop frog (well named) and a white tree frog who had SUCH a face.

There were all kinds of beautiful roses which would have looked even better about 6 weeks ago. Also would have been nicer if it wasn't 1001 degrees out there. Pretty sure the sun is cooler. I loved that there is a Milton Hershey rose (bred for him in the 20s or 30s) and later they renamed one Catherine Hershey. Milton's was nearly extinct but it's back and they were selling it and if I had a place for it....

From there I saw there was 2 hours before everything closed so I went to the car museum. I wanted to break a bunch of collection cabinets and steal me scads of hood ornaments (I love them so) they had american, french and british. There was a deluxe edition steudabaker one that was a full devil with tail and a pitchfork (from the 20s-30s) and pierce arrow had one with a naked mercury on it (well he had his fig leaf) from 1926.

It was three floors of cars and motorcycles. Oddly enough there weren't many trucks. The ground floor was a lot of dirt bikes (not my thing) and big cars/buses. The first floor had the most cars, lots of station wagons for some reason and a really nice Tucker collection (fantastic cars, ahead of their time, he was run out of the business by the big boys in Detroit) Top floor were more motorcycles (one from the 40s called the whizzer....) and all my hood ornaments. (now I see me doing a human Arackniss and Angel story just to work in those hood ornaments and sending them to Hershey Park.

On the way from here to the hotel, my GPS takes one last gasp at killing me. I should have been in the left lane but nope it says go right....RIGHT into hershey park (hey it was only 35$ but I'm not sure if that's park entrance or just the parking) I tell the guy what happened because it's a one way. I couldn't turn around. He laughed and waved me in and said just keep going. It'll circle back out for you.

Dinner was a huge disappointment and a bit scary. I wanted to go to the chocolate avenue grill (nope, totally packed) so I hit another biggie around here Troeg's Brewery. I ended up with a 20$ sandwich and fries and the world's most overpriced beer. I didn't realize the prices were on the sign across the big bar space. So when I was choosing between the Jovial dupple ale and the freaky peach sour ale I could have gotten two of the Jovial. Didn't see that and paid 14$ for ONE freaking sour ale which was stored in a bourbon barrel so all I could really taste was bourbon. It was good but it wasn't worth the price of a six pack.

The scary part wasn't the price (that was the disappointment). When I went to pay for it, I realized my gym wallet wasn't in my purse. I know I had it at the hotel when I dumped the purse out looking for the insulin but it is GONE now. While I have money/credit in my main wallet, the gym wallet has my id and my main credit card. It wasn't outside the restaurant or in the Bronco. Fantastic. I have no idea where my driver's license is. I just drank a large sour ale that is 9% alcohol in a strange town in a car that isn't mine. Whee. Made it back to the hotel. Still can't find my wallet. I was getting ready to go tear up the Bronco and/or ask the front desk to see if it was turned in but then I saw that the bed spread had a cuff on it. Did the wallet slide under there? Thankfully yes. Geez.

The tub here is weird. High. Deep. Narrow, like it's hard to have your feet side by side. And boy do I miss my handicapped room from the Wyndham with it's high toilet. This one is about 2 inches off the ground. Thank god I can pull up on the vanity.

And I am wake enough to do music monday (but probably NOT to answer anyone's responses yet) I Feel free to share with us. We're doing the alphabet and we're up to T. I'm only sharing the last 5 years but you can share whatever T song you'd like.

( Teeing up )

just nothing quite worked well. Macy's summer clothes either belonged on a 90 year old going to bingo or not on sale. Did find one long sleeved tie-dyed thing left over from last fall on final sale. Got that. it's pretty but I needed it least. I want to replace my short sleeved dress shirts. Most are like 15 years old now.
No joy there.

Also there were SO many people on the roads for 2 pm on a Tuesday. it was shocking.

I'm still trying to work up excitement for the steampunk thing that I'm leaving for on thursday and I have none.

I forgot to share these badges for bingos at allbingo ( check them out )

So let me go back to one of my earliest (and my forever) fandom for fannish 50: Star Trek, the original series.

Let's be honest, there aren't a lot of women to pick from in the main cast. Uhura, Christine and Rand.

Yeoman Rand got the short end of the stick and sexually harassed off the show by a producer.

Christine is in a traditional female role of nurse. I liked her well enough.

But the one I really liked, especially now that I'm older and can appreciate her more (I liked Christine more when I was young). By now most of us probably have heard the story of how Nichelle wanted to leave the show after S1 but MLK told her to stay, that she was far too important to African Americans to quit.

We hear people joke how Uhura is just the space phone operator and that is unfair and reductive. She did so much more, especially in S1 (I did notice that when the censors and conservatives realized Star Trek was SO popular both Uhura and Sulu's roles were reduced to communications and helm. Even if all she did was communications, it was enough that she repped Black women as officers, as having agency which they did not have much of in the 1960s.

But Uhura did more.





Uhura was asked to - and expected to - take over the helm. Which she did. With no problems. She was obviously trained to do multiple bridge jobs. She could have been on the path to command for all we knew (and in later movies she was in fact a captain). Uhura was always more than a telephone operator.



In the next picture we can see her, weapon in hand and a look on her face that is not fear. Okay I'll admit it. She (and all the women) were written inconsistently when it came to their grit. That's what happens when you have multiple authors. But here, Uhura is ready to throw down. She really got to shine in the Mirror universe but I didn't share that picture because A) it's everywhere B) it's rather exploitive





I love that they did try to give her more depth much of which we owe to Nichelle herself. She was the one who gave Uhura the first name Nyota post series (upset that no one ever bothered during the show). When Uhura lost all her memories it was Nichelle who decided no, English is not her first language. She chose Swahili for Uhura.

Nichelle was more interested in music than acting in many ways from what I've read and heard her say. She was also partially why we see Uhura singing, dancing and playing music. I loved these little details (along with Sulu being a botany enthusiast which disappears after S1)

I love that the actors got to have some input in character development. Nichelle (George and Leonard) did especially well with hers.

And since I love flowers this counts as fannish 50. So today it was like 70 outside so I hurried on to the Pittburgh Botanical Gardens and if not for the lone handicapped spot I wouldn't have gone because every other spot was taken. On a Tuesday morning! Guess all of Pittsburgh and every tourist had the same idea.

As for the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden it's a misnomer all around. It's about 20 miles outside of Pittsburgh in Oakdale where my Great grandfather and great aunts/uncles are buried. It's also WAY more an arboretum than a garden. Very little of it is actual garden. Much of it is trees and a lot of it I can do in my own backyard but I like to go. It had a new art installation I wanted to see and the last time (which was the first) I was still too early in my recover to do more than the lower loop.

What I DO love about the path to the Lotus pond is they have several mailboxes set up, in each is a laminated 'newspaper' about a tree it's in front of, year sprouted and other things that happened that year. It's engaging.

I rather wish they'd stop calling the Asian Woodlands that since it lacks a lot of what would be IN those but it's a nice pond (and they have a nice write up about how they mitigated the nasty water that was once there) The art installation is simple but pretty especially when viewed as intended (reflected in the water).

This time I headed into 'the european woodlands' to see the whimsical follies they put up there. There is a giant nest, a dogwood meadow, the hermit's hut, the bookworm glen and the apiary (closed path). I made it through those and then went back to the garden side of things but not all of it (I did that last time and it was getting hot)

I did go to the garden of five senses, really more designed with kids in mind such as the water fountains and little rocks to feel. I much preferred the sound and sight. Sound were metal flowers with mallets to make music one, a drum and a xylophone and sight was a big pot of flowers with kalideoscopes over it using the flowers as the swirly bits. The sense of smell and taste were veggies and herbs that I touched (as if I don't have chocolate mint, lemon balm and oregano at home)

They had seeds on sale. Since I have a greenhouse at my disposal I picked up greek oregano (could always use more) and blue lake snap beans.

My knee did okay, the leg went numb. It started to recede the longer I pushed it. It's a bit swollen now and gave out a bit ago.


And you get a little extra Fannish 50 from me. I love history. Have you been watching Hazardous History with Henry Winkler. Yeah almost no one on the show is a historian and a lot of it is played for levity but OMG the stuff that was common place especially in the early 20th century. Heck some of the stuff I remember (especially in the toy episode) is scary enough (lawn darts, anyone?) It's a fun show and from what I know accurate (no depth but breadth) I know for instance that yes Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup was 65 mg/Oz of morphine and also, yes lithium was one of the 7 ingredients of 7 Up. Check it out. You might have fun with it.

( Welcome to the Garden )