Halloween Party Pictures, THE Storm, Canatics
Yesterday was our annual Halloween party, much scaled back from prior years due to a number of reasons, not least of which was that Bobby and I didn't get ourselves organized till mid-month. There was only family in attendance, but we had a good time and served a good meal (always one of the major reasons why Bobby and I host parties!) We had potato-leek soup for the first course; barbecue chicken (with barbecue sauce made during Tropical Storm Irene last year), potatoes and green apples smothered in cheddar cheese, and spinach salads for the second course; and an assortment of desserts brought by the family for the final course. Dad made cookies and a delicious pumpkin cheesecake; my mother-in-law brought a "dirt cake." And, of course, we had hot buttered rum! Despite my abstaining from alcohol this week, I did have one cup. :^|
Mom, the sinful angel.
Mom and I did not intend to both wear costumes with wings, nor did we intend to dress as complete opposites of each other. Mom was an angel; I was a Raven death goddess (I completely made that up if you're wondering, "Where the hell did she get that from?!") We made numerous jokes/comments through the night about who would win in a fight. (Me, obviously. ;)
If we make it back to school by Wednesday, I will be wearing my costume but no corset because that would be a decidedly bad idea at an all-boys school. :^|
Mom and Dad.
Me and Bobby, my vampire servant. >:^)
The party was also overshadowed somewhat by the impending Storm of Doom. Bobby and I are prepared; he got up early this morning to make some minor repairs to the roof in preparation of massive amounts of rainfall; hopefully, this will mean no roof leaks. Our roof is actually relatively new and sound, but we have an ancient ridge cap that once came halfway off of the roof! We really need to get that replaced. In the meantime, it needs a lot of TLC or we get leaks when we get a lot of rain. We packed up all of the outdoor stuff, both summer stuff and Halloween decorations. Bobby tied down the beehive and removed the wire roof from the chicken run because it was collecting leaves, and he was worried it would collapse/blow away. Of course, we're good on food and firewood. Times like this--when everyone else is fighting the supermarket--the efforts we make to stockpile over the summer seem really worth it.
We also have a small generator, just big enough to run the freezer, fridge, and sump pump, so we shouldn't lose a lot of food this year. Bobby stocked up on gas for that on Friday.
Now it's just waiting. School is already closed for tomorrow. It was bleak and windy this morning, and the air has a wicked feel to it that Bobby says it probably the falling pressure but is just as likely my imagination. I asked Bobby this morning what the prediction of the moment was for the storm, and he sighed and said there is still a lot of uncertainty with various models showing different trajectories. So we'll just have to play it as it comes, it seems. It does seem like it's not going to come on land at Ocean City, which is good for us--bad for our friends to the north :(--although Ocean City was evacuated again this morning, and Annapolis was evacuated last night. In the middle of the night last night, the weather radio went off and announced a high wind warning for Monday 8 AM through Tuesday 8 PM--that's a long time! *cries*--for as far west as Frederick County, our neighbor to the west. So it seems we'll be somewhat on the outskirts, at least according to whatever model(s) were used to generate that warning. I don't even know why I'm saying that, as it's very little comfort with a storm as uncertain as this one.
So ... I might suddenly disappear from Teh Interwebz. Not to worry! I am probably holed up in my basement, still using my laptop, possibly writing something kewl (i.e., not related to school, teaching, or any of my official roles in any groups) or maybe reading (probably school-related *cough*), with the woodstove roaring and the wind doing it's worst outside, with the Goldens and my vampire servant Bobby at my side.
On a completely different topic, I got a canatic review on ff.net this morning. An anonymous one. I'd disabled anonymous reviews but, apparently, ff.net has since introduced the ability to moderate anonymous reviews, so I assume I was reset to that option by default, which actually would have been my preference, so that's fine. It was the usual canatic review: Oh your writing's good but Tolkien wouldn't have wanted ... your characters aren't what's in the book ... blah blah blah. I did approve it. Then I did a bad thing and replied to it in the reviews for my own story, since I couldn't reply directly to the person. It was not a nice reply. I was rather harsher than I usually am. Bad me. I guess I'm just getting tired, after all these years, of answering the same stupid complaints from the endless rotation of small-minded people who manage to read a 350,000-word character-based story and then claim not to like the characters. What's up with that?? How/why does a person even do that?
Anyway, a while back, while I was making test cards for last year's B2MeM, I made a Canatic Review BINGO card. So let's see how this review measures up!
First, here is a blank card; do feel free to use it to measure the canatic reviews on your own stories. ;)
Okay, so let's analyze this particular review ...
No BINGO. Meh. But an awful lot of stamps!
This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth and, using my Felagundish Elf magic, crossposted to LiveJournal. You can comment here or there!
http://dawn-felagund.dreamwidth.org/304762.html
Mom, the sinful angel.
Mom and I did not intend to both wear costumes with wings, nor did we intend to dress as complete opposites of each other. Mom was an angel; I was a Raven death goddess (I completely made that up if you're wondering, "Where the hell did she get that from?!") We made numerous jokes/comments through the night about who would win in a fight. (Me, obviously. ;)
If we make it back to school by Wednesday, I will be wearing my costume but no corset because that would be a decidedly bad idea at an all-boys school. :^|
Mom and Dad.
Me and Bobby, my vampire servant. >:^)
The party was also overshadowed somewhat by the impending Storm of Doom. Bobby and I are prepared; he got up early this morning to make some minor repairs to the roof in preparation of massive amounts of rainfall; hopefully, this will mean no roof leaks. Our roof is actually relatively new and sound, but we have an ancient ridge cap that once came halfway off of the roof! We really need to get that replaced. In the meantime, it needs a lot of TLC or we get leaks when we get a lot of rain. We packed up all of the outdoor stuff, both summer stuff and Halloween decorations. Bobby tied down the beehive and removed the wire roof from the chicken run because it was collecting leaves, and he was worried it would collapse/blow away. Of course, we're good on food and firewood. Times like this--when everyone else is fighting the supermarket--the efforts we make to stockpile over the summer seem really worth it.
We also have a small generator, just big enough to run the freezer, fridge, and sump pump, so we shouldn't lose a lot of food this year. Bobby stocked up on gas for that on Friday.
Now it's just waiting. School is already closed for tomorrow. It was bleak and windy this morning, and the air has a wicked feel to it that Bobby says it probably the falling pressure but is just as likely my imagination. I asked Bobby this morning what the prediction of the moment was for the storm, and he sighed and said there is still a lot of uncertainty with various models showing different trajectories. So we'll just have to play it as it comes, it seems. It does seem like it's not going to come on land at Ocean City, which is good for us--bad for our friends to the north :(--although Ocean City was evacuated again this morning, and Annapolis was evacuated last night. In the middle of the night last night, the weather radio went off and announced a high wind warning for Monday 8 AM through Tuesday 8 PM--that's a long time! *cries*--for as far west as Frederick County, our neighbor to the west. So it seems we'll be somewhat on the outskirts, at least according to whatever model(s) were used to generate that warning. I don't even know why I'm saying that, as it's very little comfort with a storm as uncertain as this one.
So ... I might suddenly disappear from Teh Interwebz. Not to worry! I am probably holed up in my basement, still using my laptop, possibly writing something kewl (i.e., not related to school, teaching, or any of my official roles in any groups) or maybe reading (probably school-related *cough*), with the woodstove roaring and the wind doing it's worst outside, with the Goldens and my vampire servant Bobby at my side.
On a completely different topic, I got a canatic review on ff.net this morning. An anonymous one. I'd disabled anonymous reviews but, apparently, ff.net has since introduced the ability to moderate anonymous reviews, so I assume I was reset to that option by default, which actually would have been my preference, so that's fine. It was the usual canatic review: Oh your writing's good but Tolkien wouldn't have wanted ... your characters aren't what's in the book ... blah blah blah. I did approve it. Then I did a bad thing and replied to it in the reviews for my own story, since I couldn't reply directly to the person. It was not a nice reply. I was rather harsher than I usually am. Bad me. I guess I'm just getting tired, after all these years, of answering the same stupid complaints from the endless rotation of small-minded people who manage to read a 350,000-word character-based story and then claim not to like the characters. What's up with that?? How/why does a person even do that?
Anyway, a while back, while I was making test cards for last year's B2MeM, I made a Canatic Review BINGO card. So let's see how this review measures up!
First, here is a blank card; do feel free to use it to measure the canatic reviews on your own stories. ;)
Okay, so let's analyze this particular review ...
No BINGO. Meh. But an awful lot of stamps!
This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth and, using my Felagundish Elf magic, crossposted to LiveJournal. You can comment here or there!
http://dawn-felagund.dreamwidth.org/304762.html