Moved.

Yeah, I'm over on coderster.com now.

CODERSTER.COM

Are you alive?

I am.

Thanksgiving '09, a story. (A bit late)

Thanksgiving 2009, a story.

That's my Gramma Julie, mother to my father, and known crazy lady. Back in the middle of November, at a ham and turkey raffle, she asked what I was doing for Thanksgiving, laying down the hint that she had absolutely nothing to do, should I care to invite her to wherever I was going. I told her that I'd probably do the same thing I'd done the last two years: drive around town with Dad for twenty minutes while he claims he knows the Chinese buffet was open, and then end up going to Perkins, because it's the only place that's open.

She replied with, "Oh, well, Jo Ellen and I usually do something, but I don't know if we're going to this year."

I smiled, freshened her beer, and went about selling raffle tickets at fifty cents a pop.

Fast forward a few days, I'm ringing the bell for the Salvation army with my aunt Jo Ellen, and we're talking about the upcoming holiday. She's not planning on doing anything either, not even going out with her mother. She was going to go to the auction, eat turkey there, then come home and rest.

Idea!

"We should have a Thanksgiving dinner, because Lord knows I'm sick of Perkins' shitty turkey substitute," I told her.

She thought, "Joe and them used to come over for dinner, but it got to be too many of them for my little house. We could do it, if we kept it small."

I listed off the people in out family that didn't have a Thanksgiving to go to, which amounted to a total of six people, including us. And thus, it was born, Thanksgiving in Eldred, PA. Invitees were called or texted at lunch that day, and by the time we rang the bell again, two days later, we were ready to assign food dishes for people.

Thanksgiving day, Mickey and I picked up Grandma around three thirty, and made the trek over to Eldred. We thought we'd be late, because instead of making the pie and the mashed potatoes the night before, we woke up at noon Thursday and made them (we also did the laundry and cleaned the car). But, luckily, we made it there just in time, four on the dot, and before my Dad and Sally, which meant we weren't really late.

Since aunt Ellen hadn't cooked a turkey in decades, the Turkey was nearly overdone by the time we all got there, so instead of having munchies and sitting around until five, which was the original plan, we set out to setting the table, carving the turkey, reheating the side dishes people brought, and talking to my cousin Kim, who called so she could talk to most the family in one go.

After dinner, and desert, we retired to living room, while Sally cleaned (because that's what she does). Aunt Ellen, Dad, Gramma Julie, and I played Wii bowling, while Mickey watched. It was a close game, except for my father, who was a few strikes behind.

Dad came in last place, which we all kind of figured, and Gramma Julie, Aunt Ellen, and I were all only a pin away from each other. Aunt Ellen placed in third, and guess what.

My 89 year old crazy Grandmother beat me in Wii bowling.

But only by 1 point.

A winner and a loser.

So, I won NaNoWriMo this year, with the most words I've ever written in a month: 55,162. I wrote right up until midnight, managing to write 100 or so words before validating for the final time. I actually hit 50k on Sunday, the 29th of November, but I couldn't stop for two reasons:

1. My story just wasn't finished. It still isn't, because I, like a lot of Wrimos, took a week off. I plan on getting back to it when I get free time this week. (My free time got cut down a lot because I got a seasonal job at Dollar Tree.) I might do NaNoEdMo, if some of the others in my region would like to participate. If not, I'll edit at my own pace.

2. Writing was war. At the end of October, I entered a word war with the ML of Sudbury, Ontario. We had to write more words than his wrimos during the month of November, which didn't happen. (We were close, only about a half a million words short.) My punishment was to sing a song of Rintaran's choice, for the pleasure of his region. I was allowed to sing with any Wrimos that I could gather.

Well, today was our TGIO (Thank goodness it's over!) party, and it was time to pay our debt. Here it is, for your enjoyment, and our public embarrassment, the Southern Tier Wrimos (all three of us) singing "Paperback Writer" by The Beatles.

(Sorry, the video jacked up during the end, so it's a bit off.)

The singers are Skervin, Irregex (aka the boyfriend), and me.

Video Post - Vlogging

THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!

I have a love/hate relationship with Lost. Mainly because, after all these years, I've began to figure things out on my own. I remember tweeting something from the beginning of the fifth season that said something similar to "I like having answers, but I hate guessing them weeks in advance and then having the suspense played out when I know I'm already right." (If you plan on watching the fifth season of Lost, and have so far managed to avoid spoilers, stop reading this now. Same goes for the new Doctor Who special, Waters of Mars, and the preview for the upcoming Christmas episode.)

My examples for Lost are all forgotten now. But, most of the things that happened in the beginning of the fifth season I guessed near the end of the fourth. The one that stands out right now is "Jin is alive." I was all happy to believe that he was dead, until I saw a season 4 wrap-up thing. I'm not sure what, exactly, it was, but it aired a few episodes before Jin flashed his way into Rosseau's heart.

I'm alive. You're French. TV still sucks.

Tell me something I don't know.

What's the thing that led me to know this wonderful answer weeks before it was revealed to us? I blame two things: 1)Jin is just too awesome to die. (I said the same thing about Charlie, but he went on to work on other TV shows, Jin didn't.) 2)During the little recap thing I watched they said, "Sun believes Jin is dead."

REALLY? YOU GONNA GIVE IT AWAY THAT EASILY, LOST?

Yup. Apparently they thought they were being clever, or something.

The rest of the beginning of Season five continued like that. Something that I guessed long ago, on a whim, became the right answer, and I had to watch the powers that be make like I didn't already know what was going to happen. It made me sad, and I almost quit Lost, except that I kept watching in hopes that I was wrong (and when it came to Locke, BOY WAS I WRONG.)

On to Doctor Who.

'Ello there!

Somewhere back in the fourth series, I believe it was the Easter special, you know, the one with the bus, someone told the Doctor that "he would knock four times." Ooh, mysterious and ominous and whatnot. MAYBE FOR SOMEONE ELSE! (I have to point out here that I thought the line was "death will knock four times," but I just went back and rewatched it and chick totally said "he," so I had to change this thing. So, if it reads funny, that's why.)

Maybe it would have been mysterious for someone who wasn't in complete and utter love with John Simm's version of The Master.

Who has sonic anymore? Laser is totally the way to go.

I must have watched Utopia, Sound of the Drums, and Last of the Time Lords a dozen times before series four even began. And I recently rewatched the entire new series of Doctor Who, just to notice the little things they plant throughout the episodes each season. Most of those things I didn't pick up, like the Ood referring to our hero and his companion as "DoctorDonna," many episodes before Donna Noble became fused with Time Lord biology and became the Doctor!Donna. (I picked up on the "Rose screams for the Doctor" thing too, but I chose to ignore it because I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF ROSE TYLER. GET A ROOM RUSSEL T DAVIES!) I did, however, pick up on the "four knocks" clue the first time around. It may have helped that, before watching the Easter Special, I had watched the season three finale many times. Either way, I'm still proud of my self because my boyfriend didn't pick it up.

Pay close attention to when the Master starts drumming his fingers on the table.

That moment, right there around 1:53, is what led me to believe that the Master would bring about the Doctor's death. "He will knock four times" you say? The drumming that is ever constant in the Master's head has, what, four beats? duh duh da duh. duh duh da duh. duh duh da duh.

OH HELL THE MASTER IS GOING TO KILL THE DOCTOR.

BUT WAIT!

The Master totally died at the end of Last of the Time Lords, making the Doctor the last one, yet again. Well, fuck.

NOW HE'S JUST GOING TO HAVE TO COME BACK FROM THE DEAD.

Now, three specials later, we've yet to see the Master's return, and I kind of forgot about my epic revelation. That is, until the Doctor kept screaming about "no one is knocking" and "AHA YOU ONLY GET THREE KNOCKS!!" Then, I remembered, the Master may soon return.

And, after I called Adelaide killing herself, I got treated to the preview for the Christmas special.

GUESS WHO IS IN IT?

THE MASTER.

THAT'S RIGHT.
I WIN.

THE END.

(Oh, and Donna and Grandad Wilfred come back, which I'm also super stoked about. There was so much epic squeeing during those few seconds, that I may have scared the neighbors. I know for a fact my cats were frightened.)

PS- How sad was Waters of Mars? I mean, at least until the Doctor went all "I'M THE RULER OF TIME NOW! I MAKE LAWS AND NO ONE CAN CONDEMN ME FOR IT! Except you, Adelaide, you can do whatever you want. Except die, you're not aloud to do that. BECAUSE I SAY SO, THAT IS WHY!"

PPS- I also should admit that I thought the whole "He will knock four times" thing came in season 4, not a special, so that's why that one paragraph seems to jump a little bit. Sorry, I skipped rewatching the specials because they kinda sucked.

Lis and I have a day out!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Lis and I went on an Owl Homes tour.

Since we were broke and trying to kill a lot of time, we toured each home extensively.

We even took pictures to see which homes we looked best in.

These are those pictures.

All of the Owl Homes master bathrooms can accommodate two people at a time.

Three, if two people get in the shower together.

As an added bonus, there are seats in the showers.

Lis really, really had to go to the bathroom in this house.

I decided to take a bath while she was doing her business.

Lis was really tired, touring all those homes, so she decided to take a nap.

After a while, all the houses began to look the same to me.

It also could have been because I was a little tipsy.

Makin' sure those damned kids stay the fuck off my lawn.

Another house, another bathroom.

This bathroom, however, had a fireplace AND wine in it.

We decided this was the house for us.

So, I kicked off my shoes and sat down to read a book.

Lis, on the other hand, took a nap in the chair.

Then, after we decided we couldn't afford our new dream home, we went clothes shopping.

Lis found her perfect dream dress in a second hand store.

We ended the night at Sprague's, where Lis celebrated her birthday.

Too bad Lis's birthday isn't until June.