i'm goin' to toontown

The guests have all gone home, the leftover food has been put away, and I am slowly sliding toward sleep.

Whatever 2013 held for you, good and bad together, my wish is for 2014 to be better.

Happy New Year, my dearests. You know I love you.

(It is completely ridiculous that I haven't posted a thing since August.)

This is to announce two things! Firstly, that I will be away tonight and tomorrow night on account of traveling to Atlanta for my cousin's wedding; I will probably have intermittent email access, but don't expect to see me online.

And secondly, for those of you who have not already heard me flailing about it, that I am attempting to unofficially participate in NaNoWriMo this year. (Or an abbreviated version thereof; I'm going for 30K rather than 50K words in total.)

oh god.

"Iiiit's that time again!"

"Time to build a Jaeger out of a box of scraps?"

"Time to figure out rules 37 through 62?"

"Nooo. It's time for another New York / New Jersey area housefilk!"

This coming Sunday at the home of Ray Arnold. Details here. Feel free to boost the signal!

Hello, internet! I am coming to you live from scenic Gaithersburg, MD, where Alex and I are attending this year's iteration of NEFilk, the floating NorthEast Filk convention: Conterpoint! I have reasonably reliable wifi but will not be at my usual haunts until Sunday night (or Monday night, depending how exhausted we are when we get home Sunday); expect my pants to be bankrupt next week.

Love you all. (Yes, even you. Yes, especially you.) See you when I see you.

So my fever broke dramatically yesterday evening, leaving me damp and exhausted and still light-headed enough to find hilarity in singing fever has brooookeeeen to a possibly recognizeable tune. We decided to wait and see how I was feeling this morning before deciding, and the verdict was: while I am still not at 100%, sdelmonte and I have made it to Balticon after all!

I don't know how much filking I will be doing -- I plan to be nice to my throat and avoid singing at all tonight, at least; for the rest of the weekend, we will see how things go. If I can manage it, I will be backing up a certain bandmate of mine at her concert Sunday evening. :)

Internet folks: I hope to be back at my usual evening haunts by Monday night. Till then, be excellent to each other and don't set anything on fire that we can't replace. Love you all. <3

"Iiiit's that time again!"

"Time to make a pillow fort?"

"Time to sign a petition against earwax?"

"Nooo. It's time for another New York / New Jersey area housefilk!"

Details and RSVP here. Feel free to boost the signal!

Tonight is the first night of Pesach. Zman cherutenu; the time of our liberation.

This year Alex and I will be hosting a Seder at our own house for the first time ever. Wish us luck. :) Right now I'm in the homestretch on cookery -- everything is either finished or in progress except for the main dish, with about three hours left to go. (The menu, in case anyone is curious: celery-leek soup, chicken with onion sauce, baked sweet potatoes, potato kugel, steamed broccoli, and fruit pies for dessert. WHEE.)

I will be offline between now and Wednesday night, and again next week between Sunday evening and Tuesday night.

Chag sameach to all those celebrating the holiday with us. Everybody else, have yourselves an excellent mid-week.

Be well, everybody. You know I love you.

So here's a few things I've been meaning to post about, and I am doing that very rare thing of posting from work on my lunch break because I don't know if/when I'll manage to get online tonight. First, recent stuff:

Purimgifts! I participated in this fic exchange again this year. I received a thoroughly adorable trio of BtVS ficlets from Green: Family Means No One Gets Left Behind, Baker's Surprise (including a recipe for chocolate hamantaschen!), and To Life. My own contribution, for the_ragnarok, was a three-part Bible/Temeraire crossover (idek) called Three Things And Four.

Consonance! My second ever West Coast filk con (after Conflikt a few years back), confirming my impression that West Coast filkers are generally excellent people. I really hope I get the chance to go back another year.
ladymondegreen has a full report of the rehearsals and the concert here and here, plus a little bit of costuming we did Saturday night for the open circle she hosted. *cheerful* (One of my favorite bits involving the costumes: kanef, on first seeing us, asking me "So ... is this some new really, really strict religious observance?")
The concert was downright exhilarating, the costuming was insane fun, the open filking afterward was wonderful as it always is, there was opportunity to meet some wonderful new people and to talk to old friends and acquaintances I very seldom see, and basically what I'm saying is it was the best kind of filk con. Even if the jet lag flattened me for days afterwards.

Family visiting! My brother and my dad are here from Israel, and have been staying at our house since Monday night. I have missed them both terribly; it's been great having them here.

Which leads me into upcoming things:

Nephew's bar mitzvah! This evening we (we being me, Alex, my brother and my dad) are driving up to Rochester, where we will spend the weekend celebrating the bar mitzvah of my sister's oldest kid. (How is he thirteen already. HOW.) Don't expect to see me around the internets tonight; I may or may not be on Saturday night, depending on family goings-on and internet availability. We return Sunday night, whereupon I will be plunging directly into frantic preparation for:

Passover! And hosting a seder at my own table for the first time in my life. aaaa panic panic aaaaaaaaaa We've cleaned the whole house except the kitchen already; we won't be turning over the kitchen until the night of Saturday the 23rd, leaving a very narrow margin for all the food prep we have to do in advance. Since cooking is permissible on holidays, I can leave some of it for later -- but anything requiring an electrical appliance such as a blender? Yeah, that's got to happen before sunset on Monday the 25th. Which includes the charoset.

FUN TIMES, MY FRIENDS. See you all when I see you!

Hey all! I am writing this at JFK airport, where in approximately 25 minutes I will be boarding a plane to San Jose for Consonance. I've never been to this particular con before, and am attending this year in order to sing backup for a certain awesome Interfilk Guest.

(Sadly, sdelmonte is not coming with me. Y'all be nice to him if he needs cheering up this weekend, okay?)

My email access will probably be reasonably reliable (depending on hotel wifi), but don't expect to see me online between now and Monday afternoon/evening.

Those of you who will be there: see you soon! Everybody else: have a great weekend, try not to burn down the internet while I'm gone, and see you when I see you.

So I just listened to the entirety of the Man of La Mancha soundtrack -- the 1965 original Broadway cast recording -- while assembling components of tomorrow night's dinner. (Not done yet! Still have to assemble dessert.)

It matters that it's this particular recording; my parents owned it on vinyl and it will always be the definitive version in my head. And it has been forever since I listened to this and every phrase, every pause, every vocal inflection is still familiar and dear. I don't think I will ever not love this musical to tiny bits.

(And yeah, I still can't decide which part I covet most: Aldonza or Sancho.)

And meanwhile, for the first time I found myself having Thoughts about this play through feminist lenses, and I am pretty sure I am not done having them. Hmmm.

[also adiva_calandia I have to talk to you sometime about the notion of Don Quixote as a breeches role because what.]