i'm goin' to toontown

[Edited to add: yes, this is last year's letter, but it's pretty much still valid.]

Dear purimgifts author:

( Cut to spare my friendslist )

Dear purimgifts author:

( Cut to spare my friendslist )

The year in review, as seen through public posts in this journal. Leaving out last year's end-of-year memes. (Bolded phrases are subject lines; unbolded are first lines of the post, used where no subject line exists.)

January: a random act of kindness
February: [purimgifts] Dear Author
March: Safely and exhaustedly arrived back in NY. Consonance was amazing.
April: Pesach recipe round-up
May: a postcard from the magical land of sick
June: Conterpoint ahoy!
July: So we saw Pacific Rim today.
August: a mazel tov
September
October
November: (It is completely ridiculous that I haven't posted a thing since August.)
December: words, words; they're all we have to go on

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 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!

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.]

The illustrious ladymondegreen has given me a meme; the premise is "what were you like at a specific age?" and the number she gave me was twenty. My answer is supposed to address relationship, where I was living, what I was doing for work and school, what I feared, and my best memory.

Follow me behind the ( cut-tag: )

If any of you would like to pick up this meme, ask me for a number and I will give you one! (If I don't already know your age, I may have to ask for at least a ballpark.)

So hey guys.

This show. I'm kind of digging it a lot and I suspect it's doomed. Any of you watching it? Thoughts?

(I am caught up as of the most recent episode, "That's Not My Penguin". Spoiler protection is to be considered OFF in the comments.)

There are so many things I have been meaning to post and not gotten around to it, including a handful of links and an update on the acapella music collection project and a mention of the actual by-god double rainbow all the way across the sky I saw two weeks ago.

So of course I'm going to post a meme instead. From cflute via technoshaman: Write Like A Girl.

Italicize the authors you've heard of before reading this list of authors, bold the ones you've read at least one work by, underline the ones of whose work you own at least one example of.

Please feel free to repost with your own favorite female SF (or non-SF) authors included! (I've added my own in a different color.)

( throw your hands up at me )

Dear purimgifts author:

( Cut to spare my friendslist )