Every so often I remember that (a) most of you here don't follow me on tumblr, and (b) I don't post the kind of personal stuff on tumblr that I used to post here all the time, and what that means is that people aren't getting updated about important stuff in my life. For instance I don't think I've actually posted about it here at all since my relatively recent health troubles started. WOOPS. Some of you already know bits of it; I think I've sort of been stalling on saying anything here until I could put together a coherent and cleverly worded post about it? For some reason?

1. OKAY SO HI EVERYBODY it turns out I've got kidney stones. Have known this for roughly six months, ish, and have been getting various forms of tests and treatment, punctuated by exciting visits to the emergency room -- most recently last Thursday night, just into the last two days of Pesach. I was able to go home Friday afternoon, after another visit to ambulatory surgery to have some new hardware installed; I already had one on the right and now I've got a matched pair. Whee. I'm really hoping to be able to step up the further procedures to finally get rid of the stones (and thus also the hardware, which isn't terribly comfortable). I am assured by my doctor that this is not-repeat-not in any way likely to be a life-threatening issue, and given successful treatment, shouldn't have any long-term impact on quality of life either. I really hope he's right.

2. Unrelated to my health, another thing I really wish I'd posted about sooner: being the Interfilk guest at FKO last month was an honor and a delight, and I hope we get to go back on occasion in future. Phil Mills got some lovely photos of my concert, along with many others; there's also a video of Mark Bernstein leading and directing a choral performance of "Green Hills of Earth." (If anyone here has video of my concert, or knows anyone else who does, please let me know.)

3. This is neither particularly coherent nor particularly cleverly worded, but if I don't just sigh and hit the Post To button anyway, it'll never go up.

Ugh, you guys, I have gotten so bad at posting to LJ/DW. And even at staying caught up on flist. I blame tumblr. In part at least. (Though I'm also currently failing at NaNoWriMo, so I dunno.)

Posts I should be making:

• A poll: should I link tumblr posts here the way some people do tweets? Is this a thing that might interest people?
  
• Belated OVFF con report
  
• Chessiecon anticipation (I've got one co-moderated song circle with Tom Smith, one concert with ladymondegreen as The Funny Things, and one solo concert)
  
• Recent recipes successes: sugar-free plum jam with rosemary, chicken with peaches and balsamic vinegar, gluten-free bread made with flaxseed meal and oat flour, tomato-and-red-lentil crock-pot soup
  
• Why I'm failing at NaNo

Maybe I should try this December Talking Meme thing. Or a variation on it.

We are home from Boskone and from my cousin's bar mitzvah! Will make an honest effort to catch up on things, but it may take me a day or two.

A proper con report may or may not be forthcoming; for the moment, suffice it to say that I got to see and hug a lot of amazing people, make a new friend or two, meet a few authors whose works I have loved for years, and sing with a kickass crowd of filkers. And then of course, at this morning's bar mitzvah, I got to see and hug a lot of family members I don't get to see nearly often enough, including a bunch of very very small ones.

Hoo boy do I need sleep.

hello internet people I missed yooooou

we are home and I am mostly better

spent about half the con in bed with the sick and it was still an awesometastic weekend

because I spent the other half hanging out with amazing people and admiring hall costumes and hearing Sassafrass rock the frakking house down

and singing an inadvisable amount at the Sunday night open filk because it was after the concerts I sang backup in :D

I am probably going to bed pretty soon but just wanted to say we are home and I love you all

hello my dearests

i have fallen prey to a foul disease of thus far uncertain identity

which has left me flat on my back with a fever over 101 fahrenheit for most of yesterday evening and today

and apparently also stolen my ability to capitalize or punctuate correctly?

someone tell lynne truss, this is terrible

anyway if you do not see me online when you are expecting to it is because said fever has decided HAHAHAHAHA NOPE

wish me luck in getting over this fast, i am still hoping to make balticon this coming weekend

:(

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!

*flops over exhausted*

hoooooooome.

Many, many thanks to Spencer and to hms42 for sharing car space with me and getting me here.

Greetings from Ohio, everybody! OVFF has been awesometastic and I'm looking forward to the Dead Dog filk tonight!

... yeah, I was supposed to be on my way back to NY by now. Unfortunately, while sdelmonte's flight got off fine this morning, mine was cancelled in anticipation of the imminent STORMAGEDDON: THE STORMENING, which name is only slightly sillier than the one they're actually using.

Thanks to the kindness of friends, I have crash space for the night and I have a ride back to NY tomorrow. Sorry to people who were expecting me to show up online tonight; I don't know if I will be able to. :(

All my fellow east coasters out there: stay safe, and I hope all your hatches are safely battened. <3

(P.S.: I am also kinda pants-bankrupt. Please let me know here if there's been any posts of importance since ... Wednesday? I hope to catch up, but no telling if and when that'll happen.)

Home again, in more ways than one.

Alex and I got home from Concertino a little over an hour ago -- many thanks to scifantasy for giving us a lift both there and back.

And I've been to my first filk con -- my first con of any sort, and my first group filksing -- in over a year.

Damn it's good to be back.

Greetings to all from the land of milk and honey and jetlag! We are safely arrived as of last night and are ensconced in my brother's apartment in Ramat Beit Shemesh; I have been climbed on by various adorable nieces and had philosophical discussions with nephew who is getting too old to be called adorable (at least to his face) and I have slept, although not enough; noisy birds woke me up at about five-thirty AM local time.

Anyway -- I may be sporadically around internet-wise for the next week and a half, but don't expect to see me between tonight and Monday night; I will be offline celebrating the holiday of Shavuot.

wheeeeeeeeeee israeeeeeeeel :D :D :D