dendritejungle

*happy sigh* So I'm sitting at home with my adorable kitty curled up next to me, after a lovely Thursday evening and Friday morning with neeuqdrazil, followed by a delightfully indolent afternoon. Much of this evening has been spent writing this post...

( Supernatural thoughts (spoilers through 5.16; pure speculation beyond) )

In other fandom news, I've signed up for Wincon! I never thought I would, but it's being held in Chicago this year, which just happens to be where eboniorchid lives. So neeuqdrazil and I are going to take a road trip down there after our annual Ottawa visit! :D :D :D

In other news, my renovations are finally (!!!!!!!!!) due to start this Tuesday. FINALLY. I'll believe it when I see it. Below the cut are some details and larger pictures - including ( a request for assistance from all of you and a POLL )

In other random news, this game wins for sheer title-ness: I Was Hungry But There Were Cannons.

Dude, I have been giddy ALL DAY. I'm sure the reality of the compromises he's going to have to make will tarnish my squee eventually, but for now I'm still just so happy about Obama.

My two favourite quotes of the day, one poignant but both AWESOME:

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children could fly."
- Practically urban myth already... I love this.

"If a Black man can become president, you can get your washing machine! It's a week for miracles!"
- Co-worker Zsa Zsa to me. Here's hoping the FIFTH time's the charm and my washing machine really DOES arrive tomorrow. *grinds teeth, crosses fingers*



In other news, a small poll on last week's Supernatural episode:
( cut for anyone who still hasn't seen it, and to spare those who don't know/care about the show )


And has anyone ever noticed...okay, you know that really cheesy Starship song, "Set the night to music?" (Clip sung by someone else here for anyone who's memory needs a jog.) Well, the rhythm of the song fits perfectly if you change it to, "We could...nuke the site from or-bit..."

I'm just sayin'.

Last Wednesday night, my upstairs neighbour and dear friend SprightlySplink gave birth to a healthy baby girl. I was right there with her, as I had been for a number of hours, helping her in such ways as I could. I have spent much of the last week trying to articulate how amazing (and intense!) the experience was, and for the most part have been rather unsatisfied with the results. Suffice to say that it was incredible, I was deeply honoured to have been invited to participate in this family event, and I am in awe of the women who do this all the time, all around the world. (And many more than once, no less!) Yes, I totally cried when the baby was born, and I did totally call my mom up the next day and thank her profusely. *g* I'm glad to report that everyone in the family is doing well, and that SprightlySplink plays a mean game of Castle Crashers even with a week-old baby at the breast.

THIS weekend, however, I am gearing up for something else I've always wanted to participate in: skydiving! \o/ I've actually been wanting to try this for YEARS, but only recently discovered a place that I could get to by public transportation. Yes, if the weather doesn't suck on Saturday, I fully intend to hurl myself out of an airplane with a few square metres of nylon between me and my otherwise untimely demise. Wish me luck. Seriously. I'm a bit of a klutz, and while I'm gratified the site touts the fact that they've never had a fatality (uh, GOOD), I still fully expect to break a leg in a fairly literal sense. And am totally okay with that. *beams with the placidity of the patently insane*

In other news, I have been continuing with my Supernatural marathon, and falling back in love with our boys all over again. *happy sigh* And with the new season fast approaching (yaaay!) I wanted to again throw my doors open to local SPN fen who would like to watch the premiere next Thursday in the close confines of my little home. Hope to see you there!

Heeey, I found my missing pictures! YAY! So I can now present to you the picspam I was working on earlier this week. Below is the original entry I wrote - now with the photos! \o/


Well. It's 5:20 AM and I wish I were sleeping, and since I'm not I SHOULD be doing my taxes or cleaning or catching up on emails. But no. What I WANT to do is hang out with all of you, so I am going to indulge myself shamelessly and finally do a picspam I've been wanting to do for ages. To this end I am co-opting the meme for which morphing_lanes tagged me and rather than the eight random things meme (which I did here, for the curious), I am declaring it the "eight unexpected places I've been that I thought you might find interesting to hear about/see pictures of" picspam.

So, with no further ado, a picspam of eight unexpected places I've been that I thought you might find interesting to hear about/see pictures of. I've just put a few thumbnails above the cut; under the cut is seriously non-dialup-friendly. *g* I haven't done my link-to-larger pics this time, though, since they take forever and I'm not really sure if it's worthwhile (if anyone really misses them just let me know in the comments).

(And for the record, it's KILLED ME to get these down to a few photos of each: I have literally hundreds on just these eight locations - six hundred from Yakushima alone. :P)

A preview:


( WINCHESTER STREET!!! )

( Burning Man )

( Biosphere 2 - artificial 'closed' ecological system )

( Yakushima - world heritage site and the forest that inspired Princess Mononoke )

( Sleeping in a tree )

( World Treehouse Convention )

( Toronto islands at dawn )

( The Royal Ontario Museum at dawn )

...just popping in over lunch to share an amusing exchange I had with Zsa Zsa, my poor, hapless officemate who is stuck sitting two feet away from me eight hours a day, five days a week. Pity her.


Me: *barely contained mounting excitement*

Zsa Zsa: ...what? What's up?

Me: (with what small measure of self-restraint I could muster) IT'S THURSDAY!!!!

(There may have been a bit of flailing and squeeing on my part at this point. I deny everything.)

Zsa Zsa: Wh...oh. OH. Oh, god. It's the premiere tonight, isn't it? The boys are back? That's it, isn't it? My respite is over?


Yes, dearest Zsa Zsa. YES, IT IS.

Poor, poor woman. *GLEE!!*

So the co-workers I browbeat into watching Supernatural (hey, they're all glad NOW!) and I are having a pre-premiere watch-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose viewing this Sunday evening from 7ish to 9ish, and if there are other random Toronto fen who'd like to pop by, you would be more than welcome! Squeeage will have to be saved until the end of each episode (well, insofar as squee can be stored: I'd hate for anyone to explode), because THREE of them haven't seen the episodes yet. *pets them*

I live right downtown so I'm dead easy to get to on the TTC, and I should mention for those allergic that I do have a cat.

Anyway, no pressure, but if you'd like to pop by, just drop me a line at dendritejungle (at) livejournal (dot) com or leave me a comment below, and I'll get back to you with details. I'd love to meetcha!

(Also, anyone interested in catching part of the awesome one-night-all-night-citywide-art-fest of Nuit Blanche this Saturday night? I'm planning to be out catching as much as I can from dusk 'til dawn...)

Apologies to you non-Toronto folk. I'll get around to creating a Toronto filter eventually, I promise...

Will catch up on comments later, really. Now, off for dinner with eboniorchid! \o/

I've been dying to say this since I heard the news:
There's a storm coming - and you boys are smack in the middle of it ARE IT.

So it's official: Dean is now a hurricane. Part of me wants to cheer (really though, was there ever any doubt? OF COURSE "Dean gathers strength"!), but then I remember: right, real life. Hurricanes are not good.

Still, while sending my thoughts to those battening down their hatches in the tropics, I only have one question now: where is the crack!? I got nuthin' and OMG, I need Hurricane!Dean crack...I am craving it...anyone seen anything?

ETA: I now hear Dean's expected to become a Category 4 storm. Much more worrying. Suddenly I am craving crack less and just hoping everyone on the poor islands and coast well. :( It's amazing (or pathetic :P) how easy it is for me to forget how horrific hurricanes can be, I suppose because I've never been directly affected by one.

Incidentally, audreyovisual and I found out that Sam is in the official naming roster for 2009 (younger brother = later year, makes sense). And THEN Optimus pointed out that he might not become a hurricane at all, but simply be Tropical Depression Sam - at which point we all completely lost it.

I love my co-workers and my show. *happy sigh*

(Oh, and if you opted into my new gutter!filter, the first post should be showing up in the next half hour or so. If you asked to be added and you don't see it - or want to be added now - just comment here or, if you prefer the privacy, go back and comment to that post.)

So audreyovisual was having a bit too much fun with some junk mail, and then missyjack kindly (if inadvertently) provided the PERFECT punchline, and the hiatus is clearly addling my mind because this seemed worth sharing with you all, but here you go: ( a 3-second look at what passes for amusement in my brain. )

*twitches* Is it October yet?

Actually, that's not a spoiler for last night's Supernatural season finale - I'm talking about me.

Firstly, thanks needs to go to you all for putting up with me being unusually emo in the past week. Aside from the stress of "OMFG WHAT HAPPENS NEXT" between last week's cliffhanger and last night, I've been gearing up at work for our big annual trade show in New York next week and quietly freaking out about stuff like having forgotten to find someone to look after my cat while I was away and not having contacted my friends in New York yet and still not having registered the Gay Geeks for the Dyke March and Pride Parade this year.

Add to this the fact that I haven't slept well for weeks which for me is (a) unusual (I sleep the sleep of the dead, yo.) and (b) an automatic recipe for emotional haywireness. I think maybe it's the fact that the sun comes up so damn early this time of year. So I've been angsty and emo which completely kills my appetite, and dude, I went to see my doctor on Wednesday for a simple prescription renewal and discovered I'd lost six pounds.

I am now tipping the scale at 101 lbs, people. (For those of you who don't know me, that's not quite as alarming as it sounds: I'm a naturally skinny person *ducks tomatoes* and am normally about 105-110 lbs with the appetite of a horse. Seriously. Ask my co-workers.) BUT STILL. It's not like I have lots of fat stores to play with. And I was sick last Saturday and this past Tuesday. What the hell, I ask you.

ANYway. So lots of little stressful things going on adding up to a not-very-happy Den. But my friends have been awesome, I did finally register the Gay Geeks, jumila, bless her, will be looking after the kitty while I'm away (house party! ;)), and yesterday was the final push to get ready for the show. I'm breaking out the Ensure and lots of other little time-tested tricks to get my weight back up again.

And then there was the finale last night. krakkernuts and jumila came over, as has become our tradition, and in addition to our pizza and ice cream Krakkernuts brought a lemon poppyseed loaf she'd made. Sooo good. We managed to survive the EFFING COMMERCIALS and, well, ( I believe this picture sums up our collective response nicely. )

This evening I've got the one screening of Inside Out (the Toronto gay and lesbian film festival) I've managed to squeeze in, then tomorrow is running around getting ready for the trip, then working my ass off in New York until next Friday, then disappearing into the wonderful endurance marathon of Anime North next weekend. Aaand then back to work the next day.

So I love you all, and I really hope I'll have a chance to play with you and at least find out how ya'll are doing after the finale. But I'm not sure I'll have time over the next ten days, so just know I'm thinking of you all and cross your fingers for me, okay?

*hugs you all*

I do have an actual me-related post coming eventually. Really. But in the meantime, I banged this out since I needed something light, and thought it might amuse y'all as well.

This is for audreyovisual, who gave me the idea, and the last line is for veronamay and lemmealone and their One True Love.

Title: Deanial
Author: dendritejungle
Rating: PG
Words: 600-ish
Pairings: none
Warning: Directly follows 2x21, so definite spoilers. Also a couple of really bad jokes and my general attempt at humour.
Disclaimer: Not mine. *sigh*
Beta: audreyovisual

( Enjoy! )