As is becoming my habit, I have just enough time/mental energy to get this post out. I'm still reading all y'all--really there are days when hearing from you is absolutely the highlight of it all--but I suspect I'm doing pathetically at commenting.

RL, such a bitch these days.

It's my birthday next week, so D & I went to our favorite little restaurant last night, where I had a super-fun cocktail with a crème de cassis base, topped off with Prosecco and edible glitter. (I mean, the food was really good, too, roasted swordfish and some baked burrata, but yeah, having a pretty, berryish drink in a pretty glass where the prosecco bubbles kept the glitter suspended was really the highlight, :D ). Very festive!

We also were able to do the Food & Wine festival again at Epcot. ( cutting to spare those of you who don't really care about WDW the details )

tl;dr - ate lots, drank lots, were exhausted for at least a week following.

Will try to do the Wednesday reading meme b/c I finally have finished a book or two, \o/

It's been... quite a while, whoops. Work got ridiculous and I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with going to the office every day and #2Son is taking more classes on campus (which is so exciting I can't even tell you but means I'm either dropping him off or picking him up 4 days/week, which is adding to the logistical issues.) And then, we're having work done at the house, so I've been dancing around crews in and out of the house, plus clearing out rooms/cleaning up the dust after (omg, SO MUCH DUST. EVERYWHERE.)

Also, it was Winter and I was hating the world (as usual) so there's not much reason to spread those nasty vibes around.

Anyway, I tried to read my circle and drop a comment here and there, with at least some minimal success, but it's spring now and I got in a dose of Disney therapy and the stupid work project got shifted to another team (where it more logically belongs, even though it's still stupid) and I am finding it easier to breathe, tfg, and I'm hoping to be back a little bit more.

So, in the middle of all of that nonsense, I was still commuting by train, so I did get some quality reading/audiobook/netflix download time and that seems like a good thing to talk about...

firstly, I blasted through the last four of the Rivers of London series, all on audiobook (which is how I've done all of them.) I'm not sure what ignited the frenzy, but I did Broken Homes, Foxglove Summer, The Hanging Tree, and Lies Sleeping in less than a month, which is something like 45 hours of audio (and I was listening at normal speed, not 1.25x or 1.5). This is entirely due to how awesome Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is as a narrator. I'm pretty sure I never would have made it through Aaronovitch's odes to London architecture if not for how dynamic and engaging the narration was. At one point, BabyBoy (the BFA acting kid) made me replay a couple of scenes as we drove so he could tease out the variations in accents and inflections and take notes for a class, so that was fun. Now I'm all caught up and would be in withdrawal if I hadn't finished the last one right before I hit Disney World (which usually clears everything out of my head by dint of complete overstimulation.)

Anyway, A+++++, would listen again, must go see if they've done audio of the novellas (and go look for post-canon fic while waiting for more books.) (Oh, and here's a little book trailer for one of the novellas to give you a taste of the stories/narration.)

I also remembered that I could download shows from Netflix and thus watch things w/o burning through data (which is a thing around the HoB, as we all share this cheap, grandfathered plan that is enough for regular use, but not so much for streaming and I'm currently not in favor of an extra $100/month for an unlimited plan.) So, that's enabled a fair amount of stuff, most gloriously Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which was *such* cognitive whiplash to watch while schlepping to/fro on the train. Still, it was incredibly soothing to have her voice in my head during the dreary winter commutes, where it was gray and dark in both directions. (The link goes to the book, but as lovely as it is, the series is just over-the-top beautiful and nourishing.)

Also food-related, the boys got me Chrissy Teigen's new cookbook for Christmas (Hungry for More), which I initially assumed was just going to be a fun read (it's like the longform of her twitter/insta, if you're a fan) but has turned out to be a solid source of actual recipes. We're currently 3-for-3 in total wins (the scallop linguini with casino breadcrumbs, chicken teriyaki burgers, and seared fish with herby brown butter.) Honey-garlic shrimp is next on the cooking agenda.

If you follow me on insta/twitter/fb, you probably noticed that we hit Disney World over spring break. Yes, I know you're shocked. It was just D & I, though, as nobody's spring breaks aligned and there are tickets that are expiring soon (and it goes w/o saying that I'm not giving Disney corporate money for things I haven't used.) So, that was fun -- I got a deal on Priceline that got the Beach Club down to breathable rates; we ended up calling a Minnie Van one morning to get to Magic Kingdom; and D turned out to be a FastPass-refreshing savant, so we had excellent times/rides. I upgraded to an annual pass while we were there and I'm going with the boys in May, once everyone's finals are done with and before BabyBoy starts the summer theater stuff. (Also to clear out their soon-to-be-expiring tickets.)

The key part of that last paragraph is that I'm now in possession of a WDW Annual Pass. So. If you're feeling the need to run away to Walt's giant playground, ping me & let's see if we can link up. :D

Okay, if you're still reading, I ♥ you and regardless, I hope you have a good day (/week/month!)

Okay, the stupid RL stuff continues. However, #2 and I have a disk of Star Wars: Rebels (we're flying into the gravitational well of collapsed stars, etc. It's pretty) and I have a few links to share.

First off, because you can never have too many icons, umadoshi has a post with links to icon makers.

Two off, also via umadoshi, sylvaine has a post of DW trips and tricks. I especially like the footnote trick and making a poll for kudos. Oh, and the bit about organizing tags.

(Oh, and now we're up to space whaloctopi!)

Three off, I did post this on tumblr, but I love both Star Wars and Disney World and I might not surface for a year once they combine, so let's share it here, too.

John Williams new theme for Galaxy's Edge over video of the current state of the new sections of the parks.

So, you know, it’s always good to do a friending meme and introduce yourself and add interesting people and have others add you… and then disappear for a week or two.

Um, oops?

Sorry!

Hello to the new people! (and to the rest of you, too, who’ve been hanging around here for a decade or so, ILU.) The me (lj) | me (dw) tag has an introduction and assorted random posts (like favorite movies and books, etc.) Feel free to poke around and interact as much or as little as you’re comfortable with.

At least the disappearing act was for a fun reason: the Annual Epcot Food & Wine trip was last weekend, \o/. There was food! And wine! And I got a tiara! (I don’t know why, just that my friend L walked up and handed me what she assured me was a Belle (my favorite Disney princess) tiara, and that no, it wasn’t the $200 one from the shop in the Mexican pyramid so I shouldn’t worry about losing it. (She’d started making noises about how I needed a tiara then, but I put it down to the tasting flights of tequila layered on top of half a World Showcase worth of wine. Clearly, the idea stuck.)

Happily enough, it was really comfortable and hey, it was Disney World—nobody even blinked at the sight of a 50ish woman wearing a crown. So, yeah, I have sparkly headgear in about half the pictures from the weekend. It’s not the strangest thing that’s ever happened on one of these weekends.

( surprising no one, this got long )

( favorites )

And now it's almost Halloween and thus time to haul out all the creepy crawlie stuff, to further distract myself from the election insanity... I will try for pictures this year.

I’m not sure how or why it’s already Monday, but here we are…

On the plus side, I did manage to finish up that post-Star Trek Beyond Kirk/Pike sequel I’d been playing with (see my previous post), but the rest (ie, the mundane part) of my weekend to-do list is sadly un-lined-through. Priorities, yeah?

So, a couple of people have asked for my Disney World planning strategies, and since I’m in the middle of planning out a trip with my brother & s-i-l for next spring break, I thought I’d do it in a series of semi-real time posts.

( First things first--where to stay )