kirundo | Network

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anais_pf posted to

thefridayfive

These questions were suggested by Dreamwidth user spiralsheep.

1. Have you ever watched illusion magic? Close-up, or in a stage show, or on television? Did it work for you?

2. Have you ever wished on a star, or a lucky cat, or a coin in a wishing well? Did it work in some way?

3. Have you ever cast a spell, made a love charm, or tried a curse? Did it work in some way?

4. Are there any other traditional superstitions you pay attention to? Do they work in some way?

5. Would you want major magical powers like in a fantasy story? Which powers, and how would you use them?

1. I find illusion magic mildly interesting, but it's not something I seek out.

2. Always and sometimes. When you are owned by black cats, luck follows you.

3. Nope. To quote a vampire friend of mine, "There's always a price with magic, always."

4. Not really, except for the ones that make sense, like not walking under a ladder when there's the possibility of having something fall on you.

5. Nope. I'm happy with the way I am.

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kronette

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susandennis

We still have tons of snow. But, we are seriously lacking tons of electricity. Puget Sound Power shows most of Issaquah and the surrounding areas are all dead zones with no ETA. Timber Ridge is not dead thanks to a marvelous generator but... We have lights in the hallways and power outlets in the elbows and the elevators work and the kitchen works.

But... no power in our apartments. I, somehow, am getting a teensy bit of wifi and I have my phone which does pretty good for internet except in the bedroom.

They can rig the generator to include hot water if this goes on for days. Last time it was 6 days.

Also last time, as soon as the power went out, Bonny packed up and went to her daughters. But, now her daughter is not speaking to her. OOOOPS Jackie has worked for weeks on a gynormous Kiwanis charity dinner tonight which will now not happen. Jim Down the Hall leaves in the morning for a massive road trip with his son, IF they can get out of Issaquah! He told me tonight that he plans to hook up with my brother!

Jim across the hall is now pretty convinced, I hope, that it's more than just him and he didn't cause it.

I have my emergency lights, two lanterns, spare batteries and a big battery that takes nearly any kind of plug there is and I can recharge it in the elbow if need be. So... all is sure not terrible.

And... it's still snowing!

marycatelli in

books

Temples, Tombs & Hieroglyphs: A Popular History of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Mertz

A light discussion of Egypt. Admittedly covering a long period of history and so necessarily cursory in place. Discusses what records we have and what archeological evidence we have found, and various Pharaohs and changes.

kaberett

In apparent celebration of Migraine World Summit, I have spent this evening having an unscheduled migraine attack for no obvious reason. I disapprove. (Because I've been doing a lot of audiovisual processing, captions notwithstanding? Because I had my screen much brighter than usual for a while playing a colours game?* Because oven't?)

Nonetheless I have watched and made digital notes on all of 2026 Day 2, watched and made digital notes on 3/4 talks from 2025 Day 2 (which I missed at the time), and made physical notes for 2025 Day 1 and 1/4 of Day 2. I am... sort of catching up.

I am really enjoying my pens. I also find myself with the problem of wanting lots of different notebooks and, also, to keep everything in One Single Solitary Notebook, For Convenience...

* NB I am a rocks nerd. My colour discrimination is ludicrously good. I am sorry that that link is weird and competitive about my ridiculous score, but not sorry enough to provide you with the bare link.

summersgate

I love rainbows. I got it done and hung this afternoon. I think I'll keep it for myself, I like it so much just as it is.

It's been a dark and windy, rainy day outside today.

susandennis

and

immortalje in

fandom_icons

I have 61 Heated Rivalry icons to share. In the post you can find:
- 32 Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov
- 15 Ilya Rozanov
- 11 Shane Hollander
- 2 Svetlana Vetrova
- 1 Scott Hunter/Kip Grady

Preview:

Here @

love_sacrificed

my_spikesgirl58_feed

https://spikesgirl58.livejournal.com/6795843.html

maju

It started snowing around 4 pm yesterday and kept it up for a couple of hours , but as the temperature was a few degrees above freezing it didn't stick. There was a dusting on the grass this morning but it didn’t last.

I love the way my granddaughters will curl up next to me (when they can sit still long enough) and sometimes give me spontaneous hugs, but often I still feel empty and lonely because S is not here with me. Violet is now 5 ft 3, the same height as S was; it would be so good to see them together literally seeing eye to eye.

This morning I received the email equivalent of those annoying hold messages telling you how important your call is to them… the email was from the IRS ID certifying place and reassured me that they hadn’t forgotten about me, it was just that this is a busier than usual time, and I should be patient.

mdehners in

gardening

Got some Garden-related stuff done the last 2 days. Planted a Saskatoon bush in a container and moved a few seedlings into 3" pots from the trays. My Fig cutting is showing buds along the stem but I'm not tempted to even look until April;>
Giant and Bronze Fennels, Variegated Lunaria(though no sign of it at present). The Giant isn't edible but looks really kewl the 2nd yr when it blooms about 10-12 ft tall! Next week a few more should be ready to bump up to larger pots just in time for the next batch of Stratified seeds to be ready to plant...
Cheers,
Pat

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Lenoir City(Nevermore;>!)
Current Music: Kiva Radio

susandennis

Well, that was an adventure! By the time I got my car out of the garage it has stopped not snowing. It was actually coming down fairly steadily in huge flakes. But, I ventured on, slowly. I had left way early. I didn't have any trouble really. Until I got out of the car. I have boots. But 1. They are way up high in the closet and not worth the trouble getting down and then I was going to have to take one off when I got there anyway plus 2. I forgot.

It was wet and slushy and felt pretty slippery but I made it inside. And was greeted warmly by the receptionist who thanked me for coming on in! I got all entered into the system and paid my copay and then went upstairs to my doctor's waiting room. Before I could even match butt to chair, I heard "Susan?!". I laughed at her and complained that last time she did not even let me get my game up on my phone and this time I didn't even get to sit down! She countered with "more bad news, he's all ready for you."

I was back in my car by 8 am for my 7:50 appointment in the snow! I went downtown and picked up my packages and then stopped at UPS to turn in my returns and then home.

Still snowing and there were a couple of dicey spots. I had a hard time get out of the parking spot in one case and then, I was stopped, on a hill, waiting to turn left and slid a little. So I was very glad to get to my garage door. But then it wouldn't open. No big deal. I called security and he came down, opened the door, and pointed out that had I just cleared the snow off my license plate, the door would have opened fine. And it was the security guard who doesn't really like me anyway. Another notch on his belt. Bone. Head.

I did not get gas. Another day. It will be more expensive but around here, it's always expensive so big whop. On the news last night, they said that gas might soon be up to $4 a gallon. It's been $4 a gallon here for several years.

It is now 10 am and it is still coming down. (The receptionist at the doctor's office said she heard it was supposed to go until noon.) It's very pretty. I've killed the rest of the morning just piddling around on the internet while watching the snow fall. I gotta say, it's not a bad way to waste time.

I may do some more of it.

fauxklore

Book Clubs: I forgot to mention that I had two book club meetings in February. One was a sort of re-organization meeting for Crones and Tomes. And the other was for the Travelers’ Century Club book club, which discussed The Long Road to Cullaville: Stories from my travels to every country in the world by Boris Kester. Boris joined us for the discussion and was fairly interesting. By the way, there was a little blurb about me as co-coordinator of the book club in The Centurian (the TCC monthly newsletter). In the meantime, my longest running book club seems to have completely fizzled out. I did send an email to the members asking if we have officially disbanded and have heard absolutely nothing back.

MIT Reception: Last week, I went to an MIT Leadership Circle reception at the International Spy Museum. This is one of those things you get invited to by giving enough money annually. They had a nice assortment of heavy hors d’oeuvres (along with beer or wine, though I opted for sparkling water). That was followed by a talk on cryptography and the problem of verifiability by MIT Professor Yael Taumann Kalai, I have to admit that much of her talk went over my head. I only stayed briefly for coffee and dessert afterwards. The venue was a bit disappointing, as we didn’t really get to see the museum and the conference room area we were in was a bit too small for easy mingling. I still had some enjoyable conversations, but it wasn’t one of the better MIT-related events I’ve been to.

Loser Brunch - Philadelphia: For those who don’t know, Losers are devotees of what used to be the Washington Post Style Invitational, a humor contest that continues via Substack. There are a couple of big parties every year and brunches more or less monthly. On Saturday, I made the long drive up to Philadelphia for a Loser Brunch. Most of the drive wasn’t too bad, but my GPS took me through central Philadelphia, which was particularly slow, due to the flower show. And the last part of the trip involved a maze of narrow streets where everyone was driving over 40 miles per hour despite a speed limit of 25. I was able to park just a block away from the house where the event was. We normally do brunches at restaurants more or less around the D.C. metro area, but the reason for this one was that Judy had just moved from Florida and can’t really go to public venues due to severe fragrance allergies. And we were leveraging off another big name loser having moved to a retirement community not far away, as well as yet another one who was in town from Greece. There was a wide mix of interesting conversation, some of it involving topics dear to my heart, e.g. MIT and the Boston Red Sox. I contributed a container of dark chocolate coated cherries Cindy had given me. The other chocolate she gave me I will eat, but I have an aversion to cherries which give me flashbacks to childhood cough syrup experiences. Anyway, it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Visiting Eric: I leveraged off the trip to Philadelphia to visit my friend, Eric, who has been at a rehab facility there for a long time. I won’t talk in any detail about his medical condition, but it was pretty depressing seeing how weak he is. His room (well, his part of a shared room) is full of books and he spends most of his time reading. I brought him a dozen books and I hope he’ll enjoy at least some of them.

After visiting him, I drove to a hotel near the airport, where I stayed overnight. The hotel didn’t include breakfast, but there was a very nice little diner reasonably nearby. I love old-fashioned small town diners and had an excellent omelet with hash browns, toast, and coffee. The drive back wasn’t too bad, at least until the Beltway, which was a slog. Overall, it was a pretty good weekend trip, but it reminded me why I normally take the train when I go to Philadelphia.

Stafford Challenge Week 8:

7 March 2026 - Trust

8 March 2026 - International Women’s Day

9 March 2026 - Early Spring

10 March 2026 - To Do Lists

11 March 2026 - Next to Illegible

12 March 2026 - Anagrammatic Irony

13 March 2026 - Twists of Fate

summersgate

We had a dusting of snow this morning. The daffodils won't be giving up, I'm pretty sure about that.

Going Over the Rainbow. This started out innocently enough as a little story picture which I thought would go with the rainbow, sun and cloud that I'm crocheting as a mobile for Rowan. (I do love rainbows). A girl wants to visit the rainbow. And I thought I was done with it, but the middle part was bare and needed something. Then it suddenly turned into a story of the aftermath of war. I know that there is war and awful fighting SOMEwhere on earth ALL the time. It's a fact of life for humans to be fighting and killing each other, I guess. It's what humans do. But I am having a hard time resting easy in this country which is such a big part of the latest killing. As a species we should be done with this by now wouldn't you think? That man got elected on the promise of no more wars. Then he almost immediately changes the name of the Defense Department to the Department of War and starts to throw his weight around to start fights. He has lied to everyone from the beginning. But they still want to believe in him. It's all so outrageously stupid and evil.

chickenfeet

https://operaramblings.blog/2026/03/13/a-mirror-is-disturbing-but-compelling-theatre/

susandennis

I woke up, got coffee, fed the cats, sat down at the table next to the window and WHOA!!

It was still snowing then, a little, but now it has stopped. I can see some traffic and several cars have come up the hill to the garage without issue. It is 7:05 and I have an appointment with my foot guy at 7:50. I'm going for it. Once I get off this hill, I suspect there will be nothing on the roads.

But, what a treat! Sorry I didn't get to see it falling. But, at least we got one - teeny tinsey - snow this winter.

After the doctor's, I need to stop at the Amazon Lockers and pick up a package and then at UPS to return one. Then I was going to get gas but it's probably too cold and I probably won't.

cakewrecks_feed

Posted by Jen

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/hold-on-to-your-hats-sports-fans-2026

Wreckporter Barry B. gives us the skinny:

My wife went into a cake maker to get a small cake for my birthday. They asked what she’d like on it and she said, "How about the Chicago 'C', like The Chicago Bears’ 'C' logo? Is that possible?"

They said, "The Chicago C? No problem."

...it was the funniest present I’ve ever received.

Let's hope that Justina felt the same way about her University of Michigan cake, which was supposed to look like this:

But ended up looking like this:

Oh! A swing and a miss!

Karen M.'s son asked for the Alabama "A" on his birthday cake. To help the bakery out, his aunt brought in a photocopy of his Alabama hat to use as a reference.

(Can you sense where this is going? If not, then you really haven't been reading this blog long enough. Heh.)

Ready?

Here's the cake:

Thank goodness they didn't bring the actual hat in; that icing would take forever to clean off.

*****

And from my other blog, Epbot:

https://www.cakewrecks.com/home/hold-on-to-your-hats-sports-fans-2026

my_spikesgirl58_feed

https://spikesgirl58.livejournal.com/6795740.html

So, I grabbed this from

dis_inclined:

What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

TV Series

1. Man from UNCLE (obviously)
2. Star Trek:OS
3. Star Trek Next Gen
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. Sapphire and Steel
6. Bones
7. Grimm
8. Death in Paradise
9. Are you Being Served?
10. Grace and Favour

Movies

1. The Mummy (1999)
2. Murder By Death
3. Clue
4. A Christmas Story
5. Curse/Night of the Demon
6. Forbidden Planet
7. Mars Attacks
8. Beetlejuice
9. Batman (Keaton/Nicholson)
10. War of the World (1953)
11. The Day the Earth Stood Still(1951)
12. The Thing (1951)
13. All the Studio Ghibli movies
14. All the Harry Potter movies
15. The first three SW movies

I'm sure there are more, but this will do for now.

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