desert_vixen's lair

 So desert_sdwndr has arrived.  Yes, I am typing this with a big smile on my face.  It throws my schedule off some, but it was nice to have about four hours today to spend together.

 I got my assignment for intoabar, not sure I'm super happy with it because I barely recall the character, so I foresee some research and possible Kindle downloading.

 Finished up No Wind of Blame, and it will not be staying on the Kindle - into a reread of Behold, Here's Poison, which IMO has a much more entertaining cast.  They're a thoroughly dislikable group.  I may have to go on and reread Envious Casca next...  I am also having an idea which would be better addressed in a longer post, which I am working on.

 I'm also (slowly) downloading the whole 13 episode run of Visionaries to the computer.  The best solution here seems to be to start a download before I go to sleep.  I'm also going to try my hand at screencaps for some icons.  There's definitely some tropes in it I enjoy.

 Unfortunately I also have to polish off a piece of homework and try to finish reading the stupid book for class.

 DV

It's a new month.  It's also All Saints' Day.  I'm a pretty lapsed Catholic, but it's still a day that I like.

3 months and 1 week into our fabulous trip to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, I missed desert_sdwndr's notification that he was available for chat, which made me sad because now he is not available.  Unfortunately Yahoo Mail seems to run quite slow and uncooperative in my room.

I finished my read of The Nonesuch, one of my very favorite Heyers (and one of my Yuletide requests is for Tiffany to get a smackdown, possibly from Lady Lindeth).  I hadn't made highlights last time, so now all the good parts are marked.  I've moved on to rereading No Wind of Blame, to decide whether or not it stays on the Kindle.  So far, I am thinking not.

I've made some progress on plotting my Yuletide story, and am going to start writing this weekend.

I'd also like to write a long rambly post about Visionaries and how it's on my next Yuletide list, but likely not right now.

MV had a good time on her Halloween... and apparently my stepfather's habit of quality checking our candy has NOT changed.  I remember having to sit down at the dining room table and let our parents do a check to make sure none of the candy looked suspicious.  Then, we would divide our candy by type so we could trade for what we liked best.  Good times.

Enjoying the third disc of Ellery Queen, although not going overboard with too many episodes in one night.  After this it's music time, since my normal music time (in the car) does not exist.

 I also re-realized last night that I really do need to go back and retag a lot of the old entries because there are only 108 uses of the "mv" tag and I talk about her a lot more than that.

 DV
 

 Slow getting moving today, so no Ellery Queen episode (since they're from a time period where 15-20 minutes of an hour long show were not taken up with commercials).

 It's getting close to Halloween, not that it means much here.  However, the MV is excited for it and I'm planning to call her when she gets home from trick or treat.  Pretty sure my stepfather is excited to have a small person to take out on Halloween as well.

 The MV got a good report card and her parent/teacher conference went well... still need to work on blurting things out when it's not her turn.  However, it does not sound like we're having the same issues as last year.

 DV

 Monday is Monday.  The deployment has a very Groundhog-day feel to it - I had to look up an email about something that was discussed a while ago and discovered that it's only been three weeks.  It felt like a lot longer.

 The Lions had a pretty incredible ending to the game - while I appreciate Stafford's move at the end, next time I'll settle for good enough to win without committing four turnovers first.

 I confess I am getting totally sucked into Visionaries again... I feel fanfic coming on. :)  The source material is pretty short.

 DV

The signups for intoabar end Sunday night.  It's a pretty low-stress ficathon, with the only real issue being what character you get paired up with from one of your fandoms.  Minimum is 500 words, so very doable.

Started watching Visionaries last night on YouTube, since this seems to be the last of the 80s stuff I enjoy that has not been released.  We have Youtube access on the nightshift, which is nice.

The people I've been helping study for the board did well on the mock board, so they'll be going to the big promotion board on Tuesday.  We have one person out of this month's crop who did badly, so maybe now he will listen.  While he's a smart (very smart, probably too smart for the Army) guy, he has a tendency to come across as slightly supercilious/condescending and that's bad when you're only an E-4.  He's also older than the average E-4 and I don't think that helps.  However, what sunk him on the board was the fact that once he makes a mistake, he crumbles because he can't just roll past it.  That is fatal on the board.

And, can't remember if I mentioned it, but my board for consideration for promotion to E-8 (which would be a very big step and likely my last promotion) has been pushed back to December 3 due to the shutdown after-effects, rather than meeting in November.  This means that I likely will not know the results before February, when I am either coming home on leave or coming home to stay.  Also, this means I will be waiting on the results of my application to the National Intelligence University (they come out on April 1) and my board results during the same time.  March could be a snappy month.

DV

 Lazing around.  I seem to be done stalking DYW letters, and have identified a few that I like.

 Trying to get back on a regular routine, although it seems it keeps getting derailed by small stuff.

 Also trying to tidy up my part of the room.

 I should be working on homework.

 May be going to watch football later - waiting for a confirmation that the Lions are actually on the TV before I head over there.

 DV

 We got paid.  The question is will we get paid on the first, which means until there's an answer, I'm holding onto enough money to pay next month's bill just in case.

 I get my low-ops day tomorrow to make up for losing it on Friday.  I plan to devote it to Yuletide letter stalking.

 Other than that, not anything worth talking about.

 DV

 I had to skip a day due to a change in the work schedule and talking with desert_sdwndr a little too long.

 I am not doing all that great on time today, either - priorities are Yuletide nominations, paper that's due on Sunday, and trying to read the free LKH story so I can snark on it.

 The new Yahoo Mail is not user-friendly - apparently it did not occur to some that there is a reason why we've stuck with Yahoo and not gone Gmail?  It's annoying because some of the features do not show up at work, which is where I read most of my email.

 DV

Happy, because I went to the gym.
Annoyed, because I forgot about something I had wanted to attend.

Yuletide signups are OPEN!  There's a week, so I plan to dither for a day or two, then look at the list of signups and make final decisions.

DV

ETA: Successfully funded!

I've already shared this on FB, but for the people who aren't on my FB list, I wanted to get this out

Stray Cat Wants To Go Home To Her Soldier

I know there are plenty of strays here, in the US, that need help, but this story touched me.  I think we've all had that moment where we bonded with an animal.  I know from the moment I saw Penelope's picture, that I had to have her - meeting her only cemented that.

This guy had that moment.

There's a funding page linked to the story.

Plus, how can you not like a cat named Mousetrap?

DV (who misses her own furballs very much)