obsolete vernacular

In the past week or so I have been contacted by someone 20 years younger than me and someone 20 years older than me on OK Cupid.

(Also posted at lj.)

I recently was in San Francisco, where I saw a number of old friends including some who have no online presence, which I cannot fathom. The first few days I stayed downtown, near Union Square. My friend Nancy likes to walk and we did lots of walking around the city. We went to Telegraph Hill and climbed to Coit Tower, where the views are amazing.



We also walked along the Embarcadero, went to Alamo Square which has some lovely Victorian homes, ate dinner in the Mission District, etc etc. The next day we drove to Half Moon Bay to see a friend I hadn't seen since high school. The drive was really pretty and less citified than I expected. We returned to the city and stopped at Cliff House near Ocean Beach, where the views again were lovely. This is the remains of Sutro Baths, one of the old attractions at the beach.



There was more touring and eating. Nancy left the next day and I met up with verity at the coffee shop where she writes, which is a great spot in the Mission District. She looks great, SF life is agreeing with her.

I stayed the rest of the time in Fremont with another old friend. She took me to Chinatown, where her father grew up and she spent time with family when her family would go back to visit. I got several squished pennies, which are some of my favorite souvenirs because they are cheap and tacky and SO FUN. I put them in my new squished penny passport.

Pam is also big on walking and hiking so I suggested we see some redwoods. She decided we should go to Big Basin. We hiked for several hours in beautiful country and perfect weather. Here is one of the trees we saw:



The rest of my pictures are here.

Then I went to a sales conference where I survived the team building (so much hate for those, pushes all my anxiety buttons) and drank a lot.

Then I came home and imaginarycircus, her husband and some of his friends and I all saw Avengers at the IMAX 3D and it was AWESOME. I loved all of the heroes except I wish there had been a little more girlpower. Oh well, classic comics and all. That's a minor quibble. AWESOMEx1000

It has been too too long since I posted. Part of that is all the time I spend playing Glitch. Then there's work, which has also meant some travel. Work goes well overall. Last week I got a couple of unexpected kudos, always good to hear.

Then there's going out with friends to see The Hunger Games (so good!) or to celebrate imaginarycircus's writing achievements or the Purim party. Doing some reading (mostly mysteries lately, if you are on GoodReads you can find me here).

Here are some recent pictures I wanted to share ( under the cut )

I'm still watching Castle and Hawaii Five-0. Downton Abbey was great, a little soapy but the Christmas special improved. Once Upon a Time so far has been quite good, though I don't know how long I will be able to put up with unresolved storylines. And tonight I am excited to watch Mad Men!

So that's the update. I try to keep up with DW/LJ but if I've missed any news please let me know!

P.S. Cross-posted to LJ but I don't want the two journals linked. Sorry for the duplication!

Today I am eating all the things, starting with cookies and moving on to pancakes. Currently it's cheese (three kinds: delice de bourgogne, 4 year old Gouda OMG and smoked cheddar), summer sausage and pate de campagne. My roommate's girlfriend, who is Korean, told us that pork liver is common in Korea and then she told me that the pate reminded her of home. Isn't that sweet?

I am also trying to read all the things: so much good Yuletide fic! L'Engle's Austin and O'Keefe families! Six SIX Lord Peter Wimsey stories! A Spirited Regency AU! And so much more!

Then there's watching all the things - last night I started watching the first Sherlock Holmes movie, will finish that today. Later there will also be DOCTOR WHO.

Today is made of so much WIN.

It's not enough that LJ has been mostly down all week. I come home and my router is borked. That's OK, I can still connect to the internet via cable.

A few weeks ago, driving back to Michigan for the holidays felt like a bit of a bummer. Now? I'm so glad I can travel on my schedule. Tomorrow I'll drive to Albany and then Wed to Boston. By then the snow should be under control.

I've been perusing Yuletide fics at AO3. I love finding stories from series I read as a kid - here's one from the Betsy-Tacy books. Last year there was a great Lord Peter Wimsey story set in his college days, though it appears to be gone now. :( I haven't had time to read them all but I see there is more Lord Peter this year, also Little Women, several Jane Austen books and Royal Tennenbaums! OMG and Tigana! So much yay.

My friend imaginarycircus has started a community

"for sane and civil discussions about feminism and intersectionality. We're hoping it will be a small, but interesting community of vibrant people with interesting things to say and good articles, books, and experiences to share."

It's called laughing_medusa. I thought some of you might be interested - I know many of you have a lot to contribute.

OK so I over-geekeoked and over-vodka toniced and today my body laid down the edict that I haven't been taking good enough care of it. I stayed in bed most of the day and am going to take it easy tonight, which unfortunately means I miss some WisCon events that I had hoped to attend but so it goes. The last few months have been kinda stressful.

If you are friends with me on Facebook I will be putting up Geekeoke pictures (friends only). I don't know everyone who was there very well, if you see a picture of someone who doesn't want one up in public please let me know and I will take it down.

There was so much great energy and positivity last night, what fun! And were_duck was the cutest.

I am eating random shit from the fridge for dinner, partly to finish off things and partly because I had greasy and delicious cheeseburger and fries for lunch. Now I am eating leftover broccoli in cheeze sauce and strawberries with a nice pinot grigio.

So I watched the final episode of Lost, having stuck with it more or less for six seasons what was one more episode. ( And I thought... )

There isn't much else I make an effort to watch these days except Doctor Who. I'm watching the BBCAmerica airings, not the BBC airings, so I think I'm 5 or 6 episodes behind what's been shown in the UK. The new doctor is definitely growing on me. I'm not sure yet what I think of Amy Pond. After the second episode (The Beast Below) I began to have a nasty feeling that she would turn out to be one big Mary Sue - she's so young and so pretty and look, even smarter than the Doctor sometimes! And she has that special crack in the wall and something is wrong with her timeline! Maybe it's that I'll never get over Donna. Otoh, it's really good to see River Song again.

WisCon snuck up on me - can it be only a few days away? After the HP conferences I was involved in I'm taking an extended break from any kind of con work but I do plan to attend. So far I have a rough schedule that will certainly change because I don't stick to schedules. Some friends are involved in cool presentations or activities and I am more likely to be at those. If there is a really cool panel or activity please feel free to recommend! At this time I have marked down: ( schedule under cut )

(Note: This will be cross-posted to LJ but I am not linking this journal with my LJ.)

Updating from my new netbook! It's cute and wee and I have named it Lollipop.

Like others, not sure yet how I'll use DW but it's nice to see some old homies around. :)