RA Blog Reunion

Before I get started – oh dear God, WordPress is unrolling a new editor! Everytime they do this, they screw up my world!

Whine over!

Today has been set aside as RA Blog Reunion Day! Natazukii made a call out – what happened to all the RA bloggers? Somehow I was tagged in this. I’m an RA Blogger? I’m a well-wisher and not considered a BIG blogger.

But I digress.

I was one of those quiet, private well-wishers. I learned a long time ago that it didn’t take much for someone to turn on you and throw you under the bus. So over many years, I perved on actors privately, and not mingling.

That changed with ChattyPatra – aka B – starting chatting with me in private on tumblr. I’ve been involved in fanfiction for years and mentioned I was laying down the story outline of a Guy of Gisborne fic. (Funny as I’d not SEEN Robin Hood, just the lovely stills and gifs of this hawt, leather-clad knight) the next thing I knew, I was tossed into a tight knit group of awesome well wishers who wanted to read what I was writing and what I’d already written.

It was a heady experience.

I’ve made friends. I’ve made a few enemies. And yeah, I’ve been thrown under the bus again but it’s okay. I’m old and hard ba-dunk-ba-dunk.

So I guess the question is – what have I been doing with myself?

For those who haven’t been around, stopped blogging, took a break I –

Actually watched Robin Hood and wrote that fic I was outlining. 375000 words. Manna from Heaven. I’m currently working on a prequel of sorts and an extended series of epilogues. Aside from Heaven and The Shepherd.

I’m writing some Gary – as in Gary of Into the Storm. I think SOME fans were a bit harsh on the movie. Just take it what it is. It’s all good.

As many of you know, I’m a music teacher. I recently moved, took a new position last year. It was a God-send as the previous position didn’t treat me and many other teachers there well.

We found a lovely home I didn’t think we’d find. The closets are big enough to house one of my loves – CLOTHES! Yes, I blog Richard, but I also show off my main money drainer – clothes. I’m currently staring at a $100.00 off $200.00 and thinking – do I REALLY need those shoes? Or this tunic?

The answer is no, but that’s not the right answer.

actually, it’s beside the point. I do need the bra!

I love music (obviously) and I love reading. Right now, I’m bent all out of shape because the lovely Kindle Paperwhite I house-warm gifted myself, disappeared 2 weeks ago. I’ve searched everywhere.

I have chimney swifts in my chimney – meaning birds in the belfry at night. Drives the cats nuts.

I’m still single, and fairly content with it. Spawn is trying to deal with the quarantine. He and 4 of his friends found a downloadable version of Formula 1 Racing D and every Saturday night, hooks up the computer cameras and race each other around whatever city is supposed to be raced that weekend. It’s noisy and usually lasts 3 hours and sometimes I fear the neighbors will call the cops. He cooks for me as my health is worse than I pretend it is. My mother currently suffers from dementia. It runs in the females of the family and I’m pretty certain I won’t live that long to worry about having it.

I started a secondary blog – RABBBWW. Richard Armitages Bold, Bodacious, and Beautiful Well Wishers. We want to live healthy. Come join us. We have recipes!

I’m still blunt, I still trod on toes and I’m painfully stubborn. I have a whole lot to say about the quarantine, none of it nice.

I’ve pulled two OLD fanfics out of the mothballs. One has been in the mothballs for 10 years, the other, 5 or 6 years. I’m going to be doing some writing this summer – if I can get my laptop fixed.

Yeah. I still have computer problems.

I decided a few years back I was too old to crush on celebrities and Richard would be the last. At times, the feeling waxes and wanes, but I have had no secondary crush, crushing on others…. nope. Not for me.

that’s kinda a small lie. There’s Jimmy…

But truly, I always focused on one and he’s lasted the longest. Strange. I have crushed on a few that lasted a while, but yeah. Crushed on Richard since just before The Hobbit came out. I admit to being bad – I had never heard of him until he was cast for The Hobbit. It was weird. I had never heard of ANY of the Hobbit cast, save those who were returning from LOTR. I KNEW a lot of the cast from LOTR because I watched Xena and Hercules, so I knew those actors. I looked up and obtained as much as I could for Karl Urban and Craig Parker. So when I FINALLY saw The Hobbit – yeah, my video library grew by leaps and bounds. I watch things I would have NEVER watched before for a certain tall Dwarf.

AND I LIKE IT!

I participated in Flat Richie – kept him a long, long time due to reasons. But we enjoyed him.

Well. Most of us.

I’ve made the most amazing friends in this fandom. Made some naysayers, but life happens.

So there. That’s what I’ve been up to!

And now, for the next segment of this post – I still love questionnaires and challenges! I STILL celebrate Guy Day!

Day 10

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

You knew that was coming.

Stay safe and have a great weekend.

10 Days 10 Crushes

Day 9

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Character Crush Day 8

Day 8

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

 

10 Day Crush Challenge

Day 7

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Leaving for the Interior sometime tomorrow afternoon. Have a few errands to run in the morning. Have quite a bit to accomplish the 6 days I’ll be there – including Spawn’s cardiologist appointment, taking Mom to her GP appointment, arranging a home health nurse in the home 5 to 7 days a week, dealing with the insurance company and making sure mom and dad’s pharmacist has updated insurance info. They shouldn’t be paying anything for meds, but all of a sudden, they’re paying a copay! sucketh royally!

on the work front, I got some good news today. As of last school board meeting, Connection teachers (I would be one of those) will be teaching their CERTiFIED connection – not a half day of math or reading! so yay! Now the question is will we return to a normal schedule or an AB schedule? That would mean me teaching a normal week or taking 2 weeks to teach a normal week!

I’m happy!

10 Day fictional Crush

Day 6

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Pickin’ a fight!

Somehow, I’ve managed to do just that. Pick a fight. I wasn’t trying to and I was right.

but I digress!

Last night, one of my neighbors threw a rave party. He throws one or two every weekend and they go until 11 PM to midnight. Never mind, the music, if you can call it that, is so loud, it shakes the glass in my windows and the party is across the street and 3 houses down! Never mind that the home next to me and the home across from me are young families, both with 3 children, including children of toddler age.

Typically, the cars park in the home owners yard, but last night was a doozy. There were cars in their yard, in the road, across the street in someone else’s year, down the street, in front of my house, both sides of the street and the music, with all of its profanity, screaming down the neighborhood.

At 9 PM, someone (not me) called the cops. ONE cop car came and within 5 minutes, the road was STREAMING with teenagers walking down the road. I counted 60 before I quit. Within minutes after that, the cars start filling up and driving off. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were 50 cars or so. It was a huge party!

I mentioned this on other social media, to which someone responded – how sad.

Why? this person throws loud parties all the time and to the best of my understanding, never invites the neighbors. I know some neighbors who LEAVE during this time. It’s unreal. It’s also very rude, in my opinion. Not that my opinion matters.

But I didn’t start a fight with that. What I DID start a fight over (actually, I didn’t start it, someone made a snarky, untrue comment and I corrected them!) a rather testy meme involving the ‘guidelines’ over the reopening of schools.

Crushin’ on Guy!

Day 5

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

I have tried since Wednesday to reach the guy my guru suggested to purchase the harddrive from. Leaving messages. Pissing me off. The Chromebook is working, but I have to be SUPER careful where I go and what places I visit. I’ll need to clear the history anyway.

That said, I got a LOT done today redownloading stuff for school and other things. So that’s good.  This little Chromebook works some fast mad skills!

The main people we 4 wanted to talk to before we told anyone else about mom, we’ve talked to. Her brothers, Dad’s sister, a couple of cousins who are nurses, work in the elderly home care business or simply are going through this with their own parents. We’re building a support group of friends and family. How do you do this? I’m still numb.

I’ve decided to look for the joy that is here in my life despite the rough days coming up.

First, I spoke to my insider at work who asked their insider about furloughs. Not happening. I mean – 10 days isn’t happening, they doubt seriously there will be any and if there ARE, it will be less than 3 days. I can cope.

Yes, my insider and their insider are VERY reliable! *nodnod*

2. See this blue external?

It’s been missing for over 2 and a half years. Lots of movies and kid stuff and NOT so kid stuff. I thought it had been stolen. Found it under the passenger car seat. I’ve cleaned under there many times and yesterday, it showed up. The external is 10 years old so I’m in the process of copying stuff over. Many movies will be burned and deleted. A few people have tried to talk me into purchasing cloud space. Do you know how much cloud space I’d have to purchase monthly for all of my shit??? And what happens to it the day I can’t pay? Or worse, the government decides people are using it for illegal purposes and seize it? I”d rather burn it or back it up on other externals.

Which reminds me, I had ALL of the Monstress graphic novels on my laptop that went toes up. they SHOULD be backed up on one of my many externals. I need to do a hunt. I’ve lost a lot of downloaded books NOT from Amazon on the old laptop. a good percentage I can redownload from Prolific works. But the ones I got from BookFunnel…. nope. Also craft magazines. Many are gone, although I’m pretty good about getting them off the harddrive. Actually there was less on the harddrive than normal.

3. I’ve been worried about my main back up. It’s 7 years old and that’s old for an external. It’s been acting wonky for a year, but a month ago, it refused to boot. I’d bought a new external to move the stuff on it, but when I plugged them up, nope. It wouldn’t boot. I tried several ports, both laptops. Nada. All of my Richard movies and pictures are on it. I left it alone for a month. Plugged it up this afternoon and BAM! We’re back! So right now, I’m copying everything off the old external to the new one. Fingers crossed. It will take a few days. Hoping it stays up in the interim.

4. You can see my little family is growing.

He came when I needed some happiness. He makes me VERY happy.

My cell phone does NOT do close ups well. But I’m pleased to have a Sir Guy’s Chronicles lapel pin for my lapel if I have one!

Behind him is my first RAPS. It’s my favorite piece of fanart. He is closed for the time being because the sword and some of the bootie has come loose. I brought the hot glue gun home yesterday from school so one day this summer, I’ll do a little repair work on Pirate Guy.

 

He’s also getting hard to open. Sticky sticky. but I loves him. So much!

Last, I’ve been trying to walk. It takes me a day to recuperate from walking, but hopefully soon, I’ll be worked up to 5 days a week.

From left to right is – how many calories I burned, how long I pounded treadmill to burn it and how many miles I walked. The goal is to pound 3 miles out in 60 minutes. At some point I’ll add incline to burn more calories.

Little things. Joy. Simple pleasures.

Speaking of Simple pleasures – better late than never, right?

 

Long weekend here for us. We were going to go home, but Spawn has a job interview on Tuesday. I have Zoom meetings tuesday, wednesday and Thursday and somewhere, I have a zoom dr appointment.

Zoom!

so tomorrow, we’re going out to buy a few staples and some ribs to grill up on Monday. Ya’ll be good and be safe.

Crush Challenge Day 4

Day 4

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

Now, why didn’t I –

see this before???

---

Are you seeing it??? I have finally found my visual for William’s eldest son, Hugh!

The CDC quietly rolled out their requirements (suggestions) for schools here to reopen in August. Needless to say, it’s beyond stupid and I will take that apart later. Right now I have –

Crush Challenge Day 3

Day 3

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush.
No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.