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Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Keep warm, y'all.

Thanks to sarah_p for the cute holiday card! The snowman on the front says "let it snow, let it snow" and verily, it's going to. They're saying it could be the snowiest Christmas in the Twin Cities since 1950. We're leaving around noon today to beat the storm; better a 5-hour drive a day early than 12+ hours in white-out conditions.

How is it that I can go to Africa for two weeks with naught but a 30L daypack, but an eight-day trip to Wisconsin & Michigan requires cramming our Subaru Forester to the gills? Well, okay, I didn't bring my own food [1] to Africa, and I was fine with essentially wearing the same thing daily and doing hand laundry. That doesn't work as well for IronChefFamily holiday affairs followed by a snowshoeing trip, which require vastly different wardrobes and survival gear [2].

Also, I'm bringing half a dozen books (including Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, since my library hold came in just in time) and my laptop (because we'll have internets for the Wisconsin leg of the trip, until the morning of the 27th - I was NOT going to experience Yuletide on my iPhone over EDGE [3]).

Please note that date if I'm beta-reading for you; consider bedtime on the 26th (US time zones) as the Last Possible Time you can mail me anything if you expect it back in 2009 [4].

[1] I'm a picky, lactose-intolerant vegetarian going to the land of cream-of-chicken hotdish and Cool Whip in every "salad".
[2] A warm balaclava, and lots of Lactaid, respectively.
[3] IronChefParents canceled their internets and just use tethering on their cell phones. Thus, HOTEL.
[4] While we don't know for sure if there's going to be any phone signal at the cabin in the Upper Peninsula, we're pretty sure there's no internet.

Happy birthday to afrocurl! Hope it's a good one. And thanks to sunnyd_lite & ericpaladin for your cards! :)

Looks like a lot of snow is headed our way. We'll be leaving for the Land of Beer and Cheese a day early, which means I should be packing instead of posting to LJ...

...but I needed to rant about our governor. You know how much Tim Pawlenty sucks? He wants to reverse some of Minnesota's protections for transgender individuals... protections T-Paw voted for, 16 years ago.

Because heavens to Betsy! What if The Children were exposed to someone who doesn't conform to simplistic gender norms? Won't somebody think of the CHILDREN? Children who might grow up tolerant and understanding of the wide range of human differences? My word!

I hope he runs for President in 2012... and loses the Republican nod to Palin. Mostly, I'm grateful that his presidential dreams mean he won't be my governor that much longer. :P

Today is the birthday of ironchefjoe, who makes my life better on a daily basis, just by being himself. I love you, pumpkin. :)

Other things of awesome: uploading my yuletide fic a day early, beta-reading for smart friends who write long-but-good fic, Ethiopian food, snow. Let's not talk about the power steering pump replacement on our car, or my sinus infection requiring 500mg of amoxicillin 3x/day for the next two weeks, for that way lies crankiness. Instead, I'll focus on how I'm only going in to work one more time in 2009. :)

David Tennant from various recent photo ops and appearances, and Alexis Denisof in Dollhouse.

( All under here )

Please comment and credit.

OK so I am totally NOT a techie person first of all, many of you probably know this. I really want to use the beautiful banner zoesmith  made me on my journal, however I haven't the slightest clue on how to make it so! Can someone please help me???

Thanks to janedavitt for the heads up on this offer:

Share the love with our $10 holiday coupons! If you're a Paid or Permanent user, you can send up to 10 Basic or Plus users a $10 coupon to upgrade to a one year paid account.

Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts.

I therefore have 10 coupons to give away to anyone who wants a discounted upgrade! Comment if you want one.

When I checked my flist after ESL last night, folks were up in arms about an LJ code revision which would make choosing male or female mandatory and remove "unspecified" as a choice. I changed my profile from female to unspecified and figured I'd look into it more this morning. Lo and behold, LJ is backpedaling.

Now, I have a perm account and so I'm not going to see any ads, gender-targeted or otherwise. But I resent the implication that a company can insist on a boolean construction of gender just to try to commoditize their user base more profitably.

Yes, I self-identify as female. And yet, that might not do LJ much good even were I to view ads! I like lipstick and power tools. I have no interest in babies or motherhood. I work in an industry that's heavily male-dominated. I prefer strategy board games to shopping. I'd rather watch football or play poker with the guys than gossip with the gals at Extended Family Events. I'm more interested in free weights than in dieting. I like curling my hair and running my own FreeBSD box. I lust after Dean Winchester's car. I used to like nail polish, but I can't stand how it feels anymore. I like baking bread and canning tomatoes and riding my bicycle on the honest-to-god street, not some secluded pathway. I don't put on foundation to go to the gym (or anywhere else). I got teary last night when reading a chapter of The House on Mango Street wherein an undocumented immigrant is killed in a hit-and-run and his family never finds out what happened to him... and so did some of the tough guys in the class.

In conclusion, LJ, let me make this clear: I'm not a commodity to be packaged in a pink ribbon. Eff Off.

After watching Being Erica's season 2 finale, all I want is 10-years-on futurefic. If there's a season 3, I wonder if they'd set it then?

To-do list: Beta-read for pukajen. Go to the gym six three more times. Teach ESL two one more times. Take car in for oil change, starter hesitation, and weird scraping noise when turning. Make nut goodie bars & drop goodies. Apply icing to sugar cookies. Bake another pumpkin bourbon cheesecake for a holiday party. Interview more people. Rewrite Yuletide fic at least six five more times. Make pumpkin bread for work potluck (because it will be easier than stew). Get hair colored and cut. Celebrate ironchefjoe's birthday. Clean before houseguests arrive. Write house-related documentation before housesitters arrive. See my family before I leave town. Make packing list for Xmas trip. (Stuff to bring will include the last four episodes of Dollhouse and that John Adams miniseries I never got around to watching.)

I got a reasonable second draft of my yuletide fic off to the ever-patient spiralleds, so now it's time for some cleaning.