So I decided to take the day off yesterday for my birthday. It was a nice, peaceful day, spent reading, writing a little fanfic, watching a movie, and going out to lunch with my daughter.

I'm enrolled in the Dramionelove fest again this year. I have an outline, but inspiration hasn't struck yet ... Time to kick myself into high gear so I can make the deadline.

Just in case Livejournal's server moves to Russia, becomes sentient and threatens to delete my curated collection of M/M/F Harry Potter fanfic, I have this backup account on Dreamwidth.

счастливого Нового года!

My dog Daisy is doing really well on her new anti-inflammatory medication. It's designed to shrink the bladder tumor and let her get back to a more normal lifestyle, and so far, it's really helped. Her strength is back and she even seems to be putting on a little weight. She might even enjoy a trip to the dog park!

Now if only the weather would cooperate. I'm afraid we did not venture out much this past weekend; the temps in Northern California reached 100F. The next person that kvells about "sweater weather" will get a swift kick from me.

( Room makeover news )

When it comes to memes, I always do what teddyradiator asks! So here are my answers to today's meme.

➵ hermione granger or ronald weasley

➵ avada kedavra or expelliarmus

( Moar meme )

 If you haven't played yet, I want to hear from you!

Greetings from Central California, where we are in our nth straight summer of drought conditions. We're thinking of changing our state bird to the vulture. We're thinking of changing our state tree to the cactus. We're thinking of changing our state fish to a box of Mrs. Paul's breaded fish sticks (packaged in Vermont). You get the picture.

But it's not all bad around here. I've heard from some lovely friends this summer!
( Gifts! )

I saw this everywhere this morning. Now that teddyradiator has tagged me, I'll go ahead and give it a whirl.

Begin the next answer with the last letter of the previous answer.

01) Name: stgulik
02) Animal: kangaroo
03) Girl's name: Olono
04) Color: orange
05) Movie: Eight Days a Week
06) Something you wear: Keds
07) Drink: sidecar
08) Food: raisin bread
09) Item in the bathroom: deodorant
10) Place: Turlock
11) Reason to be late: killed a spider, chased by its children

Almost everyone I know has already played today. So if you want to play and you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

Well, promptfest reveals have finally posted at dramionelove. There was some terrific work--art and fics. With some of them, it was hard to believe writers could pack so much of a wallop into the 1000-word max; I was blown away. Me? I was just happy to be there!

Here's the little fic I wrote for the fest. There's also a companion piece, which I will post next. Here we go!

Title: Second-best Single
Author/Artist: stgulik
Prompt #: #51 “Single father seeks kind witch”
Fic Word Count: 1000-ish
Rating: K
Warnings (if any): Fluff
Summary: Draco will find the witch of his dreams, even at the cost of his dignity.
Author's Notes: Hugs from afar to my lovely teddyradiator for all her help and encouragement, and thanks to rzzmg for hosting the dramionelove minifest.
Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" is the property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. This work of fiction/art was created entirely for fun, not for profit, and no copyright infringement is intended.
( Second-best Single )

dramionelove promptfest has begun posting! And today's two entries are real corkers. Be sure and check it out. Each entry has a limit of 1,000 words, so you have plenty of time to dive right in.

Turned in my dramionelove piece over the weekend. And the companion piece is sitting in Google Docs, patiently waiting for the fest to be over so I can share that one, too. rzzmg is trying to tempt me with another prompt before the deadline, and I'll definitely pick one, but I'm also turning my attention to the sshg_promptfest with its May 31 deadline.

Work is really going well--a statement I never thought I would make again. Yesterday, my paper was printed and bound and the first copy delivered to my office door. What a marvelous feeling! And it would never have happened with my old boss. In the past, he outright killed one of my projects and smothered another one with weekly "updates" that turned into patronizing lectures on microeconomics. The paper was delayed so long, the client withdrew their request for the study. I'm not saying I was blameless in this mess. I'm not the world's best analyst. But he's the one who promised the deliverable and then frittered away a year playing academic lecturer to a captive audience instead of supporting me as I tried to move the project along. Not that I'm bitter.

But he's elsewhere now, and the bottleneck is unstoppered, and our papers are actually allowed to be finished again. And suddenly, I actually have a full week's worth of work these days! I've been busy and happy about it. Yesterday I even forgot to feed my Neko Atsume kitties; by the time I remembered them, they had wandered off to toblass's yard.