I've now purchased dandelion's birthday gift(s), the loot to go in her loot bags, and the invitations and thank you cards for her party. manga_awesome1 was wonderful about carting me all over the place to find just the right items. And now, before I focus on anything else... I get to deal with dandelion's homework and then relax for a bit. *collapses*

The plumber came and went yesterday, and our bathroom is fixed. Well, moderately speaking. We have a giant hole in the ceiling (we'll be discussing with the landlord how to get that fixed and when), and one of our walls is in rather bad need of repainting. Between the water damage to the paint and the black marks left by the plumber, it looks foul. But the paint is cosmetic work. The piping is FIXED... pretty much completely replaced, too, so it really shouldn't become an issue again.

I've developed a new muse thanks to being nudged to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It's a wonderful show, and left me clinging to it and wanting only a slight change in the ending. My muse is in the icon above.

I'm still going strong on the various writing challenges, though ironman7 is giving me fits this week. I really do NOT like prompted alternate universe fics. I just plain suck at coming up with them. *sighs*

*hugs to all*

Current Mood: tired

The plumber's just come in, and is already talking about how he has to open up what appears to be a 1-2 foot section in the ceiling... a pretty large amount of space, given how small our bathroom really is. But thank god... hopefully by about 6 tonight, it'll be all finished.

Edit: And when I went to say "I understand this is going to be a few hours", he informs me that he's not going to fix it today. He has no idea yet when it WILL be fixed. Good GOD what are we paying this guy for, other than to fart around for a week until it's so bad that I'm ready to kill him?!

Current Mood: annoyed

Well, I've finally spoken to him on the phone, and other than the bullshit he gave me about getting off work at 6 and how he couldn't make it today (and it's only bullshit because we've been trying to get him to schedule for a WEEK+ at this point), he's assured me that he will be here tomorrow, and I've assured him that I WILL be here, so he has absolutely no excuses.

So tired of it right now, and hoping that asha doesn't go ballistic when he gets home. Bleh.

The plumber said he would be here this afternoon. As of 5:15pm, I've not heard a single thing from him, and I'm now furious. So if I seem at all grumpy this evening... well, you know why. I don't particularly like the fact that chunks of our ceiling are dropping out, and there isn't a whole lot I can do about it or about the way the paint job we did in the bathroom is being utterly ruined all along that one wall.

But I'll say this... the plumber is damned lucky that he's going to end up dealing with me instead of asha, even with as angry as I am.

Edited to add: Hey raighne... I can't find the program I was using to screencap things. Could you point me in a good direction at some point, please?

Okay, so I've failed today at being as productive as I've wanted. But dandelion and I aren't going to martial arts tonight, because I'm gonna need that time to deal with this horrible place. On Friday, I'll plan to head down to the dojo and see about getting dandelion some private lessons to help her catch up in addition to finding out the proper schedule so that I know when to bring her this year.

Washing dishes on that list isn't so important, as the plumber isn't due until afternoon. My current thought is that if I can get the rest done, then I can deal with the dishes in the morning tomorrow, so that the place is workable for the plumber. The good side of this is that it's pushing me to get all this cleaning done, and if I can just keep up with the place this year during school, our lives will be SO much better!

Housework List:
Wash Clothes
Get shower
Clean up bathroom
Mop bathroom
Pick up living room
Pick up kitchen
Clean out bathtub
Give dandelion bath
Wash dishes


Writing List:
Two more ironman7 fics


Other List:
dandelion's homework
Prepare for school tomorrow
Watch more of Ouran with dandelion


*eyes lists and whimpers* Wish me luck!

The plumber is coming on Thursday.

The ceiling broke apart today.

We are Not Pleased.

So last night, it was pointed out to me that my ironman7 entries, which I had finished and posted so gleefully, had been posted incorrectly. There was a rule that I had misunderstood that said you were required to post each fic on a separate day, so that during the course of a week, you would post 5 fics on 5 days. My first day in the contest, I'd posted two. Yesterday, as I wanted to be free and clear from that contest when I went to Itesa's, I posted three. And that night, the mod posted saying that people were doing it wrong, and to stop the binge-posting.

I was upset and frustrated, first because I'd misunderstood the rules and that made me feel stupid when minutes before I'd been so very proud of myself, and second because when I tried to ask the mod about the situation (specifically how my entries would be handled - was I fine? would I have to repost on appropriate days? was I now expected to come up with three completely NEW fics?!) in a comment on the comm, IJ ate my comments. Flashback to those lovely first months at Gaia Online. XD Eventually, I emailed the mod, spent a while stewing in misery, and eventually calmed down and went to bed.

During the 5 or 6 hours I was asleep, my comments showed up, and the mod answered both one of my comments and my email, both of them assuring me that they were taking the fics from this week as they stood, and I should just be ready for the next week. The email further amused me because the mod was friendly in it and told me to "get ready to write lots of smut". As though I don't do that already! XD So yeah... upshot is that my fics stand. My first week at ironman7 is complete, and I am once more relaxed and happy about the challenge. Plus? Two days 'off' and seeing Stardust.

Itesa will be here in a couple of hours, which should give me time to finish my novel_in_90 for today, since by the time I was ready to begin last night, the stuff in Ironman had gone down and I was kicking myself too hard to write. We plan to see Stardust, as mentioned above, watch Joan, and Fraggle Rock (hush, I love that show!); she's going to show me more Knights of the Old Republic, and let me play with Oblivion and Viva Pinata. We're gonna have fun with her husband, too - maybe even play some Queen's Jewels or something, and to top it all off? asha is going to be joining us tomorrow, which will be awesome. But I won't be online for the most part.

Today, before I leave with Itesa, I'm going to at least get my Novel in 90 challenge done. If I can, I'll also get something else written, so that I'm sitting at 1k in words at the very least, but the Novel one is important since I'm well ahead on my 350k challenge.

I'll see people either Friday night or Saturday, depending on when we get home and how tired I am! *hugs!*

Oh, also? Before I forget, two video links because I found them amusing:

Disney Villains to Mortal Kombat
Disney Villains want to be Goth

My brain is scrambling at me to write again, but it's not offering any particulars, so I figure today is a good day to get a bunch of actual housework done. I've made myself a list, and fully intend to complete four out of the six tasks before asha gets home. The two that might not happen today are:

Take out the trash
Clean off my desk

A lot depends on whether my head finally says "Oh, here's the setup for your Ken/Yoji 5_kinks" or "You know that ironman7 you signed up for? More stories for ya!" And it's entirely possible my brain will say at least one of the two, likely combined with a host of other minor ideas that either go nowhere or end up with me filling up another slot of my threebythree or maybe coming up with another character for worldsapart.

Yeah. Right now, I'm all for the writing challenges. They keep me writing and bouncing about it, which is good since it's been almost a year since I felt good about writing something, and even longer since I really felt happy posting my crap publically.

But if I don't do something about this house, I'm doomed! XD