Something next to normal, that's the thing I'd like to try

Happy New Year! I had a lovely holiday, but alas, I come with bad news for those of you (basically just ever_neutral) who were dedicated shippers of my cat, Chelsea, and her nemesis-turned-boyfriend, Clinton.

Chelsea had an extended vacation at my parents' house this year, and that ship went down in FLAMES. Apparently, it was a relationship that worked better long distance.

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But at least Chelsea got to look pretty for Christmas, right?

Motherfucker, do you have any idea how much fucking WORK it would be to move all of my literally thousands of icons to another site and then go back and update all the links on over 100 posts - to say nothing of the icons I posted to challenge comms, my picspams, the gifs I've used all over the internet, mood themes, my custom LJ layout, etc.?

I am not paying fucking $400/year just to save it, though, so brb, mourning all the fucking hours spent on graphics no one will ever see again.

Sorry I've been MIA for, like, forever. Lots of unpleasant health stuff. I... don't really want to get into it. There was a lot of vomit. Occasionally, projectile vomit at the Kennedy Center. 2017 is off to a banging start.

Welcome, LJ refugees. Sorry Russia is fucking with you. You know, more than they're fucking with the rest of us.

I have been cheating on DW a bit by posting on Facebook again. Mostly because I now have a bunch of Crohn's buddies on there, and I feel better about dumping my shit (literal and figurative) on those who identify? Also I post ridiculous pictures of my cat. Here, you can have those.

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Oh, hey, I also has recipes from aaaages ago I never posted.

Pumpkin Nutella Swirl Muffins

Salted Pretzel-Marshmallow Bars

I took pictures of those, too:



Desserty things taste good. (In the spirit of "this is my life now," I made them for a party I was supposed to go to, only to end up barfing and missing the party, so my coworkers ended up getting the goodies.)

How you?

And all Chelsea wants is her two front teeth back. We make quite a pair.

No, actually, Chelsea is doing just fine. Her stitches have healed up, she's eating regular food again, and as far as we can tell, she remains flea- and tapeworm-free. \o/ I, on the other hand, am having worse pain and diarrhea, so we're back to having the dietary diversity of a five-year-old (grilled cheese, goldfish crackers, and plain buttered noodles). Went to the doctor yesterday, and he added another steroid to my daily regimen, so we'll see if that helps. Needless to say, the Entyvio still has not kicked in, and, like, I want to give it time to do its thing (because if we ditch this one, I don't have many other options to try), but I also don't want to be in pain for another three months. 

Before I stopped eating real food again, I did try out one new recipe. I wanted to use up that goat cheese (I clearly bought too much goat cheese), and I found this Pecan and Goat Cheese Pasta, which appealed because goat cheese, pecans, and dried cranberries are a combo I really like in salads, but would never have thought to put in pasta. 

You know how experienced cooks are always like, "I just made up this recipe by throwing together whatever I had in the fridge"? I cannot do that. Whenever I have an ingredient or two I want to use up, I have to google what I have and try to find a recipe that uses it AND ALSO does not require me to buy more things. I don't know how to get good at the "throw in whatever's lying around" style of cooking, except to practice and watch a lot of Chopped, I guess? Anyway, I did get slightly adventurous and add sauteed shallots and garlic to the recipe, since I HAD THEM LYING AROUND, lol, and while it all tasted good, the goat cheese never really melted into a sauce the way I hoped, so it was a little dry.

I am totally done with my Christmas shopping - I actually finished early (for me) this year, i.e. a whole week before Christmas. \o/ Usually I am last-minute ordering stuff online and then freaking out because it has not arrived by the time I have to leave to drive to New Jersey. Which... has happened again this year, but ironically the one thing that hasn't been delivered yet is the VERY FIRST GIFT I BOUGHT way back on December 8th! It's not like they're shipping it from India or something, either, just Fredericksburg. I'm starting to think it got lost in the mail. (And yes, I emailed them, and they were like, "USPS says 1-2 weeks is the average this time of year..." They offered to resend if I don't get it by today, but that does not help with getting it in time for Christmas.) Even the last-minute gift for my dad that I bought off eBay on Saturday that wasn't supposed to be delivered until the 26th managed to get here early, but not the one that had two leisurely weeks to make it to me from 5 miles away.

ANYWHO. Here are photos of my Christmas tree and Chelsea helping/eating the decorations:

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I opted not to torture Chelsea this year by making her wear her Christmas outfit. YET - there is still time, but really, the poor thing has been through a lot lately.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and all the other holidays to you all. Chelsea and I are off to the 'rents tomorrow, for a whole week, which I am hoping will give me a chance to rest up and feel less terrible in 2016! 

This will probably be of interest to no one but me, but whatever. I'm having fun. Anyway, there's a movie version of my favorite musical ever, Into the Woods, being made, and it's now confirmed that Meryl Streep will play the Witch. Earlier, there was a screenplay reading with lots of big names, some of whom may end up in the movie, but Meryl wasn't involved so obviously none of them are sure things.

Because I am me, I decided to do my own cast, since I know this musical better than anyone else ever, with the possible exception of Stephen Sondheim. (Literally, I cannot remember a time when I had not seen Into the Woods, because I started watching it at such an early age. Which was probably bad parenting on my mother's part, but most of the sex jokes went over my head.) I was going to make a picspam, like my genderswaps, but caps of the original Broadway production are nigh-impossible to find and what's out there is pretty poor quality (granted, the thing was filmed in, like, 1987, so what do you expect?).

To give myself a bit more of a challenge, I made an arbitrary requirement that, for the movie, everyone must have some prior film or television experience, otherwise I could just cast the whole thing with Broadway stars and be done with it. I also tried to inject a little diversity since, much as I love the Broadway cast, that is a very white show. Here we go!

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So ever_neutral and semele have both started this meme, thus shaming me into finishing the damn thing myself. :-P

The full list of days, if you want to play along.

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