Doing too much too soon is a common cause of stress fractures. For example, runners who are confined indoors for the winter may want to pick up where they left off at the end of the previous season. Instead of starting slowly, they try to match their previous mileage. Because of the lower level of conditioning, muscles become fatigued faster. The result could be a stress fracture in the foot or ankle.

Fuck you, enticing spring weather.

Weird, right? Maybe I will again, some day. (Leverage! Bones! Supernatural - still! I really am watching television, you guys, and reading fic about it! I swear!)

IN THE MEANTIME, it's nice to have a community of smart ladies to ask practical questions of! Hey ladies, here's one:

Do you use/know of a financial tracking tool where you record all your expenditures and it helps you manage your budget and also examine the way you're spending money? Because I could really use both of those things! I went through my finances recently and it turns out I've been spending HEAPS more money than I thought I was! What an unpleasant surprise.

So basically I'm turning over a new leaf, and recording everything I spend in a little moleskine notebook is only charming for so long.

Pushing my head up out of the toxic morass of this hangover for long enough to say:

The story I received, And They Lie Very Still is by Elspeth Vimes whose LJ is either not listed on AO3 or else I'm just not finding it because guys, hangovers make me super stupid.

I adore this story for many, many reasons. It's about robots (you should read PLUTO, if you haven't already) and the ways they are like people, and the ways they are people, and the ways in which they really really aren't.

This is my favorite part:

She plastered on a grin that Helena had seen enough times to recognize as false. “I don't know what we'd do without you, Helena.”

Helena mirrored the woman's expression. “I'm happy to help.”

***

I wrote two stories this year. My assignment was for amanuensis1. The fandom was The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. She said, "Go on, slash The Good and The Ugly. Make me believe it." So I did my best.

Nothing Personal

This was a tough one - I ended up with something a lot rawer than I expected, but given that Tuco is basically one big exposed Id, that's probably appropriate. In any case, I'm happy with it.

It's about Tuco (the "Ugly") and Blondie ("The Good"), and when I was writing it, I kept thinking about how the two of them are like kids pulling each others pigtails in this sort of primitive form of flirtation, except instead of pinches and hair-pulling, it's a series of increasingly brutal almost-murders. But there is this weird subliminal dedication or loyalty or fascination that seems to be driving it, and that's pretty much what my story is about.

This is my favorite part:

“Hey Blondie,” he says, looking over. Blondie’s staring into the fire, looking like his mind is a million miles away. “I been thinking.”

“Oh?” Blondie’s voice is softer than usual, slow with booze. He doesn’t take his gaze from the fire, but his head tips to one side lazily. That’s one thing Tuco really likes about Blondie - it’s always fun to watch him loosen up after a few drinks. Those long limbs go all sprawled and even his soft hair gets floppier.

***

The other story I wrote was a pinch hit for partly. This one was for Live Free or Die Hard, a fandom near and dear to my heart.

The Day is Saved

She wanted something canon-compliant and gen, featuring Matt and John and Lucy. I was only too happy to oblige, and the result is a post-movie story about how it gets kind of wearying to be a tremendous badass all the time. This story was fun to write - I loved writing Lucy, especially. I heart her.

This is my favorite part:

“Everyone drop your weapons or Santa gets it!” Lucy screamed.

There was a pause, then one of the elves started crying.

This is my other favorite part:

When Lucy woke up the next morning, Matt was still at his desk, having broken through the firewall of a huge Russian-mafia financed spam operation and ended up in a hacking war with someone named Georg who thought he was hot shit.

He wasn’t bad, Matt admitted, when all the appliances in his kitchen started whirring to the tune of the Russian National Anthem as performed by the Red Army Choir.

“Matt, what the hell?” Lucy said from the couch.

“Just a sec,” Matt said, and spent the next thirty minutes breaking into the Russian Air Force’s systems, reprogramming an experimental Sukhoi PAK FA fighter jet to operate on autopilot with a semi-autonomous AI of his own construction. He christened it “Little Matty II” and sent it on its way to Georg to settle the matter once and for all.

I'm in my childhood bed, under a quilt my grandmother made, and the comforter my mom and I bought for me when I was nine.

At midnight the church a few blocks away will toll its bells and I'll start falling asleep even though i want to stay up for yuletide--I never make it. :) It's like trying to stay awake for Santa.

Thinking of all of you out in the world, my friends and cohort. Hope this winter is treating you well.

In the last week and a half, I have:

- pulled a few 14-hour days at work
- made two batches of xmas cookies
- cooked many very nice meals
- finished sewing a little fabric house
- written a yuletide story
- written and addressed a slew of xmas cards
- taken Mister Smarty-Pants to the ER with agonizing stomach pains of mysterious origin
- waited around in the ER for eight hours for doctors to announce that he appears to be fine
- (the good news is this seems to be true: the pain abated during hour two at the hospital and hasn't been back since)
- canceled and rescheduled holiday travel plans on account of ER visit
- slept 14 hours after staying up 24 with the ailing Mister SP
- written a pinch-hit story
- ordered thai food for dinner.

I HAZ AN ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Who has two thumbs and just uploaded her Yuletide story?

THIS GUY!

AND THEN I DRANK TOO MUCH COFFEE AND THEN I DIDN'T GET ENOUGH DONE AT WORK EVEN THOUGH I DID SO MUCH and then yoga class, which was nice AND THEN THE A TRAIN AND THEN A ROACH IN THE BATHROOM AND THEN THE CAT WAS CRAZY AND THEN I FORGOT YESTERDAY'S BIRTH CONTROL PILL SO I TOOK IT TODAY WITH TODAY'S PILL AND NOW I FEEL LIKE PUKING

how was YOUR day?

Does Batman not sleep with Carrie Kelly in Dark Knight Strikes Back? Did I hallucinate this?

Put in my nominations for this year:

Supernatural
American Idol RPF
The X-Files
Star Trek

Boy, I'm hoping someone writes a story in one of these fandoms! It'll be about time!

I kid, I kid.

ACTUALLY:
Kick Ass
The Outlaws of Sherwood
The War at Ellsmere
City of Lost Children
Resident Evil (movies)

It's not even November and I'm all fired up for XMAS!

Well, for yule, anyhow.

Sam is looking less weird in the face area than in the last couple of seasons. Plastic surgery? Better lighting? Alien abduction?