Home of the Snarkmaiden

Many good things came in the mail today -- a reimbursement check from our homeowner's insurance agent (dang those guys are quick!), my 23AndMe kit, and the Curt Phillips for TAFF anthology! It's a damn-fine looking fanzine and offers up a lovely selection of Curt's fan writing. Highly enjoyable stuff. Get yours today! Also, Curt Phillips for TAFF!

And yes, I've gone and gotten myself signed up with 23AndMe. Thinking about going to England just tends to spur my curiosity about my biological father. It's a long shot that any immediate relatives will turn up, but even if not, there should be genetic information from the mystery side of the family, and a sense of where those folks are from. Plus I went ahead and did the consent to participate in research because genetic! research! The kit is easy to use, as is the registration process, although it's certainly one of the longest TOS agreements and Privacy Statements I've ever seen. Not surprising, but impressive.

I also put together another batch of dough for bread for the week today. This first loaf was the best yet. You would not believe the noms. Crisp crust, chewy consistency with a custard crumb. Just seriously amazing bread. Who knew it could be this ridiculously easy to make really top notch bread? Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day -- highly recommended.

Well, it's been a glorious October here in Seattle, with dry weather, clear sunny skies, and a particularly spectacular fall display around campus. It's been so dry that I actually got to wear my red suede coat for much of the month without fear of ruination. And I've been keeping my little Lumix in my coat pocket and taking quite a few pictures as I walk to and from work and class. I also keep thinking about nattering about it here, but, well, Chinese class, therefore bizy. Also, after Randy Byers asked about it, I made the mistake of starting a little post about my trip to California to clear out my parents' Mariposa place, and that post turned into this massive, ever-growing travel journal about the entire drive down and all my little detailed observations along the way, and side trips into recent fan visitors and outings, plus fannish participants in my Big Estate Sale Adventure, and basically the thing snowballed into a fanzine article that is currently 8 pages long and not yet done, but overdue. Go, me.

I'll probably post it here eventually, too, once it's actually finished, because lately the things I send off to fanzines seem to fall into a dark gravity well of egobooless obscurity and despair from which no comment hooks can ever emerge and I do like to have at least *some* sense that other people read what I wrot.

Anyway, for the longest time I had that post saved only as a draft in LJ and so I kept feeling like I couldn't post other things until I got it finished with it. And when it comes to trip reports I seem unable to let go of recording every picayune detail for my own recollection and amusement, and this is why I have thirty thousand words of TAFF report down and no immediate hope of getting it edited down to a readable finished work.

But for now I have that post saved as a Word .doc, and a clean slate here. And so here, before it's too late, a post for October. It's been a grand month.