Dani Rose

I am so tired lately. And moody but I suspect I know why. We'll see if chocolate week starts tomorrow. I bought some good lindt truffles just in case. But typically when I get teary at my cat not wanting cuddles it means it's the week where I need chocolate to maintain a good mood.

I got some icons made this week. I signed up for getyourwordsout with the habit of writing for 120 days this year. So I plan on trying to get into the habits of exercising my creativity on most days of the year.

I also want to get back in the habit of babbling on here and talking to friends and making new friends.

I spent today listening to an audio book called Mafia Prince it was a really good memoir by Philip Leonetti about the Philadelphia/Atlantic City mob and why he left the life he was raised in. I found it very interesting. The audiobook I'm now listening to has more information about mafia history but it's more textbook than the other one. On the plus side both books have the common name my great grandfather had being pronounced a lot so I've learned how to pronounce Giuseppe.

Mafia history interests me because according to family lore. A famous mob boss was my grandfather's catholic church godfather. When my grandfather got arrested as a preteen during prohibition he told my grandfather that under no circumstances was he allowed to join the family. There may be some truth to the family lore. My maiden name and his last name show intermarriages around the time period and they were from the same small town in Italy. So now that I enjoy true crime stories something I wouldn't think I liked listening to because I hate seeing violence on tv. I wanted to learn more. And I'm enjoying it.

I managed to do other things while listening which is nice because normally if I'm focusing on listening to things I can't focus on doing other things. But apparently I can cook and make icons while listening even if I can't write while listening.

I'm feeling nostalgic I've been clearing out my inbox and I'm in 2009. immortalje and I have been friends for a lot longer that I thought. Thank you for tolerating my babble and silences my friend! Love you. ^_^

I made a pizza lasagna today it wasn't bad. Kind of a mix of ricotta, mozzarella and lasagna noodles with pizza toppings and sauce. Ian liked it a lot.

I've also spent time working on my German. We bought a Rosetta stone account and I'm learning German while Ian is learning Japanese. I don't know how I feel about it's approach. I keep getting frustrated by not doing well because They and She are both Sie and since it doesn't present verb conjugations to learn first I keep choosing the wrong translation. And I failed on which made me not want to go on. But I do want to brush up and then finish learning my German.

I don't know what else I planned on babbling about and this is getting long.

It's friday! Yay!

I'm looking forward to tonight. I love Friday nights. When Ian comes home from work his work week will be set aside until Monday morning. He'll be less stressed. His boss really values him at his job but they have very few staff since it's a small engineering firm and Ian spends a lot of time working on big projects both solar and traditional electrical engineering projects. However it seems that the deadlines keep causing him to have to work very late. And on Wednesday right after he had finished a project so that he could work on his other impending deadline projects he got an email telling him to no longer work on that project since there were changes coming even though it's due next week.

So yeah, he's been a bit stressed.

Meanwhile my only plans consist of doing some gaming this weekend, responding to comments and such, and doing the laundry. Brigid's been using the machines all week this week as she keeps getting distracted watching the tv shows I got her for Christmas. She's currently watching Black Sails. I'm loving the theme song.

I have some packages coming today. One is a hopefully much less broken dvd set of Warner Brother's best romantic movies. The one that arrived on Monday was in pieces. Hopefully this one isn't because It's got a lot of good movies on it. Another is lingonberry jam, I've got some crepes in the freezer and I'm hoping to get a flavor similar to the crepes at Ihop. One of the others is some custom dice for Ian and Brigid's birthdays in February and March. I hope they look as cute in real life as they did in the etsy shop.

I also keep being cheerful about the fact that Russel T. Davies is returning to write for Doctor Who. Is there hope that it'll be good again? I really miss Doctor Who. But the current writer is just as bad as Moffit got during season 6...so I tend to pretend that show got cancelled. I especially didn't like what I read about them inserting still more Doctors into the mix now before the First Doctor and making the Doctor not a Gallifreyan... It was bad enough when Moffit added the war Doctor before Nine. It made it so the numbering system got screwed up and confusing. Which can be very frustrating when reading fanfiction and Eleven isn't acting like Eleven and then you read further and realize they mean the Tenth Doctor... But since the later doctors Retconned RTD's writing maybe he can return the favor and ditch all of that.

It was all just a dream boom the Doctor regenerates into a Doctor played by Billie Piper and her grumpy companions played by Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith...

But now it's time to go do some household tasks and maybe go see what my cats are up to. Never mind the littlest one my black cat, just climbed on the desk it is apparently time to pet the cat.

I feel so very free right now.

Normally by now I'd probably have had a food binge or crying jag or guilt binge but I feel so free. Kind of a nervous energy behind it but I told my father off and I feel like something tight within me was free.

So this drama all started a few days before Christmas when my brother invited me over to his house via text message. It was a work day and Ian had a bunch of projects to get out the door before he had this week off and I didn't want to add to his stress and bug him at work.

My brother didn't include any mention of their being a lot of people so I was inclined to say yes. Especially since Ian's family moved to Alabama in 2020 and therefore we wouldn't be having dinner with his mom and grandma.

Ian got home late so I forgot to ask that night. My stepmom sent a text saying hey did you get your brother's text message? If you can't come maybe we can do brunch before we go back across the state. I plan on replying now because as far as I know I'm on good and somewhat peaceful terms with my parents. Still healing from my shit childhood but not having any plans to talk about the abuse... and things have been okay.

I have shitty phone service though, it's cheap and does it's job most of the time, so we keep it. But it wasn't letting me send replies.

That's when the shit hits the fan. Large screencaps behind the cut. It ended in me finally deciding to talk about the issues I've spent three years in therapy and have been dealing with said trauma causing a crippling anxiety disorder.

Warning for mentions of extreme discipline of children backhanding across the face holding up by the neck, etc. Also talk of death of grandparents...

( Caps taken off my phone look huge on the pc... )

I haven't heard a thing back since. Not a merry christmas message from either my stepmom Vicki or my Dad. My brother messaged me back after I sent him a Merry Christmas message but nothing from my parents. Not even a we never abused you which is what I was expecting to hear back.

I brooded for a few days but now I just feel content. I acknowledged that I was abused by parents to my parents. I finally explained myself a bit.

I said some stuff that I'll be unpacking in therapy for certain. I have a feeling my therapist will be pleased by this. I hope so anyways...

In other news my christmas was great. I have goals for the coming year, a paid account again and a sense of creativity...

But now I feel free and honestly almost giddy.

I live!

I meant to post at the start of this year or in the year prior but my wrist has been having frequent issues and for awhile I didn't have much I wanted to say.

Last time I blogged, Ariel was dying. She had to put down on the first part of January 2020. I miss her and my other two lost cats so much. We've set up two walls with canvas photos of cats. One of those walls has Joey, Ariel, and Pyewackett. I run my hands along that wall a lot. I believe one day I'll be reunited with them. My heaven is a world where all of my cats are with me.... And I can chose who visits me and for how long.


That same week we adopted an Orange parking lot cat who we named Miso. Yes, we named him after the Stardew Valley cat. I wanted to name him Godric, but Ian did not like such a name. Where we found him was a spot that he was thrown deliberately, If Bri hadn't grabbed him he could have been killed by delivery trucks at her work. I suspect he was abused because he still flinches at first when we pet his face. I had to adjust my cat moming skills accordingly. I use stern voice but no shouting when he acts up... Not that he acts up much. He's a chunky orange friendly tabby who is very vocal. Every time he wakes up from a nap he announces it with trills and you have to say things like, "Did my baby kitty wake up from his naps," and give him snuggles before he settles back down. Thankfully he doesn't do that at night. He just likes his snuggles.

We also moved into a house in January 2020. It's something. It's a fixer upper. I liked the non fixer uppers better, they had a pool but they were 40,000 more at the top of our loan amount. They were also a bit further North and would have added an additional 20 minutes onto Ian's commute. We've painted the inside and Ian's remodeling the master bathroom right now. It had mosaic pea soup green floor tiles, sea foam green wall tiles, and a bit of rot from them using drywall screws rather than screws designed for wet areas for the railings. As were signing the papers is when we found out we couldn't have a pool... due to easements and underground wires outside. I'm less than happy about the house but once we've paid off some of the mortgage and fix it up a bit more we can sell it for more than we bought it for... And have a nice down payment for a house that has a swimming pool, is in a good commute spot and has features we like. Once Ian finishes fixing up our bathroom I will like it a lot more. Anything is better than the clashing green colors. We're also in the process of getting cool windows that will help keep the cooler air in and are hurricane proof. Unlike our original single pane windows.

In October of 2020 we adopted a little black kitten. We called him Nori. He's adorable with pretty golden eyes with green just around the pupil. The first cat I adopted that was a kitten and not a full grown cat when I adopted them. He's been a delight. Now more than ever, I don't understand how people can adopt a kitten, love it, and then drop it off the shelter when it's a year old. Nori was a cat from the start. He's feisty. Will make this little Errr grump noises at you if you pet him or give him kisses without his permission. Yet at night time, he has to lay on my chest, kiss my cheeks and receive his night time cuddles before he'll go to sleep. After that he'll go lay one Ian's side of the bed and snuggle with his siblings.

Getting Nori balanced out our cats. Now they all get along better. Sebastian, Brigid's cat, has decided that likes Nori and will play with him. Which is good because since Ariel passed Sebastian wasn't getting any socials with other cats. But because Nori was a kitten when we got him Sebastian couldn't beat him up so he soon grew to accept the other cat as a playmate and friend. He's still more solitary than the rest but at least he doesn't seem lonely. Now the only fighting is Mushi and Miso's male cat territorial disputes over the bed some nights. They were both neutered adopted at a year and half old and sometimes they just have to hiss it out.

But Mushi and Bassie get along and thankfully no longer scar each other. We won't be getting another cat for a while as five cats are more than enough.

I think I might have more to babble about but this post has gone on long enough. Hope everyone is well.

If you celebrate it I hope you have/had/or are having a Merry Christmas.

If you celebrate other holidays I hope you've had/have/or are having a great one.

And if you don't celebrate anything at all I hope you have a Happy Tuesday.

^_^

Today was supposed to be cookie making day but I'd forgotten that we're driving all the way to Sarasota to meet with Ian's Mum, Sister and Grandma for our "christmas dinner." But the cookies are their present...

( Family Bullshit The Inlaw Edition )

I'm currently waiting for Ian to get back with parchment paper and eggs so I can get started baking.

I've got the dough made for chai eggnog cookies. And butter softening for the rest.

So experimental cookie recipes:
Chai Eggnog cookies
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Peppermint Melt cookies
Ginger Bread

Tried and true recipes:
Oatmeal Raisin
Applesauce Jumbles
Snickerdoodles

Hopefully I can have these all baked by this afternoon.

Today has been an interesting day for me so far.

I woke up after about eight hours of sleep to discover that it was already 6:30 and Ian hadn't yet left for work and he was cooking breakfast. Apparently he stayed up too late last night and was off to a very slow start this morning.

So we ate breakfast together and then he delayed going to work because it's raining and yucky out and he didn't want to leave... He made it to work on time because he always leaves early because Tampa area traffic is a pain the closer it gets to 8:00 am.


Meanwhile, after giving the cats the attention they deserved. If they didn't want to be cuddled they wouldn't sleep on chairs, couches, and easily reachable spots... besides they lean into the kisses and cuddles like spoiled brat cats.

I managed to write out 4 drabbles which I'll be posting through out the day... and now I'm about to work on a list of prompts for daily icons and then finish posting up my table for that...

Apparently, while my day is going great, poor Ian is having a done day at work. He didn't pack a lunch because he thought he had snacks left for the day and both of us are getting sick of ham. But he doesn't.
And there's no projects to distract him at work but so far this year his bosses haven't done the if you don't have any projects that need to go out you can go home thing... So he's sitting there bored and moody.

My dreams were weird last night. I dreamt that I was hanging out with a bunch of my online friends that I've never met in real life and we were exploring Disney together. ^_^ It was a lot of fun. Clearly I need to go to disney again soon.

Title: Evil Dragon Of Doom
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Pairing: Gen fic (mentioned Adrienette) focusing on Plagg and Emma.
Rating: PG
Prompt: inflatable Dragon
Word count: 100

Evil Dragon Of Doom

I was having a good morning with a decent amount of sleep and lots of creative icon making.

Then I realized the fic I thought was due this weekend is due today! And the super secret prompt my giftee wants is so vague but just specific enough I don't think I can just make a gif set which takes me less time although technically they did kiss in canon it's just not really a happy one. I could always go for the au prompt idea because who doesn't love launching their other favorite characters and universes into a Hogwarts one...

But ack! A wild deadline approaches and the Dani hurt herself in confusion.

Okay step one: Reread prompt.
Step two: Contact mod and through ourselves at their mercy for an extension.
step 3: write
Step 4: Reread and do not toss the whole thing out in frustration.
Step 5: Submit and know that you made someone's day.

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.

Partly because I got sucked back into Tumblr again with it's shiny gifs and a way to babble easily on my phone... but now Tumblr is doing it's whole flagging of random blogs some that don't even post nsfw content and therefore it's time to go back to an older form of fandom.


So Hello Again!

I missed you. I just suck at focusing on more than one social media site at a time. I'm awful.

Since I've last blogged, I've moved again but not to a house. But I do love our current bathroom, the tub is a garden tub.

More importantly I've started therapy and for the first time in years I'm leaving the house on my own. Prior to October it had been 13 years since that happened. I'm still really proud.

Tomorrow will be my first solo bus trip. I tried on Monday since Ian took off to take me to some medical tests but the bus driver drove right past me even though I was waiting at the stop holding my bags and standing.

I've got some medical issues going on with my thyroid and this time last week I was launched into euphoria because it's not cancer!  This week they did another imaging test but with an iodine pill that will hopefully answer questions about what's up with my wonky thyroid/calcium levels etc.

Sadly surgery was taken off the table only to be put back on because the calcium levels in my blood stream are not good. And if my hypothyroid is borked it'll have to come out.

I've also been doing a lot of writing lately for Miraculous Ladybug, a new fandom for me as of October/November.