This weekend next year I have the honor of being the FanGoH at SFContario, a new convention in Toronto. Better yet, my fellow GoHs include my dear friends for life, Editor GoHs Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Filk GoH Karen Linsley. I'll be watching the SFContario website and dlacey's LiveJournal for the announcement of SFContario's Author GoH.

Diane is running programming, so there's the added delight of working with her on that. I understand Catherine Crockett has the consuite, again making it easy to arrange some sort of Toad Woods Toronto or similar event there. I don't get there often, but I've loved Toronto since my first visit there in 1986 through my most recent for Corflu in 2006. I'm glad to know I'll be returning next November and sharing SFContario with fine, fine folks such as these. And others of you reading this, too, I hope!

SFContario: November 19-21, 2010. Ramada Plaza Toronto.

Scraps hasn't had another stroke; it's seizures. Still no fun, obviously. Continued updates are at Making Light.

A Making Light post this evening from Teresa Nielsen Hayden announced that Scraps -- Soren de Selby -- may be having another stroke. Velma Bowen called 911 and they're now at New York Methodist Hospital.

My love and prayers are with them both, and with their friends and family around the globe. This is now how this is supposed to playing out, and I hope very much that it turns out to be something else, and something very temporary, indeed.

...to casacorona!

Here's wishing you a day filled with joy, delight, and only the best sort of surprises. And may these good wishes repeat and magnify 365 times over through the year ahead!

Gala apples are attractive to look at, but they've gone flavorless and the texture isn't as good as I remember them, even in season. They're not crisp enough. Galas aren't bitter like red delicious, but they're no longer an apple I want to spend money on.

Fuji apples are my current commonly-found-in-the-grocery-store fave. They smell like apples and they taste like apples.

When I go to an orchard, I like to taste test and am likely to select different (and more local) varieties. But after not buying grocery store apples for years and years, it's nice to finally have one I know I like.

(And to remember which variety it is.)

In 1989, I spent the first three weeks of November on my first trip to the UK. I stayed with friends I'd already met in person in the States: Chuch and Sue Harris that April, Walter and Madeleine Willis the December before, Rob Hansen and Avedon Carol a few years before that, if memory serves.

I met other friends in person for the first time: Vin¢ Clarke, James & Peggy White, & ATom....

Chuch, Vin¢, Rob, Avedon, and I went to Novacon 19, my first British convention. I came home from the UK with permanent ties to British fandom and Sixth fandom, ties that grew far broader and deeper in the years that followed. Going back in 1992, I finally met Dave Langford, brisingamen, peake, and so many more friends.

Then there was Precursor and Intersection followed again three years later by the first UK Corflu. Then death stepped in and bolluxed my "every three years" schedule. I was back for Vin¢'s memorial in December, 1998 and then...oh, dear, was the next and my most recent trip the short long weekend for plokta.con Release 2.0 in 2002? Yes, that's most likely.

Back on that first trip, I think I was just back from Norn Iron when the Berlin Wall came down. This week's 20th anniversary celebrations of that rekindled memories of my own 20th anniversary and how pleased I was to be nearby, if not on the continent itself, when the Wall fell.

Then it was November 11th. I grew up with VFW poppies. Even though the name was changed to Veterans Day the year I was born, I knew it first as Armistice Day.

World War I wasn't all that long before. My grandfather fought in it, as did seemingly everyone of his generation. Yes, the Great War had firmly picked up its "I" and "First" when referred to as a World War. It was supposed to have been the war to end all wars, but only a few decades later, we needed to differentiate it from World War II. My father came home from the Army, from the Battle of the Bulge, married mom, and started having what turned out to be three kids. I'm the youngest of those.

In 1989, Sue Harris bemoaned how few people wore poppies or even knew what they meant compared to her own childhood. Her adult children knew, but had no need or desire to wear poppies themselves. "It was all so long ago; it's not relevant. It doesn't matter now."

Only it does, of course. Ever since 1918, it has. I believe it always will. It's not the only war, the only battle for which this is true, but it certainly is one of them.

Sue was noticeably pleased that I grokked the poppies, that I bought one and attached it to my jacket before she'd said a word about her children's generation.

Today, and each November 11th, I'm proud of every person on my friends list and in blogs who noted the date and wrote about its meaning to them. I thank you myself, and I thank you for Sue Harris.

pecunium's post knocked my socks off. If you haven't already done so, please do: 11.11.09. Read, watch battlefield footage from the Somme. Listen to "Hanging on the old barbed wire" embedded in Terry's post.

Then, please, remember.

"It's about life, and death and the birth of hope." — Terry Karney

Thank you.

I'm having my first full taste of ServiceMagic, and am very happy, indeed. The Benzo Company not only has an excellent tagline -- "Where well planned meets well built" presented in a clean, attractive font and format on their work trailer, Chris Laurenzo is an excellent, attentive home handyman. From what I've seen of his pricing, work ethic, and overall sensibilities, I'll also gladly use him for any larger building projects I find myself in a position to have done.

Chris installed deadbolts in four, steel-wrapped, exterior doors that have been waiting for deadbolts since I moved in. Back in 2004, I installed the new deadbolt on the door that already had the necessary holes drilled, then wimped out rather than drilling the new holes needed to install the deadbolts in the other four doors. That seemed wiser than having to replace the doors themselves after my clumsy drilling efforts destroyed them. This Girl Homeowner is reasonably okay drilling guide holes for nails and screws, and sometimes using the drill to install the screws themselves. Cleanly aligned large holes at a 90-degree angle through both metal and wood? Not so much....

Chris also replaced the half-broken light over my garage doors, a light that's out of reach of any ladders I have. And he repaired two drawers in my kitchen that broke this year. Metal slides are all very nice, but when they mount onto plastic end brackets, 30 years of service is likely to do them in. Especially if you put as much stuff in your kitchen drawers as I do.

( That brings me to Environmental Impact Statements and the 5-Year Rule. )

Progress. Progress is good. It took me 20 years to find a home handyman I wasn't living with at Toad Hall. It only happened then thanks to Realtor Bob and only because I was putting the house on the market. On the handyman front, I'm well ahead of my usual game here.

Three cheers for ServiceMagic, and the friends here on LJ who mentioned having success with them in other parts of the country. I still think well of Angie's List, especially in denser markets than one finds here in Wales. The ServiceMagic approach helped me look further afield than I would have on my own, and led me to a great home handyman. Huzzah!

...to erikvolson.

Here's to an excellent day and an even better year ahead.

...to rangercraig!

Thank you for being so utterly wonderful all through Anticipation. May your coming year bring you tenfold the joy and fun you helped me have in Montréal.

...to don_fitch!

Enjoy, and know I'm celebrating with you in spirit as much as I wish I were celebrating with you in person.

Six months in, I just don't seem to be using Dreamwidth. I'll be converting to a free account rather than disappearing entirely, but LiveJournal remains the place to find me.

I wish the entire Dreamwidth crew the best of success with Dreamwidth's continued development and thank my friends who are hanging out here for continuing to crosspost to LJ however much they choose to.

...including moderation, I know, but oughtn't the Deadly Sins reveal one's extremes?

That, and I'm certain this quiz failed to tap into my very-present pride.

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Very Low

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Spectrum Fantastic Art reports that Dean Ellis died last week in Saratoga Springs, NY. He was 88.

Source with a bit more info

I moved into Toad Woods nearly 5.5 years ago. Thanks to ServiceMagic, I may have just found a handyman. Well, a handyman and then some, as you'll see if you visit the ServiceMagic profile for Chris Laurenzo and The Benzo Company.

( The far from good )

( Changing focus )

The bottom line is that I actually have been doing a reasonably respectable job of maintaining the Zeppelin Hangar on a limited budget and also doing a few, top-priority, home improvement projects as resources have allowed. Am I perfect? Of course not. But I'm not the hopeless homeowner bum I've been thinking I am, either. I've done as much in 5.5 years here as I did in 20 years at Toad Hall, and I haven't had a live-in partner to help with any of it.

Now I may even have found a good handyman. Wahoo!

Edited to add Susan's remarkable, delightful window treatments and related projects. They bring daily delight, which may have contributed to my not thinking about them when originally listing various one-time home improvement projects.

Okay, it was snow by the time it settled on the ground, but in the sky, it looked just like chicken feathers.

Large clumps of flakes usually fall just at the beginning of snow squalls. The chicken feathers continued falling for hours here. They looked like a cheesy movie set generating fake snow, especially when they'd suddenly drop into slomo. I could just hear the human behind the mike: "slow 'em up, slow 'em up. Nope; too slow. Faster. Faster. Okay, bring the flakes in from the left now."

There's still an inch and a half of the stuff sitting on my deck. It'd be a lot more entertaining if it were an inch and a half of chicken feathers.

It is October 16th.

Toad Woods is covered with snow.

It's not a light dusting, not the teeny flakes that filled yesterday's sky; it's clumpy, lumpy snow.

This is so wrong.

Lake Tahoe fills me with calm and feeds my soul. My, but sugar pines have big cones. Super sappy'n'sticky, too.

There's something about trees and rocks and water. Mountains help, too. It's pure comfort, deep joy, quiet satisfaction.

Pyramid Lake is wondrously ancient and alien. Tufa deposits, who knew? Then, near sunset, the sky turned to something out of a Tim Powers novel. Yep, fitting, and All That Jazz....

Film at 11, or whenever I get around to posting at least some of the pix. Good times. Reassuring and productive, too.

The Purple Parrot 24-hour coffee shop in the Atlantis serves breakfast 24 hours a day, which I'm always happy to see. (I tend to have a convoluted sleep schedule and rarely seek breakfast at anything resembling traditional breakfast times.) Near midnight Thursday, I was more interested in dinner, and was pleased to discover that their late-night offerings weren't limited. The fried chicken was fresh, crispy, moist, and tasty. The service was good, too.

My previous experience with casino hotel buffets in downtown Las Vegas left me with low expectations at Toucan Charlie's Buffet and Grill when we went there for breakfast Friday. I was expecting something along the lines of an Old Country Buffet. Toucan Charlie's is several steps above that. It wasn't the best breakfast buffet I've ever had -- the $35 place in Honolulu still holds that record. Toucan Charlie's is certainly the best breakfast buffet I've had at its $12 price point. There were Mexican, Southern, and Chinese breakfast stations as well as fresh omelets, fresh pancakes, and standard hotel breakfast buffet items. The pastry and dessert counter was memorably tastier than the equivalent offerings at the $35 brunch buffet in Hawaii. Yum. The designer in me appreciated the dishes, the decor, and the fact that the sound system complemented our breakfast conversation rather than competing with it.

Rick Lindsay took me up to Virginia City and around Lake Tahoe. Wow. I'll enjoy wandering the streets, saloons, and mines of Virginia City when the opportunity next presents itself. I knew I was going to like Tahoe. I was surprised by how nearby it actually is, and, yes, it's glorious.

More later....

I can't say air travel is all that pleasant, but a free wifi pass on a 4.5 hour flight certainly helps. Now if my battery would only last that long.

Much to my surprise, there's room to open up my 17-inch MacBook Pro in the cattle section of a 757.

Destination: Reno, Nevada for a Renovation committee meeting. It's my first visit to Reno, made possible thanks to NWA waiving the $150 change fee on the ConQuesT flight I didn't take in May due to my pesky gallbladder since removed. Thanks to that and a great fare out of JFK, this flight only cost an additional $29.99 out of pocket. Nice.

If one wants to keep one's airline travel skills intact, it helps to fly more than once a year.

Signed,
Rusty. Rusty. Rusty.