Yuletide Beta Reader Needed

I've finished the first draft of my Yuletide fic. Now I'm looking for beta readers. I'm assuming that most of you won't know the fandom, but if anybody's willing to take a look at a shortish story (about 2000 words) and do a check for grammar and spelling, I'd be grateful.

It's not the best thing I've ever written, but it does fill my recipient's request, and I think it's not dreadful.

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I'm wearing new socks these days. This isn't earthshaking news, of course, but it is important to me.

Last year, after losing considerable weight, I bought new stretch pants to wear under my dresses in the winter. The petites turned out to be really short on me, not capri short but still short. The bottoms of my pants just barely reached the tops of my socks. At about the same time, Hanes changed how they made their crew socks so that they're shorter and thinner. The result is that I've been walking around with skin showing between my pants and my socks.

For a while, I'd been thinking that knee socks were the solution, but I hadn't done anything about it. Then, during one of Delia's rock climbing sessions, Scott and I went to Mejier's, and I bought some. They're not ideal. They're thin enough that they might as well not be there when I go outside, and I have to be careful to pull my pants up all the way because the friction with the socks catches things and can make my pants ride low. Still, they look better-- no gap and these are dark socks with dark pants as opposed to the white socks I had before-- and I feel better about them.

I can get thicker knee socks if I'm willing to wear acrylic. I've always stuck with cotton for socks (I can't wear wool. Animal fibers make me itch horribly), and my mother was emphatic on the evils of artificial fabrics. Scott bought me a couple of pairs without noticing what they were made out of, so I tried them. My feet didn't fall off, and nothing else awful happened. I think I'll keep those in rotation and see how they are long term.

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Delia's team lost Saturday's game by about ten points. The team was slow to get started and only really began playing well in the second half. Delia still seems to have enjoyed the game (as she usually does).

Delia had a friend spend the night on Saturday. The girls giggled and talked until quite late. I was afraid they wouldn't sleep at all. They were still up bright and early on Sunday. They let me pretend to sleep until nine. Scott was working, so he was already out of the house by the time they got up.

Sunday is pancake day. Usually, making them is Scott's job, but I did my best. I made a couple of mistakes-- forgetting to add the egg and forgetting to grease the griddle-- that I had to remedy on the fly. Forgetting to grease the griddle required letting everything cool off, washing the griddle, greasing it and reheating it. Forgetting the egg was simpler, of course. I just added it as soon as I remembered. The girls weren't actually very interested in pancakes. They each ate two and were done. The point of making pancakes, however, at least from my point of view, is to give myself pancakes to eat all week for breakfast. I have one a day along with one sausage link and half an apple.

Tuesday was Delia's last rock climbing session. She was really sorry to see the class end and hopes for the opportunity to climb again. I'm not sure it will happen. It's expensive, and Scott and I have no idea how to help her do it safely. Planet Rock does offer courses for kids, but I have no idea about the costs or the timing. Looking into something like that will have to wait until we know the schedule for indoor soccer (and know whether or not Delia got in. I'm biting my nails over that). I'd hate to schedule two things for the same night.

While Delia was climbing, Scott took me to Target. He'd seen a Sony e-reader at a Target near where he works and hoped that they'd have one at this store. They did, and I fiddled with it a bit. My conclusion is that, in terms of navigation, I don't have a strong preference among e-readers. I couldn't really tell how the Sony would feel in my hand because it was fastened down tightly. At least it was set up so that I could navigate a handful of books. Some of the e-readers they had displayed were set in advertising loops with no way to test them out.

After Target, we went to the Old Country Buffet for dinner. It's been a couple of years since we went there. It's on the wrong side of town for us, and the last time we went there, Scott took a risk and ended up quite sick. (He's very allergic to beef, and they have a beef roast and a ham next to each other on the buffet. There's a guy who cuts hunks off each as requested. Scott wanted ham (I don't deal well with ham, so he seldom gets it) and gambled that it wouldn't be beef contaminated. He was wrong.) This time, Scott was careful and was fine. That means we may go back again some day, especially now that Delia's old enough for a buffet.

Wednesday was Delia's last basketball practice and so my last time sitting on the stairs next to the gym for this year. I think Delia likes games better than practices, but she still looks forward to practices. One definite downside to my sitting outside the gym-- I haven't learned the names of all the girls on the team this year. I feel bad about that.

Assuming Scott doesn't have to work (which he thinks he won't), tomorrow's going to be a big day. Scott's parents will take Delia after her basketball game, and Scott and I will swing into action to cram in all of our holiday shopping. We've got very little for Delia yet, so most of our time will go to looking at toys and books and such for her. I hope Barnes & Noble has panda calendars again this year. She wants another one, and last year, they were the only ones who had them.

Off to make Chex mix for Scott. He loves the stuff, and I've been remiss-- This is the first time I've made any this year. I'll try to fix that over the next few weeks.