(no subject)

[the_rck]

I was awakened this morning by my cell phone ringing. I've got to start bringing it into the bedroom with me. My foot and ankle are not up to a high speed crossing of the house to get to the stupid thing. I was afraid it was bad news of some sort because I'm not expecting any calls, but it was (of course) a wrong number.

Cordelia helped me out with my morning stuff with some grumbling, but she did it all. Then she disappeared back into her room. If I want anything, I'll either have to yell or call her cell phone and hope she knows where it is.

We had two extra kids yesterday. Mostly the three kids played with the WiiU, but they spent some time in Cordelia's room, watching Insurgent. The girls baked a cake. There wasn't any frosting, so they asked if they could walk to the store to get some. I was dubious because it's a couple of miles to the store (though there are no major roads to cross and no chance of getting lost) and because it was only about 39F outside. Cordelia's friend had brought a light sweater but no coat. Cordelia then suggested that they take the bus. I was still dubious. Fortunately, the other mother vetoed both plans, so I didn't have to make a decision myself.

Scott finally gave in and bought a loaf of bread yesterday. He hasn't wanted to, but it's gotten warm enough that bread machine bread starts getting moldy before we finish a loaf. Store bought bread lasts quite a bit better.

Scott fixing dinner is not really a great option from my point of view. Yesterday, it was seven and a half hours between lunch and dinner. During that time, the only way I could get food was by asking Cordelia to retrieve it, and I have to tell her specifically what I want (and some things, like a quartered apple, she will refuse to do because she says she doesn't know how), and I have no idea what we have because I haven't been able to look at the contents of the fridge or cupboards for quite a while.

Four of the six CDs I ordered have arrived. One of the CDs, in spite of being new and wrapped in plastic, had a broken jewel case, a missing hinge. There's no sign at all of the missing piece, so the damage must have been done before the thing was wrapped. I'm not annoyed enough about it to complain, but I'm not pleased, either.

I spent most of yesterday link finding for metanews. I still have more to do today (a final run through the Feedly list and all of Pinboard). The senior moderator tells me we have a couple of new volunteers, so I'm hoping some of the burden will shift to them. There was one blog I looked at yesterday that almost never posts anything but that had posted eleven April Fool's Day entries. Those were kind of annoying because I knew they were unlikely to be anything usable, but I had to look at each of them anyway.

I did decide not to go digging for posts by Sad Puppy/Rabid Puppy supporters. Life's too short to do that to myself.

I'm not sure what's happened with my socks-- I wore socks every day last week, and they should all have gotten washed. That should be enough socks to get me through to Saturday. But when I dug through my clean laundry this morning, I found one pair and two singletons (the matches for those turned up in Scott's basket. Apparently, he wasn't careful in separating things). That gets me through to Thursday. That means two pairs are missing. I'm not at all happy about this because I have a limited number of pairs of socks that are tall enough to really help make the boot comfortable and an even more limited number that are made of materials that don't feel nasty when stuck in the confines of the boot for fourteen to sixteen hours at a stretch.

I'm a little stuck on my Harry Potter AU. I have to decide on the characterization of a particular person-- Narcissa Malfoy. I've mentioned her before in the story, but this will be the first time she appears. Based on what I've written so far, it would make sense for her to be kind of a doormat, but I don't like that option much. It seems boring. Then again, it does fit with everything I've established so far about her and her (lack of) actions. It matters because my point of view character is going to care a lot about what she thinks and says.

Comments

[kyrielle]

Hmmm. Someone who is subtle, low-key, and has learned to express themselves in ways that don't get the hammer from the big bad people around them may be _described_ as a doormat, but the perceptive may notice a lot more. The quickly suppressed little smile - the wry comment they share when they know they have an audience that will tolerate it - the cautious but very real rebellion that hey, there is a person here.

Is that a game she could be playing?

[the_rck]

It's possible. She'd have to be really tough, though. This version of her has been through hell. She failed to protect Draco from some really nasty stuff that went on for years (I think she tried. She just wasn't in a position to do anything). This Narcissa also has two more children, both under the age of six (born after the war began). I think she and her husband were required to have more children by Voldemort, but I haven't firmly established that yet.

I'm thinking that her absolute first priority is the safety of her younger two children. She'd like to help Draco but doesn't see what she could do and won't risk the other two by doing something she's not sure will work.

This version of Lucius was very loyal to Voldemort but also had ambitions to set himself up in Voldemort's place once it became clear that Voldemort was going to lose. He chose to sacrifice Draco for Voldemort's favor early on.

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

I toss un-preserved bread in the refrigerator after 4-5 days. aradiva complains this dries the bread out, but I prefer that to mold. :-) Another idea: freeze half the loaf promptly after it comes out from the bread machine.

When I was very little, we had a bread box with a bottle of dehumidifier "stuff" in it; I wonder if that did much good?

CD cases routinely get damaged. It is the way of the world. I'm having trouble adapting to the new world of cardboard CD cases; the new trend is for this flat matte cardboard finish which picks up greasy fingerprints (ugh). I should really stop ordering CDs and switch over to digital files, because only about 1/4 of the new CDs are getting played, unless they get ripped into the iPod. Sigh sigh sigh, first world problems.

[the_rck]

I like having CDs. I mostly play music that I've ripped to my laptop, but having the CDs feels important. Also, my laptop's speaker is getting old and cranky. I may need to start using my CDs if I want to hear music.

I'm not sure how Scott would feel about putting bread in the refrigerator. I'd be willing to do it, but I usually won't eat bread that's more than a day old anyway, so my vote doesn't really count. We would have to change how we store the bread-- We keep it in an air tight plastic bin. I don't think that would fit comfortably in the fridge. I think we'd have to switch to using plastic bags.

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

I know it's an AU, but I always kind of thought of Narcissa as seeming weak, but with a backbone of iron. She might let someone seem to run over her, but in the end, she was biding her time and acted when she wanted to in order to protect her son and family. So basically she could seem like a doormat, but actually be gauging her "enemies" or just not interested in the outcome of that particular scuffle.

But that's just my take on the character and she could be completely different in your universe. :) Good luck with your writing either way! :)

[the_rck]

In this AU, the war went on for about seven years. One year in, Voldemort did something terrible to Draco (and continued doing terrible things to Draco until his eventual defeat), and she wasn't able to protect her son at all. I could see that eating away at her. She also has two additional children here, both under the age of six (Voldemort started 'encouraging' his followers to have more children once he realized that the war was going to go on for a while and what the casualties were likely to be). Lucius is worse than useless, here-- He actually gave Draco to Voldemort.

I don't think this Narcissa had any loyalty to Voldemort left after a point very early in the war. I'm not sure how much loyalty she had to Lucius. She may have seen him as better than no protection at all, but I don't think, given Draco, that she'd have much confidence in his willingness to act to protect any member of his family.

[lady-of-mists.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, I could see that as making her shutdown almost completely (doormat-like) because she is Done with All the Things or making her a hard-hearted person seeking revenge on her husband and anyone that she saw as having hurt her and Draco. Definitely no loyalty to Voldemort (maybe even passively working against him?) But I totally could see her as being done with Lucius loyalty-wise -- you betrayed me and my child for a losing cause -- and trust-wise -- how could you trust a person who willingly sacrificed your child to a monster?