everything but the girl

Am home from a wonderful three day adventure in Orlando with family and friends, where we saw the Osbourne Family lights at Hollywood Studios, rode Everest, allowed my four year old to go on the Jurassic Park ride (which she loved!) and enjoyed a Pom margarita at, obviously, Margaritaville.

Also, I got to see a bunch of spaces at CityWalk which are perfect for group/website/podcast/ship/interest group/meet-up events during Infinitus, and gaze upon Hogwarts without the scaffolding and it looks amazingly gorgeous (and the wizarding world *can* make palm trees grow in Scotland, right?).

Then, I came home, and unpacked, and woke to Yuletide treasures!

Two lovely fics for me! So gorgeously glorious to read!

And the bizarre thing was that I dreamed that I was reading a Yuletide fic and it wasn't anything I had requested, and I can't actually remember it anyway, but then I woke up and saw OMG TWO fics and wanted to read them both at the same time but I couldn't so I went in alphabetical order by fandom:

The Queen's Gambit Accepted: (Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson) Fifteen years after Bangkok, Anatoly Sergievsky seeks advice from the one person who knows him well - his ex-wive, Svetlana.
Svetlana is unmistakably brilliant and kick-arse, Anatoly is having issues, and the dialogue and setup are spot-on perfection. A fantastic coda to the musical!


The Painting: (White Collar) Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey are going to one of Elizabeth's events.
Mmmmm, Peter and Neal shopping for tuxes. Peter and Neal at a museum gala. Elizabeth being adorable and smart. And it looks like it might actually be a 'verse? With more to come on the story? While I think it's a terrific, true-to-canon tale to begin with, if there does turn out to be more chapters here, it would make my 2010! (And Yuletide Writer of Wonderfulness, I will point out that my birthday is in three weeks.)

In less cheery news, the screen on my laptop got damaged over the weekend and I have a few hundred missing pixels on the top right of my screen, which is probably the best physical place to have issues. But, still. Taking it to the SONY store on Monday to see if there is anything they can do.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! Hope you have a wonderful day!

But isn't that what we have LJ profile pages for? SO many thanks to everyone who sent me a snowflake cookie! It was such a lovely day-brightener and I agree that LJ should do this every so often, just randomly. Except if it crashed the notification system, because getting v-gifts is shiny, but so is getting comments.

Have you preordered your HBP DVD? If you are getting the Blu-Ray or the double-disc version tomorrow, check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter featurette - but if you don't want to wait, you can see the sneak preview of it on the Infinitus site tonight, with special thanks to Universal for sending it over.

Speaking of Infinitus, I am the coordinator for meet-ups that involve f00d, drinks and/or non-hotel Universal locations like the Parks and CityWalk. More about this coming to the official website later this month, but if you're interested in learning more about what your ship/group/site/comm/fans-of-a-specific-character-or-house/cohorts can organize/schedule let me know sometime between now and, um, March. First come, first serve on picking places and times, though!

I'll be in Orlando for a few days in two weeks - cousins are coming in from Maine and friends are coming in from NYC, so we're heading up to see people. We are definitely going to the Gaylord Palms ICE! exhibition, but is there anything else that's a must-do at any of the Disney parks and/or Universal? We've never seen the Osborne Lights or Cinderella's Castle all lit up for the holidays, so we may try to get to them, but other than that?

Erm. Missed a few days of the Meme of December

Day 06 -- Whatever tickles your fancy
My favorite holiday-season song is Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas", but two years ago, I heard the My Chemical Romance version and flipped for it. If anyone has any other versions of the song, I would love it if you'd share! Of course, I have the Love Actually version, but are there any others? Anyhow, two years ago, I ended up making two vids that year, both set to that version of the song.
( All Voldemort Wants for Christmas Is Harry )
( All I Want for Christmas - the Winchester Variation )

Day 07 -- A photo that makes you happy:
( Barack Obama Visits Smallville (Sorta) )

( The days are... )