all arms and legs

Jul. 18th, 2025 08:12 pm
musesfool: Wonder Woman against a backdrop of flames (walk through the fire)
[personal profile] musesfool
I mentioned I've been reading a bunch of DCU/PJO crossovers, and mostly I like it when nobody is related to the Waynes and no Waynes are secretly demigods and it's just Percy et al in Gotham and rolling with their weirdness (or vice versa, I guess, but I haven't seen any like that yet), though I have enjoyed those other types. For me, the big key to making the crossover work, aside from the fact that I want it to so I'm primed for it (i.e., buy the premise, buy the joke), is how Wonder Woman is handled (and to a much lesser extent, Wonder Girl), even more so than Aquaman and Atlantis.

Like, for me as a reader, you can't pretend that the Batfamily is totally ignorant of the Greek pantheon or demigods if you've got Diana around. And I realize that some folks are basing their Batfamily stuff on other people's fic (I'm not making that call - some of them state it outright in their notes), which may not contain any info on Wonder Woman or the Amazons etc. but Wonder Woman is not an obscure superhero! Even if you ignore the retcon that she's a daughter of Zeus (and you should! Even the comics have walked that back, though I can see why it might be interesting to work into this kind of crossover), she was made of clay and had life breathed into her by Greek goddesses.

I mean, it complicates things to some degree, because where was she during all of Percy's adventures, but 1. she was in space/another universe etc., or 2. she'd been stripped of her powers for trying to help, or 3. she was back on Themyscira, and unaware, or, or, or... And those are just off the top of my head. Mostly I've seen Percy and friends angry that she didn't participate and that's a fine way to go, but like, I feel like something has to be said, even if just in passing, unless it's set very very early in Batman's career and he hasn't met her/she isn't public yet. And the ones I've found so far are not set in that timeframe, because the fun of the crossover is having all the kids interacting with each other and with Bruce.

Anyway, I'm always interested in how other people make crossovers work, because for me, skipping over most of the nitty-gritty of trying to make incompatible worlds/magical systems etc. work together is the way to go - choose one or two details to set the vibe and handwave the inconsistencies.

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after the money's gone

Jul. 17th, 2025 08:45 pm
musesfool: tasty cosmopolitans (we'll laugh and we'll toast to nothing)
[personal profile] musesfool
I made this fancy lemonade with what I learned from [personal profile] minoanmiss's tags is called oleo saccharum, which is sugar syrup made with the oils in the citrus peels. I had 8 lemons, and some leftover frozen strawberries and blueberries, so I let the berries defrost in the fridge overnight and then this morning I did all the juicing and the dicing and then let it sit for several hours (5, I think?) before straining the syrup and adding the juice etc. It's very good, though I need to try it with lemons only, I think, and maybe less sugar. Because I do like my lemonade on the tarter side.

Anyway! I dug out my potato masher and my citrus reamer with carafe for this, so it was nice to be able to use them. I do kind of wish I had a food mill but I've never been able to justify the expense to myself - I used a large fine mesh strainer and it worked fine.

In other news, I watched the most recent season of GBBO and I LOVED EVERYONE IN THE TENT, but especially Dylan! Nelly! Gill! and Georgie! spoilers, I guess ) And Allison is so great. I hope she sticks with the show for a long time.

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[personal profile] musesfool
They gave me a 3 pm - 7 pm delivery window for the dishwasher today, which meant waiting around and stewing in my anxiety until they showed up around 3:30. The whole process - removing the old dishwasher and setting up the new one - took about an hour. Now it's running through whatever the initial cycle the installation guys set it to, and then I should be able to use it. It did cost me an extra $125 to get the electrical connection set up, since the old one was hardwired and the new one required a plug, plus I gave both guys a $20 on the way out, so overall it cost almost $1800 for everything, which is more than my stove and fridge cost put together, iirc. It's the most expensive birthday present I've gotten myself since 2016, when I replaced my laptop, but totally necessary. And it is very snazzy looking! (it's the Bosch 300 series 18" dishwasher in stainless steel.)

Anyway, that has been my birthday! I put all thoughts of cooking on hold until tomorrow, when I might make pulled pork (or I might not) and some kind of fancy dessert (I am thinking about this coffee icebox cake but without a stabilizer in the whipped cream I don't know how it could hold its shape if you turn it out of the loaf pan; on the other hand, I'm not taking it anywhere so I can just scoop it out without removing it, so I guess that's not really an issue), but we'll see how I feel tomorrow - it will be cool to not have to wash up by hand afterwards!

Sunday at Dom's was lovely - Baby Miss L was a mermaid in the pool (she kept exclaiming, "Mermaid!" and kicking ferociously - she hasn't had swimming lessons yet but she seems like a natural at this point) - and once she warmed up after her nap she was her usual delightful self. She enjoyed the books I brought her, especially "Be Brave Like Batman" (to go with the Batman and Robin t-shirts), and she wore her Superman dress, so we are covering all superhero bases.

I made the KAF fudge brownies again to take with me, since I was assured that they'd loved them last time, and this time I got to taste them and they were good! Slightly overbaked, but still chocolatey.

Then yesterday on my ride home, the driver took Jericho Turnpike all the way to the Cross Island, which made the trip longer, but did avoid traffic and construction, so I guess the extra 10-15 minutes was worth it.

And I still have 6 more days off before I have to go back to work!

*

get down, get down

Jul. 12th, 2025 09:52 pm
musesfool: iconic supergirl (up up and away)
[personal profile] musesfool
As I may have mentioned, Baby Miss L loves potatoes, so when I saw a t-shirt on Etsy that said, "Potatoes gonna potate!" around a picture of a potato, I thought, I have to get it for her! Unfortunately, it was only available in neon green, which I did not like the look of. Luckily, many other vendors were also selling t-shirts with pictures of friendly potatoes on them, so I got her this one that says, "Tater tot!"

This morning, I received a series of glamour shots and a video of Baby Miss L thoroughly excited about wearing the t-shirt. It was so great!

I also learned that The Muppets covering Jungle Boogie is one of her current favorite videos. AMAZING!

On all counts, her vibes are immaculate.

Tomorrow, I'm going to a birthday bbq at my brother's, and I'm bringing her the Batman and Robin t-shirts, plus some toddler books about Batman and the Justice League. Hopefully she enjoys them almost as much! (I also recently sent her a Captain America t-shirt, which I believe she wore for the 4th, and I also got pics of her in the Superman dress, with her arms up like she was flying. 😍😍😍)

In other news, I found this review of the new Superman movie really moving. Will I venture out to a theater to see it? Probably not, but I will be very excited to watch it when it makes its way onto HBO in a few months.

*

the read on the speed-meter says

Jul. 11th, 2025 03:20 pm
musesfool: (easy like sunday morning)
[personal profile] musesfool
Two guys came and measured the space for my new dishwasher and it will apparently fit, but there are as always several - okay, 2 - unexpected wrinkles: 1. the current machine is hardwired into the electric, but the new dishwasher needs a plug, so the installers are going to have to build an outlet? These 2 guys didn't seem to think it was a big deal but it is another $75, which at this point is whatever, fine. Secondly, they were concerned that the installation might damage the drain pipe under my sink, and I was like, can we wrap it in something to protect it from being dinged? and they were like, "Eh, maybe, but if it breaks you're responsible for fixing it." Which, thanks. I suppose I can get under there and wrap a towel around it if necessary.

So we'll see how this goes on Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't completely wreck my kitchen!

Speaking of wrecking my kitchen, my current HGTV viewing is "Help! I wrecked my house!" which I'm enjoying, but oh my god, the sheer hubris of some of these mediocre white men, who think they can demo a kitchen or a bathroom down to the studs and then figure out how to put in a new one, and then have to call Jasmine because of course they can't. I don't understand these people, tbh. There is nothing wrong with asking a trained professional to come in and do that kind of work, especially if you're not particularly handy. (And even you are handy in the "can change a washer in the faucet" variety, what makes you think you can install a shower from the ground up??? WTF?) On the other hand, I am really sympathetic to the folks who did hire a contractor who turned out to be shady and didn't do the work properly and stiffed them of their money to boot!

In other news, I am now on vacation and very excited about it! Except shit, I forgot to set up my out of office message. I will have to log back in and do that.

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you're so close but still a world away

Jul. 9th, 2025 10:24 pm
musesfool: Olivia Dunham, PI (there are blondes and blondes)
[personal profile] musesfool
It's no meeting week at work, which is the best week! And then I'm on PTO next week. I carefully portioned out my to-do list so that I have one main thing to do every day (on top of whatever comes up each day) and it's so satisfying to mostly just cross things off it and not have to go to any meetings (which always add things to my list).

Yesterday, it was so quiet that I was able to read a whole book! Just sitting at my desk and answering email occasionally! So, Wednesday reading!

What I've just finished
Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch, the very latest Rivers of London book. And when I say, "very latest" I mean it was released yesterday. I enjoyed it! spoilers )

What I'm reading next
Idk, I'll keep opening books in my library until I find one that holds my interest, I guess.

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[personal profile] musesfool
I know I had some stuff I wanted to post about but now I can't remember what it was. Oh well.

I finally watched Captain America: Brave New World and it was fine. spoilers )

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RIP Julian McMahon and Mark Snow.

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And that has made all the difference.

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