Scheherazade in Blue Jeans

Administration
Happy birthday to iroshi!

Hello to new readers aliseadae, notadoor, and robling_t!

Medical
Had another night of meh sleep. This can stop any day now, really.

Blogathon
Thanks to new sponsor dormouse_in_tea, we're up to $483.34!

SPONSOR ME TODAY!

Auctions go up at blogforbarcc on Monday. Which means I really have to know like now if anyone who intended to make something won't be able to, so I can make up the shortfall. See here for details!

And don't forget to help spread the word! Read all about it!

Link Soup
* jimhines is auctioning a copy of The Mermaid's Madness to benefit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Go Jim Go! Click here to bid.
* Verb Noire needs your help!
* Great posts about fandom, both Readercon and not: AAMcNamara, AzureLunatic, CoffeeAndInk, MNFiddledragon, and SatyrBlade. Lots of food for thought.
* Ten Animals of Folklore.
* Art Saves!
* Volunteer opportunities for teens!

Daily Science
A new study has revealed the origins of tiger stripes and a subsurface ocean on Enceladus- one of Saturn's many moons. These geological features are believed to be the result of the moon's unusual chemical composition and not a hot core, shedding light on the evolution of planets and guiding future space exploration.

Daily BPAL
Tomoe Gozen: Red currant, golden amber, blackberry, honey, and pink pepper.
In bottle: Ooooh blackberry honey. *swoon*
On me: Blackberry honey and oooh, there's the currant. I am spiky-sweet delicious!

Zenobia: Orris, clove, costus storax, patchouli, hyssop, frankincense, balsam, and saffron.
In bottle: Ooooh. Interesting. Balsam and saffron with a sprinkling of clove. Orris like dry bone beneath.
On me: Mmmmm. The primary notes on me are the saffron and clove. Which sounds odd, but smells wonderful. Oh, I totally love this. Of course it's an LE. *headdesk*

Plans
feste_sylvain is back in town! And I get to spend the day with him!

After I pay bills and figure out how many things I need to make for Blogathon. And I'll see how much editing I can get done on "My Empire for Ashes"; I've printed it out and have a green pen at the ready.

lifecollage had the lovely idea of putting together a food basket of stuff inspired by my writing for the Blogathon auctions, and she suggested polling the audience to see what ought to be included. Ideas? I'm thinking of the berries/wine from "Unruly Harvest" and lemon curd from "Politeness Counts". What other foodstuffs can we think of?

feste_sylvain returned from his way-too-long work trip yesterday, and he came over today. Yay! Had missed him terribly.

Being as he was gone through my entire withdrawal process (yes, Adam deserves a medal for dealing with my withdrawal alone), he was surprised and conflicted to find that, in his words, "There's less of you!"

And I realized I'd forgotten to mention it here. So yes. The silver lining of severe nausea: I lost 10 pounds, and I'm down a jeans size. And I realize that with my body weirdness (new kids, I dropped 50 pounds with catastrophic suddenness on my first anti-seizure med, then gained it all back and then some on my fifth; neither extreme was good), people don't automatically know if this is A Good Thing.

So. I tell you that it is.

Not the nausea. That sucks. (And it's mostly back to pre-withdrawal levels... I don't say gone, because I've had nausea on every anti-seizure med. Six years. That's about as fun as you think it is. Remind me to post about the months where I'd lost my ability to read.)

But the weight loss itself is good, because I'd been carrying too much for my frame, which was exacerbating the pain and making it more difficult to get exercise. But this and the increased energy are eabling me to go out for walks again. I look forward to being more in shape.