It's My Very Favorite Gun: DIY Vera Prop

Hey guys! So, I know I kind of unexpectedly took the summer off. I didn't mean to, I just had my cousin's wedding in Florida, and then I got sick, and then I got lazy. *innocent whistling* It was way too hot this summer anyway for serious cooking/baking. I subsisted mostly on rice and frozen veggies because my rice cooker does not heat up the kitchen, so I really had nothing to share with you. But I have some fun stuff planned for Halloween!

I did meet Felicia Day, though, so that was exciting. It was at her book signing, I didn't like meet her on the street or anything. She was super cool and I actually managed to have a coherent conversation with her. (In your face, social anxiety).

The way the signing was set up, I gave my book to one of her handlers, who made sure she had my name before I even got to her, so when I stepped up to her table, she was already signing it and didn't see me right away. I stepped up, and not knowing what to do, I said hi. She asked me how I was, I said, "Good, how are you?" (I was going for coherent, not sparkling conversation, okay?)

She finished up, and goes to hand me my book as she says, "I'm goo-- *gasp* oh my god, I love your shirt!" I was wearing my Knights of Good Guild t-shirt, and I nearly died at how excited she got. "That is an OG Guild shirt, man!" she said, as she got up to take a photo with me. So I told her how Clara was my first ever cosplay, and she hugged me.

Her handler took these pictures with my phone. I didn't know until later that he took this one too.

She told me to tweet her a picture later. As I was about to leave, she stopped me and said, "You'll like the book; there's a lot of Guild stuff in there." And I replied, "Thank you," because that's clearly the correct response, and I stumbled out of there in a fog of fangirly bliss.

Not that it's actually necessary for you to know any of this, but it's so rare that I have cool stories like this to tell people. Also, you should totally read her book, because it's really good and pretty funny.

Anyway, NYCC is this week, yay! (And Felicia Day is going to be there. My mom says I should ask if she remembers me. I find it very doubtful that she would, even if a tiny part of me has decided we're totally BFFs now) The brother and sister-in-law finally watched Firefly about a month ago, after I loaned it to them about a year ago and decided they want to go as Jayne and Kaylee. I told my brother he should get a toy gun and paint it as an easy Vera-like prop. He just looked at me with this perplexed look, so I told him I would do it for him.

This isn't exactly a tutorial, since I really didn't know what I was going to do until it was actually on the gun itself, but I did take some in-process photos, so I can kind of walk you through what I did.

Source

This is the reference photo I worked off of. I knew I was never going to get it screen accurate, but I did want it to be clearly based off of the show prop. So, it's more like Vera's little sister, related, but not the same.

You want to start off with a toy gun. I got mine from Wal-Mart for $10 (it was part of a set with a big machine gun, a hand gun, a knife, a grenade, and string of "bullets"). I forgot to take a before photo, and I can't find a picture of it online, but it was Kid Connection brand, which I think is just basically generic Wal-Mart brand. It was very cheaply made, but that ended up working out better since I could easily cut off extra parts.

The first thing you want to do is take it apart, lightly sand everything down with fine grit sandpaper, and clean it (I did this part in my tub because that just seemed easiest). Wipe it all down with rubbing alcohol and let it dry. When that's done, just spray paint everything with a flat black paint that works on plastic.

The gun I used didn't have an ammo clip, so I made one out of cardboard and craft foam. You'll notice that cardboard and craft foam are a bit of a theme. I painted some of the fake bullets that came with the gun gold and cut a window in the clip so it would look like it was full of them. I just tried to match color and design to the reference photo.

For the muzzle, I used a cardboard tube from a roll of aluminum foil I just finished, I cut it down to a size that looked right, and hot glued it onto the gun. Then I painted craft foam silver, cut out alternating notches, and glued it on top.

You can see that the scope in the reference photo sits on top of a silver bar, which worked for me, because my gun had a handle there I needed to cover. I bent cardboard over the handle, and covered it with silver-painted craft foam. The scope is just a pirate telescope I got from the dollar store painted black.

The show prop had a weird metal piece attaching the clip to the gun, so I recreated that out of more craft foam. Then I painted sections gold and antique copper to add more visual interest. The antique copper paint is by Folk Art, and it was a really pretty color that covered very well, so I recommend it.

I just finished off with some weathering, which was more fun than it should have been. For areas that needed to look more metallic, I dry brushed on some more silver paint. To add some grime, I used some watered down black paint and immediately wiped it off, which is especially effective in areas with a lot of raised detail, or I dry brushed more black paint on. For some "battle damage," which I went a little overboard on, I took a cheap brush, hacked it up so it was uneven, and used it with more silver paint to add random scuffs and scratch marks

Like I said, it's not screen accurate, but I think it ain't too shabby, considering.

Nathan Fillion is also going to be at NYCC, so I plan on telling him all of the weird things people have Googled about him that have lead them to my blog (including "Nathan Fillion singing peanut butter song.")

And because I know you want it, here's Needy McSnuggles, "helping":

 He fell asleep on my open toolbox. And you can't see it, but he's on a bag of screws. Comfort

I put down cardboard to measure and cut, and he immediately decided it was his new bed

UPDATE: I got Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite to sign Vera! I was a little disappointed I couldn't get Gina Torres to sign it too, but her line was too massive. Nathan recognized it immediately as Vera and said I did a great job on it, before quoting, "it's my very favorite gun." (!!!) So she's officially Mal approved. Jewel Staite didn't say anything about it, but I got the feeling she was tired, and probably didn't make the connection. She was still super nice though.

We were instructed not to take up Nathan's time with extra conversation, since we were at the tail end  of the photographing session, and he had a schedule to keep, but he didn't really pay attention to that and was being his friendly, charming self to everybody (the SIL was fangirling too hard to notice he was being especially charming to her, which is a thing I will never let her live down. EVER.)

Felicia Day did not recognize me, as expected, not that I asked "hey, remember me?" But I brought my Guild Companion for her to sign, so we had another short conversation about Guildie things. She was about to close the book and hand it back to me, when I mentioned how I identified with Codex, and she opened it up again to write "you rock!" So you could say my plans of becoming best friends with Felicia Day are right on track.

So now I have Con Crud, but the fact that Nathan Fillion appreciates my crafting skills and Felicia Day thinks I rock makes me feel a lot better. XD

Life Update

For those of you that don't know, I have a cat named Jake. I rarely ever call him Jake. His nicknames include Needy McSnuggles, Sir Purrsalot, Pooper, and Snugglebutt

Last Wednesday, his breathing was kind of funny, and he barely touched his food (including his wet food, which is his favorite thing in the whole wide world, followed closely by snuggles and belly rubs). I called the vet, but they were already closed for the day, so I left a message to make an appointment in the morning. A couple hours later, as he was snuggled on my lap, I noticed his breathing seemed really labored, so I brought him to the emergency animal hospital. There he was diagnosed with asthma, a low grade heart murmur (which the vet never caught because whenever they tried to listen to his heart, he was always purring up a storm), and he had some congestion, probably from a mild infection. The doctor put him on oxygen, said they'd start him on a steroid and asthma medications, and once he could breathe normally on room air, he could come home, provided all the other tests came back clean, about 1-3 days.

After about a day and a half later, the doctor called me and said his breathing was looking better, but his congestion was a lot worse. What had looked like nothing much had ended up being a severe upper respiratory infection, manageable, but even the doctor was confused as to where he could have picked it up, since he's a strictly indoor cat, doesn't interact with other pets, and even though the previous owners of my condo had cats, I waited about a month before I brought him over.

On Saturday, they finally weaned him off the oxygen, and said I could come for a short visit, where the techs and doctors all commented on what a loud purr he has. And when I was petting him, he was only at about half volume, so it's pretty much official that I have the loudest purring cat in all the land.

On Sunday, the doctor called me and said he hadn't been eating, which isn't unusual for cats in hospital, but at that point was probably going to make things worse. Since his symptoms were under control with medication, they said he'd be better off recovering at home. I went to pick him up, and one of the techs explained his 9 (!) different medications to me, then went back up to clip his nails before bringing him down. He was pretty agitated in his carrier, but the tech assured us that he was just getting belly rubs and purring like crazy. She said she'd never even met a dog who loved belly rubs as much.

So now, Mr. McSnuggles is at home, and his medication schedule causes both of us a lot of frustration. He has 2 inhalers, eye drops, eye ointment, oral gel, and four pills. Most of his medications are 2 or even 3 times a day. He hates things in his mouth, and he's impossible to pill. The sister-in-law has to come over and help since she used to work at the vet's office and is the only one who can get him to take the pills. It stresses him out, and it stresses me out, and nobody's happy in my house right now. On Monday, I burst into tears when I tried the pill pockets (soft treats that disguise the pills) and they were a giant fail (I had also gone four days without a proper full night of sleep, so that didn't help). I just know he doesn't feel good, and I know he won't feel better if he doesn't take his medication, and I feel so useless that I can't even do that for him.

I'm taking him to the regular vet today, so hopefully they can reduce the number of medications or come up with a non-pill alternative (it's not pleasant, but at least I can manage to give him his inhalers, eye drops, and oral gel without help). But for the moment, I'm not in the greatest headspace, and I'm more worried about him being comfortable and unstressed during non-med times than I am about cooking and baking and photographing and writing about what I'm cooking and baking and photographing. So, if I'm absent for a little bit longer, that's why. I hate to abandon you all, but he's a living animal that needs my help, and the blog is not.

Since I wrote this, he has been feeling a lot better, which makes meds time a lot more stressful. I'm hoping the vet has a solution, because I'm becoming burnt out going through this three times a day. At least I have proof that it's doing more good than harm!

Stuff and Things 7/25/14

Life as I know it
It's been a while since my last Stuff and Things post. It's been crazy, guys. I'm still working on getting settled and getting back into a blogging routine. I have already had to call 911 (I woke up on July 4th to this really loud crackling noise. I looked out the window and the recycle shed was engulfed in flames. Good times. And now I don't know what to do with my recycle)

Source

I put in a service call to our security company at work because one of the maglocks on our data center wasn't getting power. They sent out two techs-- the first one walked in with a ladder (?) and didn't appear to have any idea what he was doing. The second one fixed it, I think, but in the process took apart an emergency shut-off switch that was connected to the AC in the data center, and the temperature sky rocketed and it was really bad. G was there for five hours saying, "hey, you think the tech might have done something?" and everyone told her no, and then she texted me, and I was like, "that must be related to the maglock," but she told me no, and then the landlord found the switch and everyone was like, "Wow, G was right."

So I've decided this must be the employee motto of our security company:

Brought to you by Captain Hammer, corporate tool

They also manufacture tools (sort of a weird crossover, I know) and I hope those are good, because their security techs are not exactly the sharpest in the shed. (Get it? I made a funny)

I finally watched Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing, and I loved it. That's always been one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, so it was really fun to see some of my favorite actors in it (because Joss Whedon filmed it in like a weekend, so he just called up all his friends and said, "hey, you wanna do a thing?" And he apparently invites his actor friends over all the time to do Shakespeare readings, and I want to go to there. I'll bring cupcakes and just sit in a corner and be completely unobtrusive, promise.)

I also watched Magic Mike, and, umm, it just made me feel really uncomfortable. Like, really, really uncomfortable. And was there plot? Because I couldn't find the plot. Maybe Matthew McConaughey's character scared it away (he was so creepy). I'm sorry, but I just don't get the appeal. I will just take this as more proof that I don't know how to girl.

Source

Ayup.

Speaking of girling, the brother and sister-in-law are getting married the same weekend as NYCC. Which was super disappointing at first. I was like, well maybe I can manage to go on Friday, then I was like, no I'll probably have to do bridesmaidy things. And then it hit me: Comic Con Bachelorette Party. Aw yiss. And the sister-in-law said yes, so it's on like Donkey Kong. We even decided on a Doctor Who group cosplay (the sister-in-law insisted I be a dalek. She'll be Rose, my brother will be 9, MOH will likely do River Song, and then we might have a cyberman and a Captain Jack. Honestly, we spent more time deciding on our cosplay than on the bridesmaids dresses.) I'm going to make little somethings to identify us as a wedding party: a Tardis boutonniere for the brother, maybe a blue tiara and veil or something for the sister-in-law, and maybe mini blue corsages for the rest of us. I don't know. I still have a lot of brainstorming on that part. My dalek cosplay will be more stylized than screen accurate, a lot like my Tardis dress, I've just got to work out the actual crafting bits.

TV- Beyond this point, there be spoilers

Falling Skies- So I just totally marathoned the first three seasons of this show, and I was pretty impressed. Aside from a couple inconsistencies (like who the frack is actually taking time to embroider peoples names on their uniforms post apocalypse? And where do they keep finding all these military uniforms? And why aren't they using the mech bullets anymore? And why do the Espheni keep not killing Tom?) I really liked it.

But this newest season, with this whole Lexi storyline, I'm not loving so much. I mean, the half human/half alien messiah child with the accelerated aging process and magic powers? That's straight out of Stargate. And let me tell you, Adria was annoying, but a lot less so than Lexi. And WTF is with Lourdes being all crazy stalker fangirl? Wasn't she devoutly Christian? Isn't she supposed to be smart? Is this like that Doctor Who episode where when your faith is shaken, the minotaur takes it over and makes you praise him before he eats you? Is Lexi the minotaur? Whoa, I think I found a new headcanon.

Posts from this week

Cocoa Pebbles Grilled Bananas

Stuff and Things 6/20/14

Life as I Know it
Happy summer! Is it summer yet, or is tomorrow the first day of summer? I always get that confused. Regardless, it's hot, and it's therefore summer, amiright.

I know I've been on total radio silence for a while. I really thought I'd be back up and running by now-- or at least at a place where I could cook dinner and put it in my light tent to photograph it. But, as you may have already guessed, I'm not. Still, the kitchen is on it's way to being functional. I got my awesome vintage kitchen table:

It even extends for if I have guests or need more work space

I found a kitchen island at Christmas Tree Shops that was a) the right price, b) the perfect size, and c) even matches my current cabinets and countertops. It was kismet.

I need a smaller microwave, though. It takes up half the countertop. But it was free, so I can't complain.

My floors have been refinished, so that's one thing I won't have to worry about for a long time:

I still want to redo the kitchen floor, but that's peel and stick laminate tile, so I should be able to do that all by my lonesome

My cousin's hand-me-down couch ended up being almost perfect and super comfy:

While brown isn't quite the color I would have chosen for my gray and yellow living room, it's neutral and it matches the buffet that I'm using as a media cabinet, so it all works together. Also, free, so yay.

My estate sale rug is looking bright and purty after the rug cleaning place never called me back, so I went and did it myself. Srsly, rug cleaning business, how do you stay in business? If you don't call back the people that want to give you money, you won't get their money. Simple concept.

It's got the yellow and gray of the living room, the blue of the dining room library, and even the brown of the couch. And also red, but almost every rug I looked at was either solid (boring), neutral (bleah), or had red. Apparently, it's a thing.

I still need to paint the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom, finish painting the stairwell, get blinds for the bedroom and kitchen, and get bookshelves (I miss having my built-in bookcase. T-T). Oh, and unpack my three thousand boxes.

Since I'm living on take-out at the moment, the kitchen is most definitely top priority. Fingers crossed, I'm hoping to at least get to simple things next week. Mug cakes, ice pops, grilled cheese, that sort of thing. No pizza, though. I'm pretty tired of pizza. That's what I get for buying extra so I can have leftovers.

I'm doing my best to keep my Facebook page updated, so tune in there to find out how soon I'll be back to blogging.

Stuff and Things 5/16/14

Life as I know it
Okay, so I'm totally living it up in my fantabulous new house and I'm doing all sorts of new house-y things and...

Okay, I kid. I'm writing this on Wednesday because I figure I'll probably be way too busy/distracted tomorrow, and while I don't normally mind skipping a Stuff and Things post, I'm less than 24 hours away from closing so I've got the kind of nervousness that grips at your stomach and makes you feel a little bit sick. Kind of like when I put in the offer actually. Part of me is convinced that something is going to go terribly, terribly wrong, since nothing has gone exactly smooth in this experience. So if I happened to have Instagrammed some insomnia cupcakes at 3 in the morning yesterday, this is why.

Let's move on to the pop culture, shall we?

UPDATE: It did not go smooth. Of course it didn't go smooth. This time it was because the sellers had some weird mom & pop mortgage company that refused to cough up the pay off figures. But everything's all set now and I own a house and my kitchen table was still in the antique store! The house needs a little love, but that's what next week's for.

Left to right: The key; the sightline from the living room, through the dining room library, into the kitchen; my new kitchen; my new walk-in pantry complete with spice racks.

Movies- Beyond this point, there be spoilers

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Why is Black Widow standing like that?

I don't know, it was a bit meh. Like standard action movie meh. I was not as impressed as I was with the first one.

Things I liked: Falcon (I do what he does, just slower). The Cap/Widow dynamic (not romantic, almost more like siblings. Nat definitely was acting like the older sister). Nick Fury being badass. Robert Redford as the baddy. Cap's most heroic moment being one where he chooses not to fight.

Things I didn't like: Black Widow's characterization. I felt like they weren't sure what to do with her. Like the writers were all, "wait, so she's sexy and she kicks ass, but she's not a romantic interest? Wtf am I supposed to do with that? I guess we'll give her some sassy one-liners and use her as a plot device. Oh and let's figure out a way to make her kiss Steve anyway." Urgh. I can't say that I wasn't expecting it, though. The superhero movie genre has a long history of doing really poorly with female heroes (which is weird, since they have plenty of source material to draw from). There were a couple glaring moments that seemed completely out of character, too. Like, crying in the hospital. Yeah, Nat would be upset, but showing weakness in front of others? Please. If it had been just Steve, maybe I could buy it, but they've shown no reason that she would trust Agent Hill. The next was at the Apple store (and, may I ask, did Widow always have hacking skills? Because that felt really plot device-y), when she said, "the guy who designed this was slightly smarter than me. Slightly," or something like that. No, nononono. That's something Tony Stark says. Natasha is an international superspy assassin. She knows there are people a lot smarter than her. She can admit that. Overestimating your own skills--or letting your partner do the same-- is a good way to get killed. 

The last you could make an argument for, but it still felt really out of character to me, was when Natasha jeopardized the mission when her own life was in danger. First of all, the badges being bombs or whatever was really obvious. If I could see that and Nat couldn't, there's a problem. She should have seen it coming. Secondly, while you can argue that Natasha has only ever looked out for herself, they set up the story of the Winter Soldier with a story of how she almost died to protect her mark. So you tell us about how she nearly dies to save one person, but then she balks when it comes to saving 20 million people, including some she would see as allies, and maybe even as friends? That whole bit just did not feel right to me, and I think we can chalk that up to bad writing.

But I'm okay with the part where she sasses Congress. Because that she would totally do.

And there were two things I left feeling really confused about. 1) Steve and Sam seemed really super friendly for a first meeting. Even the way Nat greeted him in the beginning seemed weirdly familiar. Maybe they were just running buddies that never got a chance to actually introduce themselves before, but it just came off a bit odd to me. Had they spoken before? I get Sam being friendly because it's Captain America and all, but they just came off more like people with history. And then when Steve and Nat need a place to crash because the entirety of SHIELD is after them, he goes to the dude's house he met running three days ago? I feel like I'm missing something there.

2) The Winter Soldier. For all that this is Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they really don't talk much about the Winter Soldier. Nat said everyone in the intelligence agency has heard these stories over the past 50 years. So, what, the Nazis rescued Bucky, they gave him a new arm (with tech that seems a little advanced, but I guess we'll list that under suspension of disbelief) and put him in cryo for 20 years (I'm starting to think Hydra stole tech from Torchwood), and then went, "gosh, we need to kill this dude, hey what about that dude we have on ice for no reason I can understand, I guess we'll use our sci-fi B movie tech and wipe his memories because that's totally a thing we can do and hope that he does what we say, and then we'll put him back in cryo"? The only explanation we got was that Hydra did a rather nebulous "something" to Bucky when his unit was captured. I am not satisfied with that.

Can we just give all the superhero movies to Joss Whedon from now on?

TV

Castle- Are you serious. Are you actually serious. The show is called Castle. When it ended the announcer voice said, "Castle and Beckett will return solving murders this fall," but you expect me to believe that Castle died in a fiery crash? That episode was so predictable and you end it with a not-so-cliffhangy cliff hanger? And of course it has to be right before the wedding so Beckett shows up to the crime scene in her wedding dress because apparently I'm watching a soap opera and not a procedural drama, and it's not like that's a thing that has happened on every drama ever.

Ugh. I just got finished telling a friend that Castle is not Bones and did not suck after they got together, but this season has been mostly let down, and that finale the let-downiest episode. Don't sacrifice content for drama, why is that a difficult concept?

And, here's a revolutionary idea, not every season needs to end on a "will they survive?" It's old now. Played out. I know they'll live. Come up with a new shtick.

Supernatural- I thought that Sam and Cas were cool with letting Dean shake hands with Gadreel because they wanted Gadreel dead. WTF HAVE YOU BEEN WARNING AGAINST IF YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING, SAM???? Because I did. When Dean went to shake his hand I was all, "NOOOO, you need all the allies you can get and he can get to Metatron don't let Dean near him what are you doing."

Although, I did love the LotR reference. And the Indiana Jones one (Last Crusade was the best). And Cas is "very pop culture savvy now"

Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven is a prime number and I assume that can be very intimidating.

Arrow- Hhjasjkdnalkenfldesf. Way to play with my feels, you guys. I mean, with Ollie and Felicity and Ollie's all like, "You're the woman I love." And I'm all like whaaaaaaaaaaat are you even that must be some kind of play, he did that on purpose, he's, I don't know, he's tricking her so she stays safe or something, I mean I love Felicity but Sara. And then Slade's all, "Muahahaha, I have the woman you love. And I know it's really Felicity." And I was just like nooooooooooo, Slade if you kill Felicity, I will slap you in your coocoo bananas face. And then like 2 seconds before Felicity stabbed him with the cure, I was like, "I get it, he bugged the house!"

But then Sara left again. T-T I don't like Nyssa. She's Ra's al Ghul's spawn. She's no good. You belong in Starling City, Sara, don't leave me, you're giving me abandonment issues. And she gave the leather jacket to Laurel and said Ollie needs him. Ollie and Laurel cannot get together. The first time, Ollie ran away from her. On a boat. And got marooned on a hellish island for five years. The second time, Tommy died. Ollie and Laurel are a well established BAD IDEA. Sara needs to come back, I already miss her little assassin face, but OH NO QUENTIN LANCE DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME I CAN'T LOSE THE ONLY OTHER DECENT CHARACTER IN THE LANCE FAMILY.

And then Ollie leaves Slade in a prison... on the island? And it turns out Argus had a base on the island all along... those little sh*ts. Who wasn't on the island?

And yay adorable baby Diggle! And yay Thea's leaving forever, because I can't do anymore Thea tantrums. The girl is actually five, and not in a good way.

Posts from this week

Frozen Mango Lemonade

Stuff and Things 5/9/14

Life as I Know it

SIX MORE DAYS. Six more days until I close. Supposedly.

I'm not going to believe it until it's here.

I can still play it in the Sims. -.-

I've got everybody all confused. My mortgage company sent me an email the other day, and I was kind of worried until I opened it and it was like, "Congratulations on your closing!"

Slightly premature, mortgage company. Shouldn't you know when it is, since that's when I pay you the money? You'd think they'd know.

But I got a couch, so there's that. Well, more specifically, my aunt gave me a couch. It was my cousin's, and it was less expensive for her to buy a new one than to ship it down to DC. Plus its also kind of massive, and she says she didn't like it because the fabric shows your butt imprint. This is a serious concern, but since I'm also kind of obsessed with decorative throw pillows and blankets, I think I can live with it. It might be too massive for my living room, but it's a sectional and comes apart, so I can always put a piece in the bedroom or something.

Other than that, I've been in a kind of limbo, house wise. I saw a really cool 1950's kitchen table in the antique store, in great shape with all four chairs, for actually a decent price, but I didn't want to buy it, not knowing how much room I'll have or where it would go. It's probably not there any more. I've also had my Amazon.com cart full for about 2 weeks of things I need, like a vacuum cleaner and a set of pots, but I can't click buy because it's bulky stuff and I have no where to put it. Meanwhile, the house that will eventually be mine has five big closets and a walk in pantry, and there's even a shared storage space for the building. SO MUCH STORAGE, I NEEDS IT PRECIOUS.

I've been going a little crazy. I'm just frustrated with all this lingering crap.

Oh, but some good news: you know how I talk about the brother and the sister-in-law? Well, she's not actually my sister-in-law, but they've been engaged for forever and a day, so it's just a lot easier to refer to her as the sister-in-law then as my brother's perpetual fiancee. But she's going to be the for-real sister-in-law in October! So I've totally been pushing for storm troopers. And that the officiant should be a dalek. I don't know if I'm going to be a bridesmaid; last time we spoke about it, that was kind of up in the air, since my brother's best friend's wife is due to give birth like two days before so he won't be able to make it. So they were thinking of going with no wedding party, but I said that he could contact the local chapter of the 501st to be his groomsmen. AKA STORM TROOPERS.

And then I was being helpful with the guestlist (ACTUALLY HELPING, I'm so proud of myself), because I'm apparently the only one who knows who's married or engaged or has a steady boyfriend-- just don't ask me the names-- and the sister-in-law looks up and goes, "I'm sorry Kimmy, I never asked; is there someone you're going to bring?"

Guys, I didn't even blink. I just said, "Benedict Cumberbatch. God Mo," I call her Mo, "it's like you don't even know me. How could you forget my imaginary husband?" And basically she just started laughing and we were not getting anything else done after that. But then my mom was like, "You totally should invite him," because I come from a family of enablers, "because if he doesn't show up, he doesn't show up. But he might." And when I told her the RSVP cards would need Royal Mail stamps, she was just like, "So we get some." Because etiquette.

And then Mo had a dream that he did come to the wedding, and she was so happy for me (this is her wedding, might I remind you) and that we were basically giant dorks together the entire night and now she's really down with this idea. And then I was texting a friend this whole story saying I guess I need to find his fanmail address or something since my entire family has decided he needs to be invited to the wedding, and almost immediately, she texted me the fanmail address.

Me: Umm, that was fast. Do you just keep this handy in case I need a date for a wedding?
Her: Maaaaaaaybe

So that's the story of how everyone in my life is conspiring to invite Benedict Cumberbatch to my brother's wedding. I am not saying this is a bad idea by any means, don't get me wrong-- because it was mostly my idea-- but at this point, I feel like I'll be the least disappointed if he doesn't show. Mostly because on the 0.03% chance he does, I'll probably hide in the corner the entire night taking stalker photos.

SOCIAL ANXIETY FTW

TV- Here there be spoilers

Castle- I'm happy HRG... err, Senator Bracken is finally behind bars, but I'm not looking forward to next week's episode. The "we can't get married because you were young and drunk and accidentally married your totally unsuitable boyfriend/girlfriend who I may or may not perceive as a rival for your affections" trope has been done and over done to death. I was instantly disappointed when I saw the promo.

Supernatural- I'm so torn. I don't want Dean to hang on to the first blade, because it's clearly no good, and it's totally changing him and I don't like it. But I also want to see him fillet Metatron with it. I really hate Metatron.

Also, I can't decide if Gadreel is setting Cas up or he really switched sides. Cause I gotta say, since he stopped trying to be Ezekiel, I find him a lot more sympathetic. I know he still killed Kevin, but I think he really didn't want to, he just thought he had to. He has kind of been out of the loop since the dawn of humanity and all.

And since Crowley changed the timeline by saving his son, does that mean the Doctor has to come and fix the paradox? (Although, really Supernatural writers, the man was in Doctor Who, and now he's got a time-traveling son. That was a complete missed opportunity for a reference. "Time can be rewritten." That's all he had to say.)

I still miss Benny. Can we go back in time and save Benny?

Arrow- SARA'S BACK!!!!! I was really upset that she left. And the why she left. Now I kind of want to smush her little assassin face. (Although, the blonde wig over the already blonde hair still kind of gets me as not making a whole lot of sense)

MALCOM MERLYN'S BACK!!!!! I laughed for about 5 minutes when we learned he wasn't dead. It was this really intense, dark scene, but I couldn't stop laughing. Because it's John Barrowman. I haven't been this excited for a villain's return since Moriarty, so, yeah.

OLLIE DIDN'T HOOK UP WITH LAUREL BEFORE SARA CAME BACK!!! That was the thing I dreaded happening the most. Not death and destruction. Not Isabel hurting Diggle (although I was really scared that was going to happen. Because Summer Glau + Mirakuru = unstoppable. But then Felicity hit her with a van. *giggle* That's my girl.) But the writers making a stupid love triangle between Ollie, Laurel, and Sara, that was my greatest fear. Black Canary and Green Arrow is canon, okay? And Ollie and Sara make a better couple. (And Laurel is a useless character, okay?)

Except the season finale is next week, and that makes me sad.

Posts from this week

"Darth" Chocolate Cupcakes with Sith Lord Red Velvet Frosting

How to make Monkey Cupcakes

Stuff and Things 3/21/14

Life as I Know it
Soooooooooo... as I type this, I just got off the phone with my attorney because the sellers tried to pull some shady, backroom dealing on me and cheat me out of $1500.

You know how we finally agreed to the appraisal price if I moved the closing date back two weeks? Well, they'd been dragging their feet about sending the addendum to the contract, and I just found out why. I got a call from my attorney this morning, saying the bank wouldn't forgive the sellers the $3k. I was like, okay, sucks to be them, but not my problem. Then my attorney goes on to say that the sellers were "willing to meet me half way" by dropping the price $1500.

Now, she'd been out of the office the past week, so she was a little behind. I was working pretty exclusively with her assistant and my realtor, not wanting to bother her on her vacation unless I needed to. So I guess she hadn't yet been notified (especially since there was no addendum yet) about the deal, and she thought the sellers' attorney was offering this in good faith. I was like, hold up. We already agreed to the appraised price. I'm confused as to where this is coming from.

The sellers' attorney must have known my attorney was OOO, and was banking on her not knowing about this yet, and figuring how young and inexperienced I was (and my attorney's not exactly and old fart either, although this is not exactly her first rodeo), he could go back on the agreement since it was only verbal and change the price in their favor.

I don't know how much the sellers actually had a hand in this. By all accounts, their realtor was actually upset that this was going on, since it's written in the contract that I can back out if we can't get it down to the appraisal price-- and I would have if they went back on their word; it wouldn't have been worth it-- and they can't get another house until this is settled. So whether their attorney gave them bad advice, or did it on his own, or they goaded him into getting as much money as he could, I'll probably never know, but right now I want to slap all three of them in their faces.

It's cleared up now. Pretty much as soon as my attorney called and went, "my client just told me something interesting..." he faxed over the signed addendum at the agreed upon price. But the whole experience has exponentially decreased my faith in humanity

Good news is, I made my two first official purchases for my new house (provided the sellers don't pull any more dick moves):

The first is a sliding glass door buffet I got from Christmas Tree Shops. It was the last in stock-- actually the display piece-- so I got a good price on it. It's a little dinged up, but still a nice piece of furniture. It's doubtful I'll actually use it as a buffet, since my dining room will be a library, but I might use it as a media cabinet. I have no furniture, so it could go anywhere, lol. The second is a vintage-style tin sign that I found on amazon and fell in love with. They only had 4 left in stock, so I panicked and bought it. That's going in my vintage glam kitchen, obviously. It's also the first thing I bought off my "condo wishlist" so you can say things are getting real now.

I had a dream last night that the condo was secretly a three bedroom, and that made it too long and it took forever to go find the bathroom and I got lost and that's how I discovered the spare bedrooms, and somebody asked me why I put the library in the dining room instead of in one of the spare bedrooms, and I couldn't remember why, so I said that the spare bedrooms were too small. As you can see, this hasn't been on my mind at all. And you can also see just how restful my sleep has been as of late, which is to say, not very.

TV- Here there be spoilers

Castle- Ninjas and no ninja ropes reference? Nathan Fillion, I'm ashamed of you. Also, I kind of thought they were from the League of Assassins. I've been watching too much Arrow.

Supernatural- I was super excited when I saw Kavan Smith guest starring. He was in Stargate: Atlantis (WHAT. We've established I'm a nerd), originally as a background character without a first name. I used to call him Major Cute Guy (because he was Major Lorne, get it?). The fandom called him Scottie the Hottie. Then it turned out his name was Evan and we were all disappointed. And then he played Sheriff Andy on Eureka, so I'm kind of super attached to him.

WHICH IS WHY IT WAS DOUBLY CREEPY WHEN HE WAS ALL KIDNAPPY STOCKHOLM SYNDROME DUDE. I was not even sad when Dean beheaded him. But when are they gonna bring up The whole "directly descended from Cain and Abel" thing? They're ignoring cannon, and this makes me angry.

Arrow- I KNEW that was Harley Quinn in the promo! I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT. They couldn't get away with more than a cameo, but it's still very exciting. I liked that this episode was Diggle-centric. Ever since Black Canary came on the scene, Dig's been kind of background and that upsets me because I love Dig. But I am upset that Laurel got more screen time than Felicity because Felicity is awesome and Laurel is not. Also, one session of AA and Laurel's totally clean and sober and sunshine and rainbows and loves everybody and is giving sage advice? I don't buy it.

And next week-- Do they really expect me to believe Helena stands a chance against Sara? B*tch, please.

Psych- The zombies were fun, and that part was really well done, but this was a little light on actual story. The mystery was obvious. I expected more from the SECOND TO LAST EPISODE EVER.

Posts from this week

Grasshopper Pie

Stuff and Things 3/14/14

Happy Pi Day! Here are 9 pie recipes to help you celebrate (the collage is clickable)

Life as I Know it
You know, I watch a lot of HGTV, and most of it has to do with buying houses. Property Virgins, House Hunters, Love it or List it. The Property Brothers is my favorite, because a) they're cute and b) while I understand all the benefits of buying a fixer upper and renovating, I wouldn't have a clue how to go about doing it, so I like watching them do it.

Anyway, my point is that I figured my watching lots of HGTV would prepare me for buying a house, it did not.

Like, appraisals. I didn't even know they were a thing. I figured that's why you have a real estate agent, to tell you what the house is worth. But no, after you're already under contract, you have someone come in and appraise the house and tell you the price that you already agreed on after 48 hours of negotiations is more than you should be paying and if you go with the price you agreed upon, that's going to affect the mortgage that you already did all the paperwork for and locked your rate in for the next 90 days except not because that extra $3k is going to raise your rate which doesn't make any sense to me because nothing's actually changed. This was the price I was approved for, this is the price I'm paying, but now it's somehow all wrong.

Raise your hand if you think this should come before you actually agree on a price with the seller. *raises hand* Doesn't this all seem a bit counter-intuitive?

So the house underappraised by $3k. Which, in terms of real estate, is not a big number. And since it's not going to appraise for a different price for anyone else, it would seem a given that the sellers would give me the house less that amount. So now's the time that the attorneys get involved, and I get a call from mine saying the sellers can't afford it. They're actually bringing money to the table in order to close. But! she says to me, their attorney is going to try something she's never actually heard of anyone doing before, and it might not work, but it's worth a shot. He's going to go to the bank and see if they can forgive the $3k, making it a short sale that's not actually technically a short sale. If he can show that the sellers can't afford to stay, and afford to lower the price, and since it's not like the appraisal is going to change anytime soon, and the fact that they already have a buyer on the line, he thought it was worth a shot to try. But, my attorney says, it's never been done, and she doesn't even know if he'll get in the door.

So this was Friday. On Tuesday, my realtor calls and says, the sellers found a place but need to push back the closing date 2 weeks. They'll drop the price if I agree. After checking that it's well within my 90 day rate lock, I was more than happy to agree.

Good news, the Pier 1 by me is having a clearance sale because they're closing for renovations. I'm going to go and buy things because a) I have nothing one would need in a new house, and b) I really need some retail therapy right now

Movies- Here there be spoilers

Silver Linings Playbook

Okay, I had high hopes for this movie since I love Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, but I didn't really like it.

Of course going into it, I didn't realize that it was about the "mentally ill." And like most similar movies, the whole time it was like, "ooh, look how deep this movie is because we're talking about the taboo and we're making the mentally ill people the ones you root for, but secretly we're still ostracizing them because we're showing them as wrong and strange and the only people who can love them are other mentally ill people." As someone who's been there, I tend find these movies insulting.

Because look at it this way, if you take away the mental illness-- if Bradley Cooper's character had been in jail or rehab, or similarly isolated from society, and if Jennifer Lawrence's character had just been having trouble adjusting after her husband passed away-- it would be a really bad movie about a highly toxic couple. Tiffany actually extorts Pat into being her dance partner, and then it turns out she was lying the entire time (but it's okay, even romantic, because he's mentally ill? Not understanding that logic). Pat shows zero interest in anything other than getting back the ex-wife that cheated on him with his coworker to their wedding song. When he's with Tiffany, he does nothing but talk about Nikki, his ex, or bring up the fact that Tiffany's husband is dead.

And not for nothing, even thought Pat is supposedly bipolar, they show him nothing but hypomanic. Not once does he have a depressive episode, and I don't even think that he showed a true manic episode, since they all seemed to be over in minutes. But I guess depressive episodes just aren't interesting enough (and even though he's supposedly in recovery, he's not taking his meds for the first half of the movie, so don't give me that). But I guess depressive episodes just aren't crazy enough. I mean, the urge to beat someone after you find him having sex with your wife to your wedding song, and he tells you you should "get out of here" when it's your own house, doesn't strike me as particularly crazy.

I thought the more interesting story, the one they spent the least amount of time on, was Pat's parents. Taking in their grown son after he'd been hospitalized, trying to deal with his episodes and their own guilt over not seeing it sooner. That would have been a good movie, but I guess they're just not young and pretty enough.

And what was up with the people in town? The therapist plays Pat's trigger in the waiting room of his office-- Pat, who'd just gotten out of state-mandated hospitalization for beating a guy half to death. Pat could have hurt the receptionist or the other patients in the waiting area (not on purpose, but that's why we keep triggers in controlled environments, dude) and he wasn't even there to see the result. And that cop, "Hey, aren't you Tommy's widow? Yeah, so sad, you wanna have sex?" And Tiffany's sister is all, "Hey, Pat's back, and he's crazy, and Tiffany's crazy, let's invite them both over for dinner so they can meet, but then I'll get upset when that's the only thing they can find to talk about." The f*** is wrong with these people?

Posts From this Week

Funky Monkey Oatmeal Muffins

Stuff and Things 3/7/14

Life as I Know it
Well, life has been pretty much eaten up by the house. I had the home inspection on Wednesday, and everything looked good except for some minor issues (the floors in the kitchen and bathroom need to be redone, but they're laminate tile and it's not difficult to do. The ceiling in the bathroom needs a little TLC, but not major, and there were some mold spots, but he checked and they're not in the walls or the insulation, so he said it's probably just from the current owner's humidifier, and just needs to be cleaned). The only major issue he found was that the wiring was aluminum, but so long as it was grounded correctly-- and he's fairly confident it would have been-- it's a non-issue. My realtor checked on the permits today (Thursday), and it looks like the complex had had an electrician through to do just that. So yay!

It also underappraised. Not by much, and my realtor doubts I'll have any trouble getting the mortgage, but she's trying to renegotiate. Best case scenario, I get it for 3k cheaper than we originally agreed upon (or they cover 3k in closing or that amount is made up somewhere). Worst case, I have the option to eat that money or walk away. My attorney made sure that I had that option in the contract. I don't want to walk away, but I have to be prepared to. First rule of negotiations.

Buying a house is hard you guys.

As for the job, more of the same. There's a pissing match going on upstairs to decide how cold I should be while doing my job. They move me to the conference center, then they move me back to the lobby, then to the conference center, then back to the lobby, and now I'm back in the conference center. And not a single person talks to me about it. I've just decided I'm not moving again unless I'm given 24 hours notice. Last time the phone was off for half an hour while I was moving my things back to the lobby, so I don't feel that's unreasonable.

Books- Beyond this point, there be spoilers

Dying to Get Published- Judy Fitzwater

Okay, I'm not usually a mystery genre person. I find them overly dramatic, formulaic, often way too obvious, and just not enough to keep my interest (the classics are the exception. Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle). But I found Dying to Get Published for free on the kindle store, and the premise sounded fun. And let me tell you, the book was a lot of fun.

The book centers around Jennifer Marsh, a wannabe mystery writer, frustrated with all the rejections from many agents and publishers. She hears a story on Oprah about a man who was acquitted of murder and got a multi-million dollar book deal from it. So Jennifer decides that if she can commit murder and get away with it, her publishing troubles would be over with. So she meticulously plans the murder of Penney Richmond, a nasty agent with a poor reputation. She follows through with the plan right up to Penney's front door, and chickens out at the last minute. But when Penney ends up dead, all evidence leads to Jennifer-- exactly as she'd planned.

The humor in this book was what really hooked me. It was dark, almost black, and I giggled the whole way through. The characters were quirky (I especially loved the little old ladies that were actually rather excellent spies), and Jennifer was refreshingly flawed. I didn't care for the love interest though. He was over confident, overly perfect, and came off kind of douchey.

The plot needed a little help (despite Jennifer's well established poor spying skills, she still managed to sneak her way into all the places she needed to, often with a little help from deus ex machina), and the story wasn't perfect, but it was definitely a light, fun read that I really enjoyed.

TV

Castle- Poor Beckett. *Sad face* Although is it weird that I'm happy the uber-baddy is back in play?

Psych- These episodes are making me sad. Everyone's moving on. And Lassie has a baby!

Arrow- OMG, Slade, you are kind of completely terrifying. And it was so surreal to see him just making small talk with Ollie and Moira and Thea. And all the cameras-- creeeepy.

But Felicity-lite episodes make me unhappy. Moar Felicity!

Supernatural- Okay, Dean was totally breaking my heart when he told the story about him and Sam jumping off the roof and how he had to drive Sam to the ER on his bicycle handles. That punched me right in the feels. Seriously Sammy, would you forgive him already? Because which of you slept with a demon, got addicted to demon's blood, and cracked open Lucifer's cage? I'll give you a hint: not Dean.

I'm also kind of really sad that the Ghostfacers broke up. I've just got a lot of emotions, okay?

(Although, you know what makes me giggle? Those "TV now" commercials the CW has with all the actors from their shows kind of wandering in this creepy, psychedelic manner. All the actors from the shows I watch have weapons, and I just have this image in my head that Dean, Ollie, and Diggle are there to murder all the main characters of all the other shows. Like Hunger Games, CW style, and they're the Careers) (My mom said, "what about the vampires? They don't need weapons." Um, Dean Winchester has a machete. Vampires best run for their lives.) (I have nothing against the characters from the other shows. The commercial just makes it look like Dean, Ollie, and Diggle are about to go serial killer on them, and that makes me giggle)

Posts from this week

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Stuff and Things 2/28/14

Life as I Know it

I know I've been kind of missing for a while, but that's because I was too busy being an adult and BUYING A HOUSE!!!!

Double Kermit flail!!!!!!

Okay, it's a condo. And okay, it's still under attorney review, so I haven't actually bought it yet. But I've been keeping it on the DL because I was so worried it wouldn't work out and the sellers accepted my offer and AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH.

UPDATE: We are out of attorney review, like 3 days earlier than expected. Pending a home inspection, the house is mine-all-mine. *cue MOAR Kemit flail*

The only pictures I have are from the listing, and they're not mine and I can't link back to the source since that will put an address that's not currently mine but eventually will be out on the internet. So I'll give you a virtual tour once we close (which won't be for a while because one of the reasons I was an attractive buyer was because I was flexible on the closing date). But it's BIG (I mean, not like huge, but for one person-- and a cat-- with a limited budget, it's BIG). The kitchen's BIG (not the actual workspace, but plenty of space to add more), and it has a dining room which I've already decided to use as a library/study because I own a lot of books and it's not like I throw dinner parties. And I've already decided to go vintage glam in the kitchen with a DIY makeover until I have the money to get it redone (laminate countertops and the cabinets are white: livable, but so not pretty)

For now, pretend this is what it looks like

But I had to get an attorney, get mortgage pre-approval, sign about 20,000 papers, had some drama because the HOA fees and property taxes were higher than expected, so I had to get a NEW pre-approval, sign more papers, go through 48 hours of waiting and negotiating, and now I have to find a home inspector and get an actual mortgage and it's very exhausting.

What does this mean for the blog? Well, as you may have noticed, until we get everything sorted, posting may be a bit spotty. Once I move in, I might have to go on a brief sabbatical while I DIY my little heart out. And also, since this is the first time I'll be living on my own since college, I need to buy everything. I mean, I think I still have my dishes and utensils, and I own a couple muffin tins and shaped pans, but I don't have any pots or cooking utensils or cooking spices or cleaning things or power tools, so it's going to take me a while to get back up and running. 

Once I do, however, I'm hoping I'll be able to post a lot more, or at least more consistently. I won't be sharing the kitchen with anyone except Viola and Needy McSnuggles, so I won't have to fight for cooking time. And it will just be me cooking, so I'll probably have more in the way of savory recipes to post (I also really want a slow cooker so dinner will be ready for me when I get home!). I love leftovers, so don't expect me to start doing recipes for two or anything. There might be some of those, but not many.

I'm also hoping to set up a little photo studio area in my library/dining room, so there might be some better photography in the mix as well.

And also, my bestie got engaged and asked me to be her maid of honor! So I will have MOH duties to attend to. I'm not completely sure what those duties are, but I know they exist (her colors are mint and coral. I tried to convince her to go with something else, but this is what she wants. Help me.). If there are experienced MOHs out there with any advice, please let me know!

So that's my life at the moment. What's happening with you?

TV Here there be spoilers

Castle- How did Castle not immediately go to brain washing? I mean, that's the first place I went. And the "video conference" from the suspect conveniently in "Stockholm." I mean, if he was in Stockholm, and he wanted to keep up the appearance that he didn't know those people, how would he know that Beckett was coming in to question him? Especially with the time difference.

This episode kind of failed.

Supernatural- Kevvvvvvinnnnnnnnnn! *sniffle* And Sammy, you listen to the dead prophet. Yeah, Dean made a mistake, but it's not like you're infallible or anything. *Harrumph* But yay Ghostfacers next episode!

Arrow- Okay, I wasn't really interested in the show originally, but I started watching because I have a friend obsessed with the show, and the fact that they have Captain Jack Harkness, River Song, and River Tam among the recurring guest stars is kind of awesome. And of course I started watching right before midseason hiatus. (Curse of the Sherlockian, I did the same thing when I started watching Sherlock. No one told me that there were only three episodes in that first season).

Anyway it's about dang time someone took Laurel to task for blaming everyone for her problems except herself. Ollie and Sara lived in hell the past 5 years, given up for dead, hunted by crazy people, tortured, brain washed, at some point Sara became an international assassin, but Laurel wanted everyone to pity her because her boyfriend cheated on her with her sister when she got overly clingy, and then she got drunk and lost her job, and her dad almost lost his job helping her, and she can't decide which billionaire she wants to sleep with. Yeah, I really feel sorry for you, Laurel.

BUT OMG THE ENDING WITH SLADE IN THE LIVING ROOM WITH MOIRA AND AJHGIJHKBNSDFLHNASK....