Your opinion is always worth a lot, Bronxwench. 🙂

Appreciated, Desiderius.  Sorry I didn’t review more than the first chapter of Fiends, but while I eventually made it through the second chapter, I wasn’t sure how to write the review for it (there are elements framed as scientific necessities in-universe that are more about kink/personal favorite ideas, and I wasn’t sure how seriously to analyze them), so I never ended up doing that.  I looked around to see if you had a short story I could review, but it seems you have the familiar writer’s curse of the stories growing ever longer.

*glances at my own unfinished, ever-expanding stories*

Trust me, I know this feeling. 😅

Also trust me on being with you on wanting to keep the separation of church and state intact.  I will do whatever I can over the next four years.

@InBrightestDay Yeah, kinks are in there, and it’s one of the earlier stories meant to be rewritten and updated once I get all the others done.  (I’m trying to forbid myself from new projects until there, because there’s some interesting things slated to happen toward the end of Fiends that basically kickstarts where I intended to take the series.)  There *are* some short stories sprinkled into the holiday/halloween fests (I’ve since cross-posted those to AO3).

In terms of elections, don’t forget to pay attention to things like board of education, local offices; those are things your vote has a much greater impact on.  My local board of education had a couple of candidates that seemed to be regurgitating the Trump/Religious-Right manifestos, and luckily neither of them made it (this time).

@Desiderius Price, apologies about not replying to this yesterday, but way ahead of your there.  Did my research on the local district school board members.  We had one running on that “empowering parents” idea (first name was Karen, amusingly enough), who I voted against.  She lost.  I’ll stay on it.

Thank you! It was nicely uneventful, which I appreciate no ends!  

Hope you had a great one, BW!

I did indeed, thank you!  

Yikes. Best of luck to all.

Thanks so much guys. The latest updates are that my family got to go into town (along with some 2000 other folks) to get essentials from their houses, so both sis and her fam, and our parents have their essentials, and other valuables that they could gather in time (and my nephew’s hamster), and both reported that there’s no damage to either house. There are some cracks on the outside of my parents’ house, but they don’t seem to be more than surface damage, at least from what my parents could see. 

As for the town itself, there’s a crack that’s going through the entire town, and the entire west side of the town has sunk by around one metre. So, that’s an interesting development, and the danger isn’t over yet. But, the scientists are sounding a bit more optimistic that there won’t be an eruption inside the town, although it has not been ruled out completely. 

Oh man, it’s the season finale of Stranger Things all over again. 

Seriously, glad the fam is okay.

Though Romulus was five years ago.. yeah, some never vanish.  (Got his urn so...there’s that.)

Christopher Bean, Toivo, Aino, Matti… I still miss each of them.

Momar, Gabriel, Alphonse. Miss them still.  Ninhursag turns 14 and Enki 13 in a week.  The kittens (Namtar &  Lillitu) are a year and a half.

Whatever you do, don’t look at their subscriber list either.

@Wilde_Guess You are very right. I am so lucky to still have them both. They’ve both had to bury their parents already, only one of whom passed from old age. And my parents are still relatively healthy so I am selfish and hope they’ll stick around for a while longer. 

Ditto, mine are rapidly reaching the age their folks were at passing, I hope they push beyond, maybe their “better” vegan diet will help?

My first reaction was shared disappointment as above.  My second reaction was to try hiring Ste7en Foster to redo the audio track—never mind that the show is real-life instead of anime, and that hearing-impaired viewers would become intensely confused since unlike anime lip-flaps, you can read lips in real-life film and video.  My third reaction was that some Icelandic rancher must be pissed that some magical ne’er-do-well has stolen all his animals, and that “Gramps” is either a “Dionverse” Auror or in on it.  Oh, well...

I slept since I figure it’s best to start off well rested

New Year’s Eve was quiet, and I’ve been spending New Year’s Day catching up on laundry and configuring the new computer, which is replacing my 10-year old Dell. (Yes, I finally surrendered and admitted I can’t tweak it anymore without replacing pretty much everything inside it, which led to the realization that it was cheaper to just buy a new computer…   )

Sleeping aside, mostly playing the “game” this holiday break – sometimes it’s better to play it through and tire of it (eventually), though this does mean no story updates from me. 

All my love to you and the family for a wonderful Christmas!   

But I’ll second Willow’s wishes for everyone. No matter how you celebrate, may your days be filled with joy and wonder. 

And that should of course have been Saturday and Sunday, since the 24^th and 25^th came up on those days   But whatever, the greeting still stands.   

And all my love to you and the family, @BronxWench for a wonderful Christmas too.    

Happy birthday to you!  I hope it was a good one. 

Thank you! It was uneventful, which is always good!  

That’s always my definition of a good day, and uneventful one!

I’ll trade you my bent spine that doesn’t quite work normally.  I’ll have your left leg because it might be better than my gammy left knee.

But you have to accept the gimpy left hip with the leg, Melrick, so it might be a questionable trade. 

lol Okay, I guess I’ll stick with what I’ve got.

Keeping myself on my toes, apparently   And isn’t that how one usually gets a promotion?   

“Promotions” usually entail going up into management, thus I try to avoid them!

See, this is why I was smart, made myself the resident Neko, and now they can’t get rid of me, so they give me shiny stuffs to keep me quiet, and less bitey   

everyone’s great, trust me, eruption is better than constant earthquakes  And it’s in a very similar location as the previous eruption, so the town’s safe

You know I worry about your mum and the gas emissions. But yes, I imagine this is better than the thousands of earthquakes they were talking about!

Thank you, love. As for the gas emissions mum knows how it affects her so she’ll be more careful this time (I hope  ) so now we’ll just have to hope for “good” wind directions while this lasts 

A happy birthday to you!  I hope you had a good one! 

Thank you!  

Happy Belated Birthday!  Feast on the remains of a few spammers?

Thank you, Des!

Harness it, harness it, don’t let it escape!

RIGHT?! I guess he’s the proof that growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional…  

Don’t grow up, it’s a TRAP! 

I absolutely agree with that… that’s why I still haven’t grown up

Congrats on completing the fast, Willow ! Was Japanese Golden Curry and rice at the end of that rainbow ?

So, *THAT’S* the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Now I know. 

Yups, had a big plate of Japanese Golden Curry and rice once I got home, and then ate a can of Pringles a little while later  Hungry is not a flattering state for me.