I came, I saw - and then I slashed them!

Mother's Day

Sun, 11 May 2008 03:48:12 GMT

I WOULD LIKE TO WISH ALL THE MOTHERS ON MY F-LIST A WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY!!

Bask in the recognition you all so very much deserve, and let your family do for you for one day all the things you do for them the other 364 days of the year!

He, he, he, my request for Mother's Day was 2 hours of peace and solitude. No kids, no chores, only time for myself to do a few things I don't get to do much anymore. Mainly doing some reading and writing. So hubby is taking the boys out somewhere (I don't even care where to as long as they GO), while I lounge around and finally get some work done on my current WIP.
Yay, I can't wait :)

Oh, Baby

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:48:12 GMT

Things I fished out of Baby Daniel's mouth today:
- Fuzzballs, several of them
- A small pebble
- Banana peel!

And the one I didn't get: I have no idea what it was, but he swallowed it before I could get to it. Hopefully it was another fuzzball, and nothing more serious. I was concerned and was watching him carefully for any signs of distress for a long time, but many hours later he was still fine, so now I'm just hoping that whatever it was will travel through his system and come out the other end without any problems.

ARGH, and he's not even walking yet. What will I be in for then???

house search update

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:20:49 GMT

So, we put another bid on a house. That makes the, what, 4th house we've bid on. Of course I hope that will be the one we get, but with our track record up till now, I'm not even holding my breath anymore. The first two houses we got outbid on, with the third house the bank accepted our offer, but upon inspection it turned out to have so many problems that it wasn't practical for us to actually buy it. It would have taken way too much to fix it up. What was especially sleazy of the bank was that they tried to hide these problems (leaking oil tank, busted pipes, etc) and wanted to impose a clause that we had to sign the purchase contract *before* we schedule a house inspection. Thankfully our realtor was sly enough to keep the bank's realtor at bay and play ignorant of that stipulation until the inspection was already under way. If we had signed that contract, we would be stuck with a house right now that would need probably tens of thousands of dollars to get those problems fixed just to make it habitable. And none of those problems were visible, since the oil tank was underground and the pipes were in the walls.
The most current house is a bank-owned property as well, and we'll keep a very close eye on their contract clauses, and we're definitely having the inspection done before we sign anything!!!

Why can't we just find a place to stay!?! If this house doesn't pan out, we're just going to bite the bullet and rent a house in Hopatcong. We've got to move on, we've been living with my mother-in-law for over a year now, but we've got to get our own lives up and running again. I need to make a move regarding Junior's next school, and Alex wants to start looking for work in New Jersey.

What really get to me also is that Baby Daniel is 9 months old and his German grandparents have not seen him yet, since we're so rural here in PA that there aren't any hotels around here for them to stay if they were to visit! As soon as we have a place to stay in New Jersey, I'm either having them come over or I take the kids and fly home for a few weeks during Jr's summer recess.

And speaking of Baby...he's crawling faster than the wind, and I can't get ANYTHING done, since I constantly have to either run after him, pry things out of his hands or mouth, or carry him around 'cause he's whiny. *sigh*

Met the ladies

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:01:20 GMT

Yesterday I met cmar and <lj user="germankitty> for lunch in Manhattan! It was so nice seeing Cmar again after nearly a year, and Germankitty is just as sweet as I had imagined her to be. We ate and talked and must have gone through two dozen subjects in a little under two hours. Unfortunately then I had to run off to catch my bus back to the Pennsylvania boonies, where hubby and Baby were waiting for me after 6 hours by themselves. (Thankfully, they managed that just fine) In the meantime, my resourceful mother-in-law, who had taken Junior to Build-a-bear workshop while I was lunching, kept the bus from leaving until I got there by acting as if she couldn't find her bus ticket. Gotta love her :) Ladies, I had a great time with you, and I hope I didn't chew off your ears too badly ;) I don't get out much, you know. Hope you're both feeling better by now!!

So much for the house

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:47:23 GMT

Well, looks like I've cheered too soon. The house we thought we had.....we had already started the paperwork for the sale, but the sellers haven't actually signed them yet, only verbally accepted our offer. So yesterday our realtor gets a call from their realtor that they got a higher offer on the house, and that they are going to accept that one unless we increase our offer. And since we don't want to play the bidding war game, we're going to have to let that house go.
I am beyond upset at this whole situation, and also sick and tired of searching for houses. Hubby is once again talking about packing up and moving back to Vegas (since the housing market is flooded there), and I'm just tired, tired, tired. Of everything.
What's going to happen now? Who knows...........

FINALLY!!!

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:13:29 GMT

Woohoo, we found a house!!

Finally, after months of driving from Pennsylvania to New Jersey every weekend, and after looking at DOZENS of houses in three different counties, and .
after four submitted offers on different properties, one of them got accepted!!!!!!

We are now the proud owners of a house in Hopatcong, New Jersey! It has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a huge living room with a den for Alex' computers, a back deck, basement and attic for storage, and a spacious backyard for the kids to run around in :)
It also has lots of closet space, and an eat-in kitchen - which we will have to remodel, though, because it's old and mismatched. No garage, but it has a 2-car driveway, so that's fine.
It's close to the NJ transit train station for Alex to get to work in New York, and even closer to Junior's next elementary school.
The neighbouthood looks nice, predominantly residential, and all the other houses on the street are in good shape, the neighbors seem friendly.

We did it, the search is finally over!!!! :)

Power Rangers Jungle Fury

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:58:44 GMT

Well, I finally got around to watching Jungle Fury today. Since we don't get Jetix over here in PA, I watched the pilot epi and Sigh of the Tiger on Youtube. Not the best quality, but hey, it's better than nothing, and I'm just grateful that people are posting those epis at all.

All in all I have to say I really liked it!!!!! I have only seen maybe 2 full episodes of Gekiranger and then only snippets here and there, but I really like how they've 'Americanized' it into Jungle Fury. Of course the show has the usual shortfalls such as no background information on the settings and characters (I've had a big flashback to Ninja Storm when I saw the kung fu school, btw), as well as the inexplicable instant acquisition of all Ranger knowledge through the morphers, but we're all used to that in the Power Ranger genre by now, right?
Speaking or morphers: Sunglasses? Very new and very cool, I like it.
I also like the fact that this season emphasizes on kung fu as opposed to many earlier shows where the fighting styles were pretty much just mixed martial arts and acrobatics.
The characters are very attractive, even the villains. Camille's face reminds me of Madonna for some reason. Maybe it's her eyes. And the main villain (Jarrod?) has a nice, dark intensity about him. And I had to chuckle at the fact that they gave him pretty much Rio's outfit, down to the big-shouldered fur coat :)
The first thing I thought when I saw Casey was: Oh my, here's the love child of Wes and Sky! He's so cute.
And RJ is just HOT!!!!! In his goofy state he reminds me of Toby, the record store owner from Mystic Force, but when he's serious he's totally something to stare at - which I will be doing quite a lot, I'm sure ;)
His character is chock-full of potential. I hope the writers won't screw it (him) up as the show progresses.

it is no secret that I was disappointed with Operation Overdrive and quickly lost interest in watching it after a few epis. That was mainly because I liked Boukenger so very much. But for Jungle Fury, I have very high hopes, and I'm already looking forward to watching the next epi.

Oh, and the theme song - very catchy!!!

Nomination

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:17:15 GMT

Wow, I've been nominated at pr_heroes!!!! **feels very flattered**

Thank you, thank you, to whomever nominated me! :) I won't stand much of a chance against all the incredibly gifted writers there, but I'm just happy to be in the game :)

Good luck to all my fellow writers, and I'm looking forward to lots of good reading! *as much as baby lets me do*

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 02:31:33 GMT

TO EVERYONE ON MY FRIENDS-LIST A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We had a very nice one, too. The kids got a lot of presents (and so did Alex and I), had some family over for a while, and just finished a delicious chicken-and-rice dinner. Now it's 9.30pm and I'm stuffed and tired. But that's ok, since I'm still in my pajamas from this morning ;)
Missed the Christmas mass at church, though, so I'm hoping they'll have another one tomorrow...

FF meme

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 06:03:26 GMT

I saw this on Germankitty's, KK's and Cmar's journals a while back and haven't been able to get it out of my head, so I might as well try it, too ;)

Take five stories you've written (or more, if so inclined) and rewrite the story descriptions in the style of soul-crushingly horrid fanfiction.net synopses.

Betrayal - Shane meets this girl and falls in love with her, but she turns out to be a spy from Lothor and a real bitch, and things get real bad from then on. My first fanfic, so please be nice! *sweatdrops*

Just a conversation - just like it says, theyre just talking. Oh, and theres kissing too :) This is slash Cam/Hunter, so if you dont like it, just dont read it! And no flamers! If you dont have anything nice to say, then dont say anything!

Echos of Evil - A really cute warrior from another dimension comes to blue bay harbor and the ninja rangers have to help him fight this really powerful sorcerer. There's gonna be a lot of really cool magic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really like this story and I worked really hard on it so please read and REWIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ninja Honor - Cam gets kidnaped and the other's have to figure out how to get him back. I realy suck at summeries, so just read it, ok? The story is alot better then the summary If I get a lot of reviews, I am definantly writing a sequal......

Cave Rules - the thunder rangers move into ninjaops i wrote this at like 3am and i was kinda drunk and i have no beta so if u see any mistakes just ignore it. Canter (or Hunteram or whatever they call this paring)

Men! How do they survive?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:34:57 GMT

First up, to all the males on my f-list: Please don't take this personally! I just need to vent right now...

But seriously - how do men as a species survive? Simple! Because they were/are being raised by women!
This morning I asked my 20-year old brother-in-law to take Alex Jr. to school because Baby Daniel was running a temperature. Now, Junior is in 2nd grade, which means he has been going to school 5 days a week for about 2 years. And this morning, because I wasn't there to remind him, he forgot his bookbag.
Honestly, the kid would forget his head if it wasn't stuck to his neck!!!! He is so scatterbrained, I have to constantly remind him of things that should be a firm part of his daily routine, like brushing his teeth, etc. I'm so tired of this!!
As for my brother-in-law: You are taking your nephew to school. It didn't strike you as odd that he left the house without his bookbag???
The man has school smarts only, it seems. When it comes to Real Life, I could feed him to the chickens for all his uselessness.
So I put my feverish baby in the car, drive to the school, drop off his bag. Then I go get groceries for dinner tonight, try to calm fussy baby once home again, clean up and do as much as I can around the house as long as he is mellow, try to get in some online Christmas gift shopping, do laundry and research several areas of New Jersey for our house search.
And then I get an MSN IM from dear husband at work saying: Where are you? I've been waiting for you to come online!
And I can't even crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head because now Baby is hungry........

My, look at the time...

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:48:34 GMT

Wow, I can't believe it's been over 3 months since I last posted an entry. Where has the time gone?
Well, Baby Daniel is by now 4 1/2 months old and completely rules the house. He's a lot of work, but such a joy.

Check out my cool new picture, everyone. Courtesy of my good friend Cmar *Thank you so much, sweetie!*

But I have to be honest, I'm glad I'm not working right now - 2 kids and a job, even part time - would be too much right now. Between house chores, caring for my own two sons and my goddaughter and house hunting for a place of our own in New Jersey, I'm pretty busy. Thankfully there's a big selection of houses out there right now, so we should definitely be able to find something nice at a good price.
*Sigh* I've been feeling down about my parents lately, though. They have yet to see their second grandson, and that is really getting to me. I feel the need to pack up and fly to Germany, even if it's only for a week or so. Junior is out of school for 2 weeks in December. Maybe, just maybe, I might be able to squeeze that in...

Eight random things meme

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 01:01:09 GMT

So I've been reading some of you guys' "8 Random Things" memes and that reminded me of a few strange traits of my own. And since Baby is mellow right now I might even have time to write them all down:

1. I write with my right hand, but do everything else - eating, drawing, etc. - with my left.
2. I am a dog person. Always had German Shepherds (1 at a time) until I moved to America. Then I tried my luck with a Dachshund. Don't ask how that ended...
I will definitely get a Shepherd again once we've found a house of our own in New Jersey!
3. I love fish-stick sandwiches. Give me some bread, cheese, fish-sticks and mayo and you won't ever hear me complain about dinner.
4. I love driving in the rain. Living in Las Vegas for nearly 8 years deprived me of that hobby, but Pennsylvania is much wetter in that respect and that makes me happy.
5. My first online fandom was Star Trek Voyager. I was into Janeway/Chakotay for quite some time and found wonderful stories by incredibly talented writers. Then somehow I wandered into Power Rangers; it was at the time Ninja Storm aired, and I think it was the leather ninja uniforms that caught my eye. Then I found Starhawk's C/H stories and the rest is history :)
6. I can eat chocolate at all times of the day and night.
7. I have seen Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood, Men in Tights" so many times I can quote pretty much the entire movie.
8. I have discovered that, if I turn Baby and my body different ways, I can read a book and even surf online while breastfeeding (and if that one is TMI for ya - well, too bad *g*)

Life with baby

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:11:48 GMT

All right, he has finally arrived!!

Baby Daniel Lucas was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on 7/3/07. He weighs 9lbs 4 oz. and is 21 inches long.
It was a tough birth, since by the time we got to the hospital, I was already so far dilated that no pain medication could be administered anymore. So I squeezed him out 'au natural' and all I have to say about that is:

OUCH!!!

But he's healthy and strong and a voracious eater, and that's all that counts!

But life sure is different once more now. I had forgotten a lot of the ups and downs of taking care of a newborn (it's been 6 years since Junior was born). To prioritize between sleeping, eating and doing the most urgent of chores around the house is a definite challenge. Hubby also just started his new job today, so the timing was all kinda off and he only got to spend 5 days with his new son. Now he'll only be home on weekends, and I'm feeling the lack of help. Thankfully I did do it all before and I'm not a scared newbie-mom all alone, so I'm coping.
I wish I knew how to put a HUGE picture of my new little sweetie up on here, but since I don't, just check out my userpic!! :)

So for everyone on my F-List: I'm not going to be on much anymore, but I'll try to keep up with reading your stories and life-posts. But if you don't hear from me, it's probably because I'm trying to catch yet another 20-minute nap ;)

possibly signing off for a while

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:18:22 GMT

Well, the countdown to Baby's birth is on, seven more days to go to the official due date of 6/27, but it could really be any day now. So, F-list, if you don't see any comments from me for some time from now on, it's because I've got my hands full of newborn! :)
Same thing for IM's - if I'm not around, it's for the same reason. A new momma has to catch her sleep any which way she can. For the same reason there also pretty much won't be any writing from me for a while. I know that's probably going to frustrate me some, because I still have quite a few ideas for my Mithrandos/Kandaar fantasy chapters as well as my current Ninja Storm WIP, but I don't know how much I can get done before Baby arrives and I certainly don't know if I can get any writing done afterwards.
Oh well, I guess I'll just have to see...
Anyways, I'm going to put my swollen feet up now, I feel like a fluid-filled blimp, and it's going to be nice getting my body back ;)
But of course the thing I'm going to look forward to the most is meeting my little guy soon!!!
Talk to you all later.
Hugs from Dany

Oh, on another note: Hubby finally found a job! As an IT engineer. And now that this position is pretty much lined up and a sure thing, he got two more e-mails and calls with job offers! How ironic is that!?!?!?!

You might be a redneck if...

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 23:52:33 GMT

LOL, you know you've moved into the country when you drive by a pet store and there is a sign on the front door saying: Our grooming department does not clean skunked dogs!

Can life suck any more?

Thu, 31 May 2007 23:17:01 GMT

It's been almost 5 months now since we moved from Las Vegas to bumfuck Pennsylvania and it's turning out to be one of the worst moves we've ever made. The ONLY thing that has been positive so far is that my 6-year old son has more family time with his cousins. Other than that, everything has gone wrong so far, and the job search is the worst of all. Alex has been looking pretty much since we got here. Every day. In PA, NJ, and mostly New York City. He has a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology and numerous certificates, but obviously the market around here for any IT jobs is just simply not there or we are doing something seriously wrong, because he just can't find anything. He has applied for literally hundreds of positions by now and most of them don't even get back to him. He's trying jobplacement agencies, too, and doesn't hear from them either. He's got the education, but so many places want 3-5 years of experience, and he apparently doesn't have enough of that. Even entry-level positions want several years of experience. WTF? Isn't that contradictory to the meaning of 'entry level'?
He is so down right now I'm seriously getting worried about him. He's looking into any sort of shit-job around here now, just so he can bring in some money, but Jesus, he didn't work his ass off for 4 years getting this degree to end up doing some bullshit job...
And I have 3 weeks left until this baby is born...
I told him today that, if he gets in touch with some people back in Vegas who have told him back then that there might be a job for him, we'll move back. I'm at the point where I won't even mind.
I don't understand what are we doing wrong, damnit!

Missed dinner and impromptu date

Mon, 14 May 2007 05:40:42 GMT

Well, today confirmed my opinion that 'if you want to get somewhere, don't rely on others to get you there'.
My brother-in-law invited us to a Mother's Day dinner at a very nice restaurant in Central Park. Reservations were for 5pm. So hubby and I drove 2 hours from Pennsylvania to NYC, braved the craziness of the Lincoln tunnel and the Sunday traffic of Manhattan to make it to his grandmother's apartment with time to spare and wait for Danny (brother-in-law) and his girlfriend to pick us up from there.
At 4.50pm, no Danny, no call, and he didn't answer his cell. So we decided to make our own way to the restaurant. Walked a few blocks to Broadway to pick up a cab, stood around for at least 10 minutes and not one free taxi to be had! Walked some more until we got to the corner of Central Park. Problem was, the restaurant was on the other end of the park, and by then it was already almost 5.30pm. Still no word from bro-in-law. By then I was pretty sure that our table had most likely already been given away, since on a crazy busy day like Mother's Day, they wouldn't hold the table for longer than half an hour.
Hubby was mad by that time, called his brother and left him a voicemail just to forget about the whole thing.
We were both starving by that time, though, so - since it was a beautifully warm day and we were already at Central Park, we just got us some street vendor food, took it into the park and had an impromptu picnic.
And it was nice! Just hubby and me, no kids, no one else around. We just talked and ended up having a good time, almost like a back in the days when we were dating.
Found out later, when we were already on the way back to PA, that Danny had gotten to grandma's house at around 5.30pm, looking for us, but by then Alex had turned off his cell phone 'cause he didn't feel like dealing with his brother, so we never knew whether he ever even tried to get in touch with us.
Oh well, Alex is still mad at Danny, but they'll work it out eventually. * I * actually had a nice time.
But now I'm beat. Going to bed now.

Ah - life!

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 14:51:28 GMT

So - pretty much everyone in my house (well, my mother-in-law's house, that is) is sick. Junior started it with a 24-hour bug, passed it on to Alex Sr. and now it's my turn. Sucks to be sick.
And, of course, right at the one time Sr. gets sick, he gets a call for a job interview. So now he's on the bus into the City, pumped full of non-drowsy Theraflu, to make the best impression possible at the panel interview for a support analyst position with a TV commercial company. Man, I hope he makes it through!
Meanwhile I'm home alone (for the first time in - forever!), trying to cure myself without chemicals. And I just finished the book I've been reading for weeks now and it was soooo good and soooo sad that I cried like a baby at the end (although I have read it before and knew how it ends). *Sigh* I'm definitely hormonal.
I'm going to take a nap now!

Fanfiction.net problems

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:37:34 GMT

Does anyone else have problems uploading documents to post on Fanfiction.net?? I've been trying since yesterday to post new stories on both Fanfiction and Fictionpress, and I get the same 'error has occurred while processing your request' message every time. And it won't let me send a message to their support e-mail either...
This is really getting frustrating!!!!!!!!!

"Five Things" challenge

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:18:22 GMT

I actually sat down and completed a writing challenge! I can't remember the last time I did that (have I actually ever done one?? Hmmm.....)

Camille got me interested in the "Five Things that Never Happened" challenge with her wonderful contribution "Five Nice Things Eric Never Did" ( http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3411397/1/ ). Check it out if you haven't already.

So the plot bunnies started materializing in my head, and this is the result:

A word of warning, though: All but one are slash-inclined! As a matter of fact, this is ultimately a Cam/Hunter slash fic – just not right away ;)

I have no idea why the LJ-cut isn't working for me today, so I guess I'll just have to post it like that...

FOUR MESSAGES HUNTER NEVER ANSWERED – AND ONE HE DID
By Dany
PG-13

Summary: Hunter has five secret admirers, but only one of them HE is interested in…

The ones he ignored:

#1:

By the time the contest was over Hunter was dirty, sweaty, and it was hard to tell who was covered in more mud – him or his bike. But, hey, he had won the race!

Consequently, he was still grinning like an idiot when he walked into the trailer that served as the temporary locker room for the contestants.

The sealed white envelope sticking more than halfway out of the side of his locker door was so blatantly obvious that it wouldn’t even have needed his name printed in blocky letters across the front.

‘Fanmail already?’ he thought, his patented lopsided grin emerging at the corners of his mouth as he tore into the letter.

Hey, dude, it’s me, Dustin. Sorry about the letter, but I have something to tell you and you know how I always end up rambling whenever I need to explain myself with words. So I figured I’d write it all down instead.

All right, here goes: I like you. I mean really like you. In the ‘more-than-buddies’ kind of way. I’m probably not even telling you anything new here; I mean, you must have noticed me staring at you at one point or another these past few weeks, right?

Well, maybe not, since I’ve mostly been staring at your butt. I can’t help it, though, it’s got to be one of the nicest, tightest and hottest…

Okay, if I had another sheet of paper, I’d seriously rip this one up right now and start all over again, but since I don’t – could you just ignore that last line? ‘cause that is so not the only reason why I like you.

Look, I just think we have a lot in common, you know…Rangering, riding and messing around with our bikes, videogames, pizza, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can’t think of right now.

I have no idea whether you are even into guys. If you’re not, I hope we can go back to chilling with each other as friends. But if you are, I would be really happy if you gave you and me a chance at this.

I hope I didn’t just make a total idiot of myself with this letter, but I honestly think we’d be good together.

Think about it, okay?

Peace,

Dustin

*************************************************************************************************************************************

#2:

The scroll had been placed beneath his crimson backpack, but Hunter saw it right away as he stepped out of Ninja Ops’ shower. After today’s especially long and grueling training session, he wanted nothing more than a long nap, but curiosity triumphed over weariness and he untied the leather strip from the scroll and unrolled the parchment.

Hunter,

I apologize for the impersonal nature of this note, but I deem this the best possible way of conveying to you a matter that has occupied my mind for quite some time now.

After much meditation, herbal suppressants and introspection, I have finally come to the realization that I am attracted to you. Please believe me when I say that this comes as much of a surprise to me as it undoubtedly does to you.

Never before have I been physically allured by any of my students, regardless of gender, but in your case I am willing to walk this never-trodden path.

I hope you are as well.

I am aware that my current guinea pig form would have a detrimental effect on a potential relationship, but since my meditative epiphany I have doubled my efforts of finding a way to reverse this cursed spell. Needless to say, any sign of a mutual affection would serve as an invaluable incentive to me to once again resume my human form.

I understand that you will need some time to process these revelations, therefore I will not press you for an answer. Reply to me at your leisure and in whichever way you see fit.

I would, however, ask for your discretion with this matter, since I do have my reputation as an upstanding and respectable teacher to think of.

Sincerely,

Kanoi Watanabe

**************************************************************************************************************************************

#3:

Zord cleaning duty. A necessary evil, but one that all of them shared on equal terms. Somehow, however, that concept failed to make Hunter feel any better about the task ahead as he stood by the front wheel of the Insectizord, his gaze darting between the enormous vehicle and the suddenly pathetically inadequate-looking high pressure fire hose in his hand.

‘Cam really needs to get some sort of high-power Zord washing system set up down here,’ he thought wistfully. ‘The Zord Bay has an auto-repair function, why not an auto-cleansing function as well?’

With a long-suffering sigh he dropped the hose and reached for the bottle of glass cleaner and roll of paper towels instead. ‘Might as well start from the inside out.’

When he entered the cockpit of the Insectizord, however, the first thing he noticed was the object propped up in his pilot’s seat.

It was a standard-sized greeting card envelope of powdery blue. The front of the card inside showed a serene beach scene with a lone surfer riding a wave. But even without the trademark color or the more-than-obvious cover picture, the neat and elegant handwriting was a dead give-away.

Dear Hunter,

This letter has been a long time in the making, but I have come to a point where I simply can’t keep my feelings for you inside any longer.

I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the beginning, but I was distracted by Blake’s constant attentions. I am still flattered by them, but I just know that I could never love him the way I love you. I have not told him about any of this yet, but it is only fair to him – and myself - that I should confess it all to him soon.

I love your smile, Hunter, and your beautiful blue eyes (not to mention your height), your strength and the way you look and move in that Crimson Ranger suit…

Don’t get me wrong, I like Blake, I really do, and I feel bad about going behind his back with this - but I have to follow my heart, and that is leading me straight to you.

So, if you love me too, or at least feel something similar for me, would you please meet me by the holographic waterfall at 8pm tonight, so we can talk about this?

Love,

Tori

***************************************************************************************************************************************

#4:

When the lone Kelzak materialized before him in the alley behind Storm Chargers, Hunter immediately dropped the bag of trash he was about to throw into the dumpster and reflexively went into defensive stance, ready to kick butt or call for back-up, whichever would turn out to be necessary.

The drone, however, only held up its hands in supplication, and that’s when Hunter noticed the dark, rectangular device it was clutching. The black-clad and helmeted minion came forward cautiously and handed him the gadget, then immediately disappeared in the same flash of light that had dropped it into the alley.

Puzzled, Hunter held up the device. It had a miniature screen like one of those handheld video games, but there was only one button. A datapad.

With an inward shrug, he pushed the button, and the screen promptly filled with words.

Greetings, Thunder Ranger!

This letter might come as a surprise for you, therefore let me assure you first and foremost that it is neither a trick nor a deception, but an earnest invitation I am extending to you – and only you!

We both know that, due to my evil genius, my victory over the Power Rangers and the rest of all humanity is inevitable - it is only a matter of time. And when that moment comes, and all of humankind at last cowers at my feet, I want YOU to share it all with me!

That’s right! A place at my side as the lover of the Ruler Of The World! (The ‘lover’ part being an irrevocable stipulation of the bargain, by the way.)

Don’t dismiss my offer right away. Acknowledge your temptation. You’ve had a taste of Evil; you know it’s not all that bad!

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love you, and I’m sure that sentiment goes both ways. But I have lusted after your body since the moment you first set foot on my ship.

Come to think of it –back then, I should have kept you as my boy toy and only sent your brother down to Earth to deal with the other Rangers. But hindsight is always 20-20, as they say…

Anyway, I strongly urge you to think about it, Crimson Ranger; I offer you unlimited sex and power. Only a fool would turn down a proposition like that.

I will be awaiting you at the rock quarry on the outskirts of town tomorrow afternoon. Don’t make me wait too long.

Lothor

***************************************************************************************************************************************

The one he didn’t:

Hunter frowned when the characteristic tune for a text message chimed from the cell phone on his hip. Who would be texting him instead of just calling?

Zord Bay, Samurai Chopper cockpit, 20 minutes. Don’t forget the lube.

THE END

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:39:07 GMT

A big hug and huge congratulations to Cmar for winning

1st place in the 'Seasons of Love' Awards!!!!

"Turns in the road" won in the Time Force Romance Category!

Wes and Eric rock! And they rock even more when Cmar writes them :)
YOU GO, GIRL !!!!!!!!!!

Commonly Confused Words Test

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:45:31 GMT

Wow, I actually took one of those online tests...this one is snagged from kip_cathey.
(one day I'll learn how to actually friends' names into actual links)

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 93% Advanced, and 93% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can't find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don't. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you're not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

Nice to know that I have a basic grasp of the English language ;)
Here's the link:
http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170

Fantasy trilogy finished!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 03:45:48 GMT

Wow, I did it, it's finished! The last story of my fantasy trilogy is done. I've been working on these for so long that it's an odd feeling to be finished. I'm actually having a hard time letting go of the whole thing, and especially my two main characters. But I already know that I can't just let the guys go like that - I have a few more ideas for individual, shorter chapters just depicting various situations between Mithrandos and Kandaar within the timeline of the second and third stories. That way I can keep getting my slash fixes...;)
Anyway, if anyone is interested - check out my ithrandar community here on LJ or

http://www.fictionpress.com/~mzdany

And now if you'll all excuse me while I sit and feel accomplished *grin*...

Overdrive

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:49:01 GMT

Well, some nice soul posted the pilot epi of Operation Overdrive on Youtube and I just finished watching it (since I obviously can't keep a schedule to watch it on Jetix).
My take on it is:
Not bad!
Or - at least not as bad as I had expected it to be. Since I'm such a Boukenger fangirl, I really didn't have much hopes for PROO; let's hope the writers don't prove me right later on.
Of course it had the usual 'unrealities' of PR:
1. the instant friendship-thing among the Rangers - five total strangers who just got thrown into this whole 'save the world' thing.
2. their seemingly 'whatever' attitude of getting their DNA's scrambled, not to mention their way-too-quick grasp of their superpowers.
3. their immediate knowledge of how to operate their trackers, their vehicles, their Megazord!
But hey, it's Power Rangers! Therefore, we should be used to that kind of thing by now.

And I have to agree with Cmar on the title music - it sucks!

Now for the positive stuff:
1. I was surprised that most of the morphed fighting scenes were not Sentai footage. And they were really well done!
Good to see at least one 'original' bad guy. Moltor (the Jaryuu king) seems like an old friend after 49 epis of Boukenger...
2. I really like Spencer the butler. Corny jokes, but funny nevertheless. And of course he reminds of Phillips, the Collins' butler in TF ;)
3. The Rangers did not turn out as young and kid-like as I had anticipated. All of them definitely have potential for making this a good show. And Will has some really nice eyes!!!

Oh, and is it just me or did the guy/being/creature who scattered the crown's jewels in the beginning look just like Zubaan???

I wonder who the sixth Ranger is going to be and when he'll show up? Maybe it's going to be Mack's dad, since he didn't get to be Red...;)

Well, all in all, not a bad start. I'll keep on watching.