...but my husband and I have an announcement to make! 

Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 8:07am "War n Peace" (hubby came up with the nickname for this journal, it's rather close) came into this world an adorable 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20.5 inches long. It was a long labor, with contractions starting on the 10th but the actual delivery over 36 hours later.  At the same time I surprised the nurses when I decided I didn't want to do any medications (I was afraid of either slowing down the actual delivery as most of the meds seem to do or affecting the baby with the medication as some of the alternatives to epidurals have been known to do.)
( Pics behind the cut for size )

January 2nd: A Post on Kodachrome film

February 3rd: a post about Illya Salkind being missing in Mexico (it ended up being a fairly false alarm.)

March 1st: A Post Birthday update (I had lots of fun contra dancing with hubby.)

April 1st: A weird dream about museums

May 1st: A post about Bin Laden's death.

June 2nd: A post about a book that might be a bit of "muse food" at some point for my Superman stories

July 3rd: A post about being sick while still needing to be at the museum to keep it staffed

August 14th: An idea post about attempting something along the lines of NaNoWriMo for dancers/choreographers by creating a dance to be performed at the end of the month.

September 3rd: I reposted a good portion of a tumblr post on DC Women Kicking Ass that showcases the strength of the Lois and Clark marriage and is a ode to the determination those two had in maintaining their marriage in the face of large odds.

October 13th: About the fan film "Superman Requiem."  I still need to watch it even though it's out.

November 7th: About NanoWriMo and the word count for it.

December 7th: Wrote about finishing the first draft of a couple of "L&C: TNAOS" fanfic, mentioned taking a childbirth class and that I was 35 weeks into it. 

And today: I'm 38 (almost 39 weeks) pregnant so the little one could come any day now.  I couldn't go to see my family for Christmas because after 36 weeks my doc doesn't want us driving as far as STL (it's about an 1 1/2 to 2hr drive each way) but luckily most of hubby's family lives down our way so we spent both Christmas eve day and Christmas Day with them (at least until I has a few contractions which sent me home to relax... the contractions weren't close enough to worry about and they stopped fairly quickly.)  Last night wasn't quite as nice to me, I did not get a good nights rest, getting up every hour to be sick.  Apparently something I had for lunch didn't agree with my body so I ended up missing dinner and doing that all night.  Today I've been forcing myself to eat simple foods in the hope that my body will be nicer to me.  So far it has besides the occasional contraction.) 

- Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
- Turn to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post that sentence along with these instructions on your journal.
- Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

"But it was difficult with his strong hands holding her the way they were." -Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime stories for Women by Nancy Madore (the story is "Cat and Mouse."

...at least to this Superman fan. 

Link and commentary below the cut.

http://therearecertainshadesoflimelight.tumblr.com/post/14358717197/jacquelineofalltrades-teamclarklois-lois
( Read more here about Lois, Clark and gifts in general... )

Just finished my first "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" fanfic and just need to do a first edit before trying to find an LnC specific beta (characterization is the end all and be all to me of any canon-derived story as the I've finished are.)  I was just looking over some of my stories and see that there might be one or two Reeveverse- derived (In the "For the Good of the Earth" Universe) stories that might make their way out of the gate assuming I can find a beta for them. 

I considered taking up a 12 days of Clois Challenge but I don't have any stories in the works that fit any of the images so I may let it drop this year.  Last year I ended up with not even a single word on the story concept that I wanted to work on so I don't want to take anything on until I know what I'm going to attempt and at this time there isn't a Christmas story concept so I'll let this one pass I guess.

In RL, finally got around to going to the Childbirth class and it really didn't go over the breathing techniques much.  Hubby and I still need to get the library ready but we at least moved the futon out of there so that we'd have room for a bassinet or crib when it comes time.  Embarrassingly I have not had the mental attention to plan a baby shower for the family so that may end up happening AFTER he comes (his due date is January 10th.)  We finally have names chosen.  "Names" because we narrowed the list we had of almost 40 down to six choices complete with middle names.  One or two of the names have been growing on John and I but we're going to wait officially until he comes and we can see him with one name or another.  I'm into my 35th week and my back has started to really bother me.  I've quit doing ballet warmups because my technique is WAY out of whack (and there's a very good possibility I may have to go back to scratch after I have him anyway.)  I know I shouldn't just quit on it as I enjoy it but it's also starting to bug my body and as I'm not performing or practicing in a class setting I'm not going to force myself.  As my hips reshape themselves and my abdomen weakens to accommodate the baby, I've had to let ballet fall by the wayside. 

My Museum Studies class is just winding down.  I had a presentation on a museum I chose to analyze and write on.  I ended up choosing the River Discover Center in Paducah, KY.  It's a little weird.  Officially it's classified as a history museum but other than a few exhibits at the beginning, it's more of a poor science/technological museum.  The exhibit that keeps children coming back is the simulator of what it's like to drive a towboat on the Ohio River.  From visiting a few times, I have to take my notes and turn it into a paper, I'm finding this a bit easier than I initially expected. 

But considering the reboot/relaunch/re-whatever I couldn't help but watch it.  It's a fanvid called "Losing Lois Lane."  Basically Jimmy (which looks nothing like the "real Jimmy" but neither does the "real Superman" so I can forgive it it's foibles, especially since it's supposed to be comedy) makes a documentary chronicling Superman following Lois dumping him (and it does sound like SHE Dumped him fully aware of who he is, of course making a mockery of the basis of Superman that S&S put together but that's why it's crack-fic/vid for me.)  I had a hard time watching it honestly but I wanted to eventually see it to the end so I did.  It was absurd to me in the extreme that it would happen at all this way.  They also made Clark/Superman WAY smaller than all of the other male characters save Jimmy himself (I suspect that was intentional) to the point where it was part of the humor.  I just think they may have gone a little over the top. 

http://secretidentityproductions.com/projects/losing-lois-lane/

FTR, I actually am enjoying the Superman comics (not so much Action) even though Lois and Clark are not even seeing each other and from what I can tell even a romantic/sexual tension element to their relationship.  

Been a bit behind schedule this week and I'm strongly suspecting this is the week that kills this year for me.  My current word count is 17,941 at what is supposed to be the halfway mark.  I also have to get moving on a ten page paper on a museum I've only visited once and don't know how to write a decent review of it.  The ten page paper isn't due until the end of the year but sometime in the next week or two I have to do a 15 minute presentation on the museum and I'm not sure what I'm going to say.  O_O  I never quite expected to be dully unsure of what to say before but that seems to have become a common trait of late.  Not really that great of a state to be in.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Just been spending most of my free time attempting NanoWriMo.  I've been keeping up and have a half a day lead but I don't want to rely on that because if I do I'll find myself falling behind.  I'm not going to post a last 'written sentence" this time because thus far a lot of my writing has been fairly... well... adult.  And Kinky and not appropriate for general audiences.  I don't plan this to be the norm but I honestly had it in my mind that two of the couples would be enjoying themselves physically.  I think I post once a week to kind of keep friends that are interested in the loop on my progress.

NanoDay 7 Word Count: 12,475

Sorry I haven't been posting much, just hadn't had much to say.

Over the weekend I spent some time with my dad, stepmom, brother and future sister-in-law.  Dad and Kathy (i.e. stepmom) found out that their mortgage is in trouble and they can't get the bank to do a short-sale so they've pretty much asked us to get as much of "our stuff" out of their house as long as it is their house.  I'd long ago gotten most of what I owned because dad was moving out of the house I grew up at during the same time I was moving from my apartment to where I live now.  All that was left was mom's artwork and family history papers for us to go through and decide what to do with it.  I decided to wait on going through mom's old artwork when I was there a few weeks back  because I knew that my brother has a fine arts degree and thought he might like some of her artwork (basically giving him first right of refusal.) 

Fic writing has been a mess.  I've only halfway been plugging along with the current stories (all currently LnC).  I hate that I have so many stories in the works and NONE of them finished.  Maybe enough to send a portion or two to a beta but without a beta in that fandom I don't feel comfortable trying to send it out or even post one chapter of them.  The "Three Universes" story from LnC I've shifted away from free-writing into plotting because I've decided that I'm going to scrap what I have and write it for Nano (or at least try to.)  Whether or not it'll happy remains to be seen.  I just wish there was an official NaNoFiMo because I have one reallly good Reeveverse that could use a kick in the tush (ie. the one with the spoiler over on the side.)

I'm now into my 28th week (i.e. the beginning of the third trimester for people who don't know.)  I have gotten to the point where all of my slacks no longer fit (unless they're the maternity kind) except for my exercise slacks.  I'm actually rather happy that the spandex in that doesn't feel confining.  The baby's been shuffling and tapping for a while (my joking terminology for the fluttering and kicking.) 

I know I haven't been posting any comments on kalalanekent's "Across the Universe" story but if you really love alternate universe stories for Superman it's worth a read.  I'm really loving it.