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It's been eons since I've posted, but since today was the final game of our very truncated soccer season, I thought I'd throw something together.

I've been coaching Ros' soccer teams since she was in the Under6 division (and she's been playing since she was a U4) but this was definitely a weird year. Last year there was no soccer at all. This year we didn't think there was going to be a season until we got a last minute email from the club.

They decided to have 6 teams in the U16 (!!!) division and play 9 v 9 games on a full-size field. The only problem was they only put 10 kids on each roster, and even in a non-pandemic year you never have everyone show up for a summer game. Add in the pandemic, and some weeks we were lucky to get three players.

Fortunately, all the teams were in the same boat. And since we almost always had to technically forfeit, we'd just play sideways across the field. The last four weeks we've had so few players that we've been playing coaches in goal so all the girls got plenty of field time. (Yes, that means I've been playing goal. I've made some good saves, let in some goals, and on a particularly bad night, scored an own goal.)

One of the many frustrating things about the season has been that we had a really great bunch of girls, and if we'd been able to field a fully team, I think they'd have been really good.

Ah, well, everyone had fun. And that's the main thing.

One thing about coaching is that the club gives you a plaque of appreciation for volunteering. Which is kind of nifty for a year or two, and then they start building up in a drawer. I wasn't going to take the plaque this year, but they had a special inscription for this Covid year so I figured what the heck. I've even hung it (temporarily) in our foyer.

I first gave Scrivener a try about ten years ago. There was a sale, and people had said good things about it, so I thought what the heck. But then I found it had far more features than I really had a good use for, and I was comfortable using Word, so I kinda bounced off it.

Cut to now.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the Stucky story that I've been struggling with for just about two years now. It's 38K words, has two timelines, and I needed to break it into manageable chapters for posting. I set up a spreadsheet with page numbers and scene descriptions to try and work out where the chapters breaks should fall. It was a major pain in the ass that was giving me a headache. Also not giving me joy is Word constantly trying to upgrade me to their subscription version. No thank you, Microsoft.

I idly think maybe this would be easier in Scrivener. And notice Scrivener has a deal if you've got an old license, which I do. So, what the heck, I take the plunge.

And WOW! I don't just like Scrivener now. I love it! Having the ability to see your scenes in card format made it so much easier to see how to structure it all. And the research folder is going to come in handy for the next big thing I want to work on (Stucky in the Pacific theatre, which is going to need a metric crapton of research material.)

Consider this my endorsement for Scrivener. It's not super cheap ($67 CAD) but it's 40% off if you have an old license, They have a 30 day trial if you want to give it a spin.

And stayed tuned for 38K of Stucky set both in 1938 Brooklyn and 2018 Wakanda, coming as soon as I get the beta back on the final two chapters.

It's been ages since I've posted here, but this, I couldn't resist.

On Friday, two very exciting things will happen.

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the series I have been waiting for FOREVERRRRRR, will finally drop.

And the basketball team of my grad school alma mater, the Wisconsin Badgers, will play their first, and hopefully not last, game of this year's March Madness.

In honour of these events, I will be wearing my Bucky Badger, Winter Soldier t-shirt all day.


(You have no idea how excited I was to find that shirt on TeePublic when I went looking for some better Winter Soldier merch than Marvel has supplied.)

In other news, I've finished a first draft of the wayyyyy late Stucky FTH story, only 19 months after it was due. In a bid for poetic justice, I used this year's FTH to bid on a beta for the story. I might actually get it polished and posted in the not too distant future!

I got not one, but TWO Yuletide stories this year, both for the movie Sunshine, and both are fab. (Why, yes, Chris Evans is in that. Why do you ask? :D )

My main gift was Dipping Toward the Light.
Relationships: Robert Capa/Mace
Summary: Capa seemed to be pressing his hand to the center of his chest as he moved around the med unit. Sympathy pains? Overcome with emotions? Maybe he cares about you, Mace’s addled brain supplied. Maybe he wanted Capa to care about him.

It's an AU that saves half the crew of the Icarus II, and has Mace figuring out how attracted he is to Capa in the wake of him nearly dying. Lots of competence porn, great banter and the growing connection between Mace and Capa is perfectly portrayed.

The treat was Out of the Dead Zone
Relationships: Robert Capa/Mace
Summary: Capa’d rubbed him the wrong way from day one, no, from minute one of their acquaintance.

For some reason, Mace thought of this on the third morning he woke up in the oxygen garden.

It's another AU that diverges early enough from canon to save everyone (yay!) and has not only very hot sex scenes (always a good thing) but a very satisfying post-story future for Capa and Mace.


I got a very nice comment from the recipient of the Yuletide story I wrote, which is officially the only story for it's canon on AO3. The source is old enough and obscure enough that I don't expect it'll ever get many hits, but it was a very satisfying story to write. Also, it got me writing again, which has been an absolute slog for me this year, so that's a good thing.

It's another Yuletide, and I could not be more excited that you're going to write a story for me. If you already have an idea, feel free to run with it. I'm sure I'll love it. But if you'd like, here is some guidance about the things I like.

( Things That Make Me Happy )

( DNWs )

And here, again, are the details about my requested fandoms:

( Talk of the Town ) https://youtu.be/_ju6Z2v9TnI

( Political Animals )

( Push )

( Sunshine )

In the end, I hope you have fun with whatever you write!

After a brief relapse (PSA: don't go to a hockey tournament followed by a huge mall with a thirteen-year-old when you have a concussion) I'm feeling good enough to get back on the computer.

I've been meaning to do a post highlighting all the lovely things I've won in charity auctions the past two years for age, so here that is.

For the Marvel Trumps Hate 2018 auction, I won the artistic talents of potofsoup. I requested a comic in our shared Wuxia Avengers universe, and created a lovely comic with monk!Bruce and fox spirit!Nat bonding.

This is the first page.


The full comic can be found on AO3.

For last year's Fandom Trumps Hate auction, I won the writing talent of marginaliana.

She wrote a fab Grand Tour story for me, Banked Track, a wonderful Richard/James story, with Richard confronting various fears.

And finally, for the 2019 Marvel Trumps Hate auction, I won a two character cross stitch from Rebel Meg Cuties.

She created this fab Steve and Bucky piece.


And then I commissioned her to do this Christmas pressie for a friend.


And that's it!

I had thoroughly intended after the holidays to do some catch up posts here. Yuletide gifts and reveal. Pics of our lovely and complete kitchen reno. Fannish rambling.

But when my physiotherapist said my wrist had healed enough and cleared me for going on the ice, carefully, I thought I’d start out slow and help out at Ros’ team practice. I’d just be helping out the coach and dumping pucks back to the girls, I thought. What could happen?

What happened was one of the girls from the team we were practising with skated into me at full speed, knocked me into the air, and I cracked my head into the ice on the way down. Even with my helmet on, I’ve ended up with a mild concussion.

So, I’m on restricted screen access and half days at work, and am spending a lot of time in dark rooms and sleeping a lot more than normal. (I attended a two hour meeting at work on Monday and then slept for a good part of the next 24 hours. 😬)

I think I’m on the upswing. I woke up at 9:30 today, not noon, and the dizziness and fogginess is starting to fade. But on doctor’s order, I just need to resist the urge to do too much too soon and set my recovery back.

And I think I’m probably going to pull out of the winter session hockey lessons I’d signed up for, and carefully think about my future with the game. (The Sweetie and my mom would be very happy if I never played again. ☹️)

I was originally planning to do a TIFF wrap up post as soon as the festival was over, but the whole breaking my wrist thing delayed that. It's five weeks today since I fetched up in the E.R., and it's only been the last week and a bit that I've been able to type with all the fingers on my left hand...for a little bit at a time, anyway. (It's taken me a week to finish writing this up!)

Anyway, here's what I saw.

( My Most Anticipated Film )

( Anthony Mackie x 2 )

( Women Astronauts )

( More Women in Film )

( Other Favourites )

( Not Quite My Thing )

It's been a crazy couple of months, including getting slammed at work, doing a gut everything kitchen renovation (still in progress), and having a ton of medical tests. (Almost all the medical tests turned out fine, except for finding out I have osteoporosis at the age of 53. Fun!)

One (mostly) good thing, on top of all the craziness, has been coaching Ros' soccer team. It's been a really nice team, some of the girls who weren't as experienced have really come into their own, and they've been working together and making actual passing plays consistently.

There were two things that weren't so good this season.

The first thing was another team's coach going berserk during a game and yelling not only at the ref but at one of my players. I'll add the my player had been fouled by someone on his team and was lying on the ground crying at the time. For the first time in seven years of coaching, I made a formal complaint to the club. I don't know that much happened because of the complaint, but that was clearly crossing a fucking line. The coach in question was one of the shouty dads who was one of my assistants a couple of years ago, so while I was upset about the incident, it unfortunately wasn't surprising. One of our moms knows him from hockey and calls him Drunky McShouty, which the Sweetie and I have now officially adopted as his name.

The second thing was during a round robin game in the playoffs, a player on another team called one of my players a homophobic slur. None of the girls told us, but I found out from one of the parents, and Ros confirmed it had happened. I went immediately to the coach of the other team (who is a really great guy), who gave his team a talk about that not being acceptable. I also let the player on my team and her mom know that they could make a complaint if they wanted to, though they elected to let it go.

But back to the positive things!

The team had a great season, and managed to come in second. And then on playoff weekend, they won! The whole thing! They were second in the round robin pool, so moved on to the semis, and then had great games in the semi and final. The final game, they completely dominated the other team and it would have been a blow out except that the other team's goalie was exceptional.

For the first time, Ros got two trophies: one for finalist in the regular season, and one for winning the playoffs. So go Ros.

( Here's me and Ros after the trophy ceremony. )

I've been an utter failure at completing bingo cards the last couple of years, but I thought I'd take a swing at h/c bingo since I'm not doing any more major challenges this year.

( My hc_bingo card )