Friday...

Slept late. Panicked over all I have to do before leaving for France, then abandoned panic and wrote another page or two of my apazine instead of doing anything more useful. StarWolf will print my zine and take it to collation, for which I am extremely grateful.

Physiotherapy went well. Leslie said again that I was doing well - something I am totally unable to observe, since it seems my arm is equally stiff and painful when she says it's doing better as when she says it isn't. Ah well. It gives me hope.

Managed to do other errands too: bank, library, groceries for myself and for explodedteabag, who is still under the weather.

Then I had a delightful evening with Ian and Elizabeth, visiting from Glasgow, and commodorified, fairestcat, random, and raynedaze. We watched Leverage 3x01, which we'd seen before, but it was long enough ago that it seemed fresh. And we talked and made jokes about politics and generally had a fun time.

They blindsided me with a birthday surprise - a gorgeous frog card, and a present in a beautiful bag whose design is somewhere between Klimpt and 60s pop art: an amazing chai teapot in shades of blue that is so utterly beautiful that... Hey, thanks to the miracles of modern technology, you can ( see it for yourself... )

Got a friendly chat message on Facebook from my friend Nancy, who is already in Bruges with the Dunnett crowd. I hope they're having a wonderful time, but... of course they are.

Families...

From The Fannish Five: Name five characters who would love to attend a family reunion.

Seems oddly worded, but if the question means "five characters whose family reunion would be interesting to see" - well, then! Funny how most of the characters in most of what I read lack relatives. So many orphans. And so many people with villainous brothers.

1. Francis Crawford of Lymond. If we allow all the semi-related to attend - the illegitimate half-sister, the adopted son on his enemy, the uncle/father and the grandfather/father... What a bunch they would be! I am myself a great fan of Rankin, the First Baron, and would love to see him and Sybilla together.
   
   
2. The Summers family from X-Men. Add in the alternate future generations (like Rachel, always a favourite) and the dead and the demonic... Not sure where Jean Grey would fit in here: maybe she'd better stay dead, though it would be fun to see Emma Frost (Scott Summers' current love, the White Queen) meet Madeline Pryor (his first wife, the Goblin Queen). Polaris and Magneto should be there - would that include Wanda and Pietro, as Havok's ex-half-brother- and ex-half-sister-in-law? Or Wiccan and Speed, as the semi-existant magical half-nephews? And Hulking, as the boyfriend of one of them? Heh: this could be fun, figuring how big a crowd we could get. Can we add in Cable, his wife and son (long-dead in the distant future) and Stryfe? At some point, thinking too much about the Summers family ends in a headache from exploding brain synapses.
   
   
3. A sort of tie here for two comic book 'families' who both are and are not literal families: the Batman family (at DC) and the Wolverine family (at Marvel).
   
   The first consists basically of those in batcostume and their closest friends: Bruce Wayne, his son Damian, his adopted son Dick, the various Robins, Batgirl, Batwoman, Oracle, the Birds of Prey, Alfred. Maybe Catwoman (with Helena? can I call her Helena Wayne?¹) or Talia al-Ghul².
   
   Though Wolverine tends to treat the X-Men as family, and has had a number of wives and lovers, the Wolverine family consists of only three people: Logan, his son Daken, and his clone X-23. Probably better not to have them all in the same room together, though in the right circumstances, it might be fun. I'd like to see X-23 and Daken compare notes. Have they ever met, canonically? Not as far as I know - which means it's a meeting just waiting to happen.
   
   
4. The Winchesters: Sam, Dean, and their father John. Just because I adored John and would like to see him again in any capacity. Castiel could join them - a guardian angel is sort of like a family member, right? I'd like to see Castiel meet John Winchester. Then there's the newly-alive-again grandfather and those cousins. Guess we'd have to allow Adam, dead or alive.
   
   
5. The Doctor in Doctor Who. For someone who has no relatives and is the last of his kind, there are an awful lot of potential relatives: a mother we seem to have barely glimpsed, a father, at least one wife and possibly two (can we count River Song?), a child or children unspecified, a granddaughter Susan, a clone-daughter, and - anyone else? Well, since it's a big party, and can include all of time and space, I'd allow any of the regenerations of the Doctor who want to attend, and any of the companions as well. The TARDIS is big. It could handle the crowd.

---

¹ Let me explain this a little for non-readers of Batman: Selina Kyle (Catwoman) had a daughter named Helena. We never learned for sure who Helena's father was, but Bruce Wayne showed considerable paternal-style interest in her, and we know Bruce and Selina had been sleeping together at some point before that. The Earth-2 Batman (don't ask, it gets complicated) and the Earth-2 Catwoman had a daughter named Helena Wayne, who became The Huntress.

² Talia al-Ghul is, canonically, the mother of Batman's son Damian.

And may the best man win...

When I got up this morning, there were strangers in the lobby of the building, right next to my door. Suddenly we're a polling station for municipal elections. maaseru and I went out for breakfast, so I phoned auriaephialia from the restaurant to say, "Who should I vote for?" because I know she knows who is competent, and I trust her judgement. And so she did know: Bob Brocklebank, the man with a Hobbit name.

So when I got home, I voted for him. Rather handy.

Praying that Larry O'Brien isn't re-elected. Please: may sanity prevail.

Now I will return to panicking over all the things I need to do before going to France tomorrow.