Roads to Safe Places

It was Crocky's sister Teddy's birthday party yesterday, or rather, one of them- this was the "queer adult edition". I was reacquainted (do people still use this word?) with Crocky's and Teddy's older bisexual foster sister and Crocky's bisexual godmother. I've often marvelled at the fact that my MIL, who died in 1991, had so many queer friends and foster children, and then wound up having a bisexual daughter, too.

Teddy, my former Russian learning partner, is still at it because she's planning to spend a few months in that country on her world tour. I'm slightly jealous because I could never do the same. I'm worried for Teddy, too. Still, I hope she's going to have a great time touring the globe and will return home safely. She cooked a tasty dish from her Russian cuisine cook book for us.

We spent the time eating, laughing, and trying to fold Fröbel stars. which their foster sister brought. The English Wikipedia has this to say:

"Froebel stars are very common in Germany, although few people know how to make them."

To which I can testify- IRL I don't know many people who can do Fröbel stars. I know that my grandparents could make them and my mother can, too, but I am convinced that in my generation I think that only the incredibly crafty like angie_21_237 can do it- and the latter is the head of a kindergarten, so it's probably basically her job to know these things.
I have the shrewd suspicion that you talented flisties are probably experts at paper crafts happily fröbeling away, too.

We did end up with things resembling the stars, though and were quite proud of ourselves.

If you want to have a go yourself or need a refresher on how to make them, here's something that looks a lot like the directions we had:

Done:
✓ sleep in to catch up on sleep.
✓ have porridge with unsweetened cocoa powder and a bit of peanut butter for breakfast.
✓ inspect piles of assorted stuff that have grown on our floors during the past week and throw away half of it.
✓ vacuum everything.
✓ clean all floors.
✓ clean bathroom and dramatically recite "Crossing the Bar" while scrubbing shower.
✓ wipe down all surfaces with furniture polish.
✓ load and run dishwasher.
✓ reorganise kitchen closet.
✓ cut off cables and plugs from lamps to prepare them for being put up in hallway.
✓ nearly electrocute myself doing so because, contrary to what common sense would indicate, the lamps in the hallway are not connected to the fuse labelled "Hall", but to the "Kitchen" fuse.
✓ celebrate fact that growing up I was drilled to use a screwdriver test light before attempting anything on anything electrical.
✓ call my mother to inform her of my near-death experience as she is the one responsible for my test light training.
✓ mope to my mother about fuses, school, and students for an hour.
✓ defrost freezer and peel about 1kg of solid ice off the evaporator coils.
✓ do laundry, including curtains.
✓ play a merry game of sock memory to reunite long-lost sock brethren.
✓ buy black leather coat on eBay for under €6.
✓ buy soft shell coat that looks like a cross between a diving suit and a raincoat but which the reviewers said is very comfortable.
✓ attempt to draw something. Give up when it turns out it sucks.
✓ research short city sightseeing trips Crocky and I could take in the Easter holidays.
✓ research courses offered by the local university and debate feasibility of pulling off completing one while working a full-time job.

Actual to-do-list:
- correct my seventh year's exam.
- talk to the kind crazy cat neighbours.
- draft an exam paper for my other seventh years.
- prepare exercises for my eleventh years for Monday.
- finish minutes of Wednesday's workshop.

You've all probably heard it already but I'm still slightly gobsmacked at the amount of sense written by this BioWare person (much better write-up over at ontd_p here and sf_d here).

What happened is this: they put out a game in which the fe/male main character can be romantically approached by both male and female NPCs. And everybody sees what's wrong there, clearly not enough content for exclusively straight males! But FEAR NOT, STRAIGHT MALE FANS!

One straight dude takes it upon himself to let BioWare know that they've neglected their main demographic, straight males (emphasis mine):


I'm not surprised, but what did floor me was the reaction of the company. Rather than say things on the lines of "but it's cheaper that way" or "focus on the F/F romance, it's hot", Daivd Gaider talks sense about privilege (with costliness thrown in, though, sadly):


Not that this makes me more likely to buy the game which still sounds pretty failtastic for various reasons, but this is nice.

I've been rather too happy about my discoveries on Etsy lately and decided to treat Crocky and myself.

First off, I got myself some earrings because I needed accessories that underline my decorous, understated professionalism, seeing as how I'm going to be a teacher and all-around respectable person soon: 


And I got this for Crocky: 




Quite apart from the possibilities to tattoo on her own arm, there's always the possibility to adorn either her uni work or deserving student's work with the Dark Mark.

Because I survived my oral exam I went on a brief shopping spree and got myself some gratuitous goodies.

Like this: 



Yes, that is an Auryn replica. Sadly, I couldn't find an affordable one with both colours (or one with the inscription, or one created by people who know how the thing is connected with the necklace and don't turn it on its side. Seriously, how hard can it be...?), but this one was cheap, and I like it better without the gold, even though the geek appeal is not quite the same.

Oh, also something that I guess qualifies as pride earrings.