Overtime is over! Whoo. We are amazingly caught up. Perhaps I should not have said that; I'd hate to jinx it. But damn. Starting next week, I'm also going back to working 8-hour days. No more Thursdays off, but I think it is a good trade.

Supernatural started up again last week. I still haven't seen the last 3 episodes of s4, but I enjoyed the season opener more than I thought it would and am kinda excited for the rest of the season now. I also checked out the Vampire Diaries, which is horrible and cheesy but I must keep watching if I happen to be in front of the tv. I also have to remember I want to catch the premier of Flashforward this next Thursday before SPN.

Reading... yesterday I discovered that the newest Elantra book was out so I downloaded it to the Kindle and have plowed through more than a third of it (before I could no longer focus and had to pass out and sleep). When I am finished I have Rob Thurman's newest, Trick of the Light, a start of a new series. And it would appear that Amazon thinks Liz Williams' Shadow Pavilion is finally out for real, but I will have to see. I preordered it from the publisher a looong time ago and will have to see if it's still on it's way. I've additionally been listening to audiobooks at work this week, go go "Right Ho, Jeeves." P.G. Wodehouse makes me laugh to myself like I'm crazy.

Eddie Izzard will be performing in Chicago on Jan 8th, we're already planning to go.

Game Night last weekend was huge fun, have to do it again soon. But there are Halloween parties to attend first :)

Meghan and Mat are moving out to a place of their own on Saturday, and Gene will become my new roomie. Fortunately not immediately, as I can't move any of my furniture for a few days after that-- I had a mole or skin tag removed from my right forearm and got a few stitches and apparently shouldn't, like, lift really heavy things and pull them out.

Not much to say. Still working 12 hour days. Fun fun fun, but the money is good.

Talking to Dad at the moment. He just got back from a business trip to Winnipeg. He said the accents were wild, which makes me laugh because most of his siblings live in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, so really? Crazy accent what? I can't even imagine. Also he said he had some time to kill so he drove a bit north one day to a town called... GIMLI. And he visited the Western Canada Aviation Museum. Actually, it sounds like he did a lot of sightseeing, which Nancy and I always tell him to do, but he never does. I mean, he was in Italy for like a month and didn't really go see a lot. Haha! And he just told me that the hotel he was in had a blackout last night because of excessive air conditioner usage in the city, due to the heat... all 82 degrees of it. (This is only humorous because St Louis in August is usually in the high 90's with 80% humidity.) Apparently some guys in a town called Brandon got in a fist fight over the last window aircon in a Home Depot and the RCMP had to break it up. o_O

Okay, enough about Canada. ;P

Meghan and Mat are moving out Sept 19th, and Gene will be moving in sometime thereafter. Next Saturday is Big Party time at Jimu's.

Working Monday, we get no holidays OR days off for the time being what with Epic having come in on Sunday. OTOH the administration has endeavored to reduce employee stress by declaring a weeklong snack attack. I haven't seen this much free food since I worked in a doctor's office.

Still playing WoW, awful awful addiction :) Am going to be playing Aion when it releases. WINGS! I've also been reading a lot over the last *mumbletymumble* since I posted, in fact I'm not even sure I can recall everything I've gone through, then again, my memory's been even worse than usual lately.

And I'm off. P.S.: good LORD, how I wish I were at Dragon*Con. Have you seen the guest list? INSANITY.

For Missakitti, Bryan, Jimu & Allie, Gene, the Schroeders and any other of the usual suspects reading this, who'd be up for game/gathering night on Saturday next? If that's no good I'd like to plan something for the weekend after Labor Day.

Let me know!

I seem to spend all of my time doing two things, namely playing WoW and working overtime. The one is an intensely social activity, the other provides me with money, so I suppose both are good.

I've also been in a reading mood, but everything I read lately seems determined to break my heart. (I'm looking at you, Julie Czerneda, and you, Carol Berg.) Not that this is a bad thing, but I'm going to have to read something absolutely ridiculous soon, or cry myself to sleep.

I keep wanting to set up an Apples to Apples/game night, but am put off by needing to deep-clean the carpets... having a sick cat does not do anything to beautify the home.

And I'm out.

I've done the unthinkable, with some enabling from Gene. (I blame you and the awesome fun we have on zOMG) I have joined WoW. THAT IS ALL. (P.S. if you are on Scarlet Crusade I am Salomea. Reza might reognize that name from another context.)

My car is dead or as good as. Meghan's been on vacation this last week and let me use her car but I don't know what I'll do on Monday. It's the engine but I don't know what or why.

The week of Memorial Day was spent mostly in KC since my cousin was getting married. Had a lot of fun with my family, was very tired when I got home on the 31st.

...? (I forgot) I just got back from the baseball game-- my aunt dropped me off on their way back out to St Peter's. Very boring game, and also, the Cards were getting slaughtered. (We left at the end of the 8th and it was 6-1.)

Just got back from seeing Star Trek with Gene and my bff from grade school, Kym (not incidentally also the person who got me to watch the original Trek movies back in the day). I'm just... WOW. The cast was well-chosen, and I can't express how gleeful Simon Pegg in particular made me. Heee. Can't wait until the Usual Suspects go see it so I can see it again (and my mother wants to see it). And THEN we went to Coldstone and sat around talking about the movie and old Trek and horror movies and Supernatural and what, exactly, you can get for a hundred roses on Craigslist. It was FANTASTIC.

Hopefully we will go see that new Transformers movie in a few weeks. THE MAGIC OF FACEBOOK. Keeping you in touch. :D

Flame-kitty seems much better. I kind of don't want to jinx it, but anyhow. The antibiotic shot was much better than the Clavamox and she is eating like a hoss, playing crazily with toys and otherwise acting like a spoiled cat.

Uh... I did a heart walk last Saturday with my work people. Three miles. Not that it was athletic or anything; more like a stroll really. Need to find a team and sign up for the Komen breast cancer walk.

This Saturday taking mom out for early Mother's Day and in the evening, us roomies have tickets to LOL LOTR at Magic Smoking Monkey Theater. :D

RIGHT NOW Mat decided he wanted bacon, so he and Gene and I ate some bacon, which made him want eggs, so now he's cooking eggs and we're making toast. I love my house.

Things that are not awesome:

Flame got better from her UTI, then had a relapse on Tuesday morning. I called in to work and made her a vet appointment where missakitti works. The cat appreciated none of it, but I liked the vet very much and would definitely take her there even for routine care. Again she's been fine the last few days-- scarfing down her food, tolerating the offense to her dignity involved in taking her medicine-- but she's worrying me again at the moment. She was listless all day, hasn't eaten, and when I gave her her second dose of antibiotic, she threw it up half an hour later. Right now she's dozing more or less peacefully on the couch, and I hope she was just having an off day and will feel better tomorrow.
My health insurance card has an 800-number to dial a nurse for advice. I wish they had something like that for pets. :( Maybe I could fret less.

Work is really stressing me out right now, too, and being worried about the cat and the money I'm spending on vet bills does not help.

Things that are good:

Easter was great. Had lunch at Dad & Nancy's, then an hour later went over to aunt Jane's for mom's side of the family celebration, where amusing conversation abounded.

Went out to dinner tonight with the roommates and then to Borders. Had lots of fun. Picked up the book Let the Right One In (I enjoyed the movie), and the 13th volume of xxxHolic, among other things. Excited about 'holic because it's finally outside the stuff I read scanlated.

Read some books I was really looking forward to, and found them to be all I had hoped for. Corambis was not quite the ending to Doctrine of Labyrinths that I expected, because I couldn't have expected an ending that was so true to the series and yet so hopeful. It felt to me like the perfect way to leave the characters, which made me happy. Also, I ended up wanting to hug most of the characters introduced, even the ones I started out thinking were kinda jerks... well, with at least two exceptions that naming would be spoilery. :)
The other book was the latest in the Dresden Files, Turn Coat. I haven't been able to get into Butcher's other series, but I always enjoy reading about Harry. The books usually take a while to pull me in, but once they do I can't stop reading until I finish.

Basically: books and food are good.

As usual when lots of stuff happens between entries, not coherent. Time for bed right now.

NOW I DED FROM META

Can you hear me screaming WHAAAAAAAAATtheEff??? Because this shit is just getting crazy.

Had a nice four day weekend. Watched the end of an anime with Kev on Thursday (Ergo Proxy) and Friday I marathoned episodes of-- in this order-- The Sentinel, Farscape, and How I Met Your Mother. No really. However decadent it sounds, I spent the entire day on the couch, with my pillow and quilt, watching tv. Yesterday, Gene came over and the four of us hit up the Scottish Arms again.

Today started out fun, but ended up expensive. I got back from breakfastlunch (not brunch: we had breakfast, and three hours later we were still there talking, so we had lunch) with the family at two and started cleaning. Around 3:45 I came out and there were spots of blood all over the living room.

So Meghan came with me and we took Flame to the emergency vet. She was exceedingly offended (as usual) by the cat carrier. Turns out they think she has a UTI, so I got: two cans of special food, some liquid antibiotics which I get to feed to her twice a day, and a bill for $160. Not that I'm complaining, I thought it would be more expensive. They also gave her subcutaneous fluids.

Hopefully she will be perfectly fine and indeed seems to be doing okay right now but I am hovering like an oversolicitous parent. I think she wonders why I keep looking at her. She doesn't seem to hold the trip to the vet against me.

However the vet said she heard a heart murmur that needs checking out, so I guess when I get paid again I'll take her to the regular clinic. She said it might be the thyroid or a sign of something else, but if it needs to be treated and isn't, Flame could get blood clots/embolisms.

AGH. Just, hopefully she'll be fine and live another 13 years. Otherwise I will cry like a little bitch, and I am NOT READY for that.

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 100% Deanna Troi 70% Geordi LaForge 60% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Chekov 55% Uhura 45% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 45% Worf 45% Beverly Crusher 40% Spock 37% Will Riker 35% Mr. Sulu 30% James T. Kirk (Captain) 25% Data 22% Mr. Scott 20%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...


quiz stolen from lazigyrl

...pretty sure I don't like where this is going. *whimper*

I like Uriel better now though. (Already understood why everyone hartz Castiel.)

[/nerd]

ETA: OMFG I TAKE IT BACK WHAT I JUST SAID. re: Uriel that is O_O;; don't like him, but I understand him.

After a long and frustrating day at work, I arrived home to find that my beautiful beautiful roomie had ordered from Thai Kitchen. So I put on my pj's, dug into my pineapple fried rice, and we proceeded to watch the rest of How I Met Your Mother (s1).

And lo, life was good. :)

I love free books for the Kindle. Amazon routinely pimps series by making the first book free for a while. Today I downloaded "His Majesty's Dragon" and "Red Mars", both of which Meghan has highly recommended in the past.

I also pre-ordered the newest Dresden Files, "Turn Coat", and "Corambis", the last book in the Doctrine of Labyrinths. April 7th? CAN'T WAIT.

Neil Gaiman was on Colbert! And it was ADORKABLE.

Attended St Patty's day festivities today. It was LEGENDARY--if by 'legendary' you mean 'fairly terrible'. (Long story and more Meghan's than mine to tell. Dave totally deserves a medal... what he got was a phone booth.) The weather I must admit was amazing. I chilled out on Art Hill for a while with a lovely view of the lake, and I have a slight sunburn. Really enjoyed walking around Forest Park today. I think maybe on one of my off days I'll go down there when the weather is nice and hang out with the Kindle. Plus the Art Museum is having a Ming Dynasty exhibit until May 17 that I want to check out.

Ohhh, and also in May, there's a new stingray exhibit opening at the Zoo. It's a shame we don't have an aquarium, but this makes up for it in part. I need to go spend a bit of time in the Zoo as I haven't gone properly in years, and today we mainly used it as a cut-through to reach Dogtown. o_O

WTF? There's supposed to be a new Supernatural on tonight, and all it says on the guide is "NHL Hockey" until 10. I really couldn't care less if San Jose is playing the Blues tonight. If it's not wrong, I might be a little pissed. *scowlyface*

I almost forgot this, but: the pizza place that we ate at in Chicago is somewhat famous for allowing patrons to sign its walls. On the wall above our booth, someone had written "BADWOLF". Gene and I were amused.

Meghan is making me watch "How I Met Your Mother". I just have to say.... that I LOVE NEIL PATRICK HARRIS.

I think at some point this evening I agreed to lick the Liberty Bell with her. And possibly have desperate, 'don't leave me' sex. SNERK.

Well, you never know. Someday we may discover that magic amount of booze.




...St Patrick's Day coming up next week I CAN'T WAIT.

((I have yet to go see Watchmen. SO LAZY. Friday maybe? I hate going to movies by myself.))

And now, I must go read my book. (The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, by Catherynne Valente.)

Ahh, what a great weekend.

We ended up driving and made the city in good time... in fact we pulled up in front of the hotel right at 3, which was checkin time. Ended up bumming around for about an hour, ate dinner at an irish pub on the corner, and then set out walking for the House of Blues. Of course it ended up being an adventure since I led us the wrong way at first... it put at least half a mile on to our walk, but we got to see a bit more of the city which was very cool. Eventually we arrived at our destination.... just in time to stand in line. For ever. Fortunately the other concertgoers were a friendly bunch and we struck up a conversation with the woman next to us in line, who was also from St. Louis.
The concert itself was great-- the first Great Big Sea cd I was ever given was their live album Road Rage, so I knew they could sing, but it doesn't tell you anything about how amusing they are. Good banter :D They also did an extended encore.

Saturday, we had breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts on the corner of the next block down from the hotel. What you say? Look, there hasn't been a DD in St Louis for about 10 years, and I hate Krispy Kreme.

Anyway. Our next stop was the Field Museum. As it had decided to rain, we took a cab. Taking a cab in Chicago is not like taking a cab in St Louis. It's kind of awesome how easy it is. Not to mention inexpensive.
But I digress. Our intent was to do the Museum and Shedd on Saturday, but once we got there, we knew we'd have to give it the rest of the day. We also got a ticket for the special exhibit "Real Pirates". First I had to go see Sue, then we wandered through the Egyptian exhibit. The Pirate exhibit was a disappointment. Interesting, sure, but the amount of information presented was fairly small and there wasn't a lot to see. It was mainly standing in a very slow moving line waiting for the people ahead of you to finish reading the panels on the wall. There was a replica of the stateroom and belowdeck of the Whydah-- which you walk through in a couple of minutes tops. Personally I would have preferred to just read a book on the subject. The last time I stood in a slow moving line like that was DisneyWorld, and at least there was a ride at the end. OTOH I was a bit grumpy that day...
We finished up gawking at the other dino skeletons after walking thru the evolution exhibit.

For dinner we went to Gino's East (on Superior, not the original), which my sister recommended to me. FANTASTIC PIZZA ALRITE.

Today was Aquarium Day! I took so many pictures it killed my battery... halfway through. Nerd moment of the trip: I recognized an Arapaima in an exhibit because I've caught them in Animal Crossing. *facepalm*

When we came out of the aquarium, we were underwater! It was POURING. I was soaked to the skin in less than a minute. That was unpleasant, because we basically went back to the parking garage, got the car out of hock, and headed home.
It was at that point we had our first bit of dumb luck: when we parked at 3 on Friday I somehow left the interior light on. It was almost 48 hours later... and the car still started.

The second bit of luck was on the way home... I was kinda speeding? and this chick was tailgating me. She finally passed me, and we both passed a trooper who was watching the traffic. He pulled her over, and not me. I nearly had a heart attack. I was very, very good after that.

THE END.

Seeing The Watchmen tomorrow after work. (Don't worry Gene, everyone wants to see it again. We'll go.) EXCITING.

Anyone want to go to Chicago with me on March 7th (it's a Saturday)? Great Big Sea is playing at the House of Blues. It's Friday and Saturday, and I seem to have a ticket for Friday. Yay?

I reeeeeeallly want to go to this concert, but I have never been to Chicago and I'm afraid I'll get lost in the city (or die, oops). Plus, I have a feeling I won't want to make a 5-hour drive home after, and it's a lot cheaper to split a hotel room.

.....

So, it seems like there are many reasonable hotels in the general area. And the venue is also a restaurant with an awesome sounding menu.

AND The Gene is (almost certainly) going with, w00t. I love a road trip.

I always feel weird saying this about a commercial, but: This is ridiculous-- and I love it.

I got my letter from umegaki, who gave me 'B":

- Reply to this post saying you'd like to do the meme and I'll assign you a letter.
- List (and upload, if you feel like it) 5 songs that start with that letter.
- Post them to your journal with these instructions.

1.: Boy With A Coin - Iron & Wine
2.: Blood on the Snow - Horse Feathers
3.: Bachelorette - Bjork
4.: Boston & St. John's (live) - Great Big Sea
5.: Baker Baker - Tori Amos

At first I thought it would be difficult, but once I started going through my collection, I actually had to choose. I could have posted ten no problem. ;)

--Laptop battery issue still not resolved. The new battery came in the mail the day after my last post, and worked fine for a couple of days. Then the next time I booted up, instead of Windows I got a message that the battery was the wrong kind and I should change it immediately Or Else. So I called the company I bought the battery from, Blue Nook, and in case you're wondering abou their customer service: very pleasant on the phone, but utter fail on the followup. They verified both my phone number and email address with me on the phone, and promised to get back to me within about 24 hours (supposedly it was possibly a "bad chip"-- since I did verify the compatible model & part numbers before buying-- and they needed to speak with the factory that made the batch or something). It has now been a week and I've heard nothing. I suppose I ought to call again. $70 was a reasonable price for the battery but at this point I am honestly ready to just call HP and tell them I'll pay them the $170 they were asking for if they can guarantee it's the right freakin' battery and it will work. I know zip about batteries, I shouldn't have even tried shopping for a deal.

--Weekend before last was my little sister's 27th birthday party. It was an 80's-themed rollerskating party. Hilarity! One of her friends went as Ronald Regan complete with suit and mask and handed out campaign buttons. One went as Optimus Prime (how he skated in that, I don't know, but he certainly managed). Her boyfriend was Billy Idol (even bleached his hair) and totally looked the part. I had some trouble in the beginning as I have not skated since... uh... middle school? But my muscles remembered soon enough. Great exercise! Maybe I should do it more often. Lisa was a little trashed when I left and insisted that I call her as soon as I got home or else she was going to have the police check that I wasn't dead in a ditch. She gets even more bossy when drunk than she is sober. (I can say that because a.: she doesn't read this, and b.: I told her that to her face the next day :D)
Anyone interested in going ice skating while it's still seasonal, by the way?

--My Zen died shortly before Christmas and so I couldn't return it for repair until the first week of January. Verdict came back from them Wed. that it was dead and would need replacing (at no cost to me, since it was not my fault). However? They don't make 32GB Zens anymore. Their policy in that case is to give you something as good or better-- but supposedly the 32 GB X-Fi was out of stock and wouldn't be available for "possibly months" (though if you go to Creative's webstore it is listed as in stock and ready to ship, ditto on Amazon). So I agreed to let them send me a 60GB Zen W, and the more I think about it the less pleased I am. For this past month I have gone back to using my old 30GB Vision M (which I replaced with the newer Zen for reasons of The Shiny but also things like support for more file types, MUCH smaller overall size and more than twice the battery life). My M's battery barely lasts 8 hours anymore, and it was never much stronger than that when it was new. That's a real pain in the @$$ when you work a 10 hour day. The newer Zen I only had to charge about every two days... and it would still have some battery left, just not enough for a third full day of use. Also, the M is a total brick compared to the tininess of the new Zen. From reviews and specs, the M and W have about the same battery life and the W is even thicker. Of course, it's not due to come until Monday and maybe I won't hate the W. But I'm feeling like I'll probably end up returning it, either to wait for an X-Fi or just to get some kind of return on my money so I can get an X-Fi elsewhere (or a secondhand 32GB Zen, I suppose). [/end overpriveleged whining]

--Went to the doctor on Thursday because I've had this nasty cold/cough since New Year's Eve. Yep, it was a sinus infection. I really hate abx... especially augmentin. The cure is almost as bad as what ails you sometimes. And I really do need to do something about being such a fatass. My BP was 150/80'ish... which is shit, considering it's historically been steady at about 110/60'ish. That high is not normal for me, and going to the doctor doesn't stress me out... especially not that much. It's definitely time to work on some weight issues (not that it wasn't before).

--Still playing zOMG intermittently, when my computer permits or I can steal Meghan's. Got my CL up to 4.4, in time to get to the area for the stupid doll quest and be told that it was too high and I needed to supress it in order to finish. WHAT? I tried the quest in concert with two other players at my level a few days prior-- I think I was somewhere around 4.0 then-- and we were getting our asses handed to us. All of the dolls in there were yellow or red. Well, Gene rightly pointed out that maybe we just all sucked... I dunno, there has to be an easier way. And I need to finish it because I'm still not strong enough to go into Bass'ken without being eaten by the first pack of wolves I encounter.
I know a few of my FList are on Gaia, but if anyone else is, my username there is AimlessOne.

--Belated birthday dinner for Lisa at dad's tomorrow. Bedtime now so I can hit up breakfast with mom & the aunts at Bread Co in the morning.