Word Count so far today: 13,672

Yesterday there was a lot of excitement at my office, as this fellow was spotted on campus:



Most everyone had never seen a Great Horned Owl in the wild, much less during the day, so everyone was coming out to see it -- I don't know when he came, or why he decided to spend the day in one of our palm trees, but there he was. Fortunately, my supervisor had a real camera, because the ones we were trying to take with our cell phones sucked.

This morning we were up bright and early (much earlier, really, than we'd meant to, because for some reason, neither of us could sleep much past 3 am) and headed out to Tempe for the Breast Cancer Walk. Pink was in abundance, and a lot of awesome guys defied tradition and wore pink, as well. It's not a strenuous walk, but I was glad when it ended. I stiffened up in the car on the way home, though, mostly I think because we spent 20 minutes in the car trying to get out of the parking garage. (Seriously, if you are EVER in a parking garage in downtown Tempe, always try to exit on ANY street but Mill. Every time we've tried to get out an exit that feeds onto Mill, it's hell. Fortunately, we managed to get out of that line and headed out the Ash Street exit, which took two minutes, and we were back in Phoenix in a shorter amount of time than we'd moved four feet inside the garage waiting to exit onto Mill.)

Then I went to get my hair done. I was going to stop at Bed, Bath & Beyond on the way home, but the parking lot was ABSOLUTELY FULL (all the way out to Camelback), with a dozen or more parking sharks circling, so I gave up and came home. A while later, after hanging the laundry, I went over to Target, which was much easier to get into, and found what I needed there. Every time I hear something dire about the economy, I go to a store and it's packed to the rafters with people buying things. To this I say WTF?

I forgot until just now I was going to go to Trader Joe's and get more Greek yogurt. Well, perhaps tomorrow.

Despite the too-high temperatures in Phoenix this last two weeks, I'm starting to feel the holiday love. I adore buying gifts (even when I don't like the bills!). *happy smile*

One week until the cruise! I'm starting to obsess about what I need to bring, what I want to bring, and what I really don't need. I will need to bring computer, a book or two (will be writing more than reading, but still, some places one is more practical than the other), and then the usual run of clothes, casual to elegant, etc. I'm going to bring my sparkly red gown, because I haven't had a chance to wear that one yet and I'm dying to, and I'm not sure which other one. Maybe the silver one again.

I have Mexican Wedding cookies in the oven, and dinner will be pasta with sausage.

BBC has finally announced an air date for the next Doctor Ten special. November 15. I started to squee then realized I will be on a ship at sea and will have to wait a week!!!

I realized I still don't have Season Three and Four. Maybe when I have money again, perhaps after Christmas. I don't like falling too far behind because then it costs so much to catch up!

( Work smarter, not harder. )

We had to run out to Costco and get cat food, lest we be mobbed by a pack of angry felines. Whilst there had the usual run of freebies -- that's usually a weekend lunch but tonight it was appetizers. There was pancetta (yum), little pizzas, Chai tea, sesame dressing, chips and salsa -- seriously, you can get a good meal at Costco if you hit it at the right time. We bought some popcorn, lovely flavored stuff, because I agitated for it and my wife is too good to me.

Today was running around in costume, eating candy, eating a large lunch with cake (retirement party), then more food. I need to be VERY GOOD next week if I want to proceed to my goal, which seems to be receding rather than coming closer (oops).

Cuervo (points to icon) had his checkup today. I took him in fully expecting to say goodbye to him -- he is down to five pounds and is basically a walking, eating, pooping skeleton... but the vet wants to run some tests and see if there is anything we can do that won't break the bank, so she's keeping him tonight (fasting) and tomorrow he gets a full run of blood work and a poop scan, especially since she said he was still bright-eyed and not lethargic at all (despite the watery eyes and sneezing, which, considering Phoenix air, isn't that unusual), and he's eating and drinking well, SO... there may actually be hope. Plus, he was being his usual adorable self, rubbing his head and nose and self against the vet and the tech, so... he's spending the night there so he can fast for the blood work (and fasting here, with the other two bottomless food machines, would not be easy).

I did seem to regain a pound over the weekend, but overall prognosis is good. I was in the gym first thing this morning and had a good workout, but I was feeling snacky/deserty this evening so had some chocolate. Sometimes you just gotta have a little chocolate. Otherwise, not bad. Had some leftover chicken with rice & gravy and a salad, much the same as we had on Caturday with the gang -- I make a danged good roast chicken, I do.

This afternoon I crossed our very messy porch to get to the faucet to water the limper areas (the grass is so badly overgrown I had to search for the sprinkler this morning by following the hose), and the afternoon sun was angling across the porch furniture, which is decorated by a lot of shiny, messy Black Widow webs. I noticed one of these webs appeared to have caught a lot of little burr seeds or something in it, so on the way back I looked closer and saw about two dozen (or more) teeny, tiny baby spiders, kind of glowing prettily in the rays of the sun. They were very cute and interesting, and I was intrigued despite the practical, homeowner part of my head that said, "Those are baby black widows, which will grow up into big-girl borderline dangerous black widows and should be gotten rid of while we can do so easily." (Mostly I ignore spiders as long as they stay outside and away from the doors and windows. After all, they eat other bugs.)

I have WordPerfect again. Life is good.

* * * *

My sinuses have been KILLING me lately. I hate having to take so much allergy medicine. *sniff*

The only trouble with baking a cake is I then EAT it, but I finally got back in the gym. (And, knock wood, dropped to 161 pounds this week! Woot!)

But not here!

I am typing this from my brand-new, fresh out of the box, not-yet-fully-loaded laptop, an HP Pavilion with 4 gigs of RAM, a 2.10 GHz processor, 320 gig hard drive, the Windows Media package, came with Windows Office, DVD-RW, top-grade wireless, and he's PRETTY, too. I have named him Jonathan Strange. (I had initially chosen one with a slightly larger hard drive, but it had a different wireless connection, which is why I didn't buy last night and waited until today when Barb, my computer expert, could come with me and help me Choose Wisely.) I financed with the Buy More, who are currently having an 18-months No Interest deal; I should have it paid off by then no trouble!

Since he's also a 64-bit processor, I have to see how much of my old software will actually work on him, which includes WordPerfect and Photoshop. We shall see. But I have all of Mozilla downloaded, Office installed, and have been copying stuff from the old computer. Have to also figure out if I can move my iTunes playlists over, since I don't want to rebuild them AGAIN, as I had to do when the old desktop died.

I also have to get used to this SUPER SENSITIVE touch pad. I'm finding myself changing windows and doing things when I'm not expecting them.

He DID, of course, come with Vista, but with a free upgrade to Windows 7 when that comes out next month.

I'm mostly concerned about WordPerfect, and, naturally, ALL my writing; a problem when so much is written in older programs when newer programs may not be compatible. Of course, some stuff is saved in .txt files, so they should be all right, but the older WP files I may have to fight with. (Certainly with only Word here; I've been working almost exclusively in WP since we got our own laser printer.)

In other news, I finished knotting a string of pearls and I did a Very Good Job, if I do say so myself. I'm sorry the only knotting cord I could find was white, which doesn't go very wel with the grey pearls, but I did it and the next one will have even fewer mistakes! *g*

* * * *

Yesterday we went out to Tempe and ate an enormous amount of dim sum at the Phoenix Palace, so much so I wasn't really hungry until lunch time today - everything was so delicious it defies description. And it's fun going with framefolly, who introduced us to some new and different dishes! Yum! As a plus, it was reasonably priced; the five of us polished off a ton of food, brought a lot home for the ailing Barb (who is better today and got to try some of it!), and it came to less than $70. Can't wait to go again!

Now back to playing with my new toy.

For one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

I don't know that I know any sites that my entire flist doesn't already visit regularly... unless it's some of the indy music sites, so what the hell. Check out Dale Watson or Little Dog Records; I've raved about the former at length, while there are a LOT of great artists recording on the latter.

I spent the lazy afternoon watching all the episodes of Wonderfalls I never saw before, and while I'm sorry it was canceled I'm glad they got a chance to wrap up the story, so it's a nice complete little tale, all fun and whimsy. And I'm adding Lee Pace to my list of Celebrity Crushes. I mean, he was already there as the Ned the Piemaker, but I forgot until I was watching him as Jaye's brother Aaron.

I definitely ate too much and exercised too little this weekend. Very, very lazy weekend. Sleepy now and, I guess, ready for work tomorrow... *sigh*

( The Cupcake )

It's very sad to me that Doctor Two is in last place. I wonder if it's just because so few of his adventures survived? Maybe after War Games is released more fans will see the greatness that is Doctor Two!

( It's Shark Week. )

There's an article in the NY Times that makes me grind my teeth. What makes these young blonde singers COUNTRY? At all? There's no place to comment and ask that very important question! *pant pant pant*

This evening I cooked up some four-cheese ravioli from Costco and created this sauce to go with it:

1 stick butter
1 tablespoon flour -- whisk together over low heat
Slowly add about a cup or so white wine (in this case a Chenin Blanc/chardonnay, not too sweet, not too dry), whisking all the time until slightly thickened and good consistency
Add dill, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to taste. Dash salt. Then add frozen uncooked shrimp and simmer until shrimp are pink. Serve with ravioli. YUM!

My ears are healing. They ITCH.

I have come to an understanding, why it is that Barb and I got along just dandy without a dishwasher for so long, even though everyone thought we were nuts. As I washed dishes this morning, I counted what CAN'T be put into the dishwasher, all of which we have in abundance:

1) The silverware. We put this in at first, but realized that the harsh abrasives were WEARING THE SILVER PLATE OFF. Fortunately, it's only marginally ruined the daily-use silver, and not the good stuff, which we've only used once or twice since getting the dishwasher. So now that gets hand-washed again.

2) The forged knives. These will get rusty.

3) The stoneware. This cannot be washed with soap at all, and must be scrubbed with a stiff brush only. I suppose if I ran a load without soap, it MIGHT work, but I doubt it.

4) The cast iron. Like the stoneware, you can't wash cast iron with soap, and it MUST be wiped dry so it doesn't get rusty.

5) The good china. It's gilt edged, and so are some of my wine glasses. Should have realized that what could happen to gilt edges could happen to silverware, too.

6) The hand-blown glasses, the etched glasses, and the hand-painted glasses.

7) The teflon-coated cookware.

Since the above is roughly half of what we own, that's why we never felt the lack of a dishwasher.

For what it's worth, neither of us have ever bothered to fix the air conditioning in our vehicles, either.

On an unrelated television note, just watched the season finale of Primeval. Holy cats, the Beeb had BETTER allow another series, because that is probably the worst place to leave a show since... possibly the series finale of Farscape.

Yesterday I spent the whole day backing up stuff off the small hard drive to my external backup drive, which took a lot of time for transferring and copying (transferring TiVo saves to plain M-PEG files), but got it done and cleared off some of this drive. Did the Mom's grocery shopping, picked up some birthday paper to wrap sillymagpie's gifts, then took her out to dinner at a wonderful little Ecuadoran restaurant, where the food was to die for delicious -- everything we tried, all around, was superb, from the appetizer Ecuadoran tamales to the Guanabana dessert, which was a very light whipped custardy thing with chocolate drizzled on top. The Ecuadoran flan (coconut flan) was unlike any Sonoran flan I've ever tried, but it, too, was incredible. Then we came home to gifts and watched Coraline, which was one of said gifts. Nifty little movie!

Had something happen with one of my (now adult) dragons that I've never seen before. When she "gendered" (that's the point when a hatchling gets its wings or grows a little bigger), I named her -- then last night she no longer had a name, and I couldn't give her the one she'd had before because it had already been used. If you scroll over her picture here on LJ it shows that original name, but on my scroll it's the new one. Very odd...

* * * *

For some reason I woke up around 3:00 this morning, and never really went back to sleep. I laid awake and listened to Cuervo ask for food with his varying meows: Demanding, begging, hopeful, sad, pathetic, and back to demanding. I dozed some, because while I heard the clock in the dining room chime both 3 and 4, I missed 5; I vaguely remember a strange dream which consisted of a flight, driving backward into a large lake in the mountains, and a ride in a sapphire blue "Cube" (those strange new cars marketed as a "mobile device") driven by the large Hawaiian gentleman who rescued us from the lake. The Cube was very comfortable inside. I also remember strange ducks that were tall as emus with very shaggy feathers, but there was no question that they were ducks.

The linearness of the dream is lost, only rough pictures remain.

I also listened to the distant thunder -- Phoenix got some rain, but Tempe was socked, over an inch (and that's a big deal in the Phoenix valley). Apparently a house in Gilbert was struck by lightening. It's that time of year, when weather is the top story in Phoenix (the other night all the power to Gila Bend was knocked out -- and it's been over 110 almost every day for the last few weeks; today was "cooler," but the humidity was WAY higher, 74% this morning). It's rare to have a monsoon storm in the early morning like that, but it was surely raining at six, when I left the gym, and their parking lot (as usual) was full of water, especially up by the door.

I made peanut butter cookies last Friday. They're all gone now, and I contemplate making more, because they were dangerously delicious (which means I probably shouldn't make more, but I CRAVE). On the other hand, I have made it to the gym nearly every day, including running over Sunday morning for a turn on the ellipsis machine. I still can't lose any more weight, but I seem to be maintaining at 166. (Although I was a mere 162 at the doctor's office. I have to remember to schedule my mammogram. They drew blood this morning and I didn't faint, whee! I'm ready to get those second ear piercings... {yes, I fainted when I got my ears pierced -- twice, once for each ear}.)

Today I stopped at Fry's to pick up a few things, and I was going down an aisle that was partly blocked by a guy with a cart, and this woman standing next to him, talking. Just talking. They weren't shopping or anything, just pretty much taking up most of the aisle. So I was trying to inch carefully by, muttering "Excuse me" pretty much under my breath because I didn't want to interrupt, when my cart lightly brushed the woman's huge purse, which was sticking out behind her. She turned and snapped at me, "EXCUSE YOU!" then went back to her loud conversation, continuing to take up most of the aisle. I was much disturbed by this...

The cleaning of the office room continues apace. I should just heave my entire bottle collection in the recycling bin.

Fewer than I thought:


Pretty much as expected:

Your Brain is Creative

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

* * * *

It's been a very busy week that went by very quickly; I wasn't even sure how we got to Friday so fast, and today still feels more like Sunday than Saturday.

I had to work yesterday -- with "had to" being sort of inaccurate since it was, technically, "voluntary," but with the promise of double time and a half, I went in. We had enough work to get us through, but we finished everything early and the whole crew was sent home at the end of my (the early) shift. It did feel like working on a Saturday, since there was hardly anyone there and the roads were basically empty, and then we went out to the Pacific Seafood Buffet for edgedancer's birthday celebration. I haven't actually gotten him a present, largely because I don't really want to ply him with more toys he doesn't need and a number of the things he could really use are very expensive, so I'm just dragging my heels; I did get him a large silly card he doesn't need, but sometimes such things are fun (it's one of those noise-making cards that has Homer on the cover and plays the "d'oh!" montage when opened).

ANYWAY...

Things I remembered I was going to post about in Vegas and shortly thereafter:

On Thursday morning, before the whole Michael Jackson thing started, I was at the gym at the Mirage and while on the ellipsis machine, I watched a couple of episodes of The Golden Girls. This wasn't a show I watched when it was on, but I found it was cute and funny (and created by the same team who did Soap, a show I adored and STILL need to get seasons 2-4 of), but as I watched, I found myself thinking, "These gals don't look so old." Oops. *g* Of course, it WAS twenty years ago (the show about the Cold War with Premiere Gorbachev & President Reagan was a big dating clue)... but Betty White looked pretty young. Ah, well. It does tell me it's probably time for me to actually start looking for auditions again -- I'm now old enough to play the character roles I used to get in high school. And yes, damn it, I'm comparing myself to four of the greatest comic character actresses ever. So there.

Up on Fremont Street one of the "Fremont Street Experience" shows was "A Tribute To Queen," which was basically "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" played over some cool graphics and lots of pictures of the band playing live, etc., etc. Until one of the final choruses of "We Are The Champions" when abruptly the photo montage changed to firemen and policemen and soldiers and the waving American flag, leaving me going "Huh? Don't these guys realize that Queen were British?" It changed my impression of the entire little show...

For some reason I have to re-log into EVERYTHING every time I open my browser. This is frustrating. The security is set to accept cookies, so I'm not sure why it's doing this. It made me miss a stripey egg, which I've been chasing for a week (I should have had it, too, but I got the "you need to register/log in before getting an egg! message...). Grump. They only drop like one an hour, but the drops last all hour anymore because there are always so many abandoned ones.

* *

Barb bought the most wonderful nectarines EVER. She just gave me a slice and while I didn't even think I cared for nectarines much, now I want MOAR.

After Wait Wait Don't Tell Me I think I'll watch Yankee Doodle Dandy and, of course, 1776.

Happy Fourth!

Been working with my new website building program all day. Woof. Not 100% sure I like the program - it is easy, but the templates are all very uniform, and it squishes everything to the far left on a widescreen monitor. Haven't figured out how to fix that one yet. But if you're interested in seeing how it's looking, it's still Cowboys and Vampires.

Also spent most of the day watching the HBO John Adams series. I think it's much better than the reviews said it was; the casting, on the whole, is excellent (although the fellow playing Jefferson is WAY too short, sorry; Jefferson should not be the same height as Adams!). And I can find no fault with Giamatti's acting (still, I can't help it, John Adams will forever be William Daniels in my mind). The makeup department may have gone a bit far with the reality of the dental troubles of the time, though... sometimes there CAN be something as too much verisimilitude. But props to the props department, for the recreation of famous portraits with the actors in them that look almost identical to the originals. Awesome. I now ought to read the McCullough book, though. I have Dearest Friend, the Abigail Adams bio, but I've never gotten around to reading it.

I made cherry pie yesterday, which, if I do say so myself, came out awesome. We watched the first four episodes of Veronica Mars, which I found I rather liked. Cleaned leftovers out of the fridge and now am slow cooking beef ribs for dinner. I ate pie for lunch. It's a good Sunday.

* * *

This afternoon I ate some nice crisp frozen pizza for lunch (from CostCo, better than your average frozen pizza), and then thought I'd have a little ice cream.

I ate almost the entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Macadamia. Insidious flavor. Yum.

Warmed up leftover stir fry for lunch to find that there is no meat left in it (it was pork). Dang. Vegetarians we are not. I'll have to cook up some chicken to throw into it, because there's a lot of baby corn, bamboo shoots, and water chestnuts here.

Trader Joe's makes the OMG best potato chips (the "Ridge Cut" salt & pepper flavor) in the universe. I must stop eating these NOW.

The Diamondbacks are winning again. Seems we've recovered from the early season slump. Maybe firing coaches does do something. When did the Padres start wearing camo uniforms? So after a 6-0 lead for most of the game, apparently the 'Backs plan on letting the Padres start scoring like maniacs at the bottom of the 9th??? What is with my team?

I have to go bring in the laundry and then I'm going to make blueberry cobbler, I think with a nice crunchy strudel top because I like those.

Cobbler (crisp) is in the oven, bread is out of the machine and cooling, laundry in and folded, sheets out on the line, the only thing left to do is make the bed.

*whew*

Television side note: I can't believe the direction Primeval is going...!!!

Happy Birthday, evil_little_dog!

The usual.

Every so often I think about Interesting, Important, Intelligent Things to Blog About, and then comes the end of the day and I pretty much come down to the same old "um-d'oh-uh" stuff.

Re: Amazon. I'm rather glad I found the books I WAS going to order over at Border's, at least for now. I didn't make the purchase because I knew anything at the time (I didn't), but because I was too impatient to wait for shipping (good thing, too, since I've already ripped through two of the books I bought). It's a hollow threat for me to now stand firm and say I won't be buying from them until it's fixed, because, well, I can't buy diddly from anyone, because I spent ALL MY MONEY this weekend. Um, stimulating the economy, that's it. *grrr* I would like to just once get through a payday weekend without being completely poor at the end. Of course, this time it's really my own fault; I should NOT have gone to Border's AND Ross. Very bad. I have books, a new pair of sneakers, and the prettiest purse EVER. So at least I'm happy, if poor.

And, as always, I'm very glad that when I now say "I'm poor," it means I have paid all the bills, the mortgage is paid, I have more than half a tank of gas, and I even bought frivolous things I didn't need. Of course, now I have to make it through to NEXT payday without dipping into the savings too much. *knock wood*

Because of insomnia, I did not work out at the gym all last week. I at least tried to do small hand weights at home. (The key word being "try.")

I have been also trying to write, working on Book Three and trying to get all the POVs in order. I had written several scenes from one character's POV, then decided that her motives needed to be a lot more mysterious, so I re-wrote some from another character's eyes, and cut out all the rest. I'm telling myself to stop worrying about what to cut and just write it, then go back and yank the junk I know isn't needed.

I liked the new Dr. Who (no spoilers). I think I'm still stinging from Journey's End, which, while not as horrible in all ways as Daleks in Manhattan or Fear Her, felt like a slap in the face from RTD to me... but it was a good story, anyways.

I made Massaman curry for dinner with the lamb roast from our Easter dinner (the sauce came from a jar, but was tasty nonetheless). Yum!

$ $ & & @

Unfortunately, in order to get help from Leroy Jethro Gibbs, I'd have to be in the Naval Services...

However, I do know I'd want Alan Shore to defend me!

In other news, I should be working on my writer's critiques, but I'm trying to catch up on some other stuff before I get started again. I'm late, as usual... *sigh* But I had a few items to ding-post:

My potato-leek soup is teh AWESOME. It's better the second day, even. And VERY good with a crisp Reisling.

Dale Watson is coming back to Phoenix, YAY! And it's a Thursday night show, so I can deal with one day of being a zombie at work. My editor at About is working with his publicist to get me another interview; so I'd have to think of some more questions... and consider a quiet place to chat with him, since the Rhythm Room is anything but quiet, even after the show!

And in checking out the Rhythm Room's site, I see the amazing Reckless Kelly is there next week; I have to consider if I'll be up for a Tuesday night show! Woop! It's honky-tonk season!

Yesterday my arm didn't hurt at all; today there were a few twinges. Next week should be my last weekly massage session, but I think I'll keep up at least once a month, since obviously, IT HELPS! Plus listening to her about not babying it and getting some serious upper body weight training back in -- I just need to remember to ice it once in a while.

And I'll say it once again: Michelle Obama rocks!

Mostly because I haven't had anything much to say. It's been a lot of same-as-yesterday going along, only now I have even MORE Amish bread starter. Anyone local who likes to bake?

Unable to figure out how to keep my chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of my bread, I ground them up so chocolate SHAVINGS permeate the bread. Success! (And yes, I coated them with flour first.)

Greatest Geek Toy Ever I adore Think Geek. I wish I had limitless funds so I could get all the silly toys and shirts I want from here (and for gifts as well as for me!).

I have no ideas for a good April Fool's day joke, unlike the article posted by sillymagpie or the "bomb" my wife rahirah dropped on her fans. Mostly today went by like every other day, ah, well. They were talking about some of the great pranks of the past, including Taco Bell's announcement in 1996 that it had bought the Liberty Bell, which would now be known as the "Taco Liberty Bell," NPR's Talk of the Nation reporting in 1992 that Nixon was going to run for President again, and the BBC's 1957 "Swiss Spaghetti Harvest." For today, the Guardian has announced that they will be the first to publish exclusively in Twitter, including transferring their archives to Tweets - of course, I can't find that article now. (But I did find a whole site dedicated to them!)

Pictures taken at our Greeley, CO, office during the blizzard last week:






This is definitely the time of year to live in Phoenix. The weather has been wonderful, windy days aside. Yesterday a queen bee, moving her swarm, decided to take up temporary housing in our pine tree, causing me and our neighbors much concern until advice from the Bee Man I called said she was probably just passing through, and unless the bees were "clumping together," there was no cause for alarm. He was right -- they were gone within the hour.

When I watch stuff on the world economic crisis, I can't help but pause and be thankful that this didn't happen until Barb and I were both in stable, reasonably secure jobs, with very little unsecured debt remaining, two paid-off cars and, knock wood, few problems. Still, I don't have anywhere NEAR the recommended "six months' worth of pay saved" - I'm just counting it a plus that I no longer have to live paycheck to paycheck. I just wish sometimes I had a better understanding of why economics work like they do. Supply and demand is comprehensible enough, but this amazing domino effect is hard to figure.

Anyways...

Should I have a glass of wine tonight? Hmmmm, perhaps. The lightly tart Reisling will go well, I think, with the potato-leek soup I'm making. Next time I make Italian, I got a nice imported bottle of Chianti to try (I'm big on the "sweet-tart" white German wines, Reislings and Gewurtz; and I love Italian sparkling wines, but I'm always willing to try others).

The Dragon site has been having trouble, so no new eggs. I'm getting the DTs.

I love seeing the Obamas standing next to Queen Elizabeth. (I absolutely adore our First Lady. Michelle rocks. The British are astounded that she doesn't carry a handbag.)

A few days ago, my Facebook page came to the attention of my best friend from High School, whom I have not seen in almost twenty-five years. We've been chatting on email and exchanging pictures, and we were going to get together today when she came up to Phoenix, but she got strep throat and had to call it off. Since I already had the afternoon off, I decided to drive out to Tempe Marketplace, where there is a massive wine & liquor store called BevMo, where I browsed for a while, finding many interesting wines, including a sparkling almond-flavored white that we both love but I haven't been able to find up here in the center of the city in a while. Yay! It also carries all manner of liquors, mixers, snacks, bar equipment, and unusual sodas (although not, sadly, Dublin Dr Pepper). I got a few bottles of Reisling, a Zeller Schwarze Katz, and the aforementioned almond sparkling.

It's the first time I've been at Tempe Marketplace. There's lots of cool stuff out there.

Then I stopped a Big Lots to get a few boxes for storage and figured the vast amount of candles and bath stuff filling the shelves there now must have come from the closing of Linens & Things.

I came home and started putting things into said storage boxes, mostly winter wear and pants I'm still too fat for but I'm not willing to part with until it becomes obvious I'll NEVER fit into them. I moved a few sweaters and things out of my closet into the new hall closet, then I stepped on the plug from the fan standing in the foyer and apparently have badly bruised something in my foot, because now it hurts like a $#^&@!&*^$%.

Thoughts on vitamins? The usual scare-mongering nutritionist came though during our "health week" and informed everyone that taking vitamins was not only a waste of money (as the "news" shows have been heralding), but detrimental to one's body, filling the body with poisons, etc., etc. I said that my doctor was glad I was taking a mult-vitamin and calcium; and I was really more interested in listening to the guy with the medical degree. However, it doesn't stop the people at work from doomsaying. Just as an experiment, I stopped taking my vitamins. I gained back five pounds. Now, I'm not saying there's a connection...

Then I made stovetop braised pork chops and baked potato for dinner.

* * *

Today we took Barb's mom out to lunch, ate at a place called Arriba Mexican Grill (although, to be honest, it's really more a NEW Mexican Grill); they have a white sauce there called fundido that I am terribly addicted to. It's hot, but OH, so good, and I can't... stop... eating... even when my mouth is on fire and my sinuses have become VERY clear. All their food is pretty good, but it's definitely on the spicy side of spicy. Their carnitas are top-notch, too. (Not to mention their margaritas, although I didn't have one today.)

Yesterday we went looking for sandals, but found none; instead Barb got cute boots and a purse and I bought three more pair of sneakers (I have turned from "girly" into Ellen, apparently). Low-tops, this time, though, for summer wear. Because my work no longer requires much in the way of the BUSINESS part of business casual, I haven't gotten my feet used to wearing heels again, so when I DO wear heels, it's rather painful pressing on where the surgery was. How ironic, have the bunion removed and now my shoes fit better and I don't wear 'em.

I made up some Amish Friendship Bread this weekend, the starter having been given to me the usual ten days ago by a work friend. I forgot to give the new starters to people on Saturday night (although tiirz was the only one who seemed interested, I was sure I could eventually talk [Unknown LJ tag] and </lj> into taking one), so now I have four cups of starter. It's good bread, but that means eight loaves nine days from now, and that's beyond me. I need more friends. *g* One site I found said that starter can be safely frozen; I may try that.

I haven't updated my weight in some time because I haven't been able to do anything but hover between "wedding weight" (about 166-167) and 173 pounds. I did work out regularly last week, so if I can keep that up, I'll feel okay about things even if I can't seem to drop those pounds (although that would be very nice, too).

I've been trying to catch up with two weeks' worth of Craig Ferguson; I do love my Tivo, but sometimes things do stack up a little. I have to say, I adore Jim Parsons on this show; he's as much fun as himself as he is on Big Bang Theory. I'm only lucky that he's been in re-runs the last week, because while Tivo will for some reason helpfully record two-year-old episodes of House and Lost for me, I can't get it to record reruns of Psych or Craig unless I specifically program it to record them individually. I had meant to save the one with Gordon Ramsey, but alas, before I could get in to "recover" it after I accidentally deleted it, it vanished. The ways of Tivo are strange...

For what it's worth, I =KNOW= I have to market myself, put myself out there, get those submissions in, and develop the thick skin necessary for a professional writer if I really want to be published. These are things I know. When I whine on my LJ, I'm not looking for people to tell me these things, I'm venting my frustration and hoping for, at best, a comforting pat on the shoulder and a "there, there." When I can't get even friends and family to read my work, I get frustrated (seriously, when I won the SWW Award and proudly told my Mom, what I got back was, "Oh, I'm so proud. Did you know your {much younger} cousin Brooke just got her Doctorate and a very prestigious professor position at an Ivy League college?"). However, that doesn't mean I won't keep on trying; I just haven't in a while because I've run into a few dead ends. If my whining becomes annoying, skip over it. I don't mind.

So, in any case, I'm prepping The Long Way Home for this year's SWW Contest, and considering the next target for Ring of Fire, and wondering if, perhaps, the as-yet unnamed Book Three ought to be sent out first... just 'cause.

And that's it by me.

Dragon Site continues to be annoyingly down. You are saved from Dragons.

Success: I changed out the shower head and we discovered that WAS in fact the problem. Now the shower works, no longer leaving us in a trickle that hugs the wall. Yay, no need to call the plumber.

We hung the new address tiles on the front and they look AWESOME keen.

We cleaned out the closets in preparation for the folks to come tomorrow and put in the new shelves & such.

We went to Trader Joe's and got yogurt and cheese and some other stuff, then went out to the Thai Rama for a DELICIOUS dinner since all the stuff from the closets is making a big mess in the kitchen. Yum, red curry beef in a peanut sauce and Pad Thai!

Vacuumed. Did not dust.

Frustration: I want a patch for my denim jacket based on this icon: but all the places I can find that do custom embroidery patches have a minimum order of 50. All I want is one. Maybe two or three. I wish I could do these sorts of things myself. Phoo.

Remembered a quibble I had with Watchmen, one shared by nearly everyone in the audience we were sharing the auditorium with -- Dr. Manhattan shouldn't have mispronounced "Gila." If you ever come to Arizona and need to go anywhere that has Gila in the name (whether it's Gila River, Gila Bend, or any of the other bunch of 'em), don't say "Gee-la." It's pronounced HEE-la. (Likewise, Mogollon is pronounced "muggy-on," "canyon de chelly" is pronounced "canyon de shay" and "Estrella" is pronounced "estreya.")

You Are a Red Velvet Cupcake

You are sensual and self-indulgent. If it feels good, you'll do it. You're drawn to gorgeous, sexy people. You can't help it if you want your friends to be attractive! You are like a cupcake because you are completely decadent and over the top. You believe life is too short to deprive yourself. You rather overdo it than go without.

I really, really wish they'd hurry up and put my tax refund into my account. I'm so poor it's not even funny.

I finally ripped a lot of old, old They Might Be Giants discs and loaded them on my iPod. I sometimes forget how much I enjoy some of that silly stuff. And I think about the dirt that I'll be wearing for a shirt, and I hope that I get old before I die!

I haven't been to the gym yet this week, meaning it's been four days since my last serious workout. Very bad. But it's been a couple of days of being VERY tired in the morning, so I just go back to bed once I stagger out of bed and feed the insatiable eating machines cats. So I'm going to go to bed EARLY tonight, come heck or high water, and see if that helps any.

Tonight I made a light & tasty meal, a pseudo-frittata with bacon, onion, and broccoli with whipped eggs baked in the oven until puffy, seasoned with a little garlic, salt, pepper, and dill. Came out very yummy!

I haven't collected Barbies in years, but this one almost makes me want to start again... (I'm rather fond of this one, too; it's an Elphaba doll!

Record companies are saving money by no longer sending reviewers an actual physical disc. This I can understand; however, the special site that's set up for reviewers to download their tracks is unweildy and difficult to navigate, and while they sent me the entire press package with a "click to download what's waiting for you," there were no tracks available for download. Now, since it's a "greatest hits" collection, I have most of it already. But as usual these days, all "greatest hits" have NEW tracks to sucker people into buying the whole new disc. *sigh* I'd have just as soon gotten a physical CD. That is, after all, the only pay I get.

No writing. I know everyone's devastated.

I forgot to set the DVR to pick up Castle last night. I wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I thought I'd give it a try.