Fear not, I did not die over the course of moving.

What happened is that Verizon basically lied about DSL coverage in the area (This took me two days of getting bounced around phone trees, half of which are in India, and non-appearing technicians to find out, btw), so I canceled with them and it took a bit to get stuff worked out with Comcast (it took a while since I got a disappearing tech on their end too, but I actually got a credit on my account for that.. and then I had a bad TV box that I just got replaced today). I have cable internet at speeds about twice as fast as the best Verizon could have offered and cable TV with OnDemand, which is something I occasionally actually indulge in. (I am somewhat mollified to have heard that in Delaware Verizon's legendarily bad customer service has earned them an investigation from the FCC. Still, boo.)

I am also sick. My voice quit all through Tuesday and Wednesday with an agonizing sore throat. It's back now, but now I've got sinus and upper respiratory issues in line with the occasional BACTERIA WANT TO EAT YOUR HEAD infections I get. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow. It is late enough that I don't have to miss a third day of work, but I'm still trying to gauge how I feel since I'm not exactly in the sort of work where if I overestimated how well I am I get to just go home when I start to feel really crappy. On the other hand, being out MAKES ME NUTS.

Yeah, Christmas is getting to be a bit of a non-event here at the ranch. I have my pretty wreath that smells nice, but between the move and the utilities drama and then being too sick to really want to do much more than sit in a chair and be a zombie, no decorating beyond that is happening. I'm going to be lucky to get my shopping done and get everything wrapped at this rate. :| Hopefully next year will run better.

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Entry originally posted at http://teh-kittykat.dreamwidth.org/33718.html

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OMG I LOVE LJLOGIN!

It's got cross-platform support that includes DW! I can easily and lazily switch between main and rping accounts on both sites now! :D

In other news, my apartment looks like a bomb made of boxes went off and I'm still about halfway done with packing. (I need to get the junk in the closets and the kitchen.) OMG OMG OMG

I also made an RP account for Uran after going through a million Youtube videos because I can't get screengrab for free from the DVD player. XD Can't wait to chuck her at people. (At this rate I'll end up tweaking things since I haven't completely finished the 2003 series she's drawn from and I know I'll probably want to screw around with icons. The Girl and I have a pact to watch Astro Boy together, so I can't cheat and watch ahead even on Youtube. Darnit.)

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Entry originally posted at http://teh-kittykat.dreamwidth.org/32876.html

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OMG GAIZ I AM MOVING NEXT SATURDAY WTF I DON'T EVEN KNOW.

I spent most of this afternoon moving my utilities and doing other change of address stuff. NOW it's finally sinking in. HOLYCRAP. (This does mean I'll be without internet for a couple of days.. but it's just 'til the Monday after, and I'm getting both faster DSL and better phone service out of the deal. I think my net connection might even be faster than Mom's cable connection after I move!)

And now back to making phone calls. O.O

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Entry originally posted at http://teh-kittykat.dreamwidth.org/32552.html

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Got to spend some time with The Girl. We watched Up since I managed to score the DVD of it yesterday. It still made me cry. And the new little short about Dug also made me cry. Both in a good way.

I don't know what it is about movies geared towards children and making me cry.

I'm actually tipping at a bit of fanfic. It's an idea that's been kicking around my head for a while so I thought I'd try and do something with it. Let's just say it's Dr. Light's revenge for getting fridged and/or made into a bit of an ass in a lot of my fanfics. XD And that Blues takes after him far more than he'd like to admit.

It's gotten chilly again. I hope this means fall's here to stay finally. I hate it when the temps see-saw like they do a lot of the time. I usually end up getting sick when it happens and I have too much crap to do to get sick right now.

Continuing also to watch the 2003 Astro Boy. And.. well.. This is their character model for Dr. Tenma:


(image ganked from Wikipedia, for the curious)

As you can see, he has a rather unfortunate resemblance to a chicken. And since I've taken a bit of an instant dislike to him as a person, at least on-screen, well... there's been a lot of clucking involved. Especially since in a lot of his dramatic scenes he's backlit in profile so he really looks like a chicken.

And since I am dead tired this is hilarious. So I shall leave you with that.

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Entry originally posted at http://teh-kittykat.dreamwidth.org/32149.html

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I am attempting a cooking experiment in my crock-pot today while also using the time to do errands and do my best lump impression. I shall probably post something if the cooking bit works out-- from the way it smells now, it will either be awesome or suck terribly. THERE WILL BE NO MIDDLE GROUND.

I'm working through the paperwork for moving in November. I have a pre-move inspection scheduled for the 26th which means I have cleaning to do this week in addition to working on the last bits of stuff for my class, which ends at the end of the month. It's actually kind of exciting to be moving because I want to into a bigger space than I had before.

AND THEN I will hopefully be going to New York on the twelfth of December. Assuming there are spaces still left on the bus.. but with any luck I'll be going on an epic date with The Girl.

I have a feeling it's going to be an insane next few months. But then I'm kind of angling for quiet on the actual holidays and perhaps even staying home for a change with my insane cat.

The weather's been pretty unremittingly cold and rainy lately-- it feels like it did last December, if you want to be honest, so I figured I'd break out some of the Christmas music I have sitting in the computer and give them a listen, since I'm planning on waiting a bit before putting up decorations this year. Here's hoping this set of holidays will be good. :3

I love screwing around on Facebook. I have discovered Farmville and the world will no longer be safe for cows!

Also, pictures of things coming to Flickr eventually. I have to go through them and do some cropping and ask people about wedding pictures and you know the drill.

Oh yeah, I went to a wedding on Sunday. :D katimus_prime and roflcopter_down's wedding to be precise. It was totes awesome. And I bawled like a baby at parts because it was OMGROMANTIC. And I have no idea what sort of wine was in the wedding favor.. help?

I got my hair dyed on Saturday but I can't find a decent non-blurry picture of myself with the new hair. :| I may have to coerce The Girl into taking a few when I see her again. It's purple-red and given the fact that it has universally been proclaimed awesome, I might just have to keep it that way for a while. Just because.

Of course, now I'm back to the rat race because I didn't decide to take vacation today. Blerg for transitioning back to hectic work schedule. I get a yay since I'm off Friday, but I'll likely be spending it on college work so boo anyway. Not to mention the mountain of paperwork from my actual job that I'll need to read through. sigh.

I am trying to talk The Girl into moving in with me in November when I move apartments. Wish me luck. :3

Fall is definitely here. The air is crisp like apples that have been in the fridge for a bit and it's been gloriously windy like it hasn't been in quite a while. The trees are just beginning to turn colors, though none of them have quite managed to put on the firey colors of late autumn just yet. This year I think I'm actually optimistic for snow. Nice romantic dustings of it and a good freezing blizzard that shuts down the schools for a week. I'll take working a little extra in June.

I'm going to move apartments in November. Right around Black Friday so I'll probably be incommunicado for a while. I don't know-- it depends a lot on how smoothly the transfer goes for my phone and DSL service and how smoothly the transfer of my stuff goes. I have all the stuff, so that's not going to be a problem. It's a bit bigger and while I'm expecting to pay a bit more than I do now, it's worth it since I'm gaining quite a bit of square footage and an actual kitchen equipped with a dishwasher.

I haven't had a dishwasher in years and I loathe handwashing dishes with a purple passion. This is a big deal.

I'm not going to get to cook Thanksgiving dinner, obviously. I did order myself an apple pie assembled raw and ready-to-bake by a bunch of teenagers. It's really funny since the majority of the takers for the class that's providing the pies are male. And hot damn those guys can cook. They are a nice bit of extra credit to the gender. Since the pie will keep for a month and I signed up for late October delivery, I plan on eating pie on my last night in the packed-up apartment. Possibly with either ice cream or whipped topping. This is not an unhappy thought since I'm sure I'll end up getting turkey and all anyway with the family, just probably in town rather than up where they live. The local diner puts on a reservation-only Thanksgiving feast, so I think I'll be well taken care of even if it is just me.

Work goes on. I'm having fun with it. A little bushwhacked, but that always happens when I have to deal with a hundred or so essays that I have to read carefully. I'll catch up tomorrow or Friday with the rest and probably just stay late Monday too if it comes to that. I don't have class this weekend, but I do want to devote some time to straightening up and working on the big paper that will be due for my class in a few weeks. Even with the late-phase-class crunch looming, I am glad now I chose an accelerated course. It means I'm free in November to pack and clean for the move!

And since I have managed to come full circle, I shall sign off now.

And don't ask me about NaNo. I'm debating it.

Hi, I am still alive!

Work is going worklike. I'm staying late most days finishing things, since there was some wonderful copier drama that's still sort of sorting itself out.

I am going to knit myself a new scarf. I bought yarn and needles today and I'm partway through making yarnballs. If I'm lucky I might get things cast on and get the first row done tonight.

Had a minor scare with the heater, so I ended up doing something grownup and getting myself renter's insurance finally to cover my stuff. Everything's fine-- it was a non-gas weird smell that the maintenance guy said was most likely some dust or something falling and getting toasted by the pilot light. Which has, by the way, been shut down until I need it when it actually gets chilly, just to be on the safe side. The smell's gone now after I aired the place out, but it was still quite a bit of a scare.

Renter's insurance is actually remarkably cheap, though I am probably going to cry when I see my credit card bill at this rate. :|

And now I am going to go play with yarn and sleep, since tomorrow is another day.

It's been one of those lovely whirlwind weekends.

I got to see Ponyo on Friday night, in a teensy little projection room with a bunch of other hardcore Miyazaki fans since it was the 9 PM showing.

Saturday was mostly spent cleaning and trying to assemble a bookcase. Moose ended up called, and so I took us out for dinner at Applebees and had a pretty nice few hours chattering.

Sunday was spent shopping. I started out being good, since the whole reason we went out in the first place was so I had a chance to trade in a bunch of DVDs for some cash. Then The Girl and I both got dresses for katimus_prime's upcoming wedding, which then led to me needing dressy shoes. And then I remembered that I had my birthday gift for Bath and Body Works, so I got myself another bottle of perfume (I love the neroli jasmine). And since I wanted a bigger teapot we impulsively went to the other mall and got a teapot. And about a pound of whole leaf tea (split evenly between a mate/chai blend and a really fruity roobois blend for iced tea). And since our tea guy knew The Girl, we scored a tea blossom~! And I went by the Lush and got another face mask and a new bath bomb. And then we went home and I made us a steak dinner and taters and the iced tea. :D

I'm kind of grateful it's a quiet Monday. My last for a long while since work finally resumes next Monday, but yay for paychecks! And I've decided I'm taking my vacation days this year. So I'll probably sit down with a calendar and spread them in there so I can get the paperwork up and done. (I'm trying to be good and not take a day off after the Aion release. I did actually get a chance to play some on the beta and it was zomg fun.)

The rest of the family might be up this week and I have laundry to do. And more iced tea to make. Ah chores.

I've been having some lovely boring days lately.

Cleaning things out has been going at a relatively steady sporadic pace. I'm down to just a couple of zones that need looked at so stuff can be thrown away and/or re-organized.

I've been having fun with my cute little teapot. I already want a slightly bigger one-- the capacity on my hotpot is 32 oz and my cute little teapot is only 24. IKEA actually has a really lovely looking glass one with what looks like a good infuser for loose-leaf tea.. but it's 2 quarts and my hotpot is good for only one. Teavana also has a couple of teapots that would fit the bill nicely, but they're on the pricier side. Alas.

I went for a walk in town today on a whim. It was hot and sticky but not as hot and sticky as it's been lately. Only I was out when a lot of the neat little boutiquey places were closed, either due to the hour (a surprising number are 9-5) or because the owners are on vacation (which was the case for a neat little yarn store). I have some pictures I will have to put into flickr and post.

I think one of my "things I want to try and do this year" is to take and post more pictures from around. Not sure on what basis yet-- I usually have some pictures by the end of every month, but I don't always find subjects I like every week or even every two. Maybe I'll do a "month in pictures" thing and post my favorites at the end of every month.

Another "thing I want to try and do this year" is give up drinking Coke, mostly because I'm just tired of it. (Though every so often I try to cut my sugar intake a bit and cutting the Coke is one of the easiest ways to do it.) I'm not giving up ginger ale, Orangina, or the occasional root beer or other outre soda, though. (I've never been a gigantic fan of Pepsi and less so since I've gotten older.. about the only Pepsi products I'll drink are Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew, and even then it's rare because Mountain Dew is too damn sweet.) I kind of like the idea of steeping big jugs worth of iced tea on the stove every once in a while and having that, though I'm going to need to figure out how I'm going to rig an infuser/craptastic homemade teabags for a big pot of tea since I have been seriously enjoying the whole leaf tea I've been having lately.

I usually tend to time my resolutions with the beginning of a new school year since working in academics tends to send your whole schedule dancing to a school year's tune anyway. Much easier to change when work resumes than to form your habits all through that fall and then try to change in the middle of winter! I started bento last fall, stuck to it except for a few days here and there, and am quite looking forward to doing it again this year. I even have new boxes I got at Otakon and an octodog cutter since the ones I make my hand are invariably lopsided. I probably won't start obsessively taking pictures of my lunch like some people do, but I might take a few of something especially creative or pretty.

I am mildly bummed since it appears my extended family forgot I had a birthday last week. This is not the first time I've been snubbed by extended family on my birthday (this is in fact the second year running my grandpa has ignored it) but not even getting a phone call or printed-out generic card is kind of like the last straw as far as my not-particularly-great-but-not-antagonistic relationship with them has been. I think it's perfectly fair that I totally forget their addresses and whatnot for Christmas. If they bitch I can always say their stuff is with my birthday card from this year. :|

I made these today. I love Pioneer Woman's potato recipes.. she's 2 for 2 now. It was fun being all homemmaker-ey and putting out a full spread for dinner for me and The Girl. And The Girl brought over delicious painful peanut butter bars. And we watched Astroboy and a bunch of video from Aion. Which I so totally want to get.

Did a bit of cleaning-- under the bed and the linen closet are done. I'm left with cleaning out the kitchen of all the various kitchen whatevers I never use and the hall closet.

I probably won't get to it for a while.

The new patch landed in WoW, but I'm less than enthused about it. :|

I'm done with journal spam for the day. I think.

I don't get to move after all. :| Despite being told at a couple of points I wouldn't get a transfer fee because I've lived in my complex so long.. they want to hit me with the fee if I move. No thanks. The fee is a quarter of my monthly income when I'm working and pay doesn't resume for another month... and that's on top of rent. HAET.

This is not helped by the fact I have to go pay said rent soon. I'm probably going to sulk for a while about it, since now the earliest I can move is freaking Thanksgiving. Stupid crap lease renewal date. Never move places right before Christmas. It will bite you in the ass.

Since moving my crap was all I had for birthday plans (I turn 26 next Thursday) I have no idea now what I'm going to do. I'm probably going to go ahead and clean out stuff and make at least another Goodwill run with the stuff I'm getting rid of that's still serviceable... but meh.

On the other hand, since we moved up the trip to the Museum of American History I got to have a pretty fun time in DC. There are a million pictures but they're all sitting in my camera and will have to wait until I'm finished sulking. I also got a couple of cookbooks to feed my addiction, and since I got the news about the fee while we were shopping, I bought a collection of episodes of The French Chef in a fit of pique, to go along with the cookbook I got a couple of weeks ago.

Miso missed me. At least I have that going for me. :|

If I actually wrote down how I spent my summer vacation, it would be an interesting read.

So I'm thinking about moving apartments. Not very far-- just trading up within the complex. I've decided I'm going to run by the office and talk options and such. If there's a way I can transfer my current deposits to a new lease, I might even go look at a couple places and get the paperwork train started. If not.. I suppose I'll be waiting until November to move since by then I will resume getting paid and can cough up the hefty deposit I'll need. (September and October weekends are kind of booked up with class... And since Thanksgiving is getting to be a non-event in my family aside from lots of good om nom noms and watching the parade, I might just move then. None of us get along the best with the extended family, and most of them live two days' drive and/or a flight away. No thanks.) WISH ME LUCK, GAIZ.

The Girl and I were talking about this, and decided to move our planned trip to DC up to during the next week. We plan on hitting the American History Museum and then probably Maggiano's. That way, if the move thing goes through, we'll have the original weekend of the trip to move stuff around.

As it was, we had a nice date out at the mall, though not the one The Girl currently works in. I actually picked up one of the newly-released editions of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I wanted that book since I saw a souffle recipe in a cooking magazine that was adapted from Julia Child, but naturally everyone assumes it's because of the book. While I admit, I do kinda want to take in Julie and Julia in the theaters since the previews looked solid, I don't plan on getting the book. And frankly, what I saw of the blog was pretty boring, at least the beginning part. The current crop of "cook the book" food bloggers are much more interesting. And have pictures, which totally does not sway my opinion at all. Much.

I also totally plan on attempting souffle when the weather starts to go cold, either the original version in the book or the adapted version in the magazine or something I throw together myself. That and develop that oven-fried chicken recipe. I'm thinking of combining techniques with a Japanese cookbook that calls for a marinate and then flour rather than the flour-egg-flour technique. We'll see-- I want to see what oven techniques there are for crispy chicken before I settle on something I want to attempt.

We also went to IKEA. I can't not buy things when I go there.. this time I got straws. A big package of straws. Bendy straws. In neat designer colors. And I am totally thinking of putting them in a glass and trying to make some kind of flower arrangement with them. Send help.

I'm nesting again, a little bit.

We're getting into the last few weeks of break here. Miso has pretty much settled in, aside from his occasional stupid kitten moments. I picked my next grad class-- I'm taking it on a neat modified schedule that meets for almost the whole day on several Saturdays in September-October, leaving me free during the work week and all through November-December when my mind is usually very much on other things. It's one of those "Concepts and Issues" classes, which means it'll either be insightful and interesting about the politics at work behind my field or it will be eye-bleedingly boring and just a hoop to jump through. Time will tell. (I thought my research class would be boring, but I actually learned quite a bit about how research in social science works and a lot about the math and stats despite never taking a stats course in my life.)

I plan on moving apartments sometime in the fall. I'd like a slightly bigger one, especially if the rates hold the way they are in the complex and I can actually trade up to a larger apartment for the price I'm paying now for my hobbit-hole. The sad thing is that the lowest rent right now in the complex is $775, which would equal my current rent rate when the pet fee is added in (for the same size apartment). And I'm in the cheapest apartment complex in this area. Boo. (Trading up right now would mean I'd be paying maybe $15/mo more in rent with pet fee, but I'd be getting 100 sqft more space and a lot more closet space. And a dishwasher OMG.) I would really like to trade to something else in my building, but the only apartment free right now is a two-bedroom and those are outside my ability to pay for them. Leik Whoa.

The Girl and I will also hopefully be able to move in together sometime this fall. Even if she doesn't have her Grown Up Career, if we're in a one-bedroom I can cover rent and she can cover other stuff with what she's got. It's a thought, anyway. I'd like us to finally get to spend a Christmas together as a couple.

I totally started reading French Laundry at Home and some other "cooking the book" food blogs. I've been tempted to try and become a food blogger myself (my hobbies when bored are mostly daydreaming about how I will decorate my hypothetical house on an unlimited budget and cooking/food porn), if only a little bit, but sometimes I get held back a bit by my own issues. If you look at the foodie community, you don't exactly see a lot of fat chicks, and you usually get a lot of skinny bitches whining about how fat they're going to get if they enjoy their meals and indulge once in a while. So I shudder a bit at the sort of flack a fat foodie would get on the tubes and wuss out. (Nevermind my average caloric intake is less than or equal to what a skinny bitch eats and I get plenty of physical activity. Society says that if you're fat you can't enjoy food or you're just a cow.)

I'll probably think about it some more.

I am also totally going to try and develop a recipe for oven-friend chicken. Because all conventionally fried chicken just doesn't do it for me anymore with the grease factor making me sick. I will call it Q's Fried Chicken. (Watch the video in the link.)

Today's Accomplishments:

-- Did laundry.
-- Tried out some OxyClean and bleached out some whites that were looking a bit yellow. In the load with colors. I am impressed.
-- Watched Princess Princess as part of my ongoing efforts to finally get around to watching/reading the anime/manga I've been collecting over the last year or so.
-- Took care of the cat. Miso is almost through with getting ear drops. Yay.

My life is a little on the boring side right now. The weather has actually be gorgeously cool lately. It's been too cool to really go swimming, but on the other hand I'm kind of praying it holds out this cool for the convention. Or if not this cool at least this dry. It's been a nicely non-humid summer so far. (Of course, we don't get into the really doggy days until closer to August anyway.)

I've been trying to think of what I want for my birthday. So far just cake, though I'm not sure what kind yet. (I kind of have a yen for carrot cake. Ooooh, or maybe red velvet? I ought to get some red velvet cake mix and give it a try! I have the cream cheese icing!) Maybe go out for crabs, since I went last year with The Girl and it was fun if expensive. I'll probably get a lot of the random crap that I want at the convention this year, and I'm paying my own way for that, and everything's tight anyway for most of the people I know, so I can't really think of anything.

I stocked up on pocky at Target yesterday (they sell the two-pack chocolate pocky for $2.99 and every so often I stock up since that's the cheapest I've seen it outside of Wegman's, and even then Wegman's isn't that much cheaper and the closest one to me is a 45 minute drive) and got a couple of boxes. With any luck I'll actually get around to packing them with books and getting my bookcases reorganized so I have room for books again! Especially since I will probably have an armload of manga. (I keep telling myself this so I remember to do it.)

Unless I get any bolts of inspiration from the blue, I'll probably be quiet until after Otakon. Then there will be con report. I might even go all out with pictures this time! Since I switched to Flickr I've not done nearly as many embedded images!

I got a yen for playing the original Katamari Damacy today and beat several of my old records.

lostangelssong came up yesterday. I made us a round of victoly steak since she passed her big test. We're making plans for Otakon with katimus_prime since we're all going to be staying together.

The new Phoenix Wright wig is completed. It took about three hours of impatiently styling it with glue and hair spray and the hairdryer. I'm a little nervous about taking a backpack to the con now since I don't want anything knocking into the back of the 'do, and the back spiking is a lot longer and more defined on top like some fanart depictions of Phoenix rather than the slightly pathetic Old Wig. I might take and post photos later for comparison. I do need to practice tie tying some more. D:

Miso has decided to attempt terrorist attacks on my feet when he's hiding under the couch. He's such a big attention whore. Still, he's had a good first week at home. I need to figure out some day trips soon though so he starts getting used to the idea of me going away for a while, since he'll need to be able to cope when I'm at work.

Today is quiet.

I read book 43, which was volume seven of Genju no Seiza after I realized I hadn't read it. Oops.

I found some birdseed I had sitting around and filled the feeder so that Miso would have another source of entertainment. He's kind of taken to perching in the windowsill of the bedroom and looking, so I figure birds would be just the thing.

I reviewed how to tie a tie and learned the four-in-hand knot, which is really fast and easy. I'm going to practice a bit more, since I'll have tie-tying duties at the con unless somebody wants to practice herself.

I'm thinking about writing a guide to surviving conventions and posting it up, since I kind of enjoy it.

I am trying a new recipe from the Japanese cookbook I got a couple years ago (Let's Cook Japanese Food! by Amy Kaneko). I mucked about with the ingredients and instructions to fit what I had on hand and my lazy ass, will post modified recipes later. (It's cooking down while I wait for rice to finish in the rice cooker.)

I got a new, defective air conditioner to replace the old one that was starting to die on me.

No, I don't have to keep it. Maintenance will be by tomorrow or Thursday to take the rattly one out and put in a new one. But they left me with it since it'll be ok for a couple days and that way the apartment stays cool. Mother will be coming up Thursday to watch the show if it's not done tomorrow.

I have been trolling through the local animal shelter's webpage looking at cats. I have to admit, I'm kind of tempted by the persian. I miss having tribbles in my carpet from the cat.

It's been something of a week.

I'm back in my apartment after spending a few days with my parents. I feel like I'm living in a monastery under a vow of silence since there's nobody else in the apartment now. lostangelssong and I are going to the local animal shelter beginning of July. I had originally thought to go after Otakon, but I don't think I'm going to make an entire month. I know my parents waited a long time between dogs after Molly passed on, but their house also wasn't empty.

My cat is still the wallpaper on my cell phone. I can use my phone without getting wooby, though.

The vet sent flowers.

To top off my not so great first full week of vacation, the air conditioner died today-- it started making disturbing grinding noises that my mother says is a result of the bearings going or whatever that means. I'm frankly skeptical that maintenance will get to it anytime soon.

Tomorrow I'm going back parentsward for a combined father's day/brother's birthday thing. And since I'm spending the night I'm planning on getting myself happily buzzed up on margaritas. I will be back Monday afternoon.

Hopefully week two of vacation will go better than week one did.

I've actually had a productive morning. I think I've been running at 100% long enough it's taking me a bit to slow back down.

I finally tracked down the farmer's market. There's a crapton of plants for sale at the moment-- I'll have to wait until later in the summer if I want produce and stuff. There were also baked goods, a guy who does his own spice mixes and jerky, and a beekeeper. I got honey soap from the beekeeper (I'm nearly out of the soap I got at the renfaire) and some jerky from the spice guy (it smells awesome).

I started another slow-cooked pork roast for pulled pork. This time I put some homemade rub on it and let it sit in the fridge overnight before putting it into the crockpot. If it turns out nice I'll post the recipe.

I also ran by Target. One of the drawers in my kitchen gave up the ghost (maintenance has been called, but hell if I know when they'll fix it) so I got a new drawer organizer and I'm going to try and re-do my remaining drawers so my utensils and stuff are in a drawer. Considering I haven't really used two of the drawers at all, I think I can ditch the stuff in them and use them.

I also got a knife sharpener for my big kitchen knife and a quilt for the bed. The comforter+cover combination I had on there is a bit too warm for my efforts to try not to run the air too incredibly much. The new quilt is a rainbow.

Been picking stuff up too. The table's free of books for the first time in forever, though I think I'm going to need to cull my library again and box up some books so I have shelf space back. Then I can take them to work later.

I think I'll take a break now, though. I have to try and pace myself of I'll run out of things to do and be bored. D:

I am mysteriously drug out today. I suspect it might be the rain. And possibly the last chores I need to get done in the next couple of weeks before I finally get my much-needed break. I've been pretty near mentally done this week. :|

Things I've Done:

-- Reimbursement stuff finished and in the courier
-- Started checkout. Three signatures so far.
-- Started packing up the office finally. I have one set of cabinets before I'm down to the bookshelves and the desk. Have tossed a metric ton of paper and will probably toss more.
-- Checked weather for DC trip-- partly cloudy with a high of 77 in Baltimore so a few degrees warmer in DC. Depending on what it does tomorrow it ought to be a nice day.
-- Ate cereal. Yum cereal. I was kind of craving it.
-- Rugs got vacuumed!
-- Saw UP. Bawled like a baby. Would see it again.

Stuff to Do:
-- Finish packing office
-- Finish final paperwork (I'll probably stay late tomorrow since lostangelssong had to cancel on our old plan to hang out Friday. Stupid obligatory family events.)
-- Dishes! Some More!
-- Laundry!
-- Watch that copy of the Dune miniseries so I can give it back
-- ZOMG SLEEP

I need some Dune icons. Stat.

katimus_prime and I watched Dune as planned. It played nice with the PS2. And there was sushi and noms from the awesome local Chinese place. I get leftovers for lunch tomorrow. It kind of makes me want to try making sushi.

I even got the damn WiFi thing to work for a bit and updated my DSi's software finally. The operating system is up to date and I have the browser installed. Apparently if you unplug the wifi stick and plug it back in the connection is wonky, though. :| IJ will be getting the twitter results of my silliness.

Hopefully the week will go by quickly but not too quickly. I would like work to be finished so I can get to the fun stuff we have planned on the weekend, but I also have crap I need to make sure I get finished with before work is up. Just two more weeks and I will be finished for the summer.. and then everyone will have to listen to my whining about having nothing to do and being boooooooooored.

I spent this morning re-organizing my photos since I finished the work I brought home last night (all that's left is a little data entry).

katimus_prime is coming up for dinner. We're going to order Chinese and watch Dune and it will be the lolarious old edition. Hopefully it will play nice with my PS2. katimus_prime, roflcopter_down, lostangelssong, and I are all going to DC next Saturday. If it's sunny, we're going to the National Zoo. If it's rainy, we're going to the National Museum of American History (and possibly a little of the Air and Space Museum.. there was talk of astronaut ice cream). Either way, we're going to Maggiano's for dinner, which will be awesome.

In the meantime, here's a picture of a cranky lobster I took during Memorial Day weekend. It's also my current desktop.

I officially have a real paid DW account now and I've sent out invite codes to the people who asked me for them (check your e-mail). I have a couple left, so message me so I can spread the love. If you got a code and don't need it for some reason, go ahead and spread it to someone else. I don't mind. :D

I've been slumming around with a paid account for the last week or so since the beta testing let me do it, so really nothing much has changed. I'm going to stick with the basic paid account since I don't see myself needing the eight million extra whatevers in the premium paid. And on the plus side, this forced me to update my Paypal account into something useful again, since there was a bug with the payment system they didn't catch during testing. Paypal's still forcing people to have accounts with them in order to process their credit orders. Thankfully I've had an account with them for a while now, so that's no big.

The ankle has finally stopped swelling and being stiff and the weather has settled a little bit, so hopefully tomorrow won't be a pain-fest like the last couple of days. Unfortunately, I ran out of normal soda yesterday. I had a case of diet left and stuck it in the fridge, but drinking a little of it reminded me why I switched a few months ago. I picked up an aspartame sensitivity after a good five years on diet soda, and so I'm all nauseated from trying the diet coke this evening. D: (Thankfully Splenda and the pink packet stuff are both still fine, so I can put the pink stuff in iced tea rather than a bunch of sugar that just falls to the bottom.)

If anybody I know IRL wants 11 diet cokes, let me know. It's not 40 cakes, but hey!

I need something fun to do this weekend, too. The Aquarium is still out since I promised The Girl no going to the Aquarium again until the jellyfish are in.. and from what I can see, they're not in yet. (They will be sometime in May.) DC is out since The Girl is working most of the morning and into the afternoon on Saturday and again Sunday afternoon. Hmmmmmmmmm...

Tonight has been gratifyingly boring. I made tacos. The boring ground beef kind this time since I had it sitting there and I needed to use it up. And doing my bento-ish lunches means I get to have taco salad tomorrow. XD I think I'm going to take a break from tacos after this, considering that's been a theme of the last few weeks. Pork chops actually sound pretty good right now...

Tromping up and down the stairs at work again was no fun. I get two more days if it this week and then I should be done for a while. I also get to do bills for the month this weekend. Yay!

I dug out my Phoenix Wright costume and tried it on. I think I want to get a new Oxford just because the one I have managed to pick up some weird little black stains on the shoulders and I don't like how it's practically see-through anyway (it's white and for girls, which pretty much covers the why part). The good news is that everything works as well as it did in 2007. The bad news is that I obviously forgot what meager tie-tying skills I had before and thus I'm going to be stuck practicing for a while. Or getting myself a cheater tie.

I gotta admit, I rock a suit. :D

Obligatory Cat was Not Impressed.

I spent a disproportionate amount of time tonight reading Widdershins. It's a wonderful totally OOC AU fic that manages to make the ending of Harry Potter so much better. I mean, I know most Harry Potter fans are like Star Wars fans and hate the series... but whatevs. And it's got pictures!