Sithly Toves

It's the end of a four-day weekend, and I feel totally robbed. I had so many plans for the weekend, and fighting this cold killed nearly all of them. I did manage to go shopping on Friday, and that was great. I got work clothes, a winter coat, and winter boots, all of which i needed. I bought one gift (not counting the new bed for the Sith kitties), and that was it.

I did manage to get the Yule tree put up. ( Here's a pic )

That took about 5 hours given I'd lost the instructions to assemble the tree, and all the ornaments were scattered amongst various boxes. But yay, it's up, and I just love having it lit.

I also managed to get up some energy for cleaning, but not the total reorganization of kitchen cupboards and bedroom dresser that I'd planned. I managed to vacuum and clean litter and the basics.

Okay, and I managed to watch my way through all of Merlin. My, that's one slashy show. *g* I also got caught up on Boston Legal, My Own Worst Enemy, Bones, and Atlantis (my fave SGA ep in a long, long time). Show's that I watched and decided I'm pretty much done with: Fringe and The Mentalist. Fringe just feels too contrived, and the main character in The Mentalist strikes me as a completely unappealing. I couldn't sit through the one ep I tried to watch. That's a bummer because they're two shows I really wanted to like.

Okay, off to bed now. Hoping I will wake up tomorrow magically well. Probably too many Merlin episodes.

Just took this photo and had to share.

( Must...block...light... )

I didn't realize I haven't sent these out. Yikes. This is what comes of gmail housekeeping. Enjoy!

Star Trek: The Sex Generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReOw_2f4lpY&eurl=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

Awesome Dr. Who cartoon
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/06/10/doctor-who-in-this-modern-world/

Zombies reciting haiku
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/zombies-reciting-hai.html

Yankees and fur con share hotel
http://bombersbeat.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/06/all_good_after_all.html

The park won't open until 2010, but you can squee over Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter website today:
http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter/

Star Fruit. I'll say no more.
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/melon

Battle Over Hemingway's Cats Ends in Purring
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/25/hemingway.cats.battle.ap/index.html
Leave it to the government to miss the most obvious solution.

You Might Be A Fan If...
http://firefox.org/news/articles/1737/1/You-Might-Be-a-Fan-If-/Page1.html

Witness the new lightbulb, available 2009:
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/08/esl_the_newest.php

Environmentally friendly options for fighting fleas:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/products/Pest_Control/Fleas?source=email_gg_20080820&email=gg

Ice Biking. Yes, just what it sounds like. http://icebike.org/

Super Conductor rap vid. <3 'sup, Hawkins?


NASA is looking for kids to submit names for the next Mars rover:
http://marsrovername.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm?video=heykids

Thanksgiving with my parents, aka, Thanksgiving with the Odd Couple. Somewhere between yesterday at 5PM when I last spoke with my mother and when I arrived at my parents' place today, Mom changed her mind about the restaurant, so we had Thanksgiving dinner (or lunch, given it was just before 1PM) at that all-American standard, Big Boy. And might I just say, we had very fast service being three of about ten people in the restaurant at the time? (The others were there obviously just for coffee and a chat). My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a Belgian waffle with strawberries, Mom had a veggie omelet, and Dad had fish and chips. Not a family big on society's traditions are we.

We went back to their place and Dad was raving about Wii Bowling as soon as we set foot in the house. Now, I knew it burned my dad's toast that my mom is so good at Wii Bowling, given that bowling has been his sport of sports his entire life. But I had no idea how much so until we started bowling. Mom started out with a 4-5-10 split, which I declared was a real bummer. My mom said, "That's okay. I get this split a lot with the way I throw the ball." "She's had that split 37 times but she's only picked it up 13. Because she won't listen to me when I tell her how to fix it!" yells dad from the back of the living room. I turn to see that my dear father is keeping a freaking NOTEBOOK of all the throws he and my mom have made. Every possible combination of pins is in that book, each with it's own page, and a hash mark for every time he or Mom have thrown it. Another annotation for if they actually made it.

Dear GOD, my parents need a fucking Wii Bowling recovery program, stat.

Luckily (!), my cold was worse today and it was obvious that I was not feeling great. I got away with only three games of listening to Dad barking over my shoulder and mom "helping" from the couch: "Move over one dot or you'll never make this shot.... oh see, now you should have listened to me." "Move to your left... more... more... okay, turn one click to the right... more... another click..." Uncharacteristically, Mom was very well behaved, without antagonizing Dad too much. Though she did accidentally stick out her foot while Dad was on his approach once and throw him off so that he missed a shot. At least she said it was an accident, but her cackling afterward was awfully suspicious.

After that it was apple pie. Then pumpkin pie. (Mom loves to bake). And then I rifled through the Black Friday ads for the coupons I wanted. Unlike some Black Friday shoppers, I shop with purpose and am rarely persuaded away from my list. I know what I want, get in and get out, and move on to the next store. I was born without a shopping gene and am not one to "just check stuff out".

Afterward, I came home to watch some "Are You Being Served?" on the DVR and chill with the Sith kitties. I'm still not feeling great, despite another go with the netti pot, so I'll see how I feel when the alarm goes off at 3AM; I may take a pass on the super early sales this year. Really, my goal this year is to buy work clothes for myself. Now that I'm involved in more committees and training and representing the hospital at various functions, I need another business suit and something nicer than just-beyond-casual-Friday. I loathe clothes shopping with the fiery heat of a thousand suns, but at least I can do it for 60-70% off and it will be over with in a couple of hours. Even if it has to be at oh-my-gawd in the morning.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to everyone who celebrates.

So, who else will be spending part of today to plan their Black Friday shopping?

Crazy busy between work and school again = bullet points!

- My supervisor told me today that I've been nom'd for a promotion. I think this is actually the good kind -- no added duties, just more money and a cheeky title for busting my arse. Yay.
- Giving a big presentation at the hospital tomorrow and I'm just a wee bit nervous. I know the material and I'm not usually the nervous type when I have to speak publicly, so wtf, self?
- Professor Anal really liked my first Illustrator project! One thing I can say about instructors who are tough is that when they tell you you've done good, you know you've done GOOD.
- I was going to hang with a friend tomorrow night, but I think instead that I'm going to work late, pick up dinner on my way home (I just realized I haven't eaten out in ages), have a beer (or two...), carve a pumpkin, and watch a scary movie with the Sith kitties.
- Stayed up later than I should the other night to finally get to watch one of my MFU DVDs. First episode I watched? The Project Strigas Affair. Yes, plot won out over slash for my first bee-yootifully crisp, clear copy episode viewed. I surprised even myself.
- I have really, really missed Hallow's End in WoW this year. *sigh*

( Cut for personal update that wanders into btdt and rambling territory )

And for the record, spell-check's suggested replacement for Godzilla? "Goodwill". Heh

Snagged from deannie:

( Pic behind here )

It's been a pretty full day, but I got quite a lot accomplished. Now I'm off to grab a shower, finish doing the dishes, and then leave for towerbridge2006's place for a night of fannish vids and popcorn. This will be the last time I have to bring my home-burned MFU DVDs to vid night 'cause on the 21st, the real deal will be released. Eeeeeee!

One of the best fanvids I've ever seen.



When you think about the planning of these shots and the planning of exactly what would appear exactly where, it's even more brilliant.

Nearly half-way through Robert Vaughn's autobiography. I think he had sex with every women he ever met, and yet he's rather coy and almost... sweet about it.

He is Napoleon Solo.

Or possibly I've been reading too much MFU smut and political news:

I just saw a picture of McCain and Obama standing side-by-side and at first glance thought it was Illya and Napoleon.

Crust on a cracker, it's time to go to bed.

My good deed for the day was making donations. I finally feel okay with passing on Emma's things, so I donated a cat tree, a cat carrier, food bowls and a litter scoop to the local Humane Society. They were totally ecstatic about the cat tree, which will be perfect for showing off playful kittens.

Then I donated eight bags of clothing, bedding and towels to a local domestics charity, all in excellent condition but just too abundant for my little storage closet. I recognize how fortunate I am to be able to donate under such conditions, and I'm so grateful.

Picked up my vacuum cleaner from Best Buy and egads, it looks like Frankenvacuum. They had to refurbish the body and replace a bunch of parts. And it's only five months old. Thank goodness I bought the warranty. I know the Sith kitties are hard on vacuum parts, but even they can't kill a vacuum in five months (outside of Spring shedding season, anyway. In the Spring, the season of cathair tumbleweeds, it's debatable.).

Then I went back to Borders to pick up a copy of Robert Vaughn's new memoirs, A Fortunate Life. When I was there Friday, they assured me they had a box in the back -the clerk assured me she's *seen* the box in the back still shrink-wrapped- and that I should return today as they would definitely be unwrapped by then. I returned today to find that they can no longer find the boxes of RV's book at all. Their computer showed *one* copy of the book in the store, and they couldn't locate it. I really can't stand this particular Borders, but I go back because of the coupons. I'm such a sucker. It's not going to be a big deal to wait until later this week to pick up the book, but I was really looking forward to settling down tonight with a glass of wine (red wine or scotch just seem so appropo to reading RV's memoirs) and reading.

Borders, this icon's for you.

Tonight I'm going to finish catching up on the shows the DVR recorded while I was at Eastern Media Con last week, and work on sketching my project for Illustrator class. The assignment is to draw a landscape with an exciting dynamic, so I'm drawing my local city being stomped by Godzilla. Mwahaha! It's an ambitious first project, but what the hell, my instructor is anal about *everything* and maybe he'll cut me some slack for it.

ETA: My new neighbor's cat is nearly a dead ringer for my Tig-Tig (his name is Tom-Tom, btw). I heard a cat crying outside my apartment door and lo, there was Tom-Tom. I panicked thinking it was Tig, wondering a) how he got out, and b) how I was going to get him back in, but then the kitty sidled right up to me and wanted to be picked up. Definitely not Tig, who would probably rather give up 8 of his 9 lives before he allowed anyone to lift him. Whew. Panic averted.

Okay, so I got a later start than planned, and for the record, I totally blame lauramcewan and her long, yummy Boys in Blue story The Ages of a Day, otherwise I would have started on time. Yep, all Laura's fault.

But. I've finished my annual clean-out-the-walk-in-closet-and-donate-to-Good-Will. Eeeee!! It's amazing how items I simply can't live without one year I'm perfectly happy to give away the next in order to have more space. My sole guilty pleasure stands, though: I still own about 400 fanzines that I simply cannot give away. I can't. Not even the het smut Luke/Leia zine printed in the early 80's. Not even the Hardcastle/McCormick zine I bought when I was but a naive 19-year-old Gen fan at my first MediaWest, who spotted the zine and thought they *seemed* to be sitting a bit close on the cover...  I can still remember when and where I bought most of them, I think.

I sorted out a big batch of my favorite zines and filled the bottom shelf of one of the new bookshelves. Zines that I can get to easily before bed - a breakthrough!

Now to tackle the daunting pile of stuff to give away that's completely covering my bed. I'm not sure how I'm even getting this stuff to Good Will.

As a reward for my hard work, I'm going to take my 30% off coupon to Borders tomorrow and pick up Robert Vaughn's new auto, A Fortunate Life. I was there yesterday to buy it but they hadn't unwrapped the shipment yet.

( Spoilery stuff behind the cut )

Last youtube today, I swear, but I just had to share.

This is the Dark Knight trailer audio with Toy Story 2 video. Brilliant.

All packed, alarm set, airline called to okay cough syrup, ruler, colored pencils and rechargeable battery charger in carry-on luggage, Sith kitties fed and drugged catnipped, neighbor has key to feed said drugged felines, landlord arranged to get the mail, ipod loaded with podcasts, and book packed for plane reading. Now if I can just get some sleep tonight, it's all good.

My only concern, and it's a slight concern, is that both of my carry-on bags are beyond the measurement limits. Northwest's limit for luggage is 45" lxwxh, my bag is 49". Laptop bag width limit is 15", mine is just over 17". I haven't flown since all the measurement limitations were instituted so I'm not sure how anal they'll be. My mom flew on Northwest a few weeks ago and said people were seriously banging and cramming their carry-on luggage beneath the seats, so it sounds like they weren't *too* anal. I hate the idea of paying to check a bag that's only 4" beyond the limit, but it's not worth getting riled about.

Okay, I'm going to watch an MFU ep and then crawl in bed.

See y'all in Jersey tomorrow!

The con is so close -- I'm geeked!

Feeling a smidge better today. Really, as long as I can travel on the plane without too much discomfort from pressure due to congestion, and as long as I can keep enough energy to get around the con, I'll be happy. And I have two more days before the con starts to improve that much more.

I started packing today, very quickly, and then hid the suitcase away. When the Sith kitties see the suitcase, they know that means I'm going away and they get clingy and upset until I leave. So I have to pack when my cats are not paying attention. How sad is that?

I hate that I have a long, late day tomorrow. I was supposed to have my hair cut last week, but I was sick and couldn't do it. So the only night I could reschedule for before the con is tomorrow, and given the salon is 40 minutes away... gah, it's going to be a long night.

Tomorrow: wave magic wand all day at work, get haircut, finish funny hat for party, charge camera batteries, finish packing (discreetly).

Note to self: call the airline about packing certain art supplies and battery charger.

I have to find my homemade MFU DVDs so I have something to play at the MFU party. It wouldn't be the end of the world not to have them, but I really want to show a couple of eps or at least some favorite bits.

( Possible TMI )

Also, trying not to think about the fact that I have to get there via airplane. ::swallows down panic attack::

Over on muncle, the MFU holiday exchange is officially open for sign-ups. (How did it get to be minutes-from-October already, anyway???)

Head on over and sign up to write a story for the exchange!