Hi!  Real quick drive-by post -- *deep breath*

Crazy week of busyness is almost over -- Little brother is safely moved into his new house (still missing couch, and chairs for the kitchen table, and dressers, but hey) and said house is scrubbed, painted and mowed.  Or the yard is mowed, not the house.  Whatever.  -- Kittens are neutered (sorry, boys) and have had their shots.  -- Cold is pretty much over with (almost fainted at work once, that was fun) and so I can breathe properly again. -- Shopping for Little brother's wedding is mostly done.  Rehearsal type stuff for Little brother's wedding is mostly done.  Little Brother's wedding is tomorrow!  And then I will have time to do more on the computer than glance quickly through my messages.

*sigh*

Sorry, naye, I didn't get the chance to finish your present before the Little brother called for last minute assistance with the house --- but it just needs the littlest bit of work, so I'll have it posted right after the wedding.  And your story is up!  *eyes longingly*  Grrr, that'll have to wait until after the wedding, too.   *chews nails*  But then I can read it carefully!  And enjoy it thoroughly!  So that's good.

Now, back to helping with flowers and frilly wedding things . . .

Ok, so, last December I lost my cell phone, which kinda sucked, since I had to get it replaced, (and lost all my saved numbers, and almost had to pay 1000 dollars worth of international calls, and had to go with out a phone at all for a few days) but my phone company was fantastic about shipping my replacement fast, and I got most of the numbers back without too much trouble.

Well, here's hoping for a repeat, cause I've lost the damn thing AGAIN.  But, most likely there will be no huge international call bill, because I realized it was missing pretty quickly, and suspended service as soon as I had internet access.  Sigh.  In the morning, I'll call the theatre -- see if anyone turned it in.

But other than somehow losing my phone between the Plaza and the movie theatre, the night went well!  Got to see some friends I don't get to see that often, saw an AWESOME movie (Dark Knight, despite all the hype, is actually pretty darn amazing.  Really.  Ledger really did give a fantastic performance -- and the movie as a whole was quite satisfying, on several levels.)  Got to tease my friend about his falling-apart-truck and crazy driving -- always fun.

On a completely unrelated topic (unless you count the sort of dark and creepy vibe going from the movie) here's a very cool SPN vid by the talented Refur --  a villainous AU look at one of the main characters in the show.  Fabulous editing and clip selection in this vid, and the song is very creepy/cool.

I've always been fascinated by dressage -- the beautiful horses, the elegance of the steps -- and just look at this mare! Look at her ears, and her tail -- she's having the time of her life! And the rider looks so happy, too, at the end of the performance. Sigh -- I miss riding. (Not that I was EVER this good!)

If there are one or more people on your friends list who make your world a better place just because they exist, and who you would not have met (in real life or not) without the Internet, then post this same sentence in your journal.

I'm not sure you could call this sort of thing an episode by episode reaction for this season's SGA -- coherent analysis isn't something I do very well, for one thing, and other people write much more interesting posts, anyway.  BUT -- that said, how could I resist mentioning things that I find cool?  Or weird, or puzzling, or cute . . .  so. 


But generally, *\o/* YAY SHOW!  Go Team!

Also, on an unrelated note:  New Psych!  *\o/*  My goofy gumshoe show is back!

 I'm in a fic writing mood.  Generally, much as I like to write, I end up reading more -- deltacephei's excellent work most recently.  But, the SGA premiere was fantastic (and Rodney kept his cool so well!  Except for the baby thing.  But for everything else!) and I just got my fourth season box set, sooo . . . . *rubs hands together gleefully*  Lets see how much of this fic-in-progress I can get done, shall we?

Have you ever gotten to the point where you're so fed up with the ABSOLUTE WANK in certain corners of fandom that you want to stand on a roof top and yell:  They Are All Awesome, Now Shut Up and Sit Down!   Not that I will, because everyone is entitled to their opinions and have the right to express that opinion in however much of a sneer as they wish.  If that makes them feel better.  But now I feel the need to offer a defense.

Why Rose, Martha, and Donna ARE EACH ONE OF THEM AWESOME

And yeah, this is just how I see them.  And yeah, it's not a measured essay or a particularly insightful opinion.   But that's alright, isn't it? 

 

 So, I finally bought a bike -- it's so neat!  I'd forgotten how much fun peddling around could be.  Although, after, what, ten/eleven years of not ever riding a bike?  I just about killed myself on a 6 block ride.  Seriously.  I thought I was going to faint in the elevator on the way back up to the apartment.  I am so embarrassingly out of shape. . . but it was fun!  And I'll get better at it, so YAY BIKE!

On more frustrating news -- my download of the Doctor Who finale KEEPS STALLING *kicks laptop*.  I've already been spoiled, but I DO NOT CARE!  I want to SEE THE SHOW.  *growls*  

Doctor Who is one of a small handful of shows that makes me go GLEE! on a regular basis, and my computer is HOLDING IT HOSTAGE.  *pouts*

Well.  Maybe if I can get it started again it'll be done by the time I'm home from work?  Maybe?  *pats laptop*  *apologizes for kicking laptop*

Alright.  So you want to spend some time in the bookstore, reading books, chilling out.  That's fine.  That's great.  But do you really need to collect 15 different books and magazines from all three floors of the store and leave them spread out around your chair like . . . like. . . something messy and abandoned looking?  Not to mention the bent pages and warped covers the poor things ended up with.

If you don't want to buy them and take them home, could you at least pick up one or two books at a time, remember at least which floor you found them on, and PUT THEM BACK?  Please?  Seriously, I had enough to do today without picking up after you people.  

And on a completely unrelated note -- I rearranged my room last night, which means my desk now faces the windows.  So I'm getting a great view of the storm moving in from the north.  Lightning is Shiny! 

 Yanked from seperis, because it was interesting.

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:
1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.

* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

So.

1.  Flame Thrower -- assuming limitless fuel --  keeps me out of arms' reach and should be plenty effective.

2.  "It's a Wonderful World" -- Joey Ramone's version -- suitably energizing and strangly aggressive.

3.  Luffy -- from One Piece -- would have fun fighting zombies again.

Weather's been nuts lately -- HUGE thunderstorms, complete with hail and lightning and LOUD thunder. Flash flood warnings and tornado warnings abound. And hey, did I mention lightning? Because just a few hours ago, lightning struck a tank holding, what did they say, 15 million dollars worth of unleaded gasoline? And the tank was only half full . . . . anyway lightning + gasoline = huge towering inferno.

Fire and safety crews have it contained, so hopefully it won't ignite the nearby (and much fuller) tanks, but there's nothing they can really do to put the fire out. It could burn for days. 

And I can see it from my kitchen window.  It's just across the Missouri river, in KCK.



 This is a pretty crappy shot -- through a closed, rain spotted window -- but hopefully the pictures I took with my Canon will turn out much more clear (it really is an amazing sight).  Once they're developed I'll try to scan them and put them up.

 Aaaand my kittens have discovered the toilet paper roll.  Oh.  Joy.  

Well, at least it wasn't a new roll . . .

Top Ten Toys from my Childhood

In absolutely no particular order:

Hmmm.  child of the 80s, that's me, I guess. 

Have you seen this?  Color me impressed, yeah?

It's made by Marissa Panaccio.  
 

 YaHa!  The kittens are benevolent pirates!  I hear a noise, and turn in my desk chair, and there, on the carpet, are my glasses!  

Either that, or they were caught somehow on the chair, and fell off when I turned (why they didn't do this during the last 24 hours or more they've been missing, I have no idea.  I think I like the piratical kitten theory better).

Yay!  I don't have to squint and lean in to see the screen!

Yeah, so . . . I feel like I should put up a "missing" notice or something.  "Anyone see a pair of red framed glasses, slightly scratched?"  I swear I was wearing them last night, when I finally got around to watching the NCIS finale.  But as of this morning when I woke up (er, afternoon, technically) they are no where to be found.  

I've looked.  My apartment's not that big.

Chief suspects?  A pair of black kittens with prior convictions for dragging things off of my desk.

Eventually, my glasses will probably turn up in some random place where I'll swear I looked five times . . . but until then, guess I'm squinting.

 So I spent yesterday shelving books in the kids section -- let me just say, that is a dangerous part of the bookstore!  For one, I'm still not sure what a good number of the sections are supposed to be, which made putting some of those books on the right shelves a challenge. (Kids has more subsections than  just about any other part of the store, I think)  But mostly, every time I spend time in there I go home with a new list of books that I want to read -- children's books that just look really really interesting, or that I read years ago and remember fondly.  

Honestly, some of the books in this section amaze me.  I mean, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn?  Is that really a kid's book?  Well, I suppose it would be good for their minds and imaginations . . . and I do love children's books that don't pretend that children are stupid.  You know, the ones you read as a kid that influence most of your book selections as you grow old, and that you keep treasured, if battered, copies of for years and years . . .

I once spent more effort tryng to find a children's book than I ever spent trying to find any other book -- I hadn't read it in like, six yearts, and I couldn't remember the title, or the author, but I remembered the story, and I sort of remembered what the cover looked like.  So I walked up and down the kid's aisles at the library, looking at every spine and pulling out anything that looked likely . . . I finally found it, actually.  And I went out and bought it, so I wouldn't lose it again.  

It's still one of my favorites, really.   Pat O'Shea's The Hounds of the Morrigan.  I haven't seen that one yet at the bookstore . . . I might have to recommend it.

On another note, the teen sections continually make me role my eyes.  Really, how many vampire romances and high school clique stories do teenagers need?  What happens to all the charm and whimsy and adventure that's on the kids shelves?  I guess teenagers aren't supposed to need them anymore, now that they're "growing up."

Oh well.  Maybe they'll appreciate them all over again once they're in their twenties, and the teenage melodrama gets old.