Birthday Wish List

For once, I don't have any books or CDs or games on my birthday wish list. In fact, I think this list is the shortest it's been in years.

• Summer-y clothes:
• a sundress or two--light blue is a nice color (I'm not sure what size, but the dress I wore to Anna's wedding--although a lot more formal than what I'm asking for--was size 14)
  
• some nice button-up shirts (no frills, please) in light colors and short sleeves
• some shorts (my jean size is 10, if that helps)
  
• new t-shirts, etc.
  
  
• Supplies for my projects:
• 60 feet of 2” X 10” pine, cut into 5-foot planks
  
• Three 8” X 8” sheets of ¼” thick plastic
• Six 4” X 4” sheets of ¼” thick plastic
• 2 ½ feet of ¼” diameter plastic rod
• 20” of clear, hard plastic tubing with an inside diameter of ¼”
• 3 ft X 2 ft. of plywood
• Three 1-inch long black drywall screws
• High-strength plastic adhesive
• Red spray paint

All Monetarily Contributed Projects Currently on Hold

Thursday evening at the Haven was the first session of Brian's Serenity RPG game (played using the system from the Buffy and Angel RPGs, instead of the Cortex system, because Cortex system sucks). It's looking like it'll be a really fun game, and I can't wait until next week's session.

So, Tim got a new job. He now works for Chase in their collections department. That said, we've all decided not to try an buy a house, but instead to look for places to rent. We've been looking at ads the last two days, but Anna was only able to get in touch with the people who own two of the houses (she left messages with the rest). We've looked at two duplexes so far, and they both were nice, but the first one we looked at was nicer.

Because of the immediacy of the housing situation--Anna wants to be moved out of Mom & Dad's by the end of July--we've all got to save up as much as we can for the first month's rent and security deposit on any house we end up renting. Which means I won't be able to even start finishing that set of viking chairs until August or September at the earliest.

I also won't be able to get that correspondence course about piano tuning, or to make a Tri-D Chess board, like from Star Trek yet either. *Le sigh.*

I got the Star Trek DVD set last week from Amazon. It was actually the second set I'd gotten of it--the first set was missing season 1, disc 2, so I had to send it back. I'm on the fourth or fifth episode of season 2, and as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going to watch it.

Mom's birthday is coming up on Tuesday. I got her Highlander season 1 on DVD. I was looking for Kung Fu season 3, but they didn't have it at Record and Tape Traders, which is the only store I've been to since I got paid yesterday.

Next week, if I remember, I'll post a list of things I might like for my own birthday.

A Series Almost 40 Novels Long

Not a lot has happened since April 25th, except that I made a viking chair for Anna's birthday. Steve at the Haven taught me how. I'm going to make 7 more--one for each of the people in my family, including me (Dad, Mom, Me, Kimba, Tim, Kayla, Jason).

I finished the 36th of the 37 Discworld novels written by Terry Pratchett this afternoon. I didn't know that Making Money was also a Discworld novel, because it wasn't included in my audio files. I'm downloading that one now.

I was a bit disappointed by book number 36 (Strata), because it turned out to be sci-fi, when the entire rest of the series was mostly fantasy/satire. It had an okay plot, even though none of the characters I'd come to love were in it, but if I ever re-read (er . . . re-listen to) the series, I won't be going through Strata again.

So far this year, I have read 37 books--soon to be 38. Here's the list (in the order that I read them):

1. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
2. The Colour of Magic
3. The Light Fantastic
4. Equal Rites
5. Mort
6. Sourcery
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. Pyramids
9. Guards! Guards!
10. Eric
11. Moving Pictures
12. Reaper Man
13. Witches Abroad
14. Small Gods
15. Lords and Ladies
16. Men at Arms
17. Soul Music
18. Interesting Times
19. Maskerade
20. Feet of Clay
21. Hogfather
22. Jingo
23. The Last Continent
24. Carpe Jugulum
25. The Fifth Elephant
26. The Truth
27. Thief of Time
28. The Last Hero
29. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
30. Night Watch
31. The Wee Free Men
32. Monstrous Regiment
33. A Hat Full of Sky
34. Going Postal
35. Thud!
36. Wintersmith
37. Strata
38. Making Money (I'm including it because I will be reading it.)

It's looking like I'll actually make (and probably surpass) the 50-book goal this year--yay!

A night NOT spent at the Haven

Ryan's been back in town for the last week or so, and asked if I wanted to hang out and catch up. I took him up on that offer, of course. He met me after work, and we walked over to Five Guys to eat.

After that, we stopped off at the Haven for a few minutes, 'cause I'd told him about it and how cool it was--and we were nearby anyway.

He had a bit of an errand to run--picking up his other car from the shop, which wasn't the one he parked in the Church Street parking deck--so we drove there in my car, and I followed him to his house to drop it off. From there, we decided to see a movie.

We managed to get to the 6:45 showing of Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, while the previews were still rolling. I liked it a lot; they packed a lot of stuff into two hours and fifteen minutes, and it felt longer than it actually was. Ryan said he liked it up until the end, because it "couldn't decide what genre it was supposed to be" (if I elaborated, it might spoil the ending), but I think it worked--the mix of genres kind of helped with the character development, actually.

The movie was over at 9:00, so we went back downtown and walked up and down Market Street for an hour before heading back to the parking garage so he could get his car. He gave me a ride back to my car, and then we went to our respective houses.

It'll be nice, having Ryan back in the same time zone again, since that means communication will be quicker.

When I got there, Mom and Jason were in bed, but everyone else was downstairs talking. Anna and Tim were talking to Dad about cutting costs on phone lines--Dad's going to look into VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which sounds like a good thing to have when everyone has their own personal cell phones. It also sounds a lot cheaper than a land-line, and is something the four of us kids would get when we have our own house. There could be issues with power outtages, but as long as everyone has cell phones, there isn't much of a problem there.

Turns out, Anna had forgotten to tell me and Tim that we'd been approved for the mortgage loan up to $130,000 with certain specifications, but we're not going to go for a house which will cost us more than $110,000, except in certain circumstances.

We're not going to pursue the house on Vienna Court either, even though it was really nice. The lack of a basement, or any other "growing out" space is a major minus. So, it's back to the house-hunting.

I bought a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold so that I could connect my NetFlix account to it. Then after the phone conversation was over (and shortly before Camille left--she'd been talking to Kayla in the dining room), activated the NetFlix on it. I didn't have anything in my instant queue yet, so I didn't watch anything though.

After that, I downloaded the trial version of Castle Crashers, and played as long as it would let me. I almost beat the first big boss before it stopped me, and I think my little character guy was up to level 5 or 6 by that time. Maybe I'll buy a couple thousand marketplace points tomorrow (gotta pay the bills and go grocery shopping first) and get the full version, or maybe not.

I came up here sometime around 12:45, but I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to do some NetFlix queueing. I put 19 things on my DVD queue, and 22 on my instant queue, starting with Medieval Lives, a series of eight episodes that I'd seen half of at the Haven, but didn't catch the rest of yet. Among the rest of my queues are Quantum Leap, Shark Week, Murder, She Wrote, and SeaQuest: DSV. I've got a few movies and such on there too, but the serieses take up most of the queue lists.

I think I might actually be sleepy now.

More House Hunting, etc.

Anna, Kayla and I went house hunting last Thursday. We took Jason with us, because he wanted to go to the Haven with me afterward. We only found one house that we were even remotely interested in definitely pursuing--all the others were low maybes, at best.

It was on Vienna Ct, and if it had had a basement (not to mention at least one more parking space--we do have three cars between the four of us, after all) it would've almost been perfect. As it is, if we do pursue that house, I'll at least need to sell a good half of my stuff--including my desk--since there will only be room for basic living items (bed, dresser, night stand) in the bedrooms, and only the kitchen, dining room and living room as common areas to put other stuff.

But, oh well. It's not like I've actually been using most of that stuff for the last eight months or so anyway--it's all been in storage. But I have been finding that I need to get things out of storage every once in a while; if I sold the stuff that I wasn't using, then one day I might actually need to use it, and wouldn't have it anymore to use. Though the money from selling the stuff could help in a more immediate manner, I'm sure.

I'm on the 9th Discworld book, Eric, and while I listened to Wyrd Sisters a few books back, I noticed that a lot of the plots so far have parallels in other stories. For instance, Wyrd Sisters is a very definite MacBeth parallel (it would probably be more accurate to say a "perpendicular," I think), and Pyramids is like a mélange of Old Testament stories--with some Greek and/or Roman mythology thrown in (Trojan Horse, anyone?).

On Saturday, there was a DCI-sanctioned Magic draft. I played and got some new cards. I had made three decks the night before with the cards I had, but forgot that I should wait until after the draft, since I was going to get more cards anyway. I'll re-make the decks tonight, hopefully better.

Not Much Going On

The past couple weeks have been pretty routine, with a couple exceptions.Gabe has the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett on audio, and let me copy them onto my iPod--or rather, let me copy the first three so far. I've been listening to them as I work, so I haven't caught all of the events in the books, but I've caught enough to be able to get the general gist of the plots. I'm in the middle of The Light Fantastic right now.

In order to catch everything, I went to the library on Saturday and borrowed The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic in novel format. I just finished the first quarter of the first book last night. They didn't have Equal Rites at my local branch, and I didn't feel like going to Thurmont to get it either.

Also on Saturday, I picked up Jason's birthday present at the Haven. The original plan was for him to come with me, so that we could play Warhammer with his new Dragonmage of Caledor (that was the present). I'd bought the model a couple weeks ago, then did the gluing, the filling of the cracks with greenstuff, and the priming myself, but I needed someone else to paint it for me, since I'd never done any model painting before and didn't want it to be awful. Elliot painted it for me, and finished before Saturday. He did a good job, and Jason likes the dragon.

I got him the dragon, because he likes to play High Elves using the Haven's store army, and they don't have a dragon there for store use. So he'd have to proxy in a different model. Now, he doesn't have to.

I went house-hunting a week ago yesterday with Kayla, Anna and Tim. We didn't find any houses that we really liked--the ones we saw that weren't awful were only acceptable. For some reason, we'd only been looking in the Discovery development, so Anna told our realtor that it's okay to be looking in other places.

Yesterday, Anna, Kayla and I got all caught up on Dollhouse. There were seven episodes on the TiVo, and for some reason, it didn't record the March 20th episode, so we watched that one online, for a total of eight episodes in a single day. It was long, but the show is great.

Update

Well, it seems my luck in the Magic league has run out--I've been stuck at 3½ points for the last two weeks. Either I make a silly mistake in the last game of a match which makes me lose, or I just get a bad draw. It also doesn't help that I didn't play against a lot of people for most of the last couple weeks. But I'll do better this week--I hope.

I started working on a pair of scissors on the forge the Saturday after my last post. I was right about the hammer and gloves thing, plus the metal kept sliding out of the pliers I was using to hold it. But, with help from Gene and Andy (another Havenite), I got a good part of the way through the project. The unfinished scissors are even now sitting on my shelf in the Haven's back room.

I found last time that the weight of the hammer, plus the thickness of the handle, the vibrations from hitting the metal, and the extra bulk of the poorly-fit gloves made my hand cramp up extremely fast. I can't stop the vibrations, and may not be able to find a lighter hammer which will actually work, but I do have a plan to (hopefully) help with the other two problems. Before I do more work on the forge, I'm going to buy my own gloves (so that they'll fit), and a hammer. I will cut a portion of the handle off from around it, so that there's less to get my hand around when I'm swinging it.

I've missed my allergy shots the last couple times--last week, I simply forgot to take the exit onto 15-North before I passed it on my way home, and didn't feel like fighting through traffic to get back to the exit, much less to the allergist's office. Yesterday, I stayed home because of stomach issues, and had an appointment at my regular doctor's office at 4pm. I'll go next week though.

The mortgage loan approval process is slightly frustrating. We managed to get all of the information that the Wells Fargo people asked for together, and Anna faxed it to them. Only, it got faxed to a machine which was on the fritz, so they're missing pages. They figured out which pages it was, and Anna sent them along. Now, they're asking for paperwork that we're all pretty sure was already sent to them. I hope this process doesn't go on too much longer.

I can now officially say that I have seen every single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The last "book" especially was totally awesome! The last (four-part) episode was mind boggling, and the perfect ending. I also bought the DVDs. I didn't know until I saw the listing on Amazon that Avatar had been nominated for an Emmy. It wasn't surprising though--the show rocks!

Exciting Prospects for Future Enjoyment and Employment

Turns out, I was right about my points in the Magic League--3½ as of Friday evening.

Saturday's forge safety class was cool. It's going to be difficult to handle the hammer with the gloves on (or even without), since it's a two-pound sledge I'll only be using one hand for, but I'll get used to it. And the work will not only be work, but it will be fun work, so I don't mind the heavy hammer.

I looked up some beginner forge projects online, and found a neat site called iForge. I printed out a few projects and put them in order of what I think their difficulty is. There were some that I knew I wouldn't be ready to do for a long while yet, but still want to do when I am ready, so I didn't print them out yet. Eventually, I want to be able to make at least simple locks, if not the more complex ones demonstrated at iForge as well.

Yesterday, I downloaded a program called DM Genie, which will help me to organize D&D 3.0 or 3.5 campaigns that I plan to write. I don't really like 4th edition D&D, so I won't be making any campaigns for it anytime soon, and didn't want to download any DM's tools for that edition.

The company also has a more limited version of the program called Player Genie, which is basically just a character generator/updater.

I've already started writing a campaign based on the one I played in a year ago at the Haven (my character was a human ranger named Laina). I just needed to get a few things from the Haven before I could go much further than the first encounter or two.

I'm taking my Haven bag home today (it's been sitting on my GM shelf at the Haven for months now), since I need some of the information in it to make my campaign.

This evening, I had to get my allergy shots and go grocery shopping, so I wasn't able to do any forge or campaign work just yet. I also had to get some charcoal at Home Depot before I could use the forge anyway, so I'd only have been able to work on the campaign (or play Magic, of course) if I went tonight.

Tomorrow's a different story though.

Interesting Quote and More

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." - Albert
Einstein

I'm not going to discuss this quote here; I just thought it was a cool quote and decided to yoink it from Heather's LJ.

This morning, I was woken up by someone playing the piano--at 7:15 in the morning!--that's a very rude time to be playing the piano, especially since most of the rest of the household is still trying to sleep at that time (my dad just in the very next room from the piano, and Mom just down the hall on the same floor). There is also a keyboard in the house which is able to have headphones connected to it, so there is no excuse to be playing the actual piano so early. Not to mention, that was only 15 minutes until my alarm was going to go off, and being awakened by the piano did not translate into a good last 15 minutes of sleep--I'm a light sleeper nowadays.

The past week has been pretty normal. I joined the Magic: The Gathering league at the Haven, and I've been playing against everyone I could all week. So far, if I remember correctly, I won one "official" game, and three "unofficial" games.

The "official" games are against two other players chosen at random from the list. Winner gets two points, and a card is ante'd from each deck before the game starts. Whoever wins chooses to either keep both ante'd cards, or let the other person keep the card they ante'd.

The "unofficial" games also have ante'd cards, but winner only gets ½ of a point. I've either got 3 or 3½ points; I can't remember who all I won against for the half-point games, but I'm sure I won at least two, if not three.

I also purchased a Bretonnian Warhammer army from one of the guys at the Haven, and have played the game with them twice. The first time was a couple weeks ago, against Jason, who was playing high elves. We stopped that game at the end of the second turn, because we both really wanted to go home.

The second time was just last night, against a Havenite's dwarf army; it was an NPC game I was playing for the Warhammer Fantasy campaign going on at the Haven. I would've done better, if he hadn't gotten lucky with his guess-range canon in the very first turn and not only destroyed my trebuchet (causing the crew to flee off the board), but also causing my pegasus knights to flee off the board as well. Basically, the dwarves slaughtered the Bretonnians. It was fun though. And after that, I beat him in a Magic league game, though that was a close one.

Today is payday--yay!

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the forge safety class at the Haven, so that I can possibly upgrade my membership so that it's GM/crafting, instead of just GM and be allowed to use the forge whenever I want (if it's not already in use). That way, I can make metal stuff and sell it to get some extra money. Gene actually gave me the idea; when I asked what I would make to sell, he said something like, "All kinds of things," and then as an example mentioned door handles.

Wouldn't you know, I had an idea right then for a unique door handle design? I actually designed it with the door at the Haven in mind as a good place to put it. I'm not going to say what the design was here, but I may post a picture when/if I ever get one made.

I'm thinking that, if I do decide to do this side-business thing (Gene said he'd sell the stuff I make at the Haven, like he does for other crafting members), I'll not only make my own designs, but also take commissions for other designs. I'll have to ask Gene to help me decide on fair prices though, since I've never sold anything like that before.

Sandwich Run

Friday, nothing much happened that doesn't happen every week, except I decided to participate in the Magic: The Gathering League at the Haven.

Yesterday, I took Jason to the Haven and he watched the Living Forgotten Realms D&D game while I did some more Magic League stuff.

After we got back, I watched three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which I've NetFlix'd disc-by-disc. I was on the fourth disc. After the last of those three episodes, Tim was home, so Kayla, Anna, Tim and I all piled into Anna's car to make the 2½ hour trip to Johnstown, PA where Cashaw lives. Once there, we got into Cashaw's car, made the hour-long drive to Pittsburgh, picked up Cashaw's friend Dave, and then went to Primanti Brothers for sandwiches.

I had pastrami and cheese and a Coke with no ice. The sandwich was better than I remembered Primanti Brothers sandwiches being--but I think the fries on the two sandwiches I'd had before were stale. This time, everything was fresh, and warmed to perfection (except for the cole slaw, which would've been gross warm). I added hot sauce to my sandwich, and it was even better.

By the time we got back to Cashaw's, it was about 7:30 in the morning, so we crashed there for a couple hours. The three of us (Kayla's staying until Thursday to watch Cashaw's kids) woke up around 9:30 and headed home, since Tim had to be at work by noon.

We got home around 11:30, and I watched the fourth episode of Avatar on that disc before going to sleep until around 7:30 or 7:45 pm. I've been awake now for a little over two hours, and I'm going to have to go back to sleep around 12:30 or 1 at the latest, so that I'll be able to get enough sleep (without waking up way too early) for work tomorrow.

A Possible New Place to Live

Anna, Tim, Kayla, Mom, Dad and I all went to look at townhouses for the four of us "kids" last night after I got off of work. We looked at five townhouses in the Discovery area of Walkersville.

The first one was listed for $105,000, and was pretty crappy. We decided it was a definite "No."

The next one, on the same street as the first, was listed at $115,000, and was refurbished to perfection.

The third was another crappy house. I can't remember the listing price.

The fourth one was a possibility, and the fifth was as well. The fifth was listed for $119,500 or something close to it. I don't remember the listing price for the fourth.

Out of those five, we decided that our first choice was the $115,000 house, then the fourth house, and finally the fifth house.

We decided to pursue the second house, and Anna's real estate agent (the father of the flower girl at her wedding) said he would start by looking at how much comparable houses in the same court had gone for, so that we could make a similar offer to those.

After we get a good idea of the money we'll offer, we need to have the mortgage go through. If it does, we'll then get a formal offer together, and about a month (possibly less, possibly more) after settlement, we'll be able to move in.

I don't remember the exact address of the house we're going after, but it's on Foresight Drive.

The Art of Culinary Forgetfulness

I packed a lunch yesterday with a sandwich, a soda and an apple, but did not eat the apple, so I put it in the mini-fridge at work overnight.

This morning, I packed a lunch to go with the apple, but forgot it on the kitchen counter, so I was left with only the apple. I decided to go to the Haven on my lunch break again, so I was able to get chips and a Yoohoo to go with the apple.

When I took the apple out of the mini-fridge, it was weird-looking--the skin of the apple had wrinkled up, and it was textured kind of like the tops of the folding tables at church. I thought nothing of it, except that that's probably what happens when an apple is refrigerated, allowed to come to room temperature, and then refrigerated again.

So, I got to the Haven, and bit into the apple--it was frozen! I'd put it on the shelf of the mini-fridge right next to the freezer portion, and I guess it was just too cold there. So, I had a couple bites of frozen apple, a bag of Lays potato chips, and a can of Yoohoo for lunch today.

Hopefully, I'll actually remember my lunch tomorrow--at least I won't have to pack it.

Un-Rant

Man, was I wrong about what I wrote earlier. I'd had a crappy day -- make that a crappy week, and off the handle I went. Happens to the best of us, especially when you have to also squeeze in your sister's wedding, as I did...

The reality is that the key word where I work is customer service. I have sat in on numerous royalty preparation meetings, usually a group of 6-10 people, and none went by without my bosses insisting that we had a sacred duty to meet the deadlines, and to get it right because our authors expected and deserved no less from us. Truth be told:
they always beat the deadline, and they always got it right. I kinda said so in my now-pulled rant: the process previously went through without a hitch.

I'm still not comfortable with these databases, which is why I'm going to ask my bosses to give me something else to do, and I'm actually pretty confident that they'll honor that, as they always have in the past. Case in point, when I first mentioned my reluctance a year ago, they hired a PhD consultant to help get me on track.

Yes, the system causes me a headache now and then. I was unable to help solve the challenges that came with producing last month's 1099s, but others took over and got it done right, and just in time.

I now predict that the same will happen with this month's royalty statements. The reason they sent me back to the drawing board time and again is of course that they demand perfection; they insist on us treating the authors fairly. I want to do the same, and it frustrates me to the point of feeling trapped when the darn database and I don't get along. The absence of an advanced education catches up with me now and then, and I'm only human: nobody likes it when mistakes are pointed out to you.

Oh well, this too shall pass. I guess I will still look for another job after almost four years here. But I'm in no hurry to leave. Most of the time it's actually fun!

New Computer!

My new computer came yesterday, and when I got home from the Haven around 7:30-ish, Dad was working on Kayla's (he'd bought one each for me, Kayla and Jason). The computer is a Compaq Presario CQ60-211DX Notebook PC.

I brought it to work with me this morning so that I could put some stuff on it from my external hard drive (which I also brought to work) like my iTunes library and a shortcut to my journal file, and later while I'm at the Haven I'm going to get some programs online that I usually use--like Gmail Notifier and Firefox.

Dad also bought an XBox 360 and a Wii. The console we played Anna's Rock Band 2 on the other night was actually Dad's. Last night, we played Wii Sports, and Dad also bought Wii Fit.

w00t!

Last night after I got home from class, I was talking to my mom in her room and my dad came in. He asked me what kind of computer it was that we'd looked at as my "dream computer," and how long it would take me to save up for it.

I told him it was some tablet-type PC, and it would take me 10-12 months. Then he showed me a print-out with a laptop (not tablet) and its configuration specs, that had the price blacked out. He told me that he would be willing to buy that computer for me in a week if I wanted it.

He must've gotten a really good income tax return, because he was talking about buying a new refridgerator for the pantry and a new computer for Jason (my brother, not any of the other Jasons I know) as well.

Considering I was not looking forward to keeping my current laptop (which takes at least 20 minutes just to boot up enough so that I can use it for browsing the internet) for another year, I agreed. This will also allow me to save up for other things, such as flight school at The Frederick Flight Center.

I've been looking into getting a private pilot's certificate, and I think I'd like to finance my flight training and ground school, but think I should at least save up some for the first few lessons and such. I'd eventually like to own my own four-seater plane too.

I won't start flight school until this summer at the earliest--got to finish out the semester at FCC at least. But when I do, I'll be going for my private certificate, and then I can go on to train on planes with two engines, and get instrumentation training so I can fly in bad weather. Eventually, I want to get a commercial license so that I can do charter flights.

So, instead of saving up for a computer, I'll be saving up for flight school.

Faster computation, here I come!

Okay, I want to sleep now . . .

After work (which was extremely frustrating, but in the end fruitful), I had Dad look at the job I'd done on my closet as soon as I got home. I'd put the bar back up on Saturday after six months of having no closet (plus the two months in the camper, where there wasn't a closet anyway). When I finished, it was level and seemed sturdy, but I wanted to be certain before I hung my clothes on it so I asked Dad to have a look.

It was fine, so I hung up my stuff and put my spare blankets on the rack. Then I arranged my shoes, toolbox, kite, luggage and laptop case on the floor.

From there, it was just a matter of getting things organized. I started by getting the trash (various papers I'd originally wanted to save but really had no use for in the long run, books which could go under the bed with the rest, things like that) out of the middle of the floor. Then I cleaned the Sterilite plastic storage . . . thing that Jason left when he moved rooms so that I could put stuff in it.

I got a lot of stuff off of my floor, and what wouldn't fit well into the storage thing, I just organized as neatly as possible, as close to the wall as I could get it. For instance, I've got the candles I bought for the large brass candlesticks in a basket in front of my ergonomic keyboard, which is sitting propped up against the wall. And the DVDs and scratch tape which I've been working my way through watching and/or re-watching (i.e. MacGyver, Firefly, Serenity, etc.) are all stacked neatly in front of the storage bin on top of which I've got my TV and VCR/DVD-R sitting.

I've run out of storage things and/or flat, elevated surfaces, so I'm leaving everything else as-is for now. Maybe I'll buy a small coffee table or something. I know my desk won't fit in here, and even if it would, that doesn't help me to organize the stuff I've got in here already--the desk is full as it sits in my storage unit. So I think I should probably get some sort of cabinet or dresser. That could help with the "gotta find a pair of socks in the next five minutes" thing I've got going every morning, what with living out of the laundry basket (which is where I've been keeping my clean clothes; the dirty ones are all in the hamper) and all.

And then there's all the other stuff that still needs organizing if I'm ever going to be able to consolidate these bins. But that's a project for another month--I've got to buy groceries after I get paid this weekend, and also need to save some for Anna's bachelorette and wedding gifts.

After I finished with the room, I took a shower and watched a movie (G. I. Jane), took a shower, and then was too awake to get to sleep. If I'd tried to go to sleep before the shower (when I was actually inclined and sleepy enough to do so), I'd have been wide awake by four in the morning or so, and been dragging my eyelids long before class is over tomorrow. Trying before the movie would have also resulted in a too early awakening. Going to sleep after the movie would've been ideal, but I was still too awake, so I got online and checked my e-mail, among other things.

Now, I'm pretty much just rambling, and I think I'm actually sleepy again, so I'm going to pop While You Were Sleeping (or maybe Sydney White) into the DVD player and set the sleep timer on the TV with the volume down way low.

Hopefully, I'll fall asleep before the opening credits are finished. Last night, I got to at least "Pick a Little, Talk a Little"--possibly further--in The Music Man before I was out.

Art and Taxes

I had my first class on Tuesday. It was long and boring, like most first sessions are, but it's looking like it'll get more interesting as the semester goes on. For classwork, we drew still life contour drawings. For homework, we have to do the same, only with three objects in our own house. It's due next Tuesday.

Yesterday, I stopped off at the storage facility to get my tax information from last year. I also had to get a new gate key, because the old one didn't work (it was a company-wide thing, so not my fault). In addition to the tax papers, I also got the sustain pedal and music stand for my keyboard.

When I got home, I went to put the pedal and music stand on the keyboard, but Anna told me she'd taken it to Tim's house! She said she needs it to do her homework for the piano class she's taking, but she didn't even ask to borrow it, much less take it out of the house!

Not to mention, there is at least one other electronic keyboard in the house which is much less expensive (ergo, less worry about Twigg pets and little children breaking it) and works just as well. She could've taken the other keyboard, which is also more portable than mine, and Kayla could've kept mine in her room where we'd put it, since I'm almost certain there's more room there than in the Twiggs' house. It just galls me that she had the nerve to just move my property to a completely different house where I can't keep an eye on it, and didn't even make sure it was okay with me first!

All of the stuff for my plan has arrived at the house, except for the mini-fridge. According to UPS Tracking, that should arrive today. So I can set it all up this weekend, but I won't be able to buy food to put in it until a week from tomorrow.

I finished my taxes last night. I owe $15 to the IRS, and Maryland is giving me $182. I'm filing by mail this year, because I really want that Maryland return as soon as possible, but I can't afford the $19.95 to e-File it. Plus, filing by mail means more time before my check to the IRS clears, so that's a plus. I didn't want to e-File the federal return, because then it would've come out of my account right away, and I didn't want that.

I tried doing the federal by mail and the state by e-File, but again the $19.95 e-File fee through TurboTax, and it wouldn't let me do one by mail and one by e-File anyway.

What the huh?

Anna says I "have to" get a date for her wedding (something about screwing up seating arrangements at the head table or something).

Here are the problems with that pronouncement, in no particular order (except maybe my own head-logic):

• Most, if not all, of my current guy friends already have girlfriends. (If they don't, I don't know it; nor do I know how to find out if the ones whose girlfriends I don't already know or know about are single or not without seeming nosy. I refuse to ruin someone's relationship out of ignorance.)
• Even if they don't have girlfriends already, I haven't known any of them long enough to even consider dating them even just casually.
• I'm going to be meeting new people in my class this semester (which starts--belatedly--tomorrow, provided school doesn't get cancelled due to snow again), but the wedding is only two weeks away, and I won't have known anybody in that class nearly long enough to even consider them friends, much less as possible romantic partners.
• Asking someone to be a date to a wedding is a big deal, and in my opinion, should only be done between couples who have an established relationship. It's simply not a "casual date"-type event, and even if it were, I will never go on a blind date, no matter who is trying to set me up.
• Two weeks does not an established relationship make.
• Finally, and most importantly, all of these reasons add up to: I would not be comfortable so much as asking a guy to come to Anna's wedding as my date, and it's kind of presumptuous of Anna to try and dictate my love life all for the sake of filling a chair. Granted, it is her wedding, but even so, requiring that people bring dates, no matter their current relationship status, is going too far.

I shall now say no more on the matter. On to a different topic:

Last Monday, I had an appointment with the allergist (as opposed to just getting shots), and he gave me some Nasonex and an order for a limited sinus CT scan.

The Nasonex was to help with the stuffiness due to allergies. Even though I thought I had a cold as well, I think it might've just been extremely, severely severe allergic rhinitis, because I've actually been taking the Nasonex as directed every day for a week now, and early this morning, I found myself breathing through my nose as I drifted in and out of sleep!

Dr. M (the allergist) is out of the office this week, but I'll call him next week to get the results of the CT scan. He had me get it because I've had problems with my sense of smell for years now--in other words, I don't smell much of anything. The most common cause of a lack of smell (and by connection, a dulled sense of taste) is an inflamation of the sinuses in the forhead area pinching the olfactory nerve.

So, since I've had this problem for years, and he hasn't had much luck treating it so far, he told me to get the CT scan to make sure it really is a sinus infection, and not some other thing pinching the olfactory nerve.

Last Tuesday, my first class was cancelled due to snow. I was supposed to have Intro. to Business on Wednesday evenings, but that class got cut due to insufficient enrollment. I couldn't choose another section of the same class, since they all clashed with my work schedule, so my only choices were: a) don't go to school this semester, or b) choose a different 3-credit class that I can go to.

I looked in the course catalogue for all the subjects that seemed interesting and also had sections after 5:30 pm on weeknights (none of the courses I looked at had Saturday courses, I think, and I've never had school on Saturdays before so I'm not intending to start now), and came up with an English course and an Art course that looked promising.

The English course (or at least the section I was looking at) was full, but I was lucky enough to get the last seat in the Art class (Drawing I). It meets Tuesday nights from 6-10pm. Sadly, that means that I won't be able to play in the Paranoia game that Matt from the Haven was planning to start, but c'est la vie.

You win some, you lose some, I guess.

I think I have a new show. Yesterday, I hung out in Mom's room for hours, and she was watching The Closer. The 4-6 episodes I saw (they were having a marathon) were pretty good, and I like the characters and stories so far--even though Kyra Sedgewick always looks like she's going to cry for some reason. Maybe once I finish watching my MacGyver DVDs (and have some extra money) I'll get caught up on the series or something.

I have a plan to save money faster so I can get a new computer. I'm going to stop buying lunch at Beans & Bagels (except for on payday, to treat myself) and pack all my lunches from now on.

In order to do this, I have to make sure that there is always bread, lunch meat/cheese, other stuff to put in my lunches, and cereal and milk for breakfast in the house. So I bought myself a mini-fridge from Sears (it's going to be delivered sometime this week) and a bunch of storage drawers from Wal-Mart (also to be delivered this week) so that I can keep my own food and drinks in them.

I have a box I'm going to keep apples, oranges or other whole fruits (not grapes, cherries or strawberries--those are strictly fridge-bound) in, plus a set of plastic drawers for bread, bagels and lunch-size chip bags, and a crate-like-thing for cereal boxes. My new fridge has a place for soda cans to dispense vertically out the bottom, which I think is pretty darn cool. I would've gotten the 6 cu. ft. model, but that was way too expensive.

I don't have any money to put anything in it yet, so I'll just have to set it all up and wait to get paid again. I don't think I'd get a tax return before my next paycheck, even if I filed them today, so I won't hope for that to come first.

First Fitting

So, I headed to Hagerstown yesterday straight after work. I got to David's Bridal with a full half-hour to spare before my appointment, and sat outside the alterations area while the seamstress pinned up a bride's gown.

Once she was ready for me, I put the dress on (which definitely took more effort than typing about it) and did the whole "stand on the platform, walk back and forth" thing.

The dress fit perfectly--seriously, the bodice was nice and snug (but not tight), and the hem line was just where it needs to be. I'm a little disappointed that the dress is size 14, but that's my own fault for being a bit over-weight.

Anyway, since the dress was perfect, no alterations were needed, and I got to take the dress home. Before I left the bridal shop, I bought a nice ($10) dress bag for it. It's the most expensive dress I've ever owned (and also quickly becoming one of my favorites), so you'd better believe I'm going to keep it as nice as I can, and part of that is putting a sturdy dress bag on it while it's not being worn.

SNOW

Grrr . . . it snowed yesterday. I hate snow. I mean, it's pretty and all, but it's also cold and wet--one of my least favorite combinations.

The allergist was closed for shots yesterday, so I'm going this evening. Spring semester starts on Saturday, but my first class session isn't until a week from tomorrow. This Thursday after work, I'm going to David's Bridal for my first fitting of my bridesmaid's dress.

That last part is pretty exciting--I get a really nice gown to wear, altered specifically for me! But I won't have anywhere to wear it after the wedding, so it'll just sit in my closet getting old and tatty. :( I wish I could afford to take a ballroom dance class. Then maybe I could wear that to dance events and such.

Chinese Zodiac

Saw this on Heather's LJ this morning, so I decided to check out my year, and it kinda described me very well (entry title links to Chinese Zodiac site):

People born in the Year of the Pig are chivalrous and gallant. Whatever they do,
they do with all their strength. For Boar Year people, there is no left or right
and there is no retreat. They have tremendous fortitude and great honesty. They
don't make many friends but they make them for life, and anyone having a Boar
Year friend is fortunate for they are extremely loyal. They don't talk much but
have a great thirst for knowledge. They study a great deal and are generally
well informed. Boar people are quick tempered, yet they hate arguments and
quarreling. They are kind to their loved ones. No matter how bad problems seem
to be, Boar people try to work them out, honestly if sometimes impulsively. They
are most compatible with Rabbits and Sheep.

Better Holiday Memory by DSDragon

Setting: GGGoH

Author's Notes: The title kinda sucks, but it was the only thing I could come up with. The challenge said "a revelation or unexpected gift." They're not big, but I put one of each in this fic.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the settings in this fanfic. I only own the idea. The rest belongs to Warner Brothers.

-----

Perry had given Lois and Clark a few extra days down in Smallville to let Clark recuperate from the Trask debacle (they had sent the story to him by fax already) and to have time with his parents for an early Thanksgiving celebration. Lois, who never turned down food as good as what she'd been fed for the last few days, accepted the invitation to stay when it was given.

Sitting at the kitchen table, she watched Mrs. Kent--er, Martha--putter around her, preparing a full turkey dinner. Well, "putter" was really the wrong word. Martha's gait and ease on her feet were really too vivacious to call them "puttering." *The woman must live on Energizer batteries,* Lois thought. *She just keeps going, and going . . .*

"You seem contented," Martha remarked, startling Lois out of her reverie. "Kind of like the cat that ate the canary, what with that grin you've got."

"Oh!" Lois gasped. "Um, I was just thinking, that's all."

"Really? What about?"

Thinking it would be rude to compare her hostess to the Energizer Bunny out loud, Lois improvised. "Actually, I was thinking how nice it is here. I mean, I wouldn't want to live here, but it's nice not to be mashed into a few city blocks with crowds of other people every once in a while."

"Huh," Martha said.

Perplexed, Lois asked, "What?"

"Nothing. It's just that, from what Clark's been telling us, and what I've seen so far, I was almost sure I had you pegged for the workaholic, never-leave-the-city-on-your-life type."

Caught, Lois blushed. "Well, yeah. But a girl can appreciate some time off; no matter how much she loves the work, can't she?"

"Absolutely."

Thinking it was time to change the subject, Lois asked, "So where are Cl--the boys?"

A twinkle in her eye as she turned back to the turkey in the oven, Martha answered, "Oh, they're around somewhere. Since this will be our only chance to have Thanksgiving with Clark this year, he and Jonathan decided to hang the Christmas decorations earlier than usual."

"What do you mean? Christmas isn't for another month and a half."

"We decorate on Thanksgiving," came the answer from the sink as Martha prepared some brussels sprouts for boiling.

"Why is that?" Lois asked. "I've never done much more than find a tree on Christmas Eve myself."

"Just a Kent family tradition, I guess. We don't take down any decorations until New Year's either."

"More than a month of Christmas?" Lois couldn't decide whether she was in awe or pure catatonia at the thought of all that . . . cheer. "How can you stand it? I can barely tolerate the decorations they put up at the Planet in the middle of December."

When Martha's answer did not come right away, Lois looked up. The older woman had a somewhat sad expression on her face. "Bad memories?" she asked.

Lois scrunched her head further onto her shoulders and rubbed her entwined fingers together on top of the table. "I don't really like to talk about it."

-----

Clark put the finishing touches on the staircase. He'd wrapped the rails in garland and white Christmas tree lights—for the next two months, his parents wouldn't have to worry about breaking their necks if they went downstairs for a midnight snack. And, hey, it was also festive!

Suddenly, his super hearing kicked in:

~"How can you stand it? I can barely tolerate the decorations they put up at the Planet in the middle of December."~

*Hmm,* Clark thought. *I wonder why Lois is so repulsed by Christmas decorations?* Shaking his head, he resolved to try not to eavesdrop anymore—and to help Lois enjoy the holidays.

But before he could turn off his hearing, he heard his mother's question. ~Bad Memories?~

Hoping it wasn't true, Clark's heart broke a little when his partner answered very quietly, ~I don't really like to talk about it.~

Desperate now to find a way to cheer Lois up about the season, Clark searched the room. He must have been staring in certain places, because his father was looking at him with a question in his eyes. Clark shook his head in a "not yet" gesture, then spotted exactly what he was looking for in a box balanced precariously on the back of the couch.

Going as fast as he could without alerting the kitchen's occupants (or rather one of the occupants) that he was super-speedy, Clark grabbed a bit of mistletoe, tacked it right outside the kitchen, and went back to his place by the stairs just as the door started to open.

-----

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Martha nodded, and turned back to her cooking just as a timer sounded. "Whoops! Looks like that's dinner. Want to help me get it all to the table?"

"Sure." Lois stood and took the dish of mashed potatoes toward the dining room. She carefully opened the door, and took only a step or two into the other room before Martha called, "Stop, Lois!" She stopped.

Looking back to the Kent matriarch, Lois asked, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," came the answer. "You're just standing under the mistletoe."

Lois looked up; sure enough, there was a tiny sprig of the dratted weed tacked to the ceiling just outside of the kitchen doorway. Her eyes widened--how the hell could she get out of this one?--"Oh."

Movements out of the corner of her eye made Lois turn her head. Clark was walking toward her. *He'd better not do what I think he's going to do,* Lois thought to herself in vain. Clark grabbed the potato dish from her nerveless fingers, gently set it on the table just to her right, and--quick and soft--put his lips on hers.

*Hey, where'd he go?* Her thoughts contradicted themselves as Clark pulled back with a smile.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Lois," he said as Lois mused to herself, *Maybe the holidays aren't so bad after all.*

New Year's and Stuff

For New Year's Eve, Dad, Mom, Jason and I went down to Grandma's. We did the usual stuff, had the usual snacks, and definitely had the salad after the ball dropped.

I've been uber-congested the last week or two. It got so bad yesterday that I got lightheaded from lack of oxygen whenever I blew my nose!

Yesterday I also missed the turn onto the 15 North exit so that I could go to the allergist's office for my shots. It was just after 5 p.m. and would've taken me twice as long to get to 15 via Ballenger Creek Pike as it usually takes to get from Jefferson Street to the allergist's. So I decided to just go home and get my shots after work today instead.

Later this evening, I'm taking Kimba to Outback for dinner. More on that after.

Last night, I had an interesting dream. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember that it was very The Devil Wears Prada. I even had an Anne Hathaway look-alike ('cause it definitely wasn't her in the dream) to show me the ropes. The boss, however, was nicer, even though he was very absent-minded. His name was something like Sir Quentin Quigley. I'm not sure if that was it exactly, but there were definitely Q's, and he was definitely a Sir for some reason.

In the dream, I was immediately set to work asking for donations for something I've forgotten since I woke up. I think there was an accident, or somebody was sick with some terminal illness (the boss was a philanthropist instead of a high fashion magazine editor). When I started out, I was doing fine, then the boss said, "Darcy, call my (here, it was either wife or mother-in-law, I can't remember which) and tell her . . ." then he started to stammer and be forgetful, and finished with, "the thing!"

The weird part is, my Anne Hathaway look-alike always knew what his cryptic forget-a-grams meant! Eventually (I was "working" in that office for three dream-days) I actually asked her for a crib sheet. She made it, and gave it to me on the morning of the third "day," but I didn't use it before I woke up. After that first morning, I pretty much sat there staring at the phone, trying to remember what I was doing. And Sir Quentin (if that was his name) actually complemented me on what a great job I was doing!

Weird dream.

Oh, pooh.

I started reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition yesterday (I finished The Year of Living Biblically in less than two days) but the author kept reiterating that it's important to have a good grasp of musical theory. I'm pretty good when it comes to playing or singing music, but when it comes to terms I may or may not have come across in my performances, or the names of scales or chords, overall, my musical education is spotty, at best.

So, I've decided that, before I read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition, I need to buy and read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory.

So, instead of that book, I'm going to be reading the Buffy RPG option manuals (Slayer's Handbook, Monster Smackdown, and the Angel RPG corebook) which I ordered through the Haven and got this evening. I read the first chapter of Monster Smackdown while I was at the Haven earlier, but I haven't decided whether to read straight through, or go on to the first chapter of the Slayer's Handbook, then go on the the Angel RPG book, and keep rotating until they're all finished. I also ordered The Magic Box, but it's on back-order, so it won't come in for another few weeks.

They're having lasagna for dinner downstairs, but I ate Five Guys at the Haven, which kinda makes me sad, since I love lasagna. But then again, I'm not sure I could handle all the extra cheese my dad puts on his lasagna right now anyway. There should be leftovers though, so I'll probably take some to work for lunch tomorrow.

A mini-rant/essay

While I've been reading A. J. Jacobs's The Year of Living Biblically, I've come across a lot of really good quotes that I wish I had written down at the time so that I could use them as e-mail signatures and stuff.

There are likewise a few things that have rubbed me the wrong way. For instance, this particular bit from Month Nine: May. He was talking to a pastor from Jerry Falwell's church down south named Tom:

"Yes, homosexuality is an abomination," says Tom. "But I'm a sinner too. We're all sinners. You just have to love them."

This is a pretty mild stance--the hate-the-sin, not-the-sinner idea. I'm guessing he
toned the rhetoric down for his Northeastern Jewish audience of one. But, still, I find this stance intolerant in its own way. It's like saying that we should love Jesse Jackson, except for the fact that he's black.

This, to me, is flawed logic. Jacobs is equating a person's race to his chosen sexual orientation, which is a broken comparison.

People are born with certain racial traits--for instance, I have very light skin, high cheekbones, a somewhat-distinctive facial structure, and other physical traits which show that I come from a mostly-Dutch (that's Netherlands Dutch, not Pennsylvania Dutch, which is actually German anyway) heritage--the other half of me is kind of a hodge-podge. This collection of physical traits that mark a person's heritage are a given--they're born that way and only plastic surgery (which I won't get into a rant about now . . . maybe later) can change them.

Homosexuality, on the other hand, is completely different. It's all behavior to me. A person chooses to only have romantic relationships with someone of their own gender--whether they're physically attracted to the same gender or not, the relationship is not forced upon them, and I just do not (and in some ways cannot) believe that they are born to be homosexual. That's not to say that I scorn people who have same-sex relationships--one of the girls at my work is a lesbian, and she's totally cool as a person--I just don't believe in their lifestyle choices.

I'm not going to try to change their minds for them, but I'm also not going to start looking at women as potential romantic partners, and I'm certainly not going to teach my future children that it's okay to have sex with their own gender either. I will, however, teach them to befriend all the people who will let them, and love all of those friends equally, whether they agree with their lifestyle choices or not.

On the scale of complete and utter bigotry versus extreme over-tolerance, I'd say this viewpoint is closer to the middle, and slightly to the tolerance side. "Intolerant" is just too strong a word for the "hate-the-sin, not-the-sinner" idea. A person's chosen lifestyle does not equal their identity; it's just the way they choose to behave.

R. I. P. Oreo

Today, Oreo, my brother's panda hamster, died. She's had a tumor of some sort in her leg area for months, and there just hasn't been money available to take her to the vet and find out what it was. At first, they thought she'd just been stung by a wasp or something, but it didn't go away, and eventually got so big she couldn't even crawl through the tunnel off-shoots on her cage.

As I type this, Jason and the others have found a box to put her in, and they're working on getting her in there; they'll probably bury her out back next to O'Malley.

On a not-so-morbid note: Kayla's uncle Stephen (or Steven) has left the house to go back to her other uncle, Peter's, house until New Year's, when he and his mother (Kayla's maternal grandmother) will be going back home to Alabama.

Yesterday, I took Anna to Miyako for a late lunch/early dinner. It was yummy. Anna got the steak and shrimp combo, and I got the steak and chicken combo. We both also got fried rice. I love the soup and salad they serve before the hibachi chef comes out too--Anna gave me her mushrooms from the soup, but even just the broth is to die for.

In the next week or so, I'm going to take Kimba to Outback one evening, and Kayla to Ruby Tuesday.

What spurred this whole "Take each family member to a nice restaurant" thing? Mostly, I was craving a bloomin' onion, but I didn't want to take all of them to Outback, since I also wanted to go to places like Ruby Tuesday, Miyako and Brewer's Alley. So I decided that this month, I'm going to take Kimba, Anna and Kayla for individual meals, and then next month (or next month, going into the month after) I'll take Dad, Mom and Jason. I haven't decided yet whether to take Mom and Dad at the same time, or individually like everybody else though.

Anyway, after our lunch/dinner, Anna and I walked around the mall (we'd gone to the Miyako at FSK instead of Patrick Street, since Kayla, Jason and Stephen asked us to drop them off at the good theater on our way to the restaurant) and I got my shoes for her wedding. We also stopped by the calendar kiosk outside of Barnes & Noble, since I needed a 2009 calendar to keep track of things at work, and I decided to get a calendar for everyone else too. I bought one called "Solitudes" for work, which is basically scenery--pretty, but not distracting.

I got Anna a Crossword-a-Day tear-off desk calendar, and Jason got a Fold-a-Day paper airplane calendar. Kimba was given an Audrey Hepburn theme, Mom got Magic Eye, and Kayla got Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also got two other calendars: M.C. Escher and Dragons. I gave Stephen a choice as to which one he wanted; he chose the Escher calendar, so I gave the dragons to Dad.

I read What Would MacGyver Do? yesterday--it was hilarious, ingenious, and a quick read. One of the people who contributed a story to it actually wrote the book I'm currently reading: The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible--as Literally as Possible.

In the story, he wrote about his first book, The Know-It-All, a memoir about reading the Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z, and how he was petrified of being quizzed at signings. So, he tried to cram-study for weeks, but then realized that he could "MacGyver" a solution--if he didn't know the exact answer to a specific question, he'd give an answer that was related to the subject, but interesting enough so that the questioner didn't realize he hadn't answerd their original question. I've gotten through Month Two of his book, and it's fascinating so far--funny at times, serious and introspective in others.

When I first heard of the book, I thought I'd hate it, then Gene told me a bit about it, and it sounded at least fun. Now I'm reading it, and it's so much more than that--the guy really is at least trying to live a better life by following the Bible. He hasn't changed much yet, but he's already noticed some changes he's had that are more than the obvious physical ones. Like he's noticed that he (or rather, his biblical alter-ego "Jacob") is more careful about what he says, and is somewhat repulsed by certain things he wouldn't have thought twice about before.

He doesn't see "Jacob" as himself yet, but I think his two "personalities" might merge by the end of the year. Not sure yet if I'm going to read another month's worth tonight or not, but I'll definitely pick it up again tomorrow. I want to finish at least this book, if not this one and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition by 11:59:59 p.m. on New Year's Eve.

Christmas

Christmas, overall, was good.

Kayla's uncle Steven (or is it Stephen?) is visiting Maryland, so he's spent Christmas Eve and Day with us so far. After we opened gifts yesterday morning, we went to Grandma's house for the usual gift opening there, and--something new--Christmas Brunch. I guess they decided not to deal with the hassel of a full-on sit-down Christmas dinner.

Mom, Dad and I left earlier than everyone else, and I spent the extra time between our getting home and dinner time finishing Dragons of Winter Night and reading the book Grandma wrote about herself. There was much distraction--I kept getting fascinated by Jason's Erector set. I've also decided that I'm not going to read Dragons of Spring Dawning, etc, unless I have nothing else more interesting or new to read.

Dinner was breakfast, since the brunch wasn't all that. Then, we all played Halo--well, Dad, Anna, Tim, Kayla, Stephen and I did anyway--Kimba and Mom don't do video games, and Jason's grounded until tomorrow. Around eleven, I decided to stop and take a shower before heading upstairs to relax a bit before bedtime.

Gifts I Gave (and the people I gave them to):

• Jason: Gryffindor silk tie and lambswool scarf set
• Kayla: Guitar Hero Aerosmith for PS2
• Anna: An authentic replica of Lucius Malfoy's walking stick/wand
• Kimba: A "teaching bag" (as she calls it) with her name on it, and Travel Scrabble
• Dad: A digital photo frame, with 13 pictures of the family and special occasions (such as senior class pics, Mom & Dad's wedding, and graduations)
• Mom: Two pair of jeans in size 10Long, since she fits my size jeans now

Gifts I Received (I can never remember who gave me what, but anything with a * is something that was on my list):

• Electronic Phase 10
• Sudoku the board game
• The Story of My Life by Grandma S. (the book about her that I talked about earlier)
• A book of wide-staff musical manuscript paper*
• What Would MacGyver Do?
• The Year of Living Biblically
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Musical Composition*

Hilarious, Aunt Julie!

Go read the first few paragraphs of my Aunt Julie's blog post about wrapping paper. You won't be sorry!

I remembered some!

Last night's dream was rather interesting. I don't remember enough of it to write a story or anything, but I do remember some fun details.

I was back in that place that looks suspiciously like Scottsdale, only there were hills and bunches of staircases, and I think I was there for some sort of convention or something. I was in my roller skates, just going around the neighborhood with someone who I think was actually my Grandpa S, and someone else--I can't remember who, but they were around my age, I think.

We got to this place where three staircases met--or maybe it was two staircases, and the hill I'd just gone up--and one of the staircases was so steep, I couldn't even see half of each riser from the top. So I turned to the other staircase, which wasn't much better, and walked my skates down.

We finally found someone else from the convention thing, and he said that it was time for whatever meeting we were going to (we'd been out and about just to kill time until it started), so I asked "Grandpa" to have someone bring me my shoes, since I was kind of leery about going all the way back the way we'd come in my skates.

When I got to the place for the meeting, the other two were already there, so I just sat down in the back with them to listen. Shortly after that, I woke up.

I keep thinking . . .

. . . that my dreams would make great stories--if I could remember more than a few interesting details, that is. Especially the last few nights, since I'm pretty sure that at least last night's dream had *shock* a plot! If only I could remember a whole dream long enough to write it down, or at least jot a few notes for an outline. Then maybe I'd have a bestseller--or at least a published novel or something.

Yoinked from Aunt Julie's Blog (I'm waaaaaaaaaaay behind.)

Happy Birthday, Heather! (And various wedding-like details.)

Today is Heather's birthday! Yay, Heather!

Now, on to our not-so-regularly scheduled blog entry:

Sunday, Anna, Kimba and I went to David's Bridal so that Kimba and I (and Liz F.) could try on bridesmaid dresses. We decided on this dress, with a bolero jacket, in apple for me and Liz and black for Kimba (since she's the maid of honor, and Anna wanted different colors--her bridal colors are black and apple). The jacket only comes in white, since that style's technically a bridal style, but we liked it, since it's an outdoor winter wedding anyway.

Luckily, we were able to pay for and order the dresses in our sizes on Sunday, because the lady who helped us said that delivery time was looking like the end of January. Considering the wedding is February 16th, we'd've been cutting it kinda close if we hadn't bought them there and then. We'll have to go back for first and second fittings--one to have the alterations lady pin them and such, and one to make sure the altered gowns actually fit right.

As an aside, I never really understood the need for more than one bridesmaid--I mean, all the extra ones do is just stand there in their dresses and look pretty, right? The maid of honor at least has some sort of "job" to do during the ceremony. I can understand wanting to appease certain female family members and/or friends, but it's not their wedding anyway.

If/when I ever get married, I'm going to have one bridesmaid, my groom will have one best man, and we will invite our immediate family, specific family members who we are closest to, and our bestest best friends. Everyone else will get announcements only, and possibly invitations to the reception. I'm talking super-duper-small wedding.

Anyway, back on course.

We also got to see Anna in her wedding dress while we were in the shop, since she had just made her final payment on it and had to get the alterations pinned. I'm not going to link to a picture of the dress today, since there's no telling who actually reads this blog, and it's "bad" for certain people to see the dress before the wedding, after all.

Pay day (and the company Christmas party) is tomorrow. Yay! I can finish my Christmas shopping! And start paying off my Discover card (which is how I paid for that gown).

Christmas Questions (Yoinked from Heather's LJ)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper--gift bags are just lazy (unless you don't have an appropriate sized box to put a gift in, then a bag is okay), and the holidays are about taking the effort and time to show a person you care.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Ours is artificial, but we've had a real one before--I get headaches if a real tree is in a small, enclosed house though.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually Thanksgiving day, either during or after the Macy's parade.
4. Do you like eggnog? Yup, but recently I haven't been able to drink it without it cut in half with milk.
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Of the few I can remember, I'd have to say my favorite was the journal my grandma gave me when I was five--it was the first of many.
6. Hardest person to buy for? My dad--he tells us some things that he wants, but we can't always afford them even if we really want to get them for him, so I usually end up getting him things that aren't really what I want to get for him.
7. Easiest person to buy for? Anna--all I have to do is walk in the mall, or look in a catalogue, and I see so many things that are just "Totally Anna."
8. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My mom made one out of plastic canvas years ago, and I got a glass one for Christmas a few years back myself.
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither--I've never been a Christmas card sender. But if I was, I'd mail them.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Don't remember.
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Patrick Stewart version of A Christmas Carol
12. When do you start shopping? As soon as I can. I even bought a gift for Anna way back in September once. But I usually keep it to the last 2-3 paychecks before the actual holiday--around Thanksgiving.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I remember.
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Dinner in general--Gourmette (cook stuff on the table, bite by bite) specifically.
15. Lights on the tree? Of course, no lights on the tree is just stupid--you can't see the ornaments well without them.
16. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home, since my immediate family is all in the area anyway.
18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Neither--we have a spire-type thing.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning usually, unless someone's bought us pajamas and wants us to wear them to bed on Christmas Eve, or there's a gift that's specifically meant to be opened on Christmas Eve.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The commercialism--I especially hate the song "Santa Baby."
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Silver and blue bulbs and beads, white lights, and the tree topper spire thing.
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Gourmette.
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? A few For Dummies books, some wide-staff musical manuscript paper, and a new laptop.
25. Who do I tag? Anyone who feels like filling this out!

Ending Thought:"Whose life is better because you woke up today?" Dunno.