Poll closed - fuzzy red lovey-dovey moose pyjamas donned. *g* (One amused flatmate. :p)

Note for those with LD people of any sort: the mother did a brilliant job with these. She washed/dried them, folded them up small, wrapped them generously in clean white tissue paper (and printed "WASHED" on the outside, lol), then wrapped again in the plastic-y foil type Christmas paper. They are looovely and didn't get a weird smell after spending several weeks in the post. Fantastic idea! *loves on the parents*

Happy December/Trécember/blue moon month! I'm in that 'so much to say' / 'can't think of a damn thing to say' mode, lol. I'm currently behind but generally speaking I *am* still reading, just not posting much. Est has eaten my brain, frankly. But! As of now, I do have the Box o' Christmas from the mother (well, from the 'rents, but the mother did all the wrap/pack/mail duties) so all is well, despite the rain attempting to drown people right now.

And I have forgotten whatever else I might have said, thanks to half the block losing power for a chunk of the last hour. How rude!

Today was one of those days where you look at the clock at lunchtime and think, "I just got here!" and seemingly the next time you look is when it's past time to go home and you think, "But I just came back from lunch!" Oy vey. I acquired a new weekly project and while it will go faster with some practice, it's going to be a much bigger time-sucker even than I'd thought. :/ Ah, well. It's good to be trusted with the responsibility involved, if nothing else. And my newlywed manager was back today, although she had a tonne to catch up on, of course. She brought a couple of photos and it looks to have been lovely. Yay.

Today is also my kitty's birthday, awww. Happy birthday, Nibbies! He's ten, holy shit. Old kitty is old! I think one of the best things about my trip to Canada was that I was able to see that he was totally fine but had also not forgotten me, and, well, still cared. lol. It doesn't upset me to talk about him anymore the way it was before, and that's a good thing.

Got a relatively small package from the mother with Red Rose, Kraft Dinner, maple syrup, Marcelle bronzing powder and one of my favourite tea mugs (I have four). Yay Mom! ♥ And I get to see what the new tap in the bathroom looks like because that's the box that she used to pack everything LOL.

This seems a very cool site - you can find out what the weather was like in a particular city on a particular date (handy for those of us who're anal about details *g*) and all manner of other similar facts and figures.

And this is a post by Trent Reznor: my thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist. Which is *excellent*, if somewhat stream-of-consciousness and he says right off the bat that it doesn't include everything - one rather large hole being playing live, lol, but I think that most marketing strategies for music assume that as a baseline. ;-) I found it really interesting, anyway, especially as the promotional campaign for cradlesong (and apparently for Wilco's new one too; I've seen articles comparing them) incorporates a lot of these ideas, even though Rob and Wilco are both established artists, not new at all.

Lastly, I have a preeeeeetty new layout. And made myself a pretty blue icon to go with. *points*

I was going to do this big long pointless ramble just to get shit out of my head, but I can't even focus for that. My cough is worse again today and I'm tired and I had to stop at the store for stuff I forgot the last time (toilet rolls are a bit important to have) and yes, I am fully aware that I'm whining, but I came home to mail from my mom, who aired and repacked all my books in the summer, and surface-mailed me just past the deadline for Christmas delivery with a book of poetry she'd given me several years ago entitled, To My Child ...We may no longer live in the same house, but you're always in my heart. Um... yeah. I have officially lost the battle against crying today. Which is not really helping with the coughing and breathing thing. Awesome timing, Royal Mail. :S

Failing at lifemail. I ended up going down to the wire when I shipped out my Christmas stuff, but it *was* before the deadline and I *did* send it so all's well, right? Yeaaaaah. I found a bag with a few small things in amongst the Christmas residue that I was supposed to have taken and mailed at the same time. So those didn't go until last week, and then I totally forgot to subsequently email the people involved and say hey, I didn't forget you, I just suck. Really bad. The stupidest part? Not all of it even had to leave the country! I had run out of regular UK stamps, too. Bah. Fail.

Longing For. This is the song that's been om nomming my brain the last few days (cheers to khemlab for the extract!). It's cut from a live radio interview, and it's just two acoustic guitars and two voices, one male, one female, in some fairly intricate harmonies, in a very pretty love song. Yes, some of why this is pwning me really hard has to do with M!Rob, but it is genuinely lovely, and I think the part that hits me the hardest about it is that it has such a hopeful tone. I'm tempted to say naively so, but... that's the cynic in me talking, and she's definitely in charge these days, so ignore her and download the song. Optional, of course, unless you're evaine, in which case, hop to it, lady. *g* If y'all want the lyrics, go here.

My posting steam has run out. Haven't been saying much lately because it all seems a bit pointless, really. Not just posting - life in general. See previous paragraph about the cynic being in charge atm.

Oh, yeah, and: Toronto area flisties! I'm coming in April instead of February. More money, less snow, essentially. I'll be there over Easter weekend so hopefully that'll work for y'all so far as actually having time off work already.

I finished my long-distance Christmas shopping today, bleurgh, and remembered in the process why I had kept putting it off: it hurts. Focusing on people that I am not going to be able to *see* at Christmas makes me miss them hardcore and thus I spent most of my shopping extravaganza time in some level of tearing up. I did not, however, actually cry. I'm saving that for tomorrow night, when I wrap all this shit and package it up without the amazingly unhelpful assistance from a small furry animal who likes shiny curling ribbon. And then on Saturday, I will haul ass up to the post office first thing in the morning (God help me!) and it will be done. My godfamily is just getting various British sweets and the like and a note that I'll need somewhere to stay for a week or so in February so who wants to volunteer? *g*

Which, yeah: Toronto-area people, I'm going to be *in* your area in February. I haven't finalised anything yet, but my tentative plans are to go to Halifax first for 1.5-2 weeks, then Ontario for 1-1.5 weeks, which should be over the long weekend that only schools and governments get - which is also Valentine's, so if anyone wants to say fuck tradition and, y'know, hang with me on V-day instead, that would be cool. :D I will most likely be staying at my godparents' and that is... wait for it... in Acton. I'M WORTH THE DRIVE, GUYS! *dies laughing* I may have access to a car, actually, and if I don't, I'm probably going to rent one, because I will go batshit if I have to depend on my family for drives (and take one of them with me everywhere, ack). Besides, I am DEFINITELY going to be heading downtown T.O. (oh God I hope I remember how to drive in there!). There are a few places I want to hit - the correct Paradise Hut had better still be there, man, on the east side of Yonge between College and Wellesley, or I shall be pissed - but most of those I can and likely will do myself on a weekday when y'all are working. I would, however, *love* to go to the Kool Haus, if anyone's up for that. It didn't exist when I last lived there! How strange. Anyway, I'll babble about all that more later but I'm putting y'all on notice right now. My only concrete date is that I have to be back in Southampton by March 1st, because March 2nd is the first Metallica concert, hee.

Weird little occurrence: I have three email accounts that I use regularly, and when I signed on tonight and the notifs popped up, all three had five emails waiting. O_o I am just glad that there were *five* and not six, lol.

Oh and something else that probably only the TV-watching Canucks will get, but when I got home all teary and tired and carrying bags and shit, I came up the stairs and sniffed the air, and said, "It smells like burnt toast." And promptly cracked up. Heritage ads FTW!

It's actually a lovely afternoon; I need to go run some more errands but I am reluctant to lose the opportunity to have the window open for a while. My hands are a tad sore from carrying the box back from the post office, but at least it's at the *top* of the hill so I was unencumbered going up. Said box is now open, but I've just put everything back in because other than my requested sweatshirt, it's all wrapped! And, and... my stocking is in there. With stuff in it (also wrapped). I totally cried. I know, I'm wicked old to still be getting a stocking, lol; we did quit it when I was married, then picked it up again, as I have no kids for the tradition to graduate to and I think the mother enjoys it even more than I do. *sniffle* ♥

It would seem that the overall consensus is that I'd have gotten arrested for something involving some sort of obscenity/indecency, and that I wouldn't go down alone. *g*

I apparently did a poor job of concealing my irritation about the package when I emailed the mother to tell her I'd gotten the delivery card but wouldn't be able to go get it until Saturday b/c she rang up to apologise. She'd completely forgotten that I even gave her a different address. *eyeroll* She also told me that there's tea in there but it's wrapped so I'll just have to squish and sniff the wrapped stuff to find it and open it. Man. LOL.

I've been happily earwormed most of the week by Sleep 'Til the War Is Over. If this begins to bother me in another week or two, I will a) have no one to blame but myself and b) probably stop listening to it on repeat at that point. ;P

I did finally get locked out of the Idiot Club when the site changed - hell, for all I know the IC itself just went offline then, but the group of people I talked to mostly Facebook, not LJ, so I don't know anything. But I've given up on being pissed about it. It is what it is. It's just made damn sure that whatever comes next? I won't be paying for it. I'll spend that money elsewhere now.

Kiss me with your mouth, your love is better than wine... That's on the radio; can't think of the name/artist though I know the song well! I miss kissing. Well, I miss a lot of things, lol, but *today* I miss kissing. Just plain old makin' out, no real goal except to enjoy each other, a little light groping, a little fabric-fucking, lots of quiet sighs and moans. Yeah. :-)

So on Saturday, I get to take a nice long walk to the post office in Portswood and carry a box home, because despite the number of times I have told her where to send mail that is larger than will fit through a letterslot, the mother sent my Christmas box to my address. Which is NOT where it's supposed to go, because a) it's a bitch trying to get something delivered to a rowhouse cut up into flats that do not have individual intercoms, and b) I'm not fucking home during the day to sign for it. Gaaaaahhhhhh. At least it *is* at the post office this time - and a relatively close one even - and not out in the sticks at Fareham. Like it was the first time. Hence the alternate instructions that she can't manage to follow. *headdesk* Also, while I'm not one to begrudge getting gifts, wtf am I supposed to do with the damn box for the next almost two months?! Aieeeee!

Speaking of mail, I've seen a few posts start up for addies for Christmas cards. I am deeply regretful that I'm going to have to skip this year. :/ I normally splurge on this tradition because I love doing it, but with doubled+ mailing costs, I simply can't afford it. This makes me sad. Since I can't reciprocate, I won't be signing up as a recipient, either.

It's Bonfire Night, which means that there are bloody loud fireworks being set off everywhere. I'm abruptly glad that it is dark early because maybe they'll run out before I actually want to sleep! lol

I have by this time mostly settled into Est!Rob's head and made my peace with the fact that he's unusual, by which I mean that he doesn't fit neatly into any particular categories and he fucks with some of my own preconceptions, which are largely obliterated now as a consequence. *g* He's my first dom muse but he's also the strongest muse I've ever had (edging very slightly past Mr. Armstrong!), so there's been a fair amount of cognitive dissonance on my part with this getting-to-know-you process, and I've done more than my share of fretting and whinging at poor oh_johnny_, whose excellent advice is always to just shut up and let Rob drive. And I do. He drives some very unexpected places sometimes. Okay, most of the time. I'm mentioning all this because both of the just-posted logs are examples of unexpected places and we received a comment on the shorter/later one that totally has me glowing. Sometimes you really do need someone who has some more emotional distance from the characters to tell you that yes, this is working. ♥ (♥ to evaine too.)

Eljay is pissing me off. I have totally fallen off on commenting lately, though I'm still reading, if faster than usual, but now, it's not fucking LETTING ME COMMENT! I keep getting an error page - and not one of the fun ones, either. AIM is also refusing to connect. Grrrrr. The comments thing seems to have something to do with when I lose my 'net connection and restart it; it will not allow me to comment to a post if it's not during the same 'net session. Which is bullshit, eljay. Fix it. *stamps foot*

*sigh* Okay, well, I wanted to leave this pic for comparison to loves2bang's pix of Ray Luzier, the drummer from Korn, because yeah, his old-look Rob-Thomas-ness is kinda freaking me out:

( Really old school.Collapse )


In other news, when I spoke to my mom last week, she said she sent a small package in the post so to watch out for it. It arrived today. The contents? One sappy kitty-themed card, one pair of gold aquamarine earrings, and one keychain-sized hand-crank battery flashlight. LOL. Every so often, I remember that yeah, Mom and I do have some things in common. :D But yeah, she is really missing me if she's skewing towards the birthstone jewellery again. ♥

ETA: asknosecrets, bless Jon for that perfect answer!

In anticlimactic news, we went to the post depot to pick up my package today. Waited for about five minutes for the agent to finish with the person ahead of me, handed over the letter, signed my name and that was it. They didn't even ask to see my ID. ParcelForce's 2342395723057203 displays of complete idiocy did come with a price, though: the two most breakable items were damaged. Not completely ruined, thank fuck, but they'll need some repair, unfortunately. However, it's HERE, and we've devised a plan to circumvent the same kind of issues next time, so it's fine. I am, abruptly, too fucking tired to be pissed off anymore. I have gotten as far as stuffing all of the extra packaging material, etc. in a big garbage bag but it's starting to get dark and thus far I haven't had to take anything out to the bin enclosure myself, so it can just sit there until daylight comes back. I'm gonna need to vacuum more thoroughly over the weekend anyway, since there are wee bits of styrofoam that don't wanna go away now. (Seriously, wow, I am suddenly really freaking tired. Dissolution of pent-up rage, I suppose!)

Ha although one of the things in the parcel was some mail, including my MetClub membership package for this year (another tee I can wear, w00t), and I guess I didn't notice it last year but on the US Customs stamp on the envelope, where the contents are listed, it says, "Non-pornographic documents." ROTFLMAO! I dunno, man, I mean Lars *is* wearing a bathrobe over top of a complete outfit in the signed photo... *giggles*

GIP! Icon courtesy of linzeestyle. Photo courtesy of Paul being too fucking drunk to stand and sinking down onto Rob's piano bench with him. Immense suggestiveness courtesy of the crop tool. *g* Though really, the original photo didn't need a whole hell of a lot of help. Oh, Rob. How glad I am that you still randomly lick people. :DDD

thirdbeatred asked for a post-FBHT Billie/Adie, and here 'tis. That's the last drabble request I got. I won't bother closing the meme so you can go back and make me guess/get a drabble whenever. I've had a lot of fun doing these. :D

In other news, my parcel is supposed to be delivered to the nearest post office tomorrow, which with their enormous time window means that I will go pick it up on Wednesday. Thus far I am annoyed but not to a ridiculous extent. If there is some issue when I go to the post office, though? Watch out!

When I gathered up stuff to move, I brought several notebooks with scribbles in them (which was a major pain, too; they're heavy and take up space!). I didn't even know what was in some of them b/c I found a couple I'd misplaced, and in one of them is the full outline for The Sweetness of the Leaving that I'd wanted to post and instead had to summarise from memory when I closed the door on ever completing it. There's a bit of a scene in there, too, though I don't suppose any of the readers will really have missed reading about Max kissing Ava, heh. It's strange to read it now. There's the rough outline for the novel-length fic that I refuse to write as fanfic but can't figure out how else to write it, too. Gah. Plus the soundtrack list for that one, which thankfully DOES still evoke the story for me, especially Seether's Broken with Amy Lee. That's unfortunately one of the handful of CDs for which I had an empty case and never did find the actual disc. So annoying, especially because I'd never ripped that one so I don't even have the song anymore, or the acoustic version that was a special bonus on the CD. Boo.

Well, I have tea now. I am, however, still missing a goddamned parcel. According to the tracking site, delivery was attempted at 11:33. Bullshit. I was HERE, all damn day, and neither the buzzer nor my mobile rang. I did eventually doze off but it was after noon and also, because I'd left my inner door propped open, I woke up every time someone made even a little noise in the kitchen, so I should have heard the buzzer anyway. I wonder if the delivery person was such a genius that they just knocked? *headdesk* I emailed the lady back who arranged the redelivery and said yeah, you know, just send it to the nearest post office and I'll pay the 50p charge and pick it up myself. You wouldn't think that delivering a box to a house would be so fucking hard. *thanks all that's holy that her Reading ticket is going to looking_spiffy's*

There is at least one other woman living here. I've only met two guys so far, who seemed nice enough, though one was swearing up a storm when he burned something earlier today (I was LMAO - the air must've been bright blue around him, hee). Not sure I want to meet her, since every time I've heard her talking, she sounds really pissed off. I have a feeling that she cleans up after one or more of the others and isn't impressed with it, lol. Me, I came to the conclusion that I'd use all my own stuff and if it didn't need to be refrigerated, it would stay in my room. I bought what I'd call a chicken fryer: a deep sauté pan with a glass lid. You can do damn near anything in one of those as it's deep enough to accommodate a fair amount of liquid, i.e., it's possible to boil water and make pasta even, and drain it using the lid, and of course you can sauté stuff. About the only things you can't do are very large volume recipes like pots of soup, but seriously, I live alone and there might be a good-sized freezer but it's already full, so it's not like I'm going to be making huge amounts of *anything*. So far I'm mostly alternating between said pasta, prepackaged microwaveable stuff, and sandwiches. And cereal for breakfast, obviously. I'm attached to that. *g* Also multivitamins, since even when I am eating well, I rarely get all of the necessaries because I simply can't eat a lot of things. Hello, allergies.

7 a.m. - 7 p.m. is a very large potential delivery window. Not that I really expected the post to get here at the beginning (or at the end, please!), but they tried to deliver already on Tuesday and at this point, I just want my damn package. Person-specific deliveries are clearly going to be a problem living here: the buzzer is for the whole floor, not room-specific, and it happens to be at the other end of the floor, and for some weird building code reasons, I happen to have two fire doors as an entrance to my room, so I just don't hear it very well, if at all. Mreh. I sort of wish that I'd had it redelivered to the closest post office, so I could just go pick it up on my own schedule, but I'd rather not carry it if I don't have to since it is a fairly large box. Even if I know that the mother put a sturdy tape handle on it so it *could* be easily carried, lol. At least this time it was all done properly and I know it's HERE and they know *I'm* here. (It arrived in England the first time in April. Long story. Don't wanna talk about it.)

*blinks sleepily* I would like to be drinking tea right now. I had just enough milk left for tea and cereal this morning, except you know how when there's not much left in the container, milk can go off right fast? Yeah, that. *holds nose* I ate the cereal dry, which isn't a problem, but water doesn't exactly have much of a caffeine kick. Ha, dry vs. wet cereal makes me think of pet food. :P The grocery store down the street has been closed most of this week to finish its expansion. I'm pretty sure it reopens today, so I'll head there later, after I get this silly box. And if it's not today, well, then I'll go the other way and it adds ten minutes to the trip. Whatever.

This traipsing all over the place is definitely having an effect. Besides aggravating my sciatica out the wazoo, that is. I brought a pair of jeans with me that I haven't worn much for months now as they got really uncomfortably tight, and I pulled those out a few days ago to wear and they fit well now; the waist even has a bit of slack instead of digging in. Whee. It's a baby step, obviously, but my interest is more about improving my overall health than any specific numbers or anything, and that's definitely a baby step in the correct direction.

I'm going to let my hair grow back out. There's almost no curl left in it so it's needing more and more product to make it spike. I expected that, and also expected that I would dislike how it feels (*hate* using loads of stuff; even in the 80s you could only get me to use hairspray for special occasions). I'd actually try not spiking it, just to see what it looks like, but the part just above my bangs *does* persistently spike, so you kind of have to go along with it. Also, it might be impervious to wind/rain/crowdsurfers, but pillows decimate it, LOL. And I spend most of my surfing time horizontal now, with WS propped on my legs. It's difficult to get it to *re*-spike after that sometimes.

M'also feeling a bit Roswell-wistful this morning. Woke up to hear Eagle Eye Cherry's Save Tonight on the radio, which made me think of Ash's quadrology, of course, because the title for Fight the Break of Dawn is taken from the song. I think I'm feeling fandom-wistful in general, too, really. There was always this expectation that once something actually *happened* in Green Day land, there'd be a bit more activity. But while the message boards exploded during and after the FBHT gigs, there hasn't been a corresponding increase in fan-creations. There's only a handful of us who've even written or drawn anything related to it. This makes me sad and frustrates me some as well. And it's not like it's any better with Metallica, either; all that new, amazing material on Mission Metallica and I haven't seen *anything* come of it, fannishly speaking.

I'd bitch about Matchbox Twenty but, well, it's always fandom-impaired, lol. At least we have themadseason now, so we can keep each other up on all the news, vids, interviews, solo projects, etc.. Really, if there's anything you want to know about MB20, that's the place to go. In case I haven't pimped it before (can't remember). The introductory post/primer explaining just why this lovely band deserves a proper fandom can be found here. Totally worth a read. :D

In the course of a fifteen-minute phone conversation, my mother managed to give me some important information, make me laugh, make me feel loved, help me out, and thoroughly piss me off.

Gotta love family.


ETA: Also, some companies really need better language training. Your email has been sent and will be dealt with shortly. is NOT a particularly polite automated reply for an email enquiry via a website. Not that I expect much from anything associated with Royal Mail by this point...

angelicus, I hope you're having a fabulously shoeful day! *smooch*



Next, I got my first mail at my new place today! OMG girltufty, thank youuuuu, my dear. That completely made my day. :D

Seeing Bon Jovi play tonight, with looking_spiffy, was also made of win. More on that later - need food. Om nom nom...

Barb, your nuts taste fantastic. *immature giggles* Thank you! ♥

It's strange how much of yourself is seemingly contained in things, and music. So many "Oh, yeah!" moments, or "*cringe* OMG" ones. Heh. Part of why I've never gotten around to doing all this before is that I just don't know what to DO with the stuff that I don't necessarily want to keep, but also don't just want to chuck into the garbage, y'know? Some of it will be gifted - I've already started that, and I plan to give each of my team members at work one of the Starbucks bears I collected until fall '06, when I chose to quit. I think that will be a nice gesture, and there's certainly enough of them to pick something a little individualized for each one and still have some left over. (I collected them for almost ten years, and they came out with four or five a year - I have a LOT of bears, lol.) A few I'll keep and re-pack; Tuxedo Boy is coming with me. :D

Anyway, don't be surprised if some of y'all end up with wee packages in the mail. If I come across something that tells me your name, I'll send it off. Likely not bears, however; for all that they're relatively small for stuffed animals, they're a little bigger than I want to send!

( So, let me tell you about yesterday.Collapse )

Aaaaand back to work. :D

ETA: Forgot - a great bunch of icons here of girls in Converse. Kinda thought it might appeal to my flist. ;D

Approximately four hours ago, I was on my way to work. It had been snowing lightly all morning and things were slippery, so I was watching my speed (I do speed, but only on clear, non-residential roads in good weather; I'm a very careful winter driver), driving in the left lane of the highway due to the upcoming off & on ramps in quick succession, when the big silver car beside me started to drift into my lane. I hit the horn and tried to swerve out of the way. I did make it out of the way of his car: by spinning 90° and smashing head-on into the cement median. *wry smile* I'm not quite sure if I bounced over to the outer shoulder or if I actually managed to steer myself that way, nor do I know if I hit the brakes as well as swerving. Both airbags deployed with some fire and smoke. My scarf melted to my jacket, the left sleeve of which melted, and there was also a large hole right over my left boob that went through the jacket, my hoodie (my favourite sweater, goddamnit), my T-shirt, and a wee bit through my bra as well. Though my actual boob seems fine, w00t. I'm bruised and have a little patch of second degree burns on the back of my left hand but otherwise I am fine. Though shaken, obviously, and about to go shower because I stink like melted plastic, yuck. My car was towed (and is probably a write-off); I've made my insurance claim; the paperwork's gone to the adjustor; I have a rental car. And the man in the big silver car is named Dean and he is a darling, darling human being for making me get out of the smoking (!) car and sit in his - running, so we would stay warm - while he got all his information and the one witness's information down and soothed me and let me cry and put my glasses lens back in (they bent) while I waited for my mother to arrive. Thank you, Dean.

On a side note: Avon Astonishing Lengths mascara is good stuff, even the non-waterproof kind. :P

I also received mail from girltufty and thirdbeatred.I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but thanks regardless. ♥ And my mom took extra time to get there because she'd stopped to pick up my Christmas present, which she's taken pity on me and given me today, lol. It's a new computer chair and chairmat. Nice, tall back, black leather chair. Yay.

I think my face should probably hurt by now, what with the unwipeable grin. I keep randomly breaking into little giggles and/or tearing up and I feel like the biggest fangirly FREAK but I'm happy, goddamnit! Plus, there's a few dozen other people that I know are doing the exact same thing - and that makes me happy, too. ;D

Got a fair bit crossed off my list today, w00t. I'm working on wrapping stuff now that needs to be mailed at the end of the week. Speaking of mail, we got a parcel delivered today from Canada Post. O_O On a Sunday. We don't even have *Saturday* mail delivery! I know the post offices are open on Sunday from mid-November until Christmas to handle the volume, but never in my life have I heard tell of a package being delivered on Sunday. Weeeeeeird.

I found something else for the mother, so I have all hers now, yay. Just need to get the dad's. I'm debating if I wanna get him Angel Down or not. There was a review in the paper the other day and he pointed it out to me: "Sebastian Bach, that's the one who looks like a girl, right? And there are *three* duets with Axl Rose. ... I think I might like to hear that. I like that music. It's good shit." *diiiiiies* My only qualm actually is that the last couple of times I've gotten him something music-related, it's been sort of meh. :-/ Which would be fine except that once upon a time, my dad knew how to rock out and there's an obscure sort of hurt when he just can't connect with something I love anymore. I was thinking today that he'd probably love FHT, or he would have ten years ago, but I probably won't play it for him. Still, I haven't the foggiest idea what *else* to get as a gift for him this year and he did express interest, so I expect I will do that. It doesn't hurt that I'll be able to listen to it too, of course!

Meme snagged from linzeestyle:

For the first three people that reply to me and re-post this challenge—I will send you something groovy.

It might be something I've made, or something cool from my hidden stash of fabulousness; it might be a mix CD—or a rubber duck, a book I think you will enjoy, or something else that is awesome.

Whatever it is, I promise that I will get it to you in 365 days or less. (I will need your snail mail if you're not local.)

The only thing you need to do in order to participate is to be one of the first three to reply to this, AND post this very same thing on YOUR LJ — 'cause it's fun to give people stuff.

1, 2, 3 - GO! *laughs* ETA: I has mah three peeps!

What you shall NOT get is the shoes I purchased today. The plain black sneakers that I bought in Mass last May have a rip in the top of one of them, where the bit that holds the grommets for the laces meets the upper body of the shoe; had I bought them locally, I'd've taken it back, being as this happened over a month ago, so I'd only had the shoes for like three months. I've since been wearing my boots rather constantly, which is good on the front that they're really quite well broken in now and astonishingly comfortable (not the dressy EEB ones but the more substantial ones I bought later) by now. However, *any* shoes get uncomfortable for me if worn every day as they wear at the same places in my skin then - and there's no such thing as shoes that don't do that - so Sears was having a big sale and I ended up getting two pairs of sneakers for $20 apiece. W00t. One is black with pink soles and padding, and looks vaguely like Vans; t'other is also black but has some silvery, sort of pewter bits, and looks kind of like a pair of Skechers that I tried on...several times and still couldn't manage to find comfortable. :P Heh. The latter are a bit flat so will need arch support inserts but it's rare for my shoes to *not* require such, seeing as my arches are ridiculously, well, arched. I didn't actually expect to find anything, so I'm quite pleased with getting two!

I also got the Roswell S3 DVDs because MusicWorld has a whole bunch of TV-on-DVD sets on for $20 right now, and that's an amount I can justify spending on S3 *cough* as opposed to the $55+ I've seen it go for before now. I didn't quite manage to make it out of the store without a second purchase, though: Dream Theater's Awake for $6. :D I was tempted by the Honeymoon Suite collection as well, if only for the one song that held a staggering amount of meaning to my lovelorn 13-yo self, but refrained as I had to get several things that fell more into the "need" category, like shampoo et al. Though I did make one more 'frivolous' purchase: a bottle of wine, because I rather felt like some. ;-D


Non-sequitur: truepenny's post at Storytellers Unplugged this week is "What Not to Do with Writer's Block." Worth a read.

First off: missalee!!! I got it!!! :D :D I'll check it on the weekend and let you know if I need any help. Thank you! ♥

Er, so, they did not start painting last night after all; they started tonight. An hour *before* we got off work. Which means I'm now a little dizzy, nauseated, my skull is throbbing, and I'm sporting the abused junkie look despite full eye makeup. (Too bad that last doesn't also come with automatic weight loss. :P) I am also, however, an idiot. It seems that at no time did I actually mention to my new-ish manager that I'm allergic. *facepalm* I popped off an email to her with a formal complaint because they had assured me and some others a good two years ago when the small training room was being painted that painting would not happen during working hours again. Except, clearly, it did tonight. Which L knew was going to happen but didn't know I had problems with it. *rueful smile* Anyway, so she came over to my desk all concerned and said that she'll find me somewhere else to sit tomorrow if necessary. There are 3 new offices scattered throughout our area of the building so getting truly away from it is damn near impossible, but it will definitely, definitely help, maybe even enough so I can stay the whole day.

The hilariously stupid thing about all this is, I thought I *had* told her, and I guess that I didn't ultimately because I find her kind of intimidating. Or unapproachable might be a better description. She's very nice, and she seems to loosen up and laugh more in team meetings, but she's generally fairly earnest and focused, a little bit formal, and mostly hands-off i.e., expecting us to decide amongst ourselves what needs to be done like adults (which we mostly do), and away from her desk a lot too, and I don't really feel comfortable approaching her. And the more I tried to pinpoint exactly why I don't feel wholly comfortable with her, the more I realised that hey, that's MY management style. It suddenly makes SENSE to me in a way it never did before why I can be perceived as intimidating. This kind of amuses the hell out of me. Her immediate concern tonight really only cemented the impression because it's totally what I would do. Which makes me feel strangely better about the whole situation, and makes her less intimidating as well, which is a good thing.

To change the subject completely, wtf is a Superking bed??? Does the UK not do queen size beds? 'Cause the duvets seem to go single - double - king - superking. And I am now confused as to what the hell those sizes are and how they correspond to North American sizing. I understand the paper thing (and think the rest of the world has the better idea with the A4 to tell the truth) but I don't know this one, lol. *wonders if she should even bother trying to bring her rainbow cover*

Argh I'm having some ant issues. My guess is that they've scurried inside because the back lawn was cut the day before yesterday and their hills were disturbed. *scowls* Time to make the rounds with the boiling water again, I guess. It's so weird that I saw a few last night and a few tonight, but nothing in the morning. Maybe they can smell the sugar in my glass of Pepsi! *sprinkles red pepper flakes along the patio sliding door*

Today, to put it bluntly, sucked. I'm not feeling good, I'm tired because I kept doing that 'wake up every two hours' thing, and my allergies are going retardedly haywire. Granted, I'm not faultless for that last bit, but I seem to have entered a phase where eating stuff is hitting harder than usual. Maybe hayfever season proper is setting in early this year. As fascinating as it is how all bodily systems are intertwined and co-dependent, I do not require a daily reminder, thanks so much.

Because of all that, I was hoping to have a relatively smooth day at work, which was not to be. Although for a change, it wasn't customers making me want to bang my head against the wall, it was co-workers. My mood upon leaving for home today could best be described by one of Jeff's priceless quotes: "I don't want to kill anyone. I just want to watch them bleed profusely." Bah, and I feel like such crap physically that I couldn't even milk that angry frustration for anything productive.

Things did, however, look up when I got home to find pretty, shiny mail. *snugs looking_spiffy* Thanks again, dear.

Tomorrow after work I'm off to pick up the BF and probably get food before we head over to Chapters to mingle with the other crazies and stand in line for our books. And then I'll drop her home and come back and read, goddammit. :D

It's Tall Ships weekend here: the harbour is full of massive, old-fashioned sailing vessels, including the Bluenose II that's normally based in Lunenburg, NS - that's the one on the face of the Canadian dime:


It's also the jazz festival, and Pride Week begins tomorrow. (And here's me, voluntarily staying home alone. *laughs*) Although, ugh, the parade is Saturday. The 21st. You know, that day when I won't be conscious because I'll have stayed up till about eight o'clock in the morning, reading Deathly Hallows. How shitty is that timing??? The parade is usually on Sunday, man. Why couldn't it be this year? *ponders* Maybe it's the Toronto parade that's on Sunday, now that I think about it. In any case, I'll have to think about if I want to try to make it or not. :-/

BUT, back to the ships! I has two postcards here, one of the UK ship Prince William (guess who that was named after) and one of the German ship Gorch Fock II. First people who comment asking for one by name shall get a note in the mail. :D

First off, *squishes thelackey breathless* I GOT IT!!! Right before I left for work, and I'd already powered down the puter or I would've dashed off a squee. EEEEEEE! Thank you, my dear. *MWAH*

Secondly, piper47 and linzeestyle have decided that I am the crack dealer that totally stands on the corner of fandom going, "Hey kid, you want something shiny?" Thus is explained the 2-year path whereby I went from proofreading Linzee's psychology papers to beta-reading her brand new, first ever band fic: Pin It Up with My Picture. 'Tis Pete/Patrick. Which, normally, I don't even *read*. I'm not actually in FOB fandom, for a myriad of reasons beginning with not being all that fond of their music. But good fic I like and this qualifies. :-)

Aaaaand I FINALLY got my freaking tax refund, too. Woohoo! Now I can actually *afford* the ticket for the concert on Canada Day, lol. And a bra, because I'm in dire need of a new one. :-/