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Wednesday, December 17th, 2003
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4:41 pm - Succumbing to the Jackson/Tolkein lure
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Everyone of you who's seen Return of the King already? You all suck. Temptresses, every one of you.
So I wandered down in the lovely sunlight to the UVillage and bought myself Heyer's The Grand Sophy as a temptation/reward for taking the GRE's tomorrow. Besides, I'll need to read something on the bus.
I'd been estimating a half-day for the test, but I was talking with a colleague who's taking the GRE for her nursing program, and hm... 3 30 minute parts, and a 45 minute part, and even allowing for a break, the math works out. I should be out by 10:30, 10:45, tops. And that's if I take the entire time alloted, which never happens with me and standardized tests.
And then, because I'm helpless before the lure of spoilers, I caved and started wondering when *I'm* going to get to see RotK. I started poking through the Seattle movie listings, and something caught my eye.
It seems that the GRE test center is in a shopping center. With a movieplex. That's playing Return of the King. With a showing at 10:50.
That's early enough for me to scrape in late and still get a half-day's work in.
Goddess, I am in soooo much trouble.
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10:18 am
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Oh, niiiice. The guy fixing the lights in the hallway looks very much like Peter Wingfield, only without the nose.
Not that he doesn't have a nose, it's just not Peter's.
And I almost walked into the wrong office because I was so distracted looking at him. Hee.
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| Tuesday, December 16th, 2003
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4:54 pm - Yay!
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My boss just said he'd write me a reccomendation (and this while he was signing my emergency must-take-GREs-now! leave slip).
I'm all incited!
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11:13 am - Eep!
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I realized yesterday that if I wanted fresh GRE scores (not 7 year old ones, however good they may be), I needed to have them scored and back by January 15th. Which means testing ASAP.
I called today, and my choices were either the 30th, or this Thursday. First thing in the morning. Eep!
It's not the first time I've gone into a standardized test cold, but this is the least notice I've ever had. And I've never taken a computer-based test.
I need to hit Dru up for the use of his car on Thursday. And maybe breeze through the test software so I'm at least acquainted with procedure.
No reading (hence, no Post Captain) until Thursday, and then maybe I'll reward myself with a new Heyer.
current mood: moderately panicked
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| Monday, December 15th, 2003
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8:42 pm
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Just finished off Arabella, which I'd almost devoured to and from the cookie exchange. I must make snickerdoodles sometime - they are entirely delicious, and worth the actual baking, instead of just snacking on the dough.
I feel quite better than the last couple of weeks - not so fagged out and run down. I have no idea why, as I was up at 5:30, balancing my checkbook, paying bills and generally anguishing over the GREs and my iSchool application, which is due in a month. I can only conclude that I must have been sick, without all the snotty ickiness that's been going around.
Still. Solstice bad. Sun good.
So, hmm. Handful of frozen shrimp, handful of frozen broccoli, heated with a dollop of mustard, a dollop of crushed garlic and some chili powder and a dash of cayenne, makes a pretty good meal served over pasta. Top it off with a white sauce made in the shrimp pan, and it's delish! Go me!
I think I absorbed too much Frugal Gourmet as an impressional pre-cook, for I'm very fond of dollops and dashes.
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| Sunday, December 14th, 2003
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8:44 pm
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All done with CSI Season 2. Now to surreptitiously watch the third season eps Lori lent me at work.
Or not. Boss-man just kind of smiled at me watching the trailer to Calendar Girls a week back, since it's a good movie and he's planning on going, but I think full-length eps might be a bad thing.
Dru agrees with me that Clementines are orange crack and Satsumas are evil. How his climbing peeps got so deluded, I'll never know.
The cookie swap was a blast - we sat around and ate real food instead of noshing on all the sweets - that comes later. Or, now. I'd made an extra cheesecake, and I think that last batch I whipped up was a little sour. Too much sour cream, not enough sugar. Ah well, at least I like sour things, and ![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20031218232226im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) snorklet's enjoying hers. I'll have to figure out how to reduce the recipe for a single 4.5" (or a pair) of springforms.
Dru just called - he's got various offers of house-sitting 'til March and a 6-month sublet on the end of that, which means he may be moving out in the next week or two. He asked me how much 'out' he'd have to be to not pay me the modicum of rent he is, and I told him I definitely wanted my closet back. 'Back', as in the first time I'll ever be able to use it. Whee!
Although, bad, as in I won't be able to use his car on the odd errand, and will have to go back to Flexcar. I've decided that when he gets around to replacing Turnbull (about which he's already making noises), I want him. There's a freedom to having a car parking in the driveway that I've missed the last few years, and maybe I'll eventually take that road trip around then Peninsula that I've been thinking about.
Hee - just checked in on ROG-L (which I'm nomailed) to see the latest shit pot Jeylan's been stirring. I didn't see quite the degree of slavish Methos-is-the-one-true-immortal devotion when she slalomed through CritEdge, but Amand-r is so right in her responses.
( And, because I live to do them, a quiz )
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| Saturday, December 13th, 2003
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9:19 pm - The cheesecake status
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8 down, 2 in process, 2 to go.
Oi. I think, though, that I'm finally getting the hang of it. One good thing about having to do mass batches of something I've never made before? You get to find and fix your mastakes pretty damn quick. For instance, the cream cheese? Absolutely mustmustmust be room temperature. Or even a tetch warmer, if you've got a cold room. Otherwise, your cheesecake will be lumpy, and while it's still edible (I checked) it's not nearly so nice or pretty.
Am still so very bad at getting out cards and presents. Good thing am not dyed-in-the-wool pagan, or would be smacked down by goddess for not getting things out by Solstice. Goddess might relent, as she'd know I tend to hibernate in winter. Should give gifts instead for Summer Solstice, or better, birthday. Has added bonus of making sure people remember my birthday.
I've been watching alot of CSI tonight. No knitting, but it's enough that I'm popping up twice an episode to check on something in the kitchen.
I tried moving onto the last step of toilet training the kittens, but Hobbes freaked. I think the seat's too wide for him to perch properly, and I'm going to really have to look for a toddler-sized seat to put on top of the toilet. Dammit. Still, mantra: no more litter box...
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1:04 pm - Say Cheese!
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Today is the day of cheesecakes. I bought a pair of 4.5" springforms last night, and today I will be baking 12 mini cheesecakes for Meg's cookie swap tomorrow. Mmmm. Cheesecake.
I don't think I have enough cream cheese. That will have to be rectified once I've got the first couple of batches going and I can better estimate the amount I need.
Turns out that if I reserve a Flexcar for a half-hour and then fill it up with gas, it only costs me $.95. Am so frugal sometimes, it hurts.
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| Friday, December 12th, 2003
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1:34 pm - Orange food
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I have Clementines, which are crack, but not terribly filling, and leftover carrot sticks from the break room. Hrrm.
Ordinarily, I'd trek upcampus and get myself a cheap sandwich, but I don't have time. grump. Stupid work.
current mood:  hungry
current music: U2-Beautiful Day
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11:54 am
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Bugger all. Once, just bloody once, I'd like to see Ron ask Harry about Draco, and for the sake of a decade-long or seven year or whatever, friendship, sit down and reconsider his preconceptions of Draco, and adopt at least the air of civility with the ferret-y tosser.
Or for Harry to tell Draco, that he's sorry, he loves him, but if he can't treat his best friend(s) with a modicum of respect, it's over.
This One-True-Love overriding common sense and true, intense friendships is simply shite.
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10:09 am - Non-partisan political discussion
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For those of you poor saps who had to sit through a year of American Government in high school, and the shifting two-color election maps, I offer you the following: Beyond Red and Blue, which takes the political map and characterizes it by region instead of by state, which are quite different critters.
It's a fascinating deconstruction of the last few elections, and it's even got some strategic hints for both sides (If only the Democrats would listen!)
current music: U2-Beautiful Day
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9:29 am - Trapped in that state of sand and mist
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I am so Dream's Bitch. I don't think I would be, but between the good dreams and the lucid dreaming, and that lovely, lovely warm snuggle in the blankets...
I went to bed thinking up twists on Regency Hermione/Severus fics - this one would put Hermione as a newly promoted Lieutenant on Captain Bill Weasley's ship, with Snape as the ship's surgeon, and he finds out her secret when she is wounded in battle.
The dreams started there and evolved, mostly with a naval air, until about six, when I was at a Harry Potter promotional thing, getting Hufflepuff swag and the cats started pooping. It's like my alarm goes off, and they get up, one at a time, about 5 minutes apart, to poop, and stink up the bathroom and scrape at the toilet seat (which is what prompts me to get up, scoop and flush for them and totally disrupt my sleep patterns) So I'd been up and down and had just fallen back into Dream's embrace for the third time after killing my first alarm, when I started wavering over that line between hallucination and dream.
The light was still in that weak twilight state, where shadows assume form, and I could see the shadows in the hall, save that I'm not sure if my eyes were open or not. I could distinctly hear my brother's girlfriend ask me, "Misha? Do you have a bathroom? Can I use your shower?"
In the back of my head, logic and reason were waking up, telling me that Dru and M had left last night, with no intention of coming by this morning, and I would have heard the lock on the door turning, and Laurier was still trying to perch on my head. which he doesn't with company around. But I was trapped, immobile, muscles still slack from the dream state, and I could only twitch. I'm sure I snored a couple of times in there.
Then Hobbes started scraping at the toilet seat after *his* turn at the toilet, and I could finally propel myself into the bathroom.
I swear, this weekend, I'm taking away the colander, and I'll *make* them learn how to perch correctly on the seat.
current mood: still sleepy
current music: U2-Peace On Earth
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| Thursday, December 11th, 2003
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1:17 pm - The Daily Update
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Ten hours of sleep and I'm still yawning fit to crack my skull open this morning.
Urk. I give up. This mint tea kick I've been on is for the birds. Caffeine!
Finished Master & Commander today, and the next book is on its way to the library for pickup. I was rather pleased with it - it filled in a lot of the holes that Far Side of the World left, and while previously, I thought many of the action sequences in the movie were made up of whole cloth, it seems most of them were simply lifted from the first book. Plus, I got to see how Jack and Stephen met and fell in lovebecame friends. It's all very naval - I wonder if my uncle has read the books yet.
When I was at the UBookstore last week for Terry Brook's signing, I also picked up Anne McCaffrey's latest offering, Dragon Kin, which she co-wrote with her son, Todd. It was an interesting look at watch-whers, which we only meet the once in Dragonflight, but the story itself was highly disappointing. What grated the most was ( ...and now we cut for Spoilers... )
I realised that I have some cooking to do! Meg's cookie swap is on Sunday, and I have a dozen batches of something vaguely cheescake-y to whip up. I'll have Saturday, of course, but if I can at least plan and lay in my ingredients tonight, I should be set. I may need thirteen batches, come to think - enough to let me and Dru snack whilst cooking.
I do need to set aside some time to plan what my gamers are going to be doing the weekend after, as we've lost a player. And update my character for Gordon's game. She's turned into a Leader, of all things.
Now, ( cut for the huggy-bits! )
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| Tuesday, December 9th, 2003
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5:54 pm - Threes Meme
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4:17 pm - Tonks
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I had an epiphany about Tonks while drifting off last night, and in the cold light of day it still makes sense.
One of her defining traits is her clumsiness - she's forever knocking things over, tripping and the lot. She's not exactly at home in her body. And why would she be? She doesn't tend to spend much time in the same form - she changes her nose a dozen times at the dinner table. At this point, it's probably second nature for her to change herself as the situation demands, and I for one, would love to flatten my chest when I'm running, and not need to resort to sports bras.
But at the same time, if her body is continually changing, her balance and center are stuck in the same mode as an adolescent's, she's never going to be able to overcome that clumsiness. Pity there isn't some sort of Wizarding Martial Art that might take her Metamorphmagus talent into account - Auror training certainly didn't seem to help her coordination any.
Just a thought.
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12:31 pm - Mental Health Day
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After snoozing until 7:30 or so, I gave up, called in, and slept until 11. Ahhhhh.
I was likewise tempted yesterday, but I had errands to run up-campus, and I'd asked Jacyn to bring in Master and Commander for me (which she did, and made the 72 people behind me on the Library wait-list very happy, I'm sure.)
The weekend was eventful. I missed my first P-Patch workparty Saturday to take a three mile walk with Dru over at Discovery Park (no loss there, as there will be more, and I'm still in the tickled pink phase of thinking my brother's the neatest thing since sliced cheese.) I then had tea with srallen - it's been a year or more since we last chatted, some two episodes of soap operatic mess back.
And then we gamed. Greg threw some twist at us, that's for sure, and finished off his campaign. He'll be handing it over to Gordon, (after sending Gordon's character off to wander the Realms like Cain.) I'm mostly caught up with my character's journal, and I'm thinking that I'm just going to post the rest of it, and screw that first entry that neither Lori nor I got altogether. The manticores ate it. Swear to Corellon.
I think I may have to get on the stick today and finally get my act together, Christmas-wise. I've got these jams just staring at me. It's unnerving, given the decided lack of eyes.
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| Friday, December 5th, 2003
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11:29 pm - Rhinestones and worms.
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I'd been wavering about it since the sudden attack of the sore throat yesterday (gone in 12 hours), but I finally got around to tarting myself up for our yearly Christmas party.
I pulled the dress Lucy Hale'd given me out of the closet, dusted off the rhinestone jewelry I'd gotten for my senior prom and then got a little wigged out - the dress is a lovely, shimmery blue with rhinstone straps, and though the cut and fabric are different, it's almost the same shade as the dress I wore back in the when - at prom. This dress is much prettier than the old one, and Lucy? It got a ton of compliments - thanks!
I may even have proof that I tart up good - we'll see how coworker T's new camera worked out when I go in Monday morning.
It was a little funny taking the bus. My original thought (prompted by a coworker) was to bring a bag and change down there, but I missed my first bus, and in the hour wait for the next, I decided, what the hell, and changed and farted around and then waited outside for about twenty minutes for the next bus. I got out there early and just watched the trees against the sky and the cars zoom by.
Then I wined and dined and chatted with a ton of people and their significant others. I've been craving shrimp for days now, and they always have these lovely large ones with cocktail sauce. I missed my bus home, but coworker T was lovely and gave me a ride home.
Back home, my worms finally came - I dumped them in their box 'round six, and they're still distributing themselves amongst the bedding. It's kind of cool - I got a brick of pressed coconut fiber for the bedding - it's just fun to watch it expand, this giant sponge, and then it's just fluffy goodness to play with. Only now it's got worms and a little bit of saved, blenderizer vegetable ick for them to eat. I know I'll be poking at them alot in the coming days. Worms!
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10:47 am - Once upon a December dreary...
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The guy I've been eyeing on the bus lately turns out to work on my floor, down in the RR wing. I saw him in the corridor, carrying coffee just now.
It's nearing the solstice, and I think I want to hibernate for a month. I've managed to haul my carcass out of bed early enough to bike only once this week. Between the dark and the rain and the lethargy, it's not easy to poke and prod myself out of bed.
I splurged on books at the Brooks signing Wednesday. Lackey's anthology Sun in Glory, McCaffrey's new watch-wher book, and a couple of Pratchetts. I read Witches Abroad again yesterday, and reconfirmed its status as one of my favorites. The witch books seem to be - dealing with myth and story the way they do. I like the Watch books better than I did at first read, but I still haven't entirely warmed to the Death books.
Of course, with Witches Abroad fresh in my mind and a dash of the story I betaed for Rhi, the morning shower thought started out:
( Once Upon A Time, a Story walked into a bar... )
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| Thursday, December 4th, 2003
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9:56 am - Fun with Language
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What lingo do you use?
1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks?
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store?
3. A metal container to carry a meal in?
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in?
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people?
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof?
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening?
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages?
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup?
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself?
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach?
12. Shoes worn for sports?
13. Putting a room in order?
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark?
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball?
16. The children's playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down?
17. How do you eat your pizza?
18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
19. What's the evening meal?
20. An area of trees, greater than an acre?
And more from various sources:
21. When they ask for paper or plastic they are talking about?
22. Girls' lower-half underwear?
23. Boys' lower-half underwear?
24. The cloth you had when you were little and always slept with, and perhaps sucked your tongue with?
25. Warm knitted top typically made of wool?
( My answers (with a large grain of salt) )
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| Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003
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5:01 pm - The aftermath of the turkey
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Today is now the sixth day post-turkey. I've had Turkey noodle soup (my own blend) for four days running. I've one more portion, plus a mite of stuffing, a good bit of gravy, and more turkey.
Oi. I think I'm overdosed - my afternoons have been terminally sleepy all week.
Monday I was so tired, I took one look at the fridge and ordered pizza instead.
I hope I have enough energy for the Terry Brooks signing tonight. Don't want to drop off in the middle.
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