Because I can't let Corey down...

Hehehe.

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? "Goblet of Fire." Just finished Half-Blood Prince and since the 4th film is due out in November I figured I'd re-read GoF really quick.

3. WHAT WERE YOU DOING JUST MINUTES AGO? Petting my cat.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Mad Magazine

5. FAVORITE SMELLS? Lillies, baking bread, the smell outside just after it rains.

6. FAVORITE FOODS? Pastas, my chili, a nice steak.. Chicken Marsala. I don't know I like a lot of different foods.

7. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Shannon's giggle, rollin thunder.

8. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Knowing you've disappointed someone you love.

9. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP? Lately it's been thoughts of chucking the cat off the balcony because she keeps waking me up.

10. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? McD's

11.FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Not planning any.

12. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY... I'd pay my debts, ensure the kid can go to college of her choice, take care of friends and family, buy a nice new car and a lovely home, with a second home somewhere cool, and then travel a lot.

13. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? Occasionally.

14. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? No, not a stuffed animal fan. But I do sleep with my Moosh pillow :)

15. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY? Ultra-bloody cool. I live for them.

16. Describe YOUR FIRST CAR? The first car I ever owned all to myself was an old Ford Escort.

17. FAVORITE DRINK? Iced Tea or Dr.Pepper. If you mean cocktail then it would be an Amaretto and Coke (made with Disarrono)

18. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD: Write my book.

19. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? Of course! That's the best part :)

20. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? Chocolatey brown.

21. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN: Grand Island, NE; Palm Springs, CA; Fresno CA; Atlantic, IA; Council Bluffs, IA; Marina, CA; Seaside, CA; Monterey, CA; Gunnison, CO; Sedalia, CO; London, UK; Little Hampden, UK

22. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH? Meh. Not a sports fan.

23. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU... Corey is one of my dearest friends and I love him to bits.

24. WHAT IS UNDER YOUR BED? Storage boxes full of old videos and ummm... other stuff.

25. TOILET PAPER/PAPER TOWEL-OVER OR UNDER? Definitely over.

26 MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? A night person forced to be a morning person.

27. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE - Over easy.

28. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX! In my bed.

29. FAVORITE PIE? I'm a cake person myself, but if it has to be pie, you can't go wrong with a plain old apple pie.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WILL SEE THIS WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO DUPLICATE: Adam can never resist a Meme :)

31. LEAST LIKELY? Gary.

Half-Blood Prince

What a nice weekend we've had. Friday night we had dinner with the Gs, and then we were off to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was most excellent (hehe, puppet burn center...) and then it was time to head for the midnight Harry Potter release party. Which was fairly lame unfortunately. You can always tell when the business doesn't have their heads into it when the games are lame and the event they've been publicisizing for weeks is unorganized and uninteresting.

Poor Shan tho had some of her fun ruined when she overheard the manager running the whole thing comment to a coworker hat he hated Harry Potter. Sort of deflated the anticipation a bit for her which pissed me off. Next time we'll just show up a half an hour before the release and wait in line for our books. Screw the party.

Oooo it's raining, yay!

Anyway we got our mitts on our copies and headed straight home. Shan's intention was to stay up all night and read but I convnced her she needed her sleep. So we read for a bit and then carried on with it the next day. It was just so lovely to hang out in my room all day reading together. We should really do it more often.

We both finished the book in the evening some time and I, for one, definitely needed kleenex because I was a sobbing mess by the end of the book. No spoilers here though because I don't want to wreck it for anyone who's not as greedy as we are and hasn't read it yet. But I will only say that it was wonderfully awful.

We had a lovely-but-far-too-short lunch with Jo as well. Next time we should do lunch somewhere where they don't mind if you hang around to chat after eating :) Coney Island seemed to need the seating. But it was good to see her and talk for a bit.

Today was spent just hanging out again watching some telly and messing about online. I found this interestingly cool website the other day and we've had a lot of fun with it. You manipulate different bits of ummm, pipes? that make different musical sounds when these pieces of candy flow through them. Sounds weird I know but it defies description. Check it out for yourself.

And with that I'm off to re-read my book and enjoy the rain.

Fun on teh Internets

I just read the best movie review ever thanks to Retrocrush:

LAND OF THE DEAD
FILM REVIEW BY GENE SISKEL

Hugnl...hrllll ughnnn? Ughnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ahhhh ughhh uuuuuuuuhhhh mnrglthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Uhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhh grghlthhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh! Uhhhhhh! NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH! Grraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagth! nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ahhhh ughhh uuuuuuuuhhhh mnrglthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhthhh! Uhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh uuuuuuuuhhhh mnrglthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhthhh! Uhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhh grghlthhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh! Uhhhhhh! NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH! hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhh grghlthhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh! Uhhhhhh! NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH! Grraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagth!nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ahhhh ughhh aaaagth!nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ahhhh ughhh uuuuuuuuhhhh mnrglthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhthhh! Uhhhhhh uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhh grghlthhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhh! Uhhhhhh! NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH! Grraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagth!

BRAINS!

LO-fecking-L!!

That is all.

Tread softly...

"Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

I love this poem. Normally I'm not one for poetry despite all of my mother's attempts to instill the love of poetry in me but this one... I don't know, it does something for me. It's Yeats of course, not that I would have known that without looking it up.

No, I heard it in a movie (where else? :) ) and for some reason it's stuck with me.

I would give you everything in the world, I love you that much. Even though I have no money, I would still give you all I have instead.

That's devotion :)

Ahhhhh.... I'm tired. Dog-tired. Bone-tired and fatigued. I should go to bed but it's still light out. It's just a wee bit pathetic to be going to bed when there's a sliver of daylight left. You'd think I was old or something.

I keep joking about being old. You know when you're making small talk with someone and somehow the subject of ages comes up. Usually you'll play off your age by either making jokes at your expense or making jokes at others' expense (but in a nice way.) I make jokes at my expense. Most of the time it's funny, but lately I've been feeling like, "Hey wait a minute, I'm NOT old damnit." I don't want to even joke about it because in a weird way, joking about it actually makes me feel old.

Or maybe it's because I feel an overwhelming desire to crawl into bed when it's still daylight that makes me feel old.

Sod it. Been a crazy week. Bed wins.

Sleepy

Ugly Day

London blasts: death toll rises to 37

What a horrible day. The first thing I heard when I woke up was the news about the attacks in London. My first thought was for my friends and acquaintances there. Everyone's accounted for though so that was a ray of light.

Even managed to get a hold of my lovely ex-boyfriend there (yes I said lovely, it was an amicable breakup :) ) and found he was fine.

Still and all, and I don't mean to place this in comparison with 9/11 but today had the same sort of feel. Almost. I mean, all I wanted to do was watch continual coverage of the aftermath and find my friends but I had to work. And as I went about my day I constantly ran into people who didn't even mention it. I don't mean at the paper because of course there was discussion about it there, but as I was out and about in town. It was like any other day with almost everyone I came into contact with.

I wanted to scream at them that this terrible thing happened.

I did overhear a couple people talking about the attacks as if they were neighbours standing at their fence sharing the latest gossip. One woman said, "I bet it was the Irish."

I sat there dumbfounded that she would say such an ignorant, ridiculous thing. She was another one I wanted to scream at and shake her senseless.

Today was so surreal.

Anyway, my thoughts are with Londoners as they recover from this ugly day.

Hypnotize me

Freefalling Bikini Woman

This site's been hypnotizing me for a few days now. Somehow I don't get bored with it. Use your mouse to fling her around. Nifty eh?

That's all :)

Happy Independence Day

For me it's not so much a nifty fireworks display as it is a mosquito endurance test. Despite my best efforts of a hoodie, long pants and fuzzy slippers I still managed to get eaten alive by the pesky things. And that's just standing on my own balcony.

Every year the kidlet (I'm going to have to think of another name for her now that she's 14) and I watch the city fireworks display from our house because frankly, the last thing I want to do this late at night is fight traffic and eejits who should never be allowed to handle flammable items.

This year the display was pretty nice. There were a couple chandelier-types that made us 'Ooohhh' involuntarily. We decided to leave off the radio station music that coordinates with the show because they play the same tired old songs every year and while I admit I get a little tingly patriotic feeling during a stirring rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, I do not want to subject my ears to whatever country patriotic song du jour is.

We don't usually let fireworks off ourselves. I think this might stem from my fear of things that explode along with things that might set me on fire. I remember one year when I was younger and my sister was a mere 2 or 3 years old I was handed 2 lit sparklers. I was so afraid of the sparks flying off of them that I immediately tossed them as far away from me as possible. Unfortunately I tossed them directly at my sister. It was totally unintentional - I mean really now, did my parents honestly believe I meant to set her alight? They must have because I got into a lot of trouble for that.

Another reason I don't particularly like going to public fireworks displays has to do with a very vivid memory I have of my mother taking me to on in Palm Springs. I must have been about 4 or 5 and we went to this display/rodeo with some friends of hers.

The rodeo was fun and when it grew dark we settled in the bleachers to watch the show. I reember there was some kind of message that was on a fence of some kind that was made of fireworks and when they lit up it spelled out something... "Happy 4th" or something.. I'm not sure, I couldn't read yet. Anyway, the next thing I knew the stadium was filled with this awful.. sickly-sweet putrid smoke that burned my eyes terribly. People were screaming, terrified and panicking as they tried to run in every direction trying to get away from the horrible smoke.

Somehow my mom got me out of there but we were separated from her friends. Being such a young age I of course had no idea what had happened. I just remember vividly how scared I was and how my eyes stung so badly. Even now as I write this I still smell that acrid stench. Later I learned that some pranksters had thrown canisters of tear gas into the stadium.

I don't know if they were ever caught, but it was enough to put me off going to public fireworks for a long time.

So yeah, Happy 4th of July everyone :) I'm off to look for some neosporin.