more earthquakes

OK. I'm done with this whole earthquake thing now. It can stop any time it wants to.

We had ANOTHER one just now, literally, ten minutes ago, centered near Riverside of magnitude 5.3. The whole building shook and I got that rolling sensation people talking about (like the ground is moving in waves). This one lasted a LOT longer than the other one -- maybe 15 or 20 seconds -- though the bad shaking didn't last for very long.

Also, when I was looking at the web site (which is going in ALL my bookmarks now), it said there was a little one (2.0) right near our house.

Wonderful.

Really, I'm done with this now. Make it stop!

random acts of poetry

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'



II
Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?'
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.



III
'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Please to be sending positive thoughts to my Brandon at 2pm Pacific time as he does his thesis defense thingy.

Thank you.

What tsunami? Oh *that* tsu--

My Mum called to ask me if we survived the tsunami warning last night.

Tsunami what now?

I love how, even though we were watching TV for a while last night, even though I was listening to NPR this morning, there was absolutely NO mention of it in the local media...

...but aparently they all knew about it in Texas.

Nice.

Updates

• The Wedding Blog has been updated with a link to pictures of the apartment we are going to rent in Paris. Check it out!
  
• The LiveJournal (Lux Aeterna) has been updated with several things of note, including a list of six short Harry Potter stories I have written in response to prompts given to me by friends. The master list of fics by me has also been updated.
  
• In addition, Harry Potter and the Sect of the Serpent has finally been updated with Chapter 36.

Thank you. As you were.

earthquake!!!!!!

I have just been through my first earthquake.

Well, the first one we've felt anyway.

According to this very cool page it was a magnitude 5.6 located out in the desert somewhere near Lake Elsinore. We felt it and I said it was an earthquake and Brandon said it was our upstairs neighbor falling down, and I googled "live earthquake" and found that site.

Woah.

Hail the conquering hero

Brandon is on his last week of school. I knew he was getting excited when he went out and bought two bottles of champagne for his Friday lab meeting -- normally he takes a bag of store-bought cookies. =)

Commencement (which no amount of wife-to-be nagging would convince him he should attend) is Saturday, and yesterday he went to an awards ceremony where he received an award for his outstanding work as a Teacher's Assistant!

*polite applause*

And, it came with a $600 check attached to it.

*wild racous cheering*

This is mildly ironic, as I'm sure that Brandon's LEAST favorite aspect of attending graduate school was his stint as a TA. However, this is a fairly high honor; according to rumor, it hasn't been given to anyone in the Biotechnology department in something like ten years.

I am proud of my boy. =D Even if he did call his students "sprogs" more often than he actually addressed them by name...

California dreamin'

OK. I'll admit it: Southern California does have a few good things going for it.

We met up with the Niriders this weekend and got to spend some quality time communing with some of the best that So Cal has to offer. That doesn't fall into the category of a theme park. =)

Saturday the Niriders needed a break after spending two and a half days at the happiest place on Earth, so we headed to Crystal Cove State Park. The morning started out cloudy and cool, but it was low tide and perfect tide pool exploring weather. I swear to you, I have never seen so many crabs in my life. =) A very nice lifeguard with nothing to do talked with us for a while and took a group photo, and some squirrels made us feel very welcome by coming right up and taking fruit and nuts directly from the kids' hands.

After Crystal Cove we went to the Shake Shake that Rebecca took me to -- litterally, a shack on the cliff overlooking the ocean which sells sandwhiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, and lots and lots of milkshakes.

With bellies full of turkey sandwhiches and oreo milkshakes, we decided to drive around a bit, take in some more of the scenery, and find another beach. We ended up at the Strand in Dana Point -- the beach which runs directly below the Ritz Carlton where we had our company party a few weeks ago. By this time the sun had made a good showing and the kids got brave enough to do a little body surfing, though not for too long as hypothermia began to set in. =)

A leisurely drive up Highway 1 brought us back to the apartment where we cleaned up and then headed over to Claim Jumper for dinner, a dozen or so rounds of hangman, and a Brownie Finale -- which fed all six of us quite easily.

Sunday the fam came to church with us, and the choir sang a rousing version of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" which always makes me feel like we should have top hats and canes -- or, alternately, matching bow ties. But we must have done a good job of it because it earned us a spontanious "AMEN!" from someone in the congregation and a round of applause. It is an awfully fun song...

After church Brandon took his leave to get some work done on his final project, and the Niriders let me tag along with them to see the Queen Mary, which I had never done. The ship is ENORMOUS and terribly impressive, though not terribly easy to navigate. We had lunch in the Promenade Cafe overlooking the harbor and then wandered around exploring the ship. We never did find the World War Two exhibit Lee wanted to see, but we did do the Ghosts and Legends tour and went through the Russian submarine (it was only decomissioned in the mid nineties, and there were signs all around saying -- "This sub is still in working order: please do not operate controls!"). Elliot was kind enough to hold my hand and hide a lot through the Ghosts and Legends tour to make me feel braver. =)

Overall, a very fun weekend! Today, the Nirider clan was planning to head to San Diego and the world famous zoo before heading up to Santa Monica where they will stay for the rest of their trip.

And, as if I hadn't had enough fun for a few days, my friend Charlsa and her husband Kevin are in town. They're going to be on The Price is Right today! (They had an extra ticket, but since I was out sick last week, I couldn't quite justify playing hookey -- plus I would SUCK if I was told to "Come on down!") Anyway, we have plans to meet them for dinner tonight, and maybe -- just maybe! -- they'll drive up in....

A NEW CAR!!!!!!

*Price Is Right music and wild cheering*

Hee HEE!

My friend Kris has made a bunch of iCons -- icons for LiveJournal that look like the iPod ads. They so totally ROCK! Look what she made for me:





SQUEE!! They're just so COOL, don't you think? Click here to see the rest of them.

Love it.

Updates

Oh no.

They've changed the code to the doors of the office again. I sit near the door to the back stairs, and every time they change the code, I have to listen to this:

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

Because everybody forgets and tries the old code first, and it doesn't work, and then they remember the new code. It's going to be a long day.

Yesterday, they sent out an email saying that the network administrator guy is no longer with the company. That was a bit of a shocker. My coworker went and asked the Boss Man what he knew, and he said that all he knew was that the Network Guy didn't quit.

*duh duh DAAAAAA*

He also said something to the effect of New York doesn't know what to do with us (me and my coworker). Big surprise there. I am waiting for the other shoe to drop and fantasizing about taking a month off to write my book and finish planning my wedding... (Does that tell you how concerned I am?)

* * *

In happier news, I have updated the wedding blog with exciting new stuff. And remember folks: you can leave comments. You don't even have to register with Blogger. You just click on that link that says "comments" and then the one that says "leave a comment" and go for it. It would make this poor blogger's day. ;c)

Haven't heard anything from the Niriders yet, but that is to be expected, as they are supposed to be in the Happiest Place On EarthTM until Friday. Got a nice email from Les before they left and found out that they will be staying down here very near to us, so hopefully we will be able to meet up this weekend. That is, if they don't get stuck in the Small World Ride.

"It's a world of laughter a world of tears, it's a world of hope and a world of fears. There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware, it's a SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL!"

Haha! Got you! Now you'll be humming that for the rest of the day! (Then again, so will I...)

* * *

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep.

*facedesk*