I'm lying in bed, writing, and next to me, Brandon is snoring his head off. Literally. I am worried about his head, he is being so loud.

I must be a heavy sleeper to sleep through this.

*loves her laptop*

the google meme

Since everyone has been saying they gacked this meme from me (*snerk!*) I thought I might actually DO it. =)


"Go to google images and type in your answers for each
of these, then post the first picture that comes up
for your search."

1. Your first car.

Nissan Sentra

2. The place you grew up.

Richardson, Texas

3. The place you live now.

Oh my God, so true!

4. What shows up when you type in your name?

So NOT what I look like...

5. What shows up when you type in your grandmother's
name?

I love my grandma a lot, but she is not, actually, the patron saint of France...

6. What shows up when you type in your favorite food?

The grossest looking cookie EVER.

7. What shows up when you type in your favorite drink?

This is not a frosty beverage.

8. What shows up when you type in your favorite song?

I do NOT like that octopus.

9. What shows up when you type in your favorite smell?

actually a very cool picture

10. Your favorite pair of shoes ever?

this could actually BE my shoe...

favorite line of the day

"...women must recognize that if we don't do much more than our job for whatever it pays, we're not doing much at all. We should do things outside of our paid work for real satisfaction -- do something to give back to the community. [Justice Ginsburg] said, 'We should think of ourselves as teachers to our colleagues.'"

From hesychasm's livejournal post on Justice Ginsburg.

Good Omens

It's become a sort of a thing over on Live Journal for some people to use their journals as a place to review the books they read this year. I thought it was a great idea, and a very good exercise, so, here we go!

The first book I read this year was Good Omens by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman. It is a book about the apocalypse, the ultimate battle between good and evil, the antichrist, the four horsemen, hell hounds, angels, and devils.

It is also a comedy.

It's very much a Hitchhiker's Guide meets Monty Python British take on the events of the end of the world in which the angel with the flaming sword, and the snake from the Garden of Eden become friends whilst on Earth doing their respective jobs, and decide, when the time comes, that they're actually quite fond of the planet and of humanity in general, and that things will be, on the whole, terribly uninteresting if the world were to end. So they decide to thwart it.

Fortunately, it doesn't need a whole lot of thwarting. Things start to go wrong when the antichrist is switched at birth and given to the wrong set of parents so that, when he should have been raised by a couple of satanists, he is, in fact, raised by a painfully normal couple in a nice little village.

The best parts of this book are the two main characters, Aziraphale the angel, and his friend Crowley the demon. Their discussions about the nature of good and evil, the ineffability of the divine plan, and the fact that really, their jobs aren't too difficult, because humans get up to more evil, and greater good, than either of them could ever come up with.

And just when you'd think they were more malignant than ever Hell could be, they could occasionally show more grace than Heaven ever dreamed of. Often the same individual was involved. It was this free-will thing, of course. It was a bugger.

Aziraphale had tried to explain it to him once. The whole point he'd said -- this was somewhere around 1020, when they'd first reached their little Arrangement -- the whole point was that when a human was good or bad it was because they wanted to be. Whereas people like Crowley and, of course, himself, were set in their ways right from the start. People couldn't become truly holy, he said, unless they also had the opportunity to be definitively wicked.

Crowley had though about this for some time and, around 1023, had said, Hang on, that only works, right, if you start everyone off equal, okay? You can't start someone off in a muddy shack in the middle of a war zone and expect them to do as well as someone born in a castle.

Ah, Aziraphale had said, that's the good bit. The lower you start, the more opportunities you have,.

Crowley had said, That's lunatic.

No, said Aziraphale, it's ineffable.

I really quite enjoyed the humor, and, in fact, most of the psychological theological discussion. Some of the characters wandered dangerously close to idiotic and ridiculous, while others were just plain boring. The four horsemen, for example, could have been ingenious, but ended up merely as plot points, which was rather disappointing.

The ending was... a tad anticlimactic. Which is saying a lot for a book about the end of the world. But in the end, I'm not sure there was much other way for them to end it. It was certainly no "Left Behind" in terms of vast religious doom, but it was entertaining, and a very fun read.

I would recommend it.

Edward Gorey Writes Fanfic, with captions for those who don't live inside Sam's head.

copperbadge: A is for Albus, who planted a tree. [Dumbledore wrapped up in the whomping willow's branches]
B is for Black, done by drapery.

C is for Cedric, killed by a rat weasel.
D is for Dobby, eaten by Kneazles.

E is for Evans who made a mistake. [Lily and James' wedding photo in which she is subtly chained to his leg.]
F is for First-Years who fall in the lake. [Dennis Creevy, drowned.]

G is for Granger done in by a charm. [Hermione strangled by the time-turner]
H is for Harry who came to no harm.

I is for Irony in the next line;
J is for Journalists, dead in their prime. [Rita the ex-beetle, squashed by a copy of the Prophet.]

K is for Krum who dropped off in a trice [empty broom, floating midair.]
L is for Luna, as dotty as dice. [small girl in straitjacket]

M is for Malfoy, eternally pure. [Draco, dead on a slab and holding a lily]
N is for Neville who never was cured. [Neville, faceplanted in a cauldron]

O is Ollivander whose wands always please. [This one was hard to rhyme.]
Alternate: O is for Oliver caught in the trees [Oliver's broomstick sticking out of a tree]
P is for Peter who choked on some cheese. [dead rat, feet up]

Q is for Quirrel, beginning to smell; [Quirrell in advanced decay]
R is for Remus who eats very well. [Werewolf, with human arm protruding from mouth.]

S is for Severus, put in his place. [Snape being stewed in a cauldron]
T is for Tonks who hasn't a face. [Tonks lying with head behind curtain.]

U is for Umbridge who didn't go cleanly. [I wish I'd done better on this one. I wanted to indicate her being eaten by vampire kitties or something equally charming.]
V is for Voldemort feeding Nagini. [Nagini with a large lump in the middle.]

W is Weasley who's begging for pence. [Ron robbing someone at wandpoint]
X is for Centaurs, who never make sense. [Hahah. Because Centaurs don't start with X.....shaddup.]

Y is Young Ginny, who had a malaise;
Z is Zabini gone up in a blaze.

By Sam

daily drabble

He'd known from that moment on that they would be together forever, and had worked diligently for the next four years to convince her of the same. He was still working at it, really, terrified in the secret places of his mind he let no one see that she might wake up one morning, see him for the fraud he really was, and be gone forever.

But the idea of marriage had never really crossed his mind. It was a terribly Grown Up and Responsible thing to do -- and really rather contrary to everything he believed. That sort of Responsibility was most definitely best left to other people.

Or so he had thought.

favorite lines of the day

If I pour your cup, that is friendship.
And if I add your milk, that's manners.
But if I stop there, claiming ignorance of taste,
That is tea.
But if I measure the sugar
to satisfy your expectant tongue
then that is love,
sitting untouched, and growing cold.
-- Cowboy Junkies, 'Cold Tea Blues'

Quoted in Sam's Sweet Tea and Cocoa.

Mission Viejo Bank Is Robbed

So, apparently, on Sunday the Wells Fargo bank downstairs from my officewas robbed.

Huh. That's a little more excitement than I want in my work day.

memories... in the corners of my mind...

I gacked this idea from Allison's Blog.

"I have decided to show you - the nameless, faceless, internet masses - a small slide show of my life. With words, not pictures... This is how this is going to work, I am going to start with an early memory and move forward in time to the present. Fun, huh?!"

Well, my internet masses are much less nameless and faceless, but I thought it would be interesting to do anyway. =)



I remember sitting on the porch at my Great Grandmother's house in Michigan drinking hot tea and eating molasses cookies with my Mom while it rained and feeling terribly grown up. I also remember stairs set into a hill in her back yard, a basement with a folding table, a little vase, and some wildflowers that occupied me for hours and the swing set in the back yard next door.

I remember that it was raining on my first day of kindergarten.

I remember being in the gifted and talented program in elementary school, and one year our class planned a trip to Mars. We had to work out what kind of supplies we needed, how much food and water and oxygen, how to split up the work, those kinds of things. And, I remember I had just read "Ender's Game," and so I was CONVINCED for a while that it was all actually real and they were really going to send us, a group of 4th-6th graders to Mars.

I remember stealing Allison's shoe in choir in junior high and, instead of giving it back to her at the end of the period, sticking it in my backpack and going off to my next class, which happened to be Geometry. I remember we had a quiz that day, and half way through it, the door opened, and in came Allison, clomping lopsidedly in one shoe and one sock. She walked right up to my desk and stuck out her hand. Without a word, I handed her her shoe, and she turned around and left. The Geometry teacher looked at me for a count of about twenty and then said, "I don't want to know."

I remember in ninth grade English class we studied Romeo and Juliet, and the teacher broke us up into groups to "interpret" certain scenes from the play. My group got the death scene, and we "interpreted" it like we were all Valley Girls/Boys. I was the priest, and I remember one of my lines was something like, "Dude, I've been trippin' over tombstones this night."

I remember, that same year, Allison and I came up with a list of more than a hundred unusual names for my friend Jessie to name her ferret. I still have that list on my bulletin board in my room at my parents' house.

I remember, in high school, I broke into a teacher's office one day because I needed a key to another room. I did it by climbing out the second story window onto a ledge, walking along the ledge, and climbing in his office window.

I remember, in high school, everyone thought I was a total wallflower and little Molly Milktoast until I was directing the filming of the school talent show and cussed out my crew when they weren't doing what I asked. After that, my best friend Charlie gave me the nickname "Uberbitch." And it stuck.

I remember, about two weeks into my freshman year at college, my roommate and her friend invited me to go with them to a play in the theater at midnight. So we all went, and it was a bunch of comedy skits. About half way through, this guy ran through the theater wearing nothing but a bandana around his head and a pair of socks. I remember thinking, "Wow. I'm really a college student now."

I remember in college on the first day back to classes from the summer, I was walking across the quad, and I heard someone scream, "WHO LET THE BOGGS OUT???" I turned and saw my friend Aaron running across the quad at me. When he got to me, I said, "You've been waiting all summer to use that, haven't you?" He grinned, and said, "Yup."

I remember going to see "Evil Dead" at the movie theater at my school because Bruce Campbell was supposed to come talk about it, and my friend Suzanne was inordinately excited, and claimed she was going to ask him to sign her bra. He didn't show, but we had a really good time laughing at the movie.

I remember, after I graduated from college, my whole family was sitting around watching me open graduation gifts, and my boyfriend Brandon gave me a tiny little box. His mom about had a heart attack, because she thought he was going to propose. He didn't. =)

And finally...

I remember, just this past summer, trying on this wedding dress at a store, being given a bouquet of fake roses, a veil and a pair of shoes, and being led in front of a big three way mirror. The saleslady said, "Take a good look. Brides don't get to see themselves this way, but this is what your fiance will see when he looks at you for the first time at the other end of that aisle." I broke down in tears right then and there and knew it was the right dress for me!!

=D

Hey Al, that was kind of fun! Good way to get the writing juices flowing. =)

two miles

I ran two miles this morning.

Two. Count them: one, two.

Two MILES.

I got inspired because my online writing buddy Kris runs a lot. She lives in New York and goes on daily runs, in the snow, in Central Park, and last weekend she was talking about how she did eleven miles.

...

Let's hear it for TWO! =)

Anyway, this morning I was feelin' kinda poopy. Brandon was supposed to get up and go work out with me, but he said he didn't get to sleep until after midnight, so he was staying in bed.

*cough cough* SLACKER! *cough*

Anyway, feeling poopy, and sleepy, and grumpy, and several other of the less popular dwarves, I hauled my big behind out of bed and across the lake to the workout room and up onto that modern day torture device they call a treadmill.

Now, see, the thing that has always held me back (well, one of the things -- the MAJOR thing, at any rate) from enjoying and excelling at running has always been my asthma. I couldn't run a continuous mile without stopping until last year. That was a BIG milestone for me, and made me want to return to my elementary school and shout BOO-YA in the face of my PE teacher.

But I digress.

So, asthma being my biggest hurdle, I have recently (in the last year or so) found ways to start overcoming it. First, I take a preemptive puff on my inhaler before I get going. This seems to help a LOT. Second, I jog on the treadmill. Don't ask me why, but jogging outside is about 78% guaranteed to give me a minor asthma attack -- even when I take a preemptive puff. But, for whatever reason, jogging on the treadmill doesn't give me the same reaction.

SO!

The point of this long winded and rambly post is this:

TWO MILES!!!

*and the crowd goes wild*