So, this past Friday, Mike and I were invited to a Rock Band party. Oh, do not laugh, you haters out there. You cannot imagine how much fun this game is when you get a bunch of people together. After playing it as much as Mike and I have, I have found that I really like the singing. I would have thought that would end up being the last thing I’d want to do. But, I can rock out with some fierce pipes — at least in my head :D The drums are a lot of fun too, but man they can be difficult.
So, the party had an optional dress-up option, that Mike, Ben, and I decided to take. I knew Mike and Ben were gonna be nuts, but I was actually quite surprised at what I managed to do with my hair. It started as an Amy Winehouse meets Sanjaya, and ended up with maybe a little Boy George thrown in. I did some Winehouse eyes, some black lipstick and some pleather pants, with a Prince-like velvety shirty & knee-high boots, natch. Mike & Ben looked like goth metal brothers from hell. It was great. I was a wee bit disappointed at some of the other people’s idea of dressing up. A couple other girls were good, but as far as some of the guys… W E A K. If you’re gonna rock out with your cock out, play the part!
I had a lot of fun. I sang a little, played some drums, and even played the guitar. Drank a number of my pom soda/vodka mixes and ended the evening sitting in the shower while Mike attempted to get my hair out of all the mess I made. The scalp hurt a little in the morning, but sometimes pain must accompany such greatness.
The next morning (aka afternoon) — hungover and wobbly — I was off to Public Access TV station for some schoolin’ in Final Cut Pro.
Yes, it must be Thanksgiving I refer to.
The day after the game night, Mike and I quickly realized we will most definitely use our dining room table at full capacity — which is 8. Unfortunately we only had 4 chairs. We went over to Zinger hardware to see if we could at least grab 2 more. I figured we could definitely use them for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. However, I was worried we couldn’t get ‘em cuz it took 3-months to get the first 4 chairs. But, it never hurts to try. We get there and see 2 of our chairs on the floor, but I wasn’t sure if they sell their floor models. They did. They threw some leather cleaner on ‘em for us, and we hauled ‘em off with our truck. Good to go.
Also after game night, it got decided that Thanksgiving would be at our place and we would have 3-4 other people there besides ourselves. I think that was mostly decided because we would be receiving Rock Band two days before Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, we ended up having my bro and his wife and Ben, a friend of ours. The food was awesome. We had ham (we hate turkey), green bean casserole, stewed tomatoes (drool), wild rice stuffing, pea salad, Tofurkey & fixin’s, my blueberry dessert, and a peanut butter pie that Ben made. Oh, and how could I forget the neverending supply of rolls. Rob must have his rolls & honey butter.
Before dinner & after, we rocked out with Rock Band. I think we were up til 2 or something ridiculous with the game. Since the Wednesday before was technically a “friday”, we rocked even later with the game, so by the end of the Thanksgiving rock out, most of us were a little burned out on the game. Not completely, just requiring a slight break. It is truly the greatest social game ever. No house should go without one.
Ok, so it’s been a couple weeks since it actually occurred. But I wanted to write about it.
It was the 2nd pot-luck game night, and the first time Mike and I have had a bunch of people to this house. Hell, maybe even any place we’ve lived. I’ve always been kind of embarrassed of our house. Probably without real reason though. Now, I actually love our house, so I feel free to share it with the world.
We had people at both of our tables - dining & kitchen. There was tons of food. Italian was probably not the best of themes for a pot-luck cuz you just end up all carb’d up and tired after eating. I made my lasagna, but wasn’t totally thrilled with how it turned out. It was good, just not the normal caliber of my lasagna. Some of the other dishes were Chicken Parm, Meatballs, Ziti or Penne (I always get those mixed up), Salad, bread, and some desserts. After eating, Mike and a few others ended up on the Xbox 360 playing Guitar Hero III. The rest of us started with Uno, and then moved to Uno Attack. I think it’s safe to say that we had a great time.
I provided a Pomegranate Italian Soda/Vodka drink, and it was a whole lot more popular than I had thought it would be. I thought it might be a bit of a “girlie” drink, so I only purchased 3 big bottles of the soda. We also ran out of Vodka at one point, but Mike was nice enough to go get more. Once the Pomegranate Soda was out, a couple people moved on to cranberry juice, but it just wasn’t the same. That freakin’ drink has turned into my party beverage of choice. It’s also a very specific soda. It’s the Central Market Italian Soda stuff. Do not fret, you can find it at any HEB if you’re lookin’.
Game night seemed to open me up a little socially. And especially as far as my house goes. I don’t feel like it has to be perfect for anyone to come visit. Still has to be close :D, just not absolutely perfect. See, I’m learning.
They are more like the orange-y on the bottom, cuz my hair is also SUPER crazy red at the moment. So, that picture is a bit washed out. Which works, cuz my face is always too red in pictures :D
I used to drink FruitWater by Glaceau. The same people who do VitaminWater. Back when I used to drink it, they had tons of flavors like watermelon, cucumber, grape, lime. Probably like 10 or more flavors. Then suddenly they stopped making all those, and only made 4 flavors - raspberry, lime, grape, peach. The other stinger is they are now "lightly sweetened". If there's one thing I most certainly cannot tolerate in my water is a sweetener. I get migraines, and so I'm very sensitive to sugar, caffeine, and hydration in general. So, when I say I got nuts with DC it's not that crazy because the caffeine can become too much. Anyhoo, I digress.
Once my FruitWater had gone and betrayed me with sweetener, I had to find other alternatives. I can't remember how long, but it wasn't terribly quick, I discovered MetroMint water... peppermint water that is not sweetened. And they say it's not "flavored" since they use real mint. It is delightful. So refreshing. It's been a couple years I think, and now they have 3 new flavors -- spearmint, orangemint, and lemonmint. My least favorite is the spearmint, but I do love them all.
At the beginning of this summer, while on a mission to get some Function Urban Detox (excellent for hangovers - drink half before bed, half when you wake) at the Whole Foods downtown I saw a bottle I hadn't seen before. It appeared to be a flavored water, so I inspect the label to see what sweetener is used or how many calories it has. And I see the most loveliest of slogans on the bottle "Drink Water, Not Sugar". I was immediately in love, so I wanted to buy everything they had. Mike, being the more sane of us, told me to just get a couple in case it tasted like complete ass. He's wise, that one. So, after we get home and I get one chilled enough (beverages have to be damn cold for me), I tried one. It was the tropical punch one. I just confirmed the love at first site thing. It was amazing. I had found me a proper replacement. It is called Hint, and it's such an appropriate name. It's water with just a slight hint of flavor. Enough to be not straight up water for my tastes. I have personally tried about 9 flavors -- Tropical Punch, Pomegranate-Tangerine, Lime, Raspberry-Lime, Peppermint, Pear, Strawberry Kiwi, and Cucumber. My least favorite was Cucumber, and not just cuz it's Cucumber. I've loved that flavor of water in the past so I was really excited to try it. For some reason to me, it tasted like plastic. I'm hoping it was maybe a bad batch or something, and I will attempt to try it again later, cuz it did seem to have some promise. I drink so much of this stuff, it's insane. I pretty much fill up a cart at Whole Foods or H.E.B., any time I buy it. People look at me funny. The last time I went to Whole Foods, the guy was kind enough to give me their case discount, and told me I should just think of buying it in cases in the future. That's a good idea. I think I'll do that from now on.
I've even gotten my brother hooked on it. I'm just evil rotten that way.
I thought I would share my misery, so I quit dwelling on it and not want to go back to the gym or something. Tonight, Erika and I are doing the Body Flow class then following that up with Body Combat. I've never done either class, so this should be interesting.
Those of you that know me, know I love television. Those of you that don't, well, I love television. September is the month that marks the beginning of the Fall Season for the networks. Usually I'm very on top of this. I would know the name of every show being premiered, and I would know it's basic premise. Hell, I might even have a copy of the pilot before it ever airs. That's just how I roll.
Not so this year. I don't know what it is, but my motivation for the new series this year is quite deteriorated. However, there still are some new shows out there that I've seen.
I will warn folks that I tend to like the shows that most of America doesn't seem to like. Call me slightly left of center or whatever, but I hated Friends, I hated Everybody Loves Raymond (couldn't even finish one episode, painful painful crap), and Seinfeld is ok. So, see, I tend to not watch many sitcoms at all. The comedies I do watch are Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, The Office, and once upon a time Arrested Development. Getting the theme there? No canned laughter. No "filmed in front of a studio audience" bs. I think I'm perfectly capable of figuring out what is funny and when to laugh.
I shall now share my opinions of some of my favorite new shows of this season thus far
Chuck - NBC Mondays 8/7c - Chuck is a dork of sorts that basically has no life. He had a serious girlfriend ages ago, and still harps on about her, which in turn makes him quite
unattractive to future females. You know the kind of guy I'm talking about. He's not unattractive, but he's kinda dorky, got lucky once with a fine specimen of a chica, and just can't seem to let it go. You feel me? Anyway, so, ho-hum is his life. Surprise, Surprise, he's an IT type dude for a big chain store. One day he receives this weird email from his college roommate that got all the hotties. He opens it and out spills hours and hours worth of images that apparently have the country's secrets embedded in them. Little does ol' Chuck know, that he's absorbed all this info. Now he's basically being hunted for his knowledge. The best way to describe this show is to say it's sort of a cross between The 40 Year Old Virgin & Alias. Yes, that probably sounds very bizarre, but I gotta tell ya. I love this show. The humor balances out the action very nicely. There's even a lil' bit of the sexual tension in the show. If you haven't yet, check it out. Good times.
Reaper - CW Tuesday 9/8c - This is the age old story of a dude whose soul has been sold to the devil by his parents. For 20+ years, Sam has been treated very very well by his parents. 
They let him get away with anything and everything. Because of this, he ends up being your average slacker-dude with no ambition, and not much in the way of a promising future. When Sam turns 21, he finds out why he's been treated so well. When he was a baby, his parents sold his soul to the devil. Now, before you get all judgey mcjudge, they had a good reason. One of the parents was gonna die. Guess it seemed like a fair trade at the time. He's the devil's bitch now. He has to hunt down souls that have escaped hell and return them. We can't have demonic dudes running around all willy-nilly, right? So, while still working his day job at a big box home improvement type store, he has to find the time to be a bounty hunter. No problem.
Two episodes in, and I'm really digging it. The main dude, is from Fox's The Loop (yah, I'm sure you didn't see it, cuz it seemed Fox didn't want anyone seeing it), and he fits the part very well. I'm not generally a big fan of anything that The CW puts out, but this is definitely worth the DVR space.
Pushing Daisies - ABC Wednesdays 8/7c - I love this show! Friggin'-A! Oh, sorry, premature evaluation :D This show plays like a fairy-tale. So, this dude Ned, discovers at an early age that he has the ability to bring things back from the dead --
people, animals, vegetation, whatever -- with just a touch. When his mom keels over from a brain aneurysm, he is quick to touch her and bring her back. Unfortunately he discovers a consequence of his resurrection talent. If he allows the person to stay alive for more than a minute, then the universe appears to correct itself, by making someone nearby croak instead. In the case of his mother's prolonged breathing status, he accidentally kills the father of his first love, Chuck (yes, a girl). Shortly after that, he gets another surprise when his mother goes to kiss him goodnight. Ya see, a second touch, kills the person again. So, one touch good, two touches bad. So, Ned lives a very solitary life as a pie maker who has to pet his dog with a wooden hand extension thingy, so's not to kill him. Ok, so I love this show. Ned is such a cutie. The quirkiness of the show is what draws me in I think. It does seem to have a slight Dead Like Me feel, but only just.
Just a quick run of some others that I've seen - Cavemen -- SUCKED! But what can you expect of a show based of a series of commericials; Bionic Woman -- I might have to watch a couple more to make a definitive decision; Aliens in America -- eh; Cane - not even gonna bother to try; Private Practice - while I have liked Grey's Anatomy in the past, I'm not sure if I want to try this one yet.
If you're lucky, I might write later about some of the returning shows. I'm unpredictable like that.
So, what is everyone else out there watching?
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
slvr, though her hubby wc, I am now officially in love with PaperBackSwap.com. I've already sent off 11 books, and have 5 on their way to me. As if I needed another way to get books. My TBR pile is just ginormous. 
I'm on pager this weekend, and it's been relatively quiet (KOW). In order to stave off boredom, I've been reading like a fiend. Since Friday night, I've read :Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (half way as of this writing)
I wasn't sure I would like them, as it's a Young Adult series, but I love them. I guess I read Harry Potter, so why not? I can't believe I never found these books before. I'm usually on top of any vampire-related books, but I won't beat myself up. This way, I got to read three in a row, instead of waiting a year in between each one.
I'm not sure what will be next. I'm in a book club, and the next book for it is A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. So, that's definitely in the mix. And, something odd for me, is the desire to actually re-read a book. Yes, this has only happened once ever before. That was Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. This time around, I'm wanting to re-read the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. They've recently made the first book in the series a comic. The 15th book in the series just came out and I read it, and I realized I couldn't remember some of the things referenced. I don't have the books anymore as they were all lost in the fire, so I'll need to get my hands on those again somehow. With 14 books, that could get pricey.
Anyhoo... just a bit of a ramble. Nothing crazy important. But there ya go...
- Mood:
dorky
First is bookcrossing... What is bookcrossing, you ask? Well, let me inform. It's basically making the world your library. You take books of any kind, register them with bookcrossing, and then go leave them somewhere for someone else to find. Then, hopefully, they will take that book, find it's registration number (and info telling them what to do with it), and go back to the website saying they found it. Then, hopefully the process keeps repeating. You can watch the books you register to see where all they go. While I was in Ireland, I took books with me that I wouldn't mind leaving, and registered them beforehand. Then I just left them as I finished them. I think I ended up leaving 3 or 4 there. If you sign up there, say reign referred you please :D
Up next, and something I just think is such a book dork's dream, is DailyLit. They have about 500+ books, most of which are classics, and they will email you 5-minute reading installments daily of the book(s) you choose. You can actually have 1, 2 or 4 installments sent at a time, and you can force it to send the next one immediately. I thought this was awesome when a co-worker told me about it. I immediately signed up for Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's a book I've always wanted to read, but just never took the time out to do it. It has 149 installments, so if I had only read one a day, it would have taken that many days. However, I got so into it, and truly wanting to avoid work at times, that I read it in 17 days. I think the next ones I'm going to start are Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I figure I'll probably read those slower.
Well, that's it for now. I hope someone out there enjoys one or both of these. I love 'em!
- Location:home "office"
- Mood:
nerdy - Music:Bounce by Timbaland
A side note, it was kind of funny considering my husband is a vegetarian. Not that he's so strict that he doesn't wear leather or whatnot, but still, it's like... "I'm a vegetarian, but my body/clothes are coated in beef sludge." Just seems funny.
So, in my hunt for a better fabric softener I found two. Now, I didn't really search it out completely, and one was something I already used, so I didn't feel the need to go much further. The first and pretty readily available is the brand method . It's what we used a time or two, and are now more steadily using it. You can find it at any Target store for shizzle. The other brand is a little more hippy-ish and maybe slightly more difficult to find. It's Seventh Generation. Here, I've found it at Whole Foods, of course, and the HEB Plus (not the big Round Rock HEB Plus, the first mini one) around the corner from me. Online, Amazon & Drugstore.com sell it. Of the two, and in my LG front loader High Efficiency washing machine, I prefer the method one. However, the reason for this preference could just be due to how my machine handles the liquids. I have a little drawer thingy that has slots for Detergent, Softener, Bleach, and Pre-Wash. When I use the Seventh Generation one, it was like it was too thick and couldn't get out of the slot completely. But when I watered it down and then used a bit more of it, it was great. So, for those that don't have that type of liquid dispersal, you shouldn't have that problem. The lavender one is awesome. Granted, I love the scent of lavender, and I know not everyone does. I especially love it for my linens. AND, it makes me feel like I'm not missing out on my old beefy softener. I used to use (and still have some remaining) the Downy Simple Pleasures Vanilla & Lavender softener, which I adored.
Ok, kinda boring entry I'm sure, but a while back
malaka said I should share my experiences with stuff more since I tend to be bleeding edge on everything. At the time, I believe we were talking about a ladies razor, but still. I also really want people to know about this cuz I was clueless, and it's just kinda gross. Oh, btw, I do eat meat, but it just seems creepy to wash my clothes in it.I read a lot. Like, A LOT. Last year I read 58 books. I seem to lean towards vampires/werewolves/supernatural books and series. One of the series I read are The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. SciFi now has it as a show. I was really excited about this show, but so far I have been disappointed. I keep waiting to see if it will get better, but each week seems to be slightly worse. Some nitpicks - the main character, Harry Dresden, is so not disheveled enough. He doesn't drive the right vehicle (trust me, it matters), and he's carrying a hockey stick around as his staff, and that's just lame. The chick cop is SO wrong. In the book, her name is Karen and she's tiny, and she's blond, and she has an attitude to die for. Basically, she's a very strong woman and knows how to kick ass. In the show, her name is Connie, and she's a pussified brunette. In the books, they also have a strong sexual tension between Harry and Karen, but if they even attempt that in the show, I'll gag. I would not buy it. Also, a nitpick, but one I understand slightly, is Harry's source of information - Bob. In the book, he's a spirit that resides in a skull, and if he has to move around uses Harry's kittie as transport. In the show, he's a british dude with a bad bleach job. Oh, and this one I'm just not sure about. In the book, Harry cannot be anywhere near electronics. He doesn't have electricity in his house, he uses an old school ice box, and sometimes computers and whatnot go kablooey when he's around. In the show, they've alluded to it here and there, but I'm pretty sure I've seen lamps in his apartment and whatnot. It's definitely worth watching, and I'm still hopeful that it can improve. But I just wanted to gripe.
Another series I am REALLY looking forward to is True Blood based on the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. I have much higher hopes for this series, cuz it's being done by the Six Feet Under creator, Alan Ball. I have no idea when this comes out. I've heard from this summer to next spring, so no idea. But I'm pretty sure it will be on HBO. Nothing worse than shows about blood and vampires and werewolves being on a network that can't show any of that.
Now I recently had quite a surprise. I really hate finding out about shows like those above and then having to wait for up to 2 years. So, this next one was perfection. I didn't find out about it til 6 days before it aired, cuz I saw a free download for it on iTunes. Blood Ties is based on the Victory Nelson books by Tanya Huff. So, I downloaded it and watched it, and holy crap! It's awesome and it's on Lifetime of all channels. When I saw that it was a Lifetime show, I immediately lost hope, but wow, I am thoroughly impressed. The casting is almost perfection. They've got Vicky dead-on. She's an ex-cop, now PI, that is slowly losing her sight. But she is most definitely a kick ass type. She can jump into something before thinking, but she does it full force. I'm not completely buying who they cast as her ex-partner, Celucci, but I've seen worse casting. Now, ladies, if you like your vampires hot and HOT, please do tune in for Henry Fitzroy, the resident vamp. He is freakin luscious. And the sexual tension between Vicky and Henry is much more believable than said previous series. It's damn near flammable. LOVE IT! I just wish Lifetime had an HD channel. It airs on Sundays.
Now, if only Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books would become a show. Granted it's about vampires, but these days they are so full of sex and s&m, that it would have to be on some porn channel or something.
- Mood:
giddy
I've been working 10-12 hour days for 2 months now. I've even been known to log in on the occasional weekend, but I do avoid that fairly well. We have to log our time and what we are doing. Whether we are in a meeting, on a call, absent, whatever. Our requirement is to account for at least 40 hours. I'm generally around the 55-60 mark without even trying, cuz I'm kinda bad about marking all my time. So, I'm probably more in the 65-70ish hour area. Ok, that's a wee bit of the background.
Last week, we had a team meeting where we were told that if things do not get much better soon (as in number of calls coming in) that we'll have to start working longer shifts and possibly weekends. Now, when you think of it, I'm already doing that. However, being told I have to is really irking me. When I think about it, it won't change what I'm doing really, except making it mandatory. We have a European section of our team, and because of labor contracts they are in no way allowed to work over 40 hours. Why is it that Americans are workaholics, and yet no one blinks twice about it? I've been part of unions before, and those seem to be quite useless really, so I don't really know what a solution would be. Unless we went like Europe, and have individual contracts with employees. They work less, and get a minimum of twice our vacation. Almost all of them take the entire month of August off and that's only half their vacation. I get 3 weeks.
So, I feel really pissed that we're basically being told we're not getting enough done.
For 2 weeks now, I've had a sore throat, been achy, dizzy, nauseous, and migraine. I'm finally going to the doctor today, but I have a feeling it's just all in my head. That or a sinus infection.
I'm tired and I want to hide in a hole somewhere. Maybe I'll hide in
malaka's hole. :D- Location:work
- Music:Read My Mind by The Killers
I'm sitting here, with a migraine that I've had most of the day, staring at a dimly lit screen, waiting for a customer's install to complete. She's using a terminal emulator, and for some reason it's averaging about 15 minutes to generate the subsequent install panel. At this rate, the install should actually start by dawn.
All the calls I've received today have been because people are freaking out about the Daylight Saving Time debacle. You'd think it was Y2K part 2 or something. One call I had today was just damn ridiculous. I had to explain to a system admin that you only have to install a windows program in one place and all users can access it from that one install location. He said, he'd been installing programs in each users directories for years. WUH? How is that even possible? When he went to install ours a second time, it complained about already being installed... yah, go figure. I actually had to explain in kindergarten type terms how this is possible and how user specific settings for things are stored in home directories. This was a severity 1 type of call? I actually needed to be paged to explain basic computer use?
This whole day has sucked balls. My neighbor rang our doorbell at 8am to tell me he was parking on the street slightly in front of my house. Why would I care? I have a huge driveway that can park like 8 cars if I needed to. He looked at me wrapped in a blanket and a half-pissy barely-awake look and then looked at his watch and was like "oh, I didn't realize it was so early". Dumbass. Then I got paged out about 15 minutes later, but still. Uncool.
At this point of the night, I would just settle for getting rid of my migraine. I can't possibly make small talk with my head feeling like this. Not that I'm generally good with small talk anyway.
Ooooh, finally, another panel of the install popped up. Only like 14 more to go.
- Mood:pained
- Mood:
tired
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| From Texas Snow 2007 |
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| From Texas Snow 2007 |
Oh, and I'm on the phone with Apple right now again, to try to get this mess situated... and they can't find my repair order. Joy.
- Location:home
- Mood:
frustrated
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