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Take Me or Leave Me (Pictures)

I haven’t written in just over a week, so here’s a recap of what I’ve been up to.

I finally got my hands on Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want, and OMG. It’s the best one in the series!!! I am so going to renew it when it comes time for it to be due—I can’t wait to reread it!

Seriously, I recommend these books to everyone because they’re so good. You have to be able to make that leap into the imaginary. It’s a huge leap. It’s like the deal with reading Madeleine L’Engle. You have be able to visualize—and the author does a great job of describing things in a unique but clear way—but it can be challenging because things in Foo are VERY different from Reality.

Go to Amazon, and you’ll see solid 5-star ratings for this one, and high ratings for the others. This one is Book 3, and there will be a total of five in the series. I’m already freaking out that I have to wait at least six months for the next one! I wonder if the publisher will put out a boxed set when they’re all done?

– I read Fast Food Nation. Um… Wow. That’s about all I can say about it. As hard as it will be, I am going to try not to support the fast food industry anymore, unless I am near an In-An-Out Burger or Carl’s Jr. The other places… sigh. Knowing that people work so hard in those meat packing plants with almost nothing to show for it. Those dangerous jobs. Those scary jobs. No benefits. Little pay. It’s like a sweatshop or something. 🙁 And the stuff in the meat. The things they feed to the cattle. Cattle is supposed to eat grass, not the remnants of other animals, or poop, or whatever the hell they feed them. The two restaurants I mentioned don’t use those awful meat-packing places. Unfortunately, those places are not in the midwest (not that I know of). That’s okay though, because fast food is not that good for me. And it’ll be great for me to stop eating it.

– I also read The Golden Compass. I started on the new A-List book, and I also have Kite Runner. Oh, and I’m in the middle of the second Daughters of Isis book. The 3rd one is in my queue.

– I apparently won one of the many book contests I enter, because I randomly got a copy of Stephanie Hale’s Revenge of the Homecoming Queen in the mail one day. Awesome, right? When I met Stephanie, it was at the Chicago Spring Fling conference in April of 2006. She hadn’t even had an agent yet. And now she’s all published and stuff.

– I became addicted to Earl Grey tea. Mmmmm. I take it with four sugars. Rosa and Richard tell me that I drink syrup, not tea. At any rate, I’m becoming a tea drinker. Digging out all the boxes of tea I’ve had in my cupboard, and they supply free tea at work. This is a good thing!

– I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and watched my favorite line over and over:
He don’t eat no meat? What do you mean he DON’T EAT NO MEAT????

– I made it through 2/3rds of Rent without getting interrupted. One of these days, I’m going to get to watch the whole thing in one sitting.

– I got the original Broadway recording of Rent out of the library and have been listening to it like crazy for the past several days. I love Light My Candle, One Song Glory, Contact (my favorite!), Will I?, and Life Support. Every time I listen (which is a LOT!), I hear more and more that I really like. Someday I’d LOVE to see the actual show. Yes, I do realize that I’m ten years behind everyone in loving this musical, but hey, better late than never, right? 🙂

five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes….

But the big thing is that thanks to my rad friend (and bridesmaid) Rosa (meimeigui), and her cool hubby Richard, I got to spend the weekend in San Francisco!! Lots and lots and lots of sightseeing went down, as well as picture taking. I had a blast.

!!!^-^!!!

I flew in Friday, on Skybus. Skybus is a very inexpensive carrier, and if you’re lucky, you can get seats for as little as $10! The reason they can charge so little is because they use smaller airports (for example, I flew into Oakland instead of the big San Francisco airport), they charge for things such as beverages, meals (you can get real food!), and checking baggage. They also bring this little cart down the aisle with products one can buy—things such as perfume and jewelry and gourmet chocolate! I thought that was the funniest thing. There were people buying stuff up like crazy. Basically, they don’t want to charge everyone for what only a few people will take. Not everyone gets a beverage or checks a bag on flights. It was nonstop, and that was very nice. I had the His Dark Materials trilogy with me and that’s when I made a decent dent in The Golden Compass. I’m finding it easier to get into The Subtle Knife, now. My problem is that with these big books, I want to hurry and race to the end so I can see what happens. I have to FORCE myself to slow down and actually ingest the words as I am reading them.

Anyway, I got to the city, and Rosa got me and took me to the headquarters of imeem.com. What a SUPER DUPER cool place to work, let me tell you. When the drudgery of the work day gets too much, the office is equipped with a foosball table, a Playstation 2, a Nintendo Wii, guitars, a drum set, a kitchen stocked with snacks like whoa, a fridge stocked with Red Bull, just to name a few. OK. How awesome, right? Yeah, that would NEVER happen at ZB. Never, never. Ever. But can you imagine working in such a cool place? A place where the boss lets one of the workers bring in her puppy on Fridays?

Rosa and a Puppy

Friday was pretty low key. Hanging out with Rosa and Richard, drinking tea, and hanging out with their cool friends, one of whom was out of town as well. Played Scattergories, drank lots of tea, and watched the “wild ass.”

Saturday was super duper busy, and it started with a trip to the Farmer’s Market.

Me & Rosa
Me and Rosa!

Boquet
Gorgeous Organic Flowers

Pumpkins!
Pumpkins! Pretty!

Chicken Feet!
Chicken feet. Eeek!

Then we had tea service at Samovar in Yerba Buena. Yummy.

Tea

We popped into SF SOMA for a bit and drooled and dreamed over the cool stuff in the museum shop, then we hopped on the trolley (streetcar?) to head to all the touristy stuff. You know the things they had in the Rice-A-Roni commercials? Yeah, I got to ride two. Sweet, right? I also got to take this random picture of a steep street in the city, and also one of Coit Tower:

San Francisco is STEEP

Coit Tower

We hit the top of Lombard Street, and Rosa and I ran down with our arms out. When we got to the bottom, a hippie drove by and yelled “THAT IS FUCKING TWISTED!!!” Rosa and I cracked up because well, Lombard is twisted. And steep. And pretty.

Lombard Street & Me!

Lombard Street

From Lombard, we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf, which is TOURIST CENTRAL. OMG so many people. Lots and lots of people. Didn’t help that the Blue Angels were in town, being all cool and loud and stuff.

Blue Angels

One can see lots of cool stuff at Fisherman’s Wharf, like Alcatraz. And sea lions.

Alcatraz
Alcatraz

Sea Lions
Sea Lions

Sunday morning, I got to meet and hang out with Katy (drkangelmommy)!!

Katy and Me

Isn’t she so cute??? 😀

Of course, no trip to SF is complete without going to The Golden Gate Bridge. Rosa took me there early Sunday morning. It was a perfect day. Cloudless blue skies, no fog. Beautiful.

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge & Me!

So YAY! Thanks a million to Rosa for making this happen. She’s an awesome gal and I had a blast with her. 🙂

I was in a cranky mood at the grocery store today because 1) it was crowded, and 2) they jacked the prices WAY up since I’ve been there last. An 8 oz. can of Hunt’s tomato sauce used to cost about 35 cents, now it’s 40 cents. Lord knows that the organic stuff is priced sky high. No wonder people love Aldi and Marc’s! I usually go to Marc’s anyway, because it’s closer to me than Aldi is. And sometimes Marc’s has obscure stuff one can’t find in a regular grocery store.

I’m heading toward crankiness again because there is one of those little flitty bugs flitting around and being annoying, and it’s already after 7pm (naturally the work day crawled by), and I’ll have to go to bed soon.

OH! I was on the Apostrophe Abuse blog today, and click to see what the cat dragged in: http://www.apostropheabuse.com/2007/09/thank-yous-note-cards.html. Yes, the same issue from Target that I emailed them about two years ago.

I got good mail today! A gift card, a letter, and a coupon for a free chicken sandwich and medium Coke from Chick-fil-A. You too, can have one. Just go to http://freechickenandcoke.com. If it’s still up and running, you can have free Chick-fil-A too! 🙂 Ka-CHOW!

mandibaby just got married! Congrats to her! She looked beautiful! 😀

All right. I need to get going. Time to make dinner. Tilapia, mashed potatoes, and spinach is on the menu for tonight. Yummy. 🙂

Cheers!

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Cake (Pictures)

Last night, Tami came over with a cake that served two purposes. One was to congratulate me on the engagement.

The other reason was so I could taste the first wedding cake recipe!

Tami had spent hours making this cake for me. She used fresh lemons, whole milk, and two sticks of butter. The icing is buttercream and also homemade.

IT WAS SO FREAKING YUMMY OMGWOWWOWYES!

The flavor was perfect. It wasn’t too sweet, but it had so much flavor and it was so tasty. I gobbled a small piece down in seconds, and wanted a second bigger piece but I was so full I couldn’t finish it. My mouth was very happy.

THEN she showed me a drawing of what the design will look like:

Could she have done any better? This is freakin’ perfect.
I showed Adam the pix this morning on email, and he approves.
Tami’s doing our cake, YAY!!!!

And the cool thing? She left some of the cake here for me. Guess what I’m having for dessert tonight? Yummm.

Adam’s so cute. He asked me “If you get all the big stuff done now, aren’t you worried that you’ll have nothing to do later?” Oh dear. He has no idea. As long as one is planning a wedding, there is always something to do. But getting the venue secured ASAP will give me a bit of breathing room. Trust me, this bride WANTS to get the big stuff out of the way, then she can have more fun with all the little details.

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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I’ve Been Nudged (Lots of Pictures)

Rosa (meimeigui) nudged me, and people have been calling/emailing whatnot, so I guess I should update.

It’s just that I’ve been busy and/or very tired. It’s gonna be a stretch for me to get this entry out because I’d rather be sleeping. Dinner first, though, once I post this entry.

The craziness started last weekend. Not the one that just past, the one before that. The first weekend in August. Saturday, I cleaned like a fiend. Sunday, My old college roommate Sheryl was in town, so we had brunch. I got to nap a bit after she left, then my friend Angelo and I went out for Mexican. We had the best conversation ever, and the best Mexican food ever, which I am now craving like some kind of fiend. But I’m gonna wait until this weekend, after payday and after I’ve eaten all the leftovers in my fridge.

Monday afternoon, another old college friend Dave (who just happens to be an ex-boyfriend) called, as he was in town from Los Angeles. I got to hang out with him and meet his doll of a wife, Angie. Let me tell you what a crazy evening that was. My ex-boyfriend with his wife, my ex-husband, my son, and me, all hanging out. It was loads of fun. We walked around the Ohio State campus, took the ubiquitous trips down memory lane, had dinner at b-dubs, and took loads of pix.

Check it out

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Social Butterfly

I feel popular!

Tomorrow, I’m supposed to be having brunch with an old college roommate. And meeting up with my ex-boyfriend and his wife. Oh, and hitting the Fair with Angelo for a few hours. Monday, hitting the Fair again with Chris, Aidan, and Craig. Late Monday, Adam comes into town and I’ll be with him the next three days (not long enough!!). Thursday evening, I’m going to see Harry Potter (again) with a co-worker. Busy busy busy!

I have to take lots and lots of pictures. :)

(Originally published at Anywhere Is…)

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Very Much A Potluck

Way I Are – Timbaland
I heard this song for the first time on the radio on the way home from work today. I was enjoying the beat. Then I heard the chorus. A part of it. THE WAY I ARE. Again, I like the beat. It’s a catchy song. But, as a copy editor, I feel morally obligated to refrained from obtaining it in any way, shape or form. It’s like the way I cringe when, In Big Girls Don’t Cry, Fergie sings, “like a child misses their blanket.” The noun/pronoun agreement in that sentence is off. But I like the song. So now what? *sigh* I just know that everytime I hear that “way I are” part I’m going to want to throw something across the room. So I guess the answer is to let the song be.

During the Spring, I was taking the Zaner-Bloser Handwriting course. It was a correspondence course. I worked on certain letters, manuscript and cursive, and turned them in to an evaluator. It was HARD. Writing is very much about muscle memory, and my hands had been trained to write a certain way, to make letterforms a certain way. To retrain is hard and painful. Even still, I got very good scores on my lessons, and on June 7th, I became certified to model and teach Zaner-Bloser Handwriting! 🙂 Yay.

Other than that, work’s been pretty run-of-the-mill.

I did a BAD THING last night. I installed Zoo Tycoon on my computer. And no, not the new one. The ORIGINAL one. And I played it for TWO HOURS. ARGH. I can’t believe I got sucked in again. I managed to spend $250,000 trying to get the thing established, and the stupid giraffes just kept on being pissed off, and the stupid zookeepers and maintenence workers refused to clean up all the poop which pissed the giraffes off even more! So I sold all the giraffes, and I’m going to rebuild the exhibit and only put two giraffes giraffes in there. I’d added too many before, then they started making babies and oh man. OUT OF CONTROL. I never got any of the expansion packs, and I don’t know if I am going to ever invest in the newer versions (they look fun!), but I tihnk that’ll be okay. Speaking of computer games… OMG Bookworm Adventure. Defeat the enemies by making big words!!! Yeah, game heaven for a word geek like me.

This just in:
Nielson did some research on the Harry Potter phenomena, and here’s a statistic that surprises me:

51% of people age 12+ in the U.S. are aware that the new Harry Potter book is coming out in July.

I honestly thought it’d be a higher percentage. Wow. But I think 51% is still pretty darn impressive.

The whole “Save Harry” campaign is kind of annoying. Let the author do what she will. Signing a petition to get her to sign more books, while it must be flattering, has to be kind of infuriating as well. The security measures around the book are crazy!!!!! I can’t believe the lengths these companies are going through to keep it secret. Well, one week and one day, and the fans can be satisfied.

And one last note…. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO goaliej54!!!!!!! ♥

See ya!

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