Blather, rinse, repeat

MTV2 was giving away free tickets to go and see their filming of 30 Seconds to Mars at CBGB's next Thursday. You can't pay for tickets, you can only win them, and to win them, all you had to do was write, with your name, phone number, age, and a picture of yourself.

Just yesterday a group of people got emails telling them they had won three tickets each, and could bring two friends, under two conditions: one, they are fans of the band, and two: they are 26 years old and under.

Yup, that's exactly right: You are not allowed by MTV to go and see your favorite band in concert if you are over 26.

This really, really burned me. I would actually have taken the time off work and found a way to get to the city to go and see them. When I found out about that, I was so depressed and bummed out, not to mention feeling awful about the whole thing. It's not just age, either, it's how you look. Otherwise why would they have asked you for a picture?

But what can you say about MTV that hasn't already been said? They're corporate pimps, they ruin and exploit everything they touch, they can bite my non-existant bag, yadda yadda. Everyone knows that.

To try to cheer myself up, I went out dancing last night with Jenn. J. and Brittany D. We went to Claudio's and while we were walking around town, we met up with Casse, Donna, Tony, Jenny T., Jenn W. (vet school, not reception or tech,) and her boyfriend. The cover band sucked and the dance floor was pretty small, but it Claudio's is on the water and there was a nice breeze and we (Jenn J., Brittany, Casse and I,) just went out there and got down with our bad selves for a few hours. We invented a few new dance moves, actually. After about an hour everyone was all tired and sweaty, except for me, because I can can dance all night, but I was thirsty so we went to the bar and I got a cranberry juice. Then I started goofing off and busting out all my old-school moves that we always do at work for laughs. There was this guy behind me who was cracking the hell up while I was doing that. He pulled Jenn J. aside and said, "Your friend is a trip. You should bring her everywhere with you." Then he hit on Jenn for a while.

Actually, the bartender looked at me once. It was when I was getting my second cranberry juice and Brittany hugged me out of nowhere. The bartender looked at us and said, "Oh ... Oh!" like he was in on some kind of bixesual fantasy or something. I shot him a "whatever" look. Aren't people silly?

Brittany, by the way, is awesomely fun and hilarious. Also she said something really nice to me last night when she saw my sparring gear in my car. She said, "You're the girl who does all of the things that everyone says they want to do but then never do. That's cool." And I hope that it's true, because that's kind of neat. ^_^

Before I even left for going out last night, I came home from work to a bloodbath courtesy of Pendragon, who has bitten through the tip of his tongue. Rob told me once before that iguana tongues bleed like a bastard, and he absolutely was not kidding in any way. Pendragon's entire mouth was so full of blood he couldn't swallow. I had to tilt him face-down and rinse it out with water. Now he's got a little flap-wound there that he keeps on biting because it's in the way of his teeth, which, I might have mentioned once or twice, are like razors. (In fact when I was cleaning out his mouth yesterday I accidentally touched my finger to his top teeth, and now have three rows of neatly curved slices on my knuckle.

This green man can't catch a break sometimes. Neither can I. I've got more birds right now than I can shake a stick at. With Laura away and me sitting her birds as well as my own, I'm overwhelmed. I put my two robins in the aviary earlier today with the two remaining doves. (The catbird died mysteriously, and one of the doves flew away. I hadn't planned on him flying away, but there he went. It was a gorgeous flight and I saw him again today in my yard, so I'm not worried.) This year seems to be all about semi-paralyzed, vomiting fledgling grackles. Ugh.

I haven't been swimming yet. I wanted to go today, but I didn't get done with the cage-shuffle / massive cleaning thing until around 4 (after running to EEVEC to pick up another baby grackle, which took me about two hours with the goddamn holiday traffic,) but I hope I can go tomorrow if it's warm enough.

Oh, and I got an iPod. It's the sweetest thing ever. I didn't have any trouble getting songs on there, but can't seem to manage putting them into proper folders. Grrr. It's frustrating.

I guess it's time for me to feed the birds again. Sorry to seem so dispassionate, but I'm still peeved about the whole MTV thing.

Oh, one more thing, to everyone on my f-ist: Quick favor. If you've got any racist tendencies, or hell, any homophobic tendencies or any other "-ist" tendencies, please tell me now so that I can de-friend you without any fuss ASAP instead of being surprised by it one day and adding to my already negative mood. Appreciate it very much. Thanks.

Preliminary sketch, the first of a series I hope to actually finish someday. For those of you who are just vomiting over the idea that I might be posting another pointless character sketch and have already decided that you're not even going to look at it (most of you, I suspect,) well, this is different.

( Remind me to never take on a task like this again anytime soon. What was I thinking? )

He's not supposed to be an anthro either, for godsakes. More like a spirit, like you might see in PetShop of Horrors. I was chatting with my Mom last night and I said that I'd been thinking about drawing all of my animals as a kind of fanciful spirit, like Count D would see. My Mom was all about the idea and thought it was pretty cool.

I've been staring at this thing with all the vines and lines for like two hours and I can hardly even see it anymore, so I'm not even sure if I like it yet. All I know is that it was complicated as hell to do all of this stuff.

GRRR, so, yes, very much needing to make alternate arrangements for Pendragon next time I go away. I had a huge fight over the phone today with my friend Pat, over just about everything. Keep in mind that I am paying her an assload of money, about twice the amount usually given to pet-sitters (and the same to Casse,) and all Pat has to do is sit in my house and watch the temperature and make sure the house doesn't burn down. Oh, and she gets free use of my car and anything in the fridge, too.

It started not going well when I called her yesterday to ask how the temp was in his room and she answered with, "How should I know?" UMMMM THE THERMOMETER which I made a huge deal over, basically telling her IT IS YOUR JOB TO WATCH THIS. But I guess I should have expected that when she was flipping through the channels of my TV as I was going over everything with her.

Anyway, on the second day she locked Chrissie out of the house. Chrissie was coming over every hour while Pat and Casse both are at work (oh yes, did I mention, I'm also paying them both for the days when they are both at work and NOT pet-sitting?) so that she could check the temps and make sure nothing is on fire. I specifically said, "There are two keys, one to the side door, one to the front. You have the one to the side door, Chrissie has the one to the front, so don't lock any of the other doors." I told them this as I was showing them around the house. So, Pat locked the storm door nd Chrissie couldn't get in. So, Chrissie called them both at work and said, Hey, I need the key. She told me that Casse was really casual about it, saying, Oh well, it was fine yesterday, so you don't really need to get in. Which, Chrissie freaked out over that. Chrissie eventually did manage to get in, but she felt the brushed her off. I told Casse yesterday, "Okay, well I'm glad that's over and there shouldn't be anymore problems. Smack Pat for me and tell her not to lock the doors." And of story, right?

Anyway, so today I got Pat on the phone to ask how everything was (she was at work, not at my house,) and it all started with her saying that she was going to have Casse drive her home one day early. You know, as in, me paying her for that entire day and her going back home to watch TV at her house? She offered that Chrissie should come and do her job that day instead (which, even if there was anything even close to fair about that, there's no way that she could, since she's working on that day.) So that got me pissed off and I told her, absolutely not. I'm PAYING you. Do what I'm paying you to do, for chrissakes. I seriously don't think that's unfair to ask of her.

Just then she started complaining because I was blaming it on her that the door was locked, and that I had seemed like they didn't know what they were doing. Which is odd, I said to Pat, since I haven't even frigging spoken to her since the night I left. When she said that, I just lost it on her. I said that it was her fault the door had been locked--which she admitted. But she went on to say, "You're acting like it's a big deal. Chrissie coudl have just gone through your bedroom window."

At which point I went nuclear. My first thought was, Chrissie can't even reach the window. But that's not the goddamned point. Chrissie shouldn't have to go through the window; I'm not even paying Chrissie! I offered, but Chrissie said, "This is just what family does." I just started going nuts on Pat. Then she tried to change the subject, because I think she felt that she was sticking up for herself and expected me to go, "Oh, okay, I'll stop doing whatever mysterious thing I did that you thought was unfair or insulting," and when I didn't, she didn't know how to deal with it.

I'm still pissed. I've let myself carry this around all day today.


But that's the bad stuff. The good stuff is that right now I am sitting at the pool while Meghan swims and Spencer is chillin' on the next chair over. It's around 9:30 PM and we just watched House. It's a nippy 70 degrees, is my guess. Yesterday we hung out with Jonathan at Epcot and then went to dinner at Fark Pare. (This one guy rudely pushed my Dad aside to get into the restaurant before anyone else (when our reservation got called first,) and then pushed some little kid off the buffet line to get his ice his cream to stuff in his pudgy suburban face, so I got behind him on line, got a fingerfull of strawberry syrup topping and whipped it onto the back of syrup onto the back of his shirt. It was beautiful.) Today we went to Animal Kindom and Betsy, Spencer, Meg and I rode Expedition Everest (it's no Dueling Dragons, but it is COOL,) and then to dinner at 'Ohana. I met up with Auntie Kau'i, who looks beautiful, and Kaleo, who has lost 90 pounds and looks and feels great. Then I went to talk to Auntie again and she introduced me to one of her new dancers, this guy who works at Poly and makes kilts in his spare time. She told the new guy that she can still remember the fist time she saw me dance because she thought it was beautiful. Then, all of a sudden I didn't care that my friends were being unreasonable to me or whatever, because some people are truly lovely.

Spencer reminds me that we stayed at the Magic Kingdom until 2 AM yesterday, riding every ride in the world. I bought a Stitch cookie jar. I can't think of anything else because I'm in a rush right now. I'll post this later or tomorrow. Right now I've got one of those rare moments with Spencer.

ETA: Long conversation with Spencer about life in general. ^_^ He is such a deep and thoughtful person. Right now Spencer, Meg and I are in my room and Spencer is playing KH for me. My game is so messed up! I really want (him) to finish it (for me) before KH2 comes out. Anyway, boss fight! Gotta go.

Took the two birds (Cid and Ray) to Laura today. She is 90% sure that Cid has got mites! The invisible kind, the likes of which I've never had on any bird before. She had some powder to put on him that she said was totally safe and she had used it to great effect before. She's really interested in working with him, too. If it works, then most of his problems could clear up. It's possible that even his seizures could stop. That would be amazing.

Then, I also brought my dove to work, probably to be put to sleep. That really depressed me. But she is never going to fly again, and I can't keep her caged. I have to do what is right. I was going to put her to sleep a few weeks ago, but Rob convinced me to give her a chance. But her wing is just shattered in a really bad place. The part that kills me is that her crop healed perfectly, which is so rare. God! How sucky.

I'm still in a panic about having to board the dogs tomorrow, and leaving Pendragon. I know I've got my two petsitters and all, but they're not me. Still, it is worlds better than boarding Pendragon. It has to be. Has to be. (Knock on wood.) Then I've got to make a ton of food for Pendragon, and finish cleaning and packing. Then maybe Kim is coming over for dinner and to hang out.

Kung Fu tonight was loads of fun and I really de-stressed in a big way while I was there. It's very hard to be stressful when you're training. We did forms, and then in blackbelt club, we didn't even break to do our usual warmup (including the hundreds of crunches.) We just kept right on doing forms. Somewhere in the middle of class I got in a discussion with Sifu and a new Sehing (new to this academy, anyway--he's been with Holbrook forever,) named John, who is very wee and very adorable with crazy spiked dark hair and awesome Kung Fu. Sifu has this way of cracking me up when he tells me stories about his own training. The part that sucked tonight was that we all got a letter from Lao Shir explaining her full retirement from teaching, and probably from Kung Fu. I mean, there were those of us who pretty much knew it from the start, but now she's told everyone and it's official, and very depressing. Her letter sounded optimistic in general regarding her health, though. She's pretty confident that she can win this one. Right now, that's all that matters.

I still hope that someday she comes back to Kung Fu, though. Even if she just does it on her own sometimes. She is fabulous.

I took some pictures on my digital today. Most of them came out all blurry and crappy, but I'm posting them anyway. One of them--a photo of water from melting snow splashing onto a glass table in the sun--came out really awesome. And some more pics of my dogs, too.

Preview:


( Clickitywhee )

Nabbed from d_r_o_n_e, a really cool not-quite-meme: The Johari Window.

Do one for me, and I will do my best to do one for you, too.

Anyway, ti started snowing at 7, just like the weather people said it would. Now we're supposed to get 10-16 inches. My only worry is power outages, because they news said that might be a problem. That's one thing I sincerely hope does not happen. Especially in the dead of night or the small hours of the morning. Other than that, I can't deny that seeing the beginnings of this nor'easter is a little exciting. I hope I never lose my love of snow. I mean, I know I have to shovel it and it's a big hassle and everything, but still. It's snow.

And anyway, next week I will be in Orlando.

Kung Fu today was all right, a little boring though. I had hoped to see Tristan, since he's going to the tournament next week and I wanted to wish him luck, but Sifu taught instead. There is a new guy there--24, a few weeks of martial arts when he was 13, lots of wrestling and grappling experience--and he seems a decent sort. Sifu set us all doing one drill that we've been doing all week, and then left us to our own devices. Then he seemed to forget that we were all in there, and let class run for two hours. It got very repetitive very fast, because I wanted to do what sifu said and not go out on my own, besides, I didn't want to leave our new Si-di behind. So we drilled the same ten moves over and over and over again for about an hour and a half, stopping once in a while to talk. After all, it was just him, Nicolette and I, and Nicolette had to leave around 12:15.

Hula was good, we ran O Keahi A Lonomakua a few times, as well as Waikiki Hula and Pai Ali'i, which is my favorite Tahitian one. I obviously won't be there next week, but will be at Kawahi's halau instead on Saturday. This completely rocks the house.

This time last year that stupid guy was bugging me about Hula and dancing with Kawehi and all of this. He had all kinds of dumb, pointless things to say to me, none of which made any kind of sense, but what it came down to was this: stupid haole shouldn't be doing Hula. And I had to f-lock all my Hula related posts--especially the ones that had to do with Kawehi, Kamai and Auntie Kau'i--because he and that other LJ chick were all up in my business, trying to tell the Hula community that I was a liar about who I had danced with. I'm glad that stuff is over and I don't have to f-lock everytime I say that I'm going back to Kawehi's class, or Auntie Kau'i's class. Dude, Kawehi was furious when I told him about that. I've never seen him get mad before. And Kamai was just her beautiful, aloha self. She could tell it had upset me and was--as she always is--a Gracious Lady. I can't wait to see all of them and dance with all of them. Then hopefully we are all going out to dinner one of those nights. That is kind of iffy and depends on everyone's schedule, but I hope it happens.

Gosh, the snow is really coming down. I would have liked to get some pre-trip shopping done tomorrow, but it looks like I might be house-bound. Still, on Monday I'm going to have to dig the car out. I've got to get shopping, also I have Kung Fu monday, and work on Tuesday. I can't believe how busy this week is going to be. I was supposed to do all my major house-cleaning today, but Jeremy came by to give my parents their early b'day gifts, and we ende dup hanging out for a few hours, which was great, because otherwise I won't get to see him before I leave.

So far I've got:

Tomorrow - digging the car out and shopping, otherwise doing more of the major cleaning. Maybe going to dinner with Pat and Casse if the roads are clear, and going over all the stuff they need to do here.
Monday - hopefully getting to the chiropractor, then the same possibilities as tomorrow, depending on what I do tomorrow, and then Kung Fu. One of these days before I go I need to get a duplicate of my house-key, too.
Tuesday - work, laundry.
Wednesday - bringing the birds to Laura's house, finishing laundry and cleaning, packing.
Thursday - bringing the dogs to board, finishing packing, hopefully getting together with Kim for dinner.
Friday - doing last minute stuff for Pendragon and the remaining birds, then off to the airport with my aunt and cousins in the afternoon. We won't even get to the hotel till around eleven or so. Jeez.

Then halau Saturday morning, and off to Magic Kingdom. I hope to just chill this entire vacation! ^_^

I guess The Fates thought I wasn't worried enough about leaving Haku behind, or just not worried enough in general, because Sano has thrown up his food twice in the last two days. WTF? He did get into the garbage and eat a bunch of stuff when I turned my back for a minute on Monday, and it started about fifteen minutes after that. So that's my educated guess. Yet I was still awake every few hours last night checking him for bloat. O_o

Before this trip, I have to: clean the entire house, take the two birds to Laura, the third bird (a dove) to work and see about its wing, change the sheets, clean the drains, finish my lists for Pat and Casse, pack my stupid clothes and other things (like an overnight bag for the one night stay in the cheap hotel, PS2 and maybe KH, so that Spencer can finish it for me and hell, maybe FFVIII just to be nostalgic,) make all of Pendragon's food and the birds' food (although my Mom will probably do about half of that,) charge my laptop and find a movie to take on the plane for Spencer and Meg (Kung Fu Hustle? Advent Children? Except that it can't be Advent Children because the subtitles don't work on my laptop--unless Meghan brings her copy which has the subtitles embedded, in which case I should bring FFVII so that Spencer can finally finish it,) cash my two last checks and bring that, water and feed all of the plants, take Pat and Casse to dinner and go over everything they need to do--this will be Sunday after Meghan leaves (she's coming over on Saturday, I think,) and Jeremy will still be here, but that's cool because then he gets to meet the chicks I love to work with and vise versa, pack up all the dogs' special food (Nutra Lamb and Rice without wheat for puppies seems to have cleared up Haku's digestive issues (knock on wood), and when I board them, get them entirely checked in with all the special directions etc.--so much easier this year not having to board Pendragon, I can't even begin to tell you--and then wait for vacation to begin. Oh, and I have to work, too. And I should really call Laura today to confirm that I'm dropping the birds off, because she will probably have forgotten and I want to give her at least a week. Right. And I have to do my laundry today.

In good news this week, all my Mom's tests came back normal (knock wood again,) and my Dad had this root canal done today. I was worried about that, because you can't mess around with stuff like that in heart patients. My Gran had her dermatologist appointment and that went well (usually she's got precancerous cells they need to freeze off, but this time, for the first time, there weren't any!) And Meghan is off most of those allergy shots that she was allergic to. (Yes, I know.)

Meanwhile, it's kind of fascinating watching GAFF self destruct. We have Knorg losing his mind, KittenMommy being a complete troll and posting nonsense about Cinnibon just to be an ass, fat people wank, everyone leg-humping an old poster for doing something that n00bs get slapped for doing, and, my favorite, Hellfire--who, as some of you know, is inordinately proud of the fact that she has sex sith her Dad--no, really-- being a racist ass and trying once again to stir up the MEMEMEEEEE that she needs by posting how her father is "sexy and fascinating, among many other stupid and fascinating threads. Hellfire doesn't surprise me, Knorg doesn't surprise me, and I suppose that KittenMommy wouldn't surprise me if I could remember any of her past posts (it amazes me how people there can distinguish posters. After all these years, I never know who's who.) Lots of threads there are locked as the Site Guru maintains and cleans up the site. Meantime, it seems like a moron-bomb has gone off in there.

A badfic linked on GAFF has made me sort of jonze for FFVIII. It was around this time of the year that I first got into Final Fantasy. I guess I'm just nostalgic.

I should go. Haku is chewing on Sano.

God! Today I have done nothing but: laundry, bird-care, taking the dogs outside a few times, snarking on the internet, and filling my face with chocolate.

I did get an email from Jonathan in Orlando, though. He (and mayeb Kawehi and Kamai) would like for us all to meet up for dinner one night, and maybe hang out at Epcot. Ooooh, I can't wait! And Kawehi invited me to Halau on Saturday and Sunday (or was it Monday?) I'm definitely going to try to make the Saturday one. I haven't practiced with Kawehi's halau in months. I love being there with them; I learn so much. And I can't wait to hang out with Jo-Nathan, my favorite Kaimana Hulali. ^_^ He is a good friend.

JoNathan also tells me that the newest Animal Kingdom ride, Expedition Everest, is in "soft open", meaning test phase, meaning I might get to test it! Get me on that mahfah! Yes ... I will test-ride a roller coaster. O_o It's got an 80 foot drop, although I don't know if it's got any inversions. It doesn't look like Spencer and I will be getting to Islands of Adventure this year, unfortunately. This sucks majorly. But I can't be paying $60 and spend half a day just to ride on Dueling Dragons. Although, I'd like to. I'm jonzing for it. It makes Rockin' Roller Coaster look like a kiddie ride. *Yawn*

On further research, it doesn't look like there are any inversions. Blast! But this page says, "Seeing the yeti will really startle the guests because it is so real, so convincing," said Rohde. "It is the most mammoth and sophisticated Audio-Animatronics figure ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering."

I'm probably going to piss my pants. The thrill ride part is great, but the huge, loud, audioanimatronics scare the everloving christ out of me. I tend to avoid Dinosaur (used to be "Countdown To Extinction" until the movie came out,) because of the huge-ass Carnotaurus that comes screaming out at you at the end. That stuff just freezes me. I will probably be a huge baby and hide my eyes. Although I probably won't know that it's coming on this new ride, and will freak the hell out. And then they'll take an automatic picture. Nice.

Ahh, some specs. No inversions, drat it all. >_> But, "My favorite part of the ride has to be the Yeti itself. The encounter happens so fast, with our train quickly ducking under his massive hand. Here the Imagineers employed a clever design element--to show the Yeti long enough to know what's happening, yet short enough to entice the guest to ride again.

According to the Walt Disney World news website, the Audio-Animatronic Yeti, with all its hydraulics produces a potential combined thrust of slightly over 259,000 pounds force--potentially more instantaneous power than a 747-400 airliner. It wouldn't be wrong to call the Yeti the fastest Audio-Animatronic yet built by Disney. Some people have said that when the Imagineers first tested the Yeti, the creation produced so much thrust that it ripped itself free from its supports. Steps have since been taken to tame the beast."

Yup, Change of pants.

Anyway, so I still can't wait for this trip. I've been writing up "to-do" lists for Casse and Pat, and do you know, I think I'm up to about fifteen pages. They're going to tease me to no end over this. But you know, these are all things that I do in my household that I don't even think of doing until I have to tell someone else how. I guess my house isn't the typical "lights on and off with a switch, TV, locked and unlocked doors, food in the fridge" kind of home. I've got all kinds of crazy lights and things rigged. Gadgets, media, exotic plants, humidifiers, and of course, exotic pets. It's insane. I feel sorry for them.

In the Japan Pavillion in Epcot, I should buy one of those negative ion eaters or whatever they hell they are. Oh, great, already I am thinking of the things I'm going to buy in Disneyworld. Because you know, I don't have enough bills. I need more.

Anyway, some pictures for today.

( Umm, my aloe plant might be a little out of control, don't you think? )

( Steamy! )

( Tropical unicorn. Why not? )

The lizard king. GRRR!

Last night I was stressing out in the worst way, because I realized that Casse, while Pendragon-sitting, wasn't actually going to be around very much at all. She still has to work, and I was going to ask my cousin to come by and check on Pendragon while Casse was at work (five out of the seven days I'll be gone!) but she can't do that either, because she does daycare and has an infant and other kids that she can't leave for even a minute. Soooo, today I called up another friend and co-worker, Patsy, who agreed to stay at the house all the times that Casse was working. She can't actually give Pendragon his meds, but she can do a very important task: make sure the Green Man doesn't overheat or get too cold, and make sure the house doesn't burn down with all the electric heaters running all the damn time. There are now two days when no one will be here for nine crucial hours: Sunday and Monday. I'm hoping at least Sunday my cousin will have her day off and can come by to check every hour or so. The good thing is that they agreed I could pay the same amount I had offered to Casse (a substantial amount, and probably about three times what a regular pet-sitter gets--I know because I cross-checked my cost,) and then split the money however they see fit. All but for Monday, I feel very safe and secure with the whole thing. I'm sure Monday will work itself out too, though. It's also nice to know that two of my friends will be at my house while I'm gone.

Oh, Meghan's concert the other night was great. Meghan sang, played the timpani, and MCed the entire thing. She is a huge presence on stage with a very melodious voice. She's got an odd, surprising, almost out of place dignity for someone her age. She just looks like a beautiful lady, and not the curly-headed toddler that I remember so clearly, who was in love with Eddie Vedder and Joel from MST3k. She wore a long, red skirt and reminded me weirdly of Sophie Ward when she was in Young Sherlock Holmes. Spencer was also there, and yes folks, I believe he is now officially taller than I am. At least I think so. I was wearing flats and he had sneakers on, which add about an inch, but I had to look up to him. I had to look up to the boy who used to sleep on my shoulder. And then he drove home by himself. WTF?

Work today was stressful where I did not expect it to be, and easy where I did not expect it to be. Everything was backwards. And the last half hour was a mad rush. It got me all backwards and mixed up. Actually, the day began on the wrong note, literally: Haku waking me up at 6:35--that's 25 minutes before I actually had to get up today--howling and crying. I think he might have pulled a stitch or something, but it was terrible. It was still dark out and raining like the dickens, and I had to take him outside to pee, and then go back to bed, knowing that I only had 20 minutes before the alarm was going to go off and I'd have to start this long day. ugh.

Tomorrow I get up at 8:30 and leave by 9 for Hula at 9:45. Then leave Hula at 10:45 and get to Kung Fu at 11:10. It's Tristan's class tomorrow, huzzah. I hope he's feeling charitable. If not, maybe I will have to kick him (or try to,) no matter how cute he is.

And then, what? Some cleaning? Some writing? Who knows. Something tells me I might find myself bored out of my wits tomorrow, though.

Oh, and I picked up Stephen King's latest, Cell. So far, it's--what else can I say?--classic King. A very comfortable style for me to read. Reading King is always like coming back to a lived-in (yet haunted) apartment. Dude, I love the way Stephen King "retired." Go, SK.

Ah, well. Time to get the dogs out and the lizard off to bed.

Kung Fu last night = Awesome as usual. Although the drill we did in blackbelt club turned me into a moron.

Work today was pretty fun, with the running gag being that someone had heard on the news that today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year, yet everyone was in a pretty good mood and it was Kelly's birthday.

Because I have decided not to be retarded about things that I really want, even though I don't actually have this money, I ordered Cloud and Fenrir. Remember how last time I really wanted the Cloud doll and didn't order it because I didn't think I should be spending money, and then I regretted it for three years until they re-released it? Not this time, baby. That dolly is mine. And don't forget, as the ad says, "Best of all, Cloud Strife can be posed astride Fenrir in a multitude of poses!" You just bet! ^_^;;

Let's see, what else? I'm bringing Haku in to get neutered and microchipped a week from today. Nervous? Yes, a bit. Salukis are notoriously nerve-wracking under anesthesia. And it's going to be a quiet day without His Little Lordship around the house that evening, because I can't pick him up until Wednesday. Although Trisky and Sano could probably do with a break from his antics for a while.

The biggest news is that on Sunday I'm going to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year with Erica, Sifu and Tristan. Now, you just know that's going to be a blast and I'm going to have probably a ton of stories to tell on Monday.

Next month is Disneyworld! I'm really ready for a vacation. I need it in the worst way. It's always a huge deal with boarding the animals and all, but this year Casse is going to come and house-sit and take care of Pendragon for me, so I don't have to board him. Pendragon gets to stay home, where he is warm and comfortable instead of cold and afraid, with strange people and animals going by all the time. Hopefully, since he will be in his home, he won't be so stressed and he will eat better. More importantly, he won't be freaking out and tail-whipping everything that goes by, and so he can keep his tail safe and sound this time. (*frantically knocking on wood.*) Overall, just a completely healthier and calmer atmosphere for him. How awesome is it of Casse to come and do this? How awesome is it to know someone that you can trust enough to let them live in your home for a week? Casse is one of the most honest and conscientious people I know.

Other news, hmm ... Jeremy and I went to the mall last Sunday, just because it's something we used to do in high school and we wanted to carry on an old tradition. I found out that both Dirge of Cerberus and Twilight Princess have been pushed back until June 2nd. June 2nd, people. Could that get any lamer? Actually it could, so I won't push my luck. And apparently both games are coming out on that exact day. So no one will see me during the summer, I guess.

Ah well. Right now I'm mostly looking forward to Sunday, which promises to be an adventure.

Xin nian kuai le!

You scored as Guardian. Congratulations. You are a Guardian. You believe that the purpose of the strong is to protect the weak. You love all life and dislike seeing someone not realize that it is precious. You are more than likely a Mainstream religion. Combine this and your second result to get your answer. </td> Guardian 70% Citizen 65% Loner 45% Pacifist 40% Hedonist 40% Conqueror 35% Destroyer 30% Altruist 25% Narcissist 25% Miscreant 25% Where is your moral compass pointed? created with QuizFarm.com

Neat, but I'm not a mainstream religion, though.

My cousin Celia had her baby on Tuesday night and we went to see her and baby Miranda on Wednesday. The baby is adorable and it was good to see Celia up and about, unlike last year when she had Zack by C section and couldn't move for like a week.

In other baby news, my good friend Jenn W. is knocked up, which is what she has wanted to be for as long as I can remember. Yay, Jenn W. and her nice husband Keith, who are very sweet and fun people and who are going to be lovely parents.

So anyways, on Tuesday I was petting Pendragon and checking along that lump on his tail when I noticed that there seemed to be a thickening in the middle. I said, "Oh, frigging great, here we go again," and hauled him into work with my yesterday. I figured that while he was there, I'd get his yearly bloods done, too.

Long story short, the X ray of his tail showed up--you guessed it--nothing. Again, nothing. Getting blood from him for the tests was a trial for everyone involved. For me, too, because I was holding him and had to listen to him hissing and spitting and generally being afraid and freaked out. Then, I would spend the next 20 hours or so worrying about his blood test results. Pendragon is not a youngling anymore, and only lately have I admitted this to myself. He's closing in on 14. So I had been preparing myself, in fact almost mentally abusing myself, in order to deal with blood test results that might not look so good. Recall that last year his uric acid .1 point too high. That was about a 6 point jump from the year before. My main concern was that it would have jumped another 6 whole points, and that would be bad news.

So as soon as I got in to work this morning, I took off directly for the fax machine to see the bloodwork. And don't you know that every damned pet's results came back except for Pendragons?! So I waited. And waited some more. Actually it was only about an hour.

The uric acid went up by .6 points. Not 6, but .6. It's still slightly out of range, but everything else was perfect. (*frantically knocking on wood*) Rob said that he wouldn't do anything about it, just maybe watch the humidity and keep it as high as I could, because that would be the best thing for keeping his kidneys stable, just as long as I'm still on top of his medication everyday. (Which I have been, along with my Mom when I'm not there, every day for the last like 8 years.) He said that for an iguana Pendragon's age, his blood test results were great and he couldn't hope for anything better. Imagine my neurotic relief.

Anyway, so just to blow off steam and relieve some stress, yesterday morning I said to Casse, "Let's play a game. Let's play switch-letter." Which quickly turned into "switch-letters". We switched all B's with all F's, all M's with all N's, and all D's with all P's. Imagine our surprised delight when we found that this turned the Middle Ward into the Nipple Warp. Emily the evil cockatiel became Fitch-Firp, we had to go and clean the fasenemt, and we played for a while with the cats Whoodsie and Fatnam, and the digeom Bibty Cemt. Then Casse gave me a drogran she furmed om her conduter. Doctor Dan became Poctor Pam, all Jennifers were Jemmiber, and Jemm W. was going to have a fafy. Made even more hilarious when I pointed out that she would soom fe a nonny. (Nonny is Jenn's word for the female crotch.) Casse was fan-freaking-tastic at this game, and the two of us started talking faster and faster, leaving everyone else's heads spinning. It was way too much fun. We tried to re-create it today, but it wasn't quite the same because we tried to use different letters and kept getting confused. Besides. Nipple Warp. How can you beat that? You just can't.

Today, after I had gotten Pendragon's blood test results and was approachable, Dr. Nancy said to me, "Oh, I have to tell someone and you'll appreciate this. Last night I was taking a limo back from (some function or other, I wasn't clear on where,) and the limo driver was all excited, because do you know who he had just driven from Easthampton to the airport? Joaquin Phoenix and two women who looked like models. He said that he was the nicest guy ever and even gave him an autograph. Isn't that something?" Meanwhile here I am with my jaw on the floor. (Casse's comment? "He's three-timing you! That fastarp!")

Well, for the rest of the day we were all kinds of excited over this, Jenn W. insisting that we should hang out in Easthampton sometime so that I could meet Joaquin Phoenix ("He's so you! And you could help him get those frogs out of his hair.") Then we spent most of the rest of the afternoon having our "Would you hit that? I'd hit that." conversations.

All in all, a very satisfactory day.

Tomorrow after I get back from Hula and Kung Fu, Uncle Robert, Aunt Ana and Stacey are coming over for late Christmas. Then on Sunday Jeremy is coming by and hopefully we can finish our "movie." Oh boy, I can't wait to release this one on the unsuspecting f-list. Not that anyone will look at it (I mean, if one person out of, what, thirty people on my f-list deign to look at a stupid little drawing, anyone at all is going to watch an entire two minute geek-film? God forbid.) But we're going to finish it anyway.

And that's where it is today.