Confessions of a Fictional Historian

It's Sunday morning, and I have a lot of work to do.

I didn't do much yesterday (looked for Fox, and watched TV and did a lot of sketching--a few pages in my "show sketchbook" (as I'm starting to think of it) in charcoal, and twoish pages in pencil in my normal sketchbook), and my apartment is trashed. Dishes need to be done, laundry needs to be put in the hamper, cleanish clothes need to be put away. I haven't even made breakfast yet--don't particularly feel like cooking breakfast, plus I'm out of toast, so I have to cook breakfast. (I really want some waffles. Stupid Heroes.)

I have really been wanting to do more creating--sewing, drawing, writing. I don't have a sewing project I particularly feel like working on, but I need to do reference drawings (haven't done any in ages) as well with keep up with normal drawings. If I stop drawing, my skills will degenerate, and I think they've already started to.

Plus there is AEFB--I am not yet halfway through the manuscript, I haven't been working on it every night, plus I have extra scenes to write and historical-type research to do plus have been intending to do a careful and gentle study on some books I love to get a feel for the language and style.

And there's a writingish project I was planning to start on, and another project I should be working on, plus I need to get groceries and go to the library today.

...I haven't been very happy the past few weeks. I think today will be a good day and I will get lots of things done and still have time to watch season two of Heroes. Also: things will get better.

Okay, I do not know what the deal is with me lately. I had a leg pain over about half the week last week but it went away over the weekend (with rest). Then I woke up this morning and it had come back. It got worse over the course of the day, plus I also developed a pain at the bottom left corner of my left hand (where that little knob of a bone is, right above the wrist). Being in pain like this makes me tired, crabby, and frustrated. Where is this coming from? It's seriously like I turned twenty-five and started falling apart.

So: I'm tired a lot, I'm in pain for no reason, and I feel like I have no time for anything even though I'm not doing anything. Super!

I've just plowed through what was supposed to be my writing time (grumble seriously, when did this get to be such a problem?), too. Also, the Internet is iffy here with this computer, which is one reason why I've been posting less (though the other is the imaginary loss of time issue).

However, today (I spent the weekend stubbornly shut up indoors, partly to rest my leg, and partly because I just wanted to go nowhere, so I can't speak for the weather over the weekend) the weather was perfect and autumny--I'm leaving my windows open because the air is cool and smells crisp, and it's the kind of weather where you need to wear a cardigan over whatever you're already wearing. It's my ideal weather, RenFest weather, perfect weather! If it stays sunny and if I'm not in pain again, maybe I'll go to the park this weekend!

I wrote a post over the weekend. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow night, assuming that I don't somehow magically run out of time again. (I think the problem may have been TV. I returned all my sister's Simpsons DVDs and am going to try really hard not to put on the TV for background noise. It's harder now because the only computer that has my iTunes library on it is messed up, so if I want background noise, I need to find a CD that suits my needs...)

Tomorrow will be better. Probably. Today wasn't really a bad day, but we seem to have a lot of screaming and crying children lately and when at the end of the day your leg hurts a lot, it makes everything else seem awful.

Although Heroes was good, the kind of episode where I liked everything that happened, but there was no awesomeness. I was satisfied.

A quick update:

-Back on track with writing, though tonight I only worked through eight pages of revisions. And I've started a list of scenes I will need to write once I've fixed the little things in the piece. It feels like revising will never, ever end, but I have less than a hundred pages left (which is not as impressive as it sounds when the manuscript is 148 pages in Times size 10), which means that if I keep up the pace of roughly ten pages every night, I could have worked through the manuscript in less than two weeks, and then turn my attention to writing scenes.

Also, I've reached the point where I am pretty well convinced that it's no good. Hooray!

-Heroes yesterday was good. Noah was perfect and I wanted to draw hearts over his head, and Sylar was hilarious. That is really all I ask for from Heroes (well, that and badassery), but in addition, Claire was awesome, Hiro was cute, Danko saved Noah's life, and Ando kissed a girl. Hooray again!

-Work. I've talked a little bit lately about how much it sucks, and it's starting to feel like if it's not one thing, then it's another. It sucks all around. A woman I work with said that no one is happy with their job (we were talking about her husband and his job), and I pointed out that there is a difference between being unhappy with their job and being happy with their job. Or something like that. Basically that a person can not be happy with their job but tolerate it, but if a person is unhappy with their job, well. Toleration is more difficult.

-Also, I've been really tired lately, like wanting to go to bed at 11 PM tired, and waking up in the morning feeling groggy tired.

-Muffins make good snacks. Hooray for muffins!

.....I use the word "hooray" a lot here, but it was not a great day. However, I completely avoided eating sweets of any kind (read: candy, cookies, or cupcakes); I had a granola bar, a yogurt, and two muffins, and those were the sugariest things I ate today. I was happy.

Conclusion: I need to work harder at finding time to do things. Also, I'm tired and I need to go to bed.

A hasty entry, because I should be working. Actually, I should be sleeping, and I should have been working nearly two hours ago. Again: I was doing so well for a week, and then I got busy and then ill and fell out of writing habits, and now forcing myself back into them is rough. :-p

Good day today: slept in (ordinarily the sun wakes me but today it was overcast, so I slept until 9:30!), did not buy too much in the way of groceries, did the dishes, cleaned the floors, made poppy seed muffins, cleaned up around the living room, finished the book I was reading, had a ham dinner at my dad's house, went to a concert at church with my dad, laid around (that part was not as good, but whatever, I'm tired).

New Heroes tomorrow (and new House, but I'm going to watch Heroes tomorrow and watch House later. My sister is DVRing it.)! It's weird. My interest in Heroes waned over the summer with nothing new to sustain it, and now that season four/volume five is about to start, I just keep remembering the bizarreness of the last episode and... I don't know what to think. This is what I last wrote on the show, in an attempt to express my displeasure. Basically: Sylar is one of my favorite characters (currently second place to Noah, though tentatively), but I am not okay with this plot development. Also, I am pretty sure that my third-favorite character, Danko, gets killed. I'm not really okay with that either. So we shall see!

Gah. My body wants more sleep lately. It gets upset when I go to bed after midnight. Writing now (do I do the less thinky, more cheaty way and write, or do I do what I should be doing and requires more thought and effort and revise?).

(...revise, I think. Gah.)

Due to lack of writing lately, I am going through a phase where every word I put down seems to completely lack in meaning or style or anything good. But at least it's not Twilight, right? All this is stuff I wrote while reading, hence the page numbers.

( Do spoilers even matter anymore? )

And now, at 11:30 AM, it is time to start the day!

I've been very good today and it makes me happy. I slept very, very badly (due to people being loud on my street at 2 AM, and then waking up at like 8 AM), but perked up a bit later. One thing I both love and hate about my new bed position is that I can see out of all three windows where I lay, and being on the third floor, all I can see are sky and rooftops. It's quite lovely, but it's also horrible and bright at 8 AM when I would rather be sleeping.

I went to the Kroger's in Ft. Mitchell instead of the one in Bellevue--the Ft. Mitchell one is closer and nicer. (I discovered this morning that there are four Krogers closer to me than the one in Bellevue, and one of them I've ruled out entirely because it's jank, but still! Four!) And I did not go over budget with my groceries, and was glad to explore the store, and an extremely nice and chatty Kroger lady at the express lane showed me how to tell the computer that I had my own bag, and she added that people at my Kroger should have shown me that too.

I spent most of my day with Anton. We did a lot of walking and relaxing and had shaved ice. YES.

I made my favorite meal for the first time in ages--baked chicken, rice, and green beans. It was SO GOOD.

I watched a teeny bit of "background TV" and The Simpsons and then watched Heroes. I limited myself to one episode ("Landslide"). I thought I would watch another, the awesome "How To Stop An Exploding Man", but told myself not to on account of I had other things to do. Hooray for willpower!

I did the dishes, which didn't take as long as usual due to not having as many dishes.

I cleaned up around the apartment and did a couple of fiddly things I'd been meaning to do.

Finally, I sat down at my desk with a glass of water and a bag of pretzels and wrote 1500 words in a semi-new project. (Semi-new meaning that it's new, but that I've tried other incarnations of it before.) This despite the fact that I have roughly four other projects going right now, if you count POH and AEFB, which are just getting ignored. Whatever, I wrote! For the first time in weeks! Now I just need to keep doing it!

I still have to do my correspondence, and I'm super tired (little sleep + lots of walking), but I'm really glad at how today turned out.

I'm tired tonight, and have not had an entirely satisfactory weekend. I mean, not bad. Just tiring.

Yesterday I went to Ikea with Anton, yet again. In particular, I was looking for two plain glass picture frames to make rental-friendly backsplashes in my kitchen (see here). I found them. And a funnel. I exercised my willpower very impressively and turned down a $5 duvet and pillowcases set even though I've admired that very set before, because I don't need three duvets and more pillowcases. And I bought cushions for my reading chair--it was actually a seat/back cushion. I found it in amongst some displays of outdoor stuff near the checkout area. It was PERFECT and I couldn't find a price, but took a chance and bought it anyway. It ended up being $10, which means it was ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.

I've determined that I have a love/hate relationship with that store. End of story. I would much rather buy more unique and interesting things from elsewhere, but in the end, it's so much easier to trek to Ikea (well, it is a bit of a drive) and happen across a giant bin of, say, funnels, that are $1.49 for two and come in three colors.

When I came home after that, the nearby bed and breakfast was having some kind of party or maybe an open house, complete with live music in their backyard. It was good music, but loud.

I milled around at home and watched TV and read a little.

Also, Dollhouse. Let me just say this. I'm pretty confident that Alan Tudyk (how did I not quite realize how awesome he was? Because he played Wash? That's probably it.) has saved that show. The last ten minutes of that episode was properly enthralling, and surprising, as a Joss show should be. And apparently next week is the season finale. I suppose mostly I was surprised and enthralled because I mostly know Alan Tudyk as Wash, who's a pretty laid-back and loveable character, or a little bit as Ann's father on Arrested Development, and all of a sudden he was evil. Beautifully, magnificently evil. And creepy. Thank you, Alan Tudyk, for that ten minutes!

Today, I woke early--even earlier than on a weekday. After trying to fall back asleep for a few minutes, I finally picked up The Whitechapel Horrors and read until I'd finished it. Hooray! It was a bit slow to read, but I liked it, and it was beautifully and meticulously researched.

Yeah. I went shopping today. Conclusion: I may never shop again. I went to Goodwill and bought a coat and a jar and more china to match the ones I bought last time. All the dinner plates were gone, but there were more saucers, tiny bowls, a teacup, and what appears to be a sugar bowl without a lid. I didn't buy any saucers, but I bought four of the bowls and the teacup and sugar bowl. Love them.

So that wasn't too bad, because clothing and wares were 50% off today, but then I went to Hancock's, because I needed some things, and I ended up buying the stuff I needed (a skein of yarn, some red rickrack, more fabric to cover my chair cushions with) and some stuff that, in retrospect, I probably didn't need (two bags of ribbon, a different fabric to cover my green chair with, and some other fabric, and another skein of yarn) and all of that was the kicker.

And then to Kohl's, because I had a $40 coupon, where I bought a black dress, a black top, and a brown light sweater. It took me a very, very long time to settle on those three things.

Retrieved some things from my parents' houses and it was nearly 2:00 PM when I got back, and I was very tired and hungry. I ate some food, and worked on organizing some stuff (mostly notions and trims and things) and made a huge mess, and then decided to make a bigger mess by starting to cut out pieces to cover my cushion with, and pinning them onto one cushion, and also, I cut out some fabric to put up as backsplashes. But then I didn't like them, so now I'm musing over what to do next. (Also, I'm not sure if I like the fabric I bought for my green chair. Sigh.) I spent a long time this afternoon fiddling around with Photoshop, trying to see what kind of fabric I liked/wanted.

Also. Today my Heroes score soundtrack arrived. It is more lovely than I had imagined. It unexpectedly has a lot more score music than I expected (cleverly hidden by blending together multiple tracks and smacking a character's name on it). It's very beautiful, though to me, none could be more beautiful than "Kirby Plaza". I've been listening to it on and off all day and trying to figure out what the pieces I'm hearing are.

This evening, I went to see Grease at NCC. I magically managed to convince my sister to come with me, and we magically scored the last two tickets (technically, the last ticket, plus another ticket that the very nice ticket lady made for us). We sat on the bleachers--not comfortable--but I was so, so happy I went. Words really cannot express how proud I am of Joey, and he was such a rock star up there. I had to wipe my eyes when he was done with "Those Magic Changes". He played Kenickie, and I noticed that I could always hear his voice over all others (...possibly just because his was the only voice I knew? But probably not, because he's awesome.), even over other miked characters like Danny. YAY FOR JOEY.

Then I came home and found that my purchases of the last two days were still spread out on the floor, along with some of the contents of my sewing box, five different fabrics, picture frames, catalogues, ribbon, backpack, and a lot of other junk. I cleaned up a little and lay in bed for a while and now I'm listening to SNL and it's nearly 1:00 AM and I need to be getting to sleep.

I am absolutely determined to start improving the quality of my life. I mean, it's not a bad life, but I've been extremely slow about reading, terrible about writing, awful about TV (I've always liked to have something on in the background, usually The Simpsons, but lately it's starting to get out of control), not great about the dishes, and positively abysmal about doing the dishes and cleaning/straightening. I've been discussing stuff like this with my brother lately and I really need to at least try harder at not being lazy.

Tomorrow: something. And that pesky correspondence. And the dishes.

Note: something is going on in the background here that I'm very hopeful for. Keeping me in thoughts/prayers would be much appreciated. :-)

I had the morning off and it was nice enough to go outside this afternoon but this evening it's cool, just the way I like it, and I'm planning a shopping trip this weekend and overall--I feel better.

This is the earlier-mentioned essay/rant/musing on Heroes. It contains spoilers for all of season three and vague spoilers for season one and is kind of a sequel essay to this essay I wrote on being special, at the beginning of season three.

( Read more... )

I keep forgetting to post. Or I'll remember at quarter til midnight and then try to write a hasty one (much as I am doing now...)

Struggling with some personal stuff that I shall not go into, but otherwise okay. Just now I'm feeling pretty good, since I just did most of the dishes, straightened around the apartment fairly thoroughly while listening to podcasts (using my newly-bought headphones), and do not have to work until 12:30 tomorrow. I woke this morning feeling emotionally awful and was grumpy and mopey for most of the day, up until...pretty much now.

Here is something new. The heat in this apartment kills me. I hate extreme weather (I am living in the wrong part of the country...), but I have no central air (a window unit that I haven't put up yet) and I live on the third floor of an apartment building that, if the landlord is to be believed, is nearly eighty years old. Last weekend, it got a bit stifling in here. (Today it's cooled down--brought rain with it, which meant no playground today, but just now I'm sitting on the couch very much enjoying the cool breezes coming through the open windows--lovely. My favorite temperatures, and one of my favorite feelings, of cool breezes through the windows.) In the interest of having cool things to drink, I decided to make iced tea for the first time ever. I bought some Stash brand (XD) raspberry and pomegranate tea and brewed up a batch using a measuring cup, my microwave, and the only pitcher I own--a Brita pitcher which I haven't yet used due to not buying filters for it, and which I removed the filtering portion from so that I could use it for a pitcher. I also sweetened the tea, but I think next time I won't, or I will use less sweetener. Anyway, I'm pleased with it, but the flavor makes me want it to be cranberry juice, which it isn't. I really wanted something vanilla, but couldn't find any. I'm also interested in peppermint--I bet that's very nice as an iced tea on a hot day.

I won't write anything about last night's Heroes season finale because I hope to write an actual post about it soon. Maybe tomorrow morning. (Ack, time slips away from me so quickly...!) However, I will say that I discovered last night that the Heroes score soundtrack, which I have long awaited, was released without my knowledge roughly a week ago. I set out today to obtain it from somewhere, trying Target on my lunch break and then calling Best Buy after work. Neither place had it. I hopefully tried iTunes when I got home, but also to no avail. It has Kirby Plaza on it! Sylar's theme! Noah's theme! I want it, and I will be forced to buy it from AMZ and wait days for it! (My only wish is that it was longer, but so far I've downloaded most, if not all, of the music from Heroes Music Tracks and I've filled up at least three CDs with the stuff, so if I had my way, it would be this massive like five-disc collection or something. I'm just saying that some of the best scores aren't attached to particular characters, but are just good, case in point: "Kirby Plaza" (which I know as "Saving the World (Variation Two)").

Now for reading. I must finish at least one book this week. I am DETERMINED to. I have dubbed my red chair my reading chair, and have decided that I am not allowed to use the computer or the TV while sitting in it. It's predominantly for reading, but crochet or something is also okay. It's right by the windows, and nice to sit in and read and put my feet up.

So, for that. Tomorrow morning, I plan to be leisurely, but also to work on my correspondence (something I fail at as usual) and maybe work on some other important things. Also, to hopefully post the Heroes post I've started writing.

Kind of a frustrating day--work was fine, but the weather was gross and I spent a lot of my free time at home wrestling with iTunes, downloading things, and syncing my iPod, leaving me feeling grumpy and like swearing off technology forever. And then I was rewarded with two hours of TV that wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped it would be. (Though I have to say, those flashbacks on Heroes were pretty cool...)

And now I'm very tired and made the mistake of crawling into bed to finish up my business on the computer, since I get a good signal here, and I've pretty much decided to just wash my face and blow off my shower--something I've been doing an annoying lot lately.

Also, my earlobes hurt, in particular my newer holes, something that concerns me and makes me wonder how to fix them. I think I need to finish cleaning the earrings that go in there (the ones that pierced the lobes) and douse them in cleaning solution and leave them in for a little while. And then set about building a suitable earring wardrobe.

Trying to make some decorating decisions: do I want very bright and patterned sheets (there is so much beige in my apartment it makes me want to scream. I love color a lot, but all-white would be better than all-beige. On a white background, colors would pop no matter which ones I used. Beige is just bland.), or a softer and subtler pattern? (I do want a pattern. More on this topic later.) Do I want to cushion my new red chair in the beautiful red-and-chocolate-brown graphic patterned fabric I bought more-or-less just for this purpose, or in a nice muslin that would probably make the chair smoother? Colors and patterns, they are so hard.

Rapidly losing coherency--sleep now. More later, in which I will probably discuss sheets in greater detail than you could ever want. And possibly pass judgement on watching TV on my iPod.

So I know I shouldn't do it and I really don't deserve it (since I am pretty lazy six days out of seven, or at best, five out of seven, even if I have had a long and exhausting day involving flannel pajama pants--in this weather!--and too much frosting), but right now I'm kicking back with one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons, "The Springfield Files". I’m not a huge X-Files fan, but the episode is hilarious, and every time David Duchovny flashes his wallet, I just crack up. Also, it is the episode with my favorite Simpsons magazine, "Better Homes Than Yours". XD

Today I shall review things.

Let's start with TV: I haven't caught up on House yet, but an evil commercial last night while I was watching The Simpsons spoiled me for the last episode, which I missed and which my sister failed to tape and swore I had to see immediately. I shan't go into details in case anyone reading this has not seen it, but I was very displeased.

Heroes! There is nothing like Heroes when one feels grumpy and disillusioned with the world. This week, I could have screamed at the TV--it was nearly as bad as "Company Man", except that it didn't have the heart-wrenching music and the way he falls to his knees... anyway, things look bad for Noah. Maybe now that his life sucks, his seasonal Death Fake-Out will come soon. Danko--my new third-favorite character (the first two being Noah and Sylar, though Sylar was being a particular bastard this week)--was impressionable and loveable. I was looking later back over the texts I sent my sister while I was watching the episode and discovered that in the space of seven texts (all of which I wrote in all caps), I used the word "no" eight times. Sigh.

Then BSG, which, as I said, was good. Also, Adama said at one point, "Some days I really hate my job." Haha.

I've had my furniture moved around for five days now and I remain pleased with it, except for a few things: 1) I don't like the couch crammed into the corner. Two nights ago I did some work and moved all that stuff I was storing behind the couch into the kitchen, and then moved the couch over by the windows. I like that less and I'm musing over what to do next. 2) The sun shines mercilessly through the window next to my bed and wakes me up early. 3) My favorite lamp (Goodwill lamp with Ikea lampshade) is on my sewing table desk, which is now tucked away into a corner where I can't see the lamp and the light it gives off doesn't spread very far. There are some other things I want to do that I haven't gotten around to yet''either too expensive, or requiring some heavy lifting.

The latest interest: The Colonial Williamsburg Podcast. I LOVE IT. There are about a million episodes, and I've only listened to like ten so far, but it's this guy interviewing people who work for and around and in the place and it's really, really interesting.

The weather lately sucks. Two days ago it snowed all day, but lightly. Yesterday it was cloudy all day. Today it was warm and sunny, but tomorrow it is supposed to rain.

Sunday I did end up going to church. I love Palm Sunday. I admit that it's mostly because it's the only holiday I get to sing my favorite hymn ("The Palms", by Jean-Baptiste Faure), but I also like it because it's a little holiday all tucked away into the weekend before Easter, mostly untouched by commercialism and all that. The song never fails to move me, and I think it's glorious. (Things like Facebook and YouTube and Hulu work sporadically at best on my computer, it not being connected to a network for real, but if you search for it, you can come up with some YouTube videos of it. Though, strangely, one of the ones I managed to watch part of did not have the lyrics I know.)

Anyway. I went to church in my fancy new frock (compliments from strangers and friends alike) and thoroughly enjoyed the singing, and thought about how I need a new pair of nice white/cream shoes--ones that don't hurt my feet as much.

Something else I tried: unclogging a drain with baking soda. It seems to have worked really well, but I think the drain is already kind of clogged or really small or something because it takes a long time for water to run through, but now I'm completely prepared to join all those people who swear by baking soda.

I've been really tired lately and I'm not sure why. Today I went into work an hour later (discovery: when you're going in late, an hour doesn't make much of a difference), and we had our Easter party today and the day just dragged on and on and by the time I left work, I was just about dead on my feet, and had to like struggle to stay awake in the car and once I got home I crawled straight into bed with The Graveyard Book.

So that's been my week--kind of sucky. As usual, I'm excited about the weekend.

A large collection of Design*Sponge sneak peeks: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

It occurs to me that I haven't posted an entry in several days. I keep meaning to, and I do have some things to say, but it just keeps slipping away from me and next thing I know it's ten till midnight and I should be in bed.

Suffice it to say that I am very tired tonight, and have started getting caught up on BSG--watched the rest of the webisodes, the following two episodes, and nearly half of the one after that. It's not cracky like Heroes (except OMG as it's getting near the end of the season it starts getting all emotional and horrible as well as cracky), but it's good! Gaius Baltar has short hair and looks beautiful, Roslin is getting her act together, and Lee (in a suit) and Starbuck are trolling the halls of the Galactica with guns. All is as it should be.

More later.

( A long entry I should have posted several hours ago but didn't because I got distracted. )

Strange week--busy and tired and kind of lazy. My reading Patricia C. Wrede's Thirteenth Child (finished it yesterday and liked it, am curious to read more, was engaged throughout though it never grabbed me--thank you, Caroline!) made me want to go back to the Still novel/s, but by the time I got around to it last night, I only managed 228 words before realizing I was barely conscious enough to be writing, and gave up. It's the only writing I've done this week.

To cap it all off was today, a lovely day in which the most, ahem, energetic child was less so than usual and played nicely with other children all day long, I had assistance for most of the day, we spent a lot of time outdoors, and I didn't have to do any crap chores. And then they said they wanted me to come in at 1:30 tomorrow, and it was like a dream come true. The weather's been nice today, bordering on hot (this evening, it's been raining with tornado threats), and I was very happy when I went home today. Tonight, after dinner and some TV and crocheting, I did more than a week's worth of dishes and then cleaned up around the house while listening to podcasts, and lit some candles because the cigarettey smell was starting to bother me again. Now, I need to go to bed soon, but I'm pleased with the state of things, and hopeful and anxious.

Bad things this week--the big ones (though nothing life-threatening):

-My Fuse e-mail address, which I have loved for many, many years, is now completely defunct due to my dad switching Internet providers. I knew he was switching providers and he knew I had an address with him, but both of us failed to think of this until Tuesday night when I sent a frustrated e-mail after attempting to log in repeatedly and be told that the user did not exist. I was extremely happy with that e-mail and now, to keep this from happening in the future, I am going to set up a new, web-based account. Somewhere. Gmail is not my favorite, Hotmail is okay. Something. Ironically, this happened only a couple of weeks after I set about phasing out my Hotmail address, using the Fuse one as an all-encompassing personal address instead of the personal-private address, and arranged to be billed things there etc. Even more ironically, the change took place on my birthday. I'm moderately annoyed, but also amused. Not upset at the loss of the e-mail, really, but wishing I'd had notice, so that I could have made sure I'd switched over to a different address. Well, such is life.

-There is some insurance blah blah that I have to take care of, and soon. There is nothing I hate more than insurance dealings (except possibly for hand-washing silverware).

Good things:

-Design*Sponge: one, two, three, four, five, six. A lot to like this week.

-A beautiful book I have just discovered called The Simpsons Handbook. I had my doubts about it, but once I opened it up and laid eyes on the pages and pages of animation and design information regarding characters on the show (predominantly the main five characters, but there are others too), I was sold. It's the closest thing to an "art of The Simpsons" book there is. So beautiful, and the notes on the pages (I'm not sure who wrote them--Matt Groening?) were always saying how you have to make sure you keep the lines/designs very simple and curvy. It is one of the coolest books I've ever looked at.

-Patricia C. Wrede has a real website, with the possibility of a blog! Also, I might as well mention that I love pretty much everything of hers I've read (the Enchanted Forest Chronicles, the Kate and Ceceila series, and Snow White and Rose Red), and she is one of those people who writes creative things and makes it seem so smooth and easy. This book (Thirteenth Child) reminded me of Robin McKinley (....Dragonhaven?) and of Orson Scott Card (Alvin Maker), and some of my own writing, most notably AEFB and the Still novels, except way better.

Tonight, I am pleased and hopeful and impatient and anxious and really glad to only be working five hours tomorrow. I'm so psyched about having the morning free. Now to get ready for bed at a leisurely pace, and read My Bonny Light Horseman until I fall asleep, since the sluggishness of tonight's Internet connection has made using the Internet nigh-on pointless.

Re: TV: I enjoyed House, and Heroes just about killed me with the cracktasticness. Oh, Nathan. Oh, Sylar. Oh, Danko.

Not a terribly productive weekend, which is why I have not posted anything. I've been kind of grumpy and tired this week, for no apparent reason, and am having trouble catching up with myself. From/after what? No idea.

Friday was a wonderful and mellow day, up until the last two hours, which were dull and dragging.

Yesterday I had to do laundry, so it was off to my dad's house. My sister and I went to the Sin City antique mall on Monmouth Street and it was great to wander through slowly and admire all the pretty things--clothes, furniture, jewelry, books (some old Sherlock Holmes books--I've signed off on actively collecting books seeing as how it's expensive and takes up a lot of space and effort, but I can't quite resist the urge to buy interesting editions when I see them. Well, that's a lie, I do resist, but I don't want to.), linens (quilts, tablecloths, and millions of embroidered handkerchiefs), papers (postcards, pictures, prints), lamps, and many, many other lovelies. (I was particularly fascinated by the selection of vintage gambling chips, some of them very expensive, like $50, and some of them very cheap, like $3. I kind of wanted one but wasn't sure what I would do with it. Also, I was curious about why some were very expensive and some not.) My sister said she felt dazed around halfway through.

I only bought two vintage postcards--one sweet and pretty one that had a message on the back written in 1913, and one of the Union Terminal when it was still a train station. (I love the Museum Center at the Union Terminal. The building itself is positively glorious, and also, I spent a lot of my childhood there, and just have nothing but good feelings about that place. I felt obligated to buy that postcard the second I saw it. I couldn't have not bought it.) At some point, they are going to go on my walls as art.

Anyway, we spent an hour or two there and went home all fuzzy and tired. I worked on laundry, and we watched Darkwing Duck. I brought one of my new red chairs upstairs and worked on it with some Pledge and a rag and found the process somewhat disappointing--the red paint is flaking off in many places and hence, at the very least, the thing needs some kind of sealant...or something. Caroline mentioned Mod Podge for furniture recently. Anyway, underneath the red is a green (not nearly as appealing as red), and underneath that is bare wood, so my ideal would be to paint the rough spots and then seal it. I took the one chair I cleaned up to what used to be my room, and it does not look as nice as I'd hoped. At that point, I gave up, and eventually took the other chair back out to the back porch.

I spent much longer than I’d wanted at my dad's house (as usually happens--early on I get distracted by other things, and by the time I'm anxious to leave, I still have like an hour left on my laundry), but Elyse shared her dinner of baked chicken with me (I haven't had it in so, so long and it was delicious!). I went home and put on Arrested Development as something to listen to as I put my laundry away, but by the time I finished all of that (and I think I cleaned a bit around the house too), I was invested, so I just watched the whole rest of the disc. Oh, Arrested Development.

So yesterday I paid my bills, did my laundry, cleaned, enjoyed a very nice stroll through the local antique mall, and bought some lovely postcards.

I haven't done much today--woke early (I keep not sleeping in on weekends--my sleeping-in time is too close to my normal waking-up time and so I'm losing sleep on the weekends because I'm staying up later but not sleeping later), had breakfast, finished sorting and putting away all of the images and articles I tore from various magazines (SO NICE to get that done!), and worked on reading My Bonny Light Horseman, which is due back on Tuesday and which I still have almost two hundred pages left in. Hmm.

Also, I'm still watching Dollhouse and still am not satisfied with it. While the plot is picking up pretty satisfactorily, I feel like the show just completely lacks in passion or personality, and so while I'm still watching, and probably will keep watching, I still feel like I could turn it off anytime and not feel any regret.

And. The Simpsons. I've watched this show for as long as I can remember (at least since I was five). It's always been funny, and I've always watched it regardless of how weird it gets, and the animation has done nothing but progress and get sharper, but for the first time, with this season (twenty), I've been astonished to find it cracktastic. Every episode is lovely, beautiful and sharp and touching and funny and full of continuity. I suppose I'm saying that season twenty manages to be beautiful and fresh despite the fact that it's, well, season twenty.

Other things I did today: I went to Barnes and Noble with Anton and chilled there for a long time (we also stopped and chatted with Robin, as she was there signing her book) (for some reason the only good link I could find on AMZ was to the postcard version, so I'm linking that, but the real version is very cool), went to the Erlanger library where I got a book and some magazines, grabbed a quick lunch from Panera, went to the fabulous Taft Museum and saw the Fashion in Film exhibit (again--though this time I could get a lot closer to the costumes, like practically put my face up to them, and could see around the backs of them easier, and there were at least two that weren't there when I saw it before. Also, pictures weren't allowed this time), went back to the Sin City antique mall where I bought a red striped "tablecloth" (in reality, fabric) I saw yesterday and forgot to buy and a present for Anton. And then to my mom's house and then home, where we watched The Frighteners (a very good movie).

Tonight, after The Simpsons, I meant to do things like wrap presents, do the dishes, fix my towel rack, and something else that's slipped my mind, but instead I sat down and watched two great episodes of Heroes ("Company Man", which is the best episode ever, and "Parasite"), and now it's late and I'm tired and haven't done anything today and I really don't want to go to work tomorrow.

......next weekend I am going to stay home and work and clean and do good things as well as watch TV.

The less said about today, the better. I don't have to work until 11:00 tomorrow--I'll probably not sleep in, but I'm hoping I will a little. In any case, I'm just chilling tonight.

Some links:

Design*Sponge sneak peeks: one, two.

A week or two ago I posted about poking around on the Colonial Williamsburg website to see if they had stuff for sale there. I looked again and didn't find what I really wanted (the Frenchman's map), but found a lot of other stuff. Most of it was hokey. Some of it was cool. Most notably, they sell glass cloches. I LOVE glass cloches! I would totally buy one if I had a place to put it! (See some glass cloches in use in a cool steampunk house here.)

Also, I somehow discovered a very interesting book called The Peter Pan Alphabet, which I believe was written in 1907 and is completely charming. Look, just take a look. I love every single one, but I think my favorites are the x-ray and the home underground. Reminds me of Charles Vess (or the other way around).

Heroes was full of very excellent crack but was somewhat lacking in awesomeness. I think I'm waiting very patiently for those episodes where every other scene is one that makes my jaw drop open at the complete awesome crack. Seriously, I thought due South was a cracktastic show, but it's got nothing on Heroes.

And now for bed--showering and possibly doing (or at least starting) the dishes in the morning, depending on when I get up.

I am here to write about good things, and interesting things I found online. After a grumpy and somewhat stress-filled couple of days, I am here at home, resting with due South, and determined to not leave the house at all tomorrow.

-First off: I may have found the coolest magazine ever. It is called Modern Seamster and I want it. Best of all, you can download the first issue for free and read all the goodness! I am very impressed by a magazine that not only supports modern sewing habits/trends, but also shows how to make your own versions of popular expensive things and has pictures of beautiful vintage things. Hooray.

-I have discovered a term I don't like: glamping. Apparently it is glam + camping. Seriously? Isn't camping fun enough without being glam? And then I discovered this place and my heart was lost. It looks like the eighteenth century. Or something. Whatever, it's beautiful, and it could be mine for the tune of $4700 for a weekend. (I wonder if you could replicate it on your own in a campsite with stuff from a place like Jas. Townsend...of course, I think ultimately it would be way too much effort for one camping trip, lugging furniture around like that...just curious.)

-In that vein, I was trying to see if a particular shop in Colonial Williamsburg had an online store (it doesn't. Not that I could tell, anyway) and happened to visit the site/town's official website. It is supremely cool--my favorite thing was the podcast but there are links for archaeological and architectural research as well. Have I mentioned that I adore Colonial Williamsburg? To me, there is no place more perfect. I'm going to see if I can subscribe to that podcast on iTunes (I may have become something of a podcast whore since deciding that they were good to listen to while doing the dishes), and secretly dream of working--or better yet, living--in Colonial Williamsburg someday.

-Last night I was doing some cleaning and found a flyer from last year from the Baker Hunt Foundation. At the time of receiving it (before I moved, I imagine), I wasn't sure why I got it, since it had been years since I'd taken classes there and stuff. Out of curiosity, I flipped through it and--joy of joys! They offer a wide variety of adult classes. Of course, I can't afford them (not now, at least, and also, I think the registering period is over, but, not being able to afford them, I didn't look into it), but! I've been wanting to take some kind of studio-type drawing class where I could draw the human form and here it was all along! Drawing, painting, ceramics, tai chi, yoga, photography, quilting... Oh, Baker Hunt Foundation, I'm going to keep you firmly in mind this year. (I've been looking for something entertaining and extracurricular to do. I kind of want to do my mom's spin class, except that my mom is in it and...yeah.) Also, in poking around their website, I found that this year they're having a lecture series, including one on historic architecture in May and one on neighborhood movie theaters in September. Awesome.

-If you go here, you can see some very beautiful screencaps (and also some misc. drawings) from the upcoming traditionally animated Disney film The Princess and the Frog. I am so afraid that this movie will flop, meaning that Disney will forever sign off on 2D animation, but it just looks so very beautiful and it's in New Orleans and Randy Newman and 1920s. (Her ball gown has the illusion of a 20s dropped waist or whatever it's called. It doesn't really have that; it's a sash tied around her hips rather than her waist, but it makes it look more 20s!) And if you go here, you can see some very tiny glimpses of footage from The View. It was acting up for my computer so I didn't get to watch all of it but still. Beautiful.

-There is a short break until the next episode of Heroes (really, I just want to see the last two episodes, they who have curious and/or interesting titles), but in the meantime, I have (just now) downloaded the most recent online comic. Most of the comics are kind of eh (which is not to put them at fault; they are only six pages long apiece and if they get too much into the show's actual continuity they run the risk of eventually being retconned), but this one (volume 128, "A Puppet With No Strings") I was interested in right away. Greg Beeman (director, producer, and writer of awesome Heroes-related blog) not only wrote it, but also did the artwork. I was very, very interested and impressed when I read this on his blog, and hastened to download it. Also, it's about a character I grew curious about very quickly last week, Eric Doyle. Basically, I loved the story, and the artwork is funky and cartoony but seems to work for the piece (and the twisted character it accompanies). I kind of wish they would do more with him in the future, especially considering that he has a power to (supposedly, or I think it should) rival what is arguably the greatest power on the show, Sylar's telekinesis. (...wouldn't it be great if the only person who could overcome Sylar and his obsessive telekinesis was Eric Doyle, complete loser hermit puppetmaster twisted guy who has an obsessive mad crush on Meredith? Seriously.)

I am looking forward to getting some things done tomorrow but I'm not even sure what I want to do. Finances and budget? Crocheting? Covering my pillows (alas, just about the only sewing project I can work on just now, lacking the supplies for one and the instructions for the other)? Writing in AEFB or revising in POH? Reading Mississippi Jack or Bridge of Birds? Baking? All of the above? As far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm at home, I don't care what I'm doing.

A hopefully-very-quick entry when I should be going to bed. Will be going to bed soon.

This whole time change thing is killing me. I'm tired all the time and I felt like a zombie all day today until we got out on the playground this afternoon.

On the bright side, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather while it's here (supposed to go down again starting tomorrow, after 72-degree weather), and took a walk with Anton over the bridge after work. It wasn't a long walk, and it was a bit overcast, but the temperature was nice, and it felt good to be walking outdoors.

Real work (the one I get paid for) is a double-edged sword this week--some difficulties that I shall not go into, plus this is the week when I don't teach, so when we're not over, I get stuck with tasks like cleaning chairs or other busy work, basically. On the one hand, it's nice to be out of the classroom, but on the other hand, that stuff gets really old, really fast, and it's always easier in the classroom to have two people. That said, today was a fairly mellow day.

Other work--AEFB. I did some researching last night and discovered that every other novel I've written (if, I say somewhat disdainfully, they can be called so, considering that they were never officially finished) is significantly longer than my more recent ones. POH is extremely short for a novel, and AEFB felt really long to me until I compared it to my older stuff. Tonight I got some related work (not writing) done, and then wrote 1600 words. Above all--meaning that this is the important thing--I am writing at least a thousand words every day.

I am close to finishing the novel and I think I can finish it by the 30th, but I can't really say how close I am to finishing it. Most, if not all (I can't really remember for POH) of my other novels I mapped out the late middles and endings to, chapter-by-chapter, but this one, I have not. I've written notes to myself and plotted out the basic ending in my mind to the point where I know I won't forget it, but there is no outline. Two pieces of it are already written. I'm hoping it won't take me more than a couple of weeks. I also must not forget POH, which I think is a wonderful, strange, anti-climactic novel that probably no one would like.

Must remember to write more later about writing vs. wordsmithing--a thought I had recently.

Today I finished In the Belly of the Bloodhound, which I think is the fourth Jacky Faber book, and which I was somewhat disappointed with. It kind of felt like Princess Academy except on a ship and I kept expecting it to be as awesome as Princess Academy and it wasn't. And, more disappointingly, Jacky never did anything wrong, never made mistakes, never really got into a tight spot, never learned anything new. Because of all of this, I'm feeling a bit stale on the series, but since they're quick reads and I have the last two checked out, I'm going to at least give Mississippi Jack a try before trying something else. I'm willing to give the series the benefit of the doubt.

Extreme monetary difficulties (well, okay, not extreme, like, I don't have to worry about eating or paying my rent; I've just suddenly had a severe shortage of money that's making me panic a little) are making me set severe spending limits on myself until the problem is fixed. That is difficult, because I am a total shopaholic, but whatever. (Even more difficult is that there are six books coming out next month that I want to read. Six! And most of them I'd be willing to buy! New Butcher (well, I wouldn't read that for a while anyway), new Pierce, new Mary Russell, new Wrede (I love everything she writes! And this is a new series/book/something!), new Disney art book, and the Smart Bitches book! Many can be obtained from the library or friends, but--oh cruel fate, how you mock me!)

I bought groceries after my walk tonight, and was very pleased with my dinner: a turkey burger on, instead of a hamburger bun, two heels of bread, broiled with peanut oil and garlic powder, and on the burger I put two thin slices of sharp cheddar and a lot of baby spinach, and on the side I had wonderful crunchy green beans, which I haven't had in like a week and are one of my staples. To top it all off? Girl Scout cookies.

So: not a great day, but not a bad one, and one where I spent lots of time outside, got some exercise, ate a delicious and interesting dinner, got food without overspending, got some good novel-related work done, and wrote. I feel pretty content, and can only hope that tomorrow will be as successful (but fear that it won't).

(PS: Heroes good, but not as good as last week. Where is all the awesomeness, Heroes? House was fabulous, except for the fact that Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer are still in the opening credits and Kal Penn and the girl who plays Thirteen and that other dude are not. Seriously, House?)

A nice and mellow day at work, but kind of a crappy evening at home. I only had four kids at work today, and most of them were very well-behaved. It was a nice break from yesterday's eleven kids.

As the day wore on, it got worse, though--many of my coworkers got to leave early, but I, as a closer, never get to skip out an hour early again. (On the one hand, I'd rather have the money, but sometimes I would really like the opportunity to leave early.) In the end, I was stuck in a different room than I'm normally in with the last remaining kids over the age of one in the entire building. There were eight of them, but they all left by about ten after six. Then I had to close down my room, and only then could I go home--only ten minutes early, and actually, a pretty normal time for a normal day.

I was glad to get home, and glad to get mail, but was not so glad upon opening the mail: a paltry refund check from Kentucky, and a much-bigger-than-expected gas/electric bill. Fabulous.

Then came dinner--leftovers and baby spinach--and reading In the Belly of the Bloodhound. (Fourth in the Jacky Faber series. So far Curse of the Blue Tattoo is still my favorite, and while I find all of them enjoyable, in this one, I'm kind of wishing that someone would punch Jacky, or upstage her, or something. Preferably Clarissa.) Also, The Simpsons.

Later, I watched Dollhouse, which just confuses me and doesn't engage me. I'm only really watching it because I feel vaguely obligated to, in that I've never watched a Joss Whedon project I didn't enjoy in some way, at some time, but so far it's just failing.

While watching, I was sitting on the floor working my way through the rest of my magazine collection. (This is very good. I discovered that there are a few left at my dad's house, but aside from that, the magazines have been reduced to a much, much smaller pile.) At one point, I looked up and saw a bug. Now, I don't like bugs. I don't like to kill them, either. So far I have found three bugs in my apartment. The second bug was only two days ago, in the hallway, sort of resembling a lightning bug. It took several tries to squash it. (I don't like to kill bugs, but I would rather kill them than suffer their presence, unfortunately, and being on the third floor of an apartment building means it's hard to rescue them, should that be my desire.) Tonight, sitting on the floor, the exact same kind of bug was loping along on the floor maybe a foot from me. I rather thought he was limping, but maybe I imagined it. I made quick work of him and now am paranoid of an infestation.

This weekend, I am going to vacuum, clean floors, and clean the bathroom.

Also, the Internet has been stubborn tonight, not entirely bad since I can easily find other things to do, but it's annoying regardless.

Good things:

-My first week teaching my new class is over. Now I have a week to relax before going back into my half of the lesson plan.

-Last night over The Simpsons I assembled my new Ikea chair, all by myself. It's nice, and I've been meaning to do it for weeks. I just wish I had the teal one and not the lime one.

-Two nights ago, on advice of my sister, I made a scramble for dinner using sliced turkey, sharp cheddar cheese, and baby spinach, with salt and pepper. It was SO SO GOOD. I want to make another one, except that I'm out of turkey.

-Tomorrow my sister and I are going on an excursion: first, to see Watchmen, and then to pick up the new Futurama, and then to watch it at my place. I promised her popcorn.

-I have Heroes season three score music.

-I've been writing regularly, at least a thousand words every night. I'm not really keeping up with the exact amount from day to day--yesterday was 1100 words and after the day is over I tend to forget how much I wrote the previous day--but I'm pleased.

-The weather is finally turning warm and mild and pleasant, making me happy, but unfortunately by next Thursday it's supposed to have dropped back into the 40s. Not cool.

-I've been watching season one of Heroes and now I've gotten into the lengthy and interesting and plotty episodes post-"Homecoming". (Though, in most things, there are good episodes, and there are awesome episodes. To me, most episodes of Heroes are good, but very few are awesome, and a handful are bad or lame.) I haven't watched any today, but it's wonderful, and the second two seasons have their moments--sometimes very awesome moments--but do not compare to the slow, epic grandeur of season one.

-I'm still, slowly, reading volume eleven of Fables. I also discovered that the library has something like four volumes of Jack of Fables, which I figure I might as well read (or try, at least), for completeness.

-On the way home from work today I got stuck behind a truck towing a little trailer along behind it. The trailer had the name of a stable on it, which has slipped my mind, with a phrase something like, "Caution: thoroughbreds within" on the back and side. I thought it was amusing.

And now I think I might crochet for a while. Eventually, I will write.

Yesterday was a bad day for being diligent. I should just sign off on Mondays completely; usually, I get home, make dinner, and then eat and watch TV, and by the time Heroes is over with, and I've written down my thoughts about it, it's time to shower and go to bed.

Yesterday was particularly bad because in the morning before work I was working to prepare for the day's art project and lesson plan and making sure I had everything gathered that I needed after work, and after work I had errands to run--to Hancock's to arrange for a refund, to my mom's to work on a project, to the grocery store. And then Heroes was awesome and explained many things to me, such as, "Why would Noah marry someone so fluffy like Sandra?" and "What is wrong with Sylar and why?" Yay.

Sunday was pleasant too. Anton and I went to this steak place whose name has slipped my mine--Smokey Msomething. It was out by IKEA and we went because I was owed a steak dinner (don't ask, it's a long story) and because he swore that they had the best doughnuts ever. I was intrigued. This place was amazing. I ordered a mojito (actually, a Smojito) and it in itself was delicious, but also, the bartender accidentally put a dash of Coke in it and brought that one as well as the ordinary one to the table, and the Coke one was astonishingly delicious--better than the regular Smojito. The next time I have a mojito, I am putting a bit of Coke in it. Then came the cornbread (I adore cornbread), which was also in itself good, but came with pecan honey butter that made the cornbread even more delicious. And then there was my steak, which was supposed to have a garlic sauce on it, but which they accidentally added mushroom sauce to, so I had this delicious and perfect garlicy steak with all these tiny little puffs of garlicy steaky mushrooms to snarf up as well. It goes without saying that I ate too much and felt ill, but it was worth it.

We had to take the doughnuts home and reheat them. They were excellent cake doughnuts that tasted very good warm, coated in cinnamon and sugar. They came with chocolate and strawberry dipping sauces, but I wouldn't eat the strawberry and thought the doughnuts tasted better without the chocolate (which tasted rather like ordinary chocolate sauce bought in a squeeze bottle). SO SO GOOD.

And then to the circus, which I thought at first would be sort of cheesy, but ended up being entertaining. There were many, many girls in sparkly and revealing costumes, which I did not approve of, but there were also men riding standing up on the backs of two horses, lines of elephants performing tricks, tigers performing tricks, trapeze artists, contortionists, and the ringmaster had a nice singing voice. During and after the show, I wondered aloud how one gets into the circus--if you're a talented gymnast, can you audition? Do you have to be invited? Is it just a family thing? In the case of the ringmaster, do you just need to have a good voice?

I had to run a couple of errands after work today, but made it home in time to catch most of The Simpsons and made a fabulous dinner of sausage, corn muffins, and tons of baby spinach, which I ate while watching. Then I lay in bed and read Under the Jolly Roger, which is the third book in the Jacky Faber series, and enjoyable (though not, I think, as enjoyable as Curse of the Blue Tattoo). And then I wrote 1900 words in AEFB. I'm hoping to push out another hundred after my shower, to make up for the fact that I wrote nothing at all yesterday and to kind of make it okay.

Plans for the week:

1. Make significant dent in magazine pile, if not eliminate it entirely

2. Finish Roger (this will not be a problem; I think I started it yesterday and I'm more than halfway through it) and start on the next book (having picked up the remaining three books in the series today from the library)

3. Make pudding--by Friday (for school)

4. Do dishes--tomorrow

5. Saturday: go see Watchmen with Wees, possibly at posh new theater out in Erlanger; also go to Best Buy or someplace so she can buy the new and last Futurama. Possibly hang around to watch said Futurama. Possibly go somewhere to buy some paint for my desk.

My current quest is for sheets. I thought vaguely I might like to get pink ones, as white bores me and I've had dark blue for many years and I could maybe go with brown or maybe less with teal or something but pink sounded like a nice color. (My living/bedroom is starting to get overwhelmed with red and green, and I wanted to throw some other colors, like pink and teal, in there.) I want cotton--not sateen--sheets with a nice thread count in pink. This is apparently a tall order. I found lots of nice things at Pottery Barn Kids (or Teen), but they are out of my general price range. I may have to reconsider the color...maybe pale blue?

I was at Hancock's the other day on an errand for work and was only a little bit bad and only bought a little bit of fabric for myself--some gold and white upholstery fabric that is perfect and I've been looking for for ages and ages (except there is too little of it, but I couldn't not buy it), and some upholstery fabric that is striped in chartreuse, another green, and a pale blue, which looks very nice with my couch and which I'm going to do something with but haven't decided what yet. Originally it was to cover my desk chair seat in but now I'm not sure I like it. (Second choice for that is this great fabric, which I am going to go back and buy a couple yards of once I can afford it.)

So now I'm going to have a glass of water, put away the rest of my laundry and the drying rack, rinse my dishes to clear up some counter space, and then take a nice shower, write some more, and probably work on the magazine pile before going to bed (or possibly Fables), since I've read so much of Roger today.

Overall, not a great day, but at least I didn't spend it all watching TV and was moderately productive. Hooray!