tarotgal

Okay... I haven't posted a lot, recently here's a summary of things...

I was supposed to go to a company dinner in Front Royal, VA on Thursday. I took time off and everything, but it was cancelled because bosses and chef were sick. It'll be rescheduled.

I got another BookCrossing catch the other day! I'd left the book at a shopping center where I'd never had a real catch before (I had a horrible feeling janitors were throwing the books away) so I was sooooooo excited to see that! I have technically had a catch there before, but it was from another BookCrosser who went there just to get the book. Incidentally, that same bookcrosser LEFT 'The Hundred Secret Senses' by Amy Tan there the other day while I was at work. After work I rushed over and it was still there. That makes my 4th ever catch! And a new book to read :-)

I got the name for my partner in the Not-So-Secret-Halloween-Surprise (NSSHS) for BookCrossing. So now I get to put together a little carepackage for her of books and Halloween stuff. I'm very excited. I did the BookCrossing ornament exchange last year, which was great and I want to do that again. But I loooooooooove Halloween so I'm going to have lots of fun with this!

We got our fence for the backyard yesterday while I was at work. Came home and let the dog out in the backyard without a leash for the first time. He was in heaven! Ran around like a crazy dog, we all played with him & threw his ball (he loves chasing it but doesn't bring it back- he's a terrier, not a retriever). The fence looks nice and the backyard currently smells like Hechingers or Home Depot *G* It was strange to wake up this morning and see it outside my window. I'm used to looking back into the long expance of trees behind the house, not seeing a fence. But it kind of makes the backyard feel like OURS now, too. I'm happy with it.

Hal didn't get voted off Celebrity Duets! YAY! But Jai left. I'm soooooooooooo sad about that. I did send about 20 votes Jai's way on Thursday night. But I spent the rest of the two hours solidly calling for Hal's sake. OMG, must have been about 200 votes from me! I did watch ER while calling, though. WHOA!!! What an episode!!!

I taped and watched Queer as Folk on LOGO on Thursday when it debued. And OMG there were scenes I'd never seen before!!!!!!!! Of course, they cut some of the sexual content and all the bad words were bleeped out, but it was sooooooooooooo worth watching for those extra scenes! One of which was taken from the UK pilot, which amused me to see in there. I have NO idea where those scenes came from. They're not on the deleted scenes in the DVDs, even. But I was so excited to see them. Except now I'm going to have to tape the entire five years of episodes now just for the possibility of new scenes. LOL

I bought some new DVDs from the $5 Walmart bin yesterday. Stephen King's IT (which I LOVE but only have taped-off-the-sci-fi-channel), Short Circuit, and Jumanji (which I gave my parents as a present years ago, but now I have my own copy).

There's a writing conference in Santa Barbara next summer that I'm thinking of attending. I miss Santa Barbara (and would be able to visit my grand parents' memorial tree & marker) and the conference looks AMAZING. Some of the speakers include Gregory Maguire (Wicked, Son of a Witch), Ray Bradbury, and Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay it Forward) and the workshops look fantastic, too. It's EXPENSIVE but if I keep saving, I might be able to afford it.

Speaking of which, my new website for work was launched on Thursday. It's for Writers' Conferences & Centers (a directory, basically). It uses CSS and layers instead of tables and that's the first time I've ever designed a website that way (the "new" way to design websites). So I'm REALLY proud of myself for learning that and putting it together. And everyone thinks it looks good, soo, so yay :-)

Numb3rs last night stressed me out! LOL

Oh, for the first time since 9-11 I've begun feeling not safe again (thanks to certain speeches at the UN, especially Bush's). I fucking hate that guy. He scares and annoys the shit out of me. But I've always loved Clinton and his new initiative ROCKS, IMHO. Plus I think it's HILARIOUS that lately the Republicans are the ones who want the government to have more control and the former president Democrat is the one wanting private citizens and companies to use their money to find programs. It's like we suddenly live in opposite country.

My Apple laptop battery was one of the ones recalled. Still waiting for the replacement.

I was going to go to the zoo today to release animal books... but I reluctantly decided against it. They're opening a new Asia section on Oct 17th so it'd be kind of silly to go now, I think. Which is sad, for the books. But I'll just save the books until the same animal challenge next year and go then. I have released more books than needed to participate in this year's animal challenge already.

I finished Icebound by Dean Koontz on audio book. It was a struggle getting through the beginning- kept wanting to give up. But I'm glad I did because I loved it by the end.

I'm nearly done with the Strokes story I've been wanting to write for ages now. But I can't post it for a LONG while. I'm getting REALLY excited about NaNoWriMo in November. Sign-up starts October 1st! I'm there baby!

I currently have an addiction to Cheez-Its. Which is weird because they're a little too cheesy for me... but I can't stop eating them. At least they're the reduced fat kind. I'm finishing a box at home and just bought a box for work.

Speaking of work, on Friday I was the only one in my department there! The director went home/to the doctor because she had a rash (that I couldn't see) and thought she had a fever. The assistant director was on vacation. And the associate director called in sick. So it was just me in publications! Lonely! But I cranked up my music as loud as I wanted *G* At one point, during lunch, everyone was out of the building except for me and the head boss. It was kind of neat. Sometimes I'm the first one there in the morning and it feels so cool, like I own the place for a few minutes. I feel a lot of ownership for it, actually, since I'm in charge of all the computers and the network, too. I still love it there muchly.

Speaking of music, all the Capitals' preseason games are available online in mp3. So guess what I'll be listening to at work now? SQUEE! They lost their first game to TB, but won last night against the Penguins. Neither our Vechy nor their Whiney (er, Crosby) played, and it was a close game (5-4, we won in overtime). But the guys are coming together as a team and soon it'll be time for REAL hockey! WHOOHOO!

I'm on my third load of laundry today. Somehow, not as exciting as the zoo, but it had to be done. Plus it's REALLY windy here today and supposed to rain tomorrow so I wouldn't have wanted to leave books outside anyway.

Oh, I also picked up a paperback copy of Goblet of Fire at the library today (sale shelf). Whoohoo! Now all I need are books 5, 6, and 7 in paperback. I plan to (one day) go through with post-it notes and tag pages for events, spells, potions, characters, etc.

And AIDS WALK! Just a couple weeks away now! :-)

I'm sure there's more... but if I can't think of it now, it's probably so unimportant that it'll put you to sleep, if this hasn't already!