tarotgal

So, I think I've stumbled upon my 2011 calendar. I'm leaning toward the Pre-Raphaelite 2011 Wall Calendar, however there's also a lovely John William Waterhouse 2011 Wall Calendar which looks lovely, except there is tons of whitespace around some of the pieces (especially the landscape ones). It's possible the Pre-Raph ones are similar and the thumbnail just doesn't show it. But all the whitespace is strange to me. Maybe I'd be able to do something fun and creative, though, like put quotes or stickers or something *shrug* Anyway, crisis over. I just have to decide which I like better.

Today at the write-in, I passed 50,000 words for NaNoRebel. Because I'm not doing real NaNoWriMo, I won't be validating. But it was nice to meet my own goal and I got a ton written (though not nearly all I had hoped to). I have now finished 4 out of 5 fics for hc_bingo and I've started the fifth (which will be short and easy to write, as it's the cold/illness one and my elf and dwarf are cooperating nicely).

To celebrate hitting the word goal, I took a break during the write-in to use my 40% off Borders coupon. I really wanted to buy Doctor Who Series 5 on DVD, and the inventory in the story said they had 1 copy, but neither I nor a store employee could find it (I found Doctor Who: Dreamland, which I don't have. And I found the set of 4 specials, and season 4, and season 2, and about 30 older Doctor DVDs... but no 5!). Finally, the employee found a copy for me behind the counter... only it was Blu-Ray (and my Blu-Ray player has since stopped working). After lots of debate, I bought it anyway, even though it was priced at $90 (ACK!). I got 40% off it, though. On top of that, I had a 10% personal shopping day to use there. And on top of that, I had 10% because I finally broke down and bought a Borders Plus membership. I usually will NOT do paid memberships, as a rule. But it was only $20 and you get $10 back in store credit. And already, since I've bought it, I've saved more than $8. So as long as I spend enough at Borders to save $2 over the next ELEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS it will have paid for itself. Plus, you get free shipping online on an order of ANY amount. And after 5 beverages at the cafe, you get a 6th free (and I've already bought 3, thanks to all these write-ins). So... I think it was worth it for me. Also at Borders with my 10% off and another 10% off, I bought a couple of chocolate frogs and the little Hedwig cage box set I considered buying months and months ago. Andif you bought a Harry Potter item, you got a free patch. They had exactly two patches left: one Slytherin, one Hufflepuff (um, so I got the Hufflepuff one). Yay for free Harry Potter stuff! Squee! It was a nice way to celebrate "winning" NaNoWriMo for a 5th time. (Oohhh Doctor Who Series 5, and my 5th year of NaNoWriMo! Perfect!)

On an unrelated note, I finished watching Doc Martin this weekend. I'm happy that they'll do a 5th series, even if it won't come out for another year or two. Thank you to my British & Irish friends who recommended I watch that show. And I started watching MI-5 (Spooks) yesterday. I finished season 1 this morning (OMG what an ending!). My favorite episode was definitely the one with ASH. So great to see him in anything. I'm almost done with Farscape as well (just one disc left in Season 4). And I got 3 out of 7 Netflix/Blockbuster Online discs watched this weekend alone. And I watched Elf with the family on Friday during/after our belated Thanksgiving dinner. So it has been a nice holiday weekend, all things considered :-)

Um, I also bought a GAZILLION BookCrossing labels because of their Black Friday deals (when I say Gazillion, I really mean about 400, but that's still a TON). I'll be giving away most of them for the Convention in April. I didn't go shopping in stores on Black Friday, but I did buy from Amazon.com (I got Prison Break Season 3 REALLY cheap, the Prison Break after series thing EXTREMELY cheap, the Big Bang Theory Seaon 3 on discount, and Ewan's Ghost Writer movie for pretty damn cheap, too). And I bought from the Harry Potter Alliance in their Sirius Black Friday deals. I now finally have an HPA shirt to wear to HPA meetings (one of which I have next Monday; we're making care packages for the Orphan Foundation of America) and I bought a tote bag for myself and one to offer as a prize in Accio Books next March. I also bought some Wizard Rock the Vote buttons I tried to buy months ago but they were out of stock. So forget cyber Monday. I've already got a head start on the buying!

Actually, I've been doing a good job with present-buying this year. I already have a small present for my sister, a piece of pottery I bought my dad when I was in Salem, MA, and a book for my mom which was autographed by Diana Gabaldon (whose books we bonded over). And I bought the family a few presents already as well. I've already got the presents for my coworkers. And I have presents for several of my friends already taken care of. I need to buy a few more for family. And I need to work on these Christmas Crackers I'm making for the DADA party on Saturday (DAMNIT, the buttons I bought on eBay haven't arrived, and I bought them November 15. WTF?! NEED NOW!!!). On a whole, though, I'm more ahead of the game as far as Christmas than I have EVER been before, and it feels great. This "buying things throughout the year" thing is such a great concept :-)