It Started with a Journal

I'm soooo bored. It's really nice not to have to work, but other than that I don't have much to do here. I did get a massage this morning, which was the first time in over a year, I think. Many, many knots in my shoulders and back tension from the car accident, but I feel a bit better now. Getting another one next week.

On Saturday my uncle is taking the entire extended family (about 20 of us) to Wood Ranch. It is going to cost him a freaking fortune.

I am so, so excited about my Patagonia purchases. They have free 2-day shipping for orders over $100 right now so I totally took advantage of that. I only wish their Web site were updated in real time with their inventory. Last night I was browsing their Web specials and found an El Cap jacket in ice blue and it was surprisingly available in a medium (usually items in their sale section are only available in less-common sizes), so I placed an order for 2 of them, intending one for my mom. This morning I was told that 1 medium was reserved for me, but the other was no longer in stock. Grrrr. Overnight the XS, S, and M had sold out. Crazy! So I just had them send me a large instead. I figure if it's too big I can just wear stuff under it. I also got the same jacket in cream (it's like a light fleece, so I can wear it in the house) as well as an Ascensionist jacket, which is for wind/rain (aka, Seattle weather). That's on top of my Upside of Down jacket that I've already gotten and love. I figure these are good investments considering where I live, and I can use Christmas money toward the purchases. :D

I guess it's time to play with my DS.

My cousin is hooked on A Song of Fire and Ice. Mwahahaha. She said to be sure I gave her the 4th book before I leave (on Tuesday!). She's in the middle of the 3rd book and was shocked -- SHOCKED!! -- when you-know-what happens.

Have you ever seen the movie Taken? It's one of those movies I was vaguely interested in when I saw the preview for it, even though the premise isn't very original. However Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, and Maggie Grace are in it and I like all those actors. Anyway, it didn't seem to make a big impression on anyone I knew so I totally forgot about it (though I guess it did well at the box office. But so do movies that are worthlessly inane, so...). But it was actually a really great action/suspense film! I would totally rec it. I mean, if you are OK with violence. The female roles are really, really lame though -- I have no idea why FJ and MG would agree to them. I mean, they're not A-list actresses or anything but they certainly can do better than typical-ex-wife and super-naive-teenage daughter. Also, MG was *so* miscast. I mean, she played a 20-something on Lost, and in this movie, which was made after Lost, she was supposed to be a really young 17 ... it was ridiculous. She was 25 when the movie was made. She did a lot of running in the movie and I don't know if that's just how MG runs or if she was trying to appear younger, but she seriously looked like Phoebe doing the crazy running on Friends.

Took S. to the airport super early this morning ... it was hours before sunrise (cry). Afterward went over to my cousin's to help with the kids. ( Of course, catastrophe ensued. )

I have to do my dishes and laundry, then pack. I'm procrastinating because there's so much crap I need to remember to bring and I just know I'm going to forget something, ugh. I'm going to be gone so long I'll have to remember to pay my bills. >< I still haven't decided if I want to pay the fee to check in a bag or not. The convenience of it makes me want to do it, but the part of me that chafes at giving the airlines even one red cent more than I have to doesn't. It's just not right that even the first one costs money.

Happy day-before-U.S.-T-Day!

I am so tired. Up late last night and then had to wake up early, bleh. And why was I up late? Playing WoW. That's right, I've gone back to the dark side. S. is constantly raiding and they were looking for a healer and I still have friends in the guild, so why not? I'm just going to take it far less seriously this time and also accept no positions of responsibility. That's really what ruined it for me last time. Another thing that's kind of fun is that I'm a disc priest now. :D I've never healed with a full disc spec, usually I went holy or holy/disc. It's taking some getting used to, but I actually like it. It's not THAT different from holy, though disc is less useful as a direct raid healer (it's more of a damage mitigator). Very good single target healer though (so good for MT, though possibly not as good as a holy pally, damn their plate-wearing hides). The biggest thing I'll have to get used to is that meters mean exactly squat for me now. So much of my usefulness comes in the form of, as I said, mitigation, so until meters start counting absorption rates I'll always be lowest on the healing meters. I'm fine w/ that as long as the guild realizes that, but it seems unlikely. People are and always will be obsessed with meters. Still, I'm having to think about my gear very differently than I did before. I used to stack spirit like crazy and now I wouldn't spit on it if it were on fire.

When my mom was here visiting she mentioned that she thought my hair was too dry. I was like, really? I mean, it's not brittle or anything, but it certainly isn't all satiny and silky like those models in shampoo commercials. She was like, yes, sometimes what I'll do is put olive oil in my hair, leave it on for 15-20 minutes, then shampoo and rinse like normal. So last night I tried it, thinking my hair was going to be awesome. It wasn't. It was the opposite of awesome. It was greasy and disgusting, even after shampooing. I knew there was something wrong when I was blow drying it and it still looked wet even way after it would normally have been dry... and that's because it WAS dry, it was just greasy! Ugh. Luckily after washing it again this morning my hair's back to normal. Though that could be because I made sure to use Big (by Lush), which is really good about removing oily deposits. I should probably use that less than I do because using it constantly is probably very harsh on my hair, which is probably what made my mom make the remark about my hair being dry in the first place.

My car's still in the shop. With the Thanksgiving break coming up it's probably not going to be done until mid to late next week. Sigh. I really, really miss my car. It's even less now that I miss the luxuries as it is that I miss something that's MINE, that has all my little knick knack stuff in it, that I don't have to think of as temporary, etc. One good piece of news (though, only relatively -- it's not as good as, say, not having been rear ended in the first place)... early on, I insisted that I wanted brand-new OEM parts (as in, genuine Lexus parts. They hit a car that had that, and were not going to get away with replacing with generic parts). Everything was agreed to except the bumper, in which they wanted to use a reconditioned part (but which was a Lexus part) rather than a new one. After the whole nightmare with the rental (oh yeah, I need to share the letter I wrote), I really didn't want to have to fight with Farmers about the stupid bumper, and yet I felt aggrieved. I mean, the accident was their fault, the difference between a new bumper and the reconditioned one was $150, and on a $6,000+ repair you want to quibble about $150?! Screw you. The auto body shop (which has been great) said that what they could do was to order the reconditioned part, try to find something wrong with it, and then say that they couldn't use it because of XYZ reason. Since I was/am sick of dealing with all this crap I said that was fine, because a bumper is a bumper, not an engine. Anyway, apparently the reconditioned part came and there *was* something wrong with it, like the tabs didn't fit my car or something, so the auto body shop ordered a brand-new OEM one for me like I had originally wanted. So HA, stupid insurance company.

I finally had my blood tested again, and while my cholesterol wasn't good, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, either. Yay for that. I can't remember the specific numbers for each thing, but basically my LDL was a bit elevated, but my HDL was OK so that helped a bit. What's not so good is that apparently my thyroid was up again. This happened last year and when I got retested it was back down to normal... now it's up and I'm going to be tested again in 3 months and if it's still up my doctor's going to refer me to an endocrinologist. :/ Why is my body doing this to me, why. But speaking of my doctor, apparently she was selected by Seattle magazine as one of the 2009 doctors of the year! Coolness. Now I have to give a shout out to romanticalgirl for referring me to her. :D

I've been playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village on my DS. I loves me some puzzles! Some of them drive me inSANE though.

Going to have a very quiet Thanksgiving (as I do every year ... I hate flying so I can't imagine flying home for the holiday when I'm going to be going again in December). It's just going to be me, my cousin, and her 6-month-old baby. She didn't want to travel with him, so her husband/daughters are going to his family gathering w/o them. We're ordering one of those prepared meals from Whole Foods, which was (imho) hideously expensive, but neither of us could face the thought of cooking a big Tday meal just for the two of us.

Finally, I snagged a plane ticket for my December vacation for like, the best price ever. Seriously the best price I've ever paid to travel to SoCal -- $59/one way for a nonstop flight on Alaska. Usually it's more than double that. Of course, I'll have Talis with me so that's not all I'll have to pay. His flight in the cargo hold costs $100/one way, which is seriously highway robbery since it's not like he gets any special treatment and is basically treated like a piece of luggage. Grrrr airlines. Still, it's cheaper than boarding him or shipping him off separately.

Oh -- because I said I'd post this. The letter I wrote to Enterprise/the story of how they wronged me. It's really super long though, so if you're not interested in reading a bunch of ranting/complaining, do not click. ( Bad, Enterprise! Bad! )

Well, I'm back at my parents'. Long story short, with my ankle woes and Jade's dog's anxiety/health issues, it's just easier and less stress for everyone involved. This way I can be in my own bed (sort of), I can easily reach the sink, etc. (Jade's counters and what not are extra tall), Mal isn't all stressed out, and my parents can take me to the airport with relative ease, which is important considering I'm going to have Talis along with heavy luggage and dealing with my ankle. Oh yeah, AND Aunt Flo is visiting (and with her arrival, the realization of what I forgot to pack this time), so really, just best all around.

I saw 6 movies on this trip (not counting random stuff on TV). I always watch more movies every year around this time than I do all the rest of the year put together. ( Ranked in order of enjoyment: )

I'd still like to see The Reader and Revolutionary Road, because I adore Kate Winslet and I'm sure one or the other will garner some kind of Academy Award nomination. Though she won't win, just to spite me.

Once again, as happens every year, I have purchased more than my luggage will fit, so I've mailed some stuff home, including an $88 750gb external hard drive that I had Jade get for me on Black Friday. I always overload my computer hard drive with all my movies, music, and photos, so hopefully this will help. And of course, there's all of my mother's designer purses (mostly Gucci) that I'm going to sell on eBay, hopefully for a sum that will make her happy. She's not too sure of this eBay thing, so I'd like to pleasantly surprise her.

( And now for some random photos. )

Tonight my mom is cooking, which I'm really looking forward to because I have been eating out waaaaaaaaaay too much.

It's been two weeks since I made any kind of 'real' post, so here we go!

First, I've been making a lot of food. I haven't even posted it all yet. My food blog has the skinny. One thing I did want to share here, though, which is that this cake:



... was tossed in the garbage. :( It was my Daring Bakers challenge for November, and too incredibly sweet for, well, anyone. It's a shame too, because it came out well otherwise. The browned butter in the frosting really made for an amazing flavor. I knew when I first read the recipe that it had way too much sugar in it and I probably wouldn't like it (and this from someone who definitely has a sweet tooth!). I hesitated to lessen the amount of sugar, however, because that affects the liquid content and other factors of the cake, and I'm not yet comfortable enough with making cakes that I thought I could change amounts and still have it come out well. I suppose I might as well have, since it's going uneaten either way.

I had a very quiet Thanksgiving. It's just not the same when you live hundreds of miles from family and close friends. My cousin and I went to have hot pot, which was nice and comforting in its own way.

It's a little over two weeks until my winter vacation starts, thank God. I'm going to be in LA for 3 weeks. I'm so burned out, I can't wait to get out of here. All I need to do is get Talis to the vet after the 6th for a health certificate, and I'm set for everything else. I think. Speaking of Talis ... a few weeks ago I had a scare because I felt a little bump on his back by his tail. I took him to the vet and she said that she wasn't concerned because a) he's eating and behaving normally; b) the bump was really small; and c) it's common for dogs to start growing warts and skin imperfections as they get older. However, I needed to keep an eye on it. I think it's grown bigger. :( Not by much, but still, bigger is not good. Here's hoping it's just some kind of cyst or something.

I just got The Zuni Cafe Cookbook, but I wasn't allowed to read it until a few days ago (for reasons I will disclose later -- mysterious, ain't I?), so last night I settled into bed with it and it made me so happy, even though my stomach was growling after reading a few recipes. I just love the way it's written. It makes me want to take a trip to San Francisco just to eat there. I hope I get to, at least once in my life!

Also I wanted to thank jade_okelani for her birthday gift. See, Jade believes in the "birthday month," in which the month of your birthday is your whole birthday month. I said that no, one's birthday should only really be celebrated for the actual day of birth, not the whole month. However, she's converted me. Her gift was a month's worth of little notes and/or homemade jewelry, which I opened one per day, and they always brought a smile to my face. At the end of the 30 days (why couldn't I have been born in a month with 31 days? Oh well, at least I'm not a poor February baby), the 'real' present was revealed, which was this awesome scrapbooked picture frame, which not only has many pictures of us on various escapades, but also has little mementos of things that we collected while on those escapades. It is awesome. Yesterday was the last day of my "birth month" so now it's over and I'm sad. Still, I got to enjoy my entire "birthday month" so thank you Jade!

I've started to watch True Blood at the behest of a friend. All I have to say is, people who like the show but diss Twilight are total hypocrites. (If that's you, sorry, but it's true.) They are practically the same thing other than the locations and the ages of the protagonists. I don't hate either, but am not enamored of either. TB's been fairly entertaining so far, but far below the bar HBO has set for their many excellent TV shows. And the vampire lore so far doesn't hold a candle to the Buffy/Angel verses.