sarea: (annie)
I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, Talis went for his eye checkup yesterday and he's in the clear! The eye has healed, so for the first time in WEEKS he got to go around without the cone on. You'd think he'd look happier. )

Now I'm thinking of getting pet insurance. J. raves about how great hers is, and I've been told that eye ulcers are very common in Lhasa Apsos, so it's almost certainly going to recur, probably in the eye that was unaffected before. ><

The bad news is, my Pontiac died. This is my secondary car that I use to take Talis around places and to park at the park & ride so that I don't have to worry about bad thngs happening to my primary car, so it's not a huge deal, it's just a bummer. I was hoping that it would last longer than it did, but also am surprised that it lasted as long as it did. I spent $1,500 on the car, plus maybe $200 in repairs, so it basically cost me about $100/month to own. I'm OK with that. Specifics on the car breaking down. )

So now I'm looking to donate the car. I read up about the various things to watch out for, such as the fact that many charities use for-profit companies to manage the selling of the car and keep part of the proceeds. I read that you should donate to a charity that gets at least 85% of the proceeds. But that has been IMPOSSIBLE to find. I also think it's kind of B.S. Only really big charities are able to do in-house car donations; most have to go through a third-party to do it. So, what, screw the little guys if they can't? (Consider that even Goodwill goes through a third party to do car donations.) Getting 50% of the proceeds is better than none. Also, proceeds come after fees are taken out. So what if a place gives 65% of the proceeds, but their fees are higher? Then it'll end up that the charity gets less of the money anyway, even if the percentage is higher. Ugh, so yeah, that's been a bit of a headache too.

And another Restaurant Week has come and gone. I did three more since my last post. :D

RW: The Georgian, Dahlia Lounge, and Crush )

Also, lulz that LJ changed the cut tags back. After all those changes they made that pissed off a lot of people and made them go to Dreamwidth, I remained unperturbed. But that horrible LJ cut might have done what all that other stuff didn't. And now that they've changed it back, I'm back to being fine with LJ. :))
sarea: (Default)
There are still 4 books from the "first lines from 15 of my fave books" game that haven't been guessed. I've provided a hint about each book (what genre they're from), but here's another one... #3, 4, and 9 are fairly famous/popular books. As for #14, I've written about it recently. ;)

3) "I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one." Hint: Genre: Sci-Fi, Young Adult (Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card; point to [personal profile] adrith)

4) It was a nice day. Hint #1: Genre: Fantasy. Hint #2: This book has 2 authors. (Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett; point to [profile] filia_umbrae)

9) I have just returned from a visit to my landlord -- the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. Hint: Genre: Gothic (Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; point to [personal profile] idreamofdraco)

14) The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears. Hint: Genre: Young Adult (The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta; point to [profile] jade_okelani)

On Wed I had dinner with K. at La Medusa, which I've never been to before. It was very good. I haven't eaten like that in SO long. While I was in SoCal it was mostly fast food. :/ Indulge me while I wax on about what we had (we shared everything, which is our normal fashion of dining together):

- Chilled carrot and apple soup
- Grandma's Salad: a warm salad with kale, chard, garlic, raisins, pine nuts
- Burratta with beets and anchovy fillets (I had JUST read about burratta, which is a fresh cheese made with mozzarella and cream, but I think I prefer regular fresh mozz)
- Columbia City Bakery bread and olive oil (the bakery's right next door)
- Homemade farfalle with roasted cauliflower and pine nuts
- Spaghetti with marinara sauce, beef-and-pork meatballs
- Peach and apricot sorbet

After weeks of fast food, it felt like such a luxurious treat. I was so happy. And tonight I'm having sushi with [profile] corianderstem to celebrate her birthday! Oh and tomorrow -- a massage! Maybe I'll start to feel normal again soon.

The only thing hanging over my head is the yard. >< I was having issues with it before, but had managed to get it somewhat under control... and then I had to leave for a month and now it's worse than ever. I got an estimate from a gardening team that I found online who went to my house to take a look... and they estimated $2,200+ to mow/edge/trim! Sheesh. I hope I see someone who does my neighbors' yards soon, so I can ask them to give me estimates as well. But that first estimate seems exorbitant.
sarea: (damon)
I woke up in the middle of the night with a SORE THROAT. Nooooooooooooo!!! [profile] jade_okelani has somehow transmitted her cold to me through the Internets! It's feeling better right now, I can barely tell it's there, but it doesn't feel fully normal. Please please please do NOT let me get sick. That would be intolerable.

Well, I have gotten [personal profile] akscully sucked into The Vampire Diaries and Damon. Muhuahahaha. True to form, she is now AHEAD of me and has started watching S2. I'm going to wait until 2 more episodes have aired so I can put the first 7 eps on a disc and watch that way. Meanwhile, Project Get Jade Sucked Into Merlin is moving ahead slowly, though not the runaway success of Project Get Akscully Sucked Into TVD. She just finished watching episode 5, and her comments make me and [personal profile] akscully giiiiiiiiggle. She said she loves Arthur's expressions. LOLLLLLLLLL she doesn't even KNOW.

Last night, had a fantastic dinner at Spring Hill with [profile] corianderstem and [profile] leiliaxf. Such good food and company! We may try to do the fried chicken dinner in February, so that'll need to be booked soon. :D Tonight -- Mistral Kitchen with [profile] belcantin, a fellow mod at [community profile] food_porn!

I'm trying to decide between AAA roadside assistance and Allstate Motor Club roadside assistance. :/ At about the same level of cost, these are the differences: 1) Towing - AAA is free up to 5 miles; Allstate gives a $100 benefit toward towing; 2) Lockout - AAA gives $50 toward lockout service; Allstate gives $100; 3) Out of gas - AAA, you pay for the gas; Allstate, $100 benefit; and 4) Tire change - AAA, free; Allstate, $100 benefit. If I'm getting it just for towing, I suppose I should go with AAA. But lockout service is actually the only thing I've actually used! So I don't know which to get. >< What's your vote???

I'm working on another Merlin story, but there's also a Damon drabble I've been thinking about (yes, they should just rename the show to Damon).
sarea: (Default)
You know those days when you set your alarm, but don't realize until you wake up that you set it for PM instead of AM? Yeah. Thank goodness for Jaime's automatic feeder. When it went off at 7:30 I was like, WTF???

===

I don't often embed vids in my posts, but I hope you'll forgive this one... ahhhhhhhhh!!! 2011 cannot come fast enough. How awesome does GoT look? If they can make the trailers this sweet, I can only hope the show will be even more so. They are only raising my expectations at this point; a dangerous thing!



===

Finished Tongues of Serpents. I've finally been able to friend [profile] naominovik without fear of spoilers, lol. I enjoyed ToS very much, even though not a whole lot happens. I just love this universe.

I also just read My Sister's Keeper, the first Jodi Picoult novel I've ever read. She's one of those prolific authors who I stayed away from because she was so prolific ... quantity usually does not equal quality. However, I was pleasantly surprised by MSK. I'm putting the movie (who knew there even was one?) in my library queue. I really disliked Sara Fitzgerald in the book, so we'll see if Cameron Diaz can make me like her any better. I'm excited about Alec Baldwin playing Campbell Alexander, partly because I think that means they're going to nix the whole romance subplot with him and Julia Romano, which I could not have been less interested in. I skipped all those parts. Otherwise a very engaging story, and I sobbed buckets at the end.

===

My Citibank Mastercard account has been closed AGAIN due to fradulent activity. WTF. The first time, they closed it as a precautionary thing -- I guess some place where I used it had their records stolen or something. This time, they contacted me because someone was buying stuff online from another state with my card. HOW did they even get my card number??? I don't use this card to buy things online -- I could easily see how online transactions could open you up to greater potential for fraud. But this card, since my last statement I've only used it to pay for things locally (like at restaurants), and one time, to pay my electric bill. Argh! BTW, there were two fraudulent transactions, totaling about $100, for shoe/clothing stores. SURELY it's easy to catch people like this, since if they're buying merchandise they'd have to supply an address where it needs to be shipped?

===

Nearly done with Dr. Who S2... it's kind of sad how I've barely missed Christopher Eccleston, though I did enjoy him in S1. I guess the universe's own mythology (can't think of the right word for it) makes that easy, since we're told that it's really the same guy.

Random comment -- the ep where it was Doctor/Companion-lite guest stars a dude who looked SO familiar to me, so I looked him up and it turns out he played Blythe in that one episode of Band of Brothers. Seriously, other than Ron Livingston, was there ANYONE on that miniseries playing an American soldier who was ACTUALLY AMERICAN? LOL.

Also am rewatching BSG in the background while doing other things. I'm totally enjoying Baltar so much more this time around; he's hilarious! Also -- spoilery comment... )

===

For lunch I am planning to go to The Stone House, my new fave place. I was told the last time I was there, though, that they're going to stop serving lunch after Oct. 15 and only do dinner. :-( Since their dinner items cost like 3x as much as their lunch items, and since I usually leave the office well before dinner time, I don't see a whole lot of opportunity or reason to go there after they make the change. Alas! First El Greco, now this ... why am I not allowed to enjoy a favorite restaurant?!

===

A few more X-Files episode 'reviews' to continue my archival project.

The Jersey Devil )

Ice )

Young at Heart )

And that finishes off the 'reviews' I had for S1.
sarea: (Default)
I. am. EXHAUSTED. I think it's from a general lack of sleep as well as the big Indian feast last night. Griping. )

After dinner, we played Bananagrams, which is a variation of Scrabble in which everyone does their own individual crosswords. I actually like it better than Scrabble, which I suck at, even though I love almost all other word games.

I'm looking forward to tonight, because at long last, it's time for our long-awaited fried chicken dinner at Spring Hill. Yes, K. is going to break her dietary restriction for this one night because we have been planning this for so long. You can only get this dinner by reservation, and it's intended for 4. We have: me, my mom, and K., then D. and the kids will count as our "fourth" because between all of them they'll probably eat one person's worth, since the kids don't eat much and D. won't eat the chicken.

Weather wise it was really lovely this weekend, and my indoor seedlings shot up. It might have been too late for my outdoor plants; even the tomato starters are looking iffy, and the basil is long gone. If the tomato plants die I will have to go back to Flower World and get more, because I really would love to have Sun Gold tomatoes. The weather's gone back to being crappy though, and according to weather.com's 10-day forecast there are still a lot of clouds and showers in the future, sigh, so who knows when I can actually plant any of the seedlings in the bed.

I know about the big shitstorm about fanfic resulting from some posts I guess Diana Gabaldon made in her blog, and following that, GRRM's comments, which I've actually read. I have a lot to say about it, but don't know yet how to put thought into words. I'd like to respond in a coherent manner that might actually bring SOME understanding for what is, to them, completely inexplicable. I enjoy both of their work (well, I enjoyed DG's Outlander, but the sequel to it left me rather indifferent to the rest of the books) and though it shouldn't, the idea that they're both out there reviling fanfic bothers me. Maybe because, in the case of GRRM, I fear that he'll be even LESS motivated to finish ASoIaF, if he's resentful of/wigged out by the idea of people taking his characters and universe and making it their own. Most importantly, it's a reflection on ME as a fanfic writer. If I don't say anything, if I can't articulate why I think it's a perfectly legitimate form of expression, then it'll be like I agree that it's wrong and yet I do it anyway. I DON'T think it's wrong. I don't think it's necessarily cool to do if an author has expressly said that they don't want people writing fanfic of their universe(s) -- I would say to respect those wishes -- but that still doesn't mean it's inherently wrong. I just don't think that authors who oppose it, especially those who oppose it as vehemently as DG and GRRM do, really understand it or why people do it.

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