It Started with a Journal

Ugh. I hate it when I do this. I manage all my bills online, as I imagine many do, and I pay off my credit cards every month. I am not a religious person, but if I were, it would be the religion of paying off my debt every month on time. However, every once in a blue moon some weird thing happens, the planets are aligned in discord, and the payment doesn't get made. And then an astronomical late fee is charged, and my brain just won't let it go. I keep thinking things like, I could have paid for a really nice meal with that! Or, I could have bought this, or this, or this! And instead it's just going to make the credit card company richer! Arrrrghhh. It's on my list of top 5 pet peeves, I'll tell you that.

So I'm trying out GoogleVoice, and I'm digging it so far. It's sort of like having my own personal secretary. One who's kind of bad at transcribing (jade_okelani tried to leave me a voicemail, and the written transcript I got of it was rather garbled), but hey, I'm not paying him anything, so I guess I'll live with it. The best thing though is getting free texts, in that I can SMS someone from the account and it won't count toward my cell phone text plan.

Got my ice cream maker and made ice cream for the first time the other day. Yes, as I predicted, the heat wave is long gone, it's been in the upper 60s lately, and right now it's pouring rain. Perfect ice cream weather. Not. Luckily ice cream is pretty yummy whenever you make it. Posted allll about the experience at my food blog, here. With pictures! ropo mentioned once that she saw a recipe for Pinkberry-style frozen yogurt, did you ever find that again?

Okay, I have another HP text gripe that I'm hoping you guys can help me with. From what I've read/understand, Voldemort decided that Harry was who the prophecy was talking about, and thus went to take him out. Right? Right. My problem with this is ... if you were Lord Voldemort, and there was a prophecy saying some boy was gonna take you out, and there were two possibilities of who exactly that boy is, aren't you going to, I don't know, plan to take them BOTH out? I mean, it's not like he knew he'd only have one shot, that AK would backfire on him, yadda yadda. His plans so should have been, OK, Imma take out this Potter tyke first, then head on over to the Longbottoms and AK me some Neville too. And yet we're in his thoughts (I think in HBP?), and we hear Dumbledore talk about it later with Harry, and not once do either of them mention any possibility that Neville was ever in any danger, because Voldemort had got a bee in his bonnet that the prophecy had to mean Harry. That was sort of Dumbledore's whole point, that that's why it was so kismet or whatever, that Voldemort chose his own fate by choosing Harry, etc. When in fact, isn't it more believable that it's just that he chose to kill Harry first? Is it really realistic to have us believe that had he succeeded in that mission, he would have gone happily on his way and left Neville alone? Or that he hadn't planned to kill them both from the get go? That just makes no sense to me.

In other fandomy news, I'm reading the Buffy "Official" Season 8 comics, and I'm digging them so far, even though it is like, so out of whack, some of it. I'm enjoying myself so much that I've ordered the Angel: After the Fall volumes, and have just finished reading Spike: After the Fall. It was really, really good. Very good Spike voice. And Spike/Illyria? So digging that.

So what can get me out of my LJ posting lethargy?

The totally nutty heat wave going on here, of course. I guess it's official, today is the hottest day on record in Seattle history (records go back to 1891) at 102°F. I know, some may be scoffing that we're all bitching and moaning because it's been in the 90s the last few days and some of the country suffers that and worse on a regular basis. But you have to understand, this NEVER happens here. In fact, it so never happens here that hardly anyone has air conditioning in their homes. Seriously, there's no air conditioning in like 99% of houses here. Thus, we are SUFFERING. (ropo is very glad she's not visiting right now)

I'm actually writing this from the library, which is also a new thing -- for me, at least. I only just got my act together to get an account when my mom was here a couple of weeks ago. THERE IS AIR CONDITIONING HERE AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. I wanted to stay home with Talis as a show of solidarity, which I did yesterday, but oh man it was miserable. Plus, while I feel really bad for him, there's no point in BOTH of us suffering, is there? I sprayed him with water, put ice in his water bowl, and put ice on his paws for a few moments (none of which he outwardly appreciated, btw -- he kept trying to get away from me) before I left. He's so silly he doesn't even go down to the basement area, which is MUCH cooler than the mid and upper levels (my mom swears that it's at least 10 degrees cooler). My house is at least generally not as warm as other places, which sucks in the winter but is good in the summer. However, this heat has even my house feeling too hot. :/ Still, it's not like it's totally unbearable (though Talis IS wearing a fur coat).

In other news, I want to get this tiffin, but there's like only one 3-tier one left in this entire area. It's supposedly being held for me until tomorrow, when I can go get it, but honestly. Also, I've just reread HPB and it only reinforces what I thought of the movie (liked it, but thought it a bit clunky in places and didn't fully realize the potential of the book), and am now rereading DH. I also saw La Vie En Rose (rented from the library -- I'm so behind the times, I so should have been getting movies this way all along), and you know, kudos to Marion Cotillard and everything, but god that woman was annoying.

Anyway, I plan to stay in this library until they close or until hunger drives me out.