It Started with a Journal

I love Paperback Swap!! I've just requested a few Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys super mysteries that did not come with the set I bought off ebay, including the one akscully claims to be the best of all (and others seem to agree, since it's one of those rare paperbacks that has not only maintained its cover price but actually has gone up in value). Woot! Haha, I don't even know if I will like the books but I love finding stuff this way.

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I drove the Pontiac to the park & ride today! And it didn't break down! You might remember that I'd been TRYING to do this very thing the first time I ever used the car and that's when it went caput. So I've finally been able to use it successfully for the purpose for which it was intended.

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Looks like summer is about to draw to a close around here. I'm going to harvest some basil before too much cold weather kills them and make some pesto to freeze. I've heard that the best way to do this is to make it with everything but the cheese, then freeze in ice cube trays. But then I'm like, if that's true, shouldn't it also be made without the olive oil? Because if it's okay to freeze one kind of fat, why not the other?

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I found a Julia Quinn novel at the library yesterday that I hadn't heard of before (maybe because I lost interest in JQ's books awhile back, though I do think fondly of the Bridgerton series): The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever. I read it in one night, which I love about these kinds of novels. It was... okay. The premise was about a girl who falls in love with her best friend's older brother as a little girl, then she grows up and they get to know each other/strike up a romance as adults. On some level I always enjoy novels with this sort of premise (don't know why; I never had a best friend whose older brother I crushed on). Anyway, it was very enjoyable in parts, but overall was just a typical sort of romance with the usual plot twists and a few clunky/forced scenarios. Still, if you're looking for a mind candy read, I'd rec it.

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When D. came over to help me with the Pontiac mess, he was like, OMG you need to clean your gutters! So now I am going to get an estimate for that, as well as for cleaning off the moss on the roof. Plus I need to hire a new gardener (whole separate story on that). And hire an arborist to trim the trees whose branches are getting way too close to the house. One of the things I miss about condo/apartment living is not having to worry about this kind of stuff.

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TV Show Meme, Day 22 - Favorite series finale: Sex and the City

It was perfect, totally perfect. So good, in fact, that the movies are almost unwanted. It's sort of like coming up with the perfect ending and then tacking on more, drawing it out in an unnecessary way. Every single storyline had a satisfying conclusion that was done well. Every series finale should strive to be like S&tC's.

Yesterday I was reading up on the Glee cast, and I noticed something: Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff left Spring Awakening on May 18, 2008. Lea had originated her role in 2006 when the musical first went to Broadway. jade_okelani and I were in New York in 2008 and saw 4 musicals, one of them Spring Awakening. So we had to have seen it with Lea and Jonathan! I asked Jade to be sure. She actually managed to find the Spring Awakening Playbill from that trip, and indeed, they were the cast members! She even had her ticket stub still -- we saw it on May 16, just two days before they left the show. I'm 99% certain we didn't see their understudies for various reasons. The sad thing is, we both haaaaaaaaated it. I don't remember ANYthing about it; I just remember being utterly bored and bitter that we had listened to the guy outside TKTS and gotten tickets to this boring show (not that there were many options that night). Jade remembers much more of the details, but basically it just made her want to kill herself. Of course, we might be able to enjoy it more NOW, after Glee, but there's no turning back time. If only we had a pensieve.

The whole experience is a giant blank in my mind. I remember us getting the tickets -- it was like, our first night attempting to get tickets at TKTS -- but nothing else except that I felt the musical was so utterly forgettable. I could not understand at all how it could have gotten the accolades it'd gotten. During that trip we also saw Curtains, which I'd also totally forgotten about until Jade reminded me, and the only thing I remember about that is that David Hyde Pierce was in it.

The biggest reasons why those two musicals were overshadowed was because of the other two shows we saw during that trip -- Avenue Q, which was so f*cking good, and Wicked, which was also f*cking good and for which we had won front-row seats (I don't know if I ever posted about that). Both experiences were so awesome and unforgettable that it probably made the other two pale even more in comparison.

I have made a total impulse purchase: the Actifry. David Lebovitz wrote about it on his blog, and basically what it does is let you 'deep fry' foods -- get the texture of crispy, deep fried foods -- with 1 tbsp of oil. Since I love deep-fried foods and can't stay away even though I know how many calories are involved, THIS IS AWESOME. I just hope it works as well for me as it seems to for other people.

Tomorrow's my first physical therapy appointment for my shoulder. I'm looking forward to possibly getting a diagnosis for what might be wrong with it. It's kind of frustrating that it's been so long that I haven't been able to use that arm normally.

Thank goodness it's a long weekend this weekend. On Sunday I'm going with K. and a few others to an early dinner at Kabul (an excellent little Afghan restaurant in Wallingford; such good lamb kebabs) then to see Sex & the City 2. From the lackluster promos I've seen, I'm not actually that excited about the movie, but so much that's great about S&tC doesn't necessarily lend itself to good clips out of context, so here's hoping.

Zomg yay: New Line Cinema spokeswoman Candice McDonough confirms that “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker, her three co-stars and writer-director Michael Patrick King are signed for a sequel to last year’s hit movie.

I'm in the process of selling off all my Buffy DVD box sets. With Jade's help I snagged one of those new full-set boxes that take up half the space my current box sets do. I should be able to make back close, if not all, what I paid for the new set assuming they all sell.

A classy apology, though in my view completely unnecessary. People are just hypocrites and gossip mongers, and love to wallow in pointless crap like this.

What does a black man, an Asian girl, a teenage white boy, a gay man, and a French man have in common? They love playing World of Warcraft. And are good friends. Some days I just love WoW, makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Last night the group of us went and did the last few dungeons I needed for the "Elder" achievement. /cheer (Bonus points for Jade if she can name each person in the group. But then it's way too easy.)

Confirmed: my old ipod is dead. Well, not completely as it still turns on, but does nothing beyond that. I'm going to try to auction it off on eBay as needing repair -- I've seen others sell theirs that way (to tech whizzes who fix them then list the iPod for much more). Speaking of iPods, I loved this meme that jade_okelani did and have been wanting to do it, but didn't have a working iPod. Now not only have I done it, I want to create my own!

( Shuffle song meme, quite brilliant in spots. )