Delightful time out at karaoke last night, quickly followed by this morning, where I had to go to the dentist. Again. Went to get a permanent crown from last month and told them about how bad it's been hurting (4 advil a day bad). So, he put the permanent on and whittled it down until it cleared well, then decided that it was so whittled it needed to be polished by the lab, so the temporary went on again and got about an inch shaved off of it. My tooth still really hurts (despite the Advil I took two hours ago!!), but I'm hoping it'll go away in a day or two.

And, of course, on the way to work, I ran into the blood drive guy on the elevator. Apparently my top shows a bit of my tattoo if it's pulled down, so he asked me about it and I had to explain it and mentioned that was why I couldn't give blood. Sigh.

Also, everyone needs to watch this video because it's freaking adorable. (Yes, it's the wedding entrance one)

I'm making refrigerator pickled beets (and maybe carrots) tonight before watching the end of the Torchwood miniseries, which I DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT. I've got about 50 different things I want to make before next Sunday, not a lot of time to do it and, weirdly, not enough basil. Despite having about 5 plants around the house and the CSA of all basil all the time.

Despite obsessively reading livejournal, I seem not to be blogging too much these days. So, here's a roundup of last week.

Monday - I'm breaking up with Heroes. Bleh.
Tuesday - Adam Lambert is so my gay boyfriend.
Wednesday - My sinuses hurt so bad that I actually want to cry.
Thursday - stentoriansista hurts her back, I am still sniffly and miserable. We stay home from karaoke like two little old ladies. I read the new Tamora Pierce novel and am mostly underwhelmed. (I love the characters, but the plot is a little weak, I feel)
Friday - after a quick Target trip, we spend most of the night cleaning the kitchen and living room. Victory is ours.
Saturday - My Becoming event at the Arboretum! It is very, very hot. We are mostly underwhelmed, which was a little disappointing, but it was still a nice time. After we go home for a quick shower and a nap, it's off to Old Navy for some much needed shopping (nothing like it being 90* out to remind you you need summer clothes). In the car on the way, I say I'd be happy to get 2-3 pairs of work pants and 1 pair of shorts. I leave with two pairs of work pants and a pair of formal-ish shorts. And sometimes I scare me. Dinner with stentoriansista's awesome friends that I finally get to meet.
Sunday - BOOZE! Linganore wineries with mareska, prettyprincessb and a_muse_amused. Almost eaten by Maryland vultures after googlemaps put us on, I kid you not, an unpaved gravel road next to a crick. Delicious, delicious wines with delicious delicious cheeses. We split 2 cases between the 4 of us (I got strawberry, peach, mead, their May wine, Melody and Bacioni) and head to the Majestic for Nana's ham dinner. Delicious, delicious ham.

This week is going to be similarly busy. I may, for the first time in 5 years, have to miss MD S&W. My sinuses are still nasty but they seem to be allowing me to exist without pain, which is nice. I've worn skirts two days running in this heat. I've got a chicken in the crockpot for tonight's dinner from the farmer's market (w00t!). Yeah.

Also, I now need an event at which to serve all my delicious new summery wines. This requires thinking.

Oh, and for a_muse_amused - Crockpot Lady and Pioneer Woman Cooks. Nom nom. (ETA: And Cheddar Jalapeno Bread)

If you're not reading aparthekitchn (Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn blog), you really, really should. It's how I found the awesome Artisan Bread book, the delicious No Knead cheddar jalapeno bread, a braised pork shoulder recipe I'm going to cook this weekend and other delights. Today alone, there have been maple syrup cocktails (merikus, yes, I did post that for you) and adorable eco-friendly produce bags. There are a lot (I mean a lot!) of posts, but it's all either kitchen porn, recipes or something equally awesome. No, seriously, read it.

Also, if you crave fried chicken after reading this week's entries, I don't blame you. I'm craving fried chicken enough to pull out some crushed cornflakes and a bottle of Italian dressing and make my mom's healthy imitation.

The 7 Most Gruesome/terrifying Disney Cartoon deaths of all time.

ABC Cancels all of its good shows - soon to be replaced with endless Private Practice and Wife Swap reruns. Awesome, y'all. =(

ETA: Fixed the crappy links. I got 4 hours of sleep, y'all, don't expect perfection.

(or, stuff from cleolinda that I consider too awesome not to share)

1500 year old city found in Amazon.

Stephanie Meyer (otherwise known as that chick who wrote those books that made my brain hurt) takes her toys and goes home.

Street artist Banksy does New Orleans.

Aaron Sorkin makes a movie about Facebook, everyone else wonders why.

What Michael Jackson would have looked like. (!!!)

Holy crap, that's Haley Joel Osmet? (Puberty has not been kind)

Just when you thought that Rob Lowe & Snow White was the most disturbing Oscar skit you'd seen, I present to you this parade of "up and comers" who were never heard from again. I don't know what's better, Corey Feldman's dance solo, Chad Lowe proclaiming himself a "serious actor" or Ricki Lake kissing Christian Slater. Oh, for serious.

They're making Center Stage 2?! My god why! (I love that it's premiering on Oxygen, though)

The most WTF moments from summer 2008 (Spoiles. Serious spoilers for Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crappy Sequel and The Dark Knight (which is also pretty gross).

In other news, I did not approve of all this rain. WTF, Gustav?

Phone Sex Operator portraits... really, really interesting.

Mystery on 5th Ave (Oh, if only I had the money to hire someone like this)

Via mousecatfish and rubrchick
You know how sometimes people on your friend's list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when are they working THERE? Since when are they dating HIM/HER? since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you *should* already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy mine below, erase my answers putting yours in their place then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration! One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out :)
( Read more... )

But Jimmy Kimmel is fucking awesome.

Whoopi's sad they left her out of the Oscar montage. Steve Martin, on the other hand, will cut you.

No Reason Brad Renfro was cut from the March of the Dead this year. That is seriously, seriously cold busted.

E! backage at the Oscars

And I'm out. Back to reorganizing my closet. Oh for serious. I have a classy, classy life.

Think of the Ferrets! Donate to Save the Wildlife and Nora Roberts will match it up to $5K!

Also, here're bios and photos from everyone she plagiarized.

Lastly, religious discrimination! Don't try to outrun it, because you can't. Because you're disqualified.

i_has_a_hot_dog

That is all. Thank you.

Anne Rice is a crazy head! Who knew?

For mel21clc, Wikiffiti.

Note to self: start eating clams

My New Year's Resolution.

LOL Bible

( Privilege. I has it )

And dammit, I managed to not watch Project Runway so I could watch it after my shift and damned if they're not showing some fucking America's Next Top Model rip off!

LOL Cat Happy Fun times: No fite, pimp my alpaca & brit cat.

DC-ians, No pants metro ride.

Via divalion, an awesome story.

Via ninthraven, an entry about pagans & belonging.

Ushered in a happy new year last night - Girlyfriend & I went to Palace of Wonders over on the H street corridor in NE. We were standing in the balcony waiting for the show to start and making up stories about the people downstairs when Girly asked me about one woman... and I thought that it was a girl I was in Girl Scouts with in middle school. And as it turns out, it was! Completely random - we chatted for a good amount the rest of the night. Palace of Wonders is one of my favorite new bars... if only it wasn't quite so far away from everything. Well, I'm definitely going to go see jaaron twirl fiery things next week. The show itself was a combo burlesque/vaudeville - pasties, sword swallowing, snake dancing, that sort of thing.

Today's been fairly low key - made jambalaya, ate pizza, watched a lot of Stargate Atlantis... Girly started feeling wonky early in the evening and conked out a couple hours ago. I, on the other hand, have had a ton of Diet Coke and the thought of bed still hasn't occurred to me. Still, I've got the 'there's someone on the wing' episode of twilight zone on and some internet. Hopefully I'll want to sleep around midnight.

So, it's been an insanely busy past couple of days. I spent my entire SecondJob shift catching up on LJ since Monday afternoon. I have 44 emails to read and many more to answer. Oy. The worst part of today? It was caffeine free. I'm only now getting the withdrawal headache (awesome).

So, I give you my metric ton of linkspam:

I can name 44 Asian countries in 10m 0s

Click here to Play

I'm not going to lie to you, I google cheated a third of those. I mean, who remembers Kyrgyzstan?

Terry Pratchett?! NOOOOOOOOO!

Similarly, someone else is finishing the last Robert Jordan book. I'd care, if I was still interested in spending the next 5 years rereading all 11 of those.

Note to Self: Don't be a tool like Carson Daly.

Similarly, MTV workers strike (We declare shenanigans = best sign ever)

Second Note to Self: Commit to faking death (unless you really want to live like Anne Frank... did I just make a holocaust joke? Even if it was accurate?)

Brits say they like Christmas (implied is that American PC stuff is stupid and impractical)

Like, OMG, women like to steal money and then shop!!! OMG SHOES!. Men steal and then shop, too. You just don't get receipts for hookers and blow.

Tamora Pierce fandom overview - awesome. (OMG Spoilers. Duh)

One to add to the pagan reading list

Also, new m15m - and it helps a girl get much needed surgery.

Just in case you're not at capacity today:

Baby hedgehogs unable to hibernate (via frog_lady)

Your pet is invited to join the writer's strike

Awesome.

I had to leave a stitch 'n' bitch about 5 hours too early (well, it's not over yet, so who knows) and managed to get home right as the rain started. Awesome, except I had to walk the puppy. So we got completely soaked. It was really funny, she kept trying to get into cars... I guess when she was in Angola, folks would shelter her from the rain in vehicles? The rain was HARD and there was a lot of lightning and close by, so we made it a short trip and went home. Our later night walk, the rain had stopped, but there was a little bit of lightning and halfway through the walk, there was this bolt of lightning across the sky and a CRACK of lightning so loud and immediately connected that the dog tried to run away from it and I was still breathing hard from the shock 10 minutes later. It made the back of my head feel all funny for a while.

Anyway, some linkspam.

Camp Psychics - Yeah, but they're Spiritualists and I'm pretty sure Spiritualists have been proven frauds on many occasions. No one's perfect.

Puppy... whistling! - this one made my dog poke her head up and see what's going on.

Bunny comic tries knitting

David Lynch was asked to direct Return of the Jedi?!

I must say, this is why I don't trust people on the internet

Dildo Diaries w/ Molly Ivins - this one made Kwanza look up in surprise too!

Scary Trousers!

I want a farm share, dammit! In my usual vein of WANT! IGNORE BAD PARTS!, I am completely ignoring the fact that I can be somewhat picky about my veggie wants and don't cook all that much and it's too late in the season and just want! farmshare!

Specifically, I want one that drops off at a downtown location close to work (I don't want to have to go to Dupont!), will give me lots of fruits & veggies & the occasional chicken. Can someone please make this happen? kthxbye.

Also, unfortunately placed ads. Heh.

ETA: Well, gosh. Bull Run Farms that's pretty close to my house! Inconvenient times, though. I'd have to leave work half an hour early to still make pickup, probably.

First, the linkspam:

Christian group asks its members to pray for the demise of a watchdog group that turned them into the IRS for the improper use of funds - and people say Pagans are the evil cursers.

Don't sacrifice that goat in my backyard - except, of course, they don't. I mean, they do sacrifice goats occasionally, but it's done in a private setting. No attention-whoring at all. This is a great example of public perception vs. actual practices and how drastically different they often are.

DC's in a drought - what? We are? I hate to pull this out, but, yanno, I'm from California. (No, I, like, totally am) We had a 5 year drought when I was growing up. And you know what we did? We stopped watering our lawns. We put bricks in our toilet tanks. We took short showers with brand new low-flow showerheads. My teachers taught me the joys of "if it's yellow, let it mellow." But most importantly, we talked about it. Constantly. TV, class, social events. We talked about what was going on and what we should do to conserve water. It was like a game to us 8 year olds. We did not continue overwatering our lawn and keeping business as normal. I mean, really. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some empty milkjugs to fill with sand or water and put them in my toilet tanks. PS - conserving water saves you money on your water bill, too, bitches.

In other news, stentoriansista and I watched three teenage girls fight with an old man on a bus last night. I mean like a change throwing, bitch slapping, physical altercation. For about 5 minutes. While the bus driver did nothing. Did I mention one of the girls was pregnant? It was awesome and slightly more entertaining than Reefer Madness, which we'd just come from seeing.

So, I picked up something resembling this at the Crate & Barrel outlet yesterday - the one I wanted had too small bowls & salad plates and too large dinner plates. Small plates = good. I had this moment of "what will I do with the coffee cups?" but then I came up with about 8 ideas (dessert, mostly), so yeah. Glad I made that investment.

I've decided I'm seeing the show we're putting on tonight and will kill time pre-show by switching to T-Mobile and maybe wandering around H&M. Whee!

Potterpuffs are back!!! (HP7 spoilers)

Also, prisoners do the Thriller dance. For serious.

I have been craving carmelized onions and sauteed mushrooms. No reason why. And I've got plenty of food, so I have no reason to cook them. Except that I wants.

ETA: Bwa ha ha! "Last chapter" of HPatDH from shoebox_project. No spoilers, just funny funny.

And since it's getting to be that time, anybody who posts any Harry Potter spoilers above an LJ-cut WILL BE DECAPITATED AND FED TO DONKEYS. CRANKY DONKEYS. WITH STICKS.

Now, this is not to say that "OMG, Dumbledore reads knitting patterns!" needs to be cut, but "SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE ON PAGE 692 OMG SO TRUE" is not cool. WITH STICKS.

So, someone talk me out of joining Mystery Stole 3 before midnight. I have a bunch of black, laceweight cashmere that's sitting at home alone, sad, and I could easily get some lovely seed beads for it... I mean, the first mystery stole was kinda ugly but the second was pretty... Argh! I do not want to be a knitting sheep!

Also, pink dolphin!

(via wiredwitch)

There was a rally by the White House yesterday (that I forgot about - bad pagan! bad pagan!) for a pagan military chaplain, which sparked a debate in the On Faith blog on Newsweek / Washington Post. Fun reading, especially Chuck Colson being an ass and some dumb ass commenter on Starhawk's post.

ETA: While I'm linkspamming, if you're like me and have enjoyed the constant drama of the $54 million pants lawsuit, please keep in mind that the defendants are having to put up over $100,000 in legal costs to deal with this crazy whacko. I know most of my readers are short on funds, but there's a fundraiser coming up to help out these small business people. If Scooter Libby can get FIVE MILLION DOLLARS raised for his defense (srsly ppl), surely we can kick some change in to help these small business people who now want to leave the country because of this nutjob judge. Surely you've gotten $5 of entertainment from this ordeal?

Hipsters: A Field Guide

LOL 80's - I had to stop after a while because it's so long, but it's funny!

Verdict on the strawberry vinaigrette is actually quite tasty in salad... not quite so on it's own. Also, I discovered Ben & Jerry's makes a creme brulee ice cream. And I'd bought a bunch of strawberries from Whole Foods when I went to get salad greens... well, you can guess what I had for dessert. I'm seeing how long I can go eating just this salad with the occasional stirfy thrown in. My guess is until the end of summer.

Got my first exercise DVD from netflix... and I don't get it. This is the second belly dance DVD I've done and while they're fun, they're not exactly exercise. This was forty minutes and while I enjoyed learning the choreography, my heart rate never went up, nor did I work any muscles beyond my arms (holding them up for 20 minutes). This one's going straight back to Netflix.

It's kind of nice having the netflix mentality (must! watch! movie! and then get next movie! only 300 more on my queue!) when it comes to exercise stuff. On the other hand, I hate doing these things when anyone else is home. Which is semi-frequent. Also, my 'n' key on this keyboard is not working properly. This is vexing me. A lot.

And my brain no workee...

Here are some feeds you should read if you like the cute things:
cuteoverload
dailypuppy
icanhaschzbrgr (cat macros!)
hello_cuthulhu
kittenbreak
threadbaredblog

Go. Live. With the linkspam. And the cute.

xkcd_rss keeps getting better and better!.

For some reason, I'm exceptionally tired. (Some reason having nothing to do with the hour aerobics class and 15 minutes on the elliptical I did yesterday. This also has nothing to do with why I'm a bit sore) I had tentatively scheduled my reiki session for tonight, but I think I'll rearrange to Monday. There's a 70% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon, so I'm not getting my walk, but I'm going to go home, make bread, roast a chicken and have a big ole salad with yummy stuff (nuts, craisins, blue cheese & maybe some dressing) for dinner and catch up on Netflix. I was considering making chicken stock until I realized I have had chicken broth in my pantry for at least a month gathering dust.

And maybe I'll watch Lost. Even if we broke up last week. Speaking of breaking up, as much as I less-than-three Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard and Lisa Edelstein, I think I may have to break up with House. It's getting... not good.

I'm wearing the most awful outfit ever today - yellow flip flops, green pants and a hotpink shirt. Whatever, it's supposed to be hot and thunderstorming, so I wore clothes I didn't care about. Just because they're ugly doesn't mean they're not work appropriate.

I bought some cheap photo frame holders from IKEA and promptly forgot about them in February. I rediscovered them in the schlep and found some cute digital prints and got them printed out at MotoPhoto today. So, packing is 97% finished, I thought I'd pick out my favorites and decide where they should go.

They're 4x6 frames. I bought them because I was sure they were 3x5s. I R speeshul.

I can't remember if this frame that I've been secretly coveting for yonks takes 3x5s or 4x6s, but I was kind of thinking of putting some pictures from pucksraven's wedding... the flask picture (because I love it so), one of the cute posed ones of the Cali kids and... something else. Maybe Jules & Liam fighting. Anyway. I feel lame. Especially since I went to MotoPhoto because CVS wouldn't do 3x5s.

PS to stentoriansista - Sparkly owl hook!

PS to rubrchick & Other X-Philes - interview with Gillian Anderson your girlfriend

Anyway, I have had 2 diet cokes in the past two hours... because I'm an idiot? So we'll see how this whole sleep thing goes.

By the way, if you want to feel good about yourself right before a wedding, may I point out that eating nachos and then gorging oneself on raw cookie dough is perhaps not the best way?

I should go to bed.