five thousand shades of blue

---

Headache's still hanging around. May be caffeine-related (as in, I haven't had as much today as I had the last two days), or may be as a result of the weather acting like a ping pong ball (Freezing with fog! Sunny and 50!). I broke down and took the magic yellow pills (antihistamine/decongestant/painkiller*) because the magic green pills (decongestant/painkiller -- keep these straight for future reference) weren't touching it.

[* = the painkiller that's in Tylenol, which I cannot for the life of me remember how to spell.]

Could be lack of sleep, too.

I'm so glad it's Thursday. I've got some household chores planned for the weekend, like hanging a curtain rod (and a curtain) on the window at the top of the stairs, plasticking some of the windows (single pane = energy siphon)... but some relaxation too. And sleeping in, dammit.

Damn. I forgot to buy a Powerball ticket. And (checking powerball numbers), if I had bought a ticket and played January birthdays of friends and family, I woulda won at least something (1 - 4 (sister) - 20 (Erika-friend) - 27 (Andra) - 29 (Lynda-friend)). Powerball number was 17, but hey, I coulda lived with multiple thousands of dollars. Feh.

I changed it again... moved the actual journals to the bottom. I guess I wanted to make room to expand, since I'm finding journals by other people that are interesting to read, even though I don't know them.

I had an inadequate breakfast... starting to get hungry already. :(

You know, for having a raging headache, I'm in a pretty good mood. Maybe it's because this café move is edging towards a reality. Maybe because the iBook suddenly doesn't have its sleeping problem any more (I guess it needed some deep, recuperative sleep; i.e., being shut off for a while). More sleep for me would have been nice -- had a hell of a time waking up this morning. I'm gonna have a jam packed afternoon -- need to do some grocery shopping, need to dig up and photocopy the stuff Sheila needs for our meeting tonight... but I'm strangely not anxious about it today. Things have oddly been falling into place despite my worrying; perhaps I just need to take out the middle step and save myself a lot of grief.

Maybe I'm just feeling overconfident because of these new pants. :)

Just added a list of friends' journals to the right there. Mostly, they're there for my reference (because otherwise I'd just forget the URLs).

You know, I hate the Insert button on Wintel machine keyboards. I always hit it instead of Delete, and then end up overwriting half of my thought.

Will be a busy afternoon. Work to do, plus now trying to figure out why the iBook doesn't want to go to sleep properly. I strongly suspect it has something to do with installing MRJ 2.2.3. I'll have to look at home, since Apple sent my password to the account there.

Tomorrow's our initial meeting with Sheila, about refinancing our house. Cross your fingers for a low interest rate, and a low monthly payment.

Feeling a bit better about the state tax stuff. Got a phone call from Misty, who explained what needs to be done. Believe it or not, tax people are not absolute monsters, contrary to what you may have heard.

Today is my darling, brilliant, artistic niece Holly's fourth birthday. Wish I could be there to celebrate with them (sister, b-i-l, niece, nephew (who turns 1 on the 3rd)) today.

Let me mention again what a kickass show Dark Angel is. It was pointed out to me last night that Zack on DA is Virgil on Xena. Whoa.

Yesterday was an absolutely horrific day. I was not cut out to be in charge of things related to books and employees. I goofed up some state tax forms and life is about to get interesting in the Chinese curse sense of the word.

It's raining. Which should not be a big surprise to anyone who knows anything about the Pacific Northwest. But it seems to be magnifying and intensifying my somber, sad mood. Add to that the impending [doom] Christmas season, where there's no way I'll be able to be as generous as I would like to... I really do just want to go home and curl up into bed.

Want to: go home and read
Have to: go home, do work, try to do bills, think about making dinner...

Feh. I want serfs.

Hail and rejoice! My archives are all better! Yeah, bloggerfolks!

Tired. Lately hating this whole 'being an adult' thing, the responsibilities it entails, and the whole financial burden connected with being responsible and independent. Feh. I hear the PowerBall is over $130Million on Wednesday... I think I need to get a ticket or three.

The tired thing is also due to that book I've been reading. Stupidly, I've been staying up too late reading, but it's such an interesting book... Johnny's tale, Zampano's tale as seen through Johnny's eyes, Navidson's tale as told through Zampano (and Johnny's interpretation of both). Fascinating stuff. Not good for my sleep patterns, for it's keeping me up reading, and also disturbing reading.

Foggy outside, kind of reflective of my foggy brain. I hope for clarity soon...

Ah yes, Happy birthday to my mom.... :)

Ow. Random knee twinges. It first happened earlier when I was getting the pastries ready for selling. I twisted at the waist and it must have pulled on something weird; the pain was searing. It twinged a few more times painfully... now just an ache. No aerobics today for me.

And a quote from Indigo Girls, which just happens to be on the radio right now:
How long 'til my soul gets it right?

MegaBlog...

Okay, I may have exaggerated just a bit. I did not spend my entire weekend fixing my computer, even though it sure felt like it. Andra and I went on a thrift store extravaganza on Friday, which was great -- came home with a wad of sweaters, some other neat stuff, and best of all, a dining room table. The thing's great. Solid wood, butcher block top, and a leaf for making it even bigger. I really could not be more pleased!

What's weird is, I dreamt about buying a table on Thursday night. Why can't I dream about picking the winning Powerball numbers?

Bringing home the table sent me on a cleaning frenzy. Now on the table (which I hope to keep relatively clutter-free, HAH) is the monstrous jade plant, an aloe vera plant, my little table top gargoyle fountain, and a full spectrum light (because the plants are looking a little pathetic). I sat and read a book at the table and it was actually peaceful!

I started (and finished) The Artful Dodger (Nick Bantock's autobiography or sorts). That book makes me feel like a total slacker. As a result, I took a photo of a woman pulling a rope, Jessica Alba (Dark Angel) for the face model, and various issues of the Museum Replicas catalog, and drew a picture of a woman in armor holding an axe for Andra's Ironrose Chronicles. It felt great to draw again.

Sunday, yesterday, was pretty okay. Decided to take a jaunt down to Holiday Market for lunch. We both had a big old plate of Bangkok Grill's pad thai with peanut sauce and BBQ pork on a skewer... it was yummy! (If you go to the link above, there's actually a picture there of what we had for lunch -- yummmmmm...!)

Yesterday I also began reading House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (and yes, I did in fact have to look at the book to remember/spell it). Very strange, but so far, I like it. It's a multilayered story-within-a-story-within-a-story, bizarre, scary, and much more. I have discovered though that it is not something one should read before trying to go to sleep...

Enough for now...

ARRRRRRRGHHHHH!

I have spent my ENTIRE VACATION WEEKEND FIXING MY [deleted expletive] COMPUTER!

*pantpant*

Who'd have thought it was the stupid processor driver the whole time? Especially when the thing worked just fine for months... and who would have thought that the processor would be just fine WITHOUT a driver at all!?

I am tired, I'm annoyed that I have one day left to this weekend and it's going to be spent WORKING... Damned Mercury for going retrograde, anyway. At least it's moving forward again, Andra's computer is better too now.

Time for bed.

Happy Happy Thanksgiving. I am reminded, especially on this day, exactly how much I have to be thankful for. Blessings to all!

And yes, I am in fact still in my pj's. :D

*yawn*

Not much of a night last night. Laundry, watching Dark Angel. I love that show, and last night's was particularly good, filed with irony and angst. Being held hostage along with her pursuer, who doesn't know what she looks like. If she kicks butt, he'll figure it out. If she doesn't, they're all dead. And the added bonus of almost having the opportunity to scratch him off of her list of things to worry about, but something inside her compels her to save him anyway. Great stuff. It's kinda too bad that it's on opposite Buffy because I have so many friends who are already hooked on that. Tape one, watch the other. It's worth it.

It is my intent to spend most of tomorrow in pijamas. Just so you know. :)

Oh yes, I should mention that Rowan (my cat) is my hero now, and I will never mock her again for stalking what I think is nothing. She caught another mouse last night! We had been teasing her for days over watching the dishwasher for "no reason". I bet the little bugger was hiding there.

Just about flipped me out though to see her walking with a live mouse in her mouth, hanging by its little backside. Jen and Andra caught it and Jen put it back outside. I think Rowan did some damage to it though; it may not live much longer, especially if a right proper hunting cat goes after it.

What a difference a day makes. My day was just utter crap yesterday, until Andra arrived with some milk. You see, until that point, I thought I was going to have to run clear across town and get milk for the café, go to the bank and make a deposit and get change, then run back here, all in about 40 minutes' time in order to make it to the gym. Well, when she showed up with the milk, that totally opened up my early afternoon and lightened my mood.

I made it to aerobics for the first time in, like, 2 months (bad me), and did that ever feel good. I need to make a point to do exercise every day. I know that intellectually, but can be stupid about actually doing it. That, and I just usually run out of time -- not enough hours in the day. I got home and felt like I could conquer the world. (Well, almost.)

Andra's got her computer working again. Meaning: digital pics soon! :D

The best thing though was learning that Andra would not be occupied with jury duty today. She called the confirmation phone number, and learned that all cases scheduled for today had been resolved! So, I am not in fact consigned to café counter duty for 11 hours as I had originally expected.

The final gift came from my parents yesterday -- Nick Bantock's The Artful Dodger. I only picked up the mail at about 10pm last night, so I have not had a chance to drool over it yet. I am totally blown away by the utter generosity of my folks. When I made my Amazon wish list, I had no idea they would send me everything I included on it! *sniff*

And, of course, my day was brightened by coming in to find Blogger functional again. I have several days' worth of posts that I could not publish properly until this morning, so read on down.

I hate Mondays. Even when the Monday is the first of a three day week.

Weekend was so-so. I went out of town on Saturday and didn't get back until 10:30 pm, so I effectively only had a one day weekend. Granted, we had a lot of fun out, but it really put some stress on me to get a lot done on Sunday. And I didn't, really, so now today is not looking much better. I did, however, jaunt down to Holiday Market yesterday and get a 10 minute massage by a friend of Marian's named Maryann. Oh, that felt gooooood. My neck and shoulders hadn't felt that pain free in weeks! Course, now this morning I've got pain in my left-side joints again. Hit 30 and it's all downhill.

Talked to Mom yesterday, and she tells me there's one more thing on the way! WOW!

Wow. The loot keeps rolling in. I gotta turn 30 more often. :)

I received another package from Amazon.com, from my parents. They also sent me "Maroon" by BNL and a book I'd wanted, "House of Leaves" (author's name escapes me). Then my wonderful friends / former housemates, Sharon and Jerry, mailed a co-birthday present (it's part mine, part Andra's :) ) -- a cute little digital camera. So expect some pics soon! Then my friend Barbara showed up with a lovely Chinese pendant in hand for me! Heeee!

I got the Macs talking to each other -- whee! And dialled in via the modem last night too. That makes three different networking configurations that I managed to figure out on my own. I'm proud of me.

Ah yes. I AM in fact going to kitty hell.

EEEEEEE! I just found out that my friend Melanie (*wave*) reads this thing, like, every day. EEE! Time for me to get all self-conscious and stuff.... Course, you know I must be hooked on this Blogger thing if I come here to talk about it...

Hee, my dear friend Julie went and registered coloringmonologues.com for me as a birthday gift. (That was a URL I had a dream about, which you might find in the archives, if it's not one of the pages that just doesn't exist right now for some bizarre reason.) *smooshiehugs* Thanks, babe! Dunno what I'm gonna put there, but I'll think of something...

So now it's time for me to try to make Ms. Tsunami (iBook) and Ms. Gaia (PowerMac 9500) play nice with each other.

Note to self: must get more wet cat food tonight, or I'm goin' to kitty hell.

Watched one of my birthday presents last night. Titan A.E.. What a great movie. Again, I cried at the end. I really don't understand people who diss this movie. It's not a kid's film by any stretch. It's animated sci-fi... shades of B5. I think a lot of people just missed the point, or went into it expecting Disney Sweetness and Light[tm]. Not this movie!

Got a gift from my parents on Tuesday -- "The Legend of Lotus Spring", an interactive story set in dynastic China -- and found out last night there's more on the way. When I made an Amazon Wish List I had no idea they'd get more than one! I'm speechless.

My sis sent me new jammies. They have a coffee pattern printed on them (pots, cups, etc.) -- and are very warm, though they must have based the Medium sizing on a mutant, because they're slightly too big for me, and I haven't worn a real M in years...

Hungry now. Feh...

Of course, now that I have said that, the archives are better. Except that the first two links still get a 404 error when clicked on! ARGH!

I'm just been knocking myself out on the iBook. It's got me all excited about being creative again (I mention this because my good friend Julie is all inspired too about her work -- I tell ya, she's a bad influence! :) ). Just a few more things I have to find and install to make me functional as a portable, on-the-go web designer. I've got the thing set up on the stool behind the counter at the cafe, and I've had a lot of curious looks.

Having trouble with the silly archive again. It apparently doesn't believe anything before Sunday actually exists. Sigh Love Blogger. Hate the archive.

Blogger had some issues yesterday, but appears to be up and running today.

Had another good night last night. We splurged and went hot tubbing at a by-the-hour hot tub rental place called Onsen. What made it interesting is it was FREEZING outside! We got out and our skin was steaming. Very cool looking, almost made us look like we were on fire.

A big ol' Happy Birthday today to my baby brother, who turns 24. That's just... wrong! :)

Blogging from the iBook! WOOO! Yes, after setting up on line and with the cafe's network.....

I am gonna be SOOOO spoiled.

So I've spent almost every spare moment futzing around with the iBook. Can you blame me?

I had a wonderful birthday, all around. I was pretty down on Saturday until Andra said to me, "Think of it this way: if you were a bottle of Scotch, you'd be worth $400." That turned my whole attitude around. :)

EEEEEeeeeEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee

itcameitcameItCameITCAMEITCAME!

Just moments ago.

Eeeee.

Oh yeah, in a little under 2 hours, I'll officially be 30.

Ugh.

Soon I'll be thirty
I don't want to be thirty
-- Moxy Früvous, "Stuck in the 90s"

Humpf. But as Andra pointed out, if I was a bottle of scotch, I'd be worth about $400 right now.

iBook comes tomorrrrrrroooow! According the FedEx tracking, it's sitting in Portland right now. The fun part's going to be trying to transfer files from a Mac Classic to an iBook. They don't have any connectors in common. A challenge, is what it will be.

A rather productive weekend: got a lot of cleaning in the office done last night (you would not BELIEVE the amount of foam peanuts I got out of boxes in the closet!). Hung a coat rack by the driveway door. Framed Andra's "The Accolade" print using a frame I picked up for $10 at St. Vincent de Paul's. (I love thrift shops!) And, of course, the usual laundry/dishes/etc. etc. I think I'm going to take the drill and the level and hang the toothbrush rack back up.

Aw darn. No iBook today. I'll just have to play around with these Chinese character image files. =)

Today marks my fourth anniversary in Oregon. Which means I've lived on the west coast for 6.5 years. Freaky.

Argh, I had a whole screen of stuff typed in but I had to resize something, and I lost it.

More political spewing below...

I ranted about the current hair's-width gap between presidential candidates. I'm furious over hearing tales that people in W. Palm Beach were taking their ballots to explain they had double voted (and get a new ballot to punch out) only to have their ballots dropped into the box instead. It's indefensible*. The Democratic Party has filed suit, and I can't say as I blame them. Something's rotten in the state of Den-- er, Florida, and if those 19,000 disallowed votes were taken into account, we wouldn't be angsting about this now. I'm tired of the Republican Party acting as if this recount is just humouring us until the 'inevitable' outcome. As of 7:24 eastern time, the margin was only 225 votes. Yes. 225.

[* = Let me add that the report of the Democratic Party worker attempting to bribe homeless people for votes for Gore with cigarettes is equally indefensible. I don't have any details about those circumstances, but am interested to know if these homeless people were even registered to vote.]

ARGH.

</end rant>

I went online searching for ideas for a possible tattoo. I'm thinking about the Chinese characters that represent those things that mean most to me, and those things I want to see manifested in the next stage of my life. So far I've found Prosperity, Long Life, Happiness, and Love. There might be a fifth but I'm currently blanking. I have had a couple of stares tossed at me by friends who can't believe I'm contemplating this, and quite frankly, I can't either. I hate pain. I hate needles. This just feels like something I need to do.

Oh yeah. My new iBook will definitely be arriving tomorrow. HEE.

I got my driver's license renewed. How the hell did I become so... BLONDE? It must be the summer sun. I'm just NOT fond of it at all, though people around me tell me it looks good. Feh!

It will be nice to sleep in tomorrow. There's a chance my new iBook will arrive -- that would be cool if I could have a whole weekend playing around with it! HEE!

In other news... I'm craving a big sloppy gooey piece of pepperoni pizza.

WARNING! Political rant to follow:

I never thought I'd be quoting Pat Buchanan in my journal (from ABC.com): “Mr. Nader got, I believe in the neighborhood of 2.5 million votes. You can spread those any way you want, and it would have given Mr. Gore the election, state after state after state. So what I think we have seen here is the lethal power of third parties in American politics.”

*sigh* Nader devotees really should have done a little research into the Anderson campaign of 1980. It's what put Reagan into office. Those who pay no heed to history are doomed to repeat it... and doom us all as well.

Politics suck. To be forced to choose the lesser of two evils is a lousy way to run a country. But realistically, if voting for the candidate of your dreams results in the greater of the two evils taking the office... what has been accomplished?

Much nail-biting. As of this writing, Florida is the lynchpin -- whoever wins Florida, will be our next president. I have to admit, I'm nervous. The next president will likely get to seat at least 2 justices of the Supreme Court. And if they are conservative enough, Roe v. Wade could be a distant memory. Am I being alarmist? Maybe. But I would just as soon have a moderate to liberal justice on the highest court of this nation, thank you very much. This action will affect this country for decades to come, long after this next guy's out of office.

Fiscally, I'm becoming as conservative as they come (Alex Bennett once said that homeownership makes you a Republican -- and I'm beginning to see his point). But personal freedom is not something I am willing to offer up in exchange.

(It's Julie's fault I'm all political today! :) )

Whew... this presidential race...

Tired! Tired!! TIRED!!!

Because I think they deserve a link of their own on today, Election Day:
http://www.specialrighteousness.org/

Proof that political satire is alive and well and living in Oregon. To read the actual satire though you need to go to the link below (the actual Voter's Pamphlet on line).

Election Day. I can't wait for this day to be over, for better or worse. I am just so sick of it all. The stupid pre-recorded phone calls (yeah, like I really believe Robert Redford is personally calling me). The 4 out of 5 commercials during commerical breaks that actually make you long for inane Madison Avenue banter.

I have to say though that there were a couple of highlights to the ill-named Oregon Voter's Pamphlet (I say this because it came in two pieces, one of which is LITERALLY an inch thick). Measure 9, yet one more anti-gay measure being pushed on the voters by the OCA (which stands for Oregon Citizens Alliance -- what a JOKE), is accompanied by some HILARIOUS, obviously sarcastic letters "in favor" of the measure. (Read the ones by M. Dennis Moore -- most are at the top, but not all, search for his name on the page.) What I find especially ironic is that Lon Mabon, leader of the OCA, has a last name that is pagan to its very core.

Enough of that. I saw a breathtaking sunrise this morning and an indescribably beautiful rainbow in the half-light of the morning sun. I'm not going to let artificial human constructs ruin that vision from this morning.

I just realized that my birthday -- my 30th birthday -- lands on a Monday this year. Whoopdefreakingdo. I suppose this defines 'insult to injury'.

Strange dream Saturday night, which unfortunately did not come true. I dreamt I got 5 of 6 Powerball numbers! What's weird though, is that the ticket I did get, every number was either one or two digits off of the actual winning number.

Tired, again. I feel like I am always tired.

Charlie's Angels was a fun ride. Caught the matinee. Brought back memories of playing CA with my sister and my cousin. And how we would so evilly make my sister be Sabrina.

Looks like we might be able to redo the kitchen's, dining room's, and bathrooms' floor/s for just over $100. Stay tuned. (Yes, these things ARE, in fact, exciting when you own a house.)

Those idiotic neighbours did it again on Friday night... loud bass at 3:30 am. I called the police, but they didn't do anything as far as I could tell. I swear, next time I'm going to say that there's suspicious behaviour going on in the car!

It's bad when I can pick out not only the song, but the radio station they've got on!

Going to see Charlie's Angels today. Hope it's halfway decent, and if not, at least hope it's good brain candy.

tweakity tweakity with the layout...

Yet more archive angst: the dummy pages are gone, the defunct links are back. WTF?!? I wish I could just get an answer out of the help page.

More archive angst: after creating bogus pages to place-hold for the missing pages, the first two links (to the non-generated archive pages) have vanished again. Aye caramba! What a freakin' headache!

*Snoopy happy dance of joy*

Oh, I probably shouldn't have done it, but it was too good to pass up (and, I really do need it for business). I won the auction, and will soon have a portable Mac. Can't wait to get it!

Have my eye on a really sweet portable on line..... really shouldn't but OOOOOOOO

Well, the first two links on the archive page are still not working. Bloody annoying.

My sense of decorum refuses to allow me to keep the archives as seperate files in my main directory. So, pardon my dust, again, while I play with archives. Perhaps it will fix my problems.

YAWN... Something about today is totally tiring me out. I got enough sleep, so I don't know why I feel so sluggish. I was having weird dreams about maps and high school friends. Maybe it was that.

Did Scribal Night last night. Unfortunately, I had totally forgotten about it! So my afternoon was spent cleaning the house. Gotta admit, it looks pretty good, but I ache today. And I got nothing done I had planned to do yesterday afternoon. If only a full night's sleep could be condensed into just an hour or so... I could get so much more done. :)

Well, I just posted to the Help / Discuss area of blogger.com. Let's hope someone can find an answer for me!

Been a relatively quiet day, otherwise. Rowan got the mouse, by the way. She didn't actually kill it, but she stunned it enough that my housemate Jen took it outside and put it through to the field behind us. I'm sure it didn't survive long, with the state of its health and the outdoor cat population of the neighbourhood. I'm glad to be rid of it though. I think I need to go to the hardware store and buy a new flap thing for the bottom of the back door so the buggers can't get in any more.

Spiders I can deal with as a household pest. Mice are RIGHT OUT.

Time to scour the help archives. I still can't figure out why the archive mechanism isn't recognizing anything before October 29th. Argh. So, for now, I'm leaving "Frustrated" as my imood. ;)

Okay, now they're listing, but the pages don't actually exist. WAUGH!

Still can't get it to show the first two weeks of archives. It's telling me it's doing it, but not listing. It's lying to me. EVIL LYING ARCHIVE!

Um, not much interesting going on in life. Had a bit of an adventure with a mouse in the house... Aren't cats supposed to KILL these things?? Sigh.

Bunch of kids came by trick or treating last night. That's always fun.

Pardon our dust while we idly beat the archiving mechanism...

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