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I am writing this post from the comfort of my spiffy new desk which, unlike my old desk, is NOT in danger of immediate collapse! :-D

(My husband gives me neat stuff! ;-)

So, last night, while I was out having a fabulous time, chatting about perfume and neovictorian steam-punk zombie appocal...ai(?) and messed up former tenants; my fella was at home, slaving away in the office, building me this spiffy new desk. :-)

It has nice big storage drawers in it (which is good, because the actual desk-top isn't that big), and it's ROCK SOLID! :-) So now I just have to clean up (and CULL!!!) the stuff on the other desk (the side-desk, the pretty-but-not-so-useful one that my knees don't fit under) so that I can store all my other stuff properly. :-)


Gotta call Reyl and let him know when to meet me at South Keys for brunch. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

Today started out like this:

alarm clock: <*wakes us up, but apparently not very well*>
Muzzy!Paul: Can you turn that off?
Sleepy!Amazon: Huh? Isn't it Saturday? <*turns off alarm*>
M!P: No, it's Monday. I'm pretty sure it's Monday.
S!A: But how can it be Monday if I was at work yesterday. And you had Aikido...
M!P: Ohh, yeah... So it's Tuesday.
S!A: Yes. Tuesday. ... Eugh. I have to get up.
M!P: I'm going to have more sleeping.
S!A: Okay. <*gets out of bed*> 'I wanna have more sleeping, too!' <*pouts, blearily*>


It did get better from there, though, so all is fairly well okay. (I do still need to figure out Something For Dinner, though... Hm... I will have to check for chicken fingers in the freezer...)



Other things I did today:

Went to Venus Envy (which took me two tries to find, because yesterday I though it was between O'Connor and Metcalfe, not O'Connor and Bank... <*sigh*>... Seriously, I was wandering up and down that block, thinking: But it's Venus Envy... It's not like their the kind of store that hides what they're selling... In retrospect, I find this very funny. :-)

Anyway. I found the place today (The fact that it's located across from Ye Olde House of Bibles is... well, it made me smile, or possibly smirk, let's just leave it at that).

Went in for: Chocolate-mint-truffle lip massage balm.

Came out with:
The above-mentioned balm (problem: I can't seem to get the damn lid off the thing. Blast it!)
AND
Amazons: sexy tales of strong women (because, with a title like that, how could I pass it up?), which I hope will have a good mix of (what would you call this?) 'pornographic sub-genres'? -- I'm starting to come to the realization that I may be kinkier than I thought. (As in: I thought that I wasn't, and it's looking a bit like I was wrong). So I figure a mixed bag of erotic reading material might be a good place to look into things a bit more[1].
AND
Mating in Captivity which is about sexual desire in marriage, and where love and desire come from, and all sorts of other good stuff. I read the introduction on the bus home and, so far, I quite like it. It's not patronizing, it's not sugary, it doesn't Offend my Feminist Sensibilities, and it does mention a lot of things (including the statement about "wives who would rather live, for the rest of their lives, with the label 'low sex drive' than explain to their husbands that foreplay has to be more than the 'lead up' to the 'main event'") that is familiar. So I think this will be a good read. :-)


Anyway.

Things to Do Tonight:

- Come up with and prepare dinner. [ETA: Yes, we have chicken fingers in the freezer. That makes things MUCH, much easier. :-) ]

- Eat said dinner, with Paul. (I will have to ask him to pick up some Diana sauce tonight).

- Write 1000 words (2 pages or so) of BDSM story.

- If possible, read another chapter of Mating in Captivity. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)


[1] ( Footnote contains more about my sexuality than you may want to know, and this is *me* talking )

Good things that happened today:

1) I ran into an old friend from high school who is looking for a choir to join (and she sings alto, which we need), and she would like to join the CHS Alumnae choir (which, conveniently, will be starting to work on new repertoire in two, count 'em: two, weeks). So that is a nice piece of serendipity for me. :-)

2) Saw Dillon, Marie B, Steph and Tracey @ Brunch. Haven't seen any of them (other than Marie, who I sometimes run into on the bus) since the end of Schola, so it was lovely to see them all again (Marie D is pregnant! Wah! I had no idea).

3) Found someone to take the old luggage off our hands. Three cheers for Freecycle! :-D Hopefully they'll be able to pick it up tomorrow. :-)

4) Had dinner with Paul (who also helped significantly in getting rid of my headache - yay!). We even talked about stuff. Note: Not Talked About Stuff - just talked about stuff. But it was nice and pleasant and far more social than last night's dinner which was, pretty much, silent. So three cheers for being able to have a conversation every now and then. :-)

5) Had a shower! (Hurrah!) :-D No long, relaxing bath, but a shower is a lovely thing, regardless. :-)

6) Did laundry. I need to go and put it in the dryer, but I will definitely have clean socks for the next week, so yay. :-)


Tomorrow, I go in search of a GP (thanks Ami_B for the link to the find-a-physician website). :-) There's a lady with a practice that's not too far from me. (On a nice day I can walk it, on any other day, it's not a difficult bus ride, even if we move out of this area). So I shall try her. :-)


Currently, I'm tired. So it's off to bed with me. :-)

Choir went well.
Thank goodness.

And I don't screw up as much as I thought I did, so yay! :-)


After choir, I dropped into the Sassy Bead on Bank (which is right near where we do our rehearsals) and was able to make some exchanges.

What I brought back:
- Strand of mahogany obsidian chunks (left over from Explodingrunes' hammer necklace - which he liked, woohoo!)
- Strand of dark green jade balls _ strand of yellow onyx balls (too big for the pride necklace I had in mind - the balls I'd have been using for the other colours are smaller, and significantly cheaper, so I decided to say 'screw it' and get something else. I kept the red ones, though, which I have two strands of, for my 'Blood Countess' collar. Which should be quite snazzy. Hematite, or (possibly) onyx, will be the contrasting colour). :-)


What I got in exchange (+ an extra six cents):
- (much shorter) strand of snowflake obsidian (regular cut, not irregular chunks)
- another strand of red fossil (for the Blood Countess collar)
- a package of 5 silver/nickel magnetic clasps
- 26 small nickel balls
- A cowrie shell set in silver - very pretty and quasi ornate. Will likely become the center-piece of a nickel-&-shell!chips (and possibly pearls) princess necklace. It's really pretty, and I like it. :-)

the snowflake obsidian + about 14 of the nickel balls (plus a wodge of my hematite balls) + some of my grey Sculpey will become the "Frost Hammer" necklace -- I'm inclined towards donating this one to Gaia Gathering, for use as a door prize or a fund-raising piece or something.[1]



After that, I came home and ate. And watched "The Matrix". :-)
<*insert squeeing about Belinda here*>


To do with the rest of my evening:

Finish Dealing (however temporarily) with The Bedroom.
(Seriously. I just sorted and folded all of Paul clean clothes, for ease of moving out of the way? So many of his clothes are coloured for his office job - sage/beige/white - and so few are coloured for his skin tone... He needs blood-ruby-wine-garnet-cherry-crimson-burgundy reds. He has tomato/scarlet reds. He needs malachite/emerald greens and he has sage/olive greens. I feel this sudden urge to go shopping. For my husband. This might or might not be good. :-\ )

Anyway. His clothes are all on the client bed in the office now. Now to tidy up the rest of the stuff. (There's a lot of Stuff to deal with... Good golly...). Wish me luck! :-)


After I'm done with that, though, I get to have a nice long bath, with a book (not sure which, yet) and chocolate-mint bath milk. :-) Woohoo! :-D May re-dye my hair tonight, too. Not sure yet. :-)


And now for something completely different: A Meme. (Oh, the sarcasm...)

Or at least the results of a meme. This is what I got for the album cover meme that I ganked from Ami_B:

( Third Crusade presents... )

You can thank Nelson Mandela for the spectacular album title, by the way. :-)


According to the "Random-Wiki Album Generator Meme", ( these are the songs: )


Anyway. That is all. Now I must go and do more bedroom-prep. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)


[1] Note to Self: When next at Michael's, pick up:
- Hematite balls
- Shell chips (white/un-dyed)
- Citrine chips
- irregular pearls (un-dyed)
- Turquoise balls (maybe)
- Tiny onyx balls
- Fancy jasper chips
- Red jasper balls
- Shell balls OR tiny cowrie shell beads.

I need to figure out how to make my little Sculpey Goddess figures. :-)

Goal for 2008:

1) Personal Credit Card Debt = GONE by the end of February.

2) Create Savings Account. At the beginning of March. Into-which will go the money that, until then, will have being (rapidly!) paying off said credit card debt.

3) Find some way of exercising that is (A) cheap and (B) reasonably fun and (C) doesn't involve staying up past my Bed Time (sadly said bedtime is between 8pm and 9pm, otherwise the obvious choice would be to go out to Re-Vamp every now and again, but c'est la vie).


Uhm... That should get me up to midsummer, at any rate. Beyond that, I'm not making any plans. :-)


I'm going to bed (at 7:22, for goodness sake...).


Happy New Year, you lot. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

I'm writing to you from Paul's spiffy new laptop today. :-)

The reason for this, alas, is not so spiffy. My computer is doing That Thing again. Back in July (I think it was) it did this Thing wherein it would turn on, but only part way. Nothing would happen on the monitor. :-P
I ended up sharing Paul's computer for a week while it was in getting 'repairs'.

However, as it stands/stood, the repairs weren't necessary as nothing was (apparently, er) wrong with the computer.

Perhaps it was just tired or something.

Anyway, it's not the motherboard, I can tell you that much.


Yeah.

So it's doing that again. It was fine this morning, and when I came home and turned it on it was doing That Thing again. :-P

Hopefully this won't last.

I've written three 'installments' of my Nano novel in Paul's Thunderbird window, and sent them to myself. Granted, they don't appear to have turned up yet, so it's possible that this will all have come to naught.

In any case, this is rather disappointing because, hello, I'm going away for the weekend and need to get a *lot* of writing done before I leave. I'm currently a little bit ahead - if said e-mailed bits get through, I will have written (at least) my required 700 extra words to get me clear through tomorrow.
However that still leaves Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (basically, I have to hit 30K before I leave. Unlikely, but I'd like to get as close as possible). Which is a tad difficult when one's computer does not work. (BOO!!!)

So I'm a little perturbed, to say the least. :-P

I'm going to go and check my e-mail again, and see if the stuff got through. I can hope, anyway. ;-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon.

Well... Today has been fairly productive.
By my standards, at least.

I posted two new chapters of "Live Truly, My Heart" (110 pages, and counting! Woohoo!) as well as an angsty Trin/Switch one-shot. Also, I had choir practice and tidied the kitchen.
Go me! :-D


I realize that, perhaps, my standards for 'accomplishment' are a bit low.
But, then again, maybe not. :-)


Of course, this is not the subject of this entry.

No. I want to gripe talk about Nano and why I do it.

( Cut to Spare your Friends Pages )

( On Fanfic and Its Uses )

( Something to Try )

Anyway.

That's me Yammering away about Nano. Lot's of fun to be had this November. Yes, indeedy, yes. :-)


In other news: I will *not* be going to Brunch tomorrow. I forgot what weekend this is. ;-)
Instead of Brunch, I will be spending lunch time with my in-laws, and dinner-time with my mother. There will be mad amounts of turkey. Just insane. ;-)

Anyway. I'm absurdly tired now, so I think I shall toddle off to bed. :-)

- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

<*Sigh*>

Just general sigh-ness.

<*shakes head*>


Well... You remember how a little while back I had a lousy day and got home to find a really nice e-mail in my inbox inviting me to write a government test?

Today was sort of the opposite of that.

I had a perfectly nice day, but got home to find:
1) A note from Paul letting me know that our July mortgage cheque bounced, and to contact my mother
2) A note from one of the would-be new board-memebers reminding me of tonights Owners' Meeting... Apparently one of my proxies was missing, and so I actually have to *go* tonight. This is not something to-which I'm looking forward, even if it does get me out of the house for a while.


Anyway. The mortgage thing is resolved - in so far as it can be at this point - at least until Paul gets home. We'll see if he wants to Talk About It[1].


I leave for the meeting in, like, 40 minutes.

Barbecued chicken for dinner tonight, I think. :-)

hopefully said meeting won't last more than, say, half an hour. 45 minutes at the most.

Wish us luck. :-)



[1] Talking About It always strikes me as a particularly useless activity. The mortgage cheque bounced. I know that. It's is in the past. What can I do about *right this minute* to solve the problem? I've already done it. What can I do to avoid having this happen again in the future? I'm doing that, too. Not that you necessarily believe me, but I am. What can *you* do to prevent this happening in the future? Damn-well make sure I have your contribution-cheque in my hand *before* the first of the month, rather than *after*. however I would like to think that this is *obvious*. Goodness, gracious me...

Have been bopping around the websites of The Trailing Edge, Future Shop and Staples.

Unexpectedly, at 17" flat-screen is cheaper at the stores near my house than at the one in Bell's Corners.
Cool. :-)


To do today:

- Dye Hair
- Work on Boot (or, potentially, boots) while watching Some Movie or Other. Note: I found another spool of black thread! :-D Yay! :-D
- Figure Out Dinner. Since Paul is going shopping w/ his Dad today (shoes, belt, new tank of gas for the BBQ), this will (I hope) involve barbecuing something. If it does, this is good. It means that Paul will do the cooking. :-)


I don't think I will be going to Art In Strathcona today. (Sorry Ami. Good luck, though! :-D)



Last Night was dinner w/ Paul's family. It was nice to see my brother-in-law (who was in town for the day, basically). I wore my pants, and everyone went "Hey! You're wearing pants!" and said they looked good, which was pretty awesome.
They were still not totally comfortable, but I'm sort of starting to figure them out.
Handily, I didn't feel like I was in drag today.
I *did* feel unusually butch. But that's me for you. In my head, pants = menswear.
I can see the appeal of them for running, though. :-)

Anyway. Due to the aforementioned family visit, I am feeling somewhat all-peopled-out (and, as such, am starting to toy with the idea of getting a driver's license... only toying. But its usefulness is slowly becoming apparent. ;-)

Spent last night copying "Live Truly, My Heart" over to GJ. I'll do the same thing to IJ eventually. (Sorry to the GJ people for filling your f-list with fic!spam, btw. :-)


Anywhoo. That's it for me. :-)


Off to write Part Eighteen. :-)


- TTFN,
- Amazon. :-)

It is 7:52am

I "slept in" today. :-)

Paul and I are heading up to his family cottage (with his family) for the weekend in a couple of hours - I should, perhaps, do some laundry or something, but packing will have to wait until Paul wakes up - and I am responsible for bringing Saturday's Lunch and Paul's Birthday Cake.

So the Saturday-Lunch (chicken & Pasta Salad w/ peppers and mushrooms) fixings are in the fridge, in a bag, ready to go. The cake-base has been made, and is cooling downstairs. (I love the Joy of Cooking's 'Lightning Cake' recipe. :-) It takes half an hour to make, and two thirds of that is cooking time. :-)

Paul's cake is going to be a variation of our wedding cake (or a variation on a trifle), by the way: A chocolate-chocolate-chip cake base, with a mess of raspberries in/as the middle layer, and then the whole thing gets covered with chocolate mousse.
Whee! :-)

So that should be good. :-)


Things to bring:
Sunscreen
Bug spray
hat
bathing suit
towel
socks
nightgown
extra shirts
Books...

Meh... I figure out the rest as I go along. :-)



In other news: I am now certified as a first-aider (CPR level A) by the Red Cross, and know how to use an AED. :-) Go me! :-)