Neil Patrick Harris is being a shoe fairy on Sesame Street today. Singing too.

Today is my birthday. I am going to see UP with Duo and gakki .  If I am very very lucky, I will get to spend tomorrow with my husband.  So happy birthday to me.


And


Happy late Birthday miome  !!

visited 23 states (46%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Best time to visit United States of America


Looks like I've got most of the eastern half covered. I might be wrong about Arizona and I might have been to Colorado, but I don't remember. Where is the part of the Grand Canyon everyone goes to again?

I'm actually kinda surprised I haven't been to Texas.

So where have all YOU people been to?

Happy Birthday Sarah~chan, wherever you may be!!






I miss you.

No, really, I'm not making that up. It's an actual book title. 

So a while back Simon and Schuster's Livejournal  simon_saysuk  had a book giveaway, and I was one of the lucky people to get a free book. (Yay free book!) all I had to do in return was write a review.  Took longer to get around to reading the book than I initially thought it would, as last month was super hectic.

So anyway, on with the review!

Vampirates: Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper, 298 pages of tweeny vampire pirate fun. A fairly light read for me, but I kept in mind it is aimed at ages 10 and up, so I only snickered in a few places. The premise is a set of twins (boy/girl) in the year 2505 (which is apparently full of pirates, I suppose in response to the rising sea levels caused by global warming) recently orphaned, steal their dad's boat and set out to sea so they don't have to go to the orphanage.  There is a big storm and they are separated, each winding up on a different ship.  There is some forshadowing that suggests they have some kind of important destiny ahead (naturally) and the rest of the book is about them trying to find each other again.  I liked this book and am curious to see what happens in the next 3 books in the series.  I will probably try to find them through the library.  The slang used within shows, at least to me, that the author is probably around my age, as it is a bit dated. But since the story is set in the future, there is no telling what the slang would be like.   Pirates fight with swords and cannons, everyone is on sailing ships, and I have to say that some of the background characters intrigue me.  Some are a bit two demensional, but might gain more depth in later books.  I would really like to find out more about the Captain of the Vampirates ship.  He is mysterious and enigmatic, and I have a theory about that, but I am going to keep it to myself. 
Since the book IS aimed at a younger audience, I found it pretty tame by my usual vampire standards (Charlaine Harris, LKH).  If you like pirates, vampires or both, and are in the market for a light read (if you are over 18 it's a light read) then you may enjoy this book.

The only other place I have ever seen Vampires and Pirates together was this serialized story in Heavy Metal magazine. And I think that was set in Hell so everyone was dead or demons, and some were Vampires but I don't remember if any of the vampires were also pirates.  I wish I could find a compilation of that, it was a really interesting story.

In other news, vampire related, the next Anita Blake book comes out June 2. Yay! right after my birthday, so great timing.  I have pre-ordered the first season of True Blood on DVD and it should get here around May 19th.  And the second season of that starts in June.  I have two of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books to read, and then I have to wait until the new one comes out in paperback, or get it from the library.

Now I'm going to go watch "The Prestige" and get my Hugh Jackman fix (I actually haven't seen it yet). I am SO getting the DVD of the Wolverine movie the second it comes out.  Watched it twice in theatres and still have no idea what the third ending is. I've seen two of them.

I am all through!  Cleaned the old apartment yesterday, did the final walkthrough and turned my keys in today.  YAY!!! I don't have to go back out there anymore! Now I can finally concentrate on getting my masses of stuff sorted out and unpacked and put away.  I think I have too much stuff.  I need to get rid of some of it. 

If I am lucky I will get the safety deposit back, but if not, oh well. I'm not gonna worry about it.

I am very impatiently waiting for the Wolverine movie to open this weekend.  It will be the first time I have seen a movie in a theater in a very long time. Unless you count when I was going to the drive-in when we were in NYS.  We've planned to go several times but never did.

Really looking forward to the next ep of LOST too.  It is one of my favorite shows ever.  I have to wonder how things would be different if they had killed Ben Linus when they had the chance.  The world may never know. 

I should probably go and actually unpack something instead of sitting here at the computer and procrastinating like this.

Later.

I've been offline a while, and won't have regular internet access until the 20th because I am moving.  We are mostly moved but still have stuff at our old place I need to get out.  Since Jayson is stuck in Georgia I have to do it all myself, so it is taking longer.  Just wanted to give anyone who actually reads this a heads up to why I haven't posted in forever.  I have been managing to read my friends page occaisionally.  I was way behind the last time, but I think I am all caught up now.  I added some new people who had friended me.  Hello new friend people! *waves*

Weather this week has been nuts.  It was COLD cold earlier this week and it's blazing hot today.

Another reason I haven't been on here as much is that I finally broke down and signed up to facebook. I was looking for an old friend of mine who I thought might be on there but never found her. Apparently her name is more common than I thought.  If anyone on here is on there too, let me know if you want to be friends on there and I'll let you know my info.  The games on there are why facebook has been sucking down my time. I am easily hooked on internet clicky games.  And I've gotten to the point where I need more people to do a lot of the missions. And can't get any more of the people I know on there to play and join my Clan/Crew/League. Even though they only have to play the once and click to join my group to be counted and then never have to play again. *sigh*

I'm going to go visit Jayson next weekend. Gotta take the Duo with me, so the weekend will probably be pretty PG rated.

Gotta go Monday to get all signed up for the great Army Medical benifits again, then I shall go to the eye doctor, update my perscription, and get new glasses, which I have been desperately needing.  Also start to see about getting my wisdom teeth out finally. And various other sundry things that have been neglected due to our lack of insurance.  But I still have no desire for socialized medicine in America.

I'm going to go catch up on Girl Genius now.

Later.

So here are the books I have read so far this year. Plus the two I've read for March, but they will go in a different post.


January

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Pigs Don't Fly by Mary Brown
Dear America: Our Strange New Land by Patricia Hermes
Crazy Lady by Jane Leslie Conly
Dear America: The Starving Time by Patricia Hermes
Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright
Spellbinder by L.J. Smith
Huntress by L.J. Smith
Meet Felicity by Valerie Tripp
Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L.J. Smith
Vampire Diaries: The Struggle by L.J. Smith
Master of Many Treasures by Mary Brown
Vampire Diaries: The Fury by L. J. Smith

February

Felicity Learns a Lesson by Valerie Tripp
Felicity's Surprise by Valerie Tripp
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Wizard's Dilemma by Diane Duane
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris
The Vampire Diaries The Return: Nightfall by L. J. Smith
A Cat of Silvery Hue by Robert Adams
Pride (Werecats book 3) by Rachel Vincent
A Man Called Milo Morai by Robert Adams
A Woman of the Horseclans by Robert Adams
Elfquest: Book 1 by Wendy and Richard Pini

Not as many in February, but it is the shortest month after all.

www.shortpacked.com/index.html



Just in case the link doesn't work right, it is the March 4, 2009 strip of "Shortpacked!"   which is a very funny comic I like.

So by Friday we should have our tax return money back. Yay!!  Half goes into savings, as always, and half we get to play with and help boost the economy.  I have a big fat shopping spree planned already.  Gonna shorten my wishlists on Amazon a bit, and finally,  finally  get a Pre-Mattel Felicity doll. I have wanted her since AG came out with them.  So I've been scanning ebay to see what the cost estimate is for one. And how to tell the diference. I'm not liking the AG website so much right now.  There is a lot of Kirsten's stuff that used to be in her collection that isn't up there anymore.  So I might have to hunt up some of those pieces on ebay too.  Because they will only get more expensive the longer I wait.  I will probably buy some of Felicity's outfits from AG, just so they will be complete.  I've seen a lot of partial outfits up on ebay, and I don't want to pay those prices and not get what was supposed to come with the outfit originally.

For those who may have missed my news earlier, Jayson has been recalled to active duty and will be once again working for the US Army for at least a year.  The up side is that we will have health insurance again.  So I can finally get my wisdom teeth out this summer.  And a new prescription for my glasses.  I need that BAD.

I've been watching the new season of LOST and I still don't see how they can explain everything by the end of next season.  Also I have been watching the eps from earlier seasons on G4 and SciFi channel.  Not in any kind of order, but I don't have the season box set on DVD so it's been a long time since I've seen some of those episodes.  I totally missed that Alex was the one who helped Claire escape from the Others when she was pregnant with Aaron.

I am hooked on that new show Dollhouse.  Eliza Dushku (?sp) is one of my fave actresses.  Fox was having issues when they aired it last week though.  Wound up showing 20 minutes of this old 80's show Airwolf instead of Dollhouse, and cut back in to the show about two minutes before it was over.  Missed a massive piece of plot.  I'm gonna have to look it up on one of the video internet sites to see the whole thing. 

I meant to post a long time ago about this.  My new year's resolution was to keep track of what books I read this year to see how many it winds up being.  I've never kept track before and I read a lot, so I am curious to see how much I read in a year.  I'll post the list of books I've read so far in the next post.  Currently I am reading Lord of the Crooked Path(s) which is taking me forever to get through, and Blood of Ten Chiefs, which I am about halfway through.   I have a lot of stuff on my TBR list, including some classic stuff.   I also joined Paperbackswap.com, and it is a great site.  I have 3 credits on there now, and I'm saving them for when something comes through my wishlist.  They have an automatic request thing you can set up.  And since most of the books I have been requesting are out of print or hard to find, it is definitely a good deal.   if you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.

My sister Kat is coming to visit from California.  I don't know how long she will stay, but it will be nice to see her again.  I love her, but we are at each other's throats if we have to be in the same house for more than a day or two.  She will probably be staying with Mom.

Hope everyone is having a decent week.
Later.

Association meme: comment to this post and I will list five things I associate with you. Then you must put them up in your journal and elaborate.   I was tagged by tanz_fanatika . 


1) Firefly/Serenity (since I see River there)
Sadly I did not discover Firefly until shortly before the movie came out.  This is because at the time we didn't have cable and couldn't pick up Fox.  I am still very sad there weren't more seasons.  I hope I can find some more of the graphic novels. I only have the first one.  My husband got me the box set of Firefly for a present, but I can't remember which occasion it was for.  I think anniversary or birthday.

2) Dolls
I still have all of my dolls from childhood, and some of my little sister's.  Mostly Barbie. Also She-Ra, Rainbow Brite (smaller one), Princess Rose Petal (only one of those I have),  AG doll Kirsten and a lot of her stuff, Belle, Beast, Ariel, Eric, Jasmine, Rajah, a German Cinderella, Skipper, Stacey, Kelly. I think I have a Courtney, but I'm not sure.  Most of my older dolls are packed away.  I have a massive lack of shelf space to display them.  In adulthood I started collecting Barbie's Dolls of the World, Princesses of the World, and the Barbie Fairies.  I was also introduced to several doll lines that I had never heard of by tanz_fanatika .  Namely BEGoth dolls, Pullips, Juku Couture, and BJD's. The last of which I like but will probably never be able to get.  I have quite a few of the Bleeding Edge Goth girls, 3 Pullips, one Taeyang Horizon (a present from my sis, just got here today), I have Juku doll Audrina on order from Walmart, but I am having trouble with their Site-to-Store thing.  Ordered her right after Christmas and she still hasn't gotten here yet.  I'm planning to track down a pre-Mattel Felicity doll and maybe some of her stuff when we get our tax refund.  I've wanted her since she came out.  I got Kirsten for Christmas 1989 when there were only 3 AG dolls.

3) Channon Roe (ROCKS. I love him.)  First discoved him watching Kindred: The Embraced.  Had a MAD crush on his character.  I still get excited whenever I see him on TV somewhere or in a movie. Even if it's only a small part.   Kash was just the most awesome vampire.  His storyline was so sad.   I have the series on VHS, because for some reason one of my fave scenes got edited out on the DVD version.  So sad that there wasn't a second season of that.

4) Boondock Saints  First watched this at a New Year's Eve Party.  We played the drinking game (adapted version). Take a swig every time someone dies, someone says the F word, and when the guy messes up a saying.  And really that is enough to give someone alchohol poisoning if you were doing it with shots.  I was drinking wine coolers, so I wasn't too messed up by the end, but some people were drinking stuff that was a bit harder.   It's one of my fave movies now.

5) She-Ra  Ah, my beloved favorite childhood show.  I had a costume when I was little.  Most of it got lost in the move back from Germany, but I still have my sword, it still has one jewel sticker, and it still glows in the dark.  I have She-Ra, Bo, Glimmer, Catra, Frosta, and the swan with the saddle.  Also the Crystal Castle.  I never liked the toy of Swift Wind.  He wasn't supposed to be pink, dammit.  They could have gotten the colors right if they had wanted to.   I currently own Season 1 pt 1 and 2.  My son really likes the show too.    I can't watch it without snickering just a little, thinking that if they think the Horde is the ultimate evil, they've never seen real evil in action.  Also I laugh at Hordack's funny weapon names.  "My Laser Bubble Blaster!"   I still like the show, I just think 20 guys with guns and the willingness to actually kill people could take over the whole planet.

I'm curious to see if anyone responds to this.

You Are Peanut Butter Patties / Tagalongs

You are creative and artistic. When you think, you tend to think big. You go for the drama. You love excitement and passion... even if it gets you in trouble. You are intense and a little self centered. You can be quite full of yourself (but not without reason). You tend to be very indulgent. If you feel like having something, you go ahead and treat yourself.

I had to tweak my answers to get my favorite cookie. This meme is brought to you b/c it is Girl Scout Cookie Time!! I do love me some Girl Scout Cookies!

Okay, so this store isn't closed everywhere, but it got closed here: Hancock's Fabrics. I really miss it. And they closed it at the same time the Wal-Mart here got rid of its fabric section, so now there is nowhere to buy fabric in the whole town/city of Meridian.

The closest fabric store is this little quilt shop way out in De Kalb, which is in the boonies and cell phones don't work there. It's 30+ miles away. And being a quilt shop, they only have quilt stuff, so not everything you need for sewing projects.

The next nearest actual fabric store is in Flowood, MS which is 80+ miles away. And then there is one in Hattiesburg, MS which is 90+ miles away.

This is why I stocked up on fabric while I was still up in Watertown, NY, where there were THREE quilt shops and the Wal-Mart still had a fabric section (though it was supposed to be getting phased out soon). And I am pretty sure there was a regular type fabric store too. That's one of the things I miss about living in New York State.

Seriously, what was Hancock's thinking when they closed the store here? They would have had a total monopoly.

I need a quilting icon.

1. Do you have a tattoo?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single or taken?
4. Eat with your hands or utensils?
5. Do you dream at night?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7.George Strait or Jay Z?
8. How did we meet?

HERE COMES THE EQUALLY INTERESTING PART...
9. Whats your philosophy on life and death?
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?
11. Do you trust the police?
12. Do you like Country music?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
15. Would you cheat ?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Have you ever peed in a pool?
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?
21. Do you sing in the shower?
22. What's your favorite color?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?
25. What was your first impression of me?
26. Have you ever done drugs?
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

Free-IQTest.net - Mensa IQ Test

So if anyone wants those dolls, we need to spread the word and donate. $26 gets you the doll of your choice whenever the total cost is reached. You can donate to either one, if you want and have the cash to spare. If you would like to support this and don't have cash to spare, post this somewhere on the net where lots of people can see. Like if you are on facebook or myspace as well as livejournal.

I don't have the cash to donate right now, but I have one of the earlier dolls and she is awesome. Come tax return time, I plan to donate towards Goth. Maybe both.

Happy 2009 Everybody!!

Your result for The what kind of Mormon are you? Test...

Blissfully nonMormon

Take The what kind of Mormon are you? Test at HelloQuizzy

Found the link on an Ex-Mormon community. It is amusing but the quiz needs work. There were several questions without a good answer.

We are going up to Nashville today to visit Jayson's family. Gonna spend the weekend. This will be Duo's first long car trip since February when we came down from New York. Hopefully I have packed enough for him to do on the way.

I had a really weird dream this morning. First there was a fire ant problem at my Grandma's house. Then I was looking at this creepy doll my mom had which had no upper lip, so you could see the gums and the teeth and the mouth was open a bit. I was trying to get the mouth to close so it would look a little less creepy and when I finally did, the skull popped up so you could see the brain. It was very detailed and I looked at it a while. When I looked up, Trent Reznor or some other heavy metal musician was standing there looking at me. He said something about how most girls would have been grossed out and he was impressed that I wasn't and then he said something about an old friend of mine that he apparently used to hang out with him and his older brothers. Then my mom called me into the living room and she was wanting to know what I wanted for Christmas. I told her a MLP off of my amazon wishlist. Then I woke up.

That is definitely one of my weirder dreams.

We put up the tree Wednesday night. I let Duo put a lot of the ornaments on himself. He really had fun. But now I am having trouble convincing him not to play with the ornaments. I have to keep telling him not to touch the tree. Oh, well. It will sink in eventually.

Anyway, I need to go and wake up Duo and get everything ready to go.

Hard to get anywhere close to an accurate answer on that thing.

Dear Santa... Dear Santa, This year I've been busy! In September I gave alien_sunset a life-saving blood transfusion (50 points). Last Tuesday I signed my organ donor card (28 points). In November I caught a purse-snatcher who stole iconzicons's purse (30 points). In August I helped azrael665 hide a body (-173 points). In February I pulled over and changed kimonos_house's flat tire (15 points). Overall, I've been naughty (-50 points). For Christmas I deserve a spanking! Sincerely, jaysons_lady

Write your letter to Santa! Enter your LJ username:

Oh Noes! I've been naughty!

Had Thanksgiving at my Grandparent's yesterday.  Had chicken instead of turkey.  Good food.  Duo got to run all over the place and have lots of people pay attention to him.  Got to pet the baby goats.  He chased the guinea fowl and was generally very bossy, but he finished all his veggies so he got dessert.

Was gonna go shopping this morning, but Jayson's alarm didn't  go off for some reason and we overslept, so he had to get ready super fast and go to work.  I'll just have to see if anything is left by the time he gets home.

My cousin Becky, whose husband is stationed up in Alaska, had a baby girl earlier this month.  Luckily her mom was there visiting.  Cute baby. Head full of hair.

Mom is spending the weekend in Jackson visiting her mom who is in the hospital. So I am feeding her cat while she is gone. Gotta go do that later today.

Made bread for Thanksgiving. Didn't turn out as well as the last time, but it was still pretty good.

My Webkinz collecting is gonna break me.  There are way too many that I want.  They are coming out with a new dragon in January, so I know we will be getting that one.  There are a lot that Duo wants too.  I mostly want the cats.  I was hoping to find them on sale somewhere today.

I've been re-reading The Enchanted Forest Chronicles.  Still good, and still funny.  I really want to get the next book in Jane Lindskold's Wolf series.  I've read the first four and except for the first one, they all end with me going "No! You can't stop there! What happens next!?"  I borrowed them from a friend.  I had read the first one years ago and didn't know it was a series now.  First one is Through Wolf's Eyes.  Yesterday I got  Fables: Vol. 11 War and Peices and read it. I am glad it isn't the end of the story, I was kind of worried for a bit that it might be the last one.  I'm gonna have to rearrange my comic and manga shelf to fit all the new stuff now.  I need more shelf space.

I need to go thaw out my fingers.  This computer generates cold.  I swear it is colder in here than it is outside.

more music charts


Really like this chart.

Well, it is seriously looking like California will pass Prop 8, and rescind the right to marry they recently granted gay people.  In "honor" of this ignominious event, I made the icon that graces this post.    For their hypocritical and repugnant behavior they deserve more harsh words than I can devise.   They had their chance when this came up before and Gay Marriage won that time.  They shouldn't be able to say, "okay you can do this," and then turn around a year or two later and say "no, wait, you can't do that anymore."

Gay people getting married in NO way threatens MY heterosexual marriage, and anyone who feels that it threatens theirs needs to start looking more closely at their OWN marriage instead of throwing metaphorical rocks at someone else's.  There are other countries where gay marriage is legal and their societies have not fallen into a dark abyss of corruption.  

At least this finally gives me a great incentive to do something I should have done years ago. As I have been reliably informed by several sources that the LDS church, aka "Mormons" were strongly supporting Prop 8, I am finally going to get my name stricken from the membership list.  I am listed as an inactive member and have not been an active member since I turned 18 and had a choice.  I was raised in that church and disagreed with them on a number of different issues, but this is the last straw.  I refuse to be even nominally associated with the LDS church anymore. It may cause strife with my mom when she finds out, but I will deal with it.   My grandparents would probably be happy about it as they do not consider Mormons to be Christians, but I will let them keep their illusions. My maternal grandmother is still in the hospital recovering from pneumonia, among other things, so now would definately not be the best time to out myself as a Pagan.  Especially since she is the one who is always sending us Christ-centric christmas and birthday cards.

Well, that is my little rant.  I need to go do some stuff.
Later.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Also Happy SAMHAIN, Dia De Los Muertos, and All Hallows!!



I or my husband shall be taking our three year old trick or treating later.  He has decided to be Swiper the fox from Dora the Explorer.  I am being a fey.  Without wings b/c it is too cold to go without my cloak and I can't wear the wings with it.  Jayson will probably be a pirate.  I'm gonna make him dress up.  It's the one day a year you can dress as outrageously as you like and no one looks at you funny.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

If YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine, but long and verbose is awesome too.


1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A.

5) Favourite vegetable?
A.

6) What was the last book you read?
A.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A.

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A.

9) Worst Habit?
A.

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A.

11) What is your favourite sport?
A.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A.

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A.

16) Do you have any pets?
A.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A.

18) What was your first impression of me?
A.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A.

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A.

23) Ever been arrested?
A.

24) Bottle or can soda?
A.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A.

27) What's your favourite place to hang at?
A.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A.

29) Favourite thing to do in your spare time?
A.

30) Do you swear a lot?
A.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A.

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A.

35) Do you believe in God?
A.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Marilyn!

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

I am mostly happy and agree with the results. But who wouldn't have wanted to be Marilyn?