*zzzz*

This upload is SO SLOW I could literally fall asleep waiting for it. I'm going to be here until at least 5:30, and it won't even be done then. I'll have to leave it running.

Uh oh...

I think I'm having new-layout cravings. Yikes.

Well that was nasty.

Whew, Dreamhost had a really nasty 8 hour outage yesterday. Apparently it was a hardware problem, and even the backups didn't help. Ouch. Ah well, good company that they are, they worked their butts off to get things back in order and they're keeping us updated every step of the way. I <3 Dreamhost.

Anyway... Sailormoon is cracking me up. First of all, we now have Dark Sailor Mercury! Ahhhhh!!!! The outfit's cool though. :) Plus I was cracking up when Jupiter decked Tuxedo Mask! BAM! Take that, you indecisive booger! Gotta love Mako-chan.

Bryon was online again this morning. Good good. :) Today I am making a trip to Ithaca to check out the yarn store, the House of Odin Used Bookstore, Eastern Mountain Sports (to get super-spiffy hot-weather socks for Bryon), and got to A.C. Moore, another craft store along the lines of Michaels, but apparently with a better selection. Plus I finished my new swatch. Unfortunately, even on the 5s, it appears to be too small. *cry* So it's possible I may have to get a set of 5 1/2s!! I am so sick of buying needles. *sigh*

Well, off to shower and stuff.

Well that sounds rea-sonable.

Ok, I am amused. Ami/Sailor Mercury, my alter-ego, likes to knit. :D Sara says I should just dye my hair blue and be done with it. :)

No word from Bryon today. Very sad. I did finally get to hang out with Marisa though, after a longggg boring day at work (I did get a lot done on the IVSM website though). It sucks that it was such a gorgeous day and I had to be stuck inside doing computer stuff. Marisa came over here after dinner and we jabbered on for a good hour; I got my first trip to the Homestarrunner site... ("Homestarrunner.net... it's dot com!!!) and we watched Mona Lisa Smile, which my mom and I had just been talking about yesterday. It was ok...one of the main love interests was a total scumpuppy and it was totally unbelievable that Julia Roberts fell for him even for a short period. Loved seeing the '50s-Wellesley-girls wardrobe though. Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst were excellent as usual, as were all the other girls.

In the knitting department, I had to go buy a set of #5 needles because for pete's sake, on #6s my gauge was too big, and on #4s it was too small by half an inch. Sheesh. So, I'm hoping it's right on course this time. Also had my first experience with Stash Enhancement... Michael's had some Red Heart skeins on sale for $1.88 - the big skeins too, probably the next size before the 1-pounder - in this lovely variegated blue. Yeah yeah, it's probably acrylic and all, but it's really pretty. I might make a bag of some kind out of it - but it truly was Stash Enhancement, because I really have no plans for it... it just looked pretty.

Now I'm off to bed, still sorta hoping Bryon will call. Can't help myself. I've been reduced to listening to his voicemail messages on my phone. :(

Blah.. Watched Bend It Like Beckham with my mom. It was very good, very entertaining. Now my brother is watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Botany Bay... Botany Bay? Oh no!!). I can feel myself getting sucked into it.. I think I'll put on another episode of Sailor Moon (nothing against Khan, but I don't want sit and watch the whole movie tonight).

Nursing a bit of a headache. Maybe Sailor Moon will help. XD

Cold and cranky.

Well, I finished the Fool book. I cried so hard. :/ You invest the reading of 9 books into someone, you're gonna get attached. It was very good, and I definitely couldn't have predicted the ending, the good parts or the bad parts.

I also went into a cleaning frenzy... cleaned my computer area and my room, and paid my brother to clean the inside of my car. I've been Febrezing the whole house, or at least it smells that way. Can't be too bad though, right? I got my laundry going (about to go put in another load) and I even know what I'm going to wear tomorrow. I just wish I didn't have to be there an hour earlier than usual.

I think I will start my new swatch before I go to bed.

Mea culpa.

Big apologies to my good friend Josh - apparently not ALL the readers of this blog are female. :D In other news, this IM-ing with Bryon thing is starting to become a regular occurrence, which is really nice. I still don't know where he is, but I have been given the name of a location which is a fascinating subject for historical research. ;)

No craft progress (except finding my #4 needles...); I chose to try and finish Fool's Fate last night. Didn't quite make it - I have about 50 pages to go, maybe a little less. Lots of tissues needed. 'Nuff said.

Plan for today: 1) finish Fool book. 2) start my new swatch for the sweater. 3) possibly make another tote bag, this one as a present for my mom's friend's birthday. 4) call Adecco and see if there's any progress there. 5) mail letter to Bryon. 6) laundry, tons of it.

Amazing feats of Juliedom.

#1: Yesterday I went to two more employment agencies, finally found a pair of "normal" dress shoes that I really like, and went shopping with my mom in the evening. I found a couple of neat shirts, a nice pair of beige (not exactly khaki...) dress pants, and a long winter dress coat, something I've needed for a long time. While shopping for the coat, two, two people asked me about my scarf! One was an older woman who says she has made a similar one herself; the other was the cashier, who says a cousin of hers has one like it. They both asked me were I found the yarn, what stitch I used, how many stitches across, etc.... all of which I was happy to be able to answer. :) My mom was amazed - she says she never knew there was such a community of knitters out there.

#2: I crossed craft categories and sewed myself a knitting bag, using the totebags 101 tutorial on Supereggplant. I am amazed it came out this well, considering it is my first project on my very own sewing machine, given to me for graduation!





Wheee! Ok, Amazing Feat #3 is that I went running today with my brother. He's been trying to get me to go for a while. I am most definitely out of shape, so I know I could use it, but I really don't enjoy running. :p Still, it's much nicer out today than it has been, so after I made sure he'd be ok with going .02 miles an hour (and that he'd carry my lifeless form back to the house if I died on the way), we set out. I did take breaks to walk, but I think I did manage to run about half of the time. That's not too bad. The circle I live on is a mile around, with lots of hills and stuff, so I figured that wasn't too bad for the first time. And Brion was nice about sticking with my slow pace. So, we'll see how I feel about going again.

Also, I got to talk to Bryon on IM again this morning! Always fun. He's doing fine. And now Brion wants the computer.

Blah, blah.

Today I went down to Adecco, dressed very spiffy. Result: they already have two jobs they are going to try and place me in! I am supposed to call back tomorrow to find out what's up. After that I stopped at my grandparents' house and ended up chatting with them for 3 hours. It was fun.

I have the evening left to do whatever... and I can't decide what to do. I could finish the cross-stitch on my project and start the backstitching; I could try and find some material downstairs and try to make a bag (following the fantastic tutorial on Supereggplant); I could try and finish the Fool book; there are just too many choices. I *do* know I will most likely end up watching at least 4 more episodes of Sailormoon tonight. :)

Another email from Bryon today. :)

Wheeee...

Did I say Bryon emailed me again? Because he did. Relief ensued.

Today, ladies and gents (uh.. actually all the people that read this, as far as I know, are ladies...), I finished my very first knitting project.

Behold, the Muppet Scarf.



I wore it all around on my errands today, and... I love it. Unfortunately, I can't decide if I like the length, or if it's too damn long (not that there's anything I can do about that at this point). I keep seeing cute scarves like this on TV, and many of them are this length... *shrug* It will take some getting used to, and I can double it up if I feel like it, which I'm sure I will do for wearing it with my normal coat.

I am so glad I took a sidestep from the baby sweater and did this project. Because it's a simple, repetitive project, it allowed me to develop a regular rhythm of knitting like I have when I crochet, rather than stumbling around like I was before. In fact, just as I suspected, my gauge has changed between the beginning and end of the sweater swatch (which I also finally finished).



This is not the most attractive swatch in the world anyway. I think I dropped a few stitches. However, I learned a lot from it - it was good practice for the knit and purl stitches, plus I learned how to create a border, pick up a dropped knit or purl stitch, and bind off. So, overall I would call it a success. Obviously if I see errors like this in my sweater I will pull it out and fix it.

Tonight I spent 3 hours helping my brother with Spanish homework. I have discovered I really enjoy it, and I retained a lot more understanding of Spanish than I thought I did, though I need reminding on a lot of the specifics. :) Now I'm off to watch eps 12 and 13 of Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon... wheeee! Time for Sailor Venus to make her appearance. XD

Work work.

Yes, I'm at work, and I'm posting in my blog. It's been quite busy today - lots of people in and out, and I'm adding new things to the website. People seem to be generally quite satisfied with it, for which I am grateful. It wouldn't be that difficult to change the layout/design, especially since I've used CSS style sheets, but even so it's nice to just continue with forward progress instead of re-doing things.

Last night, I met Christine at the mall. We putzed around for almost 4 hours, going to Jo-Ann's (Simplicity patterns 5 for $5, nice!), CVS, Charlotte Russe and a bunch of other places. We also grabbed dinner at the food court. Sara was out to dinner with her mom, but she was supposed to be coming to the mall; we didn't see her, but when we called her from the parking lot before leaving, it turned out she was there but at the other end. Stine and I headed back to my house and Sara joined us there, where we amused ourselves greatly watching the first 7 episodes of Live Action Sailor Moon. They loved it as much as I do - I knew they would. :D

I am about ready to start the second skein on my "Muppet Scarf" as D has dubbed it. The funniest thing is, Sara walked in the door last night in a scarf made of exactly the same yarn, in a different color! We have this weird mental link when it comes to scarves. See, when I learned to crochet a few years ago, I made a scarf out of one of those heavy Homespun yarns you get at Walmart. Then a few of my friends had me teach them how to do it, and the result was that three or four of us have matching scarves in different colors. Stine and I were both wearing ours last night.. and then in comes Sara with a match for my new scarf I'm not even done making yet! It was made by a friend of her mom's. Very entertaining.

Well, back to work.

Biggggg sigh of relief...

Bryon emailed me back!! Everything's fine. I'd been kind of worried, because it had been a few days, and especially worried with all the bad news coming out of Iraq in the past week. Turns out, it was the bad news that caused the delay, but just because they don't allow the soldiers to use the internet or phones for a while after someone dies in-country. This is so someone doesn't find out from non-military channels that their loved one was injured, etc.

And now... reporting live from the NSM's Spring Fling... we're not doing too badly. The guy in the bunny suit is 6 feet tall, we've done $81.00 in admissions so far, and we have a couple of scavenger hunt sheets turned in. I would say it's going quite well. We haven't had this many people in the museum at once since, oh... Soaring Day last September. Very exciting. I just wish I'd brought my knitting for the slow moments. :)

It's been a rough day. :p I hate planning things, and trying to get them done. I slept late because I needed the sleep, but of course, being that the rest of the world doesn't operate on my schedule, I'm considered lazy and a poor planner for not getting up sooner. Grarrrr.

I am also disappointed because I think I will have to get another skein of this yarn for my scarf. Despite it being only 12 stitches wide, it's not looking like I'm going to reach the proper length with one skein. This is going to drive me nuts because I'm going to have at least half a skein left. Yargh. Maybe I'll learn how to knit in the round by making two little wristwarmers (that's me trying to think positive).

A good day overall.

Drumroll, please....

Today, my labor of the last few months (admittedly only 2 days a week for the most part) has come to fruition. I finally uploaded the first website I actually got PAID for making. :D It's not "finished" - there are a lot of things to be added to it, but it was in a finished enough state to function. I'm very excited. I also talked with the people at work about my next website project, which is actually on the same server and is a much smaller undertaking than this was, thank goodness.

Bryon needs to call me. :(

Tonight I tried to get a hold of Sara, but she wasn't around, and Stine's off visiting her grandparents. I ended up going to Barnes and Noble (yet again...) with Jesse, where I milled around until a seat opened up and then worked on my scarf for an hour. The place was VERY crowded. The entire cafe (every single table) had been taken over by some kind of Chess Night Extravaganza, and so the people who would normally have sat in the cafe were in all the big comfy chairs. It took a long time before two chairs opened up next to each other. I did make decent progress on the scarf though, and it's coming out exactly right this time. I also really like the big needles.

After a trip to Friendly's, Jesse brought me home and I've been sitting here reading knitting blogs for a while. I wouldn't mind joining some of the knitting blog rings, but this is not necessarily ONLY a knitting blog... or only a craft blog... I enjoy posting that stuff in here, but it's also just my general place to write whatever comes to mind. So I guess I won't limit myself in that way.

Time for bed. Or knitting. I think we all know which one I'll choose.

AHHHHHH!

1) I <3 BitTorrent. Why, oh why oh why, did I not try this sooner?? Live Action Sailormoon, here I come.

2) I have ripped out and restarted my scarf twice now. I am trying to create a long, *thin* scarf, and yet despite having cast on what felt like "not that many" stitches, it became Monster Scarf, at least 3 times as wide as when I started! I just don't understand it. Luckily this yarn is sooooo much fun to knit, it doesn't bother me to start over. And when I finally get it to stay the right width, it should go so fast that I may finish it tonight. What I don't understand is, I'm knitting into the same number of stitches every time, right? How is it getting this much wider??

Inspiration!

Wow, these are beauuuuuutiful. Mirabilia designs absolutely gorgeous cross-stitch projects. I must confess, I bought Fairy Flora yesterday; Michaels had all their patterns marked down from $9.00 to $5.00. I am going to work it on slightly lighter cloth though - they seem to do most of their sample projects on that very drab color.

The Call of the Wild Yarn.

Wow. I think I am well and truly addicted. I made the mistake of bringing my knitting to work to show my boss (she's the one who lent me some needles originally), and it sat there in the (clear) bag all day.... BECKONING.... STARING at me... wanting me to pick it up and work on it. I resisted, but just barely. Then, on the way home, I heard this small, high-pitched voice in my head... it was saying, "Hey Julieeeee, I'm at the craft store. Come buy me. Buy me and make me into a cute, cute scarf!" So, admittedly, I caved.



Furthermore, the size 10 1/2 needles were in cahoots with the yarn, and also begged me to take them home. Then, almost immediately upon entering the door, they strongarmed me into casting on and starting a long, thin scarf that currently looks something like a pink, fluffy raccoon's tail.



I am helpless to resist. And so, nearly a foot of said scarf lays in my lap, and between paragraphs, I continue to knit. *sigh* And I love it.

One last item... today all 4 of the white deer were out back again. I took some pictures, and they came out nicely.



They have been hanging out a lot lately... Just wish we had some warmer weather for them, but I suppose they're used to it.

Knitting progress!

Well, on the fourth try, I have successfully gotten 1/3 of the way through the swatch for my project. :D Heheh. I kept having problems... for example, the yarn was way too tight on the needle, until I realized that when I was purling I was wrapping the yarn the wrong way around the needle. Bleh. *Then* I realized that I had slightly misunderstood the diagram the LYS owner had drawn me, and I was doing garter stitch instead of stockinette. BUT... on the fourth try, everything looks fabulous. I stopped in and bought my #4 needles and I think I'll finish the swatch tonight. :D

Bryon emailed me yet again! :D Very exciting. The most amazing thing is, he ran into one of his friends from his active Army days!!! We haven't heard from Mike in probably 2 years. Last we knew, he was stationed in Germany, but after a while my letters started coming back so we just had no clue as to his whereabouts. Turns out he is just starting his year in Iraq as well, and it sounds like he's had a rough couple of years. :( It's incredible though - it really is a small world after all.

Sad... in more ways than one.

Awwww. I missed π Day! :D

Is it sad that I would have been excited about 1:59 in the afternoon?

I think I'm hooked...

I love this yarn. I've worked with dk weight yarn before, but it's never been this soft. It just feels great to work with it. This is not good though, it's just going to make me want to buy the expensive yarn all the time. :p

Journey to the dark side.

After a trip to the library (where I emerged with a stack of 20 books on either knitting or cross-stitch... the sections were right next to each other...), I made my first foray into the local yarn shop today. It was a memorable experience in many ways. For starters, I wasn't even sure they were open - and honestly, they AREN'T on Sundays, but the owner was in there anyway with a lovely warm fire going in the stove. I told her I had no idea what I was doing so far... that I'd just learned to knit, but I wasn't sure where to go from there. We discussed needle types, and she advised me to go with circular needles rather than straight, listing many advantages (less strain on wrists/arms, ability to do both circular and straight-needle projects with them, etc). She had me cast on, both to see how I was doing it and so I could test out the needles. Happily I was able to overcome my nervousness and successfully make a slip knot and cast on several stitches. She then proceeded to tell me that while there are many, many ways to cast on, some are easier and more effective than others. The way she showed me solved one of my major problems - my stitches were always so tight on the needle that it made the first row hard to knit. I also found that I really liked the needles - a pair of wooden circular needles. Soo... from there, we started discussing a potential project to work on. This was what I really wanted, because continually knitting row after row just for practice doesn't really satisfy that hunger for creation. I wanted to be *making* something.

So, long story short, we chose a pattern for a fairly simple baby sweater. It's a pullover with a mock-cable top section. I am going to knit it in a lovely denim blue dk weight yarn - it's for Tyler, my friends' baby (he's almost 2 months now). The woman at the store saved me yet again from another silly mistake - I was thinking I would make it in the 3-6 month size, but she reminded me that 1) babies grow fast! 2) it will probably be September before he will wear it. So, I am opting for the 12-18 month size.





Anyway, the second reason this visit was so memorable is due to that stove I mentioned before. It wasn't just warm in there, it was roasting. And I still had my coat on. While I was standing at the counter, almost set to go, the heat (and lack of food, probably) got to me - I started getting very light-headed and the stars started creeping into my vision. I finally had to just ask if I could sit down; she exclaimed that I looked very pale and got me a glass of water (from her house no less - the shop is attached). I sat with my head between my knees for a bit, drank the water and finally started to feel like myself again. How embarrassing. It didn't seem to phase her though - she sat at the table afterward and explained to me about how to create a swatch that won't curl up so that you can get a proper gauge measurement. :)

I learned so much from this woman just in the 20 minutes or so that I was there... she also made sure I had the number for the shop and even gave me her own cell phone number in case I had any questions! Right now I just bought the larger size needles (#6) to do the gauge, etc; I will probably be going back tomorrow or the next day to get the #4s which the project also calls for. I know that I certainly paid more for the needles and yarn etc. than I would have at, say, Walmart, or probably some places online, but to me it was so worth it - she spent so much time with me and explained things to me I didn't even know I didn't know. I may not shop there ALL the time, but she does have a lovely selection and it's a homey, comfortable little shop. :)

*whew* Well, that's my story for the day... happily I also got another email from Bryon. I was concerned after the news yesterday. I think he's going to call in the next day or so.

The hills are alive. Really.

Went to see The Sound of Music at a local high school tonight. The leads had AMAZING voices - very impressive - but good God, the acting and choreography were TERRIBLE. I thought it was going to kill me. And on top of that, they completely mixed around the songs. Maria sang "My Favorite Things" to Mother Superior, who ended up singing it with her; she pulled out a fully-prepared puppet stage to do "The Lonely Goatherd" to entertain the children when they came to her room during the thunderstorm. Another inexplicable choice: while they had about 10 actual children of varying sizes who were present during the party scene, all the Von Trapp children - including Gretel - were played by high schoolers. *sigh* I have only ever left ONE play during intermission, but had I been alone (or with Bryon) I might have seriously considered it on this one. However, the first act was SO long that I figured there couldn't be that much left after the break! I did make sure to tell the techies they did a good job on the way out. :D Having been a techie myself, I understand how important it is that they be recognized for their efforts. :)

We went to Friendly's after the play, had coffee and ice cream and lots of fun conversations. :) Of course Bryon is a primary subject!

The knitting is going ok, except that I REALLY wanted to go get some knitting books at the library today. Only problem was, I decided this at about 4:45 and the libraries all close at 5 on Saturday. I'm going to the main branch tomorrow - luckily they're open 1-5. I also found out that Bryon's mom knits so she said if I have any questions I can ask her. AND... there's a yarn store in the Heights. Much interesting stuff to check out.

Today has gone too fast. I got up this morning around 7:15 to see if Bryon happened to be on. I was sitting here from 7:15 to 8:00... nothing. It's not like we planned to meet or anything, just that I was.... hoping. I've been writing him emails all day.

Now I'm going downstairs to see if I can find the old set of knitting needles I had from when I was 8.

I did it!

I'm knitting! I just learned to knit from a website. Sign of the times I guess. So far I can do the most basic knit and purl, and that's it. But I'm getting better at it. I want to come up with a pattern for something to make, but I am ovewhelmed by the sheer amount of really ugly knitting projects out there. Yeesh.

I'm enjoying this way too much, considering the number of unfinished projects I have in a variety of craft categories.

Ahhh... I love the smell of e-mail in the morning.

Especially when it's from el novio. :D

Movies to rent:

• - School of Rock


• - Gosford Park


• - Wasabi (again)


• - The Rundown

Hmm. I really am very tired today. Worked a full day even though we'd sorta discussed a half day yesterday. I don't care... I desperately need the money... to send more packages! XD

Boy, this is getting better and better.

This morning my brother woke me up to tell me that Bryon IMed him at 7:39 this morning. :) I don't think Brion was at the computer at the time. But I was excited because that meant I probably had email. :D It was a nice message. Unfortunately he says he only gets to shower once a week, so we need to send him stuff to keep clean. Also, they're moving to buildings soon so he's going to want his laptop... so I better get looking for that hard case or laptop sleeve, one or the other.

Time to get ready for work.

I got a letterrrr!!!!

...a lovely, 5-page long letter from my love. Very exciting. He wrote it starting a few hours after he got off the plane in Kuwait, added to it for a few days, and then mailed it on March 1st (I think). It's a wonderful letter, telling about the plane ride, being at base camp in Kuwait, and something that's quite close to actual mushiness. :D

If you miss me try and find the moon... I think we can see it at the same time, and besides, I just like looking at the moon.

AUUUGH. I really have been missing him the past few days. It's like the woman on the message board said: every second I expect him to just walk in the door. Or maybe the phone will ring, and I will get to talk to him. It's like he's been gone for a couple of weeks, but my brain and body can't get used to the idea. I really wish I could just communicate with him without a two-week delay... I don't even know for 100% sure that he's gotten most of my letters yet. I'm hoping.

I finally sent out a package today:

• A bunch of mp3 CDs


• His world GPS software


• Oatmeal butterscotch cookies


• Lovely card


• A letter


• A Robin Williams comedy CD (one he hasn't heard before)


• The electronic flea collar


• ...and a tiny Goku to keep him company and watch over him. :D

I really enjoyed work today. And I get extra hours this week! Believe me, I need them desperately. I finally realized that I don't even work PART-time... only 14 hours a week! :p It positively blows. I NEED. ANOTHER. JOB. But in the meantime, I have been asked to do the IVSM website as well as finishing the NSM site. :D Score!

Spam, spam, spam, spam poetry, spam and spam.

As a side note to go along with my previous Fascinating Spam Words posts... I've discovered Kristin Thomas' Spam Poetry.

*incoherent frustrated noises*

Today has been unbelievable. My sleep schedule's still completely out of whack, first off. I know it's my fault, but I don't think I did too badly by getting up at 11 this morning. The following items were to be made/gathered to go into Bryon's box, which was going to go out today:

Two batches of cookies. I'd probably keep some of them, but I want to jump into fulfilling my promise of making every kind of cookie in this book. I planned to make Oatmeal Scotchies and these lovely-looking chocolate cookies with nuts in them. Much to my chagrin, I have discovered we do not have any butterscotch chips (I was SURE we had some), or walnuts. And every other recipe I look at in this book contains at least one ingredient I don't have. A trip to the store is now required. Package delay: an hour or so.

Electronic Flea Collar. This was supposed to get here in three days; meaning of course, three business days. I was optimistically hoping that would mean 'today' and therefore allow me to ship the box as planned. What was I thinking? I checked the FedEx tracking number and found it had arrived in town yesterday morning around 9 am. Next to it was a little note that said "Package not due for delivery." I called FedEx, who explained to me that although the package had arrived *early,* it would not be delivered until tomorrow, its scheduled delivery date, and no I could not pick it up myself because it is currently sitting in a bin with thousands of other packages also not processed yet despite how long they may have been sitting there. Asshats. How nice to know that they don't bother even attempting to put things through ahead of schedule for the benefit of their customers. Package delay: at least until tomorrow.

MP3 CDs. This part is going ok. I am still recording CDs (mine, my brother's and Bryon's) into Musicmatch Jukebox to have the greatest amount of music to pull from before making the CDs. And it looks like I'll have more time than I thought to work on them. Package delay: couple of hours.

Robin Williams comedy CD. Got it yesterday. Also bought some little plastic CD sleeves to put all the CDs in for shipping; I figure they'll be fine in those being that they'll be inside a larger box with other stuff. My dad, of course, thinks they're not good enough and that the CDs will get all screwed up. I keep telling him, Bryon has his own hard case to put the CDs in once they arrive, and I'm trying hard to send him as little extra stuff as possible. Package delay: none.

Picture CD. Still have to make this, although I know exactly what pictures/videos are going on it. Package delay: maybe half an hour.

That said, I'm just really cranky in general today. I am feeling like absolutely nothing I do can satisfy my father. He's attacked the way I've done everything today - from emptying out my flower vase to having Bryon's computer hooked up online to the fact that I want to make two batches of cookies. My God, has he not witnessed how fast cookies go in this house?? And I'm sending most of them away!

I am attempting to make myself feel better by listening to The Hangovers' Chicken Song while typing. I am also looking forward to this weekend, because the girls are coming home for Spring Break. I really need to get out of here.

(Not to say I don't do anything fun... yesterday I was at the mall to get the Robin Williams CD and saw Kathy at work. She was about to leave and go to dinner with Nick's mom and a mother and daughter from their FRG, and they persuaded me to go. Outback. Mmm.)

Finallyyyyyyyy.

Ah, sweet, sweet RoadRunner. It's taken me absolutely forever to figure out why Bryon's computer wouldn't hook up to the cable modem; turns out there was still an IP address specified from when we were sharing files between our computers. Just had to tell it to obtain the IP address automatically, and bam, it's fine.

Now I can play Puzzle Pirates over here too. :D Arrrr. (Hello, my name is Julie, and I'm addicted to being a pirate. Arrr.)

But most importantly, now when I load CDs into MusicMatch Jukebox so I can burn stuff for Bryon, it should automatically retrieve the artist, album and track listing info!! Joy. Let's see if it works.

More spam email fun.

"Morphophonemic." Haha.

Yaaaaaay!!!

I can send packages now! Time to bake cookies...

I've totally screwed up my sleep schedule this weekend. It started because I didn't feel good Friday morning, so I slept in, figuring that would help - but now it's just plain old screwed up. :p

My mom and I went to an orchestra concert today. It was called "The Strum of the Guitar." Frankly, I could have totally done without the guitar part... the Mozart symphony was nice, and they did an amazing rendition of Carmen, with a 15-year-old violin soloist who completely blew us all away. She was playing the whole thing from memory and basically the orchestra was just there to back her up. She got her own personal standing ovation. :D

I am now very tired. It is time for bed.

Avatar maker.

Tee hee. Made with the Avatar Maker.



Me...


...and Bryon.

Grarrrrrrrrr!

I got a prank phone call at 3 am. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except that 3 am is about the time Bryon would call. So when the fake-Little-Indian-Guy kept asking me "Eez theez Mack Donald's?" I gave no sign that it bothered me at all, and yet I was pretty angry for reasons they couldn't have predicted.

HOWEVER, it didn't matter so much, because I GOT A PHONE CALLLLLLL!!!!! :D Finally. I gave him a bit of what-for over waiting so long to call, both from me and from his parents. It was exactly as I said, he was waiting because he "didn't want us to get in the habit of thinking he'd be able to call every few days." Bah. He apologized though, and I think he understood how much it bothered me. We talked for quite a while, from about ...3:15-4:00, maybe a little after. It was difficult just because at 3 am you don't have your full faculties about you, and there were some things I forgot to ask him. I did ask about what he needed, or wanted sent in the first package. So from that, I ordered the electronic flea collar yesterday. He also asked about the cookies! :D It's amazing. He's not a sweets person at all; it's pretty rare that he actually eats chocolate or cookies etc. Ice cream's a little less rare. But he got me this recipe book of "Old-Fashioned Cookies" and made a deal with me that he would only buy it if I promised to send him every kind of cookie in it over the course of the year. :) So, I'm going to be the best cookie-baker in the galaxy by the time he gets back - but he'll be so sick of cookies he'll probably never want to see one again. :)

I'm really excited about this, and it's driving me nuts that I can't send packages yet. Any suggestions on the best way to package cookies that have to survive a 2-week trip to a very hot place? My parents and I were thinking of getting one of those little vacuum-sealing machines.

Still counting down.

I got to play FFX-2 tonight! :D I leveled up a whole lot and learned lots of abilities. Rikku has 100% of her Thief abilities and is now working on Black Mage; Paine's nearly completed Samurai; and of all the options, Yuna's on Trainer. -_- I can't help it, I like the kogoro... he's cute.

Bryon's moving to a new location on Saturday... but I don't know for sure if it's still in Kuwait, or if he's moving up into Iraq. I have to just not think about where he is... because if I start to, it gets me so worried. I'm trying not to get that way.

In other news, I'm almost done with the second Fool book. I swear, I could almost read this whole series nonstop, that's how good they are. Even though Fitz is frequently an idiot, and even the Fool is pissing me off in this book - a rare occurrence. Soooooooooooo goooooooooooooood. Good enough to nearly plunge me into incoherence.

Now, of all things, I am off to make some drawings of tall tales characters for my mom.

Movie night with the family.

Today has been pretty fun. I got to sleep in (yaaay, no work!); I finally made it to the bank to deposit my paychecks; I found a Spanish-language children's book at the library for practicing with my brother; I watched Runaway Jury with my dad and brother; then in the evening, I convinced my entire family to watch Holes. I've been wanting them to see that for ages. I read the book and loved it (possibly even in my top 10...) and dragged Bryon to the movie with me. They seemed to enjoy it ok (my mom most of all since she's read the book too).

I wanted to play FFX-2... but no cigar so far. Maybe I can squeeze a little in before bed.

(Meanwhile, 140+ people died in Iraq today...)

I think I should buy Kleenex stock.

I've been crying at various things all morning, including Dawson's Creek, the Bryon thing, and even MTV (see later in this post). I'm on the downside of all the insanity of the past few weeks, and now it's setting in that Bryon really isn't here, and I haven't heard from him in almost a week. I have no idea when I *will* hear from him or even what I'll say to him when I do. Today I left him a message on the C Company message board; at least one other guy has been answering messages posted to him so I'm hoping he can at least pass my message on if Bryon can't get to the computer. I'm sure the lines are horrendous, and I would suspect that he might be purposely waiting a bit longer, to try to get us both used to the idea that it could be a very long time between phone calls. *sigh*

Today I watched a program on MTV (yes, MTV, ugh) called "I'm Living In Iraq." It focused on American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, talking about their daily life. Parts of it were hard to watch, but I think it was good for me. I got to see some of the landscape and what the city of Baghdad looks like (even though I don't believe Bryon will be in Baghdad). I got to see the faces of Iraqi people who are dealing with the situation day to day, right alongside U.S. soldiers. I think the whole post-war situation has been very hard on them, with rising prices affecting everything, and can you imagine walking to school or to work and not knowing when something might blow up in front of you? It's terrible. We are trying to help them, and it takes great sacrifice on the part of every single soldier to leave his home and family and loved ones and spend a year or more over there, facing that same danger, for people they don't even know.

So to all of you soldiers out there, thank you, and stay safe.
To their families, keep holding on, and know that your soldier is doing something important and noble. It sounds like a load of trash, but remember this is coming from someone feeling the same pain and fear and worry that you are. This is what life has given us right now, and I know we are all dealing with it the best we know how.

~~~~
That said, on to my next rant... stupid MTV. They have incredible audacity. In the middle of a serious, heart-wrenching documentary about soldiers and civilians in Iraq, they show ads for a show about people who are getting plastic surgery to look like celebrities. They couldn't have made themselves look more shallow if they'd tried. Disgusting.

That got my brother and me discussing the general sad state of affairs in this country (and this world). Millions, billions of dollars are spent on the stupid programming and music and videos etc etc that go into MTV. Musicians get paid millions of dollars to shake their butts on national television and it's supposed to be entertainment. Can you imagine what just some of that money could do for other causes? Hospitals, schools, research, housing... so many things that money could be used for... and you know, you know it will never be cut back, because it's making money for someone else. All this crap sells CDs and videos and clothes and jewelry (because whatever the people on MTV look like, half the population wants to look like)... and allows a small fraction of the population to live like kings. And then we're supposed to be entertained when they flaunt their wealth on shows like Cribs! How many times have I watched that show and discovered I've never *heard* of this person who apparently has made enough money to live in a ridiculously huge mansion in Beverly Hills with million-dollar silverware? Again, disgusting.

I just don't know anymore. Buying a small island somewhere is sounding like a great idea... but at this stage it would probably get invaded by some reality tv show.