Is it just me or do our choices for Attorney General bite? I'll vote for Campbell because McCollum voted to ban gay adoptions, and because, hey, I'm a Democrat, but they both suck. Both are pro-death penalty. Campbell's "Scarlet Letter" law was just twitsted. I'm all for father's rights, and doubly so for protecting adoptive families from a father coming back and asserting rights later, but that was not the way, especially with no provision for rape victims.

On the other hand, I like both candidates for district 45 state representative. Anderson is moderate on social issues, fiscally conservative, and was the mayor of Dunedin. Hrabovsky is very anti-big box and pro-environment. In the end I'll probably vote Anderson (gasp, a Republican), because of the experience factor (Hrabovsky has none).

Other than that, I'll be voting Nelson, Davis, Simpson, Sink, Copeland, Hellinger, Siracusa, and O'Flannery (O'Shea is backed by the Republican party and has never been a teacher). I'll vote to retain of all the supreme court and appeals court justices. Yes on constitutional amendments 1, 4, 6, & 7. No on 3 & 8. Yes on all county questions.

Going to try to get out and early vote at our library in a bit. Shame I don't trust any of this to count with the dumbass Diebold machines. I've already heard stories of people voting for Davis and Crist coming up on their confirmation screens. Sigh.

Yesterday I got out my colored pencils and colored the bat we were supposed to hang on our door to indicate we had candy. I was really disappointed we didn't get any trick-or-treaters. Oh, well - more candy for me!

I want a knitting blog. Something to record what I've knitted, new discoveries, things I want to make, things I'm working on, cool patterns, etc. I thought about using Vox for that, but so far I'm not impressed with Vox. I tried to make one post with one picture and it screwed up so many times in so many ways I gave up. So far I've been using 43things under "Learn to knit", but I'll want to mark that as complete soon.

I could try a wiki blog, or do another MT blog. I'll probably go with the later, though I'm a little tired of MT, and not in the mood to design anything outside of work. Wiki would be something new, but I don't really have time to learn something new and do NaNo, work, and actually knit or anything.

In other news we went looking at condos in Largo today. I fell in love with one, but we're not sure of their pet policies yet. If we can bring our kitties, we might move forward on buying one. Wood floors!!!

I finally got SimAlix knocked up today. I got up, wrote until I had a stopping point past the word count I was aiming for, and then switched to Sims. Until now I've been playing it sparsely. At most an hour a day. Today I've played for 10. Yikes. I won't be doing that again anytime soon. I didn't get any knitting done at all, and I really want to get this blanket finished and move on to the next thing. Not to mention I've got a huge pile of manga from Largo library. They used to have two small shelves of manga, and now their section goes around two walls. I had a field day. Plus the four Shawn bought for my birthday that I haven't read, The Virgin Suicides book on CD I'm in the middle of, and a half dozen knitting books I need to scan patterns from and return.

Cleaning? What's that?

In other news, I downloaded Firefox 2.0 a few days ago, and finally installed it. I prefer the tab closing on the end of the tab bar instead of individual tabs, but I'd gotten used to that in Opera so it's not a big deal. But I'm really liking that it's spell checking what I'm typing here. So far I haven't had to correct anything, but that's nice to know.

Now that we have a car with a radio, we've been impatiently waiting for something good to come to Fun-Lan. Their site-updating skills suck, so I've been having to Google for show times. Until I came across Mr. Movie Times.

The ads are a little overbearing and placed annoyingly on some pages, but it has all the information I look for, and sorted perfectly. It has a list of all the local theaters, upcoming movies (sorted by release date), the top movies out now, along with the ability to browse alphabetically and search by title, genre, and rating. Each theater show time page has address, phone number, disability information, seating type, and prices. There are also links to movietickets.com's buy online pages for each show time where applicable.

Each theater you look at gets added to a "My Movie Theaters" list, creating a page where you can view every show time for your favorite theaters, and edit out the ones you don't care for.

I'm really hoping Happy Feet or Eragon come to Fun-Lan. Nothing else coming out is anything I care about seeing.

I should've signed up for NaBloPoMo. I thought NaNoWriMo would take all the writing desire out of me, but it seems to be making me want to post more, not less.

It takes me about 2 hours to get my words for the day in. I could keep going, but I'm pacing myself this time. Giving myself a day to come in to more ideas, more words. It seems to be working really well, but then I haven't hit that stage yet where I find I have zero plot going or that I've climaxed without even having half my word count.

There's a B&N write-in tonight, but if FedEx doesn't get here with my Ovidrel soon, I won't be able to go. There's still three more, but I really wanted to be there tonight. I know I have my words for the day in, but I could add to it so I won't have to worry about it Sunday with the ultrasound in Tampa, or just mingle and chat.

It's 6:30 at night and I know the local FedEx stops running around 7. So I called FedEx, and they had no record, supposedly, of any shipments to this address. So I called CuraScript, and they said they were showing it will be here tomorrow at noon. I got the tracking number, and, yep, tomorrow around noon.

Okay, so I should relax since I don't need it until Sunday anyway, but I got up early and sat around the house all day waiting for it. I think I'll run through the shower and throw some clothes on, see if I can get the old car to start and see what's going on at B&N. There might still be a few people there. Hopefully.

Next time I guess I'll have to ask them to call me with a tracking number once they ship.

I hit my first NaNo block today. Maybe it's that Shawn was home and I was easily distracted. I fell asleep with a million ideas in my head, including something I wanted to go back and flesh out, but of course lost them all before I woke up.

I made it through, though, with enough words that if I don't get anything done tomorrow with the ultrasound, I'm still good.

And I'm in a really good mood today. For no reason. People are doing things that normally drive me crazy (Shawn is procrastinating the hell out of chores, I've been witness to some homophobic discussion, etc.). It'll probably crash and burn later but it's cool to feel a little fuzzy for a while.

I think my doing NaNo has given Shawn the writing bug. We're going to start trying to write something together. I'm excited.

I finally found my Sims screenshots. I so haven't taken enough. I'm also slightly disgrunted it doesn't auto-pic major events where it takes over the camera, and doesn't update the family pic with new members/aging members. So I took a current screenshot on the load screen (using print screen).

Matthew, Alix, Shawn, & Lily

And my two favorite screenshots, SimAlix meditating and baby SimMatthew throwing a fit to be let out of his crib.

Both kids got SimShawn's hair, my eyes, and his sloppiness. Sigh.

Between NaNo, the writing project Shawn and I have going, the fact that we've been going out pretty much every night, the few minutes I finally got to spend with Winter this morning, and List Drama, my posting time's been zapped.

While cheering inside at the national results, my feelings about the local ones are mixed. I didn't doubt Crist would win, but I still think he's creepy as hell, and I groan at having to look at his face for the next god-knows-how-long. I'm in total shock people voted yes to #3. Why on earth were people so keen on giving up their power?

There's more, but I'm crashing. I may rant more tomorrow.

Still not found the time to make one.

I'm learning.

I'll be ripping out the baby blanket again. Second time, now, and this time I'm about halfway done. I just don't like it, the basketweave with the multicolored yarn doesn't work well. I'll probably go back to using that yarn for the scarf/hat thing when I get my size 4 needles, and when I get my double pointed needles, make some booties to go with it.

The homespun yarn I bought, once knitted, looks like commercial carpeting. Yuck. I'm trying to do a simple laptop bag with it (no pattern), but it may be relegated to a welcome mat. We'll see, I like that it's thick, that'll make it protective of the laptop, but it's still ugly. Maybe once I get to the stockinette bit it won't be so bad.

All of our favorite restaurants are closing on us.

First Dunedin Breakfast & Lunch was bought out (and then bought out again so that it has the same name but the food is no where near as good). Then both local Atlanta Breads disappeared (though there's one left in St. Petersburg, I think), Tia's went bankrupt, and the Beef O' Brady's by Publix is up for lease. I think Hymie's is no more, along with the chocolate candy shop in downtown Dunedin, but I haven't stopped to verify them, either. It's just too depressing.

That leaves Sweet Tomatoes for places I really love to eat out at locally. Evo's in St. Pete, and Marketplace Expess down there for their white chocolate drinks.

Gah.

One of the best blog posts I've read anywhere in a while: Karma.

I've been a big fan of IKEA for a while. I probably still have a few catalogs somewhere that I've drooled over and marked pages (Shawn, Shawn, isn't that room so cool??) and in general lusted at. It's cheap, (more or less) eco-friendly furniture. What's not to love? Well, there's the putting it together part, but I actually like that, especially when Shawn and I do it together -- it's a really good couple's project.

Anyway, today's Ideal Bite mentioned them and I went to look to see if they still didn't have catalogs anymore, and saw this: two Florida locations in the Coming Soon column! Okay, so they're in Sunrise and Orlando, but Orlando isn't that far. Just a hop up I-4.

I get the feeling opening is a ways off, but so is our need to buy furniture. That doesn't mean I'm not hoping around the apartment in excitement and looking forward to just going to drool in person.

Cingular stupidity:

On my account screen (and via notice we got in the mail that we'd be disconnected), our account is past due. Yet, notice, bill, and account screen all say...

"Payment Due 11/28/2006"

Are they living a month ahead or something?

Put a spare Effexor in your purse, in case you rush out of the house without eating or taking your meds. It'll waylay that awful dizzyness and electric feeling in your brain you get when going through withdrawl. Also, sugar helps put it off a little, but not enough so that 4 hours post-sugar high you won't bash your brains out on the top of the car trying to get in. Also, put your glasses in your purse, driving dizzy and blind is extra bad.

Other than that, tonight was a lot of fun, if not particularly productive. Talking with Amy and Harmony gave me a lot of ideas and inspiration. I think I finally came up with a purpose, if not a plot, for the story. Shawn joined us during his lunch break, which was really nice, and I got a good smirk out of hearing exclamations of his cuteness as he left back for work. I keep telling him...

Tomorrow is lunch with Rae from the INFP list.

Off to cram in another 1000 words before Shawn gets home so I don't fall behind.

I've always had a lousy caffeine tolerance, or maybe I've just never been enough of a coffee drinker to build one. I thought with drinking a glass of green tea every day, it'd build up a little. How wrong I was.

At the write-in I decided to splurge and get an eggnog latte. I love eggnog, and the latte was really good (and 430 calories, yikes). This was around 6pm.

Now it's 7am and I've not been to bed. I tried laying with Shawn at 1am. I tried napping in the chair at 6am. I tried meditation, reading, Sims, TV. I'm sleepy but my body won't shut down. I'm doing laundry, which should be done around 8:30, in hopes I can get a couple hour nap in.

Coffee bad.

I don't know if it's a Yoga thing or a hyper thing, but Rae can disappear. We were meeting at the Bunny Hop Cafe which is inside of Nature's Food Patch - our local, friendly health food store. So I came in, walked around a few times, saw no red caps, thought maybe I missed her since the bicyclists had the roads all blocked off today and I had to drive in circles around Downtown Clearwater to actually get to the shopping center, making me a few minutes late. So, I grabbed a buggy and started shopping. And then I see a red cap, and wave, but she's looking past me. So I think maybe it's not her. I try to turn the cart around to catch up to her and she's nowhere around. I finally spot her and she's on the complete opposite side of the store. I get to where I see her and she's gone again.

Finally found her back on the other side of the store ordering lunch.

I had a smoothie. It was alright. Way too filling. I could've tossed half of it.

We had fun gabbing for a couple hours. And then she did the disappearing thing again. I turned my back to grab my buggy and walk her out, and poof, gone.

INFPs are trippy.

Today we took a trip down to Bradenton to check out the Sarasota Medieval Fair. The trip was really nice - both there and back. Seeing the wineries, the fields, the animals. There were so many nurseries I wanted to stop at, an outlet mall, a Friendly's. On the way home, we saw a gorgeous sunset from the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

On the way from the parking lot to the festival, I noticed the blood bank bus and was about to ask if we were going to give blood when Shawn noticed admission was free if we did. So, in we went. In the end, I couldn't give blood because of the tachycardia from the Effexor (180bpm at rest - yikes), so I got a $2 off coupon and Shawn got in free.

While Shawn was giving blood, I wandered around outside. The bus was parked next to a pen with two horses, and one came right up to the fence. I petted her and fed her some hay. Horses are such beautiful creatures. She was a little camera shy, first hiding her face when I tried to take a picture, then doing it again when the girl I was waiting with did. Eventually I got several.

I wandered away towards the entrance, and saw the jousters preparing on their shiny horses, stood and watched until Shawn was done, and then we went in.

It was very different from the one in Tampa. I think I liked it better. The farm was open and selling produce, and most everything was cheaper. I got a sno-cone and Shawn bought me a parasol while I was off meeting Jasmine Becket-Griffith (she really reminds me of someone, but I can't place who). I was thinking about getting a print of A Wolfish Friend or Black Winged Angel, but the parasol was perfect.

Not long after we came in, I was taking pictures of a couple of faeries, and one of them came over and sprinkled faerie dust all over my chest, so I had sparkly boobs the rest of the day. So embarrassing! After Shawn got his turkey leg and I got my sno-cone, we watched a horse riding show - a bunch of women riding and trying to get hooks with their jousting poles.

Then I drug Shawn over to the archery area (one of my favorite things). I got 8 out of 10 on the paper - 2 outside the target, 4 in the black, 2 in the red. None in the yellow. If I'd done it again I might have gotten it, though, I was improving. It makes me really tempted to take lessons.

Right before we left, we found the wing tent, and they had such pretty wings. Much better than the ones at the Tampa festival. Hopefully they'll be back next November and I can grab a pair of them.

It was a really fun day. I'm exhausted and beaming.

Pictures here.

I also bought some rocks. See, Amy (she's so cool) passed out goodie bags at the write-in, including mini-photo albums that included a 4x6 card with an exercise called "Writer's Block Rock" It outlines several block-killing strategies using a rock. So when I saw a vendor selling scoops of stones, I grabbed a few, along with a cute little bag. I picked one out for me, and I'll bring the rest to the next write-in.

I didn't crawl out of bed today until 2pm, and I woke up with a headache and runny nose. I'm thinking it's just my typical sinus issues. Hopefully.

All I've managed to get done today is copy some knit and crochet patterns, check in with my soulcysters threads, and catch up on email. I didn't write at all yesterday because of Ren Fest, so I need to write 3,334 words today, get busy on my new client's logo, and go to the library. Those are the things I think I'll actually get done today.

As for what I want to get done, well...

I have a half dozen things in my head that I need to do to ambertides (main blog and fertility blog). Plus I'm thinking of making my other domain a project/hobby area (knitting, crochet, photography, photoshoping, manga fangirling, t'ai chi, poetry-maybe) since I've written almost nothing on it since I created it in July to deal with my depression. I guess I'm boring enough (or I'm just open and honest enough) that there's really not much that I want to write that I don't want my family or clients to read, and now that my depression's treated, it's not really necessary. I feel like I've got two wasted domains now, and it's been annoying me for a few months.

I've got a large knitting project that I'm going to try with my practice yarn (I'm only lacking a cable needle to get started), the current knitting and crochet projects I'm in the middle of, 18 books checked out to read or copy patterns from, the 4 manga Shawn bought me for my birthday, and X to watch (I found the whole series for $13).

Oh, and cleaning.

I'm in one of those moods where I feel like I need to get everything done today, and it's just not going to happen, especially with my head trying to explode. As it is, I haven't managed breakfast yet.

Our library system is crap at handling manga. It has a ton of it, but it lists all volumes as one book, so when you request, it just sends a random volume. The comment section on the request form goes ignored, pretty much always, I suppose, since I always put the volume I want in it.

I had to return the book I've been reading, Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life since someone else had requested it and it was due (having an overdue library book always makes me feel irresponsible and guilty), but found it at PBS. If I don't like it, I'll just relist it.

Speaking of PBS, I'm hoping they expand to games. There's so many I have that I know I'll never play again, even two copies of some because of wanting to play with Shawn, and so many others that are older and not rentable that I'd like to try out.

The fact that seatbelts fail isn't new to me. But watching this still floored me. I'm very thankful to the parents who created the video.

You'd think I'd wear my seatbelt after the accident, and the fact that I'm still in pain from it nine years later, but I don't very often. For now. If I get pregnant, I will, because I want to set a good example for my children. For those same reasons I don't drink, smoke, do drugs, love myself, and, in general, do my best to be a good role model. And, now, will keep them strapped into a car seat as long as possible.

Thanks to Catherine for posting.

I just put away NaNo for today and I'm 855 words behind now. So I did about a day and a half worth of writing today. It wasn't particularly difficult, other than having a headache, but I am worn out by it. Now I just have to do it again tomorrow and I won't be behind anymore. Shawn hasn't written his 1000 words for the week, yet, so at least that writing project can slide for now.

According to Open Office's word count, I'm ahead by a few, according to the NaNo verifier, I'm 24 words behind.

I'm proud of myself for catching up instead of getting discouraged by missing a day and throwing in the towel like I did before. I think it says a lot about my growth over the past four years.

I'm halfway done with NaNo (50.32%), and we're halfway through the month, so I'm right on target.

I hate my book, though I just brought in two new characters that are a lot of fun. I pondered having my MC quit her main job, but realized that'd make her even more unhappy, even though some sort of change needs to happen.

I added a Meebo widget to the sidebar. It doesn't appear to slow down the page any, so if anyone wants to IM me, have at it.

Off to spend the rest of my night crocheting something for Mom for Christmas and watching X.

I'm not a big fan of sit-coms. The way that they continually put people in these uncomfortable situations doesn't make me laugh, it makes me feel sorry for the characters. I'll watch Yes, Dear, though the episodes are hit or miss to whether I like them, and I enjoyed the short-lived Boston Common, both featuring Anthony Clark. I enjoyed the Phoebe, Joey, and Chandler characters on Friends but watched it rarely, the rest of the show just wasn't worth it. I remember liking Who's the Boss and Family Ties as a kid, but I don't know that I'd like them now. I think my enjoyment mainly focused on crushes on the characters.

But the only sit-com I've ever truly loved is Mad About You, and it's probably up there with Six Feet Under and Firefly as one of my favorite shows ever.

I've avoided buying seasons 1 & 2, because, well, it's been 3.5 years since they released season 2, making it seem like they weren't going to release any more. But today when scanning my RSS feeds, I noticed a TVShowsOnDVD announcement for season 3! I was so shocked - and happy! Woot!

Now if we could just get a Birds of Prey set released, I'd be thrilled.

If you're going to message me from the sidebar, please, please use the edit nick function so I know who you are and can get back to you if I'm afk or ignoring the computer in favor of whatever yarn thing is in my lap at the moment. I missed a message by four minutes earlier while finishing off what I was working on, but no idea who it was from.

Crochet is so much faster than knitting it's not even funny. I finished a practice project with probably 6 hours total work, and that's with teaching myself crochet and double crochet stitches as I went. Now to get some nice yarn and remake it, and start on my practice knitting project, as far as I can get without needing a cable needle.

There's almost always something going on around the Bay. This is a party sort of area. But this weekend seems especially packed. We're going to lay low and probably just hit Fun-Lan for their premiere of Happy Feet - it won't keep us out too late - though Shawn's got his eye on the Hudson Seafest for tomorrow after work.

For the rest of you, there's Anime Night for Tampa Museum's Art After Dark (looks incredibly, incredibly fun), and Lights On Tampa is throwing a party for the debut of the it's final exhibit before that. Also Plant City's Pig Jam BBQ contest for those of you who don't mind being reminded of what you're eating while you're eating it and Pirate Fest (think Ren Faire for the pirate-obsessed) at Coachman Park.

The weather looks like it's going to be perfect this weekend - get out and enjoy it.

The drive-in was really fun. Next time I'm wearing my PJs.

As a note, despite what their site says, tickets are not $4, they're $5. And I think kid's tickets were $1 or $2. I didn't really pay attention.

We only brought $8, so we had to drive out and come back. Kinda irritating that they didn't let us just pay $8 since that's what they were advertising it for and we drove an hour to get there. We just barely had enough left in the bank to take out any.

Though, we probably could've just parked and watched as the exit goes through the lots and the radio station is on a big sign as you drive in. We're too freaking honest.

Ever miss someone so much you write them into your story?

Winter,

I'm sorry, as much as I'm cheering you on I'm also tapping and waiting for patch day to hurry up so the WoW PvP Gods give you back.

Until then you get the wacky best friend spot in my NaNo thingy (I'm loath to call it a book or a novel, it really sucks that bad, and no, no one is ever going to read it, so no nagging). You just gave the MC a kitten. Thanks.

Love, 'Lix

I'm really, really, really looking forward to going to the Florida Strawberry Festival this year. I've wanted to go since as long as I can remember and then we moved all the way over here and didn't have a car we'd trust to make the trip.

Sadly, the music this year (as with most years), bites. Unless you like Country, or Christian, or Hootie. I don't think so.

We'll just go whatever day Shawn has off and stuff ourselves silly with strawberries.

Also: Eh? (From the 1939 festival, lots more here: FSA Photographs in Florida: Plant City)

Every time someone comes to my page and I happen to have my Meebo page open, I'm so tempted to message "Boo!" Chances are the viewer wouldn't see it anyway, but it's just the feeling I get.

Colleen posted this video today over at The Pretty Pear.

It's a little trashy (or sexy, depending on your personal level of prudishness), but it's nice for once for trashy not to mean size 2.

I'm still sorting what I personally feel about the video. I'm anti-female exploitation - just because some women choose to do it, doesn't mean we all don't face the consequences of it - it doesn't make it right. Saying displaying ourselves as sex objects is okay because we're doing it to ourselves is like saying slavery was okay because tribes were selling their own into slavery. It just doesn't wash.

My personal ideas of what is exploitation and what is not are complicated and I won't go into it in depth. This video fits, a lot of magazines fit, strip clubs and Hooters and the like fit, a lot (but not all) of porn fits, illegal prostitution fits, but in an ideal legalized situation it wouldn't.

Sexuality can be empowering, yes, but when it becomes the main focus - the sex, rather than the inherent power, that's when women become toys and not human beings deserving of the same respect as men. I don't think this has much to do with the way men treat us - even in societies where there is strict codes of sexual morals men treat women like crap, but I think it has a lot to do with our self esteem, and the way we treat ourselves, and allow ourselves to be treated.

But I'm very pro-seeing that larger women can be attractive and sexy, and the stereotype that they aren't by default needs to be shattered. This video does that.

I'd prefer seeing something more classy, but I think it is a step in the right direction.

In one way I see where this video is very uplifting, in another, it's falling into that same trap that we are only as good as our sexuality, our sexiness to men, lets us be.

It's funny how a well-done AMV can re-spark love in a series.

I didn't even have the second manga (let alone the third, but I'm only putting next in series on there) on my Amazon wishlist. How did I manage that?

Shawn might like this one:

I need a computer powerful enough to make videos. ./cry

I have a strong desire to highlight books. It's a little nuts, and I never do it, but I think I will start saving passages. Below are the two that have caught my eye from what I'm reading at the moment. I'll probably add to them as I read more.

The external world tends to oblige us by reinforcing our beliefs about it. For example, people who see themselves as victims get victimized. Further, even when the world does not mirror us, we see only those aspects of the world that fit our current scripts, ulness, that is, we are developmentally ready to move on.

Our experience quite literally is defined by our assumptions about life. We make stories about the world and to a large degree live out their plots. What our lives are like depends to a great extent on the script we consciously, or more likely, unconsciously, have adopted.

• Google docs word count: 35,279
• Open Office word count: 34,489
• NaNo word count: 34,415

I've updated this blog to MT 3.3 (from 2.66), but not soundwaves or runningwater, yet. I need to reorganize things a bit, take advantage of the new features. I've been using my other domain as a test vehicle, but I don't think I'm ready just yet to add things here. I think if I can get myself motivated to use tags and categories I could narrow everything I want to do down to this blog, killing the need for a hobby blog.

That still leaves the other domain directionless, but I've been thinking about removing runningwater from here and putting it there if I can ever get the design together I want. Or maybe I'll just blank it out and leave it doing nothing. Who knows.

It appears This Little Bird is out. I received my copies tonight. It went through a lot of changes in the printing process -- you can see the original design at my portfolio gallery. I haven't listened to the final album versions yet, but I loved most of the disc when I originally got my hands on the tracks.

April's written a much better article expressing similar views to what I wrote here about the Skinny video. Her post and the comments are well worth reading.

We got a late start, with me staying asleep until 12:30 this morning. Then we laid in bed a bit and spent some time with our kitties, even Vree joining in on the petting-fest. Then a quick trip to 7-11 for a Slurpee treat and a newspaper to check out all the deals tomorrow.

When we got home, it was time to start cooking! Shawn started on the turkey and stuffing, then moved the table and took the recycling. I cleaned things up a bit and started in on my list of things to cook - pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie (I forgot to cook the shell before putting in the cream cheese and chocolate mixtures - erp! So it's a bit of a mess.), baked mac & cheese, and mashed potatoes.

Now we're watching the TiVo'd parade, Shawn bitching all the way through, as always.

It's a perfect day. I'm so thankful to have the love of my life to spend it with.

Almost everything I made tonight was organic. Shawn's preparations were not. If Target had sold organic turkeys again, we'd have paid the twice-as-much, but they only had conventional, and the organic/natural turkeys at Nature's Food Patch were $40-90 -- well out of our price range. Plus, he's set in his Stove Top and conventional gravy ways. If it were up to me we'd forgo the turkey altogether (even though his always comes out of the oven looking beautiful), but it's not, so we don't.

Organic stuff included organic pumpkin, spices, eggs, milk, cream, butter, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, cream cheese, and cranberry... stuff. The trying-to-be-organic stuff were the cheeses and pie shells - whole wheat, "natural", no hormones, etc. Stuffing, gravy, some of the cheese in the mac & cheese, cool-whip, powdered sugar, pudding, and the turkey were all conventional. This is pretty much how it's been the past few years. I'd really like to up it to all organic, but Andrew and Everett cheeses are just superior to Organic Valley's, I prefer whole wheat options to organic options, organic boxed pudding sucks, and turkeys are probably going to be out of our price range for years to come. I've made a note to use some of the organic granulated sugar I have on hand into powdered sugar and to teach myself to make pudding and whipped cream from scratch using organic ingredients before next year. Hopefully by then there will be organic whole wheat crusts, and some humanely handled turkeys for sale somewhere for less than an arm.

Also, in the future, I'll make a note to not buy any of these brands of not-organic-but-labeled-so milks. I've bought High Meadows and Wild Oats in the past, but from now on I'll stick to Organic Valley & Stonyfield Farms. They're my favorites for taste anyway, and Publix just started selling SF in nonfat, so it's accessible without me having to go to Wal-Mart.

Shawn and I had never done the Black Friday crazy shopping thing, so we decided a new experience would be good.

My feet hurt.

We got to Best Buy at 5am, the line was past Rooms to Go, around the back parking lot, back to the main parking lot, down to in front of Guitar Center. The employees told us people had been camping out since the day before, and that at midnight last night the line was already past Rooms to Go. There were piles of litter everywhere, abandoned camping chairs, even an abandoned recliner! A handicap parking space sign was torn down.

They started letting in 100 people at a time, and we slowly crept towards the store. Chick-Fil-A showed up with breakfast and coffee for sale - and sold out of coffee within a couple minutes, they left and came back with more. We finally got in after 6am, my nose frozen, found our stuff (which they had plenty of, shockingly with the hundreds of people ahead of us in line). They had a maze set up for crowd control and at some point I couldn't find my way out of the aisles and boxes and I started losing it a little. I do not like feeling trapped, and will panic if you trap me somewhere.

Once we got out of the maze, found the last couple things we were having trouble locating, check out took no time at all. By now it was about 7am. It felt really good to be outside and watching the sun peek up.

Then we headed to Circuit City. We walked right in there. We found three of the five things we were looking for, the other two were sold out. And then we stood in line. And stood in line. And stood in line. At one point I went to go get a breath of air from the crowd over in a less crowded section -- I walked around the store a couple times, searched for one of the things we hadn't found initially, sat in front of a TV for a few minutes, then went back - and Shawn hadn't moved. At all. Then, later, there were people buying a computer and cart full of crap and it took them 40 minutes to check out. So we didn't move, at all. For 40 minutes.

There was no crowd control - because of the 40 minute purchase at our line, people who came in the store long after us checked out before us when people should have been guided into registers. The shelves were a wreck. The Sims add-on that was on sale was on a bottom shelf two cases over from the rest of the Sims stuff. Shawn spotted it, and some poor guy was on the cell listing all of the Sims titles he could find, asking whoever was on the other end if that was the one he or she wanted. I grabbed a handful of them and set them with the other Sims games in front of him to help people out.

The DVDs and console games on sale were just thrown into giant boxes that you had to forage through to find what you wanted. Nothing was where it should be. On top of that, the lines ran in such a way as to block off the entire music, game, and DVD section.

So, Circuit City = evil. We didn't get out of there until 9am.

Across the street to Sports Authority ($.89 for a can of tennis balls!) and Staples. I could go nuts in Staples. I love, love office supplies. It's a thing. I don't get it, but it is. I behaved myself and stuck to the list, which mostly involved stuff to make stuff for other people, printer paper (we were out), and a new chair for Shawn.

I think both places altogether took 20 minutes, and that's with testing chairs, hunting down free photo stickers that came with my printer paper, me oogling, and an employee having to get the chair out of the back.

Target wasn't as packed as I feared. I think we probably spent another 20 minutes in there. We found the three things really quickly and the lines weren't too long.

Pretty much everyone was nice today, though. There was one chick at Circuit City who was a complete bitch to an older lady about line placement. I don't get today with the lack of respect - for anyone, but especially for elders. But I think one incident out of hundreds of people isn't too bad.

It was good to have the experience - which was the main goal for me. I mean, yay cheap stuff, but, no way would I normally wait in line that long for anything we bought.

Tomorrow I get to splurge at Jo-Ann's a little. More or less just stuff to make stuff for other people, but I'll take it. I'll probably go without Shawn, and finish off his Xmas shopping. Then the fun of wrapping things creatively so he doesn't know which present is which.

Next year: back to online shopping!

I've never been one to want to force people to trust me, or even manipulate them into it. It's something I feel I have to earn. This goes double for animals.

When we brought Vree home, we really failed him. I still feel awful about it. When he was given to us, he was covered in fleas. Winter had never had fleas and we really just weren't sure what to do with the situation. We tried flea bombs, Borax, baths, drops from PetSmart, you name it, trying to find a solution. Half the problem was every time we got rid of them with the bombs, the neighbor's dog (that mostly ran free outside) would go to sleep in front of our door again and the apartment would refill. The other half is we didn't know about Advantage yet. We got a free sample from the vet when we took Winter in for her shots, and even with just dosing one, we eliminated a lot of fleas. It took us a few months to save up enough to dose both of them and keep them dosed.

But those months wasted trying other things, and the months where we had to save up for it, were really rough on him. Winter didn't mind as much, but Vree has a flea allergy which makes even one bite really hard on him. He would barely get down on the ground, preferring the backs of chairs and counter tops where there were less fleas hiding than the carpet. It got so bad before the end that he was chewing himself open and we were having to bandage him up. I think because of the lack of sleep, and the constant pain, he became afraid and neurotic (who wouldn't?) When we very first brought him home he was affectionate, but over time it got to where he didn't want to be around anyone, and was afraid of almost everything.

We were young and stupid but we should have just taken him to the vet from the start.

So, we've been flea-free for years now, though in the middle of summer we'll have to dose them for a few months, usually, to prevent his flea-breakouts (yay, Florida). Like I said, just one bite and he gets a reaction - awful scabs and rashes all over, hair falling out, etc.

Occasionally, over the years, he'd sleep in bed with us at our feet, or sit at our feet to be rubbed with a foot, or - if you sat down on the ground - curl up just within reach so you could pet him. Sometimes he'd even rest against me, if I sat on the ground, but never on me.

On Thanksgiving he was sitting beside the bed and I picked him up to spend some family time with the rest of us, leaned over him and petted him for probably a half hour. By the end he'd rolled on his back so I could pet his tummy. Today, he was sitting the arm of the couch by where I always sit, and when I sat down - he didn't move away. Normally if you came anywhere near him he'd scurry off. He stayed there for a while, with me petting him, then turned around and got right in my face while I petted him, and eventually - crawled onto me while I petted him! Right where he used to lay as a baby kitten before the fleas made him nuts!

We're finally regaining his trust, I think. He's still jumpy, but getting less so, and when Shawn came home and banged against the door to unlock it, he scratched me in the process of jumping down, afraid, but there's real progress going on.

Maybe one day he'll figure out how much we love him, and how sorry we are for the way we let him down.

I got to do my go-nuts-in-Jo-Ann thing today. Mostly it was buying stuff to make stuff for family since we're going across the state for Christmas. I don't know who all will be there, and don't know the extended family well enough to know what they want, so I'm just making generic gift bags for everyone with goodies inside that hopefully everyone likes.

But we did get stuff for me, and amazingly, it wasn't all yarn-related. Some of it was things I'd drooled at for over a year but wasn't willing to pay $20 for. $8, on the other hand...

All in all we got $155 worth of stuff for $80. Not bad for taking care of most of 11 people's Christmas, including my own.

We stopped at Walgreens on the way home and picked up bags and ribbon, and I got hair barrettes (a must on my Christmas wish list). None of them were on sale but all of them were really cool.

I'm beat. I'm on a weird sleep schedule. Still, tempted to get busy on the Christmas presents.

I still have to ask Winter what to get Jonathan and visa versa, but I think other than a that, sorting Shawn's family, and a couple more things from Borders for Shawn, I'm done.

I just bought a few things from their sale rack using a 10% of coupon, so I'm a little annoyed at myself for not waiting -- today their entire online store is 30% off.

There's only a few things I want from there that I'd be tempted to get when not on sale (not that I don't love nearly everything in the store, just way out of our budget), and only one I'd get today, even if it meant whining at Shawn to get that instead of my surprise gift. Sadly, it's out of stock in all sizes.

Ah, well. Happy shopping, girls.

Apparently is there a word for killing your mother, your father, your children, and two for killing your wife. But none for killing your husband.

I'm sitting here, trying to finish NaNo, and every time I get myself focused, a ball of aluminum comes from the kitchen. I get it, he's home, he wants attention, but if I can finish this today, he can have my devoted attention tomorrow.

The lack of support is making me cranky.

update: 3,730 words to go, and the story is done. Erp.

With NaNo done, I finally got to play a little of Pets (we picked it up half price a couple weeks ago).

Here's Vree & Winter added to the family.

Matthew, Alix, Shawn, Winter, Vree, & Lily

I got a few things done for the site tonight that I've been putting off. I've added a tagging system, some navigation helpers, monthly archives, and made the date a permalink.

I thought about adding comments, and it's something I've been debating since switching to 3.3 and being able to better control spam. But in the end, I've decided against it for now. Partly out of laziness and partly that I just prefer the email system. I may add a contact form box at some point to make emailing easier, but not at 2am.

I also added in whatever was at the other site and deleted all the entries there. Now to consider whether to move the fertility blog there or leave it empty, waiting for purpose.

When Shawn gets Chinese food I beg him for chopsticks. In the past, it's been for my hair - free bun barrettes! - but then I chopped off my hair, and no more bunning, so the last two packs I had were sitting in the bathroom drawer.

We bought some white cheddar popcorn crud at Blockbuster that was pretty much crap, but the name of the website (no more naked popcorn) was amusing (yes, I read everything I come in contact with), so I checked it out, and came across this gadget. It's called a popcorn fork, and it works more or less like chopsticks.

Being a person that eats everything possible with a knife and fork because dirty hands drive me nuts, popcorn was always a bittersweet treat involving a tree-load of napkins. No more! And I went from using chopsticks with popcorn to using them for almost everything (short of ice cream). They're a lot easier to clean and Shawn doesn't steal them.

So, now I'm even freakier in regards to food, but I'm having fun.

Okay, so I ordered Shawn's surprise gift from Dell, and I waited - and waited - and waited. And I never got a confirmation or even an acknowledgment. And the order didn't show up on the site.

So, I figured I did one of my flighty moves and didn't hit the final submit or something, and I put it through again.

Still nothing, and this time I was sure I completed everything. I contacted support at this point, and in their broken English, they assured me that there were no orders on the account since July 2006, and that I should put the order through again.

So I did.

And now I have three, despite contacting support again when the other two orders appeared on the site and asking them to cancel.

If they make me pay for shipping, I'm going to be seriously cranky, but really it feels like there's not much I can