Celticangel.org

According to SciFi Wire, Disney is making yet another attempt to re-imagine “Escape to Witch Mountain.” You’d have thought that the last attempt (the purple monstrosity) would have cured them of this, but no. “Race to Witch Mountain” is described thusly:

“Andy Fickman is on board to direct what is described as an action thriller, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and AnnaSophia Robb. The adaptation, written by Matt Lopez, revolves around a pair of paranormal-powered siblings (Ludwig and Robb) who, with the help of a Las Vegas cab driver (Johnson), go on the run from a diabolical group of men who wish to exploit their abilities. Hinds will play the nefarious leader of the pack.”

Argh! Did they even read the book or are they working from the film again? …And “The Rock” is playing the Mr. O’Day character? Who’s playing Uncle Benet? Vin Diesel?

*grumble*

My laptop died. *sob*

The Last Sunset of 2007

Well, the sun has set on the old year, and there is a shiny new year stretching out before me. And yet, when I got up this morning I went right back into the anxiety that struck me when I got home from work yesterday. So, with my theme for the new year ringing in my ears, I propose to do something about this.

Lists always help me to organize my thoughts, so I’m going to do this in the form of a list. I will list the things that are bothering me, and then what I propose to do about them. (God willing.) Right, then. Here we go.

1. I am still not pregnant. – In the new year, I will get a physical next week, and so will my Husband. The appointments are already made. Then I will see about who is covering my OB/GYN’s duties while she is out on Maternity Leave. There were two things left for us to do, and I want to get them out of the way. I was born in the Year of the Rat, and after Chinese New Year that’s what 2008 will be. This is the year that I either find out for sure that I can’t have children (and therefore start looking into other options) or finally have a child. Darn it.

2. I am 35 and I still have acne. – I’m pretty sure that this is hormone-related, so I will bring it up the aforementioned Doctor’s appointment.

3. My Husband doesn’t have life insurance or a will. – I will contact my Insurance Agent to get the Insurance part taken care of. Then, I will pull out my will for him to get a look at and make him do one himself. We don’t own any property (yet) to a handwritten one will suffice.

4. My apartment is a mess. – We have too much stuff, and not enough space for it. Most of the clutter can be put away, though as I have actually cleaned out much of the closets/cupboards. I will have a friend come over to hang out with me while I clean, and then I will do the same for her. I’ve already had one offer (I’m really good at organizing other people’s stuff for some reason) so I’ll try to get this out of the way soon.

5. We need to get new Passports. – I think that this is only stressing me out because I’m not quite sure what I need to do to get a new one. Plus, I can’t take koshvader to Scotland if we don’t get this taken care of. Also, I’ve been putting this off for a while. So, I’ll do a bit of research (which will likely involve calling my parents, as they recently got new passports) and get this one taken care of.

6. My Husband is not happy with his current line of work. – Much of this problem can only be solved by him, no matter how much I want to help. His state of mind affects me profoundly, so I’m doing the only thing I can. I bought him a good camera this morning. If he is serious about starting to do some professional photography, now he can. Also, this will get us out of the house…Ah! And now I know what to do with the Gift card that Dell sent me. I must now go research GPS systems.

7. The Huge Monitor on my Floor – It is blocking access to my DVDs. It’s huge. I want to take it to Green Citizen to recycle, but…it’s huge. It’ll fit in the back of my car, but I’m not sure that I can carry it to the car. I guess I’ll just make the space in the back of the car and koshvader and I can carry it between the two of us. Hopefully there, some fine strapping young lad can unload it for us.

8. My Health Rider – I was having trouble finding an exercise bicycle that fit my body. I’m all of 5 feet tall, you see. So I bought this Health Rider. Only to find that my back isn’t too happy about my using it. This year I will either 1) Find someone with an older (that is to say smaller) exercise bicycle who wants to trade or 2)Off-load the thing in frustration later in the year. It takes up space, and no matter how annoyed I am with the fact that I spent good money on it, darn it, it isn’t paying its way in my front room. And this leads me to…

9. I’m out of shape – A very common complaint, I’m sure. I’m getting a physical. I’ll be looking into the exercise equipment situation. And I expect to be getting out of the house more often to go on hikes and such, as that is the only way that koshvader will be able to get the photos he wants.

10. My financial situation – Well, I’m already working on that, believe it or don’t. I just need to take the next step. Beyond that, the single best thing for my financial situation is to eat at home more often. This will involve cooking, I know, but it’s time I took responsibility for that sort of thing. This will involve cooking food ahead, as I generally don’t get home until 7pm, and by then my blood sugar has dropped enough to turn me into a Cave Woman. (Me want food! Grrr!) This will also help with #9.

11. I need to get organized – This sounds rather like #4, but it’s more a mental thing for me. When I feel out of control I have trouble thinking clearly, and this doesn’t help me get stuff done. This year I will decide on one disorganized part of my life, like say…my lack of a disaster plan, and get it in order.

12. I am too hard on myself – Most of my stress comes from this. I’m a perfectionist. I demand no less from myself. I need to give myself a break occasionally and goof off. I need to watch more than 15 minutes of a TV Show at a time or something equally mindless, like recreating my old mix tapes as itunes playlists. (Okay, that last bit was actually useful, but fun useful.)

Well, there’s my list. I may end up adding to it, and it sort of ended up like a longer to do list, but there you are. I’m going to go back to writing my story, now.

May your New Year be productive and relaxing.

Do NOT Shop at [tag]Express Cameras.com[/tag]. (I have included their Better Business Bureau link, for those of you interested.)

They have no customer service skills, and that’s the good part. They over price. They revel in the hard sell. Don’t try to cancel anything, as they will threaten you.

No. I’m not joking.

Our romantic fireplace.

Today we shopped and walked a lot.

Did I mention the walking? (Yeah. My legs are tired.)

We walked out to the American Tin Cannery for breakfast and shopping. We had breakfast at First Awakenings. Or rather, brunch, as we both managed to sleep through the free food this morning. Sigh. KoshVader went with the Lemon Chicken sandwich which was “pretty good” and I went with the fruit crepe which was okay. Brunch was actually fun, as there was a little bird in the building, and two kids kept trying to sneak up on it. I swear that they moved like cats. Very amusing.

The shopping at the ATC was actually quite fruitful. We managed to find KoshVader some new shoes that were not black. (Don’t faint, Linds and Dani.) We popped into many of the shops. There was one place that said it was open, but you needed to go downstairs to a different store and ask if you wanted to browse. Normally, that is not the sort of thing that we would do. Introverted tends to be a fairly good descriptor for both of us. Today, however, KoshVader really wanted to browse in the gem and rock shop. (He collects minerals.) So, downstairs we went. The little shop was very nice. Lots of eye candy. Oh, to win the lottery. I love jewelry. Have I mentioned? I have a metal allergy, but that doesn’t stop the love. It…just stops me from wearing earrings very often. I purchased nothing (*wistful sigh*), but KoshVader found a nice Spinnel.

New Not-Black Shoes enjoying the firelight.

What’s a Spinnel? This is a Spinnel. Specifically, the pink bit. The white rock is just the vehicle, apparently.

We ended up not playing Blacklight Miniature Golf, even though it looked really fun and kitschy. Our hands were full by then. Well, too full to easily play golf, anyway. Sadly, we didn’t make it back over there in the evening, either. A wee bit more shopping found us no size 5 shoes for my Mother-in-Law. Yes, I’m doing my Christmas shopping on my vacation. As such, I have only purchased a book and a little St. Andrew’s Cross flag for myself. Witness my virtue! Okay…really, I just like saving time, and it’s the right time for such shopping. Add to that interesting shops and small crowds and you have shopping paradise for the Celtic Angel.

Where was I? Oh, yes. My Mother-in-law wears size 5 shoes, so I’ve picked up the habit of checking out any shoe store I enter to see if they have something she might wear. Oh, speaking of shoes, KoshVader’s new ones were 60% off. The ones I liked, but did not need, were only 30% off. Not good enough.

After our shopping excursion at the American Tin Cannery in Pacific Grove we trekked back to the hotel to drop off our purchases. As luck would have it, we only had a half an hour left until the wine and cheese reception when we arrived. So, we killed some time and then headed on over. They were offering a couple of 2005 local wines, which is a bit young in my opinion. At least the Syrah tasted young. It wasn’t terrible, but I was glad to have the cheese, grapes, and cute butterfly cracker to cut the tannins. KoshVader was glad to see that they were also offering lemonade.

After our break we headed back to Cannery Row. We enjoyed the Steinbeck Wax Museum. It was a total tourist trap and was obviously hasn’t been updated since the 1960s, if the Kit Carson reference is anything to go on, but that didn’t stop it from being educational. Yes, we have a thing for tourist traps. After more wandering, KoshVader tried to take some pictures down at the beach. That was when the batteries died on our camera. With the light going, we went on a battery hunt. The lady from the flag store didn’t let us down. We loaded up the camera and headed back to the spot.

Here is the result:

Straight ahead is the Fish Hopper.
To the left is the Blue Moon Bistro/a hotel that I forget the name of.

Eventually, we had dinner at The Fish Hopper again. This time I had the Ahi and KoshVader had the Halibut. The Halibut was great. I felt that the Ahi wasn’t as good as the previous time we had it. The seasoning was a bit different. *shrug* After dinner we went to a Garlic Gift Shop. There we found some of the Joe Perry hot sauce we like. Yay for the not having to pay to have it shipped! We spent some time in the hotel room before heading out for dessert, and here comes the angry part.

After much staring at menus on the side of buildings we stopped at the Blue Moon Bistro for dessert. The atmosphere was romantic. The service was good and the dessert really tasty. That’s not the the angry part. You see, KoshVader and I sometimes play cards while we wait for food to arrive. It doesn’t generally last too long, and we have been told several times in the past by servers and friends that it was a clever way to pass the time. Tonight…well, tonight another patron took it upon himself to tell us that the sound of shuffling cards had no place in a restaurant like that. In short, he yelled at me, and then he left. Now, I do not deal well with being yelled at in the best of times. Generally, I either burst into tears or just barely manage to stop myself. But lately, my emotions have been a lot closer to the surface. It totally destroyed my enjoyment of the evening. I burst into tears in public, and KoshVader sent some angry parting words after the fellow in question. Luckily, the restaurant wasn’t brightly lit so my bright red nose wasn’t that noticeable. When the waiter returned with our drinks, I couldn’t even talk. It was *so* embarrassing. Hey, but I managed not to smudge my mascara somehow. When we explained what had happened to the server later, as I didn’t want him to think we’d disliked any aspect of the meal experience itself, he told us that they had no problem with us playing cards there. (For the record, there are many places we do not play cards, but this place seemed relaxed enough for it.) So, wherever that fellow is, I hope that he’s happy. Growl.

Don’t worry. I large dose of LolCats cheered us right up. We’re leaving tomorrow, so I’m off to pack up. Night!

Before I even begin, I want to warn you all that this post will be excessively depressing. Run away while you can.

No, really.

I took my Spock to the vet this morning at 8:30am. I carried her down the stairs and out to the car in her comfy donut thingy. She sat quietly during the trip across town, just watching through the windshield and occasionally glancing at me. At the Vet’s I filled out the paperwork with one hand while holding her with the other arm. When we went in to the room, the doctor very gently checked her out and confirmed my fears. Kidney failure. I wasn’t really surprised. She’d been drinking so much water and she had a very distinctive smell. I had just hoped that I was wrong somehow. The vet said that even if I had come in a month ago, the results would have been the same. He offered to run tests if I wanted, or give her fluids as she was dehydrated in spite of all the water. But there was no point. I could let her linger in pain for another week or so, or do the humane thing and let my baby go. That’s not really a choice. So I stayed with her until she was gone…and then I had to go to work.

I’m having her cremated and then returned to me, so that I can scatter her in a couple of weeks in the same area as we are going to scatter the ashes of my Father-in-law this weekend. I figure she’d like to have someone to annoy, and that way they won’t be lonely.

I hate these last two weeks. Everything from the terrible, unexpected phone call at 4:20am on Monday October 29, to sleeping on the floor up at the house in the mountains while we made all of the arrangements (okay…I got some knitting done, but still), to this, my laptop monitor dying, and the meeting I have tomorrow that I have to be non-specific about right now. Don’t worry, you’ll be hearing about the meeting as soon as I am allowed to say. And we have to go back up the mountain this weekend, picking up my father-in-law’s ashes on the way.

I need a gorram vacation. Oh. I have next week off. That’s good timing. I wish I had the money to go somewhere. Grr. I’m thinking of going anyway. So there.

Now, I need either a lot of chocolate or a lot of alcohol…or both. Too bad I don’t have time. *sigh* Oh, and the title of the post comes from last night’s shopping trip. That’s what we went to the store for. It was such a weird combination of things that I had to use it.

Spock 1991-2007

It may be a bit before I post the pic of the Socks for day 7, as my laptop’s monitor is on the fritz. That’s just one of the things I would like to complain about right now.

But first, for the Doctor Who fans out there, I have a bit of amusement. My laptop is named “Rose.” In order to use the data on my hard drive, I need to plug Rose into the computer downstairs. It’s called “TARDIS.” So… I need to get Rose and TARDIS together…in order to reach “Gallifrey” (my blog server.)

You may be amused now.

Obviously I am suffering from lack-of-tea

All I want to do is curl up next to my husband and fall asleep. Which makes me sort of annoyed with myself. Okay, really annoyed. Not that curling up next to him is bad, but it means that my nerves are mysteriously screwed up. No idea what I did this time.

Hmm…it would seem that I am overly harsh to myself when I show signs of “weakness.” I wonder why that is. What am I, a “tough guy”? Sheesh.

I need to take a chill pill. Or…get more sleep. Nah. Sleep is for wimps. Healthy wimps, but wimps nonetheless.

Anyway, I went to a special brunch for newbies at a different library this morning. It was nice…for all that it lacked Tea. We got to talking about programs and such, and as soon as the subject of outreach to schools came up my stomach tied itself in knots. ‘Ah yes’ I said to myself, ‘That’s why I changed jobs.’

For the record, I am so much happier in my current job than my last one. Just as far as the job itself goes. I’m just not comfortable leaving the library like they want Children’s/Teen librarians to do. Give me cyberspace any day. I’ll just meet folks online. I’m anti-social and I like me that way. (Okay, I’m not really all that anti-social. I just don’t see why I have to help people when they’re rude to me. Or…stuff like that.)

Okay. Enough random rambling. It is obvious to me that I have not had enough tea today.

Do you ever have one of those days where the only thing keeping you sane is the thought of coming home to your husband and getting a nice warm hug? And then you finally get home…and he’s not there.

*sigh*
It makes me want to smack his boss. Purely selfish, I know, but…I needed that hug.

I hate tendinitis flare ups. And yes, that’s why this is a short post. Ow! *goes off to find painkiller*