eee!

Yesterday we took VEE to the library and she got her own card. Now that she has a card, she can be signed up for programs. She's now enrolled in the "1000 Books Before Kindergarten" challenge. It can be 1000 different books or one book 1000 times. It doesn't master, just so long as someone reads them to her. So starting yesterday we're ticking them all off. She's at 9 already.

I've also joined Goodreads so that I can track books we've read prior to her joining the program. This way even if we don't hit the goal before she starts school, I'll have a better idea of just how much she's read. I'm also tracking what I'm reading, too. Anyone else on Goodreads?

And in other news, we finally got to see Pacific Rim tonight. Giant monsters vs giant robots! How can you go wrong? I enjoyed it. Nothing taxing on the brain, but it sure was pretty!

As sad as I an to have now seen the last episode ever of EUREKA, I am very happy with the series finale. What a good, fun show. Also, it deserves more credit for showing that smart people can be fun, smart people can be sexy, and smart people can be of any gender or race. That was probably the most diverse show on TV.

On the bright side, WAREHOUSE 13 starts next week, yay!

I think this weekend the Scientist still start making his own wine. I hope he enjoys doing it.

I think this is the first year that no one on my flist went to SDCC. Just an observation.

Almost done reading CHAMBER OF SECRETS.

That's all I've got.

RIP, Ray Bradbury. Thank you for sharing your imagination with us.

I am ashamed to admit that I love Selena Gomez's crappy pop song "Love You Like a Love Song." If I had it on my iPod, I'd keep hitting repeat-peat-peat-peat-peat. LOVE IT.

I want to see John Carter. My friend Steve liked it, as did Dean Richards from WGN. Those guys are pretty much the only movie reviewers I trust, so if they say it's worth checking out, I'm in. Plus, I have to show interest in movies based on old-school sci-fi. If us nerds don't show up in droves for the sci-fi that started it all, Hollywood will instead think we're not interested and instead we'll get Transformers 4: Shia Yells Some More. No one wants that.

I have finished book 3 of the ASOIAF series. Favorite characters: Tryion, Dany, Davos, Samwell Tarly. Characters I love to hate: Cersei!!!!, Tywin Lannister, Joffrey. Characters I tire of: John Snow, Catelyn Stark, Arya Stark. Characters I find intriguing, yet I don't necessarily like: Jaime Lannister, Mellisandre. Book 4 is slow going at first, but I'm sure it will pick up. Anyone know when book 5 is scheduled for paperback release?

Speaking of books, I have yet to pick up the latest Patricia Briggs Alpha & Omega book. I may just wait till I'm done with ASOIAF, and by then that book should be in paperback as well.

The baby is starting to get teeth. She likes to chew on things. Still no rolling over, but she'll get there in time.

Work is work. But it's a Friday, so let us not speak of it again.

I have had no time to work on my cross stitch project for my mom. Originally I was thinking I'd give it to her at Christmas. It may end up being Christmas 2013...

That's it for now. I hope you're all well.

OH! Hunger Games in a few weeks. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Is anyone else out there excited about it, or just me?

Hello, people who know things about books, image searches, and book databases that might have images in them. I have a request from a friend at my office. She needs your help.

( Explanation, with images. )

1) Saw both Captain America and Cowboys and Aliens. Would wholeheartedly recommend the former over the latter. The latter is good "turn your brain off" summer action movie, but nothing I haven't seen before. The former was much more fun, much prettier (the art direction is fabulous!), and overall so much more earnest and enjoyable. Thumbs up.

2) Had a family baby shower up in Michigan, hosted by yakgirl at our parents' house. Got to see some aunts I haven't seen in a while, several cousins, and a few friends of the family (including jennlavigne, who is hilarious as ever). It was a good time. Played games, ate food, got a TON of gifts. I now have a lot of baby clothes to wash!

3) My sister, having found out that I already received a copy of Go the Fuck to Sleep, got me a copy of Pat the Zombie. I am TRAUMATIZED. My husband, however, loves it. :|

4) My sister bought the baby clown shoes. Again, I am TRAUMATIZED. My sister is a sadist.

5) On Thursday, the Scientist had an interview for a full-time position doing crystalization, whatever that is. It's something more than he's done before, so it'd be cool if he got the job and could learn a new scientific skill. He won't hear back for two weeks, but any good juju his way would be appreciated.

6) The house is a disaster zone. The nursery looks like something exploded inside of it. Our bedroom needs cleaning. The living room needs cleaning. I think we should just move out onto the lawn.

7) The cat knows something is up. She keeps eyeing the nursery with suspicion.

8) I am still working my way through A Game of Thrones on my lunch breaks. I just got to the point where ( spoiler if you haven't read the book/seen the show ).

9) I've been away from LJ too long -- I forgot how to cut-tag and had to look it up. :(

10) Tomorrow are the birthdays of both my brother-in-law B (yakgirl's husband) and my sister-in-law S, who is turning 21. Though neither will see this, I hope they both have wonderful birthdays tomorrow, because they are both wonderful people.

I have a question, and I need someone to answer with one word. ( Spoiler! )

I am now one of millions of people who have a smartphone. It's an LJ Optimus T, to be precise. I'm powered by Android, whoooo! ...Except I am still totally confused by this thing. Can I assign ringtones? I've tried to figure that out, but I'm coming up blank. There's no option for it in my "contacts" section. And I can't get my Yahoo e-mail account to hook up to the mail feature, so now I have a GMail address which I can access through the phone, but I don't want to have to switch to GMail because I've been using the same Yahoo account since, like, 1997. Oh, technology, you vex me so!

Seriously, though, if any of you know how to assign ringtones to certain people, let me know.

In other news, I have finally "read" the first of the Harry Potter books. And by "read," I mean that I listened to the audiobook while on the way to Ohio last weekend. I'm also a quarter of the way into Catching Fire, which is also good. And speaking of books, anyone who's read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, could you explain the appeal for me? My sister-in-law and I watched the movie (because we'd heard it was good, and EVERYONE we know is reading the books), and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Honestly, I don't get it. Why does everyone thing Lisbeth Salander is so damn awesome? She's totally effed up. And I didn't find the plot all that entertaining, or hard to figure out. ( Spoiler, if you care. ) I don't know, it just kind of grossed me out. Between the thing I just mentioned in the spoiler, and Lisbeth's rape, and then Lisbeth randomly having sex with Mikael, I just... It just left me feeling like I needed a shower. Are the books as creepy/dull as the movie?

Not much else to say, really. It's almost Valentine's Day, so I'll wish all of you a happy one now. Whether you spend the day with someone romantically, are enjoying it with family, or are spending it with friends (human or four-footed and furry), may you have a wonderful day filled with love.

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone reading this. May you all have a happy, fun, and safe New Year tonight.

Okay, so it's rainy and pooptacular outside (as always, Chicago weather is a big WTF), which means I've been inside all day. I started a new cross stitch project last night, one which will surely take me several months. So far today I've done about 3 square inches. Maybe less, I'm not sure. But I feel accomplished nonetheless.

Last night we went down to Oak Park to visit with my friend Natalie. She's pretty much the only friend I made at U of I in classes. (Everyone else I either met at the dorm, apartment, or via fava_bean.) Anyway, Nat and I took poetry together, and then a horribly boring English class, and we just kept taking classes together because we got along so well. Now she lives out in LA, but she came back to Illinois to visit family and had a few nights up here in the burbs with friends, so we all met up in my old neighborhood. Literally, we were next door to my old apartment. So it was nice to see her, even if it was just for a few hours and there were a lot of other people there wanting her attention as well. Still, nice to see her.

What else is going on? I guess because it's New Year's Eve, I should make at least one resolution. I'm being realistic and giving myself a resolution I can actually achieve: READ MORE BOOKS. yakgirl gave me The Hunger Games and I need to continue with that. (I'm at a good stopping point right now -- I know once I pick it up again I won't be able to put it down. And there are two more books after that.) There are new Patricia Briggs books coming this year, and in March she'll be doing a signing in nearby Oakbrook for the next Mercy Thompson book. Garth Nix has a new novella in June (and a new Old Kingdom book due in 2012, yay!). And now that the first half of the last movie is out, I think I can finally, safely begin working my way through the Harry Potter books.

And in regards to a resolution that isn't a resolution but instead a Change In Lifestyle, I'm going to force myself to do at least 1/2 hour of exercise per day. I am not a person who enjoys physical exertion, especially if it occurs in front of others. Yes, that includes my husband. But I figure if I force myself to do even 1/2 hour of SOMETHING every morning, over time it will become a habit and something I'll like, and I'll stick with it. I read that you have to do something daily for 90 days in order for it to become an actual habit, and something you miss if you don't get it. So rather than say I'm going to do this every day, I'm going to say that my resolution is to do it for 90 days, and hopefully by then it will become a Change In Lifestyle on its own. That's the plan.

Friday night I picked up my car from the dealership. It took quite a while, what with having to sit down with the finance guy and go over the warranty packages and everything. They have five tiers of warranty packages, from "platinum" (aka "everything under the sun is covered for a small fortune") to the "economy" package which covers the stuff you'd expect plus three years of free oil changes and routine maintenance. He wanted to sell me the lifetime tire warranty, which meant that at any time I can get new tires and/or rims should I have a blowout. He was sort of giving me the hard sell, but I wouldn't buy in. What's the point in getting that when I already have an extra set of tires and rims in my garage? Dumb. Anyway, an hour or two after arriving, I walked out with my new car. I call it "Shiny." It has a lot of chrome. A LOT of chrome. Even the cupholders on the inside have chrome rims. Thus far I've put about 50 miles on it, and I've managed to program radio stations. (Any Chicago people have recommendations for good radio stations? I've been without for so long that I only have 5 of my 12 programmable buttons filled up.)

So that was exciting. On Saturday I completely forgot that Movie Dictator was happening, and I missed it entirely. Sorry, K and fizzball! I suck. The stupid thing was that I spent Saturday at home, chilling out and finishing up a crafty Christmas project for my boss. D'oh!

Yesterday the Scientist and I did housework. First, we organized and cataloged our wine collection. 124 bottles later, we're all in order. Yeeek. Then we went outside to do yard work, with him mowing and raking and me hacking down the last of the morning glory vines from the trellis. The weather was good (only a sweatshirt was required), so as it was probably the last moderately warm-ish days left this year, we decided to put up our Christmas lights early. No, we're not lighting them, we just strung them up. Then we went out shopping to Sam's Club and Home Depot. I was hoping to buy another strand of lights so that we could string them up on the trellis. Due to the odd placement of our only outdoor electrical outlet being located in the garage, trying to figure out how the lights would connect was nearly impossible. Just as we were ready to give up on the whole idea, the Scientist spotted a set of solar-powered LED lights. Woo-hoo! So we grabbed on and headed home to set it up, only to realize that while I wanted to hang them on the trellis, he wanted to hang them over the doorway. Considering that one set was half the price of the LED plug-in lights, I think we'll be going back for a second set later on.

I also watched WAAAAAAAY too much Harry Potter this weekend. What with the new movie coming out this weekend, ABC Family was doing a marathon of the films. And then I watched the first third of Half-Blood Prince at my in-laws' house last night. I'm wondering if I should actually FINALLY start reading the books. I've said for years that I wasn't going to start reading them until all the movies were done, so that I didn't have to put up with "But it wasn't like the booooooooooook!" whiny conversations with people. I like to enjoy the movies for what they are, not sit there and nitpick my way through the films. I'd read the books after to get more out of the story, thank you very much. But now that there's just Deathly Hallows Part 2 left to go, I might actually start reading them.

Oh, and speaking of books, fava_bean sent me a text this weekend to say that Garth Nix has another Abhorsen book due out next year. She says it's a prequel to Sabriel and will be all about Clariel, the Chlorr of the Mask. Yay! I cannot wait. This is one of my favorite series, and I'm really glad that Nix is going to expand it some more. Hooray!

So that's the extent of the excitement in my world. New car, forgetting to see friends, and early Christmas decorating.