joy and shadows

I got nearly ten yards of a nice quality white coarse-weave fabric for 60% off of $3.99/yard. I don't think it was supposed to be on sale, but they gave me the sale price anyway.

Made dinner tonight and had to nearly sit on my mother to keep her out of the kitchen. You'd think she'd be happy to let someone else cook, but noooo, she was hovering like a Huey.

Football all afternoon. The Skins/Bucs game was exciting, though we didn't want the Skins to win. NE and Jacksonville is shaping up to be another nailbiter, and while I'd rather see the Pats win than the Jags, it would be good to have someone new in the Super Bowl.

Given what's happened over the last couple days, I'm not going to complain about going to church tomorrow.

I think I owe someone a thank-you, and I'm not sure who it is, so do speak up if this sounds familiar.

I got a package today from Anime Palace containing two Bleach zipper-pulls. Very nice, very cute, absolutely no clue as to who bought it. I've never ordered anything from Anime Palace, nor do I remember shopping at their kiosk at a con, so it stands to reason that someone who shares my Bleach interest bought me a present.

So, if it's you, stand up and be counted! And, thank you! :D

Phew. After three straight days of running around like ninnies, we have an entire evening to sit down.

Wait, did I say that right? I meant "clean up house and put away presents."

No rest for the weary, so on the 22nd, we both took the day off in preparation for the holiday rush and to clean the house up before our friend Jason came over for Festivus Eve dinner. It was a pleasant and warm evening, and as we said to Jason, it's about the only thing we do during the holidays that we have complete control over and actually want to do. We watched part of "A Christmas Story" (which I still think I haven't ever seen all the way through) and then it was more than time for bed.

Husband and I opened our presents with one another the next morning, and we had a happy morning playing with our new toys. Husband got a bunch of compilations of old video games that we played until it was time to leave for PA. My parents invited us for a fancy dinner at Lacroix in the Rittenhouse Hotel, so we drove in all haste to husband's parents' house, visited a bit, got dressed, and hurried off to Philly. Dinner was very fancy, and the service was first-rate, but the problem with these avant-garde restaurants is that the items on the menu that aren't seafood tend to be game meats. I tentatively tried a rabbit leg, adding to the list of "Cute Animals I've Eaten." Not sure I'd eat that again. Possibly the weirdest thing I tried was the bleu cheese ice cream. Now, I adore stinky blue cheese with a passion, but it's disgusting when made into an ice cream. Bleh.

Early on the 24th, we went to the Radnor Inn to have breakfast with our friends from Buffalo. They were very happy to see us, and Wyatt was well-behaved. We had some downtime with the in-laws until they went off to their two Christmas parties (something husband was a bit irked about; we were sorry they didn't set aside some time for us on Xmas Eve.) At any rate, we went off to Longwood Gardens for their annual holiday display in the gardens and the Conservatory. My folks and my aunt were also going to the same place, but we didn't plan our evening around them; instead, we met up for the Christmas organ concert/singalong in the Conservatory, and a good time was had by all. Husband and I decided not to eat at the gardens and instead opted to try to go out to eat, but all the restaurants were closed, so we ended up making pasta back at the house. We decided to go to vigil Mass at St. Thomas at Villanova, because I like to feel all Christmas-y like that, and my parents had decided to go to that Mass as well. The music was spectacular (except for a very strange arrangement of "Veni, Veni Emmanuel") and it was exactly midnight when the Mass let out, so you could say that we heard the bells on Christmas Day in the morning.

Our Christmas Day was a bit chaotic. P and G decided that they'd stay the night to open presents with us and Mom and Dad Q in the morning, and they brought both their large dog and the dog they were dog-sitting. I am not fond of dogs, so it was something to put up with, but P & G's dog is pretty well-behaved, and the other one wasn't too obnoxious either. After breakfast, we tidied up our things and headed out to my parents' not long after the in-laws left to visit other family up north. We had presents with my mom and dad and stretched it out a couple hours. My mother made dinner, and we made a valiant attempt to watch "Babes in Toyland" after dinner, but husband and I were pooped and we didn't make it through. We did get a nice long sleep out of it, though.

Now we're home, and I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow, though it'll be a working holiday. Got to get that cosplay done! Hoo-ah!

In the immortal words of Dr. Stan Johnson...

PHAT CITY! SCIENCE WINS AGAIN!

Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in science class

I've been following this story for a while now with trepidation. One of my major bitches with the current administration - aside from all the other bullshit - is the anti-science, pro-religious attitude. Our Fearless Leader has cut funding for the NIH and NSF, has consistently quashed pioneering research in areas he considers objectionable while flying in the face of hard data like global warming to protect his own interests, and has fostered a climate of small-minded religious justification. While I don't suggest that our Fearless Leader is responsible for intelligent design, he does encourage it, and he encourages other similar religion-based ideas to flourish under his watch.

The defeat of intelligent design in PA gives me hope that the intelligent people in this country will begin to fight back against the relentless push of a vocal, religiously motivated minority. A summary of the trial was given in the New Yorker a few weeks ago - for an excellent article on the subject, I direct you to Why Intelligent Design Isn't. (Sadly, the trial summary was not published online, but you can read a Q&A with the author here.) While my scientist's soul cringes in horror at the misinformation we are fed, at the repeated rape of our natural resources, at the anti-science crusade, this one victory gives me hope that maybe things will change.

I was going to sneeze and then I lost it and I'm still upset about it.

Why is LJ now coughing up all the back notifications from comments left to me a month ago?

Note to everyone: I've been offline a lot recently and miss you all! Working on cosplay 1 - 2 hr a night, plus holiday, plus cooking, plus household chores equals not a lot of time for AIM. But I wanted you all to know I'm thinking about you. You know who you are.

the short list:

jaina came over and we made cosplays

husband is sick

I was sick (again), not now

work busyish

want to have weekend and happy baking joyfulness and gingersnaps

want Jints to win on Sunday

need to go Xmas shopping

omg lol at House MD wankage

It feels like Sunday night, but that's because we just got home from a football game. :D

Thanksgiving weekend went nicely enough after the mishap on Wednesday morning. Husband and I split up that night, as he wanted to help his parents prepare Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday morning, but I wanted to watch the Macy's parade with my mother. (It was my parents' turn to host Thanksgiving, but Mom Q upset the apple cart there.) It was a delicious dinner, and I spent the rest of the day moving around very slowly and burping.

Friday, my mother and I braved the Horrendous Crowds to do a little Xmas shopping at Kohl's and Joann Fabrics. Kohl's was nutso, but we piled up the cart nonetheless, and they had arranged the checkout so that it was a controlled affair rather than consumer chaos. Joann's was similarly overrun, but we got some great deals on decorations and fabric. My father and my husband had gone out to investigate iPods, which I found spectacularly funny. My dad's new thing is that he Wants An Ipod, and it amuses me to no end that a 62-year-old retiree is jazzed up about a Nano and a Razr cellphone. When did my PARENTS get more trendy than I did? XD

Today was splendiferous fun. Rutgers U's football team, after a full decade of Purest Terribleness, is in a position to bid for a bowl game (a rinkydink bowl, but a Bowl nonetheless!) We decided we'd better see them while the seeing was good, and it was Family Day at the stadium, where a flat fee got you four tickets, four sodas, and four hot dogs. Not bad! Husband and I went with my parents, and our seats weren't bad at all, and it was a cold football-y kind of day, and everyone was in fine spirits.

We had practiced the RU Fight Song many times, and we were feeling very fierce in the cheering department and lucky besides, because the Broncos (with the aid of Fierce Cheering) had beaten Dallas to put the Giants temporarily in first place in the NFC East. We started out at Medium-Level Cheering, but it rapidly became High-Level Happy Cheering, especially as my mother and I got each other going.

No two ways about it - RU came out and owned Cinncinnati. There was much R-U RAH RAH, R-U RAH RAH because they play the fight song every time the Scarlet Knights score, and they scored a LOT. I learned the GO! GO! FIRST DOWN, FIRST DOWN, GO R U cheer, which I believe shares the same lineage with the "fuck 'em up, fuck 'em up, go C U" that is apparently common at Cornell U hockey games (also when a player goes in the penalty box, they all yell "SEE YA, ASSHOLE!") We also yelled "R!" "U!" back and forth with the other side of the stadium. The Scarlet Knight cantered around on his white steed, who was a very good horsey and didn't startle or try to run away when the cannon went off after every score. Rutgers trashed Cincy 44-9, and there was great joy down on the field. Nice way for the seniors to end their season. Of course, I won't be able to talk for the next couple days, but it's worth it.

Tomorrow will be the Giants/Seahawks game, which I expect them to lose but you never know, and in the meantime there's sewing to be done.

I get an enormous amount of spam at my arafel @ oceandreaming.com address. Every once in a while, one will come through with a perfectly wonderful name listed as the originator. I'm using one of them now (Postdoctoral G. Tailpipes.) However, a recent review of my spam folder revealed some tremendous new candidates.

I'm partial to Ms. Dishrags, but let's see what you think!


[Poll #619091]

A minirant.

Enya's new album Amarantine came out today, and I eagerly anticipated buying it, as I am fond of pretty floaty relaxing music. Her songs are never terribly complicated. She sings about love and trees and moons and stars and being far from home and other such complex concepts. Her songs are usually in English, but occasionally she'll branch out into Latin or Spanish, or into some pretty-sounding Irish. If you can read the Irish (and I can, to some degree) you find, again, that her songs are about love and trees and moons and stars and being far from home (though the Irish songs tend to center more on family.)

English and Latin and Spanish and Irish are fine choices for languages to sing in, as one who is learned enough may do some independent research and translate the song (about the moons and stars etc.), since all those languages are reasonably well known and/or resources are available. In Amarantine, Enya takes a stab at Japanese (and I assume again she is singing about flowers and trees and love) but fully three of her songs are in Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan (her stunning lyricist.)

She has wandered into the "made-up language" territory with Elvish, which, despite being JRR Tolkien's invention, is still reasonably well-known. This is, of course, because JRR Tolkien is well-known, and if you happened to be a student of Quenya (or whatever the heck it is) you could translate her song, which is probably about moons and stars etc. However, no less than three songs on Enya's new album are in Loxian, a language not made up by a well-known author like Tolkien but by Roma Ryan herself!

So, if you would like to know what Enya is singing about, you must read Roma Ryan's book. Nice little marketing tie-in there, right?

Take my word for it. It's probably the moon and stars thing.