Nooooo!

Oh, I got all verklempt when the babies were brought to their new mommies. Such a sad ending. Movie #3 is really good, much less bad dialogue. Except for the "Noooooo!" though... even that is hard to regret because it's become part of our popular culture humour.

My young charges

"Feed me, little auuuuntiiie feed me!" (sung to "Walk Up Little Suzy) - Sue-Ellen cat, or Suzy


JR's communications are a little simpler. "Meow meow meow meow meow." Means play play play with me.

watching Star Wars

My cat sitting stint is almost through. Today I'm watching my Star Wars movies on the big tv.

I haven't watched them in years. You know... if you could only fix one element to make episodes 1-3 better, you would only have to fix the dialogue. I mean, the midichlorians could go, and there's all those weird cultural appropriations (that is to say, the racism). But the main problem is the stilted dialogue. Even the Jar Jar problem would be fixed by dialogue--he just talks too damn much. Fixing the dialogue wouldn't even be that hard, it's just stiff. It just needs a few words dropped or replaced to make it flow better.

The action scenes are still fantastic. In movie 1 -- the initial Trade Federation fight scene, the pod race, and the final battle are all great. I'm now on movie 2 and the entire ending of the movie, from Shmi's death onward is riveting. The effects are great, the creatures, the costumes, the music, the ships, the worlds--they're all awesome. If only someone could have snuck a script doctor in behind Lucas' back.

Which is funny, because Harrison Ford famously mocked* the crappy dialogue in the original Star Wars. But at least Lucas was small fry enough that other people were probably able to change the dialogue on him... and he didn't write the screenplays for Empire and Return. God knows why he took up the pen again for 1-3.

Little Suzy just jumped up beside me, and she rarely does cause she's a big scaredy. Means it's "feeeed me sooofties!!!" time. Then I'll start movie 3...



And by the time we reach movies 4-6 it should be dark outside and we'll be at Top Movie Watching Experience time.



*"You can write this stuff but you can't make me say it."

(Art by Katie Cookie.]

Scenes from a job - Les Canadiens

Boss [checking his phone cause his cousin just sent him the hockey score] - I shouldn't be doing this. We don't let staff do use cell phones.

Mabel - You're in the office, no one will ever know. ...If you can trust me.

ahhh the 80s

Watching Dynasty and reading Sidney Sheldon is so revealing about the 80s. Both Dallas and Dynasty had storylines about mothers taking jobs (Pam and Fallon) and their husbands having trouble with it. And all the 80s trashy novels that I loved so much--they're ALL about feminism and capitalism.

Every book is about a young man or woman, often an immigrant, who rises from total poverty to become the head of a huge super-rich conglomerate, all because of their own genius and hard work and often some need to get revenge or "show someone". That's the history-rich backstory that starts in chapter 2.

The rest of the book focuses on the daughter of this genius, and how she inherits the empire, and has to fend off all sorts of baddies.

There's still a lot of romance, or focus on the importance of having a relationship; but owning, running, and ruling a massive empire is a key part of the identity of all the heroines. And pretty much ALL these books are about business empires, like Dallas and Dynasty--money money money was obviously on our minds in les 80s.

And sex of course. As Scottie in the Star Trek movie would say: "It's excitin'!"

the joys of a good old fashioned thriller

I didn't bring enough with me to Swissgirl's. I do have a graphic novel I could read, but I'm not really in the mood for that. I knew I'd finish today the Sidney Sheldon I brought on the bus coming home... so I... I bought another Sheldon book today at work. Even though I have hundreds of unread books at home. I couldn't help it!! It's not my fault!! (Breaks down sobbing.)

I devoured 3 Sheldon books in high school, but haven't read him since. I can visually remember sitting in bed, out of school cause I was recovering from wisdom tooth removal, reading Master of the Game. Oooh I lurved it. And I can picture myself standing in the school hall reading a thrilling courtroom scene in Rage of Angels. (Below are the covers my books had.)


The book I just read was Bloodline--I picked it up second hand somewhere, and check out the great 70s cover. The thriller aspect of the book held up, but it was comically dated in some ways. Every time we're introduced to a character, we're given a detailed description of their home decor. This is in part why the book was such a quick read... there were some very clear spots where I could skim!

Halfway through the book a great detective character shows up--he's a sort of an ugly Poirot, who speaks many foreign languages but with incomprehensible accents, and he's so good at using computers to research that he's described as having little gossips with them. Sheldon writes out conversations between him and the computers. I love this character, I wish he'd written a bunch of books featuring him! But I guess, like Caleb Carr, he didn't know a good detective when he invented one. Le sigh.


Here's the one I just bought.

My Day - boots and bugs

Ahh no. I've turned into someone who goes to bed at 2 AM! I've been sleepy for hours, but fighting it. Can't... fight... no... more...

Even though a show on eating insects is one. Well luckily I saw most of it earlier in the evening. Here's a funny scene: A guy's crop of water bugs has all died off, because someone sprayed insecticide nearby. A key to running a good bug-growing-crop: No insecticide!

Today's weather was insane, but at least I got to wear my new wellies. I showed them off to everyone.

My kobo came in today! But I can't use it til Friday... hapoos.

Check out these photos: These are gigantic swarms of flies (midges) that gather on Lake Victoria to breed, then fly to the coast and die. Some people catch them and make patties out of them--very high in protein.

bookies

A coworker picked up this from a Random House summer preview for me. It's by a Chinese-Canadian first time author.


A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It's a bit uneven, but (a) conscious emphasis on strong female characters, and the frustrations of women in the Victorian period -- in a non-clichéd way; (b) the heroine is half-Chinese. In the end that made for a different sort of read, which was interesting.

View all my reviews >>

My Day

Last night I couldn't fall asleep at midnight. But I got back to bed by 2, so not bad. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, up on the mountain where the Victoria hospital is located.

My doctor wasn't sure whether to phlebotomize me or not because my ferritin level wasn't alarmingly high. She decided not to when she checked my blood pressure, which was quite low. That reminded me to tell her that I'm on a new daily drug for my headaches, and it's a beta blocker which lowers your blood pressure. She said there's a good chance I'll actually pass out this time, and she didn't want to put me through that for not-too-high levels. So... we'll see in another six months.

Maybe she just knew I didn't have my kobo yet.

Oh, I thought of another reason for my kobo--reading while standing on the bus/metro. Hard to keep a book open with one hand. Yippy! My kobo! It wiiill be miiiine by the end of this week!

Anyway. Now I'm sittin' around, deciding whether to watch a documentary on the My Lai massacre, or Dynasty.

***
Look at this cute picture I found of how a phlebotomy decreases your iron level.

Okay now it's 2 AM, time to attempt the bed again.

wish me luck

I'm online to figure out my bus for tomorrow... 8:30 AM blood-drawing appointment. Disgusting. But I'm feeling kind of sleepy so I'm going to attempt the rarely attempted Midnight Bedtime.

gasp!!

[crowd buzzes with excitement and worry]

Let me add that my new Kobo eReader won't be out until the end of this week, so I won't have it for my appointment. Pooey! I want something that's easy to hold when laying prostrate, having the lifeblood sucked from my unresponsive vein. Me-nowz.

Universal in for youtube?

Hey--another record company must have come to terms with youtube. I'm pretty sure this video I posted was banned very soon after I posted it, and now it's back up. (Only noticed because someone commented on it.) I'm not gonna listen to it though... it's soooo depressing.

Scenes from a marriage - In the Nabe

Scene: Husband walking Mabel to where she'll take a bus connection to catsit her friend Swissgirl's cats.

Fernando - In future when you catsit, you should only work day shifts.
Mabel [a night owl] - No. ...No, that's not going to happen.
Fernando - This is a dangerous neighborhood.
Mabel - It's a busy street, look how many cars there are.
Fernando - Driven by Poor & Violent people.
Mabel - Swissgirl and her boyfriend are poor and violent?
Fernando - Well. Well, um, they're--
Mabel - The aristocratic minority and the first to go when the revolution happens?
Fernando - Get that cross-stitching woman! She's a witch!
Mabel - Swissgirl will have to take up a less expensive hobby. ...As a front.

I am a super villain

Remember this ad?


Have you seen the new one?

sighness

Food Inc was on PBS tonight, it's the first time I've seen it. Like Pollan's books, this stuff makes me so mad. As Nombly would have said: Meh meh meh! I'm not out for genetically modified foods in and of themselves, but it's the patenting, and bullying of those who don't have to use it, and the monoculture that results, etc etc that makes me mad mad mad.

Now they're showing a short piece about a dairy farmer who lets his cows just eat grass, they keep their calves, and they're only milked in season (cows aren't meant to produce milk in the winter--which of course is very logical when you think about it. They have babies in the spring!) Seeing these cows wandering around green grass, hangin' out, just being cows... it's so beautiful.

As I've said before, I don't think consuming dairy or meat is inherently wrong either, it can be an interdependent relationship--after all, you're taking care of these animals, feeding them, allowing them to breed, and ensuring the survival of their genes. It can be a durned good deal for animals to interact with humans. But treat them like animals, and not like frikkin' ... chairs.

Anyway, I'm glad I watched it. These things help to keep me on the straightish and narrowish.

The quest is not yet dead (I do have my obsessive side)

Have you ever thought about what you've lost because of the internet?

In the Aulden Dayes, when I got into PG Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer, tracking down their books second-hand was A Great Quest. They were usually available new, but it was cheaper this way (I wasn't at my present addiction-enabling job). I usually waited until I was on vacation in Vancouver--I had a map of all the second hand bookstores, and I would set out for the day hunting down my books. Once I came to work for a bookstore, I found the last few by special order/full price.

But I have fond memories of those super trips. I wouldn't trade the internet for them, but there's something to say for non-instant-gratification. (Saves money for one thing.)

With the dollar on par, I decided to finally order the Jane Langton mystery novels I don't have yet. Yes, even though I own more books than I can read this decade and the next.


But I still had to quest for them, so the experience wasn't completely lost. There are several second-hand book outlets online, and I searched and searched for the best deal. And the deals are only to be found in the shipping expenses, because (and here's the secret to online ordering) most commonly available old books are sold for under $2 (and if it's a really crappy book no one wants except me, like the biography of Conrad Hilton, it's one penny.) Langton's are all available for $1.

* Indigo and Amazon sellers often have a lower selling price, but will charge you the full shipping price ($6-7) for each book, even if they're from the same seller. (At least, last time I made the experiment.)

* I found that alibris does the same for Canadians, and their minimum prices were over $1. Betterworldbooks supports a cause, which is nice, but that means the books are at least $3. Look, I'll send my charity to Canadian charities where I get a tax discount; and buy my books where it's cheapest. Sorry.

* Abebooks is the best site, because not all sellers use the same shipping--there are .50 to $1 differences. (You'd think the Canadian sellers would be cheaper, but they were, interestingly, more expensive.) They also let you sort the books by total price, meaning shipping included. And finally, as they stockpile stuff in your basket, they group it by seller. So you can choose a bunch of books, and then see if any of the sellers offer a cheaper price for the added books--Eg. $6 for the first book, $3 for each thereafter. And then choose the best deal, and delete the rest.

It was all Very Exciting. I ordered from 4 different sellers, to get the absolute best price for each book. Meh heh heh. So I'm happy. I feel like I spent a couple hours in a dusty book shop, searching for Langton's books. Meh heh hehhhh.

* And you have now been informed of the best place to shop for second-hand online books. ;-) Though alibris does have some very nice deals right now for 99 cents. And Americans can get better shipping deals from same-sellers.

the boys in the band

Rewatching Baz's Romeo and Juliet. As cute as Leo and Claire were in the meeting scene (and I still love Des'ree's "Kissing You") my real enjoyment of this film, when it came out in 1996, was all the shirtless co-stars.

Benvolio!

TYBALT!

MERCUUUUTIOOOO!!!

Sherry still...

won't eat unless I give him a cuddle first. Just now I had to bounce him around on my shoulder in time to Jimmy Cliff singing "Vietnam."

(Is there a more cheerful sounding protest song out there? Heavens.)

a little commercial break

"He might die of embarrassment before being digested."

I went into the kitchen and listened to CBC radio "Wiretap" while making and eating a sandwich, and I heard the last part of this story. The part I heard was about Jonah trying to get a girlfriend after living in a fish, and I thought it was sweet. I'm listening to the rest and it's more moving than funny. It's from the narrator (Jonathan Goldstein)'s book Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!

"Out of the fish's eyes I saw where Moses and the children of Israel had marched across the ocean's floor. I saw their footprints stamped in the mud."

Scenes from a marriage - Jack Bauer

My husband is trying out a new job at work, and today he's working on improving his speed.

Last night Living room
Mabel - You should pretend that I've been kidnapped, and if you don't get the work completed on time, I will die.
Fernando [nods]
Mabel - Or they will send one of the cat's body parts every hour you fall behind. ...First you'll get a severed ear. Then a paw.

Today, Fernando wakes up early.

Mabel - Are you going back to bed?
Fernando - I'm going to make some cheat sheets for work.
Mabel - Go back to bed, get a little extra sleep.
Fernando [gravely] - I can't, otherwise my wife will be killed. ...It's going to be like 24 today.

PS

Still a great video. Considering it was made in the 80s, that's saying a lot.


(Or try this live version where everyone, Paul included, is having an awesome time.)


And my favourite Paul Simon song. The first time Trevor Payne played this for us in Cegep I just about fell out of my chair. The drums! The horns! On a good stereo it comes across like a Phil Spector Wall of Sound.

more 80s on sale

Come on. You know you need Billy Joel's Glass Houses. "Hot funk, cool punk, even if it's old junk--it's still rock n' roll to me."





Or Paul Simon's Graceland?

80s

With the arrival of the internets, have you ever suddenly come across a song that you had completely forgotten you once LURBED? I'm sampling an old Tina Turner live album that I loved as a teenager, and came across this duet with Eric Clapton:



Of course, nothing tops her Bryan Adams duet. Those two had a really rare electricity together. Sexual chemistry, but also just great theatrics. Awesome. AWWWEsome.


Speaking of the 80s, iTunes is having an 80s sale. So I finally caved and bought the Traveling Wilburys album I've been eyeing since it came out. Now there's an example of something I didn't even care for in the 80s, but I seem to have grown into. I suppose it was inevitable since my dad raised us on ELO. I've got the Lynne sound burned in my music-psyche.



And finally, another of my forgotten-faves, from Men at Work:

My birfday: It's all vair vair excitin'

I want to get myself a wee Kobo eReader for my birthday.

So here's why...

- It's pretty cheap. Though that means no bells and whistles--the only thing I'm sad about is no ability to highlight text. If I can use multiple bookmarks, that'd work.

- It's nice and light, with no pages floppying-trying-to-close on you. Not a problem when I'm sitting upright, but it can be hard to read books when lying down which I sometimes have to do when I have a bad headache, or when I'm having my blood sucked out.


- Hardcovers books are around 40% off -- so I can get hardcovers for about the price of a "trade" softcover, and it won't be all Bulky, which I dislike. I'm not sure how much all that will change--as of April 1ast the "big 5" publishers changed to "agency model" pricing. Now I understand why Kobo was offering deals every single week up until March 31st--from now on the publishers will set the prices, not the e-retailers.


- Instant access to some research books, as I'm working on my stories. This is actually Very Dangerous. Right now I don't like the idea of reading a book on my computer, so I've resisted. But if I can load it onto something comfortable... ahhhhhhh! Good thing I'm creating a new budget. Will have to make a book budget.

- Can hide my addiction even better. Right now I have books lining the walls all over this apartment... this way I shall ever-increasingly hoard, and no one shall know!! Moua ha haaa. (You can store 1000 books, and then add more memory.)

- It comes loaded with 100 free classics--these books are free anywhere, cause they're public domain, but they'll still cost you at least $3 to buy them in paper form. And as a coworker said, you won't have to download these books yourself!

Cheap Moby Dick

Cheaper Moby Dick

- I'm really excited by the possibility of out of print books being put to ebook format--my guess is this will happen more and more, and hopefully become a standard. Can you imagine? They do this already with Regency romances. I'd love to see this happen with Jane Langton's out of print mysteries, I'd buy them all.


- I can read my dad, and my friends' writings on something other than the computer. I DISLIKE reading anything long on the computer.

- There are tons of great sci fi short stories available for free online, but I don't read those for the same reason. (Including some Connies!) I can also download longer articles and load those on the Kobo.

- And finally, I like to carry around more than one book with me, for My Many Moods. Usually a business book, non-fiction research, and fiction. This way I can bring just the fiction, and stock the non-fictions in my Kobo. Not sure that will help me get rid of wearing a backpack all the time but... occasionally!

It's all just... very exciting. My addiction reaches new heights.

Scenes from a marriage - nuts

Mabel (eating pistachios) - It's so considerate of pistachios that, as they grow bigger, they split open their own shells.

Fernando - That happens when they steam them.

M - They steam pistachios?

F - Otherwise they're poisonous.

M - Well... they should steam walnuts too.

F - I'm just kidding, they don't steam pistachios.

M - (Disappointed that this technology to pre-crack nuts does not exist.) Were you just practicing your Male Answer Syndrome skills?

F - Something like that.

M - ... ... ... I wish walnuts were like pistachios.


VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE!!


Apparently the technology does exist! And yet still no cracked-open walnuts! Surely we can cross a pistachio with a walnut... a walnachio.

When the [pistachio] fruit ripens, the shell changes from green to an autumnal yellow/red and abruptly splits part way open (see photo). This is known as dehiscence, and happens with an audible pop. The splitting open is a trait that has been selected by humans^[7]. Commercial cultivars vary in how consistently they split open. (wiki)

Blobby the Squid

We just watched Watchmen for the first time since going to see the movie, and since (me) having read the comic. Some thoughts...

* Because of the book I was recently reading on Cambodia, the ending reminded me of the Khmer Rouge. Anytime someone has tried to "reboot" society--that I can think of--it's ended in horrible numbers of people dying, and some sort of deterioration of that society's ability to function.

* However. If you ARE going to re-start society, I definitely recommend doing so with a giant blobby quid. That's awesome.



* I agree with this blogger that the biggest failing re the ending is that the filmmakers don't show the bloody, gory, horrible result of Ozymandias' plan. The movie is overly gory throughout, in ways it doesn't need to be / that the comic isn't, and then when it comes to the most important part--where you need to decide whether this kind of destruction is a worthy means to an end or not--it's sanitized.

* After reading the comic, I felt that the biggest thing missing from the movie was the little human touches. There are all these mini subplots/characters, of the psychiatrist, of the newspaperman, a cab driver etc. throughout the comic, and these are the people you see get killed at the end. It's very affecting, and I think they represent the goodness and decency that still exists, even in an almost amoral society--and therefore their deaths make O's Final Solution that much more chilling. In the movie, you occasionally see those characters, but it's meaningless if you haven't read the comic.

The Happy Ending

6 pm Alright. The music has stopped. ...Now I can put on my own! As I begin Fernando's assessment...

6:09 Oh wait! My Haiti donations would go onto next year. ...I'm getting my work fiscal year mixed up with the govt's fiscal year.

Is someone playing basketball in the hall??

6:14 Okay, charity fixed. And the grand result... (drum roll please)

We're in the black! That's weird. Unexpected this is.

6:22 Corrected a wee snafu re. T5...

6:28 Alright, let's send these puppies off.

6:45 Ahhh. No more neighbour noises. No more tax files. No money owed. Enjoy rest of day off.

Tax Drama Day 2: boyz and noise

I'm trying to fill in my taxes but one of the boys upstairs is blasting his hip hop music. I don't generally mind the noise by the boys, but it's a wee bit DISTRACTING right now. "You darn kids!"

Watching The Doctors!

Aha! This "ahems" I still have will be called a "chronic cough" if it lasts over 8 weeks, and it's very common. Well I'm not at 8 weeks yet.

I think I'm at risk of becoming addicted to The Doctors (and sub-addicted to Dr Oz, who I watch on commercials from The Doctors.) It's given me a reason to get up by 3 PM!

Today on The Doctors they're doing C Words. Next up: Cavities!

getting nostalgic

Last year I was doing my taxes while cat sitting. And I apparently used the word "poopy", in relation to tax paying, back then too.

Friday, May 1, 2009

chores

I'm doing my taxes late for the first time in years. I'm usually pretty good, but I just had money-inertia this month. Now I'm looking up my McGill files to see if I had any tuition or pay, and I did. Oh sigh... more things to enter. Poopy. At least the tuition should help out. Didn't realize I'd paid any in 08.
...

At least I can watch Dynasty while doing taxes.

And here's a quote from 2006 where you can see my frustration with Quicktax (finally figured out it was UFile I used last year):

" I've been working on my and Ben's taxes today. But let's not talk about Evil Tax Software. Because it's evil. "

the thrilling drama continues

4 more receipts recovered! I'm just gonna go for it now. Woo!

Or probably I should go to bed. Poopy. :-(

yay!

I found my old charity receipts! You get more back if you lump your charity receipts together every few years (at least, for me, because the amount I give isn't huge), so I haven't done them the last few years. And every April I think "I should find those old receipts and do them this year" and every year I'm too mehhhh and can't be bothered. But I finally did it! (Somewhere during my MA all my paperwork went to pot. I kept everything, I did my taxes, I paid my bills... but nothing got organized or thrown out.)

Now the only remaining mystery is where are the receipts for my Haiti donations... maybe I got email receipts for those. And so the search continues...

moneymoneymoneymooooneeeey!

Taaaax time. The way I get through tax time is to focus on the positive--all the things my taxes pay for, that I'm glad they pay for. I'll need that this year, because I'm back to paying them! Gone are my heady school days of receiving money. Now I have to pay back My Debt to Society for a dirt cheap education.

It's alright, I'm ready. Bring it! Bring it tax software!

The real problem is I can't remember which site I used last year. I tried a new one and liked it waaay better than the one I used to use--much clearer. But which was it?? Must investigate...

songies

Here's the latest song that caught my attention because it's in a TV ad (reverse product placement, as I like to call it.)

I'm faux-published!

When you complete Nanowrimo they sometimes give you offers--one was from createspace.com, which does self-publishing. You could order a free proof copy of your book. I didn't find the site/process very intuitive, but I made a point of doing it just for the fun of having a hard copy of my last book. Then if anyone wants to read it, it's in a convenient form.

Anyway, I'd forgotten I'd ordered it, so when I got this package today I was confused. And I opened it up, and it was a book by London Mabel! Weird. Very weird moment. It turned out cute. I chose a photo of one of the neighborhoods portrayed in my story, and it's really pretty. Except it looks like a literary book from a small Canadian publisher. It looks arty, rather than trashy! (They didn't have any trashy options in the cover-maker.)

I guess if I needed inspiration to keep working on my books, this should be it. It's freaky to see your writing in book form!

more musiz biz

I read about Mo Ostin in my music book, in the chapter on independent promoters. When they upped legislation to crack down on payola (not to be confused with The Payolas), the companies all turned to independent companies to do the promotion and the dirty work--so the money still comes from the companies, but they keep their hands clean. Mo Ostin tried to spearhead a boycott of them, but no one followed. He sounds like a coolio guy. (I'm trying to find models--both good and bad--for my book. So far more bad than good.)

For three decades, Mo Ostin helped steer the Warner-Reprise record labels through a remarkable period of commercial prosperity and musical excellence. During his tenure, which stretched from 1963 to 1995, Ostin became known within the industry as a business-savvy mogul with an artist-oriented outlook. The operative philosophy at Warner Bros. was to allow talented artists to develop and to keep the more deserving ones on the roster without obsessing over the bottom line.

It’s been written that “by the early 1970s, Warner Bros. and Reprise had become the unofficial arbiters of musical taste.” An accountant by training, Ostin displayed uncommon empathy for the non-quantifiable artistic temperament. “Warner Bros. Records has never been run from the perspective of financial people or legal people or promotion people,” Ostin said in 1994. “We’ve always been a label solely about artists and music.”

It proved difficult to maintain that outlook as Warner Bros. got absorbed into increasingly larger corporate media conglomerates, from Warner Communications to Time Warner to AOL Time Warner... In the late 1990s, Ostin and former Warner Bros. president Lenny Waronker moved to DreamWorks, where they implemented their strategy of signing artists of merit and patiently building their careers. (Rock n Roll Hall of Fame)

More "shit my dad says" -- soon to be in book and tv form!

"Nah, we don't celebrate it. Don't know who St. Valentine was, don't give a shit, and doubt he wants people screwing in his memory."

"There's a word for people like that...No, I'm saying, there's a word and I don't know what it is. I'm not being fucking poetic."

"A parent's only as good as their dumbest kid. If one wins a Nobel Prize but the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed."

"I lost 20 pounds...How? I drank bear piss and took up fencing. How the fuck you think, son? I exercised."

"HIDDEN roaming charges? Jesus, Sprint has 'fucking people' down to a science, like they practice it in a fucking lab on mice first."

reading and tving

I think I'll read The Agency next, about Victorian girl spies. A coworker picked up a free reading copy for me at a Random House show. I've still got White Teeth on the go, but after reading a couple sewious litewawy books, I'm due for something light.

If it's good I'll save it for the step-mommy. I bet she would have liked to have been a girl spy.

In the meantime I'm also reading that book on the music industry, some business books, and a book of/about poetry that my brother left behind when he moved.

The Husband and I finished watching all the Entourage series last night--can't wait for season 6 on DVD, cause we don't have HBO. But the entire set of Vicar of Dibley arrived, so maybe we'll move on to that. This is often how we spend time when he's not in Warcraft mode--sitting at opposite ends of the couch, playing with our respective toys (me the internets, and for him at the moment Dungeons and Dragons.)

Why do we say we "can't wait" for something when we clearly have to, and therefore can?