Stick it in a box marked “done”.

Hard to believe that in a few short hours, 2005 will be history. We’re halfway through the first decade of the 21st century and wow! It’s been an amazing ride so far. I moved to DC area in 2000, and it’s all been a roller coaster since then. (in the John Sheppard “I like roller coasters” sort of way…not in the Chickwriter “I’d rather watch” sort of way).

It is true that the older you get, the faster the years seem to pass. My theory: it’s because the older you get, the busier you get. Things aren’t slowing down now so much as braking because I have to to keep my sanity.

For me, this was a year fraught with many ups, many downs and much craziness. From the sublime (my book was published!) to the ridiculous (the day job…enough said).

All I can say is that I’m glad to be me – really – even though somedays I’d trade myself in for a couple of six packs and really good backrub. ::g::

My thoughts at Thanksgiving haven’t changed. I’m so grateful for all of the good stuff, including you all, my wonderful writing family, my blood family and good health.

Let’s hope the bad stuff is behind us.

Happy Birthday, 2006.

Today’s e-mail brought a cool thing indeed – a link to a review from someone who’s a fan…someone I don’t know. Whee!!!

Here’s the review page. (The actual review is a PDF, so you can either open it or save it to your hard drive).

And in case you don’t know for sure, it’s the review for Matters of the Blood.

Happy Belated Birthday to doll_revolution and theodosia! (I missed your day because I was offline) and happy on-time birthday to ezust!

Normally, I get most of my pressies way before the day, simply because my sis and I exchange wish lists and things come via UPS and such. My parents always send a check. This year, I got myself this with the money. (A toy/gadget that I love…I’ve already made “songs to wake up to” and “sleepytime” playlists.

I did get a box o’goodies from sis earlier on in the month (not wrapped, directly from the online store) – fun things, including DVDs (Gregory’s Girl, The Incredibles) and the hardcover companion book to Long Way ‘Round (I got myself the DVD of the series). So, I’m thinking, yay, cool pressies.

But wait, there’s more…

A couple of days ago, I got another box, this time directly from sis, with 3 wrapped boxes and a card.

Whee!!

I saved the pressies for this a.m.

I totally utterly adore my twisted sister.

The boxes yielded:

One copy of The Tao of Cow

One Avenging Unicorn set

And tucked inside an American Girls Collection box: My very own Chattering Vampire Teeth Keychain.

I can’t stop laughing!

My folks just called. They’re enjoying a quiet day at home. Mom, with her choccies from my stepdad. Stepdad with his gadgets and trinkets, including a Creative Zen mp3 player.

I’m going to sit back, relax and read the Yuletide and SeSa stories. Then indulge in watching Ewan and Charlie, perhaps followed by Serenity…after brekkie.

Later on, there will be roast beast (at least, the 2nd blue cheese burger from TJs)

I repeat, whee!!!!!!

Today, I decided to indulge myself.

Woke up earlyish, got some writing done on book 2 (tentatively titled: A Necessary Evil).

Talked to my mom for a while, then played around with iTunes and downloaded a bunch of new songs from emusic.com – I think Dana must have taken my invite, because all of a sudden, I had 50 more titles to download. Whee!!

I picked up all sorts of things – some Fairport Convention, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, John Hiatt, Roy Orbison, It’s a Beautiful Day…just browsed around an grabbed things that took my fancy.

I cooked myself a lovely burger for dinner (courtesy Trader Joe’s), accompanied by some roasted garlic & three cheese potato chips (also TJs) and a glass of Vampire Wine (the Cabernet).

Before dinner, I watched Where the Heart Is (and yes, David Hewlett looks adorable!); then Sense and Sensibility, followed by The Full Monty. Now, I’m going to relax with more wine and Priest (and possibly A Knight’s Tale) – eclectic, to be sure, but hey, I never said I was normal. ::g::

Hope everyone is having a lovely holiday weekend.

Merry HanuKwanzamasolstice to all!!

A very happy solstice to all.

May happiness and good fortune be yours in the coming year.

Now that I have a working computer and Internet back, here are my thoughts about Brokeback Mountain.

Spoilers Inside

At least, in regards to myself.

Not working all weekend (well, MOST of the weekend): Cable connection – this means no TV, no Internet, no Internet phone – ARRGH

Not working on Sunday: Blanche, my lovely iBook – some bizarre corruption of something didn’t allow me to open the Finder. Sounds small, but the Finder is the only way for me to do stuff on a Mac. sigh….

No frets – I rebuilt Blanche Sunday evening, knowing I had all my personal prefs and such backed up…which I did – to my iDisk account ONLINE. Grrr.

Of the good: Internet and Cable are back as of this a.m., so I can finish my re-working of Blanche later.

I did go see BBM Friday night. A more in-depth review later as I have time. (it was stupendous!)

Back to the daily grind – trying to get stuff done/meet with boss before she leaves b/c she’s off to SFO tomorrow)

I bid on quite a few items in the Lifebeat e-bay charity auction. I was very very good to myself and gave myself an top dollar limit.

Believe it or not, I kept to my own promise.

Today, I received the first (and maybe only) item I won: an autographed photo of Tab Hunter. When I showed it to folks in the office, most of them said, “Who?”.

Sigh.

I have one other item I’m watching – closes Sunday. We’ll see. It’s a bit pricier than the Tab Hunter photo, but it’s worth it.

Tonight, Brokeback Mountain, with darthrami, strange_selkie, trixiesfic and her sis.

ETA: Damn, evidently C isn’t coming.

There are very very few times in this world that I’m all with the “squee, I’m UP at three-thirtyOMGWTFTIMEISIT a.m.

Very few.

Today is one of them. For lo, there is the comic brilliance of cesperanza and Shalott, long may they vid.

Even if you don’t watch SGA, you MUST see this: Rumble – their answer to the Shark challenge. (the link goes to Ces’ LJ post).

I’m still laughing.

Side note

Well, not really, but it sounds better than my insides are rebelling and you really don’t want to know the details” day.

Am missing company holiday party on top of it all. Was all Grinchy about it yesterday, then got excited again. Now, I’m just resigned to the fact that I wasn’t meant to go.

The snow really does look pretty out there.