I did almost nothing productive this weekend. I read three books, played hours and hours of a video game (Infamous for those playing the home game, so to speak) and mostly ignored the festivities on loud noises are patriotic day. (I've never quite gotten over the disappointment in my young years when shooting off fireworks at home became illegal and I always feel vaguely cheated when I go to shows put off by someone else. And no roommates were home nor did anyone mention anything going on to me so...I read and played video games. This was mostly a feature, not a bug)

Yesterday had been designated chore day after a planned breakfast out but after a big of video games (I'm predictable, I suppose) a friend had some issues and needed a place to escape to for awhile so...I, er, watched him play video games and talked a bit about what was going on with him.

I had planned to do some art but it didn't happen. And I'm mostly okay with that. I have another long weekend coming up as I took Monday and Tuesday off so I can be grumpy about being older at home instead of at work ;-)

Edit: I woke up randomly on Saturday and decided I wanted cinnamon rolls so I baked some. I had no cream cheese though so I made an orange glaze for them. In retrospect they could have used a bit more oomph.

Ever have one of those evenings where you just kind of want to have a drink with some friends and be goofy? Kind of where I am tonight, though nobody is around so I sit and complain to lj instead *grin* I suppose I'll have to entertain myself. I know, poor me, right, get out the tiny violins.

I made an omelet that flipped perfectly this morning. Given that my attempts at omelets usually end up as accidental scrambled eggs this deserves to go down in history.

I'm having a very odd day...good things but weird. This morning was the bird. One the way home I stopped into the used bookstore near me because I wanted to get the sequel of the book I just finished (Melusine...the sequel, however, appears to be out of print. Nor did the used bookstore have a copy. Boo!) Anyway, since I'd gone out of my way I was bound and determined to get something to make up for the trip but this bookstore in question is huge and I always go into OMG books! shock when I walk in the door and never remember anything I'm looking for.

So I was wandering the aisles, about to give up because I couldn't find/think of anything I needed when a book randomly popped into my head that I used to check out from the library when I was a wee little fox. Of course I only remembered vague bits of the plot and one of the characters, not the author or the title. Of course this made me a little sad...it's never fun when one of our friends is forgotten, after all.

I poked around a little bit longer and, when pulling another book from the shelf another came with it. So I bent over and picked it up and went, "Wait, this looks vaguely familiar" and read the back.

Guess which book it was?

Weird day

I was just walking up the ramp towards our trailer at work this morning when a tiny little sparrow practically ran into me as it took off from a branch and landed on my backpack, staring up at me like it was very pleased to make my acquaintance. It just sat there looking at me until I said, "Um, you might want to..." then it took off and landed in the tree next to me.

Reports of it landing on my finger singing back to me while I sang, "I'm wishing" are greatly exaggerated.

It's that time again, time for...
( Books read in 2009 )
I forgot to mention, though I meant to, that I had one of my reoccurring dreams this morning. This one I'm kind of bullying/keeping track of a spoiled brat kid. I fail to see why this particular dream reoccurs but it's one of the ones I'll think in the midst of the dream, "Oh, this dream again!" Sometimes that wakes me up, sometimes it doesn't but it doesn't matter either way 'cause it's like a movie I've seen a billion times and I already know what happens.

Happy birthday, sillermoon! Hope it's exceedingly fantabulous.

Allergies=full of suck today. Which means I'm spending a lot of time staring at things blankly because I'm spacey. I'll be making chili for dinner tonight and it will likely be death chili since the heat in food I make is always proportionally to how stuffy my head is.

I just tried to knock myself out by slamming my head into a bookshelf. Sadly it didn't work so I still remain at work, concussion-less. At least there's air conditioning.

Because this weekend was HOT. Now, I've whined about this before but for those new to the madness (or lack thereof that we've had lately) I really loathe hot weather. One of the benefits of living where I do is while we do have hot weather it tends not to last for more than a day or two. Which is good because bright skies and temperatures much above 80 degrees make me stabby (call it reverse SAD if you like)

It doesn't help that my apartment, since they cut down the trees outside, gets a lot of direct sunlight. This also leads to it being vaguely like you're in an oven during parts of the day, even when you try your best to keep everything closed up.

So Saturday I played video games. While trying to pretend I wasn't melting. The pretend didn't work so well. Then it was off to the Alexander James Adams concert. Which was proceeded by a hamburger, onion strings, fries and fried pickles (far too much fried food but tasty) and a peanut butter milkshake. Because it was hot and I deserved the damn milkshake, people.

The concert was good though the venue that he performs in while he's in Palo Alto has no AC. Which means that even sitting by the wide open sliding glass doors there was more melting going on. A couple of new songs and oddly, no encore. I think people were too melted to stop and clap enough. (No screaming 'how many of them can we make die' either, which was sad since I was cranky enough to give good scream from the weather)

Yesterday there was more video games while wandering around in the least amount of clothing I could manage and not shock the roommates. There were many video games this weekend as I wanted to finish the game I had been playing in the hopes that gamefly would send me something new and shiny for the upcoming long weekend. This goal was reached. With a bit of time for a nap and a wee bit of drawing none the less (I wanted to paint but it was too hot to open my window. And turpentine plus closed up room equals double plus ungood, so to speak)

Back at work today. The AC isn't keeping up with the weather. Anyone want to move to the arctic? I hear there are lots of crunchy penguins...

Happy birthday sardonicus! Hope it's a good one.

Work was vaguely hellish yesterday, our normal Thursday meeting ran three bloody hours making me miss my workout. I basically had time to scarf down a granola bar during lunch in between stuff. By the end of the day I was so done.

I drew a figure drawing last night which I brought in to scan this morning. And after I scanned decided I didn't want to post it after all. So y'all don't get to see it :-P Which is just as well anyway since it's a nude and posting nudes here is always a chore and a half since flikr won't host them (well they might since it's a drawing but I haven't tried just in case I'm correct) Does anyone know of a site that will? 'Cause FA will but you can't link it here easily if it's adult content and this is non-furry anyway. And I can put it up on one of my accounts, which is what I've done in the past, but I've been seriously thinking of cancelling that account which would leave me with no non-work provided web space. And nude drawings, no matter how tasteful, probably don't belong there ;-)

Alexander (Alec) James Adams concert in Palo Alto tomorrow, whee!

There is supposedly a James Alexander Adams (Alec) concert Saturday that I still haven't seen any notice about...I only found out about it by accident. Odd.

So I drew something! Which has been rare lately...at least drawing to finish something instead of just sketching to practice. Practice sketches never see the light of day because they usually look like nothing in particular. Anyway, have a cheetah. This was supposed to be a start of a new painting but I'm not sure if I like how it turned out so perhaps not.

( Cheetahs. Out damned spot! )
In other news I feel vaguely ill today and I'm hoping I'm not coming down with a cold and that it's just allergies. Staying in bed was very tempting this morning. But I am at work; aren't I virtuous? (Actually work out days tend to keep me honest because I don't like to miss them)

I had plans to do a bunch of art this weekend. I think I sketched in one spot on the current cheetah picture I'm doing, go me! Part of that was just my being very tired most of the weekend, this allergy season has been rotten and unless I take lots of pills I end up dragging and headachy half of the time...not feeling terrible, exactly, but not good either.

Anyway, Saturday I had breakfast with a friend after driving around aimlessly for a bit because neither of us knew of any really good local breakfast places (more on the order of pancakes than greasy diner was desired. I can do diner *grin*) We ended up in Los Altos at a tiny take out crepe place because I had vague memories of a big, sit down crepe place there and thought this was it. I was wrong. It was reasonably tasty though. Then there were video games where I mostly beat him quite soundly. Except the one time it mattered anyway.

Then there was much reading. A bit of playing video games and eating of pizza. Really I was exceptionally boring this weekend. Though I did buy some roses at the farmers market just because I wanted some flowers and they smelled pretty, so there.

Did y'all have a good weekend?

Enchiladas were good. Mojito cake was also good though very ugly as I, frosting it in a hurry, put too much custard between the layers, which then proceeded to seep out the sides of the cake as I was frosting it and mix with the actual frosting. The filling, as I had a slight mishap with food coloring, was nuclear green so the sides of the cake ended up a weird green streaked color. Mixed with the fact that I suck at frosting cakes and it's definitely odd looking.

Tasty, however, though next time I really should try it with a cream cheese frosting as the buttercream I've been using is very sweet, especially with the addition of rum and it obscures the flavor of the mint in the cake.

Still no complaints from the tasters though.

I forgot about this when I posted earlier. Mom sent me a picture of myself and one of my best friends growing up at Pier 39 in San Francisco when I was probably about fifteen or so. The short one is my brother Ryan. The redhead was my friend Faith. Everyone always thought we were related back then with us being pasty white with reddish hair and freckles (though hers obviously put mine to shame!) Boy was I scrawny back then.

( The dark ages )

No gruesome pictures today, I promise. Well, unless you think half finished paintings of lions are gruesome anyway.

Weekend was okay. Just before I left work on Friday a coworker gave me a talk saying that I might want to think about giving up some of the new duties that I was given a few months ago. Not because I'm not working out doing them but because she thinks it's inefficient for me to be doing as little as I am, training wise. Which sorted of sounded to me like it's not working out :-P So that confused and irritated me during most of Friday evening (I've very much not wanted to be at work lately, almost dreading it in some ways...not entirely sure why, it seems very random since things haven't exactly been bad here) The fact that my allergies were kicking my ass badly and I could barely stay awake probably didn't help.

Saturday was mostly goofing off, now with more sinus headache. Did a bit of drawing, nothing really finished, just practice on poses and stuff.

Sunday was grocery store, stewing a chicken in preparation for dinner tomorrow, watching Were the world mine (which I quite liked) and even did a bit of painting on the long neglected lion...pictures follow.
( Lions and er, actually just lions really )
I posted both because people were interested in the process last time.

It's not done by any means, I suspect I'll go through at least 3-4 more layers on it before it's finished but I think it's taking shape.

When making pancakes this morning at oh god thirty (since I didn't manage to sleep in) the fire alarm went off as there was something spilled on the burner from the night before so I grabbed a chair and ran to go hit the override before my roommates would get woken up. As I went to climb on the chair I slammed my foot against the leg.

( This is what happened...stupid fox tricks now with more pictures! )

To add insult to injury, quite literally in this case, after I got done hopping around swearing for a few seconds the alarm shut up on it's own.

Suppose you'd watched the slow accretion of snow over thousands of years as it was compressed and pushed over the deep rock until the glacier calved its icebergs into the sea, and you got to know its cargo of happy polar bears and seals as they looked forward to a brave new life in the other hemisphere where they say the ice flows are lined with crunchy penguins, and then wham-tragedy loomed in the shape of thousands of tons of unaccountably floating iron and an exciting soundtrack...

...you'd want to know the whole story.-Terry Pratchett "The Thief of Time"

In other news, my head feels rather hollow and empty today and I'm hoping that possibly hunting up some food may help.

I was amused to be told that one of my friend's children, who've I've met only a couple of times, associate me with cookies as I'm always giving her food to take home. To the point that if they're given cookies they automatically assume they're from me.

I'm evil, I suppose.

Happy birthday, tammy_g Hope it's filled with fabulous things!

In other news, I fully expect this weekend to be full of video games as it is starting out in a slightly grumpy making fashion and video games require no thought or drive to do anything other than flip on the silly console :-P

Dinner was good last night. Gnocchi (Not homemade I'm afraid, didn't have time to try that) in a gorganzola cream sauce, salad, sourdough bread with roasted garlic, roasted broccoli and zucchini and a key lime pie for dessert. The cream sauce was an experiment and I'm glad to report it went well and the pie was tasty though I hadn't used a pastry bag in quite some time so the whipped cream topping it was in a...special sort of design.

For reasons both complicated and confusing and probably boiling down to I'm spending too much time chasing my tail/navel gazing, I'm feeling rather moody today and was very tempted to call in and wander around the house with my hand stapled to my forehead in a properly dramatic and over blown victorian way. I, however, made it to work so I deserve a gold star, brownie points and possibly a pony*.

Part of it is possibly approaching birthday-ness 'cause, well, I get moody around my birthday. And not because I'm getting older, exactly, I just want special things to happen like something out of a cheesy musical. You know, sparklers everywhere, hordes of cute tap dancing boys singing about how fabulous I am...that sort of thing. Although I'd probably settle for one cute tap dancing boy. And he probably wouldn't even have to do the tap dancing ;-) (It occurs to me, whimsically, that if I want a big deal on my birthday I should probably go to France for it some year. It would be like a whole country is having a party, just for me!)

* Please do not actually send me a pony. I have no place to really keep one and my roommmates would get annoyed that it was blocking the tv. Generous cash gifts are the way to go ;-)

Amazing how a subtle shift in your workout pattern makes you revisit the sore, isn't it? Or in other words, ow.

So the personal trainer session was okay, got a few pointers with the free weights and a couple of machines I'd never used before. Almost all upper body stuff along with a "you should just do lots of squats" for lower body. Which I kind of knew, but bleah :-P And more cardio and stretching. Again with the already knew and bleah *grin*

I was all efficient and stuff last night, I got home, baked a graham cracker crust while picking up a bit, ran off to dinner with an old friend and returned home to pick up a bit more and finish baking a key lime pie for dinner this evening. I suspect somewhere, somehow, someone should be in awe of my household skill. But given that it's probably someone who has dishes piled to the ceiling and lives on canned pasta, I'm not that flattered :-)

So I did the free fitness assessment that my job provides (if you do enough of these little clicky boxes of things they give you $100. I need this and one more for my money. Amazing how that motivates one to action, so to speak)

So I did it. I'm very glad I didn't do it last year when I hadn't been doing the whole workout thing for awhile because they probably would have just handed me a piece of paper with "You Suck" written on it. In red pen. With five exclamation points. And probably underlined twice too just for extra added emphasis.

This time I was mostly in the 'fair' catagory. With body fat in the 'needs work' range. I've lost 15 pounds and gone down two sizes in jeans since last year...and I wasn't that fat to start with :-P If I lose that much again I'm going to look like I spent time as a refugee somewhere.

So anyway, that was frustrating. And they told me I should do more aerobic exercise, which, you know, duh? But it was a bit brutal I have to say.

Next thing up is a free session with a personal trainer. Which should be interesting. I know I'm not THAT full of suck :-P

I randomly made ginger scones last night. Well, not so randomly, I had picked up the stuff to make them but I had been intending to make them tonight. But I wanted a scone last night. So there you go. They were tasty though I think our baking powder has lost a bit of it's oomph as they didn't rise too much.

I did this in between watching three episodes of a television show, finishing a book I had been reading (only a few pages left)and reading about half of another. I am efficient in my wasting time. ;-)

Chili tonight, with cheese biscuits (if there's enough flour, we were getting kind of low) and the remnants of the scones for dessert. Simple and tasty enough to eat while watching more of "The Lost Room" which I started tormenting debmats and sage_deer with last week. For I am evil. And know that an interesting series is the best way to lure people over...