It's a Writing Thing

Wednesday: work

Thursday: work

Friday: work

Saturday:
-- get up before the crack o'dawn and hie self off to National Airport. Board Air Canada flight to Toronto. Takeoff: 6:00 a.m.
-- arrive Toronto 7:30 a.m. Go through customs, hopefully have time to get Canadian cash from ATM, buy brekkie (or at least a coffee). Board 2nd Air Canada flight, this time to Vancouver. Take off: 9:30ish a.m.
-- arrive Vancouver, BC 11:39 a.m.; get bags, cab to The Historic Ramada on Pender. Collapse for 2 hours. ~ 1:30 family lands @ Vancouver airport. Late lunch? Early dinner? something or another. Embark on birki_lib's extensive 5 day itinerary of doing, seeing, eating in Vancouver.

Mon-Weds: more fun in Vancouver & Victoria

Thursday: MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Turning 50 in Vancouver. Fun during the day; then a special dinner out to celebrate. (I want birthday wishes on LJ, people! One only reaches the half-century mark once!) ::g::

Friday: Vacation ends too soon. Up way early to catch 10:00 Air Canada flight back to D.C. (via Toronto again). Arrive home: past 10:00 p.m. Grab bags, get cab, collapse.
Saturday/Sunday: sleep

OMFG. I can't believe it's almost here! All of a sudden, it's vacation/birthday time. How'd that happen?

On a side note, SGA episode The Shrine - best episode ever. Brilliant performances by the Hewlett sibs, Joe F, the gang. Loved the storyline.

::loads to iPod to rewatch on the plane::

Side note 2: I absolutely, positively do *not* feel my age...whatever that is supposed to feel like.

...about staying home with the Death Cold today.

No, it's not the overwhelming noise of the construction work.

It's not the fact that the building shut off the water for about 4 hours.

Nope, it's not the fact that I keep getting phone calls from an unknown number every 2 hours (I've unplugged the phone).

I totally got to see Midway...and not the movie. Yeah, really. There I was minding my own business and checking email when I got a notice from iTunes that the next SGA episode was ready to download (I have a season pass). Yep, a goof, but in my favor.

No spoilers but let's just say there were many moments of awesomeness...indeed.

I'm going back to watching Oz, because even with the earplugs, I can't nap. Too much damned noise. Maybe after the construction guys kick off for the day.

In answer to viggofest, nope, no cats...sure would've been nice, though.

The happiest of birthdays to beledibabe  and misspamela  !! Hope your day is FABULOUS!! Much love and loads of hugs.

Spent yesterday afternoon/evening and into the late night at beledibabe's, along with NC, John 'n' Rodney and loads of good food, good wine and CAKE. We had wonderful writing conversations (getting together with other writers = so much joy!) and loads of fun.

Got home so wired I didn't get to sleep until after 4 a.m.

OMGTIRED but in such a good way. Going to rewatch BAMSR and then face plant for a nap.

Oh yeah, so I might have totally made a birthday greeting card for beledibabe  from John and Rodney .

( The main art after the cut )

Yes, it's *supposed* to be bad Photoshop art. ::g::

The final product is a 4 x 6 vertical photo card, with the heart on top and "Happy Birthday, Love John and Rodney" at the bottom.

Inspiration thanks to the Burgi household holiday card and reedfem for pointing out the action figures.

I have once again confirmed my belief...no, my conviction, that chickwriter trying to drive in DC is doomed to get lost and end up in some skanky part of town.

( How Chickwriter Avoided Dying on the Streets and Lived to Sign Books )

After surviving the OMG CITY! ordeal (really, I'm not that bad about the city, just when I am dumb and decide to drive when there's perfectly good public transportation) - I get home and voila! Advance Check for Blood Bargain arrived. Yippee!

And then of course, the other set of nightmares...of the good and squeeful kind...

( SGA )

Now, it's off to a hair appointment, then later, another book signing.

SO, DC area peeps - even though this is late notice, if you're around this afternoon, stop by Waldenbooks at Landmark Mall. I'll be there at 1:00 and for a couple of hours.

LandMark Mall/Waldenbooks
5801 Duke St #G304
Alexandria, VA 22304

Have a great Saturday all!!

(1) Driving to/from work in the fall means one can't bloody see well at all when one is driving towards the east in the a.m. and west in the p.m.
(1b) The average 4-door sedan is exactly the right height for sun glare to hit me directly in the eyes.

(2) Going to work when you're still feeling under the weather but know that another day off will mean insanity can sometimes be okay.
(2b) However, staying a full 9 hour day can result in overtiredness and not breathing well.

(3) People can bloody well amaze you.
(3b) A client, who was a bit of a burden over the past couple of weeks sent a brilliant email to me and my boss (the CEO) today praising their new Web site and our work.

(4) Soup is the nectar of the gods.
(4b) Navy bean soup from Perfect Pita is the perfect lunch when one has no appetite.

(5) Frozen hamburger patties and onion sandwich buns can be the perfect dinner.
(5b) There is no 5b.

(6) I am so not a patient woman. (Is it 9/28 yet?)
(6b) I have been slightly spoiled for SGA Season 4, and am comfortable with the level of spoilers I've seen. Mostly photo posts on Joe M's blog and a specific piece of dialogue in ep 1. Other than that, I prefer to remain unknowing and anticipating.

(7) Major networks can be asses.
(7b) Because of a work-related trip, I am going to *miss* the 10/5 episode of SGA. Because of the NBC/Universal break from iTunes, I can no longer blithely buy a Season Pass to my favorite SciFi shows. I repeat: asshats. I will DVR the show, however, iTunes allowed me to rewatch episodes weeks and weeks later, without worrying about hard drive space (I have a 500 GB hard drive just for iTunes). With DVR, I'm going to have to delete episodes of shows to catch others. Stupid NBC.

(8) Fan mail is really, really, REALLY cool.
(8b) Fan mail from other authors, whom you've never met: brilliant. (I got 2 fan emails this week, one from a reader, one from another romance writer).

(9) Callum Keith Rennie is really HOT.
(9b) Ditto.
ETA:
(9c) So is Rodney McKay.
(9d) For that matter...
NOTE: above links may contain large picspam

(10) Torchwood continues to rock.
(10b) Even in the U.S.

In conclusion:
Home is a very good place and I am so glad I'm in my jammies now.

Thanks to those of you who sent Get Well Soon Wishes!!

She's here. Finally.

After several days of OMGWTFiMAC!!??!! I finally went out and got her.

( Meet Priscilla, Queen of the Desktops )

Although many of you recommended the 24" model, once I got to the store, I realized that the 20" was more than enough. It's a perfect size, actually - lots of viewable space, fits perfectly on the desktop and when I sit in the rocker/recliner to watch movies/vids via Front Row, it's gorgeous!! Because my place is so tiny, the big chair is right next to the desk. All I need to do is angle Priscilla toward the chair, use my handy-dandy remote and voila, excellent video quality. The built-in speakers are quite dandy, too - a big surprise there. Of course, if I were building a home multi-media system, I might upgrade to a bigger sound, but these are *plenty*.

I also splurged a little for the wireless keyboard and mighty mouse, so I can sit on the rocker and surf the Web, too. Although, the mighty mouse is more meh than mighty. I prefer to use my existing Logitech trackball. It's wired, though, so I'm going to be on the lookout for a Bluetooth version.

I do think that for major writing, I'll still use my new ergonomic/wired keyboard, b/c the native iMac keyboard is a bit too small for long-term writing.

I'm a happy happy geek!

A funny note on SGA's McKay and Mrs. Miller:
( Behind the cut )

I really really really could still be sleeping now.

Thing is, the grocery order will be arriving sometime between now and 11:00 a.m., so I need to at least pretend to be awake.

OMG, okay, weird serendipity here - as I'm typing the above, the grocery guy gets here. Wonder if that's how my day will go?

...So I'm up waiting for Callum Keith Rennie to arrive...

::looks around, pretends to not listen for a knock on the door::

...waits...

::la la la, just sitting here reading email::

....waits...

...waits...

Damn. Don't guess that worked. ::g::



David Hewlett, how are you so awesome?

I am loving the SGA Season 2 DVDs (Region 2) - there is commentary so far on ALL the episodes! Although, Peter Deluise and Gary Jones commentary - uhm, dudes, enough with the potty jokes, because what are you, 12? And why Gary Jones, I have no idea, b/c Walter, the gate tech from SG1 has nothing to do with SGA.

I've only listened to one of their commentaries all the way through. They don't talk about the episode, just make really dumb jokes. I totally prefer when either of the Martins team up with Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett - the commentary is fantastic. I've gotten through the first 2 DVDs so far - just watching the commentaries and the extras. I think the next disk is on the menu for today.

SGA Premier

( Oops, there be spoilers here )

The weather is icky - all grey and pressure-y, so my head is pounding with the requisite sinus headache. All the more reason to cuddle up to the DVD player and watch geeky things.

ETA: oh yeah, the Little Sis is now on LJ: birki_lib - NOT that she has any entries or anything yet, because she's angsting over the re-write of her portfolio. Stupid faculty kicked back 46% of the class entries, which mean 46% of the people have to rewrite the document that will determine whether or not they graduate. And it's due Monday. She's a bit stressed, so send her lots of positive vibeage so she can get her MLS and finally get to be a librarian. :)