Mischief and Control

Only a few minutes left to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, kellychenault!!!

Happy birthday kellychenault!

We should get together and have lunch so I can give you your present!

I just spent the first portion of my workday ranking Catholic saints by their market share among vendors.

SEP = Serves Mammon.

Well, we're here. It's been a cavalcade of fun, since last we spoke (or read, I guess), but we are here safe in new orleans, the truck has been emptied AND returned, we have an actual bed set up to sleep on, and yesterday, we painted my new kitchen 'pink chiffon' which is much richer and less pastel than the name sounds like.

We've been working really hard, although yesterday I finally came to my senses and said 'no more 12 hour days, or I'm going to get sick'. So now we're trying to balance getting some work done every day with doing something fun. Yesterday, we had a driving tour of the city, ate a snowball, and went to the parkway bakery for po'boys, as well as painted the kitchen. Today, we're going to see a bit of the french quarter, eat beignets at the Cafe du Monde, and prime the library. It's a good plan.

Tomorrow, the kid goes back to Kentucky. I wish I could report that it's been fabulous having him here, but I have to say, it's been a bit bumpy. Perhaps I wasn't entirely clear enough with him about what hard work it was going to be. I think he was imagining the trip being a lot more fun than it's actually been, and we had to have a come to jesus about his being high maintenance. However, since then, he's been really working on being flexible and not in the way when he can't be helping, and that's been better. We're both looking forward to November, though, when I won't be so stressed, and we'll actually be set up for a guest.

Our friend Andy came down with us as well, and that's been just delightful. I think if we had two of her, we'd be completely unpacked and totally painted...it's nice to have one person at the end of the day who is not complaining about her sore tired 40 year old body. Of course, she IS a vegetarian, which has been a bit of a work-around, since everywhere I love to eat here is meaty. Last night she had a sweet potato french fry po'boy....carb on carb action.

So anyway, if you're not here, I miss you. You should visit. But not until after fest, since it's gonna take us a while to have unpacked guest space. But when we do, it's gonna be super cute. You just wait.

in new orleans.

Sleeping in an actual bed tonight, plus, I've got wifi. things are looking up.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Rock Band 2 set list revealed

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/99260

Please move to the South Side, seeing you don't believe we should be allowed to limit guns in our cities.

Chicago summer shooting map

And remember, it's only July!!!!

( Honestly, I'm just making these out of habit at this point...it's like I can't stop! Tons more icons in anticipation of 'XF:IWTB': )

I got my ears pierced the other day. Re-pierced, I should say. I have three holes in each earlobe, but the bottom holes, the ones I got pierced when I was eleven, had closed up in the past few years to the point where I couldn't force an earring through at all. So to the Piercing Pagoda I went! Yay! And man alive, it didn't hurt a bit. I remember it hurting, back in the day. Also, I'm glad I didn't just ice my ear and put a potato behind it and force a needle through, as some people suggested.

My left shoulder blade is... oh my, the pain, and it's one of those things that happened without my even knowing how. Turning my head? Pain! Nodding? Pain! Any movement ... PAIN! It's the kind of thing where going to a doctor would just get me prescription Motrin, and I can swallow four of the regular ones just as easily, so no. And I don't have a massage therapist I like any more, and I think chiropractic is mostly quackery. Crazy Book Lady #1 was like "DON'T put heat on it! I did that and nearly ended up in the hospital from the pain!" So I don't know what to do. For the past two plus weeks, it's involved a lot of OTC pain relief.

Speaking of the Crazy Book Ladies, it's their semi-annual sale. Come out to the Valley for cheap books! (I spent $44 today, but my stack was very heavy.)

( Alan Rickman, tango... that should be enough to entice ya. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

No spoilers, unless you don't already know that Mamma Mia! is a singing dancing extravaganza starring Meryl Streep and opening July 18 in the USA. And now I've spoiled you for that, if you didn't know.

BILLIONS of icons below the cut. (Okay, maybe not billions. But, like, a hundred!) Take, use, comment, spindle, mutilate, etc.

Please credit me even if you only use the base. Took quite a while to do all that resizing, y'know...

Random teasers:

( On to the icons! )

Coming soon: More Gillian Anderson and/or David Duchovny icons.

x-posted to my iconed.

I'm sitting here in an empty house. Mags is parking the truck.

I am very sad.

I think my friends know I've kind of gotten tuned into the existence of slavery, most often sex slavery or child labor slavery, in the 21st century.

It's not just back there on the Amistad. It exists, here, now, in this world and is the world's fastest growing crime, with global impact, especially as this crime often funds terrorism.

I just learned about a film about this coming up: Call + Response - musicians and artists and activists making a documentary to raise awareness and start changing this.

It'll be out in September.

1) the big desk is loaded, along with a bunch of boxes

2) the whole storage space is loaded

3) the studio is loaded

4) I did not cry

and

5) I can still walk.

This is all good. Ice, alcohol, epsom salts, and do it all again in teh morning!

1) My iPod appears to have died. It keeps switching itself off and on but won't connect to my computer or give me the menu screen, just the endless black and white apple screen of doom. Those of you who know me know that this is heartbreak in electronic form. I had 76GB on there of lovely, lovely stuff.

I can't be without an iPod and I gave my previous one to a friend. :::verklempt:::

2) Iran's missiles are pastede on, yay!

3) David Gray is angry that interrogators are using his music to extract information from prisoners in Iraq.
I was wondering what kind of music would make me beg for release and I think for me it would be gangsta rap. I could stand Celine Dion, for the singalong factor but if someone played me Ani Di Franco over and over I would cheerfully lose my hearing.

What would be the music that would make you crack?

4) I love this song: The Quest Bryn Christopher. It sounds like Amy Winehouse by way of David McAlmont and Motown.

5) Pop quiz, hotshots: can you think of a movie in the past five years featuring a female leading character who was not defined solely by her reproductive system or relationship to the male hero?

Poll #1221192 Oh Hollywood, I despair
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

A film with an interesting female protagonist is...

Cos all I've got is Pan's Labyrinth

ETA 6) BRADLEY WHITFORD AND RUPERT PENRY-JONES IN A THING ON TELLY! Burn Up It also has Neve Campbell in it, but you can't have everything. It's written by Simon Beaufoy, which may or may not be a good thing.

I also watched Bonekickers on Tuesday, which is Da Vinci Code meets Time Team meets Indiana Jones. I am not sure whether it is magnificent cack, or just cack.

I guess I'm really doing this.

Must. Keep. Breathing.

(In other news, Leaf and Jodie stayed here last night, between Dollywood and the land. Lovely seeing both of them, and now I CAN'T WAIT to be walking barefoot up the path to the showers.)