Parenthetical

Great grandmother's spatula!

2011-10-07T11:56:00.002-04:00

My oh my has it been a long time. And yet, still not a lot to report. Where shall I start?

Wedding stuff is sort of at a stand still. I've put on no less than 105 wedding dresses, and can't seem to fall in love with any of them. There was one yesterday that was very nearly perfect, but alas it was incredibly expensive. So far, we've decided on what Mavis and his groomsmen will be wearing (complete with top hat, yay!), also centerpieces, and the entrance way decorations. And we bought most of the bouquet parts. So, decorations are coming along nicely. Now if I could just find a dress and decide on a ceremony site, we'd be looking good.

Now, about that dress from yesterday. We finally acquired a second car (yay!), and I was down in Cincinnati applying to jobs. I went into Formal and Bridal (down in the bridal district, largest in North America, whoa), and they were sort of rude. So, I walked across the street because European Bridal had a sidewalk lunchboard sign saying they were having a HUGE SALE. I went in to try on some dresses to make myself feel better about F&B being such bitches, and the sales consultant was super nice and she was totally listening to what I was saying about hating most of the dresses I've put on already. Anyway, I was explaining to her that F&B were so rude about my filling out an application and she was like "Oh, we're hiring! You should fill out one of our applications too." Well that was sort of awkward since I came in to try on dresses, but the atmosphere was awesome and all the ladies seemed really nice so I did. I'll cross my fingers, it seemed like an awesome place to work. But more about the dress, this isn't IT because European Bridal doesn't allow pictures and I was so flustered about turning in my resume and talking with the hiring woman on the spot that I forgot to ask Shannon to email me the information on the dress. But here is something that looks like it.

Basically it was this really plain boring white pure silk dress with this backwards bolero over top of it and then she added in this awesome belt to make it look like one dress, it was pretty fabulous. I wish I had had someone with me to see it. Oh well, maybe next time.

On the gaming front, Mavis has been playing Demon's Souls and I have started (but not really gotten a chance to play) Dragon Quest VIII. Demon's Souls is just as unforgiving as everyone has made it out to be; but he's also playing without being online so there aren't any asshole trolls around to invade his game and kill him. And Dragon Quest VIII is a traditional RPG. I'm very much enjoying what I've seen so far. Persona 2 is next on my list to play after I finish DQVIII, it arrived like three weeks ago and it's practically begging me to play it.

Well, fuck.

2011-06-01T17:14:00.002-04:00

Well, fuck. It looks like the trip to Evansville this month will be canceled. When Mavis was on his way to pay rent this afternoon the check engine light on the car started flashing and then the car began to shake. We're taking it to a mechanic tomorrow to have the code scanned to see what's wrong with the car, but we're not hopeful (nor is our luck that good) to have something minor be wrong with it. I'll let you all know what is up with that tomorrow after they scan it. If it is something minor (cross your fingers and pray folks, pray) they have openings all next week to fix it and then everything will be fine for the trip home.

Unfortunately, this means now not only do we have to worry about paying for our wedding, but also a new car. Yay! I suppose we could postpone the wedding until we find some more cash but we're both pretty partial to the date we've already chosen.

Also, finding a job in Oxford that I can walk to is seriously limiting my options. So yay, what an awesome day.

Just a bunch of crap

2011-05-26T19:58:00.003-04:00

This is not a cohesive post, mostly because there isn't a lot to talk about. My first official one month weigh in was on Tuesday and since last month I've lost two inches in my bust, an inch in my waist, and two inches in my hips. Go me. I also just finished my free week of workouts at Curves, which was a lot of fun. They have a really great community going on in there.

That's it for weight loss. Mavis has (so far this summer) beaten Dragon Age II, Pikmin, and Mass Effect (again). He's playing through Mass Effect 2 in preparation for Mass Effect 3 and has started the first Metroid game for the gamecube. I only have DS games left to play, and Super Mario Bros for the Wii.

I found this dress. I'm contemplating having my maid of honor wear it. No promises though.

I also found these, but I'm not sure if I like them for the wedding or just some party I'm going to throw this summer.

Dresses

2011-05-16T20:44:00.003-04:00

Everyone is talking about prom. CNN wants to hear about the experience of picking out my prom dress, livejournal wants to hear about my favorite prom memories, the local paper wants photos of prom pictures to show to the kids how people used to dress up for prom. Seriously?

Picking out my wedding dress will be (I imagine) much like picking out my prom dress. Which was a lot of fun for me, but not so much for my best friend at the time. I have a tendency to love dresses with a million and a half tiny buttons all the way down the back, or the ones that have the impossibly long zippers, or needing to be laced up all the way. It was NOT fun for her. And in the end it turned out to not be so fun for me either when she got frustrated and zipped my back into the zipper. YOWCH!

At any rate, I am looking forward to going dress shopping with some of my bridesmaids, possibly Mavis' mom, and hopefully one of my token dudes. I just gotta lose about 40 more pounds. I gotta keep on keepin on, 10 down, 40 more to go.

Gifts, or not to gifts?

2011-05-05T14:18:00.003-04:00

I've been doing a lot of thinking, and I still can't decide. Mavis and I have been together for a long time now, and have a lot of the things that we need. We have no need for a new toaster or blender. We have all the small appliances we need. So, instead of asking for gifts for our wedding I've been thinking of doing a honeymoon registry.

There's a site that's sponsored by The Knot that sets up honeymoon registries called Travelers Joy. Basically we set up an account for us that details all the money we need to take our honeymoon and our guests donate an amount that they would have spent on gifts. So we still get to go somewhere for our honeymoon, and all our guests get to help pay for that instead of some dumbass appliance that will break sooner rather than later.

I think I'd rather have the memories of our honeymoon for a lifetime than a couple of years with a new blender. Right? Of course we'll still register for a few gifts for people who aren't comfortable donating for our honeymoon or just don't understand the internet.

What do you think? Is this a good idea, or some pipe dream that I shouldn't even consider in the first place?

Screw you PSN

2011-05-02T13:48:00.004-04:00

I'm taking a break from talking about wedding stuff to complain about the PSN. First of all, if your customer's credit card information is stolen you might want to consider sending out an email or notice ASAP. Second of all, for the first part of the PSN being down we could still watch Netflix but then while they were "fixing" some stuff they broke the ability to watch Netflix.

So, we've been turning on the Wii. And watching Netflix from there. Oh, and also I found a game or two I'd like to play for the Wii and now most of our friends are "oh, I'm going to by the 360 version instead of the PS3 version". So, way to go Sony you've done a great job of driving your players elsewhere. The PSN being down for 2+ weeks is unacceptable.

We don't have any PS3 games in the backlog right now, so since I can't get my PS3 to do anything we probably won't be turning it on for a while. Oh, and that 30 free days of Playstation Plus that you're offering? You can stick it. Because it's not good enough.

Centerpieces?

2011-04-27T13:47:00.002-04:00

I made an announcement last night to all the people who might not know that we're trying to use empty wine bottles as our centerpieces. I had already told several friends not to recycle their wine bottles because I wanted to use them in our basically free centerpieces. My original idea was something like this. But then I decided that buying strands of twinkle lights might get expensive really quickly.

So, then I found these! And I think they're pretty special. Basically we'll get all our friends to contribute their old wine bottles, and get my dad to cut the bottoms off. Then I'll either head to the dollar store and buy a bunch of cheap candles or buy a lot of them in bulk. I'm envisioning these as my centerpieces with maybe a few stray ornaments laying around to tie it all together.

I saw some bowls of ornaments that some people used as space filler, like around the quest book and in nooks in the bathrooms to make it all look polished. I haven't yet decided if that's what I want to do yet.

Here are some other centerpiece ideas that I had as well:

Some floating candles, instead of candles in the bottles.
Of course my Xmas topiary.

And that's all the actual centerpieces, but I had some guest place card ideas:

Fillable ornaments.
Ornament card holders.
Snowflake card holders.

But seeing as we're trying to cut down on the whole ornament thing those are all out. So, there you have it. Mostly a graveyard of old ideas today.

Location, location, location...!

2011-04-26T13:48:00.003-04:00

Now that we've finally settled on colors (yay, peacocks!) we can move onto locations. What really sucks about having a wedding in December is that all of the free venues (parks, lakes, things that are outside) are out. So, the majority of our budget is going to the venue; I looked around and thought about it some and here are some ideas that I've got so far (since we're definitely not getting married in a church).

My first thoughts were, "Let's get married in a lodge!", but Mavis put the squash on getting married in the lodge at Paoli so that we could have our guests skiing and snowboarding after we were married. He was afraid he'd hurt himself. I found myself two more lodges that (unfortunately) have nothing to do with winter sports. First I found Krippendorf Lodge. As far as I can tell they have a Friday night discount in the winter months. So, yay. Now, keep in mind that we haven't actually been out to see any of these places yet and these are just preliminary thoughts. Secondly, we have Lake Lyndsay Lodge. I found Lake Lyndsey because it's in Hamilton and not that far from here. Krippendorf is in Dayton and is 45 minutes from here.

My second thoughts were "Where can we get married that would be awesome?" and I came up with two gutted old theaters. The first is the 20th Century Theater, and is down in downtown Cincinnati. As you can see they also do a Friday night special. They seem to allow a lot more freedom in colors and decorating than some of the other places. Then we have the Redmoor. I think it may be one of my favorites so far. Unfortunately, there is a LOT of red going on at the Redmoor, and I don't really care for it. It might clash horribly with our peacock motif.

Thirdly, still random ideas. A friend suggested that we get married at the art museum, so here we have the Contemporary Arts Center. Which may be too clean and modern for what we want. Plus, I'm fairly certain that my centerpiece ideas would not be allowed. Finally, the Walden Ponds Golf Club. I figured that since nobody was playing golf in December, that the historical mansion at the golf club may be severely discounted and I was mostly right. They sent me information right over. The venue itself seems fairly manageable but using their colored linens adds up really quickly.

Anyway, those are some ideas that we're having right now. They are certainly subject to change.

Let's talk about color

2011-04-25T12:53:00.002-04:00

Let's talk about color today. Because that's what's stressing me out right now. Everyone wants to know about colors. "Which colors did you choose?" "When are you going to choose colors?", blah blah. So, right now I'm ambivalent. I don't really give a damn about colors. I sort of want to just go get eloped and have a big fucking party afterward.

But, I guess we can't do that. So, here are three ideas that I'm leaning towards right now.

First, green on green. I really like the green on green. I could throw a little brown in there for measure too maybe.

Secondly, peacocks. Mavis is complaining that the male in the peacock relationship is the flashy one, but who the hell cares anyway?

Thirdly, purple, silver, and white. I really like the purple, but I don't know how I feel about silver and white.

Perhaps, I should just wait until after Xmas this year to pick out colors. That way I can see what color ornaments I have to choose from. I just sort of want to have one thing taken care of so that people might shut up for a little while. I guess that's probably too much to ask for.

Tedium

2011-04-22T14:54:00.003-04:00

I'm having a hard time with my wedding ideas. I really love my bouquet choice, but I don't really want to turn this into a Xmas wedding. But I'm having a difficult time finding things that don't look really odd with the bouquet choice.

For example, I really wanted to wear this in my hair as a stabilizer for my veil. But everyone thinks that it would be really odd to have ornaments and an octopus in my hair. I'm not sure that I want everything to be super matchy-matchy anyway.

I do sort of want our cake to look like this. But, then again it's turning the wedding into a huge Xmas celebration, and I'm not really wanting to do that. We could do a world ends with you theme (since 12-21-12 is the day the world is supposed to end), and then Cthulu would fit in perfectly. I dunno, I guess I shouldn't really worry about it until it gets closer to time.

So, more importantly we went to Purdue so that Mavis could speak earlier this week, and I did really well in not eating a bunch of crap. We did eat hamburgers once for lunch, but I balanced it out with a tofu salad and miso soup at the Japanese restaurant later that evening. All in all my eating has gotten better, my exercise this week has been a little lax since we've been running all over the place. But soon it will warm up and things will calm down and I can get back into a normal routine.

Wedding hurdles

2011-04-19T13:56:00.002-04:00

There are (or will be) several huge hurdles to jump to get through this wedding. The main one of course will be money (and we'll have to worry about that later, once it gets closer to time to have to reserve a venue and pay for everything else) but more imminently is my weight loss.

I want to lose approximately 60lbs before dress fittings start. I started walking 1.5 miles a day three weeks ago. I cut out all soda and junk food from my diet, and have set myself a strict 1200 calorie limit per day. When it's cold or raining outside I have been working out with my new EA Sports Active 2 for the PS3.

I broke the weigh yourself once a month rule last night, and have lost 2 lbs since last week. I am planning on measuring and keeping track of my goals and what I've been eating/doing in a small book to keep me motivated. I know it's going to be a long hard road, but I will lose this weight.

I helped Dom move this weekend and burnt a lot of calories then. Unfortunately, my feet are still sore and I'm in general a little stiff. But I've been doing stretching exercises to try and get my full range of motion back. Maybe I should volunteer to help someone move every weekend, it was a good workout.

Anyway, I'll keep you all updated on my weight loss progress as time goes on. But keep your fingers crossed for me, because I refuse to be a fatty bride.

The rumor is true!

2011-04-18T12:23:00.002-04:00

Yes, people the rumor is true. Mavis finally bit the bullet and proposed on our anniversary (April 5)! Sorry we kept the secret from most of you, but we were trying to minimize the "OMG! When? Where? What are the colors?" questions that we don't have the answers for. And I would have been perfectly content to keep our engagement quiet for the entire month of April, if someone hadn't gotten drunk and started flashing my engagement ring around a dingy bar. But he did, and here we are.

So, I hope if you'll all forgive me if this turns into a wedding vomit blog for a while. I sort of need some space to bounce ideas off myself or whomever stumbles on this blog. I apologize, but getting this wedding done on the cheap and still looking awesome is one of my top priorities right now.

Without further ado, these will be my bouquets. And I love them. If I have any say in it at all (and I do because we're doing this wedding by ourselves with no financial help from either of our parents) there will be NO ugly fake flowers in my wedding at all. I'm thinking (not for sure yet, because I haven't really had time to mull it over) that maybe I'll do a smaller version of these as centerpieces. I don't want to over do the whole ornament thing, but they'll be ridiculously cheap after Xmas. So, I'm torn.

What do you think?

Photos 16, 17, and 18

2011-01-18T17:45:00.004-05:00

I hit a roadblock with photo 16. I don't really have any long-term friends anymore, and since I don't really talk to any of my old friends I don't really feel connected to them anymore. So, no photo of any old friends today.

As for a picture of my biggest insecurity:

I don't really have a great picture of my teeth, or many pictures of me actually smiling with my teeth showing, but there they are my biggest insecurity.

My favorite place:

The ocean! I think this is Myrtle Beach in SC. But if not, it's definitely a beach somewhere in SC. I'm definitely a water lover.

Photos 13, 14, and 15

2011-01-15T18:47:00.006-05:00

My favorite band:

A favorite pastime:

Something I want to do before I die?:

So, that's Fall Out Boy, board games, and visit the Sherlock Holmes museum in London if you're keeping count.

The last few days have been Cah-ra-zee. Trips to the vet, a trip to the slowest most awful Planned Parenthood you've ever seen, an emergency trip to the Apple store to try and salvage Mavis' macbook data, impromptu Arkham Horror at Dom's house. We haven't been at home, so I'm going to try and get back to updating this photo thing every day again. Here's hoping that things calm down.

Photo 12

2011-01-12T13:15:00.003-05:00

A picture of something that I love:

I know she's not a some "thing", but I do love her. And besides Mavis she was my first thought. So, here's Koda (three laptops, and two houses ago) in my favorite picture of her.

Photos 10 and 11

2011-01-11T13:44:00.005-05:00

I got busy yesterday and forgot to post yesterdays photo! Oops. Oh well, here is a picture of the person I can see myself marrying (but that's sort of up to him, so we'll see...when I'm like 80 and we're common law married):

Yes, I have better pictures of Mavis but this is exactly what he's mentally doing every time the word "marriage" or "wedding" or "engaged" comes up. So, I thought it was fitting.

And now a picture of something I hate:

Doing the dishes. Or dishes in the sink after Mavis has cooked something. But yay for the new dishwasher!

Photo 9

2011-01-09T19:04:00.004-05:00

Here she is, looking fabulous (not to mention taking my vision to fruition for Halloween):

She's gotten me through a lot of shit, especially when all others have given up on me. Thanks, Tardina.

I will now grumble momentarily about how everyone thinks my formal attire required parties are formal attire optional parties. :/

Photo 8

2011-01-08T18:01:00.002-05:00

A photo that makes me laugh:

Look at those huge glasses and try and not laugh, people, come on. Also, I must have been feeling /really/ lazy to wear that shirt out in public. Yikes!

Photo 7

2011-01-07T13:33:00.003-05:00

I'd like to think that every picture of myself is a true picture; but I realize that's unrealistic. So, after much thought and searching I found this picture:

Mavis took this picture as we were picking up balloons for Dom's 31st birthday party. I'm wearing the most comfortable/ratty sweater I own, and I don't think I'm even wearing makeup here. I'm positioned in the drivers seat (as usual) and surrounded by party items. I think this is the best representation of the "real" me that I can find.

Photo 6

2011-01-06T16:37:00.003-05:00

I lost all my good vacation photos when Mavis' laptop died but here is one of me in Charleston, SC:

This one is a few years old, and I'm sitting there waiting on the ferry to take us on a tour of Charleston, Ft. Knox (or whatever), and a bunch of other places. Just in case you wanted to know, the sitting there and the tour out on the water made me have the worst sunburn of my life! But there it is, a picture of someplace I've been.

Photo 5

2011-01-05T21:16:00.004-05:00

I have no idea what my /favorite/ memory is. But definitely A favorite memory is:

My 26th birthday! My friends went to so much trouble trying to surprise me with the theme and everything. Too bad for them I really love a good mystery and figured it out a couple of days beforehand. It really was a great time. It's really too bad that they won't be able to top themselves this year.

Photo 4

2011-01-04T16:20:00.004-05:00

I know the day isn't yet half over, but this is the most important thing that's happened to us in a long time:

A new dishwasher that has more than two settings (it has six!)! After three weeks! So, yes, this is what my day looks like. Lowe's came and installed it, and now I'm going to do every single dish we own in it! Yay!

Photo 3

2011-01-04T15:30:00.002-05:00

A picture of the cast of my favorite show? Well, ok:

I really miss Zach Addy. But I guess the squinterns are ok too. I can't wait for Bones to be back from hiatus.

Photo 2

2011-01-04T15:23:00.004-05:00

The second photo calls for me and someone I've been closest to the longest. I don't really have any friends leftover from high school that I'm still close to, and my friends from college have all moved on to do other things. So, I guess the person that I've been closest to the longest is:

My sister. And I had the perfect picture for this before they all got lost in the great crash of the macbook. But this one is just as good. Plus she's tied with Mavis at this point anyway, and there he is in the background.

Photos

2011-01-04T15:10:00.003-05:00

So, there's this thing going around on the internet among people who blog (remember when that word was still new and you were like what the hell is a 'blog'?). It's a month of photos. Here's how it works:

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with 10 facts
Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.
Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.
Day 04 - A picture of your day.
Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory.
Day 06 - A picture of somewhere you've been.
Day 07 - A picture that shows your true self.
Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh.
Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.
Day 10 - A picture of someone you see yourself marrying in the future.
Day 11 - A picture of something you hate.
Day 12 - A picture of something you love.
Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.
Day 14 - A picture of your favorite pastime.
Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.
Day 16 - A picture of someone you've been friends with the longest and still feel connected to.
Day 17 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.
Day 18 - A picture of your favorite place.
Day 19 - A picture of a habit you wish you didn't have.
Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.
Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.
Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at.
Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book.
Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change
Day 25 - A picture of you last year and how you've changed since then
Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.
Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member.
Day 28 - A picture of something you're afraid of.
Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile.
Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss.

Shall we begin?

This is going to be hard for me, since 90% of my photos were on Mavis' laptop when it crashed last week. But, I'm going to try anyway.

Day 1:
This is my favorite photo of myself (1). I'm not sure why, but it is. It was taken four years ago (2), when we were still living in Mavis' mom's house. I still own that top (3), and have worn it recently though it doesn't look as good now. I am wearing contacts in this photo (4), even though I don't need them (5). As you can see in the background I don't make my bed (5), though I do think it makes the bedroom look nicer when I do (6). I took this photograph of myself (7), while Mavis was roleplaying with his friends from Louisville.

And that's all the facts that I can tell you related to this photo. Three more though, so I can feel like I did what was asked. I sleep with a fan on (8), this started in college so that I could drown out my roommates and the other people in our building (9) and now I just can't sleep without it. I'm 26 years old for the next 21 days (10).

New Post

2010-11-11T16:09:00.003-05:00

I'm not really great at blogging when I have nothing to say. I find myself boring, and not really entertaining to read. Which is why I haven't been blogging. But we have been through a couple of games recently that I thought I might talk about for a little while.

First of all Mavis went through Fallout: New Vegas. He lost a LOT of sleep for that game, and he says it was worth it. We paid $80 for the collectors edition. In the collectors edition, we received a "platinum" chip, a deck of cards, a poker chip from every casino in the game, and a graphic novel. It's a bunch of crap that we'll NEVER use, but we got it anyway.

The game itself (with all of the side quests complete) took probably 50-60 hours. That's not counting all the times he had to restart or reload for some alternate decision making. It was a lot more entertaining to watch than Fallout 3. I felt that the sense of humor was more crisp, and clever. All in all, he really enjoyed it; and I didn't hate it.

Now it's my turn, and I'm playing through P3P. Persona 3 remade for the PSP. With a female main character. So, far I'm enjoying it as much as I did the first Persona 3. The different social links for the female main character are more interesting, I think. Also, I feel more emotionally vulnerable now that I'm playing through as a girl. When the protagonist was male, he was sort of aloof and actually sort of a dick. But, we get all the warm fuzzy material with the female protagonist. People let their guards down, etc. We're in August right now, and the game ends January 31st, so about halfway done already. I'm starting to feel like I'm not going to get to maximize all my social links this time through either, but hey, what can you do. Apparently no one has posted a guide for maximizing all the social links in one play through.

Mavis will be playing Fable 3 after I finish P3P, and so far I've only heard mediocre reports. I'll let you know what we find out in a few weeks.

In other news, I've banned all video games as gifts this year for Xmas. We have too many games backed up as it is, and we both have video games from TWO Xmases ago that haven't been played through. So, until we can get some of this backlog played through, no more video games as gifts.

Just so you can have a visual these are the games that we have on the unplayed/unfinished shelf:

Folklore(1.5 years on the shelf), Madden 10( 1 year), Rockband (11 months), Sports Champions (1 month), White Knight Chronicles (2 months), Fable 3 (2 weeks), The Last Remnant (2 years), Baroque (2 years), Lego Batman (2 years), Metroid Prime: Corruption (1 year), No More Heroes 2 (5 months), Pikmin (1 year), Super Mario Brothers Wii (11 months), Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker (4 months), Final Fantasy Tactics A2 (1 year), Summon Night (1 year), Summon Night 2 (1 year), Magna Carta (1 year), Shenmue (1 year), Sonic Adventures (1 year), and Skies of Arcadia (1 year).

Photo Weds

2010-10-27T21:31:00.001-04:00

Oh, hai. I has a sunbeam.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Halloween

2010-10-19T14:00:00.004-04:00

I just want to take a few minutes and bitch about almost everyone I know. I'm putting together this Halloween Masquerade as a celebration of Halloween and all I'm really asking people to do is put on a mask. I fully announced that there don't have to be any full costumes, just wear a mask. And everyone around here is all "Oh, that's too much work. I'll just go to the other party instead." I have just as many undecided RSVPs for the Masquerade as I do for people who'll be there and almost as many as no, I'm flat out not coming.

If I'd put this party together in Evansville, everyone (most everyone anyway) we know would have been there. Excited about the chance to do something different, excited in my vision and want to help participate in whatever way I needed them to. But throwing parties up here is hard. These people want to show up with something that they just bought and put in little to no effort in whatever. I'm so frustrated.

Then there are the people who lie and say "Oh, I wish we could do something, but I'm SOo busy." and then they're going out every night with someone else. I wish they'd just say what they mean. I'd rather be doing something else with someone else. Because I /know/ that you make time to have fun, you'd just rather be having fun with someone else.

Screw you. The next party we have will be a BYOB and sit around and drink. Everyone decides that the whimsy is too much, so here, have a beer. Enjoy the party.

I don't like Monday's...

2010-10-11T21:36:00.002-04:00

Updating on Monday's is difficult. Let's see. We have completely recovered from the transformer blowing up all our shit. The TV and PS3 were returned on Friday, the cable box was replaced yesterday, and the Roku was never hurt in the first place.

So in celebration of the Roku not being hurt, I started watching Monk today. So far it's ok, but I really don't care for his sidekick Sharona.

Monday updates are always really boring, I don't feel like there is really anything to say. The invitations for our Halloween party went out last week, and I think it got sent to the junk folder of everyone that has a .muohio address. So, I'll have to send out yet another damn notification unless someone alerts everyone verbally to the fact that my invite is rotting in their junk mail folder.

Resident Evil 5 is ok so far, it's basically a lot like RE4. Only we're shooting Africans instead of Spanish people.

ALERT!

2010-10-10T23:19:00.002-04:00

I interrupt your regularly scheduled non-post to announce that I have officially finished Persona for the PSP! Packed it back up, and put it on the finished shelf. We can all breathe easier now.

In other news, Mavis has started Resident Evil 5 with the Move compatibility. We'll see how it goes. It took him months to finish Resident Evil 4 because it was scary. LOL!

Two things.

2010-10-07T22:44:00.001-04:00

I just want to share two things with you today. First a new comic. Second a new person to follow on Twitter, if you're so inclined.

Carry on.

Photo Weds

2010-10-06T18:12:00.001-04:00

How would you like to have one of these show up as your Halloween invitation?:

Because that's totally what they look like this year.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Facebook

2010-10-05T20:22:00.002-04:00

The facebook ad space always confuses me. Like today I have the following ads:

Study Interior Design!
Universal Studios Entertainment
Play College Town
And an add for board games

And I only really have an interest in one of those things. Yesterday it was become a video game tester, and I heard you love shoes! sign up for Kim Kardashian's shoe club! And pregnant? need help?

I mean really. They have full access to troll my information and THAT's what they can come up with?

Mavis ad's today are:

Thinking of getting married?
Play this game that's like Civ V only on facebook

Why does he only get two ads? Not that he pays any attention to the ad space on his facebook anyway.

At least they can sort of get it right with our theology major friend:

"It is trying to sell me Buddhist t-shirts, get me to help distribute Bibles in China and hook me up with other Jewish singles."

I just find it sort of irritating that we give them permission to look at our interests and things so they can better find out what we like so that they can put appropriate ads on the sides of our facebooks and sell things for their advertisers and make money for themselves and that's what they come up with.

All that aside, I still want to see Social Network.

After some complaints...

2010-10-04T13:25:00.002-04:00

That was a long hiatus. Since we last saw our heroine: Persona PSP is still not finished. The TV, the PS3, the cable box, and our Roku all got fried. Duke SAID they were going to pay for our stuff, and then changed their minds and denied our claim. I will be having harsh words with Radio Shack later to see if /they'll/ pay for our stuff.

We got a cat. Her name is Mint. She is Siamese.

Mavis mom sent me an email asking for our Xmas lists already. Which got me started thinking about what I /really/ wanted for Xmas this year:

A Kindle
A Doghouse Pet Portrait (of Koda, not some random pet)
A Steampunk Goblin

I don't really expect any of that to happen, but they would all be awesome gifts. Also, my Amazon wishlist is up to date (ahem Mavis).

And yes, we really are talking about Xmas in fucking October.

Small mishap

2010-09-14T23:27:00.002-04:00

I fell down the stairs again today, and am on the mend. Hopefully, I can resume posting photos tomorrow, but for now; I'm sore and cranky.

Ladder quest complete.

2010-09-09T14:37:00.003-04:00

I have located a ladder! Unfortunately, I didn't order enough lights the first time, so I had to order some more. But, they should be here tomorrow.

I'm hoping to get at least one of the rooms completely put together so that next week I can do a photo blog for those of you who won't see the new place for a while (if ever). I'm hoping to start with the office, since it's mostly there already if we can find some time and patience to get all the prints up on the walls. The photo blog won't have the dry erase paint, because I don't know if I'll have time to paint, but I can certainly try.

Now onto the gaming update, Mavis has finished Alpha Protocol, and I'm not looking forward to all the grinding the Snow Queen Quest involves, so I'm looking around for an english translated video on youtube that can show the quest to me without having to play it. Unfortunately, I'm not having a lot of luck with that. I did get around to buying P3P last weekend, so I'm looking forward to that (possibly next). We pre-ordered Fallout: New Vegas, Fable III, and Professor Layton and the Unwound Future.

The Playstation Move comes out in less than a week, and I keep getting videos from Amazon debuting all the wonderful things it can do. I think we'll end up getting the move sooner rather than later, I think Mavis mentioned something about pre-ordering it but I don't really remember.

I shall not be thwarted.

2010-09-07T18:13:00.003-04:00

Last week, we were looking forward to going down to the Ikea and purchasing several HUGE cityscapes to hang in our bedroom. We planned to go down on Friday, purchase these monoliths and bring them home.

We started our journey cheerful, and lighthearted. We got to the promised land and found our purchases (sans one that we have to return for because they were all sold out), we proudly carried them to the checkout and took them out to the car. This is where things get dicey. The prints are too wide to fit in the trunk, and to tall to fit in the door. But I was determined to get these bastards home, so with a small amount of finesse and a large amount of stubbornness we got them in the car. Just barely. We death defied, in the literal sense all the way home approximately 45 minutes in a death trap.

We made it, without being pulled over for driving while cramped inside with paintings lodged at the base of our necks, and without incident really.

But today, I find myself faced with another challenge. I had planned to death defy some more and balance on the railing of the stairwell to hang some decorative lights from the ceiling, except I keep having visions of myself falling and dying while no one is here to call an ambulance. So, I gave up for now to find a ladder. But now that I have acquired a place to rent a ladder from, I have no way of getting it home. I know absolutely no one that A) drives a truck or B) drives something with a luggage rack on top.

I'm thinking at this point that I'm going to have to WALK to the Ace Hardware and walk the damn ladder here and back.

So much for having the lights hung by the time Mavis makes it home from class.

To whom it may concern

2010-09-03T10:47:00.002-04:00

To whom it may concern,

You're smarter than that. Please don't let him drag you into his shit again. He's booty-calling you because he's lonely, and because the relationship that he LEFT YOU FOR didn't work out. You've been through this same thing multiple times with this douchebag before. You'll go home, start up another unsatisfying relationship with him and in a couple of months when he gets bored again, or finds someone else that he CAN see himself in a long term relationship with you'll be dumped...again. This "relationship" that you have going on with him is toxic. Neither of you wants to be alone, I get it. But you're a smart girl, and I know some part of you realizes that this isn't going to work out.

Please don't let your fear of being lonely set you up for more frustration and heartache when he lets you down again. Reconciliation hasn't worked out for you guys the last three or four times, so what makes you think that this is the time that it'll work. You've already done too much damage to each other for things to ever be ok. You are not homesick, he's pulling you back into his bullshit. You're lonely, which is NOT the same as homesickness.

I know I'm going to catch a lot of flack for writing this, but who cares. I think you have a REAL opportunity to do something out there, and coming home to more heartache isn't going to do you any good.

Please be sensible.

I totally did it.

2010-09-02T12:10:00.002-04:00

I beat Persona last night. All on my own, completely under leveled, and only on sheer stubbornness. I feel fantastic. This is why I love games. I can't remember the last time that I felt this awesome about beating a game (oh, wait, yes I can. FFIX. More than 20 levels under leveled.)

Usually, I'm following Mavis' directions or the directions that he's reading to me from some walkthrough. But this time, I didn't want to fuck around for an extra 20+ hours grinding. I went in there with NONE of the recommended personas on, ten levels below the lowest recommendation, just barely enough healing items, and it was fan-freaking-tastic.

I was fighting the second form, and thinking "Jesus, I'm NEVER going to make it through to the third form, it's never going to happen." and then just like that, it died. Mavis didn't mention that the second form, WAS the third form as well. Afterward he was like "I didn't think you were going to make it. Every time I looked up, four of your characters were dead."

It was AWESOME. The ending was sort of crap, but hey, it was the first in the series. Now, I get to look forward to doing early level grinding because the Snow Queen quest's levels are all timed. But, I'm going to give it a go. I should have started last night, while I was still high on success.

I totally fucking did it! Yeah!

Photo Weds

2010-09-01T11:18:00.002-04:00

Here is the sheet that I was complaining about yesterday:

I can properly identify everything but numbers 5 and 9. Any help would be appreciated.

Virtual cough

2010-08-31T12:50:00.003-04:00

I'm recovering from a nasty computer virus. It was really terrible. We had to wipe my laptop clean and reinstall everything. Unfortunately, it's not letting me reinstall some of my drivers. Or itunes. So, I'm working through some kinks. I do finally have Internet again (no Internet all day yesterday!), and I'm working through trying to remember all my bookmarks and quick links at the top of my firefox. That's not really going so well. Mavis keeps saying that if I can't remember them, then they probably weren't that important, which is true. Now I have more quick link space for wikipedia and imdb. Yay!

We went down to Ikea last week and bought a bunch of stuff for the new place. Now, if we can just get this damn shelf hung, it would be a miracle. It took forever to find studs in the wall last night, and then when we did we discovered that we bought the wrong type of screws. I'm about to say screw it and just put a bunch of mollys in the wall. Screw the studs. We're headed back down to the Ikea later this week to pick up some art that was too big to fit in the car with all the other stuff we bought last week. Then we should have the bedroom finished, and then I can share photos!

We're an hour away from beating Persona the first time. Then to try out the Snow Queen! Mavis is still playing Alpha Protocol, and I have no idea what he's playing next.

I'm trying to put together the Pub Quiz thing again for the MEGAA party, but I'm having some difficulties with one of the visual rounds. It's becoming frustrating. I'm looking for a brand logo that is a red speech bubble on a yellow background. The name of the brand is obviously in the speech bubble, but I can't for the life of me figure out what the hell it is. So, I guess I'll be moving onto another visual round. Also there is a black and white logo that looks like a cup or something, it reminds me of the Steak and Shake logo, but it's not it. Oh well.

The lo-down

2010-08-26T12:44:00.002-04:00

Our mystery problem is that we have termites. I noticed what I thought was mold when we moved in, and noted it on our property evaluation sheet. One day a couple of weeks ago, we were having our first guests over to the house and I wanted to clear out the mold because it looked sort of crappy. I went over and started my mold cleanup, when all of a sudden there were white ants all over the place.

Now, Mavis had remarked when we moved in that it sort of looked like termites. But, there weren't any visible bugs, so we thought surely not. Anyway, I freaked out and called the office, my dad, and all my friends who would listen to me rant and rave about the termites in the wall. The office sent out a guy who confirmed that it was termites, and then he left to get some stuff to cut a hole out of the wall and seal it up with termite killing glue or whatever to make sure no more bugs could get into the actual living space.

Fast forward to now, when the contractors were supposed to be here to "evaluate the situation" on Saturday (they weren't, it was raining) and we still have termites living in our wall. Mavis went up to ask when the contractors were supposed to show up next, and he was informed that they would be here on Monday. That will be like THREE WEEKS living with termites in our walls. I'm becoming testy.

On top of all that, we still haven't heard from Indian Trace about our security deposit. We should have received it by now, I think.

We still need to make a trip down to Ikea. I keep trying to decide if we just want to rent the enterprise van, that way we don't really have to worry about fitting things into the car. We need a large shelf, my mirror, and two desks. Just for starters. I'd also like to pick up some over sized art, but that we will have to discuss some more I think.
--

Persona is bad. I spent all day on Saturday grinding. I went through ONE dungeon, and now I need to be something like TWENTY levels higher. So, I have another full day of grinding to look forward to. Which is totally putting me off of playing. Mavis however is still really enjoying Alpha Protocol (which he's playing while it's MY turn. I sometimes wish he could wait until it was actually his turn to play a game. That way we can keep playing time fair.) Although, I am considering this solution. Minus the random urinal, of course.

Perfect!

2010-08-23T11:19:00.002-04:00

This is exactly what it's like dealing with Mavis' family.

That's really all I have to say today that's of any interest to anyone really.

Persona is almost over, the second round (Snow Queen quest) is just around the corner.

Classes start again today, so good luck to all of those who are taking or teaching classes today.

Wow!

2010-08-21T10:20:00.002-04:00

Now, I know I don't normally update on Saturdays but, since I didn't do a lot of blogging this week; I figured I might as well.

It's raining, so I really doubt that the contractors will be out to take care of the newest problem at the townhouse. They were supposed to be here today, so I went to bed super early and woke up super early. That way I would be awake to direct them if need be. BUT, they're not here and I'm still sleepy. AND the problem won't be resolved. Grr.

Mavis walked through commencement yesterday, and now has his Master's diploma. Yay! The ceremony was boring, and the commencement speech was confusing. But, we watched him walk across the stage and get Mastered. Soon we'll have more graduation photos to put up around the house.

Speaking of photos being put up around the house, we finally got around to hanging one of the huge frames that my dad and I built this week. On Thursday, we buckled down and hung it in the living room. It actually felt pretty good being able to hang things on our walls. Soon we'll be able to head down to Ikea and pick up desks and then the new place will be fully furnished and put together!

We went with Dom down to the Northgate Mall yesterday and saw Settlers of America, Rails and Trails. It's a version of Catan that uses real American cities as part of the game. It looked really cool, but I found myself wondering about the re-playability of the game. If we have to build in the same places every time, it seems to me that the game would get really boring. But according to Amazon reviews, it seems that people have been playing it over and over again and they still seem to find amusement in it. So, maybe we'll have to check that out sometime soon.

We watched Dark City last night (in order to cheer Mavis up, he got his feelings hurt by not being invited to a party). It was my first time seeing it. It was an OK movie. I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying it. It's definitely not my typical type of movie, so that's good.

I'm still playing Persona PSP, and it's getting a little dull. I seem to have to grind for HOURS between dungeons and I really, really hate grinding. I'm still having fun in the actual dungeons, and of course during the plot, but the grind is really getting me down. I do look forward to the Snow Queen questline, unfortunately I'll have to play the first 4 or 5 hours of the same game to do so.

Mavis started Alpha Protocol last night when I went to bed early, he seemed to enjoy it since he was up until 5:30 playing it this morning. I haven't really gotten to talk to him about it, since I was asleep when he came to bed; but it seemed like he was having a good time when I went to sleep.

Animal control

2010-08-18T11:07:00.002-04:00

Today is garbage day. So, last night when we got home we dutifully carried all the garbage down to the curb and left it there. It should have been an uneventful normal, but we couldn't get that lucky last night.

I suited Koda up to walk down to the mailbox (for whatever reason, she loves it) and as soon as I opened the door she was running. She ran so forcefully, I banged my arm on the door and dropped her leash. She tore out into the yard and came face to face with Brody the neighbors St. Bernard. She stopped dead in her tracks and just stared at this horse in her yard. I sat the box I was carrying down and went to retrieve her leash and try and put her back in the house. It went as well as to be expected. But the problem of a 90 pound St. Bernard running around loose in the neighborhood was still happening.

The owners of said dog were asleep (?) at midnight, and it didn't really want to have anything to do with me or Mavis. He would sort of get close and then run away. Anyway, one of the neighbors in that building was sitting outside smoking while all this was going on and she was saying that she didn't think that they took care of the dog very well. Especially since he's chained up outside most of the day. She was going on and on about how you can't have an outside dog at an apartment like this, and even before he was loose she was thinking of calling the animal control people.

Now, I agree that a St. Bernard may be a little large for this place. But I don't think they neglect the dog. Yes, he says chained up outside while the guy is gone. But he has food, and water, and shade. And the maintenance guy lets him in the house when he gets home, Brody comes back outside when it's dinner time, but I don't think they're treating him badly. Anyway, it's not my business. I finally roused the guy last night, and he brought Brody inside. He seemed thankful that we tried to corral him, and keep him from running off into the night.

I just hope that someone would do the same for our dog, if the need arose.

Alright, here we go.

2010-08-16T22:48:00.002-04:00

We love Koda. She's an awesome dog for us. But sometimes, she can be a little retarded. For example, she really hates men. We had people over to the new house this weekend for dinner and a little board gaming. Now, Dom is hit or miss. She likes him sometimes and then doesn't others, but we also had our friend Jackson over and the poor guy couldn't MOVE around without her barking at him. (We are definitely investing in a calming collar for her, ASAP.) She calms down after a while, but I'd like her to not scare every single man that comes in the house. You'd think she was my dad, sheesh.

Anyway, we made vegetarian lasagna and played some Catan (for the first time in like 9 months or better). I think this was the first time in a long time that Mavis didn't HATE playing. So, double win. Jackson won, and Mavis isn't dreading the next time we play. And I win, because we had people over! It is conceivable that I may be able to have drinks with friends!

We went back to playing Persona after they all left, so that's still going well. I'm looking forward to playing it again to do the Snow Queen quest! Whole new Persona territory. I can hardly contain myself.

I put the library together on Friday before everyone got here, so the only thing left is the office, and then to layer in rugs, art, and other things. The problem with the new house is scheduled to be taken care of on Saturday, so hopefully we won't have any more problems after that.

I leave you now with a hilarious blog about a retarded dog.

Hai!

2010-08-12T15:28:00.002-04:00

There's not really a whole lot to talk about today. Persona is still going really well. I'm really pleased with how it's going. I do miss some of the things in later games, such as being able to fuse personas with other personas, but it's a minor thing.

There have been some new problems with the new place, which I can't talk about right now. But hopefully they'll be sorted out really soon.

Later today, or early tomorrow (I hope, anyway...) I'll be able to move the bookcases into the "guest room" and put all the books away, and clear out some of the office. We have some people coming over tomorrow (as of now, anyway) to play games. Hopefully some Catan, or possibly some Carcassonne.

Either way, I want all of you to cross your fingers and pray that this latest incident with the townhouse gets resolved very quickly.

Blah, blah, games, blah, blah.

2010-08-10T14:05:00.003-04:00

The summer has gone by so fast. Classes start again in two weeks, and I'm not sure that anyone is /ready/. We've said goodbye to some old friends, and hopefully soon we'll be making some new ones. I want a variety of friends, ones that want to watch really crap TV, or ones that pop by once a week and watch a movie and drink some wine, but especially ones that are looking for real friends out of this grad school experience.

I don't want to look back and think "wow, we really should have just gone to Raleigh." I like this town, and yes, we have some mixed blood with it; I had hoped that it would all just go away, like it never happened. But, apparently it hasn't, and I want to try and make up for it. Or at least try and put it behind us and make some good friends with this cohort. That is my hope anyway. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The new first years are rumored to be a good group of people.

Anyway, I finally got to start the remake of the original Persona yesterday. (Hooray!) It's been a good time. The characters are old school and blocky. But, all in all it's been fun. It seems like it's going to be a short game, which is good I guess. That way we can do the new Snow Queen quest line that was taken out of the North American release the first time, and has now been added back in. It's a lot like the other Persona games, in that there are "personas" and you can fuse them to make other personas. But it's different in that the battle system is a little less forgiving. You can change personas in battle, but it takes a whole turn to do so. You get a set four characters to play with, you can't switch anyone out. There are four recruitable characters that you can pick from, but you only get to choose one.

So, obviously I'm going to choose the hardest one to get. Duh. Unfortunately he takes a long time to join up so we're fighting at a disadvantage. Also, to get spell cards in this version of Persona you have to talk to the monsters in battle (which is completely new, and frustrating if you don't cheat and look online for the chart). Woo! Anyway, it's good to be playing a game that I actually enjoy again.

Back to "boring" stuff. Mavis had to call around and get permission from some of the huge game companies to use screenshots of their games in his thesis last week. He called and talked to the PR guy at Konami who had to call and talk to Kojima himself about Mavis using his stuff, and Kojima was excited and actually said he'd like to read Mavis' thesis! Talk about a huge deal for Mavis. Also, they decided to send him free stuff. So, what arrived today? A limited edition copy of Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker!

Talk about big news!

Keeping track

2010-08-09T15:29:00.002-04:00

First of all, I want to start off this post by saying how much I really love the new place. It feels much more like home than the apartment ever did, and minus the proximity to the train tracks the location is great.

Now, let's count the ways that this place has failed so far. First of all, the water heater didn't work when we arrived (1) so we walked over to the maintenance guys house (next door) and complained. He "fixed" it and we had hot water. Unfortunately, he forgot to close off the valve and we had water soaked carpet the next morning (2). Then the washing machine had a minor hiccup (3) fixed by John's manly knowledge. They forgot to replace the fan fixture in the bathroom before we moved in, and we have an unsightly hole in the ceiling (4), which they told us last week they'd send someone to to replace...that hasn't happened yet. Yesterday, we find out that our garbage disposal doesn't work (5)....the hard way.

So, once we get all our appliances in order, this place will rock.

Next on the update agenda, is that we finally finished Resonance of Fate last night, hooray! Next up is finally putting those psp component cables to use to play the original Persona on the big TV. Double hooray!

The toenail is still oozing. I can't figure out if it's still oozing because someone (not me) keeps stepping on it, or because it's just trying to work all the blood out from under the nail. Either way it's pretty nasty, and I'm really going to miss having pedicures for a while. Sadface for me.

Mavis is graduating (gown and everything) in 11 days, and you're all welcome to come stay with us if you want to watch him walk and get his MA diploma. That's it for today, kids.

I can be such a dumbass

2010-08-06T11:42:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to unpacking the kitchen and making it look semi-nice yesterday, when I realized that I left all our pots and pans at Indian Trace (minus one huge skillet, that was in the dishwasher). Whoops. I called several times yesterday, and Pam finally answered but she was basically like "Sucks to be you." because she doesn't have to deal with us anymore, we're not her tenants. But I guess we still get the final laugh, because we get all new pots and pans!

Dom and I went down to the Ikea earlier this week, and I found a bunch of cute stuff that needs to be in our new place. Luckily, the post office sent us a ton of coupons for changing our address (yeah, I'm confused too, but whatever) and there is a great coupon for Ikea in there. So, soon we shall have new stuff to make our place even more homey.

We haven't had any time to play Resonance of Fate this week, which sort of saddens me because I really want to see how the story all plays out. BUT, Dom has gone to West Virginia for the week so maybe we can get some playing done while he's gone. Assuming that Mavis can get done with his portfolio crap, and his thesis revisions.

I've been considering turning the "guest room" into a library. Since we don't have overnight guests all that often, it seems like a waste to have an empty room for people who don't come to visit, when I can free up a ton of space in the office for us people who actually live here. I'm still mulling it over since those bookshelves are heavy and it's only me and Mavis here to move them now.

For all those of you who are wondering what's after Resonance of Fate, it's the original Persona (remake), and it's my turn. Woots, I really love the Persona games. I wish Persona 5 would be announced soon.

Whoops!

2010-08-05T00:24:00.001-04:00

This is one of the many bruises I received from moving.

It's actually looking much better.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

We did it!

2010-08-03T16:43:00.002-04:00

We are officially out of Indian Trace! I am /loving/ the new place. It feels more like home than the apartment ever did. Let's do a recap:

All of the stuff is in the new townhouse. I severely injured my toe. I have a HUGE bruise on my left arm, and right leg from dropping (and catching) the microwave. Today, while doing laundry angry I banged my head on a overhead shelf in the laundry closet.

I am literally bruised from head to toe, but I am super excited about the new place.

My sister and some of her friends were here for the weekend, and it was a great time. I think Mavis' birthday party went pretty well, and I had a great time doing pub quiz. We went down to the fancy mall yesterday and did some shopping, so the house isn't completely unpacked but I'm making some serious progress (in between bruising myself).

We played some Resonance of Fate yesterday, not a lot. But enough to make the house feel normal. So, we're settling in and it feels nice.

Just a funny moment.

2010-07-27T21:35:00.002-04:00

While we were in Evansville this weekend, we ended up playing this game called Sniglets with some friends new and old. Basically, someone reads a definition and everyone makes up a word that could mean that. The real word is thrown into the mix and you all vote for the right answer. It's a really simple game. I'm pretty sure we own the same game with a different name somewhere.

Anyway, in the middle of the game the definition was "The word for putting non-food items (batteries, chips, etc) into the refrigerator to extend the life of the items."

My immediate answer was "Idiocy" and Mavis' answer was "Idiotic". And we didn't even have to compare notes. The person reading the answers announced that we must've been married for a long time because we submitted the same answer. Imagine her embarrassment when I had to tell her that we aren't married, we've just been together for over half a decade.

At any rate, all our friends had a good laugh at our almost the same answers.

...and we're back!

2010-07-26T19:01:00.003-04:00

I know we've been gone for a while, but we had a lot of stuff to do in Indiana this time.

Not /really/ a whole lot going on around here. Preparing to move, got all the utilities turned on today, renewed our license plates, I'm actually beginning to put the trivia game for Mavis' birthday party.

We're playing through the new Sam and Max right now, and have put Resonance of Fate on hold.

Not a whole lot entertaining to blog about yet. Just getting ready to move, and that's not entertaining to read about. The whole house is being overrun with boxes.

Frontierville is the newest facebook game that I've been playing, and it's a lot of fun. It has guests, and collection things. The problem with it is, that if you collect things and then turn them in for prizes and things you'll inevitably you'll need them later on for another quest and then it's practically impossible to get the things you need back. So you need several friends to send you the shit (sometimes literally) you need. It's been a great source of frustration.

Challenge 3

2010-07-15T14:23:00.004-04:00

This weeks Dooce challenge was to learn something. At the beginning of the week, I had no idea what I could learn in such a short amount of time. I've always wanted to learn French, but that will take YEARS. No way I could learn that in a week. So, I'd all but given up on learning something new until yesterday.

Yesterday, the toilet clogged. I have been blessed with regularity. I've never had a toilet clog before (except that one time, when our apartment was full of culprits and we had to borrow a plunger and even then LumberJohn took care of it), so here I am clogged toilet and no plunger. I called Mavis and explained that the toilet had stopped flushing and he needed to go buy a plunger before coming home.

So, he went and bought the MASTER PLUNGER (tm) and brought it home and handed it to me. Apparently he's never plunged a toilet either. There we were two moderately educated adult individuals and neither of us knew how to plunge a toilet. I gave it a go a couple of times (I mean it's a fucking plunger, not rocket science. As far as I know you put it in the toilet, push on it a couple of times and voila the toilet flushes again...right?) only it didn't work that way, and Mavis was too busy to bother. So, I do the thing I always do when I need help and have no earthly idea what the fuck I'm doing: I call my dad. At midnight.

I said "Hey, how to you plunge a toilet?" and he laughs at me. For several minutes. And then I guess he realizes that I'm being serious, and says well...you get yourself a plunger, and make sure it's got suction and push a couple of times. I told him "I've done that. It's not working." Then he got colorful and told me to try again, or leave it to work itself by morning. I found that disgusting, and gave it one more go while I was on the phone with him (and not unlike everything else that's broken and needs fixed if I'm on the phone with my dad they automatically fix themselves.) and it worked!

And that's how I learned to plunge a toilet.

Photo Weds

2010-07-14T13:45:00.002-04:00

Sometimes, it's pretty good to be me:

To wake up to people who love me, and are smiling. And yes, Koda is a people. Good morning to all of you!

July 13th!

2010-07-13T20:32:00.002-04:00

As far as I know, Shannon is still in labor. But as she is actually IN labor, we're making plans to head to Evansville this weekend. We're going to try and head over on Friday, and go see them in Madisonville sometime during the weekend. Then we're going to go spend a few days at my parents' house.

So, woo! Soon we'll have Cheeseburger and cheap wonderful American Chinese takeout. Oh, and donuts. I think it's sad that we have to look forward to good foods. Why can't we have good foods here in Oxford?

Anyway, I'm still trying to work out how to see all the new grad students in a timely manner when they get here. There are a lot of potential new friends coming in, and I want to get to know some of them before they get all clique-y. Ah well, it'll happen I guess.

Mavis is making headway on his reading list. I started Resonance of Fate, and then handed it off to Mavis to play. The combat system is more his style (not that it was hard, or I didn't really enjoy it. It's just that he enjoys it a whole lot.), and I really like the story line, the characters, and the art choices. So far we're both really enjoying the game. Woot!

Pancakes

2010-07-12T21:03:00.003-04:00

I love pancakes. But this hasn't always been the case. When I was a kid, my mom used to make "pancakes". She was always a little heavy on the butter in the pan, and they came out greasy. Every.time. So, one weekend I spent the night at my friend Megan's house and they made pancakes and homemade donuts for breakfast on Saturday mornings. Without fail, every Saturday.

Now, Megan LOVED pancakes. Her mom made the lightest, fluffiest pancakes I've ever seen. Plus, sometimes they were in cool shapes. But the weirdest thing about Megan, was that she put peanut butter on her pancakes. Instead of the butter (or margarine) MY mom made us use, Megan got to use peanut butter. After some protestations that that seemed like the grossest thing on the earth to do to pancakes (remember that my mom's pancakes were just greasy batter), she finally convinced me to try it. And that was the day that my pancake love started.

So, I went home and convinced my mom to not use any butter and to use the griddle to make pancakes (which I know are technically griddle cakes, but whatevs.), so we have light and fluffy pancakes. And on that day, my sister was /maybe/ 6 years old and was very impressionable. I told my mom that I didn't want to put butter on my pancakes any longer, I wanted the peanut butter. She looked at me funnily (but was obliging, as she always is in food) and fetched the peanut butter.

My sister (very much like me at that stage, and still to this day), was very disgusted by the thought of putting peanut butter on ones pancakes. She protested and protested, until I told her to shut up and try it. I'm pretty sure she's glad she listened to me, because she hasn't used regular butter on her pancakes since, either.

Woot!

2010-07-09T00:10:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to announce that after hours of had work, Agarest War is finished.

That is all. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Photo Weds

2010-07-07T18:12:00.003-04:00

As I've mentioned before, we've been getting our boxes from the liquor store. That being said this is what our living room looks like today:

Basically, it looks like we just went out and bought cases and cases of beer and wine. Our neighbors are going to think we're alcoholics. Yay for us.

Packing

2010-07-06T18:26:00.004-04:00

Since I finally got some boxes yesterday, I have been packing today. Unfortunately, the liquor store only has smallish boxes, so that means twice the number of boxes to load and unload. But maybe that means that they won't be quite as heavy? I guess I'll just hope for that.

The guest room is 98% packed. We don't have any boxes big enough to pack all the comforters and pillows away, and I need a new wrapping paper tote for all the wrapping paper that I have in there. Other than that, that room is ready to go. So, I started in on the office and used all the boxes that I had left packing up all Mavis' books. So far, 5 boxes of books and counting. And DAMN they are heavy.

While I'm slaving away packing, Mavis is doing some serious grinding in Agarest Wars. Soon it will be over, and he's practically done with Red Dead Redemption so I'll be beginning a new game sooner rather than later. I'm looking at you Resonance of Fate.

I'll soon be done packing up the office and have to pack away all the games in the living room though, so we need to power through those two games as soon as possible. Hopefully the game boxes won't be as heavy as the book boxes. Because if they are we're in some serious trouble.

I need to have the entire apartment emptied by the evening of the 30th, so that I can spend all morning cleaning on the 31st. Then the evening of 31st is Mavis' birthday party/defense celebration/welcome first years party. It's going to be a stressful weekend.

Also, somewhere in there this month I have to put a pub quiz type of deal together for the party. Woo for July!

Uneventful holiday

2010-07-05T19:50:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the 4th, and we didn't leave the house. We didn't see /any/ fireworks. Mavis took the whole day off and we spent the entire day playing Agarest Wars. We beat the "last" boss, and have entered into the dungeon crawl portion of the game. It's extremely difficult. And incredibly annoying. And I am looking forward to the end. That statement makes me sad.

I finished The Dead Zone, and let me tell you the last season is really terrible. The second through fifth seasons were really excellent, but that last season (which was effected by the move from Montreal to Vancouver) was just plain bad. I have started the Lie To Me series now, and so far it's interesting. I'm reserving judgment for now.

Mavis got boxes from the liquor store today, so tomorrow I should be able to pack up some more boxes. I'm hoping to get the entire guest room packed up by the end of the week. Then I can concentrate on the office next week. If I stay on top of it, I can get it all packed up and ready to go by the 30th.

Revision, revision, revision...

2010-07-01T23:00:00.002-04:00

Thesis is finished, and now is being revised. Woot.

July is here, and that means I need to start packing. A friend of mine says that I should hit up the liquor store on delivery day for their boxes. So, I hope that that won't be too far off. I bagged up a bunch of clothing to be donated today, now if I can just get it to the damn donation box.

I'm currently watching The Dead Zone. It's keeping me entertained while Mavis is writing. I'm already up to season 4. I personally think it's getting better. Either that or my intelligence is going sour due to all the crap TV I've been watching.

No gaming update, since Mavis isn't around to play.

Since we haven't heard any baby update from the Kitchens', I guess we'll be in town for the weekend. Unless something comes up.

Photo Weds

2010-06-30T12:17:00.003-04:00

This is the face of someone who stayed up working until 10a this morning on his thesis:
A thesis that is /not/ finished, and that he will have to go back to working on in a few hours after he's slept for four hours. I'm fairly certain (as I'm not a doctor), that this is not a healthy behavior and he needs more sleep than that. But since he's been doing this for something like 30 days now, I suppose one more day won't kill him. I hope.

Alllllmost July

2010-06-28T18:19:00.004-04:00

This is a big week for us. First of all (and most importantly) Mavis' thesis is due on Wednesday. That means he'll be done with it. No more staying up all night writing, no more stressing out about meetings, the thesis will be done. Woot! Maybe we can get back to some normal couple things. Like eating together. Or playing games at not 2a.

Secondly, we get to give our 30 days notice to Indian Trace on Thursday! We are so close to being out of this apartment and into our new townhouse (with seemingly normal neighbors!) I can almost taste it. I have two boxes packed already, and will be packing many more in the next couple of weeks.

At any rate, I'll be really glad when this week is over and we move firmly into the month of July. Then we'll be on the lookout for the Kitchens' baby to arrive, Mavis will be making some progress on his reading list, we'll be celebrating his birthday at the end of the month, and the much anticipated move to the new place.

Anyway, this weeks Dooce Community challenge is to stop and savor the moment. To treat yourself to something you haven't had in a long while and take someone to savor the moment with you. I'm looking forward to thinking of a way to do this challenge.

No excuses

2010-06-24T21:01:00.002-04:00

I have absolutely no excuse for not updating yesterday. Mavis has been gone for the last two weeks, and I have had absolutely nothing to do. So, why haven't I been posting regularly? Because I didn't feel like it. Actually, I haven't felt like doing anything. Somehow this doesn't seem right. I think I'm coming down with the cold version of depression. The kind you come down with. The kind that extroverts get when they don't see people for weeks. Yes, exactly that kind.

I've watched the entire series Dead Like Me in the last couple of days, and it was only "meh." I even watched the Life After Death, movie length episode that was really crap because it didn't have Mandy Patinkin in it.

That's what I've been doing for the last couple of days. No, it's not glamorous. I'm not even convinced that it was fun, but that's what I did. Woo for me. I unplugged from my laptop and reconnected with the TV. How exciting.

We're down to the last battle in Agarest Wars. It was attempted and failed. Miserably. Grinding to commence as soon as Mavis can find his way out of his thesis.

Unplug and reconnect

2010-06-22T13:31:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the lack of update yesterday. The Dooce Community is doing this weekly challenge thing, and this weeks challenge is titled "Unplug and reconnect". Basically, it's a challenge to get back to what you really enjoy. Unplug yourself from the computer, the TV, the whatever and do something you used to love, or reconnect with people that you don't get to spend as much time with or talking to as you'd like.

Some people over there were making weekly goals like: my family usually eats dinner in front of the TV, so my goal this week is to turn off the TV and have sit down dinner at the table three times this week. Or I use my laptop so much that it's affecting my relationship, I vow to turn off the laptop and reconnect with my husband. Etc, you get the point.

Well, Mavis has been gone for at least a week. He comes home passes out, and then goes back to campus to write more on his thesis. Eating dinner at the table with him is out (even though we don't watch TV while we eat). So, reconnecting with him is out.

I used to love to read, maybe I'll pick up some books that I've been meaning to read and read them. Unfortunately, the book that I really WANT to read (The Black Cat) I don't own and it isn't out in paperback anyway.

Oh well, I guess at least I barely used my laptop yesterday. I really do need to get Mavis' birthday invitations out soon though. Maybe I'll do that today.

I'm in a hurry

2010-06-17T11:19:00.002-04:00

But, I wanted to share this with you if you haven't seen it yet. Dom's mom posted this on the facebook yesterday, and I'm still laughing about it.

And I needed a good laugh today.

Mavis is almost done with his thesis. He has one more chapter, and then revisions. Woo. Then he gets to start in on his reading list. This is going to be one long summer.

Photo Weds

2010-06-16T20:48:00.002-04:00

I wanted to show you a close up of the other two prints so:

Here's Larsa, and what appears to be a headless man, but really it's just his evil brother Vayne.

And here is Ashe, Balthier, and the lovely Fran.

I hate titles.

2010-06-15T21:50:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the late update today folks. Mavis has broken his laptop charger and can't use his laptop to work, so he's been going up to campus and writing for the last few days; resulting in my not seeing him or anyone else in a longer period than I would like. Which in turn leads to my waking up and feeling like no one likes me, everyone hates me and I might as well go eat worms. Which turns into a depressed and crying mood which is very unlike me and I hate it. SO, I took a nap to rid myself of a crying headache and watched The Trouble With Harry.

The Trouble with Harry is that he's dead. Forgive me. Anyway, to my knowledge it's Shirley MacLaine's debut role, and she did a wonderful job. The movie itself was really sort of meandering. But, I suppose it was an enjoyable movie.

Anyway, after the movie I checked my twitter to find this waiting for me. And all of you Criminal Minds fans should go right this second and sign the petition. Or not, if you don't like AJ Cook or Paget Brewster. But, I do, and I did. All of the CM cast members are tweeting about it maniacally, and are not unsurprisingly upset and bewildered. The logical thing to do is cut Paget since she's the newest member, but she's grown on me and I would be sad to see her go. I'm not sure the team would be the same without AJ, but I guess it might be simpler in the storyline to let her go. She could run off with her New Orleans detective and that baby back to Louisiana or something. Either way, it will be sad to see either one of them go.

E3!

2010-06-14T15:21:00.005-04:00

E3 started coverage earlier today, and I've been watching it for a little while now. So far, kinect looks cool, and Rock Band 3 looks pretty awesome. I guess learning how to play the keyboard will be fun. G4 has some trailers for the top 10 most anticipated games at E3, and the top 10 necessary sequels that need to be made. Both are worth watching if you are so inclined.

I finally made a decision about the frames, and framed the two FFXII prints. It just made sense to me, and that was my original intent when I requested them built. So, here they are, and yes, the picture is shit because my phone doesn't have a zoom. Maybe the new iPhone 4 will have zoom.

Dexter season 4 was released on itunes today for $3 an episode. If you're interested. Netflix should have season 4 in August. Also, They Stole Max's Brain has been announced for June 22.

No internets blows

2010-06-11T10:35:00.001-04:00

Time Warner came out, broke shit and left. Now they're not coming back out until Sunday. Awesome. Now I'm left updating my blog from my phone.

I finally found a piece of cardboard big enough to use as a backing for one of my posters. It was very lucky that someone in the complex bought a new head and foot boards from Ikea yesterday!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Miami Western Dr,Oxford,United States

Photo Weds

2010-06-09T15:40:00.002-04:00

This was not taken by me, but rather by LumberJohn in London last week (since I still haven't made up my mind about the silk prints):

How awesome is that? I want to head to London next and visit the Holmes museum, and all the other Holmesian things that I can find to do!

Return!

2010-06-08T10:46:00.002-04:00

Wow! That was a long weekend. I got a lot accomplished though. I got my huge picture frames built, got the garbage disposal replaced at my parents, saw some friends, celebrated a baby that's soon to be born, ate some really awesome food, and now I've returned to Oxford.

The trip home was a good one, although short. I got to spend a LOT of time working with my Dad in Pike, which means I didn't get a lot of free time to do whatever I wanted, or spend time with my sister; but it was a good time anyway. Our time in Evansville was SUPER short. We got in with a couple of hours to spare before the baby shower on Saturday, and then left after dinner on Sunday. We're hoping to be able to get back for the actual birth of the baby next month. Assuming that some unannounced thesis crisis, or something else doesn't come up, that's what we're aimed to do.

Now that I have my picture frames, I'm trying to decide which silk prints to put in them. When I asked my dad in March to build them, I had intended on putting the two FFXII prints in them (the smaller of the large picture frames was always going to have the P4 print in it). But now that I have the frames and I'm making the decision...I just don't know. I mean it makes /sense/ to put the two FFXII prints in the matching frames, but I love P3 much more. I just don't want it to look silly with the two huge frames with prints that don't match. Decisions, decisions. Hopefully, I'll have made one by tomorrow, and I'll post a picture of them. I also want the four small Persona prints framed, but fortunately, I found some frames on Amazon that will fit those and I don't have to build them.

We buckled down yesterday, and wanted to finish (well, Mavis wanted) Agarest Wars. Well, that didn't happen. I hit a snag in the game, where even after grinding for the 20 + hours that he did in the second generation we're under leveled. So, we decided to get all the titles we could up to this point instead. We got some of the 5th generation done yesterday, but not a whole lot. The 5th generation is definitely my favorite so far, and I will be sad to see it end. Dom brought Agarest Zero to my attention sometime last week; and it's supposed to be a prequel to Agarest Wars, so I'm hoping that it gets localized and we can look forward to that.

As you know, Mavis has already started Red Dead Redemption, so when I finish Agarest Wars, we'll be talking about that for a while. They Stole Max's Brain (Sam and Max Season 3 Episode 3) will be released mid-June, and I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, I have no other gaming updates or news to report.

Photo (video) Weds

2010-06-02T10:34:00.002-04:00

I'm harried today, and will try and post an actual photo when we make it to Pike (no promises, though). I do want to show this video (if you haven't seen it already).

I like Felicia Day. :)

Imagine witty title here

2010-05-31T19:17:00.002-04:00

Agarest Wars is moving along. We have entered the 5th generation, and the end is near. So far, I feel like the 5th generation has been the best generation. The main character has a great personality. I am looking forward to playing more of this generation. Thumbs up, for a great ending generation.

Mavis started Red Dead Redemption. So far I have seen him ride around on a horse and shoot helpless furry creatures. I saw him do one main quest, but mostly he rides around and shoots bunnies. Or play poker. He seems to be having fun.

That's the game update.

I'm making plans for the new townhouse. Dom and I went to the Ikea today and checked out some stuff. I'm planning on buying two desks and placing them partner style in the office. Then painting one wall with dry erase paint, so that when disseration time comes around for Mavis he can write all over the wall like a giant white board. Then placing a comfy chair in a corner so that when he needs to read, or when I want to hang out in the office while he works I can do so.

I have some big plans for the bedroom as well, but I'm still working them out. I'm mostly excited about the office, then I have some anxiety about the living room. Since we don't know if we can get our current couch out of the apartment, we looked at some sectionals at Ikea today. But I need to get back in there and do some measuring before I make any firm decisions.

The Ikea as-is department has an AWESOME mirror 65% off. It was perfect for us, except it was too large to fit in Dom's car. So, hopefully I can take the Uhaul down there and pick it up when we move. I totally fell in love with it. They have some really fantastic stuff down in the as-is department. Just want to make sure you've seen this website, if you haven't already.

I'm SO ready to have guests over to the new place. It's been forever.

Chinese fortune cookie

2010-05-27T21:40:00.001-04:00

I went to lunch with Chanon today, and at the end of the meal our fortune cookies were brought out. Mine contained this message:

"Success is moving from failure to failure without a change in enthusiasm."

Thanks fortune cookie. I feel better.

Photo Weds

2010-05-26T22:51:00.002-04:00

Just LOOK at what Mavis' thesis is doing to my living room:

!! Books are freaking EVERYWHERE!

Evansville-time!

2010-05-25T10:18:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to make /another/ announcement that we'll be in Evansville for a little while next week. I'm trying to make arrangements that we'll be in Evansville for 4 days, and Pike for 4 days. I know it's not a lot of time, but it's better than nothing. I think we'll be doing Evansville first, since Shannon's baby shower will be happening (though I admit to wanting to know whether it's happening on Saturday or Sunday...I'm not really sure I want it to turn into a 5 day:5 day trip. 10 days is a LONG time to be away from the happenings in Oxford). Anyway, the plan is to be in Evansville next Wednesday the 2nd.

Anyway, that's the travel update, now it's time for the weather. (ha!)

We restarted the 4th generation in Agarest Wars last night, because the first time we weren't quite the right alignment to see all the CGs of boobies. So, now we're trying to get that done properly. I am annoyed, since I tried to do it this way the first time. But I think Mavis has plans of re-playing until we're back to the point that I was at. Hopefully, when that time comes I can wrest the controller away from him.

I don't have any funny stories today. I can report that more vandalism has been going on uptown. Over the weekend, some teenagers tagged a couple of prominent businesses uptown. Unfortunately for them, the buildings mentioned are covered by security cameras. Not to mention that they left the spray paint cans behind, /and/ the bucked that they were standing on to do the tagging. Hopefully, THESE hoodlums are the same bastards that came through and slashed tires. I sort of doubt it though, but if they can make the connection they have DNA evidence from both scenes.

...I have watched too much CSI.

Anyway, the townhouse is final, and we're looking forward to having people over to celebrate. Once we get all our stuff sorted and put away(and as soon as I finish picking out wall hangings, rugs, and things). Maybe a welcome to the neighborhood party, for all the n00bs coming in.

Stuff'n things.

2010-05-24T16:10:00.002-04:00

The last half of last week was spent in West Lafayette. We went up there so Mavis could do his presentation on Metal Gear (.....Metal....Gear....?), and we had a good time. I wouldn't want to live there, but it certainly has a lot more awesome food choices than Oxford. So, all in all it was a good time. I got to see my sister, and that's always nice.

Today we went to see the ACTUAL townhouse that we'd be moving into, and it was nice. We signed the lease then and there. Now all we have to do is tell Indian Trace that we're not renewing. We also set it up so we'd be moving the last couple of days in July. Which will be tricky, since Mavis will be defending his thesis AND we'll be throwing his birthday party; but we will only have to pay one rent (which is good, because paying two would have been tricky), and we'll have lots of people in town to help us cart things over to the new place. We will have to rent a Uhaul or something to get all the book shelves and things over there, but an in town move is pretty cheap.

Agarest Wars is moving along pretty swiftly. We entered the 4th generation last night, and while I may have to re-do the whole thing, it's moving along at a nice pace. The main character for the 4th gen is a whiny fuck, but the love interests are very cute. So, there is still some balance. Mavis is looking forward to playing Red Dead Redemption next, and I hope he enjoys it. I've read a lot of reviews and hardly any of them were glowing. Some of them were saying that it's a good game for approximately 4 or 5 hours, and then it's just more of the same.

But they could just be sandbox game haters. Who knows.

Also: "“Every time a heterosexual female sleeps with a man – a good one, a bad one, it doesn’t matter – she becomes bonded to that man, and no other man can exist for her. This is because the hormone oxytocin starts surging through her veins. So proceed with caution – one good orgasm, and your bonds to any Joe Schmo are chemically reinforced. The more you have sex, the stronger the bond. This is the reason why women all over the world just can’t seems to leave their loser boyfriends, even though their brains, friends, family, even the garbage man, are telling them to dump him.”"

The above is a true statement. You can look it up. You're welcome.

Decisions, decisions...

2010-05-19T11:47:00.003-04:00

I wanted to post this yesterday, but it was a long day. So, we went to view the duplex (which was sort of a complete letdown) and the guy showing it to us said there were more properties that he could show us if we were interested and of course, since we want to get the fuck out of dodge we said yes.

He took us to some townhouses that they own, and they were in a nice neighborhood. They had three bedrooms, it's a two story building so all the bedrooms are upstairs. The kitchen was nice and large. The living room has a wood burning fireplace. AND the place comes with it's own washer and dryer.

Then he took us to Victoria's Square. Which is a set of apartments that I've had my eye on for a while. But unfortunately, all the remodeled units are occupied. The remodeled units have hardwood floors, a dishwasher and new cabinetry. So, our choice of apartments there were with really ugly carpet, only two bedrooms, and no dishwasher. Plus it is close to the railroad tracks. But I would have put up with the railroad tracks, IF there had been a remodeled apartment available...because they are gorgeous.

We came home and talked about it for a while, and I called Tom (the property handler guy) and set up a date to see the ACTUAL townhouse that we would be moving into on Monday. What I really like about this property management is that there isn't any pet deposit. We pay an extra $25 a month, and not only does that pay for Koda it will pay for any additional pet we may decide to have!

Now here's hoping that the gentle living that we've done in Indian Trace for the last two years has been gentle enough that we can get back our security deposit AND our pet deposit. Because we haven't done anything in this apartment. There aren't any pictures on the walls, we BARELY lean things up against the walls. Sure, it needs a good cleaning...but, hopefully we can get that money back.

Also, I guess while I was talking to Hugo yesterday Mavis said something about wanting to move in mid-July. I really don't want to do that. If we move mid-July, then we have to pay two rents in July, and that might be hard. If we can wait until the end of July, when we have friends coming in for Mavis' birthday then we'll have help to move AND we won't have to pay two rents. Unfortunately, that is also the time that Mavis will need to be studying for his exam. So, I'll probably have to do all the packing myself (which is fine. And I'll need boxes. Anyone have any boxes?), but hopefully I can get some of our friends to help us carry boxes, and tote things across town in their cars so we don't have to rent a uhaul (since we're probably going to have to cut that couch out of here. *sadface*)

Looks like a trip to Ikea will be in order in August sometime. Playing games on the floor is going to suck.

One thing or another

2010-05-17T12:03:00.000-04:00

If it's not one thing, it's another here at Indian Trace. Last Friday they posted a sign about renewal paperwork being due on Monday (today). They hadn't given us any renewal paperwork, so I was confused. Since we haven't had any luck finding a new place to go, I sent Mavis to the office to ask where our paperwork was (so they didn't find a replacement tenant and kick us out unannounced...which I would TOTALLY not be surprised if they did). They said they'd get us the paperwork on Monday (and they did, it was stuffed under the door when we woke up); well in my frantic search to find somewhere else to live, I found a duplex.

Unfortunately, they aren't available to show it to us until tomorrow. So our renewal paperwork will be late, if we submit it at all. We've been living in this apartment for two years now, and they've RAISED the rent on us twice now. In our renewal paperwork, they're raising the rent up to $630. Which I could maybe understand if they were doing anything with that money. They could be using it to put in security cameras or something, but they're not. They just want to charge us more money to live here, in this unsafe place.

So, I don't really want to sign this lease. The duplex that we're looking at tomorrow is $550 a month, with a washer and dryer in the unit. It only has two bedrooms, but it's not like we use the bedrooms that we have now. But it will be a large cut in space. We will be living on a cul de sac though, and we already have friends that live over there (who assure us that the street and surrounding neighborhoods are safe, quiet, nice places). It is outside of town so, we wouldn't be surrounded by undergrads. Also, it would be a hell of a lot easier to have guests over, and to host parties.

I'll keep you all updated, but this is our situation as of right now. I'm not quite sure how I'll like living in a duplex, but surely to jesus it can't be worse than here in this apartment.....or living with Mavis' mom. Keep your fingers crossed.

Puzzle Quest = finished

2010-05-14T13:26:00.002-04:00

Mavis and I started Puzzle Quest approximately 9 or so months ago. He played it for a while, and then sort of forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago. He picked it back up for a day or so, and then got bored with it again. Since then I've been playing it while he writes, or revises, or grades or whatever it is he's doing; and yesterday I finally finished it.

Granted he had to come and do some trickery to allow me to finish the final battle, but I finished it. It's over. Finished. And now I find myself needing something to do while he revises his Computers and Writing presentation. I could start Summon Night, but I don't really want to do that. I wish I had a bunch of Criminal Minds episodes backed up on the DVR, but I don't.

Maybe I'll start RockBand. That doesn't really count as a game...right?

And now with Supernatural over for the summer and Bones' finale is next week, all my "new" shows are over for the summer. Psych starts back on July 21st. So I guess it's time to take a gamecation, and try and catch up on all the games I have in my backlog.

I found a guy on twitter yesterday, that if we lived closer we could be BFF. Except that I /have/ finished the new episode of Sam and Max, and FFXIII. I'm making some good progress on Agarest Wars as well (the second generation is still sort of sucky. I'm not pleased with either of my love interests yet. I'll soldier on though.). But yes, he plays all the games that I am AND he got to go to the Coheed and Cambria concert earlier this month. I'm hoping maybe we can be tweeps or whatever. Because he loves all my games. AND my favorite music? Sweet.

Catching up

2010-05-13T12:14:00.002-04:00

I am becoming a terrible blogger! I've been trying to get a review together for Agarest Wars, since there seems to be only one out there; and I don't agree with it. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you are or what type of game you enjoy), it's a 100+ hour game. Someone powered through it (on my twitter feed), in 103 hours. It's LONG (pun intended). So far though, I have only a few complaints:

1. There isn't an English voice option. I know this game is aimed at fanboys who really enjoy the Japanese voice cast, but I would really love to not have to read all the dialogue (especially after 12 hours non-stop). Minor complaint, and most people who are playing this game aren't going to care.

2. After 12 hours, the constant (I don't want to say grind, but I guess technically it IS) grind of battles is a little tiring. But, if you're only playing 3 or 4 hours at a time, it doesn't really seem so terrible.

3. The second generation is crap. There, I said it. Granted, I've only been playing the second generation for a couple of hours, but, Ladifour is no Leonhardt. I'm hoping that the second generation is going to get better. But, so far, it sort of sucks.

In other game news, Red Dead Redemption comes out next week, and Mavis is looking forward to it. I on the other hand would love to see him play some of the games I bought him for Xmas. But, it is his choice and I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of stuff about RDR next week.
--

Ok, I realize that some people actually read this blog to know what we're up to. And since my last blog, we've actually done some fun things (yay!). We saw Iron Man 2. Which was good, it was just as good as the first one. I still love Robert Downey Jr, and Gweneth Paltrow. Scarlett Johannson on the other hand, I could talk about all day. But I won't, unless someone asks me to, and then I can.

We finished season 2 of Buffy. We're moving speedily along the Buffy train. It's not as terrible as I thought, and I am sort of enjoying it. I will, however, be thrilled when I can move onto Angel. But season 2 of Buffy, is finished.

We've also done some house hunting. We drove around looking at what Oxford Properties had to offer us (which was damn little). Mavis wants to be able to live in town and walk to campus, but I don't think that's going to happen. All the houses in town are surrounded by sorority or fraternity houses. And I'm not going to put up with that. Morgan (one of the new incoming grad students) found some really cute neighborhoods that we drove around and looked at for her. Which makes me wonder, where in the world is she getting her information?!

I'm going to expand my search to just outside the city limits, so that maybe we can have some peace and quiet. We're keeping our fingers crossed. With the theft (and subsequent return) of our welcome mat last week, we are upping our search for a new place to stay.

I'm starting to think about Mavis' birthday party. We're thinking of having a Pub Night. Whip up some fish and chips, bangers and mash, etc and play some darts and trivia. And possibly some cornhole, if we can find some. This is just an idea, and for those of you who don't know; Mavis is defending his thesis on his actual birthday. Send love, cause we're going to need it.

Oh yeah...

2010-05-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

I has a twitter:

http://twitter.com/phantommistress

Whoops.

2010-05-06T12:44:00.002-04:00

I've been playing Puzzle Quest for the last couple of days while waiting on Mavis to finish his papers, proposals, and grading. We started Puzzle Quest last year sometime, then forgot about it, and then Mavis picked it back up on Monday (after finishing DAO:A). I won't lie, I'm much better at this game than Mavis.

I'm playing along and BAM! all of Tuesday is gone. I didn't even check my facebook! And that's saying something.

So, that's why I forgot to update yesterday and Tuesday. I played Puzzle Quest for SO long that my eyes went crossed. Apologies. But it's definitely worth the $9.99 that we paid for it. If you like the Puzzle Quest, mechanics that is.

I've seen a lot of good games for the 360 recently, Puzzle Quest being one of them. Agarast Wars is for the 360 (I know you can download it to the PS3, but I like having the actual disc). I know, I can make an argument for the PS3 too. (and yes, I am a PS fangirl) but I am finding myself more games to play on the 360. And Mavis is having more games to play on the PS3 because he likes more action-y things.

(Completely unrelated sidenote, I'm catching up on the past Criminal Minds episodes that I missed! I saw last nights episode in an order to stay current. I hate Garcias red hair.)

Back to Puzzle Quest! At least until Mavis can finish his shit, and we can get started on Agarast Wars!

1, 2, 3...

2010-05-03T20:42:00.003-04:00

1. Mavis has finally finished Dragon Age Origins: Awakening! This means it's my turn, and I can move on to the Record of Agarast Wars! I'm super excited.

2. If you haven't seen this website, shame on you.

3. I have officially given up on Knights in the Nightmare. I kept forcing myself to play and Mavis told me I was being silly and to stop playing if I wasn't having fun. So, I quit.

And, as a bonus: We will be home the first week in June. Make plans!

Random

2010-04-30T11:51:00.003-04:00

I think that friendships wax and wane, and if they aren't tended to they will wither and fade away. Sometimes this is because some people didn't realize that they were just putting up a front because it was habit, and it was easier to let it slide away and die; and other times it's because you become so busy that you sort of forget to tend to the friendship and by the time you remember you're both too embarrassed to try to reconnect.

I have some of both. I like to imagine that most people do.

I feel like the two friends that let their friendship go, because of the drifting apart or the growing up or whatever it was; shouldn't try and shoehorn the friendship back into their lives because they're lonely. Sure, if you honestly think that you can be friends again and the other person WANTS to be friends again, give it a try. But don't, just say, hey. That person was good for entertainment, why don't I look them up and have them entertain me until I can find new and better friends and then lose them again. It's just not fair.

Tend your friendships, unless you don't wanna. But don't blame me when you're sad and all alone.

Family Feud

2010-04-29T13:28:00.008-04:00

Just for fun, someone sent me this this morning.  And since, I had nothing better to
blog about today, this is what you get.  Feel free to comment your answers.

1.  Name something you use in the shower?  A loofah.
2.  Something people hate to find on their windshield?  Parking ticket.
3.  Name something a man might buy before a  date?  Flowers.
4.  What is something you cook in the microwave?  Hot Pocket
5.  Name a reason a younger man might like an older woman?  Money?
6.  Name an item found in a man's pocket?  Keys.
7.  Name something a dog does that embarrasses its owner?  Humps someone.
8.  Name a kind of test you cannot study for?   Blood test.      
9.  Name a phrase with the word 'home' in it?  You can't go home again.
10. Name a sport where players loose teeth?  Hockey.
11. Name something a teacher can do to ruin a good day?  Pop quiz.
12. Name a fruit that isn't round?  Pears.
13. Name a bird you wouldn't want to eat?  Buzzard.
14. Name something you wear with a hole in it?  Shoes.
15. Name something that gets smaller the more you use it?  An eraser.
16. Name something that can brighten your day?  Ice cream.

Photo Weds

2010-04-28T20:39:00.005-04:00

Just to prove that I have Josh's birthday present wrapped, labeled and ready to go to the post office, here it is:

So, be on the look out for it. Mavis is thinking about overnight-ing it tomorrow, so it'll arrive on time.

Sam and Max

2010-04-27T16:41:00.000-04:00

Season 3 of Sam and Max was released by telltale games last week. Telltale has been releasing these games in episodic form for a couple of years now, and we really enjoy them. We bought Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse last night from the playstation network, and then we proceeded to spend the rest of our evening playing and beating it.

At first, the game was a little confusing. We started it over TWICE to make sure we hadn't accidentally skipped through some prologue or something, but when we finally gave in and decided that all would be revealed in time; it was a great time. It wasn't nearly as involved as the last season, and the puzzles weren't as complicated or frustrating (which I sort of missed, actually.)

I felt that it was sort of short, but that probably has something to do with the fact that we usually wait until the full season is out before purchasing and playing. But, since we had friends asking about the game, we bit the bullet and started playing early. So, now with all that said...

In the Devil's Playhouse, Max has inherited psychic powers and a space gorilla has invaded the City. We get to deal with learning how to properly use Max's powers and try and banish the space gorilla back to The Penal Zone (yes, that's really what it's called). We finished this episode in probably 5 hours; so yes, it's VERY short. But it was still funny, and it still had the Sam and Max heart.

It was well worth the wait. But I warn you Telltale, I don't want to wait that long for Season 4. It won't be pretty! Episode 2 (The Tomb of Sammun-Mak) will be released next month sometime. And already, I can't wait. Great job Telltale!

Thought of the day

2010-04-26T18:49:00.001-04:00

I just realized that I go to people who don't automatically try and fix my problems. I talk to them about my problems, and then ASK what they think. I try and avoid the types of people who try and fix as I talk.

So, are you more drawn to fixers or listeners?

Holly's Homestyle Eats and Sweets

2010-04-22T16:36:00.002-04:00

Just discovered this bakery, and am now dying to go! It's apparently out in College Corner, IN. It should be a short 20 minute drive. Now, if we could just find the time to drive out there and taste test some (apparently) wonderful desserts!

This is just one more thing that I'm hoping to get around to doing sometime this summer. Along with play my way through all the games I've been putting off, and coming up with something AWESOME to do for Mavis' birthday.

Since we haven't had actual FOOD in this house in months, I have no new recipe to share this week. But you can look around at the above website and see if you might want to carpool over to CC with us and try it out in a couple of weeks.

Photo Weds

2010-04-21T23:34:00.003-04:00

This is the before and after edition of photo Wednesday. Here is a before picture of LumberJohn:

And a picture of the new LumberJohn:

I am awesome.

People are assholes pt. 2

2010-04-20T12:49:00.003-04:00

At Miami's last drag show of the year on Friday, at least two people (one of them a performer) were beaten by a group of guys outside the venue (Stadium). And the Oxford Press refuses to cover the story.

There has been absolutely NO coverage of the story. Which I think is awful. It's just CRAZY that the local paper isn't covering the story because it involves the drag show. Or just any unpleasantness at all. Please. Oxford is not perfect people. Sure, it may be filled with over privileged kids with bank accounts bigger than my entire family's put together; but it's not perfect. Even socialites can commit violent crime.

The Spectrum meeting tonight at 7p in room 102 at Bachelor Hall, will be discussing the attack AND the lack of coverage in the paper. If you're at all interested, PLEASE attend.

I can't believe that these two things happened (the tires and the beating) here. Oxford has been such a nice and quiet place to live so far, and then these two horrible things happen practically back to back. People are so cruel.

People are assholes

2010-04-19T11:47:00.003-04:00

Sometime early this morning or late last night some asshole came through the parking lot and slashed A tire on every car on one side of the lot. Unfortunately, one of those casualties was our car. Caroline (a friend and neighbor) said that she talked to our super and they counted up 27 tires slashed. She also said that whomever it was cut themselves near her car and the police had the CSI team out here this morning taking samples.

There was a policeman driving around patrolling last night, but of course he didn't catch anyone. What a wonderful thing to wake up to. At least we were awake to discover it, I'm feeling sorry for the people who got up and got ready to go to work that had to deal with the problem.

When I took Koda out this morning, I counted at least 6 cars that still had flats and one guy was mumbling and talking to himself while changing his tire. I've never had to change a tire before, and neither has Mavis; so we're nervous about doing it. I was hoping that someone we knew would come change it so we can drive somewhere and have it replaced.

I am just so mad, I don't even know what to say. How can someone slash 27 tires and not be noticed? WHY slash 27 tires in the first place? Why not just slash the person's tires that you're mad at and call it a night? It's not like we live in some shady place. We specifically chose this place because it wasn't shady, it's out of mile square, and not near fraternity row! This is supposed to be a nice place (even with all my complaining!).

I just want to get the tire replaced and put this behind me. But now I'm worried that it'll happen again. We can't replace a $100 tire every week. That's just ridiculous. Maybe I should resume looking for a house here in Oxford. It seemed like a futile idea, but maybe it would be worth it to move.

Be the Change

2010-04-16T12:24:00.002-04:00

Today is Be the Change day for pet lovers. It is also Break the Silence day for the LGBT community. I'm doing both. Pets without Parents is a no-kill shelter in Columbus, OH and that's exactly where your donations will go (if you decide to donate). If not, that's fine too. I just wanted to put it out there.

Criminal Minds

2010-04-15T15:58:00.007-04:00

I just discovered this show, and I can't get enough of it. I watch it whenever it's on. It's so awesome. It's about the truly depraved serial killers. Or just sick killers in general. It stars a team of profilers making up the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I just love the characters. Everyone loves Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore):

But the real reason I watch this show is:

He has an IQ of 187 and can read 20,000 words in a minute. He has multiple doctorates in Engineering, Mathematics, and Science. He has dual BA's in Sociology and Psychology. He's awesome. I LOVE Spencer Reid. He doesn't have the muscles or the gorgeous features of Shemar Moore, but I don't care. I'd take Spencer Reid over Derek Morgan any day.

But who's really surprised? I've always been this way.

Photo Weds

2010-04-14T18:17:00.003-04:00

This is one of those photos I was talking about last week. You know the ones from high school? Yeah, I look totally awesome.

Oh yes, I can most definitely rock that hat.

Oops

2010-04-13T22:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday while doing laundry, I pulled the muscle in my neck that prevented me from doing anything else all day long. I couldn't look up OR left. It sucked hardcore. It's more or less ok today, still sort of stiff and it still hurts to look up but at least I can roll my neck around today without crying. Yay!

Nothing really to report. Mavis is still playing Dragon Age Origins:Awakening, and I finished Riveria: The Promised Land. Riveria was good. And I would recommend anything done by the developer Sting. Dom loaned me Knights in the Nightmare (DS) a while back, and it's done by Sting. Now that I know that, I'm willing to put in the effort for the steep learning curve that everyone is going on about. He also loaned me Resonance of Fate last week, that I'm looking forward to playing as soon as Mavis beats DAO:A.

I've been thinking about downloading the BlogPress app for my phone. It supposedly allows you to post really quick updates from your phone. Anything from uploading photos to actually putting in a lengthy blog. I get ideas for updates or interesting things to photograph while we're out with friends, and I was hoping that maybe the app would help me log all those things in when I'm thinking about it, instead of trying to remember when I make it home. I'll think on it more, possibly if I think that people actually care to see interesting things I'll do it.

Unrelated, my cousin found out this week that his wife is having a girl, and they're naming it Elli-Jo. That is all.