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Oh, and today just keeps getting better... I specifically asked if there were mushrooms in the pie being served at lunchtime and was assured that there weren't.

There were.

Countdown to allergic reaction...

ETA: Allergic reaction has started. Am at home. Am now going to go to sleep until I've stopped itching.

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I would like to stab the world in the face.

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- this amazing stop-motion book-related animation from NZ is so gorgeous! I've been watching it once a day.

- also once a day, the surprised kitten, who never fails to make me AWWW. If anything can kill with cute, this is probably it.

- the unemployment people have finally answered my technical questions about the way to handle signing a publishing/translation contract without losing what's left of my unemployment benefits - ie, how to get 'suspended' but not struck out of their registers / not getting ni administrative trouble. YAY! Double yay: the snafu with my october paychecks for the English tutoring is over, and I will /finally/ get my October unemployment monies this week. Pfew. I can buy food and Xmas presents!

- and a tree! This week I'm buying a tree.

- there's room for the tree, cos I took loads of stuff to the recycling. :D

- Podcasts make me happy. I'm adding more and more to my rotation. Remind me to make a round up later (if anyone cares!)

- relatedly, my shuffle makes me happy. It is super tiny so it's easy to carry it everywhere, and I've finalyl gotten into the habit of updating/syncing daily. For the first time I chose the 'automatic updating' option, and I made a specific set of playlists for it (with only 3-stars podfic on), and now when I plug it in it updates with new random podfic + the newer podcasts. I listen to is while cooking, cleaning, shopping for food, driving to the city for silly errands... it changes everything.

- sleeping "healthily" makes me happy. Yesterday I started yawning at 8pm and I /let/ myself do that; I took notice of the tiredness and did not try to counteract it so I could have evening playtime. At midnight I was in bed, and it took less than 10mn for me to sleep. Results: I woke up spontaneously a little /before 8am/, refreshed, and I feel much more active. I need to do this every day, dammit. I know it's good for me! (my ideal schedule is sleeping from 10pm to 6am but I haven't been able to make myself follow that cycle since 2004.)

- it's not even 12 yet and I've already procrastinated for hours! time to get dressed and do things; that way I'll feel even more accomplished and tired later, and perhaps can repeat the early sleep experience of goodness. WHEE!

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I've been catching up on Criminal Minds. It was a bit of a struggle until I hit 5x10, which looked to be an episode all about Hotch's Epic Pain, and then I realised! I DON'T HAVE TO WATCH THIS!

I adore Morgan and Garcia but not enough to watch all the rest of the Epic Straight White Male Pain.

And therefore I stopped and re-watched New Tricks instead. Which is also full of Straight White Male Pain but at least has more laughs.

Sandra Pullman/Derek Morgan/Penelope Garcia. Just sayin'.

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As depressing as the New York decision was, this speech by a NY state senator made me feel a little better.

I have a JLU Amanda Waller. She is amazing! And looks like AMANDA, which means she's a completely different mold from everyone else.

Also, she has a green ring, which does not seem to have a lantern on it, and is canon as greenygal discovered on Youtube the other night, but...it is distressing.

(...is it possible, by the way, that Task Force X is not on Youtube? I know I have the episode somewhere in my apartment, but I figured it would be easier to find there than here. *eyes apartment balefully.)

Now she just needs a Squad. (I have a Vixen. That's it for people who've ever been in the Suicide Squad, and it's the wrong continuity Vixen at that.) I may perhaps have bought-it-now a JLU Clock King and placed a bid on a Deadshot.

Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, the Suicide Squad members tend not to be the kind of folks who get action figures.

I am intensely annoyed at DC for not making me a figure of Captain Boomerang senior, especially since Owen has *two*, one of whom is basically Amanda-scale. It's just not the squad without Digger!

In other DC cartoon news, the latest Brave and the Bold episode was good times. Ollie got to be awesome innit! And there were both Catwoman and Huntress in the main plot--females, plural! And from the list of people I wasn't really expecting to see on TV: Woozy Winks. (Drooling over Catwoman. *sighs* I still kinda squee'd at Woozy riding Plastic Man, though.)

It continues to entertain me that Ollie and Guy only ever run into each other in circumstances where you do NOT get the expected fistfight, either because Ollie is Silver Age-y (here) or because Guy is, well, Silver Age-y (GL/GA). Or because Ollie is in the hospital. Or dead.

(Sad commentary on Ollie's funeral: Guy gave his eulogy. And said some of the nicer things that were said about him. Yeah.)

Speaking of Ollie, I didn't start watching Smallville for him, and I'm unlikely to start watching it now, but this picture of him and Hawkman (apparently they are bringing in the JSA now!) makes me deeply, deeply happy:

( Ollie. Hawkman. Mace. Table. Crossbow. )

...and in much sadder news, ( my comic shop is going out of business. )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burntcopper/sets/72157622791228915/ - Cylon Attack photos

* Everyone and their dog cat has already seen The Surprised Kitten. I predict that this kitten who refuses to be combed will be the next one. OMG the fluff!

* In other news, someone led me to this fabulous website where you can get free knitting patterns in different languages! The name is Garnstudio and it looks like you can order yarn and other stuff from there? Haven't looked at the site that much yet since I've been ogling the patterns. :D As a side note, I'm assuming they've put USA and UK in separate categories for the needle sizes, as they're both still in English.

Okay, I need to wash my wig now. *is v. mysterious*

In other, but no less celebratory, news, it's snowing.

Yes, really. Yes, yes, I know that it's been snowing for a month in New York and Minnesota; this is Texas and it's snow and Bear and I giggled in the car on the way to school, watching the clusters of clumped flakes float sideways to the ground.

It's not sticking; the ground is too warm, and it'll be 45 this afternoon, though we may have an actual freeze tonight, but ice means slippy streets and locals sliding sideways on the highway because god forbid anyone remember that braking hard on ice is a Bad Thing. Ice is scary.

But right now, it's snowing, and that's pretty cool. Pun wholly intended, yes. If it doesn't stack up into picturesque drifts, so be it. It's dusting the tops of cars and giving us just a taste of winter without actually being cold. It always amazes me that snow feels warmer than the freezing sleet days that we get, especially snow with very little wind, so the flakes drop at a diagonal, not straight down like rain would, but not swirling like in the movies shot in Southern California using soap flakes and big fans, either. I know it's precipitation, but it doesn't feel as wet and miserable as icy slushy rain does. Though it still puddles right inside the door of every building and my rubber soled shoes go squeak squeak squeak until I tiptoe, carefully keeping my feet under me, to the carpeted administrative sections.

I gleaned the last of the garden last night, since we were expecting a drop to freezing temperatures, pulling the last of the peppers and two rock hard green tomatoes to go into the kitchen window to ripen or rot. I suspect I'll get one of each. This weekend, I'll bed down the garden; four days from last night, the stalks'll be easy to cut. It's late in the year for a first freeze; I'll be planning planting in a couple of months.

But for now, I'm watching the snow drift to the ground.

happiest of natal celebrations to cluegirl.

*throws confetti into the air*

Next year, come spring, I'll be going though lots and lots of job interviews if I'm lucky. As such, I'm thinking about joining my local toastmasters club.

Anyone have personal experience they can relate?

Too busy right now, but maybe next quarter, I'll look into it.