It's Ba-ack!

Yeah, so I've been up since 4:15 this morning, tossing, turning and staring at the clock. At 4:50 I gave up and came out to the kitchen to have a cup of coffee and play around with my laptop. It's running a little slower than I'd like, but I have a feeling that's because there's just too much shit running at start up that doesn't need to be. Of course, I can't delineate between "necessary to functioning" and "superfluous shit installed by Toshiba," so I'm going to need to find me a computer expert.

For now, I'm just glad to be back online. I still haven't heard from the computer repair store about my desktop, but hopefully they'll call me in the next day or so with an estimate. I still, for the life of me, cannot figure out what happened to the bugger. I'm very good about virus and spy-ware checking, so I doubt it's anything like that. 'Course, the thing hadn't been vacuumed in Lord knows how long, but that doesn't explain the far too frequent Blue Screen of Death.

Oh yes. Because I'm using the laptop, I need everyone who has a blogger account to email me the address that goes along with it, as I cannot remember them. LJ people need not worry, as LJ is smart enough to know who my friends are. :)

Not much else to report in my life. I'm currently reading Son of a Witch, the sequel to Wicked, and am not quite sure how I feel about it. 'Course, if I had read the first book, that might help, but I did see the musical and I feel that ought to count for something.

My seniors come back today, so hopefully I'll have some writing for you all by the end of next week. I've been slacking on it again lately. Bad Lady, no donut.

Time travel, dhamphir and elves

So, I watched Kate and Leopold yesterday. It was a rather cute movie, especially since I got to stare at Hugh Jackman in period attire for an hour and a half. Brought up a kind of gross complication towards the end, but it's really best not to think about it long term, 'else your head will explode. A nice way to spend some time in an afternoon.

Also, I just finished reading Traitor to the Blood, the fourth book in the Noble Dead series by Barb and J.C. Hendee. I'm more invested in the story than the actual books, if that makes sense. The writing isn't oh-my-gosh-wow, and you sometimes wonder if things are repeated because one of the authors left off and another picked up the pieces. Still, half-vampire, half-elves and fay dogs are pretty cool to read about. So we continue to read to discover cool bits about their characters, even if the writing is somewhat lacking.

On a less cheery note, my desktop computer is currently acting profoundly stupid, including but not limited to the Blue Screen of Death and also my current lack of sound. Therefore, I might be incommunicado for a while as I get this thing repaired and wait for my laptop to arrive (hopefully Tuesday).

Hope all had a nice weekend.

Snow day musings

To begin: it's Sarah's birthday! Yay, Sarah! *does a little birthday dance*

Well, roommate's co-worker was right: we had a snow day today. This is nice, as it extends my "vacation," but bad because now the kids have to come back on a Monday in June for their last day of school. Stupid, if you ask me. Still, I got to sleep until 9am, which is practically unheard of for me. I had managed to twist the blankets up in some very strange ways, and I imagine it will take me a little while to untangle them, but I shall live.

I finished Ring of Swords by Eleanor Arnason last night. This book was...different. I'm not going to say bad, because that would be a wholly untrue statement. Something was missing from the book: I felt like many of the human characters in that they knew they didn't know something, but they couldn't figure out what it was. This was an actual sci-fi book, by the way, not something I usually read. Humans have encountered their first sentient life and...well, no one's sure if they want to go to war or not. Set in the not-too-distant-future, Arnason details what's likely to happen on Earth if we don't get our shit together. There are two main characters: a woman scientist who specializes in non-human intelligence, and a male translator who's been living with the enemy for twenty years. If you find it in your local library, or on half.com, it might be worth picking up.

Finally, I watched Alex and Emma last night. For those of you who don't know, Alex (Luke Wilson) has thirty days to write a novel so he can pay off his gambling debts. And no computer. So he hires Emma (Kate Hudson), a stenographer, to type it out while he dictates. What I liked best about Alex's character was that he writes like I do: starts out, and then lets the characters take over; he's never sure what's going to happen next because the characters haven't told him. Emma, of course, who likes to read, doesn't understand this about writing and is frequently challenging his decisions on everything. The book he's writing, which the summary of the movie calls Gatbsy-esque, is actually pretty horrible and something I'd probably never read, but the movie itself was entertaining and not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

That's all. Off to find breakfast and something else to read.

Two unrelated topics

Last night, instead of getting some sleep to really beat my illness, I stayed up and finished the last hundred pages or so of Kushiel's Scion. I liked this series on the whole, and I'm hoping Jacqueline Carey writes another one to finish the story; Imriel's mother is still out there, after all. Some people might have a problem with the series, as there is a lot of sex in it, some of it a little weird, but it all makes sense within the universe Carey has created. Sometimes I wonder if she created this Earth-yet-not-Earth specifically to write the sex, but whatever. Anyway, the sex was more out of place in this book than in the first three, but I expected it to be there so it didn't catch me off guard. It's fantasy but not in your traditional sword-and-sorcery kind of way, so people out there might be interested.

On another, more depressing note, I've worn really cute underwear three days in a row and have had no one to share it with. Sigh for my singledom.

Assorted topics

I saw a woman walking into the gym today wearing a tie and a button down shirt with some gray pants. She looked incredibly stylish and, for a moment, I totally wanted to be her. The biggest problem (I suppose other than the fact that I can't tie a tie) is that her shoes were REALLY cute, but totally impractical for someone who teaches on her feet all day like me. Ah well.

I'm a gym reader, as most of you know. I sometimes read deep and meaningful books at the gym. This, I suppose, is counter-intuitive to many, but if I'm a captive audience for 35 minutes, I usually make some headway. Other times, however, I read hella-fluff. Like right now, I'm reading Girls in Pants, which is the third in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. It's actually pretty good for YA lit, although one of the characters is increasingly irritating. In reality, Lena is a lot like me, which is probably why she pisses me off. Anyway, I left the book on the treadmilly while I went to find a holder for it, and the woman on the machine next to me was staring at the book and at me. I couldn't figure out if she was horrified that I was reading it, or amused.

I was so excited because, after thinking my iPod was dead yesterday and then realizing it just had a hella-low battery on account of the iTrip my brother bought me which isn't working (another story), I finally had music today. But...I forgot my headphones, 'cause I'm a tool. So, no music for the Lady again on the treadmill. At least the gym music didn't suck too much.

Speaking of iPods, I got my new cover with some Christmas Money.

After ten days with my seniors, they are starting to bore me. They've lost all their spark they had earlier in the cycle in the post-holiday, pre-shop blues they all tend to suffer from. Quite frankly, I'm about done with them and can't wait until Monday when my sophomores return. I have ONE more lesson to tape for my %(@#*&%(*& portfolio, and just a little more to write up before I'm DONE with the g-d thing. I'm trying to decide whether to take the 26th or the 29th off this month to drive it in. The Friday is mentally better because then I have the weekend to just chill, but my Monday is logically better in case I have to tweak anything.

Cleo's health seems to be improving, as she's returned to the status quo of regurgitating part of her lunch because she eats it so fast. This was hot happening when she was on her medicine, so I'm actually taking it as a good, rather than bad, sign.

I'm reading Kushiel's Scion right now, and it has this annoying habit of being a quick and interesting read, which makes me want to stay up at night rather than doing logical things, like sleeping. Also, the TylenolPM is not working well, and I'm getting frustrated, again, with my lack of sleep. I'm hoping if I go to the gym enough, my body will tire itself out. Yay, New Year's resolution: to sleep.

Hope all are having a successful 2007 thus far.