Aelfgyfu

Not only have I added a few new userpics since upgrading to a paid account--I'm also editing past entries to put my new Doctor Who icon on my old DW entries, Pushing Daisies on PD, and so on. Is that more geeky than it is compusive, or vice-versa?

I need a better Books image (I used that on one entry, but I don't like how it looks), and I still need to find a few more images for some of my shows. At least I have Sparky here with her glowing eyes, which I've wanted to put in my userpics for a long time now!

I said I'd never pay for an LJ account, but shoot, I spend enough time here, I figured I could afford the buck and a half a month so that I'd never see ads anywhere and I'd get more than thirty userpics. Yes, I am a sucker. But I'm not sorry to be one. New userpics! And I can make voice posts! Not that I'm really likely to do so (she says, immediately thinking of all the things it would be fun to do as voice posts...).

They have finally shipped us a TiVo that might work, which could arrive Real Soon Now, and Brilliant Brother-in-Law had a few suggestions to keep this one from going kaboom. I'll keep you posted.

Somehow, it never occurred to me or Brilliant Husband that "signing autographs at the game" meant "signing autographs until fifty-five minutes before the game." We aimed to arrive by 3 for a 3:55 game to get the autographs of Amanda Tapping, Damian Kindler, and Robin Dunne. Okay, really just Amanda Tapping, but we'd have taken the other two and been quite gracious.

I suppose it's good to know even our plan wouldn't have worked; it's not as if we just missed them or just didn't count on traffic properly. We were twenty minutes later than planned due to heavy traffic and slow parking and a slow ticket office, and they were long gone. ( More details )

Fay didn't come near us--yet. All day, I've periodically checked the radar to find it circling Lake Okeechobee--well to the west and south of us.

Small Child is home, because they canceled school in case they should need schools as emergency shelters. Brilliant Husband is sick. I slept in too because I figured they were, and I should arm myself against the germs as best I can. So I didn't get up until 8. I didn't go to campus lest I get caught in a torrent driving back.

Now I wish I had that extra hour of work I could have done if I'd gotten up before the other humans in the house. I wish Small Child had gone to school before I got such a strong urge to smite (no, I haven't actually smitten anyone).

And I wanted some rain, which we didn't get! But fear not--there's a good chance the storm will bend back towards us Thursday--the other day I plan to go to campus. I can't believe we didn't even get sprinkles.

As far as I know, damage and injury have been minimal. I'm glad Fay never made hurricane. But can I get a do-over on this day?

Last night, Small Child fed the cats their (disgusting) can of wet food and then, with disgusting dribbles of canned cat food on her fingers, attempted to touch the asparagus Brilliant Husband was about to cook. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love BH?)
BH: No! Stop!
SC: What?
BH: Don't touch those without washing your hands! You have cat food on your fingers!
SC: ...
BH: Honestly! What do you keep between your ears anyway?
SC: What?
BH: Yeah, "what." That's the problem.
SC: ...
BH: No, seriously: what's between your ears?
SC: ?
BH: In your head! Between your ears!
SC (triumphantly): Ear wax!

Today was "Dress As Your Favorite Sci-Fi Character" at my daughter's summer program, I kid you not. It's on the calendar. So was "Dress as Your Favorite Star," but only two kids did it (Small Child was one of them).

Today, Small Child was unique, the only one to dress as her favorite sf character. She went as Sarah Jane Smith. We're so proud! Of course, we were too cheap to buy anything, so this meant jeans and a sweater--and then we couldn't find a sweater that fit, so she settled for a jacket, in Tampa, in late July. And she wore her hair down instead of in a ponytail. I gave her an old, nearly used-up lipstick to carry as her sonic lipstick.

No one recognized her, so she identified herself. No one watches the show, so she explained. So, I figure, they don't know she didn't look all that much like Sarah Jane. She was happy, we were happy, and it's the thought that counts.

Brilliant Husband and I took a long lunch hour to see The Dark Knight today, a very long lunch hour. It ended up being even longer than we thought. The nice theater with the stadium seating now charges $7.50 for matinees. Gotta be kidding me. So we went to the cheap theater, which is $5.75 for the first show of the day.

Won't be doing that again. ( Anecdote and thoughts; spoilers only at the very end, after big warning )

From lizbee via a_phoenixdragon: DW fandom: wanking longer, wanking harder. So true! I love Doctor Who, it has some great fans (met two of my best friends that way; one of those bfs became my husband!), but mostly, I avoid the fandom.

Had a heck of a scare this morning: the power went out and my laptop went down, and stayed down. The brick should protect it; so should the surge protector into which the brick is plugged. It was fully charged and should have switched to battery power as effortlessly as it usually does. But it went off like an old tv, narrowing to a point before blinking out completely, and I couldn't restart it. I unplugged it, left it, and prayed at church before mass. It came right back on when I tried again after mass. ("My prayer worked!" Small Child said.)

It's a Mac iBook G4; I think the power button may be going, though that doesn't explain its collapse at the power surge/outage. Does anyone have experience of such things or know who might? I could take it to the Apple Store, but they'd keep it for a week and tell me they can't get it to go off or not to turn on again.

PS bentleywg: Icon and preview working; yeah, you may need a new browser.

First, happy belated birthday to astrogirl2 and happy early birthday to mrwubbles! Sorry to those I've missed; my birthday wishes are very hit-and-miss, and please don't take it personally if I miss yours!

I've seen a couple of movies lately and thought I'd share. I'm trying not to give too many spoilers, but to give a little idea of what the movie is about.

( The Queen )

( Hancock )

We returned home from the movie to enter a house with twin trails of bright pink yarn stretching from my home office out of sight. Small Child was given a knitting set for her birthday; I'd had one skein and the needles in my office to practice with some videos I was going to watch on the Internet before I helped her learn to knit. I'd never gotten around to the videos, Doofus the Cat had already attacked the ball of yarn once, and Brilliant Husband had consigned the yarn to the cubby of my desk, which has a door that hasn't closed in years.

Further investigation showed that part of the skein was out of my cubby but still on my desk, trapped by two old appointment calendars that had fallen on it--thank goodness. Doofus had, however, managed to get a large loop stretched all the way from my desk through the corner of the living room (around a table) through the kitchen (around a table and chair and two carts full of bookbooks), into the dining room. The clump of yarn had stopped less than a foot short of the water bowl. He often saves his prizes in the water bowl, whether to drown them or to be sure he can find them later because he knows he's an idiot and he loses everything that's not by the food we don't know. I'm very glad the yarn didn't make it to the water bowl, because that would have been unpleasant.

We picked up the yarn and brought it to the family room; I found a loose end and started making a ball. I thought this would be quick and easy.

It took the two of us (BH and me, not Doofus and me!) forty minutes to disentangle it, and only then could I make a ball of it (which didn't take all that long, by itself). The ball is now locked securely in the wicker basket that holds the rest of the kit. Stupid cat! It was quite amazing; I wanted to take a picture or some video of it, but we were afraid it didn't really look as impressive as it truly was. I'll leave it to your imaginations.

The adventures at home aren't quite as funny as the adventures in the movies, but they actually involved less property damage than Hancock.

WARNING: SPOILERS on the movies allowed in comments.

He's a pianist. I didn't know his name before last night either. ( Yes, I'm about to tell you about a Florida Orchestra concert. You want to read this if you like music at all. Seriously. )

* I hope they're amusing. The first one is a little dubious. ( You know you want to know how we lost FIOS )

( If you could resist that one, you surely have to hear Small Child's mascot proposal )