Things that make me smile
Curling up on the couch with a warm blanket, a good book, and a cup of hot cocoa or tea.
Spending an hour at the bookstore looking at all the other books I wish I could take home with me and settling on two.
Using coupons and gift cards to purchase said books, so that when all is said and done, you and your hubby get $62 worth of books for $7.
Celebrating good books and good deals with a delicious steak dinner, complete with salad, sautéed mushrooms, and to-die-for crab cake.
Hugs.
Instrumental soundtracks.
Turning a plain bolt of fabric into a pretty cool looking piece of clothing.
sajuka bought Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire for me for Christmas, and I'm about half-way through Wicked. It's a little strange in parts, but other parts have been so intriguing that I don't want to put it down to go make lunch or dinner. You know that Wicked Witch of the West? She's not the least bit wicked yet - though she is currently supporting a Rebellion against the evil Wizard of Oz. Remember him? Even Dorothy didn't think he was a very nice guy, and she didn't even live in Oz. I'm assuming the book won't have a happy ending, since I've seen the end of the movie and remember that bucket of water, but it's a very intriguing take on a classic tale. I'm looking forward to Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, because Cinderella is my favorite fairytale. (Just take a look at my DVD collection!)
Tonight I started reading Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game. It's written by a self-admitted girly-girl who somehow found herself working for Wizards of the Coast (the publishers of D&D) as a promotions coordinator. She knew all the stereotypes, but got suckered into a game only to find that she actually liked it! This is basically a Dummies Guide to D&D, but it's so freaking entertaining to read that I swear I must have interrupted poor Sajuka (who is trying to read the third Vampire Hunter D novel) at least a hundred times by giggling, snorting in amusement, laughing out loud, and/or reciting entire paragraphs to him. Think gaming is only for stinky, pasty-faced boys who wouldn't know how to talk to a girl if he tripped over one? Go read this book. Please? Unless you're afraid you might like it... (We saw it in a dealer's room at Arisia last weekend and thought it looked interesting, but I'd vowed not to buy anything at Arisia. And I was successful, too! We got it tonight at B&N with coupons and gift cards instead!)
On Friday I dug out the large quantity of fabric I swear I must have bought a year and a half ago and the cloak pattern I finally decided on. This was for the Raven costume I've been meaning to make for years now. I have a terrible problem with researching a project to death and psyching myself out of actually starting the stupid thing. Fear of ruining the fabric, or not getting it completely accurate... I don't really know. But for some reason (and I'm not complaining!), Friday it seemed like the most appealing thing to do. So I finished cutting out the pattern (I'd gotten half of it cut out at some point), cut out the fabric, and started sewing. I attached the hood yesterday, and only need to hem the edges of the cloak and attach a clasp of some sort. And for once I actually used the right pattern size, so it's not monstrously huge on me! I bought most of the rest of the supplies for the costume back in October, hoping to get it done for Halloween, but didn't have the time, so I have almost everything I need to finish it - except some gold enamel paint that I'll need to pick up.
Sajuka worked on the new music server this weekend, so our music is back up and running again, which is really nice. As I mentioned before, our "new" music server is actually his old PC. Instead of each of us having a PC, we've combined that to share; the other one now has a conglomeration of hard drives and is running Slim Server on Linux, but can still run Windows so we can both play Guild Wars at the same time. So I think we're finally ready to retire my 300 mHZ Pentium II Gateway that is 10 years old and weighs five tons.
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I know this doesn't totally make up for the series of depressing posts recently (which are locked, if you don't know what I'm talking about), but it's a start. There are good days and sunshine every once in a while - even if it was snowing today. Tomorrow I get to do some serious thinking about school and job searching, but maybe eventually that'll be a subject that makes me smile too. Heh. Nothing wrong with a bit of wishful thinking, right? Right? Right. I think.
Spending an hour at the bookstore looking at all the other books I wish I could take home with me and settling on two.
Using coupons and gift cards to purchase said books, so that when all is said and done, you and your hubby get $62 worth of books for $7.
Celebrating good books and good deals with a delicious steak dinner, complete with salad, sautéed mushrooms, and to-die-for crab cake.
Hugs.
Instrumental soundtracks.
Turning a plain bolt of fabric into a pretty cool looking piece of clothing.
sajuka bought Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire for me for Christmas, and I'm about half-way through Wicked. It's a little strange in parts, but other parts have been so intriguing that I don't want to put it down to go make lunch or dinner. You know that Wicked Witch of the West? She's not the least bit wicked yet - though she is currently supporting a Rebellion against the evil Wizard of Oz. Remember him? Even Dorothy didn't think he was a very nice guy, and she didn't even live in Oz. I'm assuming the book won't have a happy ending, since I've seen the end of the movie and remember that bucket of water, but it's a very intriguing take on a classic tale. I'm looking forward to Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, because Cinderella is my favorite fairytale. (Just take a look at my DVD collection!)
Tonight I started reading Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game. It's written by a self-admitted girly-girl who somehow found herself working for Wizards of the Coast (the publishers of D&D) as a promotions coordinator. She knew all the stereotypes, but got suckered into a game only to find that she actually liked it! This is basically a Dummies Guide to D&D, but it's so freaking entertaining to read that I swear I must have interrupted poor Sajuka (who is trying to read the third Vampire Hunter D novel) at least a hundred times by giggling, snorting in amusement, laughing out loud, and/or reciting entire paragraphs to him. Think gaming is only for stinky, pasty-faced boys who wouldn't know how to talk to a girl if he tripped over one? Go read this book. Please? Unless you're afraid you might like it... (We saw it in a dealer's room at Arisia last weekend and thought it looked interesting, but I'd vowed not to buy anything at Arisia. And I was successful, too! We got it tonight at B&N with coupons and gift cards instead!)
On Friday I dug out the large quantity of fabric I swear I must have bought a year and a half ago and the cloak pattern I finally decided on. This was for the Raven costume I've been meaning to make for years now. I have a terrible problem with researching a project to death and psyching myself out of actually starting the stupid thing. Fear of ruining the fabric, or not getting it completely accurate... I don't really know. But for some reason (and I'm not complaining!), Friday it seemed like the most appealing thing to do. So I finished cutting out the pattern (I'd gotten half of it cut out at some point), cut out the fabric, and started sewing. I attached the hood yesterday, and only need to hem the edges of the cloak and attach a clasp of some sort. And for once I actually used the right pattern size, so it's not monstrously huge on me! I bought most of the rest of the supplies for the costume back in October, hoping to get it done for Halloween, but didn't have the time, so I have almost everything I need to finish it - except some gold enamel paint that I'll need to pick up.
Sajuka worked on the new music server this weekend, so our music is back up and running again, which is really nice. As I mentioned before, our "new" music server is actually his old PC. Instead of each of us having a PC, we've combined that to share; the other one now has a conglomeration of hard drives and is running Slim Server on Linux, but can still run Windows so we can both play Guild Wars at the same time. So I think we're finally ready to retire my 300 mHZ Pentium II Gateway that is 10 years old and weighs five tons.
----------
I know this doesn't totally make up for the series of depressing posts recently (which are locked, if you don't know what I'm talking about), but it's a start. There are good days and sunshine every once in a while - even if it was snowing today. Tomorrow I get to do some serious thinking about school and job searching, but maybe eventually that'll be a subject that makes me smile too. Heh. Nothing wrong with a bit of wishful thinking, right? Right? Right. I think.