Things that are awesome
Thriftbooks - This is a used bookstore website, and it is the best way I've found to buy used books online. (Going to actual brick and mortar stores is obviously cheaper and more fun, but I've swept all the stores in this area and I'm looking for particular things, so I feel justified in importing used books from other cities.) Prices vary, but they have a wide variety of mass market paperbacks priced at $3.95- with 50 cents off each additional book you order that's shipped from the same warehouse. And shipping is free, which makes things very reasonable indeed. I ended up spending $40 last night and got 11 books- Joe Haldeman, Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, a couple kids books, a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and a book about the Nazi siege of Leningrad that I've had on my "to read" list for a while. The books will mail separately since they're coming from 4-5 different cities, but the first one mailed today- less than 24 hours after I ordered it. That's quick work.
Artscape - It's an free outdoor arts festival that happens every July in Baltimore. It's right in my neighborhood, which is really convenient except if you plan to drive anywhere, since they close off a bunch of streets and turn the whole area into a pedestrian mall. There are multiple stages with lots of musicians and dancers performing, all the theaters (this is the cultural district so there are quite a few) throw open their doors for professional and amateur performances, and blocks of streets are lined with booths manned by local artists and artisans of all kinds displaying and selling their work. Large-scale pieces and art cars are displayed in the streets, and there are scheduled and unscheduled street performances (last year there was a lot of breakdancing up by Penn Station, too). A park on the west side of the festival site is set up as a children's area with a lot of kid and family oriented hands-on activities. Then there's usually a couple carnival type rides brought in, and all kinds of food and drink vendors, and locals on every corner selling bottled water out of coolers.
I like to hit it for at least a few hours, although I usually don't buy anything much. The heat can get nasty- this year our friends at Interrobang are sharing space with some other comic artist types. I don't envy them sitting in the heat, but I wish them luck! I had plans to stay the night and tomorrow with my parents (my bro's girlfriend is going to hang with us and I want to see her) but I'll probably be hitting up the festival on Sunday. It's just one of those things that's cool to experience. The art is cool, the lemonade is delicious, and those MICA students come up with some crazyass shit.
Mount & Blade - I mentioned this before, but it's still got a hard grip on me. I got tired of roaming around smacking bandits. Now I ride my expensive horsey, waving my two-handed war axe at the head of a trained army in service of King Yaroglek. He made me his vassal and granted me a castle, which I've defended against two sieges so far. Then I got involved in a battle that ended up slaughtering most of my men, so I have raised recruits and am now training a new army. My king has made peace with 3 of the 4 other kingdoms, so I have some slack time which I'm using to do a little cross-border trading. People criticized this game for not having an overarching story, but frankly I don't miss it. I'm happy just to ride around kicking ass and taking names.
Pools - I did not appreciate just how lucky I was when I lived at home, where my parents have a pool they can swim in every day if they want. This is further evidence that teenagers are idiots. It is totally awesome to have nothing better to do with your Saturday than float aimlessly in the pool, your only exertion being to occasionally lift and quaff the vodka-spiked lemonade resting on the edge of the pool. Ahhh.
Obviously there are other things that are awesome, but I'm not getting into those right now.
Also, re: the cat issue. I'm thinking I will replace their litterboxes. I don't know if that will help (they do still use them, at least for pooping) but I probably should anyway...I've had one of them for 6 years and one of them for 4, and I'm sure they have some deeply-stained-in uriney goodness. Maybe I'll buy more Feliway and put it on the pads, fuck, I don't know. I also want to buy them a new water dish- their old ones is, again, 6 years old, and the cheap plastic has not weathered well. I don't think the cats are really happy with it, and as a consequence they're not drinking enough, which can lead to urinary tract issues (which Loki is already prone to). I'm thinking about buying one of those fancy fountain ones.
The filter might encourage them to drink more (I use one of those refilling dishes, which I especially like when I go out of town and it ends up with hair and crap it in really quickly), but I really kind of want one that spits the stream of water out, because Loki has developed an obsession with drinking from the bathroom faucet. I don't know if he's drinking from his dish at all any more, because the water level doesn't go down fast enough and he meows frantically at me whenever I come home to turn the tap on. He also wakes me up at 5 or 6 am every morning meowing for tap water, which of course is not happening, but I have to come out of my stupor enough to yell at him to shut up, which is almost as irritating as just getting up and turning the damn water on.
Artscape - It's an free outdoor arts festival that happens every July in Baltimore. It's right in my neighborhood, which is really convenient except if you plan to drive anywhere, since they close off a bunch of streets and turn the whole area into a pedestrian mall. There are multiple stages with lots of musicians and dancers performing, all the theaters (this is the cultural district so there are quite a few) throw open their doors for professional and amateur performances, and blocks of streets are lined with booths manned by local artists and artisans of all kinds displaying and selling their work. Large-scale pieces and art cars are displayed in the streets, and there are scheduled and unscheduled street performances (last year there was a lot of breakdancing up by Penn Station, too). A park on the west side of the festival site is set up as a children's area with a lot of kid and family oriented hands-on activities. Then there's usually a couple carnival type rides brought in, and all kinds of food and drink vendors, and locals on every corner selling bottled water out of coolers.
I like to hit it for at least a few hours, although I usually don't buy anything much. The heat can get nasty- this year our friends at Interrobang are sharing space with some other comic artist types. I don't envy them sitting in the heat, but I wish them luck! I had plans to stay the night and tomorrow with my parents (my bro's girlfriend is going to hang with us and I want to see her) but I'll probably be hitting up the festival on Sunday. It's just one of those things that's cool to experience. The art is cool, the lemonade is delicious, and those MICA students come up with some crazyass shit.
Mount & Blade - I mentioned this before, but it's still got a hard grip on me. I got tired of roaming around smacking bandits. Now I ride my expensive horsey, waving my two-handed war axe at the head of a trained army in service of King Yaroglek. He made me his vassal and granted me a castle, which I've defended against two sieges so far. Then I got involved in a battle that ended up slaughtering most of my men, so I have raised recruits and am now training a new army. My king has made peace with 3 of the 4 other kingdoms, so I have some slack time which I'm using to do a little cross-border trading. People criticized this game for not having an overarching story, but frankly I don't miss it. I'm happy just to ride around kicking ass and taking names.
Pools - I did not appreciate just how lucky I was when I lived at home, where my parents have a pool they can swim in every day if they want. This is further evidence that teenagers are idiots. It is totally awesome to have nothing better to do with your Saturday than float aimlessly in the pool, your only exertion being to occasionally lift and quaff the vodka-spiked lemonade resting on the edge of the pool. Ahhh.
Obviously there are other things that are awesome, but I'm not getting into those right now.
Also, re: the cat issue. I'm thinking I will replace their litterboxes. I don't know if that will help (they do still use them, at least for pooping) but I probably should anyway...I've had one of them for 6 years and one of them for 4, and I'm sure they have some deeply-stained-in uriney goodness. Maybe I'll buy more Feliway and put it on the pads, fuck, I don't know. I also want to buy them a new water dish- their old ones is, again, 6 years old, and the cheap plastic has not weathered well. I don't think the cats are really happy with it, and as a consequence they're not drinking enough, which can lead to urinary tract issues (which Loki is already prone to). I'm thinking about buying one of those fancy fountain ones.
The filter might encourage them to drink more (I use one of those refilling dishes, which I especially like when I go out of town and it ends up with hair and crap it in really quickly), but I really kind of want one that spits the stream of water out, because Loki has developed an obsession with drinking from the bathroom faucet. I don't know if he's drinking from his dish at all any more, because the water level doesn't go down fast enough and he meows frantically at me whenever I come home to turn the tap on. He also wakes me up at 5 or 6 am every morning meowing for tap water, which of course is not happening, but I have to come out of my stupor enough to yell at him to shut up, which is almost as irritating as just getting up and turning the damn water on.