Vets, clothes, and books
Yeah, so we took the cats to the vet on Friday. Let me tell you, Stripes is up to 22 and 1/4 lbs. We had trouble getting his butt through the door of his carrier... and it wasn't all his hind legs scrabbling to keep him out. We had to up end the carriers to get them into them; it's much easier when working with gravity. And then dump them out when we got there (they weren't coming out any other way). Kira wasn't very nice to Dr. Weichman. I mean, yeah, the woman was sticking a needle in her, but Kira was hissing and tried to bite her. My kitty's usually the stoic one. And we get to take them back in a couple weeks for another shot. Apparently the rabies vaccine maker switched to a recombinant DNA formula that, when administered with some other vaccines, can possibly kill your beloved pet. I'm not so sure the vaccine's worth it, huh?
My cat is strange. After I stuff her in a tiny box and put her in a car and take her somewhere where people stab sharp objects in her butt, she suddenly becomes affectionate. She hasn't cuddled with me all summer. Not since I abandoned her to head back to Hollins for senior week. And she's now been curling up with me since I took her to the vet. She's actually in my lap purring while I type this. *shakes head* Silly kitty.
Finally had my second Russian lesson. That went kind of well. Why is it I can pull off a passable Russian accent when I read it to myself, but I completely trip over my own tongue reading in front of someone else. Dad and Stef were working on a jigsaw puzzle in the other room and gave us a few laughs with their singing. Hopefully we'll have a lesson sometime this week, but he has drill this weekend and needs to visit his sister this week. But he said beginning of next week will work. Next time I get a vocab quiz, so I guess I better study this week.
So, I finally broke down and went clothes shopping. When one tank top falls apart and you realize that's just eliminated 40% of your work outfits, it's time to go shopping. So I headed over to Kohl's. I found three shirts. Yay! Nice simple, solid colors. Kind of dressy but not really. One black and one white to replace the ones that no longer fit thanks to the surgery and a green one just because it's my favorite color and it was six bucks. I also got two pairs of twill pants, Dockers. Cargos, my favorites. ^_^ But now I'm not sure they fit well enough to justify shelling out $80. *pout* I've only taken the tags off one pair though, so if I change my mind I can always take them back.
However, I've done some research and determined that between the Navy and the Marines, the Marines have more of the field I want to go into. They actually have an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in linguistics whereas the Navy lumps that in with some kind of Cryptological Tech that sounds like it involves a lot more stuff with computers. Like, building them and programming them and stuff. Not so much my cup of tea. And they have far fewer languages available for specialization than the Marine Corps does. So the USMC has just gotten bumped a little higher on my list of potential post-graduate careers... Which means, that I need to get my ass in gear and lose a lot of weight. Like, fifty pounds.
Thankfully it sounds like Otaku is going to be working out together and dieting next year. This'll hopefully be one of those resolutions we keep, but I figure I'll be okay as long as Fuuma at least becomes my dietnazi. I like taking walks around the loop, so I shouldn't be too bad. I'm finally pretty much healed from the surgery so the only thing holding me back is my own out-of-shapeness. I just got some new sports bras. My mom just bought me a new pair of New Balances (663s, not the 851s I had last time and adored). I have gym socks and some spandex shorts that are actually comfy... And a basement full of exercise equipment. So I have no excuse.
I exercised for almost an hour today. Nothing major. I don't want to kill myself. Specially since I'm still breaking in my sneaks. I wore them to work today in hopes that my dad and I could go for a walk during lunch (our office is really close to the annex for the Air and Space Museum so we can walk right past it... can't wait till that opens). But it was raining so I read K-PAX during my lunch break (well, part of it. I didn't read the whole thing. ^_^)
As we were driving home Ben reminded me that the VCR in the exercise room is busted... So there went my idea of using any of my fifteen-odd exercise videos. And it's been so long since I've used any of them that I couldn't remember the moves. So no exercise ball (other than to stretch out my back... God, that felt good ^_^). No yoga. No pilates. No Buns of Steel (TM). ^_^ No Arms & Bust. I have the first half of the Ab Roller video memorized (cheesy music, peppy Brenda Dykgraf and everything). But since most of the video collection was out, and none of the equipment is designed to be able to use and read at the same time, I went to the library and checked out an audio book. The Peacemaker by... somebody. His name escapes me right now. But it involved Navy SEALS. I think it's the book that George Clooney movie was based on, but since I never actually saw the George Clooney movie I don't know for sure.
Speaking of books, while I was out looking for clothes, I stopped by BAM. I really only went in to see if they had the Rachel Lee book taht came out in June. I walked out with four books... None of them was the Rachel Lee. They had the next book in that BET military miniseries. The last one was better than the first (but, then again, I've read badfic-- bad fanfic-- that was better than that; this is the one we read out loud in the dining hall over senior week and couldnt' figure out how this woman could be published), so I'm hoping this one is better than the last one. Judging from the excerpt in the back of the last one and the blurb on the back it should be. I also bought Silhouette's second ever military anthology. I liked this one better than the first. It had novellas by Merline Lovelace (who I adore almost as much as Suz, except she doesn't have a single-title continuity series, so she can't do some nice elaborate stuff with the characters like Suz can) and Lindsay McKenna. McKenna's famous for her Morgan's Mercenaries series. But I don't like her that much. I've read about ten of her stories by now and they all sound the same. She's a feminist but she belongs to the other school of feminism (I can't remember what it's called; the one that reinforces the stereotypes by preaching that men and women are inherently different but should be equally valued). Which is why her books are odd. A lot of them have women warriors and the heroines always have to prove they're tough enough to the heroes, but at the same time the hero falls in love with her because she's so "delicate" and "frail"... Give me a beak... She's part Native American and a lot of that also comes through in her writing... which gets old when sooo many of her characters are of Native American heritage. Yeah, they're under-represented in the genre, but if all your characters sound the same, why buy a lot of your books?
But the best novella in that book was Candace Irvin's. She's the first romance author I read (Danielle Steele doesnt' count because I read one and only one of her books back when I was, like, eleven and then didn't touch another romance novel for seven years). Her novella actually was the length of a Silhouette Desire, so compared even to Merline Lovelace's it had a lot of plot. It was fabulous. She could have expanded it into its own novel (a single release even).
The other two books I walked away with weren't romance novels (surprise, surprise). They did involve the military, however. One was a YA book that was kind of sci-fi. A twenty-year-old genius works on a project for the government creating artificial torndaoes. The military wants to use it as a weapon and he winds up on the run from everyone. And the last one was a book on the USS Forrestal fire. I'm pretty sure it was on my History Book Club wishlist. If it wasn't, there was one just like it because I've been vaguely interested in the subject ever since I missed that documentary about the tragedy on the Discovery Channel. Besides, it was a hardcover in the bargain section. When else am I gonna find a nice edition like that for the price of a paperback?
So after blowing $25 at the bookstore, I stopped by the library to do some quick research on my pet project (convincing my dad that women don't control half the wealth). The research librarian was really helpful. He gave me a book with census statistics. I got some ideas of the kind of stats I'm looking for. Ben wants to write to Mr. Richards to let him know he wants to do debates after marching band's over next year, so I think I'll add a note and ask Richards if he has any ideas. Anyway, library. So I stopped in to do a little bit of preliminary research... And I walked out with twelve (count them, twelve) books. They were used paperbacks that people donate and the library sells for fifty cents, so it's not like I spent that much. And nine of them were the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz (all of which have been out-of-print for years). So now I have all but two of the Deryni books. I also picked up Stranger in a Strange Land which is practically required reading of a scifi fan. And some military thriller by Dale Brown. I recognize the name, the book was originally in hardcover, so it's gotta be decent.
But this book-buying spree leaves my parents with little sympathy for my overburdened bookcases. I'm essentially out of room again... And there is no fucking way to fit another bookcase in here. Not unless I give up a piece of basic furniture... like my bed. I'd give up my closet, but it's tiny, I need it for a little stuff, and it already has a book case in there. My computer sits on my nightstand, so I can't get rid of that. I almost got a smaller bed but I have this feeling it'll be bad luck to give up my childhood bed before I've *ahem*... Yeah, so no more bookcases.
So now that I've rambled on for a while and made up for no update over the weekend, it's late and almost time for bed. Hopefully I'll have K-PAX finished tomorrow and be one step closer to shrinking that to-be-read stack. If it were possible to balance them all in one stack, they'd be taller than me!
My cat is strange. After I stuff her in a tiny box and put her in a car and take her somewhere where people stab sharp objects in her butt, she suddenly becomes affectionate. She hasn't cuddled with me all summer. Not since I abandoned her to head back to Hollins for senior week. And she's now been curling up with me since I took her to the vet. She's actually in my lap purring while I type this. *shakes head* Silly kitty.
Finally had my second Russian lesson. That went kind of well. Why is it I can pull off a passable Russian accent when I read it to myself, but I completely trip over my own tongue reading in front of someone else. Dad and Stef were working on a jigsaw puzzle in the other room and gave us a few laughs with their singing. Hopefully we'll have a lesson sometime this week, but he has drill this weekend and needs to visit his sister this week. But he said beginning of next week will work. Next time I get a vocab quiz, so I guess I better study this week.
So, I finally broke down and went clothes shopping. When one tank top falls apart and you realize that's just eliminated 40% of your work outfits, it's time to go shopping. So I headed over to Kohl's. I found three shirts. Yay! Nice simple, solid colors. Kind of dressy but not really. One black and one white to replace the ones that no longer fit thanks to the surgery and a green one just because it's my favorite color and it was six bucks. I also got two pairs of twill pants, Dockers. Cargos, my favorites. ^_^ But now I'm not sure they fit well enough to justify shelling out $80. *pout* I've only taken the tags off one pair though, so if I change my mind I can always take them back.
However, I've done some research and determined that between the Navy and the Marines, the Marines have more of the field I want to go into. They actually have an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in linguistics whereas the Navy lumps that in with some kind of Cryptological Tech that sounds like it involves a lot more stuff with computers. Like, building them and programming them and stuff. Not so much my cup of tea. And they have far fewer languages available for specialization than the Marine Corps does. So the USMC has just gotten bumped a little higher on my list of potential post-graduate careers... Which means, that I need to get my ass in gear and lose a lot of weight. Like, fifty pounds.
Thankfully it sounds like Otaku is going to be working out together and dieting next year. This'll hopefully be one of those resolutions we keep, but I figure I'll be okay as long as Fuuma at least becomes my dietnazi. I like taking walks around the loop, so I shouldn't be too bad. I'm finally pretty much healed from the surgery so the only thing holding me back is my own out-of-shapeness. I just got some new sports bras. My mom just bought me a new pair of New Balances (663s, not the 851s I had last time and adored). I have gym socks and some spandex shorts that are actually comfy... And a basement full of exercise equipment. So I have no excuse.
I exercised for almost an hour today. Nothing major. I don't want to kill myself. Specially since I'm still breaking in my sneaks. I wore them to work today in hopes that my dad and I could go for a walk during lunch (our office is really close to the annex for the Air and Space Museum so we can walk right past it... can't wait till that opens). But it was raining so I read K-PAX during my lunch break (well, part of it. I didn't read the whole thing. ^_^)
As we were driving home Ben reminded me that the VCR in the exercise room is busted... So there went my idea of using any of my fifteen-odd exercise videos. And it's been so long since I've used any of them that I couldn't remember the moves. So no exercise ball (other than to stretch out my back... God, that felt good ^_^). No yoga. No pilates. No Buns of Steel (TM). ^_^ No Arms & Bust. I have the first half of the Ab Roller video memorized (cheesy music, peppy Brenda Dykgraf and everything). But since most of the video collection was out, and none of the equipment is designed to be able to use and read at the same time, I went to the library and checked out an audio book. The Peacemaker by... somebody. His name escapes me right now. But it involved Navy SEALS. I think it's the book that George Clooney movie was based on, but since I never actually saw the George Clooney movie I don't know for sure.
Speaking of books, while I was out looking for clothes, I stopped by BAM. I really only went in to see if they had the Rachel Lee book taht came out in June. I walked out with four books... None of them was the Rachel Lee. They had the next book in that BET military miniseries. The last one was better than the first (but, then again, I've read badfic-- bad fanfic-- that was better than that; this is the one we read out loud in the dining hall over senior week and couldnt' figure out how this woman could be published), so I'm hoping this one is better than the last one. Judging from the excerpt in the back of the last one and the blurb on the back it should be. I also bought Silhouette's second ever military anthology. I liked this one better than the first. It had novellas by Merline Lovelace (who I adore almost as much as Suz, except she doesn't have a single-title continuity series, so she can't do some nice elaborate stuff with the characters like Suz can) and Lindsay McKenna. McKenna's famous for her Morgan's Mercenaries series. But I don't like her that much. I've read about ten of her stories by now and they all sound the same. She's a feminist but she belongs to the other school of feminism (I can't remember what it's called; the one that reinforces the stereotypes by preaching that men and women are inherently different but should be equally valued). Which is why her books are odd. A lot of them have women warriors and the heroines always have to prove they're tough enough to the heroes, but at the same time the hero falls in love with her because she's so "delicate" and "frail"... Give me a beak... She's part Native American and a lot of that also comes through in her writing... which gets old when sooo many of her characters are of Native American heritage. Yeah, they're under-represented in the genre, but if all your characters sound the same, why buy a lot of your books?
But the best novella in that book was Candace Irvin's. She's the first romance author I read (Danielle Steele doesnt' count because I read one and only one of her books back when I was, like, eleven and then didn't touch another romance novel for seven years). Her novella actually was the length of a Silhouette Desire, so compared even to Merline Lovelace's it had a lot of plot. It was fabulous. She could have expanded it into its own novel (a single release even).
The other two books I walked away with weren't romance novels (surprise, surprise). They did involve the military, however. One was a YA book that was kind of sci-fi. A twenty-year-old genius works on a project for the government creating artificial torndaoes. The military wants to use it as a weapon and he winds up on the run from everyone. And the last one was a book on the USS Forrestal fire. I'm pretty sure it was on my History Book Club wishlist. If it wasn't, there was one just like it because I've been vaguely interested in the subject ever since I missed that documentary about the tragedy on the Discovery Channel. Besides, it was a hardcover in the bargain section. When else am I gonna find a nice edition like that for the price of a paperback?
So after blowing $25 at the bookstore, I stopped by the library to do some quick research on my pet project (convincing my dad that women don't control half the wealth). The research librarian was really helpful. He gave me a book with census statistics. I got some ideas of the kind of stats I'm looking for. Ben wants to write to Mr. Richards to let him know he wants to do debates after marching band's over next year, so I think I'll add a note and ask Richards if he has any ideas. Anyway, library. So I stopped in to do a little bit of preliminary research... And I walked out with twelve (count them, twelve) books. They were used paperbacks that people donate and the library sells for fifty cents, so it's not like I spent that much. And nine of them were the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz (all of which have been out-of-print for years). So now I have all but two of the Deryni books. I also picked up Stranger in a Strange Land which is practically required reading of a scifi fan. And some military thriller by Dale Brown. I recognize the name, the book was originally in hardcover, so it's gotta be decent.
But this book-buying spree leaves my parents with little sympathy for my overburdened bookcases. I'm essentially out of room again... And there is no fucking way to fit another bookcase in here. Not unless I give up a piece of basic furniture... like my bed. I'd give up my closet, but it's tiny, I need it for a little stuff, and it already has a book case in there. My computer sits on my nightstand, so I can't get rid of that. I almost got a smaller bed but I have this feeling it'll be bad luck to give up my childhood bed before I've *ahem*... Yeah, so no more bookcases.
So now that I've rambled on for a while and made up for no update over the weekend, it's late and almost time for bed. Hopefully I'll have K-PAX finished tomorrow and be one step closer to shrinking that to-be-read stack. If it were possible to balance them all in one stack, they'd be taller than me!