So, I don't generally make a habit of posting about birthday presents, but this is awesomely awesome. My brother, parents, and grandmother all went in together to get me a new computer! Or to be specific, my parents and grandmother went in together to get me a motherboard, hard drive, and case, and my brother rounded it out with components he already had from when he upgraded his computer (the processor, and whatever else) and built it. Also, waveform_delta got me a new cd drive, since mine had crapped out, so my brother put that in instead of the one he had on hand that he was going to use.

I was so shocked when I opened the box, I was quite literally struck speechless, and stood there with my mouth hanging open for probably a good thirty seconds, at the end of which I only said "Am I seeing things?" It was totally off my radar, especially since my brother orders computer stuff from the Internet all the damn time, so I didn't even think twice when we got a couple of big boxes from Newegg a few days before my birthday. I'm even the one who brought them into the house, which my mom thinks is the funniest thing ever.

My old computer was starting to have serious problems; it froze up quite frequently, didn't run some things very well anymore, especially when I tried to run more than one program at once (Firefox and MS Word open at the same time? Noooooooooooooooooooooo), was slower than molasses in January, and couldn't run a lot of newer software. Also, I was nearly maxed out on hard drive space, which I'm sure contributed to the other catalog of problems. It was a hand-me-down computer from my dad, from when my stepmother passed away in 2005, and I didn't always know when I was uninstalling programs what stuff my dad or stepmom had added, and I could safely get rid of, and what stuff was integral to the 'puter and had to be kept. So a lot of stuff just stayed on there taking up space, and of course, I kept adding new crap.

So now, I have a blank slate, so I will know what needs to be there and what I put on there myself, lots of space, and a much faster and better processor (an Athlon dual-core something or other, I dunno, the bro said it's fast (please don't laugh at me), compared to a Celeron piece of crap). I dread the work of transferring all my old files over, but my brother said he should be able to just put my old hard drive right in the new 'puter, so it will be easier to transfer stuff, and I can then use the old hard drive for extra storage. It's not super-powerful, and not really a gaming computer, per se, but it will run what I want it to run, and that's good enough for me.

So, my brother has this plastic cup he bought for his grapefruit juice (I am going somewhere with this, bear with me), so he can draw a marker line on it and drink the exact same amount every day and make his carton of grapefruit juice last precisely from shopping trip to shopping trip. And if ever it's not clean in the morning (say I filled the dishwasher and forgot to run it, or did a partial fill to run the next day, and didn't make a point of handwashing his special Grapefruit Glass), he grumbles and slams things around and generally pitches a fit.

Now, tonight I had a dress rehearsal for an extra choir concert I'm performing in tomorrow; I didn't get home until after 10:30 at night. My brother left all the dishes for me to wash, even though he knew I'd probably be home late. (See, he did dishes last night, and it is somehow beneath him to wash dishes twice in a row. And since tomorrow's my concert, *gasp* he'd have to do dished three times in a row! Oh noes!)

I decided that the quickest way to take care of the dishes and get myself to bed (never mind the ten minutes I'm taking to type all this crap up, now) was to do a partial dishwasher fill, and run it tomorrow when it's full.

I deliberately did not wash the Grapefruit Glass. I put it in the dishwasher.

I am a bad person, and I am posting this here so you may all know I am a bad person. It may just be how tired I am, but at this time, I don't even feel especially ashamed of myself.

The moral of this story is that if you ever have children, and they live to adulthood, don't let them move back in as adults. Especially not at the same time. Make them live on the effing streets, if you have to. Seriously, it will only cause you suffering, and they will regress to approximately the relationship they had at the age of thirteen.

Linky: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=4441

This has become one of our favorite things to make when I have choir rehearsal and can't make dinner. I wasn't sure about it when I first printed it up, but it turned out quite tasty.

We make one alteration to save money, since boneless, skinless chicken breasts are not cheap: we use chicken thighs (10-12), and I remove the skins and trim as much visible fat as I can before adding to the crock pot. We even did a whole chicken once, cut up.* (As an added bonus, thighs are juicier and stand up better to long cooking than breasts.) We also add a pound of fresh mushrooms, sliced (just cheap button mushrooms) for added nutrition and to pad it out a bit. For a veggie, we serve with corn (which can also be thrown in the low cooker with the rest) or a salad.

Feeds four to five, and we usually have at least one serving leftover.

*If you really want to use just breasts, you will still save a little money by getting them whole and removing the skins yourself. You can leave them on the bone or not; it's not at all difficult to cut a breast off the bone.

If you want to save money on your food, be willing to do more work. Cutting up and cleaning a whole chicken is not my favorite way to spend a half an hour, but I can't tell you how many times I've done it in the past six months or so, because it is usually the cheapest way to buy chicken.

So two weeks ago today, I got to meet the lovely fallsintoplace! And then I had such a busy weekend that I didn't hardly have time to get online at all, and then so many things had happened over the weekend that I was too tired from it all to post about any of them. Which is a lame excuse, really. I just fail at LJ posting. :D

So! fallsintoplace (Yen) came in for U.S. visit, and she stayed in Chicago for four days, or maybe three days and a little bit. On Thursday, I met up with her and her friend Dennis downtown at the Art Institute (which is a lovely walk from Union Station, by the way. No, I'm actually not being sarcastic).

( And this is what we did, and what happened after )

The weirdest things make me think of my dad. Yesterday evening I was shredding lettuce for tacos, and I picked out a piece that was more hard center-part than leafy part, and hence unsuitable, and I popped it in my mouth instead of throwing it away. And suddenly I remembered my dad teasing me about eating rabbit food, back when I was a kid and we'd go out to eat, and I'd just eat the lettuce leaf that came with my burger, plain, instead of, you know, putting it on the burger.

On a completely unrelated note, I just ate the last piece of a Ghirardelli 72% cacao chocolate bar I've been working on all week, and thus far, I find I don't like Ghirardelli's dark chocolate as much as I do Lindt's. I'll reassess when I have eaten the 86% cacao bar, as I usually have Lindt's 85% bar.

Journaling hiatus to end soon. News at eleven.

Oh, wait, it is eleven. News . . . later.

Things are not going well with dad, and we're leaving first thing tomorrow for Arkansas. It'll be fun and interesting trying to complete my final assignments for my classes. I'm sure my professors will understand.

If you have my phone number, THIS IS NOT A GOOD TIME TO CALL.

And no "Gee, did you ever really have it?" jokes.

I'm in the library, working on my humanites reference assignment (which is taking so much longer than it ought to, really, and my hands are so damn cold) and I'm talking to myself, OUT LOUD. Seriously. At the computer, in the stacks, wherever, I am audibly talking to myself, which, granted, I do a lot at home, but not so much in public. Pretty soon, people are gonna start looking at me funny and trying to avoid me, and I totally wouldn't blame them.

And I have a headache again. Blargh. My presentation went well this afternoon, though, in my database class. It was almost worth how late I stayed up working on the powerpoint.

ADDED: And also, my bra straps will not stay up anymore and I'm out of chocolate. Until I get home. IF I EVER GET HOME BECAUSE I WILL NEVER FINISH THIS ASSIGNMENT. And my fingers are going to fall off, I swear; they are that cold.

Because I am a BAD PERSON, I forgot to wish netbyrd a Happy Birthday on Monday. So, without further ado,

HAPPY late BIRTHDAY!!!

My choir had a rehearsal this morning for our second Christmas concert, which is basically a benefit for the church we rent rehearsal space from, and of course, we were promised a massive storm for today, because I had a long drive and the universe hates me. I didn't quite beat the storm home, but I beat the worst of it. Flurries were starting when we left rehearsal around noon, and I got a little more than halfway home before it started getting really nasty. Actually, the expressways were not in bad shape, because of the constant traffic, but I still crawled down I-55. For a while, I was just coasting with my foot off the gas, because traffic was just. that. s.l.o.w. The main roads once I got into town, though, were really slick.

It doesn't seem too bad now (I say from safely inside the house). It's freezing rain where I'm at, rather than snow, so it could be really icy, and I just can't tell from inside because it doesn't accumulate like snow does. Of course, I already saw a couple of salt trucks before getting home. We've know this was coming for a couple of days; I wouldn't be surprised if they had a fleet of salt trucks ready to head out.

At rehearsal, our director read us a really nasty review about our concert two weeks ago, and then told us why the reviewer was full of crap we shouldn't pay any attention to her. XD One of the comments was that we sounded "mechanical and over-rehearsed," at which we had a good laugh, because of course, we learned almost the entire concert only the weekend before at our retreat. However, I think being under-rehearsed could very well be why the reviewer thought we sounded mechanical, because it's possible we were so intent on just getting the right words and pitches (especially since a lot of our pieces were not in English) that we lost some of the musicality that we would have had if we'd taken a little more time to learn the pieces. The one piece that the reviewer actually praised fairly highly was, in fact, one of the pieces that we'd been rehearsing for several weeks and performed from memory. But then, I have many criticisms about this whole "hold a weekend retreat the week before the big concert and learn all the music there" business. I have already ranted about it at length to the people who actually care, so I will spare all of you today.

Anyway, I know there are a lot of places that are seeing some nasty weather today, so if you're in one of them (or you're in an area where it's coming soon), stay safe.

Because the alternative would be something filled with capslock and profanity and other emo-y things, and I just don't have the energy left for that. Instead, I'm letting you all make my decisions for me again.*

I've been thinking about chopping my hair short again, but I haven't really decided. (My family's really pushing for the haircut, because they're sick of finding my shed hair all over the house.) So I turn to you, gentle readers (yeah, try not to laugh), for advice. First, a comparison.

( Under a cut, because I'm nice )

Before I go on, there is another dimension to this question (else I would not be the Amazing Indecisive Girl). I like to buy Aveda products, and I'm a member of their Pure Privilege program, which means I get points when I buy stuff. For different levels of points, there are different "rewards" you can exchange your points for. After about, I dunno, three years, I'm ten dollars away from Tier 3, among the rewards for which is a $50 Aveda salon gift certificate, which is about enough for, guess what, a haircut at one of their expensive salons. It's also enough for a manicure or pedicure, or even a short facial. For the same ten dollars, I can get a cheap haircut at Cost Cutters or something. I'm sure you know where this is going, so I'll just get to the poll, now.

Poll #1098289
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

So, whaddya like better?

Now, then, where should I get this haircut?

So, what do you think about using a hairstyle change to deal with stress?

*I do not actually guarantee that I will act in accordance with the poll results, but I do take all your opinions into consideration. Unless you spout arbitrary standards of beauty like "Men only like women with long hair, so you shouldn't cut it." Then I will ignore you. :P

I can now get ice cream (Edy's Dibs and Haagen-Dazs ice cream bars) at the Cyber Cafe in the library. This is not a good thing. Especially today. Must. Resist.

You have been warned.

Right. So, I got sick on freaking Thanksgiving, and spent all weekend being sick and not getting any schoolwork done (read: big ass semester projects that are due in a matter of weeks). I am still congested and mildly lightheaded, and am currently nursing a splitting headache, that has not gone away with my Advil Cold and Sinus (and because this is a bitchy post, I'd also like to complain about how long I had to wait to get my A C&S because it contains pseudoephedrine and I have to get it at the pharmacy counter). I also have a sore-ish throat, my whole neck aches, and things hurt around my throat that shouldn't. Which is probably me being paranoid, because my glands don't actually feel swollen.

And it took me, I think, six tries to log in to my email because my fingers are freezing and I can't type correctly. And while I'm not, strictly speaking, stuck on campus right now (class is over, so I could go home), I really do need to do an assignment for tomorrow that requires using the print reference collection, and the alternative is getting here as early as humanly possible tomorrow to make sure I get it done before class. I'm here now, and I wont want to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so here I am, in the library, not going home in the foreseeable future, and not feeling well.

One of these days, I'll try to post something that's not just bitching and moaning. I'm not making any promises, though.

What Mom and I made today:

• 2 houskas (uh, houska is a bread similar to Challah)
• 2 pumpkin pies
• 4 mini pumpkin/orange cakes, baked in mini Bundt molds and assembled and frosted to look like widdle pumpkins
• 1 pecan pie
• 1 pumpkin cheesecake

Also, sweet potatoes were baked in preparation for making candied sweet potatoes tomorrow. We spent about twelve hours in the kitchen, all told. And we have to be at my grandma's at 10:00 tomorrow to help her.

We learned something interesting, aside from that we are clearly insane. You may already know that the cinnamon that you buy at your local mega-mart is not, in fact, cinnamon (at least in the U.S.). It is actually from a tree called Cassia. If you go to a fancy-pants spice store, you can purchase actual cinnamon, which has a slightly different flavor from cassia cinnamon. One may be tempted to turn up one's nose at cassia cinnamon as "not the real thing," but Thanksgiving is not the time to give way to such temptation. At least not in your pumpkin pie.

Now, my mom generally just goes ahead and uses the cassia, because she likes it. She does, however, get the premium variety, not the mega-mart stuff. I, on the other hand, use both, often in the same recipe, because I think they complement each other and I like the depth of flavor. (Yeeg, could I be any more pretentious? But it's true.) And since I live at home, my Ceylon cinnamon is in the overflowing spice drawer (er, one of two drawers, actually) with everything else.

Anyway, my mom, when mixing the pumpkin pie today, asked me to taste it because she thought it was missing something. It was. So we're trying to figure out what it needs, and talking about how she added everything in the recipe, and even a little extra, when I asked her which cinnamon she used, and it turned out she had grabbed the Ceylon cinnamon without really thinking about it. We add in some of the cassia cinnamon, and all is well.

I'm tempted to say that the moral of this story is either that pumpkin pie really needs some cassia cinnamon to taste right, or that just because something is not quite what it's name says it is doesn't mean it's bad or inferior, but really, if there must be a moral, it's this: Always taste your food. That's how you find out if something's wrong before you serve it.

I'm thinking of buying pair of Earth Shoes to wear for choir concerts, because I'm hoping they will make it easier for me to maintain the correct posture (and it would be a nice bonus if my toes don't go numb from standing still in one spot for so long). Does anyone know if this "negative heel" business that the company touts is legit and actually helps posture, or is it a clever marketing ploy meant to hook the health-conscious and nature-lover types? (If you're not familiar with Earth Shoes, the claim is that having the heel lower than the toes is more natural and facilitates proper body alignment.)

You see, I'm an equal opportunity skeptic; I'm just as likely to question the alternative, anti-establishment people as I am to question more traditional corporations and "the man." They're both out to make money. I don't want to spend around $100 for a pair of shoes unless I'm sure they do what they claim to.

A Google search mostly netted sites trying to sell the things, and my database searching 1) isn't giving me anything full text and 2) is mostly giving me articles regarding high heels.

You can come watch me sing! Provided I continue to ward off whatever plague I've been feeling on the edge of all week. *grumbles* I spent all last weekend at a retreat working on this material, so y'all are obligated to make my effort worthwhile. XD It is a Christmas concert, but most of our music is classically oriented.

( Official promotional spiel, cut to save your f-lists )

When I was still at NIU, I occasionally saw this guy around campus who always wore a shirt with "FREE HUGS" emblazoned on the front. I only ever saw him from a distance, but there sure were days when I wanted to take him up on it. Of course, I'm a bit too reserved to actually do something like that, but sometimes I think the world might just be a better place if we randomly hugged strangers more often. Or at least randomly hugged our friends. Which brings me to my point.

I've noticed a lot of people on my f-list have been going through some rough spots in the last couple of months, and particularly lately (and so have I, even though I haven't posted about it). There's been a lot of stress going around, and I figure we could all use a hug. Right? Right.

WANT A HUG? COMMENT HERE. Whatever reason, big or small. You don't even have to share your reason. You can do it anonymously if you really want. I also encourage you to offer hugs to anyone else who has commented, whether or not you want a hug yourself.


H_Eers: I was considering posting this in H_E, or at least in the Puff common room. Yes/no?

I've been reading through the archives of The Perry Bible Fellowship, which has nothing to do with Bibles or Fellowships, by the way, and I thought netbyrd and dblhelix13 might find this one especially amusing.

Also, some comics I've read or been following recently that I've been meaning to post about:

First up is Brat-Halla (Jeffery Stevenson (writer/letterer), Seth Damoose (artist), Anthony Lee (colorist)), which I started reading several months ago when sworddancer mentioned it in his journal. Imagine the Norse Gods as kids right around puberty, being raised by Odin and Frigg. It looks like a new story arc may be starting soon, in case you don't like reading through archives (though I recommend reading the archives, especially since some gags refer to past events in the comic). This comic has a liberal helping of adult humor, if that sort of thing doesn't appeal to you.

Next is DM of the Rings (Shamus Young), a spoof of Lord of the Rings that explores what would happen if a bunch of gaming geeks didn't know about LotR and were introduced to it via a D&D campaign, using screencaps from the movies. It's almost like a "how not to play D&D" guide, for both the players and the DM. The comic has actually ended, so you can read through the whole thing from beginning to end without waiting for new comics two or three times a week.

I don't know how this one's going to turn out, but it's gotten off to a decent start. Chainmail Bikini (Shamus Young, Shawn Gaston) is written by the same guy who did DM of the Rings, only with actual art, and like that one, pokes fun at gamers and their stereotypes, although without the Tolkien trappings. One of the characters is a perfect example of what I was talking about when sarchasmic, dandycat, and waveform_delta and I were talking about power gamers a couple of weeks ago.

Finally, one that I discovered just a couple of weeks ago (I gotta stop with the webcomics, really): Girl Genius (Phil & Kaja Foglio), an adventure/sf/fantasy comic set in a sort of alternate Victorian-era Europe. Steampunk fans will probably really enjoy this one. It's an ongoing storyline that will probably make no sense unless you take time to read from the beginning. It's much more story-driven than gag-driven, compared to the others; this page outlines the plot so far if you want to get an idea whether or not to read, because any description I give can't really do it justice.

I'm not sure what it says about my high school that about a quarter of the material on this quiz is stuff I don't think was taught in any of my classes.

Also, I think it's hilarious that I didn't do hardly any of my homework in high school (reading fantasy and sf novels was far more interesting), yet I still managed to learned shit.

( And on a related note... )

The movie version of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising is already out. (The first movie? I'm not even sure if they're doing the series or one-shotting it. Seeing as they've already skipped the first book, anyway.) It was only a couple of months ago that I found out it was being made. I really want to see it, afraid as I am that it's gonna be all messed up. This is seriously one of my favorite book series. The Grey King was absolutely riveting; I was so deeply immersed in that book I quite literally was not aware of the world around me.

Okay, I just read a user review on imdb.com: that person thouguht the movie was terrific, but she hated the book, so obviously, she doesn't know what good and can't be trusted. ;)

And I just saved Stardust on my Netflix queue, so I can see it when it comes out on DVD. I missed it in the theater. I thought about going to see it by myself, but I never got around to it. I don't like going to movies alone.