It's so nice to know when your efforts aren't appreciated.

Hey, if my boss wants to rip on me for not doing my job... happy to take it. But when I get insulted about the efforts myself and another are putting in on a VOLUNTEER position... well then... YOU CAN SUCK GIANT HAIRY DONKEY BALLS!

I woke up this morning at 4:56, which meant I had about 15 minutes before I normally would wake up and about 20 before I typically get up. I had been having a unique dream (which is all I'm going to tell you because this is not one I'm sharing with the class). Usually when I wake up then, I don't fall back asleep and just lay there till it's time to get up. But today I fell right back asleep and back into the dream. Too bad the dream didn't get to come to a satisfying conclusion.

So a few weeks ago, theemmer bought an Alpha Smart. Well, because we have to everything the same (hee hee), I bought one too. I got it a week ago but it sat unopened for a few days (hey, I was busy having an ultrasound and closing on a new house). But today I brought it with me to work for the first time.

I am officially in love with it! I spent 45 minutes of my lunch hour writing in the atrium of our building. I think I got a good chunk written, though we'll see how much I actually wrote when I transfer it to my laptop.


On another topic... we've almost finished painting the master bedroom. I think we'll have that done tonight. And because she's so AWESOME, C has been helping out with that as well as driving me all over the place on the weekend while I picked up stuff for the new place.

And another topic... I'm still sick as a dog most mornings. I had a period there where I thought I was getting better but now we're back to throwing up most mornings. Evidently my grandmother was sick all 9 months with all three of her kids, so I'm hoping that's not what happens to me.

Okay, we'll try this again... I had this whole post almost written when I hit a key accidentally and IT ALL WENT AWAY! So, in the last week or so I've finished six books (two on the same day).

Resident Evil: Extinction by Keith DeCandido - I picked this book up for two reason (a) because it was on sale cheap and (b) because lilac_wine said that we got the story on what happened after Apocalyse. That was what interested me, I wanted to know what happened to Jill and Angie. This is my least favorite movie of the franchise but the book wasn't that bad.

Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews - This is the second book in the Kate Daniels series. I love this alternative view of Atlanta where magic and tech battle it out. Celtic mythology featured heavily in this one and was a great ride.

Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder - This has been a fantastic series and I've enjoyed every installment of it. It was gratifying to see Yelena come into her own and discover her true destiny in this book. I'm glad this isn't the last we'll see of these two countries since the next book centers around a minor character from the previous two.

Corpse Pose by Diana Killian - This is the first book in a new cozy mystery series. It is centered around a yoga studio (hence the name) in a small NY town. Usually in a cozy I can figure out the killer pretty early but not here. And the book is worth reading just for the MC's mother, who is outrageous and hysterical (think Edwina from Ab Fab).

Hidden by Eve Kenin - This is her second Shomi book set in the Northern Wastelands. If you haven't read the first, Driven, I suggest you immediately run out and pick it up (it was one of my favorite books of last year). We get action, romance, and a Resident Evil like plague - what more could you ask for.

Hotten Than Hell this is an anthology featuring 13 authors - Keri Arthur, L.A. Banks, Heidi Betts, Kim Harrison, Tanya Huff, Susan Krinard, Linda Winstead Jones, Majorie M. Liu, Cheyenne McCray, Lilith Saintcrow, Susan Sizemore & Denise Little, and Carrie Vaughn. I read all but one of the stories (which I got 2 paragraphs into and it reminded me why I didn't read this author). Another story didn't work for me because it felt more like the opening chapter to a novel. But overall I enjoyed the entries in this anthology with my favorites by Keri Arthur, Tanya Huff, Susan Sizemore & Denise Little, and Linda Winstead Jones.

 Happy Birthday susanrobbins

I had a weird dream the other night. I was on a big ship and was a naval fighter pilot. I ran into the captain on one of the decks where he told me there was going to be a big mission in the morning and he didn't know if I was going to fly in it. But he wanted me to come join him for dinner. So I went down a few decks and changed clothes. Then I started going back up and the top and found that the top decks of the ship were a cruise ship. Someone was telling me that something weird was happening and I said I was going to go talk to the captain. I started going up another set of stairs when everything just stopped, including me. Then everything started up again in slow motion and people are going on about how everyone outside (we were close to a shore or dock) was mutated. I look out at the shore and it was true, everyone was mutated. Then I went off the ship with someone and there were these people trying to put some weird mind control thing on my head.

I'm not even sure what that one was supposed to mean...

I went to the UW Hospital today to meet with a genetics counselor and to have an ultrasound done. They were going to do blood work but then after talking with her, they thought I didn't need to have blood taken since I'm going to have an amnio done no matter what the results of the blood test are.

( Ultrasound pic #2 )

From my flist:

This is IMDb’s top 25 all-time box office hits. Bold the ones you saw in theater, italicize the ones you saw some other way instead, and leave the unseen ones alone.

( Movie list )

A couple of weeks ago Gena Showalter had contests going on over at her blog every day for books (from her and others). The first day of the contest I won copies of the first two books from her new series (Darkest Night and Darkest Kiss).

Then yesterday over at Smart Bitches they had a contest to win an ARC of Ann Aguirre's new book WANDERLUST. Well, I LUUUURRRRRVED GRIMSPACE, so of course I entered. And guess what was in my inbox this morning... an email from Ann saying that I'd won! I immediately sent back my address and she wrote back saying that my copy would be going out in today's mail.

SQQQUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE

I can not wait!

Last night, theemmer and I were supposed to start a 6-week yoga class. It starts at 6pm in Kent. We get down to the train, sit down, and are sitting there for about 5 minutes when they announce that due to accident on the tracks south of Kent our train will not be leaving at 4:45, but instead will become the next scheduled train and leave at 5:20. The train ride is about 25 minutes (we'd arrive at 5:45). So we were left with a conundrum - Do we stay on the train and know that we'll miss the yoga class or do we dash up to the street and try to catch a bus and maybe still make it in time?

We decided to try the bus route, along with the rest of downtown Seattle. We have two buses we can take that get us there fastest - 158 or 159. The 158 bus showed up first and about 1,000 people tried to get on the already crowded bus. We were not so lucky to get on that one (though it might not have been lucky if we'd had to stand the whole way). We wait and wait and wait and finally the 159 shows up. We jump on and each find a seat. The bus takes off and we're actually making pretty good time down I-5 (which is amazing going south during rush hour). We get off the freeway at the Kent exit at 5:16 and I'm thinking "oh we'll be fine, there will be enough time".

It then took almost 30 minutes to go from I-5 to Kent Station. In fact, we were off the bus and getting ready to cross the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the tracks (where the parking garage is) when guess what rolls into the station... yep, the train we had been on.

So needless to say we did not make it to yoga. We stopped and had italian food at this tiny little place downtown Kent (Bev's Cucina - YUMMY!) and then went home and crashed for the night.

Okay, for a week I've been meaning to post pictures from the wedding. Anyone who's on my roomie's flist has already seen pics, but for those who aren't...

( Pictures, pictures, pictures... )

I've been a major slacker about what I've read. I might have even missed a couple but I'll try.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse - An anthology featuring Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, Octavia Butler, and many more. This book features 22 apocalyptic stories. I read them all, but didn't really care for some of them. I wish I could remember whose I liked the best but it's been a while since I finished this.

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy - This was absolutely hysterical! I finished this off in a couple of hours. I loved where Jenny wanted to eat an entire jar of mustard.

The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Brian Fagan - I saw the author on the Daily Show one night and this sounded like an interesting book. Of course, I didn't understand everything discussed in the book but it was very interesting.

Index to Murder by Jo Dereske - This was the latest in the Miss Zukas Mysteries. I've stopped buying these in the store and get them from the library. I found the MC less annoying in this book than the last. The reason behind a couple of deaths was sort of weak, but overall it was okay.

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane - theemmer and I watched Gone Baby Gone a while back and it made me want to read the other books in this series. This is the first book in the Kenzie/Gennaro series. It was an EXCELLENT book and I can't wait to read the rest.

Panic Free Pregnancy by Michael Broder - I was expecting more from this book and in a lot of places he contradicted everything I had read in several other sources about things you can/can't do during pregnancy. It was a quick read and I finished it in one sitting. Not very helpful overall.

What I'm reading now... well I've started and stopped several books lately, so I have 4-5 where I'm 1/4-1/3 of the way through. But yesterday I picked up Eve Kenin's Hidden (the latest Shomi book and the follow up to Driven - which was one of my favorite books last year) and I can not wait to dive into it.

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)

( I've read more than I thought I had )

FYI... Pregnant women should not watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Unless of course you want to be reduced to a sobbing mess just by the application video.

I had one of those mornings where I was dreaming that I was already up. Typically in the morning I hear theemmer get up and close her bedroom door and that's what wakes me up (much nicer than an alarm clock blaring in my ear). Then I lay in bed for a couple of minutes before I get up to jump in the shower. So this morning, I heard the door close and promptly dropped back to sleep, but I was dreaming that I was up and that it was snowing. C came in after her shower to see if I was awake and going to work (I'm usually in the shower by that point). I was completely out of it.

I also had a dream where I was in a church with two guys (I believe it was the Winchester boys) and we were trying to locate some hidden artifact or something in the church. There was a whole involved sequence involving trying to crack some secret code that involved numbers and letters so we could access the area where the artifact was supposed to be. Finally, Dean got irritated and frustrated and grabbed a sledgehammer and starting hitting the stone floor in the area we thought the artifact was located. I woke up so I have no idea if we found it or not.

My mom just sent me an email that said as of noon today she was being laid off. She works for a title company and they've been super super slow so she said she wasn't terribly surprised, but damn. I had plans to go see her this weekend, so now I'm especially glad that I'm going.

		I will marry Dean Winchester.
		After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in South of France in our fabulous House.
		We will have 2 kid(s) together.
		Our family will zoom around in a Blue VW Bug.
		I will spend my days as a SAHM, and live happily ever after.

UGH!

Never let a real estate agent take you to 7 different properties in one night. Too much! But we ended up not liking 5 of the 7. We only liked the first two and one of those was one we had looked at before. And the second stop, we actually looked at three properties in the same development.

I have to talk numbers with a couple mortgage people tomorrow and then we might be ready to make an offer on one of the two we liked.