Globetrotters

Sometime in November, I'm planning to head to Seattle to visit Kevin and Candyce and stay at Chez O'Hara. Er, I wonder if I conveyed that last bit to her? Anyway, it's a trip I'm really looking forward to as I haven't been back to Seattle since October 2004.

Next week I'll be heading up to Burbank for a couple of days to advise the voice actors to really emote those lines about wanting blood on their hands. That's going to be a very cool experience for me as I've never worked directly on our VO stuff before. They're starting with all the newbie stuff and it's my little winged babies that are getting their voices done first. Yay!

And then there is the weekend when everyone who's anyone will be in Ireland for Kevin and Candyce's wedding. I'm not anyone, so instead I may be heading east to the Tokyo Game Show.

How can I be so lucky? Could it be my personal charm, wit and appeal? No...it's because I share an office with SteveD, who declined to go this time in place of our community manager (who has to move apartments that week) so there was me, waving my hands around saying, "Ooh! I can go! I have a passport! I kind of understand Japanese!"

And fortunately, I actually know where my passport is. Unlike that mystical bit that hooked the TiVo to the wireless network in the old apartment...which still has yet to surface.

Ooh. I may need new clothes. I love travel!

Casino!

Les and I went to a local casino today, where we each won $20. I spent my winnings on shoes. I think it'll be the hallmark of my future: every time I win anything while gambling, I must immediately convert the cash into shoes.

Today's win actually more than paid for the shoes, which were on clearance at the outlet malls conveniently co-located with the casino. Can't lose your money one way? Lose it another! So at the Nine West store, I bought a pair of "come fuck me shoes" for $14.99. They are gorgeously simple, comfortable and sexy with little black straps and what seems to be a three-inch heel. I haven't owned a pair of shoes like this...ever. Now for a suitable occasion to wear them!

Another Happy Birthday!

This time, to my cherub Chris, who is now officially twenty. :)

We celebrated today by me waking him up bright and early (well, I let him sleep until 10AM since he'd been up till 5AM playing with his birthday gift, the XPS-400) and walking to Parkhouse Eatery for breakfast. The food was soooo good and they serve Coke, which made Chris very happy.

You should've heard him one night at Brians' Eatery (apparently a choice word for restaurants in this 'hood) when the waiter asked him whether he wanted "another Pepsi." "No!" snarled Chris, who hadn't wanted the first one either, but drank some of it because he thought he was being served Coke. I don't think I've ever seen a waiter whose hand didn't have my fork in it pull back so quickly!

Anyway, the XPS-400 was a complete hit. Thank you, Rob, for helping me choose how to pimp it out to the extent my wallet was willing. Chris was shocked speechless when he walked in Friday night after work and realized a new computer was silently installing WoW behind me. The key word being silent, as his old computer's fan is scraping something to shreds and makes a horrifying racket.

He's going to Mexico with a guy from his work later tonight to celebrate. I'll be sleeping with my phone beside me, hoping he won't have to call me to come bail him out or something.

Why Marriages Fail

Poor Rob...he hadn't had a chance to read the Forbes article, happily titled "Don't Marry A Career Woman." If this had been written back in 2001, Rob could have seen the handwriting on the wall for our relationship.

I was a career woman, made over $15 an hour, and true to the article, once we got married, I did 1.9 hours less housework per week.

Usually the only thing that gets me in a bundle is George W., but this article had me pretty riled up yesterday. Apparently, I'm not the only one who took strong offense to it: Forbes pulled it from their website mid-day. But the damage had already been done. I guess the writer, Michael Noer, is going through an unhappy divorce from a dirty home. He's also the author of a lovely piece (which Forbes also pulled) that began something like, "Wife or Whore?" Pretty much sums up his views about women! It also indicates that someone at Forbes forgot that career women make up a portion of their readership. I used to read it myself.

Note: Forbes apparently added a "counterpoint" written by a female staffer to Michael's article and has them up side by side now.

There's lots of clever rebuttal pieces now; my blog isn't one of them. However, I did enjoy the Feministe one in particular. As this rebuttal points out, Michael didn't include anything that the man in a marriage to a career woman could do to help make things work (like, help take care of the kids or self-police his own health issues)...other than pick up a broom to help tidy up.

Alas, all water under the bridge now. I'm still a career woman, making more than $15 an hour. My home is still not where I'd like it to be on the cleanliness scale even without a husband underfoot. Guess I'd better get used to this single life!

Oddly Entertaining

Working crunch time...and it makes my brain tired. This can make the most mundane things funny, although as is often the case in my life, at my expense.

Checking my email, I noticed the System Administrator sent me a "You're over your max limit!" email. As I went through and started deleting emails, I grumbled to SteveD, "What made it suddenly decide that I'm over the limit?"

"Uh...because you're over the limit? It's not like that's sent at random..."

I was sorry at that moment that I had decided to stop throwing things at him.

Later, Liz was helping me with a script on an item. "You see," I told her, "I have this neat little box..." Whereupon SteveD started choking with laughter and earned a dirty look (which went very well with his dirty mind).

A few minutes later, Liz was watching my computer screen over my shoulder and noticed SteveD continually logging in and out of his IMs as the icon flashed repeatedly on my screen. "What are you doing? I keep seeing your thing pop up," she said to him. There was a moment of silence followed by innuendo-laden snickers.

So it's probably quite fitting that when I finally staggered home tonight and turned on the TV, I watched The Girls Next Door. I'm not sure why, but I found it very oddly entertaining.

Head 'em Up! Move 'em Out!

The cherubs and I went for a short hike today to Mission Trails, a regional park that's close by. I didn't want to strain the boys, who are not much into the great outdoors, or myself. I haven't done anything more strenuous than walk down the street to Brians' for a chocolate shake.

We took it pretty easy, doing a short loop trail a little over a mile long. Of course, the guide at the visitor's center chided us for getting such a late start, but at least we got out there! Afterwards, Chris wanted to get his haircut, so we stopped at a Supercuts place where both he and Phil ended up getting new looks. I debated getting my hair cut, too, but figured I can wait a bit. At least right now, my hair is long enough to pull into a ponytail so that I can wear a cap whenever we decide to go hiking again.

Like maybe next week!

And then, I see that the Mariners traded away Jamie Moyer. Jamie Moyer, for crying out loud! That's not like trading someone who's just okay. Jamie Moyer and his wife are pillars of the charitable community in Seattle. Is nothing sacred any more? :(

The New Hood

We've located a few shortcuts to get around. Chris has found a gas station with relatively inexpensive gas. And yesterday, Phil and I located the Safeway/Von's near us that's much bigger than Podunk Von's, has several types of cocoa and includes a bakery.

I love bakeries.

The other day, Phil and I walked around the area to the nearby major road. We counted four corner market/liquor stores, a car repair place, a bar, two restaurants, four coffee shops and a Buddhist temple. And one bakery!

And that's just along the one street. Glancing further down side streets reveals other marvels of walking-distance charm.

Even if we can hear everything our neighbors do, it's comforting rather than annoying. I have a built-in bookcase. Mittens and Melody are getting along better. Things are good.

I like my new place. What do you like best about your hood?

Up with the Birds

Waiting for the Cox cable guy to come see why my cable box suddenly decided it wasn't authorized. Or why, in the month that I've had cable, that half my channels don't show up.

They've credited my account, but still. How hard can it be to flip a switch and say, "Ta da!" After all, you can be sure that if I'd ordered premium channels or pay-per-view that that's all they'd have to do.

Phil spent the day yesterday playing EQII. What a good boy. :) He's now level 25, having reached 20 last Christmas. Around midnight I told him to say farewell to the pickup group he was in because I needed to sleep...so that I could get up early this morning with the birds singing, the church bells faintly calling out the quarter hours and the sun gradually lighting the sky.

Happy B'day!

To my sister, who is now officially twenty-two! ;)

Also...there seems to be something peculiar with your blog, as it's taking a long time to load up. That might just be me though.

Cherubs

Phil arrived yesterday. Chris picked him up at the airport and brought him up to the office for a bit. We had an early supper, then they wandered away and I went back to work. I'm looking forward to the weekend, where I shall get to see more of my boys. Apparently, they are going to an all-ages club Saturday night to do some brotherly bonding and picking up of chicks. I'll just sit at home and catch up on TiVo.

My office will be relatively quiet the rest of this week as SteveD's on holiday. I might just rearrange his action figure collection to see if he'll really notice.

Weekend's End

Went to the Padres' game last night with Les. We had dinner in Old Town, walked around a bit and then braved traffic to get to the stadium.

About two innings into the game, Les went to buy us some beer (hey, it was a nice night!) and I offered to hold his stuff. Half an inning later, his friend Susan said to me, "You know that Les gets lost sometimes?" Well, yes, I'd already noticed this. And glancing at my hands I realized that not only did I have Les' ticket, I had his cell phone. If he had gotten lost on the way back to our seats, he would have had no way to call us and no way to know which seats he was lost on his way back to. I had Susan take a picture of me (using Les' camera, that I was also holding) cuddling his cell phone as though that were my date instead of him.

"I hope he comes back," I said to her wistfully. "He drove tonight."

Evenutally, he returned, beers in hand. A nice evening, the home team won, and we went for dessert at an English-ish pub down the street from Built-in Bookcases.

Another long week ahead of us. We had a little play test of the area I've been working on and the critiques were about what I was expecting, even kinder actually. I stayed a bit later than normal Friday fixing some of the things that people mentioned. Around 8 or so, I told SteveD that we were both crazy to still be at work...everyone else was bright enough to have left by then. And when I finally finished up and headed out a half hour later, he was still busily fixing up his zone. That's one thing I like about SteveD...he's really dedicated to getting his stuff done right. Our team has lots of folks on it that way, but I'm always impressed with it when viewed first-hand.

Friday! At Last!

Mittens has finally forgiven me for moving. For the first couple of weeks, he hid in Chris' room and barely spoke to me. Once when I bent down to pet him, he even slunk away from me, which he has never done before. It broke my heart! But he's settled in now, perched beside me on the bed (for there is no place for the XPS but on its rolling cart...in my room) as I type. Melody is on the other corner of the bed, grooming.

There's a pile o'stuff by the front door that Chris and I need to take to Goodwill. Smart folks might have done this before moving, but I had thought everything would actually fit in the new apartment. Ha! Ha! Oh, well, it's always good to prune one's posssessions now and again. That way we don't become too violently attached to anything.

The other day, SteveD had a headache so I gave him a bit of a neck rub and thought, I should really take massage classes again. I haven't had any complaints about my technique, but I'd like to improve what little skill I have. It's very relaxing for me because I have to fill my mind with happy thoughts while I'm working on someone, which is good for me and good for them.

My happy thoughts this time: the weekend is coming! And with crunch time upon us, I am going to enjoy every minute of mine! Even laundry will take on a new, rosy hue because it's not work! And while I love my job, I've been feeling unproductive and uninspired lately.

Have a lovely day full of happy thoughts!

Your Mystery Date

There used to be a board game for girls called Mystery Date. I never played it, but I still remember the jingle because the commercial ran all Saturday mornings during cartoons.

Since I want to date outside the game industry gene pool (and since I never meet anyone who isn't somehow involved in games), I went to that speed date thing where I met Les. I also signed up for a couple of months of eHarmony.

Candyce and Kevin met at Match.com, and I know they were encouraging Broos to take up Kevin's free account to roam the highlands and find a lassie. I looked at Match.com and found it to me somewhat fixated on the physical. Quite a number of profiles include photos showing off bods in all manners of undress. Both the male and female profiles seemed to be similar in that regard and I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to live up (or down) to the profiles in my age range.

I will say that eHarmony is pretty interesting. For one thing, you don't get to see anyone's photos until you've joined, which is probably profitable for them. However, it also weeds out anyone who's not serious about meeting people for more than a one night stand.

We'll see what happens. So far the only person that I'm interested in on eHarmony lives two hours north of here. That's not very date-able, but he seems like a very nice guy, too. Apparently, nice guys have to use these matching services because bad boys have but to slap the nearest girl to have her fawning all over them. I prefer nice guys.