I Speak With the Tongue of a Thousand White-Hot Lies!

The scoop on Scott and I meeting Alton Brown is up over on WP (with footnotes. After a day of jury duty--which is certainly our most depressing civic duty, if nothing else--I am too tired to cross-post and deal with footnotes).

If you don't know who Alton Brown is ... well, there's a link. As the paperboy fish on Spongebob says, "Arm yourself with knowledge."

... I am not going to try and format this over here.

I wrote about this past week's Glee over at WordPress--grief and growing up and holy cats, Chris Colfer has shoulders, man!

gnadige, if you want to read something slightly more coherent than what I dumped onto FB, go check it out. (Also, I totally name-checked you.)

Ugh, time change. Even if I do get my hour back, my body clock is still all messed up.

So, what's going on? I still feel like I'm playing catch-up from earlier in October, but I also feel like I'm getting there. Cleaning the house today definitely helped. I have a bunch of forms to send back to the other guy's insurance company, and some phone calls to make, and there will likely be more forms later, but I'm hoping they're tapering off.

The new car is finally starting to feel like it's mine--it's a 2010 Chevy Cobalt, and for a while there I couldn't really answer when people asked me how I liked it. Out of the roughly 8.2 million cars we test-drove, it was the best, but otherwise I was still mourning my Camry. I really liked my car. Yeah, it wasn't flashy, and it had 100,000 miles on it, and there were things starting to fall apart on it, but I wasn't at a point where I was planning to get rid of it. Anyway, now that the faux-new car smell is gone and I've gotten the seat belt scrubbed down, the Cobalt is cool. The iPod input jack makes me incredibly happy; being able to listen to David Tennant as Benedick without static is ... sigh. Actually, the whole stereo is really sweet.

It doesn't have as many hidey-holes as the Camry (seriously, Toyotas are all about the storage), and I miss the overhead lights in the front seat--oh, and there's no indicator on the dash for the headlights being on, and this irritates me out of all proportion.

I'm glad my long national nightmare of car shopping is over.

Tomorrow I start volunteering at Z's school, in the library. I figured at least this way, I sort of know what I'm doing.

My mother's been getting together with Scott every weekend to do Accounting homework; that means I've been taking Z all over the place to get him out of the house so they can work. This is exhausting, especially since Grandma has joined us in our weekly excursions. But it's also fun, and I know GeeGee loves spending time with the boy.

Got to see doggiesushi a couple of weeks ago when he was in town, and Z kept himself occupied for a lot of the visit, which was ... really cool. He's been a lot more self-sufficient recently, which is nice. Right now, I'm not the mom who freaks out when my baby gets more independent (I reserve the right to break down later, if need be)--I'm just thrilled I get some time to myself again.

It was good to see JC. I miss him. I'm super-happy I've gotten an annual sighting the past two years!

Jason's doing a kids' show! So we're going to introduce the Zweeble to live theater! This is a very exciting prospect.

I am so very tired. But as I have to work tomorrow and don't know when I'll get a chance to write a coherent account of The Wedding, I will instead go for semi-coherent.

--I love to vacation with gnadige. It's been a damn long time since I have traveled alone, and I have no sense of direction. Now, granted, had I been the only one driving around, I may have figured things out, but there's at least as good a chance that I'd have wound up going to Chicago or Canada on my way to doggiesushi's house.

--Everyone John knows, knows the word "bitchshitter." I think one of my favorite moments was when someone said that particular John-ism at dinner and the entire table--childhood friends, adult friends, everyone--cracked up. I was a bit nervous meeting so many new people, but when the TARDIS reference came up, I figured we were all good.

--jenifoto and stotangirl IN DA HOUSE, YO! Also, conversation with takarosa is pretty much like reading her LJ, especially the discussion about ... ahem ... adult topics. I was super-happy to finally meet both of them live and in person. :) It was also great to meet all these people whose LJ comments I've seen, or whose journals I've clicked over to from comments before. It was a little bit like celebrity watching. And JC and Tiffany have wonderful, generous, and super-welcoming friends. I will say it was slightly disconcerting to have people coming up to me and saying they've been hearing about me forever, but John basically had the same thing happen to him when I was in college and he came to visit, so I suppose it's fair play. Plus, I guess John, like, likes me or something. :)

--Yes, I cried. Shut up. It was cool. You'd have cried, too.

--Erin took home a small pumpkin we named Maurice (pronounced Morris). Maurice the miniature pumpkin, misunderstood in his time. Also, John, Lorna, Erin and I are going to open an ice cream shop called Gothie and Emo's, which will serve flavors like This Is Nothing But Death and This Will Not End Well. Though my favorite was our Doctor Who special, Weeping Angel Ice Cream, which tastes like time distortion and fear.

--Speaking of such things, apparently jkason and David were quite a hit with their wedding gift note about prison.

--Dudes, they went up the aisle to cellos playing "Lovesong" by the Cure, and came back down to cellos playing Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart"!

--I think the image of the reception, for me, will be Mary and Elisa spinning in their dresses and crinolines.

--sugarcoatedlie has some Mad Sewing Skillz, people. She made her dress. Out of awesome and pure win. Oh, and lace.

--Okay, whose idea was it to give the klutzy girl with shaky hands a bouquet, the rings, and the vows? We won't discuss me trying to untie the ribbon on the rings. Well, at least I didn't have to carry a candle this time.

--John was doing the "nervous-and-excited" knee shake during the whole thing.

--POWER TANGO. The circle is now complete.

--It was a really nice ceremony. I think the best thing you can say about a wedding was that it was very much the bride and groom's wedding, and this was very much Tiffany and John's wedding. It was quirky and warm and funny, very sweet, and full of love. Every single person in the room loved both of them, and you could tell. I can't even tell you how happy it makes me that there are so many people who love John because he's John--for all the same goofy, weird, and hilarious things I love about him--and that he found this wonderful, crafty, hilarious, woman to spend the rest of his life with. So, yes, I cried. Though I am not tearing up now. Not at all. Um ... hang on, I'll be right back.

--I had forgotten how nice it is to come home to my husband after I've been away. And this time we had texting! ("Good lord, are you at the very back of the plane or what?")

--My kiddo was happy to see me. And I him. :)

Jason and David took us to see Sucker Punch as my birthday present (well, and they also got me the new Pokemon game) today ...

... Okay, this movie is in the same eye-candy, wacky plot that may or may not hold together but who cares it's cracktastic genre as Repo! The Genetic Opera, 300, and Sin City. In fact, take those movies, add a tiny dash of Girl, Interrupted as directed by Tim Burton, swirl in about half a cup of Moulin Rouge and some steampunk, then add a tablespoon of Lord of the Rings, and you have now created Sucker Punch.

It was fun. But kind of not. But then, very much so. I would not call it good, exactly; it was highly entertaining and really pretty to look at. I wish the dialogue had been better, but otherwise I have no issues. I even enjoyed the plot holes.

Also, at my mother's, I saw just enough of How to Train Your Dragon that I want to watch the whole thing now. I asked the Zweeble how it ended, and he gave me a pretty decent run-down, but I still want to see it.

Oh, ho ho; I thought I wouldn't be on today, but I did not count on the relentless complaining of the Zweeble. "I want to go NOW!" he says. "We can't stay here forever ..." "Over and over and over and over. Even Spongebob could not save me. Thank every last possible diety in the universe for Nick Jr.'s preschool games site. He is playing, and I am posting a "regain my sanity" post.

So, let me see ...

Previously, on Laura's Journal.

Day 06 - Write 30 interesting facts about yourself (1-11)

This may take two or three parts, just because of busy-ness. But okay. Here we go.

1. I have no spleen.

2. I have 8 more or less noticeable scars from various stupid/klutzy things I've done, and one from my kid biting me.

3. I have the same birthday as William Shatner.

4. My favorite joke: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A duck! (Scott now claims this as his favorite, but much like the Mini Cooper, I liked it first.)

5. I want to do a Dadaist picture of a naked baby doll being thrown down the stairs by a toddler and call it "Nude Descending a Staircase." (I thought of this last night.)

6. I was 18 before I saw real snow, and then I saw it in the Italian Alps.

7. I sing in the car every chance I get. I belt until my voice goes wobbly.

8. I realized recently that while I would settle for being a companion, I really want to be the Doctor.

9. I have an evil twin, jkason. That doesn't mean I'm the good one; we are, as Scott said, evil in the same ways--twins that are evil. (Jason's the one with the beard, though.)

10. Speaking of Jason, we used to tell people in college that we were cousins. It started out having as legitimate a reason as these things can have, but quickly evolved into just seeing how out-there we could make the story before those people figured out we were making it up.

11. I have a crush on Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb.

... Okay, my break is over and the Zweeble is bouncing around. More facts later!

( Still to come! )

Have a happy Thanksgiving, y'all.

I got to have fun tonight baking with my husband in the kitchen (he just does not have luck with dough--it always tries to engulf him like alien sludge), and before that I got to have a good conversation with my kiddo at bedtime. On Friday one of my best friends and his partner are coming down to hang out, and while my mother is sick, I have a plan to send her all the leftovers she likes.

So that is what I am thankful for this year: Scott, the Zweeble, my friends, and contingency plans (zombie or otherwise).

Oh, and pecan caramel bars that actually look like they might be edible.

Happy Anniversary to doggiesushi and sugarcoatedlie!

And I give you the ZQOTD:

(in his best party-host voice) "Mrs. Kangaroo, you remember my nemesis, Baby Seahorse."

(actually, just stuffing. I'd prefer cake.)

So, what am I thankful for this year?

1. My Zweeble, all 30 pounds and nearly 4 feet of him. Today I told him he'd have to ask his grandmother if he could have some pumpkin bread, and he ran over to her and said, "Grammie? Have? Punkin bread?"

2. My dealio. Always. He's conditioned me to see poking me in the ribs as proof of love.

3. My dad, who, when his grandson is crying, will resort to sillier and sillier ways of making him smile. No dignity there at all.

4. My mom and grandma, without whom I think I might dissolve into a blob of ... something. Something gross, and probably covered in baby snot.

5. My friends. Who remind me I am more than just the Zweeble's mother.

I could however, do without the leftover cough from my cold. Just sayin'.

Oh, and I plan to start The Wordy Shipmates tomorrow. 'Cause, you know, Puritans!

I love seeing doggiesushi. I hadn't seen him since ... hmm, before I got pregnant, so somewhere before summer 2006. Probably it was in 2005?

Anyway, I've known John since we were 10 and always sat together at lunch. Okay, here's a goofy memory: at lunch, every class was assigned a group of tables. Most of the cafeteria tables were orange picnic tables with attached benches. The Ultimate Awesome Tables were more like a fancy version of a folding table, with chairs, and the chairs were padded. 98% of these tables were assigned to the 6th grade.** Our particular 5th grade class was given one half of an Ultimate Awesome Table. Six chairs. And because John and I were two of the six nerds who brought their lunches, thus getting to skip the lunch line, we got to sit there. And then our teacher (I believe) made whatever seats we were in the first day our assigned seats at lunch for the year.

Bwa-hahahahahahahahahaha!

So, yes, we've known each other for going on 25 years (and you were impressed that dealio and I have been together for almost 17, JC. HA!), and this was the first time John seemed a bit older. People always tell both of us how little we've changed since school--I get less of that now, with baby weight and short hair--and for John, when I see him, it's true, despite the wildly varying hair lengths and colors. But this time, he'd aged a little. Not much, but a little. So 21, not 19 anymore. He's apparently legal, finally, in my head. :) It was odd--maybe I was just tired, but there were a couple of moments when I felt like ... this is the John his friends in Michigan see, the same basic person I knew all through school, but grown and changed and slightly different. Not in a bad way; we're just getting older. I mean, I see these things with jkason, too, to some extent, but I see him more often so it's more gradual. And dealio ... I only notice the changes in him when I look at old pictures.

I'm sure it was bizarre for John, too, seeing me with my kid. Though the Zweeble was, as always, charming.

It was fun, though. I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk at one point, when we got to reminiscing about going to a swim meet and nearly drowning one of our friends by standing at the end of her lane and screaming "GO!!!!" in her face when she came up for air. She's still mad about that (I suppose I can't blame her), and she's one of those people who barely remember high school.

**our elementary school went to 6th grade, then kids moved to the high school, which was 7th-12th grade. Except the year we were in 5th grade, they built the town's first junior high, 6th-8th grade, so we and the class above us went there the next year. So none of us fifth graders were ever going to get the Ultimate Awesome Tables.