As usual when I haven’t posted in a while, it’s because I’ve been having too much fun. I’ve had a lot happen lately that I’ve wanted to post about, but I can’t quite remember everything and certainly can’t remember all the eloquent, moving, timeless prose I composed in my head. So a whirlwind tour through the things that actually made it into my calendar will have to do.

Finally saw V for Vendetta and really liked it. As much as I worry about civil liberties in this country, it says something that a film like that can still get released here. I’d love to talk about it with people who’ve seen or read it. (I’d also love to see it again, several times.) Having read the comic very recently, I noticed the differences more than I usually would have. Some of them had obvious reasons behind them, but there were also some things that I wondered about: the choices made in the movie were perfectly fine, but presumably there were reasons for deviating from the book and I’m curious about those reasons. By and large I thought the movie was very faithful to the book, which makes sense since the medium translates very well to the screen.

Went to a fabulous party at ragingamazon’s. Actually, I almost didn’t make it; for long and boring work-related reasons I didn’t glance at a map before I took off and figured incorrectly that I’d remember where to turn. My recollection was way off, and I drove back and forth for at least an hour and a half looking for a turn I was sure I’d recognize. For complicated reasons, this got me disproportionally, irrationally upset and depressed, and when I found it I almost didn’t go on the theory that I wouldn’t be good company. But as soon as I got there the stress melted away and I had a wonderful time! I was very pleased to see the yummy underwatercolor and minerva42 there — all of ragingamazon’s friends are yummy, I think; maybe because it rubs off onto them — and met some very sweet people for the first time. I was especially happy to see mrpet there, since I haven’t seen him in a while. And I got introduced to Dr Tran, who is a real doctor and has a PhD in kicking my ass.

On Saturday, drove cathijosephine up to visit faerieschylde and stayed for dinner, which was yummy and delightful. I always like spending time with faerieschylde, and I love car trips with cathijosephine. (Of course, I love car trips in general.) Then went up on Sunday to bring cathijosephine back. I also got quite a lot done around the house over the weekend. Oh! Right, Monday was a holiday — I got most of that done on Monday. Progress is slow, but it’s happening.

Tuesday cathijosephine and I got together for dinner, and Thursday I cooked for her — a roast in the crock pot. Then Thursday night we took some of the roast over to docorion at work, since he’d had to hurry out to work without bringing his dinner. (He’s been working a lot of night shifts lately.) It was really neat to see him at work, particularly since he didn’t have a professional reason for seeing me. (When we heard he was going to be working at the local hospital, I joked to cathijosephine that we’d have to have lots of accidents so we could go visit him.)

I should also mention that I’ve had some lovely chats with docorion lately; he seems to be particularly happy and relaxed lately and that makes me happy. Also great to see mud_puppy when she’s over.

Anyway, back to Thursday, after stopping by the hospital to feed docorion, cathijosephine and I walked to a nearby Irish bar which was a very pleasant, relaxed experience. Think all the authenticity of Doyle’s but much humbler (in size and in attitude). And the Guiness on tap was excellent, and inexpensive.

By the time I got home, I have to say, my feet were quite sore (I hadn't planned on that much walking when I chose my footwear that morning), but in a happy, well-used way.

Oh, at work we got in new backup hardware this week (a big and very fancy tape jukebox with much higher-capacity drives than our old one), and that’s what I've been working on most of this week. I’m the sort of person who gets excited about that. There were some problems, and we had to have a technician come in and help us with it on Thursday, but I had tapes rolling Thursday night and Friday, and I’m looking forward to getting its fancy web interface set up on Monday. So I’m feeling good about that.

Today I got together for gaming with magid and queue and was introduced to a game called Strange Synergy, which I really enjoyed and have to get for myself. After two games of that (an open-hand teaching game followed by a game by regular rules), I was slightly brain-fried, and we played a game of Aquarius, which was really nice because I haven’t played that in ages, and it’s a “comfort game” for me — sionnagh and I used to play it all the time. This is making me want to host a games day, but first I’d need to excavate the living room. :-)

Oh, and I’ve started watching the Firefly series, which I own on DVD and have mostly been watching on the T. I’m enjoying it.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m going to Honolulu to visit sionnagh next month. Exciting! Yay, sionnagh and Hamlet! Yay, swimming in the ocean! Yay, spam musubi and loco moco! Broke da mouth!

Oh, and the only reason I’m using this new userpic is that I like it so much. It’s a detail from the back of the 1896 issue of the (silver-backed) US $5 bill. The engraving is entitled Electricity Presenting Light to the World, and you can read more about it and lots of other equally gorgeous and lyrical currency designs at http://www.flyingmoose.org/truthfic/1896.htm. The figure reaching in front of Electricity with the trumpet is Fame, proclaiming Electricity’s glory. Cropped out of the userpic are Jupiter with a lightning bolt to power the lamp and Peace holding a dove, but you can also see a bald eagle next to Electricity. Why on earth anybody ever thought to change the design of the $5 bill after such a pinnacle is entirely beyond me, but I suppose all is corruption and decay.

Oh, and I bought flowers for the yard! Those of you who know me will ① realize what a momentous occasion this is, and ② feel sorry for the plants. Wish them luck.