An Evening Wasted With...
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Dorian" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:36 pm
[Link] | Major de-clutterage is currently happening. It's a bit tedious, but there is a certain glee to getting rid of stuff too.
I have already listed the following things on FreeCycle, but if any of my Dedicated Readers should want them, they should feel free to shout (so far, only the wardrobe has a nibble of interest)...
( Cut for list )
I have also gleefully shredded ten million old bills and similar (I love my little shredder) and thrown out a lot of fabric scraps that are too small to ever do anything useful with (but stored more fabric for later possible use).
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) taliesinn's being currently unemployed is really quite useful. He does de-clutterage while I'm at work. He's also around to deal with things like plumbers (one of which I really must call tomorrow, as the central heating has packed in again and we have no hot water).
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11:29 pm
[Link] |
That Was the Weekend, That Was...
I am going to blame the Stupid Cold for the fact that I inexplicably (and erroneously) believed that the Friday game wasn't re-starting until next week. Wasn't really in a fit state to go, anyway. I have given in and bought a bottle of cough mixture. It might do me more good if I actually remembered to take the stuff oftener than once a day.
To Skerries (coughing) on Saturday for taliesinn's birthday dinner, which was nice, and he seems to have liked his birthday present from me (two pairs of vintage silver cufflinks).
Went to see the new film of "Prince Caspian" this evening (and coughed intermittently throughout; luckily, mostly during battle scenes!). It's not a bad adaptation of the book. They've moved the Pevensies' arrival in Narnia to much earlier than it is in the book, and added an attack on Miraz's castle that isn't in the book, but otherwise it's reasonably faithful. I couldn't find much to nitpick, in fact! Other than such minor details as the name of Susan's school (St. Finbar's? What?!), and the army that had apparently never heard of the necessity to break step while marching over a bridge (unfortunately, the bridge seemed never to have heard of this either, and so did not collapse. Boo). Excellent effects, especially the spirit of the river. Reepicheep was wonderful. Costuming mostly very good, apart from the rather peculiar gown Susan was wearing at the end. Now I want to re-read the book. Unfortunately, all of our copies of the Narnia books are packed in boxes. Bah.
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09:27 pm
[Link] | Stupid cold a bit improved. Did, in fact, go to work today (though taliesinn thinks I shouldn't've). Not dead yet.
Why do no supermarkets sell white vinegar in anything other than weeny bottles? Bah.
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11:23 pm
[Link] | Off work sick on Friday. Did not think I was really that sick, but stupid cold persists with the sniffling and coughing. taliesinn thinks I should stay home tomorrow too, and see a doctor. Much as it pains me to admit it, he may be right.
In the meantime, went to Paul and Jen's wedding on Saturday (bad for cold). Twas in Wicklow, and weather was wet, windy and horrible. And Wicklow is the arse-end of nowhere and does not have taxis waiting at the station. Cue much walking until we found a taxi (rather randomly, in a petrol station). But wedding was nice, and B&B pleasing.
Train home today was not nice, being full of Wexford supporters going to a match.
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09:36 pm
[Link] | My cold is on its way out, but not gone yet, so I am still intermittently sniffley and coughy (green slime! I'm sure Howl would be proud of me). And have acquired random aches from somewhere, bah.
( Updates on ants and cat )
In other news, taliesinn was made redundant today, and is currently out celebrating the fact. He really didn't like the corporate culture of the new owners. I just hope he can find a new job quickly. Fat redundancy cheques are nice, but they're nicer when there's regular income.
On a random note, do any of my Dedicated Readers know who Barbie Diack is? She has friended me on Facebook, and I have no sodding clue who she may be. Her user photo is all glammy-glitzy and doesn't look at all familiar, and her user info is minimal. Judging by her other Facebook friends, though, she's probably a LARPer.
( Books...a plea for help! )
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09:22 pm
[Link] | It appears that somewhere over the weekend, I have caught a cold. I am sniffly and sneezey and coughy and moderately miserable. And my appetite has gone walkies, as it tends to when I'm ill, so even though I made nice slow-cooker-y goodness, I can't actually bring myself to eat any of it. Bah.
Also, we have ants. In the kitchen. Trundling happily around the working surfaces and getting into the cupboards and the bread-bin. Any and all tips that any of my Dedicated Readers may have for getting rid of them will be received gratefully.
In weirder news, Severus came in earlier this evening with a collar on. I didn't put it on him. He would appear to be doing a "Six-Dinner-Sid" thing. I can't decide whether to just remove the collar, or whether to (try to) attach a note to it, to the effect of "no matter what this cat may be telling you, he does actually have a home".
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07:47 pm
[Link] | So, went to the Moot.
( babblage )
Now home, and have done the week's shopping, and started on the laundry mountain, and have skimmed LJ. Finally managed to get the grey bin out in time for collection, too. And in a sudden access of domesticity, have made soup and have chopped up stuff to put in the slow cooker tomorrow morning.
Also, the "putting chairs in a rucksack" idea worked really well, and made life a lot easier. Unfortunately, another tent-pole section has bust (split, rather loudly, while putting our tent up), so more repair work needed before the Gathering.
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11:11 pm
[Link] |
Woe! Woe, and Thrice Woe!
Almost all of my books are packed in boxes. A couple of dozen still lurk, forlornly, on shelves that should contain hundreds of books, awaiting their inevitable fate. (And the shelves will be coming down soon, too.)
Until we manage to (a) get this house into saleable condition, (b) sell it, and (c) buy a new house, I have one bookcase, with four shelves, currently 3/4 full of books, to keep me going. I keep looking at the empty floor-to-ceiling shelves and feeling the woe. I have to keep looking back at the bookcase to feel safe again. My library really is my security blanket. I can read all the online books I like; if I can't see physical, dead-tree books near me I get all antsy. I need my books.
Woe! Woe is me, for I am un-booked!
::collapses, sobbing, hugging the remaining books::
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11:01 pm
[Link] |
Book Post
I finished reading "Heart of the Mirage" by Glenda Larke. A good read. Our Heroine is a member of the Brotherhood (a sort of secret police) and very good at her job. She's also a native of a country conquered (sort-of) and subsumed (even more sort-of) by the Empire she lives in, having been adopted at the age of three by a general of the Empire and brought up as an Empire citizen.
The story opens with her being sent on a mission (to root out the leader of the insurgents) to the country of her birth. Naturally, things get complicated from there.
I found the book generally well-written; Ligea is a complex and believable character, the secondary characters are also strong, the plot unfolds at just the right pace, Ligea's mental journey is exceptionally well done... In fact, about the only quibble I have is with the author's naming a mountain range "the Alps". In a fantasy world with made-up names, having a mountain range named after a real one was very jarring. The more so because the Empire is obviously heavily based on the Roman Empire, but the geography doesn't fit.
Small quibble aside, I liked this book a lot and will be buying the rest of the trilogy as soon as possible.
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09:04 pm
[Link] |
Maelstrom
So, I went to my first Maelstrom event. It was fun, but did not inspire in me immediate devotion.
( Mundanities )
( LARP-related musings )
And now I am home again, and more or less caught up on LJ (though I did major skimming, so if anyone said anything important they might want to remind me). And the Moot is this weekend, and I have to do enormous amounts of laundry, and buy a cool-bag, and fix a tent-pole (on the other tent), and sort out the census, and...arg! Events two weekends in a row are a bad idea.
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10:36 pm
[Link] | Have kit. Mostly. Have packed. Have charged phone. Need to change albums on MP3 player.
Need to go to bed, as must be up at stupid o'clock tomorrow.
Bah.
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09:37 pm
[Link] | Finished reading "Murdering Americans". I was somewhat disappointed.
For those of my Dedicated Readers unfamiliar with the work of Ruth Dudley Edwards, I should perhaps provide a few words of explication. ( Explication )
( And, this particular book )
On the upside, the reason I was in my parents' house today was to pick up my late Great-Aunt's fur coat, ready for the event this weekend. Yay for fur coat! It is rather too big for me, as Auntie Nora was rather larger-framed than I am, but wottheell wottheell. It is luverly and should certainly keep me warm of an evening in a tent.
I still need to organise a suitable handbag, a hat, and spray hair-colour, but mostly I think I'm sorted.
Also, packed books into boxes, for Máire said she'd be over tonight to take them to store in her garage. That didn't happen, for various reasons, but there are now 13 boxes waiting. It will probably take another 7 (at least) to clear the shelves. ::sigh:: (Last time we moved, we had, I'm fairly sure, 37 boxes of books. I'm sure we've acquired more since...but there are not 17 boxes already in Máire's garage. I am confuzzled. Maybe taliesinn is right and there were only 23 boxes last time.)
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09:28 pm
[Link] | Bah. Charity shops do not open on Bank Holidays. So no costumage achieved. The best I can do will be to check out the Oxfam shop in Malahide tomorrow. And see what, if anything, I can borrow from my mother. I did, however, manage to find a pound-shop type place that sells cheap crappy make-up, so I now have selections of vile eye and lip colours, and a bottle of truly horrible bright pink nail varnish.
Under the circumstances, I resorted to book-shopping. Hodges Figgis, most annoyingly, also does not open on Bank Holidays, but Waterstone's does. So I picked up "A Fistful of Sky" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, "Heart of the Mirage" by Glenda Larke, and "Murdering Americans" by Ruth Dudley Edwards (yes, Speranza, I will lend you that last as soon as I've read it).
I have already finished "A Fistful of Sky", which I picked up mostly because I have another of Ms. Hoffman's books and like it a lot. This turned out to be a rather "go nowhere" book; it's all about the main character's struggle to deal with her suddenly-acquired power to curse. The entire book felt rather like a prologue. But it was nice. Still, I think I prefer "The Thread that Binds the Bones".
"Heart of the Mirage" was a fairly random choice. The blurb is mildly intriguing and the first page or so was pleasingly written, so...will have to see how it pans out.
And "Murdering Amercians"...well, I've read several of Ms. Edwards' books, and they are hugely amusing. Their main character is loud, obnoxious, vehemently right-wing, and disinclined to put up with anything she regards as idiocy (a bit like me, in some respects). I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when she hits an American university.
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08:12 pm
[Link] | I can has Maelstrom character, yes, I can! Have just sat down with taliesinn and made my character. He assures me he can borrow a small pistol for me.
Tomorrow, I need to go trawl charity shops. I need a hat. And an elderly fur coat. And a "granny" handbag. And some cheap crappy make-up, which I hope a pound-shop will supply. Auntie Doris (that's Miss Doris to you, young man) will shortly be ready to rock and roll.
I fear this is the beginning of a slippery slope. I really don't want to get all enamoured of another LARP system; I really can't afford to do more than one, in terms of time or money. But I'm already getting excited about playing Doris. Damnit.
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09:10 pm
[Link] | And...back to the Real World.
taliesinn's workplace has just been taken over by/bought out by/merged with another company (I'm not really sure of the exactitude). He and everyone else in his department is on protective notice. This is distinctly sub-optimal.
My work, at least, continues in its usual manner; that is, bitching and moaning about our current client and project, both of which we hate with the Deadly Hatred of Dooom. Project end date has been pushed back again. If this damn' spacecraft ever gets off the ground it'll be a fucking miracle.
( New Speccies! )
And we still got home in time for me to get a couple of hours of toasting in. Yay for sitting in the sun with a drink and a book.
Also, I seem somehow to have agreed to go to Maelstrom next weekend. Apparently I am needed to take charge of managing the Chamber of Delights. I have a character idea, and I suspect that neither the Chamber nor its clientèle is going to quite know what's hit them. Does anyone have a moth-eaten fur jacket they could lend me?
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07:26 pm
[Link] |
GEF
Back from GEF, and feeling tired and sore.
( Weather and concomitant issues )
( IC babbling )
And after the nuisance of trying to lug everything home again, including a now-damaged cool-box full of bottled beer and taliesinn's airbed, I am rethinking our packing "system". The trundlies are good. The random other bits having to be carried are not good. I think the cool-box is going to be replaced with a cool-bag, and a rucksack will be utilised for that and the chairs and other odds and ends. Because currently I ache all over, my hands hurt, and I have unnecessary bruises; all of which is mostly down to wrestling with luggage. (Though some of it is due to much up- and down-hill walking.)
But now I am home, and this is good, and the cat is not sure yet whether to forgive us for Abandoning him. And I really cannot be bothered going through several days' worth of friends' list, so if anyone has said anything since Wednesday evening that they really want me to know about, they should comment here, preferably with a link to the post.
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10:15 pm
[Link] | I think I'm more or less sorted for going to the GEF tomorrow. My trundly is packed, all except for my blankie and my washbag. My phone and my MP3 player are both charging. The taxi for the morning is booked. I have texted my mother to see if she can come and feed the cat (if not, I'll leave him a pile of crunchies). The shirt that needs taking up, I have decided not to bring to this event. The belt-pouches I need to make (water-bottle pouch for janey_mac and a pouch for my new windy-uppy torch) are not made yet, but sewing kit and fabric are packed at the top of the trundly, and I shall sew on the train. Train timetables are printed out and in my handbag. (I'm tempted by the route via Newport, just because it's a station I've never been to, but it adds a good 2 hours to the journey, so no. (Geek, me? Whatever gave you that idea?))
( Stupid People )
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10:42 pm
[Link] | Note to Self... You do not want to watch the train-wreck. You do not want to be involved in the train-wreck. Step away from the train-wreck.
Gah.
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09:29 pm
[Link] | I feel mildly accomplished. It seems to have been a reasonably productive weekend.
( Somewhat random ramblings )
Current Mood:  cheerful
Current Music: Mozart: Horn Concerto #4, 3rd movement
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12:14 am
[Link] | taliesinn bought "The Golden Compass" recently, so we sat down and watched it tonight. I now want very much to read the book again, but I think my copy is in a box somewhere (probably in Máire's garage), so I can't. Bah.
( Movie review )
In other news, I have finished reading about George III and his Troublesome Siblings. I was quite delighted to find that one of said siblings married (secretly, and didn't tell his kingly brother for about 6 years!) a niece of my beloved Horace Walpole. Of course, it all ended badly. I am also much inclined to think that poor Caroline Matilda would probably have got away with her adultery if she hadn't mixed herself up in Politics.
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