I hope you had a safe and happy and fun Halloween.

I did.

Heh, it's party time here in the office. About a third of the staff have dressed up for the holiday, and some of them put *a lot* of effort into their costumes. That, and the company is giving us free pizza for lunch - nothing like a free lunch to make the natives happier.

In other news, my horoscope says: "On Halloween weekend, you'll be the sign everyone wants to sleep with. Surround yourself with people you'd like to see naked. " If only. I'm heading south this weekend to help my mom throw a baby shower. Much as I love 'em, spending the weekend with 1) my family and 2) a group of women, most of whom I'm sure have already had children and who will most likely want to talk about their labor experiences, does not sleeping with/naked opportunities make. Dammit!

And lastly, I made brownies last night. Lots and lots of brownies. The smell of chocolate was overwhelming even when I woke up this morning. I expect that my apartment will still smell like brownies when I get home on Sunday.

So I went to the Food Bank last night. We repackaged a ton of meat. And by "a ton" I do not mean "a whole lot." I mean 2000 lbs. 2000 lbs of roast beef, pork loin, and turkey breast.*

Then we went out for hamburgers. Yum.

Today, I am wearing a skirt and people keep exclaiming how nice I look. I'm not sure that I really look all that nice. It's the contrast from my normal work-wear that astounds them. I have to admit that I like it too, though. I need more skirts.

* Don't worry, they were prepared for people who didn't want to handle meat - those people repackaged coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Sometimes we could smell it over the meat, but not often.

Ever get to the point in your workload where you have so much to do that you don't want to do anything at all? That would sum up the last couple of weeks for me.

I'm ok with always having a slightly overwhelming workload. Keeps things moving and, ahem, exciting. But the stress we're getting these days from being understaffed and supporting at least three major releases of our product at once makes me feel like just chucking it all over the side, yelling some inappropriate epithet, and walking away.

I'm just saying whining, that's all.

I haven't even seen the SNL episode this refers to, but I think the iPod Ashlee Simpson Karaoke Edition is hilarious. [via Jon]

Given that peas are anathema to me, it would be really funny to my family if I wore this this weekend. [via Reecie]

So, how was your weekend? Mine was great!

Finally went to the wedding that I've been stressing about for so long - stressing for no good reason, of course, since I was not involved in it in any way except the showing up part. No, it just showed me that I have *nothing* nice to wear to an event like this. All I ever wear are jeans and sweats and t-shirts and sweatshirts, with the odd button-up once in a while. So it took time and money, but I now have a lovely dress and all the accessories to go with it that I can wear whenever. Trivial? Yes! Now, need to get ready for Christmas!

But the really important thing is that the wedding was BEAUTIFUL. It was in the mountains, in a lovely lodge, with soft lighting and a fireplace, and a place to hang our coats. There was a London taxi to take us all (but not all at once) from the parking lot to the hall. The minister had a sense of humor and a great voice and entertained us with stories and a bottle of wine after the ceremony. Someone forgot the groom's ring, and no one freaked out. There was a three-piece band doing swing music, with breaks for dance and disco. The food was good too.

And the bride and groom were beautiful and in love.

Also went to a housewarming, where it seemed everyone there already owned their own houses, or were planning to buy one within the next year. These people are younger than I am. And a lot more hip. Makes me want to own a house. Almost. I'd also like to have a life, and I'm not sure they're compatible.

And then yesterday I dragged myself out of the house apartment to the Bridge School Benefit. I had missed some of the bands I really wanted to see, but got there in time to see Ben Harper, the Chili Peppers, and Tony Bennett. I wanted to see Paul McCartney too, but damn, after raining all day on Saturday, it was clear but friggin' cold on Sunday and the mountain o' clothes I had brought with me weren't enough to keep me from shivering, so I left.

Now it's Monday and I'm having trouble keeping anything in my short-term memory and I have a lot of stuff to do tonight, like laundry and the grocery store (and seeing Shaun of the Dead).

This weekend? My mom and I are throwing a baby shower! For the first time ever! Good thing the mother-to-be has a friend who wants to do the game part. We'll be providing food and a clean house.

I'm also volunteering a bit this week and into next month. If you're interested in joining me, check out the events list on the right. If none of those fit into your schedule, but you want to participate, the organization has lots more to offer, so go sign up! It's fun!

And finally:
Don't be put off by the first page, it gets better as you page forward: What movie posters really mean [via Jon]
and
Draft Wesley Crusher For President [also via Jon, I believe]

I had 6 people - 6 PEOPLE - over to watch a movie last night. It was fun. In fact, it was great. Thank you guys, for taking time out of busy work/school/life schedules and coming over and being friendly and hanging out, the way friends should on a regular basis.

And, my apartment is really frickin' clean.

I've discovered lately that having an uneventful life, while good for the soul and bad for telephone conversations that start with 'so, what have you been up to lately', can take a toll on sleeping patterns if it lasts too long. I've had a lot of trouble sleeping lately - I generally go to bed at a normal time, but I wake up exhausted because I tossed and turned most of the night. Lately, however, activity has ramped up considerably and I find that I'm sleeping much better. Finally.

Also, the only real advantage of being in any way involved in the SBC/Yahoo DSL offering is that you can create moods on Launch.com - I have been serenaded by all the big band boys of yore. It's great.

Also, yet another good parody of the men we have to decide between to lead our country. *sigh*

During our trip to Gilroy on Saturday, we had a conversation that took place at least 50 times (it didn't matter who took which part, it still made us giggle each time):

"Did you see that poncho?" "Yeah, you know, you can make one of those yourself"

Apparently we're not the only ones who think it's awful trend.

Weekend update

I went to Gilroy to get a pair of shoes yesterday. I managed to get the shoes (finally), but I also scored three skirts and a new going-out shirt, and even got a Christmas present for my mom! It took 5 hours, including a trip to the Big Mac Supper Club for lunch, and excluding stores that did not deal with clothes. I think it would have taken a couple of days if we went into every store.

Then we raced back up the peninsula so that I could back in time to go out on the town for a bachelorette party that lasted till about 3 a.m. I woke up around noon today and have accomplished little since, except to shave my legs and finish my book.

Update (9 p.m.):
2 movies and a huge bowl of popcorn later, I still didn't get anything significant accomplished. It was lovely.

If you look at the word 'submit' long enough, it starts to look wrong no matter how it's spelled.

And one key to doing something without thinking about it is to not answer the phone while you're getting ready. 'Cause then the next thing you know, you're talking about it, laying down on the bed, and then you suddenly come up with all sorts of reasons not to do it at all, or deals to make you feel better about not doing it. My apartment is much cleaner now, but I'm not sure that the physical tradeoff was very even for not going to the gym last night.

So I did my ironing *and* paid my bills last night. Yay me. However, now this means that I have nothing else to do with my evenings for the rest of the week.

I guess this is where "creativity" and "having a life" come into play.

To entirely counterract that last post:

Laws Concerning Food and Drink I don't think you should be eating or drinking when you read this, or it might end up all over the screen. [via Jessa, who also introduced me to Bash.org yesterday, evil woman]

Lost and Found. Andrea is one of the most touching writers I have known on the web. Even though I have only met her in person once, for about 15 minutes, I still consider her a friend and I wish her all the best, because she deserves it.

Sometimes, you have to keep your goals small. I have stopped looking for a new apartment, as it's too depressing and I haven't any time anyway. I have (re-)started going to the gym, though. Basically, I do that by just not thinking about it. If I can come home, not think, change my clothes, not think, get my book and keys and ID, not think, and then leave, then I might just get there.

Other than that, I will consider myself sufficiently productive if I can just finally do my ironing and pay my bills by the end of the week.

In other news, I am preparing to go to a wedding towards the end of the month. It finally occured last weekend to me that since I go to dress-up occassions so rarely, perhaps this deserves a trip to my hairdresser, and some new shoes. I will be shopping this weekend. Shopping, shopping, shopping.

What are your goals for the week?

So I have been doing the incremental "no sugar" project for the past few weeks. And it's been going pretty well! I even forgot about it last week till it was almost over and realized that I hadn't had any sugar anyway.

This week, I was up to Mon-Thurs, and with only a soda on Wednesday (hey, work has been a bitch lately, ok?), I did it. And there were many snickerdoodles (who knew they were a favorite of so many people? I should have brought them in on Monday!) in my apartment the whole time! And people were offering me cookies and sweets all week and I was very very good.

It's been tough, but maybe next week I'll try not to have cookies in the apartment, staring me in the face. That might ease some of the 'I have nothing to do except eat' temptation.

I haven't had any sugar yet today.

Alright, forget about the real life people you'd most like to, ahem, spend some quality time with. What imaginary characters would you most like to go on a date with?

According to Orange Prize for Fiction, the most popular character is Mr. Darcy. The rest of the list includes

2. James Bond
3. Superman
4. Hercule Poirot
5. Inspector Morse
6. Heathcliffe
7. Sherlock Holmes
8. Rhett Butler
9. Prince Charming
10. Sharpe
[via The Guardian, via Kevin]

Gosh, I'm well-read, but I don't know that I've developed crushes on many characters - at least, not many that aren't included in this list.

Thoughts? Lists? Suggestions?

So La Traviata was fun. Tragic, but fun. I sat next to two very nice people, a singer and a writer. The singer had been in a production of this show, and she had all sorts of enlightening things to say about the volume of the orchestra, the costuming of Flora (the character she had played), and the history of the dress she was wearing (it was a costume she had worn in a recent production of Kiss Me, Kate - apparently the book is much better than the movie). The writer agreed with me that opera is opera is opera - we liked the costumes and the singing (wow, the lead has an amazing voice) and the part where the Marquis was getting spanked and the Spanish dancers were doing their thing.

I can't say that I Love Opera. But I do Like It A Whole Lot. I have to admit that when they are singing away, and there's no translation up on the translation boards, my mind wanders. I think if they'd been translating the last 15 minutes of the show, I might have cried, as was expected, apparently. Instead, I was thinking about who was coming over tonight and how much cleaning I really need to do to make the place presentable.

Where can I get a good pair of binoculars?

dogs.

New sites of note:

Destinova - interesting stories, and good updates on security and deals available in the travelling world.

One Sweet Nothing - it's Lucia! With a blog!

In other news, it is now officially cold and I have Turned On the Heater, my fingers are suffering from the dry weather (no relation to the heater, trust me), my apartment looks like a tornado blew through it and I have people coming over tomorrow night, and I'm going to see La Traviata tonight.

All that, and I have to shop for the last of my family birthdays for the year - mom and brother share Friday - and plan a baby shower for the end of the month.

Speaking of showers, it is possible to have a kick-ass wedding shower that doesn't involve silly games. Including snickerdoodles and pumpkin cheesecake is not a bad idea, though.