Its been a while since I posted anything, so I decided to slap something up today. The last week and a half or so saw the return of my insomnia- it seems to finally be over, and I'm sleeping normally once again. I still don't know what triggers it, but I can deal with it. At work, I'm daring to have the laptop out again, so I have tunes- this started just a couple days ago... And this corresponds to my starting to sleep better again as well- connection? Maybe.

My reading has continued to be voracious, and over the last week I think I've gone through something like a book and a half every night- I've about... Five? New ones left, with several more en route in the mail. I plan to either go out today or tomorrow to get a few more. Mostly its 'supernatural fiction', which is to say contemporary fantasy leaning towards horror. No, I'm not reading Twilight, and I'll prolly go to work with the eye-spoons before I EVER read that tripe. :P

I did a little cooking the other day that came out nicely too. It was simple, but good: T-Bone steaks done medium with sauteed mushrooms and red and green peppers. Migod, I had a steak WITHOUT a potato! Who'd a thunk. I'll definitely be doing it again. In other food news I've started getting Bellatoria Sausage Italia extra-thin crust frozen pizzas- these are impressively good, nearing pizzaria quality for the flavor. They're kinda spicy (which I like) and perfect to have with a cold beer.

The Sunday Gaming Group is vaguely on hiatus due to the busy-ness of summer for several of the participants, so my gaming fix is being (barely) sated by playing Dungeons & Dragons Online. Its pretty damn good, and while I have a paid account for the added goodies you can play a lot of the content for free, earning DDO points to purchase the added content bit by bit. However, it doesn't make up for the lack of tabletop role-play, and I'm looking forward with little patience to the reinstatement of gaming.

That's pretty much it for life right now, other than I got some overtime the other night, and will get some holiday pay from the Fourth- right now the plan is to get a 16-gig Ipod Nano, but that may change if I find or am recommended a good 16 gig (or bigger; especially bigger!) MP3 player. I'm mainly looking at the Ipod as all of my music is on the Macbook and I'm looking at ease-of-transfer. Recommendations will definitely be considered, especially if there's something bigger than 16 gigs available for a similar or lower price. I don't want a Classic- I want no-moving-part reliability- hard drives are more likely to get trashed by klutz-me.

Well, I got the new card. Its a PNY Nvidia GeForce GTX 250 Core 216 896 MB card. It BARELY fits in the case after moving the hard drive. HOWEVER... My old power supply is insufficient, and the serial ATA connector is in the way. So, tomorrow I get to pick up a new powersupply and a 90-degree serial ATA connector so that we can get it set up. O well, I guess I knew it'd never be as simple as I'd imagined.

The new power supply will likely be and OCZ Technologies 700 Watt StealthXtream ATX. I'll pick that up in the morning before I crash for the day. Thus I will have my suddenly-beefy beast fully upgraded tomorrow. :)

Later tonight I'll be making the meatballs and sauce for tomorrow- I've discovered that the sauce is always better the next day, so making it tonight is the best route. You know, I should really organize all my recipes...

... Or the lack thereof.

I've been utterly ambitionless for a while now, mostly since spring weather started... I'm not depressed or feeling bad or anything, I'm just kinda lethargic and unwilling to get going on things I need to do, like bills, taxes, and cleaning. Tonight I finally got going on some things, cleaning mostly, and the bills were done this morning. Tomorrow (or at least by Friday, when I'll be able to afford to pay the preparer) I plan on getting all the tax crap together, and maybe getting to cleaning. I'll start with the front room, which mostly needs clutter-elimination and vacuuming. Cat fuzz, crap tracked in from outside... Bleah.

So, getting moving is happening, but I should have gotten going sooner than this. Hell, I usually would have had my taxes in weeks ago. Part of THAT is because I can't have the laptop at work anymore- if I could, I would have the taxes done, and prolly the two gaming writeups I need to do finished as well.

Other than that, life kinda is. No real problems to mention, nothing exciting going on whatsoever. ataramos, did the power supply get there? I need to know so I can yell at them if it didn't!

I didn't get much of anything done today, though I did finally watch my rented copy of 'The Incredible Hulk'. Good movie, not quite on the same level as Iron Man though. It seemed kinda rushed to me. I also rewatched 'Wall-E' AGAIN. This is probably my favorite animated film now. :)

As to the headache thing, I was feeling kind-of dizzy for most of the evening. I finally knew what it was when I got to work- a migraine trying to set its hooks into me! Ibuprofin and several cups of strong tea later and it was suppressed, though still there in the background. As I write this I feel a lot better, but I'm really wiped out. At least the night is almost over.

Today I'll see how many ideas I have for Xmas shopping together, and decide on whether to order or go to the stores- that, if I go, will be sometime this week. Also today I plan to get the tree up. More than likely in the afternoon when I get up; Getting the tree out of the washroom closet in the basement in the morning would probably wake people up and result in my untimely death...

That's about it!

Refi... Done!

Flu shot- Done!

Groceries... Workin' on it...

Cookies... Later tonight I'll start.

Fixing bolluxed paycheck... Hopefully will get the missing funds Monday or Tuesday.

That last isn't a disaster, its just annoying. They counted my two days off at Halloween as non-paid instead of paid. Why the fuck they can't figger it out I don't know. I've copies of the form, and it CLEARLY shows it to be 'paid time off'... O well.

Weren't all that exciting. I had the meeting (this time he showed up RIGHT AT 9:30) on the refinance, and things look good for it to proceed. I need to get a bunch of things together for him to look over (W2's, last two paystubs, last two bank statements and I think one other thing), and from there he'll set up the assessment- apparently it has to happen due to new rules that have come out of the housing bust.

Other than that, Friday night was the Mana Dragons sort-of regular meet on City of Heroes/Villains. We did the Cap Au Diablo Tarikoss Strike Force; we had a total of 6 players, myself playing Wolf John (Super Strength/Invulnerability Brute). It was a lot of fun but given how rusty I was playing him I sort of felt like I was letting the others down- I died a LOT. At least 5 times. I did finally get the hang in the last two or three missions though. Wolfy is gonna get a respec, I think.

After that I Trick-Or-Treated with Capriline (Willpower/Super-Strength Tank) til I got the last of the Halloween badges, then randomly joined a team for the Citadel Task Force. It went mostly well, though the team was heavy on inexperienced players, had some drama that resulted in a player being booted from the team and had one other just randomly quit halfway through. Still, it was fun too.

Today was mostly me sleeping. I got laundry done and made a batch of chicken thighs and mashed potatoes, but I was the only one home for 'em. O well. Leftovers!

And now I'm at work. I may start writing up the Buffy run from last Sunday, and tomorrow will more than likely be... I dunno. I've some chores to do, and I need to start cleaning the house for the Halloween party on Friday- I managed to get Thursday and Sunday morning off, so I have a 4 day weekend and at least a day to get whatever's left to do, done.

So far, I'm making the turkey (14#, a little small but oh well) and mashed potatoes, and I'll get the cranberry sauce and gravy as well. foeclan is supplying a nice ham, while joshuwain is bringing some kind of beverage... I can't at the moment recall what. If you're coming and want to bring something, it'd be appreciated- if its something like chips, cheese, crackers, chips or anything that needs to be there before things get started, you can drop it off Thursday. You DON'T have to bring anything tho- but I do need to know if you are bringing stuff, so I don't go out and get it. :) I'll contact people this week too, to confirm invites and stuff. No, there weren't actual invitations- this year has been kinda tight, and I'm not as focused on things as other years.

On Tuesday joshuwain, foeclan and I took feezlekahn out for his birthday; we hit Old Chicago for dinner (marred only by the table of screeching harridans by the door), then went to Best Buy and Half Price Books. It was a nice night, and aside from his gift I went and got myself something- 'Godzilla Raids Again' which is also known as 'Gigantis the Fire Monster'. Whee!

In other news, yesterday I picked up one of those rubber grooming brushes for Lady, to help her with the shedding issue- she's been having hairballs, so the more loose fur I get off of her the better. She likes it, and I should be able to build a third cat soon. O.o I also got them a new water bowl, one of those with the flanged bottom so Spaz can't dump it anymore!

Work is work, and I've decided to stay at Baker. It could be a LOT worse after all, and the walking isn't too terrible compared to the walking hells that Ive been on. Saturday is the return of the Vanguard game, which is slowly winding down to its conclusion, and Sunday is the second run of Ben's 7th Sea campaign! I'm looking forward to both, especially since I now can get actual sleep before the Saturday game!

Oh, and on Monday I made a roast REALLY late, inviting foeclan and feezlekahn to share in it. The roomies went out for food, and joshuwain was at a Fringe Fest play, else they would have been invited too. There was also chocolate cake. ;)

So, the special is over now, and I'm once again without a post. I'm not too worried, and I think that, if I can, I'm going to take next week off as vacation time. Its easier to do it now then fight inside a new account to get time off when they're perennially short on guards to fill shifts. Truth tho, I'd go back to the hotel in a minute under ONE circumstance- they pay mileage. It gets PRICY to drive there and back!

Other than that, not much is up. I forgot to wear the knee support last night so its a bit more sore than usual, but I'll live.

Oh! The smokestack for the old power plant under the Smith Street High Bridge in St. Paul is going to be imploded tomorrow at 7:30 AM. I might try to be there to see it and maybe get pics or video. :)

Here's a little update.

I'm felling better these days, aside from a self-induced bout of sleeplessness; I stayed up WAY too late several days in a row and messed up my schedule. I think I've gotten it squared around, because I did sleep today. Several good things have happened of late as well, the biggest of which is that I now have a new(er) car- Its a white 2001 Buick LeSabre, formerly my brother's car.

As I posted a while back, my old burgundy LeSabre had a major mechanical problem where the support spring on the front wheel beoke loose and was resting on the tire. Dad took it to work on, and I was driving his car (white 1999 LeSabre) while this was happening. He found a LOT more to fix while he was working on it...

Anyway, while this was going on, my brother found a steal on a Olds minivan- given he has kids, this was a better vehicle for him and he got it. This created a situation where he now had a spare vehicle he didn't need. Also, a friend of his at work turned out to be looking for a cheap, reliable car.

So it went down like this: his friend is buying my old car, I'm getting HIS car, he's got the minivan and dad has his car once again. Yay!

In other news, I'm FINALLY getting caught up on the bills- Yay reduced stress! I've dealt with the electric bill and made a serious dent in the gas and water bills; I should have one of those two totally caught up after I get paid this week, and while the credit debts are still a problem, things are improving there too, slowly. When the Bush-Bullshit-Bucks come I'll be paying off the computer loan, and that'll leave just the two credit cards, which I may consolidate to make easier to deal with.

Inch by inch...

I have still a LOT of cleaning to do; I wanna get it done before the arrival of the new roomie and before the arrival of the new cats late in May, around my birthday- Hopefully, I can get that done.

Ramblerambleramble...

But thats most of it. This weekend is the Vanguard campaign and the start of the next Traveller set on Sunday- I'm looking forward to both, tho my character Goblin ISN'T looking forward... ;)

Well, I slept, finally. I got about 5 1/2 hours during the day after a decent meal (pizza) and a melatonin tablet. I'll likely take that again today and for a few days more to make sure things are sorted again. Other than that, things are boring- I did finally pick up the comics that I've had piling up at the comic shop... THAT stung a bit, but O well.

Really, thats about all. Well, except for having to go to a mandatory work meeting on Sunday at 6. Bleah.