Katherine E Bennett

So, I had a wonderful weekend.

My birthday weekend more or less coincided with Tassa's, since hers is the 15th and mine is the 18th. On Saturday night we went out and did karaoke till we dropped. Dave and Doug and Hikaru and Ruby all came along, so therer were enough people and rowdiness to fill out the otherwise pretty desolate undecorated karaoke booth rooms.*

Also on saturday I gave Tassa her birthday gift, which was simultaneously a gift for her, a gift for me, redeeming a promise I made way back in September to the rest of her housemates; in lieu of paying rent for the 3 weeks I stayed at their place, I would buy them a grill. So that's what I did. I was worried for a time about waiting so long into the spring season to give it to them, but the weather seriously only just now got nice enough to make cookouts enjoyable, so it worked out.

Which meant that on Sunday night I got a delicious birthdya dinner of grilled steak, marinated chicken, and smores. Mmmmmmmmmmm. The weather was seriously gorgeous, high 70s the whole weekend. (And yes, I got my first sunburn, walking between the hardware store and my car.) There was even some kind of street fair going on down on University and 45th, although that turned out to be more of a nuisance than a treat because we had too much else going on to check it out.

And then we went to see star trek. Awesome movie! I approve of the AUness.

So all in all it was a fantastic weekend, and I haven't even gotten any presents yet. :)

*Seriously, the only reason that place gets away with being "seattle's best karaoke" is because they are Seattle's ONLY karaoke, only booth-style anyway. Their prices are very high, their rooms are completely undecorated, and their equipment is going on the fritz steadily more frequently over time. Oh, and they don't allow beer or serve food.

As has been my habit for the last few years, and for the same reason, there are very few books or DVDs on this list. Partly because if I asked for new books for my birthday, I'd have to ask for new shelves to put them on, and then for a new apartment to hold the shelves. So, no books, but there is an amazon list anyway.

*warlock shirt
*husband pillow -- the type of pillow that looks like this, but preferably not hideously ugly.
Gift certificates for...
*itunes -- since apple gave up their awful copyright protection habits, I feel more inclined to actually buy from them now.
*new york and company
*fredericks of hollywood
*computer speakers -- nothing too big or fancy; just enough to get a slightly less tinny sound than my laptop speaker.
*new mouse -- old mouse crapped out on me a few days ago. :( Ideally, I need a mouse that is small enough for my hand and light enough to move easily. Wireless seems to be more trouble than it's worth, in my experience. the mouse I really loved was the logitech tiger mouse that sukino's cat mistook for a real mouse and chewed on -- although of course it doesn't have to be the same pattern.
*external keyboard (ergonomic) -- preferably in conjunction with a laptop stand
*george foreman grill
*cell phone face plate -- samsung A437. I have no idea how it is I always manage to buy the only cell phone model in existence that has no pretty cell phone faceplates available, anywhere ever.
*okay, *some* books: Girl Genius vols 2-7

A somewhat more wordy account of my doings lately:

The major event in the past few weeks has been the collision. I hesitate to  use the words 'accident' or 'crash' because they imply a much greater degree of seriousness; this one was pretty much the definition of a fender-bender.

Last Tuesday, coming out of the mall, I was turning right (going west) at the same time someone going east tried to do a U-turn. He whacked into the front left fender of my car; it looks very crinkly now, but it does still run just fine. Somewhat unfairly, although his bumper was torn off and fell in the road, his car was otherwise completely unharmed. >.> That's what you get for driving a plastic car vs. a hunk of truck steel, I guess.

Insurance companies are battling it out. I admit I'm somewhat confused by the proceedings. But since I don't have collision on my insurance policy, the whole thing is rather depressing. Depending on how things go, I may have to put off buying a bike or traveling anywhere this year. Boo to being poor!

Aside from that, things have been quiet. Spring is creeping into Seattle, but very tentatively. We have some days of absolutely lovely weather, shiny skies, bright sun, temps in the 60s and even up to the 70s! -- and then the next day it'll be back to cold, cloudy, and dim.

Easter Sunday passed pretty unobtrusively; it was raining (again) so I went over to a friend's house. We had an egg hunt inside, it was fun. >.> Easter Sunday dinner consisted of a turkey sandwich, woot.

Well, this does put the bad haircut into perspective, in terms of things to be upset about.

So.

I think this is the worst haircut I've ever had in my life, not excluding the time when I was eight and cut my bangs off in the mirror.

Today was a flufy robe and slippers, drinking tea kind of day. I suspect switching pills has thrown my system out of kilter for a bit.

However I will muster myself out of the house to go see Duplicity.

Today was a good day despite the wankery on ontd_political. On my way home I stopped by cryo's house and had ice cream, and then I went to dr and got my prescription changed, and then I went and had dinner with athena and cryo at Pam's Kitchen. Pam's Kitchen is an ind...onesian... I think... sorta place, they serve curry and caribbean dishes and play really bouncy music. Anyway it was very tasty and fun and now I smell like spices. Mmm.

Also I gave in and ordered a light box, because I got sick and tired of the gloom on Monday. So maybe soon I will be better. Yay!

Welcome to Spring, everyone!

If anyone on my flist is curious about life in Japan, this video (aside from the FFVII characters) pretty hilariously sums up the conbini experience, which is a quintessential part of Japanese life.

(btw, the original video can be seen, tho it lacks subtitles, here and is almost as cute! Actually the singers remind me a lot of the kids who'd sit int he entrance of the JR station at Toyama and play guitar. ;)

This isn't exactly a list of resolutions; just a list of things that I've been putting off for a while now because I didn't want to deal with them until the new year. Well, it's the new year now!

( Things to do )