The Edge

Getting a new fridge today. The delivery truck is out in the driveway, and they are unloading it now. I have doubts about their ability to get it up the stairs, so I am kind of nervous. Hence why I am waiting up here in the office, while I force hubby to deal with the delivery guys. (Hey, I unloaded most of the stuff out of the thing, ran errands for my daughter's class this morning, and brought home food for my man. I figure it evens out, right? >.O)

The head delivery guy came up ... measured the old fridge ... measured the stairs ... measured the old fridge again ... measured the stairs again ... and then told us he didn't think it would fit. Well, he didn't really say this so much as grunting. Grunting seems to be his preferred mode of communication. He then shoved a waiver in my face, grunting at me to sign it. I asked him what he thought the problem would be. Did he think it would scratch the walls or damage the new fridge? He glared at me and said: "Anything can happen." o_o Seriously?!? THIS is your answer? At least he didn't grunt it. I told him that wasn't a very good answer, and he continued to glare at me. So, I signed the waiver. But I told him he shouldn't think it gives him a free pass to do whatever he wants to my house. I was only signing it because I had no other choice. He glared at me some more.

Then, when walking back and forth in taking the old fridge and doors out, he made a point of going through the yard. And tracked mud all over the house. Twice, grinding in the first mud by stomping all over it during his second trip. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal. I have a kid and a large dog. Mud happens. But, combined with this person's overall demeanor toward me ... I find I'm way more annoyed by it than I might be otherwise. They have a whole driveway and sidewalk they could walk across. They don't HAVE to walk through the muddy yard. Bleh.

Needless to say, I am not liking this delivery guy. At all. And I'm one of those people who usually chats with them, offers them something to drink, and gives a generous tip for all the extra effort they have to make bringing stuff up the stairs. In this case, though, I have a strong feeling this guy just doesn't want to bring the refrigerator up the stairs. I can't say I blame him. I wouldn't want to, either. But it is his job. And we did warn them ahead of time that the kitchen was on the second floor -- not to mention paying extra for the delivery because of that fact.

Ugh. I don't like having to be bitchy, but I'll probably complain to the store about this person. He's rude and uncommunicative, and that makes the whole ordeal much worse. >.O (Not to mention that all the glaring intimidates me a lot. I don't usually feel that way at having people in my house, but this guy makes me distinctly uncomfortable.)

So, on the happy-sqwee side of things ...

I finally (FINALLY!!!) got to sit down and watch Saiyuki Burial. I started it night before last and finished it up yesterday afternoon. This is one of those shows I've wanted to watch since I first heard it existed. Seems like forever, really -- even though I know it's not. I can never truly keep up with the "new" anime as it comes out. I don't have much time to sit and watch shows, which means I tend to lag behind quite a bit.

But ...

I LOVED THIS SHOW!!!

I really loved everything about it. I think it's such a beautifully done show. I loved the animation, and I loved how they stayed really close to Minekura's art style from the manga. I loved the twisty-turny way in which they told the story and how it seemed to start and end full-circle. I loved seeing the beginnings of these characters I've adored since my first viewing of Gensoumaden. I felt like the show was filled with emotion and meaning, and I loved that too. So, yeah ... mucho love for Burial from this fangirl.

While watching, I managed to grab caps and scene info for my Burial sketches. That was a total kicker. There is something about seeing the sketch actually on the screen that makes me love them that much more. And, in this instance, I realized I had managed to snag (without even realizing it o_o) a couple of very meaningful, pivotal scenes. That was a fun and happy realization.

You can check out the fruits of my labor here, if you want.

On the "Last Straw" end of things ... ( Read more... )

Which brings me back to ...

Saiyuki Burial!! *sqweee!*

Geez, it feels just like that kind of day. Particularly as I sit here now, on the tail end of things and looking back at what I didn't accomplish for the day. Not to mention I'm wiped out -- physically, mentally, and emotionally. Hubby has been sick, and so has my kiddo. Plus, hubby is feeling stressed out at work lately, which means a lot of that comes home with him. He tries not to do it, but ... yeah ... it doesn't work too well. Oh, and Fae is being a total bitch. About everything. On the counters ... into the cat food ... into the cat box ... climbing the back of the sofa ... today, she nearly got out of the yard. I have to watch her like a freaking hawk, and it gets so damn old by the end of the day. I love Fae, although I'm still very much biased toward my long-lost Tex. So take this with a grain of salt or whatever, but I have to say it: Tex was never this much trouble. I swear, it's like this dog is a frakkin' PSYCHO. Or something.

More Whining: ( Read more... )

NaNo:

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Let's see ... what else has been going on?

KIDDO STUFF:

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1. My uterus.
2. My alarm clock.
3. Going to bed freezing and waking up burning up hot.
4. My sinuses
5. My uterus -- oh, I said that already, didn't I? Well, I really hate it, so it should count twice.

*grumbles*

So, woke up in the bad mood. Already posted about that.

Started cleaning this morning, but the power went out. Which put the halt to any cleaning efforts. No vacuum. No lights to see so that I could clean the bathrooms. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I also couldn't feed my daughter, since I was unwilling to open the fridge, just in case. So, I called it quits for a while and fled to Applebee's for an early lunch. After busting the car out of the garage: automatic garage door opener isn't so automatic when there's no power.

Got caught in a frog choker of a storm on the way home. I hate driving in that kind of weather. I could hardly see the front of my car, it was raining so hard.

Made it home. Luckily, the power was still on, which was a relief. And we had our gutters cleaned yesterday, so I didn't get drenched getting into the house.

But, kiddo headed into her room, and immediately called me to look at "this weird thing on the wall". Those are not happy words. Ever.

I head into her room and find a big bubble on the wall below the paint underneath her desk. It was about the size of my hand, so not huge, but not small, either. I pushed on it,and it was very flexible. I could tell there was something in there, so I poked a little hole in the paint with some very pointy scissors. Aaaaand ... all this water came pouring out. O_O

Now, it seems there's probably a leak in the roof, maybe between our house and our attached neighbor. Just what I needed. Argh! I hope it's something easily fixed. And I hope it hasn't done a lot of damage to the house. We have someone coming out tomorrow morning to look at it.

I called the pet sitters to schedule an appointment for them to come out and meet Fae. Fae is so shy around strangers, that I know she has to meet the person who will walk her before we ever go out of town. With my in-laws coming, my hubby has decided, all of a sudden, that we will all go to the beach. He wants to go on Tuesday or Wednesday. Which gives me only about two days to try and schedule a visit. And we have to fill out new paperwork, since we haven't used the service since 2007. Eight pages of paperwork. Hubby told me: "Don't worry. I'll fill it out." Then he proceeds to call me every ten minutes to ask me the answers to the questions on the forms. Sheesh. Just send the fucking things to me and I'll fill them out myself. It'll be easier.

Aaaaand, I still haven't gotten all the housework done. Seriously, I just want to crawl under a big rock and hide for the foreseeable future.

I'm always surprised by my ability to develop an almost instant dislike to people. Not necessarily "surprised" in a good way, either. I can usually hear my mother's voice in the back of my head, chastising me and telling me to give people more of a chance. Normally, this just serves to make me more irritated, but whatever.

So I had to make a grocery store run today. Never the cheeriest of activities, and particularly so when I have to wind my way up and down the overstuffed store aisles with my daughter in tow. She likes to walk behind me, and she has a tendency to lag, which, in turn, makes me rubberneck behind me to make sure she's still there. Not a safe thing to do when the powers-that-be insist on taking up over half the aisle space with large, cardboard displays.

Luckily, I had a short list. No problem, I thought. I'll just zip around (figuratively speaking, of course, as everyone knows it's impossible to "zip" through a grocery store in real life), grab what I need, hit the checkout and be done. Woo Hoo!

And so I did. And it was good.

Until I hit the checkout line. The store wasn't crowded, but it seems every person in it decided to check out all at the same time. And the store decided to crowd all of us into four lanes. A long wait, to say the least.

Resolved, I picked out my lane. It really didn't matter much where I went, as all the lines were the same size: LONG. I was in line behind one of those too-skinny women who wear that certain expression on their face. You know the one: where you can't tell if they're pissed off at the world, perpetually hungry, or their skin's just too tight from Botox to allow them to smile. She was in designer workout clothes and Chanel sunglasses, and, almost as soon as she got into line, she left her overstuffed cart and wandered off to get items she had forgotten. I figured: no big deal; she'll be back in plenty of time. The line was long, after all.

She stayed gone for about forever. Then, she came back, stood in line for a minute or so, and left again. The guy in front of her was only marginally less irritating. He had two kids with him, and he constantly admonished them (LOUDLY) to stay with him -- even though they weren't going anywhere or touching anything. And he had a problem with his coupons or something. Whatever the case was, he made the check-out girl ring him up twice -- all the while complaining and loudly admonishing his children. And he was wearing a plaid floppy sort of golf hat. I suppose it was meant to be jaunty, but it just kind of pissed me off. I hate plaid.

Anyhow ... Skinny Sunglasses Lady.

Plaid Hat Guy finally finished checking out and moved (ever so slowly) away from the register. Of course, all the time he was checking out, Skinny Sunglasses Lady could have been unloading her cart. Well, once she decided to come back to the line, that is. Instead, she decided to text. She stood there texting for what felt like an eternity before finally deciding to unload her cart -- after Plaid Hat Guy has already finished and left. Then, once the check-out girl begins to ring up her purchase, Skinny Sunglasses Lady pulls out her cell phone, calls her friend, and begins to talk (LOUDLY) about the $5,000 party her husband wants to give as a little appreciation thing for some of his clients. But she thinks they don't rate this kind of expenditure because they are new to business and it's not like they're anyone important or anything. And of course, she's so busy talking on the cell phone that she can't bother unloading all the 24-pack diet drinks from the underneath of her cart. So the check-out girl had to squat down and pull them off in order to scan them.

And I stood there, watching her. Listening to her inane conversation about how important she was and how much money they were going to spend on this party -- when, obviously, whoever they were entertaining barely rated chips and beer, in her opinion. Looking at her designer workout clothes, which have probably never seen the inside of a gym. Her designer flip-flops with the cute little spangles on them. Her perfectly manicured toenails. Her Chanel sunglasses.

And I thought to myself: I don't like you, Skinny Sunglasses Lady. I really, really don't.

If only I could use my powers for good. I'm certain I could make the world a better place. Heh.

I woke up in a bad mood today. For no good reason. I'm just stressed out, irritated, and, in general, Not Happy. I didn't sleep well last night. I had weird dreams all night long. The kind that keep you from sleeping and make you feel weird and uneasy, but that you can't remember the next morning. Which might be a good thing. I just want to sit in my office today and pout, basically. Or maybe watch anime. Or something. My mom has already mentioned we need to "clean the whole house", so I guess "alone time" isn't going to happen. Bah. And double bah.

Ugh. The Jehovah's Witnesses are after me. Seriously. >.O

I accidentally opened the door to them twice (thinking it was the mail person or UPS with a delivery), and now they will not leave me alone. They come to my house and ring the bell several times before walking away. It doesn't sound too invasive, but multiply it by multiple times a week for the past two or three weeks. And they come at all times of the day, in the hopes of catching me unawares. It's starting to get on my nerves. I hate being rude -- I really do. Chalk it up to having that whole "be nice" thing pounded into my head and my personality by my mom. (Not only as a kid, but she still does it to me, even now that I'm barreling toward middle age.) But, in this instance, I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and do it. Just be rude and tell them to leave me alone. It's not like I'm going to invite them into my house. Or convert. Or ... well, anything.

In other news, I'm pooped. I'm not sure if it's the weather or what. I hate the hot, muggy weather we've been having lately. Bleh. I haven't been sleeping well at night, though. The house is too hot, particularly on the third floor, where our bedrooms are. Tonight, I think I'm going to insist on turning the AC down lower. Only about two degrees, but even that small a change can make a difference.

I think I finally got pretty much everything uploaded on my Dreamwidth journal. I decided to use it as a writing journal, so I archived my fanfiction over there. It seemed a good idea to have it somewhere easily accessible, other than my website. I mean, I post it here, too, but it's not really "easy" to find because I use this LJ for everything. Anyhow, I posted the drabbles over there, too. The only things I didn't post were my "Bish Closet Missions", because those are blatant (although kind of fun/funny -- I hope) self-inserts. They are on my website, though. It just didn't feel right to have them on DW, for some odd reason. And, I have one very graphic story that I didn't post there, either. It was on my website briefly, but I decided to take it down. Better to not let it see the light of day -- kind of a shame, because I really liked the story. And I was proud of having written it because it was such a hard topic for me. It's very unusual for me to feel any sort of pride in my writing. *nervous laugh*

I wrote the "ending fic" for the Ground Zero series. I think I probably mentioned that in an earlier LJ post, so I won't bother yakking about it much more here. It's still very rough, but I'll (hopefully) be able to edit it into something once the other GZ stories are done. Here's praying the other GZ-stories actually get done.

And, I'm working on story #3 in that little universe. Slowly working. Maybe I'll get something done on it tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

For today, anyhow. >.O

Sooooo ready for this day to be over. It started out OK, but just went downhill in the afternoon. I guess not downhill as in being "bad", really. Just tiring.

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This is a cel-related post. So, anyone who wanders in here and has no interest in this ridiculous obsession ... er ... all-encompassing hobby ... just look away for a moment while I rant.

What the hell is up on RS with all the people who have those moving .gif files as their gallery backgrounds? Actually, I have to admit ... although they are not my favorite things, the moving files usually don't bother me. Thus, I really didn't have any opinion on them at all -- until tonight.

For tonight, I had the misfortune of clicking on an RS gallery that has one of the most obnoxious moving .gif backgrounds, well, ever. Seriously, I could not click out of it fast enough -- fast moving, light-colored things against a very dark background. It was too much. Too much contrast. Too much motion. And, you couldn't get away from it. I mean, the damn background is always there, you know? Even if you look at the large image of the cel/sketch ... there is that background.

I now have a huge headache and motion sickness. Yes, you read that right -- motion sickness. From looking at a damn moving background on a gallery. This pisses me off. If I'm going to have to suffer through the ill-effects of motion sickness, I want it to be for something worthwhile, like a too-fast ride in a kick-ass sportscar ... or a roller-coaster ride that's so thrilling it makes my toes curl. For something as ridiculous as a moving gallery background, it just doesn't seem worth it.

That's all. Rant over. And, I apologize in advance to anyone on my friends list who might have a moving .gif background on their RS gallery. Needless to say, the gallery in question did not belong to any of you guys. *hugs*

*wanders off to throw up*