Penny Dreadful, 3.01, scene in Victor's lab between Frankenstein and Jekyll..... JFC, the slash JUST WRITES ITSELF.

My neighbors directly across the street have four people living in their house...and nine cars. 

THE FUCK YOU NEED NINE CARS FOR, PEOPLE.

The part I really hate is that they park on the street, in front of MY HOUSE.  Assholes.

So last night, I dreamed that I was Bucky... and not, you know, romantic-love-interest-Steve's-magical-cock-getting Bucky, but full-blown PTSD recovering-Winter-Soldier Bucky.  Vodka bottle in one hand and blade in the other, back to the wall and mind full of holes.

Fuck you, brain.  Seriously.

And FUCK YOU WITH A FORK, fanfic.

My brother and I never had much in common, but one thing on which we agreed was that it is always better to overdress than to underdress.

I swear, if I attend ONE MORE wedding where one of the guests is wearing sequined jeans and thinks that's "appropriate attire"?  I'm not gonna be responsible for my actions.

I'm thinking that if I *actually* call this girl THE VAPID TWAT she deserves to be called, I'll end up in yet another fistfight on the bus.

But OH MY GOD, it is increasingly difficult to keep my mouth shut.

Yay, almost two years since last post. Jeez, it's not like I'm doing anything useful with my life.

Sometimes, I think that in a former incarnation, I was a magpie: easily distracted by all things bright and shiny. Or maybe I just don't want to grow up.

Monday was my birthday, and I am now officially middle-aged at 46, I am told. Who decides these things? Other than various health problems, I still feel like I'm twenty-one. SO THERE. Not much celebrating going on, unfortunately, and I'm a wee bit disappointed that I did not get to enjoy a cake THE SIZE OF A VOLKSWAGEN at work, but I'm trying the gluten-free thing anyway. I should probably stay away from cake, heh. So I guess it's just as well that nobody brought anything, even if it made me pout at the time. I did get a celebratory cheeseburger and cherry pie a la mode at the local diner with Mom, so that was mightily awesome. My friend Amanda flew out from Wisconsin this week and we're getting together tonight, wheeeee! I'm leaving work shortly so that I can catch an early bus.

Tomorrow, Stoli goes to the groomers' to get all gussied up in preparation for Take Your Dog To Work Day, which I JUST NOW discovered is actually on June 26, not June 19. MOTHERFUCKER. I've been functioning under this misapprehension for MONTHS. Well, it's probably better for Stoli to have the extra time to calm down; she's so high-strung. Anyway, since Amanda and I are going out tonight and will probably stay out late, it will be nice to have an extra hour or two to sleep in the morning. It will be even nicer to work from home until it's time to pick up the furball, and then I only have to go in for the staff summer picnic. Woot!

Fannishly, I'm voraciously reading Teen Wolf fanfic, Sterek pairing. Don't ask me why... I haven't watched the show since Season One. I'm not sure if I'll ever get my writing mojo back... it's depressing to think that the well has run utterly dry, but it's been so long since I felt that spark of creativity, I've just about given up hope. I'm reading more and watching less, weirdly.

Hopefully, in my next posting, I will remember to talk about how our entire department was packed up and shipped off to the wilds of East Falls, inside of two weeks. Bit of shock, that.

Hope everyone's having a decent time of it. Cheers!

Lots of stuff going on in my life this year . . . work life and personal life and health life. Rather than attempt any sort of organized discussion, I shall do what I do best and ramble endlessly instead about whatever comes into my head.

I finally gave in and bought a new car. It's the Kia Soul, and it's the CUTEST THING EVER! The color is Molten, which is bright red, and his name is Marshall. I was sad to say goodbye to Sherman, who has served me well and faithfully these many long years, but I got a good trade-in price for him and I'm sure he's going to enjoy a graceful retirement. It took me months of research to settle on the Soul, and for a while there it was looking like a tossup between it and the Scion xD, but the Soul has twice as much cargo space for the money and that's really what I was interested in. On my first tank of gas, I got thirty miles to the gallon, which is already better than the EPA estimate for that trim ( I went with the bigger engine ), and the way I drive, I expect even better mileage now that the breaking-in period is mostly over. And I just love driving it!

The whole car-shopping experience was immensely stressful, though. And when it finally came down to the purchase? Ugh, I got so sick of getting yanked around by weaselly salesmen! Even sitting there ready to sign paperwork, they were STILL playing games with dollars and cents. I'd finally had it and just snapped, "That's it-- I'm walking, watch me walk!" Happily, that ended the nonsense over sales figures, but I still had to sit there for FOUR FUCKING HOURS for the goddamn paperwork. JFC.

Still. For the price I made them swallow, I guess the hassle was ultimately worth it.

The weekend before buying the new car, Stoli got really sick suddenly and spent four days in the ICU with IVs in both front legs. Three thousand dollars later, and the working diagnosis ended up being "a perfect storm" of infections: anaplasmosis, Lyme disease, and pylonephritis. Her immune system probably could've fought off any one of those infections alone, but not all three at once . . . and then the ER vet that I took her to compounded the issue by feeding her chicken, despite the fact that I clearly marked her allergies on her intake sheet. Assholes. I'm never taking a dog to that ER again, I don't care how close to home it is. She almost died! Fortunately, she's back to her normal, lovably crazy self now, though she's still on antibiotics and has to undergo some more blood tests in a month. I knew she was feeling better when she clawed the upholstery on the new car and got into the garbage in the kitchen.

Disappointed in my TV tennis boyfriend, Novak Djokovic, this year. His performance has not been up to the level I've come to expect from him, and the US Open in particular was a terrible letdown. There was some great stuff, and a lot of potential, but man . . . that fourth set? Seriously, dude, if you were just gonna phone it in like that, you should've retired from the match so I could watch something else. Oh, well, I suppose there's always next year. My boy is sleeping on the couch 'til he pulls it together, though . . . I'm just sayin'.

Went to see a double feature of Insidious & Insidious: Chapter 2 with lucifrix last week. Lots of fun jump-scares, and I liked the way the sequel tied in to certain plot points in the original movie. There wasn't too much "huh?" going on for me, which was a refreshing change. Not impressed with Rose Byrne's acting, though admittedly she didn't have much to work with.

Hopefully, this weekend we're off to the drive-in to catch some cool stuff.

Well, that looks like enough for now, especially since the work day is wrapping up. Sigh. At least it's finally Thursday, which means tomorrow is-- sing with with me-- FINALLY FRIDAY!!!!!

Getting way too close to a year... time to post something, even if it's just a stupid avatar. I can't understand why Yahoo did away with their avatars-- mine was SO CUTE!!! This one's okay, though. I had fun making her.

Okay, folks, it's one of the most important times of the year . . . it's time to CHOOSE MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME.

Here, have a poll. That should help. You should be able to click on the title of each costume, and it should take you to the website for visuals. Or, go to BuyCostumes and search individually for each one by title.

For some reason, I was just on a roll this weekend.

Dropped off the dog at the groomer's around noon, then took the car to the car wash and had it cleaned, inside and out . . . after all, I don't want to put a clean dog in a dirty car, do I? That's like changing your sheets and going to bed without taking a shower. EWWWWWWW.

The car wash was crowded, so I spent more time there than I anticipated, and instead of going home, I made a couple of stops at stores and then treated myself to a late lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse. I was frustrated that I couldn't order a rare burger, but at least I had my Kindle with me and enjoyed some fanfic while I ate. By the time I finished dessert, it was late enough that I figured Stoli should be done soon, and I wandered back over to Petsmart to pick up dog food and other necessities before I went back to grooming to get my crazy furball.

I had Stoli shaved again, so she looks all bald and funny! But she's obviously much cooler in this hot weather, and she hasn't had a single skin infection all summer. I'd rather pay my groomer than my vet, so it's a big fat win all around. I let her pick out a bone longer than my forearm, and then we lined up in checkout, where one of the hottest guys I've ever laid eyes on started cooing over her and asking me questions about her.

I was so busy being starry-eyed, it took me fifteen minutes to figure out he was gay. I'm usually a lot faster on the uptake than that. Still, it was a lovely view, with the tantalizing hints of tattoos peeking out beneath his t-shirt sleeves, and a very nice conversation. Of course, I'm always disposed to like anyone who admires my dog. The tattoos, though, are a recently developed kink: I blame my supervisor and her fixation on Steve McGarrett from the Hawaii Five-O reboot . . . though the Danny Williams character is more my type.