Here's my icons for round 4 at sherlocked20n20

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Here's my icons for round 3 at sherlocked20n20

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Here's my icons for round 2 at sherlocked20n20

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This is a real test in loyalty to my own principles. About a month ago a local grocery store (which has gas pumps out front) ran a special where you could buy $100 in gift cards for various chain stores and they would give you $1 per gallon off a tank of gas. I knew what I wanted to get hubby for Christmas so I got a $100 gift card for that store, collected my $1.85 per gallon tank of gas, then tucked the gift card away for when I'd do my Christmas shopping. The problem? The damn gift card is for Lowes!

A month ago shopping at Lowes was no problem. Now, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Lowes because of their assinine, weak-willed, lilly-livered, xenophobic actions in aligning themselves with a fringe Christian!Hate Group. I can tell myself that the money is already spent, the gift card just allows me to go to Lowes and pick up what I've already bought. The problem is I would be embarassed to be seen in a Lowes store now. Ordering online isn't an option 1 day before Christmas. Plus, I don't want to add to any aggregate statistics of how many people are still shopping at Lowes.

I was hoping to wait for them to back down from the uproar, but the latest statement today is that Lowes is sticking to their guns on their decision to withdraw advertising from an American-Islamic tv show because of the complaints of a fringe hate group. So I guess in the morning it is off to Home Depot I go (their main competitor, for my non-American friends) to go shopping. Or better yet, the local Ace Hardware.

Is Live Journal acting up for anyone else again? Three times today I've read fic on my friends list and thought it seemed familiar, and when I would go to comment I would notice that I have <i>already</i> commented! Then I'd realize the post was made 6 months ago. I just checked and my recent FL is full of posts from you guys from this past spring, mixed in with the current posts.

????

I'm propped up in bed with my iPad and a cup of coffee.

I have to be at work in 3 minutes. And I'll be on time.

My god I love this new arrangement of working from home!

Wow! I can't believe how long its been since I posted to my own journal. I'm usually busy playing on everyone else's sandbox and forget about my own.

One very mild spoiler for the last Harry Potter movie ahead.

I finally got to see the last Harry Potter movie today. I held off waiting for my best friend to be in town. Also, I wanted to avoid the first couple of weekends of screaming kids. Even so, it's the 3rd weekend and the theater was completely packed. 

I'm a fan of the books and have always grumbled because the movies tend to eliminate the plot and string a bunch of action scenes together to the extent that I don't understand how anyone who hasn't read the books can follow along. This last movie is truer to the book, but requires a knowledge of the books even more than the previous movies. Let me explain.

My best friend is 90% deaf and requires the headsets in theaters to hear a movie. The batteries in the theater's headset went dead before the previews were even finished. The theater had no more, so gave her her money back and she watched the movie in silence. Because of this I was hyper-aware of the dialogue and was amazed at how very little there was. Aside from the Harry-Dumbledore scene at King's Cross, the scenes were very lite on dialogue, and depends on the viewers' knowledge of the story to carry them along. I mentioned this to my friend after the movie and she agreed. Without being able to hear ahe had no trouble following the movie because the dialogue was so lite and she is familiar with the books.

It makes me wonder what the specific impressions of the plot movie-only fans have - particularly this last film.

Here's my icons for round 22 at doctorwho20in20

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We're headed to Europe! Yeah, yeah, I know that isn't exciting to a lot of you who live there. Also not exciting to my friends who regularly bounce all over the world. But keep in mind that I've never been outside of the U.S. Heck, I've barely been west of the Mississippi River.

I currently have good friends living in both Athens and London and we realized that there will never be a better time to take the vacation of our dreams: 6 days in Athens and 5 in London, with no hotel bill at all! The thought of traveling in a country that isn't English speaking is a little scary. The thought of public transportation in London is downright terrifying!

My friend in London will be at work when I arrive and I get to make my way from the airport to her home on my own. I live in a region of the U.S. where public transportation is almost non-existent. I've never been on a bus, train, or subway in my life. I have no idea what I'm doing!

I'm a history freak. Athens in going to be a dream. And my friend in London plans to point me in the direction of Bath first thing. I'll be in heaven! Of course anything in either of those areas is going to be history overload for me. The saying seems to be true that people in the U.S. think that 100 years is a long time, but Europe think that 100 miles is a long way." I look forward to the culture shock. Anyone who lives anywhere near Athens or London who would like to meet let me know. I'd love to!

We PAID OFF THE MORTGAGE TODAY! I never thought this day would come! (dances around with joy at our new found freedom).