Podworld News

Can I just say how very happy I am to have left for the parental manse yesterday early afternoon, rather than have to drive though snowstorms? And sure, the plans I had for last night pretty much fell through (meh) but whatever.

They (mom mostly) forced me to shovel snow today, but given how seldom I have to do it these days... ah well. Hopefully I'll have some fun here also, who knows? I do have plans with a few people. I keep kind of not quite calling people, which is not real useful in the whole "get out of the house" thing. Well... at the very least I can make use of the 5 DVD changer they have. Sucks that they don't have the FX channel though, no Buffy marathon for me...

So here I am, in DC, without a place to sleep. Well, I have a place, I just am without a soft place to sleep, which is funny, given that I was told not to bring my air mattress. But we'll let that go for now... Or not. She sucks and is going to make me sleep on blankets on the floor. Last time I listen to her, that's all I"m saying. I should point out that my air mattress deflated on her once, so she kind of gets this one off free. And it won't happen again (know why? 'cause next time I'll make sure I have one!!!).

Anyway, so it's been a busy time in life. Yeah, I mean real life, not pseudopodlingcyberlife. Work... work is weird. Big stuff going on there. Big stuff that I might post about privately, and if you don't see it by Monday or Tuesday, there's a good chance it's friends only and you should ask if you really care. I heard I missed some interesting Drama on LJ. Good on ya! Whatever...

So I've seen several movies... 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch', which I'm now really sad I didn't see as a stage show. Followed that up with 'Spice World', quite a combo. Saw 'Big Trouble', which I enjoyed muchly. Cara was right, it was something I would like. Saw 'Harry Potter' twice now (what with the thwarted attempt to see Bond, James Bond, watched Potter, Harry Potter instead). And I have to say, I think I actually liked it more the second time. Or maybe it was the enjoyment of Celia going, "Oh, he's hot! Him too! Yeah!" Hard to say though. Tomorrow I will see Bond though, oh yes. And I told Rico that I'd go see '8 mile' or whatever it's called with him.

And yeah, there's been other stuff happening too. Had a guest from MA, which was fantabulous fun. Then last weekend I stayed up till 5:30am calling british people. You know, it just feels weird calling people at 4am, even when you know intellectually that it *isn't* that time there, still. Had a humorous conversation though, possibly owing to it being 4 am to 5:30 am. Any other brits who want random calls, please give me your phone numbers.

Oh, and for those who are wondering, no, I am *not* here stalking men. Please! Ye people of little faith...

him: Why do you want to know?

me: I'm just curious is all.

him: Curiosity killed the cat.

me: But cats have nine lives.

him: What if it was on it's eighth life when it got curious.

me: Oh well, I don't like cats anyway.

him: Let's leave your cat fetish out of this.

So I've entered into a more or less one-liner back and forth email thing with prince charming. I really have to wonder about myself sometimes.

It always creeps me out a little when the Secret Service is in the building.

http://media.smilepop.com/smilepop/flash/10_2002/sept02-smilepop-bugseren2.swf

it's practically my theme song... well, okay, maybe not. It's cute though.

And people brought us food! Good food! And lots of it! And we made food! Well, I made very little, but astrophysicat made lots of food! We got rid of the soup before this, so there wasn't a soup dish, but you know, we really had enough food without that. There were traditional thanksgiving foods and other stuff.

There was football (which I could've lived without, but I found something else to do, so it was all good) and there was trivial pursuit ('cause it's the only time my obscure memory for entertainment related things is useful) and there was other stuff too. Time bandits! Then some girl bonding with the last party guest.

All in all, I was happy with the whole weekend. People came, had fun, and it was all good. At least, I think everyone had fun. I'm pretty sure.

There was no CML (crazymonkeylove) for me, but I wasn't really expecting it, so that was fine too. Oh, I did get to see someone naked though! And she is adorable! Don't know if she wants it broadcast who she is, but still! You are a goddess!!!

It was good, it was fun, it was different in flavor from our past parties, as well as last year's Andrea*Con. More relaxed, less movies, larger variety of food, costumes, etc. Luckily not as many people showed up on Friday night as occurred last year, because we were kind of still in the middle of prepping. When the Tennessee boys got there, I was in the middle of reorganizing my closet. Heh. Anyway, but I really think that the combining of several holidays into one party really worked well. If I'd had one more day, I could've done christmas and new years. Hmmn. Maybe next time...

The LJ contingent was pretty high, astrophysicat and I had crowyhead, jennywrenn, littlfrogling, sidruid, nanne over as well as a bazillion non-LJ people. I was psyched to see everybody, totally!!! And one of my friends from college that I hadn't seen in more than 6 years showed up!!! And everyone enjoyed themselves and got along with each other. This isn't *that* weird, but I always expect there to be freaky little personality group wars or something at parties. I think maybe I've listened to my brother's party shenanigans entirely too often. Or been to a few too many bad parties...

Movies... The movie that made the most people happy seemed to be "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History" which is a totally fantabulous documentary. I know, only we would show a documentary as part of a party, but really, I think everyone should watch it. No, really, I do. And like astrophysicat said, picking "the impostors" for something the twins would like was a great plan. I love bringing people and movies together. Yeah, and we watched Zoolander. Strangely enough, we didn't watch Buckaroo Banzai, but really, there's only so much time in the day, and we wanted to socialize and stuff too. Incidentally, both the socializing and stuff were fun times too!

So the director's cut of Legend ended (can we say Legend: the musical!) and I said, "Scramble!!! Costume time!!!" and for some weird reason everyone moved. Like a herd of lemmings they were, up the stairs into the bedrooms, only to realize at the top that there were way too many people trying to get their costumes in my room. Hee. Everyone who had a costume looked great! Adorable! Fabulous! Granted, I was more interested in my own costume and whether it worked and how I looked, but that was just me being self-absorbed. So...

Right, so I'm like psycho-busy at work lately, and at home what with making the place acceptable for our purposes. So for all you who missed it or might've forgotten, this weekend is the big party at me & astrophysicat's house. So. Anyone who wants to come and doesn't have details... whatever, you know how to reach us!

Friday night: movies
Saturday day: movies
Saturday night: halloween party, wear costumes!!!
Sunday: thanksgiving dinner

Parties, party planning, shopping, food. It's all there. I worked on the super secret decorations for the party for quite a bit over the weekend. So everyone who's coming should at least pretend to be impressed when they see it. :) I cleaned in preparation too, though there's a way to go before it's ready, but we have 4 whole days left (ohmigawd, only 4 days!!!) and we got the groceries for it, lots of groceries, more than we've ever had at one time, pretty much, though it still probably won't be enough. Good thing the store is so close. Oh, and sidruid got a special sneak preview of my costume, and he deemed that it'll go over well. Though he also said people might think they're at the wrong party, but whatever!

Right, so then there were the parties that I *went* to this weekend. Both fun, both different, both overshadowed by a killer headache. So if you were there, and I seemed annoyed, it wasn't you. Well, it might've been you also, but I had less tolerance than normal. Oh, and among the many costumes... littlefrogling's costume was totally kick ass!!!! I mean, yeah. So very much so. So totally. You are adorable! Her mom did a great job on it. And sidruid was a devil fanboy. He claimed he was the devil, but really, I'm going with the devil fanboy idea... So ha!

Oh, so then Sunday, me & sidruid & Chris went to breakfast in Princeton. Which was good, though the maple syrup flavored with banana was a bit scary, mostly because it was unexpected. I mean, nowhere on that menu did it say, "oh yeah, and our maple syrup is banana flavored". Then we stopped at this open house Japanese restoration thing, which was way cool. Then we covered some serious ground from one side of NJ to the other to get to the kayak store, where I used part of the kayak fund to buy myself a fabulous wetsuit and shirt combo. They were more than half off their regular price, how could I resist??? And I look like an x-man in them, which is funny, so there. Oh! And I *finally* found a pair of x-small gloves for kayaking. They were like the holy grail to me. Will I always use them? Probably not every time, but damn it's good to have the choice.

And then it was on to the beach. Conversation on the way...

me: Is that the ocean up there?

J: I don't think so.

me: But that cloud looks like one that would be over the ocean.

J: What does a cloud over the ocean look like?

me: Like that one!

J: Now you're giving into stereotypes.

me: It's the way of the world, the way peoples' minds work. You group things into like and dislike... or... like and unlike. Or something like that. That cloud is an ocean-going cloud!

J: No it isn't.