Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

*frowns*

All right, we'll try this again. Note to self: Copy entire post before hitting the "post" button, just in case the entries page eats the damn thing again.

FLIST! It's been a while! I've been coming and reading entries, and keep telling myself I'm going to post "as soon as I have some time," but that never seems to happen. *rolls eyes at self*

( Cut for length. )

I am sure there a million and one more things I could put here, but am drawing a blank. I find myself doing that more and more often...which is kind of sad, considering that two weeks from today, I will only be 34.

If you want an update on anything I haven't rambled about in this post already, please don't hesitate to ask! I want to get back into the habit of posting again, so hopefully it won't be so long a wait. ;)

EDIT: Dreamwidth People: Does anybody know why, when I move the mouse out of the entry box on the create entries beta page, the text in the box leaps upward? I don't mean the words switch places or anything, but the whole text body itself scrolls up each time I move the mouse out of the box, and never just stays where I left the damn cursor. I can even stop typing, move the mouse out, then back in and back out a couple times without typing at all, and it will keep scrolling up a bit with each movement in and out. I'll check the bug list thingy later, of course, but thought I'd pose the question here, just in case anyone has a quick, easy answer. ....I wonder if it does this from home. I'll have to check; at work I'm forced to use IE8, but use firefox at home.

I haven't seen it yet. I want to, but at the same time...I am filled with trepidation.

Harry has been such a huge part of my life. I can't even imagine how dull and dreary my life would have been all these years had I not read these incredible books, met these incredible people and become friends with so many of them. I would certainly be more narrow-minded without this - without this saga, without these friends, both fictional and not.

Still - every commercial, every preview for this last installment makes my heart hang heavy in my chest. A lump forms in my throat and my eyes sting. I'll probably put off seeing it for a little while; I can't force myself into something my heart is currently flailing so hard against.

And too, I don't want to let go of this magic, this world. I have this fear that to do so would drain away the vibrancy of life. Irrational, yes, but-. I'm just...sad.

I was going to post pictures this weekend, and I completely forgot. So I will post them tonight or tomorrow night, and for now, just do a basic update.

( Life, the Universe and Everything. )

8. Back to the grind today, but it's a quiet day, as Evil Manager is out, so I'm enjoying the quiet. I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday!

1. So I'm lagging behind again, as per usual, but that makes this no less heartfelt. To all the moms on my flist, whether your children are human or otherwise:

Happy Mother's Day!!

On Saturday afternoon, the boychild decided to get a subtle hint across:

Boychild: "Mommy, you can sleep in as long as you want tomorrow."
Me: "I can? As long as I want?"
Boychild: "Yup." ... "But you should sleep on your BACK."
Me: *trying hard not to snicker and giggle*

Now, I would say that maybe only moms might understand the reasoning behind that suggestion, but my cousin's wife, who is a mom herself, didn't get the implication, so I can't assume everyone reads into it what was so easy to see. It was his way of ensuring that I would be in the proper position for him to set a tray on my lap in the morning, brimming with "breakfast." ROTFL.

I got scrambled eggs with cheese melted on them, pancakes nearly drowning in syrup, bacon too crisp to eat and burnt toast slathered with butter and strawberry jam. Despite some of these unfortunate things, it was still the best breakfast ever. And he was so excited to have done it. ♥♥♥

Hubby made a fabulous roast beef with potatoes, carrots and celery for dinner, and Yorkshire pudding to go with it, and there was ice cream for dessert. We invited my parents and sister over to join us and had a lovely evening.

2. We didn't go to the church yesterday. We'd planned on it, quite forgetting that it was going to be Mother's Day. So we intend to aim for NEXT Sunday. Hubby already has another church picked out to try after that one. He's leaning hard toward a United Church of Christ church, because based on what he's read and his growing-up-experiences, they seem to be most closely aligned with what we both believe.

I have a hard time in the whole church/religion department. Do I believe in God/Jesus? Yes. Do I subscribe to one set of rules for how best to follow Him? Hell, no. I don't always have the greatest amount of faith, I don't habitually - or even easily - pray (though that's a whole other kettle of fish), I don't believe that to be a good Christian, you have to go to church every Sunday. From any church I attend, I expect to be accepted however I choose to arrive, whether I am in formal attire or rags. I expect that my thoughts and opinions are respected, whether or not they are agreed with. I expect that ANYBODY is welcome to join in, regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation or anything else that I'm currently forgetting to include. I expect that questions are accepted and considered thoughtfully, if not encouraged, and I expect that should I choose to regularly continue attending the church, I am not required to TAKE A CLASS.

I know I'm kind of all over the place with this whole discussion, I haven't exactly thought my points through very clearly, so bear with me, here. This whole "You have to take a class before you can be a member of this church" thing...NONONONONO. I want no part of any church that requires me to attend a class in order to be fully welcomed. That's not acceptance, that's not CHRISTIAN. My parents' church made them take a class in order to be members. My dad said it was "to make sure they believed what the church believed." *snorts haughtily* I was so offended on their behalf, because God knows they didn't have the sense to be offended themselves. *rolls eyes* I love my parents, don't get me wrong; I simply despair over their version of "Christian."

So to sum up: If I'm attending a church, they need to accept me no matter how I look or what I believe, as well as any other human being. If they can't or won't, then it's not the church for me.

Reading back over this whole section, DUDE. Help me flesh this out. Ask me questions. Make me think about it. It feels like random points with no concrete frame, no solid foundation. Wait, scratch that last bit - my foundation is simply that we are all human, and all of us are worth the same, regardless of choices we make throughout our lives. But still - point out my wobbles, ask questions, help me firm this up into something that makes a little more sense. Or tell me if it already does (but I don't think so).

3. thefourthvine posted a FABULOUS rant Here. Fanfic lovers, enjoy. ♥

4. Speaking of fanfic...I have so many ideas, but so little motivation. I have chapters in my head for my next-gen, but the first sixteen need some overhauling before I put any of it down. I've been going round and round with some founders fic in my head, as well as a Rowena Ravenclaw one-shot that's trying to form. On top of all that, I've been reading a little bit of Narnia fanfic, and now have a couple one-shots in my head! I've never written fanfic outside of HP, so if I ever manage to sit down and just write, it should be interesting.

I think part of the whole motivation thing is not really knowing who - beyond myself, anyway - would want to give reading it a go. I mean, why bother penning it out if I'm the only one who cares anymore? *sigh*

But also, part of it is just knowing I have to overhaul what I have before moving on. I could write it down, but I just can't let what's come before sit there and continue eating at my brain - I have to fix it. asdf;lkj

5. I'm having an aversion to cuts, lately. Sorry.

6. I finally - just this morning, actually - found out what "tl;dr" means ("too long; didn't read"). And I have to say, I think sometimes my own entries get like that! *snerk* But oh well. If you regularly make it to the end of my entries, kudos to you. If you don't, well, at least it's still here for my own perusal. :)

7. My books are all due in 3 days. Boo. Now I have to gather them and go back to the library because I'm out of online renewals for all of them. *sad face*

8. That must be all for now. You know me, I'll post again if I feel the need. I hope you all had a good weekend!

1. OK, so I haven't collected all the vacation pics yet. BUT - I did find the one of Mikey with the fish he caught. Check him out:



2. Since that's the only one, I'll picspam you with today's fabulosity. I'm so good to you guys. *snorts*

3. Nachos for dinner! They were SO good!
YUMMO!


The "Nachos Idea Guy," grinning with his mouth full:


4. We were in Target and I found a Harry Potter Clue game!!

Yes, of course I bought it!


It's a bit more involved than the good, old-fashioned Clue game, but it's still the same basic move-accuse-deduce setup.


You can be Resident Bad-Ass, Neville Longbottom! Win!


Or Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny or Luna. We ended up playing two rounds:


5. You guys, I got my own fishee!!

Look at him and tell me he's not gorgeous:


He's mostly this deep, rich, cobalt blue:


Had to turn the flash off to get that glory-of-the-sun-in-blue color to show nicely:


But the flash brings out that stunning aqua-green beneath!


6. And Fishee totally needs a name. I can't keep calling him "Fishee." Any suggestions?I'm thinking along the lines of something Thai or Cambodian; betta fish are native to the rice paddies of these places. I've got several ideas, most of them Thai. Chanarong, which means experienced warrior. Kasem, well being; happiness. Klahan, courageous. Niran, everlasting; eternal. Sunan, which has no meaning. Virote, great; power. Atid, sun. Of those, Chanarong would be closest in description - they're Siamese fighting fish, after all. But I don't really like that name. I couldn't find a Thai name that means "glorious," because MAN, look at that coloring! I want to sink into the brilliance of it.

I found a Vietnamese name, Thanh, meaning bright, clear blue; elegant - do they have rice paddies in Vietnam, do you suppose? It's the same region as Thailand and Cambodia, after all...

And a Cambodian name, Samnang, which means good fortune, which of course has nothing whatsoever to do with fish or fighting or gloriously brilliant, sink-into-me blue.

According to an online translator I found, "glorious" in Thai is: รุ่งโรจน์ , which of course doesn't tell me anything about how you say it. *rolls eyes*

I think I'm leaning mostly toward the Vietnamese name, Thanh, pronounced TAN-yih, because the meaning is closest to what I think of when I look at him. But I also like the Cambodian Samnang, because I could call him Sam for short and I love that.

Decisions, decisions... Thoughts, anyone? Please?

7. We saw bunnies there. I want a bunny so horrifyingly badly, but I can't have them; I'm allergic to them in rotten, unlivable ways. I'm allergic to nearly all the pets we could easily afford and handle, which sucks for Mike because it means he can't have any of them. *shakes fist at the allergy deity*

So suffice it to say I babble at Fishee like it's a bunny or kitty or puppy I can pet and snuggle and love. Yeah, I'm a geek, I know it. *hehe*

8. I keep making these long posts - is that irritating to anybody? Would it be better if I used cuts more often? I wonder, sometimes, if people don't like to see really long entries cluttering up their "friends" pages. Thoughts?

9. I brushed my hair this morning. It hurt. Note to self: next time you bring a brush along on vacation, USE IT.

10. A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. GEORGE MOORE.

11. Hmm, it's apparently ten after three, which means it's not even Sunday anymore, it's Monday. I think I'll head to bed; have a good week, all!!

EDIT: 12. I forgot to tell you! That two-hour power outage last night? Completely fried our already-gasping router. *rolls eyes* But we picked up a new one today for less than half what we planned to spend on it, so that rocks. Yay for unexpected sales and finding the last one in stock!

Time for a meme, this time from superbeffie. Comment if you want to do it and I'll give you five topics I associate you with, and then you post and elaborate on them.

( My topics from Beth )

Anyone else want to give me topics to elaborate on? Please? This was fun. XD.

Holy hell, y'all, I just discovered the greatest Hershey Kiss in history...

We were at the store on Friday and I picked up a bag because it sounded interesting: Pumpkin Spice. No chocolate in them, just whatever it is they used.

I didn't open them till today, about two minutes ago...and I don't wanna share 'em, not with anybody. THEY ARE SO GOOD. I WOULD GIVE UP CHOCOLATE FOR THESE.

And I'm a little sheepish to admit that with that first taste, three words went through my head: Thanksgiving, Hogwarts, Christmas. In that order. *snerk*

Man, it made me wish that August-December was ALL THE TIME. I will be crushed if these are only a one-time deal.

I need to stock up, just in case...

So.

( Big, Strong, Sensitive Men )

Okay, enough of the girly stuff.

Today was Mikey's last bowling day. He's done worse the last few weeks, but ahh, well. He got his very own bowling ball tonight - it's got Donkey from Shrek on it. It's pretty cool - when we get a picture, I'll post it.

And it's almost vacation time. Just over a week, and we'll be on our way out East. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait... XD

And as a side note, I changed my layout a while ago. It's pretty, but we'll see how long I stick with it. Hehehehe... ;)

I got my second issue of my Angels magazine today.

And I read it through, cover to cover. I've been reading it for months, every time we go to Mikey's grandparents' house; so Bunny (Mikey's grandmother) gave me my own subscription for Christmas.

It's always so incredible, the things that prayer can accomplish. You'd think I'd do it more often myself, but it's a very...difficult, I suppose...thing for me to do. Nevertheless, it continually floors me, what faith and hope and love can do. I can only hope that someday I can draw from that well as easily as others can. In the meantime, all I can do is live the best I know how: find the good and the beauty in life and in others, and remind myself often that God has a purpose for me, a plan, whether or not I know what it is.

So I've been a bit contemplative this evening, searching out various things online that fit my mood. And I was on Checkmated, and rummaging through my stories I've marked as favorites, and came across one called "In the Twinkling of an Eye." (Link here: http://www.checkmated.com/story.php?story=8357 )

It's so beautifully written, and the scripture at the end ties the whole thing together. Read it, if you like - and tell me your thoughts.

Or don't. Some things call to me more deeply, more elementally, than they do to others. Either way, it's a good story. ;)