Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Fenchurch's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
11:13 pm	San Diego Comic-Con Day 0 Tonight was Preview Night at Comic-Con... only open to those people who have four-day badges. Which, of course, is nearly everyone this year, since they started selling passes online only. It was *insane*. We were really lucky in that we're working at one of the booths on and off over the weekend, so we have Exhibitor badges and don't have to wait in the horrendously long line. And the exhibit floor was packed... definitely not the sort of place for someone who eschews human contact. Or is claustrophobic. We took one of the shuttle buses in to the convention center and I did a double-take when I saw the driver... and when rackham sat down after me he leaned over and asked "Is it just me, or is Stan Lee driving our bus?" Hee! That's *exactly* what I was thinking. The guy wasn't a dead ringer or anything, but considering where we are and why we're here... he was close enough to make it feel like it could have been Stan Lee putting in a cameo for the convention. At one point, Rackham and I had found a bench in the foyer/lobby area, so we were having a bit of a sit down to rest our feet and check our email. Across the lobby we could see the line of people moving along outside the building, waiting to get their badges (as I mentioned, it was unbelievably long)... and I just happened to glance up at one point to see deannab walk by! She was too far away (and outside the building) for me to say hi, but hopefully we'll bump into each other at some point. As it is, I can't even remember everyone who said they were going to be here. Already, my brain is pretty fried, my feet hurt and I'm exhausted... and the convention, technically, hasn't even started yet. *headdesk* Current Mood: exhausted (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
9:41 pm	Coming to you live from Redlands, CA I just realized I never did get a chance to update while we were in Sacramento. Had a really good visit with my grandparents... rackham fixed their computers and got their network whipped into shape again. I love visiting this time of year, because so many of their trees are full of fruit (nothing is better than fresh ripe peaches straight off the tree). We stopped in Modesto for lunch and discovered that the Fresh Choice there beats the socks off the one we have up sort of near our place. They had fresh local produce all through their menu... including stuff like heirloom tomatoes and lemon cucumbers! There were also several salads made with different types of local squash and fresh local peaches on the dessert bar. Mmmmm. The trip today from Sacramento to Redlands seemed to take forever, and you guys were pretty talkative. Now I'm just hoping I haven't missed anything important... because I pretty much gave up after Skip=125. Tomorrow we head down to San Diego and meet up with cynthdiane, then hit Preview Night at Comic-Con. Huzzah!! Current Mood: sleepy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
11:41 pm	Greetings from Ashland, OR! I think we may have been a little overly optimistic in our plans to stay here tonight... I mean, we made it okay, rolling into the hotel parking lot at around 10:30. But I sort of wish we'd been able to stop at Grant's Pass, about an hour or so earlier. OTOH, I'm so very glad we made a reservation... I figured it would all be booked up around here and I was right, since the Shakespeare Festival is in full swing. ( The big problem is that we should never, ever depend on actually leaving the house when we plan to ) So, yeah, it was after 1:00 by the time we really got on the road... dodging over across I-90 to I-5 when we saw that there was stop-and-go traffic on 405, and still hitting an amazing amount of a roadwork pretty much all the way down the line. We did stop off at the restaurant ladyforash manages in Springfield, OR... hoping she might be at work, but no luck. I started skimming my flist while we were waiting for our food and discovered that she's actually in Montana on her own roadtrip this weekend. Heh. We had one exciting moment driving by a brushfire in the median, north of Vancouver... there was a ton of smoke, so Rackham had moved into the middle lane before hitting it (it was seriously thick at that point) and it turned out to be a good thing or we would have gotten more than a little singed... the flames were blowing over the entire inside lane! Yikes! As it was, we could feel the heat from the fire. And then the funky thing... I noticed something odd just above the horizon, at one point, sort of hanging back behind the trees. For a bit there, I had no clue what it was... and then it hit me. With all the wildfires they've got going in California and Oregon, there's a ton of smoke just sitting around the atmosphere. And I was seeing the moon. Or rather, I was almost seeing the moon. It was an *extremely* dark orange-ish red... to the point where we were trying to figure out if it might just be a new moon. Nope. There was just so much smoke hanging around that it was almost completely obscuring the moon. It was both cool and creepy. Tomorrow we're headed down to the my grandfather's place in Sacramento... hopefully with a stop at the Olive Pit along the way (mmmmm.... olives...) and I have no idea what sort of condition his wireless network is in. Hopefully we'll have access when we're there (or it won't take long to fix it so it's working again). Current Mood: sleepy (9 Comments |Comment on this)
8:49 am	Hitting the road Well, not quite yet, but we're hoping to actually be in the car and on the road within the next few hours... on our way to Comic-Con!! This is also our big vacation of the year, so we're planning on having fun and seeing the sights on the way down to San Diego (plus visiting a few family members). I was going to say that it's likely I won't be posting here as much while we're on the road, but honestly? I'll probably end up posting MORE than I usually do, if I follow my normal patterns. Maybe not as many comments in other people's LJs, though. The plan is to make it to Ashland, OR tonight, which is only about a 7 hour drive away... so hopefully we'll be able to take some time do the tourist thing. Oooo! Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get down to Gold Hill early enough to actually visit the Oregon Mystery Vortex! I know it's stupid, but I've always wanted to go... and we always seem to drive by there after they've closed. Current Mood: bouncy (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 18th, 2008
9:16 pm	Dr. Horrible Act III ( Reaction under the cut. ) (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
10:18 pm	Dr. Horrible Act II ( Reactions under the cut, in case you haven't seen it yet. ) Current Mood: chipper (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 14th, 2008
9:57 pm	Dr. Horrible!! Today is the day for squeeing!! The first act of "Dr. Horrible" is up!!! Unfortunately, it apparently doesn't work outside the US :-( ( Brief reaction under the cut. ) Current Mood: bouncy (8 Comments |Comment on this)
3:28 pm	Squee!!! Mondays are my weekly weigh-in day, so today I headed up the YMCA to hit the scale (it's way too nice out right now to be working out indoors, so I've been walking down at the local park instead). I stepped on, checked the weight, boggled, stepped off, stepped back on again, checked the weight, boggled... (okay, you get the idea -- I did re-weigh myself three times though, just in case there was some sort of error involved). As of today, I've officially lost 40 pounds since the first of February. I still keep waiting for it to turn out to be some sort of trick... that maybe I've been using the scale wrong and someone has secretly been sneaking into my house and letting all my clothes out so they're too big to wear. Which obviously isn't the case... but it's all been way too easy and weight-loss isn't supposed to be easy! I'm supposed to, you know, *suffer*. I'm supposed to agonize over the fact that I can't eat anything good and I'm supposed to feel like I'm constantly starving. Instead, I'm plotting my day to make sure I eat enough food so I don't lose too quickly! And I've gotta say, I'm really hoping it stays this way. So, in review: Squeeeeeeeee!!!!!! Current Mood: jubilant (31 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
6:30 pm	Things I've learned in the last few weeks Thing I learned #1: ( When given the choice, a teenage boy would much rather spend every waking moment playing computer games than go see the sights in Seattle. ) Thing I learned #2: ( Yes, it is possible to play too much Lord of the Rings Online. And, also, they've seriously nerfed the newbie quests since I did them the first time. ) I am, however, enjoying still occasionally bopping into Meneldor for a few minutes to play my low level characters through the early quests. My characters on Landroval are all high enough level that there's not a lot they can do that doesn't take either a fellowship or a LOT of time or both. Thing I learned #3: Gardening can actually be fun and good exercise, ( but the earbuds for my MP3 player work much better when I don't snip through them with my pruning clippers. ) Thing I learned #4: Thanks to lage_nom_ai, I found out that Great Big Sea has a new CD out... which made me check their website where I discovered they were coming to Seattle in October! And I was able to get tickets the morning they went on sale, so we have some *excellent* seats. Squee!!!! Current Mood: bouncy (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 7th, 2008
6:10 pm	More random questions and not so random answers Snagged from rosiewook ( Under the cut because otherwise it would be waaaay too long ) Current Mood: amused (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
11:23 pm	Quick trip to Canada It's always fun to do... since Langley is only about 2.5 hours away, with good traffic, and is an excellent place to go if all you want to do is shop! We probably wouldn't have gone today, though, if we weren't already heading up about halfway... although my father-in-law was not able to get the suitcase he wanted at the Samsonite outlet. Apparently, it's only available in Australia (where he bought his last one), but he did manage to find another that he likes... and hopefully the old one can be repaired after he gets home. The wait times at the border weren't bad at all. I think we timed our crossings right... meaning only about a 25 minute wait going north, and maybe 15 minutes coming south. We did notice that pretty much all the other cars crossing were from BC. I'm guessing not as many folks from the US were interested in heading across the border for the holiday weekend! We snagged the first season of "Robson Arms" on DVD (we've never seen it, but wanted to give it a try) and the book Tales from Dog River. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find the first season of Little Mosque on the Prairie, which I was really hoping to get (I've liked what I've seen of it, even if the stereotyping can be a bit much at times). And then we hit the grocery store and stocked up on Canadian Kit Kats, All Dressed potato chips and Pirate cookies (Rackham's favorite). We also snagged some various flavors of popcorn seasoning, because apparently only Canadians like that kind of thing (seriously, why is this stuff not for sale in the US?? I was able to get BBQ and Cajun popcorn seasonings in a regular ol' grocery store in Canada). Then, of course, there were TimBits. Mmmm... (even better, they're only about 1 Point a piece on WW). Current Mood: chipper (4 Comments |Comment on this)
10:28 am	The day after Independence Day And what better way to spend it than with a quick trip to Canada!! Well, a potential trip to Canada. We're about to head up to the Outlet Stores at Tulalip, because the Samsonite store there is apparently the only one in the state with the exact piece of luggage my father-in-law wants to get (he needs to replace his old suitcase and wants the same style, and considering he originally picked it up in Melbourne, I think it's a minor miracle he could find a place relatively nearby that actually had one). Anyway, after we're done there, we'll be checking the wait time at the Alder Grove border crossing and possibly making a run up to Langley to do a bit of shopping -- gotta replenish our supplies of Canadian food (yes, really) and maybe pick up some DVDs that aren't available in the US. Oh, and we'll probably get some TimBits. Mmmm... And now, while I'm thinking about it, I'm gonna go track down my stash of Canadian money. Since normally I tend to forget it until we're nearly at the border and then toss in any new change when we get back, there should be more than enough! Current Mood: bouncy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 4th, 2008
11:26 pm	Happy Independence Day!! It's been a pretty fun holiday... stayed up way too late last night getting food ready for today (the potato salad and the brine/marinade for the ribs -- neither are tough, but are a bit more difficult when you realize after midnight that you're missing some ingredients), but that was largely my own fault for not starting them earlier. Then I got woken up at around 6:30 this morning because our power had gone out (I have no idea why) and when it came back on, one of our many pieces of electronica had decided to share its joy at once again receiving power by giving a nice loud BEEP. Thankfully, I eventually got back to sleep. taradaktyl called a bit after 9:00 to see if I still wanted to go walking, so I rolled out of bed, grabbed a banana and some water and headed over to her place... following that up with a bit of mowing and yardwork. Yeah, I know how to party. Dinner was fun, with Rackham's dad (who has been visiting this week), Rackham's brother and his family (who moved to the area a few weeks ago), as well as tomte and gidgiddoni. We had my family's traditional potato salad (made this time with Hain's Light Safflower Mayo -- works wonderfully and reduces the Points values by half) and Guamanian-style ribs, then decided to take advantage of seasonal goodness with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Yum!! And, of course, we watched our standard movies for the 4th of July: 1776 and Independence Day. Now we get to hear the neighborhood explode around us for the rest of the night. One of the advantages? joys? perils? of living in unincorporated King County -- no extra city rules banning fireworks, so everyone sets 'em off. I really don't mind, since it's only once a year... but I am rather grateful that they decided to crack down on the fireworks in the park behind our house. Sure it made for a good show from our back porch in the past, but was a lot less fun when they were setting them off at 2:00am, just down the hill from our bedroom window. Hope you all had a great day, even if it wasn't a holiday for you! Current Mood: content (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
11:07 pm	Today is a good day Todai... Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! I tried to reply to them all, but I may have missed some. And a big thank you to slm76 for the birthday card! It was a really fantastic day... starting with my mom driving up from northeast Oregon last night so she could spend the morning and afternoon with me. We just hung out this morning, then headed down to the local park to go walking (I thought about blowing off exercising today, but figured I'd feel better in the long run). We did a bit of shopping, since I've lost enough weight that my "thin clothes" are starting to get a bit baggy (and I was right, I've dropped another clothing size!!) and went out to lunch at my favorite Thai place up in Woodinville (followed by a quick trip to my Comic Book Pusher to pick up the latest issue of A:AtF). My mom brought Daisy, her Miniature Dachshund, with her. Daisy believes that it is the nature of the universe for my mom to occasionally split into two people... who are still the same person -- she seriously cannot tell the difference between my mom and me. And apparently, Numfar had never encountered a dog before. The poor cat climbed on top of a bunch of boardgames stacked on top of a tall bookcase in the basement and huddled there for most of the time the dog was in the house, even though we'd gated off the downstairs so the dog couldn't come down here. Whenever the dog was outside, I would coax Numfar down and carry her around the house... and she would crane her neck around corners and generally be highly paranoid (and she's actually still being a bit jumpy, even eight hours after the dog has gone home). The funny thing is that if she'd just given one single swat at Daisy, the dog would have left her completely alone for the rest of the visit. But apparently, all she could think was "Aiiieeee!!!! Devil-Beast from the Pits of Hell!!!! Run away! Run away!!" My mom headed home this afternoon, and I wasted spent a few delightful hours reading fanfic and generally doing nothing (which is harder than it sounds). Then rackham and I met up with his brother, plus our friends tomte, gidgiddoni and their niece Miss V over at Todai for dinner. Yummy sushi! And crab legs!! And best of all, teeny tiny Crème brûlées! (No, I never have figured out what Crème brûlée has to do with Japanese food, but I don't care). Oh, and I forgot to mention, there was sun today!! It was supposed to be overcast and drizzly, but we ended up with some rather extended sunbreaks through most of the afternoon, and a beautiful mostly clear sky this evening. It was simply a fantastic day... hopefully a good sign for the next year! Current Mood: chipper (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 15th, 2008
9:59 pm	Lovely day! We had sun!! AKA "That strange glowing orb in the sky" and temperatures up into the mid-70s! We took advantage of the situation and went for a nice long walk along the Sammamish River Trail (which is part of the much larger Burke-Gilman Trail), down to the wetlands restoration area over by Cascadia Community College. Lots of cyclists out today... we'd actually considered pulling our bikes out, but I'm still a little nervous about riding a bike (I'm not sure my shoulders are strong enough to handle it yet). Gonna have to try it one of these days though. And earlier today txvoodoo mentioned mole (as in sauce, not critter) on her LJ, which got me thinking about our favorite taco stand... the one that sadly disappeared a year or so ago from the gas station parking lot it had been set up in (the road in front of the gas station was ripped up and closed down for a year and a half for upgrade work) and has never returned. They had wonderful food... freshly made and at really good prices. Plus they made their own pollo en mole (near as I could tell, they started it in a crockpot in the morning, and by evening it was *divine*). So, I decided to try looking them up online... and found a few ravingly wonderful reviews for the place plus the info that they'd moved over to Wallingford (an area in north Seattle)!! Even better, they've got a MySpace page, where it mentions they're looking for a location here on the Eastside again. So, for now, I may swing by the next time I have to run over to Wallingford... but I'm really going to hope they find a location nearby again. It was our default "it's late and I don't feel like cooking" place to get food, and we really miss it. Current Mood: chipper (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 13th, 2008
4:29 pm	Books read so far in 2008 So, here's my paltry little list. Behind each cut, I've written a little about each one (obviously not going into terribly great detail). I'm actually thinking I may have posted about some of these already (simply because bits of what I wrote sounded VERY familiar), or perhaps I started writing it up and never got around to putting it on my LJ (because it's not like I've never done that before *cough*). So, if any of it is a repeat, well, it's my own fault for apparently forgetting to tag my previous entries. ( 1. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett ) ( 2. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett ) ( 3. The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex ) ( 4. Eat Britain! 101 Great British Tastes by Andrew Wheeler ) ( 5. Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher ) ( 6. White Night by Jim Butcher ) ( 7. Peace War by Vernor Vinge ) As for #8, well, take a look at my previous entry! Now I just need to remember to grab a book off my Teetering Pile from time to time... and not just when I want something to keep my mind busy while I'm exercising! Current Mood: determined (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
11:41 pm	Reading actual books You know, I should probably sit down and do an entry about all the books I've read this year. Sadly, it wouldn't be a very lengthy post... because as of this evening, I've finished reading exactly eight books (although the good news is that's already more than I was able to finish in 2007). I'm slowly regaining the habit of reading... something I lost after the car accident, when it became almost impossible for me to hold books to read them, at least for any decent length of time. Tonight, I finally finished Ill Wind by Rachel Caine, which is part of her Weather Warden series. I've mostly been reading it while riding the Lifecycle at the YMCA and it's been a good way to pass the time there... ( Cut for spoilers about the book. ) Current Mood: chipper (8 Comments |Comment on this)
4:27 pm	Is it Thursday, already?!? Stolen from all over the place... ( 22 oddly random questions ) I'm rather curious who came up with that list in the first place and why they wanted to know those particular things. It's such an odd collection of questions, and very US-centric. Current Mood: curious (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
9:07 pm	Nice Skate Shoes I just bought new shoes!! Squee!! And those who have known me for any length of time realize exactly how weird it is for me to squee over shoes. For the most part, I don't wear them. At all. I've got one pair of shoes and a couple of different types of "slip ons" that I use for times when they're required, but otherwise, I prefer to leave my feet free. ( Why I don't wear shoes... ) So, add up wide feet with an injury that requires me to find shoes with as little internal molding as possible and the fact that I have two VERY different sized feet (in women's, I wear an 8 on one foot and a 10 on the other -- for some reason, in men's it varies a lot more depending on the shoe), and it can be tortuously difficult to find shoes that work. A few years back, I discovered Nice Skate Shoes (NSS) and fell in love -- they're perfect... wide and flat. My last pair are on their last leg (no pun intended) and I've been scouring local shoe and sporting goods stores for more NSS shoes... with absolutely no luck. Then tonight we stopped by our local Fred Meyer (sort of a grocery/department store) to pick up a copy of LEGO Indiana Jones and I dashed into the shoe section to look at their selection of men's sandals... when rackham said "Hey, what was that brand of shoes you've been looking for?" And there, behind me, was an entire aisle of NSS shoes. Yes, after all this time of searching, I found them at my local grocery store. For a pretty decent price, too (the only thing that would have been better is if they'd been Buy One, Get One Free). I may have even done the Dance of Joy in the aisle when I saw them, too. I can't wait to start breaking them in! (Once again, embrace the weirdness of that statement.) Current Mood: jubilant (16 Comments |Comment on this)
3:03 pm	A few hours in the life... In my desire to be as over-prepared as possible for my trip to visit nmissi and to attend GenCon/JadeCon in August, I was just looking at how long it would take to drive from Charlotte, NC (where I have a layover and plane switch) to Louisville, in the event that my flight out got canceled due to cutbacks or for some other reason. (Yes, I do tend to overplan for these sorts of things... but if I don't check into the possibilities, it'll sit in the back of my brain and bug me until I do.) Not too bad. Estimated about 7-8 hours driving... and, even better, the route would take me right by Cades Cove, TN aka ancestral home to one side of my family (well, after they moved there from Scotland) -- my great-grandparents left before my grandfather was born, but a bunch of his cousins and their descendants are still there. I've never been to the place, but I've always wanted to see it. So, I'm not about to hope I get stranded in Charlotte or anything, but if I did, well, it wouldn't totally suck to have to rent a car and drive. In other news, I finally set things up to start using Twitter... only to discover that I live the world's most boring life and have nothing to say. Granted, this is based only on one day's worth of activities, but so far the most exciting or even remotely interesting thing I could have posted was "Just got done using the walking track at the local park, may have slightly overdone it. Ow." Except that by the time I realized I should post it, I was already back home in front of my computer and, well, it didn't seem like the thing to do anymore. I could just see the other possible updates now: "Walked upstairs to make the bed. Cats followed me." "Downstairs again to move some laundry through. Cats tagged along. Numfar excited about laundry chore, as always." "Sitting in front of the computer, trying to decide if I have anything interesting to say on LJ. Cats perched nearby waiting for me to walk to another room." And so on. On the plus side, shortly after I set things up to send text messages to Twitter from my phone, it occurred to me that I could do it just as easily from the web interface on my phone and not have to worry about using too many of my text messages each month (I have a lot, but I could see where Twitter would easily use them all if I let it). Current Mood: chipper (15 Comments |Comment on this)