It has yet to be named. But it is a cute little zippy thing from Japan. I'm glad we got it.

We went to America First to get credit for our new car, and I guess that they messed up on Ben's social security number, because they had him listed as deceased and with a credit score of 1.

I thought it was pretty funny. I've heard about this happening before where people got marked as dead accidentally and had to go through the SS office to get themselves changed back to alive.

But luckily for us, once they got the correct ss# they realized that yes, my husband is alive and kicking. And we got our loan approved. Now we just need the car and all will fall into place.

so far...

"Northern Downpour" and "When the Day Met the Night" own my soul!

We're getting a car soon!

We put a deposit down on an 08 Honda Fit, Blackberry Pearl. I was able to do it all through the Internet Sales Manager and it sounds like the process will be relatively painless.

Now we just have to figure out financing.

Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes, here or on myspace or anywhere else.
I took the day off. Ben got me some DS games like the super hard to find Princess Peach, and Fatal Frame for Ps2 which I have been looking for for a long time. It has been pretty low-key day. I figure we'll go out to dinner tonight.
I have been pretty underwhelmed about my birthday for the last couple of years. After 21 it feels like most of the milestones have passed and there's no *big* b-days to wait for.

I also want to say that I think the LJ comment/post/whatever strike thing is completely pointless and you would do better to just delete your journals and just not renew your paid accounts.

Also the fact that it's been five years since the beginning of the Iraq war and we still have no progress or exit strategy makes me feel physically ill.

So yesterday was interesting. Ben had sent me a text early that morning about Tiger Lily. Neither of us had seen her in awhile. She is a very independent cat, but usually makes an appearance a couple times of day. I hoped she was just hiding out. She has ran outside a couple of times, but always seemed to want to go right back inside, and I usually noticed right away when she did it.
Anywhoo, Ben got home before I did and went to look for her and couldn't find her. I pretty much lost my shit. I was worried that she was hurt or dead or lost somewhere and couldn't find home. It was raining so I envisioned her as a little soaking wet cat-ball. I've never had an animal run away or get lost and so I really got a taste of how that feels.
We started looking around outside for her, and I had an inclination to go in the backyard, but since we have a gate I figured she wouldn't be able to go back there. Ben started talking to our neighbor, and I was still looking to see if she was hiding in some bushes in front of our house.

He heard faint mewing coming from bushes on the edge of our backyard, next to the neighbor's. There in a kind of rabbit cubby hole, was Tiger Lily, crying her little heart out. She wasn't even wet from the rain.

I was so relieved. This little cat is my baby, I picked her out as a kitten and she has become very dear to me. She seems okay, is back to her old bratty self, but I will definitely be watching her more closely from now on.

Then I tried to make dinner and was going to cook some eggrolls. I thought I was turning on the oven to pre-heat it. Instead I turned on the burner and walked away. The box of eggrolls and a starbucks coffee cup caught on fire and filled the whole kitchen with smoke. That whole part of the house still smells like smoke dispite our opening all the windows.

At that point, I just gave up. It had been a crappy day at work, I hadn't slept, and with everything else it was too much.

On the plus side, today has been much better. We had nachos at work with all the trimmings.

A couple Hollywood Video stores over here are closing, and selling off all their movies. I was able to get Eagle Vs. Shark and Everything is Illuminated for cheap. You need to see them both if you haven't already.

Also...

( BULLSHIT! )

So on Monday when we go out to pack up the car and get it ready for our trip, Ben notices that the oil is low and is leaking from the Camry at an alarming rate. We can't get it into the shop til later in the day. Commence freak out. Trip is ruined, there goes the $160 spent on show tickets that are non-refundable.

Ben's Grandparents basically stopped in and saved the day as they are known to do. They let use borrow their Ford Focus to make the drive. So off we went.

We stayed at the Marriott Suites on Convention Center Dr. and basically got the room for $100 off each night. We did a little gambling much, did some shopping, a lot of eating, and a lot of walking. We saw Penn and Teller at the Rio on Tuesday, and got their autographs and a blurry cell phone pic of us with Teller. (he talked!) We walked the midway at Circus Circus and played some of the carnival games. Good times were had by all.

We got back on Thursday, and had the car looked at. Luckily it wasn't all the wild scenarios Ben was imagining. It cost about $200 to fix, but it could have been much worse.

Now, I wonder if the top layer of our cake is even edible. It's been downstairs in the freezer this whole time...

In approximately 3 days I will be returning to the scene of the crime, so to speak. Ben and I are going to Vegas to celebrate our one year anniversary. When we went for the wedding, most of our time was stolen by family commitments and such. This time it's all about US. I haven't had a real vacation in almost a year. Much excitement.

Also, no work for 6 days!

In less happy news, tomorrow is March 1st, the 6th anniversary of Erin's death. I still think about her everyday. I wonder where her life would have taken her. I am a completely different person than I was in 2002. Would we still be friends? I may go down to her gravesite tomorrow, since I literally live down the street from the cemetery. I would like to have some sort of tradition or way of commemorating her passing and celebrating her life each year.

March is always a very big month for me.

Here is one of my most hated scenarios:
I write an e-mail to one of my owners. I tell them these you *only* have these two options (A) and (B). I explain both options in great detail, and offer my suggestions on which would be best.
Owner repsonds to my e-mail with one sentence, "what about unmentioned option (C)?"
Argh, if it was an option I would have mentioned it! I don't get my jollies by withholding information.

I can't stand to be doing customer service much longer.

Ben and I have a Sunday tradition of going to get coffee. So today we did that, and then went to Best Buy where I got some cds and The Animation Show on dvd (which I've wanted for a long time.)

Then I went home and talked to Bex aka bluejbird for what must have been 3 hours. She uploaded all the Academy Is albums for me, which made me happy because I really like their stuff and I need music that is mine. I was listening to my i-tunes and I realized that 75% of my music is not even of my choosing, it came from Ben, or Heidi or Davi using my computer. It can be very discouraging. Anywhoo it was nice to talk to Bex, we talked about music, and Fall Out Boy and etc.

Then I made Ben take me out to dinner and we went and saw Juno. Which is the first movie I've seen this year, so yay. I really liked the movie. Ellen Page is adorable, and Michael Cera is great as always. Plus the soundtrack is really good.

Finally I went home and made tea and dyed my hair. Not sure how that's gonna turn out.

1) Comment with three things that you want me to photograph. It can be anything from the contents of my fridge to the view from my window.
2) I will take the photos.
3) I will then upload the photos for you to look at. One day. In the near future. I think.


I need excuses to take pics people!

Here are some pics of Codi and Tiger that I have had sitting on my camera.

( Read more... )

01. Name a film in which you have seen at least twice:
Many. All the Kevin Smith Movies, Eternal Sunshine, etc

02. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to watch a film:
Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Adrien Brody

03. Name an actor who would make you less likely to watch a film: Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Duff, Paris Hilton, the olsen twins

04. Name a film you can do a quote from: Eternal Sunshine. "Sand is overrated, it's just tiny little rocks."

05. Name a film you like that no one else enjoys:
I like that cameron diaz movie "The Sweetest Thing"

06. Name a film which you've been known to sing the theme song:
Most movies I know don't have theme songs

07. Name a film you would recommend everyone to watch:
Dogma. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. What Dreams May Come. Velvet Goldmine.

08. Name a film you own:
Many. The last one I bought was Superbad.

09. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops in film: Sean Combs aka P.diddy was pretty good in Monster's Ball

10. Name a film you keep meaning to watch but you just haven’t gotten around to yet:
My whole netflix queue. I've wanted to see Hustle and Flow ever since I saw Black Snake Moan, but I haven't yet.

11. Ever quit watching a film because it was so bad?:
I wanted to quit watching Spiderman 3, but I watched it just so I could say I saw it.

12. Name a film that’s made you cry multiple times:
What Dreams May Come. Eternal Sunshine. Elf made me want to cry when I watched last week!

13. What do you eat when you watch films?:
Sour patch kids and red vines.

14. How often do you watch films?:
In the theater is quite rare. I get movies from netflix all the time.

15. What's the last film you watched?: Across the Universe in theaters or Waitress on dvd

16. What's your favorite/preferred genre of film?: I tend to like dark comedies and quirky dramas

17. What was the first film you were obsessed with?:
The Little Mermaid

18. What film do you wish you never watched?:
The new King Kong was very disappointing. I also agree about the last two Matrix movies and the Star Wars prequels.

19. What is the weirdest film you enjoyed?:
I love Being John Malkovich but it is very odd.

20. What film scared you the most?:
28 Days Later the first time I saw it. Also Audition creeped me out big time.

21. What is the funniest film you have ever watched?:
I can't think of just one. Superbad was probably the funniest movie I've seen recently.

So for the last couple of days I have been going through my entries and tagging them. I've gotten to May of 2003 at the moment. It was downwright painful at time to read my old entries for a variety of reasons. I used to be much funnier in my journal, and I miss a lot of my old lj friends who've stopped posting or unfriended me. :(

Set List
1. Young Modern Station
2. Emotion Sickness
3. Israel's Son
4. Reflections of a Sound
5. Straight Lines
6. The Greatest View
7. The Door
8. Insomnia
9. Ana's Song
10. If You Keep Losing Sleep
11. Mind-Reader
encore: Freak

It was disappointing that they played for barely over an hour. Only one song off "Diorama", no Anthem for the Year 2000, no Abuse Me, no Miss You Love, no Tomorrow...
On the plus side, they made me like their new album more after seeing it done live. If anyone doubts Daniel Johns's guitar skills they need to see him play. He would play it with his teeth, behind his back, up down and around. They did a drawn out intro to Ana's Song, and it was very emotional. You can tell that the song still means something to him. Good concert, but long overdue.

Voice Post
Voice posts are fun, right? You get to hear funny accents if your friends are from far, far away. All we really want is to hear your voice, we don't care what you're saying. So here's a list of typical meme questions that would otherwise be boring, but when communicated aloud - well, it's entertaining. Answer these questions in your post, and encourage others with voice-posting abilities to do the same.

1) What's your name?
2) How old are you?
3) Where are you from? Are you living there right now?
4) Is it cold where you are?
5) What's the time?
6) What are you wearing?
7) What was the last thing you listened to?
8) What was the last thing you ate?
9) What was the last thing you watched on tv?
10) What's your favorite tv show? Why?
11) Quick! Find a book, or something with text on it! Flip to a random page and read some of it! GO!
12) What was the last movie you saw? How was it?
13) Do YOU think you have an accent? Talk about that.

VoicePost 779K 3:55

(no transcription available)

Today at Carmax we test drove a '04 Hyundai Accent and an '06 PT Cruiser. Surprisingly, I really liked the PT Cruiser. It's about 15k with warranty, taxes and registration. I'm not sure though, because we could get a brand new car for almost the same, and with a better warranty.

Friends List, do you or anyone you know drive a PT Cruiser and what do they say about it?

Also, I'm thinking about getting a paid account again to have more icons and to be able to edit comments, since that's what I use my account for the most anyway. Communities like thequestionclub and _marriedlife_

(i thought I had already posted this but, whatever)

Yesterday was not good.

I woke up cold and cranky. I was running late and on the way to work, only moments after getting on the freeway, my back passenger side tire blew out. I had to pull over to the side, and it's amazing it did not cause an accident. Ben had to come rescue me and put on the spare. It was cold, windy and unpleasant.
I'd been contemplating staying home from work, and so the tire thing pretty much clenched it for me.

Also, my neck has been hurting for about 5 days now, to the extent that I can barely turn my head. I feel like the way I sit and sleep just make it worse. I finally went to the doctor, who told me to take large amounts of ibuprophen and wrote me a script for a muscle relaxer. Which makes me sleepy.

Also, on the way to lunch with Ben I tripped and went flying. I was not amused. I'm surprised it didn't rip holes in my pants, but I did skin my knees pretty bad. I haven't done that since I was little. Lame.