h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Wow, I'm up early this morning, and I don't have to leave for a good half hour, so this seems like a good time to have a bit of a ramble in my journal!

Haven't been up to *too* much this week. I spoke with Terri on Monday night, talked with Krispy a couple of times, received a lovely and thoughtful gift from Kaz last weekend, and had a fun chat with JEllen on MSN last evening. Of course, I haven't had enough sleep a single night this week, but I'd rather be kind of tired and have fun than well-rested and lonely.

Did some retail therapy again this week, shame on me! I've got to stop spending money on stuff I don't need, until I get rid of some of this stuff I've packed up that I don't really want. I've got a half dozen bags of clothes for Goodwill, and as many bags of books, CDs, and odd bits that I need to either unload on eBay (maybe come summer when I have more time and need the "extra cash?) or sell/consign to a proprietor of used goods. I also need to give my house not only a good tidying up, but a thorough cleaning as well. I haven't washed the floors in ages. Possibly months.

So I ordered a couple of cool sounding books, one of which is "The Emporer and the Linguist", which is about Napoleon and Champollion, who as a child compiled a Coptic dictionary, and later translated the Rosetta Stone. Should be fascinating. The other is "The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary", which I've really been looking forward to reading. And that goes to show just how big a I really am!

Also got some lovely bath salts which are supposed to help with tension and joint/muscle aches, a little something for my kitchen, a Buddha candle, a gorgeous house plant called Anthurium (or "Red Hot"), and a copy of Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations". That ought to assuage the urge for retail therapy, for a while anyway... except I have had a craving for a new bag for a while.

Hopefully no-one is too worried about my overdoing it at work. Aside from not always getting to bed early enough, and not having the time or energy to exercise properly, I'm handling it okay. I left an hour or so earlier than usual two days this week, shorting myself around 2 1/2 hours overtime but opting instead for a little extra rest. So I'm aware of my limitations and staying within them as best I can.

Still have a packet of stuff waiting to go to the immigration department. It's a matter of finding the notary open on a day when I can have photos done and get a letter notarized. Will have to be done one day this week, no ands ifs or buts. Hopefully they'll stay open one evening when I've washed my hair. They don't appear to have "regular" hours, but open up when they get there and stay till they're ready to leave. Must be nice!

Next Friday my co-worker K.'s band is playing, and another co-worker, M., and myself plan to go, so I am seriously thinking of taking next Saturday off!

So, that's the long and short of it. It's about time to head off to work, only working till 1:00 today, then after a cat nap this afternoon, I'll be around to catch up, especially on Terri's "Eyes" thread, which is really jumping and filled with all kinds of wonderful people, old friends and new! See you all over the rest of the weekend!

Hi psychocandy, you sound happy!

Won't be here much as very tired, the back and chest pain doesn't let me sleep for long, so I am tired and on strong pain-killers . But we will catch up soon. Have a good weekend and take next Saturday off, have a night out!

Hey Pc...

Oh goodie - rambles....I like nosying in on rambles....and enjoy the literal stroll...

Hurrah for retail therapy, I like retail therapy so much I even enjoy going to the grocery store, how sad is that? I like to see if they have new stuff that we can try if it's affordable. We had a window shop around the arts n' craft centre this morning and my homemaking instincts got all excited with the paints and fings to make your house nice.....just we need somewhere of our own...

Your choice of books sound cool, especially the story of the Oxford English Dictionary...may have to have a look for that one, if I remember sometime. My ex burnt my nice old Oxford Dictionary - how psycho is that anyway...sorry....old grudge always pops up when I think of dictionaries!

Anuffer hooray for candles and nice smelly stuff for the bath...always a good gift for lady friends and for oneselves as a treat! New bags, yes always need new bags, the more pockets the better, only they still have to look small and neat onna outside

As for immigration stuff paperwork, *bah humbug* Deepest sympathy there mate! How far are you into the process?

Have a great day Pc (may I call you that, or do you prefer something else), may catch you laters , or I may just see if I can wrestle a turn of the PS 2, oh and have to go gamble a few $ on the lotto methinks...so anyway..where was I....oh yeh....

Laters!

Kaz - hope you feel betterer soon.

Awww thanks , you guys! It means a lot to me to have my friends get in on my rambles... they can lead to the most interesting things!

Kaz, I hope you're feeling better. Strong pain killers make me pretty , if not a bit . I hate seeing you in so much pain... so many of my friends are in so much physical pain, Abbi, Terri, Kaz... I hate it! I wish I could take it all, I can deal with pain but it hurts so much more to see my loved ones hurting and not be able to help. All I can do is think of you, pray for you, and send some your way, and I will be doing lots of all of those things!

My dear Kaz, we shall catch up when you are feeling up to it. Please don't feel like I'll ever be disappointed with you if you aren't around here because you're feeling sick or low or utterly crap. I love ya all the time.

Vixen, you may call me Pc, everyone here calls me that! My real name is Cindy, you may call me that as well, though I try to remain relatively incognito to the general public... with good reason, I assure you.

I'm glad someone else (besides myself and my love, Krispy) thinks the book about the Oxford dictionary sounds interesting. Some people think I'm a really big dork! I love the English language, love all of its nuances, and love to have a good vocabulary. How fascinating it will be to read of the history of my favorite dictionary. I'd also love to read "The Professor and the Madman", turns out the guy who sent in thousands of entries for the dictionary was a resident of a home for the criminally insane! See what can happen when one's genuis is thwarted? Seriously, though, for your ex to have burned your dictionary was exceptionally cruel. That would be really horrible, I hope you've found a suitable replacement. (For the dictionary, I mean. Sounds like you've done a spectacular job of replacing the ex!)

I absolutely love bags! Funky, weird, unique, *just* this side of tacky. I'm fairly conservative when it comes to my wardrobe, and I jazz it up with cool shoes and funky bags. My favorite is the one made from a cover of "Amazing Stories", with faux leopard print on the sides. It rocks! There's a nifty little shop near my work, which I walk past on the way to my bus, which has loads of really great bags. It's all I can do to circumvent the place!

Bath stuff it awesome too, it's my favorite gift besides books, movies, and kitchen gadgets. It is a really nice treat for one's self to pick up some really great bath stuff, and indulge once in a while. Once a month, on Friday nights when my roomie's out, I splurge on an all-out self-treatment. I have a hot bath with splendrous salts or bubbles, then coat myself in a good lotion, give myself a facial, give my hair a henna rinse, and do a mini-manicure. It really feels good to take care of your body, even if you're not entirely satisfied with how it looks. After a good bath and some special treatments, I feel like a regular goddess!

Vixen, your trip out shopping today sounds like loads of fun. If I weren't living in an apartment, I'd love to paint and do things all up. I've always wanted a kitchen floor made entirely of shellaced and mounted bottle caps. Perhaps one day?!

I also enjoy grocery shopping, maybe because I love to cook and am quite good at it. Not much I'm good at, but cooking is a gift, and it is my major creative outlet... kind of like painting but with a knife and pan instead of brush and pallette!

Catch you guys later, have fun this weekend and lots of and s.

Hello Psychocandy and everyone else! First of all congratulations for being a ! The world needs more of those. I'm one too and proud to be!

Anyways I think your interest in and love of the English language is very praiseworthy. Like I said many times before, I think you handle the language really well and I always enjoy reading whatever you wrote! Even just a simple journal entry or a reply to somebody else's posting.

Vixen, that guy who burned your dictionary sure sounds disturbed!

When I go shopping I look either for books or for music. That's how I treat myself! It's something that I can use over and over again.

*bounces in*

Yeh the dictionary burning was kinda weird, he even took photos of it, to prove that he had done it....which he showed me as soon as I got outa the hospital, nice!!!! As for replacing it, I haven't got around to that yet....it was a rather a nice old Oxford Dictionary/Encyclopaedia. However the pard has an American Heritage Dictionary that ain't bad and I can find most things I want online.


Yeh - love decorating, the last house that I owned I made quite a fair bit of profit when I sold it, by the renovations and decorating that I did quite proud of that fact *puffs up*. Love that feeling of a job well done, and to sit down look around and admire your own handiwork. Shellaced and mounted bottlecaps - sounds interesting, keep me posted on that one!

Good morning, Vixen and Willem!

Thank so much (again!) for your compliments, Willem. It feels really good to have someone who uses the language so well and expresses himself so beautifully say that I do the same. It's always been important to me to be able to articulate well, and properly.

I'm proud to be a if it means I'm in such great company!

Vixen, I haven't told you yet, I've visted your artwork page and think you are a spectacularly talented artist!

ohhhh....thanks, for the compliment

I have just been asked by some uni students to help em with their artwork on a game they are designing... Should be interesting....

*s off to view Vixen's artwork*

That sounds like it would be very interesting, Vixen! Do let me know how it goes!

I'm thinking of working out some sort of web page of my own, uploading a few photos and such. I've promised to share Krispy's Valentine's painting he did for me, and some other stuff, as soon as my scanner's running again. I've also promised Kaz to share some photos of my flat and the neighborhood, perhaps I can get them all in one place where everyone who wants to can see them. That way I don't have to clog a whole lot of inboxes with photos!

I like the fotki site that I use, Azahar introduced it to me, and I think the format is very nice and quite quick downloading

Hi psychocandy, hows things today.

The pain still comes but I am learning to relax into it, yay! Hope you are relaxing and enjoying yourself. We have just been out to take photos in the park. As it was the spring equinox yesterday, we have to change the front page of the pagan website we run, it shall be daffodils for spring!

I too have looked at vixens artwork, it is very good indeed, well done!!

Yes, Vixen, I've now finished looking at your art and I enjoyed it a lot! In fact you inspired me to work harder at my own art.

Hi Kaz! I just got back from doing some grocery shopping, and have cleaned my bathroom, kitchen and floors a bit. I also tidied up the clothes- which means I grabbed the whole lot and stuffed them into the closet! But at least the place doesn't look such a mess now, so I feel better.

Glad to hear you're relaxing into and coping with the pain. I hope that all of the relaxing and yoga will alleviate it some more, and you'll be feeling right again soon.

I've never seen your web site, could you send me a link and let me have a look? I could use a good source of information to refer to, and it will feel good to know it comes from a trusted source.

Vixen's artwork is amazing. I've met so many talented artists here, Willem, Krispy, JEllen, and now Vixen. God, I wish I had some artistic talent besides in the kitchen. You can't eat a painting!

The agenda for the rest of the day is just chilling out and relaxing, my roommate's gone out so I can put on some music if I like, while I'm doing my laundry.

I'm getting ready to prepare a big batch of egg salad (egg mayonnaise to you British types) so I can bring sandwiches to work for lunch instead of wasting money eating out. I've also acquired a huge carton of instant Ramen cups, so I'm set there. I'm just trying to decide if I want a goat cheese and veggie pizza or shrimp bisque for my dinner this evening.

Had fun grocery shopping, though I pretty much only got the basics- eggs, cheese, half-and-half, yogurt, little cups of diced fruit, bananas (God, I love bananas!!), fresh spinach, oriental egg noodles, spaghetti, celery, a little tub of cole slaw, a tin of black beans, and some frozen mango chunks. Nothing terribly exciting, I've been much too tired and have too little free time to do much cooking lately.

I will endeavor to get a web page set up and upload those phots for everyone, I know that several of you really wanted to see Krispy's painting, a few of you asked to see my athame, and I might even bolster the courage to share a photo mf myself for those of you who haven't already seen one!

Kaz, thank you ...oooh daffys, haven't seen any around here, don't seem to be as prolific here in the US as they are in the UK, mebbe it's just my area. Wish you guys weren't so battered n' bruised by lifes trials.

Pillowcase - thank you too...can I see some of yours? Always nosy about other peoples artwork and pictures. I definately recomend the fotki site Pc - *ever so gentle nudges, hints* heeee!

Oh you cleaned stuff Pc...yays Betcha feel a whole lot better now! Yeh, I think you do paint in the kitchen Pc, just that you paint it onna plate and it gets eaten, the egg salad sounds wonderful ! Besides your also creative too, what was that you mentioned earlier about bottle caps and shellaced stuff...hmmm? Not sure what an athame will look it up inna mo....and no joy..whats one of those?

I did sod all in the traditional Sunday way of our family. Got off here, went n' got some movies, G-force got 'hunnie I shrunk the kids', Geo got 'The King is Alive' and I got 'Vanilla sky'. When we got back I made some slp j's and we all stuffed ourselves whilst watching G's movie, never seen it afore..cute...and then Geo mumbles something about zzz's and vanished...so that left me the sofa to G and so I clocked out for a while under the fluffy rug...ahhhh...!

And well, thats about it.... hope everyone is well

An athame is a double-edges dagger, got mine custom made just 'cause I thought it was pretty, and really cool. I collect all kinds of odd bits, anything weird or tacky or pretty or shiny-shiny... you know the stuff I mean.

I think I will look into the fotki site, since you've recommended it, and see if I think I'm up to the challenge. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to really technical computer stuff.

Sounds like you had a wonderful afternoon, Vixen! I love having a nice cozy nap on a Sunday afternoon, but won't allow it lately because it's my only day off and I want to *do* stuff. I do feel better now the place is a bit tidier, wish I had a cleaning lady or something, but that's well out of my budget.

I've seen "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and "Vanilla Sky", haven't seen the other. This afternoon I've watched Spongebob Squarepants and had a bath. Haven't put a movie in yet, I'm not sure what I'm in the "mood" for, y'know? It's a fairly regular dilemma, I've got so many films that by the time I've browsed them all for one to watch, I haven't got the time left to watch it.

Daffodils are beautiful, it's not warm enough for them just yet, but it should be soon, and they'll be all over. The city plants them here and there, and around the area I live in, we have those wide medians on the streets which separate eastbound and westbound traffic... there will be lots of daffodils blooming on those any day now! I've got some wildflower seeds I've love to plant, perhaps the landlord will let me plant them in the back yard along the garage.

Went for the goat cheese pizza for dinner, incidentally, it also had kefalateri cheese and kalamata olives, it was pretty good. I had a couple fingers of Grand Marnier for dessert, as well.

So, I shall be off to bed shortly, then it's back to the old five-thirty to five-thirty (ish) for another week. I really do think I might take next Saturday off and have not one but TWO whole days all to myself. It would be so nice!

Was naughty again this evening, and ordered used copies of that book "The Professor and The Madman", and a video of Casablanca. I agree with Willem, I sure do enjoy getting new books, and movies, and music. I've got a few new CDs lately, new to me anyway... I've been playing the hell out of the Ravi Shankar at night for weeks. I'd read in bed tonight, but I'm pretty sleepy, and don't want to get *too* into anything, sometimes I grab a book to read in bed and wind up staying up all night to finish it.

Well, it's off to bed for me, for now. Take care, y'all, look forward to seeing you when I can during the upcoming week. I'll see you on the flip side!

Yes, cleaning ladies, I want one, to perminately follow the G and Geo around...

Yes, nice chilled Sunday afternoon....'The King is Alive' I liked it, it was about this bus load of people on holiday that ended up of course, in the desert at a lil deserted village where this one old fella lived. They struggled to cope with each other and they started doing this Shakespeare play for something to do (King Lear) and they all got a lil bit consumed by it. They also had to live off these disgusting tinned carrots .....it was a good movie, but not earth shattering. One of those movies that makes you think of untoward situations and what would you do and how you would react to a situ like that. Interesting stuff, makes a change from the usual gore that Geo likes to get! We shall prolly watch Vanilla tonite.

As for Humphrey Bogart films, Geo loves em, and so do I. We have quite a few of em, owing to my buying them for pressies for occasions...hehehe - I like pressies that benefit me as well *chuckles*..we've got -

Casablanca
The Maltese Falcon - my fave
Call it Murder
Beat the Devil

Well anyway, hope you slept well, nice day at work n' all that...

~waves~

Hi again! Didn't make it on at all yesterday, but I've got a little time before bed. I'm just having a glass of wine and a smoke, and listening to my little fountain bubble away. Found another cool house plant on my way home today, called a "Bromeliad", with big green leaves and a big red spiky flower. Made my whole day!

Glad you had such a nice relaxing Sunday, I love those! You know, for such a big time film collector, I haven't got any Bogie films in my stash, except for Casablanca, now. I liked the Maltese Falcon quite a bit, haven't seen the other two you mentioned as of yet. I'll have to grab them at Blockbuster one of these days and check those out, too... thanks for the suggestion!

Had kind of a sore day yesterday- knees and neck were aching and all that crap. Doing great today though, if a bit tired. How's things out on the East Coast? What's the weather doing out there? Yesterday was freezing here, then today it was around 60. gotta love Chicago!

See you soon!