(in the dark) the shine of small things

-> I'm just gonna confess this one thing, and then we're not gonna talk about it, okay? Okay. Whenever I'm in my car, and that Public Affair song comes on? I totally blast that shit. Yeah. Also, I own that Jessica Simpson cd that had Irresistible on it. And my favorite song on the album wasn't even one of the singles (**coughs** Hot Like Fire **coughs** And yes, I have the opening dialogue memorized). I know. I know. 20 laps. In my defense, I still don't like anything by those Pussycat Dolls people. Hope for me yet?

-> Yesterday, I got my lab order in of The Pool of Tears, Tweedledum, and Mouse's Long & Sad Tale. Today, I got my click and ship notice for that order, lol. Happily, I was able to unload the 5mls of PoT and Tweedledum right away (of course, the day after I placed my order, I got an offer for imps of all three scents, so I'd already tried them and known they weren't keepers by the time my order got here); I shipped those out this morning. Hopefully ML&ST is soon to follow. All the frimps were oils I'd tried, too. But I got a new postcard! Sunnyside ^_~ And there's always my Hungry Ghost Moon order to look forward to.

-> I'm really proud of me; I got on the phone and called some people I hadn't spoken to in months. Well, actually, 'proud' is the wrong word. Because both of them had left me messages over a month or so ago. But I was glad I finally got around to doing it? I hate talking on the phone.

-> LOL, so much for that potentially stellar pitching matchup in Florida tonight. Pettitte showed up, but oh, Josh. He gave up 4 earned in 5 innings, to balloon his era to a completely shameful 2.48. Go to your room, and think about what you've done. It's like 243-0 now, because the bullpen came in and decided to be all "oh, what the hell, runs for EVERYONE!" Don't forget to tip your hostess, Houston. Series split tomorrow? Hope springs eternal. Oh, btw, heads up [Bad username or site: acroarcs / @ livejournal.com]! Marlins' Johnson to chat Tuesday @ 2pm on MLB.com. And this is welcome news: Backe nears return.

-> On the plus side, the A's FINALLY set out their pitching probables for the Baltimore series. Rookie v. Rookie on Monday night, and maybe, maaaaaybe Adam Loewen gets his first freakin' win already? Or maybe the Orioles lose 1-0. Tuesday, Loaiza v. Russ Ortiz and Wednesday, it's Zito v. Benson. Whoo.

And the Cubs won! Yay. I'm thinking, kinda, maybe, sorta, probably not gonna happen, about going to see the Cubs when they come to RFK next weekend. Maybe. I dunno. Damn you, [Bad username or site: lovingthecubs / @ livejournal.com], and [Bad username or site: owllover711 / @ livejournal.com]. I'm all stocked up on heartbreakers and soulcrushers!

-> It warmed my dorky little heart to see Mike Jacobs (far left) has helped lead the Marlins out of obscurity in the NL East captioning a photo in a story about the Marlins playing better than most people expected. Yay, Jake.

Also, [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com] sent me a sketch! The focus is on Dan and Jake at the railing, inspired by the fact that they are dugout railing buddies, but there's an appearance by Hermida (who cracks me up), and Joe, and a shoutout to the dugout dancers. ♥

+ [Bad username or site: alazysod / @ livejournal.com] said When you see this, post a quote from Supernatural in your Livejournal. So, in the spirit of me getting back into this show (at some point) a quote from the last ep I actually watched on television...

The young dame in distress o' the week: "I don't understand. They're gonna kill us?"
Dean: "They're gonna sacrifice us. Which is... I don't know, classier, I guess."

Sam also had a line that made me laugh from that ep, when the demon chick hitches a ride: "Oh, you're gonna trust shady van guy and not me?"

+ ( baseball )

+ Watched the pilot of Life on Mars and the first three eps of Veronica Mars. I was a little put off by the voice over action on VM at first, but I've gotten used to it. It took me about 30 minutes, but I eventually stopped seeing the damaged Flora from Deadwood and started seeing Bell as Veronica. I like the show so far, I think I'm fairly unspoiled beyond the fact that at some point Logan and Veronica hook up. Or at least that's what the multitude of iconage out there would lead me to believe.

I was mostly underwhelmed by LoM, which was a bit cop show-meets-Quantum Leap. I didn't dislike it, but after the enthusiasm I'd seen for it on my f-list, I was a little disappointed not to feel especially grabbed by any of the characters, or the premise. It had an eight episode first season, so I'll give it another ep to see if we click.

+ ( general, non-spoilery reaction to The Da Vinci Code, or long story short: Meh. )

Btw, as a warning to those of you avoiding 9/11 movies: the very first trailer we got before TDVC was World Trade Center. Followed up by Pixar's Cars, which I thought was a little...inappropriate, but okay.

eta: I have no willpower. I sold off some of my unwanted bottles, and instead of saving the money...I ordered bottles of the new MTP scents I haven't been able to get imps of: Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, Tweedledum, and The Pool of Tears. Now watch them show up all over the place in the next couple of weeks.

+ Off to PA in a little while ^_^ Spending tonight at my brother's place and then gonna be in Philly for the Mets/Phillies game tomorrow with [Bad username or site: phantom_hpuff / @ livejournal.com]. Should we chance upon the pride of Chesapeake Virginia, I will endeavor to keep her from explaining to him how she's a better David Wright than he is ^_~ And after reading this, I'm excited to just check out the ballpark, almost as much as anything else.

+ When did Mapquest get rid of the "reverse these directions" feature?

+ I got a windfall of bpal in the mail yesterday! I've been mostly swapping my extra impage, but I was bad and did buy two bottles (Enraged Bunny Musk and Obatala). New to me: Swank, Eutrepe, Dance of Death, La Fee Verte, Ozymandias, Fruminous Bandersnatch, Black Phoenix, Black Opal, Rosalind, Shroud, Ophelia, Wings of Azrael, Chango, Yemaya, The City in the Sea, Peony Moon, Oberon, Sheol, and Dance of Death. So far I've only tried two - EBM¹ is very true to its description, a powdery light summer scent and I'm guessing that floral note is the clover. Some of the forum reviews mention a lemony sweetness, but I didn't pick up any lemon note in this at all. I like it, but I'm thinking of layering it with Santo Domingo or Dublin, to see if I can give it a little bite. The other oil I tried was Fruminous Bandersnatch² and Holy Hannah, this made me sneeze like crazy. I don't normally tend to allergies at all, but this time of the year in particular, something about Williamsburg drives my system nuts. I think my nose must still have been a little sensitive to that, because I put a dab of this on my wrist, raised it to sniff and just started sneezing for about 3 minutes. Heh.

+ I need to have breakfast...and watch Prison Break again. I was watching it last night and my mom decided the moment things were getting dicey was the perfect time to approach me about buying some facial cream online for my cousin, since her husband was unwilling to let her charge something on the credit card over the internet. What the hell. My show is on, ma! And then I came back and my dad was all "So and so didn't make it and so and so almost didn't make it but then such and such happened" and I'm like...what? you don't even watch the show, for one. And for two, I WAS TAPING IT DAD, STOP SPOILING ME.

Parents. How embarrassing.

( beisbol )

1. Extracted directly from the twitching nether-regions of the wild Eastertime bunny rabbit: a snarling, slavering, buck-toothed, fluffy, floppy-eared, horny-as-hell Springtime beast. Soft cotton blossom, white musk, baby's breath, clover and pale powder notes.
2. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!" Bandersnatch musk, redolent of spicy carnations, wild plums and chrysanthemum.

+ [Bad username or site: natural_center / @ livejournal.com], have you dl'd any of the Firefly dvd extras? I was poking about my hard drive, and I still have most of them. I could upload them to Sendspace if you're interested - just lemme know.

+ My mom called me at 7:44 this morning. She wanted to know how I was doing and if I had enough money in the bank for food and gas. She called me yesterday at 7:00 to ask me the same thing. She wrote me a check for a hundred dollars at the beginning of the semester that is still taped to my tv. I don't know why she thinks that if I needed money I wouldn't ask her in a heartbeat. I mean, yes, I joke about being broke but I mean that with respect to spending money on stuff I don't really need. Calm down, Mama. Please.

On the other hand, I meant to wake up around 6:00 am and get back to working on my appeal, so I suppose it's good she called.

+ I haven't talked about BPAL in a while. I've kind of gotten away from it what with the being broke thing, and since it seems to me that unwanted stuff is much harder to unload now, I didn't want the temptation of buying bottles of stuff I'd be stuck with if I didn't like 'em. That said, I was bad and got bottles of Smut¹, Red Lantern² and Budding Moon³ last week, and I really like all three. I can't remember the last time that happened! Well, Red Lantern and Budding Moon I really like. Smut I like but it smells enough like The Cracked Bell⁴ to me that I'll probably swap it or sell it. I had to try Red Lantern because one of the girls recommended it to anyone with a thing for red velvet cake. There's definitely something to that :-P Budding Moon I like because it's a really "freshening" scent for me, along the lines of Shanghai⁵. I was a little worried when some of the reviews talked about how strong the lotus note is, because I'm not much of a floral person really. But it's light enough on me, and so refreshing, that I'm swapping for an extra bottle.

+ I saw 'Garth Brooks plans a comeback' and I was all excited. And then they were like "when his kids go to college." IN TEN YEARS. Boo! Rubbish! Filth! Slime! Muck! Boo taking off time to be with your children and get married! SING FOR ME, DAMN IT. Also, I haven't forgotten about that duets album you and Trisha owe me.

+ I've been feeling lately like I'd love to get into The X-Files all over again. I blame [Bad username or site: foxestacado / @ livejournal.com] and her mission to icon every single episode. But it's been long enough since I've seen many eps of the show that I think it would almost be like getting into a new fandom. Maybe this summer.

( Scent descriptions, for the curious )

+ I feel ghastly. Which is a step up from like death on a triscuit. My stomach's been all over the place since the chili I had for lunch earlier today. The place across the street from the office came recommended by the people I work with, but yeah, no thanks. I should have considered myself forewarned when I saw that there was corn in it. I hate when places don't expressly identify their chili as vegetarian chili on the signage. Because they throw all kinds of randomness in there when it's just supposed to be, you know, CHILI.

Anyway, to TMI you, I had a little involuntary purge action earlier, which was not fun for me, because I don't really like things triggering my gag reflex¹. Needless to say, I didn't go home. Came back to my dorm and died a little death.

+ From the 'Other Reasons To Hate Richmond' Files: according to the Dunkin Donuts website, there isn't a single DD franchise in the metropolitan area of Richmond. Not. A. Single. One. Also, one of the state delegates apparently 'accidentally fired' a gun in his office while he was trying to unload it the other day. Yeeeeeeeeup. 'Accidentally fired' it right into a kevlar vest that was hanging in his office, or something. At least, that was the watercooler talk at work. Dumbass.

Good thing About Richmond: a nice woman did give me change for a dollar today when I couldn't get my bill to fit into the stupid honorbox payment slot in the parking lot. Yay for nice people with change.

+ MOVING ON. [Bad username or site: kmousie / @ livejournal.com]: [Bad username or site: starfishchick / @ livejournal.com] links to some stuff on Aaron's new show (here).

+ ( Happy belated, Lewis Carroll! )

Oh, and I suppose I'll consider Beck's hooker!AU something of a dark RHD tribute, since I haven't read it yet.

+ I may, may, have a swap in the works for a full bottle of Egg Nog. Which would be completely awesome, as Egg Nog is one of those rare bpals I still adore months and months and months later. The swap would be for one of my backup bottles of Dia De Los Muertos '04, which is fine by me ^_^ **knocks on wood**

+ ( Note to me: shows I need to catch up on. Including Smallville apparently, because WTF. )

+ I miss Prison Break :( Does anyone know if we've been given the date in March that it's supposed to return?

+ **not-so-patiently waits on [Bad username or site: panicqueen / @ livejournal.com] to update her WIP**

1. "There goes your social life." - Dionne.
2. She'd gotten her wisdom teeth out a few days earlier and was on painkillers. And I still made her tell me a story ^_~

+ I just checked the Yule update - there's no Eggnog 2005. **sniffs** I should be glad, I'm certainly broke enough. When I made my first pass through, I only wrote down three oils I wanted to try though I had set enough aside for 5 bottles. Passing on Beaver Moon, so the short list right now is Herr Drosselmeyer, Nuclear Winter, Snow Bunny and maaaybe Gingerbread Poppet 2005. And I see OriginalWacky has set up a decant circle just for the new yules! Perhaps I should do that, and if I like anything well enough, there'd be plenty of time to order full bottles. Hmmm. (Anyone had experience with the forum decant circles?) (Actually, [Bad username or site: justlayentwined / @ livejournal.com] has a pick your poison decanting circle set up, and I like that option better. Whoo!)

Btw, if you have bottles from the Poe collection coming (besides The Haunted Place, Alone, and Annabel Lee) soonish and you're interested in swapping for a decant of Lenore, lemme know?

+ The ChiSox are a win away from the Series. This is of the good. (She says, as [Bad username or site: offspeed / @ livejournal.com] bites her tongue). That business with Rogah's mother saying the name Shoeless Joe Jackson three times on the day she died is so weird, yo. The Astros are also up, and hell, suddenly the Cards are looking like the underdog in this fight. Guys dropping like flies out there. I guess I'll root for the Cards today, because I'd like one long LCS :-P

( I love this picture )

What can I say? They were my first sports OTP. Back when Alex was still shiny, and a Mariner, and I actually owned a poster of him, and Jeter annoyed me, except when he and Alex were goofing around, in photoshoots or, you know, while their respective teams were brawling. They were my baseball Matt and Ben. And then Alex went and ruined everything. As is his way. I still get sentimental about them from time to time though, I can't help it. Sometimes I even have the decency to feel guilty about it ^_~

In other news, man alive, Ramadan has totally snuck up on me. I thought it wasn't until the end of this week. Just a head's up to the writers on my flist - I try to be a somewhat decent Muslim during the holy month and not read anything explicit, so you won't get comments from me on anything rated higher than PG. You're supposed to abstain from sex during the holy month, and I extend it to reading about sex :-P Go ahead, laugh :-P

Moose v. Colon tomorrow...I honestly don't know what he's gonna have. Thankfully though, it's a decent 8pm start, which is more than I can say for those afternoon games, and alternately, that ridiculous 10pm start for game 2 of the NYY/LAA series.

Btw, I'm wearing Hamadryad¹ today, and I adore it. It's got this spiced apple cider tint to it that makes it just perfect for at least pretending it's autumn. It's a nice change of pace from Jack, which I don't want to wear all the time lest I bore myself with it.

1.Nature spirits and protectors of the world's groves and forests that appear as breathtakingly beautiful women. Hamadryads are born into a tree that serves as both a home and an anchor for the creature's soul. They are sometimes tricksters, sometimes seducers, sometimes helpful and benign, but they are always fierce and furious protectors of the natural world. Seven dry woods with mossy lichen and a gentle breeze of forest flowers.

Updated 01.21.06
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