And oh yes, belated thanks!

It’s now a week after the fact, but I must give some public thanks to everybody who wished me such nice birthday wishes last weekend–whether on LJ, DW, Facebook, face-to-face, or what. In particular:

  • Thank you, userinfojennygriffee, for the lovely card!
  • Props to userinfotechnoshaman for getting me a signed copy of this, and a card as well!
  • Big smiles over to userinfojanne who actually hand-made me a book cover, with a suspiciously familiar face cross-stitched onto the front. How sweet was this? Handmade gift, people! <3
  • userinfomamishka knows me very, very, VERY well and sent me this awesome Han Solo shirt.
  • Extra big smiles to my beloved userinfosolarbird for the new instrument rack where the General, Rags, and my bouzouki Spring are all now residing! There’s room on it for my octave mandolin Autumn as well, although Autumn’s getting more play time at Dara’s hands these days.

This Guy Looks Familiar
This Guy Looks Familiar

My birthday technically isn’t even over yet, as userinfospazzkat‘s present is still pending! It’s been late showing up on the mail, although he informs me that he has been charged for it, so hopefully Whatever It Is will show up soon. I have my suspicions, and am dying to see if I am correct.

Thanks much to you all! I feel loved. <3

There is not enough squee in the world for this!

Russell Crowe, joy of my movie watching and delight to my musical ears, announced on Twitter yesterday and to his fan site of choice that there are plans afoot to take the current incarnation of TOFOG (The Ordinary Fear of God) on tour next year! They’d been hoping to do August of this year as that’s ten years after TOFOG 1 (30 Odd Foot of Grunts) played in Austin–but that ain’t happening. They appear to be eying next May for a target range of dates, though–and best of all, Russell’s saying they will be bringing Alan. AND that Portland is among the cities in the US they’re eying.

My reaction to passing The Crowe on the streets of Portland in 2001 is fabled in song, story, and LJ post! (userinfoflashfire, userinfossha, userinfomamishka, and userinfokathrynt all still do give me periodic shit about it, too! ;) ) Given that, and given how I could barely manage to talk to The Doyle the couple of times I’ve encountered him, I’m figuring the chances of my brain exploding before the concert even starts are very, very high. Hell, the sheer thought of Alan and Russell on the same stage where I can actually see them perform may make my brain explode RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT.

Because if this happens, my children, I am going to this. Oh yes, I am going. And there will be massive, massive squee. Better brace yourselves now.

The Surprise could be sailing again!

So there have been rumors about Russell Crowe doing another Master and Commander movie for a while, but apparently there are now slightly heftier rumors! According to this AP wire article, there is an actual script for The Reverse of the Medal, and there are early-stage talks going on with the rights holder for the novels to see if it can happen.

To which I must say YES PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE. Because I definitely need me some more Jack Aubrey in my life.

Quiet weekend

What with userinfosolarbird being out of town this weekend, I’ve taken it upon myself to have some quiet me time, which I really rather needed. Just getting caught up on my sleep is a win. But so is doing various and sundry small chores and errands that needed doing, such as getting the checkbook caught up, buying reflective red tape to go over the broken lens on our right rear taillight*, picking up some more long and therefore work-appropriate shorts to wear to work as well as some badly needed sports bras, and washing clothes and sheets and towels.

Friday night we had all the Bothell crowd as well as userinfojennygriffee come over for more tabletop gaming, and while that was quite hectic, it was also fun. I continue to be full of Win for little Moira and Lillian, and this time around I also got little William’s attention; the boy thought it was great fun to try to help me play my guitar. He’s shyer than the girls and doesn’t talk nearly as much, so it was pretty neat to see him perk up.

Lily and Moira love going up our stairs and peeking in my bedroom because I have a big bed they can bounce on, and also, we have a cache of stuffed animals in there. But they also love making me (as well as any other convenient grownups) chase them in circles around the main floor of the house. Lily in particular commanded me to “be a dinosaur!”, so I apparently need to get right to work on my T-rex impersonation. ;) Meanwhile, Moira wanted to further investigate our DVD collection, and when she spotted the pink boxes that contain our Cardcaptor Sakura anime episodes, I went ahead and let her watch that figuring that it wouldn’t be too scary for her or Lily. userinfokathrynt tells me that Lily in fact is experimenting with being scared, and likes to identify things as “scary”.

This led to one of the cutest things I’ve heard coming out of a two-year-old mouth lately: “scary toilet paper lady” to describe the antagonist character in the movie I showed them. Hee.

And, Moira insisted that I “protect” her while she was watching the movie, and sat in my lap. Aw. <3 It should also be noted that Lily furthermore kept asking me for "Donkey Riding", and when she spotted the background pic of Great Big Sea on my computer, pointed at it and said "that's a picture of Donkey Riding!" She's still a little shaky on which name goes with the band and which name goes with the song, but she clearly now knows the faces of Great Big Sea when she sees them. Mostly. She also thought Eddie Izzard on my T-shirt was Sean, I think. I put her straight! Yesterday morning Q then IMed me to tell me that Lily told her "we put on shoes and go over to my Anna's house!" I am apparently now Lillian's Anna! Who knew? Unrelatedly, last night while working on checkbook balancing, I re-watched TOS's "Doomsday Machine" episode (some awesome mileage of The Kirk), Master and Commander (which I think is now well and solidly my favorite Russell Crowe movie Ever), and another 4th season episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (which is still bringing the wacky).

* Why the hell can’t I buy just a replacement lens for that taillight, anyway? The light itself is intact, it’s just the outer lower bit of the lens that’s broken. But according to the guys at Schuck’s the assembly is all they have, and they wanted $130 for it. I bought a $5 roll of reflective red headlight repair tape instead and used that. Which should do me for now and hopefully satisfy the next cop that tries to pull me over for having a broken taillight.