Woe. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures of our Halloween party. If anyone else took some pics, I'd love to see them (and possibly post them on facebook). thiswakingdream, I know you took some, but I don't know if they were digital.

Also, the Governor is talking about closing down the State House Library. This is seriously a really bad idea. How are people going to access legislative materials (historical and current)? Massachusetts is already beyond screwed up with its lack of transparency and acts that never get codified but are still good law, not having access to an organized depository of this information would make legal research in Mass. even more of a nightmare.

Edited to add: So the State Library website is kind of lame, but I want to point out how amazingly awesome the Mass. Trial Court Law Libraries' website is. Free document delivery?! I've already been using the hell out of their free HeinOnline, and that is icing on the cake. They also have free Lexis/Westlaw, but only in the libraries. Still, there are some amazing library resources available, and it makes me sad that so many people don't know about them. You can also get access to the Boston Public Library's databases online by doing a 2 second online registration.

Oh my god. Cooking, cleaning, decorating, ahhhhh! I may run out of eggs. I am attempting to make breadsticks from scratch, with yeast. Things are getting crazy. Halloween in Salem is a responsibility!

This book ("Soulless," by Gail Carriger) looks like it might hit a good reading nerve for lots of my friends. Described by the author's agent as "if Jane Austen were to write a Victorian Steampunk fantasy, this vampire/werewolf comedy of manners...". It lost me at steampunk, which I just personally abhor, but it otherwise sounds like a delightful romp.

Also, I caved and bought myself a Snuggie at Costco this weekend, after jealously watching how comfortable Drew is in his. And my god, is it comfortable. I feel like a sad American stereotype in my blanket with arms, but it is like being wrapped in a soft cloud of comfort. Perfect for watching dvds of some dude on PBS travel to Europe and stay in fancy hotels. How can I get that job?

Ugh. Home sick, feeling very pathetic.

So Rolling Stone has been running some really phenomenal journalism these days, care of Matt Taibbi. His latest article is great (well, great work, depressing to read through it and realize how totally screwed we are because our government is just completely beholden to corporations).

Huh. Lewiston, Maine features prominently on this week's This American Life. Oh, L-town, it's so endearing that you can be a poster child for what's wrong with health care in America.

And oh hey, we had a 3 day weekend. Which was busy. Friday night we had a visit with A-Dot. Saturday I went to a lovely bridal shower, and got back just in time for our next-door neighbors' annual neighborhood party. I was pretty nervous about it, because I don't do super well in crowds full of new people, but being the new kids on the block (you see what I did there?!), we had built-in conversation talking about our house and all the crap we've had to do with it. I was surprised by how our-age-ish our neighborhood actually is. Lots of couples with little kids. So it went much better than I'd worried about, and we chatted it up with a bunch of people. It's nice to know who your neighbors are, and makes our little area feel more homey. Sunday we went to a bbq at starflow and cosmicserpent's place- always delightful! Yesterday I spent most of my day being hassled (where the hell am I living that I can't find chipotle peppers in adobo sauces at any Stop & Shops?) (also: planting tulips is hard work!), but was de-hasslefied for a short beer break. Yay, beer! Also, we ventured into an Irish bar in Salem that I'd never been in before, and it was quite enjoyable. So yay, new bar discovery!

We went to an amazingly fun wedding in Maine this weekend. Consequently, I lost my entire Sunday to the throes of a mighty Boones Farm hangover. I seriously need to get a better internal "you are done drinking now" monitor. But the wedding was a blast- you can't go wrong with beer, bbq, good friends, a red bus with a busdriver who let us drink on board, and a dj that complied with my excited request for Everything I Do (I Do It For You). Good times.

On Friday last week our local bank handed out free cider and donuts at the commuter rail station. I really love living in Salem. There was a parade last Thursday to kick off October, and we caught most of it from the comfort of the Lobster Shanty, where we have now attained regular status. I am going to be happy about being a regular without giving too much thought to the shambley state of most of the other regulars.

Finally, I give props to cosmicserpent for recommending The Bugle, because this podcast is a fine way to spend half a commute.

There is a word I am trying to think of, and it's driving me crazy that I can't remember it. It's right on the tip of my tongue, and it's a word I use often enough that my inability to come up with it is giving me a serious case of the Mondays. If you can think of a word that starts with "p" and means something to the effect that information in a book (or website) can only be found there because it is information created by that publisher or author (think something like expensive Standard & Poors analyst reports and stuff like that)... I will give you a cookie.

In other news, we had a weekend, and it feels like it went by way too quickly. Friday night we went to Christopher's for a Metafilter meet-up. It was a huge group and the space was really cramped, but it was good people, good conversations, and lots of fun. Saturday we went up to Portland (The Lost Bear Bar, I think, which has a great beer selection) for a second meetup, which was also a ton of fun. I really like meeting new people. Yesterday turned out to be a gorgeous day to do some walking for incandes_flower's work with the arthritis foundation.

This week's goal: get srzs bizness about writing. I do not want to get to NaNo time and be exactly where I am right now. Theoretically, if I can get enough of current story done before then, I can try to open up a whole new project for NaNo. But I have to get this story out of my head first. Of course, distracting me from this goal is shiny new television that's starting up now. Though I think only Thursday nights are really affected by this, as I have a full 2 hour block of brain cell killing tv to watch on Thursdays. And really, only one hour of it will actively kill brain cells (Vampire Diaries, I am looking at you). Yes, I will be watching Joel McHale on Community.

No offense to Teddy Kennedy, I got a bit verklempt upon hearing the news and our country has for sure lost a powerful senator, but damn am I not looking forward to my 20 minute trudge through the throngs of people lined up for the procession. From the waterfront to North Station... there is no way to avoid it. Blerg.

So our Home Depot project is, as far as we know right now, actually completed! We have a roof that we hope won’t leak, new siding on half the house that is not melted from car flames, and new gutters. Yays!

Of course, our joy at this development was tempered last night when, as we were enjoying the Daily Show and eating dinner, a frickin’ mouse scurried across our living room floor. OMG.

He’s kind of cute and wee, but we really don’t need a gross mouse messing with the bunnies (who look huge by comparison, even Beef Wellington looks like a giant compared to the mouse). So we went off to Home Depot to pick up a no-kill trap that I really hope works soon.

Also the front brakes on our car need a major repair. Can we please have just one week of no worries? Just one?

On the plus side, I'm loving the new gym in the morning habit. All I'm sacrificing is my puttering around on the internet time in the morning, and I get to make it home at a much more reasonable time. Today I might even have time to stop at Borders before heading home, with a stop at the Salem Farmers Market on the way.

Huh. So This American Life (most recent podcast episode- "Fine Print"), blew my mind this morning.

All these years I'd thought that Van Halen's "no brown M&Ms" demand in their show riders was a possibly untrue example of crazy band diva demands. Not so! It actually is true that this demand was in their rider, but it was there simply so they could gauge how well the concert promoters at each venue read their contract. Apparently VH was one of the first bands to do super big productions on tour, and to tour smaller venues with their big shows. As such, they had huge, complicated contracts for every show, with lots of technical details about electricity and weight capacities and whatnot. So they put the M&M clause in the middle of the contract, and when they got to the venue for a show, if they saw any brown M&Ms in the green room, they knew they'd better double check everything before the show, because there was a good chance something could go seriously wrong.

Interesting!

The rest of the episode contained an extremely depressing story about how horrific the state of health insurance in our country is.

Also, Drew got us tickets to see a live show of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"'s musical episode!! Awesomecakes.

Oh my god, this is so me.

Also, thanks to incandes_flower for burning onto a cd a mixtape I made for her in 2001. It is quite possibly the best mix I ever made. And now I remember how good Magnapop was.

Oh, and also, there may be hope yet for some of us with soul-crushing student loan burdens. I'm sketchy on the details, but it looks fairly promising.

Is it just me, or does it feel like summer hasn't really started yet?

I need a new summery music album to usher in the season.

So last weekend Mr. & Mrs. thiswakingdream hosted an awesome murder mystery party. I am the worst actress and improviser ever, but I do love an excuse to wear a fancy dress and a wig. Fun times! I also take back most of my recent spate of Maine mocking, Maine is quite pretty when it's not raining.

Also, I can't believe my birthday is in less than a week. I will try to not whine about it too much. I'm a little disappointed because the one thing I really wanted to do for my birthday is not feasible due to the stupid Red Sox having a home game. Maybe later this summer I can drag people to Jake Ivories to get drunk and sing.

How are you all?

Huh. I just walked by Matt Lauer filming part of the Today show in front of Faneuil Hall.

Robert Reich has called it: We’re in a depression. At this point, I honestly don’t know how the economy is going to right itself. How bad does it have to get before the government stops handing money over to companies and just starts making up jobs for people?

Meanwhile, there’s an interesting piece over at the New Yorker on potential international torture charges for some of the Bushies.

OMG. OMG. TAPS will be filming for Ghost Hunters in Davis tonight!


I so totally want to meet the TAPS guys.

I love Boston. Standing in a crowd of pedestrians waiting to cross a street this morning, everyone staring at a snarl of traffic caused by someone who apparently forgot how to drive, a couple of dudes start to laugh and one says "what an asshole." The crowd appears to agree.

Happy new year everyone! It's been a while since I've updated, let's see... we did Christmas in Maryland, which involved a super awesome ghost tour of Annapolis. Ghost tours are the best! Saw Joel McHale on New Years Eve, then made it to a very fun party afterwards. The rest of this weekend so far has been extremely lazy, which is a good thing. I'm pushing through my first edit of my crap NaNo story, and incubating an idea for a new story which will hopefully not suck as bad. Drew got me a thingy that will plug into the computer and convert my old tapes and minidiscs to digital, so that will be a project that will take me a while to get through. Grendel is acting very weird, she wasn't eating for a good portion of the day yesterday, but is nibbling a bit today, though not with her usual gusto. She is being a sullen bunny.

2008 was... weird. But it did involve the best vacation ever, and successes in my hobbies, so hey, that's something. Here's to 2009!

This blog makes me long for England. Shut up, I love British food. I want to go back!

Also, Stella is coming to Boston Dec. 11. Michael Ian Black! David Wain! That other guy! We have our tickets already.

Also, I am over 35K words on my NaNo story. Productivity! I suppose if I get to the end of my story and need to pad to get up to 50K I can always add more make-out scenes. Make-out scenes!

If you weren't aware, I am way, way too excited to see Twilight on Saturday. Sparkly vampires!

Finally, last night we were discussing the infinity of space and it blew my freakin' mind.

Ok, so I'm reading yet another trashy teen sci-fi novel series: City of Bone and City of Ashes. And things were going swimmingly for about 3/4 of the first book, it was fluffy and entertaining, I cared about the characters, the love story was getting hot. And then ( spoilers, not that any of you will ever read these books )

Anyway, today I was wishing I had my contraband fork that was confiscated at Heathrow. The teeny tiny forks that come in those pre-made salads you can get at the grocery are not good salad eating forks. And I was too lazy to get up and go all the way to my work kitchen to get a regular fork, but if contraband fork had been in my bag, I would have been all set. How sad is it that I was too lazy to get a better fork? It's been a long day already.

John Hodgman last night was totally awesome. As a bonus nerd treat, we also got to hear Jonathan Coulton sing some songs. After the reading we stood in line for a very long time to get our books signed, but it was worth it. Had a brief conversation with Mr. Hodgman and got my book personalized. Now I have to actually take care of it, which means I can't lug it around in my bag where it will be prone to tears, water damage, and general destruction.

And the answer to my question of "what is the next awesome thing" is answered handily in the new book: mole men. I can get behind that.

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. I will be productive in November!

Also, anyone in the Boston area in need of a last minute trip to the Garment District on Saturday? My costume... is not coming along so well. I may be ditching my original idea and moving on to something else.

Drew introduced me to the best comic books ever this weekend. Seriously, the best ever. They are called Scott Pilgrim, and they are about an emo-ish guy in Canada who has girl problems, often wears Smashing Pumpkins t-shirts, and has awesome kung fu fights sometimes. It is amazing. And soon to be a motion picture starring Michael Cera.

Speaking of Smashing Pumpkins, I spent waaaaaay too much money this weekend on tickets to one of their shows here in November. I am crossing my fingers that they might play Starla!

So, there are some things that used to be awesome but are now too overplayed to be awesome anymore. These things include: pirates, monkeys, robots, ninjas, zombies, and hobos (hobos' popularity and subsequent overplayedness both due to John Hodgman). What, I ask you, is going to be the next awesome thing?

Had a super fun weekend involving a birthday party, a Rock Band 2 party, and a visit to an adorable new baby.

For those of you talking about going to NH to canvass for Obama: I am interested in doing so, but I feel weird doing it by myself. Is anyone organizing a group of some kind, or anyone going up and want an extra person tagging along with them?

Also, I really want to go hiking soon while the weather is nice and autumnal. Perhaps after we get back from NYC we can arrange something!

This panda is the cutest thing ever. So cute!

Tonight: early showing of the X-Files movie (5:30, Boston Common). If anyone is up for some later in the night Friday night stuff, we would likely be up for some socializing post-movie.

I can't believe the summer is over half over- I feel like I've barely done anything summery!

Also, the Athenaeum has a neat exhibit going on now, and I really want to find time to head over there to check it out.

Assassins, Sondheim's musical about presidential assassinations, is playing in Boston this summer!! link. We must go.

I have two awesome tidbits from Metafilter to share.

First: An Arrested Development movie is in the works! Seriously!

Also, my inability to google up good results led me to inquire as to the presence of good bar patios in Boston. I can't believe June is almost over, we need to get on the stick about some summertime drinking outside! And I'm not talking crappy tables on the sidewalk.

Watching Barbara Ehrenreich on The Colbert Report earlier this week led to finding her blog, which is kind of interesting. While I agree with her sentiments that the disparity between the filthy, filthy rich and the rest of the country is awful, I have no idea what the average person is supposed to do about it. If the super rich have all the money and power, then we have to wait for them to say "oh, you're right, we really should do something about this," which is never going to happen. I should probably read the book she was schilling to see what she says about that.

Attention people of Boston! Next weekend (the 21st) is my birthday. And as such, I'd like to gather people to be merry with me!

The only problem is the one thing I really wanted to do- force everyone to go to Jake Ivories- is out because there's a Sox game at Fenway. Stupid baseball.

I'd say going out dancing would be a good idea, but it looks like The Pill is some lame band playing, so that leaves 90s night, which is too full of jerks from the internet for me to handle, or an 80s night at TT's that looks like it may be more gothy than 80s. Boo.

There is a potentially awesome Scavenger Hunt in Salem that day.

Anyone know of anything cool going on next Saturday night?

So the woman who wrote my two favorite books from this year has a blog, and there's something kind of weird but very endearing about reading the details of an author's personal life. She blogs about food and clothes and history, and it's really an engaging and fun read. So there is a link for you.

Yesterday I saw someone bicycling in the road while talking on a cell phone (not hands-free, one hand was holding the phone to his ear). In the middle of rush hour traffic. Seriously! Bikes in this city are such a menace. No offense to those of you I know in real life who actually obey the rules the road, but when I'm driving bikes are a menace on the road, and when I'm walking they are a menace on the sidewalk. No one follows the rules! There are rules, people!

So we have a chance at Rock Band playtesting this week, if we can convince a couple more people to do some sunny late-afternoon hookey. Anyone out there want to play around with video games from 4-8 sometime this week? Anyone? Bueller? They are offering free pizza!

Vacation planning is in full swing. I just ordered up a rental "global" phone so we can have phone-age whilst in England. That business is expensive! But it's just as expensive as a pay-as-you-go purchased over there, really, and possibly cheaper considering the abysmal state of our dollar's buying power overseas.

Now to try to figure out what the grocery shopping situation will be like in Brize Norton. I'm a little scared of just how much money it's going to cost to eat for 2 weeks. Also, there's so much I want to see, and I need to remember that we want this to be a relaxing vacation. Oxford, Stratford, Salisbury, Bath, Wells... if it were realistic I'd love to trek up to York, but I think York/Lake District/Scotland will have to be its own trip some other time.

In "what I've been up to this week" news- I had a rather large-ish mole removed earlier this week, and it's been ouchy. I have stitches. Tomorrow I am off to Freeport for a librarian conference.

And Harold & Kumar 2 comes out tomorrow!

So once in a while I make these long lists of "Things to Do" so when Drew and I are bored on a weekend I can pull out a list of ideas (most of which are bad for time/cost/effort reasons), but still, I like to have these ideas ready.

So here's my list of things I want to do in the summer (I guess not everything requires summer time, and some are silly/not quite possible):

Mini-golf (Pirate's Cove and Monster Mini-Golf, it's in the dark!)
Letterboxing
Geocaching
Go 80s/90s dancing
Comedy at the Hong Kong/anywhere
Old Orchard Beach
Find an amusement park with a log flume. Ride said log flume. Repeat!
Tiki Party
Ghost Tour
Scavenger Hunt
Find weird museums and visit them
Explore some of the haunted places in this book (especially any ghost towns, of which I know there's one in Rhode Island!)
Inside activities: Poker/card games night
Board game night
Murder mystery dinner party

What other things to do are there? Bonus points for cheap!

First- I ate fish this weekend! Raw fish! It was... not bad and not good. It was 100% neutral. But I'm willing to try it again.

Second- this show on CartoonNetwork called Chowder is the weirdest, most entertaining thing ever.

Third- thanks to cayetana for recommending this week's This American Life. Jerry Springer's life story turns out to be absolutely fascinating. Harvard Law? Really? I would totally vote for Jerry Springer if given the chance.

Off to kung-fu! We've been plunging ahead really fast with some forms, it's been awesome lately.

Why is it not Friday yet? My God this has been a long week. Also, why did I not go outside to get my lunch at that delicious Chilean sandwich place? I have made poor choices with my life.

Speaking of food and poor choices, I think tomorrow night may be the night for a foray into Sushi Town. There's a new place in Allston that jawalter has noticed, and from Yelp reviews it looks pretty good (it's called Privus). Can I cajole anyone into sushi-ing it up tomorrow? they also have tempura and other non-fishy items

Finally, I really want to have a Sarah Vowell-esque adventure. I want to research some arcane subject and then visit weird little museums devoted to said arcane subject.

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock are currently filming a movie just a few streets away from my work! This weekend they will be in Rockport!

I need to see some celebrities. I... have some questions about the amount of life I currently have. But it excites me. Sandra I don't care about, but Ryan Reynolds. He's Van Wilder. And he was in Blade: Trinity. C'mon.

Ugh, this morning on the train I felt like I was about to pass out for most of the ride in, and now I'm shaky and cold. The hell. I was fine before I left the house this morning! Now I'm debating whether I want to make it a half day or trudge through the whole thing- I was planning on leaving at 3 anyway to get the car inspected. Blech.

So, when you immediately start giggling when you see your new driver's license photo, is that a bad sign? When you hold in your guffaws until you can get to your husband to show him the picture and then laugh so hard you cry a little, I think that picture goes from bad to awesome. For the next ten years or so, my license picture is downright goofy. I may actually have trouble purchasing booze.

So it looks like Drew & I are going to head to The Cellar for some after work drinkies. We would welcome some company!

In preparation for tomorrow's Landlord Visit, last night I scrubbed the kitchen floor by hand. That is hardcore. I think we need to have people over this weekend to see just how clean our place can actually be. It's like a brand new apartment!

Today I interview a candidate for our summer internship all by myself. That seems so very adult.

Why does it feel like it should be Thursday today?

Also: Happy day to the birthday girl, aquarianna6!

So, I didn't get the totally awesome ghost tour in Dublin that I was dying to go on, but now I totally want to go to this awesome haunted house. It's in NH, and is mentioned in an article called 13 haunted houses that will make you wet your pants. That sounds like a good time to me! The only hitch being that the only days left this month that I can do it are the 28th or 29th, which may make it crazy-crowded. Would anyone be interested in a pants-peeing good time? If we end up going, we'd have room in the car for 2.

Speaking of Halloween, bushidokelt and his lady threw a fantastic Halloween shindig this weekend. Between that and the resurgence of the Friday Night Thing, the weekend was excellent.

So this weekend there was tasty sushi, a fun Metafilter meetup wherein I consumed too much delicious beer, and a lovely girls' brunch with folks I haven't seen in about 3 months. Note to self: don't let yourself slide on the girls' brunch attendance so much in the future!

Am now rather meh, as PMS and lack of sleep is making me cranky and imagining slights where none exist. But hey, at least I'm holding the leash on my inner drama queen. There will be kung-fu later to make it all better with endorphins and ass-kicking.

So, this coming weekend, I'm thinking Sunday, since Book Club is slated for Saturday, I simply have to have a trip to the People's Pint. Drew & I will be going come hell or high water, and we'll have 2 open seats in our car for ride-seekers. If anyone else wants in, that would be peachy, drop me a line sometime this week.

Hee. Samuel L. Jackson just called me to tell me to go watch Snakes on a Plane. Tee-hee. I so will!

Anyway, so I totally kicked ass at kung-fu last night in a very satisfying way. I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with it for 5 months now; I don't usually continue doing things that I'm not good at Right Away. Because I am spoiled and used to being good at the things I do very quickly. I'm kind of narcisstic, too It's actually kind of nice to have something to do where I'm not expected to be good at it, especially after a long day of work and having to be fast and correct and knowlegable about all kinds of stuff.

Oh, and there's a place in Brookline that supposedly has Boston's best cupcakes. This requires scientific investigation.

And finally- it's hot. I'm done with summer.

Ack! Giant spiders hanging out in work bathroom are bad. I just had the ever living crap scared out of me by a big, gross spider.

This is why I can never live anyplace that's actually warm most of the year. Those places all have humongous, terrifying spiders. gack. *shivers uncontrollably*

You know, talking on your cell phone while you pee is just... weird. No one is so busy that they have to take multitasking to that level.

I'm also a little weirded out by people who brush their teeth at work. Apologies if any of you are that serious about your dental care, but bathrooms at work are not places I want my toothbrush hanging out for any amount of time.

Anyway, X-Men tonight, this time I promise I won't fall asleep and then ask at the end if Magneto is the bad guy I was simply questioning the moral amibiguity presented in the film. Totally. Lots of barbequing this weekend! Yay!

tenillypo made me a shiny new banner! It's pretty. I still need to play around with the sizing so it's, you know, not repeating itself as it's doing now. Yay, new shiny things!

So, Kohl's has Candies shoes for wicked cheap. Cute, cheap shoes? I am so going shopping this weekend. Anyone who wants in on some girly shopping time, let me know!

I've finally purchased my own copy of Jordan's Eye of the World. Am convinced that those books come laced with crack. I'll probably be purchasing the next five books of the series in due time, because I need more cowbell super nerdy fantasy fiction. Seriously, I've already read these books, and I have a couple of new ones that look frightfully good (also bought Saramago's Blindness this weekend), but I can't put this down. Send help.

St. Patrick's Day party totally rocked. You folks are all the best! The rest of the weekend involved recovery, purchasing a big ass tv, reading, and watching last week's OC (so awesome! I now have a Volchok problem- seriously, we had to sit through all that Johnny crap when they had a totally awesome bad boy waiting for a plot line?)

So here at work we got some free tickets to this totally awesome "Fun Fair and Awesome Traveling Zoo" that's coming through a town near us. They advertise a "real monkey farm," "the world's smallest and cutest yak" and a "unicow." It sounds pretty awesome, but upon perusing the company's website, it appears that they may not be the most... humane outfit out there.

My man should get massive props for the loverly bouquet of flowers he surprised me with yesterday. Awww. We've got some Conundrum and a nice steak dinner for this evening, and we will not argue about Daniel Johnston's songs this year. =P

First off- anyone up for doing something tonight?

Since we now have our beautiful little car, we can go anywhere. Joy! I'm feeling an itch for Kowloon and Jake Ivory's that will need to be scratched sometime (though not necessarily tonight).

So this is not just a gratuitous "who wants to come out and play" post, I will also give you a link of interest. You think your landlord is bad? Check out Bad Landlords (via Metafilter) Be sure to scroll to the bottom and click on the link to the founder's other page. mrs_muffin's landlord would probably make good company for some of those folks.

Good thing: Seeing that not only did you remember to mail your New Yorker renewal in, but they've already cashed the check, so you can cross that off your list of Things To Pay For In The Near Future. Mild freak out about money avoided.

Bad thing: Seeing a CNN breaking news alert that Smarmy Jerk won the Judiciary Committee's approval for the Supreme Court.

Good thing: Um... totally getting our car on Thursday. That's a very good thing. I think we may have to arrange a trip out to the People's Pint next month, weather-permitting, just because we can.

This entry is really just an excuse to show off my awesome Mr. Show icon. It makes me giggle.

My finger and my new chef's knife got into a tussle last night.

The knife won.

Luckily, c_m_i's field dressing skills are top-notch.

My in-laws gave me the knife for Christmas. I'm beginning to suspect that knives given by our family are cursed with a blood lust.

So this is something I don't quite get. Big pharma companies are taking a lot of hits when their drugs lose exclusivity and generics for their drugs go on the market. Because generics are cheaper, and most insurance companies will only pay for the cheapest option, and most people only want to pay for the cheapest option. So why aren't big pharmas lowering the price for their brand-name drugs when generics become available? Or why aren't they making a second version of the drug themselves, calling it generic, and slapping a lower price tag on it? They could make up for the lower price with the greater quantity sold. *shrug*

Hee.

Vanilla Steamer.

Tee-hee.

Well, first off, I have a library-promoting thingy for you all.

If you're going to be doing any shopping at Barnes & Noble this weekend (namely, Dec. 2nd and 3rd), check this out. B&N is donating 20-25% of proceeds from sales made these two days to MA libraries. There's a voucher on the website that you have print out and present to them with the purchase for it to count. But hey, good cause and all.

So, this weekend was pretty neat. Thanksgiving was good- the drive up to Maine was horrendous, and for the first time in my life I was snowed in. The crappy PT Cruiser we rented couldn't handle my dad's snowing, unpaved, uphill driveway, and it thwarted our plans to head over to my aunt's that night. We barely made it out onto the main road the next morning. Stupid PT Cruiser!

But, on the plus side, once we returned home, we had a car for the night, and thus were able to hightail it over to Brighton for some quality video game time with the excellent tenillypo and jawalter. Saturday night we had some folks over and ended up watching a bunch season 2 of Scrubs. Yay! And yesterday I trekked over to Brighton again, carless this time, to catch up on Veronica Mars with tenillypo. What a freakin' fantastic show! I love it so much!