Should I go directly home from work, where The Empty Kingdom should be waiting for me? Or should I detour, and go shoe-shopping for Croquet? Decisions, decisions...If only the shoes I'd bought last year didn't hurt my feet. _

My book is shipping from Amazon! Yay! It should be here on Thursday! I am doing my happy dance! _

My Croquet hat will be truly awesome. I just want to say. Katherine and I just blocked it over a styrafoam block, with starch. My fingers are all starchy. _

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday, which means that usually, today would be the day I remember that it is his birthday, and also that I haven't filed my taxes yet. Except this year I was actually on top of things and have already received my refund. I am so proud of myself that I had forgotten his birthday and facebook had to remind me. _

This weekend, my teapot broke. Someone, probably me, put it in the sink while the dishwasher was running, and then when Katherine was putting away dishes, the huge casserole dish that had been balanced precariously on the dishes drying rack slipped and fell and broke the teapot. It was a great little teapot, one of those glass Bodum things, with a french press thing in the middle. It was perfect for giving me all the energy I need in the morning, or for making tea for two (and not getting getting jitter-y hyper). Brianne very nicely offered to get me a new one, since they sell them at Barnes and Nobles. I try very hard not get attached to things, but I often get very sad when I lose something that I am used to. _

After three sips of my strawberry daquiri, I couldn't remember the word margarita, which I generally prefer to daquiri. We are watching Nero Wolf and drinking daquiris. And Brianne is using my computer, so I am blogging from the iPod. _

I think a large part of the reason I don't plan ahead for things is that I get severely disappointed once something is over. I was very very excited about us going to see The History Boys on Wednesday, and now it is over, and I am in my "but it is over" funk. I remind myself that Croquet is next weekend, that Amazon seems to think I will have The Empty Kingdom the following Monday, that Brianne, Lara and I are going to see Eddie Izzard (we might have gotten the last tickets for his DC show). Or even that I am in a race against summer with bamboo and silk and that I love my bamboo and silk. (It will be a lovely sweater, with interesting bits, but the interesting bits apparently all come last, and I am stuck in eternal stockinette.) _

I have been drinking tea at work, since one of our new people bought an electric kettle for the office (I would always drink tea over coffee, but not if I am nuking water in a microwave to make the tea). I grabbed a box of PG Tips (for a bit, people kept giving me PG Tips, and I think I currently have like two boxes of it under my bed--I couldn't find it at grocery stores, and it tends to be my generic tea bag of preference, also it is spectacular iced with fresh mint), and mostly have been drinking that. (Also something with rose petals when I want something more interesting.) I am always shocked at how quickly it steeps. _

Why does my work computer hate PDFs so? It takes them like five minutes to open them, whether I am opening them from harddrive, from an email, or from the internet (more than half the time, it crashes Firefox). And it takes like forever to print them. _

Moss, can you send me the link to check blogs with my iTouch? Cause that would be awesome. _

Tonight, I'm going to see History Boys at some theatre in the city, near Tracy's office (I'm going with Tracy and Katherine and several other people). I mentioned it to my sister, cause I know she likes the play. She randomly knows several of the actors, which I think is pretty nifty. _

Libby, I was going to comment on your blog, but the comments weren't working:

 

I was changed a flight while I was supposed to be on it. I had somehow bought tickets for Saturday instead of Sunday, as I'd meant to, and couldn't log in to print my ticket (obviously). Southwest was really nice about it and switched my flight. Of course, I was then one of the random people who gets pulled over by security for additional checking, (buy a one way ticket three days before you leave, then switch it, great way to get flagged by security), but that was okay. _

Okay, so, what the hell is up with killing a charater, bringing him back to life so he can angst about being a zombie until you kill him for real? I mean really. While I hated him and am not sad to see him go, it still strikes me as incredibly poor story telling. _

Last night, Katherine made gnocchi from scratch. And they were delicious. Also, she taught me how to say the word, so Brianne can stop yelling at me. _

I name my electronics after characters from Greek mythology. My external harddrives have each been named for a Muse. My first iPod, which broke every three months, was named Euterpe (she was the Muse of Music--I do have to look these things up before I do them, I only know Calliope off the top of my head, and that is because she was Homer's Muse, and was in <i>Sandman</i> (also, I suppose, this isn't entirely true. Polyhymnia is the muse of sacred music, and I remember that because of Poly O'Keefe, and Urania is astronomy, and that one's kind of obvious)). My first red Nana was Eurydice, because my first iPod kept dying, and so I figured if it was likely to go, might as well name it Eurydice. The second red Nano was Orpheus, because it was following Eurydice. And now I will spend from now 'til Tuesday trying to figure who to name the iTouch after. _

I heard read theories that iPods have about a two year life expectancy because Apple/Steve Jobs wants you to buy a new one every two years. Also, after about two years, you tend to feel that yours is totally out of date. Neither of those really take into account people losing the things and sulking about it for days. I'm sure mine fell out of my pocket in a taxi over the weekend. Of course none of the drivers found an iPod. And so, as my splurge with my tax refund money, I am getting an iTouch. I ordered off Amazon because I had gift certificates (of which I could only find one) and I should have it by Tuesday. _

I don't usually read mysteries (I hate suspense and I'm exceptionally terrible at figuring it out before the detective does and I just wind up frustrated), but I recently finished Strong Poison and am now terribly close to the end of Have His Carcase. I am enjoying them immensely. Oh what fun! _

In the continuing saga of "things breaking at my house" Brianne heard exploding noises coming out of our furnace. So the landlord sent someone over who said "god this is an old furnace" and they gave us a new one. The day after they put in the furance, I loaded the dishwasher and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. We checked the circuit breaker. Brianne tried, and so did Katherine, on the theory that electronics are fussy, sometimes, and like it only one person uses them. We turned off all non-laptop computers, and flipped off each of the circuits, just in case. Our landlady is going to give us a new dishwasher, too. And, well, at least a broken dishwasher is probably the least inconenient of all the possibilities when it comes to broken appliances. _

Oh, how cute. I was looking at this feature on Facebook of "people you might know" that seems to find people who are friends with a few of your friends. I'd forgotten that a random Circle Schooler wound up at Marlboro, as did Alaina from SJC, and so it thought "maybe she knows this other random person from Marlboro who apparently knows Bennet and Alaina." _

Sometime last fall, I ordered these stickers for my phone. It's like a skin, but it peels off nicely. My phone looks like Starry Night. They never showed up. I called up the company, they sent it out again, by FedEx (I think) and it showed up on time. Yesterday, I checked my mail, and there the first stickers were, with a postmark of 10/1/2007. I laughed and laugned. And I don't really know what to do with them. Does anyone have a Razr that they want to look like Starry Night?

_