This is actually a fascinating question!

I myself don't have a problem with smokers. I have a number of friends who excuse themselves to go smoke cigarettes when we're hanging out. I think that it is a personal choice, and that if someone wants to make that choice I won't judge them. However, I will also say that I am glad that my husband hasn't made that choice, because I don't like the smell of cigarettes. Hell, even when he comes home with the smell of cigars in his clothes (which isn't often) I tell him to take a shower before he comes to bed. I am also glad that Minnesota has a public smoking ban, which just means that they can't smoke in public buildings, like bars or restaurants. I know that it irritates some smokers that they have to go outside to have a smoke break when they are out for a drink, but frankly, I think that it's just courtesy to not let the byproduct of their habit bother those around them. And it's not even a fear of second hand smoke being correlated with lung cancer, my sister is asthmatic and she used to get really bothered by cigarette smoke when we went to restaurants before the smoking ban. If I remember correctly, if we were too close to the smoking section, she would have to go home and hook herself up to her nebulizer, which was only supposed to be used if her lungs were REALLY constricted. The fact she needed to use it after each poorly seated restaurant excursion says a lot.

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was a fine one indeed. Yes, I worked from 8 to 2, which kind of cut into my festiveness, but that was okay. Erik picked me up and we putzed around the house until it was time to go to dinner. He didn't tell me where we were going, so it was kind of maddening to try and guess as he drove to God knew where. When we showed up to a restaurant called al Vento, I was completely lost as I'd never heard of it before. But I was pleasantly surprised, and got a very tasty (albeit rich) butternut squash lasagna. It was a great meal, and I give Erik props for finding the place. We then returned home and watched STAR TREK, which was one of my gifts from my folks. It was still a fun movie, even though it was on the TV screen and it was my fourth time seeing it. So yes, it was a good birthday. And I thank everyone for the various shout outs I got throughout the day! The only thing that would have made it better was had it snowed at least a small bit, but the weather here has been more unpredictable in the recent years. As long as we have snow by the holidays I will be satisfied.

Today I get back to reality. From 12-2 I am going to do caretaker stuff around the buidlings, and then I work from 5-9. My plan for the rest of the night after that is to just chill out, perhaps read more of my book. I'm on the 50th!!! My goal for the year will be met and I am pleased. I am kind of peeved about how my schedule turned out, as it just kind of evens out instead of gaining a substantial amount, but at hte same time I'm glad that I got the numbers I did. It will add up.

I am not sure that there's all that much else to say. I'm going to be working a LOT a lot, but that will make it easier to deal with Erik's studying (his finals start on Saturday) time and his inevitable absence from the apartment. Cry cry. For now I'm going to get ready to go do caretaker stuff at noon. I hope that everyone has a good Monday (blech).

zenkindoflove posted this game, and though I've played it before I wanna play again, hee hee hee. And besides, things have shifted around a bit since then. So how many can YOU guess?

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search or other search function

1. Forgive me, Majesty, I am a vulgar man! But my music is not. AMADEUS (supremelord )

2. As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.

3. I repeat: A Gold engagement ring, yes? It was pawned here a year ago by a customer of yours named Tin Tin. He confided in me before he ran out of breath! THE CROW (ravenpoetics )

4. Explain the situation? Yes. 'Excuse me, sir, my friend was the one balling your wife couple of hours ago. Really sorry. He seems to have left his wallet behind. I was wondering if I could come in, just poke around, I don't know'

5. Gimme back my hand... GIMME BACK MY HAND! THE EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN (zenkindoflove )

6. Attention. Attention, citizens. Terrible news. Although the imposter has been shot down, there's still no sign of Santa Claus. It looks like Christmas will have to be cancelled this year. I repeat: The imposter has been shot down, but there is still no sign of the real Santa Claus... THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (supremelord )

7. That Sergeant Angel's coming into your shop. Get a look at his arse.

8. Look at your reflection in the mirror. You're a creature of the night Michael, just like out of a comic book! You're a vampire Michael! My own brother, a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire. You wait 'till mom finds out, buddy! THE LOST BOYS (zenkindoflove )

9. That's exactly why we want to produce this play. To show the world the true Hitler, the Hitler you loved, the Hitler you knew, the Hitler with a song in his heart. THE PRODUCERS (the original) (c00kie )

10. What are you trying to do to that poor girl, putting on a millionaire act? And, where did you get that phony accent? Nobody "talks loike thet"!

I have so many favorites. Here's a bonus because I feel like it and it's ridiculous.

11. She's a real carpenter's dream: flat as a board and easy to screw!

EDIT: My husband, supremelord , is playing on his LJ now. If you want to take a stab at his movies, feel free!

Urrrrrgh, two Thanksgiving dinners makes for a very lethargic girl afterwards. But the food was so good! I was thinking that I would never eat again, but then tonight I went out for a birthday dinner with my family to Hell's Kitchen, my favorite restaurant in Minneapolis (it's not the Gordon Ramsey one). And I'm having flashbacks to yesterday, thinking that I will never eat again. Doggone it. Yeah, it's my birthday weekend. Too bad I'm working for most of it. At least there's cake tomorrow night! Yay! And the paycheck will be nice come January.

I'm actually working a lot in December. I picked up eight extra hours per week, which is good, but at the same time I'm going to be exhausted by the end of the month. All I have to do is keep telling myself 'London! London! London!' Yeah, that's about a month away. And we haven't planned anything! I want to just sit down and highlight a bunch of things I want to see, but I have books to read and work to attend to.

And I gave up on my novel. It was just a bad month for writing time, not only was I working all weekend I was moving during the week. I am pretty frustrated with myself, but at the same time I realize that it was an inconvenient time for novel writing, especially when there's a goal that needs to be met.

Blech. Too much food has been consumed these past could of days. I think that I need to just eat Kashi Go Lean cereal until Christmas Eve. Yes. That might go over well. And we did just get a lot from Costco! Okay, I have very little to say tonight so I think I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead. I hope that everyone out there had a happy (and not necessarily gut busting) Thanksgiving!

Here is the picture of Agent Jack Baur I promised you all.



What a cutie. I will say that Baby and Kasha gave me the cold shoulder for awhile after he left and after I let them out of the bedroom. But ten minutes after that Baby promptly sat down on my lap and that was that. Erik is adament that we don't get anymore pets (I can understand cats because our lease only covers the two), but I think that when we get a house eventually I am going to insist that we get more cats. Kittens are just the cutest! XD

Off to help Lynn cook today! THen home to paint an apartment kitchen!

So tonight, after I was done with the caretaker work I was doing today, there was a knocking on the front door. Erik answered and Ken was at the door, holding up a little grey kitten. "Erik and Kate, meet Agent Jack Bauer. he's been wandering around the halls of 99 across the street. I thought that maybe he'd like some food and a litterbox." So I am cat sitting a little grey tabby kitten while I wait for his owner to get home. If he hasn't arrived by 8:30 I am gonna give him a call, as I'm supposed to be meeting people for trivia at 9. But in the meantime AJB is snuggling on my lap and trying to eat my necklace. He is a twerpy little kitty, but we're getting along. I feel bad putting Kasha and Baby in the bedroom, but I know that the two of them would mop the floor with the little guy. Kasha especially. Pictures later! He's adorable!

Last night Erik and I went over to the old apartment and cleaned it. Oh how we cleaned it. From top to bottom, all the rooms. It took 4 hours, but by the time we were done it was looking a lot better than it had. I know that we won't get our entire deposit back, but I hope that we get a majority of it at least. I will admit, though, I cried when we left it that last time. Even though by the end we were ready to get the hell out, a lot of wonderful things happened there. For goodness sake, Erik proposed to me in that living room. So I couldn't help but cry. I just keep telling myself that we're starting a new life in our new place.

Speaking of the new place, it's almost ready for people to come over. We had to get rid of our bowl chair, since there's no room for it. But lelia_ocahill was kind enough to give it a happy new home! We will eventually move the other chair to a more habitable place than the closet, hahaha! Once this has all been worked out I will definitely take pictures and post them.

So my plans for the rest of the day are as follows: do dishes, try and unpack the last couple of boxes, change the cat litter, do some caretaker work around the buildings. Then tonight I don't know what I'm going to do, probably finish up the rest of BIG LOVE Season 2 and then continue reading my new book, THUNDERSTRUCK. TOmorrow I am going to help Aunt Lynn prepare some Thanksgiving food that can be stored over night, and then Thursday it's Thanksgiving and I'm going to stuff myself! I really hope that my new work schedule comes in today or tomorrow, I need to know the hours I'm gonna be working for planning purposes. Yep, life is pretty typical at the moment.

Okay, to sum up the past couple of days:

- Game night on Friday night with Tom W, Alice, and Ryan (plus Ryan's friends and later Lisa) was lots of fun and something that I needed after a day at work. My favorite card match up? Bogus = Ted Bundy's Incarceration. Yep, Tom got a create a card and used it on me. I probably came off as a complete psycho to Ryan's friends. But whatever.

- Last night was the very fun and classy(?) Thanksgiving Dinner Party at Kaythey and Whitney's house. I made potatoes that I thought were oging to turn out poorly but they didn't. They were actually pretty good, and I didn't have any leftovers. I did, however, have too much wine and woke up this morning hung over, just in time for an 8 hour shift at work. Suffice to say, I won't be drinking again until Thanksgiving, and then I will stay away from the red wine, as that's what kills me.

- It's been a busy weekend at work. Lots of people in Titanic. I got iceberg water splashed in my face today. I probably have Hepititis C now because of it. Or some mutagen disease that spawned in that filthy water. Ick. This along with a persistant headache made me dislike today. Also my leg muscles are killing me, and it began BEFORE I walked around for 8 hours. Sigh.

- We are settling in our apartment. We have a shower curtain finally, thanks to my Mom being so generous. I am getting used to a lack of garbage disposal and dishwasher. It stinks, but it also encourages me to clean ASAP.

- Tim is coming over tonight! We are going out to dinner, either Green Mill or Everest, we'll see where he wants to go. Either way I will be happy, as I'm hungry and I like both places very much. For now I need to go clean dishes and straighten up the apartment, as well as take some ibuprofin. Cuz I'm in PAAAAAIIIIIIN. Stupid tanic acid.

It's amazing how yesterday's writer's block topic was about banning books in libraries. And then today on fark.com I stumble upon an article about a library worker in Kentucky basically stealing a book in an effort to keep kids from reading it. Yeah, her ass got fired. What amused me more is that it was an ALAN MOORE BOOK!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh LOEG: BLACK DOSSIER, you are so inappropriate!!! Think of the children, Alan!!

Apparently she brought the nastiness to the library board for review (you see titties and depictions of sex in this book, but not hardcore from what I can tell, unlike some of hte images in FROM HELL and certainly LOST GIRLS), and it was found to be acceptable for the library and placed in the graphic novels section (NOT the kids section), which should have put an end to it. But no. I guess she kept checking it out over and over again, and was supposed to return it when there was a hold placed on it. When she saw that the patron who wanted it was an 11 year old girl (she unethically accessed the patron record), she and another worked REMOVED the hold. They were promptly (and rightfully) fired. And of course the usual church and conservative groups are voicing their support of these women for 'trying to protect our children from smut' or some shit like that (here is the article in full) . Yeah, farkers are having a field day with this, and one of them posted the link to the catalogue for the library. So I decided to see if there was a certain book in their collection, one that would, you would think, fit into the mold of bad for the kids. It's called FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by V.C. Andrews, and it depicts child abuse, not to mention a brother raping a sister and then them turning into a consensual sexual relationship. Not something that I would read, necessarily, but if others want to who am I to say?

So I entered it in the catalogue search box. Oh they have it. Not ONLY do they have it, but it is described in a box as, and I quote, 'Packaged in a teen-friendly trade-paperback format with a contemporary bright new cover that evokes a contemporary teen feeling, and priced at 10 dollars.' And the cover is of, I have to assume,the brother and sister team. Looking, um..... interesting?

Ah hell, here it is:


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::falls off couch from laughter::

I wonder what those women would think of THIS! My point is that all libraries are going to have material that kids probably shouldn't read, but it isn't the library's job to censor it. THAT is a job for the PARENTS. And I find it asinine that this woman is being supported for censorship. Asinine, but not surprising. God that book cover is amazing.

I learned how to sheet rock yesterday. I kind of sucked at it, but I'm improving bit by bit. I also bruised up my knuckle while doing it, which hurts today, but I can handle it. I don't know if I will go and sand it down today or if I will save it for next week and focus on our apartment today. We have a few boxes left, not too many, but a few. I would love to have this place ready by Sunday, since Tim is going to come over that night. Hell, if we could get it all arranged by tomorrow I'd be even happier, though I picked up a shift tomorrow so I won't have as much time to work on it. I have to figure out the bus to catch for work in da morning, so here's hoping I don't get lost on metro transit!

I don't work tonight, which is partly why I picked up the shift tomorrow. And since I'm not working I fully plan on arranging the apartment and working on my novel. I've been so busy doing caretaker stuff this week and just trying to get my apartment ready that I have not yet caught up. I am closing on on 30,000 works though, so if I can get there by tomorrow and then write 2000 words every day after that, I will get to the minimum. Not what I wanted (I wanted to finish the story, dammit), but it will have to do. This month was just too busy. In fact, assuming I get the holiday hours I asked for, December is going to be a busy month too! Man oh man.

Aaaand next week is Thanksgiving! Holy cats I can't believe November is going so fast. After Thanksgiving is my birthday! And I have no idea what I want!!!!! I asked my Mom for new headphones and STAR TREK, but I don't know what I want from Erik, or my sister. I should peruse books on amazon and try and find something. No parties for me, our apartment is still a little too small for that. I wanted to have a game night as a house warming but... yeah, with furniture the main room won't fit a lot of people.

Okay, I need to build a shelf for our closet, so Erik can have a place to put his tee shirts and I can put some shoes on it. Have a good rest of the day, everyone!!!

Banning books is idiotic. Even the dance hating preacher in FOOTLOOSE knew that! Are there books that I think are dumb and that I wouldn't read? Sure! Just as I'm sure that there are books that I love that people would be horrified with. But banning books is a step towards fascism, in my very honest opinion. I was lucky enough to go to a school that didn't ban books and wasn't really pressured by families to ban them either. I was little during the phase of banning GOOSEBUMPS and SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, and since I loved those books I'm sure I would have been absolutely heartbroken if they were taken off the shelves.

Banning books is just another way to impose values on a mass group of people. Which I'm not cool with, thankyouverymuch.

Also, before condemning a book, try and actually read it and understand it! Maybe that way a lot of unnecessary bannings wouldn't happen (really?! TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD? REALLY?!?!).

Today I called my new boss, Ken, to tell him that I did some window cleaning last night and that Erik apologizes for not getting to the apartment across the hall yet. Soon after that I found myself learning how to tear out a linoleum floor. What?! It was kind of amusing, I just thought I'd be calling and then doing more simple cleaning. But soon I found myself up to my wrists in grime, nastiness, and a foul smell which was coming from the fridge (you don't even want to know what kind of state the previous owners left this fridge in). Then I was shoveling out scraps and slag from the torn up floor. This caretaking job is going to be a little more, um, hands on than my last one. And you know something? I kind of liked it! It was so cool watching Ken dismantle a kitchen counter and sink in five minutes time, I can tell you that. He also told me that in time he would teach me how to cut glass. Heavy machinery!? Holy Cow!!!! I feel so.... handy!

I'm in a much better mood today than I was last night. I haven't done any unpacking or anything like that, but I just feel more positive. I'm going back to work on other apartments in about a half hour, though it will just be that simple cleaning I thought I was going to do this morning. And then tonight Erik and I will probably unpack things together. Assuming he doesn't have too much studying to do. Yes, I'm much better today.

- We're kind of sort of moved in! We haven't brought over a few miscellaneous things, but most of our furniture is moved and in place. I'm thrilled, to say the very least. We stayed over last night, though it was a rough night because 1) the cats were stepping on us in an attempt to be close, and 2) the radiator kicked on at 4:30am and woke me up. And then I couldn't fall back asleep until 5:30ish. And since I had work today I was exhausted in Titanic. When we get things more organized I will take pictures and post them.

- I am SO behind on NaNo. I was working and then moving all weekend, and just got my computer back tonight. It's pathetic. I am working on it tomorrow. I hope to be caught up by the end of the day. Of course we're moving stuff again tomorrow and then picking up essentials (we need a new shower curtain, I'm gonna miss Mother Bates, but she's gotten dingy), so who knows if I'll ever catch up. I can't think that way!!! I will catch up, I WILL.

- Watching the VENTURE BROS after a long weekend is great. I'm sorry to say that The Phantom Limb has lost his marbles. Since I have a huge love/hate relationship with the guy, I'm amused but sad too! He was so much better when he was a bitchy evil guy. When he's insane it's really pathetic. Yes, he got in the way of Dr.Girlfriend/The Monarch, but he's wonderful in his own way. I can't begrudge him for making that ship a little more interesting.

- It's so convenient living across the street from a grocery store. So convenient. Now if only we had moved our silverware over along with everything else....

I am going to sign off here and watch METALOCALYPSE, and hten go to bed. We have a fan now, so hopefully the radiator won't be an issue.

Baby is being a real twerp today. I think she's catching on that something is happening that's displacing her life, and she is now wreaking havoc. This morning she was yowling, opening the empty cabinets and scratching on them, running through the house, and just now she was chewing on bubble wrap and jumping in empty boxes while knocking down others. It's getting to the point where i may just lock her in the office until I have to go to work, because she is causing issues and making it hard to get much of anything done. it's hard to pack when every few minutes I'm scolding the kitty. Plus she's stinky and I don't know what she did to get to such a smelly state. Feh. Cats.

Kasha, on the other hand, is being very mellow and sleeping all day, like she usually does. I'm glad I don't have two crazy cats.

Hey kids. It's been awhile, I know. I feel like I've been so busy lately with this whole moving thing. We are getting close, though! We're inching towards just cleaning the rest of the crap out of the place, as most of our stuff is over there. A few more boxes full, I think, will do it. At least I hope so, because I'm anxious to move in over there. Our goal is to have most everything in on Sunday, as we told Comcast that they should hook us up over there on that day. So that gives us a couple more days. And I think it's under control, mostly. I hit the wall on Monday, and we went out for a nice dinner to calm my nerves.

I am about to hit 20,000 words on my NaNo, which is exciting. I might be able to do that today, at least I hope so. I would love to be ahead of schedule, and I think that would place me there. I like how it's going, it's not as boring as I thought it would be.

In some irritating news, I thought I was going to have all sorts of hours there over Thanksgiving weekend, but now it looks like I'm actually going to end up BEHIND in hours!!! Ugh, I am so irritated!! Turns out the shift the day after Thanksgiving is only four hours, which is making up for the hours I'll miss the night before since we're close on Thanksgiving Day. And then my hours are being reduced on Sunday by 2!!! I mean, I could work from 8am to 7pm, but that Sunday is my birthday and I'd like to spend at least some of it with Erik and/or my family, not be exhausted to the point of not being able to enjoy my dinner that night. I'll gladly take long hours in the weeks after that, after all, I'd love the money, but not on my birthday! WAUGH. Hm, I should probably email my boss and make that clear.... Done and done. Because that would be SWEET if I could work 11 hours on Sundays in December. I mean, it would be hell, but it would be sweet money wise, heh.

Beyond that, life is pretty simplistic. Work. Pack. Work. Pack. Write. Pack. Etcetera. I think I am going to go work on my NaNo and hope I make it to 20,000 today. Have a good one, everyone!

I often am amazed at how weird the human body can be in reaction to injuries. My most recent flabbergasted-ness is the following.

Natasha Richardson trips in the bunny slope and picks herself back up, laughing, just to die of massive brain trauma a short while later. And then there's THIS fucking thing:


I saw the replays of this while watching college football with my Dad, and I was convinced that things were looking' mighty grim for Jahvid Best, the injured. And what do I find out today? He made off with just a concussion. SERIOUSLY? JUST A CONCUSSION?! It looked like he was going to be paralyzed in a best case scenario!!! Jeepers. Amazing.

If there's one thing I learned from biological psychology is that while our brains and spinal cords are fragile, nothing is certain. And do these two cases really drive that point home or what?

I need to catch the fuck up with my NaNo. This weekend was devoted to basically packing and working.

I gotta say, lately I've kind of found Taylor Swift to be kind of awkwardly adorable.

What what what, you say? Yeah, I know, I'm not really into country music beyond The Dixie Chicks, and I don't really know her music, but she's been getting press lately. And what I've seen I've liked. I guess she was on SNL last night, and since I haven't watched SNL regularly since 2005 there was no way I'd have known this. But I saw a clip, and I have to say that her monologue song is infectious, just a little scathing, and also kinda cute.


Also, [adult swim] just informed me that Ofdensen on METALOCALYPSE was 'totally murdered'. WHAT?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I thought he was gonna pull through!!!!!! I thought it was all gonna be okay!!!!! ::sobs::

I am really not feeling this move. I feel like I've packed up so much (plates, glasses, books, movies, etc) and yet it hasn't made any dent whatsoever. I mean, yes, the kitchen is almost devoid of things, and the shelves are empty and stuff), but it still seems like we have lots of junk left. UGH. It's so hard for Erik and me to pack together, since we're basically on opposite schedules. So I pack stuff up during the day, then go to work, and then he comes home and studies, and then after I'm done at work we take the stuff I've packed over to the new place. FEH. I think it's going to take longer than we anticipated. Yes, we have until December 31st, but the whole point of moving was to get out of this area because of the sketchiness it's been presenting lately. So shouldn't we get out ASAP?

In other news, my novel is right on track. Thank goodness. I think I'm working at a good pace, I'm happy that it isn't stumping me as much as I thought it would be. I haven't had to write too much creepiness yet, at least not overt creepiness. Just little sprinkles. At some point I may post an excerpt for those who want to read it.

I can't wait for holiday hours to start at the museum. I hope to gain an alright amount, especially with the holidays coming up and our trip to London coming up..... and with the fact that when Titanic goes my hours will be reduced by 8 until Dead Sea Scrolls arrives (at least that's the assumption I'm making, I could be utterly wrong about getting hours in there but that would be SO sucky). I'm gonna put in as much time as I can these next couple of months.

Okay, I need to work more on my novel, I want to get to at least 11,000 before work.