My goodness, it's late. I better say stuff quick and go the heck to bed!

Thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes. :) It was a full day, but not a bad one. Work was okay; we got the internet back, but I'm going to stay pretty light on my usage so as not to repeat the past couple of weeks. Sorry. I went to Magleby's Fresh for lunch and splurged on my favorite dish there - the guacamole bacon cheeseburger (but still forewent their tasty fries, sadly) and a free piece of chocolate cake. The cake was lovely, but, alas, more sugar than my body was ready to deal with, and I got a headache from eating it.

After work I bought a few groceries, including a pumpkin to carve at FHE, and rushed home so my little sister could do laundry at my house. My roommates had decorated with streamers and balloons, which was really sweet. While I waited for Chels to come, I helped my roommate make pumpkin-cream cheese-sandwich cookies for FHE dessert, and essentially abandoned my sister as soon as she got there. It worked out okay, with her just hanging out in the basement to do her homework while the laundry was going.

FHE was quite fun. They sang to me and we had a lesson, then carved pumpkins while watching retro Halloween shows (like the Charlie Brown one, some Looney Tunes sketches, Mr. Boogedy, etc). Here's my pumpkin:


One guy in my group did the Batman symbol, and suggested maybe carving one for each of the Justice League, so of course I had to add my two cents. I think it earned me coolness points. What would be really cool is if I could use some kind of green light instead of just a tea light or whatever.

Anyway, after FHE I went to someone else's house where we were learning some of the Thriller dance for our stake Halloween activity on the 31st. It's going to be way cool. Parker joined me there, and we ended up hanging out for another hour after most people left, just chatting with the guys who lived there and a couple of my neighbor girls. My sketchbook was oohed and aahed over, and that's always fun. I still feel good about my ward, and I'm happy to be attending activities with these people. Very optimistic about it.

Anyway, it's way past bedtime. It was a good day, but I'll have to do actual celebrating later, when things are less busy.

Alright, folks, it seems like most people can do Wednesday, so let's go for it. (Sorry, those of you who can't make it!)

In the interest of getting you kids to bed at a reasonable hour, there are showings at 7:15 and 8:00 - which works better for you?




I got a new Josh Groban CD cheap on Amazon - it's not a problem! I can quit anytime!! - and I'm totally channeling Orpheus.. sigh, if only my job didn't get in the way of my work..

So people keep asking me what I want to do for my birthday.. It's on a Sunday, so there's not much we can do on the actual day.

However, I realized it's been a while since I've been to a movie theater, and it has come to my attention that WALL-E is at the dollar movie right now. (So are Hancock, Kung-Fu Panda, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Get Smart, and the Mummy 3 - all of which I either enjoyed and would see again, or wanted to see but haven't yet.)

In the regular theaters, there's Eagle Eye and City of Ember that I thought look fun, with Max Payne, Forever Strong, and Nights in Rodanthe (I didn't give this one much thought, but my mom saw it and recommended it) as maybes.

Anyone interested? Can we try to see a movie sometime this next week? I think Wednesday is probably my freest day..



Also, I'm way excited that The Spirit is only rated PG-13 - I was excited for it, but couldn't let myself get *too* excited because I didn't know if I'd be able to see it. And now I can! And I want to! And I will! Yay!! I love comic book movies...

PS~ Speaking of which, has anybody read Watchmen? I know the movie (if the studios can come to an agreement) will be very much rated-R, but I'm curious about the comics. Since I'm not sure about it, I'd rather read it than buy it, but Orem and BYU libraries don't have it, and Provo has one copy *on order* that already has 8 holds on it.. And I could get it fairly cheap on Amazon. Reviews/recommendations, anyone?

I'm sorry it's been a while. Work has been better (but still not a bed of roses) because we got a couple of newbs this week. One worked Monday and then we sent him to the official training store. The other we're holding on to and just training her on the fly. She's freakin' awesome. And she's been tackling the counter most, which has left me to spend a lot of time actually *working* on my design stuff. My pile is slowly getting smaller. It's still a ton of stuff, but it's getting more manageable. Though Wednesday I stayed until 8:30 working on it, and last night I stayed til 8.. (What a great Friday night activity..) Oh, and for the last two weeks, our oversize printer has been broken (which has both added and taken away from my grievances), and just got back to functionality Thursday night, so I've had a *ton* of oversize stuff to do in addition to my desktop publishing (DTP) stuff.

And since I've still felt so overworked, I've been playing a lot more WoW than usual. (And therefore getting a lot less comic/freelancing done. ^^; Which I need to work on.) My little brothers (two of them) just started new characters on the same server as my night elf rogue, so I haven't been questing by myself. And since my brother has a lot better understanding of strategy and using all your skills appropriately, I've been learning how to be a better rogue, too. And it's pretty sweet to jump out of stealth-mode and take out people in just a couple of seconds. ^_^

In other news, my birthday is next Thursday. I'll be 24!
And also, Thursday and Friday I took work off because I'm going up to Utah for the weekend! My cousin is getting married next Friday in Bountiful, and the Foreign Language housing is having their 10-year anniversary reunion. And I wanted to go to that, even though I don't think anyone from my House (or year, maybe!) is going. And there are all the people I love who I need to visit (including my brother). My mom and I are flying up Thursday, getting in to Salt Lake about 6:30, I think. I brought her along to rent the car. ;) (Actually, I told her that I was going whether she did or not, but that then I'd have to take Trax down to Provo or find somebody to pick me up. And then walk everywhere.) Friday my tentative plans are to spend the morning at my cousin's wedding and then his luncheon. Friday night is the FLSR reunion, but I don't know how long I'll be there. Saturday I had hoped to play with isauraoktobre and eillwony til the cows came home, but I think Adi works Saturdays (right?). And we have to fly back out late afternoon. And I have a friend with a new baby that I wanted to see, and I'd wanted to do lunch or something with a couple of old classmates who are still in town. So Provo peeps! Let me know when you can fit me in!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh! And I hit my 3-month mark at work and got a 50 cent raise.. Not as much as I was hoping, but more than I'd heard I could expect. And I just looked through my benefits package, and it turns out that it doesn't kick in until the first of the month AFTER hitting your 3 months. Which is another three weeks away. Grrrr.. My teeth are starting to really hurt. But what can you do?

OH! Also, I was lucky to go to kitesareevil's wedding last weekend! Which was LOTS of fun!! I got to talk to ely_chan on the phone, and spend the evening with seeshellirun, dqbunny, and a few other SMRFF peeps! (And kitesareevil, of course.) It was seriously so much fun.

OHHH!! And one last thing.. I got an email from the Leading Edge art director, saying that the issue's gone to print now, so I should get to see it soon! AND that because of the "high quality" of my work, they want me to design their new mascot! Could I feel any cooler??!