LAST UPDATED: 12/15/09

For the curious, overly stalkerish, or those who like a bit of TMI, I present a list of shirts purchased by both myself & John from SHIRT.WOOT. (If you're unaware, shirt.woot features a new T-shirt design each day, some created professionally, some created by users voted on in themed derbies. All of them fun & unique!)

Also, I'll be keeping this updated as we buy more shirts from woot!

-- STEPH'S SHIRTS:

First-Day Shirts:
None yet! D:

Reckoning Shirts:
Music Pirate

Random Shirts:
Gonna Make You Lunch (Traded to John)
Music Pirate (Got another so gave to brother)
Air (x2 cause John got one too)


-- JOHN'S SHIRTS:

First-Day Shirts:
Some BBQ
Greetings from Krampus!
Winning the Race

Reckoning Shirts:
None yet.

Random Shirts:
Evil-o-meter is at mission critical (Gave to me)
Class Time Used Effectively (Traded to me)
Air (x2 cause I got one too)

I've been really jazzed about Disney's new 2D feature for a bit, but I've been really feeling it the last couple weeks with all the trailers & clips. I'm talking like as excited when movies like Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin & the Lion King were coming out. I would often get the soundtrack before we even saw the movie so I would know all the songs by the time we did.

Since I wanted to avoid going at a time when copious amounts of children would be present, Johnny & I hit the midnight showing tonight.

( Spoilers beyond this point. )

Honestly, why would I need children when I have these two? ^_________^

I says: "What are you kids doing?"
Berlioz says: "Um...playing?"
Giselle says: "...can't...breeeeaaaathe..."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Went over to Johnny's grandma's around noon for family get together & gorge on turkey & stuffing. We ate our fill then hung out for a couple hours while looking at the Black Friday sale ads & watching TV. Most everyone else had a another family dinner or function to go to this evening, so it was a short, but that's fine with me. After all that turkey, I'm ready for a nap.

Oh! Oh! While we were finishing up our meal, John's uncle Rod started to knock on the dining room window & yelled "HEY! WHAT ARE DOING!?" He turned to us & said some kid was in the front yard taking a whiz! XD OMG, yeah, some kid who lived around the corner just needed to pee so bad he went in someone's front yard!

Brooke, Rod's girlfriend, laughed & went outside. The kid hadn't gone far (cause he was still zipping his fly) & this was the conversation that followed:

Brooke: "What are you doing?"
Peeing Kid: "I had to go really bad! I almost went a little in my pants!"
Brooke: "Don't you have a bathroom at home?"
Peeing Kid: "But I had to go right now!"
Brooke: "Well next time do it someplace where there aren't any windows."

The kid ran off after this & we all got a good laugh about the Thanksgiving kid that peed in the front yard. XD

Obligatory List Of Things I Am Thankful For:
- My awesome family that I am very close to.
- Spending my life with Johnny.
- Two adorably fuzzy, sweet kitties to snuggle.
- Friends who know I am the worst at staying in touch but put up with me anyway.
- Having a job, a warm place to sleep, food to eat & internet (especially the internet!)

Now I'm going to take a nap on this glorious cold, cloudy & wet November day, then play on the internet all evening...or maybe watch a movie. Aw, hell, it's Thanksgiving, I'm gonna do both AT THE SAME TIME!!

I've been saying for months how I won't get a Facebook. I would never, never, never, ever in a millions years get a Facebook.

I have a Facebook.

Feel free to friend me. Or follow me. Or whatever you kids call it. XD

So what's been going on with me?

Well:

-Work
-Sleep
-Love on my kitties
-Work
-Read manga (usually yaoi)
-Eat
-Work
-'Kart with my brother
-Play GaiaOnline (zOMG! FTW)
-Work

Yeah, nothing really new. We did put Giselle back on her prescription food since she started getting pukey & scratching too much again. Guess it's back to the drawing board with the food again. :/

And as of the 16th this month we'll have had Berlioz a whole year! Hard to believe a year ago he was that tiny little fuzzy thing that came out from under our porch. X3 I'll have to whip up a batch of pictures to post. I take so many of him & Giselle, I even have a few of them snoozing together. DAWWWWW!

Work's been hectic. We've just got lots of stuff to do since the holidays are coming. Already have our decorations up & playing xmas music.

...the 5th of November,
The gunpowder treason & plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Now go watch V for Vendetta.

Just got through frightening small children who came begging for free candy. Well, I actually passed out candy to the Trick or Treaters while Ash, Jason & Johnny made a couple cry. XP It's cute to see all the different costumes, but you never see anything fun or original. I like pun-style costumes. Like I always thought it would be neat to wear a cellophane covered piece of round cardboard over a pirate costume & call myself a Pirated CD. XD

Also, seeing kids dressed up reminds me of when I was little in my costumes. I know I was a Witch my first Halloween & a Lion for a couple after, & I was Snoopy in kindergarten. I was a Royal Princess, an Angel, a Fairy Princess, Tinkerbell, a Black Cat, a Witch, & a Sorceress. I tend to alternate between being a Pirate & a Witch now. It was always fun to go to school in costume for our parties, then come home to go Trick or Treating.

Growing up, an elderly couple that lived next door to us would always make special gift bags for me & the couple other kids that actually lived in the neighborhood. It even had my name on it. They were always my first stop in Trick or Treating, then we'd go around the rest of the neighborhood. Also, there was a particular street I never liked going down because there were notably large amounts of space between the houses making the street very dark & foreboding. Being the scaredy cat I am, I always said it was find we didn't go down there. I wonder if other kids were the same?

Also, my Mom almost always made my & my brother's costumes because she can sew. My costumes were generally pretty simple, but the witch costume I still have to wear now was one of the more elaborate. However, none of my costumes ever compared to the White Ranger (from Power Rangers) costume my brother wore one year. It was really just a felt helmet, arm bands & boot covers to go over a set of white sweats, but the detailing on the helmet was so extensive that it was probably the most detailed costume she ever made. I remember the weeks before Halloween she'd spend hours at her sewing machine working on it. It was totally worth it though, because we went downtown to the city Halloween Festival & a very little boy looked at my brother in awe & said, "He's real!" XD

Now we'll be going over to Ash's apartment for some real Halloween partying. Well, I won't be partying, but I will be hanging out & enjoying some cheesy Halloween music & food. I think I'm gonna wash off this crazy eye make-up I put on first though.

Happy Halloween & Merry Samhain to All!

I found the half-done line art of this piece on my hard drive yesterday, completely forgotten. I was so happy to find it just a few days before Halloween, so I finished it up tonight since it turned out to be such a perfect Halloween pic. :3

I don't tend to delve into the spooky or macabre simply because it's really not my thing. But it's always good to go outside your comfort zone. ^_^

( Don't Look Behind You! )

FINALLY got the gold on all my Mariokart Wii races! \^O^/ Yay me. Now I just need to work on getting at least a single star ranking on all of them so I'll have a little star on my Wii Wheel next to my name when I kart via wi-fi. Especially since my brother has had at least double stars for a while now & just 2 races away from triple stars now has gotten triple star ranking. I'm lucky to get double stars in a good race. -_-;;

( Now I'm getting all gamer girl on you guys. XD )

BTW if any of you have a Wii & Mariokart my friend code is 1934-6502-5905. Comment me with yours & we can kart sometime. :3

Possibly one of the silliest things I've discovered since I've moved to Ohio is this Sweetest Day, which is always the 3rd Saturday in October. The idea is, well for lack of a better word, sweet. But the execution seems to be a Great Lakes Region Only Valentine's Day.

So yeah, Sweetest Day, WTF?

Had 4 days off of work in a row this past weekend! Saturday off on my schedule last week, then saw I had 3 more days off after in the start of this week. Lemme tell ya, they were 4 wondrous days of doing absolutely nothingness. ^_^

We are going to start being scheduled till 9pm instead of 8:30pm in anticipation of the holiday season. We have more & more people who are in the store till close, so it takes longer to recover once we lock the doors.

Pretty much the same old, same old round these parts. I'll be glad when the holiday season kicks into full swing. Not that I have a lot of money to spend on it, but seeing festive lights & decor always makes me all warm & fuzzy.

Suffice to say that nothing particularly extraordinary has happened lately. Not that I'm expecting anything to, but I seem to remember a time in my life where I wondered what sort of adventure I'd have each day. Course during this time I either lived my family (where even a trip to Wal-Mart is an adventure) or in a dorm full of friends (soap & water are quite conventional weapons for battle.)

Work is work. We'll have busy days, we'll have slow days & I'm finally getting into the swing of things. I want us to get more people in there, but then I would loose some of these hours I'm working & that would kinda suck.

Although hard to believe it's already October 1st, I'm rather excited about the upcoming Holiday season. Not that I have lots of money to spend, but I'll have a bit more time to enjoy it & do some of the things I'd been too tired to do while working at VSD, like baking. :3 I think that's what most people will be getting from me for Christmas this year: food. Particularly cookies.

I am a little bummed when I realize that if I still worked at VSD I'd be going to see my family in just a couple weeks, but as I have no vacation time now it's a no go.

Have I mentioned lately how Johnny is the best guy ever? ^o^ And not just because he's totally at the store right now getting me "feminine" products. But how many guys do that & with out a hint of complaint or protest? Still I only ask when it's a necessity, not a whim.

I so want to get the new Kingdom Hearts game for my DS, but I'm gonna hint really heavily & wait till Christmas. *hopehopehope*

Aww, I see a little (ok, he's not so little anymore), black kitty wants to be held in my arms & Johnnys home with comfort & food.

*siiiiigh* I have a bit of extra money on my paycheck today so I decided I wanted to splurge a little on myself but I can't decide what I want to buy.

I could get something otaku related at RightStuf, but I'm not looking to buy any anime DVDs or manga right now. Nor do I currently have space for posters or plushies. In fact, pretty much any sort of DVDs or books are out until I have more room for such things.

I could buy some Gaia Cash to blow on GaiaOnline, but I'd rather spend my money at this time on more than just pixels...even though a new Evolving Item will probably be introduced soon & with Halloween approaching in the next month, they'll have new Cash Shop items for the season.

I could renew my Pirates of the Carribean Online subscription for a month to play with my brother cause they've made some massive updates & I've got the bug to play again. Again, just pixels, but it's good quality time when I play with John & my brother. The three of us sail the high seas & throw grenades at zombie pirates. XD

I could buy myself a Wii game, but there's not really one that I want right now. D: I'd like to get a karaoke style, but only the ABBA Songstar one looked good & that's not out for the Wii. (Yet?) So I'm kinda waiting to see if anything new comes out. And no, those American Idol Wii karaoke games can suck my virtual dick. XP

I could buy myself some clothes. I need more clothes in general for work but it's not a dire need, more like a needish want. The problem is finding a day off where both Johnny & I are up for going out shopping. Also, working at a clothing store is making me realize just how much I really don't enjoy clothes shopping, it's tedious, tiring & altogether a frustrating experience.

Meh, the practical part of me is leaning to clothes, but the gratuitous lazy part of me is leaning towards either Pirates or Gaia. I'm sure there are other things I could spend my money on when splurging for myself, but I haven't thought of much else yet.

The tides be with us, mates, today is Talk Like a Pirate Day! So get yer effects & hoist the colors, for we're 'bout to shove off, savvy? Now go forth, me hearties, swash & buckle, speak swarthy, &, for the love of Davy Jones, keep yer cutlasses clean. Now bring me that horizon!

Ways to Best Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day:
- Talk like a pirate...to EVERYONE!
- Dress like a pirate.
- Walk around with a parrot on your shoulder.
- Get a peg-leg.
- Pay for your lunch with gold dubloons.
- Wear an eyepatch (or better yet, drop a marble & say "ARRR! Dropped me glass eye.")
- Ride the "Pirates of the Carribean" at any Disney theme park.
- Watch any incarnation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" including the Muppet version or "Treasure Planet."
- Watch the "Pirates of the Carribean" trilogy, savvy?
- DRINK RUM!! (And we wonder why it's gone...)

There's plenty more to be had, so get out there & drink up, me hearties. Yo ho!

For some reason this has had me in a tizzy for the last couple days. Every time I look at Berlioz I think "Poptart fer ur soul?" ...mmmmmpffffffffttttAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! XD



It's rather fun having my own live-in Basement Cat. And any of you who don't understand what that means have yet to understand the significance of Caturday, Ceiling Cat, & seeing wut I did ther.

Well, I officially have the flu. I realized that my back hurting the last couple days was not a result of my pulling the muscle last week, but body aches, which I discovered more of today as I was getting ready for work. The chest congestion has been helped with taking Mucinex, but now I've still got a cough & getting head congestion.

At work, Jackie noticed right when I walked in the door that I looked tired & told her I had a cold. She was like, "Oh, no! I gave you the flu." Apparently when I worked with her on Wednesday, her feeling crummy was not bad allergies, it was a flu which she also gave her son. I hope I don't give it to Johnny. D: Fortunately, I'm also off tomorrow, so I can recuperate some more.

In honesty, if this is the flu, it's the most mild I've ever had it. I just hope it doesn't get any worse before it gets better. Jackie seems to be doing much better though & she was sick just a couple days before me, so I'm hopeful.

What a lovely 2 days off it has been. I realized how tired I was yesterday when I slept for about 12 hours. >_>

I've been in a reading mood & while I've been re-examining Harry Potter, I'd like to get to some things I haven't read. Project Gutenberg is a friend to poor folk like me. I took the time last night to finally read "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I knew the general basis of the story, but had never read it. The story of Dorian Gray is an exploration of the psyche through influence, notably of those we surround ourselves with. For anyone that has ever read the story, I found it difficult to dislike Lord Henry even if he was the one who planted the seed which germinated into the thought processes which turned Dorian Gray from an innocent youth to a hedonistic monster. But if you're into a nurture vs. nature argument, one could say that such inclinations were always within Dorian Gray, & he had simply not realized his true self yet. If that is so, it would not have mattered who cultivated the mind, as Dorian Gray would have turned out that way regardless. It also has convinced me that I have not read enough of Oscar Wilde's works, especially if they are filled with the same interesting socio-psychological explorations.

Naturally the real story is very different from the incarnations I have seen it represented, most notably the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. A terrible movie, which despite having favorite actors & characters, I still can't bear to watch it again. I would love to read the graphic novels, however. I hear those don't actually ass rape the literature &, come on, it combines espionage, steampunk, & characters from famous Victorian novels. Speaking of anachronisms in Victorian literature, I am quite excited to see the Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downy Jr. & Jude Law (as Watson XD) this christmas. I'm going into it with the mindset that it is not meant to represent Holmes as we know him, but a more bad ass version. I think I'll enjoy it a bit more & not pick it apart if I do that.

To update, my back is still tender, in that if I sit in the same position for too long it's rather sore when I stand up. But that'll fade over the next few days, just have to remind myself to be careful when bending & stooping. Also, the bruise on my toe is pretty much gone & its feeling fine. Except when I ran into Berlioz in the hallway last night. He's rather solid for a fuzzy guy.

The only thing is now I've developed this cough as a result of some chest congestion which I noticed last night. I'm not sure if it's a cold, since I feel ok & have no scratchy throat or head congestion. It could be just uber allergies, but the Sudafed I took last night didn't help much...probably cause I just looked at the box & noticed it for head congestion, not chest. *FACEPALM* I'll have to be careful even if it is allergies because the very mild asthma I have makes it easy for me to get bronchitis when I get chest congestion.

I haven't forgotten that today is September 11th. I just don't like how we dwell on things. History should not be forgotten as that is how it is repeated, but today is a day just like any other.

Work was insane today. Ash & I left the store over an hour after we were supposed to because there was so much clean-up & shit to do. We made over double what the store goal for the day was. In fact, for register ring-ups I'm in for the week & it's only Monday. O_O Plus, I got my first credit card sign-up today! YAY ME, I RAWK!

The bad thing is we still haven't been able to get anything that really needs to be done around the store, like finishing the floor set & getting out the rest of the stock...considering we're gonna be getting another 70somthing boxes tomorrow. Just keeping up with putting away clothes customers try on, searching for new sizes, helping old ladies find items or try them on, answering questions, answering the phone (YES WE'RE OPEN, NO WE CLOSE EARLY TODAY!!), & ringing up sales at the register we had time for nothing else. Save for a couple lulls which lasted about 15 minutes each, we usually had no less than 5 customers in the store at any given time.

Also...



...and it really freakin' hurts! DX Fortunately it was at the end of work. Rammed my right, middle toe into the leg of a chair (WHICH WAS NOT WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE). I had stupidly taken off my shoes to go around the store to straighten, so it probably wouldn't have been as bad had I been wearing them...not that they would have offered much protection. Now there is a lovely purple bruise around the center of the toe & it's swollen up a little too. (HA! It's looks like my toe got accordioned cause the swelling makes it look shorter. XP) I think I just jammed it, cause I can bend it with no extra pain, it just throbs constantly. -______-;; Regardless, not much to be done about a broken or jammed toe 'cept to bandage it up & watch where I walk for the next week.

Good news is my back is still stiff, but WAAAAY better than it was Friday night & I only have 2 more days to work till my day off! :D

(Are you guys tired of my whiny rants the last few days? O_o Srsly, I can't catch a break here, but there's gotta be something else going on for me to blog about...OK, not really.)