Author Zoe Winters is pimping her anthology with a Kindle Giveaway! Visit http://zoewinters.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/blood-lust-blitz-who-wants-to-win-a-kindle/#more-3640
to find out how to enter. Her anthology, Blood Lust, is available for .99 for the first 24 hours on the Amazon Kindle site - once it's available for purchase, anyway!
Good luck Zoe!

I had my lovely Algebra final yesterday. It went well I think, however, I was very glad that my professor had multiple testing sessions yesterday, as I was on time for the earlier session I wanted to take, only to discover I could not find the building the room was in, due to the fact that I was on the wrong campus! It took an hour to get to the right one, by which time I was too late to take the exam. I ended up waiting around in Anniston for three hours until the next test, so I did what any bored person does - I went into Best Buy.
My friend ladymagenta has been looking at getting a netbook, and I had started looking into them to have intelligent advice on which one she should get.
So... - I went into Best Buy to see what models they had, and what they were like.
Yeah.
Marsha + Cute Electronic Device + Financing options that will help my credit go up = Marsha with a new computer.

I walked out of the store with a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v. I like it so far. I did like the Asus Eee and the Toshiba models as well, but they had the Dell in stock, vs an unknown waiting period for one of the other models. And the only real difference was in the battery life, which is not so important to me as I will probably use it plugged in most of the time anyway.

this led me to playing with my Shiny New Electronic Toy for several hours, and discovering that I can double the memory (2GB) and install a Bluetooth module for about $45 plus labor.

Yeah - the parts are on order. :)

Sooo..... now I am waiting impatiently to get off work so I can continue customizing my pretty toy - I am trying to decide if I want decals on the top, and, if so, what kind? I was contemplating white cat paw prints or silver/white scrollwork or celtic knotwork if I can find them.

Soo many choices.....

And yes, ladymagenta, I do blame you for this! :P

Today is one of those days where I would happily take a baseball bat to anyone and everyone that bothers me.
Short-tempered? Yeah, just a bit.
Anything and everything today is just flat out pissing me off.
And then people are nice and friendly to me, and that just makes it worse, because my crappy mood is not their fault, it is just one of those extremely rare days I wake up in a bad mood.
It has been easing over the last few hours, but I still really just want to go break something.
And the effort to not inflict my mood upon everyone I encounter, and to present my usually even-temperament as a front this morning - as my job requires it - just makes it that much worse.
And I am really not making much sense, but putting this in writing is helping my mood taper off a bit, so you all will just have to put up with my rambling.

And then the phone rings, and I go back to being pissy.

Work today has been fairly fun. All of the supervisors were in a meeting for several hours, so lunch was late for me.
Today's Mr. Bento had Laughing Cow Light Garlic and Herb wedges, Kashi 7 Grain crackers (same as yesterday - I couldn't remember which ones I had, so I checked the box) Carrots with sun dried tomato vinaigrette, black and Rainer cherries and blueberries, homemade rice pudding, and cold roasted barley tea.
All in all, a good lunch. Now if only work would calm down a little!

Today's Mr. Bento lunch was fairly balanced - Zucchini Casserole (zucchini, onions, ground beef, tomato sauce, spices), Whole Wheat crackers with 2 Laughing Cow Light Swiss wedges, carrots with sun dried tomato vinaigrette, black and Rainer cherries, and a diet Pepsi. Around the casserole is my afternoon snack - Smokehouse Almonds.

Today has been ok so far. Lots of work. Lunch was yummy - I have about 20 more mini casseroles at home made from the extra filling from Mom's famous Stuffed Zucchini. I asked for some of the extra filling - she gave me all of it! So I have many of these in the freezer now, and they will be a recurring theme for a bit.

I will probably add some rice to my bentos after I get the power transformer for my rice cooker so it runs correctly (Japanese voltage is 100V - go figure? I still got it for a steal, even after I shell out the $100 for the transformer. It is a Zojirushi Induction rice cooker that I paid $40 for. I rock.)

I actually have a lot of bento stuff now - too much actually. I will probably be sorting through all my bento stuff soon and giving away the parts I don't want/don't need. For a long time I had no lunch boxes - now I have waaaay too many!

Well - off to work.

This is my version of the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. The traditional one annoys me due to the way the equinoxes and solstices are usually places on the midpoints. This version makes more sense to me, especially as a Green-path Wiccan, as the main points in nature are marked by the solsticesand equinoxes, and the peaks of each season. I mark the Equinoxes as Gateways, as that is the point at which each season changes to the next. Midseason is the height of that particular season, with the Early and Late parts of the season implied on either side of the midpoint.

I altered this one from one I found on the internet. I don't remember which site I saved it from, and I changed all of the points around the edge. I hope the originator does not mind the alteration of their original picture.

Tuesday's Lunch. Water with Mint Leaves, Tomato Cucumber Salad, Leftover Pulled BBQ Pork, homemade Yogurt with frozen Blueberries, Oreo cookies and Dr. Pepper.
Trying to wean the Dr. Pepper out of my diet. Slowly reducing the quantity of soda to none - down to 2 today.

Yesterday was much fun.

Work was busy, and we all got to leave at 4pm as we had to go home and get ready for the TQI banquet at 6pm at The Fish Market. The food was excellent, and a fun time was had by all. :)

Afterwards, I went home and updated my iTouch. I decided to go ahead with the 3.0 upgrade - so far it does seem a little snappier. I am looking forward to seeing how the push notifications work out.

In the middle of that (lounging around in a tee shirt and my underwear, relaxing after wearing a pantsuit and heeled sandals for several hours) my neighbor came over and gave me three squash from their garden and stayed to talk for a bit. A little bit strange hanging out with someone while not being fully dressed, but I was trying to cool down and get comfy, so too bad. She then proceeded to try to borrow $5 for a day or so - I didn't have that much cash on me, so I was unable to help. We proceeded to mutually bitch about how money always seems to run out by payday, and after about 45 min she headed back to her place.

So, then I waited for my iTouch to finish backing up, which it finally finished about 1AM, and went to sleep, happily cuddled up with my kitty, Peaches.

First thing this morning, I had to give a training session for my coworkers - only the second time i have trained a class, but apparently I did well enough. And one of my coworkers asked me if I could adopt a kitten (fuzzy calico that her mom is trying to find a home for). I am really torn - Peaches and I have a good relationship, but I know she gets lonely during the day, and I have thought of getting another cat, but have been unsure about doing so. I did tell her I would think about it.

Choices, choices.

Miss Peaches is about 2 years old, and very spoiled, and very much the queen of my household. I am not sure how she would take to a kitten..... But - kitten! So, very unsure of what I will do.

*wanders off to contemplate kitten possibles*