So, I really need to download a more amusing game for the Q than solitaire even if it did come in handy standing in line at Best Buy. But now the tv is swapped out and so far, so good. Since J had an early day, I left work at 3:30 to meet him here so we could box up the defective set and go exchange it but BB was such a mad-house that it was still 5pm when we left there. Sigh…
Then I went and had my nails done and got them trimmed to a much more workable level (I won’t say what palmie calls this length) and decided to have my eyebrows done while there. Um, yeah, see, I’ve waxed at home and all but it was nothing like this. I suppose it’s worth the temporary discomfort to have them done right for once and I should be able to keep them up myself now but WOW did that sting!
Took a long nap after eating the wrap and smoothie I picked up for supper and now I’m finishing up Tuesday’s comic and going to start in on some editing of the graphic novel script. Yay for progress and double-yay for weekends. Aside from tidying up the apartment (still somewhat wrecked from the party/holiday craziness) and a load of laundry, I’m chillin’ this weekend as much as possible.
Only a handful of days left in the year and I’m happy to say that I’ve met my obligations for the rest of it so far. Articles and invoice submitted, comics done for the year (the next one will post New Year’s Day so I count it as next year, not this one) and Christmas finished with. I’m even fairly current at work. This is pretty cool.
In the TV saga we’ve decided to just go ahead and exchange the set at Best Buy. J’s going to come over tomorrow evening or Saturday and haul it around for me and I’ll just hope for a non-dud this time. It would have taken several days to 2 weeks at the repair place (esp considering the impending weekend and holiday) so since the purchase is less than a week old (maybe a week and a half at most) it just makes more sense to exchange it and have it over with.
Nothing else of note except I really hope I’m not coming down with the flu just in time for NYE. I’m ridiculously tired and achy and grouchy and potentially feverish. But maybe if I take it easy this weekend I can avoid it once more this year. Always the optimist (well, mostly, and tempered by reality keeping me from being cockeyed).
Today was the first day back at work after the holidays and while it wasn’t a bad day by any stretch of the imagination, my internal calendar is screwed all to hell and back. I actually thought I had another night to finish the comic until about 3pm this afternoon. Whoops! So it was a nap, dinner, and then the comic.
Now, I had thought to put a movie on to test out the new dvd player but low and behold when I turned on the new TV that Santa (aka Mom) brought me I found something very strange. After not one full day of use it now has two sound options: mute and BLARE. I tried every setting I could on every remote and even called the toll-free philips customer service line. Which was not exactly helpful but I’m sure no one is surprised at that. I explained the problem much like I did above and this little automaton asks “So you’re saying the sound is fuzzy?” Um. No. I’m saying it’s too loud. “Have you tried the volume controls?” *headdesk* Seriously, people, I mean, sure, some idiots might not be able to find the volume button on the side of the set or the remote, but no, I assure you I’d found them. For pities freaking sake.
Anyway, supposedly I get to call AZ Electronics (”which is at ### Carolina St, which is in Tallahassee, which is in Florida”–no lie, folks, I told her my zip code in order for her to find the nearest service place and she feels the need to tell me what state my own town is located in. Now, I could understand if she were telling me that the nearest registered service place was in Georgia or Alabama–in which case we say screw you–but seriously?) tomorrow with the reference number, it’s under warranty (no, really? durr) so no charge for parts or labor, and arrange for an appointment to bring it in for repairs. The fun part? I can’t lift the damn thing. My arms aren’t long enough. Andrew even had trouble with it because it’s so wide and awkward.
And I do not relish telling Mom about this, tomorrow. I wonder, though, if it wouldn’t be easier to just take it back to Best Buy for an exchange at this early stage of the game. Of course, it doesn’t bode well that after 24 hours it flakes out on me. I really expected more from it. Sigh… Good thing I didn’t commit the 19″er to someone else otherwise I’d really be screwed. Sure, I have the little 13″ set tucked away in a corner somewhere, but I’m thinking that the NYE Twilight Zone marathon with palmie and jun would be far less entertaining on 13″.
The MotoQ I purchased only a couple of weeks ago is already on the fritz. I don’t know what is wrong with it other than after the battery died this afternoon I charged it while napping. When I woke up? All that would come up is the white Alltel screen, nothing else. I have a hunch that its the battery that has crapped out (frankly it never seemed to hold a charge as long as it was supposed to anyway) so I’m hoping it will be a quick fix when I take it in tomorrow, but if not I certainly hope its covered under warranty whatever it turns out to be.
So my original plan had been to head to All Saints tonight to write between work and the Officer’s Meeting. Then I decided that a better idea would be to head to Bahn Thai and order dinner while I work. This made much more sense and was quite enjoyable. Don’t think I would go there every night I want to write, of course, but it’s definitely on the list of possibilities. It occurs to me that coffee shops are not the only writing place to be had and that the laptop affords me much more mental occupation than even a book would were I to head to a restaurant alone. Not to mention the laptop’s ability to stay open without turning it upside down to take a bite 
Coverage of my glorious weekend away is suspended for a bit to announce that I have a new baby sister! (No, y’all who know Mom haven’t missed a major occurrence) Her name is Molly, she’s 8 weeks and 5 pounds of Buddah-ful-bellied French Bulldog. I’d post a picture of her but my transfer cable is missing. I think it’s actually at the office, attached to the computer from when I brought it instead of the iPod cable.
The weekend was just absolutely lovely, though. New Orleans is as charming as ever and I’m definitely looking forward to my week-long excursion come May. Hopefully by then I’ll have some of the rewrites done and know more of what I need shots of. I also hope to get an interview or two with some gallery owners, so I can understand how they work in general and put on shows. Of course, I could do that here, too, I suppose. And may well.
And Spectrum was charming, too. We had a wonderful time just hanging out, wandering the city, and his work party was fun, too. You know, sometimes they can be odd if you don’t know anyone or your date abandons you (which he didn’t), yadda yadda yadda. But it was fun! Of course, some of his coworkers wanted to check me out, make sure I was making him happy, etc. I think I passed muster 
And then there was the food: Friday night we wandered into Cuvee for dinner, Saturday lunch was at the Lazy River (which is, apparently, an offshoot of Pat O’s), and Sunday brunch at Palace Cafe. It was really tough to leave but we managed to tear ourselves apart long enough to drive to the interstate where he went west and I east.
After stopping to meet Molly I finally got home just after 9ish. Long weekend. But I think I’d do it again in a heartbeat. A very particular heartbeat.
But now I am cold and alone in my apartment where the ambient temperature is so low that the liquid ganache in my truffles has solidified. Off to upload tomorrow’s comic and then to bed.
The nap took a 2-hour chunk out of my evening but I think it was worth it since concentration level prior to was next to nil. So only the comic and a smidge of editing got done, but that leaves tomorrow night free to finish up two articles for eHow, pack for the trip, and tidy up the apartment so I’m not coming home to chaos on Sunday night. While I was drawing I watched the first disc of the Disney Rarities set that Amazon delivered last night: oh the joy of Lambert and Ferdinand and the Adventures in Music shorts! Whee!!!
And yes, the leaky ceiling was fixed when I got home.
As of mid-morning today. Whew! That feels good. What’s weird is that I am only making one gift this year. This has a lot to do with the fact that I am still not finished with some from last year. Seriously. So this year I chopped the gift list to pretty much family and near-family and skipped everything else. On the one hand I’m kinda eh about the abbreviated plans but on the other I like it. The simplicity appeals to me, and we know that’s an aberration of ginormous proportions.
Also, tomorrow is the 52nd strip of Random Acts… TaDaa! I did what I set out to do and its still fun so I’ll be continuing. I would have celebrated more but I’ve managed to screw up my writing plans for the first half of the month so the deadline is pinning me down seriously. It’s okay, I’m on, like, Plan C at this point, but I think it’ll be the best of all of them and I should have no problem completing them before leaving town Friday morning for my weekend away.
My goal is to be totally caught up so that I can have 3 days without thinking about any of my work things–any of them! Not going to think about them replacing the office carpet while I’m gone. Not going to think about my articles. Not going to think about the comic. It’s a weekend of not thinking. Well, okay, not much thinking. I will only dally by taking pictures, if plausible, of the Arts District in NOLA for future reference for Wedding Tarot. And since I haven’t had time to ‘work’ on that in ages, it doesn’t count against the not thinking about works. I love my logic!
Tis the season and all that. The UPS dude had already come by with the Sharper Image box by the time I got home but the Sephora box had also arrived AND one of the Amazon boxes. While a good half of it was for me and me alone, the other half was actually parts of birthday and Christmas presents.
Exercise just didn’t happen. Aside from the arduous task of opening all those packages I had to do tomorrow’s comic start to finish and cook dinner. Pretty much nothing else got done. Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow after writing and the SCA meeting to finish what I didn’t get to tonight. Sure, that’s the ticket!
So, let’s see, tonight was the TGIO dinner after work. Tomorrow is Knit Night which I will attend after writing for an hour or two in the coffee shop first, and Thursday is the SCA meeting but first more coffeeshop writing. My goal is to get back into the groove of writing regularly. I also need to toss some exercise in there, so maybe Wednesday right after work I’ll go walk for a while before digging into Thursday’s comic and some miscellaneous web work. Provided I can keep it up, this week promises to be a very productive one.
Of course, then the challenge becomes not wanting to absolutely avoid all work next week. It defeats the point but is usually the way these things go. But I have to try and fight that inclination because next week is a short one for me, since I’m heading to New Orleans on Friday. Before that I have to get my desk packed up at work so the carpet guys can move everything the weekend I’m gone when we get our pretty new floors.
I got the tree put up this weekend, and a few things on the wall, but not much else done decoration wise. Did manage to finish watching TNG Season 1 and work on a small knitting project. Not much else since I woke up Saturday morning feeling ill so I took it mostly easy. Lots to do both before I go out of town and then before Christmas!