lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
On Reg's very birthday I dropped my Droid in a toilet - fortunately before urination - and it hasn't been the same since. It powers on ok, but the screen won't turn on. Waaaah. I'll probably sell it on eBay for parts as other people are doing. I just won one (that works) for under a hundred. So that's good. In the meantime I've been using Google Voice plugin or Reg's phone to get in touch with people. Also, trying to read actual books, but mostly printing out Twilight fanfictions.

I'm still doing pretty good on that, at least once a week I get another thousand or so words banged out. I could do better but I've actually been working at work so you know. I have thought of a new fic, just need a title. (The premise here is that the Cullens are forward scouts for the Volturi and are trying to figure out the deal with Forks. It'll be dark and bloody with any luck.)

edit: best vampire AU is Bronze, ancient Bella/newbornWard, lost 3 hours of sleep to it. Speaking of dark and bloody. Even boys might like it. (I try to only rec stuff I think boys might like, anyway. I understand the lack of credibility I have here, but I'm actually starting editing a male's new Twilight fanfic soon, so there.)




It's still barely hitting 60F outside, which is better than barely hitting 50F I guess. That's spring for ya. At least our stupid weather means it doesn't rain on the weekends, as opposed to everywhere else I'm given to understand (and recall).
lauralh: (rain)
Friday [livejournal.com profile] quent and [livejournal.com profile] velvet and I went to the Sunset Tavern to see Kinski. Before that, Reg and I spent the day sort of enjoying the sunshine - he bought me a nice sunhat so I could feel less headache-prone, and we caught the tail end of [livejournal.com profile] suxdonut's bbq as well. Kinski's new album is sort of weird, from what we caught of it. Lots more singing and ordinary/typical song progressions, but then some Joy Division-y tracks too. (I proclaimed that I loved Shoegaze Division.)

Saturday the weather wasn't as nice, and Reg felt awful, so we didn't do very much at all. There was talk of going to see Wolverine but I didn't think I could take the fanboys. Sunday was nicer, so we walked to the Farmer's Market and bought cheese and fruit and veggies, and Reg got some metrosexual face shit at Blackbird, and we decided to go for a drive. I picked Lake Washington, and mapped out the northern half. So we drove from Sand Point to Yarrow Point, really quite pleasant and I think I may return to the east side the next time the weather is nice.

I spent a lot of time reading Tales of MU, which I'd read consistently last year till my last job picked up speed, so I started from the top and re-read the entire thing. It hadn't moved much since then, really. (It's a web serial that takes place in a D&D sort of modern-day world, and the main character is a sheltered girl who comes out as a submissive lesbian who gets off on being spanked. Also, she is half-demon.)

After that I started reading Slash, Slash's bio. I got about halfway through. Since it's from his pov, it's not as broad as the Zeppelin book, and some stuff he doesn't know anything about, but a lot of it is in-depth, particularly his substance abuse issues. I hadn't realized, either, how young they all were when GnR got started. In essence they got a big advance and then were told to not do anything like tour or record for a year, during which they kinda went crazy, as any 19-yo would do in the same position.

The weather has not been very nice this week but I decided that just means I should try out my rain pants and whatnot.

snew

Dec. 21st, 2008 05:21 am
lauralh: (redhead)
Record snowfall hit Seattle today. Reg and I ran over to Issaquah real quicklike to drop off the Volvo and grab the Mercedes SUV. Four Wheel Drive For The Win. Seattle - well, Bellevue really - is in a "convergence zone" and 6 inches fell the other day whereas only 3 fell here. Anyway I've started using "convergence zone" as a euphemism for awful clusterfuck situations. It was, for example, convenient to use the term while driving. "Look out Reg, convergence zone of IDIOTS up ahead" for a traffic jam or whatever.

So we drove around a lot, from Issaquah home, from home to Northgate- which was utter hell, took us 45 minutes to go 6 miles or so. The snow had started to fall and people went crazy. I mean, you can GO OVER 25MPH ok. We went back via UDistrict, and it took 20 minutes. The other factor of course was the holiday shoppers. I keep forgetting, it's Xmas soon. Anyway, we came home and showered and then went over to hang with Jeremy. We headed up to 15th to see what WAS in fact open, and settled on Hopvine. Had tasty hummus plate and then [livejournal.com profile] thingstouchme and [livejournal.com profile] calmkelp joined us. I like those kids. (Fun fact: I met Travis on Friendster! I MADE A FRIEND MAN.)

After we finished we headed to Chapel to meet Chris and Kate. The Santas were there - Santarchy was this Saturday in Seattle - and we had to go through a parcel of them to get to the bar. Unfortunately this was b/c they were leaving, so about 20 minutes after arriving, the bar was kinda dead. Still, they have excellent cocktails, and we enjoyed them for a time before rejoining the Santas over at Cha Cha. Saw Ang, ChrisMD, Jack, Sean... good times. Except I got a terrible headache so I couldn't really drink. We took photobooth photo that was utterly awful, I'll scan it in later.

We then stuffed almost all of these people into the SUV and went back to Jeremy's. My headache was super bad so I just napped upstairs for a while. Sherah joined me at some point and we snuggled under the covers, chatting and petting the kitty. I told her the story of how Reg and I started dating, and then Reg came up. It was all "awww" and shit. I was feeling better so I went downstairs and attempted to snuggle Ang for a while as she talked about Enemy of the State. Reg was feeling a bit crappy, and it was nearly 4am, so we decided to head out. Dropped Travis and Sherah off at their place - nice little drive down Belmont and Boylston in the FOOT OF SNOW. Then the drive home, apparently our I5 exit was "closed" (not plowed) but we got through it.

SERIOUSLY driving with Reg in the SUV in these conditions is SO FUN. And Seattle is SO beautiful all covered in snow, especially Woodland Park. Eastside, also pretty, snow snow snow. I am totally going to grab my skis and hike up a hill later.
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
Air stagnation advisory in effect until 10 PM PDT Saturday... Highs in the upper 80s to mid 90s.

I was looking around for camping areas where it wouldn't be as bad, but the problem is the RAIN IS RETURNING after 10pm saturday. Which is nice for bringing down temps, but balls when you're camping. East of the mountains it won't rain, of course, but 100☼ temps are not something I ever want to have to deal with again.

In other news, I was listening to the Depeche Mode song "Agent Orange" this morning and it made me happy. Well, not happy. It dials straight through my soul and syncs up because of its resonant emotional frequency. (If you haven't heard the song, imagine early ultra-gothy Cure done all minimalistic and synthy and no vocals. And then just listen to it, ok, so you can understand me.)

(Contrast: Spacemen 3's first album, and live sets, do make me happy, because it's a place I want to be, rather than a place I'm all too familiar with.)
lauralh: (Default)
It snowed yesterday, and I had to drive home from work in it, as it didn't really stop till 8pm or so. It was slightly scary but quite melted on most of I-90, and by the time I got to I-5 I realized that everyone else was even more scared than I was. I only saw one accident, 3-car on 50th, and my own car only skidded maybe three times. An inch of snow in above-freezing weather and everyone goes crazy, man. Took forever to get home, which was overly annoying. I was probably the fastest driver I saw on I-5.

Today I'm meeting Reg's coworkers at their Xmas party at some schmancy private club, so a bit after I got home (the snowfall was a lot lighter by this time) we drove downtown and paid $2 to park on the street. Good times. I picked up a cute black dress at Macy's, and Reg got a few things for himself. We then went to dinner at Gordon Biersch, a place I'd never been before. I didn't have high expectations so I was impressed. They seem to actually age the beef (or buy it aged at least), and my goat cheese was lovely. Also, there was bacon on my salad, and the apple bread pudding dessert was fantastic.

Then we met up with [livejournal.com profile] asiangoddess4 to see American Gangster. This is the second movie I've seen this month about 70s heroin in NYC, but I think this one was better, since it showed a lot more of the bad guys than the good guys. Afterwards it had, as I said, stopped snowing, but it was balls-out freezing so we went home and watched a bunch of No Reservations. Also, Reg bought blue xmas lights and strung them above his computer. It's quite nice there now, with the sofa and space heater.

(Snow pics here.)

sok

Jan. 14th, 2007 03:52 am
lauralh: (depantsing)
we invited people over last night and watched Snakes on a Plane. I missed it during the theatrical run but got really stoned and found it utterly hilarious. Every little thing was just so perfectly horrible, from the misleading beginning to the guy from High Fidelity remembering the snake guy in the desert and so on. Anyway they could have made it worse in the over-the-top department, but they went pretty damn far. I give it THE SHOCKER.

Reg and I also watched The Illusionist, which I kept comparing to The Prestige for obvious reasons, but there's another movie that comes to mind, which I won't mention here cos it is kind of a spoiler like woah. We watched it again with writer/director commentary, too.

This morning I woke up before Reg, as usual, and watched The Man With the Golden Arm. Frank Sinatra plays a junkie in 1955. I've never seen him act before, and he's not bad I guess. The movie is silly in that 1955 way, with the women all over the top and everyone being a total character actor, but it wasn't bad. I mean, it's the first movie that made me really think about injecting drugs. Ha.

And finally Reg and I watched Bandidas, which is a standard Zorro film except with two chicks robbing banks to help the poor in Mexico. And the two chicks are Selma Hayek and Penelope Cruz, so um, don't miss it, yo.




Walking around in Seattle on a weekend with bad weather is weird. I was initially thinking how I really missed out not growing up in a colder climate, but then I noticed that there were no kids anywhere. Well, I saw two at a playground, but that was it. And my neighborhood is probably one of the most child-heavy in Seattle, so I guess it's either xmas xboxes keeping kids indoors, or their paranoid parents. Either way, bah.




After I complained about carpal tunnel, my recruiter got me a wireless mouse/keyboard set. That coupled with the wireless router and card, and Targus laptop stand, has made me rather happy. I installed the Nero DVD codec, and this made Reg rather happy, because now I can watch The Office and not monopolize our TV. Good times.
lauralh: (rain)


Pics on the drive home
lauralh: (rain)
Damn. We have power, and we had people over no problem. No one died and only one person ruined their car. We lucked out clearly.
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
On Sunday we went out to Berserk Games - in the middle of the "snowstorm" - and picked up another Munchkin game, "Munchkin Bites!" Reg wanted the Cthulhu edition but they didn't have it, and the salesgirl - YES FEMALE - said that they could order it.

Last night after the snow had stopped - there was probably about an inch each day - we drove over to Heather's to hang out and play with her and [livejournal.com profile] girlstyle. Ang actually won her first game ever, amazingly enough. We had all got to level 9 and started backstabbing, and I was about to win when she played a switch card. (First to get to level 10 by killing a monster wins).

It wasn't actually late by then, but we weren't eager to drive on the ice. We were actually using my car, since Reg's has rear-wheel drive. To be honest I had been rather terrified before we initially got on the road, but the snow had mostly melted from people getting home and stuff. I probably could have driven if I hadn't been drinking. Not that I drank much but you know.

Today it is sunny but bloody freezing. Reg attempted to go to a dental appt but the office was closed. I guess half of Seattle is closed. There is not actually much snow left except in foresty Bellevue, I guess.
lauralh: (the cheat is not dead)
I am so glad fall is returning. When I go outside at twilight and the darkness encroaches upon the horizon and the wind licks my neck, I can't help but feel a primal sense of restlessness, and I want to dance on a seacliff till I can't see how high up I am.
lauralh: (sunglasses)
Last night I was starving and I wasn't sure why. I had cheese on toast and then roasted a 4lb free-range chicken with olive oil and lemon juice and lots of various spices. Also, spinach salad. I became so amazingly full.

86% humidity. Fuck this.

I'm almost done with Paradise, an amazingly funny novel about an alcoholic Scotswoman and her alcoholic boyfriend. I wonder how much of it was based on her own life. I actually forgot it was a novel till someone in the book said her name.
lauralh: (pirate queen)
Reg brought out half of [livejournal.com profile] hotcrab's old desk and nailed another leg on so I have an actual desk. This means I do not have to go shopping this weekend.

Roro and I went up to the 50th floor of the Columbia Tower and looked all around the city before the haze set in. What am I, in San Fran or something? It was pretty and nearly vertigo-inducing.

I just ate spinach salad, Reg is getting his car back, and soon, very soon, BBQ.

I copied all of reg's foreigner tracks.

addendum

Jun. 22nd, 2005 03:08 pm
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
It's pretty funny to go to a coffee shop in 50 degree weather and look at all the summery treats on posters everywhere.
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
• the heat. Oh, wait, it's the humidity, not the heat. I never believed it till now. I mean, I grew up outside the Atchafalaya basin, a feat which astonishes me to no end now. But, as I recall, the outdoors was never much of an attraction, especially in the summer. Which lasts from April to September. I was always the palest child in my elementary school.

I'm not sure if it would have been better or worse without A/C. In Boston a few summers ago, I got "used" to it to the point that by the end of the week I wasn't completely dying, but I could drink the water there as much as I wanted. But, anyway, I nearly fainted a couple times and that wasn't so great.

• the sunburns. These weren't too bad except my Eucerin face lotion has worn out. Meaning that the one time I slathered it on my arms, they turned pink within 30 minutes. And one day my tank top straps rubbed the stuff off my shoulders, so they got rather crispy. Reg's got worse, or at least more all-over, which was also bad, as it led to a distinct lack of romance. We could barely hug.

• the coffee. Not that I'm a freakin' coffee snob, but I know what I like, and I like caffeine. We had a Krupps in the room but it broke the second day, and while it was fixed a few days later, the local roast was shit.

omfg

Jan. 7th, 2004 09:41 am
lauralh: (Default)
My cable internet is down. Well, cable is down, too. As you can imagine I've been severely bored. Well, not really. Reg came by and we watched some of the Monty Python DVDs he brought over, Steve came home and we annoyed him, and after dinner we went out to bug Pat. Brought him to Flowers (during a slush/ice/snowy drive that I kept "panicking," but I think it's only fair because, well I wasn't driving) where we had a couple of pretty damn strong drinks. Twas nice. But I'm a little hungover today. And I shudder at the thought of Karaoke tonight.
lauralh: (Default)
one

a few years ago in raleigh, nc, it snowed three feet. so the whole city got into it, the only snowplow was working overtime, people with trucks were being paid to drive over parking lots to pack the shit down, etc etc. driving out the apt. complex was nigh-impossible, but i figured out how to do it, and as long as I left work before the black ice formed it was all good.

two

this morning I saw it was snowing and rolled over and went back to sleep.

three

steve called me up from 520 to tell me that it was kind of bad, but if I stayed in 2nd and all that good shit I should be fine. i cleared off my passenger side window, then the driver side. then the back windshield, then the front windshield. got in my car and the passenger side window was already covered in snow. I ran the wipers for a while, moved the car about three yards out of my spot, then moved it back, as my fingerless gloves were killing me dead.

four

the snow died down and I found my full on leather gloves. Put them on and got in the car. Drove down 45th realizing that there was no way I could make it down Market all the way past the Ballard Bridge. Stopped at Phinney, at least, that was the plan, instead I skidded towards a truck. Fortunately I was skidding slowly enough that I could wave at him to back the fuck up. so I circled back around on the main roads, figuring out how to skid properly but still too afraid, and voila, made it home.

wow

Dec. 31st, 2003 11:28 am
lauralh: (Default)
Made it to work ok, this is indeed happy PNW snow that doesn't melt and refreeze on your car. And there's some dudes outside our 2nd story window here with goddamn BLOWTORCHES. Swear to god, they are redoing the "tarpaper" shit that is part sand and part crap, the stuff poor people have instead of shingles you know. It's on the balcony here and apparently must be melted down.

Oh, and it smells terrible, but I have only to deal with it another 20 minutes or so, and then I'm gone to lunch and home. Wheet! And then a few hours later Reg and I are going to Conworks and then I suspect whatever afterparty is going down. I think naps may be in order before this, however.
lauralh: (Default)
[Bad username or site: herbaliser' phonepostid='6 @ livejournal.com]

red lights

Dec. 30th, 2003 10:52 am
lauralh: (cynical or sarcastic)
I remember my last two dreams from last night. First was like, um, characters from Pirates on Mars, trapped by the emperor, but Anne Bancroft was the Empress and well, she made an offer Sparrow couldn't refuse. I woke up before anything fun happened alas. The next one was a bit more complicated, x-men characters looking for another kid mutant I think, but the kid had already been recruited by the govt to be a secret agent? I remember very clearly getting to his house, and his elderly mother letting us in and giving us muffins, and talking about how he keeps getting sent back from foster care. That might work well as a short story, in the PKD sense, where you can't tell if the kid is bad or crazy or gifted. Man I wish I hadn't lost my copy of Martian Time-Slip.



It's been dead cold since the day after Christmas or so. Freezing and all that. Something which I haven't seen since the week after Halloween. I don't like it much; it snowed early Saturday morning and melted and refroze on my car, which I didn't drive this weekend, so Monday morning there was a shitload of frosty crap on my car. Took forever to clean off, but at least the remainder melted quick. Today it's cloudy in the standard Seattle manner, which means you can see the mountains all around you and they look utterly fantastic.
lauralh: (Default)
It's raining today.

Contrary to popular belief, it almost never rains in Seattle. Oh, you get grey days, and foggy days, and fine mist permeating your jacket, and faint drizzle, but actual rain coming down? Hardly ever. And from what I can tell, the typical "sheets" that most states get when it rains only happens twice a year here.

Which is just fine with me, personally. I always thought sunshine was overrated, but then I grew up in a swamp where a sunny day just meant the temperature would probably be over 90F and definitely over 90% humidity. Even in winter weather (50F) the humidity was that high. But I digress. We're talking about sunshine, which in excess makes things hot and hurts your eyes. Plus it's not very romantic (in the Gothic sense). I've come around a bit since moving to more reasonable climes, but I'll still take a warm cloudy morning over a cold sunny one anytime.

The only thing I don't like is driving in the rain, especially on the freeway with the big trucks spraying water everywhere. Even worse is the trucks on the OTHER side, coming at you, technically shouldn't be a problem, but when they go through a puddle at 60 or more, and it crashes onto your windshield like a tsunami - that's a little scary. You know, that whole bit where you can't see the road because your wipers are only going at the mid-level speed, so they can't get rid of six gallons so quickly.

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