Mood: Mellow

I can now play the first bit of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" on the piano by myself! *Feels proud* I really like this Synthesia program, it's fun times. I think I'll try to tackle "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" next, that one looks a little trickier because there's chords... :x My goal is to some day (years from now, I realize) be able to sit down and play some Journey -- they played it at the dueling piano bar we went to for the Nex Christmas party and I was like *hearts* and *sparkly eyes*.

In lieu of a holiday potluck which were originally going to do, we gathered everyone together and went to the new little Asian buffet. Somehow it managed to escape my razor-sharp casual observation that with the oriental-flavor of the restaurant name it was going to serve primarily Chinese food, but it turned out to be really tasty actually. And they had these wonderful little cheese-covered potatoes that were fantastically yummy~ I'd go back, but considering that they were in the midst of their grand-opening with only a couple tables filled, I don't think they'll be around long... *Sweatdrop*

I am so close to being done my Christmas shopping it's sick! If this damn weather would let up a bit, I would venture out and quickly finish up the last few items! It's really not fair how Alberta can go from a mild -5 to -30 practically over night... may I add that it's also very unfair how my car starter has developed an annoying habit of stopping to work as it gets progressively colder, which defeats the entire purpose. -5? It's good to go. But -30? I have to go out and start it by hand. Someone hates me.

I actually logged onto Guild Wars this weekend for the first time in... *strains* ...ages. I forgot how fun it is and how ridiculously AWESOME my necromancer is. Mason says I only have a couple more missions before I beat Prophecies, and then I want to start using my new ritualist~ With GW and piano, I don't know if I'm going to finish my Grievous picture in time for the contest deadline. >_<

Mood: Slowly getting into the holiday spirit

We've embarked on the Whyte Ave adventure, our tree has been set up, the *motherfuckingsonofabitch* snow has fallen, and as of today I have been to the annual Butterdome Christmas craft sale. I always spend far too much money at those dang craft sales when I don't intend to, this time I came home with another gorgeous Shi Studio necklace -- now I have a green and a pink one! -- as well as giant pile of delicious fudge. I'm not usually a fudge gal, but they had flavors of fudge I didn't know existed! Oreo! Cookie dough! Nanaimo bar! :3 I brought home some Baileys and Tiger flavored ones too for Mason~ I also found a cute bunny-shaped tree ornament to hang up for Toby's first Christmas (he's very excited, I can tell.)

I thought about doing Christmas cards this year, but the realist in me knows it won't happen. =_=; This month is already filled up almost and I just won't have enough time. Next year hopefully.

I went out this evening and finished up half of my holiday shopping in one fell swoop~ I'm going to try avoid going out shopping tomorrow because after this damn rain the roads are going to be like a freaking ice rink, but later in the week I hope to pick up the rest of the stuff I need and be done nice and early. *Crosses fingers*

Closing notes: 1) I am re-discovering my love for my Wacom tablet. I finally found a setting and style of outlining that actually works for me in Illustrator, and looks so very nice~ I can't for the life of me draw trace a path properly with the tablet yet though so I have to practice until my brain can start to move my hand with the right direction and length to match the screen. *DETERMINED* 2) I am shamelessly stealing Tawnie's fabulous seasonal bunny avatar for my own. Lookit how cute he his! :D

Mood: Shiny!

One of these pretty Yamaha YPG-525 Portable Grand's is now mine! :B I found it for a really good deal on kijiji.ca. It was a little over my starter-piano price range ($500), but Mason pitched in half as an early Christmas present~ *Hearts* In a very roundabout return way, he ended up getting part of his Christmas present early too, his much beloved *goes to check name as per Mason's request* Odyssey 2-Ball SRT golf club since it was not-so cleverly hidden in the trunk of my car and we had to clean it out to go get my piano. My actual lessons don't start until January 6th, but in the mean time I have some built-in lessons that came with keyboard as well as this fancy program to play around with~

As a first, I've decided to make an entry into a user group DeviantArt contest. I don't usually pay much attention to contests because I'm exceptionally lazy and never manage to get entries done in time, but the theme was simply "Grievous in winter" and such a piece was coincidentally already on my to-do list. This does unfortunately mean that I'll have to haul ass to actually color a piece of art, which 1) I'm not very good at, and 2) will probably take me weeks because I really don't know how to use my tablet very well at all. *Shame cloud* D: In any event I've got the pencils finished and scanned in, so that's half the battle.

(The picture is obviously in two pieces right now because it's easier for me to draw that way, so you have to use your imagination that there's pretty snow and a dozen more droids in the background and you know... fabulous color.) >_<

Off to Whyte Ave tomorrow with Dad and Chelle for our annual holiday shopping adventure. There shall be donuts... there shall be shopping... and then afterwards there shall be a double-movie extravaganza! (And by that I mean going to see Bolt -- cute! :D -- and then being very ninja and sneaking into Twilight for epic lulz.)

EDIT: Fuck. I forgot Grievous' lightsabers. Fuckity wank bugger shitting arsehead and hole... *Debates whether to draw them in or leave as is* =_=;

Mood: Lunch time. Craving my Oreo Cakesters.

If you're like me and after reading Twilight now refuse to touch the rest of the series that follows (for fear of brain melting), check out these recaps of books 2, 3, and 4's fuckwittery, simply to justify that you're not missing anything remotely worth while. In the words of the reviewer, they're LOLarious. *Steals fabulous word* You will blanch with horror at the so-extra-special badness of Breaking Dawn chapter 18. "THERE ARE NO WORDS FOR THIS" indeed.

Also a concise and amusing catalog of Twilight FAILS, funny because it's so true.

On a different note, I am so excited for next week's episode of House. Gregorz and Cuddy, getting it on~ I demand hot Hugh Laurie face-suckage. :3

Okay and I occasionally venture into the User Art forum here at work, and I've got to say... Kids have a weird impression of art these days -- it's very disturbing. No lie, most of the things in there scare the shit out of me. Then again these are the same individuals who are calling chapter 18 of Breaking Dawn "beautiful". D:

Mood: Tired

We should make t-shirts for everyone here at the office, we really should. None of the chaos or insanity that ensued was at all unexpected in anyway, I mean every one of us knew what we were in for... but that still doesn't make last week any less exhausting. Things are already thankfully starting to die down, so instead of answering messages all day I can actually get some of my other work done.

On a related and somewhat immature note, a big "NEENER NEENER" to Dave. 4,000 hits in one week, SUCKAH! You have been officially pwned.

Oh yeah, I got a Mac finally at work! WOOOOOOT! *Sparkles sparkles* It's shiny and white and doesn't shut down when ever I insert a USB stick into the USB port. Imagine that?

After being impressively ripped off by the chiropractic clinic by my house, I finally made an appointment with a new chiropractor downtown two blocks away from work. He was recommended to me by my Mom's own chiropractor, and I figured the best review you can get is when the guy you're seeing is the chiropractor to another chiropractor. This new guy is completely awesome, he's so nice, but not that sleazy salesperson and steal-your-money type of nice. He rolled his eyes when I told him about my experience with Synergy and I have now been cut from their outrageous 88 initial visits to a respectable 15. I've never felt so good than after I walked out of my first correction with this new guy, I don't know how it works but it just does. (Lesson learned: always listen to your mother.)

I splurged a little when I shouldn't have yesterday and bought a new pretty dress for Ashley and Dan's wedding on Saturday~ It was $30 over my $50 dress budget but I really love it -- black, knee-length, halter-neck; with a strip of little sparkly sequins under the chest. It's so nice, and it does the cute swishy thing when I twirl in it~ *^^*

I miss drawing. I haven't done any art in like a whole year. ;_; The last thing I worked on was a Guild Wars character piece and that's all, I just don't have the time. After I'm done the couple contract work projects I'm currently working on, I think I need a break for some Brenna time so I can work on my own stuff again. *Wistful*

Toby, my dear bun, you must be neutered. The time has come. You're a big boy. Mommy doesn't like how ornery you've become recently -- this whole moody teenager thing, so done with that. Don't try to suck up to me with bunny kisses, you're getting in on the first available appointment.

Mood: Excited~!

Awesome! May 28th I'm going to City and Colour in concert, baby! *Does a little happy dance* I'm happy I bought the tickets when I did -- the seats aren't as great (second balcony, but at least center) but it's all they seemed to have left and now they're saying everything is sold out except single seating, and they don't particularly give you much time to think about your options. D:

Angry Ticketmaster.ca: "You better be happy with these tickets and confirm within 2 minutes OR ELSE WE'RE SELLING THEM TO SOMEONE ELSE!" *Kills kitties*

Brenna: "GAAAH!" *Flail* *Confirm! Confirm! Confirm!*

Hopefully they'll do one of them sneaky ninja-ish last minute seat sales or open up a second show. I don't go to concerts very often but C&C is one of those bands where it's really just impossible for me to hate any of their music so it's worth dishing out the money to see them, plus Mason tells me that Dallas Green is awesome live. Now I have to download all the albums so I can sing along in the wrong key to all the songs. LOOK ADAM -- I'm downloading an ENTIRE ALBUM off Bittorrent! *Is cool now*

Awesome! I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a deviantART subscription. I have sporadic DA obsessive spurts where I'm on it all the time and other times when I ignore it for months on end and spend a week and a half going through my 800+ deviation alerts. But I'm trying to get back into drawing on a regular basis, so we'll see how well I make use of my $30 (deviantWatch thumbnails, hurrah!) I guess.

Awesome! During my most recent reminiscent foray into the TLK art fandom I felt the need to contribute something to the ever-growing and very alarming lack of ridiculously awesome Lion King avatars. You won't really get it unless you regularly watched Family Guy. Or maybe if by some insane notion you haven't heard of Journey...in which you probably shouldn't deserve awesomeness anyway.