Mood: Not ready to go back into the real world again.

I could do with another good week of relaxing. Seeing as that is not possible, however, I shall instead try as hard as I can to stretch out the rest of this Sunday evening. *Cling* Quick and dirty recap of my splendid -- but still much too short -- time off:

• Christmas was good. Got chocolate, a new digital camera, kitty fountains, big comfy blankets and *drumroll* a SHINEH NEW IPHONE! XD Love love loooove my new phone. I'm not sure how I ever managed to last this long without a smartphone.
• Went for a double feature movie day with Sister and friends. Movie one of two: Avatar in 3D. Loved it~ It was one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a while. It was a gorgeous visual feast for the eyes, and I really really enjoyed the whole Na'vi race and tribal culture and Pandora world. You can bet your bottom that I cried big sappy girl tears when they destroyed the Hometree. ;_;
• Movie two of two: Sherlock Holmes. Also very delightful -- and soooo slashy, lololol. Seriously, it was the most slasherific WatsonxHolmes crackfest ever. They bickered and nagged one another like an adorable old married couple. I mean, seriously: "My tongue is going numb. I'm not going to be of any use to you." SERIOUSLY? *BAM! Falls out of chair at BUBBLING HOT SUBTEXT PUNCH IN THE FACE* I kept squirming and imagining at any moment Robert Downey Jr. was going to shove Jude Law down on the cobblestones and have his sexy, snotty British way with him.

  EDIT: for Mike and Greg -- WE TOLD YOU!

• Watched the long awaited, two-part "End of Time" Doctor Who special and was left oddly disappointed. I think all of the over-hype killed it for me. It was cool to see The Master again and the -- extremely brief -- return of the Time Lords was kind of neat, but frankly I thought the whole story was pretty bland. Either way, however, Ten is now all gone and I shall miss him dearly while at the same time I try very hard to remain open-minded and give the new boy a chance. This courtesy does not extend to Eleven's new catchphrase though. ("Geronimo"? Really? *Makes a face*)
• Phoned Ben Moss regarding the status of my ring after already giving them over and beyond their original four week ETA, and they in turn told me that it wouldn't be ready until January 17th. *Deep breaths* If they hadn't sent me on my way with a temporary ring like they did, by now I would entering into that Royally Ticked phase.
• Royally Ticked phase was reached and surpassed after three different calls over the last week with Marks Work Wearhouse though -- when after waiting and waiting for them to order me in a size 9 pair of stylish winter boots, I was notified that no size 9's apparently exist ANYWHERE and I can expect them to be in about NEVER. D: Why did you waste all of that time ordering in the wrong boot style and not telling me certain stores had them in when they actually did, because now everyone else has bought my boots and they're all permanently sold out!!! ARRRRRAAAAAAHHHHH! Will never shop at Marks again. So angry. And now I have to find new winter boots that are not also piss ass ugly, which is no easy feat. The retail world was not kind to me this holiday season.
• Did not get H1N1 shot as planned. Did not play any Guild Wars. Did not draw anything. :x I did, however, do a lot of sleeping. So overall, my holidays were not very productive, but still enjoyable even if I was asleep for most of it. Upon reflection, it was probably a good thing I saved up so much energy sleeping, since I will now most likely need to conserve my strength for when I'm overtaken by a bout of deadly swine flu.

Mood: Feelin' productive

I whipped up a quick no mess, no fuss blog where I will be doing most of our wedding planning and brainstorming in an attempt to not overwhelm my regular blog with marriage talk. It'll be a convenient place to throw around any links, ideas, pictures, etc I find over the next year or so and talk wedding stuff amongst the bridal party. Plus, I think it'll be nice to have some sort of journal-type keepsake of the whole experience to look back at afterwards~ :3

Feel free to follow if you'd like, though most times it'll probably just be me rambling to myself. (Hey, just like I do here!)

Mood: Jealous, but mostly sleepy at the moment.

I just finished watching an amazing documentary on Kevin Richardson, an animal behaviorist for a private reserve in South Africa, and nicknamed "the lion whisperer" by the media for the uncanny ability he has to bond with lions and other wild animals. So good~ It both blows my mind and makes me green with envy the way he's able to interact with these lions and hyenas to the point where he's been completely and fully accepted as one of them.

(More videos on http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za and YouTube; and the aforementioned documentary, "Dangerous Companions", is easily found on Google.)

He reminds me of Timothy Treadwell only way better and smarter, without the apparent crazy vibe and the fact that he, you know... hasn't gotten himself eaten. The interviews and YouTube clips of him are all extremely interesting, and I'd love to get my hands on a copy of his book.

He makes me strongly regret, not for the first time in my life, that I never followed through with my original longing to work with animals. :c I think sometimes that if I could go back to see myself in high school, I'd give myself a firm slap upside the head: "Buck up! Who cares if you're rubbish at science? You could hug a lion some day!" *Whappa whappa whappa!* Stupid fear of science. Stupid fear of giant African bugs. Sometimes I'm just the stupid one. The only possible chance I have now is if I ever get the chance to travel to Africa; or if the fates are extra cruel they'll give me cancer and I will then be in a position to grotesquely take advantage of the Make A Wish Foundation. ("You want what?") In the mean time I shall continue to hug my kitten, who however lacks in considerable size and majesticness *Iroh runs into smack into a wall* makes up for it in 100% pure adorableness.

Mood: Sleepy. Mornings are coming way too early.

Update: I still love my kitty! X3 Iroh is so adorable. And sweet. And cuddly. And playful. And hilarious. And did I mention that he purrs ALL THE TIME? Seriously, it's non-stop, we call him the little motorboat. The vet couldn't even listen to his heart because he was purring too much, lulz. For the last few days we've been allowing him supervised exploration upstairs on the main floor, and he goes crazy with excitement and starts sticking his nose in everything. Very curious kitty. He seems to have a thing for my vase of fake plants in the living room so I have to continuously spray them down with Bitter Apple, but at least he's mostly staying away from the live plants. Unfortunately we have found that Iroh is becoming increasingly immune to the spray bottle -- he hops up on the table and we give him a spritz and he just sits there. We practically had to soak him the other night before he finally retreated. =_=; Maybe it's time to try the double-sided tape trick.

This weekend Iroh and Toby also met face-to-face for the first time after only glimpsing one another from opposite sides of the fence. Overall, it went reasonably well, if you define "reasonably well" as our 3 pound kitten being totally pwned by our tiny 2 pound bunny. :B OMG Toby's got spunk! Go Toby, go!

I brought Iroh in to the bunny room, holding him in my hands initially, and as soon as he got close Toby let out a cranky little grunt and did a little bunny charge at the cat! Who knew my timid little Netherland Dwarf had it in him -- he was all like "HMPH" and Iroh was like "GAAAH!" and Mason and I just stood there going "LOL LOL LOL LOL". It's a very positive start, and by that I don't mean that I'm a malicious jerk, I mean that it's good that Toby established his dominance right off the bat. The kitten needs a good bunny bop on the nose so he knows that messing with Toby is not allowed, and it worked -- Iroh was instantly more wary of the rabbit, exploring the room but staying far back along the walls or hiding behind my legs. For the most part Toby was very calm and laid back -- he just sort of went on with his own thing as Iroh checked out his room and only got cranky when the kitty came too close. Neither of them were hurt at all except maybe Iroh's pride, but deservedly so. *Kitten mews embarrassingly in protest.* We'll try a couple weeks of daily supervised interaction between the two of them and see how things progress.

(Adorably sweet video of cat-rabbit bonding because I'm an absolute sucker for cute videos like this. One can dream!)

We went out on the weekend and I found my costume for our Halloween Murder Mystery. I like it, except the skirt is *coughcough* a little shorter *coughcough* than was most likely appropriate for the year 1900, but for a steal at only $40 I'm not going to be picky. (I swear the skirt does not seem as short on me as it does in that picture! :x Depending on my comfort level I may or may not need to get some leggings...) But ooh, it's pretty and pink! I bought some gaudy gold necklaces to accessorize it with and will have to find something to do with my hair.

Edit: Okay so it turns out that I fucked up and the above costume is not so much 1900 as it is 1700ish. The girl at the store either lied to me or was as clueless as I was when I asked for something Victorian-esque -- though I guess this serves me right for not doing my own fashion era research beforehand so now I'm going to look stupid. *Sweatdrop*

Mood: Playing the waiting game

This is by far the best (and addicting) video I've seen this week. Suggestively lewd geek humor is the best. I still can't get this song out of my head.

I've finally started The Time Traveler's Wife and while I'm only 100ish pages in so far it's lived up to the praise. I'm really enjoying it. It's been a while since I've read a book that's made me look so forward to the bus ride home so that I can continue reading.

This week I also went and saw District 9 which was also great. The plot wasn't anything like I thought it would be -- much more of a documentary than anything like the suspenseful, thriller sci-fi flicks I'm used to (though with the at times almost dizzying camera shaking from Cloverfield.) I liked the aliens; poor Christopher Johnson's drive and motivation to return home and save his people and his love for his son (adorable!) managed to make him seem so human. It was a very different and fresh kind of alien movie. I both hope and dread for a future sequel.

Someone should come with me to see both The Time Traveler's Wife movie (though I'll probably kick myself for going to see it after I've already immersed myself in the novel), as well as Julie & Julia, because Meryl Streep is just piles of win in anything she has a lead role in. Hilarity and awesomeness can only follow.

We finally sold our old tv! Or at least I hope we actually do. The woman who's buying it is driving in all the way over from Lloydminister so she must want it pretty bad. *Looks at clock* She needs to speed it up though or I'm selling it to the guy next in line. Once that giant monstrosity is finally out of our house we can finally buy living room furniture! *Joy* I'm also in need of some nice fake plants for around the house to bring some much-needed green inside, but not inevitably kill. Anyone know where I can find some nice ones at really cheap prices?

Oh god the poor flowers my Mom gave me out in the front of the house are dead already. Oh god oh god oh god. There must be a special little corner of hell reserved for awful people like me who kill flowers, surrounded forever by hellfire and brimstone and piles of dead pansies and tulips. D: *Crafts pots filled with little paper flowers in hopes that her mother won't notice.*

Mood: Watch out, the geek is spilling over

Most awesome anniversary present ever!

*Glomps Mason* They're so pretty~! :B I've wanted a decorative set of samurai swords for years. These are going to be displayed in our living room when you first walk into the house, though the living room in question is still in a bit of disarray right now from the move... *Must get things cleaned and set up for next weekend*

They weren't nearly as expensive as I thought they'd be. I realize they're not even real, authentic weapons; the blades are pretty blunt, but it's not like I'm going to be hacking and slashing with them anyway. They're gorgeous though, and that's all I was going for~ *Love*