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.

My Christmas shopping is officially finished, with a whole day to spare. Go me! Wrapping presents last night was a whole new adventure with the cat intent on trying to steal my tape, borrow through gift bags, and tear up my tissue paper. If my wrapping this year seems more shoddy than usual, blame Iroh.

I'm extremely sad that I still don't have any new boots yet. They originally arrived last week but unfortunately in a size that was slightly too small -- and I had them for all of twelve glorious hours before I finally relented and returned them and asking to re-order a half size larger. Hopefully the 9's they're sending me will fit perfectly. This is why I don't ever buy clothes or shoes online, I hate purchasing stuff before I have a chance to try them on. :P Boot fail.

With an absence of any of our usual big trips this past year, I took advantage of all of my saved up vacation days and am looking forward to a nice, extended Christmas holiday this season. During this time in between all of much tasty turkey gorging and shameless post stomach-full-of-turkey lounging, I am determined to:

• See Avatar (who wants to go with me? SOMEONE GO WITH ME!)
• Finally go and get my H1N1 shot so as to avoid dying of dreaded piggy flu.
• Play more Guild Wars. My warrior needs some loving.
• Sit back and finally get a chance to do some drawing. ;_; I miss drawing so much, I can't believe I haven't managed to get anything new done in almost a year. I had all of these wonderful intentions to draw a bunch of art pieces as gifts this year for Christmas, but as it is now nearing the end of December that plan has obviously flown out the window. Art fail. :x

OOH OOH OOH and there is a very strong possibility that I may have in my possession a shiny new iPhone by the end of the holidays~ However, this is still sort of teetering on the knifes edge considering the rational and very frugal part of my brain is overcome by guilt about such a frivolous purchase and the thought of a $20+ increase in my monthly phone bill. Inner turmoil, INNER TURMOIL!

Another one of our infamous Alberta winters officially arrived this weekend and has royally kicked our ass. My usual 45 minute transit ride home on Friday evening took an hour and a half, and there were some particularly tense moments each time our bus tried to pull away from a stop with its tires spinning frantically in the curbside snow drifts. I have to admit that one thing I really miss from condo living is waking up after a big snowfall and POOF! the walkway and parking lot had already been cleared by some unseen entity. Shoveling snow sucks. The fact that our driveway is freakishly long compounds on the suckage factor. *Pout pout pout* Where are all the tiny children who are supposed to ring our doorbell and offer to shovel our driveway? What a bunch of slackers.

On the upside from the past week, I finally got my (temporary) engagement ring! I still have to wait a few weeks for my custom-sized one so the one they gave me for now is like two sizes too large, but it has a little sizing bar bit that snugs it up to my finger enough that it doesn't fall off. Either way, it's pretty and sparkly and is something to show to people that says "Look look! I really am engaged, it's not a giant sham!" *Loves her new ring*

I finally sucked it up and ordered a pair of actual winter boots, as my kiss ass little dress boots that I somehow managed to wear all through last winter provide neither traction nor warmth of any kind to speak of. While it was a $100 I wasn't really inclined to spend right now, they're very cute and I'm excited for them to arrive (and I know my toes for one will be eternally grateful.)

Sigh. I can't believe how fast this month is going. December is so busy. It's dawning on me much slower this year that I really need to get a move on a buy some Christmas gifts. :x (0/6 gifts purchased... EEP.) It's going to have to be a very small Christmas gift-wise, what with mounting monthly bills, credit cards with some big purchases on them, and now we're saving for weddings and cruises; all the while with Mason back to school in his final year of school starting in March. *Must save save save save* :x

Ther33e was something else I'm sure I wanted to include in this post, butzzsssssaaaaaaa kitttttttasaaAAAATY HAS chosen thisppppppp mom ent to insist on trying to find a comfortable spot to lay directly upon my keyboarrrrrr55rrffvvvv-- /....... WTF kitty. I am giving up on any more of this,6ti

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*

So Christmas was good, a little more relaxed this year for a change which was pleasant. I am happily overflowing with chocolate in my house now. X3 I also got four seasons of Doctor Who burned from my lovely sister, which I've started to dig into as well as the first seasons I've downloaded of both The Tudors (YAY! Henry is HOT!) and Dexter (very creepy... but good.) I have the first episode of True Blood ready to go too but it's taken a back seat for the time being since I have all these other splendid series' to watch.

I went out and immediately bought the Dark Knight on special edition DVD since I didn't get it for Christmas, and while the movie is still absolutely amazing, the so-called "special edition" features leave something to be desired which is extremely disappointing. Seriously, they're crap. You'd think with a blockbuster this big they'd pull some punches and do up a sweet set of extra features. :P Where are the interviews? The deleted scenes? The so-badly-craved featurettes on the making of the Joker and Two-Face? Where's the MEAT? ;_; Apparently there's a completely new documentary as well as extensions of the other features on the Blue-Ray, but not on the DVD? Christopher Nolan, you cheap bastard.

I've always enjoyed the Joker as a character, but the Dark Knight has put me in somewhat of a Joker craze. Ledger was piles of awesome in the film and I'm fairly confident he has a pretty good chance at the Oscar this year even despite his death, and I'm on the wagon that believes he deserves it; despite whether or not there were other actors who could have done just as amazing a job with the character.

With that said I have to admit though that I'm a little torn at certain aspects of Heath Ledger's Joker. Sure, they had the green hair and the trademark purple suit, and while I adore the downright creep factor he brings to the screen, I can't get away from the fact that the Joker in DK always looks like he just dragged himself out of a garbage bin. He's tussled and mangy and reminds me a little of a homeless drug-addict you'd see staggering around in the gutter. A familiar part of the Joker's character from the comics and television has always been that -- while yes, sure, definitely crazy -- you also rarely see him without his hair carefully slicked back and his clothes impeccably clean and pressed. The Joker is a clean-cut and usually charming narcissist in addition to being a stark raving psychopath, and it's always a little jarring watching DK and not seeing that familiar polish to the Clown Prince of Crime. It was a radically different approach to the character and I can't help but love them both but for different reasons.

While in my fangirly craze over the past week, I re-watched the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker animated movie (uncut version) from 2000. I remember now why I loved both the original and BB cartoons, they're so great. *LOL* Kevin Conroy will always be the voice of Batman for me. The Joker in RotJ (now I feel like I'm talking about Star Wars) is the same as the one in the original series but a little darker and sleeker, it's great. (Hahaha and I love the movie commentary during when the Joker is literally killing hundreds of innocent citizens with his OMG GIANT SPACE LAZER D: and the producers and other commentators are like "Oh no no no, those cars you see being vaporized aren't being driven by people! Those entire city blocks of buildings? Oh they're in the abandoned part of town! Don't worry, those people by that blown up fountain were really quick to dodge! We swear!" Sure sure. Way to cover your ass, guys. *More LULz*)

EDIT: OMG I just noticed that the Joker doesn't have eyebrows in the animated series. WTF? o_O Where did his eyebrows go?!

On a final note, I'm a little in love with KidNotorious' Joker art~ *Hearts*

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. >_<