Mood: Crazy going slowly am I 6-5-4-3-2-1 switch!

...is not as good as I remember it.

I swear I remember it being really tasty when I used to bake it all the time years ago. Same recipe... new taste buds maybe? In any event, shamed by the idea of wastefully tossing an entire loaf into the garbage, I'm instead utilizing the left over buttercream frosting I made for a batch of cupcakes a couple of weeks ago and slathering a slice of unappetizing mocha loaf in confectionery sugar to make it remarkably more yummy. This is part of my effort in cutting back on the excess money I usually spend on fulfilling my daily chocolate fix, which reminds me that I should probably use some of my excessive, unemployed free time in the next couple of days to bake some more cookies before we go camping this weekend.

I can't wait to get in our first camping trip of the year~ Other than the fact that I really enjoy camping (which really in essence makes no sense if you know me at all) and we got the chance to do so very little of it last year, I'm looking forward to this weekend in particular as I feel it will be a nice "break" from what has begun to feel like my never ending period of sitting around on my unemployed ass. Job search. Send out resumes and cover letters. Hear nothing. This has become my average day and it's becoming discouraging. I realize there is in fact little difference from sitting around a campfire for hours doing nothing but reading and eating junk food, than sitting on my couch and just reading and eating; but I feel at the very least the switch in scenery might be a refreshing change. Plus it will force me to upgrade from pajamas to grubby camping clothes.

Speaking of clothes, my god nothing makes you want to shop more than being unemployed with no growing income. I blame all of the episodes of What Not to Wear I've had the chance to watch recently. Luckily I've been stockpiling a small amount of guilt-free clothing funds for a while now in the form of mall gift cards from my birthday as well as two Winners gift cards I have on order from cashing in our left over Save-On More points, and when they come in I'm going to do some very light, feel good splurging~ X3

In the mean time I still have our monthly Value Village excursions, which despite the looks I still get from some people for shopping at, I adore wholeheartedly. I have brought home some amazing, practically brand new finds from that place for pocket change. My recent Value Village highlights have been a really cute black pencil skirt that'll look saucy with a pair of heels (good for any interviews *crosses fingers* I may get), several very pretty tops, and a sweet blueish white plaid fedora that I think I sort of pull off but I'm still trying to figure out what to wear it with. All pieces that I had to thumb through tirelessly through racks of crap to find, but that I believe my little Stacy London shoulder angel is happy with.

It has just only occurred to me that what with the way my allergies have been spasming out on me lately, this upcoming weekend of fresh air and the great outdoors may not be as refreshing as I'm hoping it to be and may in fact kill me. How many extra strength Reactine can you take per day while fueled on a diet of nothing but campfire hot dogs and nacho cheese Doritos?

PS. I'm excited for so many movies being released over the next couple of months, holy cow. Iron Man 2, Sex and the City 2, Robin Hood, The Last Airbender... typically I don't even know what's ever playing at the box office. Very exciting, and I still have movie money stockpiled from Christmas to boot! *Glee!*

Mood: Lazy Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Yesterday I finally got a chance to see How to Train Your Dragon, and I loved it~
It was such a sweet story and the characters were all so enjoyable and endearing, with emphasis on Hiccup and Toothless in particular. Toothless is by far the most adorable dragon in the history of ever -- it's like they took this cute little chibi-deformed looking dragon body and stuffed the soul of an oversized house cat into it. While browsing DeviantArt, I came across this quick scribble that made me laugh because it so accurately portrayed my own experience in the theatre with my big soppy tears the instant the dragon-befriending montage began. (Art by BehindtheVeil.) It's been a while since I've seen an animated movie that I've enjoyed so thoroughly, much less a 3D animated film whose computer sculpted characters I've instantly loved and wanted to see more of. It makes me want to draw fan art! :B

I have a confession. Over the last week or so I've sort of, um, stopped doing my exercise regiment... I was doing really good for a couple of weeks and then I shirked my workout one day due to a headache and then never picked it up again. I'm a slave to habit, but I break it once and can't ever get it back afterwards. ^^; So yeah, a little ashamed at how pathetic I am at keeping any type of fitness goal. Maybe it's a sign of some sort that I'm forever destined for limp, weak, noodley arms.

Mood: Torn!

Pretty sweet trailer for The Last Airbender is finally out! XD

I am so excited and at the same time so dreading this movie. Excited beyond all reason in the fact that they're bringing this wonderful series to the big screen; dread because they're already RUINING IT with all of the blatant whitewashing they've done to the cast. D:{ Instead of keeping with the original feeling of the show being richly multi-cultural, they've thrown Caucasian actors in all of the protagonist roles with the token stereotypical colored villain. The hell, Hollywood?

Don't get me wrong, I think it's unfair for people to say that twelve-year-old Noah Ringer is not deserving of the role of Aang. I'm sure he'll be great, but I'd just like to know what put Ringer's audition tape over and above someone like this kid who actually IS Asian and has some amazing skills (I swear, he copies some of the exact moves Aang does in the show.) Admittedly, the white cast all look better once you see them in costume, but they're still very obviously white -- most noticeably I find in Katara and Sokka. It's jarring. The guy they have playing Zuko (who I'm sure will still make a very good Zuko, all you need to play Zuko is BUCKETS OF ANGSTY LULZ) would have made an amazing Sokka appearance-wise, in my opinion. For different non-race themed reasons, I'm also disappointed at the change to Iroh's character who's gone from the jolly old fat man we loved so much to a slim, if not sinister-looking soldier (...with dreadlocks...?) I just can't imagine Uncle Iroh's obsession of tea and evening sing-a-longs coming out of this guy. It makes me sad. ;_;

I would promise that I'd boycott the film by not watching it... but that would be a horrible filthy lie, because just as with the horrific HP movie adaptations, despite how awful they are, I watch them each time anyway because I am an obsessive fangirl and my fandoms demand no less of me. I can't help it, the trailer looks so good! >_< (Damn you conniving Hollywood production studios and your sexy special effects!) I may, however, scowl furiously when I see Shyamalan and his casting director's names scroll across the screen.

Mood: Cautiously optimistic

It's a little early to be placing bets on which gossip and entertainment site has the real spoilers -- if any in fact do exist yet -- but most I've seen tend to favor the same general mix of the following two collections of upcoming character plot bunnies for SatC2. (I think it goes without saying that if you like Sex and the City and hate movie spoilers, you should stop reading now.)

1. First batch of sparkly spoiler love
2. Second serving of slightly different though not any less intriguing spoilers

Personally I really like the idea of curtaining the entire movie within the current financial recession. I think it gives us an interesting (and most likely hilarious) chance to see how each of the girls -- and when I say "girls" I am also bunching poor Big in with the ladies -- who are overall all used to having pretty free spending habits, handle the financial dip. (Hopefully it doesn't effect their wardrobes too much, I wouldn't want to see the pretty Clothing Porn aspect of the movie suffer.)

• Carrie: Main plot point seems to be that the Preston household loses their millions somehow. I can't decide whether Carrie or Big would be more traumatized by this, or if either of them really would be at all.

  Some sites elaborate on the Carrie story and are saying that she gets *shudder* pregnant, which are my worst dreams come true and I hope to god isn't true, because the Carrie/Big dynamic just does not do babies. It's wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. D:

  Then there's the people also saying that Big cheats on Carrie, while others are saying that Aiden makes a reappearance and Carrie cheats on Big with him. *Boggled* Frankly I find both hard to believe simply because it's a "been there, done that" *groan* scenario any way you look at it. Carrie's cheated before, with Big on Aiden (WTF? Like Aiden would ever in a million years cheat with anyone. Give me a break.) in season three, and after the fallout from that incident I doubt her character would ever risk having another indiscretion, especially on Big. As for Big, I think if they make him let down Carrie one more time it's going to be overdone. We've had six television seasons of Mr. Big being an on-again-off-again douche, and the wedding betrayal from movie one was in sense the climax of their long-time relationship drama -- if they try to top it again, if you're not already a longtime Big hater then you've got to start thinking, "so WHY is Carrie with this guy...?" Hopefully I'm hoping that no cheating either way occurs, if not anything than to pay some respect to both characters and their assorted pasts. They need to stop leeching primarily off the Carrie/Big relationship drama and get a new theme. :P

• Charlotte: I highly approve of the potential Charlotte/Harry paranoid-is-he-cheating-no!-he's-building-you-a-sweet-dream-house plot. LAWLs and appropriate heartbreak and resulting sweetness will abound, as only two characters like Charlotte and Harry can pull off.
• Samantha: In a horrible way I really love the concept of Samantha's breast cancer coming back into play. It was one of my favorite story arcs though out the series, showing Samantha both at her most vulnerable and strongest moments.

  On the flipside, I don't know how I feel about her possibly going back to Smith. :P They already went through the trouble of bringing Samanatha back to her roots at the end of the first movie, why go all flip floppy again? At the very most I hope they just end with the two of them remaining really close friends, with Smith being there for her through her illness, etc etc. Move forward, not backward!

• Miranda: I have no idea what to think of the proposed Miranda plot. Sued for malpractice? Leaves the law firm? D: Starts a restaurant with Steve? o_O WHUT? Srsly?

I understand why some people are all outraged by some of the apparent character turns for the girls in these spoilers, but the way I look at it as soon as the sequel (and I hear now a third is in the works) was confirmed, you sort of had to expect the sad but inevitable franchise milking to begin. I think these prospective storylines both have their merits and downfalls -- but again, you sort of have to take it with a grain of salt until plot points are confirmed with IMDB or similar. In the mean time, however, I'll accept a mish-mash of the above theories until I read evidence otherwise.

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: Excited for her holidays to start~ X3

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!