Both Hands

Surgery for Matchbox

A week ago, I noticed a strange lump on Matchbox's right shoulder. It was about 15 MM in diameter, and was hard and rubbery feeling. I waited a couple of days to see if it was just inflamed from a bug bite or the like, but there was no change over the weekend.

Monday afternoon Matchbox and I headed to the vet and Dr. Warren took some tiny samples and sent them in for cytology (is that the correct usage of the word "cytology"? I really should have finished that biology class). When the results came back with some irregularities, I decided to have it removed immediately.

Dr. Warren removed the lump with wide margins in case it is cancerous. Even though I was warned that there would be a large scar, I was surprised at the size. Biopsy results should be back in a week.

Matchbox has been wearing a T-Shirt to keep the other dogs from tearing out the stitches. He LOVES wearing the T-Shirt and shoves his head into it when putting on a fresh one.

What a weirdo.

ARCs

Eden left a comment on my You've Been Warned post asking what ARCs I've been reading lately.

First, I have to say that while I've gotten quite a few, I haven't been reading them all that quickly, since I checked out a ton of stuff at the local library within the last month. I'm currently reading Vanity Fair, which, if you don't know, is over 800 pages in 8-point font. I am 300 pages in after a week, so I'm hoping to be done by next Wednesday or Thursday if I get some good reading time in (judging from the weather, I won't be outside too much).

So here is one I've read:

Everything I Needed to Know About Being a Girl I Learned From Judy Blume - Judy Blume always got things just right. A quick read of a collection of pieces examining Judy Blume's books by various well known authors. If you grew up loving Judy Blume books, this will definitely appeal. I felt a little left out because so many of the authors focused on the book Deenie, which I have not read. It's now on my list. Published June 5th.

...And several on my "to read" list:

The Almost Moon - This is Alice Sebold's new book, following the success of The Lovely Bones in 2002. I really liked The Lovely Bones, even though it isn't something I normally would pick up. I'm not a fan of murder mysteries or really, any book that contains gruesome details. So I'll give this a try. Publisher marketing notes that this is a book about relationships, specifically about a daughter and the mother she murders. Scheduled publication date October 16, 2007.

Born Standing Up - Even though Steve Martin has had an uneven movie career, his books have been well received. This is his first non-fiction work about his life as a stand-up comedian. Martin notes, "I ignored my stand-up career for twenty-five years, but now, having finished this memoir, I view that time with surprising warmth. One can have, it turns out, an affection for the war years." Scheduled publication date December 4, 2007.

The Worst Years of Your Life - A collection of stories about adolescence. Billed as "...a collection with something for everyone: classic standbys, familiar contemporaries, and exciting new discoveries." I'm hoping for something similar to Kick Me and Superstud by Paul Feig (of Freaks and Geeks fame), which are hilarious in a totally wrong and disturbing way. Scheduled publication date August 21, 2007.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - The title of this one pretty much gives it away. Written by AJ Jacobs, who took it upon himself to read all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica to write The Know-It-All. Opposite the title page is a full page of snapshots of Jacob's gradual beard growth over the year of biblical living, which cracked me up. The conversations I've sampled between he and his wife are highly amusing. Scheduled publication date October 9,2007.

I'll do my best to get to some of these over the next month.

What is UP with the weather?!

Hey, guess what? It's June! It's officially summer! And the weather is crappy.

There have been a few days of nice weather, but it always seems to be bracketed by dark clouds and rain. I realize that I'm in Western Washington, but come on already! Last year at this time we had warm sunshine and gorgeous white puffy clouds.

I feel like I've put in my time this year with rain, snow, and gray skies. I'm due for some consistent sunshine! No more nights in the 40s!

Weather report shows that Tuesday next week we may get up to 79 degrees. But of course, over the weekend, it will be raining.

You've Been Warned

I have an ARC (advance reader copy) of the new James Patterson book You've Been Warned, which will be published in September.

I am not a Patterson fan so the book will go to waste, but if you want it - shoot me an e-mail at ensie1(at)gmail(dot)com. I'll even pay for shipping.

BTW - if you search "You've Been Warned" on Google, the second hit that comes up is this site about cow abduction, which is pretty funny.

Seven Random Things

I have been tagged by Violet at The Adventures of Action Girl. Seven random things about me:

1. I listen to NPR a lot on the radio and very rarely listen to music radio stations. 95% of the music that I listen to is stuff that Frinklin has researched, downloaded, and put on a CD. Fortunately, he's really good at finding great music. Even the stuff I initially hate I will usually grow to love over time.

2. I wear pajamas to work unless I have a meeting.

3. I make up voices for all of my pets.

4. I am a terrible speller. Spell check is my best friend. (see? I almost spelled "spell check" as "spellcheck" which is wrong!)

5. I used to be really good with money, but I find I'm getting worse as time passes, which really frustrates me.

6. Despite having 14 tape dispensers around the house, I can never find tape when I need it. Or any of the 3 pairs of scissors, either.

7. The first person I ever really fell in love with was a woman. She is still a good friend.

Frinklin and Erin - TAG! You are it.

Cuz it's Wednesday

Oh, Flight of the Conchords, how I love you. And now you have a television show on HBO - awesome!

If you're smitten, you can also check out Jemaine in Eagle vs. Shark.

Bookseller Shelves

Because I know you're keeping up with what's on my Wist list, you may have noticed that I deleted the bookseller shelves last week. That's because I finally ordered them and they arrived today.

Old side tables (click to enlarge mess):

New sidetables:

Yes I have a lot of shoes. Shut up.

My plan is to get some cute boxes from IKEA to use for the stuff that was hidden away in drawers.

Your E-mail Has Exceeded Your Storage Limits

In the spirit of cleaning house (because God knows I won't physically clean the house), I deleted 300 e-mails from my work in-box today. I finally got tired of getting the "Your e-mail has exceeded your storage limits, please delete some of your Goddamn e-mail!" messages every time I tried to send something.

I live with the constant paranoia that I might need, at some time, any one of those deleted e-mails. It never fails that once I do a mass deletion, something in one of those e-mails becomes crucially important to have or else the company might go under.

I do still have 167 e-mails in my in-box, just in case.

Heroes

How edgy I am! I am about to write about Heroes while everyone else in the world is talking about the Sopranos finale.

Because there is the wonderfulness that is the DVR in my home, we tend to record and watch in blocks, sans commercials. I tried to watch Heroes live once and nearly went insane not being able to fast forward through the commercials every 8 minutes. I know it's a popular show. I know they probably have more advertisers than they know what to do with - but seriously? It's fucking up the show something awful to have six or seven commercial breaks instead of the usual four. I refuse to watch the show live for that reason, so the commercials are all lost on me, anyway.

Incidentally, my sister nearly had a fit when I was in San Diego for her wedding and she couldn't talk about Heroes with me and Frinklin. I'll have to call her tomorrow so we can discuss.

So anyway...we're about to embark on the "final chapters" of Heroes tonight, but I cannot get the Mohinder/Sylar needle in the neck scene out of my head. I had nightmares about it last night. And even though it's not the same, all I can think is - just like an epidural. Can't wait 'till I have kids!

Those $30 groceries from 1998 are finally paid off

The mortgage refinance is finally fucking over. It actually closed a week ago exactly, after much freaking out and last-minute faxing.

The most wonderful part of this whole thing is that all of my and Frinklin's credit cards are completely paid off.* So satisfying to pull up the various card websites and look at the account balance reading "Balance: $0". I haven't been free of credit card debt since I was 18.

*Please do not remind me that the money has really just been transferred to a mortgage that I'll be paying off for 30 years.

Wedding Photos - Villa and Flowers

Make sure you check out the extended entry for more photos!

View from the villa:

Red rose centerpieces:

Bride's bouquet, detail:

Entry to bridal villa:

View out our villa door:

Centerpiece

Bride's bouquet, front:

Bride's bouquet, back:

Detail 2:

Three bouquets:

The Wedding Week

I'm home! Finally! It feels like ages since I've been able to relax with Frinklin, the dogs, the cats, and one angry, old cockatiel.

The trip to San Diego for Katie's wedding was fantastic, if quick. There was no down time at all. The flight down was Wednesday night, and we got to my parent's house at midnight.

Thursday morning there was coffee early in the AM before my Dad left for a few hours of work, then I kept Katie company while she had various body parts waxed. The entire female side of the wedding party also had manicures and pedicures - I was at the aesthetician's for six hours total. Our matching toes did look beautiful.

My Mom, Katie, and I left at 9 the next morning to pick up the wedding dress, my Mom's dress, and sister/bridesmaid's dress in Orange County. We thought we would be gone 4 or 5 hours, but ended up running numerous small errands as well, which only took, oh, NINE hours or so. There was the car that needed washing to alleviate the smell of kerosene that had spilled a few days earlier, the shoe cushions to enable us to stand for hours on end in heels, clear deodorant/antiperspirant to keep from marking the dresses, shirts that buttoned to be discarded after makeup was airbrushed on, and somewhere in there we had lunch.

At 6:30 on the dot, we arrived home - the exact same moment that my Uncle and his family (4 in all) showed up from Arizona and the notary public from the escrow company handling our mortgage refinance knocked on the door. There was utter chaos as the dresses were brought inside, wrapped in blue plastic so no one could see and hung on fake "busts" to retain their shape. I'm sure the notary thought we were insane.

The wedding rehearsal took almost the entire day Saturday. I got my first look at the winery location, which was absolutely gorgeous. Growing up in San Diego, Temecula was always considered the middle of nowhere, but it has really come into its own in the last few years. We drank sparking red wine while waiting for the wedding coordinator on the balcony, then spent an hour lining up and randomly bumping into each other trying to figure out the ceremony itself. I was told all wedding rehearsals are rather random, and somehow it all comes together on the actual day, which it did. The rehearsal lunch was delicious and we were home by 4 to sit by the pool and relax.

I'll write about the wedding itself in a separate post. It was fantastic.

Frinklin and I drove the newly married couple to LAX (and only got lost once) on Monday morning. They were off to Hawaii for a week of hiking, surfing, and relaxing. We picked up chinese food on the way home and the entire family spent the remainder of the day lounging poolside.

I had about 10 minutes of feeling calm, as the escrow company called me the next morning asking for some specific documents that I needed to provide. I spent several hours on the phone with various people, paranoid that I wouldn't be able to get them what was needed to close the loan on the following Friday. The panic lasted until we left for our flight home that afternoon, fortunately everything fell into place just as we were leaving.

Arriving home was weird - the dogs were all being boarded until the following morning. The cats loved it, once they realized were weren't crazy strangers breaking into the house. Percy took about 2 hours to stop leaping straight up in the air every time I touched him. It was actually pretty amusing, as each kitty freak-out would cause all the other cats to panic and scatter as well.

We picked up the dogs the next morning, and there was much laundry to do in preparation for the trip to New York. I was out the door at 5 AM on Thursday for BEA!

Again - a wonderful trip, but it made me glad Frinklin and I had eloped. I could not have handled all the drama and craziness surrounding a real wedding. Kudos to my sister, though. She handled it all, looking beautiful the entire time.

Greetings From NY!

Technically, at the moment, I'm in New Jersey, but I was in New York all day, so does that count?

I've been walking my feet off at Book Expo America over the last couple of days. Very, very exciting to see all the new titles coming out, and to pick through the piles of galleys (uncorrected book proofs) to find the jems. The haul home for this event will be relatively small, as shipping the books is incredibly expensive and I can't check another bag. So far I've sent a couple of boxes home and will try to cram another 15 books into my already overstuffed suitcases. I have a strong feeling I'll be paying the $25 fee for a heavy (over 50 lbs.) case.

I'm staying at the Sheraton Suites on the Hudson River, which is adequate. Nothing too fancy for Bob's Hogs employees. The air conditioning is good, which is all I've really been concerned with. It's been incredibly hot and humid - temperatures in the 90s with rain falling in the afternoon and evening. Each morning and afternoon I take the ferry into New York. The water is disgusting, but the breeze is heavenly.

I took off my wedding ring because the heat and exhaustive days are causing my fingers to swell a little bit and it's uncomfortable. Apparently I've opened the door to getting hit on - I had one guy chat me up on the ferry and another ask me my name in the elevator. He also asked my room number, but when I declined, he watched me get off at my floor and watched while I went to my room. I walked well down the hallway, then when the elevator doors closed, I returned to my room which is almost directly across from the elevator! I was going to go down to the bar to get a drink, but on the off chance I run into the guy, I think I'll pass and hit the city for dinner instead.

I met Alison Bechdel today, which was awesome. She was signing the paperback edition of Fun Home and when I introduced myself as the Buttock Champion of the World she laughed and asked to get a couple of pictures with me (!!) The woman behind me in line was asking for pic with Alison, and I felt slightly special having Alison ask me.

My last hour at the Javits Center today was spent at a librarian session about how to select and purchase graphic novels for a collection. It was an excellent panel, very funny. The speakers consisted of librarians who assist with developing their own libraries' gn collections, a comic book owner, and a couple of consultants. One librarian has her own site, no flying no tights, and another developed the manga rating system for publisher TokyoPop. The panel ended their discussion with recommendations, which is what everyone really wanted (Just tell me what to buy! Don't make me research this scary thing!). Several manga items were listed, and Bone, Owly, and Amelia Rules were the kids suggestions. For teens I suggested Invincible, someone yelled out Runaways, and the comic book store owner mentioned Walking Dead, which I think should probably fall into adult, especially considering the torture issue that came out recently. Strangers in Paradise was recommended for adults. I wish there was more time, I could have suggested several more.

Time to change for dinner! More soon...