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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in neonhummingbird's InsaneJournal:

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    Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
    5:23 pm
    Made it home, kitties are here, Jack is trying to sit on the keyboard, yay! Plane got off on time and picked up a tailwind so we landed 30 minutes early. Then there was a bus coming just as I got off the El; can't beat that!

    (I also got to enjoy myself flirting with a sailor about 12 years to young for me while we walked to and waited for baggage -- much fun had by all!)

    Oh, and Hermione just jumped into my lap -- gotta go cuddle kitties. Hope everyone had a groovy holiday!!!!
    Saturday, December 27th, 2008
    10:52 am
    I can say with some authority that Wii Sports is big, big fun. I can also state that if you're playing Wii Tennis and get too into your serve, you will pay for it. < rubs sore arm and shoulder > This will not, however, negate the Big Fun. Yes, the kids got one for Christmas, and yes, they can already kick my butt at pretty much everything. I figured out how to serve a smoking ace for one game, and spent the rest of the night trying to duplicate it -- thus leading to the sore arm. :P

    Have also bought many used movies at bargain basement prices, a ton of romance novels (very hard to find used in Chicago proper), and a hummingbird calender. Saw The Tale of Desperaux, and it was okay -- wonderful animation, my god! And an amazing voice cast, but I felt the whole thing was just too earnest to be really enjoyable. They didn't have enough fun.

    And I'm 1300 words into the crossover. Eee. Not sure if my Abby POV is exactly there, but it's not bad.

    Wow, it's late. Breakfast!
    Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
    10:42 pm
    Every Christmas Eve post always sounds the same. Ice skating at the Galleria, whee!! Godbabies, whee!!! Muppet Christmas Carol, whee!! Yuletide tomorrow, whee!! :)

    Well, I hope all of your fondest traditions have been upheld, and that tomorrow brings a merry Christmas (or winter holiday of your choice). < hugs >
    Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
    5:49 pm
    And while I'm spamming...


    Go me; that's the earliest I've ever finished Yuletide. (Actually, I finished it last week, but was letting it simmer before I tweaked it.) Un-beta'd for the first time in a while, because this fandom was really obscure, but I'm still quite pleased with it.
    4:46 pm
    On a lighter note...
    If you're not watching Leverage, why on Earth not?

    Seriously. Capers, people. Kind of incompetent capers, with key elements of sneakiness done in plain sight of everyone on the planet, but still. Capers. Cons. Thievery and break-ins. Hideously complicated, old-school Mission: Impossible scams with improbable electronics, ridiculous set-ups, cracklingly funny dialogue, quirky characters, somewhat stylized directing, and highly deserving victims every week. DUDE.

    ETA: What [info]christinenj said: Ocean's 11 meets the A-Team. YES.

    Bonus: Christian Kane. Yes, he needs a haircut, but Eliot will kick your collective asses before the bag can finish dropping, without his pulse rate rising above 50.

    And then there's Parker, "20 pounds of crazy in a 5-pound bag", who is blonde and hyper and completely mental and totally doesn't care. And Hardison, who is gleefully geekier than anyone ever, and still manages to be cool and funny. And Sophie, an age-appropriate romantic interest for Timothy Hutton who is also quirky and damn cool. And Nate (Timothy Hutton, which I'm okay with now that I've mostly gotten over expecting him to be John Shea because... well, he just should. John Shea would be kicking the ass of this role. But I'm mostly past that), a good guy who cannot get used to the fact that this many 'bad guys' work for him, even when he's kind of loving it, and therefore they are all monitoring his drinking. (Except when he and Hardison break out the beer and popcorn to watch Parker break into someplace. :) )

    TNT is airing episodes out of order, which is going to annoy me a lot, because the writing staff appears to actually have character development and some emotional resonance in mind and airing out-of-order will, of course, make said development much harder to follow. But it's still massive fun.
    4:06 pm
    I was planning on doing a whole post comparing my trip to Abby-con to a leg of the Amazing Race (complete with some weird detours), but honestly, it was getting kind of obnoxious, so I stopped. I'll sum it up instead: 2 days, 3 time zones, 4 planes, 5 cities. Friday alone involved a bus, a train, a plane, a plane, a monorail, a train, a streetcar and a car. You see how I was having Race flashbacks. And I didn't get to meet Phil! < pout > I feel so gypped.

    ( Seriously, though... )
    Thursday, December 11th, 2008
    11:30 am
    Thanks for all the good wishes, guys! Course over, and it went well, yay! My boss said I did really well and the handout is very good, which is good. :) It ran about 15 minutes long, so I was jumping around on the fly, trying to figure out what needed to be covered in the scheduled hour, and what I could distribute later as my Tips and Tricks publication for the folks who had to leave. There's only one thing I wish I'd done differently; the rest is all good.

    I'm apparently good at this. Who knew?

    Now, if I could just stop sweating through my shirt every damn time. I don't dare do these without a jacket anymore. :P

    < big sigh of relief >
    9:23 am
    Heading downstairs to our big, shiny Learning Center in a few minutes, to present my new Powerpoint course to about 45 people, including VPs. Eee. I desperately want this to be over; I like writing courses, tech writing is fun ad I'm good at it, but presenting them is nerve-wracking. And I really, really want this source of stress gone from my life until January.

    (Which reminds me, Horsechicks: I'm bringing my mini-DVD player and my DVD of Forum with me to SF -- we'll have at least one source of a visual reference for staging the funeral scene.)

    Wish me luck. :)
    Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
    9:57 am
    I don't know about the whole stages of grief thing; so far, all I really am is sad. It's getting somewhat easier to push through it -- Christmas shopping in the Loop Monday morning was hard, and going back to work yesterday equally so, but functioning seems like less of a chore today. So I guess that's good. Oddly, I may be turning into a stress baker; I have no interest in doing anything at home except mainlining NCIS and baking. Low-fat brownies and banana-almond-date muffins, which have the added benefit of being something resembling nutrition that I'll eat even when I don't actually want to eat anything, which is a little bit of an issue at the moment.

    (Note to self and other Horsechicks: I don't care if you're not hungry. Low blood sugar makes everything else that much harder to handle. Eat, damn it! Also, soda is not food; neither is caffeine.)

    Made my flight reservations for the memorial; coming in Friday afternoon, going back out Saturday afternoon. Flying visit, oh yes.

    Have to teach my new Powerpoint 2007 courses the day before I leave for SF; ask me how much I don't want to be working on putting them together. And how much I don't want to have to get up in front of crowds next Thursday.

    (Do I have any NCIS on my iPod? ...Yes, but it's the third-season finale, which I haven't seen before, and therefore can't listen to at work. Nuts. No, I don't know why I'm using NCIS as my coping mechanism -- something about the levels of angst and humor and Tony and goth!Abby are just very comforting right now.)

    Back to work; lots to do, not much time remaining in the year to do it. < hugs > to everyone who's checked in and sent condolences -- it helps.
    Monday, December 1st, 2008
    9:10 am
    My Memory Post for Abby
    ( Posted to Abby's Memory Post )
    8:12 am
    Remembering Abby
    We've set up a link on the [info]horsechicks community, that we invite everyone to use to post their memories of Abby -- quotes, links to her posts (or to yours), stories, pictures or anything at all that reminds you of her or would have made her laugh, for whatever reason. The post will be open and we will share it with her mom and dad.

    Abby Albrecht, 1975-2008
    Sunday, November 30th, 2008
    5:49 pm
    I would give anything in the world to have better news. Abby died peacefully this afternoon.

    I don't have any words. I'm sorry, my friend. I loved you. Sleep peaceful.
    9:06 am
    Update on [info]tv_elf from her mother this morning:

    "Abby had a very rough night and is now on a respirator and non-responsive. The doctors still have hope and so do we. Her lungs are having trouble with exchanging oxygen and co2. [Her father] is with her right now and I'll be back there soon.

    "Please keep those prayers flying to heaven. With God's help, I'll have better news soon."

    Please keep the good thoughts, people.
    Saturday, November 29th, 2008
    3:43 pm
    On the off-chance anyone who knows her hasn't seen this yet, [info]tv_elf was admitted to the hospital last night. Her mother hasn't been able to get us any details, other than her situation is complicated. If we find out more, one of the Horsechicks will post it, along with a lot of others, I suspect.

    Please keep her and her family in your thoughts, wishes and prayers.
    Thursday, November 27th, 2008
    11:11 am
    Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends fully Rickrolled the Macy's Parade! < dies laughing > And they got Rick Astley to come out and do it himself, which he seemed hugely entertained by. :) For the WIN!

    YouTube link

    (Also, the staging for Little Mermaid really does look cool; I love the way they use the heelies to give the impression of gliding. Nice translation.)

    I love me the Macy's Parade!

    (Oh, and another giggle, gakked from [info]marag: a roundup of recent financial reporting from the NY Times. Deeply funny.)
    Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
    1:41 pm
    TAR! Legs 5-7, Catchup
    So, seriously, this season has been overall kind of unappealing, and I haven't managed to work up the energy to do posts. Sad me. Just imagine Phil is reading this to you. :)

    ( Previously, on The Amazing Race )

    Leg 8 Coming Soon.
    Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
    1:00 pm
    Dear Yuletide Santa:

    I find myself saying the same thing pretty much every year: please don't write me slash. I accept it as a lifestyle choice for others, but most slash does very little for me. Gen is of the awesome, het is very, very nice, I'm quite easy-going in any of these genres. Any fic is good -- but please not slash.

    Have I harped on that enough? And then some, probably. Awesome. Moving on. :)

    I'd prefer avoidance of NC-17, and I'd prefer a lack of OCs and AUs -- if I didn't really like the canon, I wouldn't be in the fandom. But I'm pretty flexible on these things -- if your Muse inspires you to them, who am I to argue? Mostly, I just want us both to have fun.

    Go forth and write; I intend to be gleefully pleased with whatever I receive.

    Thanks,
    Perri
    Monday, November 10th, 2008
    5:38 pm
    Dirty Dancing: The Stage Version
    The other thing I did this weekend was go to see Dirty Dancing, the pre-Broadway engagement here in Chicago. I knew going in that it was going to be weird; i was still unprepared.

    ( Detailed spoilers for the show, not so much for the movie, which you've all seen. )
    11:17 am
    This is the first post I've made in weeks that doesn't involve politics. Wow. I blame Aaron Sorkin. I was happily apathetic and apolitical before The West Wing. :P

    Anyway, spent Saturday running errands and helping my friend T sort out and shelve the huge pile of books on her office floor. She kept thanking me profusely, and I kept saying, "Dude, this is fun for me. you're totally soothing my OCD tendencies." Also, I got paid in books and shandy, so pretty good deal.

    Sunday was the day o' football and baking. The baking was more fun, unfortunately; my Bears suddenly realized in the fourth quarter that they were supposed to be playing football but, sadly, it was too late. :P Regardless, I left work on Friday with a bunch of overripe bananas which were clearly crying out to become banana nut muffins. I fooled around with Alton's recipe (substituting Grape Nuts for a small part of the oat flour, which I couldn't find, and adding dates). Next time, I'll chop fresh dates instead of using packaged ones, and they didn't rise as much as I wanted, but otherwise, yummy! And wow, did my new mixer do a damn fine job of reducing bananas to mush. :) Also did cast-iron corn bread, using my dad's recipe and adapting it per America's Test Kitchen (now in my recipe book labeled "Dad's Corn Bread (ATK Remix)"). Came out pretty near perfect -- golden and crunchy and moist.

    Also finally watched the season finale of Primeval. ( Spoilers for Primeval )

    Oh, and I signed up for [info]yuletide. 'Cause I'm nuts. :)
    Friday, November 7th, 2008
    10:10 am
    Now that all 7 parts have been posted, I can point everyone towards Newsweek, and a deeply cool series from reporters behind the scenes of all three campaigns (McCain, Obama, Clinton), Secrets of the 2008 Campaigns. Fascinating stuff, even if I would have preferred (as Jon Stewart pointed out) that some of this stuff had been published before the election, not after.

    Seriously, though, really absorbing and fascinating; I've been reloading with the same fervor I was reloading fivethirtyeight.com before the election, waiting for parts to drop.
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