...this is more like voluntary stupidity

slian_martreb @ 2009-09-10T21:41:00

2009-09-11T01:41:51Z

I HAVE A NEW JOB!!!!!!

slian_martreb @ 2009-09-03T14:20:00

2009-09-03T18:21:14Z

It's amazing how, just when you think you're going to break, God (the universe, fate, karma, etc) sends you exactly what you need.

(More to come as details emerge.)

slian_martreb @ 2009-09-03T12:42:00

2009-09-03T16:43:21Z

I have a whole bunch of books that I'd like to sell, but don't want to sell through Ebay (and pay them fees).

Anyone have any ideas? Any interest in knowing which titles I have?

slian_martreb @ 2009-09-01T22:45:00

2009-09-02T02:47:34Z

So I'm working on this needlepoint for le Snugglebug's room.

It is adorable.

I am in love with it.

And, with just a few hours of work left, I realized that I COMPLETELY screwed up one side of what is supposed to be an otherwise very symmetrical picture and if I leave it this way, it will not be symmetrical.

It will take me ages to pull all of the stitches and ages more to restitch it (which has nothing to do with the fact that I don't even have enough thread to restitch. I'd have to buy some).

Frak

slian_martreb @ 2009-08-10T12:43:00

2009-08-10T16:47:06Z

So I'm listening to John Barrowman sing 'Maria' from West Side Story and I'm trying to decide what his voice sounds like and I can't get any more specific than apple cider.

See, I've got Alan Rickman down. His voice sounds like caramel. Rich and dark, slightly sticky and it drips all over you.

Neil Gaimen sounds like a cross between milk and dark chocolate. Though I couldn't explain why. Maybe it has something to do with the smoothness of his voice coupled with the bitterness of some of the things he writes about (and subsequently reads to audiences).

So I've got John Barrowman as easy and light and slightly tart (he can't quite hit the high notes the way he should).

So. Thoughts?

Any other singers/speakers who remind you of foods?

slian_martreb @ 2009-08-05T16:00:00

2009-08-05T20:13:49Z

There is a girl who lives with the taste of colors on her tongue and the smell of sounds in the skin of her fingers, buried deep in every crease and fold of her knuckles. She sees delight in darkness and daylight, love in life and living. She knows the whimsy of wishing and wanting, the sadness in both catching what eludes her and what she may never find. She appreciates the hard work required of success and, sometimes, that of failure. She may see Nargles and other such silliness, but they help to draw stark lines around seriousness and solitude. She's known the fight for friendship, and has the scars to prove it on her heart and hands. She knows that those scars will linger longer and pull harder than those left by her enemies; they run much deeper and truer, after all.

-----

Sadly, that's where I lose her. Perhaps I'll come back to this?

slian_martreb @ 2009-08-04T16:03:00

2009-08-04T20:04:17Z

I really like this

NSFW cookies

slian_martreb @ 2009-08-03T16:41:00

2009-08-03T20:45:14Z

I can taste nostalgia when I listed to Sting and the Police's Every Step You Take.

*appropriate icon is appropriate*

slian_martreb @ 2009-07-23T11:13:00

2009-07-23T15:32:01Z

Be warned: I am writing this as I type. This is not copied from a Word Doc

If Remus would be one to talk, he would tell you that the world slowed.

Then stopped completely.

He would tell you how a flash of light exploded and how he watched, horrorstruck and frozen as it arced through the air, slower than time.

He would tell you how things sped up rather quickly after that, once it reached its mark, hitting Sirius's chest with a force that propelled Sirius backwards, stumbling, arms wheeling around to try to gain purchase on the air, on something.

But anyone who was there could tell you that was nothing there to help him, to stop him and so they all watched, Remus watched, all sound and thought muted, his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest as Sirius fell slowly through the Veil and disappeared.

If Remus would be one to talk, he would tell you how, in retrospect, he was moving before he was even aware of it. How his self and soul reached out, trying to grab Sirius back before it was too late. But the only thing he managed to catch in his arms was Harry, stopping him from doing what he himself wants to do more than anything.

Hary, the poorest substitute for love if he had ever found one.

He would tell you how he felt his heart stop, just then, as he pulled Harry against his chest to keep him back.

He would tell you how he felt every happy moment and memory in his life become colored black by the final sight of Sirius falling.

He would tell you how he knew, just then, that it was the end of all that was good and true in the right until that moment.

If Remus were one to talk, he would tell you how he lost his soul with Sirius that night.

But Remus is but a shadow of himself and shadows do not talk.

slian_martreb @ 2009-07-14T13:43:00

2009-07-14T17:47:29Z

So. I have two bathrooms in my house. One on the ground floor and one upstairs. I spend most of my time upstairs because that's where i sleep and that's where I work. With rare exception do I use my downstairs bathroom.

Today, in a rare exception, I used the downstairs bathroom. In entering the bathroom and turning on the light, I knocked over the toilet brush.

First question: why did my cleaning lady leave the toilet brush by the door instead of in the corner?

Second question, upon looking down at the floor to pick up the brush: What-- what-- WTF? EWWW

Apparantly, my cleaning lady left a USED AND BLOODY TAMPON IN MY WASTEBASKET WITHOUT A GARBAGE BAG.

AAAAAND!!!

Just so that we're clear: I do not mean the APPLICATOR (which she ALSO left) I mean a USED AND BLOODY TAMPON IN MY WASTEBASKET WITHOUT A GARBAGE BAG!!!!!!!!!!

Please excuse me while I gag for the next week.

slian_martreb @ 2009-07-12T00:34:00

2009-07-12T04:35:31Z

I'm about 44 minutes into the fifth day of Torchwood S3 and I can honestly say that I don't think I've ever been more horrified by anything in my life.

slian_martreb @ 2009-07-01T15:00:00

2009-07-01T19:00:44Z

Oh. And Spock is, apparently, not speaking to me.

slian_martreb @ 2009-07-01T11:16:00

2009-07-01T15:25:33Z

As I mentioned about thirty seconds ago to V, the fire has gone out of me and my writing.

In case you haven't noticed.

So maybe that's why I'm drawn back to LJ and posting; to get something out of me and onto paper -- even if it's the virtual kind. I stare at my notebooks and I wait for inspiration or a bang to the head or something that'll make a few thoughts click into place and help create a story for me to tell.

I read a poem last night that I wrote -- well over a year ago if not more. I'm pretty sure I tried submitting it to MNFF once as an add-on to CHOHW and it got rejected for not having a clear enough connection to HP. Regardless, I don't think I could write anything like that now.

Even here, the words I'm typing are coming out like teeth at the dentist; painful and bloody and tense.

Ben thinks that le Snugglebug should inspire me to write, but she doesn't. She inspires me to blow raspberries on her belly (which she hates) and to go 'nomnomnom' on her neck (mmmm), but words? The only words she's inspiring are 'A baby. A baby. A baby, baby, baby' as I rock her to sleep.

I really wish that this wouldn't depress me. But I've been writing, in some form or another, since I was in fifth grade and ten years old. That's more than half my life. So the fact that I haven't really written anything that is in any way creative in a year (whether fanfic or otherwise) is devastating.

Seriously. There ought to be a rehab program for fallen writers.

slian_martreb @ 2009-06-24T12:45:00

2009-06-24T16:48:52Z

I may still have the weight of the world on my shoulders, but the weight of my hair? Is gone.

Remember when like, almost two years ago, I got my hair cut <a href="http://slian-martreb.livejournal.com/172623.html#cutid1>really, really, really short</a>? Well. It's SHORTER now. <strike>And my face is fatter</strike> I donated it. Or, well. I cut it, so that I could donate it. I just have to call up CL and find out where to send it to. I cannot take a picture of the hair that's left on my head, but I will try to take a picture of the two braids later and post it. I would almost cry except that I'm so happy I'm finally getting to donate it after all these years. The monkey/snugglebug/mis's hair is longer in the back than mine is now. And her hair isn't even long.

slian_martreb @ 2009-06-14T13:24:00

2009-06-14T17:25:43Z

My father is absolutely the bestest.

That is all.

slian_martreb @ 2009-06-12T10:04:00

2009-06-12T14:05:28Z

My aunt Brenda has five kids.

Three of them have swine flu.

I know that this is going to make me look stupid, but:

WTF? We're not even allowed to eat pig/swine?!?!?!?1

Love After Love

2009-06-11T16:34:20Z

Stolen from dogeared

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

—Derek Walcott

slian_martreb @ 2009-06-04T14:40:00

2009-06-04T18:53:02Z

I am tired and bored and have a seven week old baby. Please do not ask how 'bored' fits into that statement because by all logic it shouldn't.

Even baby nonewithstanding, my job is all messed up. They don't need me to come back until June 22 and, when I come back then, it'll only be for four hours a day. If the business is still in business at that point, then I can go back full time and through out the season.

In the meantime, I'm working on sending out classifieds to all the LKWD weekly publications for people to call me directly for sales on stuff we have on the site. Any sale that I make in LKWD earns me a 10% commission, so I'm excited about that. (2/4 classifieds sent out already; 3rd has to go at 12 a.m Friday morning; I'm waiting for pricing on the 4th).

Which brings me to this: One of the weeklies had a classified from someone looking to rent their cotton candy machine out during the summer.

Now, Ben got me a popcorn machine about this size for my birthday (I'm so lazy. I should just go downstairs and check but I can't be bothered) and I was thinking that I should rent it out too. I mean, at $25 a day (I imagine I can get away with that, if not more), it's easy money on something I don't use often.

The publication where I want to advertise it is free.

Now, Ben is not so excited with the idea cause he doesn't think it's big enough for someone to want to use it for a carnival (no risk to me, as the ad is free), he thinks it might break (no risk to me; I would request that whomever broke it paid for repairs or replaced it) and that it's a PITA to clean (I would request that it get cleaned; my mother says no one cleans anything they rent. Even if that's true, and it takes 10 straight minutes of cleaning, that's a lot of money for 10 minutes of work).

So I see this as win/win situation, even though Ben is not pleased.

He does admit that it is my present and if I want to rent it out that's my business, but I don't want him to be pissed.

So. To rent or not to rent, that is the ultimate question.

slian_martreb @ 2009-05-13T16:23:00

2009-05-13T20:28:35Z

Can someone please explain to me how my one month old baby turned over in her crib today?

Can someone please also explain to me how I have a baby that is a month old? Truly, the mind, it boggles.

In other news, I am obsessively watching Rescue Me and plan to be very bored once I've caught up with the current season. Ben is watching SPN just as obsessively.

What else....

I will post pictures of her nursery as soon as we get her furniture.

I am also accepting suggestions for The Bun's LJ nickname. The best I can come up with so far is Mis, since those are her initials. Which sucks, muchly. So, help?

slian_martreb @ 2009-04-03T10:59:00

2009-04-03T14:56:09Z

My job is in danger and the business is on the verge of bankruptcy and Boss Lady decided that four days after I'm due is a good day for her to take a free vacation to Arizona.

I think I'm going to cry.

slian_martreb @ 2009-03-17T11:53:00

2009-03-17T15:59:32Z

So the first fantastic news actually started on Friday, when I found out that we were okayed by Fisher-Price to add them to our site. This is fabulous because that means that I can get my high chair and bouncers and swings and crap at cost, instead of paying for a 50%+ mark up by buying this stuff in-store. By my math, even at cost, the stuff all comes to close to $400, so I'm saving a lot of money.

Second fantastic news is yesterday. I called the woman who I went to for my birthing classes and asked her if she'd mind including a piece of paper about the site in the information packets that she gives out at classes, figuring that all the people going to her classes are first time mothers and need to buy all of this crap at one time. I mean, any one order that comes in from her should be a fairly large order out of necessity, right? She said that it would be her pleasure.

The THIRD fantastic piece of news is that when I mentioned/proposed the whole idea to Boss-Man, he said (with no prompting on my part) that he would offer me some kind of incentive/commission for the orders that come in through her, since I would be handling all of them.

*quietly freaks out*

The FOURTH piece of FANTABULOUS news is that I am getting a new oven! For free!!!

My grandmother was telling me over the weekend about how she doesn't like hers and so I explained that, really, hers is much better than mine because it's only six years old and mine is from The Time Of the Flood; it doesn't even have a clock on it.

My mother just called to say that my grandmother decided to get a new oven for Pesach and so long as I can figure out how to get it from Brooklyn to NJ, it's mine. It is further fantastic because as it happens, I'm going to be in Brooklyn that week (since Ben will be in Israel) and am due to go back to NJ the day after she gets her new oven for a doctor's appointment, so I can get it in and out within 24 hours, versus having it have to sit in my car for a week or going into Brooklyn special to pick it up.

So. Stoked.

slian_martreb @ 2009-03-05T11:54:00

2009-03-05T16:56:10Z

It is enough excitement. I have had it with the muggings and the car accidents and the lack of financial security. Really. It's enough. I promise. I'm not sure what the point is that I'm missing, but I don't care anymore.

Genug already.

Me

slian_martreb @ 2009-02-14T21:38:00

2009-02-15T02:39:13Z

This is absolutely fantastic.

slian_martreb @ 2009-02-06T12:25:00

2009-02-06T17:17:06Z

Trailer for the third season of Torchwood.

I am, like, so scared to get excited about this. Because all of my favorite television has sucked this year.

I could almost cry.

slian_martreb @ 2009-02-02T21:17:00

2009-02-03T02:17:27Z

Ow

EDIT: It occurs to me that I never mentioned whether or not the insurance was sorted out. For those who care, it has been (for the time being) and I just have to worry about the usual expiration at the end of this month. I'm hoping for that to get taken care of through my grandfather. Will try to remember to keep you posted.