So much to say

Jeremy left a few hours ago to head back to Daytona after a very fun-filled week, the greatest accomplishment of which is that my car is finally legal!

He came in Wednesday, and we went and hung out at work (which was a total loss, with two tables) and after work went out to pick up the exhaust manifold from an AutoZone in Lilburn which was an adventure in itself... It wasn't just in Lilburn, it was out in like NORTH Lilburn (which is a big haul, for those of you who don't knwo) and we ended up getting home at like midnight. We were home around 1230a and went straight to bed.

Thursday, I had to go out Ptree Industrial to the Hyundai dealership to pick up the last gasket we needed and then ran all over the place on the way home to pick up other stuff. I spent so much money this week, and even though I needed to do it, I'm just still kind of in shock because it was a great feeling having a cushion! But, I won't have to pay any tickets, so I guess it evens out :D

Thursday night, we went and got Jeremy fitted for his tux and got the wedding party set up after a trip to Sears to look at tools and multimeters; I got an idea of what I can buy him for birthdays and Christmas and Valentine's for the next few years, which is kinda nice since he's so hard to buy for. I'm hoping I have enough money left to get him a gift card to Target for the webcam-- he misses talking to Valerie, and I know he's dying to talk to Ana, too! After Sears and Men's Warehouse, we came back in to town for a Single Malt Scotch tasting at Palate. I'm not big on Scotch, so it was more for Jeremy. I had a glass of wine and a snack. The tasting was a lot of fun, our distributor (Bill) is very educated on the industry and has been doing this for years. After that, we went to El Tesoro to try and catch Bo and grab one last snack before we went home, and had the Oaxaca with serrano peppers and other spicy things-- I was very happy Jeremy said it was the spiciest thing he'd had in a *long* time! He loves spicy, but he's still stuck on this green chile pizza he had in India, so I keep trying to find something that has comparable spice! We came home and watched the season finale of Burn Notice, which wasn't quite as action-packed as I'd expected, but it set up a really interesting premise for next season, which thankfully starts in June! This is why I love watching shows on USA!

Friday was a little less hectic. I went to register the car, where I dealt with this woman who wouldn't give me the sticker for my plate because I didn't have the same address or the same last name as my mother! GAH! I've been doing the registration for both of our cars for the last seven years, and never in my life have I had the same last name as my mother. We went through this ten minute thing about how I needed to be her power of attourney or have the same last name and address or get this paper notarized saying I had permission before she finally admitted I could pay for the tags, get the receipt, and they would mail out the sticker on Monday-- yes, this means that the car is registered. The sticker is a formality so that the cops don't have to bother with looking it up if they have better things they can do. I was waiting to get pulled over so I could say, "Sorry I don't have the sticker, officer, but I don't have the same last name as my mother." Ugh. You would think by now, people wouldn't be stuck in that mode. I mean, there are women who don't change their last name when they're married (like my mother, who was a published author and poet at the time), there are divorced parents, there are parents who have re-married after a divorce or death of a spouse-- it's just not uncommon to find a child who doesn't have the same last name! Plus, does that mean if I found someone with the last name "Sizemore" I could waltz in there and take their registration?

When I got home, we killed a few minutes, and then hopped on the bike (Jeremy brought up a helment for me) and went to lunch with my godmother, Gail, who's going to be doing our wedding service. I hadn't seen her in a while, so it was really great not only to have her meet Jeremy, but to hear a little about the old neighborhood and how everyone's doing. We went to Top Spice, which was sooo yummy-- they do Thai and Malaysian food, and the lunch is way more affordable than dinner. Jeremy had, I think, the Spicy Basil Leaf, and I had the Beef Rendang which looks a little unappetizing, but was very good. Plus, we got to knock off another restaurant in town for Jeremy!

After that, we came home and got in the car and went to little Fernbank, where we briefly went through the exhibits (they're pretty old and kinda small-- they do have one of the Apollos, though; I think it's VII which was the last unmanned mission?) and then out in to the Forest and Nature Trail which was greatly expanded from the last time I was there with Dill! The chickens are still there, and they have a beautiful black and white rooster who looks very French countryside and prances around, and the old rust-colored hen was still there chatting to herself. We went on about a 30 minute walk, which was very pleasant and quiet and it was very beautiful outside! Post-Nature Trail, we hopped up the street to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History where we saw their cool new exhibit on fossils and the dinosaurs, which included fossils you could touch and moving models of how they think the dinosaurs would have moved! The exhibit was really cool, especially if you're a geek like us!

Around 7, we headed out to the ASO for the first time in I don't recall how long! I used to go with Gail all the time, but when I started having my own performances I stopped being able to go to theirs. I said something to Valerie that night about how happy I was Ana liked music so much, it reminded me of the ASO for Kids program they used to do (still do!) on the weekends. We went to all of them, even right after my mom had Casey. He was about seven weeks old and she'd tried to get rid of the tickets but couldn't, so she went thinking that since it was a kids concert, she'd just step out if he started crying. Instead, when the first violin started their warmup note, he turned his head around and watched the entire thing in complete awe. I think babies and small children are naturally drawn to music, possibly because of language, and if you really encourage that connection they'll grow up close to music. I played an instrument, but I was always more of a dancer-- Casey can listen to anything once and play it.

Anyway, we went to see Jennifer Koh, who is a really extraordinarily talented Korean violinist-- apparently she's being billed as the Korean Midori. The ASO was as fantastic as I ever remember them being, and we were second row orchestra right, so we were right in front of the low strings (which was kinda cool since Jeremy plays cello). The first piece was absolutely perfect, they played the intro to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and it was just stunning. The second piece, which was the one written for Koh, was... interesting. She was stunning, the orchestra sounded fantastic, and the ASO singers (several of which are church friends of my mother's) sounded great, but I just don't take well to choral pieces written for music (if that makes sense) especially when it's modern English poetry put to the music. The third piece was another special commission, more poetry to music, which was supposed to be "celebratory" according to the composer and ended up more like a joyful dirge. Thankfully, there was a solid turn-of-the century piece at the end and we all left feeling good about the night. We went and got some late night snacks and then went home and finished Lucky Number Slevin (which was fantastic, by the way) and hit the hay.

Saturday, we rode the bike up to North Georgia and rode through Red Top Mountain and Kennesaw Mountain, and through part of historic Marietta. There was a little confusion on the way back, and we ended up halfway to South Georgia, but we weren't too far gone before Jeremy finally figured out I was trying to get him to turn around because he'd missed 20E! It was a nice day out, though, so neither of us was too put out, it just took a while to work my shoulders back in to place after nearly five hours on the bike!

Last night, we just went and picked up a pizza at Kroger, and ran through Krispy Kreme, and then came back and packed and watched some HGTV and FoodTV. Oh, we also watched The Relic, which was supposedly based on a Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child book and pretty much NONE OF IT was related to ANY book I've read by Preston/Child, much less Relic or Reliquary. It was also made in 1997, but looked like it was made in '91, with Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller looking all sorts of mis-dressed and running around yelling and screaming. It was good for cheese, but nothing terribly special-- I wouldn't recommend it.

Gmail is on Crack

In a string of computer issues that have lasted me the better part of the last week, Gmail is being cranky and won't work my chat so I bit the bullet and downloaded the AIM program... blurg.

Last Thu, my computer got assaulted by spyware and malware, which prompted a full wipe and reinstall of everything on it. Then the video wouldn't work, turns out there was something wrong with the formatting and so we had to fully wipe and reinstall everything again. It's such a pain, you forget how much stuff (flash, acrobat, and other plugins) has to be re-installed every time you do it. I'm starting to think maybe Amy's Magneto curse has extended itself to me!

This week's looking much better than last in the sales-and-tips area, so I'll have enough money to get Christmas for Jeremy and Emily and (with any luck) pay my first installment on the next credit card to be paid off. I bought myself a flickr pro account for Christmas since I've been meaning to for years and re-discovered so many wonderful pictures! I really missed the ones from Austin-- they got deleted in the last great computer debacle and I only had them on Flickr. Made me miss Austin all over again. And, of course, my Dill! Hopefully she'll have some free time over her break and we can catch up; she's been so busy with her teaching gig I've hardly talked to her! Also, with any luck, the airlines will keep having great sales and I can go out there this summer and see her and maybe help her move in to her own place. Maybe scout around some Ducati dealerships and see if they'd be interested in hiring Jeremy. The guy at the place in Southaven said he'd be interested, but I don't think either of us want to go back to that city...

Aaaanyway, this week should be good. I'll finally get to meet Emily's friend Aileen, I get to tag along on their wedding dress shopping day and try to start figuring out my own, and I figure if Emily and Joanna like her this much, she's a shoo in for someone I'll get along with. She's got some really amazing designs (she's a fashion designer type, went to SCAD), and seems all around like a chill girl. I also get to continue convincing Jeremy he doesn't need to buy me a Christmas present; it's very sweet he wants to buy me pretty things but he really doesn't need to!

Last night I went up to El Tesoro and had a margarita and some snacks with Bo and the staff up there-- it was a lot of fun and the food is phenomenal-- if you haven't been and you're in the area, you've GOT to try it out. Really authentic, all the food is made from scratch. I haven't done a restaurant review in a while, so I'll put up more tomorrow.

I also have a new bed, which is really kinda nice. I can put pillows up all around it and have kind of a place to sit and be cozy and there's a real mattress so it's not like the old one that killed my back every night! Whew! I actually pretty much slept through the night last night, though I still have the problem of having too dark a room to wake up in. If it's dark, I just want to roll over and go back to sleep!

I think that's almost everything, really-- nothing as exciting as laser tag last week! I'm going to give in and have some Ramen since I'm walking to work tomorrow (that stuff sends your caloric/fat intake through the roof!) and I'm starving and then hit the hay. With any luck, I'll make at least $40 tomorrow and then the YMCA party on Wed won't bomb like the homeowner's one last week and perhaps I'll make a full $200 this week! Whoo!