Bringing Party Favors to Hell

Ardent and I were devastated to learn yesterday evening that Betty (Bluster on LJ) passed away earlier this week. We don't know details, but it was apparently natural causes. They are holding a memorial for her on Monday. If you would like a link to the obituary please email me at kelliedru at gmail.com and I will send it, I just didn't want to post it publicly.

If you would like to make a donation in her name, I think one of the Humane Societies near her would be the perfect place, as she always said she was "one of those crazy cat ladies."

Aurora Humane Society
1301 23rd Street,
Central City, NE 68826
(402) 694-2738
(they don't have a webpage I could find)

or the Central Nebraska Humane Society.

I am going to miss her something awful.

ETA: my son ran across this quote earlier today- it seems very appropriate.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

--William Penn, More Fruits of Solitude

So ... Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse tonight. SCC kinda pissed me off, not ten minutes after I was telling someone what a great job they're doing with the show. ( spoilery rant behind the cut: )

As for Dollhouse, I just have one thing to say: Enough with the frakkin' Lolita outfits on Caroline/Echo, for God's sake!!! (Or mine, at least.)

(When I logged into Semagic to compose this, it reminded me that it was thamiris' birthday. Which is weirdly ironic considering the topic I ranted about above. And it also reminded me how much I miss her.)

The weekend was gorgeous-- in the fifties both day, clear and sunny. And today we've got snow! Again. Good thing I decided not to put the hummingbird feeder out yet. Ah, Colorado, one never gets bored with the weather here. (Well, that's not true actually, but most people don't find sunshine boring...).

I had a really nice weekend. It actually started on Thursday night when the kidunit did some foils for me (he's in cosmetology school) and then Friday I got to go in and be the guinea pig for his hair-cutting test. So I got color and a cut for basically the cost of supplies. Not bad! Also, the cut came out fantastic so we're both really happy about that. His teacher said that if he can cut my hair (which is ultra-fine, curly, and has at least 3 cowlicks) well he can probably cut anyone's hair well. :) Friday night we tried a new place for dinner-- Pasta Bozza. They are primarily a fresh pasta vendor but they also do a variety of home-made Italian dishes. Their 4-cheese ravioli in pink sauce daily special was very good, as was the fettuccine with chicken, sausage, artichokes and grape tomatoes. Their mascarpone berry tart was absolutely fantastic. I'd like to try some of their other dishes. They could use some real china rather than paper plates to serve on though-- that's just a tad too casual for me. At least they had real flatware, not plastic.

Saturday, ardent_muses came over, and much fun was had! She brought me a present of the 1968 Zeffirelli Romeo & Juliet which we'd been talking about in email recently. It was the R&J of our youth and we both had the original cast recording (yes an actual vinyl LP!) of it which we played it over and over again, and memorized the entire thing. It's really neat to have my own copy of the actual movie now! I can still quote most of it word for word. I had a present for her, too-- I'd found some NASCAR Harlequins at the grocery store and so I picked one up for her (I blame her new NASCAR fixation squarely on celli and her SGA/NASCAR AU, Fireball!). I can't wait to hear how it is!

We watched most of (everything but the first 3 which we already watched a few weeks ago) Band of Brothers which is a favorite of hers. It's really an amazing piece of work-- the cast is absolutely terrific. Why is it that so many British actors can be so convincingly American, but the opposite is not usually true? Odd, that. I kept trying to place the guy playing Sgt. Muck (Richard Speight Jr.), and failing, but I looked him up on the IMDB just now and had to headdesk. He's Deputy Bill in Jericho, and The Trickster in Supernatural. No wonder he looked so familiar!

About 6pm we called a time-out from the TV and went out to a local favorite restaurant, Turley's, for dinner (they had some great Mexican specials: she had the sopes and I had the rellenos). Ardent hates to shop, but has been saying for two years now that she needs new clothes so after dinner I dragged her over to the local Coldwater Creek store to check out their 70% off sale. Fortunately, we both found several great deals. Ardent even got something 'artsy' instead of preppy. The folks at her office are going to faint. :) Finally we took our booty and returned to my house and watched the rest of BoB, staying up until an unprecendented-in-recent-history 2am to do so.

Sunday was my productive day-- did laundry, ran errands, etc. Bought a new double-ended shepherd's crook for the yard to hang a hummingbird feeder and a suet-block feeder from to supplement the standard seed-mix feeder I already have. Also I saw two new birds this weekend! Saturday I saw either a Western Kingbird (though he seemed a lot yellower than that picture) or a Yellow-Headed Blackbird. I didn't get a great look at him, so I'll need another sighting to make sure. Then on Sunday I saw a gorgeous male Red-naped Sapsucker. Both are new to my backyard birdwatching experience. Also, the grackles appear to be back for the season, which does not thrill me because they are pigs and keep the smaller birds away from the feeder. Grr.

Silliness gakked from lamardeuse follows ( the cut )

And from sithdragn:

Rather than promote or rant about the gay meme thing making it's way around LJ, here's something that represents equal rights for every gender, sexual preference, race, creed and religion. Every human being, period. That's what it's about. Feel free to snag it, share it, link to it, hyperlink it, whatever you choose.

For more information about the Human Rights Campaign, check the Human Rights Campaign website.

Also, I must say I had a truly lovely long weekend with bluster and ardent_muses. We hung out, and watched stuff (3rd season of the BBC Wire in the Blood, lots of Stargate: Atlantis, various other goodies) and yakked, and talked to sithdragn on the phone, and petted bluster's delightful kitties, met her parents, and generally had a fantastic time. The only problem was actually leaving when it was time to go.

theamusedone is in the state to visit relatives and last night he stopped by and we went to dinner, along with brynwulf and my kidunit. It was so much fun! We chatted about everything under the sun, and ate fantastic food and drank excellent wine and just generally had a blast. And the place was crowded and noisy so we could say all kinds of naughty things an no one noticed. :) brynwulf wanted to go to Brasserie 1010 because we'd gone there before and she really liked it. theamusedone had bouillabaisse which looked fantastic-- there was about half a crab in it, shell and all, and mussels and shrimp and scallops and all kinds of goodness. Kidunit had a croque monsieur (ham & gruyere), I had steak frites, and brynwulf had one of the specials, braised rabbit crepes. Of course we had to have dessert, theamusedone got the hazelnut creme brulee (which was yummy but not as yummy as the creme brulee brynwulf's restaurant used to serve) kidunit and I shared some eggy and slighty-underdone beignets (the only disappointing item all night!) with lemon cream sauce, and brynwulf had the moccachino pot de creme which was outstanding.

We had two different wines, a Pinot Blanc from Alsace, and a Vouvray from the Loire. brynwulf and I got a little tipsy so we had to go for a walk before we could drive home. It was a hoppin' night downtown, tons of people, and a perfect cool summer evening. brynwulf had to leave for home but theamusedone and I sat around in my living room for an hour or so and just chatted. Even though we had never met in person before, it was like we were old friends. We have a lot of tastes in common as far as reading, music, and TV. Finally he had to go, he had a 2 hour drive ahead of him, but he emailed this morning to let us know he got up to Vail okay despite the late hour.

Then last night I had the weirdest dream. I realized that even though I am on vacation, I had to go to the office for a few minutes to get something I'd forgotten, and when I got there my front-desk minion was feeling sick, so I told her she should call my other minion and ask him to work the desk so she could go home, but she wouldn't. Then I went into my office to get whatever it was I'd forgotten, and got cornered by an administrator who needed some info NOW. Reluctantly I fired up my computer and found it for her, then I went to pick up my phone and call home to let kid-unit know I was running a little late, but I couldn't call home because there was no 6 on the number pad. So I went to the front desk to use THAT phone, and it didn't have a 6 on it either. I went to every phone in the office trying to find one with a 6 and never found one. It was like I was in an alternate universe where 6 didn't exist. Very, very weird. bethbethbeth thinks that it must be about sex, but I think that's way too obvious (six/sex). :)