Vote for your favorite Star Wars stamp

It's official: The US Postal Service is releasing Star Wars postage stamps on May 25th. (Well, I know what to get SOMEBODY for his birthday this year!) You can vote for your preference online. (It was a tough call for me, choosing between Boba Fett and Yoda, but I picked Yoda in the end.) Interesting side note: According to the USPS web site, this is only the 2nd time in its 256 year history that the USPS is allowing the public to vote on a stamp. If memory serves, the first time was when they had us choose between skinny/hot Elvis and old/fat Elvis. This time seems like more of a win-win situation though...

Parody motivator generator

The makers of Demotivators, parodies of those obnoxious, saccharine motivational posters you see in offices all the time, have created a do-it-yourself parody motivator generator. That's mine there (butterbean volunteered his photo for the cause). You just upload your photo and pick your demotivational phrase and some colors and you've got your very own demotivator.

Thanks to the Generator Blog for this one.

Coming Soon: Hot Fuzz

I can't wait to see Hot Fuzz. It's brought to us from the folks who gave us the great zombie flick Shaun of the Dead (one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time EVER). Simon Pegg stars as one of London's finest, a supercop who takes down the bad guys with a real John Woo flair. He gets somehow transferred from the big city to serve in a tiny little podunk town out in the sticks where nothing much happens and gets paired off with a somewhat incompetent partner. And then these murders start happening in the town and hijinks ensue. Looks pretty funny. Opens in the US on April 20th, but sadly, only in limited release. Which means I'm going to have to truck my ass clear down into Dallas to see it at some cheesy movie grill type place.

Book Review: Flirting with Danger - by Suzanne Enoch

Synopsis: Flirting with Danger is the first book in a series of contemporary romances by Suzanne Enoch. The heroine, Sam, is a master thief who gets hired to steal an ancient Trojan tablet from an uber-rich antique collecting business tycoon (our hero). In the middle of the job, however, she gets double-crossed and the two of them have to work together to catch the real bad guys.

This was the first book by this author that I've ever read. And I don't usually read contemporary romance. However, my participation in a romance readers' group on LibraryThing has broadened my horizons so I picked this one up at Half Price Books not too long ago. The book jacket was kind of funny so I thought I'd try it out. Unfortunately, though, I did not enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.

I found the plot to be pretty interesting - there's danger and a mystery to it, which I like. And I liked the hero a lot - he's rich, British, and sexy (how can you go wrong with that?). But the heroine really got on my nerves. She is obviously supposed to be a strong character - highly intelligent, independent, can take care of herself - which I think are great qualities. But she's kind of, I don't know ... surly. She doesn't seem to have much in the way of vulnerability or approachability at all. It's hard for me to see why the hero likes her (except for the hefty dose of lust between them). And I kept thinking, if she storms out of the room in an attempt to run away from the hero and the situation just one more time, I'm going to scream. And the hero, of course, goes running right after her every time to talk her into staying. I repeatedly found myself wanting to shout at him, "Let her go!!! And good riddance!"

I kept hoping we'd eventually get to see a softer side to her, but it never really happened. And the characters' attitudes toward sex (and the dialog during the love scenes) was a bit cavalier and unromantic I thought. The plot was engaging enough to get me to finish it, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to read the other two books in this series. I'm not giving up on this author, though. I'm still a good enough sport to try out her highly-recommended historical novels.

I only gave this one 2 stars in my LibraryThing catalog

Hanging Cabinets - Part 5: Finishing Up

We had one kind of "odd duck" cabinet that didn't have the same measurements as the others, so we decided to hang that one on another wall. We also hung this one a little lower down on the wall so as to allow for more room on top of the cabinet for storage. We did the same song and dance with the 2x4 and then hung it up. After the cabinets are mounted, you take the 2x4 down since you don't need it anymore.

All in all, this project was really not too tough. It took some time (we spent about 3/4 of a day on it, with various breaks for visiting with neighbors, lunch, beers, etc. Once we learned the trick with the 2x4, we found that this is easily a two-person job. (Although we couldn't have done it half so well without the help of our neighbors.) After we got it going, my husband did most of it by himself, with me helping to hand him screws, brace the cabinet against the wall periodically, etc. The end result was great: we got more storage and a clean garage. And it really looks pretty nice in there now!

Hanging Cabinets - Part 4: uh, Hanging the Cabinets

Once we got the 2x4 up, we set the first cabinet on top. Bracing the cabinet against the wall, we drilled the first screw through the top part of the cabinet and into the stud. We put 3 screws into the top and then 3 into the bottom. Then we went on to the next cabinet and did the same thing.

The smaller cabinets we ended up stacking. They were all 15" high, so we just stacked 2 together and were able to fit 4 on the same wall next to the others. Our neighbor had to leave after we got the first two cabinets up, and the ones we put up all by ourselves didn't go on perfectly (the ones on top seemed to tilt a little somehow and weren't quite flush against the adjacent cabinets) but we decided we're just not all that picky. But if you're the "if you're not going to do a job right, then don't do it at all" type, then you'd probably want to take them down and re-do it. We, fortunately, don't have those kinds of standards.

Hanging Cabinets - Part 3: Measuring & Bracing

Our neighbor, having hung cabinets himself many times before, recommended we mount a 2x4 on the wall to use as a brace for the cabinets. The 2x4 will then bear most of the weight of the cabinet, making it easier to then drill the screws in.

First, you have to measure and mark where you want the bottom of the cabinets to go. We wanted to leave a 1' space between the top of each cabinet and the ceiling. This would allow us space to store additional items above the cabinets. Each cabinet was 30" high, so we measured 42" down from the ceiling and marked the wall. We measured and marked at short intervals along the wall so that we could then line up the 2x4 appropriately. *Important Note: Always measure down from the ceiling and NOT up from the floor. The foundation is floated by human hands and subject to imperfections in height (i.e. - it's not level, or true). The ceiling on the other hand, is designed to be pretty even, so it should be true.

Next we placed the 2x4 along the wall, aligning it with the marks we'd made and then propped the level on top to make sure it was level all the way across. Then we used some really long screws (5 or 6 inches long I think) and mounted the 2x4 to the wall. We used 3 screws and put each into a stud. *Another Important Note: ALWAYS make sure you're screwing into the stud and NOT just into sheetrock. Sheetrock can't really bear any kind of load at all.

Hanging Cabinets - Part 2: Setting Up

First off, we went to the hardware store and got 2.25" screws. It's important that they be long enough to go through the back of the cabinets and well into the stud in the wall. Then we came home and moved most of the stuff out away from the wall. Two of the cabinets were three shelves high and the other 5 were single shelf with 2 doors. They're pretty nice cabinets so they were really heavy. Too heavy for me to really hold up against the wall, actually. We quickly realized that we were going to need another pair of hands. So we called up our next door neighbor Michael, who, incidentally, works for a home builder in the area and knows a bit about home improvement.

DIY Saturday project: hanging cabinets - Part 1

My folks are re-doing a bunch of stuff on their house and asked us awhile back if we wanted some cabinets that they were taking down. I said, "Heck yeah!" because (and this is important) whenever anyone offers you free storage units of any kind, your automatic response should always be "Heck yeah!" And we really needed some storage. We decided to hang most of them in the garage. (We are putting two of them in our bathrooms, but that's another project).

We keep our cars in our garage rather than parking them in the driveway. It keeps them cleaner, safer, and hail damage-free in Texas summers. As a result, we don't have a lot of space in the garage for all the tools, lawn equipment, Big Wheels, etc. Mounting cabinets on the wall to hold all this stuff seemed like a perfect solution. So last weekend, Mama n Daddy came up bearing cabinets and yesterday, we installed them. We sent the kids to stay at their Granny's for the day and set to work.

The following posts go over what we did and what we learned.

How to tie a tie

Today's TipNut points to a great illustrated tutorial on how to tie a tie. Instructions cover how to tie a Windsor Knot, a Half-Windsor Knot, a Four-in-Hand Knot, and even a Bow-Tie.

I was on the debate team in high school and, in the course of events, learned to tie a tie to help out all the geeky debater guys get their act together before a debate. However, that was like 15 years ago and, like most of what I learned in high school, I've totally forgotten how to do it. And as a woman, (unless you're Annie Lennox) you won't exactly have a lot of opportunities to practice the art of tying a tie. However, I believe that this is probably one of those important life skills that everyone should know. After all, you never know when you might need to help out a man in distress at a wedding or some such.

I (heart) zeds

Like my friend puddle, I love zombies. Who doesn't love anything that feeds on the brains of the living? So I got really excited when I stumbled across this book this morning:

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - by Max Brooks

It's written as a series of personal accounts by various people from different walks of life who lived through a zombie world takeover. Cool. And I also hear there's a movie adaptation in the works... Which means I will have to read the book since I have this terrible compulsion to read the book before seeing the movie for anything. And as if that weren't enough, Mr. Brooks, a zombie-book-writin fool, is also the author of The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. Sounds like I've found the beginning of my summer reading list...

Dirtiest desk contest

The guys at Dethroner are having a contest to see who has the dirtiest desk as a part of their spring cleaning theme this week. Mine's fairly tidy, but I wonder if I could enter a photo of oldlady's desk... it would take the prize, hands down.

My new favorite game: Kingdom of Loathing

Being a parent has made me realize a great number of things, one of which being that I must accept the fact that until my kids go to college, I am going to be about 2 years behind everyone else in just about everything entertainment-wise. We get to go to the movies about twice a year, so we got Netflix. We don't have DVR so we just wait the requisite year or two and rent the entire series of a show on Netflix. (Although I firmly believe that renting via Netflix is really the BEST way to watch tv anyway. Instant gratification for episodes and no commercials.)

Video games are no exception. So it was with great delight that I finally discovered Kingdom of Loathing this week, which the rest of the world has apparently been playing for ages. "Oh, everyone's heard of that," my friends all said. Well, I hadn't until Karen, bff and computer gamer extraordinaire, told me about it this week.

It's an online massive multiplayer game set in the mythical Kingdom of Loathing. I forget the premise but it's really not all that important. It's fun. It's low-tech. It's cute. It's free. AND it sparks fond memories of every role-playing game I ever played as a young gamer geek.

I am playing a Pastamancer, a pasta spoon-wielding stickman who wears a hat made out of a giant ravioli and uses his knowledge of noodlecraft to fight the bad guys. As I said, it's great fun. And while you are limited to a finite number of "adventure points" (actions) per day, you get so many I haven't really run out yet. And you don't spend them for every click you make, like in some games (Urban Dead for one), so it leaves you free to run around and explore as much as you want. What it lacks though is a good help feature. The one in the game is ok, but it doesn't have any real index or other organizational structure. UD had a nice game wiki which really explained a lot of the features. However, you do start KOL with a good tutorial, going on a few safe quests to get experience under your belt.

Good times.

Another Colt 45, Billy Dee?

Apparently, Star Wars veteran and dreamy 70's sex object Billy Dee Williams will be starring in an upcoming episode of Lost. (I don't have a legitimate source for this, but hey, 10 million Lost spoiler sites can't be wrong.) I gave up on that show a few weeks back (too many Others, too little time). But I have to say, if Billy Dee's going to be on it, I might have to tune in. ROWRRRRR!!!

The episode, entitled Expose, is supposed to air on March 28th.

March blues and the enchanted April

The month of March is really sucking. It's gray, rainy, depressing. I always get a little blue around February and March every year. I'm suddenly ready for warm sunshine, sandals, and just being outdoors.

So I picked up The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim this week to bring in a much-needed breath of fresh air. I read it about 10 years ago and just loved it. Last time I read it, I literally felt refreshed when I finished it.

It was written in the 1920's and set in that same time period. The author has a very light-hearted and often wry writing style. Like the movie, it's a very peaceful, fun, and soothing read. Also, it's nice to picture all that Italian sunshine, sea, and flowers. And I think it even qualifies as a kind of romance novel. Two of the main characters find romance once again within their own marriages - which is nice to see (especially for those of us who are married and have been for some time).

Of course, when I finish reading it, I'll probably be desperate to watch the movie, which isn't out on DVD yet :(

"but these go to 11..." Nigel's t-shirt from Spinal Tap

Now you, too, can wear Nigel Tufnel's cool t-shirt from the movie This is Spinal Tap. Order it from Found Item Clothing. Gotta have it.

found via t-critic

Track all your packages with PackTrack

I've been using PackTrack for a while now. It gives you one-stop package tracking for pretty much every carrier under the sun. Just plug in your tracking number and select the shipper. The best part about it is that it remembers your tracking number for you and keeps it in a handy list for quick checking. So if you're obsessive like me and check the status of your shipment over and over like five times a day (c'mon you know you do it too) you don't have to rummage up your confirmation email from the vendor.

Book Review: Dark Side of the Moon - by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Synopsis: Dark Side of the Moon is #14 in the Dark-Hunters series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. We get a new setting this time, Seattle, where a Dark-Hunter named Ravyn hooks up with a human reporter. Ravyn is no ordinary Dark-Hunter, though. He is actually a Were-Hunter who became a Dark-Hunter about 500 years ago when his family turned on him. Susan is a washed-up journalist trying to scrape up the shreds of her tattered career after being publicly discredited and ruined by a set-up in her past. Now she's working for a tabloid rag just to make ends meet. She picks up Ravyn, who is stuck in cat-form, from her local vet's office and hyjinks ensue. Come to find out, Ravyn and the other Seattle-area D-H's are being hunted down and killed by a group of really badass Daimons led by Strykerius (whom we have met in previous novels). In their bid for world domination, the Daimons are trying to get a foothold in the human world by first wiping taking over the city of Seattle.

This book picks up some of the plot that got left hanging at the end of Seize the Night. It is worth reading this novel just for the stuff at the end that relates to the overall story arc. However, the romance between the two main characters is a bit lacking. I didn't like Susan very much. She is very sarcastic, which is ok and even pretty entertaining at times, but she doesn't seem to be all that lovable. She comes across as a bit abrasive and she's really not very tender with the hero at all. Ravyn's a pretty swell guy, but seems almost an archetype of the typical Dark-Hunter, with the exception of being able to change into a cat at will. By this point in the series, the romances are taking a definite backseat to the plot of the series as a whole. And that's really fine with me - I'm so enthralled in the storyline of the series that I don't really mind.

I rated this one at 2 stars in LibraryThing

Book Review: Unleash the Night - by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Synopsis: Unleash the Night is #13 in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters series. It is the story of Wren, another Were-Hunter (he's a tiger/leopard mix) who lives by the skin of his teeth at Sanctuary, the Were-Hunter owned bar in New Orleans that is featured in previous novels. He falls for Marguerite (aka: Maggie), a human, who happens to be a rich senator's daughter and the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, the bears who own Sanctuary are none too keen on him staying there, particularly after he has some run-ins with local law enforcement and starts dating a human. He is being hunted by his own kind, though, so losing the safety of Sanctuary means he is fair game for those out to kill him.

On the whole, I liked this novel. It was kind of odd, though. The first half of the book was awesome. We get a lot of scenes with dreamy, blond-haired, dred-locked Wren sending smoldering looks at Maggie from across the room. He is shy and sweet (I'm a total sucker for the shy, quite type). She is clean-cut and good-hearted and pretty much falls in love with him right from the get-go. But then the second half of the book gets kind of bogged down in the plot of the money-grubbing relatives who are out to get him. A nice bonus, though, was getting to see some familiar characters: Julian, Vane, Fury, and Dante.

This one got 4 stars in my LibraryThing catalog.

Book Review: Sins of the Night - by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Synopsis: Sins of the Night is #11 in Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters series. This is the story of Alexion (aka: Ias) and Danger. Danger is a Dark-Huntress who works in Mississippi. Things are pretty slow there, Daimon-hunting wise, until Alexion shows up. He has been sent by Acheron, the head of the Dark-Hunters, to act as judge, jury, and executioner of some rogue Dark-Hunters in the area who are plotting to join the ranks of the Daimons and try to destroy Ash. He's not your average demi-god, either. Alexion is a breed apart. He lives with Ash in his home on Katoteros (it's like an Atlantean netherworld) and can only take physical form on earth for brief periods of time when he is sent out to bring naughty Dark-Hunters to justice. Danger doesn't want to rat out her friends, but Alexion manages to convince her that he is on the right side of this war. And, of course, they fall in love in the process. But their love is doomed from the beginning since he must return home within a few short days, never to return.

I liked this story pretty well. There is a great scene at the beginning where we get to see what Ash's homelife is like, which makes the whole book worthwhile reading. We also learn more about Simi, Ash's demon companion. I liked the interplay between the hero and heroine. They have nice repartee and the romance is truly bittersweet as they hurtle helplessly toward their tragic separation.

My LibraryThing rating: 4 stars