Happy Holidays and all that jazz

Well it's been a good holiday season.  No complaints here, really.  I got a crock pot!  Oh, how times have changed.. the difference between what a child wants as presents and getting a crock pot.  But now I can make stew.  And who doesn't like a nice stew?

It's been kind of a lonesome holiday, though.  Some relatives came to visit for a few days, and that's cool.  But the holidays primarily serve to remind that I've been alone for another year.  And that sucks.

Today, I'm particularly upset because a movie I've been looking forward to seeing just came out today (Pan's Labyrinth) but hasn't been released anywhere near me.  People 'round here don't cotton to them furren films.  I guess I'll have to wait another six or seven months before I'll be able to get it on dvd.

Random observation for the new year:
They shouldn't call soy milk 'milk'.  It really doesn't belong in the milk aisle.  Unless it's pumped out of the tiny teats of a li'l soy bean's udder, it ain't milk!  Now, I'm not saying that it's bad or bad for you, but they should call it what it is... bean juice!

Wintry Time, Pretty Lights

Today I endured Winters deadly rooftop winds for the annual Hanging of the Lights on the Carport Eaves!  The winds did blow, but I persevered.  Now I'm sitting down to some nice, hot cocoa with little birdies and pine cones on the cup.   Take that, christmas!

Got my xmas tree up, too.   This year I went with a black tree, pink ornaments, and purple lights.  Goes nicely with the blue icicle lights outside.   And since I already have all my xmas shopping done, why, I'm ready to go!

Also, say hello to Penelope.  She doesn't speak much.

Big and Orange

It's just a beautiful day.  The sky is deep, deep blue and full of puffy clouds.  The wind is strong and cool.  The leaves will start falling soon.  Autumn is finally here!  I feel revitalized once again, as I always do this time of year.  Plus, it's almost time for the bestest holiday of the year.  Halloween!

I went out today and purchased a couple nice pumpkins, because nothing says Autumn like rotund, orange vegetables.

Poetry time:
It is well we cannot hear the screams
we make in other people's dreams. 
- E Gorey

Dude! I'm eating!

Just went for a walk.  There's a hint of coolness in the air, at long last.  This has been a pretty hot summer.  They say it'll be a cold winter, too.  But it's too soon to think about that.  I'm just happy to have it a little less hot.  The small of my back is bruised from sitting in an uncomfortable wooden chair during a long meeting.  Darnit.

In the middle of street, I came across a two foot long, speckled snake.  Even though I live right across from a small wood, that's unusual.  Aside from a couple flat garter snakes in the road, I don't think I've seen any snakes around here since I was a young child.   So that's cool.  I shooed it back into the bushes, fearing it would get run over.

Today I rented another bad 'scary' movie.  When will I ever learn??

So I was in McDonalds today.  It's kind of a rare treat for me cause the one closest to me closed down and got bulldozed into rubble.  Anyway, I'm at the counter and some tall, lanky guy pops out of the back to tell me that my hair is long.  "Mine's long too, but it's under my hat," he says.  Okaaay.   I know my hair is long.  It's my hair.  I grew it, all on my lonesome.

So then I'm sitting down and eating my filet o fish, just minding my business.  The guy comes up to my table to tell me how, with my hair, I remind him of a character on one of his favorite anime shows.  I smile with my mouth full and nod in the right places until he went away.  Dude must have a thing for hair, I dunno.

Sloth

I keep being lazy and putting off updating the journal thingie.  But then again, nothing much of note has happened.  But does it ever?

Here are some photos I took of my new dollfie.  She's just supercute.  And so well behaved!  She has hair, but I didn't bother putting it on.  She's pretty enough without it.

It's been so hot here, but the past few days have been cooler.  You know it's been hot when mid-90's counts as 'cooler'.  Been watering the lawn like crazy, and after 4 years, some of the grass is actually spreading.  There's a chipmunk and a turtle living in my front yard.

I've not been finding much worth renting lately.  I've bitched about crappy horror movies before, and I'll do it again.  I keep renting this and that in hopes that I might find a gem in the rough.. it happens, if rarely.  But mostly it's just crap, crap, crap.  Low budget, bad script, stupid plot, terrible acting, the list goes on.  And low budget doesn't necessarily mean bad.

But high budget doesn't mean something's going to be good either.  In fact, the higher the budget, the more chance there is that's it been homogenized to dull pablum with a few special effects thrown in.  Most of the high budget thrillers and horrors have no personality and the same, re-used plots.  You know, the kind you're watching and think, 'Oh there's no way the plot twist could be that bland and predictable.  There's no way.  Oh my god, it is.'  A sad state of affairs.

Evil Dolly's Movie Recommendation of the Day:  Silent Hill.  Well, this one was a pleasant surprise.  It turned out a whole lot better than I expected, especially for a movie based off a video game.  It was a nice, tidy little movie with character.  The sets were great (I love decaying buildings like that) and moody, the monsters were cool, and they went more towards 'disturbing' than 'disgusting'.  Disturbing works better for me on many levels.  You know, creepy.  It didn't get annoying with false scares, either--like cats jumping out and junk like that.  On the downside, the use of scary little girls seems routine nowadays,  but I guess if they had deviated it wouldn't have been true to the game plot.  Also, they could have done so much more in exploring the torturous disturbingness of the settings. 

However, I absolutely loved the nurses... those coulda come straight from my own head.  Wee!

Summer Storm

Wow.  Well, last night I wished for a strong, summer storm and today I got one.  Lightning and thunder all over the place.  Hmm.  In that case, tonight I'll wish for a good slave.  We'll see what tomorrow will bring.

Here's a few photos of my newly remodeled play space.  Hard to call it a dungeon when it's on the second floor.  It still needs a few touches here and there, but it's pretty much done.  One side is burgundy austerity and the other side is pink fluffyness.  The archway in the middle has dozens of moveable tie-offs.  There's plenty of ceiling ring bolts, too.  There's a remote controlled hoist under a hatch in the ceiling.  There's a cozy little wall cage, nice and sturdy.  Something for everyone.

Hot!

Holy Bejeebus it's hot out there.  It's been getting to 104 for about a week now.  I've had to sprinkle like crazy to keep my sparse grass from drying up.  It hasn't rained in a long time, so the humidity isn't as bad as it could be, but it's still a wall of heat when you step outside.  Sure wish I had a few nice, strong summer storms come through.  I've caught that box turtle sitting under the sprinkler a couple of times.  I guess turtles have it rough in the heat... they can't sweat or pant or anything.

I haven't updated in a bit.  All of my writing energy has been going into a new story.  I started it about seven months ago, but got writer's block and stopped for a long while.  I guess I got inspired again and I've been back at it.  Spent an entire day last week doing nothing but staring at the pages and typing away.  I know it's hardly classic literature, but I guess you have to write about what amuses you.  Otherwise, what's the point?  No clue when this one will be finished, as it's turning into quite a long one.  I do tend to ramble and let things drag a bit, I know, but some details are just important to me.  Besides, it's not like it's publishable material anyway.

My dollfie arrived from Korea!  She's so cute.  I love her!  Haven't decided on a name yet.  I'll have to wait til one comes to me.  I want to take some pictures of her, but I don't have any clothes for her yet.  Naked dolly.  Tsk tsk.

I've been sitting here watching this nifty little plant I got.  It's called a Dinosaur Plant.  It comes as a withered, dusty clump of dead plant, but when you put it in water, it unfurls, swells up, and turns green.  When you want, you can let it dry out and it'll curl up back into a dry clump and stay alive that way for 50 years.  Talk about an easy plant to take care of.  Finally,  a houseplant I can't kill... even if I don't ever water it again, it'll still outlive me.

Had a stress dream last night.  Some of my stress dreams are about being back in school (you know, realizing you have a final due for a class you didn't even know you were attending, that sorta thing), but often as not they're about animals.  I've had a lot of small pets in the past, from freshwater and saltwater aquariums to snakes, lizards, and bugs.  In these stress dreams, I find that I have a number of pets that have been neglected.. sometimes they're animals I've never had or ones that don't even exist.  Like maybe there'll be a stack of half a dozen small cages and I realize I haven't fed them in months, and some are dead.  Or maybe a half-empty or filthy aquarium I haven't touched in ages, and realize there's still live fish in there I need to take of.   In last night's dream, I had a large and well-tended aquarium, and the fish were alive and swimming, but they were covered with mold.  Weird stuff.

and down below me you are waiting, smiling like a ghost
come open up your filthy heart to me