Did I get drunk and order stamps again?

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A big WTF over here.

Over the weekend, I logged into an online banking site…several months ago, I changed banks, but neglected to close the old account. I saw several charges made to the account that I did not make.

I promptly called the service # to report my card lost or stolen. (I thought I had destroyed the card…)

TODAY, I got two packages which I did not order. One from the Columbia House TV club, the other from the book of the month club.

The charges match two of the charges to my bank account.

Um, what?

I DID NOT ORDER THESE.

So, someone got hold of my old bank card, ordered stuff, and had it shipped to me?

I’m confused. And so not in the mood to deal with this crap.

Quick weekend wrap-up

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I’ll start w/Thursday, even though it wasn’t technically part of the weekend!

I met up with Jen for a long-overdue dinner at Romeo & Juliet’s on Hertel. We had yummy pizza, good conversation, and exchanged Christmas/bday gifts. It was great to hang out and catch up!

Friday night, Rand and I met John for dinner at La Tolteca on Transit. After dinner, we made a stop at fye, where I picked up season 1 of How I Met Your Mother for $19.99! We had watched the first disk from Netflix, and I thought it was worth owning. (why was I not watching this before? It’s awesome. I’ve laughed out loud a lot, and I’ve even cried more than once. The writing is great. The cast is great. Love this show. We finished watching it over the weekend, and ordered season 2 from Amazon.)

Then, the three of us headed to Borders where we were set to meet another friend, Carl. We ordered warm drinks, and the boys talked about comics while I flipped through wedding magazines. The only conclusion I came to was that I want a hand-tied bouquet.

On Saturday, we went out for lunch and a short shopping excursion. We spent most of the rest of the day being lazy, doing some laundry, and (finally) taking down the few Christmas decorations we had put up.

In addition to How I Met Your Mother, we also watched the rest of Undeclared. Undeclared is on the seemingly endless list of shows I liked that FOX canceled. (See Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Wonderfalls, etc.)

Sunday was much of the same. We went into the city to check out Elmwood Specs, because Rand needed to order new glasses. Also, I made apple crisp.

**there was more to this post, but it seems to have vanished…**

Seven years

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morellicake.jpg

And I link to this post again.

I’ve posted this photo before, but I just adore it so much.

gram0024.jpg

I can’t believe it’s been seven years. I still wish I could have introduced her to Rand. I still wish she was going to be here to see me get married.

I miss you, gram.

The old apartment

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This is where we used to live.

And this is what’s going up in its place.

It’s strange. Surreal, even. I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around it enough to get introspective, but you might want to read Jen’s post. 759 Lafayette was sort of our last hurrah as single girls, where we lived when we both met our respective mates and moved on to start a new chapter in our lives, and it’s hard to think of it being gone.

And powerlust posted a link to the Buffalo ReUse flickr set. I haven’t looked at them yet.

Weekend wrap-up?

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The farther away I get from the weekend, the sillier it seems to write up a full report…and yet, I do feel like I need to elaborate on a couple of things.

First, the singing.

Certain people (ahem…) have been bugging me to sing for quite a while. Last year, I sang just a bit with my good friend Jam. We sang together, it was late, and there weren’t very many people around. Yet, it was a step. A baby step, but a step nonetheless.

Last weekend, Rand had his guitar out in the hotel room. He recently learned some Flaming Lips songs and was playing some of them. While he was playing Fight Test, I was kind of quietly singing along while doing other things. He stopped and said, “do you want to sing the chorus?”

“Um, you mean in front of people?”

“Sure, why not,” he said.

So he started over, and we ran it a couple of times, mainly working on the timing. He told me I had to project more. So we did it a few more times, and I did my best to project more.

We ended up bringing it out Saturday night, and it went fine. I projected. I hit the right notes. I got the timing right. And ohmygod, I sang…while not entirely alone, I did sing the chorus all by my little lonesome, with people watching. The floor did not open and swallow me up or anything!

Several people have asked if/when I will sing again, and I think it’s safe to say that it will happen again. 😉

The other big excitement of the weekend, for me, was this:

richfantasylivesjpg
(Photo by Debbie Ridpath Ohi)

At every filk convention, there is a Saturday night auction. People donate items, and the money goes toward bringing guests to other conventions…travel expenses and such. This year, I decided to donate a piece of calligraphy. The lyrics are from the song “Rich Fantasy Lives” by Rob Balder and Tom Smith, which was named “Best Filk Song” at the 2007 Pegasus Awards. Both Rob and Tom were at GAFilk, so I was able to have both of them sign the piece.

My piece was the last item auctioned off, and it ended up bringing in $300!

Winning bid

I do sell my calligraphy in my etsy shop. I’m happy to discuss commissions with anyone interested.

The rest of my photos can be found here. I’m off for now, but maybe I’ll get around to the rest of it someday!

Thursday Thoughts–wedding planning

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Well, I skipped “Wedding Wednesday,” but I think it’s time for an update on planningstuff. (Weekend wrap-up will probably be done tomorrow…)

So every once in a while, I think about all the things that still have to be done. While it’s not insignificant, I don’t feel overwhelmed or panicky about anything. Here’s the update:

Rings

Rand and I looked at rings a couple of weeks ago. We haven’t purchased anything yet, but right now, we’re thinking just plain gold bands. I did look at one with small channel-set diamonds (I think it was actually an “anniversary band”), but I don’t think it was “me.” It’s funny how society seems to want to pressure you into wanting bling.

Cake

We’re looking at having a “decorate your own cupcake bar.” It’s been cleared with the venue. The only thing left to figure out is how to keep cupcakes fresh for a day or two before the wedding. Any suggestions welcome. (Hilary? I’d like to avoid freezing if possible.)

We will be getting a small “wedding cake” for us to cut, but we haven’t quite worked out all the details there yet.

We’re trying to clean up my mom and dad’s cake knife to use…it’s a little tarnished. If that doesn’t work out, two of my aunts have them also.

Accessories

My aunt has a string of pearls that were my grandma’s. I’m probably going to wear them, assuming that they match the dress. I’ll have to find earrings that go with them.

As soon as the dress comes in, I’ll be able to see if the shoes I bought will work, and if not, I’ll have to set off on finding something else. That should happen within the month. Also, we’re going to see if I can wear my cousin’s slip with it. We’re about the same height.

Hair

Still no idea. I have an appointment with a new stylist, recommended to me by a coworker. She has really cute short hair, so I feel good about that.

Flowers

I’ve got nothing here. I’m not going to need a ton of flowers, but I will need *some* flowers. I will happily take recommendations.

Centerpieces

I want to keep this simple. I’m thinking something like this:

centerpiece

I may add some color, but that’s the basic idea.

Other little things are coming along. One of my aunts bought us some gorgeous crystal toasting glasses for Christmas. (I didn’t think to take a photo of them, and I left them with my mom for safekeeping). Mom’s got her friend on the lookout for a scrapbook we can use for our guestbook. Major things we need to deal with right now are probably flowers and cake. Not too bad, right? 🙂

Seven Eight Random Things

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I’ve done so many of these things (including the 100 things about me list) that I’m running out of things to say. I did this “Seven things” meme back in the summertime, so I’m reposting it with one new random thing instead of coming up with eight new ones.

Tagged by Ontario Emperor. Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List EIGHT random facts about yourself.
3. Tag EIGHT people at the end of your post and list their names.
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I’m really short. All the women in my family are short, but I think I’m the shortest. I just barely crack 5 feet.

2. To date, my longest relationship has lasted 3 years and approximately three months. I’m looking to break that record this October. Three years and six months. Record broken. Woohoo!

3. I slept with a teddy bear well into my adult life.

4. I have weird fingernails. My nail beds are wide, and the nails flatten out when they get long. It looks bizarre, so I keep them short. (I had acrylic nails for a while, in my 20s, but the upkeep got to be both too expensive and too time-consuming for my taste)

5. I’m pretty low-maintenance, appearance-wise. I wear little (if any) makeup, I hate spending more than 5 minutes on my hair, and I’m not into fashion at all.

6. I have a weakness for sandals. I don’t buy expensive shoes, but my sandal collection is larger than it probably needs to be.

7. I hate, hate, hate “stepping in wet.” If my socks get wet (by stepping on a wet bath mat, for example), they must be changed immediately. I do everything in my power to avoid this circumstance.

um…

8.When I was in college, I joined a sorority. Oddly enough, one of the things you seem to do quite a lot of in a sorority is sing. A group of us named ourselves the “tone deaf club.” I am not tone deaf, and I know this…but many of the women in my sorority were really good singers and that intimidated me. I am slowly but surely overcoming my fear.

I have somewhat more interesting answers for the five random things meme.

I’m breaking the rules and not tagging. If anyone does choose to participate, please post a comment linking to your answers!

A couple of photos

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So I didn’t get around to uploading all of the photos, but here’s a special one, just for Kelly:

me and peter beagle

Weekend wrap-up (short version)

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A longer version with photos will appear…well, sometime. 😉 Photos have been dumped from my camera to the computer, but have not made it online just yet.

The short version is this…busy weekend. Lots of fun. Very tired. Back to work.

Speaking of work, I’m down to my last two weeks as a full-timer. Very strange.

Coupla quick highlights:

  • Meeting Jeff and Maya Bonhoff. They are excellent people.
  • Singing. OMG, yes, I did.
  • Getting my photo taken with Peter S. Beagle, author of (among other things) The Last Unicorn.
  • Yoga
  • Dancing
  • Many hugs and friendly faces.

And I have work to do, so that’ll be it for now. More when I get the photos uploaded. Happy Monday!