On the one hand, work made me want to cry today.

On the other hand, I went to salsa class and one of the leads told me I was the best dancer he'd danced with all night.*

I also bought my first yarn (I've been learning to knit on tools donated to me by shadawyn) for my first scarf, which I'm knitting for ratzeo.

Now if only I could be as happy at work as I am outside of it.

*Unfortunately, because he was trying not to announce it to the rest of the class, he sort of said it into the back of my hair, which made my personal space sensors go off. Lucky for him, my reaction to being startled like that was not to headbutt the offender.

I've been watching a lot of movies lately, mostly because I'm on vacation this week and ratzeo and I randomly decided to spend it with holed up at home with a stack of dvds from Scarecrow.

Actually, the kick-off to my movie binge was seeing ( Captain America: The First Avenger )

Since I became solidly enthusiastic about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, next I saw ( Thor )

To complete our viewing of the Avengers-related movies, we rented ( The Incredible Hulk )

We also rented ( The Losers )

This morning, we watched ( Monsters vs Aliens )

Also in our Scarecrow haul are RocknRolla (also on starbird's recommendation, though I have to admit that it jumped up my priority list after I noticed that Idris Elba was in it ...), Blade Runner (because neither ratzeo nor I have seen it, even though it's a sci-fi classic), and Nine (to scratch my musical itch).

Stay-cations are awesome. :D

David Tennant causes me to (continue to) wrestle with the question of: Is he sexy in spite of being ridiculously silly, or because of it? Also, am I desperate enough to see this movie just to see more of him in guyliner?

Alex Kingston is simultaneously adorable and sexy in a Craig Ferguson interview (prior to season 6, no specific spoilers). I found the video here, and box_in_the_box helpfully included a link to this advertisement for the Rampant Rabbit that Kingston mentions. Now, I know I'm a sheltered USian and Europeans are used to television that isn't deathly afraid of sexuality, but ... I wonder if this actually aired on television, and if it did, that's AWESOME.

Here are some more adorable and silly interviews with Craig Ferguson, this time with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. This whole cast just seems ridiculously fun.

Getting back from San Francisco was not terribly pleasant, as we found out at the SFO airport that our flight (already scheduled to get us back to Seattle around 10:00 p.m.) was delayed by an hour. Once we landed, I then discovered that this delay put me in downtown Seattle right as 70,000 people left a U2 concert. >___________> With the clusterfuck this caused for public transit, I didn't get home until nearly 2:00 in the morning. >_<

But! On the bright side, I had a ratzeo with me, because he bused all the way down to the airport to meet me and then bused all the way (aaaaaallll the way) back with me. That made me feel good. ♥

And then all the cats in the neighborhood turned out to greet me! Well, not really. XD But as we were walking back from the bus stop (we were too late getting out of downtown to catch any of our usual buses, so we had to take another one that dropped us off a little less than a mile away from home), a small cat ran into the street to say hello. He was a gorgeous little blue point shorthair who clearly thought of strange humans as sources of petting rather than fear ... Unfortunately, he was also very clearly unneutered. :/ I don't know if he was a stray or not, because he was in good shape and so friendly, plus the apartment building he ran out from had what looked like buckets of litter in the yard. So it's possible he's being taken care of by humans who are letting him run around outside without a collar and intact. >_< At least he looked healthy, but I really wish it hadn't been 2:00 in the morning and I could've called someone to pick him up.

Then ratzeo and I got back to our apartment building, and as we were crossing the courtyard I saw Drannor in the window of our office, looking down at us. I waved and called up to him, and he meowed back, loudly, several times in a row. And, okay, that doesn't sound like a big deal - but Drannor does not meow. He, even moreso than Kershach, is a cat who murrbles and grunts, but he does not meow to chat. He saves his plaintive, unmusical meow for one thing: a single, whiny burst of "hey!" when I'm serving his dinner kibble and I don't put the bowl down fast enough for him. So hearing him cry "hey! hey! hey!" over and over down at me made me really wooby. ;____; (And yes, I know, that means I'm as important to my cat as kibble. XD)

And then he followed me around until I went to bed, and the morning after. Every time I moved he showed up to lounge just a few feet away, making sure I didn't leave his sight. ♥

On the other hand, Kershach greeted me, as he has done every time I've been gone for a few days, with consummate Cat Cool. He walked up to me and let me pet him, but didn't immediately roll over for belly rubs or anything needy like that. He only just happened to flop over at one point, several minutes later, not too close but not too far from me, and waited to see what I would do. (I, of course, rubbed his belly.)

The next day I also ran into the neighborhood overlord, a giant orange tabby with seven toes on each paw, who is as friendly as anything. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks, so it felt like he was welcoming me home, too. XD

A new, unspecified "anime project" has been green-lit. It's been years since I watched Kenshin, but this takes me back to my teenaged fannish days and fills me with all sorts of nostalgic glee.

Also, I'm linking to this page instead of the original announcement because the poster added a piece of fanart by Julie Dillon, who is awesome, and is also doing the cover for the Royal Archivist universe guidebook, and that's awesome.

There's just over a day left in the Royal Archivist funding project. It's over the funding goal, which is fantastic, but I want to give one final heads-up because the more funding it receives, the more art RA can buy (action scenes! landscapes!). Also, the rewards for donating are pretty nifty, so if you want freebies like art-filled version of the universe guidebook (in PDF) or a physical print, you might as well donate now than later.

*I will, no doubt, continue posting requests/PSAs as various RA products come out.

After today's check-up, my vet has recommended that I try to brush Drannor's teeth (he seems prone to gingivitis). It's one of those things that I've heard about doing with cats but never tried myself, because I wasn't sure of the risk vs. reward payoff.

The first attempt went decently well (and then after the fact I did some online research, and saw recommendations to gradually introduce brushing over several days/weeks ... oops). Drannor does not like to be restrained or messed with in general, but he has a "I'll just tolerate it until it's done" attitude for the first minute or so, before he really starts squirming or breaking out the teeth and claws. Since brushing doesn't seem to take that long, I wonder if he'll just let me do it.

Anyone out there brush their cat's teeth or have experience with it? Any tips?

And while we're at it, what about brushing cat fur or trimming their claws? Both my boys are decidedly against the practices, and I haven't bothered because, again, the risk doesn't seem worth the reward. They groom themselves (and each other) and have lovely soft fur that rarely causes hairballs, and they scratch their scratching furniture politely and only occasionally catch us with an errant claw. If that's the case, is there any reason to put them and us through the hassle of grooming and clipping?

Excerpt from the response I received to my second email (see previous entry):

While I am just a Customer Service Representative of this company, I feel like I should share my point of view.

I totally understand where you're coming from as a consumer, and realize the gray area that has been created.

Ultimately, as an employee of the company that created this campaign, I feel honored that we broke the status quo in a sea of other companies that advertise in similar ways. Did it make some uncomfortable? Yes. Did it make some think? Yes. Did it make people act? Yes. Personally, I've been forced to take a look at what I consider the "tipping point" of what action is. How many people does it take to change the status quo? How many have to support a cause before action is taken? I may never know these answers, but I feel like I work at a company that has it's hand on the pulse of questions like this.

Is there any way this doesn't boil down to, "I'm glad we made people think, because clearly no one was thinking about these issues before, and clearly being obnoxious was the best way to do it"?

God, this is like the white people who ignore the grief, stress, anger, and depression caused by RaceFail (whatever iteration) and just gush, "I'm so grateful I could learn from this!"

I wish I didn't have to root for the sidekicks so much. Granted, there are ways in which it's easier to make peripheral characters more interesting than the main one(s). Sidekicks can be enigmatic, or pop up occasionally to do something hilarious or awesome, whereas the main character gets the most screen time and we see him in all his mundanity along with whatever awesome he has.

(I remember a comment that Megan Mullally - I'm pretty sure it was - made about the show Will & Grace. Her character, Karen, and a character named Jack were sidekicks to the titular characters, and were more outspoken and flamboyant, major scene-stealers. Someone commented that there should be a Jack & Karen show, and she responded that if there were, there'd be another "Jack" and "Karen" who were more popular than them.)

All that said - in The Cape, I find Max and Orwell much more compelling than Vince, even with the above qualifying information.

Take Max. ( character spoilers through episode 3 )

I've really been enjoying Adagio's Foxtrot tea blend, but my bag of it is nearly gone and it's currently out of stock. (Also, I don't want to make an order and pay shipping just for one type of tea. I could make it a full shopping 'trip' and probably hit the free shipping minimum, but the amount of tea I have both at work and at home is kind of indefensibly ridiculous already.)

I decided to experiment - Adagio lists the ingredients of Foxtrot as chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, and vanilla rooibos. I currently have loose-leaf chamomile, peppermint, and almond rooibos, so I mixed all three together, eyeballed it until it looked Foxtrot-ish, and gave it a whirl.

It turned out pretty good, all things considered. I think I put in too much peppermint, and I lacked plain rooibos, which I think gives Foxtrot some body, but the almond is a decent substitute for the vanilla (at least to me, as someone who does not go for very sweet tea). I consider it a success.

(I ... feel like my recent entries have rotated among game fics, link-dropping, and sheer inanity. Which is a fair use for an online journal, I guess, but I swear I used to have more relevant things to talk about.)