-i'm going to jersey this weekend. nana's sick (her kidneys failed last week, but they said she's doing a lot better now) and i have two cousins i haven't met yet and also surf taco is calling to me. anyway, plane tickets have been purchased! (guess this rules out both the florida music festival and driving to randomass, sc to see doughty.) (i wonder if jenny or bess are playing this weekend...?)

-one of the girls at work (the head of the other dept) seriously pissed me off last week when she quit and let us know by text message on her second day of just not showing up. to make the whole thing even more awesome, she knew for a fact that the two of us were going to be alone in the office on thursday, and yet did she ever even bother to call me and say "sorry for making you do my stupid job all day so that you couldn't possibly get any of your own work done?" OF COURSE NOT. i don't get how people can be such inconsiderate dickwads, i really don't. (and i am a pretty inconsiderate dickwad!)

-in my old age (hah), i have begun to move from my dad's music (golden oldies, queen, janis joplin) to my mom's music (dylan, the stones, neil young). i mean, i've always casually listened to classic rock, but i realized today that a lot of music that i used to hate (dylan and the stones, mostly) is now stuff i really enjoy. also, i found a pretty excellent classic rock station last week. i guess calling guns n roses "classic rock" was just not a crazy new york thing, but i'm okay with that. (although they should play some pearl jam to break it up. they do play lots of led zep though! and they almost never talk or play commcercials, which is super-important.)

-i have switched to hippie shampoo (baking soda and apple cider vinegar) because it is supposed to be a lot better for your hair and also crazy cheap. i am not sure if i am pleased with the results yet. they say you need to give it a couple of weeks for your hair to adjust though, so i guess i'll keep trying.

-i finished s6 of the west wing last night. i wish i didn't know how it all ends so that there could be SOME suspense, but oh well. anyway, i don't know what to watch next! i had actually settled on everwood and started downloading it, but my usual sources dried up in the middle of s2. LAME. i want to get away from sorkin for a while (so i'm holding off on sports night) and i actually don't do well with sci-fi/fantasy shows (i think i just like sci-fi IN THEORY) when it comes to really consuming them and not just watching them whenever they pop up on my tv (so i am hesitant about farscape), and i hate watching things that aren't complete (although i can't wait for the office and how i met your mother to get cancelled), so i have no clue what to watch. i am pretty tempted to watch due south again, actually. mountie! ray! other ray! DIEF! if i don't find something by the time i finish tww, i will probably do this. feel free to suggest things though!

i am going to attempt to make these for my mom tomorrow night. i have serious concerns about my ability to grind up the tea though, so we'll see how that goes. (i decided against the book. i flipped through it and couldn't really picture her reading it.)

and if i have time tomorrow night (while baking, after working late, oy vey), i am going to attempt to make this for the kidlet. i am going to disney with her (and her parents, obvs) thursday night, and i am babysitting her friday night, so i want something to bring her. she is the cutest thing ever- i was talking to her mom last week, and she was telling me how the kidlet gives these crazy out-of-left-field soliloquies, and a few weeks ago she said "chris (my older brother) is always trying to get me to say that he's my best friend, but i told him he wasn't and that a girl at school is. but i lied, cos lisa is really my best friend." awwww ::smushes her:: (ashley, you have been replaced!)

unrelatedly, i think i might buy this bag. TOTALLY ADORABLE, Y/Y?

i'm tired of singing all the sad songs in my head
but i can't find enough of anything to drown out what you said
and sometimes i find i catch myself letting you back in
and i'm so tired of singing all these sad songs in my head

-matt nathanson - sad songs

...

so in other news, k. called me at my show today and said "lisa, they are blasting oldies at this show. "like a virgin" is on right now!" ... i fear for the future of this nation sometimes, i really do.

it really aggravates me to buy more or less than three books at a time (yes, that's right, i am kind of neurotic), to the point where i usually put them back if i can only find two, but i kept them today cos i didn't know when i'd have time to get back to the store. (worked all day today, working all day tomorrow, have three shows this week, babysitting friday night, and i also need to try to squeeze a trip to disney in there somewhere. and one of the other girls is going away next weekend, so lord only knows what my schedule will look like.) plus the sequel to cathy's book looked really cool (it was what caught my eye, not this one) so i want to read this so i can buy it. also bought valiant by holly black.

i think i might read forbidden game next though. or the last vampire. i don't know yet, cos the path forks after the vampire diaries and i don't know which direction to go in! do i want more vampires (and my fave vamp mythology ever) or more "the world is evil BUT I WON'T GIVE IN"? (oh MATT. jenny's version is so much better, but you are much more awesome than she is.)

also, i'm back to sort of liking stefan. WTF MAKE IT STOP. i think i'm going to choose to believe that damon's love for him makes him more tolerable. ::nods::

also also, i am kind of crazy in love with this video/song (yael naim - toxic):

ticketmaster is saying there are no tickets left for harry & the potters (july 5 @ the social), but the social assures me that ticketmaster is full of it and that this show is nowhere near sold out. so if you're a slacker like me and were waiting for the government to buy you tickets to harry & the potters, pls to be trying again tomorrow.

(other things the government is buying me: disney pass of indeterminate value, some new jeans, tickets to ingrid michaelson, ticket to dragon*con (already purchased, but i am refunding myself), and a new pot. and i am shopping for a button maker, but i don't know if i want to commit $50+ to this sort of thing on a whim.)

8 cups water¹
1 cup long grain rice²
1/2 stick butter, room tempurature³
2 eggs, room tempurature⁴
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cans evaporated milk⁵
1 pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 T vanilla extract
cinnamon
nutmeg
raisins⁶

1. Boil water. Add rice and turn flame down to low. Stir and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring every once in a while.

2. After 20 minutes, taste rice to make sure it's fully cooked. Drain, put in large bowl or pot.

3. Slice butter and mix into the rice until it is fully melted.

4. Add one can of milk. Stir.

5. Add sugar in thirds, stirring as you go.

6. Beat eggs to break them up and add to rice.

7. Add pudding, 1/2 can of milk, vanilla, a dash of cinnamon, a sprinkle of nutmeg, and raisins⁷. Stir. Taste to see if you like it. Add more of whatever you want.

8. Pour into baking dish. Personally, the crust is my favorite part, so I used a long shallow pan. You can use whatever you want though, as long as it doesn't overflow. Sprinkle with more cinnamon and a smidge more nutmeg.

9. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes, or thereabouts. The center should still be a little wiggle-y when it's done.

10. NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM.


¹Yes, this is a lot of water. You want the rice pretty moist, and you drain it later anyway.
²I've been told that it only counts if it's Carolina brand, but they didn't have that at Publix and Nana forgave me, so use what you want. She also said you can use short grain rice if that's all you've got.
³Nana says it doesn't taste the same if you microwave it to achieve this tempurature. Nana can be crazy sometimes, FYI.
⁴You can leave these out if you don't have them. She says they make it drier.
⁵I don't know if she meant the 12oz cans or the smaller ones. I used one 12oz can, and it looked good to me so I didn't open the second one. You can also use more or less if you like it wetter or drier.
⁶If you're a heathen.
⁷HEATHEN.

Poll #1178182 because this is totally what my boss has in mind.
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

what should i read tomorrow?

my psychic powers are out of order, so tell me what something else means.

(note: i am pretty much out of new things, and won't be going to the store between now and then. kindly try to limit yourself to things that are already on either my or ashley's shelf.)

last night i dreamt that getaway_machine was getting MARRIED. we were still gonna share an apartment though, hah.

then i dreamt that i was jackie chan and i lived in a castle cos i was a knight! not a very honorable knight, but a knight nonetheless.

wait, no, the other thing. i mean, seriously, i finished the book i brought with me, i finished the spare book i brought, and i still had over two hours of playing tetris on my phone and staring into space. SIGH. i KNEW i should've brought the third book with me!

but anyway, at least i finished it's kind of a funny story by ned vizzini and the good fairies of new york by martin millar.

funny story is about a 15 year old boy who is suffering from depression and checks himself into a psych ward for five days. funny story is easily the best book i have ever read about depression, and made me feel good in ways i can't really explain. my biggest problem with most depression books/stories is that there's always a CAUSE. the character was raped, or molested, or saw their dad kill himself, or WHATEVER. but since my depression doesn't have a cause other than my brain is messed up, it always makes me feel like it's somehow MY fault i'm depressed, since it's not someone ELSE'S fault. and that's fucked up, cos it's not my fault! but in this book, there is no cause (that's not a spoiler, cos he comes right out and says it pretty early in the story), life's just overwhelming. i get that, totally and completely. i get all of his depression lingo, and i spend a lot of time thinking about the Shift, and this book lived up to everything i wanted it to be. i'm glad i didn't read it in 2006 though, cos it's a book and therefore needed a "cure" and life just isn't like that, so it would have frustrated me at the end. but it did wonders for me now!

good fairies is, i think, the book that officially made me break up with neil gaiman. (he wrote the intro to it.) the story is eh, the editing is meh, and the writing is just horrendous. it repeatedly switches pov MID-SENTENCE! does anyone honestly think that's a good idea? it would probably be a fun movie to watch while getting shitfaced, but that doesn't mean it is anywhere near a good book.

up next: tithe by holly black.

on discovering dean has two months to live:

ashley: but's leap year, it's APRIL 29TH!


on discovering i am going to post this to the internet:

ashley: i hate you.
lisa: it'll be just like that time with the crows.
ashley: whatever, THEY COULD BE MAMMALS!

ok, finished tangled webs. we've got an email thread going about it, so i doubt i'll be talking about it in any depth here, but basically: underwhelming. especially after rereading dreams made flesh, which was such an excellent continuation of the world.

plus, i think it's the weather or something, but i'm really anxious to get away from the fantasy and move back to straight fiction for a bit. so up next: it's kind of a funny story by ned vizzini. i adored his last book (teen angst? naaah: a quasi-autobiography) when i read it all those years ago. he's only a couple of years older than me, and i could really relate to it. i heard about this one in 2006, and it sounded like exactly the book i needed to read at the time. actually, its mere existence made me feel better about life. anyway, it's obviously taken me a while to bring it to the front of the queue, but i'm still pretty excited for it.

after this though, i've got a couple of fantasy books about fairies in the tri-state area. unless we've got the_ideal_life going, in which case i don't know what i'll be reading. oh and i think i'm buying my mum a book for mother's day (girls like us: carole king, joni mitchell, carly simon--and the journey of a generation by sheila weller, maybe) so i'll probably order a couple for myself, too.

tangled webs has been pretty underwhelming (and i'm not done, so take your spoilers and stick 'em where the sun don't shine), but this exchange has made the whole book worth it:

"Why don't you have to drink milk in order to get nutcakes?"

Lucivar grinned. "I told her ale was Eyrien milk."

bwahahahahahaha, oh lucivar.

you know, a lot of stupid shit gets said on the west wing, but i think this takes this cake for me:

"These are young people who've taken a couple of years out of their lives to bring food to a drought-stricken, civil-war-riddled nation. Of course they're religious."

excuse me? OF COURSE they're religious? OF COURSE?

right on! cos lord knows we heathen atheists and agnostics have never done a good deed in our lives! i mean, the only reason to help others is cos jesus says to, obviously. nufaj i do not even have WORDS to express how much this has offended me.

(you guys, s5 of tww is sucking SO HARD. not even just the writing, which is obviously not my favorite. the lighting is HORRENDOUS, the volume and background noises are all messed up, there is no emotion in anything, and the camera work is laughably bad. can i just watch the first 3 seasons again instead of 5-7?)

you know the worst part about watching about 20 hours of the west wing over the course of one weekend? the (really stressful!) dreams you will have about working in the white house sunday night.

(SIGH. so tired now.)

but hey, i'm on season five! most of which i have never seen! actually, from here on out, i think i have seen two full episodes, and maybe a handful of scenes from other episodes. of course, since one of the two i have seen is one of the last episodes of the series, i am spoiled for a lot of stuff, dammit. (well, that, and cos i didn't completely remove myself from fandom once i stopped watching the show. oh well.)

i might watch sports night next. actually, i kind of want to watch the office, but i don't want to watch anything that's still on the air. ooh, i could do farscape. getaway_machine, are we supposed to do that one together? i can't remember. hm.

(i am almost positive i have off again this weekend, so this could become an issue soon.)

(also, maybe i missed this, but do they never address the fact that sam doesn't come back to the white house? i mean, one episode he's campaigning and he's been promoted, and then nobody ever says "oh btw, sam found a new bf on the west coast. sorry josh." right? or did i miss it? i mean, i knew he wasn't coming back, but if i was watching this and knew nothing about the show, i'd be really confused now.)

Poll #1170165 as opposed to how foolish i am in general.
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

how foolish was i to expect a conclusive answer on anything from you guys?

i was going to post about how supremely unhelpful you guys are, but then i got distracted by a crazy long survey on myspace and now i want dinner. so let me just say quickly: LEAST CONCLUSIVE POLL EVER. thanks, kids.

for someone who has never been into mob media (the only mafia related media i have ever consumed is the listeners by christopher pike, and that's actually about an fbi agent. and some scary lizard people who made me fear the weasley twins. um. anyway.) i sure do come up with an AWFUL LOT of mob-themed novel ideas. which i will never write, because (a) i don't write things, i plan them and (b) that would involve research.

on a related note, when i was in high school, i essentially begged my parents to let me be an indentured servant for the local mob. can you believe they said no?

Poll #1169212 on a completely unrelated note.
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

do you think polls discourage people from discussing things in the comments?

i think the best part about my current black jewels reread is the awesome discussion we've got going on at bjt_fan. yeah, that's right! people who i don't even know are discussing the books with me! it's like an actual fandom, you guys. (uh, minus the wank. so far. heh.)

while driving home from work today, i came up with one of my crazy Big Stupid Projects that i plan out and research and draw diagrams of and buy sketchbooks for and then...never finish. i can't even tell you how many of these Big Stupid Projects are currently living (and dying) on my computer, but nonetheless, i came up with a new one today.

(i can't help it- i really like planning things!)

anyway, if i cobbled together an unoffical soundtrack for something and wrote a ficlet for each song, and i already had an unofficial soundtrack for this something that consisted of a really awesome album by a really awesome singer, how many songs from the already existing album should i include on the mix tape album? like, i wouldn't want every other song to be by the same singer, but since i already so closely associate those songs with these books, and since i already know the stories those songs represent to me, it feels wrong to not include them. (looking at the tracklisting, i would want to include AT LEAST three, although i could easily do three more.)

( because i know ashley and katia will ask, here are the songs and the stories they represent. )

you know, there is not much on this planet that is hotter than a boy from the west wing getting up in someone's face for insulting a girl from the west wing.

(yeah charlie, i'm looking at you this time.)