Isles of the Blessed

Okay, kissing GJ good-bye as soon...

...as soon as I figure out how to move my entries over to IJ.

I'm happy to announce...

...that my package from tanithryudo arrived this afternoon. Thank you, thank you, thank, my doting Elvish pal!

Just got home from a...

...seven and a half hour visit to the emergency room. Woke up with this murderous pain in my side. Cougar's husband accompanied me to the hospital. Four hours in the waiting room. About two hours in a treatment room before I briefly saw a doctor. I had an IV drip, blood tests and a CATscan. Turns out I had a kidney stone. Not fun. I feel better now, thankfully. Good thing I called in sick at work before I left for the hospital, because I could never have made it to work on time. Took the whole day off. Just gonna take it easy now.

I'm so very....

...disappointed that I have not yet received my package from tanithryudo. Hopefully I won't have to wait TOO much longer. Lord, I get so impatient at times...

In other news, the antibiotics I'm on are working like a charm. I feel so much better now (though not completely back up to snuff). Bit of a sore throat, but nothing beyond that.

Ugh, got a nasty, nasty....

...sinus infection. It kicked enough hell out me that after days of nagging by Cougar and her husband I broke down and went to the medical center to find out why I was coughing myself to death. Anyhow, I'm now on antibiotics and shooting saline water up my nose. The doctor thinks this will solve the problem in short order. Hopefully, he's right, and this slight temp I'm also running will break shortly so I can start feeling somewhat human again. It woulda been great if I could have taken time off work to actually get some rest, but we're so hideously short-staffed right now, it was out of the question.

Bought myself some....

....Wild Turkey Straight Kentucky Bourbon to start the New Year off with. Not bad stuff. I do believe I shall enjoy drinkin' it.

Nemo's grown quite....

...a bit since his last visit with us. Still friendly and puppy-like, though. Boy just oozes likeability. Well, to me anyhow. The cats don't appear to like him, but they seem to be quite the unreasoning bigots when it comes to dogs.

We are temporarily...

...without a vehicle (Cougar's father-in-law borrowed it) and it's the weekend; there's no bus service and getting a cab to take me to work will be basically impossible, so I guess I'll be walking to the gas station tonight. Given how cold it is right now, I'm ~~dreading~~ looking forward to the experience. REALLY, I am.

The guy who runs LLMC...

....emailed me and confirmed that I can scan the microfiche they sell to the public, although he did warn me that there would be issues with quality, since this is a third-generation copy. I decided to try a test order, buying a single item to see how scanning it onto a CD-ROM works out in practice. If it's successful, I'll likely end up buying all or most of the stuff I'm interested in.

I liked my most recent paycheck...

...since it was nice and fat. Got another raise (my third in six months), bit of a Christmas bonus thrown in as well. I guess my employer feels guilty for sticking me with all those night shifts. I didn't even have to use my overdraft privileges this month, so I'm way, way ahead of the game. Wonder how long that will last?

In a couple of hours....

...I shall be chatting with James Mullaney, co-author of the DESTROYER. We've had a few brief exchanges on the Destroyerclub message-board before, but never an actual chat-session. I'm looking forward to it with great anticipation.

In other news....

....been reading some of the commentary on Mitt Romney's ''Faith in America'' speech. I only read a transcript of the speech itself (I can't stomach the spectacle of politicians talking anymore), so I may be doing the man an injustice, but frankly, I thought it was a steaming sack of shit & nauseating tripe pandering to the worse elements in the so-called Christian Right. Of course, I'm one of them godless atheists Romney apparently disdains, so my POV on the matter may be *slightly* biased. I can't wait for his campaign to crash and burn.

I tried to post...

...an entry last night but the page wouldn't load or something. Maybe I ought to go with LJ or something similar because this is getting thoroughly ridiculous.

What the hell...

...is wrong with GJ? My entries are just fucking blank or might as well be. I can't read them unless I use my mouse to highlight them. Christ, that's annoying.

A brief situation report...

...been sick (I have this nasty cold), but I'm getting better. I had three whole days off, in a row even. Go me! Spent them doing pretty much nothing. Gotta pull a week of night shifts. It's insanely cold outside, so it should be slow. Freaks don't come out much in this kind of weather. And I solved a minor historical mystery a few days ago. I hope I get credit for it someday.

After looking outside at the....

...snow and the ice and being able to feel the cold even though I'm inside the house, I have decided to skip going to the mall for lunch. I'll just make do with what I can find here.

*loathes winter*

I say again. I fucking bloody absolutely HATE winter.

I am so...

bookmarking this blog for the sake of posterity.

I got a helluva kick...

...out of reading this blog entry, Atheists and Anger.

My meager accomplishment of the day...

...was balancing a fifteen thousand dollar shift to within forty-nine cents. I'm usually off by a couple dollars. Considering it was a fairly busy day with lottery in high demand (because of a thirty million dollar prize available tonight), I'd say I did pretty darned good.

Those dorks at work...

..went and changed the schedule yesterday (when I wasn't around the place what with it being my day off and all) without telling me. I *thought* I worked afternoons today, but I am now supposed to start at ten and that was half an hour ago. Erk.

Okay, I'm slightly less...

...unhappy then when I woke up this morning. Found a copy of Choke Hold at the London Drugs near my house. Tomorrow, I will go in and rag on the manager of my local Coles and point out that Chapters still hasn't managed to deliver the book anywhere in this fair province of ours.

I am slightly less than...

...pleased to find out that Chapters Indigo has not seen fit to stock its selves with Choke Hold on a timely basis, like ya know, having the book for sale on its official release date (today for the uninformed). It's only been six bloody months until the last Destroyer novel came out, so the very least you could do is have that god-damned book on the shelves ready for me to purchase. That would have been considerate and helpful to me, though, and we can't possibly have that, so I am not remotely surprised you failed to deliver. I take back anything nice I have ever said about you guys.

/disgruntled & irritated/

The comic book store I patronize...

...ran into financial difficulties, what with not renewing its lease properly and being forced to vacate the premises where it is currently located on rather short notice. In an effort to reduce stock before leaving this location, the store is having a fifty per cent off EVERYTHING sale. i went in today and bought a handful of TPB's at a helluva discount. I feel somewhat bad for the owner whom I have known since 1985, but not bad enough that I'll pass up a good sale like this one. The people I really feel sorry for are his employees, some of whom I have known for a long while also. I hope they make out okay if he can't relocate his business by the end of the month. I got a feelin' that the saga of Edmonton's oldest and longest running comic bookstores is about to come to a sad, sad ending.

/depressed & anxious/

Wel, accordin' to that...

..clock on the wall, it's about time for me to wish tanithryudo happy birthday!

I suppose I should be...

...happy about one thing at least. A new Destroyer novel by Mullaney & Murphy is coming out in a week or two. That'll cheer me up for a bit. And speaking of all things Sinanju, I've been asked to enter a Destroyer fan fiction writing contest. I haven't committed to entering it yet. It's gotta be at least 5,000 words long and I have until December 31st to write it. I guess I could try to come up with something. It would beat the hell out of the nothin' I got goin' on at the moment as far as writing creatively goes.