On a special anniVersary

Five years ago today, my mother met me after work and we went out to see my coworker’s husband play a St. Patrick’s Day gig with his band. Realizing that we didn’t frequently get a chance to have a night out, just the two of us, Mom and I snuck out of the gig early. For lack of any better idea, we decided on seeing a film and I called the cinema to find out what was playing. I vaguely remembered seeing an ad for one of the titles, that it’d looked good, and it was opening that night, so we decided to see it.

The film was V for Vendetta.

Strange how such a small and seemingly random chain of events can utterly change the course of one’s life.

“Home is where they have to take you in”

…has long been my father’s reassurance to Sister and me. Whatever is going on in our lives, no matter our age… if we need to, we can go home for a while and regroup.

As I type this, I’m sitting on a floor in Minnesota, across the room from half-empty bookshelves, a stack of stuffed plastic bins stashed in the closet. In a desert dwelling 1,824 miles away (according to Google), my father is reserving a U-Haul trailer and making road trip plans with his friend. Not far away from him, Sister, Brother-in-Law (BIL), and Nephew are clearing out a room, probably confusing the dogs in the process.

I’m going home.

The cake is…

This being the Saturday after my birthday, I’d invited a bunch of friends to lunch. And I wanted cake for later. So on my actual birthday (Thursday), I went to the grocery store and ordered a cake.

This morning, I picked it up:

Isn’t it cute? Yes, that is a Finding Nemo cake. Yes, I am a Disneyphile.

Stopping at home only long enough to leave the cake on the kitchen counter and pick up HousemateF, I went off for a very fun and very long (due to the kitchen losing our ticket, so without realizing it, we sat and gabbed for at least an hour before our chef came out) lunch with a wonderful group of geeky, fantastic friends. Including one who drove over from Wisconsin just to attend!

Back at home and debriefing HousemateM about the fun and gifts, I heard HF in the kitchen say, “Um… this isn’t the same cake?” On the counter, in the same spot, in a box from the same store, was sitting:

HM lived up to his reputation as an Evil Genius. As soon as I’d ordered my cake, he called the store and ordered this one (I wish I could’ve heard that conversation!). As soon as he was sure we’d left for lunch, he went to pick it up. He hid my cake and left this one in its place.

In short, he gets major Housemate Points, Geek Points, and “Boy, does he know me” Points.

A crocheted Eleventh Doctor, a TARDIS tea mug, a Toon Town Online virtual party with Sister and Nephew, a gift certificate for “crack” (e.g. my favorite yarn store), a great lunch with great friends, etc. etc. etc. And this.

This has been a good birthday.

ETA: Just in case you don’t “get” the second cake, see here.

The Culmination of Nine Months’ Geekery

My handiwork

Brief break from the breast cancer entries, as my supply of preloaded posts has run out and I can’t be bothered to throw one together for today. Instead, I’m just going to bask in the joy that nine months of work – shifting through seven colors, making my first tassels, clicking needles during cinema trips (seriously, reaching a level of competence where I could do this in the dark was a godsend!) – finally came to an end Sunday night, when I finished a massively geeky knitting project commissioned by my friend Leda.

Mr Baker in the original

The very best bit – and, I mean, my favorite bit – is that Leda is visiting the States next month and if all goes according to plan, I’ll get to hand-deliver this!

Much thanks to Witty Little Knitter and DoctorWhoScarf.com for pattern, guidance, yarn choice options, and general information. (For anyone who cares about such things: I can’t work in wool, so this is acrylic Vanna’s Choice yarn on size 10 circular needles.)

Doctor-y thoughts

I know, I know. I haven’t posted anything here in a really long time, but I have a good excuse. Several good excuses, in fact, that include positives such as celebrating BIL’s Marine Corps retirement with my family at Disney World and new editing tasks from the Unk world and CONvergence and moving house, and negatives such as moving house and work instability and financial woes and general “someone please make the suckage stop, thanks”. In my absence from the Refuge, I’ve been accumulating various topics for posts, including a couple new MSG Reports; when or whether I’ll get to them, I cannot say right now.

But for the moment, I just want to dip into Fandom. If you’ve never seen or don’t care for Doctor Who, you may want to skip this and move on to watching cute kitten videos. So if you want to get up and leave now, no worries. I’ll wait.

….Okay, they’re gone. On with the squee.

A friend posted the excellent news that Matt Smith is slated (pending an actual contract, but my fingers are crossed – so ignore typos in this one, please) to continue in his role as the Eleventh Doctor until at least 2013. This prompted a discussion on said friend’s Facebook page that involves minor spoilers and in-references that are going behind a cut. Voilà:

Mental Health Awareness Month

I’ve just recently discovered that May is Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM). Just after this discovery, I thought this could be a good time to really get myself into a blogging routine: “I should do a daily post on something to do with mental health! After all, wasn’t I reading that great article only yesterday and wanting to blog on it?”

Are your Internet friends who they say?

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.  ~ Mark Twain

There’s a warm, fuzzy feeling I get when research backs up what I already knew.

Over on PsyBlog, the latest news is a recent study showing that “overall people were remarkably honest in representing themselves” on social networking sites (i.e. Facebook).