Spam Hilarity

While being a slacker and not working on my book when I'm supposed to (I make myself schedules and promptly disregard them), I have been fooling around online. I am still enjoying the random spam emails I get (not that I open them, but their subjects and senders are funny enough). Matt has noticed lately that he gets these really nasty subjects that have his name in them and basically insult him. I hadn't been getting those (although I get "Update your penis" about three times a day. And that subject makes me laugh every time. What does that even mean?), but today I finally got, "Julie is an idiot." It made me laugh. And then wonder if I'm an idiot for laughing. Maybe the subject was right!

Pandas!

You may recall many months ago that I had a small obsession with baby pandas. Well have you heard the news that they inseminated 38 pandas, and are now having a large crop of adorable, rolling babies? I'm sure there are more pictures out there (and you better believe I will seek them out), but here is a link to what I believe is someone else's blog posting of the photos. I love the ones of the baby in a plastic tub! Why is he in a plastic tub?! So cute I can't stand it! And I'm really not one of those people who is overly obsessed with cute stuff.

Today has been a good day. I went to the gym this morning and took my Zumba class, and then I worked in my writer's nook and got through twenty pages of my new novel revisions. My goal is to get through twenty pages per day over the next two weeks, and then I will be finished! With at least a month of summer to slack around! Huzzah! What shall I do with my time? Maybe I will start writing another book. Or maybe I will play the Sims. Or maybe I will look at baby pandas all day because, really, who wouldn't be happy doing that?

Order now!

I just found out that Matt's next illustrated book, Mighty Casey, is listed on Amazon. It doesn't come out until March 3, but there it is already! My in laws are in town, so I'll keep this short. Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Wipeout!

Is anybody watching this crappy show Wipeout? It's hilarious. Sort of. I don't know how many more hours of crappy TV I can take this summer. But why do I enjoy it so much? There's a show I'd like to watch on PBS tonight, although that will probably be eclipsed by the OCD hilarity on Bravo's Flipping Out. I am losing many an IQ point this summer.

So I am diligently working on my revisions of my second novel (with my tentative title, Roll for Initiative. I think my editor still wants me to change the title, but I can't think of a better one. Being in summer vacation mode, it's pretty hard to think of anything these days). Anyway, to help me work, Matt and I set up a little writing nook in our bedroom. My house has many surfaces, but they don't help me focus on writing. Usually I go to the public library to work in this little room with no windows, but I can't fathom sitting in a room with no windows forcing myself to work. The surfaces in my house just don't inspire work, though. Outside on my deck, I'm too distracted by bugs and wind and sunblock smells. At the kitchen table I'm too distracted by the lure of food. And my actually computer desk is, well, covered by a computer. So we bought a tiny desk (not that tiny, like still adult sized) desk at Target, set it up next to a window, and I worked there for the first time today. It was quite nice. I could watch cars drive by, my cat hung by me on the floor, yet I wasn't distracted by other things. I'm quite pleased with my nook. And I can't stop using the word nook. That makes me sound a little classier, right?

Not so Swell

Tonight I'm going to see The Swell Season, the duo from the beautiful musical movie, Once. I am sort of excited and must remember to bring binoculars to see their faces. But I am also a tad nervous. You see, I had some turkey chickpea chili for lunch, as well as a fruity salad, and I am, shall we say, a tad gurgley. What if the concert is all quiet and... Well, if you have read my novel, you know what I'm getting at. If you haven't read it, or if you just have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm not about to explain it. Oy. And the Costa Rican food we plan on having for dinner at Irazu won't help, will it?

Not Jonesing

I saw the new Indiana Jones flick this weekend. I was not blown away, but I guess I didn't expect to be. I always liked the movies, Temple of Doom in particular, but I think I've been over them for about twenty years. The movie was fun, although not as fun as the National Treasure movies (not that I use them as a comparison for all movies, but I really did enjoy my movie going experience with the last National Treasure. Plus, they both have that funny/mystery/adventure thing going). My mom agreed. Matt seemed to like the movie and didn't want to say anything bad about it. Sometimes I think he gets mad at me for being critical of movies, even when I'm not being that critical.

I ate some pretzels this morning, and the pretzel bag won't stop making crinkling noises on the counter. It's kind of freaking me out. Like what if a mouse or giant bug crept into the bag and now it's trapped by a Chip Clip? You know what I'm really supposed to be doing right now? Revising my novel. But I'm afraid of it! It's been so long! What if I can't do it? What if I choke, like Brenda did on 90210 last night while auditioning as Maggie the Cat for hotshot director, Roy Robertson? Now how would Brenda deal with this...

Misty Dreams

OMG. I saw the most disturbing movie last night. It was The Mist, based on a Stephen King book. I knew it was somewhat end of the world-ish, and it was about a group of people trapped in a grocery store after a mysterious mist covers the land. But out in the mist-- there are dangerous things. I could have been completely fine with that and the scariness and the goriness if it weren't for the ENDING. I don't want to be a spoiler, but let's just say that it was the most depressing film ending I have ever seen. We watched a truly dorky episode of 90210 afterward just to try and get that yucky feeling out of our heads. But it didn't work because all night I had HORRID dreams. The worst! Every dream! In one dream, I had two cats (they were actually my old cats from childhood) and I gave them these sleeping pill jellybeans so they would die because I planned on killing myself afterward, but then I didn't and I had two, tiny (like really tiny for some reason) dead cats. And there were other bad ones, too, but I am luckily forgetting. I am starting to wonder if there was MSG in my Thai food last night. There better not have been. I tried calling the Thai restaurant this morning, but no answer. I think MSG can contribute to bad dreams. So if you want a good night's sleep, I suggest not eating Thai food before watching The Mist. I'm just saying.