Recently I was bitching on Twitter about how my hair was long enough now that it drives me insane, gets in my face, flies into my mouth, and generally aggravates the living F@*K out of me…one of my Twitter followers asked to see a recent pic, since she’d never seen me with long hair. So here are pics…

And now for something completely TMI…

My youngest got a digital video camera over the summer, as an early Sweet Sixteen birthday present.

It has a button on it that will upload clips straight to YouTube.

Clearly this is Not Okay.

Because now there are (thankfully) short silly videos of my family on YouTube. *shudder*

You can see my Lap Fungus, Hasani, here (and hear me admonish the videographer at the end). Four seconds of my eldest being a giant dork is here. Twenty-two seconds of my eldest being an even bigger dork (with commentary from younger sister) is here.

There’s more, but those are the least wince-worthy. Le sigh.

My eldest does photo shoots now and again, sometimes of the R-rated variety but certainly not always (she posts them on her MySpace, if you want to see the racier ones). Recently she and her little sis had some purely G-rated pics done by one of Angst’s photog friends. I thought this one was really lovely:

And I really like this one because it’s something of a role-reversal, the younger sister being taller and posing rather protectively of the older sister:

This is the ultimate BSG fan-boy or -girl accessory. Oh. My. Gods. *swoon*

Now I must do laundry and cleaning. Nothing like household drudgery to bring a girl back to Earth.

Once upon a time, I discovered Darkover. My late husband Steve owned all the Darkover books published prior to 1989 when I met him that year, and since I already liked MZB (having read The Mists of Avalon for the first time when I was 15), I started reading the series.

(BTW, my favorite Darkover novel, The Forbidden Tower, was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1978. It has as a major sub-plot the polyamorous marriage of twin sisters and their two husbands, one of whom is from an entirely different culture than the sisters and the other husband, and the relationship aspect of the story focuses on how the foursome come to understand and love one another in the midst of serious challenges to their very survival. I first read it when I was 20 or 21, and it did rather influence my view of what kinds of relationships fit my ideal.)

Steve also had a paperback copy of The Darkover Concordance, which I still have — although the back cover is torn off (but still kept with the book) and it’s moderately beat up. (The cheapest paperback copy I’ve found online is still $34.) Written in 1979, only 5,000 paperback copies and 300 hardcover copies of the concordance were published, the first 100 of which were numbered and signed by both MZB and Walter Breen (the author of the concordance, and her husband at the time). Powell’s Books has had a hardbound copy (signed by MZB only, which is all I care about) in their rare book room for at least 5 years now, and when I first spotted it there, it was priced at $480. For a while, I actually considered paying it! But I resisted temptation, and saw the price drop to $400, then $350, then $300. I stopped looking at the listing because it was too tempting.

I looked tonight. It’s down to $150 now. Aaarrrgggghhhh!

I’m dying with the temptation — especially as I searched at Amazon and found only a handful in their used dealer section (none of which sound like they’re in as good shape as the copy at Powell’s). One of the signed & numbered copies (#49 of 100) I found was listed at $195, as well as a signed & numbered copy originally owned by a member of the author’s family (#2 of 100) listed at $750. (No way in Hades could I pay $750 for a book. I mean, damn, that’s just idiotic. Most of the cars I’ve owned didn’t cost me $750!)

Now I’m soooo NOT allowed in Powell’s, or even allowed to go to their website. Eeep!

The above is what my day hasn’t been. Arrived at work to find there was no lead, and with the most senior day shift person being up at the hill, I got to sub. About 3 or 4 months ago, there was talk that some of us were going to get “lead backup” training…of course, that didn’t happen. So I got to juggle all kinds of delight at work. Today also got to be the day that I spilled a beverage at my desk (first time that’s happened at this job, amazingly enough), soaking my computer mouse and killing it D-E-D dead, then desperately scrambling to find a replacement (so I could actually use my computer) while the call queue just climbs and climbs. And the beeping that announces the official “high queue” status — which means that everyone in the office who isn’t comatose needs to take calls right fucking now — just keeps going off. Whee.

You know that intense feeling of urgency that occurs when you’re on the edge of — but not quite into — a surge of adrenaline? Yeah, that was my operating status all damned day. I was so frazzled that I actually forgot my planned trip to Starbucks during my lunch hour, to get another mocha. I FORGOT COFFEE, that’s how crazed it was. And to top it all off, I got to take an Imitrex because my head went ka-blooey shortly after I arrived. At least today the drug actually did its job, allowing me to notice only every once in a while that my head still hurt just a bit.

Get home and discover that my 8-year-old goddaughter (who lives next-door part-time, and who hangs out with Anxiety as much as she can get away with) has been diagnosed with mono. Since no few of the symptoms have struck Anxiety in the recent few weeks, I’m going to ask to have her tested at her doctor’s appointment tomorrow (which was made because she has been suffering from such intense back spasms pretty much nonstop for about 30 hours now, despite ibuprofen and heating pads).

And next week I get to work up on the hill. Either I locate my scooter’s title so I can get the license plate replaced and drive it to work every day, or I get to be at the bus stop at 5:35am every morning. So of course I’m going to turn the house upside down looking for that title tonight.

This has been such a fun week. Not.

Hey, I thought conservatives were supposed to be the dangerous ones. You know, people who support being able to own as many guns as you like, or people who aggressively proselytize for Jesus, or people who will tell you you’re gonna burn in hell just for walking into a Planned Parenthood. Not liberals. Noooo, liberals just want you to talk your problems out and come to a responsible, eco-friendly, wholly secular, vegetarian, womyn-supporting, more-evolved understanding that their way is the right way. (For the not-so-quick, that last sentence was generalizing liberals in a smart-ass kind of way, and does not represent my view of all liberals. Just a few I’ve met in person who ARE like that.)

Liberals aren’t supposed to FIREBOMB PEOPLE’S YARDS!!!!

And now for something completely TMI…

The new Glamour came in the mail today. It’s one of my small indulgences — only $15 for two years (and I have no idea how they can afford to do that; shouldn’t the mailing alone cost at least that much?!), and it’s tons more positive than Cosmo, as smart as Newsweek (which I also read because Claire has a subscription), and more entertaining than People.

But sometimes the ads are scary. Especially the perfume ads, which I detest because those nasty sample scent strips give me migraines (you can always tell when I get a brand-new copy because I’ll be holding it over the trashcan at arm’s length, ripping out the scent strips). But this month, one of the perfume ads made me cringe more than usual: Paris Hilton has a new perfume out called (*gag*) Fairy Dust. You can see the ad here. Doesn’t it make you want to throw up?!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I actually like Paris (in spite of myself — but she can laugh at herself, and that endears her to me a lot); she’s almost single-handedly invented a career out of being a cute party-girl heiress, and that doesn’t suggest to me that she’s as stupid as most people would like to believe. And, like Claire said, her ads make you want to vote for her — because she’s given us more (and better!) information on her policies in those 2 “fake president” ads than we’ve heard from the real candidates in the last 3 weeks! (Loves it, bitches.)

Besides, my youngest makes me think of a teen goth Paris Hilton.
*dies laughing*

Taking a quick break from raising dragons to blog. I caught the last 15 minutes of the POTUS debate (it’s going to air again out here on the West Coast in a bit, so I may watch the earlier part), and one thing I simply cannot understand: if Obama supporters believe so passionately and with such certainty that he’s going to win, why do they get so darn worked up over McCain? And anyway, the overall feeling I’ve gotten about the elections is that most of us who make well under $35K a year (who aren’t in the military, or trying to find a job with a liberal arts degree, anyway) don’t believe for a New York minute that whoever wins the election will really affect us anyway.

Work today was bad and good. And now for something completely TMI…

The vice-presidential debate was interesting. Can I just say that I don’t like either candidate’s healthcare proposals?! Just think about this: the federal government has already been in charge of healthcare for certain Americans for DECADES: those Americans who rely on the Veteran’s Administration Medical Centers, and Medicaid. And neither of THOSE systems are ever held up as a good example for running healthcare in America. And as Forrest Gump would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Speaking of healthcare plans, my Number One Internet Fanboy sent me a funny that I have to share.

In other news, I’m exhausted. Even having Wednesday off work this week did nothing to help me recharge, as I spent almost 4 hours at the dentist’s office, first thing in the morning (me: zero cavities, moderate gingivitis; Anxiety: mild gingivitis, 4 cavities). The rest of the day was little better. This weekend, I should probably delegate a ton of stuff.

Gee, aren’t I terribly optimistic?