Miss Cellaneous

...I suppose I cannot interest you in a three-seater sofa made of buffalo leather? Anyone? Bueller? It's not even thirty years old!

Ah, well. I put up an on-line ad just now (with pretty-ish pictures'n all) because the one time I needed...well, time in order to sell or give away for free said couch is, of course, the time this beauty is delivered a week too early.

(I also survived the first day of work. But it was a close call.)

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( Down to my KNEES? Not yet, and also, I'm not John Sheppard. )

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In fannish news, I've been cheerfully going through Yuletide. I might get to a round-up once I'm done, but if you want a sneak (or, knowing me, only) preview, check out my AO3 recommendations for, so far, Friday Night Lights, Dollhouse, and The Mentalist.

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Worked till 9:30, worked out for another hour at the gym, and am now enjoying a banana-chocolate milk (made with the organic banana and the Milka-Weihnachtsmann Zartherb that Johnny at work had given me). I may have had two large projects on my desk these last two days, but now I'm off work until the week "between the years."

Speaking of women & work, how 'bout this BusinessWeek article? Women Hedge Fund Managers Outperform Men.

This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth and has comments. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

( Real life: family & work )

In the mean time, I have changed my blog layout. Y'like?

Also, with my first From Mona To Mona gift, I've made a couple of DVD Screencaps of SGA 1x01 "Rising." Have at 'em, if you like. Yes, I am icon-making as I post.

Finally (for this entry), new default icon.

This entry was originally posted at DreamWidth and has comments. Feel free to comment there using OpenID.

My icon says everything there is to say about my work day. Leisure time was much better, then: a good episode of Spooks, not to mention concurrent orgasmic noises from sandynotlisa. If I'd known he'd like my Leberwurst* so much, I'd have bought some a long time ago.

* not a euphemism.

The parcel from amazon.co.uk came at a perfect time, in any case: I gave myself an early Christmas present.

( Only SGA fans will understand )

While we're at it, did I mention Sandy had given me this as a little thank-you gift for lending him Seasons One to Three of The Wire?

( Aww! )

As a lazy corporate bee who came home only half an hour ago admittedly because two dear colleagues were celebrating their good-byes and I couldn't tear myself away, I googled "Packliste USA," which of course, in German, means "packing list." Ah, Germanic languages like English...

Anyways. First Google hit? I kid you not, the first one? Was a furry's packing list for a furry con.

Oh, fandom. Sometimes, you haunt me. (For reference, i.e. those who haven't seen it: The Geek Hierarchy.)

...when I came home. Yay?

In other news, selenak has a rockin' post about The Women of Earth. Spoilers for Series Three of Torchwood, obviously.

69 versions of the documents modified, screened for confidentiality, printed, ordered, checked, scanned, re-checked divided, & sent
+ 13 hours at the office today
+ 7 hours partying last night
+ 4 hours slept afterwards
+ 3 glasses of wine
+ 2 tequila shots
+ 2 big projects
+ 1 broke bike
____________________
100% exhausted Mona

Oh, Mr. Murphy. I wish we weren't such steady companions sometimes. Every workday since last Friday, sweetcolleague & I were waiting for further data input - and now that it shall arrive tomorrow, no, really, totes serious, tomorrow afternoon!, it couldn't be any more inconvenient a time: the information will take us hours and hours to integrate, and tomorrow's the big, long-awaited Office Summer Night's Party. & :-(

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At least it meant that I could leave early-ish today, go to the gym for a good hour, and then bake lemon-cranberry muffins* that smell heavenly. (No, I haven't tasted them yet, but trust me, the the batter was delicious. & ;-)

* No time tonight; bed now, but I can provide the recipe later?

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Torchwood: Yes, I watched it and enjoyed it. I haven't forgiven Rusty for ( spoilers for TW2! ), but I still like Gwen a great deal, and to me, this show has always been captivating in its cheesy monsters-and-aliens glory, not to mention Cardiff as the centre of the world, or canon bisexuality.

If you care for a cool Torchwood review, check out Selena's. I look forward to her thoughts almost as much as to the series. & :-)

( We prefer the term 'guestage' around here. )

In conclusion: Stockholm's Syndrome rocks!

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I survived today's 16 1/2 hours at work. Without so much as a nap. Um, yay me?

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Iran: keep boosting the signal:

If you use Twitter, please set your location to Tehran & your time zone to GMT +3.30. Iranian security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut down Iranians' access to the internet. Cut & paste & pass it on.

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I was checking my phone cam for the pics taken yesterday during my brief reprieve with my friends and colleagues by the river...

( An open letter to the German people. And because Reading Is HARD, I've added an illustration. )

ETA: Eheheh. Call me Bob from now on. Thanks, caia.

- Only came home after 11pm.

+ With those tummy troubles on the upswing.

- We'll see if the beef stripes with broccoli (ordered at 7pm, arriving at 9pm) change that one...

+ Date with film-maker yesterday night at the harbour bar went well: very interesting, if perhaps a bit too intense?

- ciderpress, remind me to ask what your integrated bio-version of that Facial Recognition Software sez about him. Almost afraid, here.

+ Meeting monanotmona (who has a LiveJournal now!) yesterday after work in a bar was alcohol-free, yet fun. I know. Marvel at the concept.

- Something we talked about: There is usually at least one obvious reason why a given single boy is single. Often enough, however, I cannot for the life of me see why a given single girl is single. Discuss.

+ I have 2 more Dreamwidth invite codes available. Pipe up, please.

- Why do I have to pay EUR 1,200 for this flight alone (not the car I need; not accommodation) to the US? Summer vacation, economic crisis with fewer seats, late booking, and even that darn detour to Minnesota cannot account for *three times* the price I paid the last time 'round, no?

Back from Frankfurt. Good people, decent seminar, and the trip back with my five colleagues in a first-class section of the ICE train at speeds of 300km/h was fun (if perhaps not quite what the doctor ordered; I do feel pretty beat - although not worse than yesterday, so).

Read not just a few newspapers but Glenkill the novel, too, which you English-speaking types might know as Three Bags Full:

The English, according to Brecht, "have long dreaded German art (literature, painting and music) as sure to be dreadfully ponderous, slow, involved and pedestrian". Three Bags Full is ponderous, slow, involved and pedestrian, but it is also genuinely odd and affecting, and without a doubt the best sheep detective novel you're going to read this year.

Jane Jakeman wrote another review here, and while Ian Brunskill's review here is rather descriptive and unremarkable, it made me long for a job where I can pun and be paid for it.

...on the plus side, I'm home now, and I'm also drinking this Chilean 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. Yes, I found three links on the fly. Anyways - it's not especially exciting, but rich, decent, and definitely neither too acidic (we hatesss that) nor too sweet.

Before you whine about the wine, let me distract you: Hey, you know I haven't been talking about food all that much? It's a little disconcerting; I haven't been baking, either. Think it's all the weekend travel and the current work hours. A personal belief in All Muffins, All the Time! still requires a bit of the latter.

Maybe this weekend. I just did ask for an extension for my taxes. See icon. I know.

The love of both vylit and Sarah Connor, that is. It's the former's graduation, so I made her a present featuring the latter:

[for vylit only]

( Sarah Connor, she of the Terminator Chronicles - a banner )

Watching the rest of the Bones finale now, and tomorrow, it's aforementioned company celebration in Mainhattan. I'll be back Sunday; you'll be good, okay? "Good" in the sense of "writing lots of John/Rodney smut," of course.

Swung by Jaques' Wein-Depot ten minutes past their closing time to grab three bottles of wine...only to come home and ( do more wooork! )

This sort of stuff makes me feel unreasonably important, but also reasonably tired.

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Still on-topic as far my icon caption is concerned: Online Dating in two cases approaches the Real-Life Date phase. ( Film at 11 )

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Must start planning that USA trip soon. Not sure I can push through three weeks of consecutive vacation days, though, which I'd need to make it at all worth the money - the flight not to the East or West Coast but somewhere more centre-ish due to WriterCon(YAY!) in Minnesota(NAY!) will already almost double my costs. ( Musings )

One the one hand, I feel bad for leaving my sweet colleague with the tail-end of our project work, especially as he'd so kindly invited me to his birthday party tomorrow night. On the other, well, it was 11pm...

(8am to 11pm is not as much fun as advertised. Will watch Bones now and hope it revives me. Also finish that Zin.)

What Should Mona Do First This Fine Friday Night?

Poll #1377657
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

What to do first?

At the office, not long ago:

monanotmona: You're doing all this tonight? It's 10pm!
monanotlisa: I have to. Parents are coming by in exactly ten hours. I wouldn't otherwise bother, but...
monanotmona: They will consider you a filthy slob forever?
monanotlisa: 'xactly.

Either there's something in the water (all the way down to Switzerland!), or I was some sort of "featured date" on this Online Dating Service: after a lull of several weeks - when admittedly I didn't even check in - I now had a dozen messages or so in my inbox. ( Isn't this sort of thing supposed to *further* social life? )

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Signed up for this new fitness studio today. Honest as I am, I answered the lady registering me that the true reason was the utterly unbeatable price. Remember the fancy-shmancy "health club" with the test subscription( ??? )

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Came home hungry, then. Proceeded to make herb quark from scratch (basil and parsley and spiced pepper and salt), and ate it on dark whole-grain rye bread. ♥

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And it's almost time for bed again: bi-monthly office meeting in the middle of the night at 8:30am.

I just turned on the TV, wondered why only my DVD player screensaver bounced across the dark monitor, and then realised, duh, no disc, no fun.

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hermine, I already ate the fancy and indeed utterly delicious super-dark chocolate you brought along all up: Two nights of working long (and only having a thin Thai fish soup, today) will do that to ya. On the plus side, there was After Eight Cake early in the afternoon, home-made by one of the secretaries I adore, to celebrate her birthday. Tasty, too (and now of course I wonder if there isn't a muffin or cupcake recipe around...).

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I will watch House M.D. now. That piercing wail you might hear in a bit would be the result of Bad Things happening to Thirteen.

Coming home at 11pm on a Friday night is less fun than it sounds. Yes. Even less than that already negative level of fun.

On the plus side, I took the bouquets from voguefan's & my office home with me.

( Flowers? )

I'll go watch Life now. Yay, Dani Reese. ♥