*sad trombone*

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013 19:36
sofiaviolet: bell peppers: the only vegetable I will eat! (cooking)
So, I frequently make stir-fry. Specifically, I make my favorite: Pepper Steak with Onion. While Mom was in town, she showed me how to make my own sauce (I was dependent on bottled stir-fry sauces and packets of sauce mix, and nothing was ever quite like what I get from Food Wall).

Her process includes marinating the meat in soy sauce and rice vinegar. So last night I dutifully cut up my beef, mixed equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar in a bowl, covered it, and stuck it in the fridge. And then between housework and a sudden desire to go to the grocery store, I didn't actually cook it last night.

So tonight I drained my marinade, made my stir-fry, cooked some rice, sat down to eat...

IDK if it was the proportions, the sheer volume of marinade (I actualfax covered the meat in liquid), or the fact that I left it marinating for ~24 hours, but congratulations, self! I have just invented SOUR Pepper Steak with Onion. Which would have been great if I liked sour.

(The bell peppers turned out fine though. And the rice. I have never disastrously fucked up a pot of rice.)

(no subject)

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 16:54
sofiaviolet: wrought-iron fence and crumbling tomb in St. Louis No. 1 in New Orleans (so goth i hang out in graveyards)
I stayed home from work today with what is either a very intractable case of allergies or a hopefully-brief cold. Snotting all over the records is a bad idea (and handling the dusty old paper when I'm already running like a faucet at the nose just makes it worse). I'm beginning to think I may just be allergic to Tuesdays - I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago and had to leave early to avoid damage to the materials in my care. Benadryl manages to stop the sneezing for a couple of hours at a time, but not the continual drip of mucus or the general feeling of itchiness/irritation around my nose, throat, and sinuses.

On the bright side I've done a bunch of housework today - mainly laundry (general clothes, sheets, jeans, towels, and three batches of hand-wash lingerie and delicate miscellaneous - plus I'm going to power through all my dry-clean-only stuff once the towels are done), but also a small amount of picking-up/putting-away/throwing-out and some prep for a meal I plan to cook later.

But I broke my glittery plastic flip-flops. Alas, and I never even wore them outside, just up and down the basement stairs. At least they only cost me 25 cents at a yard sale.

I'm going to be in New Orleans from August 9 through August 19 for the Society of American Archivists annual meeting. I even finally got around to ordering business cards! I'm not looking forward to the weather - I'm sure it will be at Peak Ugh - but it'll be lovely to visit all my favorite restaurants etc.

Also, depending on when Ellie is moving out, I may wind up exempt from helping her move to Everett* via ZipVan due to professional conference. Unintended consequence, but I can't say I mind. She does, fortunately, have plenty of moving karma to cash in among friends in the Boston area, so my absence will be much less of a pain than it otherwise might've been.

*She has located an actual apartment and paid the deposit yay! Lease may or may not be signed yet but definitely will be before her next trip to China, moving to happen when she returns.

(no subject)

Saturday, July 6th, 2013 22:08
sofiaviolet: my life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot (plot)
Roommate search may wind up resolved by boyfriend moving in. (We need to discuss it seriously, but that'll keep until the end of the month when he's actually here - especially since my phone is old and bitchy and drops calls like a motherfucker.)

As we've been long-distance for three years now (and have spent a total of 2-3 months actually in each other's presence over those three years): Separate. Bedrooms. I need my spaaaaaaaaace. Also, there is no way whatsoever to fit another person in my room for real (not just a houseguest kipping on my futon).

It's been non-stop family togetherness since I last posted, including a trip to IKEA (we love IKEA). Since I like my family, this is fine by me.

details by day )

fml

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013 17:54
sofiaviolet: crown and text: get excited and make things (get excited and make things)
So, my parents are in town and we're remodeling the bathroom!

Just kidding. My parents are in town and we're repairing the bathroom, because it was last redone in the time when they still thought greenboard behind tile was a good idea. Ellie and Dad were going to just re-grout the tiles, but realized they had a bigger problem.

On the bright side, Ellie says we can put plastic up and still take showers, and we're going to Home Depot for appropriate materials in the next day or two, and then Ellie and Dad will fix this shit to a really high standard.

And on the other bright side, my theoretical future roommate gets the benefits of not having part of the wall fall off one day.
sofiaviolet: two purple flowers on a single stem (two little flowers)
Parents will be arriving tonight! They have a place to sleep - the futon in my room is clear of Piles Of Junk, and I just need to move my altar out of the bedroom to create sufficient floor area to unfold a sleeping surface. The couch in the living room needs clearing, though...

* Unfold futon
* Clear couch
* Clear dining room table

That should take care of our immediate space needs for sleep, socializing, and eating.

I am terribly congested and snotty and gross since last night. Ugh. I can never tell if I have a sinus infection until the snot turns abnormal colors - I don't feel any associated sinus pressure or pain. So far, it's looking more like Severe Allergies Attack! than illness.
sofiaviolet: drawing of three violets and three leaves (Default)
My sister is moving out by September 1, so there's a bedroom in my apartment in Jamaica Plain becoming available. Depending on Ellie's situation, your move-in date may be a bit flexible if you like. Due to my asthma/allergies, I require a non-smoking roommate.
Apartment details )Location info )
About me, etc. )
sofiaviolet@sofiaviolet.com

Back!

Wednesday, June 26th, 2013 20:48
sofiaviolet: xkcd stick figure falling flat on their face, with a FWOMP sound effect (*fwomp*)
Got so little sleep last night, and such poor quality of what little I did get, that I have been a zombie all day. I came home after work and went straight to bed, and left the door open.

Not just unlocked. Not even "oops, forgot my keys in the lock." Literally left the front door to my apartment wide open in the middle of the afternoon while I took a 2 hour nap. (Which didn't help, btw. I tossed and turned and was the peculiar kind of tired where you feel like you're on drugs, and got no actual rest.)

Then there's the approx. eighty times I almost wandered into traffic on my daily business of going to/from work and Whole Foods, and managing to forget the green bell pepper (which is maybe the single most frequently purchased item when I go grocery shopping).

Basically Ellie needs to install my window air conditioner tonight so I can sleep well enough to function. Otherwise I'm going to fall on the Orange Line tracks within a week, and dammit I don't want to be the person who fucks up everyone else's commute.

Unrelatedly, everything hurts. Shoulders rubbed by backpack/tote bag straps while wearing sleeveless tops, shoulders also bruised by weight of stuff (weirdly, not a problem most of the time). Feet killing me, legs overexerted, whacked my knee on the ladder coming down from my loft bed the other morning.

(no subject)

Thursday, February 28th, 2013 11:24
sofiaviolet: art nouveau rose (rose nouveau)
Rough few days, depression-wise. I took a three hour sad nap Monday and my moods have been low. On the bright side, my sleep schedule hasn't been fucked over by it.

And I finally dug myself out from under my work for this week, and I have finally figured out what historyprof expects and how to work with her. I have an assignment due Saturday, but I already started it and it's going well. Everything else is done (save a final proofreading of Thing for today before I submit it and submitted, yay).

Now that I am actually doing housework, I am re-configuring my life balance. Work is reasonably well blocked-out, since I have set hours for Fun Job, enough love of money to work reasonably consistently at Boring Job, and a total inability to bring work home. Classes are even better blocked-out but homework time really is not; I do all my stuff on my computer, which means poor separation between "homework time," "email break," and "internet time." Housework doesn't quite fit in yet - I tend toward mini-marathon cleaning (not hours and hours without breaks, but longer than Unfuck Your Habitat recommends), but I can also find lots of quick little tasks and do one or three of them before moving on to something else. But I've been using housework to procrastinate on schoolwork for a week or two (and then been completely ignoring the house to catch up on homework for a few days now), which means my balance is off. I'm putting all my homework assignments into SuperBetter now; part of the motivation for preferring housework tasks was that I got rewarded in SuperBetter for them, so now my academic work is gamified too.

Ellie and I are starting to think about moving. Our landlords would like to take over our apartment because it's a bit smaller and on the first floor of the building, and they're getting older and so on. (They've given us tons of warning because they're awesome like that.) Ellie wants to try living with people she isn't related to, and may be moving out of JP, whereas I don't feel like living with not-relatives is an important marker of adulthood and will maybe punch something if I have to leave my neighborhood. It's too early to be seriously looking for apartments, but Ellie is checking listings anyway - I am mentally splitting up our common possessions based on who bought what (mostly Ellie) and who uses what (varies) and trying to figure out what I will need to replace and what I can live without.

Now to get dressed and get to campus. Nerdy games to follow. :)
sofiaviolet: several pairs of glasses sitting on a eye chart (glasses)
Ellie is in Providence for the weekend, so I have the apartment to myself. I am working on unfucking my house. The big problem areas are the kitchen, which is really both our faults, but whatever, I cleared off the counters and wiped them down anyway, and will keep working at it; and the "craft zone" in the dining room, which has sprawled over, like, a third of the room and is entirely my fault with a few of Ellie's possessions swallowed up by the mess. But I am also working on my bedroom, because my personal space should be pleasant dammit, and the living room, where my exponentially growing collection of comics is threatening to avalanche all over everything.

The unfucking project has been going on for about a week (Ellie and I started compulsively cleaning while we were snowed in, and I have been keeping up with it reasonably well). I am also working to feed myself more regularly/healthily, since Ellie and I have a not-terribly-overlapping venn diagram of meals we can make and will eat. I got groceries from one grocery store yesterday, and know what I want from the other grocery store.

So my at-home project is to continue improving the general cleanliness of the apartment. My get-out-of-the-house project for the weekend is to acquire some essential things: I need some organizational supplies, and I still haven't snagged replacement buttons for the coat with a missing button and the coat with ugly buttons. Windsor Button is going out of business, alas, but at least it's forcing me to get this done. While I'm out, I will probably continue my quest for beautiful snuggly sweaters at excellent prices, because I get cold easily and fancy sweaters are waaaaaay more professional-looking than hoodies.

The meta-goal, to be honest, is to get myself out of the house tomorrow and Monday, when I don't have anything which I am required to show up for.

I have a dentist appointment Tuesday (the saga of my missing tooth draws toward its close, many years on), and I'm beginning to think I should get my vision checked. May need new glasses.
sofiaviolet: rear view of a woman wearing a heavily burdened tool belt (handy)
Lots of snow, but we didn't lose power. Ellie and I have spent most of the weekend cleaning the house. This included trying out our new Laundry Pod (which we got at a pretty steep discount from Fab.com for Christmas), for washing nice wool sweaters and delicates. It is pretty much a giant salad spinner with a drain hose, but it seems remarkably effective as long as you don't over-fill it with clothes. My bras and tights rejoice at the gentler handling.

I bought a lot of groceries a week ago and have been succeeding reasonably well at feeding myself. The only failures have been one under-flavored curry and a poor understanding of how fast the baby bok choy would go bad, meaning I didn't get to use it (and want to replace it before making my first attempt at at-home shabu shabu).

I have taken over the email newsletter for the local historical society.

Planning to do Mardi Gras nails for Tuesday. I have a decent collection of nail polish but I don't wear it very much. I am unskilled at painting my nails and, because I work with my hands a lot of the time, it chips quickly.

Signed up for SuperBetter. I think gamification will help me form better habits.

Hater-Free Wednesdays is a new tumblr aggregating reviews and stories about comic shops to help people find local shops that will not shit all over their gender/race/etc.

I bought a ticket for Fall Out Boy's Boston show in May! Very pleased to have them back. I'm not exactly in bandom any more - I am hardwired mono-fannish, and got into the Avengers thanks to the movie (and then I slid sideways into ALL THE MARVEL COMICS EVER, sort of, so that's a huge canon and fandom) - but I miss going to concerts.

[personal profile] stultiloquentia: Fictions and Elsewheres
Yesterday on the train I read Scientific American's special report on parallel universes. Briefly: they ain't science fiction. They're theoretical, of course, but at least some of the theories are at this point pretty darned solid and make sense of increasingly huge heaps of data.

...

Why should fandom care? Well, mostly because science is cool. But also? It means our stories are real. Quite literally. Every course of events and configuration of particles, every decision and every outcome you can possibly imagine is, in an infinite universe, occurring right now. Kurt and Blaine? Somewhere, incomprehensibly far off, they're as solid as you and I, and muddling through snowstorms and love. Somewhere slightly off to the left, they've already been married for eighty years. We'll never meet them, and nor will our descendants, because, among other problems, the multiverse is expanding faster than it's possible to travel though it. But they're out there.

They're making up stories about you.
I knew there was a reason I made an entire religion in Auriel whose cosmology says that everything is stories and god is a writer. (Well, a reason besides ego. Heh.)

(no subject)

Sunday, January 13th, 2013 12:09
sofiaviolet: photo of a bird (birds for brains)
Ellie woke up to a small hole in the bathroom ceiling and a bird hiding out (and freaking out) inside the living room curtains.

(Bird has been returned to the great outdoors. Bathroom door is staying closed until the likelihood of further avian houseguests goes down. Landlady has been called.)

(no subject)

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 20:52
sofiaviolet: a large number of small "lucky cat" statues (maneki neko)
Con.txt was a great experience, although I did make the mistake of booking such an early flight home that I missed all the Sunday panels.

Since getting back to Boston, I have taken over as GM for the Shadowrun campaign. I moved our setting to New Orleans. The party composition is very different this time; all the players have chosen different character types from what they played in the last campaign, and so we've got only one magic user and no hackers (last campaign had three/four magic users).

I cleaned all the things today in preparation for my parents' arrival tomorrow evening, and my allergies exploded in response to the dust I kicked up. I had to make room to unfold the futon so they have somewhere to sleep. They'll be here for about a week and a half.

I also bleached a couple of chunks of my hair and gooshed some more purple Manic Panic all over - a little of my usual Purple Haze/Ultra Violet mix, and a bunch of Electric Amethyst. I just washed the dye out and my hair hasn't dried yet, so I don't know how it'll look, but I feel pretty optimistic. (It had been a very long time since I bleached any new growth, which meant the existing purple streaks kicked in about halfway down the length of my hair. Accidental ombre.)
sofiaviolet: MS Paint person sadfacing while holding broom, with text: "clean *all* the things?" (clean all the things?)
My weekend has come to a satisfactory conclusion, with all work completed on time, even with social media sanity breaks. \o/

Ellie has decided to Clean All The Things. The apartment totally needed it, but it was a little stressful to come in from Special Work Event after lunchtime and find Even MOAR Stuff in my bedroom.

Also, today I talked to my mom about getting a new computer. My Macbook is five years old!* It's still a perfectly adequate computer for my needs, except for two problems:
  1. The fan makes loud angry noises whenever the computer is sleeped/hibernated/shut down, carried in my bag, and woken up again.
  2. The plastic case around the screen and keyboard/trackpad has begun to chip off. Including right under where my right wrists rests when I'm mousing.
But, as my mother needs a new computer (hers is so old she can't update past Firefox 2, and she's understandably worried about Bad Shit From The Internet), we have decided she can have the Macbook, since she won't be moving it around or using the trackpad.

So now my goal is to locate the best Macbook for the least money. We have determined that it is a worthwhile investment to get a better computer than I need Right Now, because said computer will serve me for more years.

* I have been pretty impressed with the longevity of the Macs I've owned. 6 years, 4 years (would have been longer but Evil Ex stepped on it and refused to admit it was his fault the screen died), over 6 years (since AFAIK the iBook I gave to Cameryn is still kicking), and 5 years. Mom's iMac is 7.

Back in Boston.

Saturday, January 7th, 2012 18:09
sofiaviolet: a cracked egg with bandaids holding it together (for the papercuts)
I had a great time in New Orleans. :)

Ellen and Greg arrived shortly after Christmas (they're moving in with my parents for part of the year). Cory was also around for a few days (he is actually planning to use the Hello Kitty dice bag). We went to the French Quarter twice (once with Ellen and Greg and Cory, once without), ate at our favorite restaurants, etc.

I did manage to get lunch with [personal profile] pinesandmaples, [personal profile] rooibos, and their roommate Sid right before leaving for the airport. Ellie and I had a very nice, very empty flight that got in early and good luck with everything once we landed except for the Orange Line, for which we had to wait because we'd just missed a train.

Since getting back last night, I haven't done much of anything, but Ellie has been on a "clean all the things!" binge today, mainly focusing on the kitchen and bathroom. We also got groceries and she's making chicken noodle soup for us and the one or more of her friends who are coming over for dinner.

I seem to have gained some weight, for once. )
sofiaviolet: stone steps with moss (stone steps)
Made my first improvement to my Shadowrun character on Monday: acquired the Longarms skill at rating 2, so she can use a sniper rifle. Further away from the NPCs you're trying to kill means less chance they can lodge bullets in you. (This Monday, I need to actually buy the sniper rifle, and talk to Daly about initiation and Adept powers.)

Did my first survivor speech on Wednesday night. I drafted the full length of what I wanted to say in my paper journal a couple of times on Tuesday and Wednesday. When I went to actually give the speech, it just kind of happened (and I don't think I talked too fast or went over my allotted time). *sigh* Now that that's done, I am no longer wound up so tightly my spine's range of motion is obstructed, which I very much appreciate.

After work yesterday, I got lunch at Ghazal (where they now remember I like plain naan with my lunch buffet, I am there so frequently) and then went to the thrift stores on Centre Street. I got sweaters and glassware. Sweaters because I need warm things that are more professional than hoodies (which is a really low bar to set); one of them is argyle but none of them are cardigans because pullovers seem much more common and I an super-picky about my cardigans. Glassware is for terrariums and aquariums: Ellie's potted herb garden died a while back, so I am going to replace the rosemary, basil, and thyme with live moss terrariums (since they need less sun and there's no window in our apartment that gets much of that, particularly in winter). And I want some marimo balls to keep in my bedroom.

(Ellie mocks my desire for pet protists. I figure they're just the right amount of maintenance and attention for me to keep them alive.)

Any advice on super-low-maintenance, low-light houseplants welcome.

(no subject)

Thursday, November 24th, 2011 19:27
sofiaviolet: animated Hello Kitty-as-Cthulhu (lol tentacles)
Arkham Horror last night with Cid and Christian (Cid had invited a bunch of other people but we were the only two who actually made it). We battled - and defeated, for now - Shub-Niggurath. Also we ordered Chinese from Food Wall; I ate an entire large pepper steak and accompanying rice, and now I am sad because no leftovers. Note to self: you owe Christian $$ for dinner.

Ellie and I aren't doing Thanksgiving, really. We had leftover chicken noodle soup for lunch (homemade from an entire chicken, so we have lots of it), and she's reheating a roast right now. Our actual celebration is going to be on Saturday at Cameryn's house with a huge chunk of our local friends. Note to self: buy vanilla ice cream, pray it will fit in Cameryn's freezer until dessert.

I mailed the holiday cards yesterday - okay, I mailed the holiday cards to the internet yesterday. I still need to send cards to all the people who don't read my journal, like my relatives and my local friends and my boyfriend's roommates.

Now I will sit around with my hair under a plastic shower cap, feeling grateful for many many things, like purple hair dye and a sister who is intent on teaching me to ride a bike and the people who live inside my computer. ♥
sofiaviolet: the Red Line crossing the Longfellow Bridge (red line)
... I have been kinda busy. I did manage to finish the paper I was freaking out about, although of course it's not graded yet. I've also been to a board game night, a munch, and a play party.

I've also been doing small housekeeping tasks (load of laundry! put away clothes! load dishwasher! etc!) somewhat at random, when the urge strikes. Unfortunately, all the semi-compulsive neatening in the world does not change the fact that I Own Too Much Stuff And Need To Get Rid Of Some Of It. (Possibly the biggest glut of things comes of being the exact same size for nearly a decade that had "fleeing home with an overnight bag because of Katrina" in the middle of it; I own waaaaay too much clothes and it all still fits me.) (I also have a lot of notebooks and loose papers. I think I need to steal some of Ellie's cardboard storage boxes and turn my archival skillz on my own crap.)

I have not mailed anyone's cards yet, but the comment notifications are still in the Starred section of my inbox, reminding me that I need to do that. Soon.

I will be visiting my parents from December 18th to January 6th. For the first time in a long time, I will get to spend my birthday having a good time, rather than "on a plane" or "stepped off a plane yesterday." I am looking forward to that.

(no subject)

Monday, August 15th, 2011 17:13
sofiaviolet: I am cleverly disguised as a responsible adult. (responsible grown-up person)
Ellie and I braved Ikea on Saturday to get the last few things (we hope) that Dad needs to finish the kitchen. We were expecting everything to suck thanks to the tax holiday, but no! Finding a parking space took a while, but the showroom areas were navigable, the line for purchasing kitchens was short, and there was no line at the main checkout. Of course, then we waited an hour for them to pull our stuff and remember to bring it to us. :\

Anyway, having been to Ikea so recently, I lol'ed at the following: Derangement and Description: IKEAD

Now waiting none too patiently for Ellie to get home from work, in the hope there'll be groceries. (And if there are not groceries, there may be a screaming fit.)

(no subject)

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 17:15
sofiaviolet: art nouveau rose (rose nouveau)
Today, I slept in, and then I did housework. Floors still need sweeping and trash needs to go out, but I am not taking out the trash in my pyjamas with my hair slathered in Manic Panic and tucked under a plastic shower cap.

No more Battletech for me, for a while at least. Daly is burnt out, and a crispy-fried GM is not a happy or effective GM. So I'll miss that, but on the bright side, I could finally attend one of the trauma survivors munches.

The Pervocracy: Condom Failure.
Nope. All "perfect use" means in the case of condoms is using them every time, and using them for the entire duration of PIV sex. There's a few more catches--you shouldn't reuse condoms, you should throw them away instead of turning them inside out if you put them on wrong the first time, you should use lube but nothing oil-based, and you shouldn't double-bag--but honestly, most of those are statistically minor. The biggest factor in "perfect use" of condoms is actually using them.

ramble

Sunday, July 17th, 2011 20:31
sofiaviolet: xkcd stick figure falling flat on their face, with a FWOMP sound effect (*fwomp*)
I came down with a cold on Thursday, and the worst of it has cleared out - just in time for the uterine gremlins to awaken. On the bright side, my period should be over before my sex life picks up again. (The cramps seem to be less severe in terms of actual muscle pain, but they're sharper and more symmetrical and more clearly focused on my uterus.)

A few weeks ago, we installed some new shelves in my room (there will be so. many. holes to patch when we move out, but it is worth it in the meantime), and as a result, I rearranged all the books - well, all my books and the shared-custody books; I do not mess with the order of the engineering/woodworking/etc things because they are definitely Not Mine. And I discovered that I had space for MOAR BOOKS!!!!11!1! even with some of the shelf space being reserved for display of tchotchkes. This is very exciting and I am using it as an excuse to buy things off my wishlist. (But I have to save space for books that are still in New Orleans. I only plan to retrieve a fraction of them, the rest being novels I don't want to read again and things left over from my Stereotypical Teenage Wiccan Phase, but a fraction of 400 is still a significant number.)

Two links that both come with trigger warnings (and lengthy blockquotes):
Read more... )

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