What a disappearing act I’ve been lately! Many apologies but, as all bloggers know, life has its way of just happening sometimes. This week has been really physically hard on me.

I’ve been working 5am-1:30pm all week… Going to bed at 7 and waking up at 3am to get ready for work is no fun! I’m on my feet all day, racing around the market doing a zillion things at once, so you can hopefully understand why I haven’t felt like blogging when I get home!

The good news is that work hasn’t entirely consumed my life (yet!). I’ve managed to squeeze out some bits of joy out of each day and– since I haven’t been taking photos– I figured I’d blog about them while my energy level’s still relatively high for the evening.

First things first, I’ve become utterly addicted to Legend of the Seeker. The show was created by Sam Raimi and is sort of in the same vein as his Xena and Hercules (the former of which I idolized as a young one to the point of learning how to do her battle call), but with a much more serious twist and a bigger budget.

Think Hercules meets Lord of the Rings, plus more violence and its own world of terminology. Seekers, Keepers, Confessors and Mord’Sith, oh my! (Can we all agree that Cara is a total babe? I’d let her use the Agiel on me any day!)

It’s all loosely based on a series of novels by Terry Goodkind, which you bet your buns I’m gonna read when I’m done with my current book.

Watch this show!

Which brings me to Ender’s Shadow!

It’s taken me way too long to pick up this book, but I’m so glad I finally did. Practically every free minute I’ve had this week was spent either watching LotS or reading up on Bean’s side of the story. I’m about halfway through, and it’s the best “meanwhile” book ever. And… While I love Ender’s Game, I think I like this one even more.

The above images were taken from the official Marvel website– they’re two covers out of the five-issue comic series released last year.

Read this book!

To get me out of my rut, but still keep the geek theme going, Chris took me out for a date last night. We saw Avatar in 3D and it. was. AWESOME!

Normally I can’t handle 3D stuff because it’s too invasive, but since we weren’t at Disneyland and they weren’t spraying scents in our faces and having shit brush against our legs, I managed to get through the flick relatively anxiety-free.

When I first saw the trailer, though, I couldn’t get over how cheesy the CGI looked, but in the theater the Na’Vi looked amazamazing. It was only the “dreamwalkers” that bothered me (Sigourney Weaver’s avatar was so stupid, like something out of a deviantart gallery).

In the end the movie made me really sad because it was only 3/4 non-fiction. It was basically one big sci-fi version of Dances with Wolves, which is one of my favorite movies, back before Mary McDonnell butchered her face. But that’s another sci-fi post for another day.

See this movie!

As long time readers know, I’m a huge geek. Although, if you’ve only been reading along for a short while you’ve probably still managed to catch some whiffs of geekery off me… Heck, this post is proof enough!

So, imagine my surprise when someone contacted me through Flickr about using my tattoos for an article and it actually turned out to be legit!

There are 11 inked geeks altogether who were e-terviewed for the article. You can read the blurbs on Mog and Cactuar here and here!

Speaking of geek ink, I wonder if my brother would get matching “So Say We All” tattoos with me? And if Chris would totally hate the idea?

Al?

Chris?

Whaddaya say? I’ve always wanted a wrist tat! ;)

The other day my best friend drove up from Salem and hung out for the weekend. In honor of the rain we hopped over to Caffe Destino on Fremont for an undeniably good combination of coffee + video games.

We linked our Gameboys together and battled out several matches in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. I must say, this game is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I’m a sucker for tactical RPGs, and the simplicity makes it easy to pick-up and put-down, unlike other games whose learning curves thwart my casual gameplay.

Plus, thanks to the auto-handicap feature I actually stood a chance against Ben’s squads, which were 10+ levels higher than me. Good times!

Hit me up if you have this game, or any other DS game with wireless battles. Pokemon, Worms– I’m always up for a challenge!

Ever since I got Chris into blogging, he’s been digging through his old recordings and finding some pretty long and forgotten stuff, including a goof-off ode to Felix that I’d written as a joke and sometimes played for friends who came over to our apartment.

Take that song, add a lazy Sunday and Windows Movie Maker, and this is what you get: a totally ridiculous slideshow of my sweet Felix, with horrible backing music provided by yours truly!*

Enjoy!

* Unlike some bloggers out there, I wasn’t blessed with a gorgeous voice. I’m actually really awful, borderlining on tone deaf. Consider this your warning! :P

Earlier this week my best friend turned the big 3-0 and swung by for an extended Portland visit. We took him out for a fancy meal at VQ (bacon wrapped dates stuffed with chevre and marcona almonds– zomg!) and on Saturday we had an impromptu picnic in the NW.

This was the first trip to Washington Park all three of us had made since becoming Oregonians and, while we just barely scraped the surface, I can’t wait to do some more exploring with my camera.

Huge trees, beautifully maintained rose gardens, it was the perfect setting for a weekend snack-fest.

And man, did we snack.

Like I said, it was an impromptu picnic so there was no preparation ahead of time. We just stopped off at the nearest grocery store and loaded up before crossing the bridge.

Sundried tomato hummus, spinach dip (which I hadn’t had in years!), peanut butter cups, sourdough bread, Fritos, baby carrots… The list goes on. Needless to say, I didn’t cook dinner that night.

Of course, we played video games, too. Mother Nature and Nintendo DS is a really underrated combination, in my opinion. In this photo Chris is trying to beat the first castle in Super Mario World for me (I suck at castles and ghost houses!), but I also just picked up Scribblenauts and am having a lot of fun with that.

Just before packing up we shot some awesome/ridiculous photos of each other. Ban fired off a good number of me being my usual obnoxious self. You can see that whole strip here.

Next weekend is my birthday and I plan on having an encore presentation of this afternoon. But, as I type this, it’s pouring rain outside, so we’ll just have to wait and see if the weather holds up.

I got these in the mail yesterday as a surprise from one of my favorite gals, Ms. Jessica. Back when we both lived in Redding we used to hang like there was no tomorrow (remember when we dropped that jar of alfredo on Lake Boulevard, and there was a stain on the sidewalk for weeks?!).

Sadly, we haven’t actually been face to face since I got married and moved away, so it was extra special to recieve this random gift from her.

Anyway, she bought the earrings from this amazing Etsy shop, Shmuzz, who specializes in “jewelry designs from the road less traveled.”

What really got me hooked was the fact that the artist doesn’t stop at Mario Bros. & Zelda themed jewelry. Lovingly beaded earrings from Earthbound and Secret of Mana– photographed in front of original SNES cartridges– prove that this girl isn’t trying to profit off the video game niche, she’s just as addicted as the rest of us.

Shmuzz’s video game inspired creations go for $15-$20. I’ve been wearing my Yoshi ones since I got ‘em and can’t wait to get some more. And, of course, they accessorize with my tattoos oh so well ;)

Thanks Jess!