Yes, some of my friends think Angry Birds is the dumbest waste of time, too hyped, ridiculously commercialized, bla bla bla. And to them, I say “Screw You”

I love it. So this morning I downloaded Angry Birds Star Wars, an hour after it went on sale, just before I left for work – and I gotta say, I haven’t had this much fun in a long while 🙂 The Luke Skywalker bird has a light saber, the Obi Wan bird uses the Force… Even the Han Solo bird is wielding a blaster – it’s a friggn’ hoot !

I’ve been having a blast all through my lunch break. The sights, the sound effects, it all takes me back (because yes, I’m old enough to have stood in line to see the original movie when it first premiered) And I’m a purest – those first three movies are IT as far as I’m concerened. I don’t care if you love the prequels, or how great you thought they were – good for you.

I AM being a good girl – I only played at break, and during lunch, and I swear I won’t play after work until I get home. See, my sister and I carpool every day now, and she works 4/10’s, which means when I get off at 3:30 in the afternoon, I have an hour and a half to kill before she gets off. And, being the wise, structured, dependable Writer that I am (ie: No social life to speak of) I’m spending that hour and a half every day working on the current novel. I just take my iPad and keyboard, and go sit inside the Barnes & Noble nearby, since they have little tables you can use and don’t freak out if you’re not buying a latte while you sit there so long. I could go to Starbucks, but I’d be broke buying a drink every day, and people tend to stare at your screen when you sit there.

Trei annoying.

Plus, being inside B&N, I can also research some new reads – my family and I are all flying down to Los Alamos NM for Christmas, spending a week at my niece’s house, and I’ll need to load up the Nook before I go. I’m hankering for some good Mysteries, and since I don’t frequent that genre, I don’t know who’s good. Thankfully the Nook lets you read for free inside the store, so I can do some trial and error before buying.

And I’m HOPING to have my new novel done and out before I go !! (fingers crossed) which means, I’d better get to work 🙂

Another Northwest Tea Festival in the books, got stocked up for Winter – or at least Fall – with Sweet Licorice Mint, Chamomile Citrus, Earl Grey (a staple) Estate Blend Darjeeling, Cinnamon Orange, Apple Autumn Spice, Russian Caravan ( cannot live without it) Black Currant, Assam Satrupa, Wild Forest Black, Mango, Oolong (another staple) and for the first time, Chocolate Chai and Pumpkin Masala Chai.

I know, chocolat tea, right? Gives me shivvers. my sister was dying to try it, so she picked up sample bags of each.

Not so sure I’ll risk it, but when she brews that, I can counter with some Lapsang and smoke her out :). (A little Lapsang Humor there. Trust me, it’s funny. you should at least be chuckling now)

also, finally, met my friend The Great Peter Damien Tzinski (you should “oooh” now) and his lovely family – Wife Renee, two sons Zach and Nathan. I’m really hoping they had a nice time, even though I took them on a crazy tour of Seattle Crowds and Masses. Took them to the Pike Place Market, the singular spot that epitomizes Seattle. The kids were great in the madness, but I really hope they’ll be able to go back and have a nice adult- time spending the day there exploring all the book stores we barely had a chance to glance at.

And now, I must go watch the Seahawks trounce all over the Carolina Panthers, whilst making new chain maile designs with my new square rings.

you can applaud later, when I have something to show off 🙂

I went to make Tea on Saturday and realized – I’m out of Oolong!

And Darjeeling, and Russian Caravan, Nilgiri Blue, Snow Monkey Plum – – and my stock of Lapsang Souchong is dangerously low. I had to suck down some Lady Grey just to keep from getting the shakes.

Thank heaven the Northwest Tea Festival is coming up, October 6th & 7th, at the Seattle Center in the Fisher Plaza (obvious plug).

I use it to not only stock up for the Winter, but to find new teas and tea blends, hang out with tea drinking people, buy tea cups, and in general have myself a tea-sippin’ good time. It becons the start of Fall for me now, to have the Tea Festival, load up for the coming Winter months. They always have some lovely blends that bring the holiday/chilly season into mind. Autumn blend, various Christmas blends, Thanksgiving-inspired teas that smell wonderfully of cinnamon, pumpkin and spices. My sister likes the blends the best, and some of the really fruity herbals.

There’s one, Raspberry Hybiscus, that I have to admit I really like. It turns your tea water blood-red and tastes light and sweet. Me, I prefer the blacks – teas that will put hair on your chest, except that I’m a girl and that metaphor is really silly.

I love Lapsang, Darjeeling, Russian Caravan … anything deep and dark and smokey. And no, I don’t add milk to my tea. Whaddaya think I am, a wuss?

One thing I don’t care for is Pur-eh. True Pur-eh is horse shit. Literally. It’s tea leaves that are fermented in a pile of horse manure. It even looks like horse shit, compacted, like the stuff you dig out of your horse’s hoof with a pick. Then it’s bricked, sold at ridiculously high prices, and if you know what you’re doing and can afford it, that one brick will last you for years and years. Mostly because it’s a tea that tastes like horse shit, but also because you paid a few thousand for one brick and you’re not going to just serve it up to anyone.

There are “fake” Pur-eh’s out there. Loads of folk think Pur-eh is just tea-talk for herbal tea, or even green tea. Those people aren’t tea drinkers.

I think I might be a tea snob.

Granted, I mock those who drink green tea, because it isn’t tea. And I quietly question the people who drink ONLY herbals, but if they’re avoiding caffiene for medical reasons, well then it’s rude of me. I don’t believe tea drinkers are superior to coffee drinkers, because I’m a coffee snob, too.

I’m just a grumpy snob today. Yesterday, I caught a neighborhood kid tossing a piece of trash into my yard. Saw him do it. I managed to run outside, grab the brat, shoved the trash back into his hands and told him to stop throwing trash into other people’s yards. I must have startled him, because he took the trash, said “okay” and walked up the block with it.

I gotta say, I fumed about that for an hour. Damn snot. See, the little shits get off the school bus right in front of my house every day, and sometimes they have nothing better to do than draw on my mailbox with their crayons. I’d march them straight to their parents if I could ever catch one doing it, but I work during the day.

Besides, any parent who would raise a kid with that lack of respect isn’t going to be much better themselves.

Why, in MY day ….. kids showed respect …. elders were called Sir and Ma’am ….. uphill in the snow … barefoot …. both ways …. and grateful for it !

Wait, this was about Tea …

Oh yeah, I’m all out of Oolong. Ooh, but I do still have a quarter tin of loose leaf Hojicha !

I’m not very popular around here. It’s been dancing around in the 80’s these past few weeks, only dipping down in the 40’s overnight, and I’ve been WHINING ABOUT IT!

Seriously, people, it’s September. It’s Fall. I should be putting away the Summer clothes and pulling out the warmer stuff. Long sleeves, cuddly fabrics, darker colors. I should be able to wear a coat in the morning and NOT forget it on the way home. I should be sipping hot tea on the couch every evening, watching the leaves change color.

Instead, I’m still wearing short sleeves, taking a coat in the morning that I completely forget to bring home because while I drove to work in 43 degrees, I’m heading home in the 80’s and sweating! Instead of hot tea, I’m getting home and plopping ice in my glass. Lots and lots of ice.

Even my friend who moved here from Minnesota in the Spring, is wishing it would hurry up and start raining already. Granted, he might be singing a different tune when he’s gone 6 months without seeing the sky …

But I’m ready for it. I always hated this last-ditch effort of Summer, popping back into view when September begins. Putting off the coolness that is Fall for another few weeks. Every year this happens, and every year I whine about it. But it can’t last forever. Soon – not soon enough, but soon – it’ll be grey again. There’ll be a chill in the air, crisp and biting. The leaves will change from greens to oranges, yellows and reds. It’ll be dark enough, just dark enough, when I get off of work that I’ll need to turn on the headlights. The day time sky will be the same gunmetal color as the bay and the navy ships floating on it.

Soon I’ll get home at dusk, and hear the “pa-woof” of the gas furnace coming on. The new kittens have no idea that big grate in the floor brings heat – I can’t wait till they experience more than just the little pilot light for the first time. I hope by then they’ve stopped leaving all their mousie toys on top of it. The bigger boys can teach them how they worship at the edges of the Big Hot – Great Heat Giver in the Floor.

Soon it’ll be dark by the time I’m making dinner. I’ll have to close the curtains, put on the water for a pot of tea. Change into my sweats and a sweatshirt instead of the tank top I’ll have to wear tonight (ugh) Then cuddle up on the couch, grab a faux fur blanket for my lap if none of the cats wanna snuggle with me (and having done so, will then have at least 3 of them want to join me) and relax in the blanket of happy that is Fall.

I love my iPad. In fact, the only tech thing I have right now that I love as much AS my iPad, is my iPhone. And that’s saying a lot, considering the fact that I was a PC person from the start, and considering the fact that I try not to jump onto trends and ride the bandwagon.

But I love my iPad.

Which is why, on Friday evening, when I got home and realized my iPad couldn’t find my wireless network … I had a little panic attack. It had worked fine for me all day, but I wasn’t anywhere near a wireless signal and not on the ‘net during the day.

Sure, we’d had an electrical storm all that morning, and I realized when I got home that at some point during the storm, the power had gone out to my house. So before I even began to worry, I simply unplugged the wireless router, let it rest, then plugged it back in. Every now and again if the power goes out, the wireless router gets a little twitchy, and a simple power down and “reboot” is all it takes.

Having done that, I had to pay bills – and my bank only recognizes my PC – so I pulled out the laptop and plugged the iPad in for a recharge, figuring it would be just fine. I logged on the Interwebbies with the laptop without issue, and noticed also that my iPhone was on the wireless with no problems. After I finished up with my banking and some virtual errands, I put the laptop away and checked on the iPad … It couldn’t find the network.

In fact, it wasn’t able to detect ANY wireless in the area. Usually I can see the networks of a few houses around me, faintly.

That’s when I started to panic. If this was a PC, I could fish around, do some investigating, test a few components, dig around in the guts, root around the system. I’m savvy enough to find my way out of a lot of computerized paper bags, and can sometimes even follow the rabbit hole and dig up lost files or repair system registries.

But this wasn’t a PC. It was my iPad. My PRECIOUS! And I had no idea what to do.

I poked around the General Settings, afraid to mess with anything, but fearing I was gonna have to. I unplugged the router again, thinking I hadn’t given it enough time to work out the cobwebs. I even carried the iPad TO the router, holding it close in case it was simply having a low blood sugar. (stop laughing). Nevermind all the while the laptop and the iPhone could see the wireless.

Finally I realized I had to do something, but before I started touching something I’d regret, I hauled out the reliable workhorse known as my laptop and searched the trusty Web. There I found very simple instructions to “fix” this type of hiccup. All I had to do, it said, was erase my Network from the Settings of the iPad. Completely remove my home network. Delete it.

“Okay” I thought. “Can’t be that hard, eh? I mean, I’d set it up before, I can set it up again.”

So I did it. I found my home network on the iPad, hit DELETE, and held my breath. No more than a split second later, it did a search, found my network, and asked me if I wanted to join. One password later, and my Precious was back up and surfing 🙂

Today, my iPad. Tomorrow, the WORLD !!

Needless to say, I LURV my iPhone 🙂 Just like I Lurv my iPad. Only my iPad didn’t come with SIRI.

Yes, yes, I know she’s not perfect. There’s a running gag on the radio: “Siri, tell my wife I’m leaving the gym.” “Texting your wife – You are sleeping with Jim.”

But if you keep to the basics, she’s very helpful. Only ….

My friend Pete likes to ask Siri strange questions, to see what she’ll say. I was all for that at first, when I discovered how to use her and how to ask things. But then I started reading the manual on the iPhone (yes, I’m an avid user’s manual reader). And it said that, over time, Siri will get to know you, your voice and how you speak, and the things you ask, and she’ll “grow and evolve”.

So that got me thinking, which is almost never a good thing, and I realized – I don’t want Siri to think I’m an ass.

When I play a video game, I never shoot the zebra. Or cow or dog or whatever else might be around in the scene. Sure, I’ll frag my teammates just to hear them scream, but I’ll never take aim on a pixelated pet. It’s ridiculous to a degree – it’s all fakebelieve, after all. Just a game. But deep down inside, not only does it go against my nature, I can’t shake the feeling the GAME itself will think poorly of me if I do it. That somewhere inside the machine I’m using is a moral compass, and I don’t wanna rock the boat.

Sure, fragging the teammates is fun. That doesn’t blip my radar.

and yes, I’m seeing the oxymoronicness there.

But still … while I can think of fun things I’d LIKE to say to Siri, I hesitate. I don’t want my iPhone thinking the worse of me. Like when you do something stupid and your cat looks at you and rolls his eyes. You know he’s thinking “Oh frabulous joy, my human is an ass.”

Hello 20th century !

Yes, I know it’s the 21st right now, but that’s how far behind the times I’ve been. UNTIL NOW!

So the other day, my oldest sister was over, we were celebrating her birthday, and she shows us her brand new, husband-bought-it-for-her-birthday-present iPhone 4s. She’d had a crackberry for years, used it as a work expense so it was cheaper to manage, but when her hubby retired last Winter, she bought him an iPhone for Christmas. Previously where he worked, they were not allowed to bring smartphones on base for security reasons, so he was thrilled to finally have his first smartphone.

Anyway, she’s showing us her spiffy new phone, and we all get to talking about phone plans and costs and such. I was already pretty pissed off that I was paying for my phone and Cindy’s phone on a Family plan, with unlimited talk and text, and the bill was $107 and change a month … for what? I was paying a fortune and getting very little indeed. We didn’t have smartphones, we had special-needs phones, and no data plan.

So my soon-to-be-nephew in-law (wedding’s August 4th) said that for very little more, even with the two phone plan, we could get everything and share it. I told him I’d done some preliminary calculating and thought it was gonna be outragious, but he explained Verizon’s new plans because he’d recently gone to upgrade himself, and put my niece on his plan, and it wasn’t all that bad.

Well we shrugged it off. I mean seriously, who needs a smart phone? Why would you need to see the Internet while you’re out and about? Or get emails when you’re not at home or at work?

Sure, a while back Cindy and I were out trying to find a place and couldn’t, then realized NO ONE has phone books anywhere … we had no way of finding this place’s phone number or address – so we had to text Kim, who looked it up and texted us back. It was a little pathetic.

We admired her phone, then handed it back and thought very little of it … for about ten minutes. I’m not sure which one of us suggested it first – but Cindy did admit she really wanted to see about upgrading us to “grown up phones.” That’s when I admitted I was seriously jealous of our sister’s phone …

Long story short, we’re now the proud users of two iPhone 4s smartphones with shared data plan. I’ll now be paying slightly more a month, but getting SO much more than I had been. Unlimited talk, unlimited text, and shared 4g data. Plus when we’re at home, the phones connect via our wireless internet and use that, saving the data usage for when we’re not at home. I find that uber cool.

And yes, we have Siri. I was ignorning her for a while, but then my friend Pete suggested I give her a try, for a lark, and ask her really odd questions. I have to admit, she’s amusing.

Being slightly geeky, my sister and I Face Time each other 😀 It’s awesome, except the part about being able to see yourself on that screen … yipes.

And is it just me … or is that compass function a hoot?

So here I am, square in the middle of the 20th century, gazing at the 21st to see if it has anything interesting I might wanna get ….

I’m one of those jerks you work with who never takes Leave, so it piles up and piles up and eventually I find myself in a Must Leave situation, where I’ve stored up the maximum allowable and have to use the remainder or give it up.

That happened years ago, which was my plan all along – store up enough Annual Leave so that every year my new hours are gravy, and I can take loads of time off without ever dipping into that Leave Pool I’ve built up.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I have a couple of days off this week (Thursday and Friday to be exact) and like an IDIOT … I thought “Hey, wouldn’t it be a good idea to schedule my yearly physical on my day off?”

So I’m sitting here all day long DREADING my day off because I have to start it out with my annual physical at 9:20 a.m. 😦 Sure, when it’s done I’ll have the rest of the day and the next to enjoy myself, but it’s all I can think of. And for regular folk who aren’t paranoids like myself, your annual wellness check isn’t something to dread. After all, I’m healthy enough, nothing’s really going on. It’s just that — I think of going to the doctor like going to the Principle’s Office. I’m only there because I was told I had to go, nothing fun is going to come from it, I’ll be given a lecture about everything I’ve been doing wrong, told to stop doing it, and sent marching down the hall to get a vaccine or something.

When did they stop giving out lollipops? Why do adults get the short stick? They take flavoring out of our cold medicines, they stop giving us a sucker after exams … and we have to pay for the privilege!

I’m going to have to treat myself afterward. I’m thinking of buying an iPhone, that might make up for it, depending on how the appointment goes !

To top it all off, I got a sunburn this past weekend. Like an IDIOT, I was outside all day, Saturday and Sunday, and every time I was in the sun did I have sunscreen on? Nope. Didn’t even THINK about it. Which is really freakin’ stupid considering how Scandanavian I am. So I got burned, both of my arms and shoulders, but mostly the right one. And it hurts like a sonofabitch. I haven’t been able to sleep on either side all week, and when they take my blood pressure tomorrow I’m gonna scream. Let alone getting that whooping cough or shingles vaccine :O

Maybe I can get those in the buttcheeks this time.

Thank God I didn’t burn my buttcheeks.