Btwixt and Btween

I had a good Christmas, aside from the inevitable first-Christmas-without sadnesses. Quiet, filled with spinach Madeleine and company in small and friendly allotments and little aunt-related crises, and if I spent more time on the phone with webhost tech support than I normally would on a holiday week, at least now, finally, there are results to show for it.

And since I took a brief break from my enthusiastic livejournal whoring, there is some news to report. And only one of my bullet points is particularly important, but, you know, I shall do my best to make the reading worth your while, gentle reader, as ever.

• I saw The Chronicles of Narnia, and it felt a little flimsy by comparison to the likes of LotR, but I think it measured up very well to the books. Tilda Swinton, in particular, entirely failed to disappoint, in a big, big way. If her disdainful evility hadn't scared the shit out me, I'd totally want to marry her, and I'd want her to wear that lion's mane down the aisle.



• I received several quite lovely gifts, including entire series of Little Britain (:D:D:D:D:D:D), a Jane Austen action figure (:D:D:D:D:D:D), and much in the way of new-house offerings (again, I say :D:D:D:D:D:D), but I think by far the most useful gift I received was a copy of a little volume called The Virgin Homeowner, about which I cannot say enough good. To think I now understand how a heat pump works! To think I didn't know to get this book before I ever started house-hunting! It's so entirely informative and reassuring that it acts as a balm upon my soul, much aggrieved lo these many weeks.



• But that brings me to the important news: that I've been thinking that things have really been drawing to a close, housewise, these past few days (especially after, early this week, I told my realtor that if one more thing were to change in the negotiations, from an extra thousand-dollar charge to a comma, I was taking my toys and going home), but last night is the first time it really felt true. I sneaked over to the house in the dark with some friends and we poked around and peered into the windows with a flashlight, and it was a total disaster but it was a disaster because the repairs are being made. The repairs! They are making repairs! Surely if this weren't really going to happen, no one would call a contractor out to start work.
  
  So okay. One week in advance, I am ready to stop hedging my bets. I will be a homeowner, and I will be the owner of Bachelor No. 2, aka Mary Agnes. There. I said it. *wipes cold sweat from brow*
  
  Next year, Christmas dinner at my house! You're invited, most definitely, and by way of kicking my superstition to the curb, I would like to share ( the houseplan )
  with you.



• I've been working all this week--mmmm, work--and even stayed late tonight because our support board was so swamped with end-of-year calls, but now I get a three-day weekend, a most wondrous and welcome three-day weekend. I will actually start packing! Like a person who is buying a house! At least, I think I will start packing! Maybe! And also I will possibly manage a day or so of self-indulgence which may or may not (but probably will) involve battling preposterous multiple-game-day Atlanta traffic in order that I might see Brokeback Mountain! But! You know! Brokeback Mountain!



• There weren't any gifts I'd like to exchange for something better, but, oh man, there's one that no one would ever think to buy me that I will very probably end up getting for myself, because I have no sense of self-discipline, which present is this. I have not the words to convey the lust I have for it. Oh, the idea of making my own records on found objects! I can barely even think of it without wriggling in my seat like an overexcited toddler.



• Today at work I stumbled upon a name I think I like better, even, than Dubiety L. Tobogganing, simply because it's the name of a real person: Circumcision Mendiola. Man, oh, man, that boy's parents (at least, I think it must be a boy, but perhaps I'm wrong) must really have been kind of bitter. Or else a bit crazy, in the way that Nicholas Cage is a bit crazy.



• My hands-down-favorite ginger ale now comes in convenient diet format! It is possible that you do not understand the full significance of this news, but I would like to assure you that it is TOTALLY MOMENTOUS.



• And last, but not by any means least, I'd like to shoutout briefly to postmodernpeach, who may or may not ever read this, and who it seems thinks I do not like her, but for whom I actually harbor lots of affection. It is just that I am terribly awkward, honestly, C. :/

There was a Very Important Poll I wanted to put together, but I can't remember what it was, exactly, and so I think I'll just stop here and go back to lurking. I hope you've had good weeks as well, you know.