I bought Kiera some catnip this weekend... and boy, has it added a new level of hilarity to my life. Hehehee. It's quite amusing to watch her roll around on the carpet with her little cloth pillow of catnip. Then she gets into a spazzy fit where she basically lunges at... nothing... and then rolls around on her back some more. Then she looks at me with her green eyes, pupils comically dilated from the 'nip... and it's time to take the pillow away. Now she's sprawled out on the rug, dozing, working off her tweak. I'm glad I bought it; even though I was a bit concerned when she started to attack the plastic shopping bag from PetSmart the bag of unopened catnip was in within 10 minutes of coming home. It's good for her to get all riled up and playful every once in a while.

I'm watching 300 really late at night because I've sadly gotten into the habit of staying up way too late again. I'd been doing really well for the last few weeks, but I think the 4th of July weekend screwed up my schedule. Hopefully I can get that back under control. Although... I am glad I stayed up for the sight of Gerard Butler's shadowed, naked ass. Mmmm-hmmm, that's worth a messed up circadian rhythm! ;)

As of late I've also been having really weird dreams. Last night I had a weird quasi-zombie dream the involved zombies and a weird mystic cat like creature. I haven't been keeping track of them in the mornings when I wake up, but I think I should. Oh! But I do remember this one dream involved a freaky spider that had a hard shell on it, like a crab. If you've seen Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, with that one part when Jack is in Davey Jones' locker and he throws a rock and then it becomes a weird white, round crab? Think of the spider with a shell like that, and it could draw in its legs and the plates on its limbs would connect and make some sort of armor for it. The crab-spider was in my apartment, and my family was there wanting to poke and play with the spider, but I was freaking out and wanting to get it out of my home. It was weird.

This weekend was the first meeting of the new "Barnes & Noble" Romance Book Club. It was started by one of the cafe workers, Claire, and we met Saturday to get our first book: Master of Surrender by Karen Tabke. I'm excited, because I've never been in a book club before, and I like romance books (although I've really only read one series of "true romance", the Crimson City series; otherwise I've read "general fiction" romantic comedies). I even have my choice picked out. After we finish this book, another member of the group will pick the next book, and when it's finally my turn, I'll be ready. I'm kind of cheating, since I already have this book on my bookshelf for the last year; but I haven't read it yet. So now this will give me the added incentive to finally read it! Hehehehe. I won't say what book, since this post will be x-posted to Facebook, and some of the book club members may read this over there. But I think it'll be a good selection for the group.

Speaking of books, this has been the weekend of book releases. Three new volumes of my manga titles came in: Bizenghast 5, Chibi Vampire 9, Queen's Knight 12. Today I bought a new manga, called Daemonium, and it's pretty good. I'm looking for a new title since there is a rumor that Queen's Knight may be dropped from the publisher's list of titles; for what exact reason I don't know, akoumi informed me of this news the other day, and there wasn't really any explanation for the decision. But hopefully it is a lie, and they will keep it, the story is just starting to get good! Maybe... and just maybe... if they cranked out a volume more often than one every 1-1.5 years, they might make more money off the title and wouldn't have to take it off their roster. I mean, the waiting period between Volume 8 and 9 was a bloody year and a half! But then between 10, 11, and 12 it was not even a year and I had all three... consistency, people! C'mon, work with me here!

Other book news... Rogue Angel 13 came out on the 4th, a whole week ahead of schedule (as did Chibi 9 and Biz 5 which both came out today), which was very exciting! I need to finish it soon so I can work on the book club choice. Normally it doesn't take 2 weeks to finish a Rogue Angel book, but I've had it in my purse to bring to work to read on my breaks, and also to hold true to my new motto: "Don't leave home without a book", in case something happens that I have time to wait around and be bored. This weekend I'll have to sit down and finish it. And... the best book EVAR was discovered on Friday. It is called... Zombie Haiku and it is The. Best. Book. Evar. Really, it is. It's the copy of a "journal" found after the zombie plague, started as a poetry journal before the zombie plague, but then the owner of the journal was bitten and turned into a zombie, and the zombie continued to write about his travels and actions as a zombie in haiku form. Its' great. Seriously, I was laughing so hard when I read it, and really... of all the zombie books and movies I have read/seen respectively, this was the one that really, actually, grossed me out. They call haiku the most intimate of poetry forms, and it takes a true master of haiku to write it well (that's what the back of the book said), so writing about being a zombie and the zombie apocalypse in such a way is really intimate, bringing a new vividness to the whole concept and you can actually "see things" through the zombie's eyes... and it's really creepy. Hehee. I mean... really, if you love zombies, love poetry, and just love life as we know it, you really need to read this book. It's one of those things where you get done reading it, you sit back and go "Damn! I wish I had thought of doing something like this!" Yeah, best impulse buy of the month. Three of the best haiku are on the front cover (as they should be), and then there's another two that I just about died when I read them (pun totally intended), and here it is:

Blood is really warm
It's like drinking hot chocolate
but with more screaming

With a strong sucking,
they pop right into my mouth.
Eyeballs taste like grapes.

And... one more thing before I go and watch the kick ass battle scenes... I checked Game Stop for prices of used Xbox and PS2, as well as Burnout 3: Takedown, and I have some price ranges to go on... however I may check Amazon to see if there's any used ones on there that's less than $80 in good condition. I really need my video games back... I really can't watch any more DVDs! I'm all DVD'd out! Hehe.

Ok... hot half-naked men time.... woooo!

Today when I came to work... I noticed there were four police cars sitting right in front of our entrance. Interesting... deliciously interesting, I say to myself. It's always a bonus when people get busted. Once inside I ask my coworkers why there's 4 cop cars outside, and they hint to some nastification in the men's bathroom. Oh? The deliciousness deepens... I head to the breakroom where our MOD Ged is regaling us with a reenactment of what all went down. Apparently... a man was in the men's bathroom (duh) and was... well, he needed some one on one time *wink wink*. He was in a stall with a few adult magazine spread out on the floor for his viewing pleasure. And sadly, another coworker, Kelcey, walked into the bathroom and heard him. He somehow got the attention of Ged, and Ged went into the bathroom while Kelcey went to go call the cops. Ged kept the wanker in the bathroom until the cops showed up. Delicious! But it gets better. The guy who was caught beating off in a public place works at the Panera Bread just around the corner from the B&N. Yeah. Delicious! Apparently, Ged and our ASM Carl did some deducing and figured out that this guy is our chronic offender; numerous weekends (Fridays and Saturdays) there are numerous used magazines in the men's bathroom on the floor, and it was always found out after the fact. But not anymore! We caught the chronic masturbater! Wooo!

Oh, but this story gets better! How could this story get even more better, you ask? Well, let me educate you: When the police come and he gets arrested for public indecency, he calls his manager at Panera to tell him he won't be coming back from his break. Next thing we know, the manager is coming over to Barnes & Noble to see what this is all about. Poor guy, finds out one of his cooks comes over to B&N and wanks one off on his breaks to magazines that are basically stolen (we can't put them back on the racks knowing why they've been in the bathroom). And one of the magazines the guy was using was ruined... and the Panera manager pays for it. He pays for the magazine his cook jized on! PRICELESS! So yeah. Needless to say, the guy has been banned from the Eden Prairie Mall for life, and if Panera will have him back (ha!) he will be allowed on mall grounds to go back to work. Nooooot likely there, wanky. Sadly this all happened before I was at work, so I missed all the fun. My coworkers think I'm crazy for thinking that this was an exciting thing, not to be missed... but really! How often does one get to say that I was there when the guy was arrested for playing with his trouser snake in the bathroom of your work place? And it's always fun to see police officers take a guy away. I'm such a gossip whore, it's sad. I need to know what's going on and be in on all the juicy details. I need to know things! I'm curious, I can't help it! ^_^

Apparently there was another incident of bodily fluids in the men's room after the Panera guy. But sadly we weren't able to catch him. A customer told an employee that were was a hard cover book stuffed in the garbage in the men's room. Upon inspection, it was a well used copy of the sex book The Art of the Menage a Trois.... very well used... if you get my drift. Yeah, the book was basically garbage anyway, after what the guy did to it. Eeewww. Yeah. I had no idea that bookstores were such a huge draw for pervs! 0.o

Anyhoo... on to other things... So this weekend is Mother's Day... a very awkward day for me. Three times I was asked what I was doing for Mother's Day... and... I really didn't know what to say. I really don't know what to say to people who don't know that my mom is gone. One customer asked if I was ready for the weekend, and at my deer in the headlights look, she adds on, "You going to hang out with your mom? Grandma?" And I just kinda looked at her like... uh, shit. I said that I wasn't going to, because they both passed. Her eyes widen and she exclaims, "Really? But you're so young!" Thanks. I give a strained smile and say that my mom passed away from breast cancer a few years ago. Then, and only then, do I notice that under her pink sweater is a shirt with a line of pink breast cancer ribbons running across it. *le sigh* She then goes into how her mom is getting tested again to see if the cancer came back, after ten years of being in the clear. Awkward. She goes on to say that it's a horrible thing, just the worst disease; only means that we (meaning her and myself) need to be more aware and get checked. I think she noticed my unease with the whole thing because she then said "bye, have a good day". Uh... yeah. Right.

I hate Mother's Day.

I was reading some of my manga that I have collected over the last few weeks (big manga release time in the beginning of May!) and I was reading the graphic novel version of Runaways, a comic from Marvel about a group of teens with various powers. It's pretty good, I'm up to volume 7; and I think volume 8 is coming out this summer sometime. Anyhoo... I found where my icon comes from! I was reading... and I discovered a panel with that word bubble in it! Hot damn! I giggled like a little girl when I read that. I also read volume 8 of Chibi Vampire... now I have to wait until August (?) for volume 9. *le sigh* The curse of manga is that I have to wait 3-6 months for a new volume. Although this summer is sprinkled with various new manga release dates in such a way that I have 1-2 volumes coming out each month, so I really won't be in manga withdrawal. Queen's Knight volume 11 is out too, but I have to order that from work, of which I am very excited about. The gap between volumes 8 and 9 was a whole bloody year. While the gap between 9 and 10 was only 6 months. 11 is out about 3 months after 10... so I think the turn-over for translating is getting better.

Another comic I've rediscovered is Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis. I've been in a weird Warren Ellis kick lately, and I was surfing through the available titles done by Ellis (he's done writing work for numerous graphic novels: Authority, X-Men, Witchblade, etc.), when I remembered the first thing that brought him into my sphere of knowledge: Transmet. I was first introduced to Transmet via Brian, my old college friend, who really showed me the love of graphic novels I never knew I had---or wouldn't really find until about 3 years after college when I was with the last boyfriend. I had only read a few volumes of Transmet in college, since Brian was possessive of his comics, and I knew I liked Crooked Little Vein, so why not get some of his other works? And what to my surprise when I looked up Transmet in BookMaster... and it was available. Not just one or three volumes... but the whole freaking series! I literally squealed when I saw that. And now I'm up to volume 3 of Transmet. I'm planning on calling Star Clipper tomorrow (today, since I haven't gone to sleep and thusly awakened to make it Saturday yet), and seeing if they have the fourth volume Transmetropolitan: The New Scum in, and if not, if they could order it in for me and maybe have it in sometime between the 15th and the 19th... when I'll be in St. Louis, MO. I'll be down there for a week to visit Phil & Shiloh and see Phil graduate from Seminary. And no trip to St. Louis is complete without a stop by Star Clipper. I love that comic store, and will miss it. Since Phil & Shiloh won't be in St. Louis anymore (his call church to be a pastor for is in New Jersey!), so this may be the last time I'll see St. Louis for a long, long time *le sniffle*. So I must buy things from Star Clipper.

Yeah... I realized a while ago when I finished reading my Runaways comics that it was 430am... now it's 515am... and... damn. I'm not tired. I seriously think that if left to my own devices, I would never go to sleep. Really, I wouldn't. I am such a night person, it's scary. Today when I woke up for work, I had hit my snooze button so many times it finally just stopped. And that was with enough time for me to get up, make an uber quick lunch and hop in the shower to get ready. It's amazing how much I can sleep. It was 130pm this afternoon when I finally rolled my butt out of bed, and I hadn't even gone to bed that late the night before. I can easily sleep for 12+ hours... I think one time I even hit 15 hours---with the aid of a migraine the day before, and there was that time in high school when I lost a Tuesday because I was so tired Monday night after getting home from school I slept until 315am---Wednesday morning. That's insane! I've always had weird sleep schedule, and have always needed a lot of sleep, while also being a night person. I stay up uber late because I'm not tired; then I sleep for 10-11 hours easy. Weirdness. Or get to bed at a normal hour, and sleep for just as long. Craziness.

Well... given that it is almost 530am... and I had been planning on doing stuff tomorrow... today... whatever... I'm going to go and sleep and try to get up at a decent hour to head over to dad's and do laundry and crap. I'll check y'all laterz.



Portions x-posted to bn_booksellers

Manga Monkey was briefly able to quench his lust for all things manga today... The Queen's Knight #10 showed up at work unexpectantly; according to the order tracker on BookMaster, this book wasn't due until 03-12-08. But it showed up a whole week early! This caused me to gasp with ecstatic manga joy while also worrying my coworkers and the new Store Manager In Training while I was putting away the special orders. Hehehe. That's okay. I really don't worry about explaining myself anymore to people. It's more fun to just be me and let them react however. Now I also know when to not act so much like my normal self... I can reign it in for a while and not run around the store all willie-nillie... mostly willie with a little less nillie at times. ^_^ Upon obtaining the book I've been waiting over a freakin' year for, I read about half of it on my last break of the day, then finished it at home... Oh! Oh! OH!! I now have to wait for who knows how long for the next volume to come out! And things are finally getting good in the story! Sheesh! Stupid manga not coming out with new volumes sooner. All my series are stuck in in-between-volume publication lulls: Chibi Vampire #8 is out in May or June, Claymore #12 is out in July, and I think +Anima #7 is out in May-ish. I have no idea when the Bizenghast #5 is coming out... I'm really mad that they killed Vincent! Not okay! *le pout* Grrrr. Oh well. I have some other non-manga series (Rogue Angel, Monster Planet, 13 Bullets, etc.), that will help me keep the withdrawal symptoms low.

I went to Target today to buy windshield wipers for James (my Stratus), and then I stopped at home and told dad he was helping me install them. Although now I see how stupidly easy they are to install... a baby could do it... but I bought bad ones. Dad scolded me for buying wipers at Target, I should have "gone to an auto parts store, not Target." Since one of the wipers had been returned and it was returned used. Although dad theorizes that the person who bought said wiper just "exchanged" his old crappy one for the new one then returned the "new one", because it was all bent up and had rust on it. Grrr. So I'm going to return them hopefully tomorrow before work (if I wake up on time), or maybe Saturday. Grr. But then dad and I went to Napa and got good Teflon wipers, and had the Napa dude install them for me. And I also wanted dad to shut up because he just kept on talking about things that the Napa dude didn't need to know... like how the old wiper from James broke when we pulled it off, so dad put an old leather glove under the wiper arm so it wouldn't scratch my windshield. The Napa people didn't need to know that I drove over there with a glove under my windshield wiper, dad. But he paid for them, so that made up for the slight embarrassment. Although it looked like I had trapped a man under my hood and he was trying to escape, so I pinned his hand down with my wiper arm. I told that to dad as we drove over... I'm not sure if he thought it was as funny as I thought it was. Hehehe. *le sigh* Fathers, what can you do with them?

While I was at Target, I also picked up a horrible impulse buy that I really didn't need. But I did, really, if you rationalize it right. For I do believe that I have now officially watched all my movies. And have watched them enough that I don't think I can watch them anymore any time soon! And if you've seen my movie collection... that is pretty damn impressive. I bought Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez' half of the Grindhouse movie(s?) presentation from last summer. Quentin Tarantino did the other half, Death Proof. I didn't see either in the theater... we opted to go see Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Movie Film for Theaters instead. Hehehe. Okay... so Planet Terror... has to be about the best damn horror-gross-out-action-spoof ever. I mean, the first half of the film started out pretty dedicated to the fact that it's a movie about mutant-zombie people attacking a small town full of crazies. No biggie. It even had that weird grainy-aged reel-to-reel, drive-in movie feel to the film, which was cool. Oh, and the beginning "trailer"... Machete? Freakin' awesome! Anyhoo... Then about halfway, it gets kinda silly when it cuts in the middle of the "love scene" with MISSING REEL... WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVIENENCE: THEATER MANAGEMENT.... then breaks into the movie about what would have normally been 10-20 minutes after where the "break" happened. And where it picks up is hilarious! The two characters who have been at odds with each other now suddenly understand each other and have bonded magically! There are all these other characters who have been shown in other sub-plots throughout the movie, and they're all in the same area now, all together magically... hilarious! Then it just kinda gets this undertone of campiness which is delicious. And the fact Tarentino guest-stars in the movie as a mutant-zombie and his man junk melts off... DELICIOUS! ^_^ Heheheeee. Yet... at the same time... disgusting beyond all measure!! I was actually nauseous during some parts of the movie. It didn't help that I had had cheesy ravioli in spaghetti sauce with chicken for supper before watching the movie... and some of the special effects for the monsters looked uncomfortably too much like my meal. Blech! And I actually jumped and screamed at some parts! Like when the girl snaps her wrist with the car door!? Holy sweet angry Jesus! NOT expecting that!!! o.0 But over all... Planet Terror is my favorite impulse buy of the year thus far. Yay! I may have to get Death Proof now... yes. Tarantino is good for mindless violence (I need to figure out how to spell that man's name...).

Today it snowed... which was delicious as well. Yay! Made things nice and white again for a while, although it also made losers out of almost anyone in a motor vehicle. Bah. And it also made whiners of those who can't handle it. Seriously people... you live here. You've either moved here for some reason or another, or were born here. Somehow, you've made a choice to remain and live here. You know that it's going to snow, like it's done for the last five zillion years. Get over yourselves and either deal with it, or move. And shut the fuck up so I can enjoy my snow. I'm sorry if I'm the only freakin' Minnesotan that actually likes snow! Goddammit! >_< *takes deep breath* While also watching crazy mutant-zombie movie, I was working on my half-assed scrapbook. Why do I call it that? Because it's basically a photo album I've filled with pictures from college (I have 4 of them: 1 for each year) and I'm not really doing any fun "normal" scrapbooking decorations to them... way too expensive. So I'm just putting fun stickers and decorations on the photo album pages instead of putting them in an album and making big huge pages with cut out designs and words describing things... too much work and not enough money to pull that off. I'm almost done with my sophomore year now... almost to my junior year. Need to work on the first 2 albums some more... need more event-specific stickers. But other than that, it's going well. It also took off the gross-out edge from the movie... watch some gore, then do some stickers... watch more gore... decorate with stickers.... It was a crazy balance that worked.

Okay... I've run out of remotely interesting things to say now. And it's late. It's nearly 2am! Woooooo! I guess I'll catch y'all on the flip side!

=^_^=