It all started with this.  M and I went to our friend E’s dorm to have some tea and play some PS2.  It was there that we were first introduced to The Prince and The King of the Cosmos.  In time, we finished the game and yearned for more.  This is a fantastic addiction.

Today M decides to check up on Katamari.  See how the franchise as progressed.  Zomg.  There is a PS3 version.  Zomg.  I must play this game.  TONIGHT.

The journey began quite simply.  Find a Target.  Found it.  No Katamari Forever.  Decide to check out the GameStop in the same shopping center.  For shame… they have sold out.  “Fear not”, the lady in the peacoat tells us.  “There is another GameStop which carries the game which you seek.  It is in Franklin Farms.  Go there and find your precious!”

Off we went.  Down Centreville road until we spy the Franklin Farms subdivision.  It must be close!  We continue down the road until we find a shopping center.  Alas, it was not the right one.  We continue on down the road until we reach Reston.  We have almost found it!  We search high and low for the Franklin Farms GameStop!  It is not there!  What do you mean it’s not there?

Its ok.  We will continue on to the mall.  Make a right, and then another right on the parkway.  On and on we go until we, again, spot the Franklin Farms subdivision!  A shopping center!  WE MUST HAVE FOUND IT!

BEHOLD!  The promised GameStop!  WE ARE THERE!  We obtain the awesome game from the awesome random dude and his awesome tiny Asian sidekick.  The only thing keeping us from this game is his obsession with his iPhone and our Mastercard which will only accept a payment through debit.  Crisis averted!

We have found our game.  We have traveled back home.  We will now consume.

See everyone on Monday.

… yeah… I didnt have a cold.  Dont have a cold.  I have some evil ass allergies.  But the nose spray and various other histamine blockers that I’ve been chugging in the past 36 hours arent working.  I’m gonna give this another day, because thats just the generous person I am, before I start with witchcraft to get this evil out of my throat.

Interesting change today… my nose is now dripping down my face, necessitating a fierce blow every hour or so.  I apologized to the person on the other side of my cube wall all day.  People were also staying away from me because they assumed I was a sad sack of germs.  Also… if I do any kind of physical activity, I start breathing hard, and my throat fire threatens to consume my whole being.  Not cool.  Oh, and I’m coughing.  Yay.

In others news, the government decided to play my poker and I got my asking salary.  Its still 1.3k less than what I currently make, but I’m sure I’m not gonna miss that extra $50 a paycheck in favor of real health insurance and a gazillion hours of leave.  Good times ahead.

So, thats life.  Its juicy.  Hopefully the future brings less juice and more health.  Oh, and that adjective?  Juicy?  My doctor used it yesterday.  Appetizing, no?

So… Tuesday during the day my head started to feel stuffy.  Wednesday morning I woke up with a sore throat that didnt go away.  Easy to ignore, though.  Thursday I woke up with what can only be described as a member of the inquisition inside my throat.  My head was a little stuffy, too.  No fever.  Friday I woke up wanting to die.  Saturday I went to my nephew’s championship baseball game (still feeling like ass) and took some pictures for the family.  He won!  Go T!  Today I woke up without the ability to swallow.  Did I mention that I dont have a fever?  So, its not strep.  Its not the Hamthrax.  Its a cold.  But colds dont last 4, 5, 6 days.  They also dont involve an evil fiery throat demon.

There is no way in hell I’m taking leave.  That is free money and I’m gonna get every penny when I leave ABCD.  Tomorrow, fine, I’ll go to the doctor’s office, but she’s gonna tell me I have a cold.  Old news.  Mebee she’ll give me something to kill the fire… but I doubt it.

Ugh.

I feel like ASS!

Sooo pretty. Sooo calming.

… so I finally got the “you’re hired” email from my gov’t agency.  And at first I was so ridiculously excited.  And then reality hit.  I’m going to take a paycut.  See, I thought I made 1500 less than I really do.  So when I replied to the email with my current salary, I low-balled it.  On top of that, what they offered me last year is 7k less than I make now.  Ugh.  I cant take a paycut.  It would make things so difficult.

Before I left for the day, I was able to find out that, if anything, I’ll probably get about 2.9% above the ridiculous first offer.  So that takes it to about a 5k paycut.  5k is… hmm, do-able.  But still hard.  And still stupid.

And then I have my father and my husband telling me that this is a great thing, and that the insurance alone is worth the paycut.  And on top of that I have job security of the highest degree, as well as awesome retirement and, oh yeah, automatic raises as long as I can sustain a pulse.

*sigh*  I  really should take this.  I really should.  I just really really hope that the dude I talked to today can work some serious magic.

First.  Leak was handled.  We got another company to come in here and fix it without the joy of cutting a hole in my kitchen ceiling.  All hail John Nugent & Sons! 

Second.  Finally made it to the mountains.  It wasn’t foggy as much as it was us driving along in a cloud bank for 40+ miles.  Lol.  But it was fun.  You can check out the pictures here.  We also managed to drive all up into West Virginia, and even got a little lost for a bit.  Oh oh, and I saw THE GREAT SMOKE HOLE!  It wasnt really “great”… in fact that wasnt even in the name.  Im just gonna say it was.

Third.  I tied to make my aunt’s awesome beans.  I failed.  I managed to make glue.  It was kinda tasty… but it was still glue.  I’m ordering Chinese food, now.

Fourth.  I have the strangest measurements for a fucking window… ever.  The downstairs windows are 34 X 72.  They dont sell blinds for 34.  They sell them for 35 or 32… but not 34.  I’ve gone through 2 sets of fucking blinds that I have to take back.  Its time for curtains.  We’ll handle that tomorrow.

Mm, so yeah.  Thats life. 

I have tons of pictures like this. It was rainy... what else was I gonna do?

The leak is a drip from the upstairs bathroom. Exactly which fixture of the bathroom is a mystery which can only be ascertained by a giant fucking hole in my kitchen ceiling. Which will cost $113. At this point, M kindly told him to shoo since the $113 ONLY applies to the hole and not the actual fixing of the leak. Yes, folks… it costs $113 to do what a 8 year old boy will do willingly for free, as long as you promise not to ground them or send them to bed without dinner.

This rant brought to you by homeownership. Carry on.

Yesterday I hit up the National Equality March.  I brought my cousin with me and we had tons of fun, at least, until my friggin bag broke.  We were gonna stay in DC until the end of the Breast Cancer 3-Day.  That was the plan.  But I wasnt lugging my bag all over land and creation for that long.  So sad.  It looked awesome as we were driving out.

The march was peaceful and fun.  Lots of photographers there, but I didnt make it to the actual rally.  We were tired and hungry and thirsty, so we hit up Tortilla Coast.  I will jump at any reason to eat at Tortilla Coast.  Seriously.  It was delish.

So, I finally make it home after dropping off A, and I realize that my knee is completely shot.  I busted it first while climbing off of the Renwick Gallery (apparently, Smithsonian frowns on people scaling their walls for shots).  I must have twisted it wrong.  I saw friggin stars as I climbed down.  The pain was excruciating.  Thankfully, I was able to walk it off.  Then, later, I was catching up with my cousin, I tripped and wiped out, landing on the same knee.  I also saw my camera hit the ground pretty hard and as people were trying to help me up and ask if I was ok, I was only caring about my camera.  She’s ok.  Just a little scuffed up on the lens hood.  Thank god for the lens hood.

Just as I was writing this entry, I was called by CNN.  They’re gonna put my stuff up on their website, again.  Pretty awesome.  Its never gonna get old.

Anywhoo, when I got home yesterday, I was looking back into the kitchen from the living room and saw a dark spot on the ceiling.  Ugh.  A leak.  M went upstairs to ascertain the location of the leak, went into the bathroom, stood above the spot, flushed the new toilet that we installed, and drip drip drip.  Fuck.  So, an hour ago, he called a plumber and we’re fairly certain that its the wax seal on the new toilet thats effing up.  Hopefully this wont cost alot.

Anyway.  Because of the plumber, I cant go to the mountains.  Although, I’m fairly sure that M wouldnt appreciate me trying to climb mountains with a really fucked up knee, either.  We’re gonna go on Friday, now.

So, thats what happened yesterday.  *whew*  Its exhausting just recounting all that.  I leave you with one of my favorites from the march.  Enjoy!

Lady with balloons

I have to be at Dupont Circle at 10:30 for the start of the cheering for the folks in the Breast Cancer 3-Day.  Then, thanks to my awesome friend E, I found out that at noon there’s gonna be the National Equality March to the Capitol.  So I’m gonna hit that too.  And then at around 5ish, there’s gonna be the closing ceremonies for the Breast Cancer 3-Day @ the Lincoln Memorial.

*breathe*

And then!  On Monday I hope to hit up the mountains to photograph the colors.  Oh, and because of all this stuff on Sunday, I have to turn in the keys to my old apartment today, because there is no friggin time to do it on Sunday.  So.  Yeah.

To say, “look for pictures this weekend” is an understatement.  Be prepared for a full on photographic assault.

I’m still alive.  I promise.

So, we have ADT in the house, now.  No false alarms, yet.  Go us.

In other news, I went to the state fair… and I WON 2ND PLACE FOR ONE OF MY PICTURES!!!!  I’ll post it at the bottom of the post, but yeah.  I didnt have the time to drive down to Caroline County to pick up the pictures on Tuesday or Monday (I mean, really, who the eff has the time for that??) so I wont actually be in possession of my ribbon, but at least now I’m not lying on my photography website.  Lol.  It was amazing to see that I’d won, so awesome.

This weekend I have to turn in the keys to my old apartment, and then I have a thing to go to downtown.  Its the Washington DC area breast cancer 3-Day Walk for the Cure, and one of my supervisors from USACE is gonna be participating.  I’m gonna be there to photograph it and cheer her on.  And then, yeah, there’s Monday’s holiday.  I dunno.  I wanna lay around, but I also wanna get out to the mountains and photograph the colors before the serious cold snap that my friend said was gonna hit us next week.

Anywhoo, thats life lately.  Going well. 

2nd Place, B&W Garden Category

Yeah, and no pictures.  I left the camera in my car the entire time.  Not that that was a bad thing, though.  There were way too many things going on to handle that shit, too.  There were a couple of angry issues, and the moving dudes broke something and brought a giant bag of trash to the new place… but ya know, in the end, I’m in and happy.

The best part of the night?  Watching the ND v. UW game while eating Papa Johns.  They actually CAME TO THE DOOR!  And RANG OUR DOORBELL!  Thats so frickin amazing.

Took a shower last night (note to self, definitely need soap), made the bed up, designed a furniture concept, found out that the fan/light thing in the master bed really needs to be replaced, and that we can hear the cats using the litter box in the place we gave them to go.

Speaking of the kitties… they seem intrigued.  They havent eaten much, since we brought them here.  But they are poking their noses in all the different spots, getting a smell for the place.  Sara is going all, “Alpha Cat” on Jane and growling at her whenever she sees her.  That should stop soon.  Oh, and they’ve loving the open windows.  They like to sit in the sills and watch stuff.  It makes it easy that we have no blinds yet.

Tomorrow M is gonna go paint the old apartment, and I’m gonna stay here for the ADT people to install the security system.  I’m also gonna try to unpack the bedroom.  At least get the clothes where they’re supposed to be.  I’ll tackle something else some other day.  But Monday my goal is the bedroom.

Today I’m headed down to the state fair.  In all this hubub I completely forgot about it.  Today is the last day and I wanna see if I won anything.  When we get back we have to do some grocery shopping (because I miss cooking), and M can read for his classes tomorrow.

Anywhoo.  So happy.