Only a half day of chaos today, and blessed quiet tomorrow. The cats are suffering from shell-shock, I think -- they were huddled around each other in the bedroom closet, which is about the only place where work isn't being done here. Sorry, guys.

My entire apartment is in chaos, and this time it's not my fault! Whee!

When we moved in two years ago, the god-awful ugly stucco on my bathroom wall was cracking. No problem, I figured, I hate it anyway -- I'll just scrape it off. Tragically, said god-awful stucco seemed to be the only thing holding the plaster walls together. Alas.

Also, when we had the new heating ductwork installed, we had him put the vents above the line of the drop ceiling, because it was god-awful and would be replaced eventually. So in order to get hot air into the kitchen and bathroom, a panel or two of the god-awful drop ceilings in kitchen and bath were propped open, so you could see the unfinished slats and such.

So, on the exceedingly off chance that my only way to support myself through unemployment is to sell the house, we're going on a last orgy of home repair before we max out the home equity loan. And that entails fixing my bathroom, ripping down the god-awful drop ceiling in the kitchen, patching a couple of holes and building soffits around the ductwork. In addition, the contractor guys are probably going to do... something to one wall in my bedroom, which is suffering from Bulging Stucco Syndrome. Most likely we're going to slap some drywall over that wall, because I can't afford to have it ripped down, like in the bathroom.

When I envisioned this, lo these many months ago, I figured we'd tackle one room at a time: Do the bathroom, then the kitchen, etc. That's not the way things work -- if you're doing demolition, you might as well do it all at once, apparently. I cleared out the bathroom, but they had to move everything out of the kitchen so they could take down the ceiling.

So now I have a completely empty bathroom -- the walls are down to bare slats, all the fixtures are out, my bathtub is on its side in my dining room, my toilet is on the back porch, etc. -- and a torn-to-hell kitchen. It's kind of cool, but I can't actually live here.

So I'm staying down in Wendy's place. And you know what? Our alarm systems are different. Wendy has a motion sensor, and it's very effective when you forget to disable it as you turn the alarm on for the night. It's very loud. However, after testing that, I can tell you that the follow-up call from Brinks is pretty fast, and the police are thorough when they come to check you out -- they made me get my ID and all, even though I had obviously just gotten out of bed to answer the door.

Life was crap, I was in a hideous mood, I had a splitting headache this morning and wanted to stay in bed but the bathroom remodel started today, the English-speaking contractor was late, it's going to be more involved than I had imagined, I got to work late, my head still hurt, I was still grumpy, I felt like crap, I blah blah blah ugh.

And then I had an important business meeting this afternoon, with a certain Mr. Lucas....

Yes, I was a total geek -- along with Lotti, John, Liz and a hell of a lot of other people -- and saw Episode II today. I'm in a much better mood now.

Reactions, in no particular order:

• Is the word "cringeworthy" too harsh for the dialog and chemistry of the love scenes? No, no, I'm afraid it's not. "Cringeworthy" pretty much sums it up.
  
• For all his faults, Hayden Christensen is a hell of a lot better than Jake Lloyd.
  
• That's still not saying much.
  
• I mean, he's so... pretty. And pouty. When he does something... not good, very not jedi-like, sinister, even, and has a crisis of conscious about it, it comes off as more of a temper tantrum.
  
• He does kick some ass, though.
  
• And never once says "Yippee." Thank God.
  
• I like Natalie Portman. I think she's a good actress. So, Lucas, why does she come across so wooden in this movie, hmmm?
  
• What in the hell was she wearing for half those scenes, anyway?
  
• I can't believe I'm saying this, but Jar Jar Binks becomes almost a tragic figure. I feel sorry for him.
  
• Icky space centipedes. Bleh. Well done.
  
• Jango Fett! And li'l Bobba Fett! How cool is that!
  
• You can feel my force any old time, Obi Wan.
  
• And that goes double for you, Mace Windu.
  
• Still, why are the jedi so frickin' oblivious? Hello, maybe you should turn your mind from The Force and start using, say, your eyes? Your instincts? The little hairs on the back of your neck?
  
• Clone army: Oooh, ominous. Nicely done.
  
• Ditto droid army plant.
  
• Still confused about what R2D2 and C3PO are doing there. I mean, yeah, they're great and all, but shouldn't they have nothing to do with this story? Hello?
  
• Yoda doesn't have sideburns anymore. Thank God.
  
• "Hmmm. Innocent, inoffensive green muppet thing I am. Harmless, you think. Until kick your ass I do!" Awwwwwwwww yeah.
  
• Oooh, double-handed light-saber action. Bring it, baby.
  
• How cool is Christopher Lee? So damn cool.
  
• However, has he ever played a good guy? Or at least a guy who doesn't start out good and go very, very bad?
  
• Amazing the way they managed to work Amidala's bare midriff into the fight scene, in an almost *cough* organic fashion.
  
• Good creepy crawly things in the arena. And nice reactions from the bad guys.
  
• Look at her, being effective! You go girl!
  
• There is some awesome, awesome army vs. jedi action. Really well done fight scenes.
  
• Why didn't his head fall out?
  
• Evil hand! Evil hand! Dude! Awright!
  
• Last 30 minutes -- faboo. Ass-kickin'.
  
• Episode I could have been the first 10 minutes of this movie.
  
• Ooooh, machinations, machinations. Very cool the way things are getting set up.
  
• Boy, the next movie is going to be depressing.
  
• I don't care. I can't wait.

I'm grumpy, my head hurts, I'm going to be unemployed, nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I'll go eat worms, yadda yadda yadda. One of my temporary caps broke off, and I now have a little tooth stump where it used to be. I'm crampy. Blehhhhh.

In other words, I don't really feel like blogging now.

On the up side, I did get my new business cards -- Sarah Jersild: Writer Editor Proofreader. It looks all official and stuff.

But I'm still grumpy.

I didn't get the Trib job. Damn.

Alas and alack. Newton has to shut down the Portadown News message board, as the amount of attention it's been getting has been too great and the potential for legal action -- in Britain, message board owners are responsible for enery single posting, even if the board is unmoderated -- was too real. (The Portadown News, however, lives on -- as well it should.)

It's been a great board to hang out on, because it really did bring intelligent people from all political/religious stripes (ok, both religious stripes -- I don't think we ever had any Muslims/Buddhists/Shintoist/etc. comment) together to talk about what was going on. It was always heartening to read the board, and get confirmation that there are reasonable people out there.

How cool is this?



Yup, Angie's preggers. It's a boy (or, as Lotti said "Jordan: The Y Chromosone is strong in this one.") Due Septemberish. I'm already commmitted to babysitting during the homecoming football game, because I refuse to watch football. So I'll watch the kidlet instead.

Yes, I've known about Ang being preggers for a while, but I wasn't allowed to say anything about it. It's been driving me nuts. Why do you people keep doing this to me?

Lotti makes the best mix CDs -- I'm cleaning (really!) to Wet Hot American Summer, Girlz Night: Tha Soundtrack and Lotti's Ultimate Sci Fi Geek Mix. You rule, chica!

The bloom is off the rose. Mongo is now bored with the nummy tuna-chewy drug bombs. I put one down in front of him, he looks at me as if to say "A nummy tuna-chewy drug bomb. Snore snore." And walks away. This is not good.

I'm selling a bunch of books on Amazon -- 38 to be exact. Two have already been snapped up. Huzzah! This won't exactly replace my salary, but every little bit helps. Now I have to go through my CDs to find the ones I just don't listen to anymore.