This year, ganked from angeltaisha.

Take the first line from the first post of each month, and that's your Year in Review.

January: I don't do New Year's resolutions, but every December I tell myself that I will find a way to write more in the coming year.

February: Progress on specific goals: 1. Write every day in January. Done! [Sigh. January. Those were the days. The days before 2009 went entirely to hell.]

March: Some of you may have heard that the Author's Guild sued Amazon over the text-to-speech capability of the new Kindle, claiming that this feature infringes on their right to sell the rights to audio books.

April: Tomorrow morning, we're heading to San Diego.

May: 17 hours of flying + 3 hours of layover + 9 hours of time difference = one seriously tired KJ.

June: Three entries in a row and all I've done is whine about this poison oak thing.

July: Ah, home, with kitties and T and just missing a heatwave, although I hear it was actually rather nice in SF proper.

August: This is just about the awesomething thing ever. ["This" was a video of Bobby McFerrin playing the audience as a musical instrument at the World Science Festival. It remains one of the most awesome things ever. If you didn't watch it before, you should watch it now.]

September: This is how I know it's Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco: I can hear the jackhammers hard at work on the Bay Bridge.

October: So the new quarter has started.

November: It figures that I would get struck by a cold that's making it hard to concentrate on anything just in time for NaBloWriMo.

December: Because I'm the only person who has been uploading FFX-2 fic to AO3 en masse so far, the character with the most stories in the archive is Paine (with 15 out of 25). [Still true as of this writing, although Baralai has taken over second place from Nooj.]

Feh. Is it over yet?

After a long afternoon, every book I own is now either on a shelf or in a box. It's not necessarily the *right* shelf, but today's project was to get all the book piles off the floor. Organization can wait for the next chore day. (I am pretty proud of how I got all my manga on one shelf, though.)

My other goal was to gather all my TBR (to-be-read) in once place, and boy is that shelf scary. Remind me why I keep buying more books again?

I also found the book I borrowed from the library months ago and then thought I had lost, which is pretty sweet.

Now, to reward myself with some FFXII...

We tried a new tea shop today! Always a sign of a banner weekend. Ku Day Ta Tea Lounge (great name). The tea itself was of high quality and well-prepared, and the food was all tasty and in reasonable quantities. On the downside, the service was indifferent, which is a serious strike against any establishment that calls itself a "tea lounge" -- that designation suggests a particular level of comfort and service, and both of these qualities were seriously lacking. Also, if I'm paying afternoon tea prices, I expect refills of hot water for my tea, which were not provided.

It was more than worth an outing, and I would go back (with expectations adjusted accordingly. And a sweater -- it was really cold there for some reason). Still, the quest to find a tea shop that I enjoy as much as Lovejoy's continues...

Also accomplished this weekend: shoe shopping, a trip to the used bookstore, laundry, grocery shopping, playing with AO3 (on which more later), quality time with friends and with T, and some much-needed lazing around the house by choice rather than by force. Not accomplished this weekend: much in the way of writing. My plan to finish at least one story per week in November has now officially bitten the dust, along with both daily writing and daily LJ posting. This cold (which I think at this point has morphed into allergies) has a lot to answer for.

Another night of good company and yummy foods. This time, we went to an Asian fusion place in Union Square.

Also I bought yet more shoes today. What is it with me and shoe purchasing over the last year or so? There was once I time that I hated buying shoes and only did it when I absolutely had to. The Clark's store in San Francisco Centre has a lot to answer for... Sadly, they didn't have the shoes in the right size and color, so they're being shipped to me from Walnut Creek. Free shipping, no less. That's service.

Last but not least, AO3 Open Beta starts tomorrow! Looking forward to playing around with it. Will this be the killer app that finally gets me off FF.net once and for all? Stay tuned to find out.

This is one of those weekends that got away from me but I'm not quite sure how. Except, of course, when I actually sit down and list out everything I did, it becomes pretty clear, because it turns out I was kind of busy after all:

Friday -- Editing in the morning followed by a busy day at work, went grocery shopping, watched Top Chef, intense (but good!) online conversations.

Saturday -- Good chunk of writing time, some FFXII, met dagas_isa for an excellent lunch and walk-around, cooked dinner.

Sunday -- Housework, a little more writing (stalled by some image reference research that took waaaaay too long), and a long anticipated trip to the Apple Store... yes, it is true, I have given in to the lure of the iPhone after two long years of fighting its sweet siren call. No one thing really tipped me over. It was just time. Naturally, that means quite a bit of today has been given over to futzing with it: downloading apps, making the wireless work. So far, so good, although I haven't been out in the world with it yet really.

So, that was pretty much my weekend, along with avoiding baseball scores (sigh). Tomorrow marks the return of chorus, which means that summer is really and truly over. On the upside: I get to go back to chorus! Good times.

I hope you all had excellent weekends with good weeks to come.

This is how I know it's Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco: I can hear the jackhammers hard at work on the Bay Bridge.

Also by the fact that the weather has turned into summer, right on cue. Although Weather Underground says it's supposed to be cooler tomorrow. Dear weather: stop raining (not literally) on my parade. It's September! The fog is supposed to take its annual vacation now!

No real plans for the long weekend at this point. Maybe that means I'll get to relax. Mmm, relax.

So, what have I been up to?

• I finished my assignment for ff_exchange! It's a Penelo/Vaan story entitled "Lines of Communication" and it can be found here. I'd never written Vaan before, and Penelo only once in a drabble, so it was my first time with this pairing, but I was pretty happy with how it came out. I'm getting more comfortable with FFXII every time I write it, and of course starting the replay was immensely helpful. I was glad that there was so much interaction between Vaan and Penelo at the beginning; it helped me settle their voices in my head, and reminded me just how much chemistry they have together.


• I got a handle on my out-of-control jewelry situation. For the last several years, I've kept all my jewelry in a nice box that I got for my BMC Alum work, and it just hasn't been working very well -- stuff gets lost, necklaces get hopelessly tangled, etc. So I went to The Container Store today and bought some clear plastic jewelry boxes -- a necklace stand, an earring hanger, and a small box with a lid, all enclosed to protect against cat incursions. Then I sorted everything out, including putting some of the stuff I never wear into storage. It's become clear, though, that I'm going to need at least one more earring stand for the first tier, especially as I am unlikely to stop buying jewelry! Probably a second necklace stand as well. Also, I'm rather dismayed by how many of my favorite earrings seem to have lost a mate. Such is life, but it's still sad. The box will find another life as a place to store hair stuff.


• I watched the first episode of Gilmore Girls, thanks to steluch, who lent me the first two seasons last night. This is a series I've been meaning to check out for years, so it's nice to have the chance finally. The first episode was certainly promising...


• I had a lovely dinner with friends on Saturday -- homemade fajitas, grilled corn, and miscellaneous coladas. Lime colada was probably my favorite, although I'm a little sad that we never got around to mixed berry. But others thought that berry and coconut would be an odd combo, and it could be that they're right. Fortunately, the blueberries made an excellent topping for S's tres leches cake.


• So when I started this entry, I had an idea that the list was going to be much longer, but everything else is way too dull (grocery shopping! laundry! Bubble Spinner!), so I'll just leave it here. ;) Have a great week, all.

I saw Dennis Haysbert in a restaurant this afternoon! He was just walking by my table, calm and cool as could be. I didn't say anything, I just sat and stared, unable to take my eyes off of him until he was out of sight, hopefully not too embarrassingly open-mouthed. This is not quite as exciting as it would have been 7 years ago when I was a full-blown "24" fangirl, but it was still really, really cool.

He was a lot taller than I imagined he would be, and his smile is even bigger in person.

In other news, I went to a baseball game tonight, and although no one threw a no hitter this time (curse my luck for picking a game one day too late!), it was still an enjoyable outing. Even though it rained on us a little bit. Rain? In San Francisco? In July? What is this world coming to? On the upside, I saw one of the most spectacular rainbows of my life, springing out of the scoreboard and covering the sky. T took some pictures, and if he decides any are worthy of posting, I will definitely link.

Ah, home, with kitties and T and just missing a heatwave, although I hear it was actually rather nice in SF proper. At least I got two days of good weather in New England, and one of them was our beach day on Cape Code. (The other was the day we drove to Vermont, so at least we got sun on the most important days for it.) Provicetown is really nice, although the stony beaches are hard to walk on -- if I ever go back, I will definitely bring water shoes of some sort. Pretty, though. The town itself is very cute and full of dangerous stores, selling things like jewelry and chocolates and clothes I can actually wear. It's also a major gay rseort town, which led to one of the jewelry store owners making some incorrect assumptions when I was looking over anzubird's shoulder as she browsed the ring selection. ;) We happened to be there during the annual Portuguese Festival, so we saw two parades and some traditional dancing. There was some cool music, too. But the highlight had to be the Naked Boys Singing.

The second day was foggy and chilly, but at least it didn't rain. Then on Monday, amybang and I checked out the MFA, where I'd never been. It's an impressve museum, although it would have been even more impressive if they weren't in the middle of a huge construction project, with a significant portion of their collection off exhibit as a result. Still worth going, though, even if I'll have to go back in 2010 when the new wing is completed. Monday night was pub trivia, another new experience on a trip full of them; our team came out 4th out of 14 teams. Not bad really, although we blew a few things we should have known.

Then the uneventful flight home yesterday and the re-entry into work today, only a two day week for me since we get Friday off for July 4th. Not bad for the start of break. Hopefully I get some time to relax soon, though, since I've been in go mode for a few weeks now.

Summer break, woo! It was a couple of crazy quarters there, but now it's over. Three weeks with no students, and now that the various meetings that cap the whole thing off are done I can actually relax.

Unfortunately, we don't actually get three weeks off. When I tell people I work at a college and that summer break is started, they tend to assume that I get three weeks of vacation, but no such luck. I am, however, taking a week on my own -- tomorrow night, I fly to Boston, from where I will finally make the pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry's (and cross Vermont off the list of states I haven't visited! Which will finish off New England, at long last) and then spend a few days hanging out with amybang and anzubird -- we're planning on a visit to Provincetown, if the rain doesn't wash it away, and other fun stuff. I get back next Tuesday.

Let's see, what else... the poison oak has almost faded, although I'm still peeling in places and have to fend off the occasional itching fit. I got a new keyboard to replace the one that died a couple of months ago -- it was getting old anyway, I think I bought it in 2000 when I got my G3 tower, but spilling a Diet Coke on it pretty much sealed its fate. Sadly, pretty much no one is making natural-style split keyboards for Macs anymore, probably because PC keyboards will work on a Mac now. So I got an MS Natural. It seems weird to be enthusiastic about a Microsoft product, but the shape of their natural keyboards works pretty much perfectly with my RSI issues, and the keys are incredibly responsive. I have one at work, too, so I knew I'd be happy with it. But I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted, so I bit the bullet and upgraded my OS to Leopard. On the plus side, the upgrade seems to have finally fixed my flaky wireless; fingers crossed that keeps working. In other technology news, I became an iPhone widow on Friday. T ordered it the day they were announced and started counting the hours, and it has gone above and beyond his expectations. I confess that seeing his in action has only increased temptation for me, but for now I'm still holding out.

In the media world, I finally got around to restarting Phoenix Wright 3, which I half-gave up on in the middle of the third case. Now I'm into the fifth case, which is awesome, but I can't talk about why without spoilers. So for right now, I'll content myself with sharing this fact: Diego Armando? Is HOT. As for books, right now I'm reading The Fall of Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman; it's enjoyable, but I have no idea how they wrote it before The Privilege of the Sword without having mapped out that entire book first. Finally, I watched the first two episodes of Merlin, thanks to bottle_of_shine's rec. I enjoyed it, although it took me most of the first episode to get past the expectation that the characters would conform to standard Arthurian canon. I knew going in, of course, that Merlin was Arthur's age, so I didn't mind that at all, but there were enough other differences that I found it jarring at first. Fortunately, by the time I watched the second ep, I was able to sit back and relax into the characters as they were. I think Guenevere is my favorite so far, but only two eps in is a little soon to be making predictions. I'll keep watching for sure.

I guess that sums it up for now. I know I haven't been very visible here lately, in terms of posting or commenting, partly because of the poison oak and partly from work stress, but with luck this break will be just what I need to straighten my head out and spend more time being active and less time spacing out.

I worked a six-day week back in April, so I took today off and am now basking in the glory of a four-day weekend with almost nothing planned. T is going to a beach-clean/photo shoot on Sunday, and I might come along, but otherwise I envision a lot of kicking back. I already spent a nice morning with three of my favorite things: leftover pizza for breakfast, my kitties, and Deep Space Nine on DVD. The rest of the day will likely feature a pedicure (it's summer, time to give my toes more regular help) and some writing time in Panera, but it's nice not to have to decide yet.

Today was Northern California May Day, at an alumna's gorgeous home up in the Sonoma Valley. The event itself was really enjoyable -- great to see lots of folks I hadn't seen in awhile; why do I keep letting myself fall out of the BMC loop? -- and on the drive home, I found myself getting nostalgic for Sonoma County: the green hills just starting to shade into gold, fields of grapes stretching away from gently curving highways. I don't expect I'll ever live up in Santa Rosa or Sonoma County again, but there's a way in which it still feels like home to me, and sometimes I miss it.

And then an hour or so later, driving down 101, I came out of the rainbow tunnels to the view of the Golden Gate bridge and the city spread out before me, and the sight of it brought a goofy huge grin to my face, as it so often does. Sonoma County may always be my old home, but San Francisco is where the heart is.

Belated birthday party: accomplished. It was a small group, but in its own way, that's just as good as having a cast of thousands -- everyone got to talk to everyone else, and it was actually possible to have the whole group in a single conversation. Last year I did brunch, so this year I went the other way: dessert. T made his signature chocolate cake, SE and SF made cookies and brought *homemade lemon curd* (oh so yummy), and R and S made chocolate cream pie. Tasty stuff. Add a smattering of nuts, fruit, and cheese, and you almost don't need dinner.

I may have a dessert party and a brunch in alternate years from here on out; both strike me as very civilized ways to celebrate a birthday. But in the future, I should probably decide to have the party more than a week in advance. Today was just a little on the crazy side, in terms of running around to get everything done. Worth it, though.

There's really no good reason that I haven't been around much lately, and I don't have anything particularly scintillating to say today. either. But I wanted to check in, because I'm off to a conference in Seattle tomorrow. I'll have the laptop with me, but I don't know how much I'll be online -- I'm staying with a colleague, and she's warned me that her wireless is pretty weak. So if you see me around even less the next few days, you'll know why.

Okay, off to finish packing. Four days of academic librarians. Should be good, especially since it's in Seattle, a city I really enjoy visiting. Hopefully I'll be a more exciting conversationalist when I return.

For as long as we've been together -- over ten years now -- T and I have made it our custom to cook dinner and eat in for Valentine's Day. So after a quiet day at home, which included breakfast, reupholstering the downstairs cat tree, and watching "V for Vendetta" (which was pretty good, very style-over-substances, I really ought to read the graphic novel), we went to the store and picked up some steaks, cooked them up, and had a nice dinner together, nothing fancy, although we did pull out some candles. A low key celebration, as usual, but that's what works for us. It's been ten good years; with luck, we'll have ten more, and then another ten after that.

I hope everyone else had a lovely day as well, whether you celebrate or not. :)

My desk is out of control again, and I'm taking advantage of working a couple of nights to attack the problem. In order to make sure I have a place for everything I unearth, I'm cleaning out and organizing my filing cabinets, too. As you might expect, I've come across several archaeological discoveries, raising the usual "do I save this or not" questions.

Like, do I really need to save a receipt for a notepad purchased with cash at a local office supply store in 2004? Probably not, but you know I'm going to go ahead and file it anyway...

Last week, I acquired a pair of Mary Janes for the first time in... as long as I can remember. (They're Clark's and will be quite comfy, I think, once I break them in.) In fact, I don't remember the last time I bought shoes that weren't sandals, sneakers, or boots.

Because I dislike wearing socks, naturally my first question, as with any shoe, was "do I have to wear socks with that?" They fit fine either way, but I don't know whether I'm committing a terrible fashion faux pas. So I turn to you for help.

(ETA: Because a couple of people have asked... the shoes are black.)

Poll #1326308
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

Is it permissible to wear Mary Janes without socks?

How about with black socks?

How lame is KJ that she even has to ask this question at her age?

Sitting on the couch with a glass of wine, a napping kitty on each side, my West Wing DVDs running, and short ribs braising in the oven. As a way to spend my last day of Christmas vacation, it ain't half bad.