Humid

It's humid here.  Not much, but enough to be surprising.  It's never humid in my home state.  It's so dry and hot...  Now there's water, and it's a million times hotter.  Bleh.  On the other hand, humidity seems to make it easier for me to breathe.  Odd, I know, most people find it harder.  I dunno, maybe it's just that my lungs feel a little more supported.  Who knows?
In any case, as long as I've got an AC, I'm not really going to be complaining about the humidity.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Older Movies

So, Kay and I were watching the "modern" version of Pride and Prejudice last night... and I realized it's really not all that modern anymore.  The technology, the process she goes through to get published, even the roads (because I have been where it was filmed, and there were a lot of changes), are really rather outdated.
Darcy, however, will never cease to be attractive. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Panda Express

Y'know, it's starting to get just a little bit scary how much I love Panda Express.  I know it's not all that authentic as far as Chinese food goes, but it's so tasty!  It's gotten to the point where their honey walnut shrimp has become my comfort food.
That's not a good thing.  It's fairly expensive.  But it's sooooo good!
In other news, for those of you who were waiting for an update from Ruby, it finally came!  All is explained in her blog (except for the couple days where I just had no time to post ;)).

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

K-Love

I love my car, but it does have a couple problems.  For example, the little lights that show what radio station you're on are completely dead.  If I want different music, I just have to flounder around until I find it.  Which is why most of the time I just leave my music on K-Love.
What is K-Love?  It's a Christian rock station that I absolutely love!  I think it's so incredible that these people have so much musical talent and could take it anywhere, but instead they use it to praise God!  I love their music!  So often it's pulled me out of an emotional flunk.  Always makes me smile.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Lilies

You know what a great surprise is?  The kind where you walk into your bedroom and realize someone left you flowers. :)
Kay left me lilies.  And butterfly earrings.  And I absolutely love them!  A girl shouldn't need flowers to feel appreciated, but they never hurt!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Howl's Moving Castle

So, apparently I missed a big part of childhood by having never seen Howl's Moving Castle.  How was I to know?  However, this has been rectified by my dear friend Kamer, who let me see it with her last Wednesday.  I actually really liked it.  I thought it was super sweet, and the way the characters change throughout the story is really interesting.
Not to mention Howl has a ridiculously attractive voice. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Crazy Weekend

Hey, sorry guys, this has been a crazy weekend, and I haven't had any time to post (except for the one time when I did and the internet was freaking out).  I've just been running all over the place: Friday was work and then the library and then celebrating Coach's birthday and then a get-together with some of my high school friends, and then I had Saturday, which was nuts!  I cleaned the office, then went to the zoo to celebrate my niece's birthday, and then I ended up staying at my parent's house until one in the morning playing Betrayal and watching Pirates of the Caribbean.  Like I said, crazy.  Though I will say, that game of Betrayal was awesome!  We were playing outside late at night with flashlights, and we kept pranking each other. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Disney Princes

So, I don't really have much to blog about right now, and I've already done a post about Disney princesses, so I figured I would do a post about the princes!  So I now present:
What I Love About Disney Princes!
Snow White's Prince (I've heard his name is Daniel): So, I actually don't know much about him, but one may assume he was looking for Snow White for a very long time.  He's dedicated.  And he and Phillip share perfect timing when it comes to joining a duet the girl wasn't expecting to have. ;)
Prince Charming: Romantic dance in the moonlight?  So there!
Prince Phillip: OH MY BADNESS, I love this kid so much!  Defies his father to marry a peasant, fights a dragon to find the woman he loves, and is worthy enough to wield the sword of truth!  *swoon*
Beast: This is a deliciously complicated character!  Trying to act tough to protect his insecurity, but needing to learn to open himself up in order to fall in love... and by the end, what a hopeless romantic!  The tender look in his eyes when he realizes Belle came back for him... sigh...
Aladdin: He looks out for the underdog (genies and street kids), he stands up to pompous princes, and he fights like a madman for those he loves.  Seriously, he's awesome.
Prince Eric: I think my adoration for Prince Eric can be nicely summed up by the look on his face when Ariel walks through the door in that pink dress and he can't take his eyes off of her. :)
Prince Naveen: He's willing to give up his love for Tiana so she can fulfill her dream, even though he's never had to give anything he's wanted up before in his life.  And he plays the ukelele.
Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert:  This.

For those of you who are having a hard time seeing this, I apologize, I haven't figured out how to fix the mobile settings yet.  Just look up "I See the Light" on Youtube.
 There you have it, our fabulous Disney princes!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Cookie Surprise!

You know those surprises that just make you smile?  Like, you were not expecting anything of the sort, and then it happens, and it's awesome?
Yesterday while I was at work, the door randomly opened and these two girls with bags walked in.  I thought they were there to deliver something; instead, they started pulling cookies out!  Apparently they're from this new cookie shop somewhere in the neighborhood and were handing out free samples!!  They plunked around a dozen on Chantie's desk before they left.
Mmmm, such a marvelous snickerdoodle!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Rhosyn

So, if you walk into our apartment, you will notice a wide variety of plants.  Kay has lots!  They cheer the place up and make it seem a bit more inviting.  Well, I finally decided to add to this environment.  Yep, I bought myself a plant!
One of the "traditions" at this apartment is that we name EVERYTHING!!!  Which is a great deal of fun. ;)  My new indoor rosebush (apparently such things exist) has been christened "Rhosyn," which, according to the web, is a Welsh name for Rose.   So original, right?  But it's a purple rosebush, and purple represents enchantment, according to Kay, and since Wales is where the Arthurian legends originated, I figured it fit. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Cleaning Check

Ugh.  Tomorrow I have my first cleaning check.  Which means after work, I spent all day cleaning.  Not that there's anything wrong with cleaning.  Except when you've been sneezing up the wahzoo all week, and you have all the dusting. :P.
I ended up tying a bandanna over my face.  I looked like a train robber. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Fond Farewell

Today I bid farewell to one of the most amazing young ladies I have ever had the privilege of knowing.  My good friend from elementary school, Merri, has been called to serve a mission in the Phillipines.  I just hope they come to realize what a precious gift they are receiving when she joins them.  I have never met someone more compassionate, spiritual, and kind.  Good luck, my most marvelous friend, you are going to do a world of good!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Texas Roadhouse

So, believe it or not, I've never actually been to Texas Roadhouse before today.  I mean, it doesn't particularly surprise me, since I'm not much of a steak eater (as my roomies can tell you), but I suppose others might think it is.
Best part were the fries.  I mean, everything else was good, but those fries... Mmmm...
And now I don't want to do a thing because I ate too much. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Fencing

So, I was fencing last night and realized, hey, I haven't actually explained the rules of fencing on my blog.  So since life is fairly boring at the moment, I decided to explain this most wondrous of sports for my most marvelous readers!
Fencing, as it is known today, is divided into three weapons:  Foil, epee, and saber.  Each weapon has its own set of rules and forms, but the basics always include en garde position, with knees bent, back straight, and sword out; the parry, or blocking your opponent's sword; the lunge, your distance attack; and the basic advance, where you lead with either your right or left foot (depending on which hand you use), and the back foot always follows.
As far as the three separate weapons:
Foil: MY FAVORITE!!!!  Though Jake hates it... in any case, historically foil was the training weapon, light and flexible.  The target area (what you're trying to hit) includes the torso.  Not the arms, or head, just the chest and stomach area.  Foil's purpose was to teach to kill, so naturally you want to go for the area with the most vital organs.  Foil also has the most complex rule system.  If both lights go off, meaning both opponents hit (we're hooked up to sensors electronically), a fencer has to have right of way in order to get the point.  One gets right of way (in a very basic way) by either moving first, forcing your opponent to back up, or taking control of your opponent's sword (meaning you make the blade move).  If you hit off-target (anywhere other than the vest that marks target area), the bout is halted and you start again where the off-target was hit (I think this is mostly because for a moment the light "locks the box," so if your opponent hits you, it doesn't register).  Foilists are the thinkers, the plotters, those who manipulate the rules to fit their needs.
Epee: Epee is my next favorite weapon, because it is very similar to foil in style.  The biggest difference is that in epee, the entire body is the target area.  You can get some pretty sweet toe shots with epee. ;)  The epee is also a bit longer and heavier than the foil, with a bigger hand guard (since the hand is now target area), and epee rules are much simpler: if the light goes off, you get the point.  None of this complicated "who was moving forward and who took the blade" nonsense (I think epee rules are much better than foil rules).  Both foil and epee are stabbing weapons: you can't get a point unless you hit with the tip.  Epee fencers are more instinctual than foilists, at least from what I can tell.  As I'm a foilist, my opinions are a little bit biased. ;)
Saber: I hate saber, mostly because the style is so different from foil and epee that it really messes my foil up.  Saber has its origins in horseback fighting, so the target area is anything from the waist up (it doesn't really do any good to hit your opponent's leg when he's sitting on a horse anyway).  The sword is more triangular in shape, with a large guard rather like the ones you see in movies, and is held straight up in the air (rather than held out towards the opponent, like the other two).  This is because in saber, you hit with the side of the sword rather than the tip.  I mean, you can hit with the tip, but it's easier to just slash away.  Saber fencers are by far the most aggressive, and while their rules are similar to foil, they prefer to let the referees deal with said rules and just focus on beating their opponent.
So, there you are, the basic rules for fencing!  Hope it was informative and/or enjoyable!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Hot

This is ridiculous.  Why.  Is.  It.  So.  HOT?!  This weather is MIND-NUMBING!!!!!  Constantly thirsty, can't think...
Why does the weather here always behave in extremes?  Why can't we ever have a mild summer or winter?  Just a normal year?

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Fog

My home does not get fog often.  Which means that when we do get fog, even a little bit, it's either really scary or really beautiful.
Tonight it's really beautiful.  I can look out from my apartment window and see the lake, and the mountains, and the fog in between the two, like the sky is embracing the earth.
Beautiful.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Annie

So, I'm not entirely sure how she came about, but at the office we have this RessusaAnnie doll.  You know, one of those dolls you use to train people on how to do CPR.  Mostly we use ours for pranks.  She disappeared for a little while, apparently she was in someone's trunk.
Well, today when I got into work my supervisor asked me to get into the supply closet and find these files he needed alphabetized and sorted.  Not a problem, I do that a lot.
I opened the closet, and there was... Annie!
And I didn't scream.  No, for reals, I didn't.  I've seen her around so often that it really didn't surprise me all that much.  All I did was think, "Oh, hey, that's where Annie ended up," and then went on looking for the files.  It took my supervisor coming and explaining for me to get that he was trying to pull a prank on me. 
I can be a bit oblivious sometimes.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Crazy

Sooo... I've done something kinda crazy.
See, my friend Sarnic just finished watching BBC's Sherlock, and she found John Watson's blog online.  Well, she got to thinking about doing a blog for her own characters... and then she did.  (You can check that out here http://kaputnous.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html ).  Well, then Kay decided to do the same for a character who actually already had a blog (Here: http://irisclearwater.blogspot.com/2013/06/letsget-one-thing-straight-i-iris.html?showComment=1370909809026#c8000394415155481207 ).  Also, I think you can get it just by typing in irisclearwater.blogspot.com. 
Well, you can probably guess what happened after that.
I have this character, Ruby Jones.  I love her story and the characters in it, but I wasn't quite sure how to tell it.  Until now.
Presenting the blog of Ruby Jones, Ruby in the Rough!  http://rubyandivory.blogspot.com/  Enjoy!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Puddle

So, I got out of the shower today and was met by a very unwelcome sight.
Water.  Everywhere.
Apparently the shower has a leak somewhere.  This is really not good.
That, and that publishing company still hasn't gotten back.
On the plus side, Kah made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Scottish Festival: Part 2

So, we attended the second half of the Scottish Festival today, and once again I spent waaaay too much, but that's okay, because what else are parties for?
I took Kay with me today, and we had lots of fun!  She and Mia took a longsword class (I was watching the bags because I made the mistake of wearing heels and my feet were killing me), and I got a new bag and a hair net because there are days in the summer that get ridiculously hot but I am way too vain to cut my hair, and yeah! 
By the way, new random bit of trivia, we found out a little bit more about our family name this weekend: see, I knew we never actually had a clan, though our family did live in Scotland.  Apparently we originally come from England, but then we kept hopping back and forth between Ireland and Scotland, and fit in nowhere.  Kind of feels like my social life.  ;)  Just kidding.  Still, I think it's hilarious that no matter where we went, we couldn't seem to fit in.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Ear Cuff

New fashion! 
So, sorry (again) for not posting sooner... but it's that time again!  What time, you may ask?  SCOTTISH FESTIVAL!!!  After getting off of work I went to the Scottish Festival and drank cream soda and listened to bagpipes and bought a dagger with a dragon-shaped hilt... and discovered a marvelous new fashion statement called ear cuffs!
They're like earrings, but you don't need to put holes in your ears to wear them.  See, what happens is you slip them on over the top of your ear, and they fit snugly onto the lobe.  I would show you a picture but a) I'm posting this after midnight and I'm too lazy, and b) I can't figure out how to get the pictures off of my phone and onto the computer.  I'm very technologically backwards. ;)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Impatient

Me: AAAUUUGHHH!!!!!  IT'S NEVER COMING!!
Everyone else: ...What's never coming?
Me:  THE EMAIL FROM THAT PUBLISHING COMPANY I SENT A SHORT STORY TO FOR THEIR ANTHOLOGY!!!!
Everyone else:  Um, you said they told you they'd get back in like, eight weeks, right?
Me: ... Yes...
Everyone else:  Well, how long has it been?
Me: ... six...
Everyone else: *knowing smirk*
Me: *pout* I didn't actually think it would take eight whole weeks...
Melodramatic much?  Yes.  Yes I am.

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Spider

So, by my desk at work there's this window with a screen, and we tend to get a lot of bugs there.  Yesterday the biggest spider I've seen there yet showed up.  Kinda freaked me out a little, because it was one of the fuzzy ones, and I've never been able to remember if those were poisonous or not.  In any case, I had no idea how it got in, but as the day went on I felt more and more sorry for it, stuck between window and screen.  The sun was getting pretty hot, and I was sure it was going to roast alive there.  I tried opening the window at some point, but it didn't work out so well, and besides, I was afraid I would squish it.  It survived the work day, but as I went home I was positive the little guy was gonna die.
He was still there when I got to work this morning!  And this time I was determined to get him out.  I had the cup, and the paper, and everything!  I would just catch him in the cup, slip him outside, and the two of us could go on with our lives.  I did end up having to ask someone else how to get that blasted window open, though.
Unfortunately, humans and spiders don't communicate well.  Poor little guy thought I was gonna eat him or something, and he was a clever enough spider that he got up in the very corner of the screen, where I couldn't catch him.  So I sighed and went back to work.  I was planning on lulling him into a false sense of security, then surprising him when he least expected it (after I disappeared for lunch).  However, when I came back, he was gone!  When I looked around I realized he'd finally found the hole in the screen he'd gotten in through before.
Not sure whether or not I should be embarrassed about this...

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Winner!!!!!!!!!!

Hehey, so, I really don't have a good excuse for not blogging last night... unless you count the fact that when I dropped by my parents' house they told me my copy of The Swan Prince had come in the mail!  And I was kinda reading it... and got side-tracked...
And speaking of The Swan Prince, you know that raffle the author's been doing to promote it?  I WON SOMETHING!!!  I won, I won, I never win anything but I WON!!!
I'm very excited. :)
What did I win?  The author's sketch of Docter Villem Deere... who happens to be my favorite character so far!  Happy, happy...
Sigh of satisfaction. :)

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

?

So... I'm really not sure what to blog about today.  Nothing overwhelmingly exciting going on, and as it's fast Sunday, I'm having a hard time thinking straight.  :)  In any case, life is good, but really rather boring at the moment.  Anything exciting going on with you guys?
Oh, and just because I have nothing else to talk about, you guys should check out http://everonword.wordpress.com/.  Why?  Because this book sounds amazing!  I've already ordered my copy!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira

Now Sarnic is Sneaky!

School is out!
I mean, for me it's been out for a while now, but for those younger than me, their school year ended this week.  Which means everyone has been partying!  Fun!  However, it also means that I was very busy yesterday.  After work I went straight to a friend's graduation party, and then I ran home to grab my computer, Percival, before heading back to my fencing arena where we were planning on a movie night to celebrate for the younger fencers.  Well, when I walked in the door, I was excited to see Sarnic, for she recently moved and I haven't seen her as much as I'd like.  Well, when I said hi, she asked if I'd "seen it". 
O.o?  Seen what?
Apparently I had been so caught up in getting out of the apartment I had completely missed a surprise somewhere that Sarnic had left in my room.  I wasn't able to see what it was until I got back to the apartment:  There was a hat on David Tenant (who is still hanging out in my closet.)!  A lovely hat!  And it looked very good on our dear Doctor ;).
I had no idea college students are all so sneaky!

Fare thee well, friend!
Mira