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Location: Home.
Listening: "Notebook" ~ Innocence Mission.

Just woke again, after waking once at 11:30, wandering around, and creeping back into bed next to Peter, who had finally gotten to sleep about that time. Our sleep schedules got reversed once again this weekend, but he's been writing and what I've read of Violence Engine so far is excellent work.

The weekend has been busy so far. Yesterday, I ran errands and remembered why I enjoy shopping at this time of year. I rambled down to South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa to pick up a few things and returned with not only foundation from Prescriptives and soap from Origins, but oodles of "free gifts" as well. These included a makeup case that I actually needed, since my containers exploded in my other bag sometime during the flight to Michigan in October. From Costa Mesa, I went to Trader Joe's and picked up some pot stickers, pierogies (which certainly won't be as good as the ones I had in Pittsburgh, but hey), cinnamon sticks (for cider), organic Kosher chicken breasts (yay), and a decent red Zinfandel. Also grabbed some organic Kosher bacon and tapioca pudding for Peter--two of the few things that he loves and I run from in fear. From Trader Joe's to PetCo for more Iam's for Baghera and new shavings and a rat for Lucifer. I also finally acquired the addition to the household that I've wanted for a while now--an electric blue Betta whom I've decided to call Merlin. I've attempted to keep fish before, in Houston, to such disastrous results that it was finally decided that I should give up for the preservation of the local fish community. I've done quite a bit more reading since then, however, and Merlin seems to be doing very well in his new home. I realized last night that I'm still surrounded by males in my little apartment; perhaps I'll start buying more female rats. :p

Something else I picked up in Costa Mesa at Rand McNally--a Swahili phrase book from Lonely Planet, which has turned out to be wonderful. It includes not only more detailed information on grammatical structures and vocabulary, but a two-way dictionary that complements the one in my other book nicely. Hence, the Swahili lesson later this evening will include some of this information.

About to run and be about more errands--I forgot one or two things at the store--and still thinking about my writing. I intend to finish my resume this evening, but am also still contemplating the outline of a short fantasy piece. My poetry has come to an abrupt halt for the moment (it comes and goes as it pleases--I can't force it, so I don't even try anymore) and I feel the need to be working on something a little more spread out. Perhaps I'll post something more on this tonight. I have my main character and flashes of my world, but, as of yet, no clear plot structure. I'm considering just jumping in, as I've always done with my prose pieces, and letting the story write itself. I'm not sure how well this will work with fantasy, but I'm not sure why it should differ that greatly from non-genre fiction, so we'll see.

Off to the store. See you when I get back.