blackvalpirate

That is all.

So you all know how obsessed I am with Project Runway, right?

( And the winner is...! )

I laughed, I cried, I squeed like a twelve year old girl!

So my job is on a top 15 list of cnn's stressful jobs that pay badly. 89% of curators apparently find their jobs stressful. Huh. Why did I want to do this again?

Canadia, home of many awesome things, like maple syrup and Battlestar Galactica!  Home also to a reality show based on the movie The Cutting Edge (I watched this movie a zillion times when I was a kid, d'awww)  It's called Battle of the Blades.  How did I not know this existed?  My only question: will they do the Pamchenko?  Congratulations Canada, you have just blown my mind!

We are still decorating at work, which means I just spent 20 minutes removing the glitter from my face, my arms, my clothes, etc.  That stuff gets EVERYWHERE.  Also, there is glitter literally everywhere in the museum.  I've started to sneeze it out.  I dream in sparkle!  And not in an entertaining angsty vampires way!  Make it stop!

In other news, I got a new phone!  And yes, it too had to be de-glittered.

I love this! cool shirt!

Cookies and SCIENCE, two of my favorite things combined into one convenient t-shirt.

(cool shirt is brought to you by the makers of secular heaven, now with extra dragons and Nikola Tesla)

Here's a fun thing I found on the interwebz!



Hehe! Something for my writer buddies to think about.
(you know the drill, click to embiggen)

Some random stuff:

Here's a website that will make you snortlaugh!

I talked to my downstairs neighbor today, turns out that shady shady landlady is a drunk! (I'm not surprised) and the crappy maintenance guy she hired is *her boyfriend*  Downstairs neighbor lady wants to leave too, asked how I got out of my lease.  Turns out shady shady pulled THE EXACT SAME THING on her.  And then she jacked up their rent $20 a month when they fought it.  But she's stuck here 'till April.  Yikes. 

Gave downstairs lady some books, and other neighbor lady a plant, just to lighten my moving load.  I'm gonna miss the neighbors here.  So I gave them all cards to the new place, and told them they should all move there!

And here's a (gratuitous) hilarious remake of Rihanna's umbrella that made me LOL

I put down the deposit on the new place yesterday.  I'm really moving.  In October.

Shady shady landlady just keeps getting shadier/crazier.  May she get all the Karma she deserves ;P 

New place landlady seems at least somewhat sane.  And I'll have my own washer and dryer, I'm so excited! And it's got a lovely view.

Here's to change!  May it always be good.  Or quarters.

Keepin' me waaaaiitin'!  (I hate waiting for guys to call!)

It's official, I'm moving at the end of October.  I'm not sure where, but I can't stay here.  It's really taken a turn for the crazy/weird.  I've had to file a BBB complaint, and now the manager and maintenance guy (who know my schedule) are hanging out in front of my apartment to harass me when I come home.  This is just so effin' wrong/bad/wtf!

After 4 days of crap and hassle, the toilet is finally fixed!  I only had to threaten legal action to get my lazy weasel-faced landlady off her butt.

Thank you to all my buds and coworkers for their support and (sometimes violent) suggestions.  You all rock!

*edited to add*  Apparently it's not over.  Weasel-face sent me a nasty-gram via email, blaming the entire incident on my mistreatment of the plumbing. 

You know, it only takes 5 seconds to be polite and professional.  However, it takes about 5 minutes to fill out a complaint to the Better Business Bureau.  Time well spent, in my opinion.

It's wednesday night.  My plumbing is still not fixed.  That's 3 DAYS without a toilet.  How is it that you expect me to pay my rent on time, when you won't simply fix my damn plumbing!  It's not rocket freaking science! 

I hate my landlady,  she is so shady.  This is not the apartment complex I signed up for.  Does anyone know someplace where they aren't gonna treat the tenants like crap, or is this a pipe dream in today's world?  I am seriously considering breaking my lease over this.

My toilet exploded!   Plumbing sucks :(



But apparently my landlady is in no rush to send out the maintenance man.  I've been waiting for *hours*  and I'd really like to smack someone.

Thanks to the lovely sea_of_she , I am now addicted to a new book series.  Lilith Saintcrow (a kick-ass author name, if ever there was one) and her Dante Valentine series.  I'm already through the second book, I can't put these down!  Unfortunately, the library doesn't carry them, so I will be shopping the second-hand stores desperately hoping they have a cheap copy!

This is a topic I've had on my mind for a while, but a recent communication really brought it to the forefront of my busy busy mind. 

Professional people, people who are in a business which serves the public in some capacity, who interact with customers, etc.  You'd really think they would want to act in a professional, possibly even polite, way.  So why do some people think that it's good business practice to be snotty, snide or otherwise act as though they have an uncomfortable object rammed up their bum?  Surely they can't all be eating Bitchy-O's (TM) for breakfast?  How do these people stay in business?  In these trying economic times (to put it as cliched as possible) wouldn't you think they would re-think using the bad-people manners that drive away business and $?

P.S. It's probably a bad idea to answer the phone when you are drunk.  Or hungover.  Or a lying, trashy, ho-bag.  Whatever

I have discovered the secret to perfect home-made biscuits.  A pinch of rosemary!  I could eat these all day.  Here you go, BlackVal's perfect biscuit recipe:

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tablspoons superfine sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
enough milk to hold it together
Pinch of rosemary (courtesy of laloveskt 's garden)
teaspoon of dill

mix it all together, squish into little shapes like hearts and stars etc, bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes depending on the quality of your oven, makes about 9 biscuits

I went and saw the GI Joe Movie.  (Which was a cartoon my rapscallion brother watched when we were kids, thus I watched it.)  Not even Christopher Eccleston could save this bomb of a movie. *sigh*  They messed with all the characters' backstories, and made them full of suck!  The "military" personnel were laughably sloppy, and not believable as such.  It did have some nice explosions, and that's the best I can say for it.   Bleeech.  Save your money, and buy something else with it.

...who put up pictures of a massive jello-fight on his website! 

    Now I wanna have a jello-fight!  Wouldn't this be a great stress reliever?!