This journal was locked as of May, if you only see entries from before then and would rather see my newer entries I recommend that for you to comment with your reasons that I should add you as a friend. XD

Okay, so, remember when the belt shredded on the car about a month ago? Paid like $450 to have it repaired, but then it was fine? Well, about 2 weeks later, it would start cutting off under a certain amount of rpm's; took it back to the same garage and they gave us some lame excuse of it being a valve something-or-another and that they "cleaned" it. If it starts doing it again, bring it back and they'd have to replace the part ($200 part, $200 or so for labor). It stopped, we kinda forgot about it.

Well, the wheel started making a bad squeeking sound last week (one thing after another, right?). Figured it was a wheel barring, I found a different garage that charges less to replace it. We drop it off Saturday morning for said repair, once it's finished they asked why we replaced it; explained why (because of noise) only to get the answer that it was fine and the brakes were SHOT. We leave it there again for them to have it repaired by 4pm for the brakes, turns out the pads were GONE. This made noise go away, great, good to go... right? We pay (another $400 for the entire day of labor/parts), get to like the second stoplight and it CUTS OFF AGAIN! UGH! Call the garage; take it back there; they say it'll be Monday afternoon before we know anything. So, all day yesterday they are trying to figure it out, we have them replace Spark plus and the oil while they are at it (all this stuff could make the car act up); finally they come to the conclusion that it's the crank sensor. This makes sense as it is about a quarter of an inch away from the pully were the belt shredded. They actually show it to us and it's obvious the sensor has also been shredded. Oh, but wait, I haven't gotten to the best part yet. It's a special order part that won't be in until Wednesday morning! Sooo, still with no Toyota back and ANOTHER $360 later, we MIGHT finally get a well running car back tomorrow afternoon.

This also means that since we are LEAVING for JACKSONVILLE tomorrow afternoon, we have to get off early (him at 1pm and hopefully myself at 2pm) to get the car from Fairfax, bring it home/pack it up and then finally leave. Fun times to be had~ and now 3 credit cards are pretty much maxed that we haven't even used until now (they were for emergencies, like this -.-)... fun fun times~

Soooo, in other news. I have both Fran chapters just about ready for the update today or tomorrow. I'm trying to get Lucu 23 ready as well (we will see how the night goes). I'm also excited to hear that Sakura Gari volume one is out! The cover is gorgeous; within it there a free-talk from Watase that explains on how the entire idea has finally come together and that there will be 3 volumes total, which is about how long I was expecting it to last at it's current rate. So, I'll be buying that once it's in stock in the next week or two~ good times, good times~ (sorta >_>)

So, boss is going on vacation all next week. Somehow EVERY client called with an emergency today between 1pm and 4pm. She had a client to go meet out in town at 4pm. Got there around 4:30 because of said emergencies and asked me (nicely) if I would stay until she got back in order to go over some things for the coming week. We've been trying to do this ALL freakin' day! Soooo, here I am waiting. Trying to PATIENTLY wait, but it's Friday, it's been another loooong week and I'm getting starved. And there are these DELICIOUS COOKIES... CHOCOLATE COOKIES, staring at me. o.o

What am I going to do~~~? I gotta get outta here before the cookie gets the better of me. >< ...Wanna go home and make teriyaki salmon for dinner and be healthy and junk. *sigh* ....Oh, she just called. Just now leaving, will be here in 10 minutes. Can I make it 10 minutes with the DELICIOUS COOKIE staring at me? We shall see...... we shall see......

Just how many people aren't wearing the right bra size. I know it can be a touchy issue for many, but I had it to the point where I didn't care -what- size they were, I just wanted one that fit! Turns out that many people are actually F-H cups out there and are just cramming themselves into C and D because that's what you find in every store EVERYWHERE, so that's what you should be wearing, right? Not the case. T_T

I don't find mine to be overly huge, larger than the 'normal' woman that doesn't weigh 250 pounds, yes... but no overly huge by any means. Turns out that I actually needed a freakin 32 H to have one fit properly. Yes, a freakin' H cup... It still feels kinda weird, but I'm getting more used to it the more I have it on, plus they aren't bouncing all over the place anymore! ha! XD ...So to any woman that is reading this, go get yourself fitted properly if you haven't already. I ended up at Nordstroms, they actually have F-I cups in stock there with most band sizes as well. Don't go to Sears, JCPenny, Victoria Secrets or any of those freakin' places if you might not be a 'normal' cup size (ie, have none). Do yourself a favor and just get the right size, you'll feel better afterwards, trust me.

Now I just have to buy a few sports bras, those they didn't have in my size there. Looks like I'll be shelling out $50-$60 each online for them. That'll have to wait a bit longer. >_>

So, now that the journey for a bra is over (I've been going through this for awhile now) I can concentrate on other things! Well, probably just back to the manga, but eh... that's my life. Almost caught up with Fran (hopefully within the next two weeks), hubby helping with cleaning will help a lot. Still working on these older Watase series, I had ANOTHER person e-mail me about translating today! Yet, only one offer for an edit, that I still need to look it. What's up with this? It was always 10 to 1 ratio for editors to translators in the business (since, like 6-7 years ago when I started)... where'd all these smart translators come from!? Then again, where did all of the bored editors go!? An interesting hobby I have here...

Man, I gotta work on my AMV this weekend. May 15! Due May 15th! Ha........

So, I woke up at 5:30 this morning and couldn't seem to go back to sleep (ever just be very awake for no reason? That's me right now). So, I dunno why, but I'm very awake. Might use this time to get my chapter typeset, but I dunno yet.

So, I would be updating more, but work has actually been extremely busy. Which is good, but I'm ready for my break next week. Boss is going on vacation for the entire week and I'll be off Thursday and Friday to head back down to Jacksonville to see my sister, her husband and my niece (seeing my 2 year old niece for the first time). It'll be the first time I've seen them in over 5 years, they don't even know my husband... so this shall prove to be interesting. How I feel about it? I'm just ready for a break and my massage appointment next Thursday. XD

In other news, I got my game that I've been waiting for. "The World Ends With You", it's a DS game from the masterminds behind Kingdom Hearts for the DS. I'm about 3 hours into it right now and it's proving to be interesting and difficult already. It plays out like a text adventure (the best way I know to describe it) and RPG. You "scan" in order to read people minds (instead of walking up and randomly talking to people) and all of the conversations take place with the cell-shaded characters and comic bubbles (nearly no voice acting, which is good, 'cuz it's dubbed). The music seems to be very interesting as well, though I'm wishing for more variety (which might be to still come). The battle system is real-time with a series of scratching and such using the stylus, but what adds more depth than other DS games have done so far is that you control two characters at once. Your main guy (see icon) on the bottom w/ the stylus and then your partner on the top with pre-determined set of moved with the control pad or buttons (up, up, up, down, left = move, ect.) ...The game also moves in real time (you spend 30 minutes on something, they do too), I'm highly enjoying it so far~

Oh, and I am currently downloading the Zettai Kareshi drama, it's finally been subbed! Yay!
Anyways, might update more later today depending on work. 'Till then, ja~

So, I've been pretty strictly dieting and exercising five times a week (at least an hour of walking or some other form harder exercise) for two or three weeks now and I still haven't lost a pound. I know you can just get frustrated by looking at the scale, but from all of the stuff I've been reading, you should lose at least a pound a week when trying (especially at first), if not you need to change what you're doing. Well, it looks like I need to change what I'm doing. I haven't been strict enough on the diet part for one, I actually had hot cocoa and a donut yesterday... yeah, that's not going to happen again for a good long while. I've been pretty serious about both the diet and exercise though which is what makes it so frustrating.

The only other thing I could think of was the sugar intake (no matter what I look at that I eat, the sugar intake looks freakin' high)... I find out from numerous websites (one of which broke down the different kinds of sugar) that overall for a 1600 calorie diet (which I've, with the exeption of one or two days, have been on) you should only be getting like 24 grams of "extra" sugar. This is the kind found in just about any drink other than water, pure sugar of any kind (including high frutose corn syrup and honey) and fruits. Sure, I understand a little bettter now how fruits are still healthy (which I knew) and more on the reasoning behind that, but this 24 gram thing is pretty crazy in today's world. Just one beverage (whether it be smoothie, hot cocoa, juice) has around 40 grams. Sooo, I'm confused. For anyone that might actually be wondering, this is what my "normal" day would consist of:

( If you're really interested.... )

What makes things worse is that I don't remember ever losing weight in my life without starving myself. Which is very sad, but true, I don't really want to have to do that again. I've read over and over that eating "small" meals every 2-3 hours is the best way to lose weight, but I'm just not able to do that. Between being at work 8+ hours a day and then not having the time to do that at home as well (and still fit in the exercise!) this whole situation just gets more aggravating. All I know is that for the next month, I'm going to be 100% serious on every calorie I intake and not just say "heck with it" and eat that freakin' donut... I will see how that goes and if I still don't lose weight I'll have one of two options left- starve myself or go seek a professional. The first option is cheaper and likely the one I'll choose. >_>

I have decided that I have too much stuff to do and not enough time in the day to do it. @_@ ...Not only have I not had time to get some 'real' exercise in for a few days (all of that walking over the weekend though, I'm counting that as my exercise XD), but now I feel I'm falling behind in a lot of things. See, this is what I have to do.

Foils - At least 4 for the art auction, I am planning three Watase/Fushigi Yuugi and then probably a Ghost in the Shell (which was by request). I might also enter some of the 8x10's I've already done incase I don't get a table (starting at like $10, it'll be something, ya know?)... Going to do more if time permits (ha!)

AMV - I have about 2 minutes done of a 4 1/2 minute video, I REALLY have to get going on this as the deadline for Animazement is May 15th and since there's a likelyhood of me not getting a table right now, I would like to have something to look forward to there. This is probably the one I'm most stressed about 'cuz I haven't touched it in like 3 months!

Manga - I'm drawing myself thin now. I've had three people e-mail me recently regarding translating Watase manga. Which is great! Don't get me wrong on that, I was seriously frustrated for a long while due to lack of interest, now it's looking like we might actually FINISH EVERYTHING by the end of the year. After that I'll be keeping people around for the following: the Sakura Gari translator for all new chapters of that, the person that's doing the recent One-Shots (and old stuff when they run out) for anything else she decides to publish and then the new guy (yay for the new guy!) who is currently working on SMO and gave me the most recent blog posting for, well, all of the new blog postings! Soo, that shall be interesting.

That leaves me editing (and scanning for that matter, I'll dwell on this in a moment -.-); Nanako (joint with group giving proofed translations), SMO (new guy is doing this) and then the older works in Gomen Asobase(!) ect (there are three volumes left to do). I have scripts for Nanako already, I'll be getting in SMO very shortly (this guy is quick!) and I'm thinking the first of those three volumes will be done within a month completely for translations. I think I'm going to need to beg for a good editor to help me here. >_>;;

And that's just the Watase stuff! Brings me to snoopycool projects of Franken Fran (2 chapters per week for another three weeks, then one a month), Lucu Lucu (probably 2-3 chapters a month) and finally the new Anzai manga (assuming the plan falls into place, that is) which I will be typsetting with another experienced editor there cleaning. @_@

Coming back around to that scanned now~ I went to start editing Nanako yesterday, only to realize that the scans I've had hanging around for forever (like 2-3 years?) are crappy! Like, horribly so. -.- ...After playing with trying to scan my books in without killing anything for about an hour, I give up and *gasp!* go to the microwave! Yup, I killed me out-of-print Watase books (well, when I'm done it'll be Nanako, the first three older collections and the first six volumes of SMO). They will all be de-bound, but scanned beautifully! I'll be frequenting eBay looking for another set of these as soon as possible and will take donations for them! (begging on the site next update, ha!) XD ....So, not only editing, but now scanning is on the top of my list as well. I believe it'll take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per volume of manga now. >_>

Soooo, after "wasting" all night last night with the scanning, this is where I sit. I think I have too much on my plate because I still have exercise, reacreation and general things to do with my time off as well. I'm really excited to be getting this stuff done finally, but for it to all hit me at once is a little much. I'm probably going to scan some more tonight and then hopefully at least get those scans cleaned. Maybe I'll be able to work on my AMV this weekend? We shall see~

Alright everyone! Sakura Gari Chapter 3 has now been release, you can hop on over to http://www.yuuwatase.org to download it~ ...I'm interesting to hear peoples opinions on this chapter, I know I'm completely taken by this series now, Watase-sensei has become even more amazing with her level of story and character development. As a side-note, I forgot to mention here when I updated last week with the Pandora's Cube one-shot, so if you haven't read that already, it's also up in it's appropriate section! Thanks everyone and enjoy!

This will be cross-posted to the sakura gari community, watase and my personal journal.

Ever have one of those mornings where you wake up for a really annoying reason and it bugs you so much that you never get back to sleep? That was my morning, ya see, since the weather was so nice last night we left the windows in our bedroom open. Little did I realize that there would be the MOST ANNOYING BIRD EVER outside of said open windows at 5am! So, after I spent a few minutes closing the windows, using the bathroom and laying back down I could STILL hear it. Then, my stomach started growling (dinner last night, turned out to be not so good =.=)... so, I got up, over 2 hours before I normally would.

What good has come of this you ask? Well, not only did I finish download an anime off of mIRC I've been working on for a few days now (mIRC = one episode at a time *sigh*), but I also finished Sakura Gari chapter three! Geez, the graphic nature of this chapter still catches me a bit. It is in the proofing stages right now and will hopefully be released later tonight. Luckily I also only have to typeset one chapter of Fran tonight and that should be it for this weeks stuff.

As for tonight, hoping to get some form of exercise in (will go outside to exercise if it stays nice out by the time I get off work), dinner, that one chapter and then I dunno yet. Tomorrow we are going to hit up the Cherry Blossom festival at some point along with the baseball game at 1pm (yet, another perk from my job >D), Sunday we're off to see the Japanese gardens at this botanical place in D.C. ...unfortunatly there still isn't much money to go around, but fortunatly nothing I just listed will cost that much to do.

Manga-wise you ask? (not really XD) ...I got an offer to do Musubiya Nanako as a joint project (they are translating/proofing and I am going to provide the scans/edits), so I will be working on that in the down time (they already sent two of the three chapters over to me o.o), Sakura Gari chapter 4 comes out on 6/13 (I think) and I'll probably be start on Anzai's new work here with Snoopycool in two weeks (Anzai=creator of Flame of Recca and Mar)... All this on top of two chapters of Franken Fran a week (for only another 3-4 weeks thankfully, then one a month) and the occasional chapter of Lucu Lucu.

On the final note, I need to work on my AMV, the deadline it fast approaching (May 16th I think) >_> ...I also gotta get these foils to enter into the auction at Animazement done (May 21st). Nya~~~

Okay, I'm updating right now because I just got a few minutes to sit down and relax here at work, but I have nothing better to do. Basically, all goes pretty well still. I'm glad it is Thursday though, just one more day and this week is over. o.o ...It has been extremely busy at work this week, I get home + exercise and then the night is over it seems (not to mention hubby has been falling asleep at 8-9pm again ><)... so yeah, I just want this week to be over.

Yesterday we had a freakin' stupid argument about cleaning and folding clothes (I was trying to nicely tell him he wasn't putting my stuff away properly, so I couldn't find it) and it blew up into a huge arguement all afternoon. Luckily, one we both got home around 6pm, took a few deep breaths and decided it was freakin' stupid. I nicely explained how to fold/put away my stuff, we finished cleaning stuffs that had been put off for awhile (our Bathroom was starting to look like Merrell's, haha! ..... *poke*... it was a joke >_>) and finished the night by eating too much of the leftovers from prior night and sleeping (well, he slept at 8:30, I working on Sakura Gari 'till 11pm XD).

All is well I believe, I'm rather content today. Gonna go out for dinner and relax after having such a harsh week. Hmmmm...

As for the manga! I'm up to page 36 of the 62 page Sakura Gari chapter 3. I figure once I hit around the mid-forties it should fly by, since there's very little text on most page (it's been VERY text heavy up until now, taking forever o.o) ...I'm actually reading it for the first time as I go, so I'm very enthralled with it and would like to finish a.s.a.p... unfortunatly it'll still probably be Saturday night or Sunday before it's finished do to me doing stuff the next couple of days and also having a deadline from Fran and Lucu... but we shall see!

I was planning to update yesterday, but my day became more busy than a thought. I didn't get a chance to have "free" time at work until after 2pm, at which time I still had to clean Fran and get some sort of work done on Sakura Gari and such... sooo, no time to update.

Basically, life has being going better since last update. The weekend was calm, to say the least. The freakin' weather forcast was completely screwed up, so we ended up staying in Saturday evening (thinking the fireworks would get rained out), it didn't rain; and then on Sunday when we were going to go to D.C. because the forcast called for 60 degrees and sunny, it was cold and raining all day! It pretty much ruined the entire weekend as far as doing stuff goes. We did however still make a pretty decent time of it, the intamacy was much better than it had been recently and we rent/watched Sweeny Todd (for the first time) on Sunday. It was overall a very good movie, definately strange though. o.O

Umm, Monday I finally played DDR. It brought me to the decision that it is the best workout I can get in the period of 30 minutes to an hour, so I'm going to try my best to play when I get home four days a week. I don't think that's unreasonable and I really need to see some pounds come off in the next few weeks, so I'm going to stick to that I think. I was never able to compare it to other forms of exercise before since I never had a gym to work out in (well, a treadmill, bike, weight machine type place XD), but it really is an overall really good workout for the time spent, so I'm going to just keep up with that for a bit. I plan to possible subsitute for other forms of exercise one or two days a week (mainly when the weather gets better), but overall I think results will come quicker from it. Now if I could only stay away from that freakin' ice cream >_> (other than that the diet it going pretty well)

Let's see~ not much other going on. Getting the two chapters of Fran out by Friday again, they are clean now so it shouldn't be too much work. I plan to also get Sakura Gari chapter three released be the end of the weekend (my original goal was Friday, but I now see that it's not happening). Oh, and yesterday at work, they had buses out back! Huuuge ones, I was like " o.o. " huuuge white unmarked buses, m'kay? Turns out they were "busting" illegal immigrants and rounding them up out back! The feds were all of the place. It 'twas a bit interesting~

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.7
Mind:	7.7
Body:	7.5
Spirit:	6.4
Friends/Family:	5.6
Love:	5.5
Finance:	7.3
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I didn't really like to style of the quiz, don't think it very accurate. >_>;; ...But eh, whatever, was just curious. Real update to come later today (got a boring day at work ahead of me, unlike yesterday. o.o)

Now that I've calmed down a little bit, lemme explain a bit further. The argument this time was about buying tickets to the Lifehouse concert tonight. As I've been updating here, these tickets were going for around $90 a pop in comparision to the $35-$40 face-value. I'm not crazy enough the pay that much, but I got the idea to go on craiglist today since the concert is tonight hoping someone would be trying to dump their tickets last-minute. Turns out there are a lot of people trying to dump their tickets. Somewhere between $30-$50 each now, which is great. If it weren't for the fact that I ran our budget figures again this morning and it turns out we are basically flat broke for the month (again) and next month isn't looking much better (assuming Animazement turns out the way I'm expecting it to-horrible). So, yeah, face-value is great, $30 is better. I start chasing some of the ads. All the while talking to the hubby about it on messenger. Okay, keep in mind this has been something going on for awhile now, lemme give you a quick run-down.

( If you wanna here the whole story )

So, yeah, I'm gonna wrap this part of the post up with saying that after the arguement I was told to still be the freakin' tickets... but it turns out I never got anyone to respond for a 100% yes to the measely $60 I could offer for both in a decent area for pick-up... So, guess what? No Lifehouse for me. It will just be another boring night on the couch editing my life away.

So concludes the (at least) fourth arguement of the week. I kinda feel like I'm heading for a breakdown right now. I mean, work is fine (just a tad boring), then I get home at night to get into an argument or lay around lifeless, then the weekend comes and we -try- to find something to do, which hasn't been working out THAT well lately. I'm actually not even looking forward to this weekend, I mainly have fears of what kind of loneliness and arguments it might bring about... but we shall see I do suppose.

We're in another arguement, I don't know what to do anymore. I've not said anything here because I try to keep private life private, but I just don't know anymore. We're at each others throats about anything and everything. What we're doing at this time or that, when/if we're going to have relations (censored, for being at work), where the money is going, why we don't have any money and numerous other reasons! We haven't resolved one yet I think, which I making me feel closed in my own world and not nearly as close as we normally are. After awhile you just can't help what your feelings are when things happen again and again, ya know? I'm not by any means saying this is a one-sided (his) fault kind of thing, we're both in this relationssip, it's both of our faults. I've actually considered a few times if moving up here has damaged us and our relationship seriously, wish is a harsh reality if it is to be the case. We always had someone/somewhere else to go when things got completely rough, but that's not the case here. Heck, I haven't even gone out at night by myself because I am unsure of the area, that was never a feeling for me back in NC.

Don't get me wrong, life isn't horrible beyond living and I do enjoy this area and atmosphere much more... it's just, I dunno. Once again, you can't help what you feel, right? I actually don't remember being thrown against the rocks this badly since we first got married. I think I actually remember crying for 4 nights straight about 3 months into our marriage because nothing seemed to be working out right. There have been times I've run out of the house because I don't want the conflict to go beyond repair and there have been times where I wish I could disappear, even for awhile. Little did I realize at first that our relationship is pretty much our life. Unlike a lot of relationships where each party has a life and marriage/their partner is just a part of it. We do everything together and pretty much spend 80% + of our "free" time doing things together (even if it's only watching TV). I would say the other 20% would be being together, just not interacting. Isn't that a little insane? I wish I could say I have a life other than my love and my work, but I really don't! Unless you include that 20% where I'm in the same room with him, just on my computer doing my own thing! This has gone on for four years now and I'm seriously am starting to think we need to make a major change in our lives.

Anyway, sorry to anyone that just read through that, I had to vent and venting personally and to him just hasn't been enough. >_> ...I'll post a real update a bit later, I got some work to do. o.o (ha!)

Trying to kill about 10 minutes before packing up to go home. I have this feeling of accomplishment today, as this morning I finished editing Pandora's Cube. I have the need to say, that is probably the longest I have ever spent editing one piece of manga before. Keep in mind, this is a one-shot, a pretty long one (68 pages)... but still. Between making the magazine scans look pretty good (if I do say so myself) and then the actual editing (the translator did just about every sfx) I probably spent 15-20 hours on it... maybe more. BUT! I feel accomplished now... after the translator helps me with two problem bubbles, dunno if the translation was missing or what, I'm going to get this released so everyone can share in my joy! (ha!)

Anyways, other than that, I tried cooking Salmon for the first time last night. It actual turned out really well. I just followed the directions and this time it didn't ruin dinner. o.o ...I just seasoned and baked it this time, but next time I plan on trying to use the teriyaki stuff I have on it and serve it with rice. I'm trying really hard to eat healthier and actually get some exercise, it's not going so bad. The eating isn't as hard as the motivation (and time) to exercise, but I'm getting there, slowing but surely. My goal weight is (yes, gonna spill some truth now) 125lbs, which is somewhere between 10-15lbs lighter than I am now. I really want to not be embarrassed in my swimsuit come this summer. ._.

Well, that should be enough time spent for now. I gotta figure out what's going on tonight... and the weekend for that matter! hmmmmmm

I think I'm becoming tired from oversleeping, I don't have any better excuse. I go to bed between 10-11 every night and then can't even get up at 7am when the alarm goes off, I end up resetting it to 7:30 or 8. This is more than 8 hours of sleep everynight, so I don't know why I'm so freakin' tired! I have begun to exercise again, just a little bit over the past few days, which I'm hoping will end up helping. I think I might play DDR tonight, gonna hit it real hard if I do. But I dunno, just sleepy. >_>

As I sit here and write this I am waiting for these Lifehouse tickets on eBay to end. They are at $100 for the pair, which is fair compared to the $90 each they have been going for on average. I have 5 more minutes to stalk the bid before going for it. I think I'm will to go up to $115 + the $15 shipping, after that it's more than double the face value and thus I'm not crazy enough to pay it. *sigh* Nevermind, they just went over $135 + shipping, people are so stupid. These are GA admission tickets to a night club, that are only worth $35! To see someone that tours all the time! That will be playing in Richmond for $15 non-sold-out tickets in two days! (I can't go 'cuz it's a Monday, but my point is that this is crazy). Geez, they just ended for $150 + shipping. Ugh...

Anyways, now that I've given up all hope of going to the only concert I've really really wanted to go to for the past few years, I feel wonderful. I'm going to go do some actual work now...

I am currently at work, with absolutely nothing to do. So, I will sit here and write! I have not too much to write about, but let's see what I can dredge up without actually diving into something I shouldn't touch here.

I learned a few things this weekend. Things like, cherry tree's are in fact, gorgeous; walking for three hours straight will hurt your feet, badly (keep in mind, I was wearing boots); I still completely suck at bowling; we still have no money; and this area is freakin' huge.

A note on that last one, we've lived here for six months now. There is still so much I don't even know about in this area, like how huge and gorgeous the parks are and how much there is to do as long as you can afford the gas to get there. I lived in Jacksonville all my life, always feeling like I was suffocating in that place, only to know realize that I, in fact, was.

Don't get me wrong, I don't completely hate that place to the point of never wanting to return. But I would say that I don't know if I could live there for a long period of time, now that I know what is possible. Even when we just visited for Christmas, I feel enclosed there. I've alreay gotten used to the idea that you can go to a Best Buy 10 minutes west, 15 minutes east or 15 minutes to the southeast. Instead of having the option of driving 10 minutes to one and that's it. You gotta travel 60 miles before seeing the next, and that's if you know exactly where your going and when to leave.

I know that's not the best comparison, but you get the idea. Just the thought of being stuck in one small town and not being able to get out without "planning" a trip somewhere and eating a half-tank of gas is stifling to me even more now than it was then. It really is a shame since the City itself isn't all that bad and all of our family is in fact living there. Overall I think I could only bear to live there under special circumstances, I would not voluntarily put myself in such an enclosed environment again. That was just something I realized this weekend while aimlessly riding around to various places, hitting about 4-5 different cities in the time frame of an hour or two.

One thing I do miss though, is being able to just go out and specifically do something (like go to a freakin' arcade!) when money actually permits. We have a ton of theaters, a few bowling alleys, more golf courses then you can shake a stick at. Yet, I have not been able to find a decent arcade (I'm just talking about a DDR machine not always taken my psycho's and an Initial D machine for the hubby here) anywhere in the region. We've driven as far as Winchester in search, but have yet to find anything bigger than a mall arcade hole-in-the-wall that offers next to nothing.

I'm going to be rich one day, I'm going to make my fortune right here. I'll open a huge arcade with a Sonic drive-in next door. We will never have to worry about money again. Who wants in on this? I'm starting to seriously ponder and hatch the plan here. XD

*ahem* In other news, I have decided Bleach isn't so bad anymore (we're talking manga here). Though, I did get very tired of the fight(!!), oh he's dead, no wait(!!), he's alive(!!) and then it going on another 6 chapters before said fight was actually over with the same result... rinse, repeat. I do believe this went on for a year or so now? Anyways, I hope it's over, but not counting on it. Maybe we'll get a few more interesting chapter before the Shonen stupidity takes over again. HOWEVER, Naruto hasn't gotten any better. I certainly hope the rumor if this being the last two volumes is true, because I'm about done with it. I would've seriously stopped about forty chapters back if it didn't take less than 10 minutes to download and read it. >_>;;

As for manga, I'm working on the series' I find to be original. Even freakin' Watase has been coming up with some original stuff (go Watase!!). I don't see myself ever wasting my time on scanlating something as stupid as Naruto or Bleach, heck, I even double-thought doing Recca a few times back in the day (it was overall, very good though XD)....

Anyways, I'm going to finish Franken Fran ch. 3 tonight or tomorrow, then my goal is to finish Pandora's Cube before Thursday. I should have the proof for Sakura Gari by then and I'll whip that out in a day or two following. After that, it's down to Fran and Foils again. We'll see what finally happens with the Lucu, 'bout to kill my translator on that one. ^^

Last but not least, it turns out we won't be able to afford the Tales costumes this month like I was planning. Just too many unexpected expenses here and there (I refuse to let that car bill sit on the credit card too long gather 30% APR)... so that's a little disappointing. However, I do plan to order them from the same person come the end of May (after Animazement) in order for them to by ready for the next con (more than likely, Otakon). So, it'll all work out for the best. I'm a little afraid Animazement will turn out to be a complete bust, but afterall, it wouldn't be the first time. ^^;;

So, not a whole lot going on. I have discovered writing in LJ helps pass some time while at work though, thus all of the posting. Plus, with the keyboard noise going on, it actually sounds like I might be doing work out here. XD

As for yesterday, I wasn't bored! So, I didn't post. The head-boss lady was here and we had a client that was literally going crazy and there was much work to be done. So yesterday ended up being crazy, actually ended up leaving a bit late due to all of the work. But today is back to the normal.

Manga: I've put a hold on PC for now since snoopy is requesting the next Fran by tomorrow afternoon. I wouldn't hold your breath on that actually getting finished, but I'm trying. Fused all of the double pages (three of them in a 25 page chapter this time!) last night and this morning and I'm going to finish the cleaning process on lunch this afternoon. After that, it up to him to get me the translation so I can typeset tonight and in the morning. We'll see if it actually comes together or not. =)

After that, I'm going to get started on Sakura Gari, the translator finally gave me the last little bit of text I needed to complete the script, so once I get the proof back that is what I plan to finish. PC will come after everything else, probably 2-3 weeks down the road now. It's gonna be my little side project to work on when I don't feel like doing anything else.

Engraving/Foils: Working on these with the spare time I'm not using to edit manga. I'm e-mail Animazement AA back again today, they replied yesterday saying I was in fact 2nd on the list and the 1st person only wants a half table. I'm going to tell them if ANYONE cancells I'll take a half-table, thus making me and the other person before me at that cancelled table. Turns out they will be starting a NEW list at the con for tables that aren't claimed by 1pm on SATURDAY. Which is ridiculous for two reasons (1) You should go off of the waiting list already created, if person called of the list doesn't respond due to not being at con or whatever, go to next person (2) ALL of the other cons I attend have the policy that if you do not make PRIOR arrangements that your table will be given away at 1pm on FRIDAY. Afterall, why pay FULL price for a table you're only getting for HALF of the con, Friday usually turns out to be the busiest day anyway! People have more money before the dealer's room opens and are more willing to spend it once the dealer's room closes early.

So, anyways, I'm preparing SOME stuff but have decided to concentrate on my manga then AMV more. I will probably hold off on the bookmarks since I could only sell those at a table and instead finish 5 to 6 larger pictures to enter into the art auction. This way, even if the table doesn't happen I can make back SOME of my money. BTW, before I forget again 'Rika... could you perhaps draw an SD character for me for the art auction? I have an idea *grin* ...we need to talk. ^^

Anything else: Not much plans for the weekend. Grocery shopping and dinner out somewhere tonight, then Cherry Blossom stuff tomorrow (and probably eating out again), then just cleaning house and relaxing on Sunday as far as I know. And that's about all. I want to get a better idea of what we're doing and when for the next few weekends with the Cherry Blossom festival going on though, maybe I can accomplish this task tonight? x_x

Yesterday turned out okay, did everything I planned to do besides the exercise. I have decided to wait until the weekend to start that do to certain monthly issues. >_>

Looks like the quota I want to meet for Animazement won't be too hard, I have like 30-35 sheets of bookmarks I want to get done and then a few (maybe like 5) 11x14 foils I would like to do for the art auction (JUST in case I don't get a table). Overall, a very obtainable goal to have done by May 20th or so. I can get three sheets done in one sitting if I put my mind to it. I also went to Wal-Mart this afternoon on lunch and bought sheet protectors and I'm going to TRY this 4x6 photo protectors (they are divided) to display the bookmarks. I also bought printable labels to label everything (no more hand-writing). When I'm done with what I have, it'll be picture time and then updating the website! If nothing else, maybe I can get some commissions out of Animazement?

In other news, the manga never stops coming! It wasn't even an hour after I finished Franken Fran for the latest snoopycool deadline that I get an e-mail with the translation for Pandora's Cube! (Watase's latest one-shot). Luckily that is the one I have cleaned already, so I'm just going to work on that whenever I have spare time or don't feel like doing anything else. I'm guessing it'll be done in two weeks or so, give or take a little. I have yet to hear back about the Sakura Gari translation, we still have holes in it and I think the translator has gotten a bit busy with school. We shall see how much longer this will take. ^^

On the overall life front, I'm going to seriously, seriously start exercising and eating better starting this weekend (well, I gotta wait for the monthly fun to be over and finish eating the ice cream in the freezer first ;P) ...I'm planning on buying more fruit when we go grocery shopping this time and we're also switching to frozen vegetables instead of canned (canned has a lot of additives unfortunatly). I'm looking at the label of everything I buy now and boy, there's a lot you don't know about if you don't pay attention. o.o;; ...As far as money is concerned, I just planned our budget out 'till August (well, there might be a trip in June/July I haven't accounted for yet). It's looking better than it has lately, the winter gas bill disappearing is a VERY good thing, though I know it won't be long before the electric bill goes up do to the A/C (still going to much less than heating though). This was the first time I actually went through and totalled everything we owe up in a long time and found out some good and some bad news. The overall debt seems like a really high number, but yet, even if we keep going the SAME way we're going right now it can all be paid in three years. So eh, we definately need a raise (it'll make that three more like a one), but until then I can be a little more patient now.

I wanna go bowling! We're going to the cherry festival either Saturday or Sunday (probably Saturday) this weekend, then the other day I wanna go bowling! Well see if that happens...

So, yesterday ended up sucking overall. Work sucked due mainly to computer problems, dinner suck because I ruined not one, but TWO potential meals and the rest of the night sucked because my attitude was completely shot after going through the day that treated me like crap. So, here's to hoping today turns out better.

I plan on working on my Franken Fran scans this morning while nobody is at work with me (court and meetings), hopefully having some actual work to do after lunch time. When I finally get home, I'm going to exercise (well, actually I feel like playing DDR), cook the chicken that's in the fridge for dinner (it's hard to screw up chicken, throw it in the oven, don't burn it >_>), finish what *if any* is left to do of Franken Fran and then work on foils. That'll be my day... let's see how well it goes. <_< On a side note, 'Rika, I'm signing up for the Artist Alley for AnimeUSA in a few days (gotta be postmarked by March 31st), were you interested? I'm also signing up for AWA on Thursday, wanna come to Atlanta with us? =D hehe