I made taro fries last night and they were good. Simple to make: just cut up a taro root; toss with olive oil, garlic powder, and pepper; place on a cookie sheet; and throw in the oven at 450°F (230°C, 510 K) until crisp.

I haven't made them since I moved out of the house_of_clocks, mostly because I don't make it down to the Super 88 very often since I moved here. That probably won't change, as I cook mainly for purpleglitter now and she doesn't like the food from the Super 88 except Pocky, taro and a very few other items. We only ended up getting the taro because we went with invalid_userid to pick up food for her stay.

It may look bad, but I had already mentally budgeted that I would make little or no progress at NaNoWriMo during invalid_userid's visit.

Day	Words
1	1729/1667
2	1883/3333
3	1883/5000
4	1883/6667

With the preparations for invalid_userid's visit along with wanting to spend time with her, I didn't get much writing done. I expect to fall quite a bit behind while she's here, but I have already planned for that and if all goes well will catch up after she leaves. While I am serious about doing NaNoWriMo this year, spending time with good friends is far more important.

Day	Words
1	1729/1667
2	1883/3333

Haven't given much of an update lately on what I've been up to.

The weekend before last my sister, Madeline, and Christian came up to visit. I met them downtown on Saturday and my sister took me to get my first ever professional manicure. I had a lot of fun and Maddie is a joy. She is so huge, though! I'd swear she was 10 or 11 if I didn't know she was 7.

Last weekend, invalid_userid came down for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. purpleglitter, invalid_userid waited in the long line in Harvard Square. Usually waiting in lines is boring, but with the crowd I had a great time. There were a couple profiteers who got in the front of the line and walked down it trying to sell their books for $50. I didn't see anyone buying, but I'm sure they found someone when they got near the end (which rumor had it was somewhere in Watertown). I was very excited to get merryperseis's register when I finally got my books, I had thought the odds of that rather slim.

zarthon took purpleglitter, invalid_userid and me out to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the next day. Inevitably a lot of the book was left out, but I think enough critical stuff was missing that someone who hadn't read the books probably wouldn't be able to make much sense of it.

Sunday, we all went to the Museum of Science. The exhibits there have enough range to appeal to any level of scientific knowledge. We saw a demonstration of the still very functional original Van de Graaff generator built by Robert J. Van de Graaff in 1933, but my favorite part of the Museum of Science visit was the butterfly exhibit, where a large owl butterfly landed on my shoulder and sat there for a very long time just looking at me and occasionally stretching its wings. Looking into the butterfly's eyes made me regret all the nasty rhetoric I've spouted about exotherms.

Next weekend, our new landlord is coming to visit from California. She has not seen the building in over a year. I'm excited to meet her, she sounds awesome over the phone. She's trying to rent the unit next door, so if anyone is interested in a two-bedroom in Arlington, let me know.

At the end of next month, I will be heading down to see my sister in the Washington, D.C. area. My mom will be visiting there at the same time, so it should be a great trip.

Following the leak of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I'm going to start my off-line time today. I have a lot to do in preparing for invalid_userid's visit anyway, so I shouldn't be spending much time online anyway.

I should note that while I won't be reading anything from online for the next few days (email, comments (due to possible trolls), wikipedia, or my friends list), I may still post using Semagic does not risk seeing spoilers. I guess "very limited internet use" is more accurate than "off-line".

invalid_userid should be arriving within an hour or so. She's coming down for my birthday (tomorrow). She'll be at the house_of_clocks thru Sunday. I'm very excited to see her. This is going to be fun.

I've been drifting away the last several days. The dizzy spells and twitchiness have enveloped me. I cannot move and flicker out. I fight this place, it is hard, but I am not giving up.

Sometimes I end up caught in a nasty cycle in which I have one of my "episodes", can't get up, and fall asleep. My "episodes" are more common and intense right after waking, and in these cycles I'll wake right into another episode, not be able to get up, and fall asleep again. Yesterday, I spent 3 hours on the couch in such a cycle – drifting in and out of consciousness.

I was planning a trip to Maine to see invalid_userid this weekend, but purpleglitter convinced me I should wait until the current wave subsides. However, in preparing for the trip I did find out that the bus route to Maine was quicker, cheaper, and more frequent than I had previously thought. This will make the prospect of making plans to visit less daunting in the future.

Project Schedule has not happened since Monday. I wonder if perhaps the concept is flawed. I've always had large portions of my work day where I could not be productive. I was able to compensate before, why not now? A refined and rigid schedule leaves no room for compensation. However, I am not sure if I should give up Project Schedule until I come up with a better plan to increase my productivity and ready myself for re-entry into employment.

This has been a weekend of many good happenings. invalid_userid came down from Maine to visit. She arrived Friday and we watched Doggie Poo that evening. Her, purpleglitter and I all went up to Mount Auburn Cemetery for photos and good seeings yesterday before the rains came and we spent today doing various fun hoppings around.

Also very exciting is that recoiling moved into the house_of_clocks this weekend. She is one of the most wonderfully awesome people I know and I think this is the dawning of a new era.

Yesterday evening purpleglitter bought me a used computer to use beside her when I'm at her house. FrankenOz has always had a great deal of problems since it was created by combining parts from purpleglitter's dead computer and the then dead Oz. I have yet to give this one a name, but it is just withing the parameters I need to run PhotoShop and ImageReady, so I am happy.

I received an image of me with the geese by Spy Pond from invalid_userid that she took during her last visit in November. In my opinion it looks very serene and peaceful, things that seem to be lacking from my life these days. I want to capture more of that feeling again, as it would do me a world of good even if I was able to find it for only a few minutes a day. Maybe going back to a meditation regime would be a good idea.

invalid_userid came down from Maine this weekend. It was good to see her again. We met over a decade ago in Sunderland, but we didn't hang out much then. Over the years she has become a very good and important friend. Having her over was a good thing, even if I've been in a quite a bad place lately.

She arrived for her visit Friday, so yesterday was really the only full day she spent here. She, purpleglitter, zarthon, and I went around town and even checked out Grand Opening's newish location. Hopefully she will return in the near future. Maybe I could even get myself up to Maine one of these days. It is the only state in New England that I haven't been to. However, the prospect of traveling is a bit daunting at this time.

invalid_userid crashed in the empty room downstairs. We desperately need to fill that empty room, so if any of you are crazy enough to want to move in, get in touch with me and we'll see if we can work something out.

I posted this meme a little over a year ago. The program has been improved to allow you to exclude your own and anonymous comments from the result, which I have done. Here are the results:

Top Commenters on neitherday's LiveJournal
(Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings)

	Top 10
1	purpleglitter	185
2	strangedoll	185
3	biker_boi_dhane	181
4	lady_babalon	167
5	circebe	160
6	dykestar	130
7	borggrrl	128
8	ruakh	107
9	lusciousdame	106
10	azurelunatic	101
	( 11-100 )

Total Commenters: 968 (868 not shown)
Total Comments: 10399
Report generated 8/10/2005 2:57:33 PM by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.6

I meant to post this this morning, but I accidentally posted it in davis_square rather than my own journal. Oops. Well, here it is in the right place now.

-----

invalid_userid came down to visit for the weekend. We had big fun. She arrived Saturday, zarthon came over, and we pretty much just mellowed out for the evening.

Yesterday we all went to the aquarium. We saw penguins mating and projectile shitting. Projectile shit was one of the things we went to see. purpleglitter saw it on TV and thought it was the coolest thing. I also got to hold several animals at one of the exhibits including a starfish and a horseshoe crab. However, my favorite part was the jelly exhibit. So many beautiful jellyfish. I especially liked the upside down jellies that host algae and photosynthesize some of their own food. I had just read about them, and was very excited to see the green beauties.

Last night, invalid_userid told me a lot about DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy). It sounds like really powerful stuff. I want to try. I can't believe that it has never been offered to me before. I feel like it could really help me. I understand it's a lot of work, but I believe it is worth it. I want to heal. I want to get better. And DBT sounds like a way to make that possible.

I hope invalid_userid comes back down soon, I had such a good time.