My parents gave me money for my birthday, so I bought some things I'd been wanting for a while. First, I bought 2 month's membership to Paperspine to read some books not available at our library that I can't afford to buy yet because they're out of print and 50 dollars a copy.

I also bought some things off of bishonenworks that I've been wanting for years. ^_^

Finally, I bought 15 movies off of amazon.

The Professional, Slither, Fifth Element, Noises Off!, Shoot Em Up, Push, Mirrormask, Equilibrium, Sunshine, Death at a Funeral, Boondock Saints, Repo! the Genetic Opera, Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, and Brotherhood of the Wolf (le pacte des loups).

Oh, and I'm saving 30 dollars of what they gave me to buy An Echo in the Bone, which is the new Diana Gabaldon book coming out in less than two weeks!!!!

So, happy birthday to me for real.

My oldest brother passed away this evening from complications due to melanoma. He was 45 years old. I wasn't especially close to him, but I started getting to know him in the past few years. I've had a good cry now and will probably have a few more in the next week or so. Your thoughts and prayers for my family are greatly appreciated.

RIP David Todd Butler (4/18/1964 - 8/14/2009)

For those of you who are the praying types, my oldest brother, Todd, is not doing well at all with stage 4 melanoma. It's spread to his lymph nodes, lungs, and recently his stomach. I believe it's also in his liver, brain, and spine, but I'm not entirely sure. In the past few days, he's started having trouble eating and breathing. Please keep him and my family in your thoughts and prayers.

Hey. Long time no post. I use Twitter so much I forget to post on here.

What's going on? Hmmm.... my brother's getting married this weekend. That's very exciting. He and Adrienne have been dating 9 years and about 4 and a half months at this point, so it's about time. I also have a fabulous dress to wear, so yay!

I'm more than halfway through summer classes, and they're summer classes. Very little to report there.

My kitties are doing great. They're so adorable and growing up so fast. Melissa took some awesome pictures of them when she was in town a few weeks ago. I might post them eventually.

I had a date last night with a dorky, gamer boy. I mean, he actually competitively plays, so that's pretty impressive. I've never seen anyone so good at Guitar Hero before. LOL. Had a lot of fun and am seeing him again this afternoon. He's leaving next week to spend two weeks in Finland, so we're taking a bit of an opportunity to hang out as much as possible before then.

Also on the dating front, I have a first date with a British guy who's moving from Louisiana to Fort Worth this weekend. We're supposed to go see a movie at the IMAX and just hang out. I'm very excited about that. He seems pretty awesome.

But, ya know. dating two guys at once is, um, awkward (even if they know about each other), so we'll see how that goes.

-me

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 28 things about you. Idon't care if we've never talked, never really clicked, or if wealready know everything about each other. I really don't. You areobviously on my flist, so let me know with whom I'm friends! (Feel freeto only answer some of them if you like!)

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favourite Film:
5. Favourite Song or Album:
6. Favourite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent:
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?


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Meme time!
Theproblem with Livejournal is that we all think we are so close, butreally, we know nothing about each other. Hence, I want you to ask mesomething you think you should know about me. Something that should beobvious, but you have no idea about. Then post this in your LJ and findout what people don’t know about you.

I am finished for the semester! I have three weeks until summer school starts (if I can re-enroll, stupid registrar). During the next 8 days, I'm going to be dogsitting for the folks in Longview. I fully plan to read Cyteen by CJ Cherryh and American Gods. I also plan to watch season 3 of Dexter, listen to City of Bones and Howl's Moving Castle. Finally, I am yet again a part of the Snarry Games (go Team Caludron!!) and plan to sit down and plot out my fic, which I'm thinking may be novel-length and eat my soul. *grin*

I'm on Dreamwidth under the name belleamante. Feel free to circle me. I'll probably add it to my list of journals for semagic.

Hallo everyone!

Forgive my lack of commenting. April is crazy, and I STILL have a virus on my computer that makes LJ go wonky when I try to comment and half the time when I try to read mt flist. Computer's going to go be fixed tomorrow. Cross your fingers.

But, damn, I need to start my period again. It's been almost 3 months now, and my mood swings are driving me nuts. Nothing too extreme, but I'm having insomnia and a bit of anxiety. Also, I'm sort of in one of my "I don't want to go to sleep because if I sleep I have to wake up" modes. *sigh*

In the next month, I have an 8-10 page paper on puberphonia, a 5-7 page paper on preverbal skills in autism, a project on articulation therapy, a lecture plus notes and quiz to do online, two tests, and four finals. Oh. My. God.

I also have two doctors appointments, a new potential relationship, and 17 more hours of observation.

Nathaniel had his blood work done yesterday morning, and one of his liver tests was on the high end of normal, but other than that, his liver and kidneys were fine. Since he's eating and acting normal, I'm going to take him back in two weeks and they'll do the tests again just in case.

So, GOOD NEWS! *is relieved*

So, this morning, Nathaniel ate a Tylenol cold and silence pill. Apparently, Tylenol is just about the most toxic medicine a cat can eat. It messes up their liver function and leads to anemia and all sort of stuff. He's currently at the vet where they're going to make him throw up and see what happens from there. The vet's hopeful because I got Nathaniel there quickly. Sophie is a bit confused because she's never been here without him.

I am so damn worried.

Just out of curiosity. I was searching through old favorite fics and came upon several by Maeglin Yedi. Does any one know what happened to her? She hasn't posted anything since 2007.

Sorry to post twice in one day but here goes.

I'm considering using some of my savings to buy a mini. I'm in desperate need of a laptop to take to class and with me when I travel or go to the coffe shop.

Here's the big question, though. Sam's Club is offering the Dell Mini for 245 dollars, which is a pretty good deal, but but but it's Dell. And I HATE Dell. I have only read about three bad reviews out of about 100, but it's Dell, and I HATE Dell.

I'm also considering the eee PC, but I've heard mixed reviews there, and it's about 100 dollars more expensive. I'm not rolling in money by any stretch of the imagination. Should I risk the Dell or go for the eee PC or go for something else?

Belle, who wishes she knew more about computers

ETA: I'm getting the Dell

So, I don't know if it's a new trailer, but this link just made me so much more excited about the Terminator movie. I mean, I was excited before but wow!

I don't think I'm going to go to a midnight showing of Watchmen because I don't have anyone to go with me, but I think I'm going to go the first showing they have on Friday, so I won't be too far behind everyone else.

So, I'm so excited about the next 6 months or so regarding movies. My dorkiness is just thrilled.

Speaking of, I'm so torn on what I should watch right now. I want to catch up on Supernatural and Bones. I want to finish Doctor Who. I want to start Dollhouse, but I also want to watch Merlin and Kyou Kara Maoh (because of their fandoms).

But, on top of all of my dorkiness, I really need to be studying for my anatomy and phsyiology test since I only made an 80 on the first test. I even tried going to a coffee shop, but I can't pay attention for more than 25 minutes at a time and I'm hardly retaining anything! *is so frustrated*

-Belle, who is a stressed out dork.

Sophie's on antibiotics and seems to be doing better. *crosses fingers*

I thought I'd post some more pictures so everyone can see how big they're getting.

( Sophie and Nathaniel, ages 5 and 5 1/2 months )

Enjoy!

For all that I've been watching the updates for Watchmen, I did not know about this. How did I not know they were making an animated Tales of the Black Freighter with Gerard Butler no less? That's going to be intense.

Also, absolutely a midnight showing at the theatre just down the road. I will so be there, probably by myself.

It's been a while since I posted, hasn't it?

The semester's going well. At midterms, I'll have three As and 2 Bs, which isn't bad considering this is my first semester of grad school. Both of those Bs can also easily become As.

I'm back to being single again. All is well there. I have a new potential friend, though, and we're supposed to go bowling this weekend. That should be fun, I hope.

Instead of catching up on all my shows (Heroes, Supernatural, Bones, Dollhouse, Doctor Who), I started watching Kyo Karu Maouh, which is slashy and a lot of fun. I'm about 5 episodes in and quite enjoying myself.

Sophie is sick with what I think might be the beginnings of an upper respiratory infection, but I'm really hoping that it isn't. Vet trip tomorrow. No fun.

I wish life wasn't so expensive.

Here's a bit of exciting news:

At SXSW this year, the Black and White Years will be performing at Austin City Music Hall, opening for Devo! This is the biggest show of the festival. How unbelievably cool.

So there have been dogs barking like crazy all day long, and I just now realized why. The full moon is tonight. Despite knowing why, it's still driving me crazy because several of them are very big and loud dogs, especially the one of the balcony across from my window.