Ah, today (which is, actually, yesterday) was a great day. We’re all back at the hotel and we’ve got versaphile visiting, too. We started with breakfast at Beeps and then we got back to the hotel for a day sitting in the main panel room. Emily from PMEB had saved seats for quite a few of the PMEBers, so we had seats in the first and second row. We watched the Big Finish panel, then Paul Darrow, then Mojo (where I left for a bit to go to the dealer’s room), and finally it was time for the McGann & Fisher panel. So lots of photos taken.

Now, most of the PMEBers then left to the McGann autograph session, but not I. No, I needed to watch the Sylvester McCoy panel. Much fun! frobisher was next to me, so I didn’t feel all alone. 😉 I got to ask the first question (helped to be in the first row) which was about how he could remember all the different voices that he does while reading children’s books. He said that he reads through the book then highlights with different colors the different characters.

One story that he told which I’d not heard before was about his Roundhouse days when he accidentally got high (thanks to a cake baked by a friend) and before he was done counting out the money for the day, he’d fallen in love with a sixpence. My favorite quote of the day.

After the session, I headed off to the autograph area to see the PMEBers and get in line for McCoy. Steph also needed to get autographs, so we got in the very long line. I got a Yee Jee Tso auto ($15 for the photo) and a Sylv auto ($20 for the photo – eek!) Then we dumped our stuff in the room, Steph changed into a lovely sari, and we returned to the ballroom for the Janet Fielding panel.

Janet’s a pistol, as Judi says. I wish I could have seen the entire panel. And I look forward to the Sylv/Janet panel tomorrow. When she finished, Judi and I headed forward to our saved seats in the second row, and then the TVM panel began.

Philip Segal, Yee Jee, Sylv, and Paul all came up for their hour and a half panel, and we were greatly entertained. Sylv declared that he’d passed off the role of the Doctor to “Jesus.” Paul said that Tom Baker needed “a check up from the neck up.” Sylv’s secret favorite TV program was Prisoner of Cell Block H while Paul prefers Johnny Bravo and The Powerpuff Girls. (He thinks he is Johnny Bravo when he looks at himself in the mirror. Was rather appropriate that he was wearing a tight black t-shirt.) Oh, and we found out the color of The Coat is GWEEN! In fact, it’s “heather green” and Sylv was certain he’d once dated her.

After the panel, as many PMEBers as we could get crowded into the cafe and Paul joined us for a half an hour and was a perfect gentlemen. He even made Kate Orman’s day by sitting beside her (and I know who sent him there – bwa ha ha!)

We headed off for supper at a Make Sushi, a damn fine sushi restaurant! I had $15 worth of sushi – ebi sushi, California roll, and lobster roll. (And even though I hadn’t eaten all day, I was filled by the sushi and had to give Judi some of my lobster roll.)

When we got back, we sat in the bar for awhile so that Denise could watch Paul and I could watch Sylv sitting at the bar. I got a strawberry daiquiri with vodka in lieu of rum, but it was very vodka-y and I didn’t like it (nor did I finish it). But I bought the round of drinks – wehey!

Then we headed back to the room and we’ve been chatting for ages. So, to repeat myself, today was a great day! 🙂

It’s nearly 1am Pacific standard, which is nearly 4am Trina Time. Bleh. But I’m here at the hotel and have been watching people sing Karaoke. I’d much rather watch it than sing it. (I’d much rather be here writing about it than watching it, actually…) But we now know that hergrace and paygem can sing!

I even caught a glipse of Sylv already (getting drunk in the bar, it looked like), so it was a good day. And what made it a TRULY good day was that I finally got Metadot Portal working – yay! This is the program that I’ll be using to run the school website. And with 15 minutes to spare at work (after months of fiddling with it) I got it to work on both the soon-to-be webserver and the laptop. Yay!

So anyhoo, I’ve had a good start to a geeky weekend. 🙂

(PS – judiang, hergrace, and Denise (and several other PMEBers) got to meet Paul McGann already – yay girls!)

(PPS – HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!)

It’s weird, but any time I get into a different aspect of the Internet and all the glory that it has to offer, I end up having dreams relating to it. I’ve had dreams where I’m IRCing people, where I’ve been chatting in some sort of IM, and now I’ve been dreaming about some LJers.

I meant to write about this particular dream yesterday. I dreamed that a friend from Scotland, Caz, was visiting me and mom. (She’s never met my mom, actually.) Then the three of us leave beautiful Ohio and head for beautiful UK where we’re going to meet up with shebit and the_ladylark. (In real life, Caz has also not met those two, as far as I know.) So we get to their apartment complex (to which I’ve never been – if it’s even an apartment complex) and talk the lady at the front desk into letting me call up to the room. We’re buzzed up and enter into one of the more psychedelic rooms I’ve ever dreamed about. The room was decked out in black light images and was dark other than that. There were sheets everywhere on the walls giving the place a billowing look. Then shebit took us into her small bedroom and I marveled at her computer stuff. (Geeks dream about computers, see…) Then I awoke, confused as you might guess.

And last night, I had a dream involving not only an LJer, but a former student of mine. Both rolled into one, actually. jesuishadley was on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, or something like that, and I was watching the show. Partly live and partly on TV. And I was showing her off to dad. “See, that’s Hadley – remember her?” and stuff like that. And I remember saying “Well, that explains her one of her LJ posts” which had implied something about money coming her way. So I figured she went on to winning some money in WWTBAM. Well done, Hadley! 😉

Like several of my LJ friends, I’ll be heading off to the GallifreyOne convention in Van Nuys this weekend. I’ll be rooming with judiang, hergrace, and Denise, a fellow PMEBer. I’m mostly packed (not taking a whole lot) but still need to do laundry. Leo will be babysat (er, catsat?) by the parental units. And I’ll get to try out my new camera on something *other* than Leo! (I’ve suggested that I’ll take 250 Sylv pix leaving the rest to friends and the other guests…)

Dunno whether I’ll be posting to my LJ during the trip – will have to borrow the use of someone’s laptop (Judi???) But I’m sure I’ll keep a paper journal, which I’ll be sure to copy into LJ. So one way or another, you’ll have to get to read about my meeting Paul McGann and Janet Fielding for the first time and seeing Sylv again.

(I don’t leave until Friday, however, so I’ve got a ways to go before I actually get there…)

Back when I was looking through my credit card bills to find donations I made for doing my taxes (I like deductions), I discovered a check that had been stored with them, rather than being put into my checking account. It was medical reimbursement from Flexwin and the check was dated August something or other. And it stated that the check would be void after 90 days. Whoops!

Well, our school no longer uses Flexwin for medical reimbursement, we use another company instead. So I did a bit of searching online and found a phone number, called it, left a message with someone who might know what I could do, and an hour later, had a return call. The lady that I spoke to told me to send the old check and they’d recut me a new one. And you know what? She was right! The newly cut check arrived this week and I intend to actually DEPOSIT it this time!

Geez, you know you’re independently wealthy when you can let checks expire before depositing them…

Some while ago, I attempted a rice dish from a recipe book. However, during the course of making said dish, I made the mistake of using beef broth instead of chicken broth (long story there, too) and after the dish was said and done, it wasn’t terribly good. I was talking with my sister on the phone that day and she said to freeze it and maybe it would taste better later on. Yesterday, I took the leftovers out of the freezer and decided to make the rice edible. The solution? Make fried rice.

So, after I put in my usual favorite ingredients (including some tofu that’s just this side of edible) and enough soy sauce to choke a horse, I ended up with a fairly edible concoction. Go me! Even Leo liked it. (Turns out he loves tofu. Go figure.) This is the first ever fried rice I’ve had which has beef broth and Parmesan in it, I will admit… But I ended up with 5 portions out of it, so left overs for trina! Yay!

Online quizzes and blogs seems to be a match made in hell heaven or something. One of the ones doing the rounds in my Friends list is What decade does your personality live in? (quiz brought to you by lady interference, ltd).

Turns out when I took the quiz (which was made in 2002, apparently) it informed me that “your personality hasn’t found its home yet! … but then again, you’ve still got some growing up to do, haven’t you? you need to experience all of what this decade has to offer before you can determine what decade you’d feel most comfortable in. you were most likely born after the year 1984. keep on growing up, kid.” (Emphasis added by me.)

Woah! Talk about getting things wrong… I’m president of the local 1971 club, here! I’ve lived during 4 decades thus far. I guess it just can’t handle the fact that I’m a 21st century gal. 🙂

(And what clued me in to this quiz being written in 2002 was the statement after the little picture: “don’t rush the growing up — you’ve got eight whole years!” So I checked the copyright date and sure enough, 2002.)

So, you probably wouldn’t be surprised if I said that my camera came in today, would you? (I know, the topic is a dead giveaway…) Even if not: My camera came in today! Woohoo!

Like every good new camera owner, I’ve now taken several photos already and am willing to share them with YOU! But to spare the casual viewer, I have the photos under an LJ cut.

Poor Leo was my model. I’d say “Leo!” and he’d look over, then “FLASH!” “Beepeep” and he’d shake his head and then give me that Paddington Bear stare that he’s so good at. But a little later, I’d call “Leo!” and he’d look over again, only to be blinded again. I tried taking off the flash, but then he’d move too much during the shoot and be all out of focus.

Leo in his native habitat.

Leo, hunting for some more cables to play with.

Leo, ready to pounce!

I also took some photos of the den. So, if you’re interested in seeing my Doctor Who novel collection (you can’t really tell, but most of those books are 3 deep), my Big Finish audios (can’t believe how much space they take up!), and my computer area, click back there…

My Doctor Who books collection.

My Big Finish audios.

My computer desk. Note the Sylvester McCoy wallpaper. And the neat-o Yellow Submarine figures.

One thing that I did while out this evening (Curves and BW3s) was go to Walmart and pick up the CR-V3 battery for the camera. Damn, $10 for one battery, but the flash time was considerably faster and they supposedly last a long time (compared to AA). I also picked up two different Phillips brand headphones (or hearphones as I’ve always called ’em). A pair of wrap-arounds to replace my poor Jensen pair (which I got free when eMusic.com had a special of one free headphones for every 99 cent purchase) and a pair of earbuds which are proving to be more comfy than the earbuds that came with my Rio MP3 player. Which is what I’m listening to right now.

You’d think I could have thought of the solution to my color dilemma sooner. Obviously, the thing to do is find a photo of the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and use Paint Shop Pro to determine the right color of purple. So I did that this afternoon and have changed the colors accordingly. Mags mentioned that the lilac background was a bit too pervasive and I agree. So I’ve switched to white for the text background and Wonka Violet for pretty much everything else. I also changed my links to black and dark gray. I think that works pretty well. (It was hard for me to leave red and blue behind, but I can live.)

I’ve also modified my links to include Mags’ blog from blogspot and axonite‘s comic Station V3 (which is fun to read). This will allow me to read their offerings when I read through my friends list. If I find other blogs or comics that I feel the need to check often, this will be a good place for them.

In other news, we were released from school early (ended up to be 15 minutes early, but hey, that was still early) due to the freezing rain that was coming (and is now upon us). I braved the walk home (about half an hour after the kids normally leave) and met dad on the way home. (He had been at the barber – whom I’ve always called Dickie Boy and who always calls me Trina Girl – and spied me slowly walking home. He had an umbrella – useful for keeping off freezing rain.) When I started the walk home, we were getting nice fluffy snow – absolutely gorgeous – but before I met dad even, it was sleet.

And in even better news – FedEx was here today! Alas, they couldn’t deliver the package since I wasn’t here, but they left one of those “sign here and we’ll leave it somewhere on your property, maybe” cards. So I’ve signed it and hopefully when I get home tomorrow, I’ll have a camera! Yay!

When I decided that the main reason I like LiveJournal was in order to make and display Sylvester McCoy icons (hey, we all have to have a hobby), I realized that the Clean and Simple format for my LJ just wasn’t going to cut it. I mean, my friends could see my icons in their friends view, but *I* couldn’t see my icons in my view. So *sniff* I’m saying good bye to Clean and Simple and hello to Components.

I’m still playing around with the colors. I want PURPLE not maroon or pink or lavender. We’re talking Willy Wonka’s coat PURPLE. And whatever light colors I finally land on, they need to be compatible with the perfect PURPLE when I find it.

So, if you’re reading this in your friends view (thanks!) mosey on over to trinalin‘s view in order to see the new layout. And let me know what you think. And I’ll keep playing around with colors until I find the right combo.

In other geeky news, my newegg order is nearly completed. The camera and memory card have been packed and are awaiting shipment. Woohoo! I’m looking forward to this. As soon as I get it, expect photos of LEO. Kitty! (The only other entity to warrant an LJ icon from me – lucky guy!)