Whelmed, slowly shifting to the over- kind

I finished a book this week: The Android's Dream, by John Scalzi. Wil Wheaton talks about Scalzi in his blog on a semi-regular basis (I guess they are friends) which is how I'd heard of him, but Dan picked this book up at the library a few weeks ago and I read it when he was finished. Woo, one of the best and most original science fiction novels I've read in quite some time! I don't want to give too much away, but this is seriously funny (and well-plotted, well-characterized) stuff. Let's just say that several moments had me laughing out loud. Elements of the plot include a device to make farts communicate insults to an alien race, a church totally made up by a hack who wanted people to pay him money for it, an extraordinarily rare sheep, and an alien on rumspringa. If you are at all fond of humorous fiction, whether that be in a sci-fi-type setting or not, I highly recommend it.

It kind of hit me yesterday that we will be going out of town a week from Thursday and will be out of state and out of the country for nearly a month. There is so much to get done - mail to stop, kitty sitting to arrange, cleaning to do, packing and organizing. Plus there is all kinds of wedding stuff that we need to figure out when we go to CA because we both won't be there again until a week before the wedding. Plus it's Christmas (duh) and we have to figure out presents for everybody either from the internets (and have them shipped to mom's), when we get to CA, or made by either Dan or myself. Dear EEK and Monkey: Um, your giftmas presents may be a little late. By, like, a month. Dan's still finishing our invitations, and when they are finally finished we have to spend hours at my work printing them out. We have to figure out envelopes and address the envelopes and have them ready to mail when we get back from Italy.

And have I mentioned that I haven't cracked an Italy guidebook since October? We really don't have much of a trip itinerary planned, other than what city we'll be in on which dates. I guess it won't be that big of a deal to plan the trip on the plane across the pond (it's not like we'll be there during high tourist season). I was in the same boat when we went to China, but Dan had done all the planning so at least ONE of us knew what was going on. This time, we might be flying by the seat of our pants.

Speaking of pants, I am still lamenting the demise of my China pants. I bought them at a Cross Dress for Less a few weeks before our trip in 2005, and I wore them all through China, and wore them when we got back until they fell apart. Not the seams; the fabric. It wore through. That's how much I lurved those pants. I haven't had a chance to find more pants like them, but I desperately want a pair before we leave for Italy, because I don't want to deal with jeans when we're backpacking. So this weekend we have about 894085409348509 things to get done and on top of everything I need to find some damn pants. Or maybe I can do that in between all of the holiday- and socializing- and wedding-related activities in California.

I haven't even written about a really stressful thing that has been related to family and Christmas this year, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. Let's just say that planning a wedding and trying to buy nice Christmas presents and going to Italy all at the same time is both stressful and expensive. I'm kicking myself that Sunday felt like a wasted day; there's so much more that we (I) could have accomplished if I hadn't felt like poo. Oh, well, tonight there will be more projects on my needles and more progress on the invitations, and I'll pick a room and clean it when I get home (already went to the gym, so won't be going after work), and I will feel better because more got done. Maybe I'll even flip through the Tuscany book we borrowed from QIR before bed.