infinity zone

Soooo... I've been back since Wednesday, but I've been putting off replying. First it was because I was feeling lazy, and then I kinda forgot, and then it just started feeling overwhelming trying to write down everything that's been going on. So I'll skip the finer details and just focus on some broad summaries.

Hawaii was fantastic. Apparently we missed a heat wave in the area by going on vacation, so I think we lucked out in that sense, too. We went snorkeling at three different locations, looking down at the coral and all of the tropical fish. We also walked through a lava tube (read: lava-created cave) and did long-exposure light writing in a pitch-dark section of the tube. Very, very cool. We also ate ... expensively. Hahaha. And visited three candy factories. The big island is apparently big on chocolate and macadamia nuts. :| I'm almost out of my chocolate-dipped macadamia shortbread cookies. I'm already debating ordering more and having them shipped.

On Saturday, I attended a Lady Gaga concert with my brother and his fiancee. It's the first concert any of us have attended, and it was amazing. Bright lights, smoke, rising platforms, a burning piano, springboards, a fame monster, a disco stick, and lots of crotch-grabbing. The song "Boys, Boys, Boys" featured a lot of crotch-grabbing. :| I also found myself preferring how she sang Paparazzi live versus the album. We had good seats for paying the cheapest price for the three sections; I think it's because the seating was reserved for Citi card users.

Aaaand the Luceti events. Holy crap. So much stuff going on to get back into. And there's applications just around the corner, too. So excited about a lot of the reserves by returning players and characters.

Then over at Damned, my hiatus ends-- er, like, tomorrow. Ahahaha. I have no plans for the nightshift, so this will be interesting. Huzzah for Yukari and Mitsuru apps, though! ...Minato's going to have all the girls except Fuuka there. Oh boy.

And on top of all this... We're moving into a house soon. I need to start packing stuff. My new bedroom set will be delivered sometime in the first week or so of September. I'm so excited about that; I've never bought my own furniture set before. So much to do ... and I haven't really started at all.

Went to mall today with every intention to just get new glasses and head home. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the trip became a long one that lasted the majority of the day.

Things done at mall:
-- Browsed around Best Buy.
-- Bought Star Trek TNG Picard Collection (Just for "The Inner Light." Gods, I love the music in it.)
-- Bought BSB's Never Gone CD.
-- Visited two different GameStops in the course of 20 minutes.
-- Picked up and fitted new glasses.
-- Bought Radiata Stories at GameStop and received a poster with it.
-- Reserved FF7: Advent Children for DVD.
-- Played air hockey with Avram and Alyssa.

After that, we came home and immediately went to the grocery store. Bought a whole lot more than necessary and managed to stuff all of it in the car. Ended up putting the majority of the groceries away myself. And then, after that, we all went out to dinner at Kyoto.

Suffice it to say, I'm tired.

On another note, Growlanser III's ending ... kinda sucked. Somehow, the ending wasn't as fulfilling as Growlanser II's. But ... yeah, whatever.

Got the eighth and ninth seasons of Friends from my brother as a sorta belated birthday gift. 'Been watching them quite a bit. Just one more season and I've got the whole set. Whoo. @_@

I'm back on a Backstreet Boys stint, listening every chance I get. I blame the song "Beautiful Woman." *plays it at least 80 times a day*

Started skimming back on old Final Fantasy favorites from FF.net. Some fanfics are just good enough to get you emotional with one chapter. Lovely, lovely.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, I'm obsessing over Shinra again with this rut in Suikoden inspiration. Rufus is back to being my muse after Albert's two-year reign. *waves byebye to Suikoden ideas* It's to the point where I'm digging up that five-year-old idea of Rufus going insane and slaughtering all the executives.

... In other news...

My mom wants me to keep a diary of our pet birds, since Jack and Jill's first egg just hatched today. The little chick is so ... ... yellow.

So... I guess I'll list the birds right off, starting with our original four budgies and moving on to the most recent additions.

Marigold -- lutino female(?) budgie
Aqua -- skyblue clearflight male budgie
Shadow -- cobalt blue clearflight male budgie; killed by predator
Nature -- dark green normal male budgie; lost right leg a few weeks ago
Duke -- dark green normal male budgie
Harmony -- albino female budgie; killed by predator
Jack -- normal (possibly pearl) male cockatiel; Jill's mate
Jill -- pearl female cockatiel; Jack's mate -- currently four fertile eggs, one hatched
Hansel -- half-lutino (had black eyes...) male budgie; Gretel's mate; killed by predator
Gretel -- yellowface blue female budgie; Hansel's mate
Carni -- mauve (or possibly dark gray) clearflight female budgie; baby of the bunch
Yuki -- beautiful white female budgie with cobalt blue and black marking along spine (recessive pied?)

Now I have to get ready for another trip to Seattle. We're gonna get a pair of lovebirds...