Who the heck do I think I am?

elfundeb tagged me.

1 - List seven weird/quirky habits about myself
2 - Tag seven people to do the same
3 - not just say "whoever wants to do it" or refuse to tag people

The funny thing is that just before this started going around, I was thinking about quirky habits... not like publicly discoverable habits but the ones you'd *really* be embarrassed about if anyone knew. Things that gross *you* out, but you do anyway.

I won't include any of those.

1. I can't stand anything that separates my toes. Toe socks? Flip-flops? Right out. Can't have anything between the toes. This makes wearing tabi quite problematic. Quite separate from my own personal dislike of straps between (the first and second) metatarsals, I also *hate* flip-flops and the current shall-we-call-it-fashion in flip-flops. I don't care how studded or jewel-encrusted they are, they *never* look formal.

2. I like raisins by themselves, in trail mix, and (on a limited basis) in meat pies and other things where their texture/taste doesn't stand out. However, I don't like raisins in cereal, or cooked into most food (like kugel).

3. I really don't like seafood, except for fish sticks and Upstate NY-style fish fry (which is close enough to London-style fish and chips that that counts as a Good Thing). Yes, I moved to Boston. Shut up. (I used to like shrimp and clams, but got sick (on separate occasions) off both, improperly prepared, and now have acquired aversion to both.)

4. I'm a complete clothes horse. I have way too many articles of clothing, not even including garb. But I hardly ever get rid of anything because it's all for different kinds of situations - like work clothes vs. play clothes, vs. sweaty/painting/getting messed up clothes. Also shoes. WAY too many pairs of shoes. And for someone who loves clothing and shoes as much as I do, I don't care for them well. (But I also don't buy clothes often.)

5. Almost every food I really like involves some form of dairy. Thus if I'm ever put on a lactose-free or lactose-reduced diet, I'll be one sad puppy.

6. I frequently "cast" myself (and by extension, others, namely Amy) in the role(s) of characters in the books and shows and movies I like. (Even when I don't, muses of *other* characters tend to come visit and will natter on in my brain.) No, I'm not MPD, and no, I'm not schizophrenic. It just feels like it sometimes. ;^D

7. If someone's singing a song I know, it's extremely difficult for me to not pick up and either sing along or continue it in my head.

Hm. Well, those probably weren't as weird as I really am, but hey, I have to keep some secrets. ;^D

Tag? You say? I have no idea who has and hasn't been tagged. Did I mention my 8th quirky habit? I'm really good at putting things down. (Not so good at remembering where, or picking them back up.) Oh, okay: dicea, rani23, liamstliam, musesfool, elanurel, ballyharnon, and patrikia. But only if you want to. And you haven't already been tagged.


Incidentally, I watched the end of "Top Chef" last night (and btw, *$*%*% what happened to Tre?), and right afterward there was an episode of "Tim Gunn's Guide to Style!" But all through it, they were advertising in the breaks that it "premiered" tonight at 10. I ask you: HOW can a show be aired before it premieres?

It was good, though, if a little too similar to "What not to wear" - I like that they are pulling in people from the industry and I really liked the sequence where Tim walked the fashion victim selectee through a digital program that showed her a representation of her own body proportions, and then he sat down with her and drew various styles of clothes on a blank template of her body silhouette. I also *REALLY* appreciated that they talked with her about her undergarments. So many women really don't pay attention to the underpinnings, and it makes a *huge* difference to how clothes fit and hang and look.

Plus, it's Tim Gunn. So how can you not love it?

Time for lunch!

So I managed to get through the whole week (through to this morning) without going out, changing out of PJ's, or spending any money. Yay, me!

The costume is assembled, with a couple stupid errors that I didn't feel like undoing. It's just a costume, after all - it doesn't need perfect execution. I inset the sleeves with 0 problems, for a wonder! It was the lining that I did slightly backward... I attached it correctly, but I rolled the hem *under* instead of *outward*, resulting in a perfectly inserted lining...and a rough edge all the way around it. I clipped the edge really close to the seam line, and sealed the whole thing around with superglue. Super glue is my friend.

Then I had another little wobble with the cuffs. I attached them in the ass-backward order from the pattern instructions - partly because I didn't quite understand them until *after* I'd put them on, and partly because I had an Alternate Plan. Only the Alternate Plan didn't turn out to be so great an idea once I got down to its execution. So I defaulted to a Third Plan, which was kind of an amalgamation of the Alternate Plan and the Freshly Read and Newly Understood Instructions. Okay, so the inner cuffs also have a rough egde. With any luck when I hand-hem the sleeve linings in place, I can cover up the rough hem edge. Maybe. I'm a little worried about the sleeve linings, because I *think* I set them correctly enough to manage, but they *might* be off-center by as much as half an inch. But I'll deal with that when I get home Monday.

I have added the front buttons and hemmed the outside of the garment. Still need to hem the inside (right now it's pinned to the outside at the seams, and I'll leave it to hang over the weekend and pin the hem up next week). And then the sleeve lining hem, and the last two buttons.

Heh.

Thank the gods for Sci-Fi channel, btw. Because they showed all-day SG-1, Atlantis, and again SG-1 three days this week, I was able to simply leave the TV on for the popcorn value of it, mainline crack TV, and not have to expend any thought about finding something else to watch every hour, couple hours, or even half hour. Whee.

Meanwhile, I showered, packed, changed the sheets, washed the blanket, washed the dishes, and didn't quite eat lunch. I had yogurt. I meant to eat a couple cookies... wound up finishing the package (oops).

And I'm glad to see that the rain and snow we're supposed to get today is currently taking the form of sunshine.

It's been a strangely productive week.

I'm such a geek.

( Cut for those who don't care, or haven't seen it )

Oh, and BTW, has anyone seen the ads for next week's Queer Eye? They're making over a medievalist. They keep saying he's a squire - so is he in the SCA?

Bugger. I *hate* the American version of Queer Eye, but I might have to check this out anyway. Dammit.

Oh, in other news, I bought "Alien Nation" and am now eagerly awaiting the TV movies to follow the single season on DVD. Funnily enough, Ken Johnson on the commentary track talks quite a bit about how much fun they had with the alien names, and mentions a lot they never even got to use (e.g., Amanda Reckonwith, Minnie Series, etc.).

It's a bit like making up Drag Queen names, only different! Were I even geekier, it's the sort of thing that screams for a meme.

But watching the series again is interesting. I mean, Johnson said right up front that he only really adopted the police procedural format to hold together episodes that were really about personal drama. Which is good, because the procedural part really *doesn't* work - especially now that there are so many shows that delve more meticulously into procedure and protocol.* But I can see, retrospectively, why it got cancelled. Aside from the network running scared (I mean, really, Male Pregnancy!?), really, a *lot* happened to Sikes and Francisco during that single season. How many times have we looked at those "life stress" exams where you're supposed to evaluate how much stress you have by what's happened in the last year? Major events are things like changing jobs, moving, marriage or divorce, new baby, etc.?

Well, in the single season, it got almost soap-opera the way things happened to them.

I'm also disappointed to learn that the Tenctonese language in the opening song is just English pronounced backwards (and that it took a few episodes for a real linguist to work on the language for them). It had so much more potential.

Anyway. Ordinarily it's not that I'm so obsessed with TV, but AjesBlue is in Montreal and I've been sewing, which for me means watching movies (or TV shows on DVD), and... well, summer seasons and all that.

*Speaking of new police dramas, anyone out there watching The Closer? Because Monday's episode? Funniest hour of drama I've seen in a long, long time. I was actually worried about disturbing my landlord because I was laughing so hard.

Erm. Yeah. TV is my life. Why do you ask?

I'm SUCH a geek.