New music! Yay! :)

I sat down on Saturday night with my iTunes gift cards and a short list that I had made on my phone. I came away with:

To the Bottom of the Sea by Voltaire - This was dubbed as Voltaire's "steampunk" album. I'm not sure I'd use that term for all of the songs, but nonetheless, it's Voltaire, so I love it. :) I think I had only heard the first and last songs from this album--the last I heard live the last time I saw him, and the first I heard on a compilation album... which is probably the main reason I remembered I needed to pick this up still.

War Child - Heroes by various artists - This is an album of current musicians covering songs from the 70s, primarily (with a few outliers on either sides of that decade). The entire reason that I bought this album was for Lily Allen's cover of "Straight to Hell" (originally by The Clash). One night when driving back from band practice, Jeremy had played it for me on his phone, because I love Lily Allen. I didn't catch on at first (and he wasn't familiar with the original song), but once I realized what it was, I had a rabid need to own it. And now I do. :)

Shallow Life by Lacuna Coil - Because there are some bands who I will buy just about anything by. Still midway through my first listen to this one, and nothing has particularly jumped out at me, though I am enjoying the song currently playing, which iTunes tells me is "Wide Awake." And hopefully I'll have more to say about this album later.

This Addiction by Alkaline Trio - Yeah, I think I'll buy about anything they put out as well. I have only listened to small snippets of a few of the songs so far, and it sounds like pretty normal Alkaline Trio. Hurrah! :)

I also finally added Breedless by Ego Likeness to my computer and iPod, and listened to it first thing this morning. Again, nothing super jumped out at me on the first listen, but it all sounded wonderful and solid. I'm really hoping that they will get back out this way sometime soon so I can see them again! (Because they're one of those bands that I will try to see for sure, even in an era when I'm not really doing many concerts.)

One more thing! If you like Voltaire, but haven't picked up his newest CD, Ooky Spooky, yet, check out: A Review of Ooky Spooky by Voltaire, which is my latest article. Short version: it's a good CD. Long version: go read my article, already! :p

The CD is technically out as of today, so it looks like they got the timing just right... *grumbles slightly about the fact that I wrote the article almost 2 weeks ago, and it was approved a week ago*...
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There is something really bizarre about making your Christmas plans in July. It does, however, make you think of snow, and this can be a nice thing. :)

So for the interested: we fly into St. Louis on December 19th, theoretically arriving about 1:30. We will be renting a car there, and driving down to the Carbondale area (Johnston City, specifically) to visit Jerome's family for a few days. We're also hoping to get tattoos while we're there, but we have to see if our favorite artist is available when we will be there. I'm sure there will be C-dale area people who want to see us while we are there, so we'll try to orchestrate that as much as we can. We will definitely need to spend some time with assorted parts of Jerome's family, however, so we may be somewhat occupied.

Either on the 21st, in the evening, or early in the morning on the 22nd, we'll be driving back to St. Louis for my family's Christmas, which is almost never on actual Christmas. This is okay, though. :) After that, we will probably just be putzing around in the St. Louis area for a few more days, as we fly back to Seattle on December 25th. Oddly enough, flying on actual Christmas was cheaper than flying on Christmas Eve.

Still haven't figured out the rental car situation, but we will be getting one for at least the C-dale leg of the trip. While we're in St. Louis, we may just return the car and rely on the kindness of family members to cart us around. :) We're still exploring options on this, as I think I can get a discount on a rental car through work. :)

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Other than that, life in Seattle is going smoothly. Jerome started school on Wednesday of this past week. He has two classes on Wednesdays, one on Thursdays, and two on Fridays during this quarter, which lasts until mid-September. His Wednesday classes are non-design classes, and they seem pretty silly. He doesn't like one of his design classes, but that may have something to do with the teacher telling them to bring construction paper and glue sticks to class next week. As Jerome says it, "I'm not in %&#(*@! kindergarden!" His two design classes on Friday, however, are much better. So it all works out okay. :)

Work is going well for me, I'm trying to get more involved with the assorted things that the office does, and trying to help people out when they've got more work than they can handle. I'm not able to do a lot of the technical stuff, but I can at least help out a little. :) I really do love the laid back atmosphere of both the office and Seattle in general, though I still tend to dress up most days at work. :)

In fun and exciting stuff, we saw "Transformers" last weekend and loved it. On Tuesday, we're going to see Voltaire play, which will be awesome. We missed his show at Dragon*Con cuz I was tired, so we made sure to get tickets for this show. What makes it even more fun is that his opening act for this show is an 80s cover band... but not just any 80s cover band... it's an 80s cover band of five transvestites... :) Rock on! :)
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Wow... not sure why I neglected to post the past two days. Probably something about a mix between starting to work on a new book at work, combined with an online game that I've been learning, slowly but surely, since Tuesday night. It can get pretty time intensive, I've noticed... J and I spent about 2 or 2 1/2 hours on AIM last night, coordinating attacks and otherwise trying to rule the universe... I then had no clue where the time had gone... :) But it was a good time, so I'm not complaining. :)

Tonight, I finally get to see Corpse Bride. Tomorrow, we're going somewhere outside, though the exact location is yet to be determined. Sabbat game after that. Sunday will be errands and Requiem. All in all, it looks like it will be a good weekend. :)

Next week, I get to buckle down on working on hats, because we have a craft fair next Saturday. After that's over, I can finish my Halloween costume. After Halloween, I can get back to making more hats, trying to work on the afghan for Sarah's baby, and maybe my quilt. I don't think I'm gonna be doing a whole lot of crafty Christmas presents this year, cuz there just isn't gonna be enough time... especially because I decided I need purple armwarmers... no, really, I NEED them... :)

I don't have an End of the Work Week Wisdom this week, because if I did, it would probably just be a quote from Voltaire (the musician), and I don't have any good ones off the top of my head, except from "God Thinks," and you have to hear that whole song for most of the quotes to be non-offensive.

Making theme CDs is fun. "Necrophilia for Fun and Profit" will be done this evening... :)
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