Whoa birthdays. Eni's was yesterday but I was out all day. And today's is Selina's and Lumi's. I'm sending birthday wishes all over the place.

Still feel rather sad I'm not sending gifts because I like being generous, but right now being generous may not be a good idea. Still no financial aid yet and Jon is just starting a new job at the end of this month.

On the other hand I DID spend *some* money as I had some left over... namely, to get Dark Spire. FINALLY. XD And Jon bought some music CDs which I will talk about later.

Dark Spire is just... totally awesome so far. Mmmmm challenging dungeon crawlers. The premise is very simple (go to the top of the tower, kill the bad sorcerer, get back the treasure--it's very Nethack-ish actually), and the gameplay seems deceptively simple as well. But this game totally does NOT handhold you through much at all. Even the tutorial had this attitude of "just DO IT already, stop asking questions!" which amused me to no end.

There's a new PJ Harvey and John Parish collaboration coming out this year!! WOO! I loved Dance Hall at Louse Point. This ought to be awesome. :)

I found out quite belatedly about the new Dir en grey album, Uroboros, that came out late last year. It's been released over in North America too by now, I think, so I totally need to find a copy!

I also finished Natural Ordermage (the last Recluce book I bought) and found out that the direct sequel, Mage-Guard of Hamor, is already in paperback! Yay! So I bought it. I am turning into a fan of Taryl, the ordermage that takes Rahl under his wing. (Jon teases me about it. Probably because when I talked about him I said "He's so a Sidereal".)

In a couple weeks I get to buy The Dark Spire (yay!) and also spend some money on spring clothes. Now if only Sims 3 were coming out sooner.

I found out last night that Natalie Shneider (I knew her best from the band Eleven and from her work with various artists particularly Chris Cornell) died a few months back from cancer. She was one of my vocalist idols and I was completely caught off guard by the news she actually passed away.

It was mostly because Jon and I were listening to some CDs we've not heard in a while from our collection. One of the ones I picked up was Eleven's Howling Book and I was all "hmm, let's see if they have a new album??" only to find out the sad news.

Then I got the idea for a cover album (well, more like EP, maybe 5-6 songs) that Jon and I could try to put together, as one of Anthegenia Records' first projects. We really want to get at least enough gear together to start on it next year.

Well, Wednesday was pretty fun. Charles only got to stay a few hours, though, 'cause he had work the next day, and Jon and I were both unusually tired from barely sleeping the night before.

Before he arrived (mostly the day before) we put up our silly decor. We had some Halloween mini pumpkin lights we put around the cutout window thing in the wall at the entrance hall. We had this glow in the dark skeleton with blinky eyes on the wall, and a skull and crossbones pirate-y sign that said "Beware ye who enter here" on the bathroom door that I think we're going to keep there. (Heh!) We put these fake shackles made of painted styrofoam on the TV, too. And had a pumpkin shaped candy holder that we put a bunch of random candy in.

I'd overslept so I wasn't able to bake my cookies before Charles got there. I just baked during, while Jon and Charles talked and played games and stuff. Here's the recipe I used (it's very good, IMO):

Going out! gasp! whoa! I so rarely go out lately that it's always this big announcement.

Mostly we need groceries. Also, I want to buy the new Nightwish and *bounces around* PJ Harvey! YES! The new PJ Harvey album totally went under my radar. But she is one of my favorite musical artists. She's a siren and a songwriter and a musician of a wide array of interests, and her lyrics tend towards dark and sometimes feminine topics. I'm really excited about White Chalk (the new album) because it's PJ's first with a piano, and I LOVE piano / keyboard.

I've already heard the Nightwish demos with their new singer, when Jon and I went to the Liva concert, so I KNOW I will like their new album. Yay music purchases (to be!)

I'll get home a lil late, maybe (late as in night instead of evening), but I'll still poke people for PSU. Wanna play. I was on yesterday training bullet PAs in Unsafe Passage, but it's always more fun with more people.