Okay, so I was skimming through my articles yesterday, and everything I've ever written is crap. Argh.

In the meantime, have some links:

Here's a car I want. Hybrid, small, efficient, fairly safe, affordable, soon to be available in Canada... and I can park it in my tiny little backyard, perhaps. You saw the Paypal link -- start donating and I'll buy it, I promise. ;)

Second... castration led to Christianity. I wouldn't recommend it for the weak of stomach or the wimpy, or if you're eating... but otherwise, it's pretty interesting and not particularly gruesome. The connections the author makes is kinda cool, and mimics things I've learned in other course (not this particular conclusion, but the steps involved in getting there).

Alphabet Sex.

In non-link news, I semi-hate my shoes. I got these open-toed, backless sandals the day Mom and I did our major shopping trip, and they hate me. The first day I wore them, I stumbled three times. Other days I typically stumble once, and today I did a full-out spill on the sidewalk. I scraped the palm of one hand, and my knee a little bit. Fortunately I didn't do any major damage, but I still feel like a momotard, and now I have a scraped hand and knee. Bah.

I have to go look at the receipt from the clothes I bought. There's a skirt and maybe a pair of pants that I want to return, 'cause I'm not sure I'm ever going to wear them. I'll try them on again first, but I'm really not keen on the skirt. I just hope that it's not too late to do it, although I suppose I'd accept store credit if I had to.

Mom and I went to IKEA last night, and I managed to spend almost $400. I hate taxes; $50 of the money I spent was in taxes alone. Grr. But, I bought myself a tv stand, a corner shelf, a few sets of curtains, some plastic stuff to cover up my kitchen door (must finish the job that AM started at my birthday/housewarming party and peel/wash the rest of the paper that the previous tenants put on the window), some little bowls ($0.49 for two -- a bargain!), and that's about it. I looked at lamps and bookcases, but didn't see any lamps I liked, and Mom wouldn't let me buy a bookcase. It's probably a good thing, too, considering how much money I spent there already.

I also paid my insurance yesterday, so once again, I am back at being broke. Flat broke. So very very broke. *sigh* Ah well, at least I have a few paycheques between now and when rent is next due, and I'm fairly certain that my training sessions are currently paid off (although I'll need to pay for the boxing sometime soon).

My trainer and I are switching to 2 30-minute sessions a week, and we're just going to talk less during them. :) Once my shins go back to normal, I'm going to try to start running again; alternately, I can always go dig up those shoe inserts and use them again for a bit.

Thena's getting back in the habit of cuddling me in the mornings, after my alarm goes off. We had a fairly prolonged snuggle this morning, and Venus seemed to know to wait her turn; after a few minutes, she came over to investigate, but she waited first, which I thought was cool. Venus wasn't helping me very much during the assembling of the tv stand -- she kept attacking the pieces and she even ran off with one piece of dowel. I finally locked her in the bedroom while I was working with the various pieces. I managed to get it put together quickly (after three major trips to IKEA, I am the assembly master), but forgot to put two pieces of dowel into the bottom part. I have decided to blame the cat. :P I almost forget to put any dowel in, but was able to remove the top and fix that part -- I couldn't do the same to the bottom, 'cause I realized my mistake after I had already nailed the back on. Very well.

Actually, it was with the matching CD cabinet that I also screwed up -- I'd put the back on upside-down, but I managed to fix that before. Maybe I should stop buying from that set, since I didn't screw up my bedroom furniture...

I find it funny that I have more matching dishes and furniture than many of my friends do. My mom is very big on having everything coordinated, right down to the types of wood that I buy for each room. :) Apparently I never really got to live through the "student cheap" phase... well, beyond the whole buying from IKEA part.

Off I go to rewrite my articles... if only they didn't suck so. :P