Much as I love CSI, I have to admit that the recent news of Billy Peterson leaving the show makes me feel as though anything they do afterward would be a magnificent shark jump. I didn't care much when Jorja Fox decided to jump ship a while back, knowing that eventually they would pull her back in. I admit that I was pretty upset to learn that Gary Dourdan was leaving the show, but not surprised.

But how do you replace such a pivotal character as Gil Grissom? (It pains me to link to wikipedia in any shape or form, but that's a pretty comprehensive description of the character, so I suppose it can stay). Based on this report, it appears as though CBS is trying to court a 'big name' to bring the fans around (Larry Fishburne? Kurt Russell? John Malkovich? I'm glad there was a scheduling conflict to take Malkovich out of the running, because, um, ewwww there's no way), but I think that it will be a tough act to follow. I am pleased that the rest of the original cast is remaining, but Grissom leaving is taking a big chunk out of the heart of the show.

That being said I am still willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt, but I have a feeling this upcoming ninth season may just be their last.

As for recent medical insanity, I'm still not up to talking about it. Sorry.

I've been a fan of Wil Wheaton for a while, and not just because of his stellar performance in Stand By Me (which is what most people pair him with, if not Star Trek: The Next Generation). In all honesty, I've been a fan of his journalling, and more recently his books. So I yoinked this from his blog:

Classics in Lego

Actually, all of Balakov's photostream is pretty kickass, worth the viewing.

Haven't slept much in the past few days, due to general uncomfortableness (is that a word?) and the raging storms at night. Two nights in a row with severe thunderstorm/tornado warning type material. Whooboy. Welcome to summer!

I watched Bee Movie the other day with my kidlets. They had already seen it at the theatre with their grandparents but I hadn't, so I was more than happy to rent it for them. Afterward came a frank discussion on the importance of bees. The kids were receptive and K and C were pretty upset about the whole Colony Collapse Disorder thing. It's hard to explain this sort of thing to children, so I kept it as simple as possible, and left the conversation pretty open for follow-up questions (which inevitably come at night time when they are supposed to be sleeping).

S kept me up last night because he was all pumped about watching the season 5 finale of CSI. He said it was the best finale he's ever seen, which prompted a long discussion of how much of that was Tarantino's influence, and how much of it was the regular script writers. Then of course I couldn't sleep and I watched Pride & Prejudice because for whatever reason, to me it's the world's greatest sedative, and then of course S couldn't sleep. So we were grumpy at each other, and the end result was my coming downstairs and camping out on the couch watching re-runs of Holmes on Homes (thank you On Demand channel) until I passed out.

Busy week this week. Meeting with the school principal on Thursday to discuss K's educational plan for next year, something that was postponed due to my illness. I'm still not top drawer here but I can hold a conversation for a few minutes at least. Then after that I go see my family doc for my weekly review. Friday is K's school trip, which I had initially signed up for, and I am kind of wishy-washy about whether I will go or not. Friday is also my friend Hammer's birthday - hurrah!

Time to go and get whatever housework done that I can before I get a case of the fatigueishness (I know that isn't a word).

Ciao.

Update: My work has approved paid leave until July 7, in light of current circumstances. This simutaneously pleases and worries me. I don't like not working. It's an illness unto itself - I'm the type that will go mad when I retire if I don't have several time-consuming hobbies in place by then.

Update update: I also find it a hilarious form of serendipity that Mr. Wheaton's post today is about (drumroll) Stand By Me.

Being stuck in the house for the majority of my time has caused me to develop an Etsy problem. I've made a few purchases (which I am very excited about!) and have been surfing. I came across THIS father's day card, and I curse that I don't have the Y chromosome to pull it off. Because ha and HA. I actually giggled reading it.

I couldn't sleep well last night, no matter what I tried to do. Intermittent pain and nausea made life super extra fun. S didn't come home until 4 am because he had to work overtime, he was exhausted and more or less plunked down onto the bed and immediately began to snore. Which didn't help the not being able to sleep thing. Eventually I managed to doze off by itemizing the things in my house, one by one, until the banality of the task finally set my brain synapses on shutdown mode. Hey, you do what you can, right?

If anyone knows of any sightings on ebay or elsewhere where I can get my hands on a boatload of knitting supplies on the cheap, please let me know. I left most of my favorite things at the hotel back in March when I went with my daughter & mother, and the hotel staff has cheerfully not only refused to mail it back to me (even at my own expense) but it appears as though they have just tossed it out altogether. The manager was appropriately apologetic and offered me a discount on my next stay, because I was appropriately pissed off and gave him a polite but angry earful. I am REALLY good at complaint politics, and while I am heartbroken (I was almost finished my octopus!) I can't say no to discounted hotel stay (and it's a significant amount).

Back in April I got S the first 4 seasons of CSI (among a boatload of other things, because it was his 30th this year) for his birthday. We have slowly been plowing through them, skipping the ones we'd seen or sometimes re-watching them. We finished up and then he couldn't stand the idea of having to wait for the next giftable event to receive the next, so he went out and bought Season 5. So I've been watching them when he's sleeping, and vice versa. I've seen a LOT of season 5 on the telly but I don't mind re-watching, plus I have this illness where I actually *like* listening to commentaries on DVD.

So now I'm going to go fall asleep to that, or try to at least.

Can somebody wake me up when the Democrats get their acts together? Until then I'm on strike from the news because enough is enough.

Thursday I went to a gathering that my friend was holding - it was nice, everyone contributed food, there was singing amusing songs and playing guitar, it was just... nice. I hadn't seen her in a long while and I missed her.

Went out Friday night with sisterinlaw - she called me wanting me to come over and talk. It was a good time and she needed to vent - apparently she had separated with her boyfriend the weekend previous. He was still at their apartment but sleeping on the couch. He was working late Friday so he wasn't there when I had arrived. We had a few drinks and she told me what had happened, and then her friends came over, and we went out to the pub because she needed to breathe (but also because her now-ex had arrived home). We split a pitcher or two and then went to the park, sat on some swings and I let her do her thing to get back into herself.

Walked her home eventually, then got home myself. Stayed up late watching re-runs of CSI. S woke up, came down, laughed at me "I see you managed to find your way home..." and then went off to watch more Naruto (long story).

Saturday I brought sisterinlaw breakfast at work; she was very pleased. Saturday night she asked if I could come over for a bit again. So I did, and she was kind of out of sorts - turns out that her now-ex boyfriend slipped away quietly while she was working, instead of sticking around so they could talk things out more. So where did he slip to? Her other ex's house. Yeah... I have no words for that.

She said she didn't blame him, and this whole breakup was entirely her doing, but she felt he deserved to know the truth (being that she didn't love him, probably never would) and there is more to that story but it isn't for me to tell.

I stayed for an hour, let her talk things out sort of, then went home and watched the entire first season of Dead Like Me that I had rented earlier when visiting sisterinlaw at work. Love that show - seriously, it's terrific.

So as a result of watching the show, I was up late again Saturday night. By Sunday morning I was ridiculously tired. The kids and I just hung out all day - didn't do much of anything important, just lazy Sunday things.

I did a crazy amount of screen-viewing this weekend, which is pretty unusual for me, but I think my brain just wanted to take a bit of a holiday, you know?

So S came home drunk at about 8 pm last night. He ended up going to FIL's place and got drinks poured down his throat, but nobody had the decency to feed him, so he came home roaring drunk. FIL & one of FIL's friends had to walk him home - and they live around the block. What does that tell you, friends? Exactly.

He was so drunk he was snoring with his eyes open on the couch. I sent the kids to bed and then took on the task of getting him up the stairs - no easy feat, I assure you. He kept swaying backward and thank god he kept righting himself because if he fell back there would be no stopping him and I'd be a pile of broken bones at the bottom of the stairs right now. Got him a bucket and some ginger ale, and came back down to continue watching CSI.

I really like the original CSI. I'm not a big fan of the spin-offs.

I ended up staying up till almost 4 am writing. Something I haven't done in a long while but I had found some old notes for a story I was working on, and got to typing them out to try and string the pieces of thought together.

S got up around 6 am not feeling well at ALL. I wish I could say I feel sorry for him, but I don't. I'm sorry but nobody made him drink that much that fast. I'm not calling the kettle black here - I wouldn't expect his sympathy either. I did make sure that there was plenty of cold juice and water in the fridge for him this morning, heck I even made his lunch for him so all he'd have to do is pull it out of the fridge and take it to work. But I'm well past the point of holding his head when he's sick.

Bleh, it's raining. And I'm tired. And I'm secretly hoping that soccer practice is cancelled tonight so I can rest. Tomorrow I have a gathering to go to, which I'm looking forward to as it's being held by a friend I haven't seen since October I think.

Time to go putter around for 15 minutes before work. Ciao