Good Things and Annoying Things

Good Thing #1: Much to my surprise, a nice delivery man appeared yesterday with my new baby in hand. The box is very, very small. I am now hurriedly finishing playing Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls so I can get the old clunker off my desk (and strip it of everything I can sell on eBay), and the lovely new piece of industrial sculpture (that doubles as a very nice computer) on my desk and working. It really is a pretty thing, and it even came with Tiger (that's Mac OS 10.4) which only just came out. Yay! I am a Mac Person again!

Annoying Thing #1: Upon inspecting the receipt from the courier much later, I discovered that there should have been two boxes, not one. The other one, presumably, would have my keyboard in it. I had simply assumed that it shipped later for some reason. Obviously, I should have looked at the thing I was signing more closely. So now I'm hoping they either showed up today and left it with Mum (I left a note on the door telling them to go next door if no one was home), or that they'll still show up. I'll have to check with Mum (I just got home from Value Village in Nanaimo). Otherwise, I'll have to look up the phone number of the Victoria office online (it's not on the receipt), and call them. I really, really hate having to call people. Especially about things I shouldn't have to be calling them about in the first place. Urgh.

Annoying Thing #2 (because I want to save something good for last): Sue and I ventured up to Nanaimo to go to Value Village (and also a couple dollar stores and the Sally Ann). I was in search of pants and a belt. I did find a good belt (though the one I really liked was too short). I tried on many, many pairs of pants. I even ventured up into the size 14s (at my plumpest, a 12 is usually big enough). Nothing fit! Some were too tight in the thighs, but fit elsewhere. Some didn't go over my butt. Some did go over my butt, and even did up, but there's no way I'd be able to sit down. The ones that actually did fit (all two pairs) were at least two inches too short. Is there no one . . .

Annoying Thing #3: Somehow between previewing and correcting this post, I managed to chop off the rest of the paragraph above, plus a big, long bit about all the books I got (which was Good Thing #2). Rather than re-type everything, for I am too sleepy, I'll just plug in the titles and authors. You can try to figure out why I chose the books I did, if you feel like it.

Good Thing #2: Books.

Fiction:

• The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones.
  
• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.
  
• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.

Non-fiction:

• Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print by Lawrence Block.
  
• Search for a Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth by Eleanor Clymer.
  
• The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner.
  
• Words from the Land: Encounters with Natural History Writing edited by Stephen Trimble.
  
• My Life in 'Toons by Joe Barbera.
  
• Information Graphics: Innovative Solutions in Contemporary Design by Peter Wildbur and Michael Burke.

Magazines:

• Nature, 13 April 2000.