The Hairy Otter shirt

I found where you can buy Hairy Otter shirts similar mine online:

The Alaskan one

I could've sworn the Monterey store where I bought mine had web site too. I'll check when I get home, I don't remember the exact name of the store. But there's the Alaska one, for now.

my new favorite sandwich

(Don't worry, the next Lumos post will be up soon.)

I love sandwiches. You know that part in Mostly Harmless where Arthur gets a job as the local sandwich-maker? Nay, sandwichsmith! That was just about my favorite part of the entire Hitchhiker's trilogy.

My new favorite sandwich is a cheese sandwich on a sourdough roll with lettuce (ideally green leaf), tomato, mustard, mayo and - most important of all - horseradish. I love horseradish. Deli mustard with horseradish in it will do in a pinch but for the ultimate sandwich experience, you need a higher horseradish-to-mustard ratio. Just a smidge of Dijon mustard plus about twice as much each of mayonnaise and horseradish spread is perfect.

As for the cheese, it depends what I'm in the mood for. The ones I've tried so far, and they're all good, are Jarlsberg, Havarti and Provolone. Provolone is a little mild, the sandwich needs a bit more salt and pepper if you go for that. With stronger cheeses, just a pinch of salt and pepper to bring out the flavor of the tomatoes is good.

Finish it off with a crisp pickle spear on the side and maybe some salt and vinegar chips and Orangina. It is the best lunch ever.

(no subject)

My next Lumos post is going to require scanning things so it'll have to wait till tonight.

In the meantime:
Things I plan to do while taking a break from working:

• Cook more. I just downloaded a recpie for ratatouille. I also have fabulous Thai and Indian cookbooks that I got as gifts and I haven't had a chance to use them yet.


• Get my web design/database business going. I've already set up the sole proprietorship and I've had one customer (that job more than paid for the expenses of setting up the sole proprietorship) so now I just have to make a web site for it and get started! Coming up with a sufficiently awesome logo has been a sticking point but I have some ideas. Also, I've seen some cool things that Dreamweaver does and I could totally duplicate that writing the code by hand. It'll take a while to apply it to my web site but I'll have some time. Speaking of my web site, I had to restore from the backup I had at home, due to ass-sucking hackers, and that wasn't the latest backup. So I'll fix that tonight.


• Draw more! Much, much more.


• Travel down the coast. I'm going to Disneyland! Probably. With stops along the way in Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, Cambria and, of course, Santa Barbara! I'm hoping to do it in August but I need to figure out an actual schedule.


• Start doing Tae Kwon Do again. I haven't been off for too long this time therefore I'm going to see about doing some kind of accelerated program so I can actually get my black belt at some point before I die of old age.

That's all I've thought of for now.

Lumos post 1.5: more costume pics

I realized there were three more pictures I hadn't included. They're there now on Lumos post #1.

Lumos Post #3: my notebook

I've omitted the pages that are just totally boring but here are the rest, along with a few other tidbits (lots of images but I have to sit here uploading them on dialup, so I don't feel too bad):

( my conference badge )

( Day 1, page 1 )

( Day 1 and into Day 2 )

( art exchange with Scarah2! )

( Day 2: the talks )

( Herbs of Harry Potter talk )

( Day 2 evening: in which I meet Professor Snape )

( Magical Night Classes )

( Day 3 )