Dead mouse. 

In the beagles' food container DX Must have crawled into the bag and got poured into the container when I emptied it out. It just tumbled into their bowl... YUCK! *barfs*

Lil's puppy, Delilah, was OVERJOYED when we returned. Seriously, you'd think I'd just given her unlimited access to the Milkbone biscuit factory. She'd missed her mommy... :)

ETA: Colored version :)

I'm down 4 lbs since New Year :D

That's just from walking a couple miles a day a few times a week, and a slight cut in calories. I think I'll start keeping track of my weight and diet details in private entries. Can't hurt to write this stuff down, even if it's just for myself. Things I definitely need to limit myself on are pretzels, ice cream, and other little snackies.

Go me! 

On a different note: American Idol was funny last night, but I haven't  picked any favorites yet. I like the new judge :) And it's on again tonight!

ETA: On the subject of diet, I'm curious what my flist thinks of diet soda? Good or bad? I've heard arguments for both.
 

Happy birthday to me :D Actually, Delilah did give me a present: she's officially housebroken as of yesterday. She's finally grasped the concept of letting us know when she has to go out. Being a mostly outside dog, this is a big accomplishment for her :)

Tomorrow is supposed to be ridiculously cold. Like, the high is supposed to be 11 degrees F. Which, with windchill, will be like -15 F.  :(  The beagles will definitely be inside dogs this week.

So I was just thinking about fanart. Most of what I draw is fanart, although I don't really post it here. Mostly because I've had this weird habit of only drawing CARTOON LIONS (dur dur Lion King dur) lately. I did do a nice snapshot of Harry and Ginny last week, which came out decently. But it seems odd to me that I haven't been drawing more Potter art. I used to spend hours and hours just surfing the net, looking for pretty drawings of Harry and Sirius and Lupin and Dumbledore. It seems that a lot of the old artists that I used to follow have completely dropped off the map. 

I know that there are a few good galleries that house a ton of fanart. I kind of wish that someone would make an art archive like the one at TLKFAA, which has been thriving for a good ten years or more. It's just such a straightforward site, easy to navigate and easy to create your own gallery page. It's too bad other fandoms don't have art sites constructed like TLKFAA, because I really think the setup there is part of the reason so many people still create Lion King art. You don't see communities like that for any other Disney movies.

Ah well. My quest to view all the pretty art in the HP fandom continues. 
Also: I know I'm complaining about the lack of HP creativity lately, but it may just be that I haven't looked hard enough. It just seems that I didn't have to try hard at all in the beginning. 
Also also: I doubt I'll stop drawing HP fanart completely anytime soon. There's still so much more that I'd love to draw from JKR's world. That's the whole point of art to me, and writing too: to create something that you would like to see or read yourself.

I've got a sketch of Luna and a thestral, along with a mostly done picture or Sarabi and Sarafina as cubs. I know this whole entry on art seems kind of random, but art is the one constant in my life. It's something I'll always be able to escape to. If I couldn't sketch and scribble, I think I'd die.

</random essay>

I just picked up The Lord of the Rings. Eep.

A seemingly daunting read, I must say. I read the first two around the time the last film came out, but I was only in about 9th or 10th grade, and a lot of the stuff just didn't seem to click in my mind. I didn't finish. Now I've read the first few chapters of TFotR, and so far so good. The story just seems more interesting and compelling so far. 

I don't know if anyone else has read the books on my flist, but if you have... thoughts? Lol, or just anything you have to say about the books or the movies. I'm flexible XP

It's just so weird. I mean, God - twenty. I'm sad that my dad won't be home to celebrate, but we'll just add this to the list of holidays and birthdays to celebrate when he's home. Which I think will be in April, yay! Jeez, I miss him.

I spent the evening with Lisa and Tracy last night, and it was such a weight off my mind, knowing that after months of limited contact, we're still good friends and can more or less slip into a comfortable routine of movie-watching and snacking. We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which Lisa hadn't seen and still probably doesn't understand), and Tracy confessed her odd fascination with Voldemort and his extreme power. It was fun and comfortable... and just nice. I loved it.

I'm going to walk today, probably only a couple of miles, but whatever. It's something.

I'm baaaaaccckkkk :)

Ahhh... I've missed LJ. I hope to write in it more in the future, and I want to see if it inspires my sense of humor and imagination as much as it used to. Because it really did inspire me, just writing down my day to day life. It made me look back on my experiences, however mundane, and see the beauty and intrigue hidden in my ordinary life. I want to create, and appreciate the writings of people on my flist, like I did a couple of years ago. If LJ taught me anything, it's that I genuinely love people, and to learn about their everyday lives. What some people might find boring, I find fascinating. I want that again. 

I feel like Lyra and her alethiometer (to make a vague HDM reference). She learned how to use it, never questioning her ability to do so until suddenly it left her. That's how it is with my humor and interest in life. Somewhere along the way, I lost it. Now I need to work ten times as hard to rediscover it and become comfortable with it again.

If anyone still reads my journal (and I won't be put out if people de-friended me, really), I hope this post isn't depressing, like many of my last posts were. Not that they were recent enough for anyone to remember them, haha. But it is sad to grow up and see the seriousness of the world so frequently that you turn around and can't find the thread that leads you back home, where things are light and innocent. 

My New Year's Resolution this year is to become healthy. In mind, body, and soul. I have goals:

1. Driver's license (I believe my road test is on the 23rd. I just get so damned nervous about it.)
2. Job (probably part time, but whatever)
3. The whole weight thing needs to be addressed. It's getting serious, and I know this is a huge part of my depression. I want to get down to 170 this year. Any tips would be great, but I have a plan of action, and I think I can stick to it.
4. Pay more attention to my RL friends. I miss them. More than I could ever say. I hope they still consider me a friend, because I think I'd utterly shatter inside if I thought they didn't.


I'm going to use this journal as a motivational tool this year. I need to do something, and if I can think of a few lame jokes along the way, hey... consider it part of my therapy.

Whew. I feel better already :)