Presumed to be awesome.

The epically boring legal conference wrapped up early today, and since I'm not expected back in the office until morning, I get to start my weekend early!!! Yay!!!

Not that there's much on the agenda for the weekend. I had hoped for a spa day tomorrow, but I couldn't get that booked until next Saturday. Mom had some minor surgery yesterday, so I'll be hanging close to home to keep an eye on her. The weekend's "to do" list probably won't include much other than sleeping in, reading, relaxing, a workout or two with The Trainer, a bit of laundry, and cooking up a big pot of gumbo. And, really, I'm perfectly ok with exactly this kind of quiet, relaxing weekend!

So, speaking of spending the weekend do nothing more strenuous than cracking open a book or opening a fic tab, I was in need of a new vampire series since I was all caught up with Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, so I recently picked up J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. And, it's weird, my reactions to these books are all over the map. I go from really liking the mythology and having the characters start to grow on me, to being completely appalled by something that triggers my, what is in truth pretty damn hard to trigger, feminist-rage button. I'm on the third book of the series, and at this point I feel committed to reading at least the other three that are on my shelf, but I'd like to be able to settle on either really liking them or flat out despising them. But as soon as I think I have my mind made up, something happens to swing me in the other direction. Has anyone else read these books? What did you think? *curious*

And since we're on the topic, here are some decidedly GOOD reads, for your weekend reading pleasure. What? You thought I'd be able to go a whole post without mentioning Adam Lambert??? Don't be ridiculous. *g* Also, I just really want to be able to close these tabs -- having them open for so long is making me twitchy. My inner-Virgo would like a cleaner looking browser, thank you very much. :)

:: But now we're just going to go forward by ohmyra (Adam/Brad, Adam/Drake, R). This captures all the real messiness and undefined boundaries of relationships. The emotions resonate and the voices all ring true. Good stuff!

:: Complicated Melody by miss_begonia (Adam/OMC, Kris/Katy, PG-13). Very few authors get the emotional layers of relationships so spot on right for me as she does. I very literally CRIED when I read this.

:: Appetite and Orchestration by astolat (Adam/Kris, adult). The first is furry-kink. Yes, editorzon, feel free to laugh your ass off. To say this is not really my kink is an understatement of epic proportions. And yet, this fic was incredibly hot. Go figure. I blame it on Adam. *g* The second is Kris as a substitute teacher! Adorable!!! And still, and this IS important, very, very hot.

Ok, so what else? Tom Brady and Gisele are apparently pregnant. Or, rather, she's apparently pregnant and he's apparently still hot. *g* But, seriously, is that going to be like the most gorgeous baby ever or what??? Talk about hitting the DNA jackpot.

We've got a summer thunderstorm brewing here. Sweet. I've got my trainer due here in about an hour for another round of voluntary torture. Go me! After that I think I will open a bottle of wine, order in some dinner, and get busy with that weekend relaxation!

I had such a fantastic weekend in L.A. with my girls!!! The drive home, though, was the complete opposite of fantastic. OMG traffic sucked so hard!!! It was a snarly, barely moving mess until I was nearly in Palm Springs and it added over two hours to my drive time. Grrr.

Now that I am finally home though, I'm completely hyped on all the caffeine I drank to keep myself awake thought that mess and I can't sleep! *bounces* So, instead of getting any much needed sleep before work starts kicking me in the ass very early in the morning, I'm going to tell you all about my AWESOME weekend and make y'all insanely jealous of the fact that I got to spend four and a half days with some of the most fabulous women on the planet! \o/

( Is it any wonder I want to move to L.A.??? )

It sure as hell wasn't a pretty win, but the Patriots pulled it out over the Chargers to win the AFC Championship and secure their ticket to Arizona in two weeks for the Super Bowl.



( Patriots, AFC Champs! )

Next stop: Super Bowl!!!

I've been a good girl this year. Mostly. (Shut up. There's absolutely NO evidence to the contrary.) And, apparently, there is a Santa Claus and the big man in red has taken note of my good behavior, because today's Patriots/Dolphins game featured several instances of Jason Taylor getting up on Tom Brady. *sigh* So much pretty. technosage, idiosyncratic and I watched the game at sports bar, and I think that the guys in the table in front of us probably wondered why, while we were obviously cheering the Pats on, we'd erupt in loud cheers of unadulterated GLEE whenever Jason would get a hand on Tom. *g*

(Does it actually need to be said that, yes, the Pats did indeed win. Which, you know, YAY!)

The day of football also included Matt Hasselbeck being all scruffy and hot (and winning, which, you know, is also important *g*), and several shots of Matt Leinart looking like an adorable goofball on the Cardinal's sideline. Yes, Christmas did in fact come early and Santa delivered a lot of HOT men on the football field.

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Also, a bit late but, blessings of the returning Light to all those who mark the Solstice. Mine was quiet, but good. I'm looking forward to the longer days and the "fresh start" feel of the seasons moving from dark to light.

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In other good holiday news, I've got all my shopping and wrapping done. \o/ I've gone grocery shopping and the only thing left to do is bake a few batches of cookies, which I'll do tomorrow morning. After that, it's nothin' but holiday movies, spiked egg nog, yummy tamales, and, of course, my crazy family. Good times!