It appears that I have not created an OffTopic Post since February.  Whoa there.  Where has the time gone?  But I feel incredibly unmotivated today and I would like to share my boredom with everyone.

Some discussion topics:

Who has checked in on Alice and Kev today?  What do we think the next installment of Alice will be?

Yelp: helpful or insanely irksome? 

In the same vein, does anyone know of good Mexican on the Eastside?

What's on for summer?  Relaxing, flying away, working hard, drinking?

Sounders news: Does anyone read it?  Have you read Greg Roth?  Does his "it's" issue make you nuts?  And are you a Fredy or a Freddie?

What should I do with my Morrow bobblehead?

Hello loyal readers...and I mean readers.  I'm using the OFFTOP today to try and earn points to get myself a few books for the price of shipping.  Is anyone here a member of Bookins? On Bookins, you can get used books (or DVDs, turns out) for the price of shipping.  You sign up, create a list of books you're willing to trade, and then earn points by shipping off books of your own (you print pre-paid labels and stick them in the mailbox).  Unfortunately, you need points to get a book shipped, and turns out no one wants my cheesy chick-lit novels, and I'm not willing to give up my non-fiction as I'm saving them for the day I have a library.  But I figure other people are ready to surrender their good books, and there are a lot of readers around here who might be interested in this site.  If you are, click the link below.  If you join and ship a book, I get points!  Weeeeee!

I know we do the book review thing a lot around here, but I'm looking to read some classics, as I don't think English class endeared me to them.  Any recommendations?

Also, did anyone else who read Twilight get a little bit skeeved out?  I mean, she's seventeen.  And he's a hundred and something.  And she's obsessed.  It's creepy.

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I'm not even sure what day it is anymore.

Have you ever spent so much time per day doing a task or repeating the same thing that it was difficult to fall asleep at night? 

For a caffeine addict and new Seattle-ish resident--where is the best coffee in the city?

I have a friend coming this weekend who is under 21.  She arrives around 4pm on Friday and is only staying through Sunday mid-day, so I'd like to spend as much time out in the city as possible.  Any suggestions for what we can do Friday and/or Saturday night? 

Have at it...

Hey--it's two weeks until Christmas!  And I haven't bought a single present yet.  For some reason the Christmas joy is escaping me this year.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to make it actually feel as though Christmas is coming?

If anyone wants to pretend they have a Macy's discount from now until next Monday (20% off almost anything in the store) and can get to the Bellevue Macy's, let me know and I'll give you the sales pass.  It's "Friends and Family" time and I suppose y'all count as friends.  Family is pushing it.

Oh, and living in suburbia without a car is much more of a pain than I thought it would be...

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Hi y'all...it's my last day and really, all I'm doing is pushing emails from me to someone else and trying to transfer my Thanksgiving flight reservation to Mardi Gras time.  Other than that, I'm just waiting for my glorious lunch of fried seafood at Mandina's, which has had more than 100 years of experience making seafood into a lovely crispy frizzled tastiness.

Cross your fingers for no snow in the Rockies next week, as we're trying for the Oregon Trail route.  Also let's hope we don't get typhoid or that the truck doesn't tip when we try to ford a river

But the most important question is...do I change my name?  Yes, I'm leaving this to the community.  I've noticed that InSpokane is keeping the name even while no longer being in Spokane, yet Man from Nantucket has changed.  Can I be NOLAmarinergirl while in Seattle?  Do I use a version of my first or last name?  Do you have another suggestion?  And do I encourage ac to change with me, as he previously pledged to do?

This week is turnover week for me--giving all my departments to some other lucky soul, and allowing everyone to fawn over me and ask me prying questions about my reasons for leaving.  Yet their pure adoration manifests itself in taking me out for delicious meals, so I am just fine with this.

Please allow me to abuse this post for my own purposes.  Six days from now, my dad and I set off on a cross-country adventure.  Now, while my father is one of my favorite people in the world, I doubt that even the two of us can find enough conversation to fill five days.  Anyone have any audio book recommendations?  Or something that I can put on the iPod and plug into the stereo (I guess this can be a series of podcasts, also).  I'm not a big fan of mindless fiction, and also remember that I will be listening to this with my dad, so nothing blush-worthy please.

Also, food recommendations.  I am an obsessive foodie, and I don't want to stop at chain restaurants and fast food joints for five days straight.  I've posted a photo of my map, and am hoping for the off chance that people have driven similar routes and might remember where there is good food?  Or know what these areas are famous for, and what I might look for?  Ideas on car snacks?  How to stay awake on ten hour jaunts?  Car games? 

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My Monday is a bit hectic, also, but I need a place to stop in from time to time and wake myself up a little.  Yes, I'm substituting LL for caffeine.  I need a crutch.

And hey, I might not know anything about american football, but whoa big premier league weekend.

With eight days til d-day, there's really no links that do not encourage the discussion of politics.  So let's keep things light and fluffy, shall we?

I'm not usually one for a case of the Mondays, but it's only 8.49am and I'm already set to climb back into bed and hide from the world.  I couldn't wake up with my first alarm and then the second did not sing at the appropriate time.  My shuffle was dead, forcing me to listen to thumping baselines as I scooted along.  Water from residents oversoaking their balcony plants drenched me as I rode through the French Quarter.  Upon opening my scooter seat, I found that red beans and rice had leaked all over my bag (including my new 80-count box of tea).  As I hustled to make the six block walk, a cop stopped me to lecture me about riding on the sidewalk, causing me to clutch my dripping bag to my almost-new fleece, which will cause me to smell like chipotle for the rest of the day.  And then, upon checking my email, yay--two new job rejections!

Please, give me some good news, or at least tell me of your worst Monday horror stories.

Let's all take a moment and celebrate:  THERE ARE NO MORE ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.  Now if the Dodgers could just go down...

Now, some topics to keep us off-topic:

♥Why the hell can I not win at Pathwords?

♥Cars with parental controls--thoughts?

♥This scares the shit out of me

♥Will this help sb or just confuse him more?

♥Fuck my legs--how do I stop from hurting for days after playing soccer?

♥What are you reading right now, and how many books (that you actually own) are in your queue?

♥Speaking of sexy, apparently women want it all.

Did we ever think it would come to this?  Rooting for a team to fail; being upset when they sweep?  How surreal.  And now it's time to attach ourselves to new teams for a month--and, ojala que, watch some decent baseball.

But let's not get into who we'll miss, who should stay, who should go and who we should pick up.  We'll have plenty of time and plenty of threads for that sort of banter.  Here, we're all about the random. 

With that in mind:

♥It's already 76 degrees here, and it's set to be 88.  I want fall, damn it.  What's the best part of fall?

♥I walked six miles yesterday as part of training for a marathon (walking it; I'm not completely insane).  Question: how many drinks did it take for me to announce my intention to participate?  How many drinks would it take you?

♥Anyone in a relationship in which your sports teams are bitter rivals?  How do you handle this?

♥Losing scrabulous has left a hole in my heart.  How might I fill this? (please, thinking games, preferably ones which can be played turn-by-turn, and I can pause when need be)

♥We've covered countries.  Now, imagine you have eight weeks to see cities, specifically.  Travel time is not included, and money is no object.  How many would you visit, and which ones would they be?

♥Yeah...I've got nothing else