A few things:

• No Doubt. Holy shit. I know my last post was about them but I am seriously obsessed. I have listened to hardly anything else for about a week now. Gwen Stefani pre-solo career is totally my hero now, I'm telling you. Return of Saturn is especially doing a lot for me. I can't believe I used to own that album and yet I still only remembered, like, two songs apart from the singles. How could I be so dense back then?!? The entire album is so damn good. "Six Feet Under", "Artificial Sweetener", "Too Late", "Suspension Without Suspense", "Home Now", "Dark Blue"... seriously. I know that's almost the entire thing but it's that good! There are only two songs I wouldn't consider awesome and they're still pretty great. One of the non-single tracks I did remember though is "Staring Problem" - I actually used to adore that song. I'm pretty sure I even wrote some story using the lyrics as inspiration and I really wish I still had it somewhere because it's probably hilariously terrible and would have given me a good laugh. Anyway, I think I'm, like, going to buy all of their albums used on Amazon or something because, hello, I need them! Apart from just listening to them, I also got all nostalgic watching the music videos and live Tragic Kingdom show DVDs that came with the Boom Box set... I've had that almost since it came out and I had never watched the live DVD (or listened to the b-sides disc). Jesus. Love love love. Okay, moving on...

• Pushing Daisies. Maybe it's just because of the fact that pretty soon there will be no more new episodes for me to devour, but I seriously think this show gets better every week. You'd think I'd be really sad watching it but it still hasn't completely sunk in that it will be over soon - I think the depression will set in once there are actually no episodes left. And I will just have to watch it on DVD over and over and over again. It just makes me feel so idiotically happy every time I watch; I love all of the characters and the droolworthy wardrobe and sets and most of all, that pretty much every piece of dialogue uttered is hilarious and instantly quotable. A couple highlights from Wednesday: "Don't be pecking me, woman. That's the peck of cahoots which we are definitely not in." Everything Emerson says is golden. And also Ned telling Chuck, "Are we weird now because I did it with your dad?" - also laugh-out-loud hilarious. And unsurprisingly, next week looks amaaaaazing as well. Olive and Emerson's synchronized "oh HELL no!" - completely brilliant. *sigh* It figures that the only show I've ever loved this obsessively is apparently ignored by most everyone else. What is wrong with you, world?!?

• Reading. I just finished A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby which I believe is my fiftieth book read for the year, woo! I wasn't going to finish it because I had to return it to the library in a few days and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get it done, but once I started, it was a really fast and enjoyable read. Extremely hilarious. Which is weird to say about a book that has a plot centered around four people who want to jump off the roof of a building, but it's true. I laughed out loud on several occasions which is rare for me with books. Overall, it was really fun and witty and I'm glad I decided to actually read it. I wasn't going to get any more books because I still have a couple I bought that I haven't read yet, but I ended up checking out two more. Oh well... I guess I do have forever to read the ones I own so it doesn't really matter.

• Sims! It doesn't seem like it, since it was only two posts ago, but the last time I posted pictures was almost three weeks ago. What?! Must. Fix. Now. Here are updates/selected pictures for each of my current families:

( Cartwright )

( Ruby & Will )

( Perkins )

( Also... )

Why, yes, I am aware what a dork I am. It's better to embrace it than deny it, right?

I love money...

...only when I actually have some though. When I'm broke, I hate money. Yet at the same time still want it. Hmm...

Anyway, the point of this post is "omg look what I bought!!!!11!!!" so I'll get right to that:

( EXCITING. )

Yay! And before you tell me how excessive and impulsive all of that No Doubt is, let me tell you that it was super super cheap, okay? I think the other three CDs combined cost more than five ND CDs, so it's not that crazy. I am slightly worried about the quality though because I like things to look nice and new always but that's always my biggest worry with buying things used and it usually turns out okay. Anyway, I got all eight CDs for under $35, awesome! I think my next CD-buying goal is to get all of the albums that will be on my best of '08 list that I don't yet own physical copies of because it makes sense to own things that I consider my favorites. (And P.S. that list will be coming soon-ish as in a month or two and I will probably post it here as well as to my music journal because I'm weird like that.)

And because I have a strange need to fully divulge every detail when it comes to money-spending, I also bought Paste and Venuszine with She & Him on the covers and Bust with Jenny Lewis on the cover - which cost like $15 all together (why do magazines cost so much??)... and two of those magazines I would have no interest in normally... the things I do to satisfy my obsessions.