Two more pictures - some lovely silver hoop earrings I bought today:

And secondly, a bobble-head ninja for my car:

The story: my old car had a bobble-head maneki-neko (Japanese lucky cat) I kept on the dashboard. I’m not superstitious; however, since that car ended up smashed into the back of a parked SUV after I had an unavoidable skid across wet leaves on a rainy October night - and since my sternum and ribs were bruised and required a visit to the ER, bed rest, and a prescription for Percocet - I’m thinking I don’t want to mimic that pattern or set-up: driving a Mazda with a bobble-head cat.

I am driving a different Mazda, and a ninja is a better figurehead.

It’s raining. Tomorrow will be a day for spring cleaning; tonight will be Netflix night. I have I’m Not There (the movie in which six different actors, including Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale, portray Bob Dylan), Sunshine (potentially bad sci-fi movie with Cillian Murphy/his ridiculously lovely blue eyes) and Wristcutters: A Love Story which I watched last night with friends, but merits re-watching.

I’m up early. Much earlier than I like to be on a weekend. But I have a 10:15 appointment with the eye doctor to see how my eyes are doing with the new contact lenses; they have to have been in my eyes for a minimum of three hours. However, had I not been up this early, I might not have seen these fun things until later:

• On his blog, author Neil Gaiman has posted a link to a few seconds of footage from the movie adaptation of his book “Coraline.” It’s really only a few seconds, and the movie is a) a year away and b) going to be in 3D so we don’t get the “full effect,” but I’m excited. I love that book. Creepy creepy kids’ book.

• In the metro NYC area (and in Manhattan proper, esp.) it’s a fact that things are more expensive*. When people visit from “out of town” they marvel at the cost of boxed cereal and Starbucks’ coffee. But if you’re tenacious, you can get yourself the most expensive coffee at Starbucks : A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel.

It would have cost the (brilliant? ridiculous?) guy who took on this challenge $13.76 were it not for the fact he had a “Free drink” coupon for Starbucks which he unveiled after ordering the drink. And yay for the barista who helped him figure out how to make the most expensive drink possible. I don’t drink coffee, but this sounds like fun and I wish my coffee-drinking friends and I had thought of it.

• And I took this “How Much of a Sci-Fi Geek Are You?” quiz (via Neatorama). I suppose I should be embarrassed to post the results (it said something like, “You’re an extreme geek. You’re probably wearing your own homemade Tron helmet right now!” While I’ve never actually watched “Tron,” I am familiar with the visuals), but I posted about Jane Austen not too long ago. My interests are simply well-rounded. And I do not attend conventions, so I’m still in the “socially functional” category.

	I received 85 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Guess the Sci-Fi Movie Sounds here

*Though in NJ, the fact that we have the lowest gasoline tax in the nation keeps gas prices low and people marvel at that, too. The state of NJ hasn’t increased its gas tax in 19 years. I guess it’s some small compensation for the fact that NY and NJ have the highest property taxes in the United States - easily 2 or 2.5 times as much as other areas within throwing/inconvenient driving distance, like Connecticut and Pennsylvania. (Oh, and that’s part of your answer right there.)

Edit: Here’s the Coraline video: