oh yay.

Special Weather Statement - SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR DURHAM COUNTY VALID FROM THU DEC 18 2003 02:56 PM EST UNTIL FRI DEC 19 2003 12:00 AM EST.
ALAMANCE NC-CHATHAM NC-DAVIDSON NC-DURHAM NC-EDGECOMBE NC-FORSYTH NC- FRANKLIN NC-GRANVILLE NC-GUILFORD NC-HALIFAX NC-NASH NC-ORANGE NC- PERSON NC-RANDOLPH NC-VANCE NC-WAKE NC-WARREN NC-WILSON NC- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...ASHEBORO...BURLINGTON...CARY... CHAPEL HILL...CREEDMOOR...DURHAM...GRAHAM...GREENSBORO...HALIFAX... HENDERSON...HIGH POINT...HILLSBOROUGH...LEXINGTON...LOUISBURG... NASHVILLE...OXFORD...PITTSBORO...RALEIGH...RANDLEMAN... ROANOKE RAPIDS...ROCKY MOUNT...ROXBORO...SILER CITY...TARBORO... WARRENTON AND WINSTON-SALEM 300 PM EST THU DEC 18 2003 ...LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS OR FLURRIES ARE POSSIBLE MAINLY ACROSS THE NORTHERN HALF OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA LATE TONIGHT AND FRIDAY... COLD AIR...A STRONG FAST-MOVING UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE FROM THE NORTHERN PLAINS...AND A SMALL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS WILL CREATE FAVORABLE CONDITIONS FOR SNOW FLURRIES AND SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS ACROSS THE NORTHERN SECTIONS OF CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA...MAINLY BETWEEN MIDNIGHT TONIGHT AND MIDDAY FRIDAY. WITH WINDS MAINLY FROM THE WEST AND NORTHWEST...MOISTURE WILL BE LIMITED WITH THIS SYSTEM. LITTLE...IF ANY...SNOW ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED. HOWEVER...A LIGHT DUSTING MAY APPEAR ON GRASSY SURFACES AND ON THE TOPS OF METAL AND GLASS SURFACES.


In other news, I gave blood today. Good for me. And my blood is being typed as a possible bone marrow donor. Brrr.

I promise, I will post an update. Someday.

For now, have another funny website: Hagrid meets the Fab 5

Definitely my day for websites: great pagan jokes on this one

Today seems to be my day for websites: Mr. Cornel Nistorescu's essay

And here's a lovely essay on the moral imperatives that Buffy: The Vampire Slayer tv show taught us.

Weird (& neat) site of the day: History of Video Games

Weird site of the day: Gollum, has he gotten a bad rap?

This will be quick I have to catch the bus soon.

My boss let me go at 2pm on Monday so that I could drive to Saturn in Raleigh to get an estimate for my car repairs. Turns out, Saturn in Raleigh doesn't do body work, they refer such jobs to Tyree's. Tyree's is also on Capitol Blvd but in Wake Forest, according to Mapquest. So I called them & got directions & got a set from Mapquest, just in case. I followed their set first. They are good directions, too bad their sign was backlit by the setting sun so I couldn't see it. I drove down that same 2 mile stretch 4 times all told. I drove down, went 'hmm, too far' & turned back. Didn't see it, if I'd gone another half mile I would have, so I decide to go north a little farther. I'm pulling into the left lane as a funeral cortege is going by in the right lane. When we came to the light & it changed to red. I stopped. They had police escort & kept going. I saw the entire thing go by. It was huge. I still haven't learned who they were burying.

I finally found the place & got the estimate. I headed home about 4pm. Chris had asked me to call him & let him know when I was leaving so he'd know to be worried if I wasn't home. My cell phone connected to him & then the power cut off. Not enough juice in the battery I guess. The nice men at the shop let me use their phone. Then Chris laughed at my because my accent was very thick, it always is when I'm dealing with mechanics. I'm not certain why.

We progressed a little further in the adventure. We're almost to the combat. We'll see if we get to use the heat exhaustioin rules or not, next time. Chris had everyone laughing their heads off. And Rosemary & Chris brought up, again, the possibility of me running Legend of the 5 Rings for them. They got this idea after I'd gone to sleep Saturday night. Don't ask me why or how, I don't know.

Yesterday, Chris took a half day to take his car to the dealership in Burlington. That's where he gets his work done. oops gotta go.

So I went to two of the three parties I (& Chris) was invited to on Saturday. I might have been able to make all three because they ranged from Noon - 4, 3pm - 7pm & 7pm- Midnight, however the one starting at 3 was in Durham & the other two were in Raleigh. The first one was Rosemary's annual cookie party. It's a show up when you want & leave when you feel like it & in between decorate sugar cookie cut-outs, bake & eat them. We also opened some presents. I gave Rosemary's mom a small tatted cross in burgundy & Laurie a small burgundy tatted Christmas tree. I gave bang-rocks & a balsa airplane to Julia. David got a gift certificate from Chris, Rosemary & I. I gave Chris his AD&D 3.5 Kalamar book for infiltrators & Basiran dancers plus a copy of the Charlies Angels: Full Throttle DVD. I gave Rosemary a copy of the original Raggedy Anne & Andy stories plus a Harlequin & Poison Ivy t-shirt.

We drank mulled cider and soda. I drank only a sip of the mulled mead, to taste it. It was yummy. Then once that party ended, we watched Chris's movie until it was time for the 7pm party. That was the Misys Healthcare Systems office party. It was at the Marriott near Crabtree Mall. We all got gussied up. I even wore heels & make up. I was finally able to wear that triangle of 'gems' necklace that I bought 2 years ago. My neck was small enough. One of the Chris & Rosemary's co-workers took our picture. Too bad my eyes were closed. That will take some Adobe to fix. The food was fabulous. We were later than usual & didn't arrive until quarter of eight. As a result there were no tables in the main seating area. A hostess directed us to the dessert room, where there were half a dozen tables. About 10 minutes after we sat down, the band in the main room started to play. We were profoundly thankful to be in the dessert & coffee bar room. The music was at a bearable level & we were able to converse without shouting. As a result we stayed later than usual. We did not leave until 10pm. We all over ate but the food was just so good. I was designated driver so I did not get any alcohol. Oh well, I will next year.

When we got back to Rosemary's, we stayed there overnight, I went straight to bed. The next morning we ate breakfast at IHOP. Their stuffed crepes are fantastic. I had the ham & swiss & the pumpkin pancakes. What a wonderful breakfast. Is it any surprise that I gained 2 pounds this past week. Oh well.

Sunday we played Rosemary's Forgotten Realms game. Since she had the day off, we started earlier & finished the second level. Richard couldn't make it so his character did not level. Everyone else did. So Amber is now a (Drow 1)Fighter 1/ Cleric of Ellistraee 1. I did the update Sunday & last night.

Last night, after I finally found the body shop, I'll post that story later, & got home I completely forgot to do laundry. Oh well. Tonight then. I also forgot to pay the storage fee. Eeep.

I'll finish posting the update of my life events tomorrow. I hope.

Bizarre news of the day
from the Nat'l weather service
442 PM EST TUE DEC 9 2003 ...MINOR EARTHQUAKE IN VIRGINIA FELT ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA THIS AFTERNOON... A LIGHT EARTHQUAKE OCCURRED AT 359 PM OVER VIRGINIA CENTERED ABOUT 30 MILES WEST OF RICHMOND. THE MAGNITUDE OF THIS QUAKE WAS 4.5 ON THE RICHTER SCALE. MINOR TREMORS HAVE BEEN FELT ACROSS MUCH OF NORTH CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA...WITH REPORTS HAVING BEEN RECEIVED FROM HALIFAX COUNTY WEST ACROSS THE TRIANGLE AND TO THE TRIAD. NO DAMAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED. ALL INFORMATION ON THIS STATEMENT IS TO BE CONSIDERED PRELIMINARY. UPDATES MAY BE ISSUED AS MORE INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE... EITHER FROM THE NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE INFORMATION CENTER IN GOLDEN COLORADO...OR THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

Oh goody, I got rear ended this morning so I get to take time off to get a damage estimate. Whee. And since I have a beef with the dealership in Chapel Hill, I'm driving all the way to Wake Forest to get it looked at. Again, I say, wheee.

Weird site of the day: Does your phone number spell a word?

Busy day, my student assistant forgot to tell me that she couldn't work today. I ate at TOL, sat down with Hilary & her friend Liz. Three more of Hilary's friends showed but there were no more chairs.

I have now typed up 4.5 game session notes from Chris's game. I'm halfway through the ones from October 7, 2002. Yay me.

Finished Domes of Fire, and started Night Visitor and mostly through the Hidden City. Chris is working night call tonight so he won't be home until almost 8 pm. *pout*

Tomorrow is Rosemary's cookie party and then the Misys Christmas Party. I'm the designated driver for that one. Then Sunday we play Rosemary's Forgotten Realm game. Should be fun.

Well, this is another quickie update. The bi-weekly C&S/D&D hybrid game went almost as usual. Lots of talking & planning but this time we ended up going with the plan I liked the best & it being successful. We tried to talk our way in as pilgrims, as a foreign knight & his squire & finally we just snuck in to find the info/person we wanted. Wheee.

Alyssa & Christopher gave out presents to the gaming group. Everyone got a plant (I'm not sure what kind) and a cedar box. I brought the plant to work & put it next to my other one. We'll see how it responds to artificial light.

Chris & I ate Thanksgiving leftovers for supper Wednesday night before gaming. I love his mom's gravy, it has lots of stuff in it. It was quick, too.

Yesterday & last night's weather was pretty foul. It never reached higher than 35F and it rained most of the day. There was sleet coming down Wednesday night but it didn't last long & it didn't accumulate. I was pretty worried that we'd have another bout of inclement & dangerous weather; it was the anniversary of the storm last year. It was all for nothing. It never got below 34F last night so we just got rain.

This morning I made certain to check the news to check road conditions, wet but not icy. It was sort of a relief. I had taken the unread newspapers home to read them today, just in case I couldn't make it to work.

I did make the trip to pick up Mike's, from gaming, present. I saw Dan & Michael, he who was once Hairboy. I wasn't certain I was going to do so considering last night's weather, until I got a good look at it.

Clothes update: Wednesday, red turtleneck with a green bolero vest (variegated in stripes with tiny gold dots, reversable side of Tuesday's vest), narrow black skirt just below knee length, same black boots, leggins, and Celtic knot jewelry. Hair braided again, but loosely.
Thursday's outfit was a bright pink turtleneck with barely visible violet stripe, denim jumper that buttons down the front, same boots & leggings, turquoise & coral earrings, turquoise chips set in silver ring, mother of pearl moon & star pendant & hair tightly braided with a couple blue clips to tidy up loose strands in front.
Todays clothing is another red turtleneck, same vest with the ribbon embroidery side out, same narrower black skirt, same boots & black leggings, onyx ring, carnelian ring, knotwork ring, female figure ring, tiny Celtic knotwork dangling earrings, & knotwork pendant. I took a shower/bath & washed my hair last night. It is still a trifle damp so I'm wearing it loose.

My student assistant isn't coming in today so I'm doing the meal plan reports. I'm taking a break from the really annoying one. Time to go back to it. It's the next to last one. Yay.

I'm sorry that this jumps all over the place & is borderline incoherent. Maybe I'll do better later.

Outfit update: same black boots; leggings (it's cold, 34F this morning); black cotton gauze skirt with handkerchief point hem; black turtleneck; bolero vest in white on white calico in a holly pattern with silk ribbon embroidery; a row of poinsettias on the left & a bunch of mistletoe on the right; and for jewelry it's black onyx band, silver band with flowers, silver 2 strand braid ring, delicate silver chain bracelet, silver pendant in the shape of 3 women standing in a wreath (one is young, one is pregnant & one is old), & silver earrings of 3 narrow bands of graduated sizes hanging from french hooks. My hair is in a braid because I didn't feel like doing anything else to it. Over that I have a black sweater for when I go outside. I'm wearing my polar fleece cape again. That plus a scarf & the burgundy velour gloves my sister-in-law gave me 2 years ago & I'm set for the moderately cold weather.

I ate at Top of Lenoir today. That's the pay one price & it's all you can or care to eat. I shared a table with a junior transfer named Lenore Hall. She jokes that her younger brother is named Chase Hall. We had a nice conversation. I gave her my email address so if she wants to share lunch again we can look into it.

Last night's game was almost entirely combat. We were trying to take out the army's leadership. We hit what we think is the command tent with about 4 fireballs plus an icestorm. That killed an ettin & 4 giants. That left 1 ettin & 1 frost giant. We killed the ettin first but didn't know about the giant until it attacked with improved invisibility. Luckily, Rosemary's bard/paladin had a wand of glitterdust. The giant wasn't blinded but he was visible. Then, the dwarf got flanked & attacked by 2 drow elves. That was the last thing done 'cause it was getting late. There's currently a sleet storm hitting the command tent, preventing them (there are 2 people still there) from seeing us to cast any spells. But it will only last 3 more rounds.

The Ragu spaghetti sauce/sloppy joe was a grave disappointment. Adding some herbs & a red pepper does not transform spaghetti sauce to sloppy joe mix. It irritated more than just a little. *snarl*

I re-read most of Domes of Fire yesterday. Today I've been reading Trust Me.

Work has been busy, lots to do. I'm also trying to type up the notes from Chris's game. There are a lot of them. Back to that then, maybe I can get another session's worth done before I head home.

Ooh, neat breakdown of rpg players

Happy Monday. What did I do for the Thanksgiving holiday, my four-day weekend? Mostly, I slept. I did not go see my friends or my family. I just did not feel well enough to be active. I do feel better now.

Thursday, I managed to do laundry and to work on going through old catalogs to dispose of them. Other than that, I drank lots of fluids and napped.

Friday, I finally woke up at 9 am. Chris & I went to Circuit City to get my present to my Mom, we stopped by Pier 1 Imports to see if they have the coatrack we want (they don't) then we went home again. I then took a 2-hour nap & Chris went out again shopping. Joe was feeling like he'd spent too much time indoors, so he came over and we went out to supper. I went to bed at my usual time.

Saturday, was more or less a repeat of Thursday but without the laundry. Chris, Rosemary & I did go see Spy Kids: 3D at Blue Ridge theater. While Chris pondered on our choice of restaurant we stopped by Foundation's Edge so Rosemary could pick up her comic books. I bought a book for Chris. He thinks I bought it for myself, so he took the one he bought for me & exchanged it yesterday. Although, I'm guessing about what he took to exchange yesterday.

Sunday I went through more stuff in the living room. We had people coming over to game by 2pm. We played another RPGA Living Greyhawk module, a year 2 core (that means it is not set in one of the Greyhawk 'regions' that is linked to a real world geographical area & it came out last year). It took longer than expected. I have 5 more to play & then I will have played all the year 2 modules. I hope to play 2 at Defycon & we've made plans to play 2 on December 13th & 14th.

I need to go. More gaming tonight. Chris is running his D&D game.

BTW, I have not lost any weight recently. I remain at 25 less than when I started in May.

Clothes report: this weekend it was t-shirt & jeans except when it was t-shirt & leggings or t-shirt, jeans & a sweater. Today it's black Liz Claiborne slacks, grey turtleneck, black suede lace up shoes (not quite tennis shoes but close), multi-colored crochet sweater with beads (purple, teal, orange, fuschia, yellow, orange, red & green plus blue, yellow, red, orange, & purple beads in concentric rings in 8 spots) & black socks. The sweater is very open so it shows up well against the grey turtleneck. My jewelry today is my rainbow moonstone set in silver earrings, moonstone in silver tri-moon pendant, black onxy band, silver flower band, & silver circles band. My hair is caught in back in the clip from Bronze Rose while the whisps are caught in small almost black hair clips on either side of my face. My hair is braided & a purple/violet elastic holds it.

Have a nice night.

Bleaharg! I dashed across the pit to get some money out of the ATM. I know I will get hungry in less than an hour but the coffee shop closes at 2pm. The ATM is 'temporarily out of service.' So, no money & no food. I get to starve for 4 hours as it will probably be 6pm before I get home to get something to eat. I am simply SOL. I'm feeling pouty already.

Oh, I nearly forgot: clothes update. Today it's grape colored slacks, brown boots, navy silk shirt, floral paisley vest (black background with pink, 2 shades of blue, grey, beige, apricot, bits of yellow & edged with machine embroidery stitch in variagated purple), 2 silver rings (1 fem figure & 1 dragon), silver Celtic knot earrings, silver dragon pendant on silver chain & my hair in a half knot stuck with a purplish wood hairstick. The half knot is where I tie a knot in my hair, fix it in place with a hairstick & let the rest of my hair hang. As a constant, I also wear a silver earcuff, usually in my right ear.

I saw something that looked, well, gross on my way back from the ATM. It was a young man, with a pierced nose; the little bull nose ring looking type, in silver colored metal with silver ball finials. The gross part was that the reflection from the nose ring just made it look like he desparately needed to wipe his nose. It was not a lovely image.

Well, it's the last day of this work week. Wheee. Too bad I can't leave early. It's one of those things that, unless my boss authorizes, even unofficially, that we can close the office before five, I'm stuck here until five. Even if the other department in the building has packed up and gone home. [insert heavy sigh] I might be able to leave early, if I felt like using vacation leave to do it. Which I don't. I'm saving that for my trip to Charlotte in early January. The nice thing? I'm able to listen to my Ozzy Osbourne cd & no one is here to care.

I had to put the bandaid back on my index finger. The fingernail polish helped but not for very long. So, still no tatting. Bleah.

I bought 3 books last night. I've completely read one already. It's Hawkins St. John book. I missed the 1st one, but I've read the 2nd, 3rd & now 4th one. Now I'm reading Alexander's The Lady in Question. I thought it was connected to Love with the Proper Husband but it's not. I'm enjoying it, nonetheless. The third book is also connected to another book. It takes place at the same time as the one that it's connected to, as it's about two cousins who change places.

As a result of all my reading, I did not get any writing done. C'est la vie. I did watch 3 episodes of Stargate and the episode of CSI: Miami from Monday. I only have one episode of Stargate left to watch on that tape. 2 of the episodes of Stargate that I watched were from first season. David loaned my his first season dvd boxed set. I have to return it to him by mid-December as he's doing a loan exchange with a friend of his at Christmas.

Mild irritant in my life right, someone on one of the email lists to which I am subscribed has an email format that does not show in the digest form. So everytime he posts, I can't read it. I am left feeling that I'm missing a large chunk of the conversation.

I need to work on preparing the December reports so that they are ready for data entry. I'll probably post again before I leave for the day, but in case I don't: Happy Thanksgiving.

It has been an extremely long day. But my work is finally over. So, I will catch up on my typing. Send it to my friend Diana (for suggestions, notes ect). Then I will head home, heat up some supper, watch some telly or play a game. Nothing exciting, just the the usual.

[insert Monty Python voice] I'm not dead yet. I'm much better [/Monty Python voice]

I really am. I don't know what happened yesterday & I won't go into details. We'll just leave it with 'it was unpleasant.'

We had gaming at our house again (every Monday night). We were supposed to be play testing Diana's adventure. We did, a little. Mostly, we talked. And talked. And talked. Until Rosemary realized that it was 11 pm. Ack. We scattered.

I've had about 7.5 hours of sleep. For those of you who thrive on less, congratulations. I don't. I like having 8 hours of sleep. So far, I have not resorted to caffeine. But I have my tea all ready, all I need is the hot water. The only thing I'm wondering now, did I forget to turn on my alarm clock or did I turn it off in my sleep?

It's a lot colder today than it was yesterday. It's about 45 degrees F right now, with occasional breeze blowing. At least it's nice & sunny.

I forgot to do the clothes thing yesterday so I'll do this weekend, yesterday & today's, now. Weekend: t-shirts, jeans & loafers. Yesterday, white oxford shirt, navy slacks (with an annoying zipper that keeps flipping open, acceptable when I'm wearing something to cover it, not when I have a shirt tucked into the waistband instead), brown boots, Celtic knotwork themed jewelry (pendant, ring, earrings) & my hair in a plait.
Today I'm wearing a violet turtleneck; indigo blue jumper; black boots; multi-colored. geometric checkerboards & stripes sweater, moonstone pendant, earrings, ring, silver band jewelry & my hair is loose. It was braided but I let it down because of all the flyaways. I'd put it up but I forgot to stash a hairstick in my purse this weekend. The jumper, like so many of my skirts, come to mid-calf. I think it's because I'm short & often too lazy to hem them.

Ramadan ends today. FYI, if you didn't know already.

Well, that's just spiffy. Due to a personal-type emergency I'm heading home now. Bleah.

And today is Rut's last day, too. I'll miss him.

I stayed a little late on Friday & caught up on typing my writing. Yeah, me. Then I hurried home to watch tv & clean the living room. I was supposed to spend Saturday working on it but if I worked on it at least some on Friday, then Chris would take me shopping Saturday, without the guilt trip.

We ended up looking at stoves for close to 2 hours. Our oven element died (we know it's the element because broil still works) a month ago. If we can't replace it/fix it, then we need a new oven. We went to Sears because they are trying to recover their formerly sterling service record. We saw three that we liked. At the bottom end, feature & price-wise is the model for $649, on sale. At the top end was the Maytag for $1299. In between was the $899 model, on sale. The salesman gave us the 800 number to call about the part. The website did not list the part 'no part found' so the phone call was our last resort before making a purchase. Since the sale on the 1st one & the no-interest special on the second ended on Saturday we had to hurry to make a decison. We are buying a part & fixing our current oven. That's a good thing, really. Much as we'd like a new one, with a ceran, flat-top stove, it's better to fix the old & keep using it than to replace it before necessary.

The JC Penney sale was not as good as we remember it. There were a lot of things it did not apply to, including small appliances. Chris wants a new toaster, a smaller one. No sale? Then no sale.

I bought Timesplitters 2. I looked at Syberia but wanted a multi-player that Chris & I could play together. We got home, hooked up the second controller and played it. Favor point: male & female protagonists, disfavor point: what is that girl wearing in the first scene? They resemble pants but have straps covering the hips instead of fabric. Favor point: in the 2nd scene she's fully dressed, the only skin is what's showing between her clam diggers & her boots. Disfavor point: the targeting drifts. I'm lining up a shot on a door. Instead of aiming the gun/crosshairs & leaving it, I have to keep my thumb cocked just so to keep it lined up & try to shoot with the forefinger of the same hand. If my thumb twitches, say because I'm squeezing my forefinger, then my shots go wild. For those of us with smaller hands this is an even greater concern. It's not easy to keep my thumb cocked just so and squeeze the trigger.

After we died a few times on that (once I blew Chris away, I mistook him for a bad guy), we played Halo. Chris started a new character with me. Unfortunately, they did not give us the 'getting used to your equipment' phase. Instead we jumped straight into the running & fighting. I had fun driving the warthog. I found a cliff with it once. Crash! Oops, time to respawn. We made it through the first mission & then stopped to eat supper. We had literally played for most of the afternoon, well, okay, it was only 4 or so hours.

Sunday it was off to grocery shop after I worked on the living room & dining room. I cleaned up the detritus of my cleaning. Okay, it was mostly, this bag of books goes to the basement. This group of presents goes with the other ones in the basement & so forth. Then we went grocery shopping.

No matter what, our grocery shopping takes an hour, then putting them away takes 20 minutes. We had breakfast/brunch at the Pizza Inn buffet & made it home with time to finish clearing the dining room table & to vacuum the dining room & the living room. I was finishing up the vacuuming when Joe & Mike showed. I had finished when Rosemary made it. Richard was the last to arrive but he was only a little late.

We played the third session of our Forgotten Realms campaign. This is the almost Freaks & Geeks game. We have a tiefling, an aasimar, & a half-drow. Of the other two characters, one claims to be a priest of Mystra but although he prays for spells, he has not been blessed with him (maybe that's because he's a monk, not a cleric). The other one is a downright normal elf ranger. The game so far is a straight-forward old-fashioned dungeon crawl. Richard was feeling sleepy so I made him a cup of my new stay-awake tea from Sacred Grove Apothecary. He said that it's marvelous. I have yet to have reason to use it, myself.

After the game, Richard left to go have supper with his wife, Kathy, while Joe & Mike left to find supper of their own. Chris & I peeled shrimp & he stir-fried them in teriyaki sauce with scallops and mixed vegetables. He also cooked corn on the cob for Rosemary & I. Rosemary wanted to watch Cold Case but it never came on. The football game delayed 60 Minutes & we ended up watching that while we waited. Once we learned that Cold Case wasn't coming on we watched the last hour of Robin Hood: Men in Tights instead.

All in all, a good weekend.

I only have a couple minutes, quick notes: when the steak is very thin, only cook it for 7 minutes; Lipton's Asian noodles rock & thank goodness for teriyaki marinade.

Another day, another...how much do I make again?

I did not get any writing done at lunch but I did have a chance to sit & talk with Metra. We haven't had a chance to do that since before the State Fair. She told me about the LARP that she was in at MACE. It sounds like she had a great time.

As soon as I got home last night, I tossed off my boots & socks & curled up on the couch under a blanket, the afghan my dad gave me years ago. I read & watched tv.

When Chris got home he made supper. He cooked chicken breasts in teriyaki sauce & made teriyaki noodles (it's a pre-made pouch thing, add water & cook). It was delicious. There was none leftover for my lunch today so I had leftover spaghetti instead.

This morning I finished The Twilight Before Christmas by Feehan. That's the 3rd book. I won't read the 4th one. It's a present. I am so tempted to start wrapping things now, just to get them done.

Mom called last night. She's coming to visit me the Saturday after T-day. Unless I call & cancel because I've succumbed to illness. She says that she'll help me clean up. We'll see.

Gonna start with a daily (or as often as I post) what I'm wearing. Basically because I love textiles & clothes.
Today: thigh-high black boots under black, button down the front cotton skirt, paired with a nylon/polyester surplice blouse with flutter petal sleeves & a tie at the waist on the left. I have my hair pulled back in the silver clip I bought at the Ren Festival and my other jewelry consists of a silver flattened 'rope' band on my right hand, a flower ring on my left, long dangling seed bead earrings in black with a couple in copper, and a black & 'jet' collar necklace. Plus, since it's cold in the office a plum, knit cape.

I bought some make up from reflect.com. It's part of my 'holiday' package. Plus I bought some thread to work on Anitra's present. I hope to give her 3 balls of small tatting thread that I've dyed. I think, 1 red, 1 green & 1 blue. I think.

Time to go. I'd like to get some writing done.

I'm almost dry. At least, I'm down to damp. The dampness has penetrated my socks though & my feet feel soooo cold. I drank the last of the Bohea that I have here at work. I'll take my little container home & put more loose tea in it.

Despite all that I do, that cold/whatever is still lingering. Getting nigh onto soaked today & then sitting around in damp clothes probably did not help. C'est la vie. Nothing I could do about it. I spent my money on books last night & do not have more to go buy clothes at the student store.

I bought Hawkins Confessions of a Scoundrel (which turns out to be the latest about the St. John brothers instead of the one previous to An Affair to Remember), Feehan's Dark Melody & one about the next Drake sister by her, plus one book present. Shhh, it's a secret.

I'm heading home now. To maybe take a hot bath or shower & definitely to change into my nice toasty warm slipper-sockes.

I was out in that. For maybe 10 minutes. Part of those 10 minutes were spent sheltering under the overhang at Greenlaw. Despite that, I am soaked up to, well, the entire length of my pants legs, plus the back of the chambray shirt I was wearing up to the waist.

I cancelled my lunch with Julie. She works in another building, next to mine but then I'm next to Greenlaw. Much as I'd love to see her, it's not worth it.

So I'll eat my desk today & take a short lunch. Since I took a slightly long one yesterday, this is not a problem. I'm eating leftovers. We went to Bandido's last night, another RSVVP restaurant. Unusually, they took so long to deliver our entrees that I ate a few tortilla chips & only managed to eat half my enchilada. Guess what I'm eating for lunch!

Today's news of the day:
Special Weather Statement - SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR DURHAM COUNTY VALID FROM WED NOV 19 2003 10:14 AM EST UNTIL WED NOV 19 2003 11:30 AM EST.
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC 1009 AM EST WED NOV 19 2003 ...STRONG SHOWERS WILL GUSTY WINDS WILL MOVE ACROSS PERSON... ALAMANCE...ORANGE...DURHAM...WAKE...RANDOLPH...CHATHAM...LEE... HARNETT...MOORE...CUMBERLAND...HOKE AND SCOTLAND COUNTIES THROUGH 1130 AM EST... AT 1009 AM EST...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED STRONG SHOWERS WITH GUSTY WINDS ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM JUST WEST OF BURLINGTON TO SILER CITY AND LAURINBURG...MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH. SOME LOCATIONS AFFECTED BY THESE STORMS INCLUDE...DURHAM...RALEIGH... CHAPEL HILL...PITTSBORO...HILLSBOROUGH...LILLINGTON...AND ROXBORO. GUSTY WINDS OF 30 TO 40 MPH...SMALL HAIL AND DANGEROUS CLOUD-TO-GROUND LIGHTNING CAN BE EXPECTED WITH THESE THUNDERSTORMS. A TORNADO WATCH IS ALSO IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON.

Tornado Watch - AREAL OUTLINE FOR TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 967 HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR DURHAM VALID FROM WED NOV 19 2003 07:26 AM EST UNTIL WED NOV 19 2003 01:00 PM EST.
...IN THE PIEDMONT AND SANDHILLS... ALAMANCE ANSON CABARRUS CASWELL CHATHAM CLEVELAND CUMBERLAND DAVIDSON DAVIE DURHAM FORSYTH FRANKLIN GASTON GRANVILLE GUILFORD HARNETT HOKE IREDELL LEE LINCOLN MECKLENBURG MONTGOMERY MOORE ORANGE PERSON RANDOLPH RICHMOND ROCKINGHAM ROWAN SCOTLAND STANLY STOKES UNION VANCE WAKE WARREN YADKIN

I ate sushi at Kurama today for lunch. It's RSVVP day so I'm eating out. The restaurant, the ones who've volunteered, give V (5%) + V (5%) of their proceeds to feed the hungry (Food Bank, that sort of thing). I was a bad girl & stuffed myself. Their udon (fish broth soup with stuff like egg, seaweed & stuff with lots of thick noodles) is very good. I also had inari, fake crab & something that was mostly rice & very cheap ($1. for 6 pieces).

I've stayed a little late to get some typing done. I haven't written anything today, yet. But I've typed over a 1000 words. Yay me.

Weird site of the day. Look for an unusual addition to the instructions.

Gaming last night, advanced dungeons & dragons, v.3.5, run by my SO, Chris. I play a half-elf druid of Obad-hai; Rosemary plays her half-sister, a human paladin/bard of Brigid; David, the latecomer to the game, plays the dwarf monk; John plays the human fighter/archer/sorcerer or wizard; & Christopher plays the human rogue/wizard/cop. We cleansed the final temple & by converting the portals to fire instead of darkness killed most of the army attacking the city. Okay, backstory: all of our PC's upset someone, so we got sent out to the back end of civilization to patrol. We found an enemy, which was a surprise. We also found a war. About the same time we found a huge underground city, parts of it inhabited by very nasty individuals & groups. We took care of a couple of them & we found an ally or two.

Our new task: explore & find allies. We ended up on the other side of the mountains & found an elven community/civilization. They were suffering because someone/thing was killing all of their spellcasters. Our two multi-class wizards were immediately the highest arcane spellcasters in the city. Besides us there was 1 20th level cleric, a 2nd level one, a 1st level one & a couple paladins. That's it. We found (got found by) the construct assassin & tracked it back to the 2nd level, ooops, I mean 11th level cleric. Tracked him after he fled the city & found an old temple to Obad-hai with a portal under it.

And we found the army of evil cloaked in darkness that was approaching. Turns out that there were at least 3 more of those temples, each with a portal under it. The bad guys had transferred the portal opening to darkness & then linked it to the sky above the army, giving the undead, etc shelter from the sun/light. So, we, brave volunteers that we are (well, we do have a paladin with us, & a monk), said that we would go & cleanse the portals. When the paladin transferred the portals to channeling fire instead, that killed 3/4 of the army. Only golems & constructs are left.

Next we get to try & kill what's left of the command structure. Wheee.

Is that clearer now?

Last night I had a very vivid dream & since no one probably reads this, it's safe to relate here. It starts out I'm socializing with the fair folks at the end of a season/run in Greensboro. I'm talking to 2 of the performers, both women from England. One of them is complaining about how bad G'boro is to drive around & I concur, telling them that I grew up here. Then I tell them my mom's story about asking for directions when she first moved to G'boro.

Meanwhile, a couple of boys (performers or children of performers) are playing in the maze. They have the clue book but since they are non-native English speakers, they get confused & lost. The maze & clues are very Amero/Anglo-centric. While looking for them, one of the other people found something that he had been looking for, an antique carved statue/wood of Napoleon. BTW, we are not in Greensboro anymore. Inside the statue, this British gentleman found a map of the world, early 19th century (say 1810) hidden & untouched, in near pristine condition. It had only a bit of browning here & there to attest to its age. The Frenchman who had been looking for the same statue & map showed up, with soldiers.

Suddenly, I'm back on the island in the early 1800's. The British captain, who has just delivered the statue sees me & from my short cap of hair knows that there is something....uncommon about me. I sit on the arm of a chair, swinging one leg as I explain to him that I'm from the future. The French governor or whatever shows up & they start fighting. Then the pirates attack. Since I'm not in the paperwork anywhere, the pirates don't know that I'm on the island. So the 2 leaders hide me. I'm hidden with both/either the French treasure & the British treasure. Both are hidden in secret hollow cabinets in the portions of the walls, right across from each other actually. Since I moved from one to the other, I see them both. The French one has carvings, there's one whole shelf/drawer of jade chunks & carvings, another of different gems. I comment to myself, "It's a good thing I'm honest, because that's really tempting."

Meanwhile the pirates are gathering up all inhabitants of the island. At this point, I'm almost hiding under an overhang in the wall, the gallery goes up 3 floors with balconies/walkways overhead. One pirate, African ethnic, might be able to see me, I can see him. I try not to stare at him. The women, all of them in sight are of African heritage, many of them panicky because they are about to be sold as slaves. They fear, rightly, what the pirates are going to do to them. Ethnicity has no weight, it simply is. What matters is that the pirates are pirates & the island's inhabitants aren't.
Luckily about that point, I woke up.

Ren Festival: bought lots of stuff, 2 ear clips one with white fiber optic beads & one with hematite; black leather strip & silver bead hair wrap (I'm wearing it today); 3 feather & bead/stone & ribbon hair clips - one for Hailey, 1 for Amanda & 1 for Nora; hair barrette from the Bronze Rose; schwing pendant in silver; Ren Festival shirt & mug; leather reticule; Chris bought me & Rosemary a rose & the leather/bead hair thing- hers is blue; belly dancing music cd; wood flapping dragon for Leela - it's a mobile kind of thing, pull its feet & the wings flap; stay awake tea; & of course food & drink. They served the mead warm because it was such a cold day. I had one sip of Rosemary's, bought none for myself.

I had an apple turnover & hot chai to begin the day. Totally not seeing Russ as I walked by. I also ate chili in a bread bowl. Didn't care for that chili recipe, it was edible but not something I want to eat twice. Come to think of it, that may be all that I ate at the fair other than some cinnamon coated roast nuts.

We went & saw the Middle Eastern dancers, the mud show, part of the young fire eater, Dextre Trippe, part of the Tortuga Twins, & the Middle Eastern dancers with swords. I ran into Chris H. & another friend whose name I cannot recall, but I have her email & I emailed her yesterday. I missed Don though. That's a bummer.

I talked to the couple who have the leather mug booth. Due to personal reasons, they will be missing most of the fair season next year. I'm quite bummed about that. But I did get a chance to socialize with them this year.

Ah well, time for work again.

I have had an immense headache all afternoon. I managed to get within 3 newspapers of being caught up, despite that.

I had a great time at the Renaissance Festival on Saturday. I will type in full details tomorrow, when hopefully my head won't hurt so much.

Two of the sites that I visit daily (I'm learning how to link pages, bear with me): Hungersite et al
and
Care2.com races

Cool, it worked.

Random website of the day:
http://www.iq-test.dk/

it's a 40 minute/39 question symmetry/pattern recognition IQ test. I made 118 on it, partially because I got bored & just clicked semi-randomly on the last few.

TGIF & it's payday. Too bad I'm not getting direct deposit, at least until they process the paperwork that I'm changing banks/accounts.

I went & got my flu shot. It took much longer to get there than it did to get the actual shot. The ACC (Ambulatory Care Center) is on the far southern end of campus, past, way past the hospital, about as far as the Dean Dome, or at least Hinton James Dorm is from the rest of campus. I took the bus to the hospital & then walked, at a brisk pace, hoping I could remember where the heck the building is. I was maybe 2 minutes late for my appointment. All things considered that is darn good.

The lady/nurse/medical type person who shot me up turned out to be an old customer from Piece Goods. Took her a minute to realize where she recognized me, since I was not in a smock & it's been 7 years.

Gah, but it's cold out today. The wind of course makes it seem even colder. You know, I have proved, again, that if you are warm when you go out in the cold, you do not perceive quite how cold it is.

I did not get my writing done last night. However, Chris & I bought the tickets for the Ren Festival tomorrow, the one near Concord, and we ate supper at a new place. It's been there for at least a couple years but we've never been. Chris really liked their spicy mustard, definitely not out of some packet. To each their own. Their moo shu is good. I ate 3 of the 4 & took the last one home for leftovers. Maybe I'll eat that for breakfast in the morning.

I think I should have worn the thigh high boots today. The leggings under my skirt just aren't enough, not if lunch was anything to go by. I knew the temperature was going to drop, so I brought a sweater to add to my layers. But the wind was biting through my skirt & leggings, so I froze from the hips down.

I tried to write at lunch but after the wind seized my pad of paper & flung it off the table, I gave up. I'll write tonight. I have a goal of 500 words a day, six days a week. The seventh day, I shall edit. How very biblical of me.

Artist of the day: Deidre Flint

I love her boob fairy song. The lyrics.

These are just funny, ads for Pink's new album

Check out the Baby Carriage TV Spot:
http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/baby_carriage_128.asx
http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/baby_carriage_128.mov
http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/baby_carriage_128.ram

Check Out The Dysfunction TV Spot:
http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/sexual_dysfunction_128.asx
http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/sexual_dysfunction_128.mov http://media.bmgonline.com/aristarec.com/pink/video/sexual_dysfunction_128.ram

*snarl mildly* I broke my right index fingernail Sunday. As in, if I let it break completely off it will take skin with it. So I put a band-aid (adhesive plaster) to hold it on & protect it. This fabric one is staying on real well, had it since Monday. But I cannot tat with it on. I need to wait a minimum of one week before even peeking to see how the nail is doing. *sigh*

On the bright side, I found that missing shuttle case. It was tucked into my purse. Since I checked that pocket at least twice, I wonder how it got there.

2nd try:

New one
Website is: http://www.yetanotherdot.com/asp/80s.html

I am back from Hochcon (sound of much rejoicing). It was a lovely drive to McLean, Va. Which, btw, can be made in 4.5 hours, plus half an hour meal break.

I played several RolePlaying Gamers Association Living Greyhawk adventures, including one battle interactive. I played my secondary & tertiary characters for that campaign. The secondary one is now down to 1 time unit, military and has now survived 3 modules, including a double round one, at 5th level. FYI, that's Reed, my wood elf CatTail cleric/fighter, combat specialist, spellcaster corps in the Gran March army. The tertiary one, Edana Tiernan, is now 3rd level and has a leadership commendation. It's kind of a sad thing when the Combat Specialist (who only outranks the enlisted, even corporals outrank her) rogue in the Scout corps is the ranking military person at the table. So, Edana, the blond halfling on her first military mission was giving orders. That is just so wrong. I played her in 4 out of the 6 games that I played, so she saw quite a bit of action this weekend.

Driving back from McLean, I slept most of the way. I was not the one driving so you can relax. Even with that I felt exhausted through yesterday. I'm finally starting to feel better. I think I'm trying to kick another cold, which doesn't help. I bought some echinacea/zinc lozenges in Falls Church, VA before we started back. They taste nasty, but they seem to work/help.

Haven't heard from Diana yet as to why she didn't show for gaming on Monday. Since she's running, we didn't play. Instead, we talked a bit, Rosemary drank coffee to wake up for her drive home and Chris played Halo.

I went to bed at 9:30 last night. Still didn't want to wake up this morning. Since I have gaming tonight I'd better kick that. I stayed at work a little late last night. I did the in character posts for Reed to the CatTail mailing list. One of them is kinda funny. No response yet, though.

Time to get more work done. It's been a busy day. Being able to think helps.

Per http://bdmonkeys.net/~chaz/battle.php

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Lo! Who is that, striding through the mini-mall parking lot! It is Sewicked, hands clutching a vorpal blade! And with an ominous roar, her voice cometh:

"I'm going to flog you all the way to Uranus, and dip you in uranium!"

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Lo! Who is that, striding through the mini-mall parking lot! It is Sewicked, hands clutching a vorpal blade! And with an ominous roar, her voice cometh: "I'm going to flog you all the way to Uranus, and dip you in uranium!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

*snarl* BMAC & other noises of complaint & irritation.

I got stopped up in stop & roll traffic on 15-501 towards Pittsboro last night. The last 1.5 mile before my storage facility [1] took 20+ minutes. I get home. I start to do my laundry & realize, the only detergent we have is what a friend left when he borrowed the use of our washer when his was broken. Well, I have to pack tonight, so I went ahead & used some. I washed 2 loads (1 light & 1 dark). I even managed to get the light one completely done. The dark load was drying when I went to bed.

This morning: I kept waking up (2 am, 5 am, 5:30 am, until the alarm clock). Now I'm dragging. I comb out my hair before washing it (cuts down on the amount of hair that I shed in the shower) & get all that done. Luckily I had figured out what to wear last night. Chris, my bf, finally tells me what time we are leaving tomorrow morning, so I can plan what time to get up, etc. [2]

I grab a frozen dinner to eat for lunch & an ice cream cone for breakfast. This is usually safe because the bottom of the cone is plugged with chocolate so the ice cream doesn't leak. This morning, the cone broke. So I spilled/splashed chocolate all over the nice cream colored polo shirt I'm wearing. I'm so tempted to go buy a shirt [3] to wear today. *insert another snarl*

I finish the white test tatting,[4] Gullan by Blomquist & Persson, while I'm stopped in traffic on 54 this morning. The area where I usually park is full, I find another one not toooo far away. I start winding red thread on the shuttle while I wait for the bus. Get 1.5 ring done on the bus, it's a crowded morning, we're packed like canned sardines. I get off the bus, barely, and then learn that I dropped my shuttle case. The one Mike [5]made for me last year. And despite the fact that I left the house @ 7:15 I make it to the office at exactly 8 am instead of having at least a couple minutes to stow my lunch, turn on my computer, etc. *repeat snarl*

I called the bus company. No one's turned in my shuttle case yet. I left my number. Hopefully they'll call.

I'm catching up on the DTH I missed while I was out. I read to catch articles dealing with my department. I finished up to the 30th yesterday. Today I can't find the paper for the 31st.

Please let this day improve. I wonder if part of the problem is the weather. Normally I don't mind the drizzly weather....but it may be a contributing factor.

[1] the one where I rent a locker

[2] We're going to Hochcon, a gaming convention in Virginia. Leaving tomorrow, coming back Monday.
[3] that involves going over to student stores & trying to find a UNC polo shirt. Guesstimate: $30.

[4] I'm trying to figure out what edging to use on the dress that I'm buying for next State Fair. So I'm testing a few patterns to see what I like. Gullan is kind of plain. I'll use it to trim the jacket I wore yesterday. Inga looks nice. I did 2 repeats of it in red yesterday.

[5] Mike Lowe, the leathercrafter at the Village of Yesteryear

Mental note: never 'read just one more chapter' of a good book before going to bed. I read until 1 am. The book was Pyramid Scheme by Flint & Freer (?). Since I'm gaming tonight until about 10 or 11pm, this was not the brightest thing to have done. I started the day with 8 oz of soda & had 16 more at lunch. I indulged myself & ate sushi again for lunch.

Tonight I play a zero round of Living Kalamar. They need a 4th person & I didn't have plans for tonight. I'll be able to run it for Chris, Rosemary & maybe Richard & Kathy at a later date. I'm meeting Joe Jungers after work, we'll buy supper on the way. I have no idea who else is playing or who is running the game. Wheee!

I've never worked with powerpoint very much. Now I'm trying to develop an organizational chart in it. ARGH! I came very close to deleting it & starting over today. But I haven't reached that point. Yet.

Last night's gaming went pretty well. We (Rosemary's character Brianna) finished cleansing the 2nd portal, apparently it's linked to fire again/now. Then we found the 3rd portal. It's the same set up. An old Nature-based church in ruins with the portal in a secret room underneath. Problem: this church's valley had filled with water. A 250 foot, cold, lake/pond that had murky water is what it was. Luckily my character had heard of porpoises, wildshaped into one and was able to investigate. Kelis, my character, found the undead & we avoided them. We reached the front door & Chris stopped there. We expect some sort of combat inside the church. Question is: with what? We'll find out in 2 weeks.

And one additional note: I weighed myself this morning. I had gained 1/2 a pound when I weighed myself on the 28th, and today I'm 2 pounds down from that. I have now lost 25 pounds since May 1st. Since I ate a lot of cake & candy on Friday & Saturday, I think being sick helped with that weightloss thing.

It's Monday. I just sucked down 16 ounces of diet coke, and I still don't feel awake. Hopefully, this will not last. Thank goodness I have reminders on my calendar to remind me of time sensitive tasks.

The last weekend of the fair was great fun, but boy was I tired. Saturday, Sharon Hill, a seamstress in the Village, loaned me a dress to wear. This was a good thing as my silk blouse was still drying & the substitute was less than satisfactory. The dress is a reproduction of an 1810 dress & it is comfortable & flattering. Sharon & I both benefited. I went to buy a new garment, something to extend my Village wear and she offered to make that dress. I got to see if the dress would be comfortable, etc while I tatted and I was a model so that other Village craftswomen could see how the dress looks on someone who isn't slim. I need to check my fabric stash for 5 yards of suitable calico & 4 yards of a coordinating calico for the apron/pelisse. If I don't have it, I may buy some. Then I'll send it to Sharon & she & her daughter Beth will sew it for me. Then later I can make my own from that. Wheee! Lots of dresses. I got a picture of myself in that outfit too. Must send a copy to Mom.
(15 minutes & I'm still on hold)


Sunday night I helped Anitra & Steve pack the booth. Anitra & I slept in on Monday while Steve went to get the booth hardware, display case for the Village History display & breakfast. Steve took care of the birds, daily task, while Anitra & I went to the Fairgrounds to pick up our entries. (20 minutes & I'm off hold, whew). We stopped by the Village to say goodbye to the last folks packing up & to give 'drive by' hugs. Peter Blum & his sister were the first folks we saw. Wow, they look different in jeans. Then, everyone does. After we left the fairgrounds we stopped by Reader's Corner, after all, I had a 5 dollar check burning a hole in my pocket. That $5 is the 3rd place prize money in Infant's Wear, Other category.

I found a copy of Perfect Patchwork Primer, the book that inspired me to start quilting. I also found a copy of Diplomatic Immunity in hardback as well as War of Honor and some other assorted books. I bought a book on hemp braiding as a gift for Nora, Amanda or Hailey. The War of Honor isn't out in paperback yet (insert gloat). I spent more than I hoped but less than I feared at Reader's Corner.

I made it home about 1pm and started unpacking. Well, I got my dirty clothes out of my bag anyway. I settled down to read one of my new books & relax. About 3 pm my throat started hurting. Sure enough, I'd caught Anitra's cold.

Monday night, people finished their characters to test play Diana's supplement. I had finished mine but it disappeared so I wrote it again. Then we went through the first encounter. We'll finish it, hopefully, on the 10th.

I called in sick on Tuesday. Then I drank soup, hot tea, and lots of soda & juice. When I could I watched tv & read. Frankly, I was too tired to really pay attention to anything. Tuesday afternoon, I called in sick for Wednesday. Linda handled Tarheel Temps for me. Wednesday was a repeat of Tuesday, except I slept later. I took a 3-hour nap Wednesday afternoon, skipped gaming & went to bed at 10 pm.

I wasn't feeling any better, but no worse so I went to work on Thursday. The dayquil was worse than the cold. It made me feel dizzy, in addition to the sore throat, runny nose & sneezing. The zinc lozenges, while tasting nasty, did more good. According to my co-workers I was looking a little pale, even for me. I took care of some time sensitive tasks and then headed for home at 4pm. I stopped & mailed my latest letter to my mom. Thanks to an accident of Farrington Road I finally made it home at 6pm. Bleah.

Friday, I felt better, consumed more lozenges & actually stayed & worked until 5pm. I was all alone in the office. Mike, Ira & Jim are at a conference. Rut was in DC & Susan almost never comes to this office on Fridays. I picked up a little candy on the way home, changed into something vaguely costumey, and was ready to answer the door for Trick-or-Treaters.

We had 2 groups. The first one was two little girls; a fairy & a princess. The fairy complemented me on my braids; I had unbraided my hair & then re-braided two plaits next to my face. The 2nd group had 4 kids, one still a baby being carried, dressed as a bumblebee. The first child took all but two pieces of the candy I had. The 2nd child took the next to last piece & the 1st child took the last piece to put in the 3rd child's bag. Momma was not happy & told the 1st child to put that candy back. The child did so. When he put one back that wasn't mine, I told him to stop & gave it back to him. He was sooo cute. If I'd known that was the last group I would have let him keep the candy.

I was up later than I should have been, watching tv. So I slept late Saturday. Barely had enough time to clear the dining room table for gaming & go pick up Ted G. He's a student at State who was going to play in our session of Birthday Bash, RolePlaying Gamer's Association Living Greyhawk game. Since we were meeting him at Foundation's Edge, Chris picked up his comics & I bought Forgotten Realms: Underdark. We ended up with 6 players, Chris, Rosemary, Ted, Jenna, & Bill D. It was a fun game & not as bad as it could have been. But we had some close moments. My character, Nadia, is a senior squire, so she was mentoring Ted's character, Julia, a junior squire.

I basically changed clothes, ran out of the house & made it to the COTE board meeting barely on time. Anitra is still sick so she wasn't there. It was just Steve & I. So we worked on the lanterns for the ritual and then went & picked up supper from the Jade Garden. Steve had brought Digdug, a burrowing owl from Utah that had just arrived at the Refuge last week. Digdug was perching on his shoulder as I arrived & I did not see him/her until Steve brought my attention to him/her (we don't know which gender she is yet). Part of one wing is amputated from a car collision injury & Steve is training her/him to be an education bird. It's a very cute owl.

Things went well Saturday night. But I didn't leave until 11:30. So I called Chris & I crashed on Steve & Anitra's couch. Again. Their dog Siesta was glad to see me again so soon. Anitra & I caught up (on the whole week's worth of doings) and then off to sleep. Anitra drove me to my car on Sunday, I drove home, showered, dressed & made to Foundation's Edge in time to run my Ironclaw demo.

I had 3 players. One who had played my Jadeclaw demo and one guy who had the book but who had never played before. He had a character half-made and I helped him complete it. I ran until 6 pm & then headed home. Chris played Halo all day, so we had pizza delivered for supper. I went to bed early, 9 pm. Still had trouble waking up at 6 am.

It's a beautiful Monday morning & I will wake up at some point. It was almost 9 am before I saw anyone else from my department. I was feeling very lonely when Linda finally stopped by. I was just exclaiming about how alone I'd felt when Paula walked in, too. Very funny.

Off to more work type stuff.

I am feeling very brain dead.

I had great fun at the fair yesterday but I am very tired today. I was on the fairground by 8:40 am (it would have been earlier but I turned the wrong way to reach parking). I left about 10 pm. I would have been home by 10:40 but they had closed I40 westbound down to the shoulder 2 miles before my exit. Wheee! 12 minutes to drive 2 miles.

I spent lots of money. I bought food like hot dogs, honey cotton candy, maple cotton candy, fudge, deep-fried oreos (not so great), sodas to drink; presents for friends & co-workers; and some stuff for myself, like lip balm, beeswax & a plush bush baby. Although I may give the wax & the bushbaby to someone as a present.

I saw the pajamas that beat my booties for 1st place. The volunteer had to look for it. It is in a different cabinet (with the stuff on hangers). It is nice looking & very well-made, from what I could see.

I ran into people I know, like Mitzi & Stephanie. We sat & talked for awhile. Saw one of the guys who'd been working on this construction next to my office. I showed him & his wife the booties that I had made & made a tatted flower for her, to demonstrate tatting. My friend, Bill E. was working at the vegetables/fruit competition table of course. He was parked in front of the 1st place watermelon. I heard his spiel so many times I could repeat it word for word. Of course, I stopped & talked to a lot of people in the Village.

I took my time through the exhibition buildings. I saw the NC Wildlife's exhibit and the Agriculture tent and the Science tent (a lot of people from NC State). One little girl, a 9-year-old, demonstrated her Berry Banana smoothy, a way to get more fruit in one's diet & why that's a good thing. She gave out samples & the recipe. I'd like to try it with something substituted for the maraschino cherries.

I won a teddy bear & a butterfly from the Guessers. One of them did get my weight right, though that scale had better be wrong. One of them was close enough on my age. They all guessed that I'm in my 30's though. I need to wear a t-shirt & not a close-fitting turtleneck next time.

I did a couple errands on the Midway for people in the Village. Well, Beth's plumeria was in the Exhibit hall but Anne's flashing thingy was on the Midway. She wanted it for her magic wand. It's very, um, appropriate. She does a lovely, um Glenda the Good witch style fairy godmother thing. It's hard to describe unless you've seen her do it.

I missed the folk music (no watch), the blacksmith shop, NC State's milk/ice cream/shake & the Garden entries.

This morning is really cold. There was a light frost on my car. I wore a sweater & a jacket & I was still cold. I am still cold, even with a sweater over my blouse.

I listened saw Pink's new single Trouble. I like it. Here's a link to it
http://www.hyfntrak.com/pink/AFF708/
Click to launch player & then click on the video tab
The only problem is that the video is very good so it distracts me from the song. So I'm listening to the audio to catch all the words instead of most of them.

Okay it's noon. Where's Ashley? I want my lunch.

Missed the meeting on Employee Excellence Wednesday, between Ashely not showing up until 3:50 (meeting supposed to end at 4pm) & Mike remembering our meeting at 3:40, there was no way I could get away. I admit to being disappointed. But Mike & I did hammer out what to do about the new closet & some ideas about re-arranging the hall. Plus I talked to Ashley about what I wanted her to work on while I was out yesterday.

I found one of my Ren shirts (the one with the yard long sleeves) and my bodice. My bodice now meets easily in the back, that whole 20# less thing. I also discovered a huge grease spot on the front of my back-up Ren shirt. Luckily my raw silk one worked instead, under the bodice at least. The bodice hid the blouse's buttons.

While Chris worked night call Friday night, I packed my bags; one for clothes, a small tote for tatting & my fanny pack holding purse-type stuff like checkbook, driver's license, money, cell phone & lip balm. I also packed 2 of the books that I bought at the Bullshead, thanks to the 25% off for staff sale. I read a little of Monstrous Regiment in between a little tv. I headed for bed a little after 10:30. Anitra called me to let me know to show up early at their house because they planned to leave for the fair by 8:30 am due to parking issues. The Village of Yesteryear doesn't open until 10 am & they don't have to be in place until about 9:45 am.

I stuffed Ruis, the plush raccoon I won at the fair last year, to sleep with at Steve & Anitra's house in my bag at the last minute. I woke up at 5:44 am. Why? I don't know. But that did mean that I had plenty of time to shower, get dressed, read a little & still leave the house at 7:40 am. I was still half asleep so I took Wade Ave to 440 to Capitol instead of taking 540 to Capitol. Oh well, I still made it to their house in just over 40 minutes. I would have been faster but I stopped at a stop & rob for a diet vanilla pepsi & some banana nut bread for breakfast.

We made it to the fairgrounds in good time. And some nice soul had brought home-made bread to the break room. I ate a partial slice of the banana nut, half a slice of the pumpkin & the orange. They were delicious. The weather was gorgeous & the fair was packed. I started on some little pieces in the bright yellow. I made one for Linda B, a tiny cross. I'm planning to try & give all the Village 'kids' a little tatted item. So far I've made a 6-pointed star w/ gold beads, a pair of candles, a lopsided cross (no one will be getting that, I believe), a bell, a gingerbread man in yellow & orange & an angel. I got so sick of yellow by Sunday.

Steve & Anitra fed me (they usually do on Fair weekends) & we all crashed when we got to their house Saturday night. Since her layoff in March & only finding part-time work since, Anitra has been under a lot of stress. As a result, she was tired starting Friday. Plus, since she's part-time she's at the fair on leave without pay. Sales have not been abysmal (last year was simply horrid) but they haven't been outstanding either. We demonstrated a lot & gave away a lot of those 4 picot flowers.

We use multi-color knit-cro-sheen to demo and it makes pretty flowers. People really appreciate it them, too, especially the kids.

One couple, Asian perhaps Chinese, whose son watched Anitra & I for quite awhile a couple years ago (we remembered his face), had their picture taken with us. I'm not certain why their son wantd a picture of his parents w/ Anitra & I, but we didn't mind posing for it. I always kind of wonder about these people who are visiting from other countries who come to the State Fair. Why did they come? What do they think of it? Anitra said that a lot of them have relatives in the area & they time their visit to coincide with the fair. I still wonder though. Anitra learned the Swedish word for tatting from one of those foreign visitors.

I filled in for Carrie Croghan last night so she could leave her booth & go eat supper. She makes these lovely knitted caps, shawls, and gloves. I wish I could afford one of those shawls. Last night she was making (for the 2nd time, the 1st one had been Saturday) a dog's sweater. This one was for a chihuahua; the owner brought him by the booth for measurements so that Carrie could knit the sweater allowing for his 'anatomy.' Carrie wasn't back from fetching her supper when I checked for her in the break room but she showed up soon afterward. Much to my relief. He was a cute dog but still. Carrie had started the sweater & she checked for fit over the little dog's head. It was perfect & it looked good on him. He was a pale dog with 'cow spots' and the black yarn with the multi-color/fawn threads contrasted/complemented him nicely. He was okay with the strands of pink in the yarn, according to his owner, because 'he's secure in his masculinity.'

This is already a really long post. I'll add more either later today or tomorrow, depending on my energy level. Oh, this weekend I wrote a letter to my mom, finally replying to her letter from late September & wrote another entry in the journal for Leela.

I still can't find my two Ren shirts (the ones I've been looking to wear this weekend). So I'll need to work on my back up shirt tonight. I have one more place to look for the bodice that I made. If I can't find it, then oh well, my loss. My friend Metra may have a bodice to loan me. She's going to try & locate it. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I finished March Upcountry last night & started March to the Sea. I'll pick up Monstrous Regiment after work or on a break. I would get it at lunch but we (Angela, Linda, Cheryl & maybe Paula) are going to McAllister's for lunch today.

Chris connected his Xbox last night & played Halo for awhile. He seems to like it. He's threatened that he'll make me play it. He's going to look for more games at Edward McKay's this weekend, specifically Mech Assault.

I had trouble getting up this morning. As a result I have not had breakfast. I need to go get some cash & buy something.

My but paint fumes are certainly pungent. I have the office door opens & that helps, but it still is trying to give me a headache. There was a right nip to the air this morning. Even the light jacket wasn't quite enough. I declined to get a heavier jacket because I suspect that the light jacket will be more than I need this afternoon.

I finished Ashes of Victory last night, although I skimmed quite a bit. Now I've started March Upcountry by Weber & Ringo. Next I'll read March to the Sea. I'm ordering March to the Stars from the Bullshead Bookshop. I'll hopefully get it in time for the staff & faculty sale on Wednesday.

No storage trip today. Linda will be going without me next week (I have the day off & I'm going to the Fair). Then sometime the week after that we'll be taking the last year's boxes out there. Have I mentioned 'whee' yet?

I did in fact look for my clothes last night, the ones that I'll need to wear this weekend. I found the skirt (not hard, I wear that one a lot). I found my back-up shirt, and a possible last ditch blouse. I did not find my bodice (it's too short but it's better than nothing) or my other 2 blouses. I put the last load of clothes in the dryer, so that's only 3 tasks I did not work on last night. I do have an excuse. I still was not feeling 100%.

Note to self: do not start the day with 4 glasses of juice. My system has been upset all day today as a result. Mind, the paint fumes from next door probably aren't helping.

Yesterday's task list:
Laundry: 1+ load in dryer, last load in washer (Most of the load in-between went to line dry instead of in the dryer)
Clothes: not looked for
Adventure: started writing it
Supplement: did not
Tatting: did not

But I finished In Enemy Hands. And I spent so much time in the bathroom today that I finished Echoes of Honor.

This week I am (to misquote the Bard) 'eating well but not wisely'. I'm eating whatever I feel like this week. I may gain a pound or two but right now, I just don't care. I will care when I weigh myself on Monday. Next week I'm going to the State Fair so I'll be lucky not to gain a pound or two that week as well. C'est la vie. I'll worry about it after the Fair.

Since the activities for the Students for the Advancement of Race Relations week in the Pit were rained out, the assorted a cappella groups performed in Lenoir instead. They sang just upstairs from the Ram Cafe. Since I ate lunch 11:40 to 12:40 I got to hear about 4 groups. Very nice but some of them need to either learn for the back up to sing quieter or the front singer to sing louder.

I'm finished with FBMO 90's for another month (yeah!). Actually, I'm finished for more than a month. Someone else is learning to do them next month so I don't have to do them.

I got a lot done at work today. It just feels like I didn't. I only have to look at my reminder page to know that I accomplished quite a bit. My reminder page is a sheet of scrap paper that I use to do things like take phone messages, until I'm ready to copy them neatly onto phone message slips; write reminders of tasks; write out thoughts about the tasks I need to do; & so on. If nothing else, it's a good use of faxed spam.

OneCard IT brought me Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I don't know where they got them but now there is only 1 left out of the 10 that they brought this morning. I love Krispy Kreme, but I'm glad that other people came & ate them too. I do not need to eat 10 doughnuts all by myself.

I had sushi again for lunch today. I just wasn't in the mood for the frozen dinner that I brought. It's rainy/misty/drizzly & I'm going to head home.

My stomach has finally recovered from Sunday night's abuse. I left work early, went home, drank lots of soda & sat & nibbled. It's amazing how much that helped. I also ran the dishwasher, started laundry & took out the trash. Instead of cooking meat for burritos, we had Pizza Inn pizza. Chris picked it up on his way home.

I finished Flag in Exile duh. Plus I watched a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica, ones that I'd seen before & even remembered. They had the 2 part Count Iblis story. Sheba was played by Amelia Flockhart, now I'm wondering if she's Callista Flockhart's mom. There is a resemblance.

We were supposed to playtest the adventure that Diana wrote last night. Joe & Rosemary didn't make it so we watched Josie & the Pussycats and played Munchkin. Diana had never seen 'the greatest movie ever'. Afterwards we loaned it to her so she could show Colt, her SO. John came in late in the movie so he saw the end. We had Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure running in the background while we played Munchkin. I won, btw. It was close though. It took effort to prevent Chris from winning, he was one monster kill away. That's a fun little game.

I stayed up too late again. I have got to get to bed on time tonight. I need my rest. I also need to start taking my vitamin C. I'm going to be exposed to how many thousands of people this weekend?

Tasks:
Finish laundry (1 load out of dryer, 1 into it & 1 into washer)
Find clothes for this weekend (costume: US colonial era)
Tat more to get my fingers in condition
Work on game supplement
Work on game adventure (writing it)

And I've lost another pound. I'm down to 169.5#. I'm wearing a skirt I put away as too small. Yeah! Soon I'll be down to a healthy weight again (~130#).

Chris & Rosemary enjoyed the R.E.M. Concert (anyone know what those letters stand for?) Friday night. Or so Chris told me on Saturday.

I bought Chris's Xbox at Electronic Boutique in Southpoint mall on Friday night, a manufacturer's refurbished one, & a year's warranty for it. Then I stopped by home to put on warmer clothes (change to skirt, slip, leggings & thigh-high boots) & went to PNO. I took a bottle of soda, the remains of the snack food from the Dining Board meeting (there are only so many rice krispy squares I can & should eat), and a tarot deck.

Some good friends whom I haven't seen in a while were there. Garrett showed, Chris H. was there, ditto Don. Of course, Anitra & Steve were there. I met Laura & Scott, newcomers who brought an absolutely faboo vegetable pot pie made with filo dough. There were a couple other newcomers, but I can't remember their names, or if I ever heard them. Mitzi was there for a short time and one girl I know, whose name I cannot remember. Ben & his wife...whose name also escapes me...came by. We stood around on the porch, ate & talked. It was lighter outside, streetlights you know, than inside, plus it was cooler without being cold. Although, that may simply be my impression since I kept fairly warm thanks to my layers. I headed home at 10 pm but read until about 1 am.

This weekend, by skimming, I have read The Honor of the Queen, The Short, Victorious War, Field of Dishonor, 1633, & part of On a Wicked Dawn. Plus I read a little of Call of the 1st Rider.

Saturday errands:
Find character for Richard's game
Adjust character for Rosemary's game (add 5 points of skills)
Wrap Chris's present
Buy paper to wrap Chris's present
Buy supplies to make display for baby booties
Make display
Enter tatted baby booties at State Fairgrounds

I found my character for Richard's game, which we play 2nd Saturday of the month in Morrisville usually at 1pm. He's running a Kalamar, AD&D 3.0 campaign. I just looked in my Kalamar book & there it was. I put the character sheet in a top loading sheet protector & put it in my home games notebook. Easier to find that way.

I figured out that there was one errand I did not have to do. I needed paper to wrap Chris's present, however when I checked the wrapping paper, etc supplies I found a gift bag that was just the right size.

I went to Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft Stores (they asked me to change it to the longer name) to get the supplies to properly display my State Fair entry, tatted baby booties. I bought felt, a circle of plastic canvas, invisible thread & ribbon. Turns out the white ribbon made the booties look dingy so I checked my supplies & found some pastel lavender ribbon that worked fine. I sewed circles of black felt over the plastic canvas using the invisible thread. That was a bigger pain that I expected. I cut one circle the exact size of the canvas & then realized that it would work better if the felt was a little larger than the canvas. I cut the next circle a little larger but went ahead & used the smaller circle. It worked out. I stuffed the booties with scraps of felt, sewed them to the circle with the invisible thread. They can be lifted to be examined but they won't fall off. Then I threaded the ribbon & tied little bows. Chris came home a little late, so we didn't leave home until 12:30.

Guess what! There was a State Game Saturday (fyi if you are not from NC & don't know, the State Fairgrounds are just down the road from the NC State campus). Fortunately we were early enough that the cops were out but the traffic signals were still applicable. Here's another funny thing. There was one other person submitting entries, bears that she had made, in the entire building at the time that I entered. There were at least a half-dozen volunteers, each one handles different categories. What are the odds that the only other person there to submit needs the same volunteer? Pretty good apparently. Our entries are in neighboring categories, so I had to wait for her to be done for the volunteer to take my entry.

Chris & I made it to the game at 1:30. All told, not bad. I did call Kathy, Richard's wife, to tell her that we were going to be late. We played until 4:30, then broke off before the next stage in the game.

Chris had to show Rosemary something at work so we drove to Misys. I waited in the car while they went up to her computer. I sat & duh, read. Then it was off to home, where I took a nap. Chris cooked spaghetti. We watched tv, I read & then cleaned up the dining room table so that we could play there Sunday. I stayed up too late reading, again.

Sunday: Chris & I went grocery shopping then went to eat lunch at Firebird Grill at Southpoint. We almost went to Rockfish but I persuaded Chris that what I wanted was a cheeseburger & I'd get that at Firebird. Home in time to pick up the living room a little. I was wearing a skirt over leggings & my thigh boots. That was a little warm, so I took off the boots & skirt while gaming.

Rosemary is starting a Forgotten Realms, AD&D 3.5, campaign. Sunday was the 1st game session. One theme: Rejanon the aasimar cleric of Torm vouches for the Drow (my character) fighter, again. The players are: Chris (Darvin Museviney human 'priest' of Mystra), Richard (Rejanon), Mike (Dratsab Ykaens, tiefling rogue), Joe (Phaedral, elf ranger) & me (Amber Nightblade, 1/2 Drow). We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot & killed a few goblins. For the jokes in the game: Chris's character is a monk but he prays for spells every morning. Won't he be surprised if he actually gets some. Museviney,or however it's spelled, is an Andromeda joke. He's going to name his son 'Drago', even though he's not Nitzchian. Another one, look at Mike's character's name backwards. Very apropos.

Joe let slip about supper at Rockfish, so that wasn't a surprise. David, from our Monday D&D game & high school bud of Rosemary's, showed & we ended the game at that point. I left with Richard & Mike to go to the restaurant & check on our table. Rosemary, David & Chris left later. That was lucky because I'd forgotten that John expected to meet us at Firebird at 6:30 pm. So they met him when he didn't see us & went to the house. Richard found Kathy at the Barnes & Noble and rejoined us at Rockfish. We sat down about 7:30. Joe couldn't come with us, he had to go have supper with his brother who's leaving town today. Chris opened his presents while we waited for our table. Despite the fact that his presents from Rosemary, Richard, Kathy & I were not on his list, he claims that he is not disappointed. Apparently the Xbox, extra controller, Halo game & Buffy game (the 1st one) make satisfactory gifts. John's present was in his car; back at the house. John bought him Disney's Sleeping Beauty DVD, which was on Chris's list.

The food at Rockfish is incredible. We had calamari (yum!) & barbecue shrimp (I didn't have any myself) for appetizers. Chris had a drink. a peach Rockarita; he wasn't driving so he could. I had talipia (sp?), Chris had catfish, Rosemary had scallops, John had trout, Richard had salmon, & I can't remember what Kathy, Mike, & David had. But it was all good. Then we ordered key lime pie & bread pudding. They use croissants for their bread pudding. Oh wow, that key lime pie & that bread pudding are absolutely fantastic. Too bad I overate. We tried to split the check but Adam, our waiter had made a mistake & as a result it took him like half-an hour to split our checks. We left the restaurant at 10 pm. Later than I'd like the day before I have to go to work.

Rosemary's contacts were bothering her so she took them out. She knew that might happen so she had brought her glasses with her. Which she left at the house. So I drover her car back to our place. When we got there I ran to the bathroom. I will not go into details on what I did there but I left at close to midnight. That's how/why I managed to finish 1633, even with skimming.

Third night in a row, I have not have had enough sleep. I may take this afternoon off just to go home, recover from my over-eating (my stomach is still bothering me) and sleep.

I brought Flag in Exile to work with me. We'll see if I get very far reading it.

I ran into an old colleague as I disembarked the bus this morning. Ginny & I used to work at Peace Goods together. Now she works in Bynum Hall in Graduate Admissions. I told her that we should have lunch together this week & gave her directions to my office.

Wow, this is a long post.

I finished re-reading On Basilisk Station at lunch. Then I worked on the Ala Shan stuff (the supplement I'm writing for Sanguine). After a few false starts it finally started flowing smoothly. Now I just have to type it into the computer (3 guesses why I'm still at work?).

I think I'll stop with what I have so far & work on it some more at home. Bye now.

*insert expletive of choice* I tried to buy my SO's b'day present yesterday. Steve told me that he saw Xboxes on sale for $99 at Wally world. Not at the one off Chapel Hill/Durham Blvd. They didn't even have any in the store. So I went to Best Buy across the parking lot. They don't accept starter checks. *insert range of expletives*

I let my fingers do the walking when I got home. At least one Wally world (aka Wal-mart) has Xboxes in stock, the one in Garner. But they're $179. I think I'll go to Southpoint tonight & talk to the guys at the computer game store. They claim to sell re-furbished ones for $149. I need to see what exactly is the difference. Regardless, I'll pick up the game there (& go to a dollar store to buy some wrapping paper) before going to PNO tonight.

John will not be going with me. He called last night. He's buying Chris's present tonight (a copy of the Sleeping Beauty DVD). I also talked to Kathy, Richard's wife, they are buying Chris a copy of Halo. Richard has it for PC & he's addicted. Hmmm, I should recommend that he also buy a 2nd controller. Then he & Chris can play the game together. You know, just a suggestion.

My arms ache. Gee, who knew that moving, stacking, re-stacking & maneuvering 100 some cardboard boxes full of paper would be a strain. Then there's the box I carried back to the office. I knew it was heavy; I put it on my shoulder to keep from straining my arms. Then I opened it. It has 3 flat rocks in it & one paperweight rock. That's right, I hauled rocks around. I just have to laugh.

They're almost finished with the creation of the office next to me. The guys doing the work are nice but I'm looking forward to their departure. No more drills, no more hammers, no more chemical smell (well, no more than normal) & no more sheetrock dust.

I'm still listening to those world music cd's. I'm rotating the three of them. I wonder what people think I'm listening to when they stop by.

One of my old instructors stopped by. I run the lost & found for this building & she's lost her keys. She vaguely recognized me. I didn't realize why I recognized her until I saw her name. She's in the Communication Dept. I took the class when it was Speech. Looooong time ago.

I ate at TOL for lunch today. Wow, I needed that. I even got a table near a window. And now it's 5 pm & time for me to go home. After I run my little errands.

Okay, neat website of the day
http://tomatonation.com/finddon.shtml

I made it to gaming last night (it's a Chivalry & Sorcery/AD&D 3.5 hybrid) on time, exactly. My SO arrived later. He had a meeting for work, after work in N. Raleigh. I'm embarrassed to admit, I fell asleep during gaming. To be fair, my character was not present while the others were talking to dwarves in the bar.

They woke me (Ckasha) up in time to roll a spot check...oooh, griffins. Since my character's base spot is 23 (25 vs. humans), she usually sees stuff. It's nice having an observant character for once.

Since it was 9:30 the gm stopped the game right before the combat. Combat is guaranteed to take more than a half-hour. So even after talking to Alyssa (one of the other players & the gm's wife) I made it home at 10pm. I was in bed & headed for sleep in less than 15 minutes. I'm not sure I moved even once during the night. When my alarm went off I was in the same position I remember being in when I went to sleep.

I did manage to finish Light in Shadows, don't ask how. So this morning I started More than Honor.

Back to work I go...today is the trip to the storage. Wheeeee.

Well, I had a chance to finish Light in Shadow but I had a meeting at lunch that I had forgotten about (thank goodness for pop up reminders). So instead I learned about zip cars & local transit. At least they fed me lunch.

Weird site of the day
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,484153-1,00.html

I finished Remember When last night. Then I started & finished Paladin of Souls. Hey, I made it to bed by 1 am. The irony is, I got in to work earlier today than I have all week. I actually made it to work on time (or 15 minutes early, take your pick).

I liked Paladin but I'm going to have to reread it to actually 'taste the flavors'. I, um, kind of inhaled it last night. That's the problem with being a speed reading biblioholic. I have a book a day habit; it can get expensive. Luckily, there are these things called 'libraries' that let you take books without paying for them, as long as you return them within a certain specified time.

I have now started Light in Shadow by Krentz. Wonder if I'll finish it before gaming tonight? Probably.

It's been a loooong day. But even though I was 15 minutes late to work I managed to take a short lunch & deposit my friend's check (her half of another friend's b'day present).

And my friend John's mother also likes Nora Roberts & she loaned me the hardcopy book Remember When. It's by Nora Roberts & J.D. Robb. There is a picture of them on the back of the jacket w/ the blurb saying "..share a house in Maryland, a husband & a website..". For those who don't know, J.D. Robb is a nom de plume for Nora Roberts.

I've been reading that at lunch (while walking) & on the bus & so on & so forth...

They've been working next door today & the chemicals (or something) are making my head hurt. I'm going home now, curl up around some caffeinaed beverage & maybe some chocolate.

Weird website of the day
http://www.delphion.com/gallery

okay the books that I bought: A Gentleman's Honor by Laurens, To Sir Phillip, with Love by Quinn, More than Honor anthology edited by Weber, Light & Shadow by Krentz & Blood Trail by Huff. All of them are paperback.

Today I bought Paladin of Souls by Bujold & First Rider's Call by Britain. Both of them are in hardback, spent more than I should but at least I had a discount. I still want Monstrous Regiment by Pratchett.

It's been a busy day. Found out this morning that Facilities was coming to change the nook to an office & a closet today..not the 26th. So we had to clear out the boxes, the desk & assorted equipment today so that they could start work tomorrow. It's done. It took a lot of time & other people but it's done. Most of the stuff has now been stored in a few different offices until we locate permanent 'residences' for it all.

I've listened to my Worlds of Music cd's today. Definitely a wide range of music, from Zuni lullaby to African to East European to Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.