It was great talking to Heather last night. We talked for an hour & a half & then spent another half hour looking at books. I'm so glad that I saw her on Friday.

Today's outfit: navy slack, navy turtleneck, brown half boots, oxblood belt, dragon earrings, pendant & ring, spoon ring & hair in a ponytail. I was wearing a cream sweater but it's a little too warm in my office.

I did a bunch of crosswords at lunch. Got 3 of them done. Got another done while the network was down this afternoon. The spare office is cleared out now, except for the 2 boxes that the accounting people need to take care of. Hopefully we can get the desk moved in tomorrow.

I'm going to get some more typing on my project. Then it will be off for home.

I stayed up too late last night. And since the house is still set on AC, it was a trifle chilly this morning. I am very irritable this morning. I am tired of people interrupting me. I am tired of it seeming like whatever I do is wrong. The worst part is, I know that it's perception, not reality. My intellect knows but my emotions are willfully ignoring it.

Mom came by for her visit on Saturday. We didn't get any sewing done but I did get 1, maybe 2 blouses for the State Fair, at least one vest for same & 1 blouse & a half-dozen vests for work. Whee! I need to go back to that thrift shop. They had some intriguing books.

The Green Regent game went well enough. I had a raging headache & made a couple mistakes but everyone had fun & that's what matters.

Sunday we got some cleaning done, put together some shelves for the VHS tapes, DVD's & games, plus a case to hold the cd's. Made a big difference. I almost have the entryway ready to put together the shelves for my shoes. Whoohoo. I also cut my hair. It's now over a foot shorter, up to my waist. I've got the rest ready to send to Locks of Love, as soon as I get a padded envelope.

Today's outfit: brown half boots, brown belt, navy slack, grey 2002 Carolina Ren Fest polo, agate ring, knot ring, pendant & earrings, silver braid band and braid fastened with grey elastic. In other words, nothing exciting again today.

I've been reading Diana's supplement. I'm editing it again. Plus, that way I'll be ready to help with Tiffany's character. Of course, I'm only on page 63 of 105. I'm also working on my own supplement again. Only 14 pages so far & that includes a page of the summary. I'm printing out a copy to show to Diana.

I have to run, have to get home in time to greet Tiffany & Diana. Oops, almost forgot to call John to tell him not to come tonight.

I think I may have gotten a bit of sun, um scalding is the best word I can find, on my neck. I sat with my back to the sun, thinking my collar & hair would cover my neck. It did not, quite. It mostly stings. Maybe it's all in my imagination, Linda (my co-worker) says that she can't see anything.

Cool, I 'found' a new player for our Monday Ironclaw/Jadeclaw/9 Tribes game. Tiffany is fun. I might see her for coffee tonight. It depends on Chris, mostly.

Today's outfit: black half-boots, purple slacks (just a hint too loose), dark purple tank with connected purple long-sleeved blouse (striped satin & chiffon & thin gold), celtic knot pendant on chain, knot earrings, knot ring, grey agate ring, silver band & fem ring. My hair is in a knot/ponytail held with hair pin with bells.

I'm handling a long phone call with a guy asking about the new job posting. Most of the questions, I can't answer. It's been at least a 20 minute call at this point.

I'm almost caught up. But I still have a lot to do.

Today's outfit: same brown half-boots & same brown belt, different navy slacks, navy scoop neck knit shirt, brown shirt with open neck trimmed in geometrically embroidered ribbon (I made the shirt), braided hair by blue elastic, silver band with 4 greenish pieces of turquoise, silver spoon ring engraved with an 'M', 3 ages of woman pendant & turquoise & coral earrings. The brown shirt is long & I'm wearing it out so it covers me to my hips.

I finished the 2nd book of the The Seven Brothers by Curt Benjamin yesterday. The first book was The Prince of Shadows, 2nd one is The Prince of Dreams & the 3rd will be The Gates of Heaven. I'm really looking forward to reading it. Alas, it will not be soon. I thought that the protagonist, Llesho would find one brother in each book but he's already found 4 of his 6 brothers. Of course, although he thinks his sister Ping is dead I'm pretty certain that she's actually alive. I do wonder what happened to their mother, though.

Network went out yesterday afternoon so today I am playing catch up. Whee!

Today's outfit: navy turtleneck (another unseasonably cool/cold day), tapestry vest, navy slacks, brown half-boots, brown belt, silver flower band, fem figure ring, flower stamp earrings, & braided hair (blue elastic). Nothing exciting or interesting today, except the maybe the vest. Oh & today I remembered my watch, so the watch chain is showing from my right pants pocket to where it's clipped to a belt loop.

Time to go check the mail & go attend to my ever-growing list.

Mental note: at cons make certain to drink lots of water. Or I will, again, regret the aftereffects. I called in sick to work yesterday. Not because I felt awful but because I thought it would be difficult to get work done between hour-long bathroom trips. So I stayed home, watched tv, read, did laundry & cleaned up the kitchen a little. Plus, I moved stuff from the coffee table to the dining room table in prep for last night's gaming & I cooked chili for supper.

I did have lots of fun on Saturday. I was very tired by the end, but that's to be expected. I saw Bob again. I met him in the con suite at SheVaCon & here he was in the con suite at Stellar Con. I keep feeling that he's a guest & that I should know who he is. I 'met' Timothy Zahn & complimented him on his work. As he said, 'all authors enjoy that. It helps to make up for the months at a time isolated in our offices.'

Lots to do today to catch up from yesterday, so must get working.

I spent money last night. This is a not-good thing because I'm trying to save money to take some trips this summer. But anyway, I bought Undead & Unwed and read it. It's really funny. Blurb: Betsy's had a bad week, she got laid off, it's her birthday, her dad & stepmom blew her off, a snowstorm hit & now she's died. And came back. As a vampire. And other vampires believe that she's some foretold queen.

I'm re-reading A Caress of Twilight. I have it reserved at the library but apparently it's lost because they haven't called me about it yet. I've put Sex in History on hiatus. I need to read some light fiction.

I called Joe. He's going to Stellarcon tomorrow only too, so I'm catching a ride with him. Leaving the house at 6:50 am, instead of 7:00 am & then driving home @12:45 from Carrboro is a lot easier than driving home from High Point from 11 to 12:30 am. I need to prep my game for tomorrow, so Ta.

Dark red/crimson turtleneck, navy wool vest, pocket watch in 1 vest pocket & work key on other end of chain in another vest pocket, navy slacks, brown boots, Jamestown Colonial National park pin, brown belt, dragon pendant, dragon (Welsh) earrings, 2 of my 3 dragon rings, spoon ring & simple twined band, my hair in the same style as yesterday but with different sticks. Same source but these are wood with pierced, ~twisted carving in the ends. That's my clothes for the day, anyway.

Met Allen, Metra & a friend when going to lunch. Ended up sitting there & talking the entire time. Good thing I'd already eaten. Drank about 8 glasses of water. Now I need to go get some exercise. 15 minutes Monday & Tuesday, 20 minutes yesterday. I need at least 15 minutes today.

I have got to get a better light in my closet. I swear, this turtleneck was green when I selected it. Seen outside & under florescents, it's obviously teal. Well, my tapestry vest has green. Which is good because my slacks, shoes & hairsticks are black. I'm wearing a set of the hairsticks I bought at Claire's while getting my niece's birthday present earrings. The hairsticks are square, black plastic with dark brown leather decoratively wrapped on the ends. My hair is tied in a knot at my crown with the remainder streaming down in a tail. My jewelry is all silver & white today. I'm wearing the nacre moon & star pendant on the short chain, silver circles band, silver spoon ring, silver flowers band & the 3 rings on french wires earrings. Very circular & flowery, yes?

Chris took me out for ribs last night. I ate a rack of pork ribs, 2.5 potato skins, a small dish of steamed broccoli & a slice of bread and only after I finished did I wonder if perhaps I had eaten a little too much. But I was sooo hungry. When we got home we watched Discovery channel's program on the Roman 7 wonders. We missed number one but number 2 was the aqueducts (I finally found out why some had 2 or 3 rows of arches & some had 1), #3 the Via Appia (Roman roads); the others were the colisseum, Caracalla's baths; the Pantheon, Trajan's marketplace (precursor to the modern mall) & the Circus Maximus. It was fascinating.

I'm still reading Sex in History by Reay Tannahill. I've gotten up to the Romans. Having read this far, I'm going to look for her book Food in History, too. Allen Wold recommended it. I happened to get into a discussion with him, his wife & another woman before things got started at SheVaCon. I would not say that we are friends, but we are acquaintances. His wife used to shop at the Piece Goods where I worked. What this really means, if I remind him, he remembers. Otherwise he doesn't know me from Adam's off ox.

I really doubt that there is anyone in Spain or from Spain or who has relatives in Spain reading this, but just in case.

I am a writer, of prose and poetry. But the heart aches so, that my pen lies still. The flowing ink does not bleed, though my heart does. There are no words to express my grief, only silent tears, shed where you do not see.

Yesterday was very Monday. 1) A lot, to all, of Woodcroft lost power sometime early in the morning. So no alarm clock, get dressed by candlelight (yeah, it is black & not navy), dare not open the fridge 'just in case' so can't pack a lunch, and get to work only a little late, with no coherent idea what kind of weather to expect for the day.
2) Jammed the 'supply' drawer where I keep the stamps & the mail key. 3) Broke my necklace while trying to open it. 4) Overate at lunch (all you can eat, Top of Lenoir). 5) endured a nasty headache all afternoon - bordering on migraine as I drove home
On the bright side: drank @6 glasses of water, walked for 15 minutes, finished catching up on Queen of Wands and there was power when I got home. We cancelled gaming, just in case. Chris made hamburgers (outdoor grill or indoor stove depending in conditions).

The weekend was great. Saturday, the weather was beautiful and I played 2 RPGA Living Greyhawk games on Saturday, walked Rosemary's dogs & had a great lunch & supper w/ Chris & Rosemary & other gamers. Lunch was with Lyman G., Joe J, & Mike M. Supper we had with people whose names I don't know really well. Lyman is a ova-lacto vegetarian (ethical-based) on the Atkins diet. He eats lots of vegetables he says. Greek food for lunch & Japanese food for supper. Yum. Earl was very nice to me, partially because I gave up my seat in the second slot to let a complete newcomer play. I admit, it was nice of me, but someone at some point has done something similar for me. Just because I don't remember it, doesn't mean that I shouldn't repay that debt to someone else.

Sunday I ran Diane Y, Steve F., Chris, Rosemary & Doug W in the LG game "When Orcs Attack", or as Steve called it 'When Orcs Get Sodomized." The big bad foes in the game were Diane's character's favored enemy; Keelin's a ranger. So she wiped them from the board before they even managed to close to melee range. Everyone had fun & did some great roleplaying.

Yesterday's outfit: black slacks, black half-boots, black bateau neck summer sweater, Celtic knot pendant on long chain (now broken, literally split 2 links), knot ring & knot earrings, plus bronze rose hair clip (the larger one) holding my hair in a knot. I also wore my black leather UNC baseball cap & the tan trenchcoat that mom gave me.

Today's outift: plum slacks, black loafers, white shawl collar blouse (collar drapes over my shoulders), tri-moon rainbow moonstone pendant, rainbow moonstone earrings, moonstone ring, 'M' spoon ring, silver flower band, Fem power ring, & the same hair clip holding my hair in a fall. Lately I've been wearing the pocket watch that I ordered from publishers clearing house. It's a watch that my skin will not eat the chrome backing.

Gah, how can people do stuff like that!? I'm talking about the bombed trains in Madrid. Almost 200 people killed, hundreds more hurt. And why? So some political/religious extremist can get his rocks off?! All those poor people, I think I'll just sit here and cry for awhile.

Good for me, I've written 2 letters this week & sent them. I wrote 2 epistle emails to people I haven't seen or talked to in months (or years) today. I feel very connected. Too bad I'm supposed to be working through this contact list. Oh well. Back to the grind.

Neat website of the day: Old Radio shows The only problem I've had is with the Charlie Chan I listened to. I love a good mystery, but I also would like to hear the solution. Blast!

New online game: Guess the show/movie It's still in development, but it is entertaining.

I saw a really neat thing yesterday, one I don't see often. I suppose that I would if I was outdoors more. I saw a redtail hawk raiding a squirrel nest. I was running an errand & I heard a squirrel; they do make vocalizations you know. So I looked up to see if I could see the squirrel. There was the squirrel & there was the redtail in the squirrels' nest. One squirrel was hiding, it popped up every so often. The hawk was raking through the nest & parts of it were floating away on the breeze. I just stood there & watched for a few minutes. Like I said, it was really neat.

Good news, no snow last night or today. I am relieved. I am actually sick of snow. Ask me again in four to five months, though.

I did go to SheVaCon. Since my back-up was on vacation I was only going to be able to have Friday the 27th off if my supervisor's baby held off that long. She didn't. She was born Wednesday the 25th. So I was glumly expecting to work all day Friday & then to drive to Roanoke, by myself, after work. I went ahead & packed Thursday night & at Chris's urging put my gaming bag & my amusements/food bag in the car. After all, one way or the other, I'd need them there. As you may (or may not) know it started snowing Thursday afternoon. I left work early because the last time I didn't, it took me three hours to get home. The next morning, UNC was condition III in the Adverse Weather Conditions. That means only emergency personnel show up & I'm not emergency personnel. So I drove to Joe Junger's house, put my stuff into his van; we picked up Mike & Kelly; then drove to Roanoke. By the time we hit the Virginia border, the roads were dry. Roanoke didn't get a thing, not even rain.

It was a great weekend. I played 6 games, including a 2-rounder. I had 5 hours of sleep Thursday night (packing kept me up until almost midnight & I woke at 5 am), 5 hours Friday night (late gaming & then up at my usual wake up time), & 2 hours Saturday night. I played midnight madness Saturday & the game started about 12:30 or 1 am. When we finished playing, I looked at the window & asked, "What's that light coming in the window?" "Dawn" was the reply. Oh. It was too early to wake my roommates so I tried to check my email on the computer in the lobby. No luck, someone was playing cubis. I finally gave up & went to the room, 312, at 7:20. I either went into the bathroom to put on my pajamas (scrubs) or I went to bed at 7:20. Either way, I woke up at 9 am. I don't know why. I had planned to leave a note "wake me one hour before check out."

Since I was awake I went to the dealer's room, bought stuff I couldn't afford (but the room was cheaper than I had expected), and bothered Eric Menge as he was running Rites of Eternal Spring (guess what I played for midnight madness). Actually, I 'entertained' the players while Eric checked on the status of the art he wanted to buy in the art auction. Then Joe, Mike & I went to the Tanglewood mall & picked up pizza for the Eric & his players. Rites is a double round mod & they were trying to get done in about the same time everyone else was doing a single round.

I tried to nap on the way home, but failed. I read the signed, hardback copy of March to the Stars instead. I think I finally caught up on my sleep about Wednesday. That evening (Wednesday), Chris & I went over to Richard & Kathy's for supper & so Richard could download the pictures from my camera for me.

Hailey, my niece, had her 8th birthday party this past Sunday. She had it at Tumblebee's. So the girls (all 8 of them) played on the trampolines, the uneven bars & in the foam pit. They had lots of fun, burned off lots of energy & then we had cake & ice cream. Hailey opened her presents. She likes the wrapping paper that I use, she told her friends so. She got 3 or 4 music cd's. She liked the Klutz book of simple embroidery that I gave her but she wasn't certain what it was. Just that it was used to make stuff. She just had her ears pierced so I bought earrings at Claire's. I bought 12 pairs. It was a set of 6 pairs for $6.25, buy one, get one free. Hey, she's 8, if she loses them it's no big deal. Her other aunt (Lisa's sister) bought her 14k gold ones. Hope Hailey doesn't lose those. The party was a lot of fun.

I spent too much money Saturday at SouthPoint while I was getting Hailey's presents. I bought earrings & hairsticks for myself at Claire's, plus I went to the Body Shop & stocked up on shampoo. They're getting ready to do new formulas. I also bought 2 games at Electronic Boutique. Both for Xbox & both are used. So one was $20 & one was $9. I haven't played them yet.

Chris & I had lunch across the street from Southpoint at Ted's MOntana Grill. The bison burgers are very good. Alltell, next door, was having an open house. I picked up a Duke tshirt for Dad, entered the drawing for the Duke signed basketball, $100 gift cert to Wal-Mart & something else. 3 drawings; I won the Wal-Mart certs. Yay me. I picked them up Monday evening, after work.

Sunday, before I left for the party, Chris & I went to the grand opening of the SuperTarget where Southsquare used to be. We bought some open shelves for the kitchen, for shoes at the front door & for the dvd's, cds & games by the tv. Plus picked up a few grocery items & I bought a car seat cover my car. The color is close to the upholstery & I put it on Monday. It doesn't fit very well but hopefully it will prevent any more wear on the driver's seat. It's wearing through on one side. Returning from Target we made it home about 1:25. I had planned to leave at 1:30 for Greensboro. I still needed to wrap Hailey's presents: 2 books (previously mentioned embroidery & a Klutz activity book), 2 sets of earrings & 1 cd (Shania Twane's Up!). I left about 1:45, got gas & was on my way out of Durham before 2pm. I was trying to make to Dad's place in Pleasant Garden by 3pm. Luckily, the new I85 is shorter, plus I broke the speed limit most of the way there, and I was on time, barely.

This has gotten absurdly long. I'm going to stop now.

Neat tech toy of the day: flash drive