Gaming: We picked up where we left off two weeks ago; with thousands of alien, glowing things scattering out of the excavated spaceship. Our characters found out that the crew was long dead, due to an interstellar disaster. It was a generational colony ship that due to an unfortunate occurrence had suffered racial sterility & died off in a couple generations. The ship was fully automated and the things that the Freedom League had fought had been constructs.

As our heroes learned more about what they had been fighting, and their origins, they got an emergency call. Those things were in Vancouver and we taking apart structures there to build there own. Several people were dead; including the Canadian super hero team. The Northern Guard had destroyed several of the constructs so that the Freedom League were only facing a dozen of the things. There were more still working on the structure but they ignored anyone who did not interfere in their work.

Alas, they managed to finish their structure (1 villain point spent) & sent out a signal. A few days later, something was detected heading for Earth, fast. Is it cynical that when the alien emerged from his ship promising a new golden age all of Freedom League were instantly suspicious?

I did find out that my gamemaster sometimes reads my blog; he found it due to the M&M mentions.

I was a little tired after gaming. When I got home I was feeling a little out of it; so much so that I forgot to lock the door. Geesh.

Work/bus: I was almost late yesterday. There was an accident by my house, right in the bus's route. A sedan T-boned a jeep/SUV, yeah, the sedan looked totaled. The delay was caused by the flatbed tow truck taking it away. The jeep/SUV had a dent in its door; low on its door.

Work: It's been a day already. I took a few last minute things out of my office and checked a few more things before settling down to get some work done. Alas, I had no network connection yet. I tried to use a co-worker's computer; that was a barely mitigated disaster. I finally had to physically turn off the computer to log off. That bad.

I finally got my network set up about 10:30 am. Which is when the movers showed up. So I showed them a few things & got out the elevator key for them to use. It hit noon & I was starving. I got at least two things on my to-do list crossed off before I went to lunch. A good thing, I was starting to get dizzy, at least mentally.

I think that I'll take a nap when I get home. I'm very sleepy.

site of the day (week, month, yadda yadda): Where the hell is Matt dancing? I got to this from Nodwick.

Sight of the day: 3 wrens taking a dust bath; it's just cute.

Work: Packed my office today. Bleah. For the next week I'm relocated. At least I was able to do it in jeans. And I didn't mess up my badly chosen white shirt.

Weather: it's very hot; very, very hot. It's about 15 degrees above normal, I think.

Too hot to think.

Tatting: I finally loaded the 70 beads, plus 10 for safety margin, for the next round of the snood. I've even done the first set of rings & chains. All the rings are the same, 3 b 3 j 3 b 3, but the chains alternate one bead and 2 beads.
And since it's been requested, I'll go ahead & post pictures of Mark's flower, or at least my interpretation. First, here are the 3 flower elements.

Then there are two of the three flowers, attached to the main leaf.

I think my leaf is a little odd. It has 2 veins for one thing. Ah well, It will take practice. I still need to add the other flower and the assorted other greenery. I used the some size 30 that I have and some valdani borrowed from Mark.

weather: 16th day of June with temperatures in the 90's. Last year we only had 13, and it's not even the end of the month yet.

Tatting: the seminar thing with Mark Myers was great. I didn't finish but I made good progress. The Jacobean flower looks good, sort of. It's not as pretty as Mark's, no surprise. My leaf is wider than his, I was less than successful with my joins. But it's not a surprise, all things considered. We all had a great time, tatting and chatting.

Movie: after Anitra & I finished, we met her husband and we went to a special showing of Serenity. I won a t-shirt, how cool is that? I know I've seen the movie before but I really enjoyed seeing it again.

Work: Almost packed at work. My supervisor did a lot of it today. The file cabinets were done but that left most of the shelves, the paper and other supplies, and other stuff. I took down the pictures, the plaques, the awards, and other fragile items. Everything must be done by Thursday afternoon. They'll be moving out the furniture first thing Friday morning. It should make the work situation....interesting, until I can get back into my office again.

Books: nothing new, just re-reading some old favorites.

Victory: I finally managed to change the slideshow so it only shows my pictures.

Tatting: As Sharon said, if I don't publish this person's identification, she could be ripping off other people. So, go to http://www.timelesstattingpatterns.com/ and look through the gallery. See anything familiar? Know the tatter? Let that tatter know. To add to the sadness, a portion of the items in her tatting gallery are actually crochet. Yet she claims to be a tatter.

I finished the Maltese Ring bookmark yesterday & even put on the tassel. I have even taken a couple pictures. Now I need to post them (I'll edit this post or add a new one when I have them).

Books: I read a new one, Dead To Me; urban fantasy quasi-noir. The protagonist is a former psychometric thief (he could read the history of objects -great way to authenticate something). He's given up his criminal ways to join a secret government agency that's understaffed & underfunded; that deals with the weird. There's a 'things that go bump in the night' division for example. A funny thing, I couldn't remember the title so I did a search using these words: fish cultist psychometry NYC. I found it. *snicker*

Work: My office is even more of a disaster area than usual. I've been cleaning out my desk and file cabinets in preparation for the refurbishment. I've done a lot of shredding and tossing. And some packing. Wheeeee.

Flattered & angry: Someone like the picture of the tatted scrunchy that I made so much, that she swiped it for her own tatting gallery. The funny thing is, if she had asked permission or just given credit/given the source, I wouldn't be upset. I would gladly, thrilled & flattered, have given her permission to use the photo, just asked for a little credit ('tatted by' sort of thing). As soon as I found her address, I sent her a polite email requesting that she remove the image. She does have a nice collection of patterns and she's selling a cd of patterns (from what I can tell) but using my image, without credit, is a form of false advertising I feel.

Family: Tonight I go meet Dad & the stepmom for supper. It's just as well. Chris leaves early tomorrow for Ottercon, with Rosemary, so he's sleeping in Raleigh tonight for an earlier start. I have Dad's Father's Day present, I wrapped it this morning. I used one of the 2007 calendars that I bought for a $1 to wrap it. I arranged it so that the lighthouse image is just off center of the front of the package.

Tatting: I finished the Maltese Ring bookmark this morning, despite a broken hook on one shuttle & running out of thread 1 ring & 2 chains short of the end. The rest of the thread on the shuttles will become the bookmark tassel. I'll try to take a picture & add it to my blog tonight. However, that will be after supper.

Gaming: I've almost finished the 4e character that I made as I read the PHB. She's a half-elf fey pact warlock. I went with the deceptive warlock build; a little stereotypical but not bad.

Health: I'm starting to wonder if I'm coming down with something; other than hypochondria, I mean. My mood's way off and I'm massively tired. Everything irritates, even stuff that shouldn't. Bleah.

Work: I got the news today that my boss went into the hospital with double pneumonia. I picked up a card for him at lunch. Most of the people in the office have signed it; I'll need to see who I missed yesterday.

Tatting: I started to work a little on the Maltese ring bookmark. I'm almost done, but I broke the hook on the tatting shuttle. I had to put it away, just too frustrating.

I rarely wax philosophical in my posts, not sure why. Am I too light-minded? Do I just not feel like sharing with the entire internet? Do I just not feel like all that typing? I honestly don't know.

Mood: Irritable. I have been touchy and just downright ill for the past day & a half. I don't want to be touched, I don't want to talk and I don't even want to read. It's the wrong time of the month to blame it on hormones. I think I'm battling depression again.

Gaming: We played another couple sessions in the Greyhawk Ruins series yesterday. Thanks to some lucky die rolls (initiative & the barbarian critting), the fights often only lasted a round or two. There was one that lasted about seven but we just walked over most of it. Having a barbarian two-handing, power-attacking a waraxe makes a difference in the fights.

Richard liked his Witch Hunter book and Joe finally remembered that he hadn't given me a present. He gave me a B&N card, cool.

Tatting: I almost finished the Maltese Ring bookmark. I'm on the 2nd edge.

Holiday: I sent an ecard to my brother & father, plus one for Richard as a new dad.

Weather: Okay, there's a forest fire a couple hundred miles east, but it's 40K acres and the wind is blowing this way. It didn't just cause haze & it's not just smelly. It actually made it a little harder to breathe this morning. And I'm not sensitive.

Tatting: Here's a snowflake pattern that I want to try. I was doing the Maltese ring wrong. So I've started the bookmark over.

Gaming: Mutants & Masterminds tonight. At least one player, my ride, won't be there. She has to work tonight until 8 pm (plus clean up). I will rush home tonight & then drive to David's for the game. Not so whee.

Per the What D&D Character are you
I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Wizard (3rd/2nd Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-11

Constitution-11

Intelligence-14

Wisdom-12

Charisma-13


Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Primary Class:
Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast.


Secondary Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)



detailed results:
Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (25)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (22)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (16)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXX (5)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7)

Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXX (5)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaos --- XXXXXXX (7)

Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Evil ---- (0)

Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXX (6)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXX (8)
Half-Orc - XX (2)

Class:
Barbarian - (-8)
Bard ------ (0)
Cleric ---- (0)
Druid ----- XXXXXX (6)
Fighter --- (-2)
Monk ------ (-23)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- XX (2)
Rogue ----- (0)
Sorcerer -- (-2)
Wizard ---- XXXXXX (6)

Tatting: I'm taking a break from the snood to work on the eTatters June challenge from the monthly challenge group. I'm trying to make a Maltese ring bookmark. I'm not certain that I'm doing it right. It looks a little odd. 

  Weather: It's 'cooler' today. By that, the weather folks don't think it will hit triple digits, just the mid-90's. Whoop ti freaking do. Still skirt weather as far as I'm concerned. At least we're not getting hit with tornadoes. 

  Poetry: I entered a haiku into a little contest, haikus were on a specific theme. I entered three & they chose one to compete against other entries. I got runner up. Not bad for a haiku about records management. And the people who got them said that they really enjoyed them and they will probably show up in the newsletter. (haikus are below) 

  Computer game: I'm playing Virtual Villagers 3. I lost 1 & 2 when my hard drive crashed but at least I'd finished them. I also have the other usual suspects; Diner Dash (almost done, again - new link with the demise of Flash - https://www.crazygames.com/game/diner-dash), Fashion Solitaire, all 3 Carrie the Caregiver games and a couple find the object games. I really like the ones that I can try first. I've only gotten burned twice in that after an hour the game sucked. One was Nanny Mania. The other 2 levels were basically repetitions of the 1st one. Bleah.

Retention schedule? What is it and where is ours? Oh; this is quite old.

These records are old. Check the retention schedule, Then shred what should be.

one entry:

Shred these records, now. Can't, schedule says they're not old. Two more years, then shred.

And the winner:

We have a schedule? Yes, we do; have you seen it? Do you follow it?

Quick note: talking to MM on the phone tonight. Now MM is an incredibly smart guy, I mean scary smart. However, I have, on a few occasions, scared him with my thought processes; mostly because I think very differently than he does (the whole linear vs. intuitive thing).

The example that he brought up - he's running a game and there's some peculiar situation. He gives me a clue to solve it. The clue: dog on a dunghill. He said that I thought about it for about 20 seconds and then piped up, "Odysseus." Scary part? That was the right answer. It had been a question on a Western Literature course & it had baffled him. The fact that I got it right with no context is what freaked him. At that point he started wondering whether we were even the same species.

I wonder if anyone really reads my posts. This is after all an on-line journal. It's more for my own thoughts and memories than for anyone's perusal. Still, I wonder.

Anyway.

Tatting: I am working on the Workbasket snood again. My first attempt, after 3 rounds, is suitable for a doll and nothing else. It fits quite well over my fingertip. It will nowhere near hold my hair. This time, I'm doing a better job of reading the pattern & looking at the picture. That makes a huge difference. Right now, I'm tatting off the thread on the shuttle. It's not enough for the next round so I'm making some butterflies.

I wanted to join Jane E's Tat It And See but I didn't have a button. I may well try it later.

Mark Myers, aka Tatman, will be in the area in 2 weeks to teach his Jacobean Flower Spray. I need to send my money to the organizer for my share of the costs (including food and his travel).

Books: I am so ashamed. I broke down & bought 4E D&D books.

I've been reading Thrift Score & re-reading old favorites recently. Despite have 3 spiffy birthday books to read, I've been going to standbys instead.

Family: I went to visit Mom this past weekend. I hadn't seen her since April. May was a nuts month for me. She bought me a birthday present, despite the fact that I reminded her that my TomTom was a Christmas/birthday present already. She bought me a couple 1gig thumb drives ($8 at Big Lots) & a hands free earpiece for my phone.

I've been helping her clean out her apartment. She's a child of the Depression and has the hoarding mentality so common in that generation. However, she's come to the realization that she's 70 & will not live long enough to use all that shampoo/soap/etc. So we've been packing up stuff to go to charitable organizations (nursing home, Salvation Army, etc).

Mom's getting older. She got tired after only an hour of sorting and cleaning. The heat may have contributed, as her AC still is not fully functional. Despite all that, we got a lot done.

I talked to Dad on the phone, he called Sunday after I got back home. He & Kathy bought me a case for my TomTom. I've dropped it a couple times; that's why I asked for a case. I don't leave it my car, so it's often going back & forth and risks being dropped again.

Weather: I've been wearing skirts recently. It's been a record setting heat wave, hit the century mark in the heat index and sometimes in actuality. It's too [string of expletives deleted] early for it to be this hot. Even my handfan isn't helping, maybe I should carry a spray bottle.

Saw the movie Iron Man. It rocked. Make certain to watch through the credits. I still want to see Speed Racer, Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones.

Went to Animazement, ran 2 Jadeclaw games. It's been almost a decade since I went to a fan con. It's different than a gaming con.

Went to ConCarolinas. Got 6 hours of sleep Thursday, 4 Friday, 4 Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Monday I was fried. I drove down to the con after leaving work at noon. Drove home again Sunday after the last game. I'm just glad that I got home safely.

Read some good books recently; Prophecies of the Flame, Skinny Dipping, the last in the Broken Heart Oklahoma series, etc.

Wow, over a month of no posts. I wonder if anyone still stops by. I will try to post pictures of recent activities when I have access to my laptop this evening.

I was at Animazement this pas weekend (Durham NC anime convention), running 2 sessions of Jadeclaw. I think that they went well. The players seemed to have fun at least.

This weekend, it's ConCarolinas. I'm not running anything, just playing. I'll be taking a half-day from work & driving down.

music video of the day: Irish pipes

sorry, still not really posting.

Frost! in mid-April! The natural order has been overturned. There should not be frost on the ground, around here, in mid-April. It's just wrong!

I know that it's been more than a week since my last post. I've just been so tired. Even this isn't a real post. It's just an interjection.

Just finishing Witch Hunter game. I am soo tired. But it was fun. I'm at Roundcon in Columbia, SC.

Reading Witch Hunter book. Gaming all weekend, no time to read. Working on April challenge, and almost figured out how to do ends for a hen & chicks bookmark. Almost. I did finish one of Kersti's on Thursday.

clothes: Tricon 2006 t-shirt & black jeans & tatted jewelry (that I made) yesterday. Today it was black jeans, Celtic knot jewelry, Lost Colony t-shirt & two new Celtic knot rings, one with a red stone.

Network outages are so frustrating
I keep 'finally, I can get some work.., no there it goes again.'

Network outages are so frustrating
I keep going: 'finally, I can get some work.., no there it goes again.' So I can little to nothing done because almost everything I do is on a computer, on the network in fact. I am stymied.

books: Finished Politics Is Murder & started Death on the Cliff Walk. Now that I've read Politics, which was a pretty good mystery by the way, I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I'll probably give it away. I have seen it being offered for $15 online but do I know anyone who's willing to buy it? I'm also reading, more thoroughly, the Witch Hunter rulebook.

I got most of my packing done last night. I will have to finish up as soon as I get home. My last bit of laundry wasn't quite ready by the time that I had to head to bed.

clothes: black half-boots, slacks & belt; grey shirt with black & white leaves and flowers, short-sleeved black crochet vest/sweater; moonstone jewelry & braided (& wet) hair.

Nothing much happening.
I missed the bus this morning. So I was late to work, not much but some.
Spent about half an hour writing cards with a group of students for kids in the Children's Ward at the hospital. I was definitely the oldest person there. I did get a couple compliments about my cards. I have to admit that two of them turned out really well. It's so hard to think about what to write. Whoever gets the card is in the hospital due to a serious, potentially fatal illness. That really limits what you can, appropriately, say.

book: Finished Ghost of a Chance and reading Politics Is Murder (c. 1947) by Edwin Lanham. Ghost is an interesting novel. It's quasi-romance and it's very different. It's in the same world/setting as the Aisling Grey books. Easily explained because Kate Marsh is the pen name of Katie McAllister.

Still screwing up at work.

clothes: black beaded slippers & socks, black slacks & belt & polo, flower band, hematite band, hematite band, & labradorite pendant.

dream: I don't remember much, one thing was a bus problem such that my usual bus was stuck & would be about 2 hours later than normal (neat trick considering the route is about an hour round trip). After that I was trying to sleep on the floor but with only one sheet, so the rough carpet kept irritating me. When the alarm went off I was quite sharp about declaring that I was tired and I was not going to work.

no tatting and only Jadeclaw re: books.

I think I'm getting depressed again. I need to read something, perhaps.

clothes: black slacks, cream turtleneck, red vest (open because it's unexpectedly warm), half-boots, & dragon jewelry

Almost didn't go to work today (depending on what resulted)
Okay, there's an idiot living, or traveling through, my neighborhood. Picture this: dark, rainy night; curvy, twisty & mostly 2-lane road, and a double yellow line or divider with trees for the entire length. As we're almost home, we see headlights of an oncoming car, and the lights of a 2nd one, IN OUR LANE! Stupid idiot decided to pass. We put on brakes and went onto the shoulder (luckily there was one at that point, sometimes it's just a hill), the car being passed put on brakes & the car behind us swung even wider & went around us. We were almost a sandwich, testing both the airbags & the seatbelt system in Chris's car. After that, it was off to the grocery store for comfort food.

And it's been raining off & on since Saturday. Yay!

movies: Went to see I Am Legend at the theater yesterday. It's a good movie, well-written, well-acted; just all around good. I didn't enjoy it. Why? Because of the marketing & the expectations that it raised. From the tv ads, it looks like an action movie. It's not. There's some action but mostly it's about Dr. Neville & his life as the only uninfected person in NYC. Like I said, good movie but I was not in the mood for a character movie. I wanted action, or comedy. I just got too depressed and left before the end of the movie. I thought I would prefer to be sitting in the cold (~45F or less), in the car & making up Jadeclaw pregenerated characters rather than watch the rest of the movie.

Gaming: I've now created half a dozen Jadeclaw characters. I am doing half erudite-types & half-combat types. I want about 10 pre-gens.

clothes: yesterday was red tank, sweatshirt, black jeans (that I'm getting rid of because the pockets are crap), Celtic knot jewelry. Today was black half-boots, black slacks, purple turtleneck, black vest with yellow butterflies & Celtic knot jewelry.

I had no alcohol, why do I feel hungover?
Answer: I'm dehydrated. Anyway, the show was great. Chuck Davis is great and they gave him a script so the show didn't run too late. But just watching Bhangra Elite wore me out. Inversion was about as bad. All the dancers were fantastic and the spoken word artists were powerful.

book: Read Real Vampires Have Curves; it's closer to chick lit than a romance novel but a neat view of vampires. I liked it. It's also the start of a series.

Decided to eat at a local Korean BBQ restaurant for lunch. I've never had that before. I had some kind of broth soup. It was sooo good. It came with half a dozen dishes of side foods; radish cubes, spinach, bean sprouts, kimchi (spelling?), a fish (yeah, looked odd but tasted fantastic), broccoli florets with spicy sauce, & some little strips of something, a meat I think. The soup had potato noodles; never had that before either & oh yum. You know it's going to be a good ethnic restaurant when you can't read the ads or the 'community' newspapers by the door. Yeah, and all the dishes were listed in English & Korean. While I hit a slow time, I was still the only person who did not obviously have some relatives (however distant) in or from Asia.

I was going to go shopping but I developed an extremely nasty headache. So I came home and took pain meds.

dream: I don't remember much, but some guy irradiated his sheep. He thought this was a good thing. He didn't get all of them & I was trying to prevent the 'glowing' ones from contaminating the others. That involved not letting some of the lambs feed and them yelling 'but it's so gooooood.' I took a lamb that had just been born and couldn't let it feed or it would be poisoned too. I took it to Cary, who raises sheep. She was at the Village & they had a new vendor entrance to use, the top.

The ladder, I use the term loosely, was this strip of metal with ridges that curved up over the dome. So here I am, towel wrapped lamb in one hand, as I scale this not-quite-ladder. By the time I got to the top, everyone else had left me behind and I was getting tired. I finally reached up and grabbed the edge of the roof? cover. I shoved the lamb ahead of my into the small opening as I finished climbing enough to get inside. The top floor had a film theater and a couple restaurants. It was a private little mall for the Village of Yesteryear vendors.

clothes: black tennies & jeans, red Hurricanes t-shirt, USS NC battleship sweatshirt, flower pendant, butterfly earrings, flower band, and loose hair.

Squirrels aren't carnivorous, right?
Because I'm not certain what I saw. It looked like a squirrel carrying a small, furry object. Maybe it was transporting a baby squirrel? If so, why? Why couldn't a young squirrel that size move on its own?

I tried to save water this morning; I tried a camper's trick; I combed corn starch through my hair instead of washing it. My hair isn't greasy (it was at the edge of wash/don't wash) but it does look dull from the white powder. After all, isn't that one of the tricks actors use to replicate grey hair?

tv: Watched a couple episodes of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Yes, we've been reduced to watching Reality TV. *sob* It's not bad, though. Last night was this neat little vegetarian restaurant in Paris. A question about prices led us on-line to compare prices at other restaurants in Paris. While there, I looked up the restaurant in the episode. It kind of spoiled the ending, though.

tatting: AAAARRRGH! I just compared my red snood/bun cover to my white one. I messed up the 5th round. I joined it to every ring, not every other ring. No wonder it's not cupping properly.

books: kind of re-reading Then Comes Marriage by Kasey Michaels.

clothes: black loafers (oops, those are crapped out, change to beaded flats), knee-highs, black slacks, black belt w/ silver buckle, white waffle polo, small labradorite pendant, hematite bead earrings, hematite band, black stone band, flower band & hair up in a knot/bun/ponytail affixed with a white chopstick almost decorated with a blue dragon.

My hand still itches. I'm afraid to put anything on it for fear of making it worse.

I joined an office pool to lose weight. Whoever loses the most weight by the beginning of June, gets it. I wonder if this is the impetus I need to lose that weight. So far, not so much; I ate 3 pieces of chocolate today. On the other hand, I went for a walk at lunch.

I went to buy my ticket to the Triangle Dance Festival on Friday. No one else is available to go with me, guess I'll go alone.

sight of the day: Muslim girl who has converted to the local religion- basketball. She's wearing a college t-shirt & matching hijab.

books: Finished Only Companion & Pocket Book of Mischief; the former at lunch & the latter on the way home.

tatting: finished 5th round. whoot!

clothes: black beaded slippers; knee-highs; black slacks & belt; dark green Geoff polo; green amber necklace, earrings & ring; black stone band; hematite band; & moss agate bead bracelet.

Stayed up too late playing computer games, again. I got a little writing done but, if you'll pardon the pun, nothing to write home about.

I developed an allergic reaction to something this morning, after I got to work. I have a rash on my left wrist, most of it the size of 2 dimes side by side with a smaller patch elsewhere. I really have no idea what caused it.

I bought an Eve Carson shirt today. Proceeds go to her Memorial Fund. At this point the most likely use is a rising Junior merit scholarship.

tatting: made a couple little butterflies & some flowers to empty a thread holder. I put some thread on it and loaded up my shuttle again. Only 5 more rings to go & the 5th round of the snood/bun cover is done.

books: reading The Pocket Guide to Mischief & Only Companion. I think I'll get a copy of the former for my niece. It's a neat little book.

clothes: black ~slippers, socks 7 slacks, red polo, Celtic knot jewelry & braided hair.

They've gotten to my office & one more today with the new lights. Wow, they are very bright. Since I like bright lights, that's a good thing.

I did a little writing today. Nothing of any importance, except to me.

Tulip poplars are blooming. The trees are budding, too. The crabapple by work is in bloom, as well. I sat under it for a little while today but I could not smell the blossoms more than a passing whiff or two. I love crabapple blossoms.

books: Haiku U, a very funny little book that summarizes 100 Great books in 17 syllables. I started reading Murderous Yarn but didn't get very far.

tatting: I tried to do some more on the bun cover yesterday but it was too bloody cold. I managed a few rings today. Until I ran out of thread on my shuttle. I need enough thread for another 7 or so rings. *sigh*

clothes: black jeans, half-boots & belt, white turtleneck, red brocade/tapestry vest, red bead bracelet, paui shell pendant (often hidden by my vest), matching ring, hematite ring & filigree ear cuff, oh & braided hair.

site of the day: Geek code. Mine is

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GL/O d+ s--:+ a+ C++ U? P L E? W++ N o>+ K- w
O+ M+ V? PS+(++) PE Y+ PGP->PGP++ t+ 5+ X! R+++@ tv+ b++++(what that's all?) DI+ D
G e>++ h--- r++ z+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

Sunday was slow. I made it through another level of Age of Empires, past the Trojan War
now. I guess that's good. I may set the next level on Easy before I try it again. My first
attempt was a miserable failure.

I picked up my manga and looked for Scion: God. FE didn't have it. Or my Witch Hunter.
*sigh*

Today was a real struggle to go to work. If I could have found a legitimate reason not to go,
I wouldn't have. At least I got a lot done.

They were supposed to get the lights replaced starting today. They just got the equipment in.
And someone stole a box of the bulbs. Bleah.

Books: Wild Ones vol 1 & 2, reread Immortal in Death.

clothes: black jeans, ~slippers & socks, teal silk blouse, matching printed scarf, braided
hair, etc.

Once again I try to give blood and failed. This time it seemed to be more a mechanical failure. Oh well.

I showed up for Blackmoor about 30 minutes late. Since I was the 4th player, they had not started without me. We've already played one and we're in the middle of the 2nd one.

Chris & I didn't go to breakfast this morning. We slept late instead. I was trying to read the Riders of Hak in preparation for today but then learned when I got here that it hasn't been fully approved yet. At least I managed to level my character before the game started. And after playing 2 adventures, she's 3rd level.

Bradford pear trees in bloom. The blooms are falling now, maybe the stench will as well. Daffodils are also in bloom, along with morning glory, forsythia & some blooms that I can't identify.

Tatting meeting tomorrow. Wheee! I have two projects to take along, the thread for the shawl, and thread for Anitra. I also have to get my car inspected, the earlier the better.

books: finished Vampire Interrupted.

clothes: black tennies & jeans, black t-shirt "Are You a Player" from the now non-existent End Zone. Jewelry is long silver chain & quartz point with etched feather, feather earrings, fem-power rings, flower band, onyx ring, hematite ring & braided hair.

book: I finished reading Vampires Are Forever today. Now I've started Vampire Interrupted. What can I say, I like that series.

I have tomorrow off & I'm planning two things. One: donating blood in the morning & two: play a game of Blackmoor. Since I only know about two players, that may not occur.

And we hope to go get breakfast before I donate blood, I'm looking forward to having a nice relaxed breakfast.

site of the day: Think Geek, neat stuff for the geeky.

clothes: black from heels to waist (~slippers, thin socks, slacks, belt); silver buckle, burgundy Jamestown polo, moonstone earrings, pendant hidden by shirt, moonstone ring, ~rope band, flower band, hematite band & braided hair. The tail of braid hits below my belt, but the elastic is still above my belt.

Supper & books; or what I did last night: After the Memorial I headed home, catching the 6-ish bus. John came over & we headed out for Chinese food and then to Raleigh on a bookhunt. He found a present for Rosemary at the B&N in Brier Creek. I spent too much on books, quelle surprise. We got back a little late & he showed off the G3 laptop. When he gets the other laptops to work fully, that one will be mine. It's a 'thank you' for helping him get the other computer stuff on eBay.

Usually when I see Mom, she gives me a pile of Wednesday presents. They're all wrapped in comic pages from the newspaper, or colorful calendar pages or catalog pages. They might be clothes, books, stationery, whatever struck her fancy as something that I might like. One about a month ago was a package of very long tank-tops to wear for warmth under winter clothes. The one for today is linen hankies & towels. They are all embroidered or otherwise decorated. Pretty neat, huh.

She started that when I was in college. They would be little slices of 'I love you' from my mom.

The memorial was very moving. I'm glad that I took a tissue. I gave one to the girl sitting next to me, too. I'm glad that I went.

dream: this morning I had a dream that I went back to school. To State! For some reason, I decided to live in a dorm, so I was a 40-year-old freshman, in the dorm. At least I had some geeks to hang out with. Too bad my room was so friggin' high it set off my latent acrophobia.

books: I've read all of 1 & most of another book that I bought last night. I read Guns Will Keep Us Together & 2/3 of the stories in Dead Over Heels. I'm saving the first one because it comes after incidents in a novel that I haven't read yet.

Guns.. is another (2nd) book about the Bombay family & the family business: assassination. This time it's Dakota's turn to have his life turned upside down. It's good for him.

Dead..continues in the world of Fred in Swimming Without a Net & one Queen Betsy & one Wyndham werewolves. One story each.

clothes: black 1/2 boots, black jeans, black belt & silver buckly, dark red (blue undertones) tank, black short-sleeved crochet sweater (worn open), plaited hair (with red elastic that matches tank), silver Celtic knot moon/star/tree pendant on short silver chain, silver flower band, hematite band, silver hash mark band, & black/silver chandelier earrings.

Supper with Joe & Chris last night. Trying to get a Blackmoor game for Friday, since we have that time available. Played a little more Age of Empires; the next stage.

books: finished one & started The Ship Who Searched. Another re-read. Found a neat book: The Irish in the South; 1815-1877.

Going to Eve Carson's Memorial this afternoon. Leaving soon.

clothes: black slacks, shoes & jewelry; UNC polo shirt.

Two fire alarms, time sheets and online time keeping. All of this is conspiring to wear me out before lunchtime. And it did.

Everyone in my office now has a touch of green, if they so choose. Everyone who's in the office today, plus Tommy, have their very own tatted shamrock. I even remembered to bring safety pins with which to attach them.

computer games: I played a little Age of Empires last night. By that I mean, that I went to bed only 2 hours late. I'm almost through stage 2 of Greece. I half expected to quickly get killed but I've survived so far. But I think that I've made a boo-boo. I don't have enough stone to build the necessary towers at the end.

books: I'm re-reading Naked in Death.

tatting: I have one more shamrock partially done. I'll probably finish that up today, so I'll have one for myself, too.

clothes: black suede shoes, black jeans, black belt with silver buckle, white turtleneck, dark green cord vest, silver andromorph pendant on twisted silver chain, Celtic knot ring, ~rope band, triskele earrings, hematite band & plaited hair.

Running late but made it to Mom's yesterday in time for lunch. We did a little shopping and found a couple flash drives at Big Lots! for $8. We finally even bought new service cards for our tracfones. I added mine today & got the minutes doubled; that will help with my upcoming trip.

I helped Mom by being a second opinion while she tried on clothes. Some things you just need to have someone else look & say "that's too big," or "that just doesn't flatter you."

This morning was load up my car & some more cleaning. Then I booked out to the RBC Center to the Hurricanes game. It's David's birthday today & that's what he wanted to do. So Chris, Rosemary, David R, David C & other friends of David R sat in the nosebleed seats and watched the Hurricanes whomp the Ottawa Senators. When I say nosebleed, I'm not kidding. The wall was 2 rows behind us and I didn't know that I was acrophobic until I got into place. It got better when there were more people in the seats.

It was a fun game to watch. The goalie was impressive. I know diddly-squat about hockey & even I could tell that. And I was seated next to a friend of David's who really knows about hockey so she was able to explain things.

I found the hook that Mom bought for me. She couldn't find it while I was there. Turns out she'd wrapped it. I can't wait to use it.

tatting: I started another shamrock during the breaks between periods.

books: Finished re-reading All About Passion & kept reading the ShadowRun book.

clothes: 'Kick gas' t-shirt & jeans yesterday. Today it's jeans & black/beige wolf etching shirt (old one from Emerald Pointe).

Supper with Dad & stepmom last night, at the Cracker Barrel located between us. They pulled in soon after I did. I managed to get one chain of a shamrock done as I waited, and most of that as they were walking toward the door. We had a nice meal & conversation. They told me about the route & stuff planned for this summer. We'll be crossing the Great Divide twice and seeing one of Dad's college friends.

books: finished The River Knows and kind of re-reading All About Passion.

tatting: Finished the 7th shamrock this morning. I gave one to Kathy last night so that leaves 6 for my co-workers. Maybe I'll go back to my snood/bun cover now.

sports: ACC conference, UNC won their game today.

Genealogy: Dad gave me a bunch of stuff with grandmother's grandparents & family on it. It was put together by his sister. It's all 20+ years old but when the person died >20 years ago, it's all still accurate.

clothes: black ~slippers, black slacks, black texture-stripe trouser socks, black belt, Harrington Steading polo, Celtic knot jewelry & sometimes, plaited hair.

Spring Break is in full effect & the campus is about dead. Luckily, I have leftovers to eat for lunch. Tomorrow, it's lunch with my old supervisor, my current one & two other co-workers. Don't know what I'll eat on Friday, yet.

Tatting: 5 shamrocks done & 6th in progress. It's Rozella Linden's Celtic knot shamrock. Cute, huh.


website of the day: etymology online

books: reading The River Knows, again.

gaming: Chaos Fields was interesting. It was a fairly short game but we got started late because my bus was late. The early bus's transmission broke and it never came. The next one was about 20 minutes late. Thus, I got home about the time that I should have been showing up at the game. Isolde went through all of her 1st level spells and a couple 2nd level spells.

news: they've arrested 2 people for the death of Eve Carson. Did they really do it? Only the cops know for sure.

clothes: black half-boots, black jeans, grey polo, moonstone jewelry & braided hair.

Tatting: I finished the 4th round! Yeah! Only took 12-13 yards, too. I thought that it was going to be 16-19 yards. I started the 5th round but put it on hiatus while I work on the eTatters March monthly challenge. So far I've tatted 2 3-leaf clovers, since yesterday. It's Rozella Linden's Celtic knot shamrocks and works up really quickly. It's all chains.

gaming: Rosemary's game went well. We've hit another plot point so we're making progress. We had to call the combat because we were running short on time. We'll pick it up next session.

Tonight is Chris's game and they'll be taking up duties at Flagstaff. Good news, our characters are not being court martialed, for being AWOL. Okay, they didn't come back after leave but they did send messages about what was going on & they did get back in time to report.

Tomorrow I'll be zero rounding some LG. It's gonna be APL 6 so I'll be playing my sorceress probably.

The day flew by at work today. I had the monthly reports to finish & then a billing spreadsheet enter. Plus emails & phone calls about HR stuff.

books: Um, I read something. Dark Melody....and I don't remember what else. I'm still reading the ShadowRun book. I picked up my manga & started reading that. But I haven't finished anything.

clothes: suede shoes, black jeans, black belt with silver buckle, white waffle polo, purple sweater (my office was cold today, I never took it off), feather earrings & quartz point pendant, fem power ring, class ring, hematite band & braided hair.

Finally finished the Egypt campaign in Age of Empires yesterday. Did a bit other stuff, but frankly, not much. Chris wasn't feeling well & I was too freaking tired. I slept 10 hours Friday night.

Rosemary's game today. I need to make sure that I have my stuff together. We're starting a little later because she's taking Duncan to a dog class.

TV: we finally started watching the 2nd season of W*I*T*C*H*. It's really good. It's got this thing called continuity. Adult shows should take note.

books: re-reading Dark Melody & the Shadowrun 4th edition book.

clothes: jeans, t-shirt, etc.

book: Down Home Zombie Blues by Linnea Sinclair.

tv: Kim (the one with Errol Flynn & Dean Stockwell) & more Coupling.

games: Chris made it past the Wonder stage of Age of Empire. I'm going to try tonight.

music site: J-something

I'm crying off & on about poor Eve. I never even met her. She could have come up to me & bit & I wouldn't have known who she was. But I'm crying over her death.

clothes: black usual from waist down, sage shirt, grey cord vest, emerald pendant & earrings, class ring, brass hair clip & braid.

Weird stuff. They identified the girl who was found yesterday. She's the student body president. It's not like I knew her personally or anything. It's more like she was someone that the entire campus knew. And for her to die like that.

Kinda makes my usual blog frivolous.

Every day a little better, healthwise at least. Not so much work-wise. As I was coming into work I started having nasty little 'flashbacks'. Not quite actual urges, just presentiment of urges, if you know what I mean.

I only managed soup for lunch but by this afternoon I ate a candy bar. Not good for my physically, but oooohhhhh I needed it. I thought long & hard about it but finally decided it was better to get one now than splurge on the cookies at home.

Good news, 2 of the work headaches are now resolved (one as of 5:10+ this evening). I am soooo glad that's over. I've been working on one of those headaches for 2 weeks. It's just been gathering steam & the deadline to have it done, come hail or high water, was today. And. It is.

Not one person noticed or commented on my class ring today. I've never really worn it before. I accidentally ordered in in gold & well, I don't wear gold. Today, I had the urge to wear it, so I did.

I fixed my shoe at lunch. The closest store to me had an abysmal glue selection but I was desperate. So I bought a glue gun. Hey, it worked. At least so far. But I haven't done much walking yet. We'll see.

website: I just found it, it's all about historical clothes. It's a forum & I haven't joined yet. So we'll see.

books: Sort of dipped into re-reading The Rogue & the Hellion by Connie Mason. Read The Accidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy. I really liked it. Re-reading The Warlock Unlocked again.

computer games: Age of Empires is killing me. Repeatedly. I'm on the Wonder stage and keep getting killed.

clothes: black ~slippers, black socks, black jeans, black belt with silver buckle, black poly 'silky' shirt (short sleeves), onyx earrings, usual hematite, black and red stone bands, class ring, labradorite pendant & braided hair.

End of an era

Gary Gygax has died. He was so young (okay, nearly 70, but people live lots older than that)

I made it into work today. I would have called in sick again but there's just too much to do that's time sensitive; as in 'people's paychecks rely upon it' sensitive. My stomach managed some soda and a cereal bar but it's not happy. I hope I at least get everything time sensitive done. Everything else can wait.

This morning so far: struggle with the on-line personnel system hating me; 5 phone messages (that was easy, forward 2, note 1, follow-up on 2); room reservation; and noting what needs to be done & prioritizing.

books: who felt like reading? I tried, I failed. Not enough attention span.

TV: watched part of Predator last night. I went to bed before it ended, though.

clothes: black ~slippers, black jeans, black belt, silver buckle, black polo (2001 Ren Fest), fem power ring, hematite band, black tatted necklace & matching earrings, and braided hair with a black elastic.

Saturday's game of Greyhawk Ruins went well. Rosemary's healer was able to be effective in combat (empowered cure moderate wounds does bad things to undead). Kash, my ranger, is 4th level. I decided to stick with ranger for 4th & take fighter at 5th.

We were planning to go to Firebird for Rosemary's late b'day supper but they had 2-hour wait. So we went to Red Lobster; net gain - half an hour. Chris is talking about running L5R again. Supper was nice, we socialized, ate and Rosemary opened a couple presents.

Sunday Chris & I played Age of Empires. Mom & Dad both called, that was unusual. Then I got sick. Really sick. Chris fixed the washing machine, well, it works anyway.

I'm stuck at home today because I fear going more than 30' from a bathroom. Yeah, being sick really sucks.

tatting: I did more of the snood, about half of the 4th rounds.

books: I re-read Willing, All Night Long, The Grand Sophy and most of Holidays are Hell.

clothes: Saturday was jeans & wench t-shirt, yesterday was tank & sweatpants. Today is more of the same.

I started seeing daffodils this week. I really love those flowers.

I have a headache. I took an aleve an hour and a half ago, so it's only painful instead of excruciating.

tatting: finished the 3rd round on my way into work this morning. As I rode home last night I had the opportunity to show it to a couple people. One has seen me tatting before; the other one had never seen tatting before & had never heard of it.

books: started reading Willing, the sequel to Ready, last night. I brought a Dick Francis book to work with me but I may not have a chance to read. I'll be doing my taxes at lunch. Whee.

TV: we watched the 2nd episode of Coupling last night. I hadn't seen that one before. It's funny. Then we watched The Princess Diaries, but I went to bed before the end.

clothes: same old same old from the waist down, black Origins shirt, grey cord vest (that covers up the Origins logo), dragon jewelry (Welsh dragon pewter earrings, silver pendant & 2 rings), and braided hair. So far I don't need a bandage this morning, but if I do, I'm pulling out another fairy one.

Two cool sites: One is perpetual kid, they have all kinds of neat knickknacks, including a footwarmer that hooks into your USB.

The other is from Burda, free sewing patterns. How neat is that! You just have to register, & that's free, too.

tv: Watched an episode of Alias Smith & Jones and then a couple episodes of Coupling. I was laughing so hard that I literally had trouble breathing. Either I'm very tense or that was intensely funny. I think it might have been the 1st episode because it had the group of 6 meeting/getting together.

Books: I read a little bit in a pocket prayer guide (suggestions on positive thinking really) since it was too cold to tat as I waited for the bus yesterday. I tried but only managed one chain & one ring before giving up. I finished re-reading Ready this morning.

Computer games: I finished another stage in Age of Empires & fully upgraded all the equipment in my 4th or 5th store in Paradise Pet Salon.

tatting: I think my thread is size 20, not 10. I need to find some that is definitely 10 & check. I finished the 2nd round yesterday & made a good start on the 3rd round today. The commute this morning was particularly long. The shuttle that I'm using holds 4 yards so it takes 4 yards on the shuttle to do the 1st 2 rounds (plus one itty bitty butterfly - 4ppp4 & 2p2 wings).

I've also gotten the idea to do the snood again, with beads! I can see already where the beads go; on all the free picots. The 1st round would have 8 ~larger beads, 16 seed beads for the rings & 8 seed beads for the chains. No beads on the 2nd round; all the picots are for joins.

clothes: same as yesterday from the waist down but it's lot colder so it's grey cord vest & bright pink turtleneck, same jewelry, except ~rope band instead of onxy ring, and pink fairy bandage over my hand where I scratched it yesterday. I drew blood & it still stings.

Looks like we're going to suffer further water restrictions. We got a little rain yesterday, less than half an inch; it's not enough. We'll be going to stage 3 by the end of the week. And it's quite chilly today (almost freezing this morning).

tatting: finished the 1st round of my snood & started the 2nd.

books: been busy doing my taxes and playing computer games. I haven't read anything more than a few pages of re-reading Ready.

computer games: started playing Age of Empires last night. I'm almost through the Learning (Rise of Egypt) campaign. I've bought the 5th store in Paradise Pet Salon.

clothes: same shoes, duplicate jeans, different forest green polo (Geoff), dark purple sweater, Celtic knot earrings & ring, andromorph pendant, onyx ring, flower ring, hematite band & braided hair.

Chris's game: Last night the fight with the Salt Baron continued. One of Kelis's last actions was to cast sleet storm, which blocked the merchant from targeting our PCs with spells (sleet storm does not do damage, it blocks normal sight and makes it hard to walk). Joe's cleric, Gaius, hit the area with a dispel magic a few rounds (& some healing) later. That revealed the merchant & his closest salt golem, which was half-destroyed. Turns out, when Chris wrote up the salt golem he included a specific weakness: vulnerability to 'create water' & 'sleet storm'. That was also true for the salt merchant's salt staff. It was half-gone, too. That had the unintended side effect that the next time he used it, it blew up. One more destroyed golem later & the fight was over.

We spent the rest of the session dealing with our PCs correct orders (make a 6-week trip in 3-weeks, since they weren't where they were when the orders were cut). Also, the undead knight sent a little 'gift,' 6 black heavy warhorses with matching tack. The dwarf developed a distaste/hatred/antipathy towards riding so he certainly wasn't going to take one. None of the other PC's except for the fey-ish warmage & my half-elf druid took one. They are very nice warhorses. My cavalry characters would be drooling (so to speak).

tatting: I finished the red butterfly that I started, from the Palmetto Guild's book of butterflies, while trying to donate blood. Now I've started another snood, red this time.

dream: I was working at Piece Goods and Louise was the manager. There were just 3 of us working and it was almost closing time. We could see snow falling outside in the lights of the parking lot so we were trying to hurry. 3, or 4, people came in through the back door (storage room) and were stacking up fabric from the remnant tables, mostly camo and heavy fabrics. The handwritten sign on a nearby table said $4/yard. I just knew that they were going to claim that sale price for the fabrics that they were buying. At least they weren't too horrible about it, just irritated.

We finally got everyone out the door & started cleaning up. Someone had left a box of kittens as well and I was trying to put water out for them when this lady barges into the store (oops, forgot to lock the door). We tried to tell her that we were closed, 'but I need this for my job. I won't be long.' Finally we showed her that the register was empty and closed, we couldn't sell her anything. She finally left.

In the meantime, 2 others came into the store but they helped us clean up when they saw that we were closed. We locked the door but accepted their help because we really needed to be out of there before the snow made it too dangerous to drive. First lady came back, pounding on the door, demanding to know why the other 2 customers could buy stuff but she couldn't. We had to explain to her that they weren't shopping, they were helping us straighten & pick stuff up.

Was that an anxiety dream or have I been reading the Customers Suck forum too much?

clothes: black half-boots, black jeans, black belt with Celtic knots, silver belt buckle with Celtic knotwork, hematite band, onyx band, emerald pendant & earrings, dark green Ocean City MD polo, & braided hair.

Blood donation failed. Again. They managed to get a good stick in one arm, but not the other. At least I didn't miss much work. That's good. Right? Right?

The tatting get-together on Saturday was fun. About half a dozen of us were there and we chatted and tatted. I finally finished my bookmark, by cheating. I gave up on that knot and joined to the ring itself, then finished up. I fray-cheked it to death & hope it holds. Guess I won't be giving that one away. But I have the idea of it now.

I finished the single thread block star yesterday. It looks pretty good. I've started the split chain star but I need to practice the split chain just a little more.

Went to FE's sale yesterday & kept to my budget. I bought 3 game books, Girl Genius manga vol 1, and my regular stuff. That was it. I wanted to pick up some of those used videos (Here is Greenwood & Ranma 1/2) but I just didn't have the money. Witch Hunter still hasn't showed up. I talked to Rick, the owner, and he was telling me that they have 9 game books on backorder with the potential of it being 12 when the order arrives on Wednesday.

books: read Goblin War, Sizzle & Burn on Saturday. Goblin War might be the last book but there's potential for more. Sizzle & Burn is the 3rd Arcane Society book and it's good. I'm looking forward to the next one.

TV: I watched an old (taped) episode of Psych & a couple episodes of Tactics (anime). We watched a new (to US) Japanese game show, Unbeatable Banzuke.

Saturday, the washing machine decided to break. I think it's just the lid switch but that means that I need to order it & then we need to replace it. In the meantime, we can't wash clothes because the water from the last load is still there. The spin dry function is broken.

This morning I'm off to donate blood, or try. My appointment is early so I'm going to work afterwards.

clothes: On Saturday I wore a Palmetto Tat days t-shirt with my jeans. Yesterday it was a knife and blood-red roses t-shirt. Today it's black jeans, black half-boots, dark green Gettysberg souvenir polo shirt, Celtic knot jewelry.

Tried to go out to PF Chang's last night for our belated Valentine's supper. It was completely socked in. The parking lot was full, complete with parking space vultures. We couldn't figure out why, so we just went to Ted's Montana Grill instead.

Afterwards, we stopped by B&N so Chris could use his gift cert. I bought 3 books, restrained for me. My knee was hurting & the incoming storm front was playing havoc with my headache.

books: I finished the Hourglass. It was good, unexpected & unusual. It was a supernatural Regency. The Earl is an agent of death, a former knight in the Crusades (aka the Frankish Invasion) who has cheated his way back to life. Now he has 6 months to regain his humanity or be the Devil's pawn. Her reputation is in shreds, her family has disowned her and her unlamented husband just died, leaving her penniless. Now I'm reading Dancing with Werewolves.

tonight it's Mutants Masterminds, I think. David hasn't sent out a reminder.

clothes: black halfboots, black jeans, same vest, purple turtleneck, amethyst ring, amethyst pendant, purple Czech crystal earrings, under-French braid, purple/frost bead bracelet, Celtic knot ring, hematite band & purple elastic on the hair.

My bus was early last night. The buses are never early. I was at the bus stop at exactly the scheduled time & the bus was nowhere in sight (I can see for a decent distance down the road). I ended up waiting half an hour for the next one. Or rather, half-hour plus, because the next one was late. Grrrr!

Watched Saturday's Torchwood again, didn't feel like explaining to Chris that I watched it already. I'd been futzing with my laptop so I'd missed quite a bit on the 1st watching anyway.

Finished my books and started another one from the UBS, The Hourglass by Metzger.

clothes: Celtic knot post earrings, Celtic knot ring, triskele pendant, hematite band, braided ring & matching pair of bracelets, Frech-braided hair, burgundy turtleneck, black 1/2 boots, & black jeans.

Laptop update: I started digging out my program disks and reloading programs. At least, the ones that I could find. I need to find my photo-editing software & my Palm software. I also need to talk to iTunes to see if there is some way to pull the music from my iPod to merge it with the music library that they have on record for me. I did find my backup disks (however old) but some appear to be blank! *insert screams of rage & frustration here*

tatting: I'm still trying to untie that knot. I forgot to bring it to work on it today.

tv: I watched some of the Ranma 1/2 DVDs that John gave me, and an episode of Lois & Clark. And last night I learned that there was apparently an episode of Firefly that I missed. That was a nice surprise.

books: Read Bunnicula, it's a cute kid's book. I finished Gilt by Association (2nd Den of Antiquity book). The lead character is Abigail Timberlake, & she's so Southern. I enjoy her & the mysteries.

I started Shakespeare's Secret. It's about a 6th grader (about age 12) whose family has moved again so she's starting a new school. Her new neighbor tells her that everyone in town believes that the previous owner faked the theft of a diamond (to pay for his wife's medical care) and hid it in her house. It's a young adult book & pretty good so far. The young lady is named Hero for the character in one of my favorite Shakespeare plays.

clothes: light purple turtleneck, black slacks, grey cord vest, dark grey socks, black ~slippers (with the sole coming loose at the toe on the right one), rainbow moonstone earrings & trimoon pendant, moonstone ring, ~rope band, hematite band, Celtic knot ring & French-braided hair (with two clips toward the back to catch fly-aways).

My laptop arrived on Friday. Don't tell James, but he sent me the wrong power cord. The one he sent me does not fit my laptop. So I went & bought a new one on Saturday. Ouch, they are expensive. I spent some time loading software this weekend, and some time playing video games. My trip to see my mom didn't happen, so I had the time.

The weather today is absolutely gorgeous. We got a little rain last night and today it's unseasonably warm. The clouds cleared out by late morning, giving me a beautiful sunny day to enjoy at lunch.

books: re-read Goblin Quest & then read Wild Horses by Dick Francis.

scarf: now reaches from fingertip to elbow with just a tad bit of stretch.

tatting: still trying to get that knot undone. It was too damp & too bumpy this morning. I'll take it to the meeting on Saturday.

clothes: jeans & t-shirt on Saturday, jeans & sweatpants on Sunday. Today it's ~slippers, black slacks, thin black socks, brown/black Vorkosigan polo, dragon jewelry (2 rings, necklace & earrings), hematite band, black Celtic knot belt & buckle, French braided hair.

Ahh, the day after Valentine's Day. The day that all the Valentine candy & cards go on sale.

It's been a day already. I walk out my door without my bus pass or ID so I go back. By that time, I'm running late enough that I'm going to miss the bus if I walk to my stop. So I drive to the next stop & catch the bus there.

I get to work & my phone is ringing as I walk into the office. I answer it & work on the call as I'm taking off my coat. I finish the call, partially unresolved, and head back to the closet to hang up my coat. As I comment to my co-worker 'it's not even 8 am & it's already started,' the fire alarm goes off. I spend 20-some minutes in the cold as we wait for the firemen to arrive & take care of whatever the problem is (it's unlikely that it's really a fire).

Chris gave me three wonderful books yesterday. One is for drawing horror manga, one for magical girl manga & one for fantasy art. Cool, huh? I gave him season 1 & 2 of Veronica Mars. He seemed to like them.

We went to a fast food burgers last night. Neither of us felt like cooking but we didn't want pizza & anything 'classier' than fast food was going to be packed.

tv: watched part of Kiss Me Kate. I love that movie. And Howard Keel is just so hot in that movie. Yum. After that we watched Scooby Doo, Where Are You & CSI. Chris had seen that episode; horror movie star murdered, but I hadn't.

books: I reread Scandal & started Happy Hour at Casa Dracula. It's kinda funny & definitely different. I also skimmed through the books that Chris gave me and a book on making plushy little softies.

tatting: still on that last ring. I need to undo a knot & then retie it before I can go further.

other crafts: that ribbon yarn scarf is almost the length of my forearm now, almost.

clothes: black jeans yesterday, black slacks today; black half-boots yesterday, black suede shoes today; same black belt with Celtic stamping & silver Celtic knot buckle; same grey cord vest; same hematite band; same plaited hair; different shades of green turtleneck; different set of emerald necklace & earrings; and today I added my labradorite bracelet.

I was so tired last night, partially because I went to bed late after gaming on Monday & partially because incoming storm fronts sometimes do that to me (I practically slept through a hurricane due to that). I went to sleep about an hour early. tv: I watched another episode of Lois & Clark and not much else. books: I finished Touch of a Highlander last night & finished Baroque & Desperate on my way into work. letters: sent Valentine Day notes to the usual suspects, plus my dad & step-mom. Dad got out of his 2nd knee surgery yesterday. Kathy said that the surgeon said that it looked good. tatting: one more chain & ring; that's it. If it's not too damp or cold, I'll get more done on the way home. clothes: black shoes, black jeans, burgundy turtleneck, grey cord vest, labradorite bracelet, triangle triskele pendant, Celtic knot earrings & ring, ~rope band, hematite band, braided hair & elastic with Celtic knot on it.

book reviews from weekend's reading:

Magical JxR starts somewhat picaresque. It's the story of 2 wizard students who are partners despite their powers being complete opposites; fire & water. The end story/chapter seems to indicate the rest of the volumes will follow what happens to them just after they graduate.

Reluctant Rogue is mostly a typical Regency romance. There are a few differences; he's (almost) blatantly desperate for an heiress; so he can get out of his father's domination. She's the much plainer & much-less well-dowered younger sister. Her dowry is really just as big, but it's land & horses, not cash. It's an enjoyable but not unforgettable read.

It's time for Pantheon High homecoming. Too bad most of the students are still asleep from the spell in the 1st volume. And two of the students who saved them all are still stuck in the Underworld. Volume 2: Hades & Homecoming.

My copy of White Lies, by Krentz & book 2 of Arcane Society, arrived and I read it Sunday. It's pretty good. Good enough that I went to zooba & put book 3 on buy immediately.

Larceny & Old Lace is either the 1st or 2nd book of the Den of Antiquity mystery series by Tamar Myers. The protagonist is Abigail Timberlake of Rock Hill SC & Charlotte NC. I've been to both so I recognize the patterns & some of the places. This is a very Southern culture & I loved it. I bought a bunch of them at the used bookstore & I'll be looking for more.

I ran into not one but two nice people today. That just perked up my morning.

One was the woman who called out, letting me that someone was trying to get my attention. Of course, the person trying to get my attention is the guy who works where I usually pick up my breakfast (I'm toting my breakfast this week). We made faces at each other through the window.

The other was the woman who let me know that I was missing my hair elastic. Not that she was to know that I had removed it because it clashed with my outfit today. So I thanked her and let her know that I had removed it and thanked her again for letting me know, 'cause if it had slipped off that would have been well, not a lifesaver, but something to tend.

Chris's game: We finally had the showdown with the Salt Baron (expletives inserted by our PCs who are really pissed at him). He had at least 3 salt golems and all his spells are salt-themed, like he got elemental substitution: salt. We had finished off his 2 guards and were working on the golems when 10 pm hit. Kelis, my druid, slowed down that spell-slinging idiot by casting sleet storm on his half of the room. At the same time, Gaius's (Joe's cleric) spiritual weapon is whacking on him. His 3rd salt golem is defending him but so far not 100%.

I spent most of Saturday getting the table & environs cleared for last night's game. It's a shame, I had wanted to go to What the Hell Con. Oh well.

Sunday, I took more books to the Used Book Store & bought more. But I also found V'day presents for Chris. I bought him season 1 & 2 of Veronica Mars. That was half my book bill right there. My Witch Hunter book still has not arrived. *wah*

I still need to get a birthday present for Rosemary. Chris sent me her list so I have some things to find. Joe seemed to like his Christmas present last night. I went ahead & gave the 50 comic book villains book to David. He really liked it. Joe gave me season 2 DVD of Ranma 1/2 & he utterly thrilled Rosemary by giving her the Isis tv show on DVD. He got a good D&D book for Chris & the latest Shadowrun book. Diana got the next book in a series that he'd recommended to her. I don't remember what or if Joe & David got anything from him.

Sunday, was Rosemary's game. Richard brought presents, too. He gave coffee to Chris, a couple candles to me, a Munchkin game to Joe & I can't remember what he gave Rosemary.

Those stupid undead cursed & gaunts came back to attack our characters in Rosemary's game. She had designed that encounter thinking that we'd have a 9th level cleric with us. We don't because Diana had to pull out of the game due to her irregular schedule. But Richard managed to turn the mounts (cursed, I think) & that got rid of half of the combatants. When we killed all the riders (gaunts, I think, I'm no longer certain which is which), the remaining mounts fled. They're smarter than the riders and both are nasty, icky, undead things. Midnight & Aidon only stayed alive thanks to plot immunity. Otherwise they were both just soooo dead.

The wind was intense Sunday evening. I was quite glad not to be driving.

tatting: I finally got past adding both new threads on my bookmark. I did that yesterday & last night. Then I forgot to bring it work with me today.

books: Read vol 1 of Magical JxR, Reluctant Rogue, vol 2 of Pantheon High, White Lies, & Larceny and Old Lace.

clothes: black or blue jeans, t-shirts over the weekend, polo shirt yesterday & turtleneck today.

Been busy. Much work.

Mutants & Masterminds last night. Saved mobster's life & life of Crimson Katana, again. Now fighting Sword of Heaven again & we hates Crimson Katana's wakizashi, yes, preciousss, we hates it.

books: re read the following: Rejar, Owlsight, & Surrender. Read the subsequent: Masquerading Mistress, Under Orders, Timeswept Rogue, Death of the Office Witch, Miss Treadwell's Talent, A Debt to Delia & The Edge.

tatting: a little progress on the bookmark. But ran out of variegated blue. Trying to figure out how to get it to the right point in the thread.

other crafts: scarf now the almost 1/3 up my forearm.

clothes: mostly black jeans. Worn a skirt on Wednesay. Looked good. It's been absurdly warm. We set a record, by about 8F yesterday.

*(&%&^$ I tried donated platelets today. Few things make you feel quite as worthless as failing to donate blood. They just could not get a good stick in my arm or hand. Their two most experienced phlebotomists tried.

As I was heading there I had a run-in with a jerk. It was mild but it did irritate me. As I'm pulling into the right turn lane, the right arrow goes amber. So I slow down & sure enough it's red by the time I get there. No problem. I stop, I check to see what traffic's doing & then I start my turn. As I'm checking on traffic bozo in the pick up truck behind me beeps at me. "Dude (not that he can hear me, but I talk to him anyway), red means stop, not slow down!"

Back to work & lots of doings. It was only one morning but one guy came in with a stack of HR stuff to do, both on-line & copies to make. Whee! Yeah, not so much. Then it's lunch time & my stomach is still not entirely happy from the Tums. They just don't sit right with me.

tatting: I finally turned the corner on the bookmark. It looks interesting. I'm not entirely confident about it, though.

books: I started going through some books to go to the used bookstore & set more aside for Bookcrossing. I finished reading Desire & started Shadow Fires. Once I've read it, it's going to the UBS. I'm also re-reading, because I thought that I hadn't read it, Caught Dead in Philadelphia.

clothes: black ~slippers (despite the heavy rain), knee-highs, black jeans, black belt with silver Celtic knot buckle, Celtic knot ring, earrings & triskele pendant, flower band ring, black stone band & hematite band (on left & right ring fingers respectively), braided hair & waffle weave white polo. Right now, I also have a blue bandage on over the attempted needle sites.