ARE YOU A GOOD JUDGE OF CHARACTER?
TRY THIS OUT.BY LOOKING AT A PICTURE OF A PERSON, YOU HAVE TO DECIDEIF HE IS A PROGRAM LANGUAGE INVENTOR OR A SERIAL KILLER.
GO WITH YOUR GUT FEELING : Killer or Programmer?

It's amazing what getting a bit more sleep will do for one's mood. Plus chocolate, chocolate is vital.

Tonight (weather permitting), I'll stop by the grocery store to pick up my snacks & sodas for the con. Then I finish my laundry & pack. One way or the other, my bags are going out to my car when I do in the morning. Either I'm leaving immediately after work or due to AWL I'm not going to work. Of course, if it's bad enough, I may not be going to SheVaCon at all.

Charitable website of the day: Big Girl Princess Project

Regional website: Are you a Yankee or a Dixie?

neat website of the day: fun with photoshop

Well, I'm depressed. My boss is having her baby, might have it by now. That ruins my weekend plans. I get to drive to SheVaCon, by myself, after work. And I loooove long drives. Yeah, right.

I just can't write anymore, I'm too ill.

Erk, I haven't posted since Friday? Mea culpa. Been busy. Um, still busy. Talk later.

Remember what I last posted about having 3 hours to get my work done is a bit scant? I'm still a little behind but I'm better than I was. Linda did the check requests so that's one less but I had to do the meal plan reports because my student assistant feels that going to grad school is a good thing & maybe she should, um, actually go to the auditions (she's a singer) to get in. So I spent most of 3 hours after class the last 2 days just getting those done, plus whatever else popped up.

I found Chris's Valentine Day present. And since I had to stay late last night getting my confidential email address, to handle HR stuff, etc, I can leave early today to try & get it. Yay me! And yay cranky computer.

I still have lots to do so it's back to work.

Class from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, plus travel time = 5 hours away from desk. That leaves 3 hours to get my work done. I'm a little bit behind as a result. Leave records are done. Check requests are not. My supervisor did the copying on the FBMO's so that's one less task for me.

Found checkbook last night. Mailed car insurance & TV Guide renewal today. Good thing!

Entertaining game last night but fell asleep. Falling asleep better than having a hissy fit & screaming at two of the other players.

My bf works late tonight, we may have supper together tonight, if he picks something up. Or I may eat on my own & he gets something for himself.

Still haven't done my homework for tomorrow's class. Guess I get a long lunch coming to me on Friday, as I work more than 8 hours today. Wheee!

I mailed the letter to my aunt & uncle. I used my last check Friday so I need to either get a money order or withdraw the cash & get someone to write me a check for my car insurance. Could be important.

Rosemary bought Arms & Equipment Guide for D&D so I have to find something else to get her for her birthday. I have no ideas. Candles & potpourri are out because of her pets, ditto most houseplants. Cross stitch supplies are not viable because her dog Duncan, won't let her crossstitch anymore. He sits in her lap when she tries & she can't get any done.

We did not get much done in Sunday's game because we sat around having too much fun talking & joking. Mike's character Dratsab is a great favorite with the chambermaids at the Old Skull Inn. He was throwing money around while the elf went to check on his home & the rest of the characters collected our pay. Joe was two hours late (he warned us that he would be) and we had not even left town yet. Although we were on the verge of doing so. We played from just after two until just after six. Then we scattered to our various suppers.

I managed to get 2 loads of laundry done. I finished my white load on Saturday & did my load of blacks & red on Sunday. The rest of the dark colors are in the washing machine today. I need to put them in the dryer when I get home.

I did not get any writing done, or tatting. I read. I still haven't played any of my game. Maybe tonight or maybe tomorrow.

Chris & I watched Operation Petticoat. Apparently, this kid named Bernie Schwartz saw Cary Grant in Destination: Tokyo & vowed to become an actor & be in a sub movie with him. As it happened, that kid changed his name to Tony Curtis & he & Cary co-starred in Operation Petticoat. It's a funny movie. It's been awhile since I'd seen it so I'd forgotten portions of it.

It's another cold, frost-covered morning. I had to scrape my windshield. It's odd, Saturday at noon was warm & comfortable. I had to roll my windows down while I fetched lunch so my car wouldn't be unbearable hot when I got back into it. By 3 pm it had gotten cold & windy. The weather changed from nice & spring-like to another burst of winter.

I missed today's mail so I'll mail my note to Aunt Jeri & Uncle Warren on Monday. It's not big deal. I did get my taxes done, not that they are complex or anything.

I fixed the strap on Joe's bag and darned a couple of Chris's socks. He did a few last night & I told him that I'd work on them today. I did a two plus I worked on a third. I finished reading The Redemption of Althalus by the Eddings and read a book with 3 short stories. One was a Harrington one I'd already read, by Weber; the second was a Belisarius by Flint, I think I'll have to start reading the series of that story is any sample & the last one was a Hammer's Slammers story.

I started to work on my Ala Shan material, that's why I'm on the computer, but I can't find where I saved it. I thought I had some on my email, as a note to myself. That's frustrating.

They are still playing the special mission. One character has already died & been reincarnated, he's now an elf. Phelps almost died, again. He was at 0 hit points. Whee! Nick, the GM, said that the final battle had been cut down by 2/3 & they were still fighting 12 specters. Ick.

Back to checking email, etc. I probably won't post again until Monday.

I was so miserable at 9 am that all I wanted to do was to leave work early. But first I had to take care of HR stuff & then do accounting stuff. I finished the accounting stuff at 4pm. Now, I realize that I feel human & have for a little while now. My throat doesn't hurt, much, & I can breathe through my nose.
Yay!

I sent out the sympathy card to my Great-Aunt Martha today. She might get it as early as tomorrow. When I talked to Mom last night, to get Aunt Martha's address, Mom said that she had just received her card & I sent that Wednesday.

Tomorrow Chris & I are hosting an RPGA:Living Greyhawk game. It's a special mission for Just Phelps to regain his human species & regain his place among the Knights of the Watch. He was Watcher Phelps, so when he lost his place, temporarily, he became known as Just Phelps. I'm not playing, it's APL 10 & my character is only 7th level. I have other characters, but they are even lower.

Sunday is Rosemary's Forgotten Realms game. That should be entertaining. We've all gone shopping for new goodies & now we start the next module. We won't get experience from this one until the very end. We may jump a couple levels when that happens.

I've written a letter to my Aunt Jeri & Uncle Warren, in Illinois. I finished it too late for it to go into today's mail, so I'll send it tomorrow.

My cold proceeds. Today, I have a stopped up nose to go with the sore throat. I'm continuing with the zinc lozenges, plus echinacea & yesterday I had a Jamba Juice Coldbuster smoothie. Why am I not better yet?

I never remembered the 3rd thing to buy. Oh well. I did get the zinc lozenges & some sympathy cards (might need another one suddenly). But I've lost Aunt Martha's address; I left a message for Mom to call me back with it.

I'm tired and I want to take a nap. Bleah.

I forgot the neatest thing about Saturday's NC Game Day. They had a raffle and you bought tickets & put your tickets in the bag for whatever you wanted a chance to get. I put my tickets in for Draconomicon and for Beyond Good & Evil for the XBox. I won the game! Isn't that faboo. I squealed & bounced when I won. A guy I know, Jason (who btw is really cute & if I weren't monogamous & he wasn't married....), also wanted it & said that he was mildly consoled by the thought of my squeal & bounce reaction.

I made it home at 6:30 last night & Chris was actually home before I was. Both of us were really tired so we ordered pizza. Mom called while we were eating, she had a question about 1880's San Francisco. I was able to answer part of it but I need to look up some references to find the rest. We talked for about an hour. She liked the letter/card that I sent. I had to explain what Monster House was though. I had written to her about the episode that Richard taped for Chris & me.

Chris & I watched cartoons last night. We watched Legend of Tarzan, Fillmore, & Weekenders. I missed most of Fillmore & Weekenders because I was talking to Mom.

Errands to do tonight: pay storage, buy sympathy card for Aunt Martha, buy zinc lozenges & I know I'm forgetting something, but I don't know what. Hopefully I'll remember it by this evening.

I admit it. I'm sorry that we did not have inclement weather last night or this morning. I just didn't want to come to work today. I stayed up to watch CSI: Miami last night so I didn't head to bed until 11 pm. I cooked chicken last night, plus peas & mashed potatoes. Simple meal, but filling.

Diana cancelled gaming last night because she's still recovering from the illness that laid her low this weekend. John did not get the message so he showed up at 7:30. As a result I did not get to see the last 10 minutes of the Pretender episode that I had taped because he talks over tv shows. We sort of watched the Stargate: SG1 episodes on Sci Fi channel instead. He & Chris talked about Chris's D&D game. John hasn't done his 'shopping' yet. I watched those last 10 minutes this morning & then taped over it with today's episode of Pretender on TNT.

I've had some soda & I'm drinking another one right now but this headache is not going away. I also took an aleve & that hasn't kicked in yet. Luckily my HRIS training isn't until next week. If I tried to do it this week, it would not be pretty.

I finished one book last night, started another one & finished it this morning plus finished yet another one. Although that last one was a re-read, so parts of it I just skimmed.

Funny site: RFC 1149 or Standard for the transmission of IP datagrams on avian carriers

And There are no such things as UFO's

And SpiritRover's livejournal.

Wow! What a weekend. Saturday, I went to NC Game Day at State. I left home at 7:50 am, stopped to get cash & found a parking spot by 8:40 am. If I'd been any later, I would not have found a spot. No players showed up for my game until about 10 am. The one who did show, who had signed up, had all the books & wanted a chance to play before trying to run it. He'd played at a con & that was it.

He made up a character & two more people showed up & asked what we were doing (thanks Sean for the Game Host screen, it does attract attention). they made up characters & we started to play. We had Nutmeg the squirrel elementalist/cleric (journeyman air mage), Allisan the ferret robber/charlatan & the wolverine bodyguard/bounty hunter. Once characters were done I sent them on a simple errand to find & capture 3 bandits. So they got an introduction to combat. By that time it was 2pm so I wanted my lunch. Gerald (Allisan's player) & I went to get Chinese food on Hillsborough St.

When we came back, the table I had been using had another game running, so Lyman (who was running things) found me another table. I didn't have another game officially but I said that if I found interested players then I'd run something else. Gerald was interested & so was Nutmeg's player. Then 2 guys who had never heard of Ironclaw stopped by & I gave them pregenerated characters. Unfortunately the Excel spreadsheet character sheets are still in beta test & were not as complete as I'd like. But they found 2 possibilities, so Nutmeg & Allisan were joined by Dante & Rafael. Rafael was the ferret witch hunter while Dante was the goat apothecary/homeopath. I sent them through Cup Hunt. No combat but lots of interaction & man/sentient vs. environment. They had fun, which is the purpose after all.

As I was packing up a young man named Clay stopped by. He had thumbed through Ironclaw & he was interested in the game but wanted someone to explain it to him. His gaming group is concluding their D&D game & they are shopping for another game. So I went through character generation, how the rolls work etc. He fell in love with it. We then sat down & he and two others who happened to be standing around, made up characters. If we had gotten done early enough I would have run again but it was getting to 9 pm & I wanted to get home & get some sleep.

I made it home before 10 pm, finding my way off campus easier than I had found my way on. Then it was spend some time with my SO before heading off to bed. I had left before he woke up Saturday morning so this was of some importance.

The next morning we sat around and watched the history of drinks in America: coffee, Kool-aid, beer, wine, martinis, cocktails, sodas etc. It was very interesting. Then I finally got moving & tried to make a bannock cake. Instead of dough I ended up with oat soup. I wrapped it in tin foil & took it anyway. Chris left to do the grocery shopping before I left for Imbolc. I packed up my supplies & even with my errands, made it to Gaia's Gardens about 1:45. Chris H. showed up just after I did, so both of us were early.

He unlocked the gate & helped my prepar & set things out. Of course, things never go quite as you plan, so the braided circle ended up smaller than my foot in diameter; the Bride's cross was okay but I only made 1 instead of 4; there were only 3 tables instead of 4 & 1 of them is broken so I set up 2 together to make one ~decent-sized altar; I'd forgotten scissors but Chris's knife worked; had to tie the tablecloth onto the tables; the candles did not want to stay lit - the wind; the firelogs in the tin pans worked well; and I'd forgotten the sage to cleanse the circle & people; & I'd brought my draft notes instead of the final copy. At least I'd brought my source material. The making of Bride's crosses with the raffia went, um, okay. I set the ~bannock to cook over the fire in the center.

There were 2 new people at the circle, they seem nice. The ritual went well, people were complimentary at least. I set the ~bannock out as an offering. After the ritual I put the water & milk from the altar plus the stones & seashell offerings near it. They'll be used to decorated the garden later. It was still cold so the gathering after ritual did not last long. People ate the 'Jewish bannock', aka bagel, & the cheese so that was good. I put the candles & other re-usable supplies in the building as I packed up. I took the glass holders home to be washed. I'll put them in the supply drawer later. Steve & I were the last to leave. He locked up & we talked a little bit. He's writing a story & he wants my input. It sounds fascinating & I can't wait to see it.

I stopped by Wal-mart on the way home & bought Carolina Panthers: NFC champ t-shirts, one for me & one for Chris. I also bought about 4 books & a pair of bike shorts. I hope that the shorts fit. When I got home I took off my out layers of clothes to get rid of the smoky smell, & wore my new t-shirt & the leggings that I'd been wearing. Chris made hot dogs & hamburgers, salsa & chips plus an apple crumble with ice cream & caramel or chocolate sauce. It was great. Oh, and he made pizza rolls.

Chris, Rosemary & I, and her two dogs, watched the Superbowl XXXVIII. It was a great game. Rosemary doesn't understand football & doesn't want to. I understand a little bit, partially from what I learned in that chapter of Phys Ed in high school & partially from Chris as we watch the game. Based on my behavior during the game, Chris says that he doesn't want to me to watch games during the season. I get, um, a little involved in the game.

It was a close & hard-fought game. The Panthers lost to my disappointment but I'm still proud of them. Unlike so many Superbowls it was not a blow-out. They almost won, came very close in fact. I plan to send an email expressing my pride & support for the team. I'd like a shirt: "Carolina Panthers: Superbowl XXXVIII Champions almost."

The Budweiser commercial with the mule interviewing to be a Budweiser Clydesdale was great, as was the ad for next season't football. Most of the commercials were a scream, like the Fed Ex one with the alien. the worst ones were just, okay. I liked P Diddy & Nelly's act at half-time & Kid Rock wasn't too bad but what was up with Janet Jackson? I mean her opening outfit was okay but she had a train without a skirt and that just did not go with the rest of her clothes. All of her dancers were dressed oddly. Then the bit at the end with Justin Timberlake apparently ripping off part of her blouse. It was, frankly, stupid. Not shocking, just stupid.