Interim performance review today. Whee

Website: online shopping site, peruse.com

books: Kiss of a Highlander by . I think I started to read it once but didn't finish. I finally did. Pretty good book. I think I'm going to try & find the ~sequel. Read vol 13 of Rurouni Kenshin. Good story. Kept reading Time Traders.

New people: at lunch met/talked with Kim, who works in the old library on campus. Beautiful building, great collections. I'd like to talk to her again.

clothes: green/black Harrington polo, black jeans & tennis shoes, green amber jewelry, black socks. ~rope band, sometimes braided, sometimes loose hair.

The campus gets more & more deserted every day. I finally brought home my door prize from the department party (football t-).

Tatting Sue H gave me some advice on the rose ornament, so I'm on the last row of chains. Next is the round of ring & chain.

Books I started (re) reading Time Traders by Andre Norton on my Palm. I also have Med Ship by Murray Leinster. That's an older book (you can tell by the reference to space ships with fins). I finished The Wicked Games of a Gentleman by Jillian Hunter.

clothes black tennis shoes, black slacks, burgundy turtleneck (ironic since it's warmer today than it was yesterday), quilted printed bolero vest, clip watch (on a belt loop), braided hair, flower band, fem-power band, ~silver & black bead earrings, & quartz point carved with a feather pendant on long twisted silver chain. I'm also wearing the medium belt/ double-faced with silver buckle (yay).

Website: Health Info I've only scanned this, but it looks interesting.

Okay, I can't argue with this;

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

Tatting: I made another tiny snowflake with the size 12 thread leftover from Ben's snowflake. I started the rose ornament from Monica Hahn's book of Christmas tatting. But apparently I tat tighter than she does so it's not working very well. I'm going to have to increase the chain length.

Today's excitement: We had a fire alarm right before I was about to head out to lunch. So that got delayed until after the building was cleared. But on the bright side, I ran into Phil again. I haven't seen him in awhile, so that was kind of cool. Since he was wanting lunch, we had time to talk until the fire alarm was over.

Bus re-routing still: I'm still trying to find a shortest route to an alternate bus stop in the evening. So far I have yet to catch the previously 5:10 bus, no matter which stop I try. Whatever route I take, I have at least one hill to climb (stairs or incline, it doesn't matter). After three days of this, my legs are starting to ache.

clothes black slacks, grape Geoff polo, silver feather & quartz chip earrings, flower band ring, ~rope band ring, three ages of women pendant, tennis shoes, & braided hair (needs to be brushed).

Blog of the Day: Okay, this guy, Aaron, has a much cooler blog than I do. He can only update periodically, something about a 56k modem being shared by about 20 people, but he's a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo. Read about his project, too. I think it's great.

Tatting: almost done with Ben's snowflake, I only have one more point to make. Correction, make that 3 rings to make.

Gaming (D&D): Chris finally gave us experience last night. We also finally finished the watery plot. Now we go to our new assignment (our characters are scouts in the Imperial army) at Skyreach (mountain). We're joining the cavalry. This really upset the dwarf before Chris told him that of course the dwarves don't ride horses. They ride cave bears.

Present: Chris & Rosemary gave me Christopher Hart's book on drawing manga villains. I brought it work but haven't done anything with it yet. I played with it at lunch, well that & Draw Great Manga. I really need to practice more.

bus: So yesterday I caught the bus at one of the 2 possible stops. It's 13 minute walk, more or less. This morning I got off the bus at a different place & decided that I didn't like it. It may be the same distance but it's all up & down. By the School of Government is all a straight shot. Today I will try to catch the bus at the hospital. We'll see how that works. I definitely need to leave earlier though.

Book: I finished Worlds of Honor. I don't know what to start next.

clothes: black tennies (still have the extra 20-30 minute walk), black slacks, black ribbed knit shirt, moonstone earrings & ring, tri-moon moonstone pendant & ~rope band. My hair is braided because I washed it this morning & I didn't want to do anything else to it.

Long week Is there any longer week than the one preceding a major holiday? Physically, it's just 5 days; the same length as any other. But I know, at the end of it, I'm getting a 5-day 'weekend.' It makes it a trifle difficult to concentrate.

Add to that, today was the department holiday luncheon. The food was good (chicken wings, shrimp, jalapeno poppers [none for me, thanks - I value my taste buds], loaded/mashed potato skins, raw veggie platter, beef on a stick, cheese & melon. Dessert also included cookies & chocolate covered strawberries. The giveaway/department present this year was a four-pack of frappucinos. Since I'm not a big coffee drinker, I wasn't interested, until I learned that there was also strawberry & creme/non-coffee flavor. Yum.

The door prizes went well. We had about 30 things & about 90 people. So there was a fairly good distribution on who/section got what. The items ranged from a key chain to a $300+ bike (let's hear it for donations). I got a 2004 tire bowl UNC football t-shirt.

Presents: I delivered most of the Christmas presents to my co-workers. Most of them got the Carolina Stars made by one of the basket-makers at the Village of Yesteryear. A few others got origami cranes. I still need to find & mail the purple snowflake earrings that I made for Linda.

Mike has received his e-certificate. He was quite appreciative. I still haven't received anything that I ordered. I did mail Mitra's present, to her grad school address. I don't know if she's coming back to this coast for Christmas, but this way she has a max of 3-week delay.

Movies: We finally saw Santa Clause & Santa Clause 2 yesterday, plus Richie Rich movie. That's why (& because I was just tired) that I didn't get as much wrapping done yesterday. I did decorate the bags with the stars for my co-workers. I decorated them with Christmas stickers.

TattingI have a snowflake (3) exchange & a brooch (2) exchange to work on. I also need to make certain that I have a snowflake for Mark, Lisa, Hailey, Dad, Mom & Kathy. I'd also like one for Rita & Jeff (Chris's family). I have a doily for Chris's parents made.

Books: I read Sleeping with the Fishes by MaryJanice Davidson. It's about a mermaid (well- 1/2) named Fred. It's really funny.

clothes: One end of the velvet riboon trimming my Christmas shirt has torn, so I couldn't wear that today. So I looked for something else festive. I pulled out the shirt that my mom gave me recently; black cotton gauze trimmed with silver embroidery & sequins. It's gorgeous. I paired it with black jeans & tennis shoes (hey, long walk from bus to work until Jan 8th). For jewelry it's Celtic knot earrings, 3 ages of women pendant, flower band, ~rope band & metal scrollwork hair stick. My hair is in a knotted ponytail with the stick to keep the knot from untying.

Found it! Found my mom's scarf. I put it somewhere very logical which why I couldn't find it until I settled down & really started searching. I'm still looking for a couple other presents...like Diana's. I put most of my presents in one place, that helps.

I really need to wrap things today. At the very least, I need to wrap the presents for my co-workers. I think what I'll do, to be more ecologically conscious, is Christmas stamps the bags that they are in. At least, if they're one per bag. If not...well, I'll handle that when I come to it. I wrapped Mitra's present, I just need to address & mail it tomorrow.

I'm also catching up putting links & tags on old blog entries. I'm up to October 2003.

Knitting: I did my first knitting frog stitch (rip it, rip it). I screwed up the brown scarf & had to take the whole thing out. So I restarted with the recycled silk yarn that Mitra gave me last year (it's too uneven to tat). It's not working up nearly as quickly but it looks very nice. If I was learning to knit with actual needles, I would not recommend it.

clothes; yesterday was orange Brown's fairy t-, jeans, tennis shoes & Celtic jewelry. Today, well, I've thrown something on to answer the door (we've ordered pizza - Note Pizza Hut online doesn't recognize our address. This is.....[understatement] a disappointment).

Biofuels: the button above goes to an ecologically-focussed ezine's special on biofuels. Grist often has a humorous slant on some very serious stories. I really recommend reading over this. Some of the information really surprised me.

Tatting: I corrected my problem with Ben's snowflake & I'm more than 1/2 done (3.5 points).

Knitting: I did a few more rows last night, in the car to the Mutants & Masterminds game. Speaking of knitting, I'm meeting Carry for lunch today.

Lunch: Carry & I managed to miss each other. So I grabbed something from the dining hall & went to the bookstore (25% off) until I had to go back to work.

Attack of the killer cow! As I was coming back to my office from an errand, I saw a young woman with a cow-spotted jacket. Since it's inordinately warm this afternoon, she had it tied around her waist. It wasn't until I was almost back into my building that I realized that I knew her. So I ran & leapt at Heather, crying "Look out, you're being attacked by a cow!" Her friends were much taken aback; so was she until she realized it was me.

clothes: black loafers, knee-highs, slacks, forest green Geoff polo, Celtic knot pendant (lost inside my collar), flower band ring, fem-power ring, silver bracelet & silver, brass & copper earrings (upside down textured teardrop~silvertone with a silvertone ball hanging from it, layered on top of that a textured brass quarter moon with a wire spiral hanging from it & on the top of that is a small copper elephant). I still have my hair French-braided.

Website of the Day (week, whatever): Worldbuilding for the writer (or game master); a series of questions to ask when designing a setting. Neat.

clothes: brown/black Vorkosigan polo, black jeans, black tennis shoes (in case they really had closed the bus stop today & I ended up getting off the bus 10+ minutes from work instead of 2), onyx earrings, small labdourite pendant, black stone ring & silver dome ring. My hair is French braided again (still).

Tatting I screwed up the snowflake & had to cut & rejoin. The bus was way to bouncy to manage that delicate bit of fiddling, so it's on hold.

books: re-read Changer of Worlds (bk #3 of the Honor Harrington anthologies).

Knitting! I finally used one of the knitting looms that I bought. I pulled out the smallest one & some yarn that I bought on sale. The yarn is brown "Jo-Ann Knitting Yarn" (they asked me to change it from 'Cha-Cha'). I've knitted maybe 2 inches so far & it's so soft. It's going very well, after one false start.

clothes: black loafers, socks, pants, & Geoff polo. I've French braided my hair again & it's all moonstone jewelry today, plus flower band & fem-power ring.

Books: I started Nerds Like It Hot but I just wasn't in the mood.

Tatting: eTatters is down for maintenance today so I started Ben Fikkert's new snowflake, instead. I've gotten halfway through since after work. Good for me

Been shopping on Overstock. Wow, I got some good deals. I just hope that the bag is the right size.

Another online quiz:
***Your Vocabulary Score: A+***
Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary!You must be quite an erudite person.
How's Your Vocabulary?http://www.blogthings.com/howsyourvocabularyquiz/

Website: Someone went through Google image search to find pictures to match the words of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. The person did a good job, too. That reminds me, I don't own the album. I think I'll buy a copy of the song from iTunes, if they have it.

Another online quiz:

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Christmas cards: I have finished all my cards but the one to Aunt Lillian & Uncle Sherwood (Granddaddy's youngest brother & sister-in-law). I just need to seal & mail them.

Clothes: burgundy turtleneck, navy slacks & trouser socks, brown suede loafers, red stone ring, ~rope band, Celtic knot ring & pendant & the longer Celtic knot earrings.

Books: I finished A Clue for the Puzzle Lady by Parnell Hall. It has a crossword in it. I'm going to copy that & then try to solve it. I also read Vol 1 of Ranma 1/2.

News! I don't have any. Well, except George Bush finally admitted that things aren't going well in Iraq & that a new strategy is required.

Tatting: I've made a few flowers & one snowflake yesterday. I gave it to Laura today (who didn't show up, so maybe I misunderstood & tomorrow is her last day this semester).

Clothes: black loafers, knee-hi's, black slacks, Harrington Steading ~green/black polo, green amber jewelry, paui shell ring & ponytail.

Books: Did I mention that I read Secret Santa? It's an anthology of Christmas-focussed romance stories. I also made it by Foundation's Edge to pick up my manga. I didn't pick up my entire stack (I still need to do Christmas shopping & eat, after all) but both of my Shonen Beat mags (Nov & Dec), the most recent Hana Kimi, two Threads of Time, Godchild & Genju no Seiza.
Lunch: Ate at K&W cafeteria for lunch. We took one of the co-workers out for her birthday (which was last week but she was out with strep throat).

photo Experiment: note that IMG did not work. Just link & be done with it. Two of Lyn Morton's flowers.

Cookies! Rosemary's been holding the same Christmas party for years. This year, due to the con the 1st weekend of December she just wasn't ready to do that. So Chris & I went over to decorate cookies to send to her grandmother. Diana & Colt arrived early for gaming & helped decorate the last tray or so. We got to eat the extra sugar cookies...yum. I had found some cookies cutters & cookie sprinkles so I took them with us to give to Rosemary as an early present. The candy cane ones didn't want to leave the container.

Gaming was fun. Richard got caught in nasty traffic so we started half an hour late. We ended at about 6 pm. It took a while because of roleplaying & simply futzing. Hey, why do it if you don't have fun doing it, right?

Food supper was lasagna & appetizers from Olive Garden. It was delicious, but once again they had the date wrong & it wasn't ready. Since Rosemary doublechecked the date & day when she placed the order on Thursday, she was more than a little peeved. And the manager with the attitude of 'too bad, so sad,' didn't help. Luckily another manager made up for that. So next time Rosemary hosts such a party, she'll order from them again instead of telling everyone she knows about what a crappy job they did. That's good customer service. If you make a mistake, correct it if possible & if that's not possible, find a way to make the customer happy.

Clothes: yesterday it was jeans & t-shirt with a chambray shirt over it. Of course it was frigging cold (below freezing at 10am) so I also wore jacket, scarf, hat & gloves. Since I haven't done laundry since I came back from Confalon, I had one pair of clean jeans; the light blue pegged leg ones. I paired it with 2003 Attack on Gorna Geoff t-shirt. I'd washed my hair, so I braided it wet. Then I wore my Celtic knot jewelry.

Computer game: I've been playing a real-time game called Virtual Villagers & I reached a stumbling block. So I put it on pause, partially because I knew I wouldn't be spending much time on my laptop. Even though it was paused, apparently about 30 years passed during the past 2 weeks. *sigh* Several villagers died. Enough were born to maintain population & the youngest death was 75 years...but still. Until I figure out how make the builders make another hut, the population is stuck at 90 individuals, anyway. I only have 4 more puzzles to unlock until I can end the game. I know what two of them are...the boulder blocking the cave & the fruitless bush. I just can't seem to figure out how to solve them.

Updated! Finally got my on the road posts uploaded. I also have a whole list of things I want to mention, from the trip this past weekend.

Nature Yesterday & this morning I spotted a woodpecker, redheaded I think. It certainly had that red cap & speckled chest thing going. And that noise, the one I thought was a squirrel claiming territory, was that bird. Very harsh, not what I'd call a song. I like seeing it but I fear this means a limited life for that Bradford pear tree.

Movie So Chris started watching his Lord of the Ring DVDs. I had been more or less ignoring them. Until I realized that they made all three books, nigh unto entirety. They just edited them down for the theater. We've been marveling at the work of the director & the editors. Whatever they were paid, however much it was, they were worth it! Now I'm going to have to watch all 6 discs all over again. To see what I missed.

Tatting: I have not gotten any completed the past few days. The reason is simple, in order to start I have to cut off the mis-tat that I currently have active. *sigh*

books: Finished reading Marriage by Design. A pretty good read, although I started to suspect the culprit towards the end.

clothes: black ~ugg boots (Fleece cuff), grey leggings, blue denim jumper, black belt (to cinch in the jumper a scoche), black Origins shirt, dragon pendant, earrings & ring, ~rope band.

I made some snowflakes online. It's addicting & helps others at the same time (Salvation Army). Wheee.

Updates: I have the blogs that I wrote over the weekend, I just need to upload them. The connection over the weekend was...odd.

Books: Read Viva Las Bad Boys yesterday & a couple ebooks that I bought Tuesday. They were 'quickies', less than 200 pages. I also finished a mystery, called Body Movers. The reviewer didn't particularly care for it, but I liked it. It's the sequel, sort of, to Party Crashers.

Clothes: Since the weather's turned cold, I've had to abandon the polo shirts. Tuesday it was a blue chambray shirt embroidered with Christmas themes across the chest & trimmed with black velveteen, paired with black slacks & sequined flats.

Yesterday it was pale blue chambray shirt, pale khakis (fixed over Thanksgiving), tan & blue brocade vest with my new dark brown loafers and white textured trouser socks. Blue & metal earrings, red stone ring & unseen (collar) dragon necklace.

Today it's black slacks (another pair fixed over Thanksgiving), burgundy blouse under matching crocheted burgundy sweater (open rosettes), and the charcoal grey boots that I have not been able to wear until now. I can't wear socks, just knee-hi's but my feet fit! Jewelry is black onyx & silver (shockeroo, huh?).

Sun December 3
clothes: black jeans, socks (it's cold!), loafers, & 2002 MepaCon tee (front: MepaCon 'bird' & back: “ooh, looks dangerous, you go first!”). I've washed my hair, so it's loose. For jewelry, I went with my rainbow moonstone trimoon pendant, moonstone ring, ~rope band, Celtic knot ring, & fem-power ring (vaguely Willendorf). The sole of left loafer is trying to come off. I may braid my hair later, using my Celtic knot ponytail holder.

I dreamed about gaming, English history & my friends last night. Did you know that yaua yarn is Keoland home region access only. There was something about King Henry & King John (Lackland) of England & how many kids they each had.

Rosemary had a dream about gaming, too. But her dream was funnier than mine. But it's all in-joke so not funny to others.

Books: in the morning, while waiting for others to finish preparing for the day, I've been reading Watchers in the Night by Jenna Black (autographed). It's a vampire romance & very different. The protagonists were very much in love & were going to be married 3 years ago. He disappeared, because he'd been turned into a vampire. I haven't gotten very far but so far I like it.

Tatting: I started the first angel from Mark Myers book of angels. I think I screwed it up. But then, I was gaming at the same time, so my distraction is understandable.
Still no internet connection here, so it will probably be tomorrow before I'm able to upload these notes.

Con: The author ran our mod & it was fun.

Saturday December 2nd
It's almost 7 am & I've showered & dressed. Oddly enough, although I had a bit of signal last night, this morning I've got nada. So my actual posting will have to wait.

Rosemary is back from walking Duncan. Since he insists upon grass for his business, they're having to go a littler farther, there isn't any near this hotel. There are trees & flowers, in planters, but no grass.

Oh, yesterday someone mentioned that she'd seen my blog. She has something active that alerts her anytime a blog mentions Living Greyhawk, so she saw my post about prepping for the con.

BTW, if you dream about going to the bathroom, you should get up & go.

Clothes: grey/blue jeans, grey 'against the giants' Geoff t-shirt. White tennis shoes & braided hair (too windy for anything else). Today, jewelry is Celtic; earrings, ring & star/tree pendant, plus fem-power ring & flat-rope band.

After midnight & we're back at the hotel. My two-round mod only took 4 hours, at least my table. In fact, we got done early enough that we played another mod. Chris & Rosemary had enough time to go walk on the beach while I played.

We went to a great seafood place, Higgins Wharf for supper & then back for the Battle Interactive. I played Nadia, my Bard 13/Ranger 1 (Beast of the Air Dispatcher) so she could get one of her two Geoff Region only purchases. She now has a helm of command with an impressive rack of antlers, that gives her +3 to charisma checks.

Let's see, towards the end, one character & the hobgoblin he'd been wrestling, had both been turned to stone. One character had died due to con damage from a dread wraith & was coming back in @ three rounds as another wraith. My character was insane, not permanently. Someone else was stable at -46 hp, for another 10 rounds or so. Yeah, it was kinda bad. But some people used favors & we got out okay. Although the really dead guy got reincarnated. Nadia thinks he's kinda cute (cha 18, she made her save).

Isolde levelled to 6th after the second round of the day's play. Which would have been fine, after all, I had planned ahead & figured out what changed. Except. Except I forgot to choose a feat. We talked about that at supper.

Good night. Off to bed. The internet signal is off & on. I finally managed to post yesterday's entry. Who knows when I'll get tonight's. It's taking forever to respond & I just don't have the patience.

Friday December 1st
Ocean City, MD: We took our time getting up this morning & we ate in the restaurant, on the top floor. It was nice, but expensive. I have now tried scrapple. I don't particularly care for it.
After that, we found the post office (again) & I mailed the letters to the Spain & Pakistan. Once that was taken care of, we headed to the beach, public access was across the street from our hotel, which by the way is the only hotel in 20 miles of the con that accepts pets. But only in off-season.

Beach: We had a lovely, brisk 3-mile walk. OMG it's windy. The flags are all stiff and the tracks that we'd made coming one way were almost gone by the time we got back. I picked up a pocketful of shells. Unfortunately the wind & my braid conspired to give me a headache. Despite that, I really enjoyed it.

Confalon: The first game started at 2 pm. We made it in time. Our first game ended a little early, hey, we played APL 6 & most of us were 5th level but it was a gnome mod. Michelle, our gm, was lots of fun. We all enjoyed ourselves.

2nd round of the day: our table did not make. The 4th person never showed. So instead we played an intro mod, so that their table would make. Christian A(something non-Anglo) ran for us, despite being tired. Since everyone's 1st level it's pretty easy. He wrote the mod, too & he kept making jokes about what kind of idiot the author is/was. We finished pretty quickly & sat around talking, about really bad &/or scary mods we've played or run & about really stupid tech support calls.

Tourists! We went to the Bull on the Beach for supper. Maryland Crab soup is very good if a trifle spicy. The clam casino was very good, if a bit salty. I liked it & would gladly eat it again. Too bad I spilled some of the soup on my t-shirt (Trinic-con 2006). Luckily, I'd gotten a Geoff 'attack on Pregmire' t-shirt & I wore that the 2nd round.

I bought a polo shirt; Ocean City, MD Carousel souvenir type. The cashier is Russian & going to school here. We had a little convo about the difference between American & British.
As we were leaving the hotel parking lot we saw a fox run across the road & through the hotel parking lot. That was a trifle unexpected.

I was going to play midnight madness, special mission, but I'm just too bloody tired. I even took a short nap between the 1st & 2nd round. Doesn't matter. It's almost midnight & I've got to go get some sleep.

Tatting: Made another 3 or 4 of the small snowflakes & one different one from Vida's book. I added beads to the pattern as I made it. I gave that one to Eric & Amy Menge for Christmas. Eric still has the one that I gave them last year, in his dice bag. He says that it gives 'Arlene vibes' to the dice. Since they're his gm dice, that keeps players alive as they roll very badly.
Note: I need to get a picture of it for my portfolio.

Clothes: blue jeans, white tennies, Trinic-con 2006 tee/'attack on Pregmire' tee, silver tri-hoop earrings, lapis flower earring, lapis earrings (dangly), flower fairy pendant, flower band & circle band.

Friday December 1st
Ocean City, MD: We took our time getting up this morning & we ate in the restaurant, on the top floor. It was nice, but expensive. I have now tried scrapple. I don't particularly care for it.
After that, we found the post office (again) & I mailed the letters to the Spain & Pakistan. Once that was taken care of, we headed to the beach, public access was across the street from our hotel, which by the way is the only hotel in 20 miles of the con that accepts pets. But only in off-season.

Beach: We had a lovely, brisk 3-mile walk. OMG it's windy. The flags are all stiff and the tracks that we'd made coming one way were almost gone by the time we got back. I picked up a pocketful of shells. Unfortunately the wind & my braid conspired to give me a headache. Despite that, I really enjoyed it.

Confalon: The first game started at 2 pm. We made it in time. Our first game ended a little early, hey, we played APL 6 & most of us were 5th level but it was a gnome mod. Michelle, our gm, was lots of fun. We all enjoyed ourselves.

2nd round of the day: our table did not make. The 4th person never showed. So instead we played an intro mod, so that their table would make. Christian A(something non-Anglo) ran for us, despite being tired. Since everyone's 1st level it's pretty easy. He wrote the mod, too & he kept making jokes about what kind of idiot the author is/was. We finished pretty quickly & sat around talking, about really bad &/or scary mods we've played or run & about really stupid tech support calls.

Tourists! We went to the Bull on the Beach for supper. Maryland Crab soup is very good if a trifle spicy. The clam casino was very good, if a bit salty. I liked it & would gladly eat it again. Too bad I spilled some of the soup on my t-shirt (Trinic-con 2006). Luckily, I'd gotten a Geoff 'attack on Pregmire' t-shirt & I wore that the 2nd round.

I bought a polo shirt; Ocean City, MD Carousel souvenir type. The cashier is Russian & going to school here. We had a little convo about the difference between American & British.
As we were leaving the hotel parking lot we saw a fox run across the road & through the hotel parking lot. That was a trifle unexpected.

I was going to play midnight madness, special mission, but I'm just too bloody tired. I even took a short nap between the 1st & 2nd round. Doesn't matter. It's almost midnight & I've got to go get some sleep.

Tatting: Made another 3 or 4 of the small snowflakes & one different one from Vida's book. I added beads to the pattern as I made it. I gave that one to Eric & Amy Menge for Christmas. Eric still has the one that I gave them last year, in his dice bag. He says that it gives 'Arlene vibes' to the dice. Since they're his gm dice, that keeps players alive as they roll very badly.
Note: I need to get a picture of it for my portfolio.

Clothes: blue jeans, white tennies, Trinic-con 2006 tee/'attack on Pregmire' tee, silver tri-hoop earrings, lapis flower earring, lapis earrings (dangly), flower fairy pendant, flower band & circle band.

Friday December 1st
Ocean City, MD: We took our time getting up this morning & we ate in the restaurant, on the top floor. It was nice, but expensive. I have now tried scrapple. I don't particularly care for it.
After that, we found the post office (again) & I mailed the letters to the Spain & Pakistan. Once that was taken care of, we headed to the beach, public access was across the street from our hotel, which by the way is the only hotel in 20 miles of the con that accepts pets. But only in off-season.

Beach: We had a lovely, brisk 3-mile walk. OMG it's windy. The flags are all stiff and the tracks that we'd made coming one way were almost gone by the time we got back. I picked up a pocketful of shells. Unfortunately the wind & my braid conspired to give me a headache. Despite that, I really enjoyed it.

Confalon: The first game started at 2 pm. We made it in time. Our first game ended a little early, hey, we played APL 6 & most of us were 5th level but it was a gnome mod. Michelle, our gm, was lots of fun. We all enjoyed ourselves.

2nd round of the day: our table did not make. The 4th person never showed. So instead we played an intro mod, so that their table would make. Christian A(something non-Anglo) ran for us, despite being tired. Since everyone's 1st level it's pretty easy. He wrote the mod, too & he kept making jokes about what kind of idiot the author is/was. We finished pretty quickly & sat around talking, about really bad &/or scary mods we've played or run & about really stupid tech support calls.

Tourists! We went to the Bull on the Beach for supper. Maryland Crab soup is very good if a trifle spicy. The clam casino was very good, if a bit salty. I liked it & would gladly eat it again. Too bad I spilled some of the soup on my t-shirt (Trinic-con 2006). Luckily, I'd gotten a Geoff 'attack on Pregmire' t-shirt & I wore that the 2nd round.

I bought a polo shirt; Ocean City, MD Carousel souvenir type. The cashier is Russian & going to school here. We had a little convo about the difference between American & British.
As we were leaving the hotel parking lot we saw a fox run across the road & through the hotel parking lot. That was a trifle unexpected.

I was going to play midnight madness, special mission, but I'm just too bloody tired. I even took a short nap between the 1st & 2nd round. Doesn't matter. It's almost midnight & I've got to go get some sleep.

Tatting: Made another 3 or 4 of the small snowflakes & one different one from Vida's book. I added beads to the pattern as I made it. I gave that one to Eric & Amy Menge for Christmas. Eric still has the one that I gave them last year, in his dice bag. He says that it gives 'Arlene vibes' to the dice. Since they're his gm dice, that keeps players alive as they roll very badly.
Note: I need to get a picture of it for my portfolio.

Clothes: blue jeans, white tennies, Trinic-con 2006 tee/'attack on Pregmire' tee, silver tri-hoop earrings, lapis flower earring, lapis earrings (dangly), flower fairy pendant, flower band & circle band.

Packing all done. Though I had to wait until my laundry finished. I packed my tatting this morning, as well as my laptop. Despite the warm weather, I also took my heavy jacket. There's a good chance that I'll need it this weekend (I'll be 2 states north & despite the current temperature, it is December - odds are good that the weather will revert to seasonal soon).

Christmas card exchange: I have most of the envelopes address & have put return address labels on them. Now I need to put stamps on the envelopes, write short note on the card & sign. I also need to get cards for the 2 overseas ladies. There are 3 out of country ladies but the 3rd one is Canadian, so I don't think that I need special postage for hers. I don't think. note: stop by post office & ask.

Addendum: I'm short one card. I have the envelope, but no card. Guess that will be three people for whom I need to buy cards.

clothes: tough choice today, it has to go from work to con. So I'm wearing black (what else) jeans, Vorkosigan polo, loafers & knee-highs. I half-braided my hair & might put it up later. I brought hair sticks just for that reason.

Books: I finished Shakespeare Christmas, although technically it's not. It takes place in Bartley. I also read Making Minty Malone. It reads like chick lit but it has a romance novel happy ending. I liked it. The supporting characters are just that, characters. Now I'm reading a Harlequin Blaze (the line they started when they realized they needed to add sex to their books) anthology, Secret Santa. All three stories are really short but so far pretty good. It was really nice of Jennifer LaBrecque to dedicate her story to romance readers, who keep the genre alive.

Gaming: I finally decided to get the Spell Focus: Conjuration feat for Zavin (my latest character). It's useless at this point but will come in handy later, for her bard spells. It's also the pre-req for getting augment summoning, which is a feat that rocks.

That Time Again: Times like this, I really consider getting that one pill, that you only spot every three months. Because I'm cramping & I only had 1 ibuprofen in my store of painkillers at work.

Don't Forget! Go by the Breast Cancer site to click to help fund a mammogram for a woman in need. And while you're there, click on the other charities , too.

Pain: My shoulder, where it meets my neck, cramped on Friday as I was stretching to get something off the floor. Then I didn't have any further problems until yesterday. It hurt to raise my hand enough to sweep my hair off my shoulder, forget actually doing anything with my hair. I massaged it & stood under the hot spray this morning & it doesn't hurt as much today. I managed to shampoo & braid my hair.

Gaming: I finally decided on a name for my most recent LG character; Zyvan merch Siofra. At least I think that's it. Well, it's written down on her character sheet, that's where it counts.

Packing: I'm doing that tonight. So I have to finish any character updates, pack the box with my game books & character notebooks, pack my other game supplies (paper for notes, pen, paper, miniature figure, dice, canvas tote, napkins & LG cards), finish my laundry & pack my clothes. To properly pack, I also need to check the weather. It would suck to pack all t-shirts & then suffer when the temperature drops down to freezing.

Shopping! Thanks to Jane Eborall, I've found a new place to shop (auction) on-line. It's all handmade goods, so even if I buy in March for a Christmas present, the receiver isn't likely to have it already by the time the gift arrives.

clothes: yesterday it was black, v-necked knit shirt (w/ 3/4 sleeves), black sacks, trouser socks & loafers. My jewelry was all silver & black onyx. My hair was loose because I lost the elastic (probably when I pulled my braid out of my jacket) & my shoulder hurt too much to re-braid it.

Today I'm wearing the forest green Geoff polo, yet another pair of black slacks, black trouser socks & black loafers. I'm wearing the emerald & gold jewelry set that Chris gave me. He knows that I prefer silver but he really wanted to buy me an emerald (one of my birthstones) but could not find any in a silver setting.

Christmas Card Exchange: I've started addressing the envelopes & learned that I'm short a couple cards. I think that I will find some local color Christmas cards to send to the 2 ladies overseas (Spain & Pakistan). That means that I will have to re-address those envelopes, but that's no big deal.

Gaming, Living Greyhawk: Looking over my characters, preparing for the con this weekend, I realized that my 1st level character is actually 2nd level. She has the experience, I just hadn't made the changes. So I've started creating a new one. This will be my 2nd out of region character. My first one is a Bright Sands, so I'm not certain she counts.

My characters: Nadia Xianalannae, a high-level half-elf bard with a level of ranger, a knight
Reed of the CatTails, elf, almost as high a level cleric, with a couple levels of ranger & a level of sorcerer
Edana Tiernan, halfing Rogue & ranger, mounted scout-type, mid-level
Isolde (no last name), human sorceress with her raven, Tristan, low to mid-level
Kayla Swordspinner, human desert barbarian, low level
Brenna (can't remember last name), human fighter, cavalry

New one: no name yet, half-elf druid from Geoff. She'll be an arcane hieraphant, at about 8th level.

I may not need that 1st level character but for one slot there are only 3 people signed up. It requires 4 players to make an LG 'legal' table. Therefore, if we don't play that game, we'll go play the intro (1st level characters only) adventure. That's why I'm making up a new character.

Currently, I have characters that can play every APL. Except that Edana (APL 10 & 8) is out of non-military time units. She's in the Gran March army so that limits how many core mods & other 'vacation' adventures that she can play. It's a trade off. She also doesn't have to pay lifestyle cost.

What religion is your favorite comic book character? Do you know? Do you care? Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to examine what religion several comic characters are, both heroes, supporting cast & minor characters. Everything from agnostic to Catholic to Yoruban to Zenn-la is listed. Most are real-world religions, some are not; as to be expected by fictional characters with otherworldly origins.

Holiday shopping: Wondering what to get that hard-to-buy-for zombie in your life? Why not some brains?

Art fun: Drag your mouse to get a Jackson Pollock-esque piece. Click your mouse to change colors.

Music: It's been a day for random webpages, huh. This one is for a bluegrass band. I haven't had a chance to listen to the clips that they've posted, but I love the name; Black Swamp Bootleggers. Coincidentally, there's also a brewing supply store in Ohio by the same name.

Do you drink coffee? Do you like to be environmentally conservative? Then try bird-friendly coffee. Find store near you that carries it.

Vampire Name: According to The Vampire Name Generator, I am, wait for it...

The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity:
Mary Keat

Known in some parts of the world as:
Mother of Beggars and Lepers

The Great Archives Record:
Amongst the lowest of the low you will find this one travelling.

To half the people I went to high school with, I am

The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity:
Ella Keat

Known in some parts of the world as:
Mother of The Steely Moon

The Great Archives Record:
A child of the Moon Goddess - Cold, determined, but of the light in the night.

And to a few others,

The Great Archives determine you to have gone by the identity:
Mary Keat

Known in some parts of the world as:
Mother of The Flesh

The Great Archives Record:
A sensual one who knows the flesh - and knows the blood.

Apparently, everyone knows that I'm a mother. :smirk:
http://world4.monstersgame.co.uk/?ac=vid&vid=47157368

Tatting: I went & bought more white thread at Michaels. I have now made about 20 small, white snowflakes. Next step: mailing them for the Christmas Card Exchange. I did not find the type of red beads that I wanted in any number other than OMG.

Other crafts: I also bought the round set of knitting looms (on sale). Now I have to find the same yarn I used for mom's scarf. Maybe I'll make her another one, a little wider. For Mitra, I took a copy of every free knitting pattern. There are a lot available.

clothes: black loafers, trouser socks, slacks (newly hemmed), & 2001 Ren Festival polo. I'm wearing Celtic knot earrings, ring & the knotwork pendant that I think is from Williamsburg. Plus, I'm wearing the flower band & a silver scroll-y double hair stick. My hair (finally brushed) is in that ponytail/bun do.

Books: Started reading one by Patrice Cornwallis. But it's hardback & too hard to lug to work. So I picked up the autographed copy of The Princess Diaries that Steve gave me.

Ticket: Today is my court date to hopefully not pay for having my tags out of date. I still can't believe that I did that. I guess that's the downside of not driving my car much of the time. I don't notice these things as much. Since the office in question closes at 3:30, I'm leaving work at 2 pm. That should give me enough time to get lost & find it before they close. Since I couldn't actually find it on mapquest, I have reason to be concerned.

Cooking: I made those Reese's Cup cookies last night. I took chocolate chip cookie dough, put it in muffin cups, & baked them. Then, when I pulled them out, I took chilled, unwrapped mini-Reese's cup & squished them into the cookies. After I let them sit for a bit, I put them in the fridge to chill. They turned out really tasty, even if they do have a tendency to stick to the muffin paper.

Tatting: Well, I counted. I have at least 12 snowflakes made. I need another 7 or so, plus the ones for that I've made for my aunts.

Clothes: jeans & t-shirts the past three days. It's been long-sleeved t's Thursday & Friday & a short-sleeved one today.

Gaming: yesterday went well. At least one fight each was pretty tough. The other fights were either easy or just not as scary. But at least once per game, this one fight was very close. One of the fights even had smart bad guys...who used healing. If it hadn't been for that, each of their thugs would have dead twice over.

Books: Just re-reading, dipping into & dropping books.

Thanksgiving Mom & I had a great visit. She helped me fix a few clothes and she loved the sunflower scarf that I found for her. I also found a couple Simmons exercise videos for her, ones that she doesn't have already. She plays them while she does housework.

Book: I read Candle in the Window by Christina Dodd. It's a medieval set romance. I know a little about the era, King Stephen vs. Queen Maud thanks to reading Brother Cadfael mysteries. It's a good story. I really enjoyed it. Of course, I usually enjoy Dodd's books.

tatting: I pulled out a spool of silver decorative thread, by Sulky. Thanks to some advice that I read by Susan BT, I managed to tat a small snowflake, instead of throwing the spool & shuttle across the room in frustration. I also finished another small, white snowflake with clear beads. I started a larger snowflake. I finished the 1st round but I haven't started the second round.

Movie: While Chris was at his parents' for Thanksgiving, I watched all three Topper movies; well, I went to bed soon after the 3rd one started. Something about getting some sleep.

Gaming: Two Living Greyhawk mods today. We start at noon, so I had to vacuum, or at least run the vacuum over the floor before then. First, though, I had to clean the filter. It still needs cleaning, I just barely got a layer off.

Nightmares: I had two last night. I don't remember the 1st one, but I woke up to take a migraine pill at about quarter to 6. The second one involved the Charmed Ones, the first set with Prue. It involved a demon who had them trapped in a house. Somehow, no matter how long they were there, no one could tell, some kind of time stop? I was fighting him, but no matter what I did, it was unsuccessful. Finally, I resorted to distractive measures, thinking that if I kept his attention, the Charmed Ones could somehow get free. My last memory, before waking, I was ratting his long, brown hair.

Day before Thanksgiving and boy, it was slow at work. My boss called me at 2:30 to say that he hadn't been able to reach anyone in finance. I tried to change my message; you know, the 'we're closed for the holidays' sort of thing. But I couldn't get into that part of the voice mail system. It was quite vexing.

Mail: I did manage to mail the letters to my Aunt Vivian, Aunt Jeri & Aunt Carole as I left work. They'll hit the post office tonight.

After work, I got off at the shopping center & walked across the street to the drugstore. I printed out the pictures for Aunt Dot & some of the same for Aunt Shirley. The pictures are of my dress, the Colonial outfit that Aunt Dot helped me make. It was a nice little walk. Getting the pictures took longer than I expected because there was someone ahead of me. After getting the pictures, I went to the Chinese place to get Mom's lunch for tomorrow. In all, it took longer than I wanted it & I missed both buses that I had planned upon. So I walked home. It's about a mile and took less time & less effort that I expected. I admit that the bags were a bit of a nuisance sometimes.

Books: I read The Rats, The Bats & The Ugly by Flint & Freer. I quite enjoyed it. It's a good sequel to Rats, Bats & Vats.

I ran into Robin on the bus and told her about Rats, Bats & Vats, by Eric Flint & David Freer & about Baen's library. She told me about her boss always bringing in food. In the past year, Robin has gained 30 pounds. Plus, thanks to the store she & her husband own, they're never home to cook. They've found a plan to try & lose weight. It involves cooking healthy. Sounds like a good one.

Tatting: I finished another snowflake. I still haven't counted how many I've made. Someone at the bus stop recognized what I was doing. I was so pleased.

PDA I finally have batteries! Yay! I put them in yesterday, but the batteries immediately died. So I've had them in the charger. They finally, finally were enough. They weren't completely charged but there's another pair still charging.

Still Sick but getting better. I no longer have to sleep reclining, I can now lie down. But I still cough & hack. And now my mouth is raw from all the lozenges.

Neat! I came across the life & work of a very interesting woman; Frances Benjamin Johston. She was a professional photographer, circa 1889-1930+. She was widely reknowned, even when she turned to strictly architectural & garden photography in her later years. Luckily, she donated much of her work to the Library of Congress before her death. She took pictures of young & old, rich & poor, unknowns & famous. Many of her pictures can be cropped for multiply 'mini-pictures.' One photo, of school children boarding a trolley, can be seen as one entire photo, or as multiple portraits, framed by the trolley's windows.

Thanksgiving: Talked to mom last night. Instead of me driving to see her, she's coming to see me. So I'm 'preparing' the second most popular Thanksgiving meal: Chinese food.

Tatting: Making more of the small snowflakes from Vida's book; often using beads. I need to count how many I've made so far.

Clothes: yesterday & today; black jeans & loafers, braided hair, Celtic jewelry & an additional silver band. Yesterday I wore a black polo & today a multi-colored plaid blouse from Alexander Julian. Not from a recent line; but pretty & long-sleeved. It's quite cold & windy today. I wore socks & tennis shoes to work; changing when I got here.

Sick I been sick. Hacking (& recently productive) cough, sore throat, etc. As a result, cancelled Thursday's Mutants & Mastermind game (well, David cancelled the entire game because he had a work deadline).

Played Living Greyhawk Friday, maybe a mistake. No game on Saturday, or today. Didn't go see my Mom. Didn't go to the Wake Co Library sale.

Barely got any cleaning done. The only useful think that I've really done; put the tags on my car.

Books: I read Diamonds Are Forever by Flint & Spoor, pretty good, a little short. Re-read some others.

Tatting: more snowflakes done.

MACE: I finished packing my suitcase & my box of PC notebooks & game books last night. This morning I packed my messenger bag. The suitcase & box went into the car last night. I brought the bag with me to work.

clothes: brown-overdyed acid-washed black "Vorkosigan" polo, black slacks, knee-highs, black loafers (that I've noticed may be falling apart), Celtic knot earrings, ring & Star/moon necklace; plus dragon band, flower band & ~rope band. My hair is up in a knot with a ponytail hanging from it. It's fixed in place with a black chopstick with small gold & cream MoP inlay lozenges.

Books: the book that I finished was Santa, Baby, and while I haven't avoided Jennifer Crusie, after reading her story, I think I'll pick up a couple more of her books. She's very funny.

Tatting: I found the snowflakes that I made while at Mepacon. So I have about 10 or 12 made. I finished the size 80 one with beads. My next one will be from the snowflake book.

Oh, I finally loaded pictures of the jewelry set that I made onto photobucket. Gradually, I'll post links to other tatting that I've done.

STEPS There they were, covered in plastic. So they still weren't usable last night or this morning. Tonight, the plastic was gone. The steps were steady and feel...different. It's because they're level.

Clothes: black loafers, striped black trouser socks, black socks, black short-sleeved sweater (with black beads & embroidery on the neck), onyx earrings, black stone ring, black elastic hair band & the flower band ring.

Tatting I've almost finished another snowflake. This one is size 80 five ring & chain with beads on the chain.

Books Finished a Christmas romance anthology.

Writing a letter to Mitra. Now to write the aunts. Called Mom last night. Maybe go to Jacksonville next weekend.

Tammy from high school emailed me. She's living in Georgia.

Off to get supper.

Most of the people for whom I voted were elected. Apparently my choices were popular this year.

Steps updated: to no one's surprise, the steps were not done yesterday. I looked this morning & the person working on the slab will have some clean up to do. Leaves have fallen onto the wet cement, probably imprinting it, plus there are signs of water impacts. It's still drizzling, so I doubt that they've made any progress today.

However, when I got home last night, I noticed that they had added an additional cone & hazard tape. How thoughtful. It would have been more useful Monday. But better late than never.

clothes: black loafers, socks, slacks & hair elastic. My polo is deep forest green (Geoff) and I'm wearing my green amber necklace, earrings & ring, plus the silver ~rope band.

books: re-reading Dark Legend by Christine Feehan.

something fun to listen to: Listened to Carry's 2 most recent podcasts. She's so funny. I need to go back & listen to the 30 or so earlier ones.

Four Things (fun questions)
Four jobs I've had:
1) fabric & craft store clerk
2) waitress (lasted 2 whole months)
3) bindery clerk
4) secretary/receptionist

Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1) The Thin Man (all of them)
2) As You Like It (or pretty much any Shakespeare comedy)
3) Princess Bride
4) Star Wars

Four places I've lived:
1) Greensboro, NC
2) Lexington, KY (2 months)
3) Carrboro, NC
4) Durham, NC

Four TV shows I love to watch:
1) Veronica Mars
2) CSI (all)
3) W.I.T.C.H.
4) Buffy (if it was still on)

Four places I would return to for vacation
1) NC beach
2) Washington D.C.
3) Disney
4) Williamsburg, VA

Four websites I visit daily:
1) Hungersite.com (& other charitable websites)
2) etatters.com
3) belfry.com (comics)
4) rpol.net

Four of my favorite foods:
1) Chocolate
2) eel roll
3) honey sesame chicken
4) banana pudding

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1) Curled up with a good book
2) visiting my family
3) at the beach
4) in bed, asleep

Election Day Addendum: I've done my civic duty & voted (Thanks Diana & Colt for the ride). Now I have the right to complain incessantly about 'that idiot that I didn't vote for' & 'that idiot, I can't believe that I voted for him!' That's not cynicism, it's realistism & a hefty lack of optimism. That's the pity.

Steps! The entire time that we've lived in the townhouse, the stairs have had a slight tilt. As a result, they've been a little unstable. The HOA patched them a year or so ago but that didn't last. The real problem was the foundation under the steps. We tried pouring dirt under them (there was a discernible hole) but that did not solve the problem.

For about a week, there's been an orange cone next to the steps, either from a prank (?) or to alert us that they were going to do...something to the steps.

Typically, we do not leave the porch light on. It's too close to the door & bugs gather 'round it. During the warmer part of the year, it's light long enough that I can see the door fine. After the leaves fall from the tree, the light from the streetlight is enough during the colder part of the year. However, due, in part, to the earlier time change, the door & porch are very dark as the sun has set & the leaves block the streetlight. Still, I have a flashlight on my keys so it's not a great worry.

Except. Except last night when I came home, after sunset, the cone was moved to the walk. And there's a bucket behind it. I turn on my flashlight & also see that the rest of the walk is blocked by dirt & bricks. Oh look, to the left is another pile of bricks. Look further. No steps! Um. No steps.

Oookay, I can reach the porch. My legs aren't that short. I can just step on that freshly-poured concrete pad...um, is that wet? shine flashlight and tap with toe Why yes, it is wet. To reach the porch, I have to stretch over that pad? My legs aren't that long. And we have friends coming over for Chris's D&D game.

I hover indecisively. Diana's already arrived so I go to see if she has her cell phone. We may not be having gaming (again - we cancelled two weeks ago because I was sick). Chris & David arrive while I'm talking to her.

Chris, more or less, climbs around the a corner to reach the porch. Then he let us in the back door. After that, we turned on the porch light and stretched tape to warn people about the cement. John climbed over the porch rail to get inside.

This morning, I climbed down one corner to get out. It wasn't hard and I got a better look at the cement by the light of day. The edges had started to cure but it started raining by the time I get to work. We may not have steps for a couple days.

Tatting: I finished one of the 6 ring & chain ~wreathy looking ornaments, with beads, in size 80 yesterday. Then I started a 5-ring & chain ornament in size 80.

Clothes: Since I was cleaning at home, I spent a lot of time in a tee & leggings this weekend. When I did get dressed, I just changed to blue jeans.

Monday: purple pants, violet polo, burgundy sweater w/ purple & navy, black sequined flats & knee-highs. Plus dragon earrings, pendant, & band. Hair braided (needs brushing badly). Hey, my alarm didn't work properly yesterday morning & I had 20 minutes to get ready & out the door.

Today: black pants, black Origins shirt (w/ dragons), black socks & loafers, braided hair (still needs brushing, but less so), black stone ring, 2 dragon rings (1 band & 1 more obvious), dragon earrings & pendant. It's warmer today, so I didn't bother with scarf, hat or sweater. I just brought my umbrella.

Gaming: M&M on Thursday; we got captured. Bad villains, bad villains. Go sit in a corner. We're trying to help some South American superheroes, Chileans. It looks like someone has duplicated or mind controlled them to do bad stuff. We have to free them & prove their innocence.

Chris's D&D: we fought the 2 drow spellcaster, the 2 drow archers, 2 lizardmen & the giant. Luckily the giant focussed on our dwarf (monk), who can take it. He still had a couple close calls. But a stoneskin spell & his own "Wholeness of Body" ability did a lot to help. My druid got into melee more, in her own form, which is unusual. She didn't transform to a dire lionness until near the end & that was mostly for the healing. At one point she was down to -9 but the cleric had insignia of healing which saved her. Literally.

Election Day: What is it with elections & rain? The last three mid-term elections have been rained upon. Luckily this time I have a friend who'll give me a ride to the polls.

Books: Enh, nothing earth shattering. Just re-read It's in His Kiss & partially re-read a couple others. I'm having trouble settling down to one read.

Election Day is right around the corner. I'm looking at the candidates. I'm signing petitions

I've already found one that I'd like to be voting against. Vernon Robinson was one
of the first ads of the season that I noticed. It was one of the most virulently
racist ads I have ever seen. I'm just sorry that I'm in a different congressional
district; he's running in 13th & I live in the 4th. David Price is one of the
politicians in my district. My other representatives are, well, I don't think I've
heard of half of them. Isn't that just shameful. But Representative Henry M. 
Michaux, Jr. certainly looks distinguished.

Tatting: I've finished another flake. It's the same one, from Lyn Morton's book,
but with clear beads instead of picots. It looks very good that way. Instead of
doing another one, I started a 4ring/chain motif, with beads. That one has 2
beads on each ring & 3 on each chain. I have one chain left to do & it's done, too.

Clothes: it's a lot colder today, so I pulled out a turtleneck, black. My pants,
tassled loafers, knee highs & hair elastic are also black. However, I'm wearing
my reversible print vest. That's black, brown & tan with Chinese coin button/frogs.
I decided to wear my yellow amber today but couldn't find my pendant. So, in
addition to the amber drops and the amber poison ring, I put the 14-cabochon amber
bracelet on a chain & am wearing it as a necklace. The cabs vary in color; green,
brown, gold & orange. It looks really good & goes fantastic with this vest. My hair
is French braided, again. I didn't feel like fussing with it this morning.

Books: I finished Damsel. Now I have to decide what to read next. Do I re-read
something or hit my to-be-read pile.

News: I've read some of the blog & forum entries about the fire. I posted one of
my own on the Greensboro News & Record site.

High school burned I cried about it today. To a certain extent, I'm not sure why. It's been 20 years. Okay, so it was a main component of my life for 4 years and I have a lot of memories. Still, while I was never tormented, at least not to the extent of actuall bullying, those were not my 'glory days.' For 2 of those years I had glasses & braces. I was not one of the popular or 'in' kids. I was too weird & too different for that to happen. I wasn't a complete outcast either; I'm too nice & friendly (it sounds egotistical but it's true, mostly) for that to happen.

work: I finally finished the org chart, complete with temporaries, students & vacant positions. Whee. That's done for at least a week.

Tatting I gave up and continued the snowflake/wreath from Lyn Morton's 6th book of Easy Tatting. You can barely tell that I made a mistake.

Books: I've finished the 6th Grantville Gazette, with the usual caveat about the fact articles. I've also read most of Sinful, a romance anthology. I had read one of the stories before & I haven't finished one of them (thus the mostly read). I re-read Mystique by Amanda Quick. Right now, I'm re-reading Damsel in this Dress by Marianne Stillings.

Clothes: black slack, black polo, black knee highs, black sequined flats, black stone ring, Celtic knot ring, dragon band, Celtic knot posts (found the earring back, yay!), & andromorph pendant on long silver chain. Once again, I've French braided my hair, using the metal Celtic knot on black elastic to hold it.

Gaming: I completely forgot that tonight is Mutants & Masterminds. Luckily, Diana is giving me a ride so I can stop by home to pick up my books & stuff.

Still tired. Maybe still sick.

News: my high school burned down today. When I say burned, I don't mean 'keep it closed for a couple days/weeks/months'. I mean, 'don't send in the firefighters, it's too dangerous because a wall just fell down' burnt. It gives me mixed feelings. I would not repeat high school for love nor money. But still, I have 4 years of memories tied up in that place.

I'm still working on that stupid Org chart at work. Oh yay. It's the 3rd format in as many years. I can't even get into the previous format, they lost the access/product code.

Tatting: I finished 4 snowflakes over the weekend. I started another one yesterday & screwed up on the 4th chain. I just have to undo the lockjoin to retro-tat 2 knots. Blech.

Clothes:
Monday: MepaCon t-shirt (red with black ~bird logo), blue jeans, white tennis shoes & socks & Celtic jewelry. French braided hair w/ Celtic knot on elastic.
Tuesday: Harrison steading polo, black pants, loafers & knee-highs. Celtic knot earrings, ring & pendant; rope band & black stone ring.
Wednesday: purple Geoff polo, black pants, knees, sequined flats, grey/black/crystal bead bracelets, rope band, black stone ring, double hash mark band, onyx earrings & French braid again.

More stuff: I checked my email Tuesday and there were >50 PAGES of emails (25 emails per page). A couple pages were spam (there were 278+ messages in my spam folder) but most of the rest was one of my lists...very active that one.

Gertrude Hawks: a lovely chocolate shop in PA. We stopped in Monday before checking out of the hotel. I bought some chocolate-covered pretzels for my co-workers & a peppermint patty for my student. If it hadn't been for the miniatures room, we would have kept to our timetable. It is usually closed on Mondays but the nice man let us in to see it. It is massively impressive; he's spent 50 years on it & it shows! He even turned the lights down & up so we could see night views & days views & take pictures. As it was, we spent so much time looking at it we were almost late checking out.

Time Change! And now it's dawn when I wake up at 7am. It makes it much easier to wake up.
Dream: the alarm woke me from a really cool dream yesterday morning. I won't recount it here because face it, most people don't find other people's dreams all that interesting. But it was very vivid & mostly realistic. It wasn't nearly as surreal as many of my dreams.

MepaCon We are at the Holiday Inn in Scranton, PA. The first games were Friday, and we almost died at the evening game. There were only 4 of us at the table & the high level arcane (who forced it to APL 8) was not a very effective spellcaster. The gm was nice to us or it would have been a TPK in the first fight. I think he pitied us; 1st game of con, our 1st Keoish mod & three of us drove 8+ hours (plus bathroom & food breaks).

The afternoon game ran late so we ordered to go from the Hotel restaurant; Manhattan Drive Restaurant & Jazz Club. It was okay food.

Yesterday morning we ate the breakfast buffet there. The food was okay but not '$6.95 + drink' worthy. Our waitress was nice but this one woman, maybe the manager was rude enough that Rosemary complained to management. The woman had a serious attitude. We will not eat there again.

We played the 3rd part of the storyline from the game Friday night (which was the 2nd, the 1st is an intro mod, so we didn't play that one). Edana leveled. Now I have to decide whether to take her on the track to the Halfling Outrider prestige class (13th level for her first opportunity to take that, due to Feat requirements) or Order of the Bow Initiate. I have to check to see the requirements for that one.

The afternoon slot was great fun. One of the local players has a gnome who frequently tells jokes. The player is constantly telling one-liners & puns. We chuckled frequently. Most people were playing the BI (Battle Interactive) but Chris, Rosemary & I wanted to play Baby's Breath & it was only offered during the BI's second slot.

That evening, we had the same players although Chris & Rosemary changed PC's. We also added a couple players. Keoland mods are tough! They have heavy duty fights. We survived by the skin of our teeth sometimes.

Mepacon has great t-shirts. I'm going to buy some today. I already spent a lot of money with C.J. Henderson, their GOH (guest of honor). I bought some presents & he threw in a Cthulu calendar & a keychain (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

Pennsylvania Weather: Friday was frigging cold! A real 'yeah, we're up north & in the mountains in October' kind of cold. Yesterday, it rained all day but it was much warmer (about 60F high). At supper, over about an hour, as the sun set, the temperature literally dropped about 4 degrees. Brrr. It was much colder coming out of the restaurant, Friendly's, than it had going inside.

Clothes:
Saturday: grey 'Liberation of Geoff' t-shirt with full color image on front & back. The front image is the Brenin & his family (wife & son), Gaunt the fey, the silenced Giantess, the Geoff regent, the fey who helped Duchess Calisse (Brenin's wife), her fey stag guide, a monolith, King Bhrodie of the giants, The Storm Giant, a couple anonymous Gyri, two figures I couldn't id, Gorna & the giant's floating city. The back one is a tree showing all 4 seasons & 'The Brenin is the Land' in a banner above & 'The Land is the Brenin' in a banner underneath. Plus I wore black jeans & tennis shoes. When necessary I added the black sweatshirt. I wore the harp pendant (since I played Nadia my bard the last 2 slots), longer ~knot earrings, the ~deco female pendant Richard bought for me in Germany, & the same rings (knot, flower band & silver rope band). I put my hair in a ponytail for convenience.

Today:blue jeans, navy 'Song of 3 Summonings' tee with full color on front & white on back (Calisse, Pwyll the seneschal/bard, & Snowmantle her 2nd fey guide for the front & the summoning song on the back with her fey helper). Plus I'll wear my white tennis shoes. I've French braided my hair for a change. I'm wearing my lapis earring so they really show with my hair pulled back. I've got on the same rings but today's pendant is the star & moon entertwined with Celtic knotwork.

Tatting: I've completed another snowflake, despite running out of thread on 1 shuttle & having to reload. I started the 2nd motif for the tat-along but I was running on a can of Full Throttle & made a mistake. I'll have to either open the ring or cut it out. I was too tired to do either at the time. So I started it again in size 80 thread. Made a mistake on the 2nd clover & just started over. I made a good start on that one.

Cold continues: I still have the cold, partially because I've only rested one day. My sore throat on Friday was probably from my sinuses draining (note, this is the first time that I've had sinus problems in 30+ years). Nonetheless, I packed Friday night & went to Steve & Anitra's early Saturday morning.

I spent some time with Carry Saturday morning, learning how to use a knitting loom. I used that thread that I bought to attempt tatting; white string with multicolor thread wrapping it, in segments. Since it didn't have a smooth enough twist to slide the knots, that experiment failed. It worked well enough on the knitting loom. I was asked multiple times if it was beaded, that should give a clue about how the multicolor thread wrapped.

When I boothsat for her at dinner & supper, I continued to work on it. We didn't use the entire loom; just a half-dozen pegs or so. It made a somewhat narrow scarf, made narrower by the fact that it curled.

By Saturday night I was so miserable. I had the full-blow cold symptoms; my back ached from shoulders to hips; clogged head & less than full faculties.

I felt better the next morning, especially after taking some alka-seltzer cold remedy. So I worked with Anitra again. Since it rained off & on all day, it was a very slow day. Nonetheless, we kept busy & I finished my scarf. It's almost 6' long; I plan to give it to mom. After Anitra paid me, I went shopping. I bought some stars for my co-workers & some origami cranes for some other folks at work; stuff like that.

Monday, I dragged around & read a couple books. Then Anitra & I found the Hold Your Own in Cameron Village & picked up a couple items. I found a folder to hold my spell templates for D&D plus a 'pocket' that clips onto the vent in my car; to hold my cellphone where I can reach & find it.

I called Chris to cancel gaming, because after all, I'm still sick. Then I called in sick on Tuesday. I went to work on Wednesday, despite still being ill because I had stuff that had to get done.

Get to work; my boss is pissed because I hadn't done the org chart the way that he wanted. I had asked Craig for help because I didn't have anything that could format the way he wanted it. Craig NEVER got back to me, not even a 'I don't have time to help you with this'. So I didn't do it. So my boss did, which pissed him off. The funny thing is; per the way he had it; it was already in OrgPlus that way.

Plus, a funding change disappeared. I know I did it, in mid to late June to early July. But there's no sign of it. The server had some hiccups about that point & I wonder if it got eaten. But my boss is pissed because in the meantime; it's been wrong since July 1. What a welcome back. Of course, this is the same boss who has said thank you about 5 times in the last 5 years. He's not real good with the positive reinforcement.

I cried a bit, because frankly, the way I felt I just didn't need that on top of it. Then I couldn't find my request for the weekend (Thursday through Monday) off. I thought that I had copied the email to my supervisor but no sign of it. I finally found it about 4 pm. Whee.

I got everything done except for getting some action confirmations & let my supervisor know what to expect Thursday, etc. I was sooo glad to get out of there; it's not even funny.

I washed clothes Wednesday night & managed to stain a number of items pink. The first load was white & delicates; including that red silk shirt with the bleach spots. I'll have to check once it dries & see if it dyed the bleached spots. The ultra-soft Japanese print tee that I bought in 'Japan' at Disney World is now pink instead of white; at least it's even.

Thursday morning I packed, my crate of books & PC notebooks plus the drink bag before Chris left so he could take them with him. After my laundry was done I packed my clothes & other stuff. Managing to forget my laundry bag, my tote bag & diddy bag. Luckily, our room & the con are in the same hotel so I won't have to haul around too much. At worst, it's around a couple corners & up a flight of stairs.

I rushed around & got to Rosemary's at 12:30. She & Chris worked til noon & I was first to arrive. We managed to leave her house about 2pm. We got to our hotel, Holiday Inn, about 12:30 am. We missed the last turn & ended up 16 miles (round trip) out of our way.

Books: a couple at S&A's; one was a 'Bad Boy' anthology & I'm not sure about the other one. I read all day Tuesday & don't remember many details; except Smoke Thief & Bad Boys Over Easy (anthology). I also read I Brake for Bad Boys & a Dick Francis novel, Knockdown I think, on the way to PA.

Tatting: I started a snowflake from Vida Sunderman's Tatted Snowflakes, the 2nd one, & finished it this morning. I also put tatted 'flags' on my D&D spell templates. Only two or three pieces lack anything & I might finish them during gaming.

Clothes: at the Village I wore my ~Colonial outfit all weekend (yay washing machines). Monday I wore jeans & some tee, I don't remember which one, plus the Salem Mass sweatshirt mom found; the black one with the cat eyes. Tuesday I schlepped around in leggings, UNC CAP tee & a chambray shirt, plus slippers.

Wednesday it was black slacks, black knit shirt (long sleeves), Celtic knot jewelry & loose hair. Thursday it was SheVa Con (2005 I think) tee, greyish blue jeans, chambray shirt & white tennis shoes. I wore the Celtic knot jewelry & kept my hair loose so it would dry.

Today it's my long-sleeved grey 'Evolution of the Bull's Head' tee, black jeans & tennies, moonstone ring, earrings & trimoon pendant; plus rope band & flower band.

The connection here at the hotel is pretty bad. So I'm going to try one more time to enter my blog. If it doesn't work; I'll wait until Monday..or later. Okay, I got this posted but I'll add the links later.