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.