It's Friday? Finally!

It's been a long week. The symptoms of my cold changed; not unusual for me. My sinuses started draining. I took a day off to rest, again, hoping to kick the cold. Didn't work. Now I have the sniffles and a sore throat. Can I just say 'oh. yay.'

Gaelic: I lost my flash cards earlier this week. I was up to about 50. I have now started over. On the bright side, with what I learned from the 1st start, they'll be better organized this time. Plus, it will help the memorization.

Gaming: Ran an LFR (Living Forgotten Realms adventure at Sci Fi Genre last night. I hope that it went well. I did not manage to bloody anyone at all in the final fight. Of course, they did have 3 leaders (healing out the whazoo). I did manage to bloody the paladin a couple times in the 1st fight. I also managed to run the adventure in 4 hours, so I got home at a semi-regular hour last night, despite the late start. The adventure has a really great roleplay scene and I had to skim it. That's a pity. I gave them a taste, at least.

I think I'm going to try this \/ Wish me luck
 

Tonight I'm driving to Mom's. I'll be spending the weekend with her, taking her presents with me. The only worry I have is about giving her my cold. But I haven't seen her since September, when we went to the family reunion. I canceled my last weekend with her, when my cough started. That's right. That means that my cough started the first full week of October. It has varied from two deep coughs about 5 pm, to coughing so much that sucking on cough drops rubbed my mouth sore.

Looking Forward to Supper

Does that sound odd? My stepmom has an appointment this afternoon, here in town. She and Dad plan to stick around afterwords to have supper with me. Not dinner. Dinner is eaten at midday, at least by locals. We don't know where we'll be eating yet, Dad made some joke about me cooking.

Friday, I'll be driving down to spend the weekend with my mom. It's going to be a family filled week. I'll take Mom's Christmas presents and give them to her early. Don't tell her, but I found a plain, white ironing board pad. You think that's a mundane present? Believe me, she'll be glad to have it. Have you ever ironed something white on a printed ironing board cover? It always looks like you've gotten a stain on the garment. I also found a polka music cd. I'm not sure if she'll like that as much, but I hope so. She enjoys fast-paced dancing music, of almost any stripe.

I buffed my nails this past weekend. They're all pretty and smooth, except for the length of course. Naturally one has chipped and one tore down to the quick; not into the quick, at least.

It's gotten dark enough on the way home that I'm using my lights again. The one on my bag is still working fine, but the other one is almost dead. I need a new battery in it. At the moment, it kind of, sort of lights up.

I'm gotten through most of the exercises in Chapter 4 of Teach Yourself Gaelic, but I only have my flash cards up to Chapter 1. The main purpose of the flash cards is to fix the vocabulary and rules in my mind. So far, I have not really read through them. I've used more than half the pack of cards already. I am definitely going to have to buy more.

Gaming: Thursday night I'll be running an LFR game at Sci Fi Genre. I guess I should read the module soon. I have played it once, that helps. I'm not exactly stressing about it.

TV: We're almost caught up on Sanctuary, only 1 more episode. The Big Bang Theory last night was hilarious. We're down to only 39% memory of the DVR. We had a problem last week in which it was randomly eating memory. It was up to 95% for no discernible reason. We reset it and it dropped to the 60's.

Books: I'm still having trouble settling to a book. Normally, I'm a book a day person. Recently, I manage half a book, maybe, and then I put it down. This includes books by some of my favorite authors. Except for a couple manga, I only finished one book last week. That's just sad.

Tatting: Only 4 people at the meeting on Saturday. It started snowing just about 3:30 so that's no surprise. I found it without getting lost; that's a surprise. I finally finished the Gemini Star during the meeting. I've decided to make the pink into a bookmark instead of edging.

Also I've completed both Cupid Stars from Oh My Stars! (so far I don't like dimpled rings. I need to try them a couple more times before I settle with that opinion though) and the Shooting Star. The rickrack Cupid Star is in variegated pink; from a very old ball. I started the Stars & Stripes, in size 80, gadzooks. I only had two colors of thread in the same size in the 80. So it's variegated blue & solid white.

books: Read A Tisket, A Tasket, A Fancy Stolen Casket, and um, still working on Chapter 2 of Teach Yourself Gaelic. I've started a vocabulary card thing. I write the Gaelic word on the front & the pronunciation (as best as I can tell), definition & helpful information about it on the back; things like 'causes lenition' and other tidbits. The former is a mystery set in small town South Carolina, with the protagonist Calamine "Callie" Lotion Parrish. She's a cosmetologist at a funeral home; giving loved ones a final beautiful memory of the dear departed.

My cousin Kathy, Aunt Evelyn's younger daughter, called me Saturday evening, so I'm a little glad that caution about the weather prevented me from driving down to see my aunts after the Tatting meeting. If I'd left, I would have missed her call. We talked for a few minutes. She's only about 10 years older than I am.

Sunday, I waited until the roads had a chance to thaw before I left. I took some stuff out of my car first, so I left a little later than I'd planned. I got there via the 5th route now (as of the last 2 trips plus this one). I'm getting better. They were glad to see me & I tatted while Aunt Dot & Uncle Albert watched football & Aunt Shirley read. Mom arrived that evening and she was surprised to see me. I had tried to call her to let her know about the roads (& let her know that I'd be there) but she had her cell phone off again.

We did a little sewing on Monday. Mom had found a better suitcase for me to use to carry my sewing machine. It's a lot sturdier than the one that I have been using. However, it doesn't have pockets, so I used some drapery fabric & sewed a couple. That will help in stowing the presser feet and extra bobbins. I completely forgot my bag of 'needs repairs' and the satin fabric for my new pillowcase. I could, theoretically, work on that tonight. Theoretically.

I had to leave last night and made it home just after dark. It was markedly colder. When I was putting my bags in the car, I just wore a turtleneck & felt fine. Getting them out, I felt like I was freezing; it was only 2F above the freezing mark, so no wonder.

clothes: jeans, turtlenecks, Celtic knot jewelry

Tatting get-together tomorrow. And snow is predicted. And I wanted to go to visit my Aunt Shirley tomorrow, since Aunt Dot is expected this weekend. *sigh*

books: Bead on Trouble & reread Slightly Shady.

Still on Chapter 2 of Teach Yourself Gaelic (Scottish). I'm working on vocabulary cards while I try to master a/do/dh'/etc.

tatting: none

clothes: turtlenecks, sweater, black slacks. It's cold. I've given up on the fleece boots that Mom bought for me. They are just tooooo big. It hurts to walk in them very far. They are warm but even with inserts, it just doesn't work. Inserts made all the difference on my half-boots. While they're still a little too long, my feet don't slide around.

Tatting get-together tomorrow. And snow is predicted. And I wanted to go to visit my Aunt Shirley tomorrow, since Aunt Dot is expected this weekend. *sigh*

books: Bead on Trouble & reread Slightly Shady.

Still on Chapter 2 of Teach Yourself Gaelic (Scottish). I'm working on vocabulary cards while I try to master a/do/dh'/etc.

tatting: none

clothes: turtlenecks, sweater, black slacks. It's cold. I've given up on the fleece boots that Mom bought for me. They are just tooooo big. It hurts to walk in them very far. They are warm but even with inserts, it just doesn't work. Inserts made all the difference on my half-boots. While they're still a little too long, my feet don't slide around.

Quick post today. It's already 5:15 & I want to go home.

Today's outfit: black loafers, blue/pink/purple/black/white floral print broomstick gauze skirt, black rib knit shirt, silver chain, spoon ring, silver ~braid band, 3 silver ring earrings & loose hair. I washed my hair this morning & I forgot to pack brush or elastic band. I do have a couple hairsticks but I wasn't in the mood.

I worked a little on my Gaelic at lunch. I'm still on chapter 3. Hopefully that means I'm slow but thorough. I'm a lot closer to being done editing Jordan's material. I'm into the appendices.

It was very hard to drag myself out of bed this morning, despite going to bed on time. Giving blood yesterday may have taken more out of me than I realized. It took 2 hours 20 minutes from leaving lunch to getting back to work. At least 15 minutes would have been cut off if the 1st bus (route U) had not driven off without me. It never really pulled up to the stop but as I stood up & walked to toward it, it pulled away. I thought, at first, that it was simply moving up as another bus left but no, it left. I'm still a little ill about that.

I pulled two more books from my 'maybe keep' stack last night. I read one, I think I will keep it. The other one I brought to work with me this morning. I may read it at lunch, I may work on my Gaelic. I'm almost finished with Jordan's manuscript. I'm in the 2nd appendix. Then I have to make the corrections to the e-copy & send to him. Wheee.

The leather & other supplies for Chris's saddlebags arrived last night. We need to go to Michael's to get some suede lace, they were out. We may also need to get some more grommets, they only sent 2 packs, we ordered 3. Tonight I go by the library to get a leather craft book or two. And I think I'll put Steve's number on speed dial (so to speak). I'm very leery of relying on my 10/20-year-old knowledge of leatherworking. tonight I will also try to copy & cut the pattern out then piece a test bag (with paper or something so it's easy to construct). I want to see how the pieces fit together before I start cutting the leather.

Today's outfit: brown loafers, navy slacks (the pair with a hole), burgundy knit top, spoon ring, both turquoise rings, carnelian ring, turquoise & coral earrings, & hair half-up with brass clip.

Woohoo! My car is ready & I have a ride to go get it. It's been a month since the accident & I'm really looking forward to having my own transportation again. I have to admit though, the bus is really convenient.

This past weekend was such a complete change from the previous one, weather-wise. The snow had stopped falling by the time I left work on Friday & the roads were in pretty good condition. It never got above freezing Saturday or Sunday so there was plenty of snow on the roadsides & trees when I came to work yesterday. The high temperature was about 56F so most of the snow melted. I did see a few patches, each less than the size of my hand on my walk to the bus stop this morning.

Chris almost hurt himself very badly on Sunday. The snow on the awning above Hong Kong Express, in Durham, was melting a little bit from the sun. It dripped down the icicles & formed a puddle of ice in the awning's shade. Chris stepped on it and of course he fell down. He twisted his ankle but luckily no other damage was done.

I've been working on my Gaelic some more. I can now, almost, tell someone how old I am. I need to work on pronunciation more.