Schedule...or Not?

It's only been a few days since my last post, but I'm trying to get into the groove of posting on a schedule.

I hope (for my US readers, all 2 of you) you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. For my other reader, I hope you had a good weekend and good start to the week. I lazed around and just did a few things around the house.

We now know the problem with the washing machine is not the hose and not the filter. We've changed one and cleaned the other; but the cold water still dribbles into the machine instead of pouring. It may be something wrong with the machine itself.

CD made chocolate chocolate chip cookies on Sunday. The first batch was a little overdone but the second batch came out perfect. I also have some Milano cookies I bought left from a potluck. Thank goodness I have (almond) milk to drink.

I still haven't picked up the yarn for the baby afghan project. Maybe I'll get a chance to do that tonight. Tonight is my date with CC so I'd have to pop into Michael's on the way.

I am so glad I had noted down the phone number for my voice mail in my old phone's contact list. I entered it in my new phone's contacts finally. I called it and I had 17 messages. None of them had dates or times (unlike my work voice mails) but the subjects mentioned let me know I could delete them; i.e. references to my mom being in the hospital. If there is some symbol or something to alert me about messages I haven't found it. There's something to let me know I missed a call or have a text message waiting, but that's it.

NASA got the Juno satellite in place. Yes, it is rocket science. The links go to YouTube videos; one is the trailer and one is a documentary on the project.

From futuristic, to ancient past; here's a short video of a young woman using kulning to summon cows back to pasture. There's a difference between kulning and hollering.

I wonder if my local comic store could get this series, Saltire; it's an import so it might be difficult.

I did get some good news. Another friend called to let me know he and his wife are expecting a baby. They're not spreading the news yet, so I won't even mention initials. 

WARNING: Politics Ahead
And then there's the news from Istanbul; 41 people dead and how many more injured? During Ramadan, one of the holiest holidays in the Muslim calendar (or such is my impression). As usual, Daesh kills more Muslims than any other religion. Despite what they call themselves, Daesh is barely more Islamic than I am. But they could call themselves cars easier than I could, with just the same amount of truthfulness (they are closer to a major source of gasoline than I am). I refuse to call them their preferred name as they are neither Islamic nor a State. They are a terrorist political organization.

And two major US presidential candidates are in my state today, as well as the US President. At least none of them are in the towns where I live or work. No offense, but I'm pretty sick of all them by now. Okay, one of them more than the others. Can you guess which one?

What's a Schedule?

I had started working on my blog and then Wednesday afternoon I got a phone call. My mom was going to the emergency room. It turned out not to be any of the really scary things but she was still in the hospital for a couple days while they ran tests to eliminate those things. They're still not certain what caused her problems, but they're working on fixing them. In the meantime, I'm calling her every day to check on her.

Thank goodness my boss was understanding about my absence. I left Wednesday after he was gone for the day so all he had from me was some emails and a couple voice mails. I finally talked to him Friday afternoon, and he was 'family comes first. Everything here will still be here when you get back. Um, but while I have you on the phone, there's an issue on Monday.' I let him know we didn't need to panic until Tuesday and I was working on stopgap to take care of it if I wasn't back before then. 

I found out I'm a stress faster. Although that's not quite accurate. I was hungry sometimes, but my stomach was so upset that food just didn't look attractive. I drank ginger ale and grabbed a few bites here and there but only had 2.5 meals from Wednesday through Friday. I'm not counting the dinner roll and other bits as part of that count. 

Her sister is back home; after mom got out of the hospital on Friday, I drove my aunt to meet her son. He drove her the rest of the way home. That reminds me, I need to call and tell him when the family reunion is.

Saturday I went ahead and started running Tears at Bitter Manor. I hadn't had a chance to finish prep but I had enough done to get us through the 1st day of gaming. It's a good module with a good storyline. There's a haunt in it, but unlike so many of them, there is a way to find out how the cause and find out how to stop it permanently.

Saturday night was the biggest meal I'd had since Tuesday night. It was a bit more than my system was able to handle. Erp.

Sunday the only thing I did was finish the laundry I started on Wednesday. I'm gradually relaxing a bit. I'm working on one of my birthday coloring books and testing some patterns for Anitra's book of tatting patterns.

Then Wednesday night a transformer blew and we lost power. This is the (I think) the 2nd time in a month. It lasted much longer this time. Power wasn't restored until after 8 am on Thursday.

Deadlands game was Thursday. I'm still playing Alys Reeves. She let herself get arrested (she was framed) and let someone else break her out of jail. Hannah caused a stampede to create a distraction and got us (Doc and Jason were in the jail, too) out. Jason added some oomph to the stampede and we went after the sheriff. The sheriff was actually one of the people we were sent to capture or kill.

One of my on-line friends is having a baby so a number of us are planning a blanket. I need to pick up some yarn to do my square.

I have a new phone. It's an older Android and it's not intuitive for me. It has 3 places to save contact info (phone, USIM, and google). And I can't move someone from one to another. As a result, most of my contacts are still in my old phone. Plus, it's a pre-paid and I'm having the devil of a time finding the number of minutes left.

CD and I have been watching Miss Fisher's Mysteries. It's interesting. Some of the screenplays are from the books, but the murderer is not necessarily the same. It means even though I read the books, I have to watch to figure out whodunit.

I'm reading about 3 series right now. There's the Dark Heavens series, and its sequel Journey to Wudang, written by Kyle Chan. I just ordered the 2nd book of Journey. I've also started a series, The Others, that started with Written in Red, by Anne Bishop. I have the next 2 on order but they're grouped with a pre-ordered book so I won't see them for some time. Both are sort of urban fantasy but very different settings.

The 3rd series is historical romance. It's the Dressmakers by Loretta Chase. Funny thing, I read book 4 and then went back to read books 1 and 2. I have book 3 on order. The same order as the Others, so I won't see it either for some time.

almost full house in Necko Atsume game

For Pulse, in Orlando

possibly edible

roof plants, outside mom's hospital room

Better Late than Never? Even very late?

I was working on this blog post and I got a cold. Pretty much wrecked my Sunday and I took Monday off to recover. Then I worked a short week as I took some time off work to go see my Mom. One of her sisters is visiting and I wanted to see her, too. Plus, Mom had some paperwork/estate stuff she wanted to settle now, before I'm left to deal with it.

Then, the events at The Pulse in Orlando, Florida. It just wrecked me. I'm cishet (het for heterosexual and cis means my gender experiences match the gender I was assigned at birth) and I feel devastated.  One note about the opening paragraph, it's the largest mass shooting in modern US history (Wounded Knee, for example had 300 dead).

I'm finally to a point, I can write in my blog again.

I went to the demo at the Mordecai House in Raleigh with other tatters. I worked on a bracelet; it was the first time I'd been tatting for awhile, considering my wrist. I made sure to stop and do something else every once in awhile. I've finished and it's a cute, summery one. I need to block it and photograph it.

I had to get a new cellphone. My carrier said it wasn't supporting my phone anymore. So now I have an android. And I have to learn how to use it. And program all my contacts into it. Not fun.

I went to my last Employee Forum meeting as a delegate on June 8, my term ends June 30th. We held the peer recognition awards (I helped review nominations) and at the end, the Kay Wijnberg Hovious Distinguished Delegate awards. To my surprise, I was one of the three people honored. Looking at previous winners, I'm in impressive company.

Friday was my supervisor's last day at work, as he is taking vacation for the next two weeks until his official retirement. We had a big retirement party for him on Wednesday afternoon. There was cake, punch, chips, and M&Ms with his face and name on them.

Friday, we had a little potluck for him in the office. We had cupcakes, chips, dip, cookies, little ham sandwiches, and punch. I'll miss him, he's been a good supervisor.

Saturday was Free RPG Day so I went to a local game store to pick up some of the freebies and play Pathfinder's release. It was another Goblin adventure; We B4 Goblins. It was fun.

I wanted to play the Doctor Who RPG, too, but it turned out that was a miniatures game. Which is not the same as an RPG.

Sunday morning I called my Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day.
Here, have some pretty pictures.

I think that I finally got enough sleep last night. I think. I had a headache bad enough that only migraine meds toned it down, I don't know why. I tried to call Mom last night but for some reason my cell phone didn't charge on Sunday. So I had to plug it in last night. No charge=no call. That will be fun to explain to Mom tonight.

tatting: I started the Workbasket database. I think I'm going to need 2 of them. One will be a straight list of issues & the other will have what's in them, at least briefly.

books: I bought & read The Mirror Prince. It's a very good fantasy novel. The premise is that there was a war in the lands of the Riders (aka Faerie) and the Prince that lost got exiled to the Shadowlands (ie our world). Unfortunately, part of the Banishment removed the Prince's memories, so he's been living as a human all this time. Over & over. Now though, it's almost the end of the Banishment & someone (or someones) are after the Prince. Only the first few chapters take place in our world, the rest is all in the Lands. The writer did a good job of world-building. I think I'll keep an eye out for the next book by Violette Malan (it does not look like it has any connection to the Mirror Prince). I tried to read Newton's Cannon but just couldn't get into it.

tv: We watched Bones and Ninja Warrior. I listened to an episode of Pop-Up Video; it was one I'd seen before so I didn't watch it.

clothes: ~slippers, black slacks, green Harrington Steading shirt, moss agate bead bracelet, clip watch, green amber ring, flower band, hematite band, green amber necklace & post earrings. My hair is up in a ponytail/bun held by 2 chopsticks, black with a band of tan & black ink painting wrapped around the ends.

Weather: Oy, it's hot. We only tied the 54-year-old record; just like yesterday. It was 99F/37.2C and today it hit 100F/37.7C. This morning started out in the high 70's (~25C) though, and that makes such a difference. The AC on the bus was cranked up enough that my glasses fogged up when I disembarked.

Speaking of the bus, I met one of my neighbors this morning. I wondered, as she was exiting her home as I passed, if she were on her way to the bus, too. When I saw her walking a bit behind me, I thought that I was correct. Of course, when she actually came to the bus stop, asking if the bus would be going to campus, I knew that I was correct. She had orientation today & I was able to tell her where the building that she sought was located. She grew up in Virginia (& is named after the famous valley) but has been out of the South for a long time. She doesn't even have a Southern accent anymore. Most recently, she's from Wyoming and is having to adjust to the high humidity.

She seems nice but I probably talked her ear off. I did warn her about that, after a few minutes. And she could have chosen to sit, well not far away, but not next to me on the bus. So if I hurt her ears, it's her own fault.

tatting: I've begun to turn the corner on that bottom staff of the cross. I'm about 2 chains, 1 small ring & one large ring from being half-done.

Video of the day: What teachers make

Books: Finished Complete Champion, read a bit in Complete Scoundrel, got a bit farther in re-reading Simply Unforgettable & another page or so into Manga Madness (drawing as I go).

tv: More Women of Ninja Warrior. Everything else was ignorable, as a repeat.

Mom: Mom called me last night, a good thing as when I tried to call her, I found that my cell phone battery was dead (yes, it was at the hotel; Chris picked it up on the way home last night). I'll be going to see her this weekend. That means Friday night I'll be going to look for her birthday present (her birthday was yesterday). I know what I want to get her; I want to hit the thrift shops first, looking for old movie DVDs. If they don't have any, I'll check at Target & the like for any cheap ones that they have. I could buy expensive ones for mom but 1) she'd prefer that I didn't & 2) she likes old movies. She's really enjoying that DVD player that I bought for her. She's been checking things out from the library.

clothes: black ~slippers, brightly colored floral skirt, white polo, green bead bracelet, lapis lazuli flower ring, flower band, hematite ring, flower fairy pendant, ~filigree earrings & hair up in a ponytail/bun affixed with a ~bone curvy hairstick.

Bus Pass: I had to stand in line for a bit, but I got my new bus pass yesterday. That's vital as it started today. Deborah retired so she's not there in the parking office anymore. I'm happy for her but I miss seeing her there.

cellphone: still haven't found it and maybe today I'll remember to call the hotel while the lost & found is open.

tv: More Kunoichi last night. I've missed one session, 3rd run through, because I watched #4.

books: Finished Falling Awake & almost finished reading/skimming Complete Champion. There were a few things from CC that I might be able to use for my characters. But not much. I brought Complete Scoundrel & Manga Madness for today.

tatting: I've started the bottom leg of the cross this morning while watching the weather on tv. I got another ring done on the bus but the usual humidity problem stopped me, no big surprise.

Food: Since my dental insurance ran out (just as I was getting a root canal), I'm really short of funds this week. Plus a hefty chunk of my next paycheck is also going to my dentist. Leftovers are looking really good. Today it's leftover pork steak & mixed vegetables (identical to supper last night, alas).

weather: another hot one, it will possibly break a 50-year-old record (99F set in 1953). It was surprisingly (& comfortably) cool this morning.

clothes: black & white print cotton gauze skirt, black rib knit blouse (that unfortunately does not quite conceal the straps of my bra, but luckily that's black, too), hematite ring, flower band, ~rope band, black ~slippers, black etc bead bracelet, harp pendant, onyx & silver earrings & hair in a ponytail/bun affixed with a black hairstick with a brown bead.

Water leak: it's now fixed, or should I say they are fixed. Turns out that there were two of them. One was caused by someone putting a 4" (legal minimum is apparently 18") patch on a leak created when they fixed a neighbor's line. We had about 4 hours without water but it was worth it. Now we have to call about getting a credit for the water bill overage.

books: reread Lord Perfect this morning.

I played a little Nanny Mania this morning; played through 3 level. Worked on one of my stories a little and watched Psych; taped last night. We watched Chris's Starblazers DVD and then watched part of the Superman story on the History Channel.

I managed to lose my cell phone. I think I may have left it at Trinic*con last weekend. I know that I had it Sunday (I recharged it & the cord is in my bag) but haven't seen it since. I thought that I left it in one of the bags either in my car or Chris's.

clothes: jeans & blue t-shirt. I haven't bothered with more than that; I'm not going anywhere.

And now I can't even save my blog much less publish it. I'm going to try again, let's see if it works.

Water leak: it's now fixed, or should I say they are fixed. Turns out that there were two of them. One was caused by someone putting a 4" (legal minimum is apparently 18") patch on a leak created when they fixed a neighbor's line. We had about 4 hours without water but it was worth it. Now we have to call about getting a credit for the water bill overage.

books: reread Lord Perfect this morning.

I played a little Nanny Mania this morning; played through 3 level. Worked on one of my stories a little and watched Psych; taped last night. We watched Chris's Starblazers DVD and then watched part of the Superman story on the History Channel.

I managed to lose my cell phone. I think I may have left it at Trinic*con last weekend. I know that I had it Sunday (I recharged it & the cord is in my bag) but haven't seen it since. I thought that I left it in one of the bags either in my car or Chris's.

clothes: jeans & blue t-shirt. I haven't bothered with more than that; I'm not going anywhere.

Knitting: All I have to do now, is get the scarf off the loom. I read up on how to do that, last night. Now I just need to do it.

cellphone: After a week & a half, my cell phone's charge finally ran down. It beeped incessantly, reminding me that the battery was almost out of juice. Since it's the first time that it as done so, I let it fully run out & am recharging it this morning.

sight of the day: long, black square toed shoes/maybe boots, charcoal grey jeans or slacks with frayed hem at the heels, grey/black tweed coat, black turtleneck & lighting a cigarette & carrying a black leather bag/soft briefcase. He looked like a model playing a 'college grad student/TA. Almost too stereotypical.

books: Finally started reading Odds Against, the Dick Francis I've been carrying all week. I'm about halfway through Trickster's Queen. That old Krentz that I read; it was Uneasy Alliance, not Unlikely.

Website of humor: these two ladies don't review books, they review covers. About halfway down the page I was collapsed over my keyboard with laughter.

clothes: charcoal grey suede boots under black jeans, sage green turtleneck under black faux-suede shirt, emerald & gold post earrings (from Bro & sis-in-law a couple years ago), black stone ring (I don't have any gold ones), & diamond chip & emeral heart pendant in gold (Christmas present from Chris).

Later addendum: for some reason my sock cuffs are unreasonably attracted to my ankles. They keep diving down to reach them.

(<>) comments

toothache Monday afternoon, as I was leaving Jacksonville, my right molar started hurting. It got so bad, that it woke me at 3:30 am Tuesday. I went to work & looked up a dentist. I have an appointment in a few minutes. I bought some orajel & I took painkillers, but at best the various medications put a dent in the pain, which got bad enough that the aura of pain extended to give me an earache. I went to bed at 7:30 pm, woke at 8:30 and occasionally napped but the longest span of time to stay asleep was 2 hours. I was ready to weep with pain. I finally understood how a toothache could drive someone mad.

I slept almost half an hour by the time my alarm went off, so I went to work Wednesday. I lasted for half an hour before I had to get some sleep. I slept for 40 minutes and my boss sent me home. Of course, I missed the 9:20 bus & the next one headed in the right direction is not until 11:34. So I took one to the RTP station. It was way too cold to wait outside. I slept in the station and took the 11:15 bus home. Luckily I'd parked at the shopping center (I was not up to my usual walk), so I bought some more painstuff and some soup to drink. It's been hard to eat (duh) so I was starving, again.

After I drank some broth, I napped in my car & then drove the mile to get home. And slept. And drank more soup. And napped. The new pain stuff really helped. Right now, my tooth hurts a little but it's the difference between a balpeen hammer & a sledge hammer.

Snow It snowed this morning. Since the ground is warm (~40F I think I heard), the snow melted on the roads, etc. So it was more pretty than dangerous. Alas, it turned to rain & mostly melted away.

cellphone I have a new one. And the difference between technology meant that I got a new number. Here's the silly part. I had to call someone with caller id to find out my new number.

books I've read a few since Friday. There's Girl's Guide to Witchcraft by Melinda Klasky. That's chick lit but I enjoyed it. There's no happily ever after but she does end on a happier note. A librarian at a small, Colonial-focused library finds a secret stash of books on witchcraft & accidentally casts a spell. Dark Whispers by Samantha Carver; quasi-paranormal romance in Historical England. The heroine partially owns a bookshop & she's not rich, etc. The hero is a Bow Street Runner and also not rich. I liked it. I re-read Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart by Jane Lindskold, a fantasy adventure. There's also Pleasure Slave, a fantasy romance by Gena Showalter. That one has an interesting premise, a warrior is cursed to 'reside' in a jewelry box and do whatever the owner (female) wants. She owns an antique/junk shop and it was better than the premise promised. There was more to the story than it appeared at first.

clothes Over the weekend I wore jeans & t-shirts. Since I only packed one (I thought it would be cooler so I took turtlenecks), it was lucky that Aunt Dot gave me some. They all have Miami Parks Dept on them. She can't give them to anyone in Miami because several have 'supervisor' or lifeguard on them. Tuesday I wore a blue/purple cotton/poly shirt (looks purple & then blue as the light shifts), grey corduroy vest and black jeans. Wednesday I wore a pink turtleneck, black jeans, black ugh boots (warm) and forgot to wear jewelry. Today, I wore black jeans, red turtleneck sweater, & black loafers.

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