Definitely needed my sleep last night; at least, based on the fact that I slept an extra hour leads me to believe that to be the case. I did have a dream though. This morning, we watched cartoons and vegged a bit. I also finished my laundry.

My fingernails are a mess though. I have maybe two that are better than decent. The rest are short and irregular. Even with filing, they're 'eh.' And most of my nails are so short; again. Ah well.

tv: Doctor Who was really good last night. I wasn't really in the mood for any other tv, and I was tired, so I went to bed early. And I slept late. Today, I finally saw Austin Powers: Goldmember, or most of it. The Batman cartoon was one of the coldest ever, Superman & Batman were one-lining each other.

books: I've started Fortune's Stroke, now and finished The Marriage Spell this morning.

tatting: I redid the bauble, using a plastic bead instead of a marble and it looks good. I did a josephine chain for the strand. I think I'll put it on a lobster clip to use as a zipper pull.

clothes: Gran March BI t-shirt, cotton lounging pants, Celtic knot ring, star/moon/tree pendant, hematite ring, blue bead on silver wire bracelet, chain mail earrings & plaited hair.

Interesting day; in several ways. I hit the snooze bar (stayed up too late listening to music & playing computer games) and then slept half ah hour instead of 9 minutes. I got out the door, barely in time. I did make it to catch the bus without having to run.

Alas, my efforts were in vain. I caught the bus & the bus got caught in a traffic jam. Apparently there was an accident & we were delayed, um I'd estimate 25 minutes. Since my boss had seen the accident on the way into work himself he knew that I'd be late.

books: I finished ready An Oblique Approach from the Baen library last night and finished Magic Lost, Trouble Found on the way to work. I read the 3rd volume of Wallflower at lunch & started String of Lies. I started re-reading Marriage Spell for my bedside book last night.

I started watching tv last night, realized that there was nothing on that I was in the mood to watch & just shut it off. Listening to music on my laptop (from my cds) was nice. I had a nice supper of leftovers. I should have looked over my Mutants & Masterminds character, Totem, though. I'll try & do that tonight.

Chris is going to be late, working. So I'll start supper and we can eat as soon as he gets home. I'll also need to finish my laundry. I got the load of jeans & towels done last night but only put in the white/delicates this morning.

I finally clipped my nails, too. After the right thumbnail pretty much shredded, I decided that I needed to do some clipping so I could control how short my nails got; instead of tearing them off at the quick.

Another cool day; I'm hoping for more rain. There were leaves on the sidewalk today. I think it's not solely from the shorter days & the cooler temperatures (it's only down into the 50's after all), I think that the drought is partially responsible. I fear that the autumnal colors will be subdued this year.

sight of the day: some really huge honking mushrooms in one of the planters. Apparently, the groundskeepers have watered the rosemary & mint there enough to encourage some beautifully large fungus.

clothes: ~slippers, black jeans & polo, tatted necklace & earrings, black stone ring, black glass bead bracelet, clip watch, & hair up in ponytail/bun, held with reddish wood hairstick.

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.

*snarl* BMAC & other noises of complaint & irritation.

I got stopped up in stop & roll traffic on 15-501 towards Pittsboro last night. The last 1.5 mile before my storage facility [1] took 20+ minutes. I get home. I start to do my laundry & realize, the only detergent we have is what a friend left when he borrowed the use of our washer when his was broken. Well, I have to pack tonight, so I went ahead & used some. I washed 2 loads (1 light & 1 dark). I even managed to get the light one completely done. The dark load was drying when I went to bed.

This morning: I kept waking up (2 am, 5 am, 5:30 am, until the alarm clock). Now I'm dragging. I comb out my hair before washing it (cuts down on the amount of hair that I shed in the shower) & get all that done. Luckily I had figured out what to wear last night. Chris, my bf, finally tells me what time we are leaving tomorrow morning, so I can plan what time to get up, etc. [2]

I grab a frozen dinner to eat for lunch & an ice cream cone for breakfast. This is usually safe because the bottom of the cone is plugged with chocolate so the ice cream doesn't leak. This morning, the cone broke. So I spilled/splashed chocolate all over the nice cream colored polo shirt I'm wearing. I'm so tempted to go buy a shirt [3] to wear today. *insert another snarl*

I finish the white test tatting,[4] Gullan by Blomquist & Persson, while I'm stopped in traffic on 54 this morning. The area where I usually park is full, I find another one not toooo far away. I start winding red thread on the shuttle while I wait for the bus. Get 1.5 ring done on the bus, it's a crowded morning, we're packed like canned sardines. I get off the bus, barely, and then learn that I dropped my shuttle case. The one Mike [5]made for me last year. And despite the fact that I left the house @ 7:15 I make it to the office at exactly 8 am instead of having at least a couple minutes to stow my lunch, turn on my computer, etc. *repeat snarl*

I called the bus company. No one's turned in my shuttle case yet. I left my number. Hopefully they'll call.

I'm catching up on the DTH I missed while I was out. I read to catch articles dealing with my department. I finished up to the 30th yesterday. Today I can't find the paper for the 31st.

Please let this day improve. I wonder if part of the problem is the weather. Normally I don't mind the drizzly weather....but it may be a contributing factor.

[1] the one where I rent a locker

[2] We're going to Hochcon, a gaming convention in Virginia. Leaving tomorrow, coming back Monday.
[3] that involves going over to student stores & trying to find a UNC polo shirt. Guesstimate: $30.

[4] I'm trying to figure out what edging to use on the dress that I'm buying for next State Fair. So I'm testing a few patterns to see what I like. Gullan is kind of plain. I'll use it to trim the jacket I wore yesterday. Inga looks nice. I did 2 repeats of it in red yesterday.

[5] Mike Lowe, the leathercrafter at the Village of Yesteryear