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.

book reviews from weekend's reading:

Magical JxR starts somewhat picaresque. It's the story of 2 wizard students who are partners despite their powers being complete opposites; fire & water. The end story/chapter seems to indicate the rest of the volumes will follow what happens to them just after they graduate.

Reluctant Rogue is mostly a typical Regency romance. There are a few differences; he's (almost) blatantly desperate for an heiress; so he can get out of his father's domination. She's the much plainer & much-less well-dowered younger sister. Her dowry is really just as big, but it's land & horses, not cash. It's an enjoyable but not unforgettable read.

It's time for Pantheon High homecoming. Too bad most of the students are still asleep from the spell in the 1st volume. And two of the students who saved them all are still stuck in the Underworld. Volume 2: Hades & Homecoming.

My copy of White Lies, by Krentz & book 2 of Arcane Society, arrived and I read it Sunday. It's pretty good. Good enough that I went to zooba & put book 3 on buy immediately.

Larceny & Old Lace is either the 1st or 2nd book of the Den of Antiquity mystery series by Tamar Myers. The protagonist is Abigail Timberlake of Rock Hill SC & Charlotte NC. I've been to both so I recognize the patterns & some of the places. This is a very Southern culture & I loved it. I bought a bunch of them at the used bookstore & I'll be looking for more.

TV: Watched After the People on History Channel. It was okay. I did learn some neat stuff, at least.

books: Finished reading Circle of Magic: Sandra's book for the nth time & finished vol 1 of Zombie Fairy.

tatting: finished Stars & Stripes. Started day 8 of Jane's TI&S.

scarf: It's now long enough to cover my hand from wrist to fingertip.

clothes: black jeans, black/brown polo, emerald pendant & earrings, black striped trouser socks, black ~slippers, black stone ring, hematite ring, moss agate bead bracelet, ponytail/bun with black/brown hair sticks.

As usual the New Years party was fun. It was a little scattered this year. Keith was on call & couldn't arrive until Monday. Our dryer died on Friday, so we had to come back early to try & work on that. Sherry never showed. We opened presents as people showed up. Keith liked his calendar, as usual. Russ liked his sugar free chocolate (& gave out lumps of coal to everyone, carved anthracite). Liz liked her chicken book & saw one bit of info that she wished she'd seen earlier (about chickens taking dirt baths look like they've died). Alisa thought that book that I got her looks interesting (Bless Your Heart, Tramp!). James can always use a hardware store gift card. I gave Shannon (Larry's wife) a tatted snowflake because she admired them & thought that her sister might like to tat. Namesake liked her presents, although I didn't see her unwrap the last one because I left that one for her to unwrap while Sherry's kids unwrapped theirs.

books: But, But.. Barbarians and partially read about 3 others, including Rainbow's End & Heiress for Hire. Read vol 3 of Tactics.

tatting: Up to Gemini Star in tatting book.

Yeah. Work. Almost no one was actually there. It was like a ghost town these past two days. Nonetheless I've had work to do. Not much but there was some.

Going out of town tomorrow, so laundry tonight. All the presents are wrapped.

books: Wallflower vol 5 &6 and I finished Death & Thraxas. & Captain's Fury.

clothes: yesterday it was black ribbed knit top under fuschia silk blouse, black jeans, black trouser socks & ~slippers. My hair was in a ponytail with a pink & grey scarf tied around it. Today it's pale grey sweater (embroidery on neck & drawstring waist), black slacks, black shirt, silver jewelry & loose hair.

site of the day: Every word that you get right, donates rice.

What a weekend. Friday night sucked. I mean, there are a few ways that it could have been worse, but it takes effort to find them. Everything was going smoothly, until the 3rd bus never showed. I waited for 2 hours, in the cold & dark (sun set 30 minutes after I arrived, no streetlights, temperature dropped, next to 4-lane road with moderate to heavy traffic). I was dressed okay for a 20-30 minute wait. Not for a 2-hour one. My toes were starting to get numb when I finally gave up, made arrangements, and headed for the nearest warm building.

books: Venus Versus Virus vol 2, Key to the Kingdom vol 2, re-read Knight of a Trillion Stars and read The Raveled Sleeve Friday night.

Saturday was the Greyhawk Ruins game. It was at Richard's and Kathy wasn't feeling well. As a result, I ended up with a lap full of baby for a perceptible percentage of the game. It was less important for me to take notes than it was for Richard to be able to run the game. Due to technical issues, we only got part of the way through the 2nd adventure. We'll finish up as much as possible this upcoming Saturday. At least Kash got to 2nd level (time to start using 2 swords).

We did manage to stop by FE on the way home (so I picked up my Manga order). I've only read 2 of them so far.

Sunday was Rosemary's cookie party and the last Forgotten Realms game of the year. First we baked cookies to send to her grandmother (who isn't feeling well). She probably won't be able to have any but at least she'll know that we were thinking of her. We had mulled cider & mulled mead to each with the cookies & chips. We started playing after the baking. It was a nasty little fight.

After the game, Kathy, Richard & Mya joined us for supper. Rosemary got lasagna, appetizers and sides from Olive Garden and we chowed down. We had a great time, good food & great company. For dessert we had tiramisu from this great new deli that opened near Rosemary.

I still didn't do my laundry.

tatting: I started Jane's tree & realized that I need some way to get the beads onto the picots for the joins. I'm not sure what to do next.

Clothes: Saturday & Sunday it was jeans and tennis shoes. Saturday it was a Geoff t-shirt but Sunday I wore a turtleneck & my holiday vest. Today it's black slacks & shoes, same belt, watch & hematite band, onyx pendant, black stone ring, black knit top embroidered with white Roman numerals & gold studs, triangular white shell earrings rimmed in black (I've never worn them before) & braided hair.

The day after All Saints Day: another typical day. I woke up late, rushed through my morning ablutions, made sure that I had my bus pass & id card as I walked out the door, and turned on my mini-iPod as I headed for the bus stop. I was running late, so I turned my music to the Wake Up playlist (mostly high energy songs) and Eternal Flame came on. I decided that wasn't upbeat enough & hit next. Redneck Woman came on & that got me hustling to the stop. Caught the bus & read on the way into work. My current tatting (until I get beyond the pause in my necklace) is too sensitive to try on the bus. I have to really watch my tension when working with metallic & nylon filaments.

The bus dropped me off very close to work. I waved to the guy in the copy center (we have the same director), actually I made a face at him until he looked up & waved back. Pausing by the paper rack, I picked up 4 of the campus papers; one for me & three for whoever else in the office wants one. Diving into the Pit Stop, I bought my usual 4 Sunbelt granola bars (one Oat N' Honey, one chocolate chip, one fudge dipped coconut & one fudge dipped chocolate chip) & my Diet Pepsi Max (it used to be whatever diet vanilla soda they had but the companies stopped producing them). The lines for the registers in the Pit Stop were long so I went to a register in the main part of the store. The cashier looked mildly bored, so I gave him something to do. I gave exact change, grabbed my receipt & off to my building.

I waved hi to Tabitha as I came in, dodging tables. Down the stairs & swipe my id card to unlock my office door. The lights were already on, so I put down my bag, noting that I had a voice mail message waiting, laid the newspapers out, grabbed the leftover paper from yesterday & headed down the hall to turn on the other lights. I called hi to the other people who'd already arrived & put the old newspapers in the recycling before grabbing a bottle of water from the tiny office refrigerator (we have a water cooler but I'm bad about remembering to drink, so I refill my soda bottles with water & put them in the fridge until I'm ready for them). I hang up my jacket & sweater in the closet & return to my desk to turn on my computer.

That's the start of my day.

Music: Morning commute today started with Redneck Woman, followed by Mony, Mony, at which time the bus came. Over the sound of the engines I could barely hear Backdoor Lover, White Wedding, Hey Good Looking, Everything Hurts, and then I could hear Candyall Beat Remix as I disembarked. Rock Around the Clock took me into my office.

books: I read vol 5 of Fruits Basket this morning. I don't know what I'm going to read next.

gaming: Last night was a meatgrinder. Our characters earned & used Hero Points like mad. It was 9 or 10 rounds of nothing but combat. Okay, very little besides combat. We ended last session with fiery demons emerging from the chest of the villainous, mystically-powered robot. Last night we fought them as we tried to close the gate. Rosemary's character, Lady Celtic, finally figured out how to do it. We have to find the chief bad guy's, Eyekiller's, fetish, where he keeps his soul & destroy it. Among other things, Totem got turned into a pigeon (but still helped by using her acrobatic bluff a couple times to redirect Eyekiller's attack onto his own demons) and Lady Celtic was transformed into a cat. Since she could still think, she continued to work on the gate shut down. Once she figured it out, she used her transform power to become a monkey. Now able to make gestures, she regained her magic and used to heal Momento Mori & wake him up.

When we left off, Totem had figured out that the best person to get the fetish was either Wraith, who's out of duplicates until he can make some more, or her heir, Jason. His patron/totem is Anubis/Coyote so he has an affinity for realms of the dead & trickery. Alas, Totem saw no way to get a message to Jason or to summon him. I may be using a hero point for that.

clothes: black jeans, socks, suede shoes & polo (Geoff); hematite band & earrings (silver hook, silver bead, square hematite? bead, silver bead, larger hematite sphere), braided silver ring & both match bangles, labradorite pendant (mostly hidden by collar) & my hair in a ponytail, using one of the clasps from Bronze Jewellers.

Only a half-dozen trick-or-treaters came by last night. At least they were all in costume. We had one purple-haired witch, a Power Ranger, the movie killer from Scream, dark Spiderman & a couple others that I was unable to identify. I wore my Colonial outfit so I wasn't too lame. And yes, we have candy left over.

sites of the day: t-shirts; cool, weird ones and be a better bat for Halloween (or any costumed event)

tv: I was tired, so I went to bed before the end of Criminal Minds. Bones (Tuesday, I think) was good, though. It was a re-run but I hadn't seen it.

They changed vacation policies where Chris works so he has a lot of vacation to burn. He's taking today & tomorrow off work. He's finally going to see a doctor. Maybe the doctor can help with his breathing, his snoring has gotten worse & sometimes it sounds like he stops breathing in the night.

pictures: I've started a Flickr account.

books: I've almost finished a new anthology, Dead of Night. I've read all but the last story. I'm starting to read The Gangs of Chicago. This is a republication of a 1940 book, but it may help with my vignette/story of Short Fix in prohibition Chicago. It's not even a 'canon' story, it's more of a what-if. In some ways, Shadowrun Seattle has a lot in common with 1930's Chicago & I thought it was interesting for someone so historically ignorant (if it's not a car & not poetry & it's pre-2040, SF doesn't know anything about it) to try & adjust. On the way to work I read Ba.Ku, a volume with a couple of manga novellas. It has two stories, both only a few chapters.

tatting: a little farther on the necklace. I finally posted the wheelbarrow, etc on my friendster blog.

gaming: Mutants & Masterminds tonight. We're almost done with Totem's (my character) storyline. I found a great present for David, I hope. It's a book of 500 comic book villains. That should give him some ideas; many of which will be lame. But some should be good. Note from last game session; do not mention to the perennially smart-mouthed that ancient Egyptians wore kilts. That led to a whole sidetrack of the O'Siris's & McRas.

clothes: undyed linen blouse, khaki slacks, quilted & printed brown/teal/red/beige/green bolero vest, brown belt, navy socks & dark brown suede loafers that need some more stretching. They are little tight on the achilles tendon. I'm wearing amber earrings & multi-colored amber bracelet, red stone ring & simple silver chain. My hair is loose because I just don't feel like dealing with it.

packing: I finished this morning (my laptop & books to read & tatting to, um, tat) but my suitcase & game crate went into the car last night. That reminds me, I need to charge my iPod. It's going to be a long trip.

Gaming: David took steps to work on one of my character's subplots. She's the hereditary champion of the Valley of Moon & Stars and there are supposed to be 2 champions, Moon Champion & Star Champion. One of them is sort of an apprentice Champion, also a spare in case something happens to previous one. The Moon Champion died early, leaving Totem as the Moon & Stars Champion so she's been looking for successor, or the priests of the Valley have. Totem found him, sort of by accident.

Last session we were guarding a tribal mask found in Northern Arizona and loaned to the museum by the Navajo Nation (before you ask, no it wasn't completely Navajo, that's part of the reason they weren't too concerned about it being on display - other than the usual security concerns of course). Turns out, Totem's father, the previous Totem, had done a little accidental time travel. Needing to return to 'the present' (aka 1960's). He got help in doing that from local, early Navajo shamans (so the mask was part Coyote & part Anubis).

One of the thieves, which we caught last night, traded information for reduced sentence. He revealed that he knew where to find the next Totem, as there were indications that the position is in some fashion hereditary (at least through a bloodline). Turns out that he's this 15-year-old kid who thought that someone else, deceased, was his father. So the kid's a little upset & next time we resume, Totem will be trying to explain things to him. Oh yeah. That'll be fun. Totem has *ahem* an interesting take on the world.

Jokes that arose out of last night's game: all the previous Totem's slept around, is that part of the position? Hmm, you don't but your father & grandfather did. Maybe it's a sex-linked trait. That's right, your dad was a Himbo (derivation from the word 'bimbo').

And there are indications that this may in fact be true. David also revealed that there is possibly another bloodline from a child sired while Dear Old Dad was 1000+ years in the past. It's also possible, that the offspring went East & journey with certain Easter Band as they sailed across the ocean (& ended up in the Valley of Moon & Stars).

tatting: I filled out my entry form & left it all with Anitra. She very kindly agreed to turn it in for me. The necklace turned out very well, if I do say so myself. I can't wait to wear it.

Books: On the way into work I read Wallflower vol 4.

letters: I finished the letters. I just need to make copies, put stamps on the envelopes & drop them into the mail. I already mailed one, I had the postage for it.

clothes: black ~slippers & slacks, black glass bead bracelet, hematite ring, 3 dragon rings (all three that I own), dragon earrings & pendant, hash mark ring, braided hair, brown/black Vorkosigan polo. Oh, & my clip watch, I found it this morning as I fixing my laptop bag.

Met Chris's mom for breakfast so it was early to rise this morning. After we stopped by to talk to his dad (& I got some rosemary clippings & a basil plant), we picked up the used books and headed out. I picked up my manga at FE (ouch, little $$) and I bought the new Scion gamebook. I also dropped off the Workbaskets for Leigh. We went to McKay's to sell some books; they took about half of them. The other half will probably go to Bookcrossing. We worked on Chris's birthday list and stopped by Target.

I bought Exalted: Lunars at McKay's, Avril Lavigne's cd The Best Damn Thing & the cd Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey.

books: read Tactics bk 2, Hibiki's Magic bk 2, The Key To the Kingdom book 1, Fantamir bk 1 & part of Devil Takes a Bride.

tatting: I worked on emptying two of my shuttles. I made another of the small scallop hearts then a single ring flower and a butterfly.

clothes: navy loafers, blue jeans, brown belt, blue & white tie-dye striped t-shirt with wolves on it, blue silicon hungersite bracelet. moonstone ring, hematite band, moonstone earring, moonstone cabochon pendant & braided 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.

/insert sarcasm/ Joyful news /end sarcasm/ my wireless card has died. The little light no longer comes on to indicate my laptop attempting to make a wireless connection. Don't know when I'll be able to get it fixed, either. Wouldn't be so bad but I'm supposed to be able to find out when the playtest tomorrow is, and where. Kind of hard to check my email with no connection, you know?

Update I got it turned on again. But it's acting kind of wonky and is having trouble keeping the connection.

Got home last night, turned off the alarm & noticed something a little odd; living room lights wouldn't come on. Don't ask me how I failed to notice a complete lack of lights for the last block. The storm (yay rain!) had apparently knocked out the power. I found one of the crank flashlights and read until Chris got home. He was late, thanks to the 43-car pile up on the highway.

Not wanting to go out looking for a restaurant 1) with power, 2) fight that traffic to find it & 3) one that wasn't socked in with everyone else with the same idea, we ordered pizza. The power came on before it arrived. Good thing; reading by flashlight was giving me a headache.

Got a surprise this morning (as I finished my book). It's about 3 days earlier than last month. What a wonderful way to greet the day.

Books: Read vol 4 & 5 of Ranma ½ and also Dead Girls Are Easy. That was pretty good; kind of chick lit paranormal. I half re-read Goblin Hero. I started to read another book but just couldn't get into it.

TV: saw Burn Notice & Monk and then off to bed early. I watched Dr Who & Torchwood this morning after an hour long Batman. I also watched 2 Boston Blackie movies on TCM.

Clothes: blue jeans, violet butterfly fairy t-shirt, butterfly earrings, flower fairy pendant, flower band, hematite band, silver band with silver 'cord' laid on it, 3 pale purple bead/elastic bracelets, 2 darker purple bead/elastic bracelets, & pale blue elastic on my ponytail. I'll probably add navy loafers when I go out.

I spent all day yesterday working on data entry stuff. Due to some changes in the spreadsheets, last month's was all screwed up for a couple of them. Trying to figure out what had gone wrong & then fix it, plus taking care of the usual preoccupied me all day.

It was cooler yesterday, about 10 degrees or so. When I left work, I honestly thought that it was going to rain any minute it was so overcast. Alas, I was wrong. Maybe we'll get something from the edges of Hurricane Humberto (which hit Texas this morning).

sight of the day: college-age girl with a dowager's hump. I don't know if it was a deformity, if so then my sympathies; if not, then for deity's sake girl straighten up!

books: I finished the last of The Viscount in Her Bedroom this morning, then read vol 4 of Ranma 1/2 on the way in to work & vol 1 of The Wallflower at lunch.

tatting: I finished the Fantasy Flower & I'm very unsatisfied. It's because I did a lousy job with the long picots. I really want to try it with beaded picots now. I think that will work much better, thanks to Jane's technique. I've decided to try & redo the bauble and I've retro-tatted to the 2nd ring. I also finished the wheel on Jane's wheelbarrow and started the body.

Palmetto Saturday Classes
I woke up at 5:30 am so I got up and went to the Early Bird Tatters session (Beaded Baubles with Bling, with Karey). As I left the room, I think I heard bats still flying around. Its late enough in the year that 6 am is full dark; no sign of the sun yet.

Unfortunately, the doors to the buildings were locked. Fortunately Karey had the supplies with her (kits, both preloaded with beads & without - proceeds to go to the ASPCA) and the pattern is simple enough that she didn't need to have it in hard copy. For at least 15 minutes, we were busy trying to tat by the exterior lights of the buildings.

Once they opened the buildings, we relocated inside. It was still comfortable, temperature wise but tatting really works best when you can see. At least, if you are doing an unfamiliar pattern that is true.

After a few false starts, some help from Carole (married to the leather crafter at the Village of Yesteryear) and lending a little advice to the tatter next to me, I finally got my bauble done. Alas, I tat a bit tighter than Karey and mine does not fit nearly as well as hers do. She has fantastic color sense though, all the kits thread & bead colors do so well. Although I did see one with bead colors like a coral snake (red on black, friend to Jack; red on yellow, kill a fellow') but Karey didn't know about that. I picked up an extra kit just because she did such a marvelous job with the colors.

I spent the rest of the time, before breakfast, working on the cards. Since they were due at 10:30 am on Saturday, I was a little worried that I wouldn't have them done in time.

I met Anitra & Stephanie in the dining hall and enjoyed a nice breakfast. I still didn't find the hot water for tea, to my disappointment. Happily, Palmettos provided pots of hot water & tea outside the vender's room.

We separated again for our first class. I took Sharren's mini-snowflake. It's a simple pattern, as I expected though, I learned something new. Sharren taught me a new lock join for the SCMR. I spent the rest of the class finishing the cards.

For my second morning class, it was off to see Mimi for the Cluny Flower Bookmark. I was late because there was a 5 minute difference between my watch & the classroom clock. I wish that I had had a chance to practice making my clunies beforehand. My lack of practice was obscenely obvious. Luckily, Mimi had included instructions and hers are just so clear and easy. I did not get very far but I really like the pattern. I want to try to start again and oh, I don't know, get it right this time.

Off to lunch, to eat quickly. I met Anitra & Stephanie again and then rushed off to load my shuttles for Jane's class. I tucked myself onto a couch facing the dealer's room and got to work. I used red thread with blue bugles (from Fire Mountain) & paler blue seed beads (from a dealer) for the toes. Anitra gave me two hematite-looking drops for the frog eyes. I actually used a poison dart frog coloring but it's soooo vivid.

Once I had that done, I finally got a look at the display, aka brag, room. There were some marvelous pieces & I took pictures.

Jane is absolutely marvelous and has a great sense of humor. She enjoys learning American; last time she came she collected the word 'lollygagging.' Her frog is quite interesting & looks harder than it is. I was one of three people to get theirs done during class & I took a picture of all three together. We chose such different colors of threads & beads.

Saturday evening gets its own entry.

clothes: black ~slippers & slacks, white polo (machine crochet chain edging), black tatted earrings & necklace, black glass bead bracelet, hematite ring, black stone band, clip watch & braided hair. I really need to shampoo but luckily it doesn't show in the braid.

A couple were looking at getting an Alaskan Klee Klai after years of malamutes & Siberian huskies. They wanted to see what one really looked like so they came to see Duncan. Rosemary, being a reasonably cautious person, asked for Chris & I to be there. The guy sounded nice on the phone, but I've heard that Ted Bundy seemed like a nice guy, too. The visit went well & the couple seemed impressed with Duncan (big shock there, *snicker*).

movie: Shrek 3. I enjoyed it. I don't think that it was quite as good as the previous two but there were one or two truly excellent moments. If you have not seen it yet, watch Snow White, one of those moments are hers.

tatting: attempted a join of a new thread but failed (pulled the wrong thread).

books: River Road by JoAnn Ross. Next I'm going to read some of the manga that I bought on Sunday.

clothes: black jeans, green/black Harrington polo, moss agate bead bracelet, bloodstone ring, fem-ring, hematite ring, onyx earrings & pendant; braided hair, and lack loafers.

Bruises: Remember that fall on Friday? I do; I have a nice collection of bruises to remind me. There's one about hand-sized on my left hip; it's big & ugly. There's another, about the size of a quarter, on the inside of my right arm & a small, only nickel-sized, one on my right thigh. That's probably from hitting myself with my umbrella.

TV: The Riches was on last night but it started about the time that I needed to be heading to bed, so I didn't watch it.

website of the day: boing boing, a directory of wonderful things

guilty food(s) of the day: milk chocolate covered mint Oreo cookies, Reese's Brownie & Hershey's Brownie (very rich, almost too much so).

books: I finished Hana Kimi #16 & Chibi Vampire #2. I started New Moon by Rebecca York & Punch #3 but just wasn't in the mood.

radio show: I finished listening to episode 15, The Huntsman's Quarry & the Dead Chinese, of the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen this morning. I'm really enjoying that show. Funny thing, according to Old Radio, that's episode 21.

clothes: white turtleneck, black poly-suede shirt, purple slacks, black trouser socks, black sequin/beaded flats, Celtic knot jewelry & ~rope band. My hair is loose because it was falling out of the braid & I forgot my hairbrush.

Happy St. David's Day (UK): Presumably, he's an Anglican saint; I can't say that I've ever heard of him. And Happy Samil Independence Day (S. Korea).

Pout: I finished the last of my Jungle chocolate (w/ pineapple) today. It's sooo good.

website/article: 10 influential women you've never heard of

web slideshow: old cars

tv: I watched the first two episodes of Dresden Files, only 3 more and I'm caught up. Until tomorrow night when the 6th one airs. We also watched Criminal Minds, which had a female serial killer.

books: I finished re-readed Sex, Lies & Online Dating and I read volume 1 of Kitchen Princess manga. I've also started A Little Bit Wicked.

Radio shows: I'm up to episode 9 of the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen & we've finally met Kang, the guy who hired Capt Phil Carney.

clothes: dark teal blouse, black jeans (& belt), knee-highs & loafers with silver Celtic knot jewerly, plus ~rope band & fem-power band. Hair up in ponytail/bun & affixed with lighter teal hairsticks.

Movie! TCM showed After the Thin Man last night, and then My Man Godfrey. It was almost painful to switch to Veronica Mars (but I do know how Godfrey ends & it was a new episode of Veronica).

I stayed up way too late last night. I saw a commercial for Dead Silence as I was about to head to bed & that did it. I couldn't go to bed until the images had had a chance to fade; too nightmare-worthy.

I burned a little too much incense last night. I don't know if that or lack of caffeine gave me a headache last night.

I got a little more writing done on the Duchess story. I should check to see how many pages I've done (5? 6?). I also listened to 2 of Carry's podcasts; gradually I'm approaching the current ones.

books: I finally finished Buso Renkin & I read the 10th volume of Musashi #9. I dipped into re-reading Lord Harry but only bits & pieces. I've also started re-reading Dragon's Kin. I'd forgotten that I'd already read it.

clothes: black jeans, loafers, & socks; white mini-cape blouse (collar goes out to my shoulders), plaited hair & dragon jewelry (pendant, earrings, & 3 rings).

Cleaning: Knowing that we had an activity-packed weekend, Friday night we started taking everything off the kitchen counters and putting it on the dining room table. We sorted some things as we removed them (old grocery receipt - recycle) and washed the things that had to be washed by hand. Saturday morning, we only had enough time to get our things together before leaving for the game. Sunday morning, we vacuumed the dryer hose (improving dryer time immensely). That left last night to put away everything that had been on the counters. Some things we just got rid of (how many travel mugs do two people need?), others were stowed in shelves (we do need _some_), and a few went back onto the counters but more organized.

The area to the left of the sink now has the knife block, tea & other drink things. The area to the right of the stove is the messiest, with appliances, the cookbooks, etc. The area between the stove & sink though only has the dirty dishes, to go into the dishwasher, & the things that are drying. All in all, it's much better. Maybe we can cook again now that we have counter space to work with.

Fingernails: Note this day. I have 9 fingernails of decent length (decent being defined as beyond the tip of my finger). That pinkie nail that broke the other day is the only one that's short.

radio shows: I've started listening to the Voyage of the Scarlet Queen again. I listened to the first episode on my way to work & the second on the walk to get a new bus pass.

- I'm up to episode 5 due to a long wait for the bus (I just missed the 5 pm one) and the commute home

gaming: Tonight's game didn't have any combat. We did some investigating; not sure that we found anything useful but we did have some funny moments. Everyone thought it was really funny when Kelis (my druid) got stuck, in the form of a small viper, under a door. Hey, I flubbed my escape artist check & small vipers only have Str 6 & that's hard to wiggle out (yeah, yeah I know, snakes are all one muscle with an itty bitty spine to hold it together, so Str 6 is less than realistic). We have 4 days until Vertum's (David) trial left. We found one of the underground bunkers, the one under the library, with signs that someone had trapped the door so it's the first promising lead that we've had.

books: Since I bought a lot of manga yesterday, I'm working my way through that. I read Faerie's Landing vol 1 & Buso Renkin, vol 4 (last night & this morning). I'm in the middle of re-reading Let It Be Love, too.

clothes: red turtleneck, black jeans, black socks & loafers, onyx pendant on silver rope chain, onyx earrings, black stone ring, Celtic knot ring, flower band & braided hair (black elastic to hold it).

Gaming: Rosemary's game: We finally finished one module but not the storyline. So we'll get experience & maybe I'll get another level.

Went by my favorite game/comic shop and it's their bi-annual sale this weekend. I spent about a 1/5 to 1/4 of their target sales today. I bought some old AnimAmericas, a couple (old) games, a couple new game books, and some manga. Actually, a lot of manga. Some of the ones that I have on order arrived & I picked a couple new titles to try them.

Website of the day: yoga stuff
Took the ayurvedic quiz & my dosha is overall vata. My body is vata 3, pitta 5, kapha 4; while my mind is vata 7, pitta 3, & kapha 2.
This is from this quiz.

books: I read Last Scene Alive and then Tail of the Moon, vol 3. That's today.

clothes: blue jeans, black socks & loafers, brown belt, grey Geoff "Cleansing of the Oytwood" tee under a grey, ribbed shirt. Flower band ring, paui shell ring & pendant, black bead & ~silver chandelier earrings.

Same ol' same ol' I'm still feeling like I'm digging out from under a hole. It's been really hard for me to feel positive for very long.

website of interest: Let the World Listen Right, documenting contemporary music in the Delta.

Info of interest: plants that clean the air

books: re-read a few, read Thrones, Dominations by Sayer & Walsh. Then read the one after that, A Presumption of Death. The first was based on an unfinished manuscript; the second had its foundation in a series of published 'letters' among the Whimsey family about their war-time activities. New manga, American this time, Pantheon High. It's the high school for Greek, Egyptian, Norse & Japanese demi-gods (children who have one divine parent). The coach is Hercules and the security is handled by Heimdall. Now I'm reading Best Served Cold by Jimmie Ruth Evans.

clothes: Saturday was orange fairy t- & blue jeans. Sunday, I dressed up a little for Rosemary's birthday supper. I wored banded collar, undyed linen blouse, blue jeans, boots, and emerald jewelry (heart pendant & square earrings). I should have worn my scarf & hat, too. It was cold & windy. But the hat wouldn't have fit over the cream colored hair sticks in my bun/ponytail

Monday, I wore blue turtleneck, which was completely concealed by the tan, brown & black turtleneck sweater, with black jeans, black suede shoes, hair up with the same sticks (after I got to work), and flower fairy pendant, feather earrings & fem-power ring.

Yesterday was warmer, so I wore a burgundy silk blouse, with fringe across the chest, black jeans, black suede shoes, quartz pendants & moonstone/celtic knotwork pendant necklace, quartz chip & feather earrings, fem-power ring & flower band. Mostly I wore my hair loose.

Today it's blue 2005 NCAA basketball champs polo, navy blue slacks, navy socks, navy loafers, & moonstone jewelry. The ring, the simple cabochon rainbow pendant& rainbow moonstone earrings. My hair's up in a ponytail with a navy elastic.