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

I hate having a cold

Revolutionary thought, huh? It started hitting me on Saturday, during the tatting meeting. I rested the rest of the day, all day Sunday and I've been off work the past two days. Resting.

We made it to supper on Wednesday. It was excellent food and we were the last to leave. The snow was starting to stick to grass and roadsides as we left. I got most of the way home before it started sticking to the roads. It was a wet, heavy snow. Really pretty.

And really heavy. Our transformer blew a bit after 6 am. We made it through most of the day and the snow started to thaw to slush.

We checked when we should expect our power back and the estimate was 11:45 pm, Friday. That's the outside prediction of course, but even 12 hours earlier was just too late. We went to R's house, because she had gotten power back mid-afternoon. The next morning work was scheduled to open at 1 pm. I checked the bus schedules. It would take me about two hours, one way, to get there. I used vacation leave instead. 

We got home late morning on Saturday. I grabbed a couple things, ate lunch and went to the meeting. I missed my turn, distracted by a car going 10 miles under the speed limit. I ran into....traffic. They were cleaning up an accident and I was about an hour late to the  meeting. Luckily, it's  a very relaxed, come and go, meeting. Leigh was talking about her website, the tatting & other craft magazine bibliography. She convinced me to do some work on the wikipedia entry for tatting. It really needs updating.

I finished one baby bootie. And started the next one.

Since then, I've spent a lot of time coughing, sneezing, and trying to nap. Yesterday, I emailed my boss instead of calling because my throat felt like I'd been gargling glass. Ouch. And I was barely intelligible my voice was so rough.

I do not have the flu. I checked my symptoms. And I am improving, but kind of slowly. Yesterday was the worst. I've made 3 jugs of tea; I just heat a cup at a time to drink it. Saves me both time and energy over making my tea one cup at a time.

I'm still playing Pathfinder Online. It's really sad I can't be away from the keyboard unless I'm playing with someone else. Because of all the PVP. It's still early days and stuff is still being patched and installed on a weekly basis. They installed looting before they installed the defenses. I was relying on the AI NPC guards to protect me in town. Until my character got killed while crafting. Yeah, that left a sour taste in my mouth. As part of the kickstarter, I have a few months of free play. So far, I have not had a play experience that encourages me to buy more time.

I still have my 'practice' MMO, Lord of the Rings Online. I only started playing to practice for Pathfinder Online. I really prefer the PvE experience, which I knew I would. My experience with PvP has emphasized this.

site of the day: spoof of Bay's Batman script *shudder*

Work: the carpet people finished today. If they get my furniture put back together then I'll be moving back into my office today. Too bad I'm not dressed for it.

Clothes: I've worn new shoes for the past two days. Belgarath in the Eddings Belgarion saga wore mismatched shoes. When someone got around to asking why, he said that it was because the toes on the right shoe of that pair pinched while the heel of the other pair rubbed badly. I finally understand that. The right shoe of the pair that I wore on Monday rubbed a blister into my right heel. The left shoe of the pair that I'm wearing today rubbed along the toe joint on my left. I'm going to wear my old shoes tomorrow and I'm going to buy some moleskin. I also need to find some Scotchguard for my new white eyelet flats.

Family: despite a growly stomach and a bad t-storm I went to see Mom on Saturday. We worked on her house, plus worked on emptying a closet. She's thinning her wardrobe, based on the 'I will never wear out all that if I live to be 130 so I might as well get rid of some of it.'

When I came home Sunday night, I went to take a shower. She smokes & I wanted to get the smell out of my hair. Just as I was about to step into it...the power went out. I couldn't lay my hands on matches to light the candles that I keep in the bathroom; so I trotted downstairs to get a flashlight. I took my shower by flash & candle light. Chris was at David's running a Witch Hunter game (that apparently ate the characters & spit them out - it was harsh). I played games on my laptop until the battery got too low, sat around bored for at least 2 minutes. Despite the risks, I decided to go to B&N.

I wrote a note for Chris and then got the bright idea to call David. Chris had already left so I was going to leave a 2nd note for Chris, when the power came back on. *sigh*

Gaming: Mutants & Masterminds on Thursday. I am looking forward to it. I need to beat up something.

/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.

Breaker woes: It happened again last night. Of course, I think that it happened after I got home. So I went out, reset it & then put a lock on the flap.

Lunch every day this week has been leftovers. Monday was my leftover sesame beef from Saturday. Tuesday was Chris's leftover General Tso's chicken. Today is half mine & Chris's leftovers from Red Lobster on Sunday. Tomorrow will probably be the other half.

I have a meeting all morning & then I have to leave early for my dentist appointment. I think I'm just getting a filling put in, but I have some ~waste thread to tat, just in case.

Mail goodies: I got the circle skirt that I bought from an Etsy crafter. It's really pretty, I just ned to sew it up. I also got the things that I ordered from hungersite & associated sites. I now have some pins. I'm thinking of wearing the pink ribbon one.

books: I read Aishiteruze Baby vol 2 & Law of Ueki vol 3. I'm still reading an October 2006 issue of Real Simple magazine.

tv: I watched The Wild Wild West until Veronica Mars came on. Then I watched the last half of a Perry Mason tv movie until bedtime.

clothes: black 'slippers' (new pair to alternate w/ old pair), black jeans, white textured check shirt (3/4 sleeves, band collar), black belt (w/ gold-tone buckle), silver flower fairy pendant on small chain, flat silver chain bracelet, flower band, hematite ring, fem-power ring, ~filigree earrings, ladybug watch, & grey/black hairstick w/ 4 tiny rhinestones holding the ponytail/bun.

Dentist: Almost forgot that I have an appointment this morning. I'm stressing over it, plus I have a headache.

Painted my fingernails last night. They are now Reaction frost, a frosty pink color. I bought it when I tried to grow long fingernails last year or so. It didn't work then. But now that they are a little long, I decided to see if nail varnish helps or not. You can see where my left index fingernail is shorter than the rest.









Another SPF30+ day. Hey, it's summer, what a shock.

Once again, the breaker for my room tripped. I had to go reset it about bedtime. That's no fun.

books: Read Bloodbound on the way home. Read it all the way through before bedtime. Finished making an Exalted character.

TV: watched X-Play & Veronica Mars. I didn't recognize any of the games covered in X-Play. The focus of Veronica Mars was someone who was a child soldier in Uganda. After the show, they had a brief PSA about invisible children organization.

Two deaths yesterday: Martin Luther King, Jr's oldest Yolanda King & Rev Jerry Falwell.

clothes: grey polo; black jeans, socks, loafers & belt; hematite ring; flower band; moss agate bracelet; chainmail earrings; paui shell pendant necklace, paui shell ring and my hair in a ponytail.

Power out! When it happened 3 times in one week, I suspected human intervention. I thought maybe some kid playing around & not knowing what the result was. Chris suspected new lawn care people doing something accidentally.

Now it happened overnight. I woke up & my room has no power. The rest of the house is fine. I need go reset the breaker. Weirdly enough, the reset is out-fricking-side. Do you have any idea what it's like to get do ablutions by candlelight? At least there's hot water.

books: I finished Games of Command. It's a pretty good book. It took a little while to get started but then it's like a roller coaster that way. There's a slow build up and then suddenly you're off on a wild ride.

Music: Two songs that I've recently heard & really like. One is Bomshel Stomp & the other is Before He Cheats. I kind of like You Know I'm No Good, too.

clothes: Luckily I laid out clothes last night. Black loafers, trouser socks, & slacks; with a dark green Geoff polo, moss agate bracelet, green amber ring, hematite ring, green amber necklace & earrings. I haven't decided what to do about my hair this morning.

Time to leave for work.

Yesterday was very Monday. 1) A lot, to all, of Woodcroft lost power sometime early in the morning. So no alarm clock, get dressed by candlelight (yeah, it is black & not navy), dare not open the fridge 'just in case' so can't pack a lunch, and get to work only a little late, with no coherent idea what kind of weather to expect for the day.
2) Jammed the 'supply' drawer where I keep the stamps & the mail key. 3) Broke my necklace while trying to open it. 4) Overate at lunch (all you can eat, Top of Lenoir). 5) endured a nasty headache all afternoon - bordering on migraine as I drove home
On the bright side: drank @6 glasses of water, walked for 15 minutes, finished catching up on Queen of Wands and there was power when I got home. We cancelled gaming, just in case. Chris made hamburgers (outdoor grill or indoor stove depending in conditions).

The weekend was great. Saturday, the weather was beautiful and I played 2 RPGA Living Greyhawk games on Saturday, walked Rosemary's dogs & had a great lunch & supper w/ Chris & Rosemary & other gamers. Lunch was with Lyman G., Joe J, & Mike M. Supper we had with people whose names I don't know really well. Lyman is a ova-lacto vegetarian (ethical-based) on the Atkins diet. He eats lots of vegetables he says. Greek food for lunch & Japanese food for supper. Yum. Earl was very nice to me, partially because I gave up my seat in the second slot to let a complete newcomer play. I admit, it was nice of me, but someone at some point has done something similar for me. Just because I don't remember it, doesn't mean that I shouldn't repay that debt to someone else.

Sunday I ran Diane Y, Steve F., Chris, Rosemary & Doug W in the LG game "When Orcs Attack", or as Steve called it 'When Orcs Get Sodomized." The big bad foes in the game were Diane's character's favored enemy; Keelin's a ranger. So she wiped them from the board before they even managed to close to melee range. Everyone had fun & did some great roleplaying.

Yesterday's outfit: black slacks, black half-boots, black bateau neck summer sweater, Celtic knot pendant on long chain (now broken, literally split 2 links), knot ring & knot earrings, plus bronze rose hair clip (the larger one) holding my hair in a knot. I also wore my black leather UNC baseball cap & the tan trenchcoat that mom gave me.

Today's outift: plum slacks, black loafers, white shawl collar blouse (collar drapes over my shoulders), tri-moon rainbow moonstone pendant, rainbow moonstone earrings, moonstone ring, 'M' spoon ring, silver flower band, Fem power ring, & the same hair clip holding my hair in a fall. Lately I've been wearing the pocket watch that I ordered from publishers clearing house. It's a watch that my skin will not eat the chrome backing.