Yeah. Morning. It's a good thing; overall. It's just really hard to appreciate with a distinct lack of caffeine in the bloodstream sometimes.

No Valley neighbor today, but Jill was there. She's teaching a class today & was feeling nervy. She had a leak, too. Called the same guy to fix it, so she got good work. She still has to clean up the mess in her crawl space. She had boxes down there. They did not fare well. Neither did the insulation under her townhouse. That will be expensive.

books: Started re-reading Dawn in Eclipse Bay last night. Brought it for my commute read today. I've been reading the 4th edition Shadowrun book recently. At least, the character creation info.

tatting: Almost through one column of the Workbaskets, at least enough to list them. I have at least 2 that Anitra doesn't.

Writing: Since I can't actually remember any of the runs we did when we played Shadowrun, I'm going to create one & run Short Fix 4.0 through one w/ some of the archetype characters. John suggested that I start the story with a run, to introduce what kind of person SF is. Even if I don't use it for the prologue, I need at least one run, with some details, in the story.

tv: More Knight's Tale, a repeat episode of Bones, more Ninja Warrior (that ballet dancer is a kick, he always wears a thong) and then a small dose of professional football before bed.

Chris cooked some of the chicken he bought at BJ's last night. The other half of the package went into the freezer. Tonight it will be spaghetti as I finish cleaning up enough room for Mike to sleep.

clothes: ~slippers & slacks, white woven texture check, all black jewelry - stone ring, hematite band, glass bead bracelet, tatted necklace & earrings & hairstick (with a diamond of 4 rhinestones) & hair in a ponytail/bun.

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.

Leak update: The guy dropped off the invoice for the work yesterday. He had to call to find out where we were; he was confused by the multiple streets with the same name (actually it's the same street but it crosses twice).

He'll come by on Saturday to actually do the work. The temperature will be down into the high 90's (that's sad that 90'sF is considered cool).

Packing: I got my RPGA crate packed last night, and most of my Ironclaw bag. The rest, I packed this morning. Chris will take my crate, my clothes, my minis & my map for me (he has the day off & plans to get the oil changed in his car before going to the convention). I am taking with me, my Ironclaw bag, the RPGA bag with supplies for the one round this afternoon, and my laptop.

Water leak update: Chris talked to another plumber about getting our leak fixed. The roto-rooter man gave an estimate when he was here, but it was 4-7 times what we expected, based on the previous leak. So we got a second opinion. To completely replace the pipe section (dig it up, replace, pack with gravel & rebar, etc), this guy's estimate was about 1/3 of what the roto-rooter guy estimated just to fix the leak. Guess which one we're having do the work.

After the plumber, we went & I got the Ironclaw flyers from the nearest Kinko's. The flyers are very nice. Chris & I got supper to go & went home to eat. Less time & less clean-up; both were very important factors.

tv: We we watched a little of Ninja Warrior before the plumber came & then later, while packing, etc, The Bourne Identity but I went to bed about the time Burn Notice came on. I just couldn't stay awake without fretting myself silly.

Then of course, I woke at 5 am & had to talk myself into sleeping another half-hour. That did give me plenty of time to finish packing, load my car & get to work in time to pick up a couple things at the Student Store (new markers, new 'manga' sketchpad, art markers, etc).

clothes: black ~slippers, black jeans, Vorkosigan polo (I have my IC t-shirt in the car to change into before running my game tonight), clip watch, moss agate bead bracelet, ~rope band, fem/dancer ring, Celtic knot ring, flower band, hematite band, knotted earrings, star/tree/moon knotwork pendant & hair up in a ponytail/bun affixed with brown/black wood hairstick.

Interesting evening last night. I arrived home just after six, the bus was running a little late. There was a package that I had been expecting on the doorstep & a post-it note on the door. The post-it said that water was pouring out of my basement. So I ran downstairs & there's not a sign of water in the basement. I check the back door out of the basement & there is water pouring/jetting/streaming from the deck. So I race back upstairs to look at the deck. Nothing. It's dry as a bone. I check for where the water is coming from & couldn't tell. My first thought was that there was something wrong with one of the bathrooms, the dishwasher or the washing machine. Nope, none of those. I finally remembered where the water shut off was located. It is too tall for me to get enough leverage to turn it off. I went into the living room & fumed a bit. Then I recalled the stool in the kitchen & it was perfect. Chris called at 7pm, he was just getting ready to leave work. I broke the news to him.

When he came home he finally discovered the source of the water. With the recent frigid temperatures, and the fact that the thermal tape apparently busted, the pipe for the outside faucet at the deck split. He called a plumber or two until he found one that would come out, even at 9pm on a freezing cold (29F & falling) night. The split came into the house but there does not appear to be any internal damage. The plumber only had the supplies to cap the pipe, not replace it. That's okay with us, this way we don't have to worry about it happening again later. Next year we have to remember to drip that faucet to prevent this from happening again.

I watched part of Barbarians on History channel last night. It was better than I thought it was. I do wonder how much the actor portraying Attila really resembled him. If he does, then Attila was pretty good looking. From what they said Attila was politically as well as tactically savvy.

The package? Oh, it's a 1920's magazine with tatting & embroidery patterns in it. It's very nice & it was only $10, with shipping from an auction on Ebay.

Now, I have planning & writing to do, so ta for now.