Bloody Tuesday: Not really, I had a really good technician. I got to work yesterday & almost immediately left again to go to the blood drive. All told, I was gone about an hour and a half, from out the door to back again. I saw only one person that I knew, from Printing (although now she works at the Lineberger Cancer Center). I did see a copy of Our State (May 2007) that I would like to have.

I also had a training on employee tuition assistance at midday. I saw two people that I knew there, if you don't include the person teaching the class; Smitty from Carolina Copy & Cyrette from TTK.

I took the department car to the training & was delayed getting back because I parallel parked perfectly. Alas, the stone wall meant that I wasn't able to open the door. So I had to pull out & park again, farther from the so-called curb.

I was still tired from the con so I just went home and vegged. John came by and gave me my birthday present; a book on learning Japanese, in manga format. We talked about the cyberpunk/urban fantasy romance novel that I'm writing. Since it's based on some events from our Shadowrun game I wanted to see what he remembered and if I could use his character's name. As soon as he left, I went to bed.

I felt much better this morning but I'm feeling just a touch tired still. The roses I brought back from the con are almost gone. I've already pulled both the pink ones and pulled off the petals to dry.

books: I finished Dragon of Despair Monday & re-read Holiday in Death yesterday. Today I'm reading The Smile of the Stranger by Joan Aiken.

Tatting: I continued to work on my edging.

clothes: yesterday I got a half-dozen yards outside my door & realized that I had donned black slacks instead of the navy blue. Since I was wearing navy trouser socks & loafers, plus a light blue UNC (2005 NCAA men's basketball champs) polo this was a problem. I had to dash back & change slacks. Thus, I forgot my watch. I wore the paui shell pendant & ring, blue bead & silver wire bracelet, chain mail earrings, & flower band. My hair was braided much of the day just to keep it out of the way.

Today it's the black slacks that I accidentally donned yesterday, black 'slippers', white UNC polo, narrow silver bracelet, ~rope band, quartz feather pendant on long rope chain, feather charm earrings, & hair up in a ponytail/bun affixed with the hair stick with black & white beads & a silver charm.

Tired Monday

Con Report: I missed the bus that I needed, so I got a 20-minute late start. That, plus the extra long time waiting in line to get gas & get food, made it a near run thing. I got to the con right before the game slot. I barely had enough time for a pit stop before I had to find the table.

It was a double-rounder Living Greyhawk so I played that the rest of the evening. We found Alisa, or she found us, and we caravaned to the LaQuinta.

It was up early on Saturday (I woke up before the alarm clock, no surprise there) and we created a dwarf fighter for Alisa to play in Living Kalamar. She decided to play the second round of Saturday with us, too. She really seemed to enjoy her fighter. She even got the perfect crit to finish off the big bad (not bad for a 1st level character at an ATL 3 table).

Saturday night was the BI & we played at the 12 Advanced Table. We had the central fight and it was a near thing. Reed used most of her spells for healing alone. Funny thing, she never even lost the temporary hit points from the Hero's Feast but at least two of the other characters went down to single digit hit points a couple times. Thanks to a couple of well-place disintegrate spells, the last combat was quick (maybe 3 rounds) and we finished up a little early.

Ironclaw: Sunday morning I drove to the con hotel so I would have my Ironclaw stuff. I had a full table, including at least one person who had never even heard of the game. I think everyone had fun and there was some very well-done roleplaying. Everyone chose pre-gens and two people, luckily seated next to each other, chose the siblings Argent & Sable; their interaction was great! Diane was there again and although this game was not particularly focused on her character she had some absolutely wonderful moments (the joy of a well-chosen use of flaws). It was good to see her again. She's gotten so tall.

I need to work on Unexpected Inheritance, though. It runs long. With inexperienced players, we finished the first fight at 3 hours plus. I called it rather than let it keep going. I pretty much hand-waved the other fight. They did enjoy the suspenseful ending, or indicated that they did.

Someone else was there running a Jadeclaw game & a Usagi Yojimbo game. I got a picture of him running the latter and a couple pictures of my players in the IC game. If I could just remember his name. Bill got a picture of me with his camera phone.

The Sunday afternoon LG game was an investigation mod, not the best choice for the last round of the con but we had fun. We were playing APL 4 & my 2nd level fighter, Brenna, is finally 3rd. We managed to finish on time; I had expected to run late.

I called Teresa to let her know & we sat down to eat at about 6:30. She was pulling in just after I arrived to I gave her the tins immediately. We had a nice dine & chat.

It was still just after 8 before I headed home. I had a sugar free Red Bull to drink (nasty tasting stuff) so I was fairly confident of my ability to stay awake. There were still some troubling moments but some pit stops and a stop to get gas helped.

When I got home, I didn't fully unload my car. I just pulled out the stuff I needed most & the stuff that shouldn't sit in it all day today (the heat would warp the map for example).

I saw Cherie at the con & Alisa got a chance to talk to C J Henderson. I didn't really see any of the guests but I did find a book of People's Names for 1/2 off. That was my only purchase, other than food & a con t-shirt. Good thing, too.

I was relying on the gas card that Mom gave me for the gas home. Too bad the place was having card reader problems & I couldn't use it. After that, I only have about $5 left of my con money. That's just a little close for comfort.

I played my wake-up song list from my iPod. It takes about 50 songs to get to Charlotte, by the way.

sights: From Thursday - cute quasi-kimono style blouse in a black print on white with the 'inner kimonos' in black & pink but with jeans cuffed up to capri length with 3-4" cuffs & stilleto heels.

books: I'm still reading Dragon of Despair; obviously I didn't have much reading time this weekend.

tatting: I started another one-shuttle edging from the Jones book, in size 12 ecru this time. I think I like this one & I plan on edging my c. 1810 apron. Finally. I have enough done to either more than edge the very front or to make a decent start on edging from back, over shoulder & around the neck to the other side.

clothes: Saturday I wore my flower fairy t-shirt, blue jeans, white tennis shoes, the new earrings, dragon pendant, Celtic knot ring & fem-power ring; plus I had my hair up in a ponytail/bun with silver bells on it.

Sunday I started out wearing my Ironclaw t- with blue jeans & white tennis shoes. It was raining (Yay!) so I wore a flannel shirt over it until I got inside. I kept my hair loose and wore my dragon necklace, lapis earrings, Celtic knot ring & fem-power ring, plus silver cobra bracelet. Eventually, I wore my new con t-shirt over my IC shirt. It was cool enough, until I was almost home, that I didn't find it too warm at all.

Today: navy loafers, navy/black/white print gauze skirt, burgundy knit blouse, silver wire & blue bead bracelet, fem-power ring, Celtic knot ring & other new earrings (which are heavier than I expected). I'm also wearing my dragon pendant & my hair is loose because I just don't want to deal with it.

This pair of earrings are pewter finish pierced, teardrop shaped. They are almost but not quite floral & pierced on both sides. They are not fine enough to call filigree.

Packing for the Con! I packed my RPGA stuff on Tuesday & then spent Wednesday night looking for my Living Kalamar character. I had hidden it really well; understandable since I haven't played her since 2005. Then I had to unpack my crate enough to pull out the character that I'm playing tonight, plus things like dice, the figure, etc so that I can be ready to play her when I get to the con. Of course, it's Reed, one of the larger notebooks.

Chris reminded me that we were playing Mutants & Masterminds last night so I packed my clothes yesterday morning. That just left my Ironclaw stuff to pack.

I tried to do that when I got home last night but all I managed to do was gather the books that I needed before I had to go to bed to get some sleep.

I woke up an hour early this morning to get the Ironclaw materials actually packed. I opened up a bunch of the miniatures that I'd bought for Ironclaw & put them in the case that Chris gave me for Christmas. They don't quite fill the top layer. I made certain that I have blank character sheets, pregenerated characters, and other supplies; plus the adventure, the map & the map stamps (thank you Green Dragon Studio). The only thing I forgot was the spray bottle (of water) to clean the map).

Gaming: Chris still had mandatory overtime so he wasn't at the Mutants & Masterminds game last night. I got a ride, there & back again, with Diana. We finally talked to Lady Lunar enough to get her stop attacking, for 5 days anyway. We promised to do what we could to get rid of the duplicate leaders of Far Side City (moon city) & to find the culprit(s). It was an enjoyable little series of fights first, to get to her. Even after all this time, I have trouble figuring out how Totem's regeneration works. I made a couple notes in the margin of my character sheet that may help me next session.

I didn't have my laptop, so I wrote the notes in my spiral notebook instead of typing them as we played. That will be fun. I'm behind already (by 5 sessions now). We ended the session by being captured due to being knocked out by a massive psychic blast. A round of Hero Points for everybody.

books: read Spirited Away & started to read The Dragon of Despair. I've also released one book into the wild, registered on BookCrossing. I plan to release another one today and a couple others this weekend at ConCarolinas.

clothes: Yesterday I wore the lilac Ren Fest shirt because I didn't want to bother changing the purple elastic on my braid. How sad is that? I also wore black slacks, belt (with silver buckle), 'slippers', fem power ring, 3 ages of women pendant, hematite ring, & forgot to put in earrings.

Today it's black (repaired) loafers, socks & jeans with dark green Geoff polo, moss agate bead bracelet, black stone ring, hematite ring, fem power ring, green amber ring, necklace & earrings, other green glass bead bracelet (3 strands; one small green spheres, one 2 green cubes to ever single sphere & one larger green spheres bracketed by small green ~pony beads & separated by opaque green octagonal beads) & braided hair (w/ olive elastic at the end).

Additional stuff

Stuff that I forgot to mention -
movies: I have now watched After the Thin Man & started Another Thin Man.

radio show: I managed to listen to 4 more episodes of The Scarlet Queen since Friday. I heard the Christmas episode: The 15th Lama & the Wise Guy from the East; the New Year's episode: Hattie McCormick & the Patient Stoway; The Derelict & the Wandering Buoy; & finally The Fang Rubies & the Black Siamese. I'm now up to 22 episodes.

Blog Gap: Oops, no time to blog yesterday. Thus, today's blog is extra long. I hope to download the pictures & post a couple soon.

Monday events: failed to donate platelets; the vein rolled. I plan on trying to donate whole blood on the 5th, at the big blood drive at work.

Met Dad & Kathy at Ted's Montana Grill & enjoyed a delicious bison burger lunch. They liked the front page in a box frame. I suddenly realized, after I gave it to them, that I had completely neglected to make any notes about it on the back. Since my name is not anywhere in the article, that is a concern (okay, so it might not last long enough for my niece's kids to wonder who those people are & why we have it, but it might).

Chris went back home to prep supper & finish his laundry while the other three of us went to the Butterfly House at the Museum. Kathy & I hunted butterflies, with our cameras, while Dad sat & spotted them from his stool. Kathy & Dad have a pair of neat little folding chair/stools that are great emergency seating; plus make decent walking aids. We roamed the tropical & exotic butterfly exhibit before visiting the 'local' butterfly exhibit. Some of the butterflies are more likely to be found in Florida than here but we do see Monarchs fairly frequently. I finally got to see an orange-banded sulphur, too.

Both houses were very warm although the local one just had netting so there was the occasional breeze. Being very warm, we stopped at the cafe there for a cold drink. I had a Yoo-hoo, deciding that I didn't need a soda.

I managed to get us lost getting back home so I didn't get back until almost 5 pm. That did mean that I was able to go with Chris to Rosemary's instead of driving myself. He grilled delicious buffalo burgers which we all ate enthusiastically. Even Duncan had his own, non-spiced & without a bun, burger. We watched episodes of Kim Possible that I had missed before Chris & I headed home.

Tuesday: I did personnel stuff most of the day. At lunch, I bought The Sharing Knife since I didn't get it for my birthday. I used the credit I have at the local bookstore to get it.

When I got home I put some clothes in the dryer & packed my crate (D&D books & RPGA characters, etc) for the con.

books: I read The Sharing Knife & started Darkfever. I stayed up too late reading the latter but didn't bring it to work with me. It's an interesting story but the author keeps interrupting the narrative with 'if only I had known's' & it's starting to wear on me.

tatting: I finished the bookmark. I made a mistake at the far end but I think I adjusted well. The two ends do not match but then again, one end has a tassel on it. I think the bookmark is from a Kersti pattern, simple 5ds 3p rings and 10 ds chains. The neat parts are the ends.

Since I still have a lot of thread on the shuttle, I decided to try one of the one shuttle edgings from The Complete Book of Tatting.

clothes: yesterday it was dark green Geoff polo, black jeans, texture striped knee-highs & loafers (newly repaired), dark hairstick with 4 tiny rhinestones holding a ponytail/bun, onyx earrings, labradorite pendant, Celtic knot ring, bloodstone ring, hematite ring & fem-power ring plus the new green glass beads bracelet. Oh & the silver ladybug watch.

Today it's white polo, black slacks, black knee-highs, & 'slippers, two black (trimmed in brown leather) hairsticks holding my hair up in a ponytail/bun, moss agate bread bracelet, black belt w/ silver buckle, fem-power ring, flower band, hematite ring, same watch, 3 ages of woman pendant, & new ~pewter/silver earrings. The earrings were $3 at Big Lots & look like 4 teardrops of coiled filigree around a central teardrop holding another 'filigree' teardrop & all that in a circle with a scallop border around it.

time with Mom: we went to Big Lots! and did not find an answering machine but did find some electronics very cheap. I picked up a usb hub, new earphones for my iPod plus speakers & other accessories for it.

We finally found an answering machine at Radio Shack. Mom got one for herself & one for me. I set up hers before I left. She loved her belated Christmas present: 4 Last of the Summer Wine DVDs & her Mother's Day present: a DVD player. I set up the tv that I gave her a couple years ago and the DVD player and put the plugs, on a strip, where she can reach them. We also labeled the plugs & the remotes. Too bad her tv reception sucks so badly.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted and my legs ached tremendously. I'm not completely certain why. I did spend a lot of time on my feet, between shopping & trying on clothes.

platelet donation: Now I'm off to drink something with calcium & have a bit to eat before going to the Red Cross to donate.

books: re-read The Devil in Winter. Read a little in The Complete Book of Tatting.

tv: watched the movie 12:01

tatting: continued a bookmark, a very simple one, in size 80 ecru. Did not get much done, too busy shopping, etc.

clothes: yesterday it was Palmetto Tat Days shirt, blue jeans & loafers, braided hair, & Celtic knot jewelry.

Birthday fun! I bought glue to attach bits of tatting to the front page copies for my relatives (& for those pins that I made) & some glue to fix my shoe. I also indulged & bought a couple green glass bead bracelets that were on sale for a dollar. Chris & I watched some of the early episodes of Voltron & I took a nap.

After that, we went to get Rosemary & went to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It had more plot than I expected. It was pretty good & the animation absolutely rocked! I hope they go ahead & make a sequel.

We then stopped by FE to pick up comics, manga & mini's. After giving Duncan a chance to visit his favorite tree, we were off to Red Lobster to meet for my birthday supper. David R, Diana, Colt, Richard & Kathy were there. Apparently, Red Lobster was a good choice as almost everyone had difficulty deciding what to eat. I had a Bahama Mama (mmm, 2 types of rum & fruit juice) and crab leg. For appetizers, we had fried calamari, clamstrips & crab/lobster etc stuffed cheesy mushrooms. No, I don't have a hangover because I also drank a full glass of water.

loot list: gift cert to B&N from David, gift cert to Amazon from Richard & Kathy, the movie 12:01 plus The Complete Book of Tatting from Rosemary & pets, and the Thin Man collection from Chris. Isn't that great!

This list will be continued after I see my parents plus from Diana & Colt (who forgot it last night).

tatting: I started making a simple bookmark of size 80 ecru. I made some good progress.

books: I read A Mold for Murder, Ouran High School Host Club vols 3-5, & Kitchen Princess vol 2.

clothes: green Harrington Steading polo, blue jeans, brown belt, emerald earring & necklace set, moss agate bead bracelet, black & green glass bead bracelet (just bought), and brown loafers.

birthday: It's my natal anniversary today so my co-workers bought me a card, my favorite soda (Pepsi Jazz strawberries & cream), and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Since there is no way for me to eat 1.5 dozen (dozen glazed & 1/2 dozen chocolate glazed) doughnuts, I am sharing them with the entire office.

Tired: I'm still tired but I didn't take a nap yesterday. I went to bed at my usual time & I'm still tired this morning.

Writing: I worked on my cyberpunk/urban fantasy romance novel last night. The parts that I have written do have some good scenes & dialog but much of it is disjointed. I sent it to a friend & he gave me some good advice. I spent some time working on what he recommended, and bookmarking the document. That way I can skip straight to a particular portion or to what I'm working on instead of paginating.

TV: I watched an old episode of Kung Fu (the silver mine one) and then VH1 Rock Honors. the cover bands did excellent jobs but I missed most of it since I went to bed on time.

tatting: I tried to do another Libin bracelet but screwed it up. I managed to get the ring undone the first time but the second time the thread started fraying so I gave up & cut the thread.

saying of the day: Fall 7 times, stand up 8. - Japanese proverb

website of the day: time capsule. It has the top songs, headlines, etc although some years in the 1870's are kind of spotty.

clothes: black 'slippers', black knit swirl skirt (which I just noticed has no hem but it light enough that the air caused by going down stairs is enough to make it float), magenta & black check shirt (short sleeves, breast pocket, buttons up), black belt (on the last hole), lilac animal rescue site silicon bracelet, dragon band ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, chain mail earrings & same pendant. My hair is braided for convenience.

Sleepy: I was so tired when I got home last night that I collected the mail (weeding out what could go straight into recycling), plugged in my iPod to recharge & took a nap. I managed to sleep for about an hour.

I finally reached Alissa about the hotel room for ConCarolinas. She'll be staying with Chris, Rosemary & I. Yes, she lives in the same town but far enough away that commuting is a real pain. Our hotel is less than a mile from the con hotel.

blog changes: did anyone notice? I put up a picture of myself in the blog header. Of course, it's a picture of me when I was about 3 years old, but still.

tanning: It's not visible in the picture but I was a redhead when I was younger. My hair eventually lightened to blond with a few strands of red. I'm no longer a redhead but I still have a redhead's ultra pale skin. I have tanned twice in my life, both times to a dark shade of cream (insert wry tone). The first time was because I had a summer job in a very cold building; I would sit outside in the sun & would finally be warm by the time I was done with lunch. Even with spf 15, the sun eventually darkened me.

The second time was in 2000 when I went to Disneyworld. I spent almost a week, almost all day in the sun. Even with spf 25+, I darkened.

That's a lot of trouble & frankly, I find sunning myself to be inordinately boring. However, the skin on my legs is so pale as to be blinding. I took a shortcut, I bought tanning solution. I spread it where I don't normally get sun: upper arms, legs, etc. I'm still not really tan, but I'm no longer blindingly white.

tv: there was nothing on that we wanted to watch (whee, 2 hours of American Idol, watch me barf now). So we watched Grosse Pointe Blank on dvd again.

website of the day: artcyclopedia, fine arts on the net.

books: I'm going through the Mutants & Masterminds book to create a shopping list of skills & feats for my character.

clothes: I forgot to put my clothes in the dryer last night, so I wearing the same slacks that I did yesterday. I just febrezed them. I'm also wearing the same shoes, but with black, textured ankle socks. The black polo (2002 Ren Festival) gives it an entirely different look. Celtic knot ring, earrings (the longer ones), & star/moon/tree pendant, fem-power ring, hematite ring & silver bracelet (same as Tuesday) is the entire set of adornments (plus clip watch). My hair is down & loose because I washed it this morning & it needs to dry.

Living Greyhawk: I ended up running Bitter Fruit last night. I'm not sure if it's because three of the characters are pretty well-tweaked, but they romped over it. I accidentally ran one of the combats up one APL & they romped over it. Maybe I'm just not a good gamemaster at high APL's. We were done about 10:30 and I was home by about 11 pm.

This was the first time that I had ever run a Round Zero for a convention (Concarolina). Thanks to me, there will be 5 more judges for Bitter Fruit at the con.

wisdom of the day: The beginning of sin is sweet; its end is bitter. -- Japanese Proverb

books: Kind of, sort of dipped into A Lady of His Own. I was too busy reading & prepping the adventure to read anything else.

website of the day: book swap

Nature: Sighted one new bird recently. It has a crest like a cardinal but it's a pale color, blue or perhaps tan (you may scoff but at that distance it was hard to tell which) with a black band over the eyes from beak to back of head. I think it might have been a Bohemian Waxwing Bombycilla garrulus.

clothes: black 'slippers', nude knee-highs, black slacks & belt, burgundy scoop neck knit blouse, silver bracelet (different one), ~rope band, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, feather-carved quartz point pendant on small silver chain, feather charm & quartz chip earrings & hair up in a ponytail/bun held by a black hairstick with 3 tiny rhinestones.

Chris's game: This is the third night of the same fight. Two weeks ago we finished off the undead, just in time for the evangelist to convert my character & Diana's character (Diana is notorious for not being able to make Will saves - if the target number is 15 & her character has a +16 to the die roll, she will roll a 1; which is automatic failure). Last night we fought the evangelist, his general buddy & their 'justicar,' who was really a doppelganger monk. Luckily our boom (aka Rosemary's warmage) was back. To cover Rosemary's absence her character, who's a variety of fae, was a pile of leaves for the middle of the combat. That does mean that she skipped chancing being converted, too, which was a big help. It would have been very ugly if she had been converted as well.

My character did go negative but thanks, mostly, to the mass lesser vigor & the healthful rest spell, she recovered enough to contribute to the fight.

website: manga quiz

books: I read Case of the Roasted Onion. It's another mystery, an interesting one, too. Otherwise, I'm reading the mod that I'm running. Gotta be prepared. It's a round zero for ConCarolinas.

clothes: black loafers, socks, jeans & belt; brown/black polo w/ silver Vorkosigan, no jewelry (got moving late & had no time), & hair in a ponytail/bun with the same hairstick: black with a brownish bead.

Weekend: Did some shopping. Found frames for my front page debut. Now I need to make copies for my relatives. I spent too much time & money in Michaels but besides the frames, I found some knick knack presents (round card decks, etc) plus some tins & beads for Tat Days prizes.

After supper on Saturday, we went to Doug's for gaming. We finished up about 11 or so & went home. The next day we got started around 11 but finished up about 3 pm. We made some good choices and managed to skip a large battle. That saved mondo time.

Since we finished so early, I took nap & then we (Chris, Rosemary & I) watched Mr & Mrs Smith on dvd. It was not as funny as I expected but it was still good & had some very good lines.

websites: funny posters

books: Re-read Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod. I also read Vol 3 of Inu Yasha.

clothes: Sunday, blue jeans, T-shirt (Brenin is the Land) & the rest the same as Saturday. Today it's black jeans/slacks & belt, 'ballet slippers', white knit shirt, hematite ring, fem-power ring, Celtic knot ring, ~rope band, silver bracelet & flower fairy pendant. Hair is up in a ponytail/bun.

Teeth: They still hurt. But there's an added complication. I have a mouth ulcer on the inside of the cheek on that side, up near the gums. Like I needed more pain.

knitting: I made & remade that scrunchy. I think I finally have it like I want it. It still doesn't ring like I wanted but it looks pretty good. It's silver elastic cord, bells & beads.










TV: Watched episode of The Wild Wild West on DVD, a re-run of Bones & finally, Jack the Giant Killer.

Downloaded a couple demo games onto the laptop & played them. When I have some spare money I might buy them. They were fun.

books: I finished Married the Viscount. Plus I'm reading Bitter Fruit, an LG mod.

clothes: Song of Three Summonings (Geoff) t-shirt, blue jeans, white tennis shoes, Celtic knot jewelry, ponytail (w/ the new scrunchy).

Dentist: yeah, my teeth hurt this morning. It was enough to rouse me a couple times and to wake me up early. On the bright side: I have enough time to renew my fingernail varnish (a couple places flaked & notched yesterday) and to pack my game bag for this weekend.

Virtual Villagers: at lunch yesterday I found the last beetle. That raises my villages max population to 105. Only one butterfly left to find.

Gaming: Saturday evening & Sunday, we continue with Red Hand of Doom. It's part 3.

Mutants & Masterminds: Chris is still working mandatory overtime (though he also had to pick up something he ordered 2 months ago) and Rosemary was sick so they didn't show. Instead Totem (me), Troll (Diana) & Momento Mori as Halogen (Nate) fought Myrmidon Mark III's and Myrmidon Mark IV's in the 'employ' of Lady Lunar. Totem didn't use her new 'channeling asp' paralyze bite/touch power. Since there wasn't enough time (& they were fighting robots) I figured that she doesn't really know. She did stunt a power for the first time. She used it to heal Troll who, for the first time ever, was taking serious damage. It was a pretty good game last night.

Work: 1 more interview today & then we make a decision.

clothes: black loafers, socks, slacks, belt (w/ gold tone buckle), & polo (Geoff). Jewelry is the emerald set (earrings & necklace), hematite ring, bloodstone ring & ladybug clip watch. Hair is braided & fastened with a green elastic.

Dentist: Well, the visit went fairly well. I hurt like the dickens but I survived. However, the next visit will be an afternoon appointment so I can go home and rest. Going to work after the appointment was not my brightest idea ever. I did get work done, I just don't know how well.

I am getting by on only half a pain pill this morning; so that's a good thing. I also haven't tried to eat anything harder than a soft oatmeal cookie. Yesterday's (3pm) lunch was a smoothie. Luckily, I bought some powder for nutrition shakes recently & I had some of that, too. Supper last night was soup. I really wasn't up to cooking, after all. Chris ate leftovers.

Chris found some great organic chocolate milk. It's from Promised Land Dairy. Absolutely yum.

website: list & short descriptions of lots of Regency romance novels

Work stuff: today I interview new assistants. By preference, I'd like someone who will be here longer but we'll see who we have & who looks the best in person. So far, all three applicants look good on paper.

Books: Read Your Wicked Ways at the dentist, continued on my commute in & home, & finished once I got home. I sort of re-read part of Married to the Viscount before going to sleep. I read a little bit more this morning before learning just how late I was running.

tatting: I did this in the dentist chair. It's very fine silk thread. I have loads of it, so even though it's so fine, I didn't mind wasting some by using it to calm my nerves. I got a tangled mess & I learned not to use the fine silk thread in the Justrite shuttle. The thread kept breaking until I switched to the Boye. (thanks to Jen for the pictures of the shuttles that you have posted).


These flowers/tangled knot were actually done while the dentist was working. It was more important to work on them than to actually get them done.




best pieces (notice that tail rings didn't fully close on the butterfly)



knitting: when I got home last night I didn't have the mental facility to tat or even start a new book. So I pulled out my spool knitter and some silver elastic. I threaded some beads & silver bells on the elastic & made what I though was going to be a bracelet. It works better as a scrunchy. Unfortunately, I did not put the bells close enough together for them to work. At some point soon, I will take it apart & do it again, right this time.

clothes: Today it's the 'ballet' shoes, black slacks & white crinkle gauze shirt trimmed with crochet style lace (band insert at the waist, neck placket, cuffs & insert at elbows), Celtic knot earrings, ring & pendant, flower band & hematite ring. My hair is up in a ponytail/knot affixed with a hairstick decorated with 2 black beads & a dangling silver sphere charm.

Another website: free table top anthro rpg - I want to look at this later

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.

Mailed stuff: For some reason, the red cross sent me a yo-yo type thing. I can't explain it. But I have scheduled another platelet donation on the 28th.

I have fingernails still. I'm thinking about painting them, if I can find one that hasn't been tested on animals.

tatting: only made a silk butterfly from the thread left on the shuttle after the flower. May try to make another one.

book: Finished re-reading Seeress of Kell.

tv: Nothing on until after 11, so we watched Wild, Wild West on DVD. We saw an episode that guest-starred Richard Pryor & the on after it had Sammy Davis, Jr. Who knew?

clothes: white polo (crochet edging), black skirt (crinkle-gauze, knee length, my other new skirt, the one that claims to be size 10), black 'ballet' shoes, onyx pendant & earrings, braided silver ring & flower band ring & hematite ring.



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website of the day: free plants!

Mom got sick. No Mother's Day joy for us. Went to eat with boyfriend's family. It was nice, just not the same.

Books: went by & traded in some books & picked up some more on Store Credit. Been reading the Exalted game book & re-read A Rogue's Proposal.

clothes: this weekend, blue jeans & t-shirts, navy loafers, & Celtic knot jewelry. Today: black slacks, white polo (UNC), black belt, black 'ballet' shoes, & Celtic knot jewelry.

Keys update: Rosemary found them in her yard Monday. That helped just loads.

Silk blouse update: tie-bleach didn't work.

books: Read Pleasure for Pleasure over lunch & on the way home. I've had it for awhile & just hadn't read it before. Started reading a little of Seeress of Kell again.

fingernail: that broken fingernail ripped the rest of the way this morning. At least it wasn't painful. Now I have 9 decently long fingernails & one very short one.

Today I have errands to run. The roto-rooter guy says that he has to call to get an appointment to get the guy who checks for leaks to come out.

I need to go drop off plastic bags, used books & stuff for the thrift shop. Plus, I need to find at least three tank tops to go under my new blouses. I'd like to stop by the bead store & the thread shop. I want to go see Anitra, too.

website of the day: is your iPod broken?

Another foggy morning, but it burned off more quickly than yesterday. Thus, I was almost blinded by the rising sun as I looked to see if my commuter bus was on its way. Again, it's going to be at least a half-dozen degrees above 30-year average today.

books: Re-read Slightly Shady.

clothes: new black knit skirt (gored so it fits well over the hips & is very floaty/flirty around the knee-length hem), black gauze shirt with silver embroidery, black 'ballet' shoes, Celtic knot jewelry (different earrings), braided silver ring, hematite ring, ladybug watch on a heavy silver chain & my hair alternating between loose & up in a ponytail.

Fingernails: I've taken pictures of my nails to show what 'long' fingernails look like for me. They're not really long but for me, they are.









This is the poor, broken nail (after some healing) or at least the best picture that I could get.









website of the day: The little brown dress

Starting to make plans for ConCarolinas. I've submitted the game that I'm running (Ironclaw) and asked for most of Friday off.

clothes: black 'ballet' shoes, socks (later removed), black slacks & belt, mauve & black check blouse, Celtic knot earrings, ring & pendant, hash mark ring, hematite ring, & ponytail (held by an elastic hidden by bronze/silver hair ornament).

Games & stuff: I had Virtual Villagers running while I was burning my CDs into my iTunes. I now have all the tech bought up, and a population of 57. There are still 3 rare items to find, 1 butterfly & 2 beetles. I haven't experimented with all the possible recipes yet and there are still at least 4 puzzles to solve, although one is 65% done (the covered floor).

Music: I only have one cd left to burn onto my harddrive & I listened to at least 3 last night, to rate them. I need to burn some of the songs that I've downloaded onto a cd in case something happens to my hard drive.

I wrapped Mom's belated Christmas present, using a wrapsack. Unfortunately, I don't have one big enough for her Mother's Day present. I think I'll use a map for that one.

clothes: same black loafers, black socks, black slacks, same black belt (& watch), green Harrington Steading polo, moss agate bead bracelet, bloodstone ring, green amber ring, hematite ring, emerald necklace & earrings.

Just added: Etsy favorites

silk blouse: Since yesterday's blouse had, for lack of a better term, bleach spots, I decided to make use of them. I tried a tie-bleach job on it. I tied knots in the sleeves & the blouse and dipped it in bleach/water solution. It certainly bled a lot. Now I'm waiting for it to dry & see what happened.

sign of the times: The other day, as I was waiting in line at the Super Target, I noted what they had in the impulse rack. I remember when they had candy, magazines & little dollar books in the impulse rack & that was it. Now you can see: a 32MB flash drive, 257 MB SD card, an iTunes card, phone cards, purell (hand cleaner), and floor care in addition to the candy, gum & magazines.

website of the day: Okay, this information is a year old but it should still outrage people.

Gaming: I hate D&D evangelists. The save DC is based on their perform check & they only need one round to do it. As a result, Kelis (my character) & Deriot (Diana's character) have converted to the worship of the Devourer of Souls. That leaves a badly wounded Gaius & Thorvald plus the real Vertum, who's chained up, to fight us & the 3 bad guys. We finished fighting the undead last night, finally. I couldn't make a save to well, save my character (rolled a 5 & then a 3). But Gaius can use one of Kelis's pearls of power to recall his Resurgence spell & give her another chance. He bluffed that he was healing her but it didn't do much (just the healthful rest boosted lesser vigor that he cast earlier).

Health: When I tried to give blood the other day my blood pressure was 107/74 and my temprature was 97.5F. I should check as to whether those are in the healthy ranges.

Books: I'm going through the Magic Item Compendium to see what stuff looks good for various characters (like a couple whips for Nadia & some anti-undead stuff for Edana & Reed).

I won some books from the Bulls Head yesterday. They had 57 bags of ARCs and the 1st 57 people to respond to the email got a small bag of them; about 5-8 books.

We got news of Kelly last night. She & little Emmit are fine. I sent the bear I bought for Emmit home with Joe since he's more likely to see them before the child is a toddler than I am.

clothes: black socks, loafers, jeans & belt, gold tone belt buckle; my silver ladybug clip watch, white tuxedo shirt (lots of vertical pin tucks), quasi-patchwork vest in black, tan & cream, onyx pendant & earrings, hematite ring, hash mark ring & circle ring. My hair is braided today as it's another windy day.

Keys! I've misplaced my keys. I had them when we left for gaming yesterday but I haven't seen them since. That makes getting home this evening very interesting.

Birthday supper: It was great. There were enough of us (9) that we rarely had the same conversation at the same time but the food was good & so was the company. Everyone liked their presents but I snuck Joe's to him & he didn't see it at first.

books: I finished Goblin Quest. Alas, Bull's Head does not have Goblin Hero.

clothes: fuschi pink silk shirt (that has bleached spots, so I need to bleach/tie dye it), black jeans, black belt, black socks & loafers, same jewelry as yesterday & braided hair. It's too windy to let my hair be loose in any way, today. And it's gotten cold again.

Gaming: Today is Rosemary's Forgotten Realms game. Since Sofia is gone, it's just the 5 of us. We're finally leaving Tantris.

Afterwards we're taking Richard, Kathy & Joe out for their birthdays. It's also Richard & Kathy's anniversary. We'll be joined by Kathy, Diana & Colt and going to Macaroni Grill.

Books & Games: We stopped by FE and I picked up the latest Shojo Beat & two manga.

Movie: We went to see Next last night at North Hills. I can see why it got bad reviews; it's such a geek movie. I mean, I loved it, but for really geeky reasons. After the movie, Chris, Rosemary & I talked about it. We've decided that Mr. Cage must have gotten to the point where he's really well-off & since no one is offering him parts that interest him, he's making movies that he wants. And he's using stories & comic books that he likes. Why else would he do Ghost Rider? I mean, that's not exactly one of the big comic book names, now is it.

Books: I started reading Goblin Quest today. It's pretty good.

clothes: red Wilson Athletic t-shirt, blue jeans, brown belt, white tennis shoes, moss agate bead bracelet, silver hash mark ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, star/moon/tree pendant, Celtic knot earrings, and my hair pulled to one side in a ponytail.

Dead Tennis Shoes: Well, my old pair of black tennies are dead. I long ago wore through a spot on the heels but it wasn't until today that it started hurting. Say good-bye to that pair. I need to mail them to Nike for recycling.

Chris took his car into get the oil changed. Then we went to use Chris's 10 year gift certs. We went to Barnes & Noble, where Chris bought more books than I did for once; FYE, where I saw a digital camera on sale for $10; Target, where I spent too much on cloths; & Best Buy, where I bought Mom's present for Mother's Day.

I bought only two books while Chris updated his Dresden Files collection, ditto Star Wars. I also made a list of books to get after my birthday. Chris found almost a half-dozen cd's at FYE & vol 2 & 3 of Voltron (he had found Vol 1 at Best Buy).

One of Target's line of clothes has gone overboard on their flattery sizing. I had to go down to size 10 before it would fit. Since another line, with an elastic waist, fit just fine in large, you can see why I blame flattery sizing.

books: I re-read Owlknight, mostly. Next I want to start one of the books I bought today.

tatting: I've made the first petal or two of the burgundy silk flower & I've started on the Libin bracelet. It's orange beads with cream thread; which makes the beads look amber-colored instead. Too bad I've run out of thread on that shuttle, so I'll have to do a join.

Gaming: Nate wasn't at the game either, last night. So only the women were playing. We started with a girls' night out. Totem, my character, is not old enough to drink in the US. But she's from an ancient Egyptian culture, in which beer (I keep typo'ing that as 'bear'; I did that last night while typing the notes), is practically a sacrament. She won't get a fake id, that's illegal but Lady Celtic was tired of drinking canoe beer. Instead, they went back to Totem's home where they had Egyptian beer for her & Lady Celtic had picked up some Killians for herself & Troll.

They ended up getting a call to go help Dr. Atom at The Nucleus. That's the top 5 floors of the Goodman building where he is the house AI, from the digitized personality of the late Dr. Atom. His grandkids, the Atoms, were busy in another dimension so the ladies of Freedom League had to go find out who was attacking & stop them. It was Lady Lunar, convinced that there was an Earth plot to replace the leaders of Farside City (located oddly enough..on the far side of the moon). She was attacking The Nucleus because Dr. Atom's data banks would have the information about it. They (the female Freedom Leaguers) thought that there might be a connection to the duplication situation that they fought in South America but Lady Lunar said that it wasn't, the ones in Farside were a different kind of duplicates. [and yes, when she said Farside City, we all got flashes of a city populated by cows with funky glasses].

We took out most of her guards, the 6 in power armor, the 12 in body armor with guns & 1 of the 6 crater apes. At that point, she decided to get the heck out of dodge. Totem got a couple of hero points. One was for the terrain, she's decidedly non-tech (drawback - unfamiliarity with modern tech) in a high tech building. The other was for failing the save versus Lady Lunar's confusion blast. I used one to try & make the save a couple rounds later. It might have worked if I had rolled higher than a 2! That still left me 5 points shy of making the save.

However, I finally saved up enough character points to move Totem's jump ability out of her magic pool and into its own separate power (so I won't have to choose between movement & healing). I'm substituting paralyze attack, channeling Cobra, so I won't have to play numbers games & re-arrange my powers. I brought the book to work & read up on the stuff that I need on the way to work. At lunch I'll work on a new character sheet, complete with notes on what the powers do.

David C stopped by David R's. He had to get something uploaded to someone else for work but the work network connection was down. And he had a problem at home, too, so he came to use David R's internet connection. It took him an hour or two and a few phone calls but finally everything was working and he was done. He was profoundly relieved.

music: on the way home, we plugged my iPod into Diana's car stereo & listened to my music on the way home. I had it on the sing-along playlist. We started with 'Bedlam,' she'd never heard it, and then it was shuffle. Out of the other 9 songs, 4 were by The Donnas. Out of 143 songs on that list, there are about a half-dozen by the Donnas, but 4 of them played in the 1st 10 songs. One note about that song, it's provided the title to Mercedes Lackey's Bedlam's Bard series.

books: I finished Marriage by Design last night. For some reason, I ended up staying up to finish it. That means that I've had about 6 hours of sleep, again. And then about 5 I was dreaming that the alarm clock wasn't waking me up so I woke enough to figure out why..it wasn't on yet!

tatting: I'm still working on that silk Lyn Morton flower. Since I somehow lost a couple picots from the center ring, it's going to be a 5-petal flower instead of 6. I also remembered what I want to do with the perle cotton, I'm making a Nina Libin bracelet. It won't be as firm as hers are because I'm not using metallic thread. Hopefully, that won't be a problem. We (by that I mean I) will find out, I guess.

clothes: With the cold front that came in yesterday & left me chilled, I've dressed a bit warmer today; in gray suede boots, black jeans, purple long-sleeved shirt (iridescent cotton, purple & blue-ish), black belt, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, Celtic knot star, moon & tree pendant, & chainmail earrings.

Virtual Villagers: the Lost Children - It's a computer game. It's in real time so if I'm going to be away from my laptop for awhile I pause the game. I forgot to do that once & 2/3 of my villagers starved. I had to start over, I just didn't have enough people to keep going (read no fertile females). I've gotten to all of the stage 2 tech benchmarks & to stage 3 (last one) of Medicine. I think I'll skip right to stage 3 of Farming. That's the only way to reliably & consistently provide food for my villagers.

I've also unlocked puzzles 1-5, 12 & 16. That's not quite half of them. One of them will be unlocked when I hit stage 3 Farming tech. I've gotten the population up to 22 (no deaths so far but a couple of the villagers are bordering on elderly now). I've collected a sample of each of the 12 rocks, 11 of the butterflies, 11 of the seashells & 9 of the beetles. For puzzle 3 I had to look at a help site. I just could not seem to figure out what the problem was.

TV: we watched Bones, Criminal Minds & CSI: NY last night. Bones, episode: Spaceman in a Crater, had aliens (sort of) which CSI is supposed to have tonight (Leapin' Lizards). Criminal Minds (Open Season) had arrows (which CSI had last week- Ending Happy) and CSI: NY (Cold Reveal) had a crossover with Cold Case. One of the detectives came to NY from Philadelphia following up on a case.

books: I started Paid Companion on the way to work & I finished it as I got home. Partially, I was able to do that because it's a re-read & I skipped certain portions. I also sort of re-read Mad Jack. That has been by bedtime book the past couple nights. Now I'm re-reading Marriage By Design. That reminds me, I need to check to see if that author, Lynn Michaels, has written any other books with those characters.

Gaming: tonight it's Mutants & Masterminds again. Chris won't be there, he's working late again. Diana will be giving me a ride, so that's helpful.

Gift-giving: Found a cool site; Kaboodle.com. It's all about lists. I have composed a wishlist (for upcoming gift occasions), a list of tatting books & a list of gaming sites.

clothes: It's supposed to be cooler today, so I broke out the black poly blouse I was going to wear over the dress earlier this week. It's paired with black jeans, socks & loafers, so I'm very monochromatic. Even my jewelry is, mostly, black & silver; silver ladybug clip watch, hematite ring, onyx earrings, labradorite pendant & bloodstone ring (that's the exception & it's still dark).

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.

Mom: I called Mom last night. I'll be going to see her on Mother's Day. I need to wrap her Christmas present (that finally arrived after Christmas) & go get her Mother's Day present. I think I will go do that tonight.

AOL: I still haven't been able to contact anyone in AOL about that bill that I received. Since I don't have AOL service, I find it quite worrying. Their customer support line is an absolute joke. There is no way to talk to a real live person. It's all voice mail. Frankly, that alone would keep me from ever considering, much less recommending AOL. In fact, I would strongly recommend against it for that reason alone.

books: I finished reading Glossed & Found on the way home. I finished re-reading Truly, Madly Viking last night before going to sleep.

tatting: I need some really good light to figure out what's going on with that silk. Burgundy is pretty but it's hard to see. I went ahead & wound some cream perle into a ball, from a hank, for my next project. Of course, now I've forgotten what that is. *sigh*

I've started a tatting only blog on Friendster. For that I will post progress reports & pictures of projects. I'm aiming for a weekly update schedule. We'll have to see how well that works.

clothes: It's going to be hot today so I was going to wear the dress that I bought last fall. It's sleeveless so I had a short-sleeved shirt to wear over it. However, it doesn't look very good on me. One of those 'looks better on the hanger'...or on someone else. So I changed to my ankle-length forest green skirt, black rib-knit sweater (short-sleeved), black knee-highs, black sequined flats, bloodstone ring, hematite ring, moss agate bead bracelet, onyx pendant, & chainmail ~chandelier earrings. My hair is loose because I didn't have enough time to do anythimg else to it.

Sight of the day: Cross Pattee tattoo (the one on the far left) between ankle & Achilles tendon on a young man's foot/ankle.

site of the day: worth 100 is a gallery of photo shop artists.

Contest of the day: Science Idol; enter a cartoon or vote for one.

fingernail update: Wearing the band aid salvaged the nail long enough that I could clip it this weekend without doing further injury to myself. That fingernail is now absurdly short. It's especially noticeable since the other nails are long enough to project beyond my fingertips.

books: Started Glossed and Found. Maybe I'll finish it at lunch.

tatting: Finished up the multi-color Lyn Morton flower that I started yesterday. Finished off the thread from the shuttle by doing two butterflies & about 4 flowers. Pulled out a spool of burgundy silk. I've done the central ring but I've run into trouble on the 1st set of chains. I need to play with the picots on the ring, they're playing games.

clothes: black loafers, socks & jeans with white polo (chain edging on collar & cuffs), Celtic knot earrings, small pendant & ring, hematite ring, & spoon ring with patronymic initial etched on it. It's from plateware so it turns my finger green. That's why I don't wear it often.

It's been said that I have a beak of a nose.

Watch me turn into a
Eagle at YouWild.org

And others say that I'm a little batty

Watch me turn into a
Bat at YouWild.org

Seriously, it's cool stuff.

books: I finished The Dreamers series. I've read most of Eddings books so I was not surprised to see some familiar themes (& scenes). However, what I was not expecting was the repetition within the books. I didn't actually count but some scenes were repeated 3, 4, maybe 5 times as they were recounted from different points of view. When that happens once or twice, it's okay. It happened again & again, very rarely was the scene summarized. When the scene took place in an earlier book, I understood (then it's a recap), but in the same novel? Helloooo, I just read this scene 30 pages ago. I have not forgotten it. And while there are good points to the ending, it some ways it was a cop out. Overall, I enjoyed the series but I don't think that it's one that I will read again & again.

Today I read Blush with Death by India Ink. I was relieved to discover that this is a pen name & not something foisted on her by cruel parents. It's a pretty good mystery series. I have yet to try any of the recipes, though. I have the next book in the series, too. I'll probably read it tomorrow.

Harmony Hall: I had fun at Heritage Day. The weather was gorgeous & there was a steady crowd. The couple with the oxen were giving hay rides, plus there was a 'Civil War cavalry officer' there as well. Judy was at the other end of the porch making corn shuck dolls. Her husband kept us company, too. The chicken folks didn't come but someone did bring a goat. The candle maker was there & some women cooked hominy over a fire. It was pretty good. Lots of people took Squirrel's picture. She was quite cute in her outfit. Liz & I both had our picture taken a few times, too.

Almost as usual, I got lost on the way down there Friday night. I will not be taking that particular route again. I have adjusted my directions that I have saved. Maybe I'll be able to drive down in 2 hours next year. I would have been home in 2 hours this year but something disagreed me & I got stuck at a rest stop for an hour. Ick. I got home & collapsed into bed.

Music: Chris told me about a song called Bomshel Stomp. I think I want a copy. I'm interested enough that I'm going to look at other songs by this duo.

Tatting: I started some hen & chicks, thinking to trim my white shawl/fichu. However, I got tired of it & made another of Lyn Morton's 3d flowers, in white this time. I sold one that I had made in multi-color. I also sold some butterflies, three made per requested color. Since Judy was making corn shuck dolls, personalized with ribbons, trim, etc upon request; some of the kids decided that they wanted butterflies on their dolls. I only charged $.50 for the butterflies. I wish that I had had more to sell but maybe next year.

clothes: Yesterday it was my purple calico c.1810 dress & today it's t-shirt ('Cleansing of the Oytwood', grey with green letters), jeans, green socks & brown loafers. I'm wearing pretty much the same jewelry both days; Celtic knot ring, earrings, & small pendant, plus hematite ring & flower band. Today my hair is loose, yesterday I kept it under my tatted snood.

Memory, or lack thereof: I managed to not get much of anything done last night. I put the load of whites into the dryer. I found out where I had stopped on entering Reed's AR access in the Nyrond database, and entered a couple more AR's worth of access.

I did not: eat supper; iron my clothes for tomorrow; locate my c. 1780 outfit; find where I'd packed my fingerless gloves; look for my copy of Flitting Fingers. Guess what I'll be working on tonight. That's all before I leave for the coast.

wish list: My birthday is coming up. So I've started working on my wish list on Kaboodle.

bookshop: Bull's Head is moving back into their old quarters today. When I stopped by, before work, to pick up the next Dreamers book I got a look at it. It's looking good.

books: I am reading Games of Command & The Elder Gods: Bk 1 of the Dreamers. I waited to pick up the other 3 books in that series until I knew how I liked the first one.

clothes: blue 2005 NCAA men's basketball champs polo, navy slacks, brown belt, brown trouser socks, brown suede loafers, silver ladybug clip watch, blue Hungersite silicon bracelet, hematite ring, lapis flower ring, quartz pendants & moonstone pendant necklace, chainmail & silver rose earrings (Roundcon purchase), & ponytail.

Fingernail: I didn't mention that the first thing I did when I arrived at work yesterday was rip a fingernail. I don't mean just a 'oh dear, I'll have to file that', I mean, 'ack, that's a spot of blood where the nail has tried to part from the nail bed'. It's a little sore but I immediately put (& kept) a band aid on it to keep it from getting worse. It won't actually heal, but maybe it will heal enough that I can clip the nail someday.

blood donation: I failed. My hemocrit was a full 3% too low. Then I suddenly realized why. I'm a post-puberty, pre-menopausal female & it happens once a month. For me, it started yesterday. Very bad timing.

Retail therapy: I indulged in some retail therapy. I needed the light bulbs, yes. The gel pens? Sort of. The children's cardboard books? At a dollar, it's nice to have some small children's presents on hand. The doll? It's perfect for Kelly's baby (fingers crossed, due any day now). The shoes? The ballet slipper type go with gauze skirts better than loafers do (I'm wearing them today). The document holder? It was $1 & even if it doesn't hold the steel sqwire spell templates better than the other holder does, maybe it will hold those 'campaign documention' stuff I need for LG.

Books: I finally read Framed in Lace (I've had it for months). In this one, the important clue was bobbin lace. They also mentioned tatting, knitted lace & crocheted lace. Very nice. I also read vol 1 of Shugo Charra!.

Tatting: Saturday I'll be at Harmony Hall doing a Historical Demo. I need to find my copy of Flitting Fingers. I also need to check my clothes. I know where my c. 1810 outfit is but it desperately needs ironing (& maybe some febreze due to a laundry room accident). I need to know where my 1780ish outfit is, too. I should wear that; it's just so warm.

clothes: turquoise skirt (tiered, cotton), lighter turquoise net/crochet sweater over poly shell, black ballet slip-ons, moonstone ring, hematite ring, rainbow moonstone pendant but forgot the earrings. Hair is loose because I just didn't want to bother.

I have a new toy to add to my template. Spam poison. Yay!

Dentist: Started the day with a dentist appointment. This is the 2nd reschedule but this time I was able to make it. I got my car fixed (April 6th - water pump - ick). We did all the x-rays, exams & stuff to plan my treatment. Not so fun but I didn't throw up and it only took an hour.

Podcasts: I listened to a bunch more of Carry's podcasts last night (they certainly beat anything that was on tv). I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm caught up.

books: Buso Renkin vol 5, Deadly Advice by Roberta Isleib & What's a Ghoul to Do? by Victoria Laurie. There are more but those are recent & I remember them.

Tatting: I have finished the tatting for the brooches, now I need to do the fixtures part. Almost there. I also made a flower pin for my assistant. Today is her last day working for me.

clothes: black slacks, lilac polo (Carolina Ren Festival embroidered in white), black & crystal bead bracelet, silver dome ring, hematite ring, purple Czech crystal earrings, small black labradorite pendant & my hair up in a ponytail/bun. That's affixed with a butterfly hair stick w/ pink crystals in the wings. (Note: spell the ruddy stone right if you want to find it on a search).

Being unable to get any of my posts to show has really made me reluctant to bother. But I saw this news article & had to post it.

1944 Miss America stops an intruder

books: Mamotte Lollipop vol 1, Chibi Vampire vols 2 & 3, Tactics vol 1, Millennium Snow vol 1, and a host of others (I haven't been keeping track).

today's outfit: denim skirt, crochet blouse (over white knit tank), brown suede loafers, lapis flower ring, hematite ring (finally replaced it at Roundcon), blue & brassy earring, quartz pendant & moonstone in Celtic knots pendant necklace. I have my hair parted on the side & a braid to help keep that way (no elastic of right side so it keeps coming unbraided).

Gaming Ahoy! We did two zero rounds this weekend to prep for Roundcon & we have one more to go. Then it's do laundry & pack for the con. We travel down on Thursday (taking Mike with us).

whoops, gotta go.

blog issues: In case it's not obvious (& it probably won't be for 2 reasons: no one else reads this & you can't see something's that not there), I'm having posting problems. I haven't been able to get a post to go up since Friday. Monday's post was a little long but Tuesday's was really short. Neither one will post. I'll keep trying.

movies: I watched Only Angels Have Wings on TCM last night. There was nothing else that really drew me & it's a Cary Grant movie after all.

books: I'm still reading All Hallows' Evil. I'm about half-way through it.

clothes: Another warm day but they said it was supposed to cool off & get breezy this afternoon, so I packed a light shirt/jacket (black). White polo with crochet chain edging collar & cuffs (quasi-lace like), black slacks, black belt with gold tone buckle (it's larger than the other one), black socks & loafers. For jewelry it's my silver harp pendant (Nadia's), Celtic knot earrings, black stone ring, & dragon band. I'm still trying to re-train my hair for a side part so I did the side braid again today.

Gaming: We played Freak of Nature last night, all 5 of us (plus Doug as GM). I played Zavin, my druid. We ended late enough that I didn't do more than sign the AR & do the quick math (experience, cost of living, etc). I did remember to re-set my alarm clock, just as I was falling asleep.

A lot of earthworms this morning were out & about. Does that mean that we're going to get some rain? We really need it, if only to wash some of the pollen away. It's certainly supposed to get warm today.

I manage to get something in my eye this morning. I almost think that I've washed it out & then it seems like I feel it again.

clothes: plaid texture white cotton blouse, black slacks & belt, black trouser socks, black sequin/bead flats, white shell earrings (almost nacre-like), flower fairy pendant, flower band ring, ~rope band ring & side braid in my hair (opposite side part). I'm still tired & didn't feel like putting a lot of thought into what I'm wearing today.