Scared a squirrel & myself. I was passing a garbage can on my way into work. The squirrel scavenging inside erupted out & startled me no end.

More training: this time in career banding. They've changed how certain events/processes take place & this was the information about it.

computer game: I went back to Diner Dash. I never actually finished that game. I finished Diner Dash 2 but I got stuck on game 4 of the last level. I finally made it past it last night, with expert. I finished the next level but didn't get expert until I did it again at lunch.

tv: a little M*A*S*H* and more The Wild Wild West. It was the spookiest episode ever! I had to watch a few minutes of something else just to ensure that I'd sleep without nightmares. I also listened to the After the Thin Man radio show that I fell asleep during on Tuesday.

music: odd, maybe good musician (accidentally came across her in YouTube): Trish Thuy Trang.

books: Started A Date with the Other Side, so far it's pretty entertaining.

writing: I actually got some done last night. I started with the scene explaining where Short Fix got the money to expand her shop & hire Spindle. The scene isn't done yet but I'm working on it.

clothes: black ~slippers & slacks, grey polo, silver clip watch, paui shell ring, Fem ring, hematite ring, paui shell pendant on long chain, brass/bronze & pewter earrings & ponytail pulled through above elastic.

38.46154%

website of the day: Offworld Designs, t-shirts, etc.

Better day: no bus breakdown, weather is cooler & a puppy decided I was nice. One of my neighbors is fostering a couple of beagle puppies. As I stopped to pet & say hi to her dogs (on leash) one of the puppies decided to come sniff me. He decided that I was friendly & got damp dirt (dew-laden grass + dirt) all over my shoes & hands. Very cute.

Chris's dad is in the hospital but apparently it's more precautionary than anything else. He has a bad case of laryngitis or something. I'm not real clear on the details.

tv: Watched most of AFI's 10th anniversary 100 best films.

books: started to read a little of Careful What You Wish For. I still haven't finished Child but I needed a break from it. I'm also reading a serial story: Tales of Mu.

tatting: I only got part of one repeat done yesterday. I did almost another repeat today before the thread ran out. I joined a new thread & even got an additional ring done. I looked at the tentative class schedule for Palmetto Tat Days & I've made my 1st & 2nd choice (& sometimes 3rd).

clothes: ~slippers, black jeans, green/black Harrington Steading polo, green/black glass bead bracelet, flower fairy pendant, bloodstone ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring (as usual), ~filigree earrings & 3-prong wood hair stick with a white mother of pearl star holding my ponytail/bun.

Thunderstorms make me sleepy - which might explain why I fell asleep on the couch at about 9 pm. I completely missed Veronica Mars. C'est la vie.

It also made the training yesterday afternoon very difficult. It was late afternoon, it was not exciting, it was a lot of material crammed into a short amount of time and I got very, very sleepy towards the end. It's hard to make leave recording (vacation, sick, etc) exciting, but they tried to make it as interesting as possible.

They've shut off the air in the building for 2 hours this morning. We're halfway through. So far, it's not too bad. Fortunately, it's a comparatively cool day (only in the 70'sF this morning & only supposed to hit the 80'sF).

The bus broke down this morning so I was 15 minutes late to work. I sat & waited at the stop for it to arrive, just calling my boss to let him know.

The thief has struck again. Last week, I was missing my pound or so of jelly beans, today it's the microwave lunch that I brought in last week. I ended up not needing it last Friday, but I was planning on it for lunch today. I am an unhappy camper. Meanwhile, the cd/tape/radio is still there.

tv: Nothing I was in the mood for was on last night, so I pulled out my Thin Man dvd again. It didn't really have much in the way of extras so after I watched it again, I put in the After the Thin Man dvd. It has 'How to be a detective' extra, a cartoon 'early bird & the worm' and then the radio show of After the Thin Man.

tatting: not much done, it's too hot. When I say that it's too hot to tat, that means that my hands sweat & grime up the thread. I need to sign up for Palmetto's. Alas, I need to wait until I get paid so I can register.

books: I didn't see any other stories that Reader's Digest volume that I wanted to read, so I read Wicked Fantasy. Last night (before I fell asleep), I re-read Going Postal. This morning I started Child of a Rainless Year. I've owned it for over 6 months but haven't read it yet.

clothes: yesterday I wore a burgundy knit shirt, black slacks, ~slippers, clip watch, labradorite pendant, onyx earrings, black stone ring, fem ring & two black hair sticks holding up a ponytail/bun. Today it's same style shoes, black slacks, deep green Geoff polo, dragon pendant, dragon band, dragon ring, fem ring (too tight to remove today), & 3-prong hair stick in a ponytail/bun.

Went to Ted's Montana Grill for supper last night. I had the buffalo meat loaf, with enough for supper tomorrow night. I was really happy that I did not have any unfortunate reaction to it. I was really tired though, I'm not entirely certain why.

Over supper, Chris, Rosemary & I worked on the character that I tentatively plan to play in LG's Greyhawk Ruins. I'm planning a wood elf 2-weapon fighting ranger. With the re-training options available in LG now it's a lot easier. She can take Improved 2-weapon fighting and then when she gets it from being a ranger, she can retrain that feat to be Natural Bond.

tatting: another 5 repeats done.

books: I read Hot Money by Dick Francis from the Reader's Digest volume.

clothes: forgot to add to yesterday's clothes: blue silicon childhealthsite.com bracelet & navy loafers. I'm wearing the same loafers today with navy slacks, white polo, silver & blue bead bracelet, braided silver ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, blue & bronze earrings, & hair up in a ponytail/bun with a white chopstick with a blue dragon.

Pain: Ow my knee hurts. My head still hurts. The cold pack helped my knee, some. The painkillers (1 aleve & 2 ibuprofen) did very little.

Gaming: We were missing our artillery (archer with blow through, etc) so we just did some 'shopping' and some travelling. We spent a lot of time talking & socializing. So that was loads of fun.

website of the day: Steve's website

books: started reading another volume of Reader's Digest. This one is vol 2 1988.

Red Hand of Doom: We only narrowly saved Hadrumentum yesterday (Diana's character). We thought he died, in fact but then Chris remembered the his character Relgar had a +2 on the save & he survived. So he was able to Delay Death Hadrumentum. A good thing; Hadrumentum's Sacred Healing feat saved my character at least 3 times. Tell you the truth, I'm kinda tired of it though. Only 1 more session to go.

Pain: My right knee hurts like nobody's business this morning. Plus I have a headache & my left neck/shoulder cramped last night & that hurts. I put a cold pack on my knee & that's helping.

books: I finished Atlantis Rising; it was better than I expected. How rare is that?

tatting: I got a little more done yesterday, not much.

clothes: blue jeans, ~taupe Busch Gardens wold t-shirt, braided navy belt, flint crescent moon pendant on cream silk cord, moss agate bead bracelet, bloodstone ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, lapis & brown bead chandelier-ish earrings & braided hair.

Red Hand of Doooooom! We're off to slightly slow start (spell selection, etc).

Washed my hair this morning, so I have a strip of wet t-shirt down my back. Very chilly.

Made blueberry muffins this morning. With chai tea. Yum.

books: Finished Southern Discomfort & started Atlantis Rising by Alyssa Day.

clothes: navy loafers, blue jeans, maroon stone points of NC, bloodstone ring, ~rope ring, fem-power ring, hematite ring, flower fairy pendant, chain mail earrings & braided hair.

website of the day: cooling vests for working dogs in Iraq

You see why I made the website the start of today's post and why it's so large & attention getting. Most of the websites I mention are interesting or humorous. This one above & this one are important for other reasons.

I finally reached Mom last night (still don't have the answering machine set up - problems getting outlet space). Since I'll be playing Red Hand of Doom tomorrow instead of going to see her, she'll be coming to see me on the 23rd on her way back from visiting Aunt Shirley.

Gaming: Chris was finally back at the Mutants & Masterminds game last night. It was good timing. He was there to rescue the rest of us. We had been captured by The Cosmic Brain (who had possessed the leadership of Far Side City and was mentally controlling the city population), who had implanted a post-hypnotic suggestion blocking our powers. So Wraith, and Lady Lunar, are the only individuals with their powers. Cosmic Brain wants to use the rest of the Freedom League as breeding stock and make duplicates. Our characters are not happy about that, Lady Celtic & Totem (Rosemary's & my character) are fairly certain that she (the Cosmic Brain) cannot really duplicate them; she doesn't have the magic ability. She might be able to duplicate the effects, but they'll be fakes.

That reminds me, I need to find my character for tomorrow, Amber for Rosemary's game on Sunday & clear up around our table for Chris's game on Monday.

tatting: I now have enough trim to reach the front of the apron. I need just a little more than double what I have now.

books: I finished Deep Waters last night. I stayed up a little too late to do so. I made it out to McKay's (the used bookstore) yesterday before gaming. They did not buy any of the books that I took in & I used my store credit from my last visit to buy 4 books. Two of the books that I took in will now be Book Crossing books. This morning I started reading Southern Discomfort.

clothes: dark brown loafers, tan socks, tan slacks (last chance - if they give me any problems they go to Goodwill), brown belt (on its last legs), blue polo (2005 NCAA men's basketball champs), turquoise ring (4 pieces of green-blue set flush in silver), flower band ring, hematite ring, turquoise & coral circles earrings (circle of turquoise chips set in silver with two ovals of coral chips at the bottom), silver ~tube necklace with silver & turquoise pendant, & French braided hair with brown elastic at the end & a navy hair clip at the top of the braid.

Dentist: It was certainly more expensive than I expected. Apparently, there was an unpaid charge from my last visit (surprise to me). It doubled the amount that I expected to pay. Looks like I had better be careful with my gas. I can't afford to put more into it until next payday.

It was raining cats & dogs when I headed for my car to go to the dentist. Even with the umbrella I was getting wet. Maybe a white cotton shirt was not the best wardrobe choice considering the weather.

I watched a little tv, a couple of Philo Vance movies. I really think that William Powell did the best job but they didn't show his movie (or it was earlier in the day & I missed it). It's also possible that I was distracted by the subsiding numbing agents in my mouth and residual pain.

I took a nap after I got home. I slept for about two hours. Woke up, ate supper while watching a bit of the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie & then went back to bed.

gaming: tonight it's Mutants & Masterminds but no ride from Diane. I'm schlepping out there on my own.

books: I finished First Eagle. I started re-reading Deep Waters. I'm also still reading that same issue of Real Simple.

tatting: I got quite a bit done waiting for the meeting yesterday, & on the bus. I ran out of thread again & did another thread join. While in the dentist chair I did some on the blue silk. Made a mess as usual.

clothes: black 'slippers' (the larger pair), black jeans & belt, silky poly shirt, labradorite pendant, onyx earrings, black stone ring, dragon band, hematite band, same hairstick & same hairstyle. I damaged yesterday's bracelet & have no idea how to fix it.

Forgot the pin. Spent 3 hours in a meeting about record management (more interesting than it sounds - they had historical records to show off).

New shoes are a 1/2 size too small. I hope that they stretch enough to be comfortable.

books: I'm reading The First Eagle by Hillerman.

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.

website of the day: Dice pouch. Alas, they are not taking any orders right now. *pout*

BTW: I have now lost 17.5#

Bookcrossing:I may finally have had a book picked up. At least, I released one at lunch & when I checked back after work, it was gone. It hasn't been journalled yet but I have my fingers crossed.

books: Tail of the Moon vol 5, Her Majesty's Dog vol 5, Ouran High School Host Club vol 7 & 8. I also read a little of Thrift Score. I got that latter as a freebie from the Bulls Head. I am definitely giving to my mother as soon as I finish it.

tatting: I finally made got that new thread added, plus one more repeat. The edging is now more than a foot long.

tv: I finally noticed the extras on the Thin Man dvd. I watched part of one short & a cartoon. I need to go back to the other DVDs & see what their extras are. Then we watched two episodes of the Wild, Wild West.

writing: I did a little more fiddling on my story. No big changes but I've moved a couple things around.

blog of the day: Thrift Shop Project, now here's someone I can relate to.

clothes: black 'slippers', black jeans & belt (gold tone buckle), brown/black Vorkosigan polo, gold amber drop earrings, shades of amber (gold, brown, yellow & green) bracelet, 2 gold amber rings (1 sphere & 1 ~poison ring), 3 ages of women pendant on long chain, braided hair held by a brown elastic, hematite ring & ladybug clip watch (the latter two as usual).

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.

Did a bit of cleaning yesterday. Gathered a couple books for the used bookstore. Worked on my story, a little.

movies: watched The Thin Man Goes Home.

books: bought & read More Than Fiends & Night Life. Re-read Oathblood & 2 books from a Reader's Digest volume (Every Living Thing & All Around the Town).

clothes: Busch Gardens purple 'fear the 4' t-shirt, blue jeans, navy loafers, Celtic knot ring, flower fairy pendant, fem ring, ~rope band, silver bracelet, & chain mail earrings.

tv: Watched Shadow of the Thin Man and then a couple episodes of Wild, Wild West. Bones was a repeat but watched it anyway.

tatting: only until I ran out of thread on the shuttle.

books: been busy writing, working on the time line, etc.

website of the day: Yard Sale Queen

clothes: blue jeans, white song of 3 summonings t-, navy loafers (forgot to put on jewelry).

Heat! Who the heck turned up the thermostat? Just sitting in the shade at lunch was almost too warm. I expected high temps (we're about 10 degrees above normal) but with the humidity it feels like summer already. Whew...

Bookcrossings! It's a catch & release program for books. Click on the link to join & I get credit for the referral.

Still tired: Do I need more sleep as I get older (shudder), am I still recovering from the con? Or is it the heat? It was a struggle to stay up until my bedtime last night.

movie: I watched Another Thin Man again, I had missed parts of it last time. Then we watched Pretty in Pink. It's not one of Hughes's better movies in my opinion (very angsty) so we hadn't seen it in years. I'd forgotten portions of it.

books: didn't quite finish The Pursuit of Marriage because I spent time working on my own story.

music: I have 213 songs on my 'wake up list.' I had gone through about 50 as of Friday when I left for Charlotte. That trip, I went through about 100 of them. I'm now, a week later, one & a half songs short of going completely through the list. I'm halfway through song 212 as I arrived at work.

Money's going to be a little tight this pay period. I had not set enough money aside for my car insurance. That plus the con hotel bill, etc means not much spending money. I want to buy a pair of white shoes to wear when my black 'ballet' shoes won't work (like today).

tatting: did barely one repeat yesterday.

clothes: navy loafers (don't really go, style-wise but I had nothing better), brightly flowered gauze skirt (2 shades each of pink, yellow, green, & purple, plus a little bit of white & ~black), white crinkle blouse (embroidered with flowers scattered around the neck, ties at neck & sleeves, gathered at waist, cords keeps untying & need to be replaced), quartz point feather necklace, silver bracelet, fem ring, circles band, hematite ring, feather charm earrings & ponytail/bun affixed with a white chopstick with a blue dragon almost worn off.

Got some sleep: Seriously, about the time Chris came home, I laid down for a nap. Next thing I knew it was 9 pm. I stayed up long enough to have supper & went back to bed.

sight of the day: young woman, dressed almost stodgily in classic black dress & mary janes, with pale traceries of tattoos all along her arms, below her short sleeves.

books: I finished Smile of the Stranger at lunch yesterday & read my October issue of Shojo Beat!. This morning I'm re-reading The Pursuit of Marriage.

Tatting: I got about 3-4" of edging done yesterday.

tv: I forgot to mention that I watched Women of Ninja Warrior Tuesday night. Last night I watched a little of Pleasantville before heading to bed.

clothes: black 'slippers'; forest green, ankle-length, wrap skirt (embroidered & guimped front panel); burgundy poly knit blouse; malachite & silver cuff bracelet; malachite & silver wire ring; ~rope band; flower band; hematite ring; same hairstick (w/ a black bead on either side of a faceted clear one & a dangling silver spherical charm); & ~silver chain mail earrings.

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.