Well, I'm not packed yet & we leave tomorrow morning for Origins. Wheeee! I still need to do a little cleaning for the house inspection tomorrow morning & we have gaming tonight. What was I thinking? Plus, I need to do one load of laundry & get more airtime minutes for my cellphone.

Saturday's outfit: USAF hospital shirt, leggings & loafers as needed, otherwise barefoot. Mom came by, she showed me some old photo's (from grandmother's collection), we talked & she went home. I got some cleaning done & I got major depressed (as in wailing, crying jag depressed. Yuck).

Sunday: English language t, navy shorts, grey sandals & celtic knot jewelry. Chris took his parents & me to see the latest Harry Potter movie (I got more cleaning done that morning & I felt better). Then we went to Maggiano's for supper. We got there before the rush so we were basically seated immediately. I've never sat in the balcony area before. It was kinda neat. Great food, as usual.

Today's outfit: long-sleeved silk blouse, purple slacks, black loafers, feather & quartz bead earrings, moonstone cabochon pendant, spoon ring, band & my hair in a French braid.

I've been busy getting directions to the hotel in Columbus, plus one a half-hour away & one an hour away. I've also looked up some stuff for Living Greyhawk & finally posted in character about Nadia's promotion & transfer.

Gotta go, lots of errands to run.

I still have a nascent blister on my left thumb from trying to insert grommets through leather (4-6 oz). But the blister I didn't know about, the one on the ball of my right foot burst today. The skin underneath is tender & I'll be glad when that area of my sole toughens up. In the meantime, my shoes hurt.

I was a bad woman yesterday. I bought 4 books after work. I read 2 of them last night. I finished the 3rd one at lunch today (despite running that errand for Chris).

Today's outfit: rose silk short-sleeved shirt, black broadcloth skirt, black loafers, knot earrings (post), pendant & ring, onyx ring & ponytail held with black elastic. Whee, so exciting.

I finished Jordan's manuscript & I uploaded to where he can see it. Do you supposed I should have notified him that it's done? Probably. I forgot to mail Nick Perch. Blast. I'll do it Monday.

Quick post today. It's already 5:15 & I want to go home.

Today's outfit: black loafers, blue/pink/purple/black/white floral print broomstick gauze skirt, black rib knit shirt, silver chain, spoon ring, silver ~braid band, 3 silver ring earrings & loose hair. I washed my hair this morning & I forgot to pack brush or elastic band. I do have a couple hairsticks but I wasn't in the mood.

I worked a little on my Gaelic at lunch. I'm still on chapter 3. Hopefully that means I'm slow but thorough. I'm a lot closer to being done editing Jordan's material. I'm into the appendices.

Made it through another day. I'm almost finished my 2nd editing job (not including the stuff I did for Diana). I'm making corrections to the e-copy now.

Today's outfit: black loafers, black & white print cotton gauze broomstick, black crinkle cotton blouse (3/4 sleeve & round neck), black quartz/glass bead bracelet, black beaded tatted necklace & earrings, onyx ring, silver ring with black hearts & scrolls (open), & French braid held by a black elastic.

I'm almost finished making arrangements for office coverage while I'm on vacation. I need to email people tomorrow to tell them the arrangements.

Chris & I worked on his bags a little yesterday. One side of one bag is marked & holed and another side is marked. I need to get more done tonight. We didn't get enough done last night.

Well, what a weekend. Friday night we took Chris's car in to the shop. Since we're taking it to Ohio in 2 weeks, um one week, he's a little paranoid about it & wanted a check up before we left. Then we went home, I heated some chicken nuggets & went to PNO. I arrived about 8:30 but PNO was cut short by a thunderstorm. When I couldn't see the road I stopped at IHOP with some other people & ate some soup until the rain relented enough to see. I made it home about 10 pm.

The next morning we went to Southpoint Mall. Chris needed some new shorts; he also bought some new shirts since they were on sale. The shirts are for work but they didn't have the kind of shorts that he likes, about a 2" inseam. So he had to get some much longer ones;, they reach the tops of his knees. I found a pair of black jeans; they almost fit. As usual they are too big in the waist and a little long, despite being 'short'. Oh well, they mostly fit. We stopped to get something to drink & Chris stopped by the bank. We made it home about 10 minutes after Mom was there. On the bright side, she found it on her own. She left 3 boxes & one bag for me. I need to go through them. She'll stop by & see me on her way back from Jacksonville.

I had to take a nap when we came back but Chris accidentally left me to sleep for 2 hours instead of one. I was that tired. We went & got his car & stopped by Michaels to pick up a hole punch & some lacing. He also found pencils to give one of his co-workers for her birthday. She 'collects' pencils so she'll like them. When we returned home we started working on his saddlebags. We discovered that we have 1 hide, not 2. We cut out the front & back, sides & bottoms of both bags but only got one flap (with the brand on it, circle G) & we'll have to piece the strap. Chris went ahead & ordered more leather yesterday. He ordered Latigo, enough for the strap, the flap(s) & side pockets. Mostly we have scraps left from that one hide plus one bag of scraps to get side pockets, dice pockets, etc.

Saturday's outfit: 16th Annual UNC blood drive t-shirt, dark blue stretch jeans, black loafers & ponytail. I completely skipped jewelry. Sunday I wore my 2004 ShevaCon t-shirt, jeans, my new sandals (grey with beads), and wet hair. Yesterday I wore a white tux shirt, black slacks & loafers, the new black belt my mom left for me, onyx & silver earrings, braided hair held by a black elastic, spoon ring & black onyx (or some stone) ring. Today I'm wearing navy slacks, brown loafers, navy braided belt with leather buckle & tag, blue & white striped light cotton shirt w/ 3/4 length sleeves, dragon jewelry (pendant, earrings, 3 rings - 2 of which are same style in different sizes) & right now my hair is loose.

Sunday we (Chris) experimented with the hole punch & eyelet maker until we learned how to do it & get consistent results. While he worked on the first bag part I started cleaning. I had to vacuum early or we can't vacuum at all. We have to vacuum at least one hour before people show up or it sets off Mike's allergies. We packed up the bag supplies & got ready for gaming. Richard was late. 1) he hurt himself on the ladder in his new garage. The ladder isn't quite tall enough for what he was trying to do. 2) he ran out of gas on the highway. Chris went & took him more gas. So he was only an hour late.

After gaming we were going to get Chinese food but the place we wanted is closed on Sundays. So we went to Chili's across from Southpoint. It was good, I had the guiltless chicken platter & then shared the Molten Chocolate afterward with Chris & Rosemary. Even when we finished eating, we sat outside the restaurant & the five of us talked (Richard went home to Kathy). I had to leave hurriedly as apparently there were onions in the rice. I went to bed early Sunday but was still tired Monday.

Yesterday I learned that I had screwed up a co-worker's raise. It should now be complete & he should get it next pay day, back dated to the day of the raise. So I felt just lovely yesterday. If I had tried I'm not certain I could have felt more out of sorts & depressed. I made it through gaming, barely.

I did manage to get the church newsletter sent out yesterday evening. That's good & I scraped together an article of my own. But there were only 2 other articles, 3 if you include Steve's as 2.

Back to work.

Firday, TGIF! Plus, it's payday. Not that it does me much good. I've already spent most of it. Love those bills 8-P

Today's outfit: black loafers, gauze broomstick skirt w/ teal as main color, teal net shirt over pale blue tank, spoon ring, dragon ring, dragon pendant, pink/teal 'stained glass' earrings, & teal hair sticks holding my hair in half-bun.

Finished the data entry & the highlighting & the FBMO 90's. Yeah. Lots to do at home still.

It was very hard to drag myself out of bed this morning, despite going to bed on time. Giving blood yesterday may have taken more out of me than I realized. It took 2 hours 20 minutes from leaving lunch to getting back to work. At least 15 minutes would have been cut off if the 1st bus (route U) had not driven off without me. It never really pulled up to the stop but as I stood up & walked to toward it, it pulled away. I thought, at first, that it was simply moving up as another bus left but no, it left. I'm still a little ill about that.

I pulled two more books from my 'maybe keep' stack last night. I read one, I think I will keep it. The other one I brought to work with me this morning. I may read it at lunch, I may work on my Gaelic. I'm almost finished with Jordan's manuscript. I'm in the 2nd appendix. Then I have to make the corrections to the e-copy & send to him. Wheee.

The leather & other supplies for Chris's saddlebags arrived last night. We need to go to Michael's to get some suede lace, they were out. We may also need to get some more grommets, they only sent 2 packs, we ordered 3. Tonight I go by the library to get a leather craft book or two. And I think I'll put Steve's number on speed dial (so to speak). I'm very leery of relying on my 10/20-year-old knowledge of leatherworking. tonight I will also try to copy & cut the pattern out then piece a test bag (with paper or something so it's easy to construct). I want to see how the pieces fit together before I start cutting the leather.

Today's outfit: brown loafers, navy slacks (the pair with a hole), burgundy knit top, spoon ring, both turquoise rings, carnelian ring, turquoise & coral earrings, & hair half-up with brass clip.

Last night Chris went to the awards thing for work. Apparently nothing really happened. I went to bed before 10 so I was asleep by the time he came home & we didn't really have a chance to talk this morning.

Last night I played Beyond Good & Evil for about 2 hours. I made it a lot farther. I got more evidence & survived the spot where I died so often last time. So I've made real progress in the game. I also finished reading the book I bought at lunch yesterday, Almost Like Being in Love by Christina Dodd.

I took TTA again today. As a result I've already finished the book that I'd picked out. It was only 250 pages & I skimmed some scenes, but still. It was a re-read but it's been so long I didn't remember what happened. A Timeless Christmas, an old Harlequin American romance. It's unlike most in that it has a paranormal/time travel storyline. An Indian in Arizona is hung on Christmas Eve, 1894 by "Judge" McAllister. His crime was wanting to marry McAllister's daughter. He appears December 13, 1994 in the courtroom of JoP McAllister, the descendant of the Judge. She's a bit surprised by his appearance but thinks he's just some prospector or the like, who's been out in the sun too long. It's not bad.

Today's outfit: black loafers. black cotton duck skirt (button down the front), silk blouse (long sleeves, flowered print), black tatted necklace & earrings, braid w/ brown elastic, & same rings as yesterday.

I go to give blood today, if my hemogoblin is high enough. Sometimes it isn't. Right now, I need to work on check requests.

Today's outfit: black crepe slacks, acid washed black/green Harrington Steading Polo (new), black loafers, onyx ring, carnelian ring, flower silver band, onyx & silver earrings & brass hair 'clip.' I finished the FBMO 90's. yeah me.

Chris has an award banquet for work to go to tonight. His brother said that he had to go, perhaps he won something. That would be nice. I bought a book, bad me.

I wrote & mailed a letter to my Aunt Jeri & finally mailed the letter that I wrote to my niece. I'm still reading the Westwood book & I've started the 'how to write fantasy' book. I took the TTA so I have to hurry to go catch it.

Well I made it to Charlotte in good time. Spent some time talking to Liz, Leela (she burbled a lot), Alysa & James. Then it was off to bed. The next morning we left bright & early to go to ConCarolinas. I made it in time for the RPGA: Living Greyhawk interactive, Promotion Review Board. It was very tense. Since my success rested all on my own efforts, instead of being shared, I had some serious adrenalin moments, vicariously. I did okay on the written portion, started out decently on the obstacle course (in the lead by a considerable margin at first) & would have ended better if I'd remembered to take 10 on the ride test, did well on the command portion & acceptable on the interview. Nadia was one of the 2 corporals at the board trying to promote to Sgt, both the only women there & both vastly overqualified to be corporal. I ended up playing with the other newly-minted Sgt plus other high level pcs (even the 2 cohort people outleveled Nadia). Poor Nadia, half-experience & half-gold again; 9th lvl pc at an APL 12 table. Wheee. But it was interesting.

I had two players for my evening game because no one showed up for a D&D game that the girl was waiting upon. So I dragged her in & she really liked it. I ran them through Cup Quest. I finished up a little early (12:30 instead of 1 am) & drove back to James' & Liz's. Up early the next am & barely made it to the con by 9 am. So I was a little late for my game. The girl (maybe 12?) was there again. So I know she liked my game. Metra & Chasarae showed up (Rae played last year) late but I got them involved. Then Hoss showed up & I added his character. I ran the Rinaldi adventure. Poor girl, her character Enaid, had the flaw romace but she didn't specify. So I chose for her. Her character, a baroness & distantly related to the Rinaldi family, is now engaged to Don Fabrizio.

After that I attended a panel on 'D20, is it dead?' Answer, d'uh, no. But we talked about some of the D20 stuff, like hype vs. backlash etc. Since there were only 5 of us, including the 2 panel members, it was a very informal talk. More of a discussion really. Then I toured the dealers room & spent too much money. As usual. I did find a nice coin scarf to wear to the Living Kalamar interactive at Origins.

Made it home by 7pm tho very tired. Read Ring of Fire, one of my dealer room purchases, until midnight. Bad girl, I need my sleep. Oh well. I'm off home, I need to clean up enough to play Jadeclaw tonight.



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I did not finish packing last night so it's rush home, finish & get on the road to Charlotte. Wish me luck. I did get one bag packed last night, one this morning. The 3rd one is about 1/2 packed. I never did find my usual Ironclaw book, the one that's been so abused that I had to spiral bind it.

Today's outfit: purple, short-sleeved purple blouse (& of course it's the coolest it's been all week, 66F right now), black slacks, black loafers (unlike yesterday's brown ones), amethyst ring, Czech crystal earrings. silver braid band, silver band & short silver chain. I do look nice.

I had to do the stuff in the dryer again this morning. The stuff hanging on the rack was almost dry. Go figure. Of course, the 2 pairs of jeans hadn't dried yet but most of the blouses were fine (including this purple one).

Gotta go.



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Busy week this week. Monday was Living Greyhawk at 1pm, supper at 6pm, home campaign at 7pm. Clean up after gaming at 11 pm. Tuesday, prep for Living Greyhawk on Wednesday (read through module & take notes & pack), Wednesday was run Living Greyhawk at Cerebral Hobbies. Tonight it's pack for ConCarolinas in Charlotte this weekend. Tomorrow night it's drive to Charlotte, to spend the night with James & Liz. At some point I need to make certain that I know how to get to James & Liz's & then how to get to ConCarolinas. This could be important. Saturday I have entered Nadia (my primary LG character) in the promotion board, then I'm playing in a mod that afternoon & in the evening I'm running Ironclaw. I leave after that, maybe 1-ish. To return in the morning & either run the same one or a different adventure, depending on if I get the same players or not. Then I come home.

Yesterday's outfit: salmon silk blouse, print gauze skirt, black loafers, moonstone jewelry. Hair done in a temple braid. I'm trying to train it to side part again.

Today's outfit: bone slacks, print silk blouse, lapis posts (that fell out sometime this morning, I need new backs), same hairstyle with a different colored elastic, & silver rings.

Neato Quiz: I am

I took the What Mythological Creature Are you? test by
!

Last night I actually made it to bed more or less on time. I also walked 20 minutes to catch the bus farther down the road than I usually do. Lindsey was on that bus. She's reading Good Omens as I recommended. She's enjoying it immensely. If she wasn't working on Monday she could play RPGA:LG with us. Oh well.

Chris is playing Beyond Good & Evil still. He's farther along than I am, now. I have barely entered the factory & he's deep inside it. I have lots to do to catch up.

I spent a few minutes last night going through some of the books in the basement. I have them in 3 piles. One pile is take to sell at a used book store, if they don't sell then take them to Goodwill or the like. Second pile is old paperbacks that belong to a library, I need to return those. The third pile, & the largest so far, are books that I plan to keep. Hey, getting rid of any is progress.

Today's outfit: navy slacks, brown loafers, brown belt, floral (sort of) silk blouse (it has large red flowers, iron gates/benches, yellow flowers, green leaves and wood bench/fence), silver band - 2-strand braid, green amber ring, earrings & necklace. I had my hair twisted up in my large brass hair 'clip' earlier. But I took it down a few minutes ago. The loose hair wasn't hanging straight & it was starting to drive me nuts.

My brother, sister-in-law & my niece sent me a great b'day present. They sent me 2 old tatting shuttles. One is a Just-rite, it's not in as good as shape as my other Just-rite but I suspect that it's older. I dashed off a quick thank-you email to my brother & when I wrote a letter to my niece today, I added thanks there too.

I need to do another 5 points to finish the lace for Anitra. I've done 22" on the white lace. I may have finally decided what to do for my State Fair project. I will add a lace edging to some gloves. I have a lovely 1920's pattern I can use. It's a 2-color pattern. I just need to decide what colors.

I'm looking forward to my 3-day weekend. I'm gaming tomorrow, Living Greyhawk; home game: Forgotten Realms, on Sunday then another Living Greyhawk game on Monday & then another home game of AD&D 3.5 that evening. Wheee. Tonight & tomorrow I have to clean up the living room & dining room enough to play. Not so whee.

Last night was the 4th night in a row that I went to bed late. I really need to get to bed earlier tonight. I'm so tired today that I bought a 20 oz diet pepsi, even without vanilla, to help me get started this morning. The game, a Living Kalamar playtest, went pretty well. Today I'm, off & on, working on reading through it to make helpful suggestions, etc.

Today's outfit: grey Carolina Ren Festival 2002 polo, black & white cotton gauze skirt (it's a broomskirt really, like all my cotton gauze skirts), black loafers, onyx & silver earrings (from Fair Trade), onyx ring, silver 2-strand braid band, a simple silver chain & my hair is loose. I had it up earlier & didn't like it.

My left should still hurts a little. The books I carried yesterday for last night's game were very heavy (3 hardback game books plus 1 paperback game book plus assorted papers & dice). I think I strained something, or at least stressed it. It's feeling better than it did yesterday, at least.

Joe paid for supper last night. We went to Italian Pie in Cary. It's not far from Earl's & since that was the game location, that was important. They have excellent lasagna. Joe & I both had to box half our meal. It's near the crossroads of Harrison & Maynard, across from the new Staples. I have another reason for wanting to remember that; a used bookstore is near that Staple's: Mr. Mike's Used Books. *chortle*



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So, I just took a half-day off yesterday. I went home as soon as my lunch relief had arrived, after I'd briefed him on what needed doing. I thought about stopping for Chinese food but ended up eating leftovers. I played Beyond Good & Evil for hours. I really like that game. When Chris came home I played a little longer, then let him have a turn. I'd accidentally overwritten his saved game, so it was only right.

Yesterday's outfit: light cotton gauze skirt, dark blue knit shirt, hair sticks holding a half-bun, & the usual jewelry plus my new loafers. Today's outfit: different light cotton gauze skirt, pale blue ~spaghetti strap tank, turquoise open hole knit 3/4 length sleeve shirt, same loafers, rainbow moonstone cabochon (like it's ever any other cut) pendant & earrings, moonstone ring, spoon ring & ~turquoise-colored hairsticks holding a half-bun in my hair. For an outfit put together because I have no clean bras, it works very well (the pale blue tank has a built-in bra).

I'm trying to update my Living Kalamar character. It's not being easy. I can't find a good conversion document & I thought I had the character creation doc, but I can't find it.

Jury service (sit around & read all day just in case I get called) last Monday, on the 17th. Busy the rest of the week trying to catch up.

Today's outfit: new black loafers (Faded Glory: Jessie) bought on Friday, black & white cotton gauze skirt, black heavy cotton gauze blouse (round neck, elbow-length sleeves), black tatted necklace w/ black beads, matching earring, black glass/quartz bead bracelet, onyx band, silver spoon ring & bone 2-prong hair stick.

Dad came by yesterday, brought my 'new' desk. He bought it while he worked for the Post Office in LaJunta, CO. It was used then. It's survived the house fire in '74 and it's solid wood so it still looks better & is in better shape than the desk it replaced. That desk was my step-grandfather's computer desk in bought in the late '80's.

Dad took Chris & I out to dinner at Ted's Montana grill. The bison pot roast was maybe a little heavy for midday but it was really good & I was really hungry. I cleared my plate & then had their strawberry shortcake with ice cream, with Dad's help. I've decided that while their food is good, their desserts don't exactly blow my skirt up.

Today's outfit: purple silk blouse, black faux-suede slacks, black loafers, 'silver' earrings with black beads, tri-fem pendant on short chain, onyx ring, thin silver braid ring & hair caught up in a thick, black elastic band. I really need to replace these loafers. The inner sole is not attached at the toes, only at the heels. So they creep as I walk. Sounds like trip to Wal-mart. I'd like to get more expensive ones that wouldn't do that, but only Wal-mart carries the style that I like. Isn't that kind of sad?

Copeland's last night was very good. I love baked sweet potato. The crabcakes were a trifle spicy, but that's no surprise. The steamed vegetables were heavy on the cauliflower. The conversation was a good if a bit heavy on the computer talk. Considering the company of 1 programmer & 2 tech support people, that too was no surprise.

Kathy liked the two crossstitch kits, no surprise, they both have cats. The B&N gift cert from Chris & Rosemary was also well-received. She seemed almost surprised that she got presents. Kind of odd. The card I found was really good & I need to get another one like it for Mike. It was 5 reasons for buying a birthday card: #3 was the voices in my head. Very appropos considering Mike's frequent remarks concerning his 'God told me to do that. Well, the voice says he's God. And why would God lie about a thing like that.' Silly Mike. He's not schizophrenic, just a microbiology grad student.

I found a card for Diana's graduation. It's also pretty funny. I just don't know what to get her for graduation. Maybe a gift cert to B&N or the like? Tonight I go get Joe's birthday present. We're buying him a rail game. Tomorrow night, after Diana's graduation & maybe Artsplosure we're taking him to the seafood place at Southpoint.

I need to finish cleaning off my desk.

Today's oufit: short sleeve, collarless chambray shirt; denim vest, navy broadcloth skirtv, brown loafers; stamped leather hair clip; turquoise & coral earrings; both turquoise rings, & two different styles of braided silver bands.

It's hot & muggy. I'm glad to be wearing a skirt, even if it is very heavy & fully lined. I didn't go to lunch until 2pm. I read the entire time. Except when I talked to Steve (AC guy) & Gillian (English photojournalism student, whose mother's from Salisbury, NC).

My tatting got bizarrely tangled last night. It happened just as I was about to disembark from the bus & I didn't notice when I dropped my shuttle case. Bleah! I've called the bus company & see if it was turned in or found by the driver yesterday. I had to leave a message.

I have to leave now, I still need to find cards for Kathy & Diana and get to Copelands in Cary by 7:30 pm. Tah.

Saturday's oufit: Ironclaw t-shirt & jeans
Sunday's outfit: Celtic tree t-shirt & shorts
Monday's oufit: Dendarii covert ops polo & plaid crinkle gauze skirt
Tuesday's outfit: Vorkosigan polo & black slacks
Today's outfit: blue knit shirt & multi-colored gauze skirt

I've done over 22" on the white lace. Last night I started some ecru in the same pattern for Anitra. I'm going to make enough to put on the top of her apron. I've already done about 3" or so & I only need 8-9".

I finally fixed my fanny pack. I went to Jo-Ann's last night to get the buckles, thread, & to price canvas. They also have linen, a possibility for a new chemise for October. I got all the way out to the car before I remembered that I was also going to look for ecru thread in size 80. They had it. They also had red, green, white & variegated pastel. The red's on sale for a $1. They are apparently discontinuing it.