Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Holding on here.

After my wild day of laser cutter training (11 people trained), I could hardly walk, move my arms, and my voice was nearly gone. I was in a fog by the time I was done at a bit before 3pm.

Good news today: My son got 34 points out of 35 on his social studies test! Yippee!!! He raised his grade from a "D" at midterm, to a "C" on his report card, and is now getting a "B". For a special treat, I picked up chinese food on the way home from work (his favorite), and did not tell him until I got home. I explained that I was very proud of the way he had worked hard to raise his grade, and that I appreciated it. It's pretty damn hard to raise your grade in a class where you don't have access to the book all of the time, because there aren't enough books to go around. Note: Basically, the book is 8 years old, but even that is better than no book at all. However, a batch of books got damaged when they moved to the new school, and couldn't be replaced, or got lost when at the repair place, or something. So, if the kids want to take a social studies book home, they have to check it out overnight. And people griped about the new textbook fee... Cry me a river. $25/per kid per year, prorated if the kid qualifies for free/reduced lunch. Get the kids some damn textbooks already. Okay, back to the post...

After dinner, since I knew I had errands to run, and laundry to do later in the evening, I rested on my bed for awhile. I did not really sleep, as I was too cold, but I was able to at least rest my eyes, and my mind for awhile.

On the drive to religious ed, I was talking to my son about something, and he said, "I can tell you're tired just by the way you are talking."

I just wish the weather would get nicer. I'd feel so much better if it weren't so damn cold.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Sleeve Variation 1 - Progress

I managed to get the pieces to the center panel of one sleeve sewn tonight. It took about an hour to sewn the nine pieces, allowing for the time spent laughing at "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." :)

Now, all I need to do to this batch is to sew the pearl strands to the edges, and tack them together so that I can get an idea of how this will look finished. For now, here is a photo of the work done so far.



You can see the design in the brocade in this photo of the forepart in progress:



Well, time to go sit on the couch, watch a movie, and start sewing the pearl trim to the edges of the pieces. Maybe my hands will get warm if I keep them moving...

Smack forehead.

Remember how I have been griping and moaning about a whole variety of problems, from insomnia, to being tired, to being cold, to appetite problems? (I've not been as forthcoming about other problems, but they are there. And this all started in about October or so).

An unrelated site that I was reading while researching something, led me to search "adrenal fatigue" (and yes, it was a programming post, and someone was mentioning burnout, and suggesting getting tested to someone else).

Anyway, here they are, the Signs and Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue

Symptoms of adrenal fatigue

The following symptoms are your body’s way of telling you that it is not receiving the support it needs to maintain healthy adrenal function.

* Fatigue
* Feeling tired despite sufficient hours of sleep
* Insomnia
* Weight gain
* Depression
* Hair loss
* Acne
* Reliance on stimulants like caffeine
* Cravings for carbohydrates or sugars
* Poor immune function
* Intolerance to cold

Um, okay so I have most of those symptoms, starting back in November (I don't think I'm losing more hair than normal, and I've always had up-and-downs with the skin - it just seems a lot drier than usual). And I've often joked that I don't have blood running through my veins - it's caffeine. I keep falling asleep on the couch. Another site mentioned raging PMS, too. So, yeah, TMI.

Even more clues:


Should you get an adrenal test?

In general, if you feel happy and well, have steady energy and emotions, sleep soundly seven to nine hours a night, wake up feeling rested, recover well from stress, and maintain a healthy weight without dieting, then your adrenals are probably doing well.

On the other hand, if your energy lags during the day, you feel emotionally unbalanced much of the time, you sleep poorly or less than seven hours a night, can’t lose excess weight even while dieting, use caffeine or carbohydrates as “pick-me-ups” — these are all red flags indicating adrenal insufficiency.

Yep. Me. How would one even go about talking to a doctor about this without sounding whiny?

I dunno... I'm going to just keep this thought in the back of my mind for now, and if I don't see some improvement towards spring, I am going to talk to her about this at my next physical.

I just hate that I can't seem to pull up the enthusiasm I used to feel about certain things. All I want to do anymore is stay at home.

Monday, January 29, 2007

The deep freeze

Okay, so it's not really all that cold out for Iowa in January. However, because it just really hasn't been as cold as usual, I haven't had a chance to get used to it, to enjoy the exhileration of winter. It's just cold.

My toes are frozen after being out and about tonight. We had a meeting, which actually went really well. Dare I say that the kids are actually excited about this weekend? In any case, the kids had fun pulling out the really cold weather gear. Yes, we have two who are going to sleep in a tent this weekend. Me? I'm going to be inside the cabin, right under the heating vent.

Right now I am in layers, in front of the computer, with my slippers on, my hooded sweatshirt (hood up), and a blanket.

Stressfull week ahead... Too many appointments at work, which may make things interesting if things break. I think I may be going for a record in how many laser cutter training sessions I can do in a day on wednesday - seven total: four on cutter 2, three on cutter 1. And the three sessions on cutter 1 are supposed to happen at the same time as three of the sessions on cutter 2. Most sessions have two people. This will take careful planning to make sure it works. I have a couple sessions tomorrow, too.

Like I said, careful planning, and a lot of hard work to make sure nothing crops up to derail this balancing act.

At least I'll be busy enough at work that I won't get cold. :)

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Busy, busy

I have been working on and off all day on the sleeve pattern variations. After I corrected my previous mistake of not matching up the seam allowance lines before drawing the diagonals, I made quick progress in getting the pieces drafted and cut out. It's amazing how much you can get done while waiting for the dryer to finish. :)

After several interruptions, I started working on the second variation I wanted to draft. The previous variation kept the paned nature of the sleeves intact, meaning that there were three panels, each with 8 separate pieces (24 pieces, total. What was I thinking?). The pieces will be pearl trimmed at the edge, and will be joined at each corner with a larger pearl.

For the second variation, the diagonals are still there, but the shape of the sleeve is whole. I will join the panels at the corners, and in two other places, to mimic the position of the panels, and to keep them from spreading. I am thinking that I may join them with quads, although it will take some time to make them. There are nine pieces to this pattern.

So, everything is drafted, numbered, and sorted. I just have to cut out the pattern pieces, and get started on a mockup to make sure that this is going to work. I am pretty sure it will, but I don't want to waste any good fabric on something that may not quite work.

I'll post pictures...

On to other things...

(No, this isn't a farewell post. I hate it when people do that.)

My son is feeling much better. He ate some toast, and is playing his GameCube. So far, so good.

Here is the "other things" part of this post:

I have been working on drafting a new pattern for a new set of sleeves for my noble garb. The good thing about sticking with a general color palette for my garb, is that I can mix and match various parts with other gowns. My goal is to have three sets of matching sleeves and foreparts, so that any one gown will have three variations. If I stick with my plan to make at least one more gown, I can get six variations. I have enough fabric for two gowns, although one fabric is more experimental, and may not be used at all.

But back to the sleeves...

Even as I am writing this, I thought of another variation that would be pretty...

The pattern that I am drafting now is similar to something that I saw a few months ago, when I was researching idly, looking at what women were wearing at faire, on cast and as playtrons. It showed a sleeve that was made of individual pieces, formed to look like they were spiraling up the arm. The site had a pattern that you could buy in order to make them, but since I have my Margo patterns, and I know for a fact that the sleeves are the correct length and fullness that suit me, I decided to draft my own. It may fail, but as an educational exercise, it is very useful.

So, Thursday night, I got out my patterns and drafting materials, and set to work. I traced the original pattern (actually, I traced the tracing I had made of the pattern in my size way back when I was working on my red gown). I took my salem rule, and drew the first diagonal. I drew the diagonals three inches apart from each other.. This was larger than what the photo I had seen appeared to be. I think that one used one inch strips, and since I am not THAT into masochism, mine are larger.

There are three pattern pieces to the sleeve. I started with the center panel. After the diagonals were drawn, I took more tracing paper, and started tracing out the individual pieces that will make up the sleeve, adding the seam allowances where necessary. The center panel had nine pieces. It took a couple of hours to do this, because I got interrupted a couple of times.

Last night, I tackled the side-front panel. I traced it, and now that I think about it, I realize that I probably made a mistake! Yikes! I should have overlapped the seam allowances on the sides where the panels meet, but I didn't. Considering that I spent a couple of hours last night drawing the diagonals, and tracing out the individual pieces, I am a little perturbed. But, the whole point of this is that it is experimental. I neglected the cardinal rule of carpenters and seamstresses: measure twice, cut once. At least no fabric was harmed due to this mistake. Urg.

Okay, it's time to go fix that mistake, and get the other panel drawn. I want to get started on a mock-up this weekend, because I need these sleeves done sooner rather than later. With the amount of embellishment I want to add, these are going to take hours to complete (I will have a rough estimate later, once the first of the diagonal pieces is finished).

In addition, I want to finish the trim on my "old" gown, so that it can finally be finished (I wore it without most of the trim I wanted, as there simply was not enough time to finish trimming the bodice before the faire started).

Why do I need these so quickly? March. Fund-raisers. Um, telethons to be exact. More info later on that, once it is confirmed. Should be pretty interesting. :)

Okay, back to work!

Friday, January 26, 2007

Update from the Geek Girl Medical Clinic

The twelve-year-old is begging for more food. Specifically, he wants me to make him green beans with cheese sauce.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

No way do I want to see what that looks like on the way up.

He had some chicken broth made with boullion cubes, some water, some diet 7-up, and a couple of ounces of strawberry jello (which he didn't like). We spread that out over a fairly long period of time, just to make sure nothing comes back up. Tomorrow, he can have a little toast for breakfast, and by lunch he should be able to handle chicken noodle soup and crackers.

He is camped out on the couch, with the big soup pot (that I never use), on a towel right beside him. He fell asleep pretty early, so I am stuck in my room for now. I hope that he doesn't get sick in the middle of the night. I am pretty tired, and I am not sure I'd hear him.

I am being extremely careful as far as hand-washing and cleaning go. I do not want to get this. I think everyone in town just keeps reinfecting everyone else. He was the seventh kid to go home sick with this today (out of over 1200 middle-schoolers). I think the town needs a disinfecting. :)

Okay, too tired to write anymore. I have worked liked crazy today, and am exhausted.

Good night!

Day, Interrupted

Today was an interesting day. At work, I ran like crazy to try to get everything done that needed to be done. Some things were left partially done, due to interruptions, or appointments. Lunch was late, due to helping someone, and short due to another appointment.

At 1:30, I went back to my office, and I had a voice mail message. While trying to retrieve the message, I had a knock on my door from someone needing help. After telling them I would be with them in a moment, I checked my voice mail, and had several messages within a few minutes of each other, from my son's school, saying that he was sick, and needed to go home.

So, there I was, with several things unfinished, and I of course had no choice but to drop everything and go pick up my son (upset stomach and a fever).

...

Oh the joys of stomach flu... Sorry, just got interrupted by a "Mom!" followed by a pan that needed to be emptied... At least he hit the pan. Okay gross. But, when you are a parent, you do what's gotta be done.

I gotta go wash some towels now.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Itchy, itchy, itchy

Obviously, if you've had pink eye before, you know what I mean.

Two doses of medicine so far, next dose due at 8pm. I also have a headache, but that could be due to watching four straight hours of television (Top Chef marathon), when I am not used to watching more than an hour at a time, if that (maybe four hours in a week, unless it's a movie-o.d. week).

I have a cold, too, and I didn't feel like doing much today, other than just normal, picking up after myself stuff. Not sure what I am going to have for dinner. My son just had some EasyMac (which he hasn't had in a few years, believe it or not). Not sure what I am going to have, if anything. My head hurts, so i am going to go veg on the couch again.

I've already been warned by the doc that the eye is probably going to look worse tomorrow, so if you see me, don't freak out. ;) TG I caught it early...

Two hours later...

If you can ignore the little things, you can keep your spirits on an even keel.

I fully expected to have to wait beyond 10:20 for my appointment. I arrived at 10:10, checked in at the business office, then went to the Adult Med area of the clinic. I waited patiently in line, and then gave my place to an older lady who was checking in her wheelchair-bound husband. She had a cane, and I couldn't see making her wait longer when she clearly needed to sit.

I managed to find a decent magazine, and before I knew it, it was 10:35, and I still hadn't been called. My eye was itching pretty badly, but I didn't want to touch it, because this stuff is highly contagious. No sense spreading the germs around the waiting room. Finally, I was called at about 10:50, a full 30 minutes after my appointment. Thank goodness for Time magazine, or I'd have been really, really bored.

The nurse took my blood pressure, which was a little higher than normal, but that can be explained by my inability to resist the potato chips (crisps, for our overseas readers) last night. Won't happen again.

Finally, i saw my doctor at about 11:05. Got my prescription, and went to Hy-Vee to get it filled. I finally got home a little before noon.

Just think if I had been really, really sick, rather than just this stupid pink eye crap...

How in the HECK did I get PINK EYE???????????

Yes, folks. I woke up this morning with my right eye glued shut.

Last night, I noticed that it was red, and itchy, and goopy, and figured that I probably had it. I did my little google search to see what the symptoms were, and was puzzled by the "feels gritty" part, until I tried to sleep last night. Yee-uck.

I called First Nurse this morning, once I got my eye unglued enough to be able to see the Yellow Pages. "Highly contagious, stay home, call your Doc to get a prescription." I knew all of this, I just needed confirmation.

My son had pink eye when he was in first grade. I don't think I have ever had it before. I don't think anyone I know, or have been in contact with has it. The nurse asked if I had a cold, and I do. It just started getting bad yesterday, so it's probably a side effect of my cold.

Just a few more minutes before the doctor's office opens. I hope that the pharmacy opens at 8 on weekdays.

This should be fun...

Update: Yes, they are making me come into the doctor's office... darn it. Okay, I have to sneak out to the grocery store, so I can at least get some caffeine, garbage bags, and quarters for laundry... I am going to go NUTS here today if I don't! I promise I won't touch anything!

Monday, January 22, 2007

The situation so far...

Asthma sucks, having problems lately... I have a new prescription for Flovent, that I am going to get filled, and start taking.

The cold weather just hurts my lungs so much that I have become a home-body, with the thermostat turned up to 75°F (I used to hate to have it over 68°F). I am an idiot for signing up to go camping next month, as it includes an all-day outdoor event. I've also just been told that the cabin we are staying in lacks decent insulation. If I don't end up with pneumonia, it will be a miracle.* I am going to use my Flovent as directed, and will be crossing my fingers that it helps. I will also be buying warmer winter gear, including better boots and snowpants.

I am going through all of this, despite the fact that I probably should stay home, because there is a great reward awaiting at the end of the day --- the place we are staying at is very, very good for sledding!!! And we may actually still have snow this year to take advantage of it! Dumb reason to risk getting sick, yes, but for crying out loud, I am not ready to be a fussy old lady. I will do my best, and will bring my own stash of sugar-free cocoa, and have a ready supply of hand and feet warmers (they are pretty cheap at Wal-mart). I want to participate and cheer on the kids. I want to fly down the hill on a sled, get a red nose, and have my sides ache from laughing. I want to have snowball fights.

What I don't want is to be stuck at home, unable to participate.

Please let the Flovent work...


* Some of you may be thinking, "Well, she was certainly feeling good enough to stand outside yesterday morning while it was snowing for over an hour..." Well, yesterday, despite the snow, was fairly mild, and there was no wind. I did fine until the guy in front of me started smoking. He moved further away when he saw I was having problems (I didn't ask, he could just tell that it was bothering me), and after the smoke dissipated, I felt better. This event means many, many hours out in the cold and wind, with maybe not much chance to get warm later.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Woo hoo!!!!




We got to best Buy at 9:45, and we could already see the line outside of the store before we even got to the parking lot. We counted the people in front of us, and my heart sank. Each store was only guaranteed to have 20 Wii's, and there were 26 people ahead of us. But, we got in line anyway (a friend had told us that Best Buy had actually received a couple of shipments that they did not put out on the shelf, but had saved back for today). At 10, the guy in charge came out and told us that we would be getting a ticket, and that they had 30!!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!! The store would be opening at 11, and the ticket holders had to stay in line. People there for support could go run and get coffee and stuff, but the ticket holders could not leave and come back.

It snowed the entire time we waited for the store to open - an hour and fifteen minutes. Once in the store, we had to wait more, for everyone to check out. The Wii boxes were at the customer service counter, and I could see people, some of them with several gift cards in hand, and piles of games, extra Wii-motes, and other stuff. It took us about 35 minutes before it was our turn (they had 2 registers open for us). We signed up for the Best Buy Rewards program (which was free), so we will end up getting a $5 gift certificate in the mail later.

We have one very, very happy kid here. He's played baseball already (and lost - he needs to work on his stance and timing!), and is starting the new Zelda game he got for christmas. He doesn't even want to eat lunch.

Now, if only we could find another control so that we could box each other... ;)

Plans for the morning



This is, of course, after clearing the six inches of new snow off of the car...

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Weird Nightmare

I had a dream last night that really scared the crap out of me. Needless to say, that I did not sleep well at all.

Basically, in my dream, I had a stalker, and every time I turned around, he was there. No one would believe me. He'd send pictures that he took of me, during moments when I thought I was alone. No where was safe, was the message that those pictures sent.

The worst of it?

It was someone I knew.

I know, I know... Lifetime Network Movie in the making (as in, the plot to nearly every movie on that channel), but it had me looking over my shoulder all day.

Scary.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Why did I decide to do this tonight?

I'll admit it. I was motivated by boredom.

There is no other reason why I would decide, at 8:00 pm, to rearrange the living room. It all started innocently enough... My Christmas tree was still up. Only the lights were left on it, the lights being the reason I was procrastinating on taking it down. You try to find the motivation to remove 8 strands of lights from a seven and a half foot tall tree...

Well, from there, it snowballed out of control.

The corner was bare, so I decided to move the TV stand to that corner.

Well, the wall was bare now, so let's move the green chair to that wall, and put it at an angle.

Okay, now the space by the couch was empty, so let's angle the couch...

And so on.

It looks okay, but I am not sure that I like it yet. That will take a couple of days.

My back aches, but I am no longer bored... :)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

There are worse songs to have stuck in my head...

The constant soundtrack in my head is the orchestra music from Battlestar Galactica. If I could find a clip of it, I would like to link to it, so all of you could get it stuck in your head. It's not the title music, but the love song.

It's either what's been keeping me sane this week, or what's contributing to my downward spiral into madness.

Three more days until the next episode.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

What I have eaten today

Breakfast: cappucino chip muffin (yummy!)
Lunch: peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich

I have french fries in the oven to go with sandwiches for supper. I believe I will be eating just the french fries, as the thought of anything else right now makes me not feel so very well. Pretty bad when the thought of bread isn't palatable (being one of my favorite foods).

Just to show you how extreme this food-thing is: the thought of a butterburger from Culver's is doing nothing for my appetite.

I just want to feel normal again...

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The return of the Food Problems

I am miserable right now. I feel like I have eaten both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner in one sitting, in a day-long spree of overindulgence.

However, here is what I ate today:

Breakfast: strawberry croissant (lovely, yet I could have done without knowing that the café sells these now)

Lunch: peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich on Sara Lee Whole-wheat White bread (yummy), and 1/4 cup cottage cheese

Dinner: half a piece of lasagna, two breadsticks

Snack: half a tea-cup of cocoa about two hours after dinner

You can see the problem. This is not even close to what I would normally eat. There should be an afternoon snack in there, and about twice as much dinner - I am always starving when I get home from work. Tonight, I was really hungry, but as soon as dinner started cooking (warming up, actually), I all of a sudden lost my appetite. I only ate because eating is necessary. Now I wish I'd had a sandwich or toast instead.

Tomorrow - plain food only.

Except if they have strawberry croissants again...

Monday, January 15, 2007

More reasons to f---ing hate Windows

okay, this post disappeared... not sure why...

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The only thing better than a day off

is a day off, with SciFi channel running an all day Battlestar Galactica Marathon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So help me, if we lose power or cable tomorrow because of the storm, I'll know that the universe really is out to get me...

Goooooood lasagna....

Wow. The lasagna turned out really, really good. So good, that my son said it's the best he's ever tasted. The batch of sauce I made was enough for 9x13 cake pans (glass). My son ate two huge pieces, and I managed a piece and a half (almost. I just couldn't eat another bite.). We have a pan and a half (+a half-piece) left.

Here is the recipe, in case you are interested. I use no-boil noodles, to make it easier.

2 lbs ground turkey
1 medium yellow onion - diced
1 3 lb jar of Prego Traditional Style spaghetti sauce (this is the large jar - get two normal sized jars if you can't find this size)
3 cups shredded mozarella cheese
3 cups shredded mild cheddar cheese
16 oz. ricotta cheese
16 oz. cottage cheese
Martha Gooch lasagna noodle - uncooked

Brown the ground turkey. You may want to add a bit of water to the turkey, as it is pretty lean. Add the onions, and cook until the onions are transluscent.

While the turkey is cooking, prepare the sauce. Mix the spaghetti sauce, cheddar, ricotta, and cottage cheese until blended. Add half of the package of mozarella cheese (the other half is for the topping), and mix. When the turkey is finished cooking, drain any juices, and mix the turkey with the sauce.

In two, 13 x 19 baking dishes, spread a layer of sauce on the bottom. Add a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread a layer of sauce on top of the noodles. Repeat until the sauce is gone (should be two layers of noodles in each dish). Cover with aluminum foil, and bake at 350°F for an hour. Uncover, and spread the rest of the mozarella in each dish. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Let the lasagna sit 10 minutes before serving.

Crazy good... I wish I weren't so full, so I could have more!

Massive Lasagna Production

Okay, so I had the ingredients to make lasagna on my shopping list. I am making a combination of my sister Nan's "Man-catching Lasagna"*, and our scout dutch oven lasagna recipe. When I went to get the spagetti sauce that Nan uses, they had only the economy sized jar left in the traditional flavor. So, I decided to make a double-batch, then cut up the leftovers and freeze them.

I have all available baking dishes dusted out and ready to be filled with lasagna. I am not sure how much sauce this will make. I am just substituting the spaghetti sauce for the tomato sauce and paste in our normal recipe, and am adding cottage cheese and ricotta cheese to the cheddar and mozarella cheese normally used in the scout recipe. I am also using ground turkey rather than ground beef. I will add onions to the ground turkey when it is almost done.

So, I may end up with more lasagna than could feed a hungry troop, but it will be nice to be able to pull out a couple of servings from the freezer for dinner every once in awhile.

It's going to be yummy!

* This is Nan's name for the lasagna. Whether or not it what actually made her husband propose is debateable, but it is damn good lasagna.

Snowing already

The bulk of the snow is still on the way. (and coming down even harder than when I started this post just a few minutes ago)

I finally just removed the ornaments from my Christmas tree, and put them away. I am not quite up to tackling the lights yet, so that may wait until later today. I am waiting to get that space back.

I may end up moving the TV to that corner I would like to rearrange the living room a bit, but am not quite sure how I want to arrange things. Better to plan first, then move things once.

Okay, break time is over. I have a list of chores I want to finish today, so I can just sew and research tomorrow. I keep having to remind myself how long it is really going to take to make, trim, and bead a court gown, and how long it takes to make a good corset. The months are going to fly by to September.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Nine Hundred and One posts, and THIS is all I have to show for it?

Yep, unbeknownst to me, but knownst to blogger, I hit the big 900 with the last post. Cool! I ought to hit 1000 by the end of next month.

Anyway, I was able to go to the party this evening, and much fun was had by
all. Lots of great food, good conversation, and planning for this
year'sfaire. Meetings are starting in a few weeks!

Getting home... well, let's just say that it was an exercise in patience. It is
spitting rain or sleet or something right now. The windshield kept
icing over, except the area right above the defroster. I had the
windshield wipers on full speed, and every once in awhile, the ice
would break up a bit, and it would be clear for a few minutes. We never
went more than 45 mph, and neither did anyone else. It was hard to see
the edge of the road. I did not take the interstate home, because we
saw a wreck on one of the on-ramps, and because of the icing-over
windshield. The I-80/I-35 junction is difficult at best, and I did not
want to attempt it in the dark, with potentially slick roads, and while
not being able to see as clearly as I wished. I'm just cautious that
way. :) Better to take our time, than to end up in the ditch.

Okay, time to get some sleep. I was up early this morning, and will probably
try to get up early tomorrow morning, too. I have a bunch of things I
need to do, and a few I just want to do. It's supposed to snow more
tomorrow afternoon. We are actually under a winter storm watch...
correction! We are under a freezing rain advisory!!!!Eeek... I hope people are careful on the way home.

I guess I made the right choice for the route home.

Renewing the search

Just got back from Target - no Nintendo Wii.

We got up at about 7:30, got ready to go, got to Target just as the doors were opening. Plenty of Playstation 3's to be had. No Wii.

Next stop when they open later this morning - Best Buy, then GameStop.

We are optimistic, but realistic. I will have one more chance to look on Monday at GameStop, as I am not working. That is, one chance as long as the snow isn't too bad. I have a rare school day off, and I would love to be able to surprise my son. GameStop is the only place here that has been getting regular deliveries. Hopefully Monday is a delivery day...

I'm going to go eat some breakfast, then rest a bit while waiting for the next store to open. I'm completely worn out from this week.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Another entry from the "Pay attention while cooking" guide

I cheerfully whisked the water into the dried soup, then added the broccoli, and put the pan on to boil.

Then I started thinking about it. "Boil for 10 minutes." Hmm... It seems like this broccoli is going to cook an awfully long time...

SHIT!

"Bring to a roiling boil, then whisk in the soup mixture. Boil for ten minutes."

I
can only shake my head at this really dumb mistake. Now I have to go
back out and watch the pot very carefully, to see exactly when it will
boil, and hope I didn't totally destroy a whole pot of broccoli cheese
soup.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Whoops.

I was going to post after I got home from work at 9:15 PM. Yep. After 9.

Okay, so I went home to get my son, then filled the car up with gas, drove to my sister's house, chatted for a bit while picking up my camera charger, ran to Culver's, picked up supper, and went back to work to open the labs for someone at 6. Then, I trained lab monitors until almost 9:00.

I've been reading for about 45 minutes, and am almost ready to go to sleep. The problem lately is that if I am not completely sleepy when I crawl into bed, I will lie there awake for a long time, or never get into deep sleep at all. So, I try to avoid going to bed until I am exhausted, because I will sleep better.

So, I was going to post earlier about this winter storm that is headed our way.

Lots of snow, cold, wind, ice. Fun, fun, fun.

Nice weekend to pick for it. I actually have a party to go to on Saturday. Of course, it is probably going to have to be postponed, due to the weather (lots of people coming in from hours away). I should know better than to look forward to things by now.

Okay, I am cold enough, and tired enough to go to sleep now. Watch for more weather updates!!!

feelling dumb today

(even mispelled "feeling" at first)update, okay TWICE!

Banging my head against the wall right now trying to figure out why I can't login to the keyserver from a newly imaged machine... The lab machines work. All of them. Or people would be screaming at me.

So, it has to be a problem with either this machine in particular (which is bad), or all new installs of keyserver (which is worse).

Maybe chocolate will help... or Doritos... (this, folks, is why I am having a hard time losing weight lately)

hmmm...

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

stress

I am trying to relax, really, I am. I am allowing my son to skip religious ed tonight, because I can't stand the thought of leaving the house now that I am here.

My goals tonight:

• eat a decent dinner (um.. cheesy potatoes are at least vegetables... and there is dairy in there!)
• Relax
• do one load of laundry
• watch South Park
• go to bed at a decent time

If I can do some of those things, i will be a much happier person.

I'm going to get on with the relaxing while dinner is in the oven.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Fuzzy Slippers - check

I survived today.

I am finally home, and have on my pink and orange plaid p.j. bottoms, and my cow-jumped-over-the-moon fuzzy slippers on my feet.

In about 10 more minutes, I am going to take a bubble bath, and then read for a bit before going to sleep. I am just plain worn out.

Ahh... fuzzy slippers... make everything better...

You know it is going to be an interesting day when...

you couldn't get to sleep until well after 1:00 am, and it is the first day of classes.

I can still hardly open my eyes...

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Just got home from getting my ass kicked...

in StarCraft, that is. We had a LAN party tonight, and had a great time. My son did not want to leave, but at 12:30am, I insisted. I have lots of things to do tomorrow, not the least of which is reorganizing my office at work, and finishing installing some software.

Oh well, it's not like we do this every night... :)

Friday, January 05, 2007

Things I did today

or, "Why my back and legs hurt so damn much."

1. Could not sleep until 12:30 am.

2.Woke up at 6:45 am, showered, knocked the twelve-year-old out of bed,
moisturized my face (fat lot of good it will do), and finished getting
ready for work).

3. Made oatmeal in my commuter cup to take to work, because my stomach is still icky.

4. 7:25 am, out the door. TG for no frost!!!

5. 7:30-7:50, checked email while eating oatmeal. Answered email.

6. 8:00-11:30, cleaned the third lab. Dust, windex the tables, sweep under the tables. Had to quit with just two rows left to sweep under, as my back was killing me. Took a 10 minute break every
hour to check up on email and voice mail, plus set up the temp schedule
for next week.

7. 11:30 - noon, edited pricing sign, printed it
on the color printer, and noticed huge quality problem that I thought
had been taken care of. Calibrated the printer, no improvement, so
submitted a service request.

8. noon-1:15, ran to Wal-mart for various items for the lab, including huge-ass flowers to tape to the pens so we don't hemorrhage pens at the rate of 3 a day. Pink flowers, of course. ;)

9. 1:15-1:35, answer email and voice mail. Damn service number of the printer changed, so had to fill out a new service request. They'll be here Monday.

10. 1:35-2:15, finished cleaning third lab, including taking steel wool to the sink, because it got gross again. Moved all cleaning stuff to first lab.

11. 2:15-4:25, cleaned first and second labs, and ran radmind on the first lab machines to propagate the new Cinema4D r10. Answered email and phones, and straightened things up. Realized that there was no way to finish everything before having to pick up my son from DI. Will have to work Sunday. Ug.

12. 4:25-4:50, moved older Dells to better places in storage, so things looked nice. Got books and manuals ready for the give-away next week. Shut down all machines, pushed in chairs, and turned off lights (hey, that takes longer than you think with 80 workstations, even if only 40 were on).

13. Picked up my son. Oh crap, they got out at 4:30 today, not 5.

14. Got quarters for laundry (hahahaha, snuck that in there!)

15. Made dinner, ate, and did the dishes because the dishwasher was running already.

16. Sat on couch with heating pad and watched a movie with my son. Ouch.

17. Decided that if I want to get my corset done this week, I have to finish altering the pattern. BTW, tracing pattern pieces and altering them to fit is extremely time consuming, and has to be done while standing. I spent an hour and a half on this tonight, and an hour on Wednesday night. And it still may not work, due to the fact that the sizes I had to use were on two separate pattern size groups. Plus, all boning channels had to be redrawn for 3/8" boning as they were originally for 1/4" steel boning. I also had to shorten the pattern, because apparently, I am a mutant whose neck to waist measurement means I should be a size zero. Two and a half hours invested, and I haven't even cut a single piece of fabric yet. Tomorrow morning, I am going to cut and sew the mockup, fitting it to my... wait for it... DRESSMAKER'S DUMMY!!!! If it fits, it'll be a miracle, and I can start working on the real one. I am going to hand sew the lacing eyelets for the back, and use hooks and eyes for the front, so it can be worn even if my weight fluctuates a bit (like that ever happens, snork, snork...).

So, that's a synopsis of my boring, but busy day. So when I say that my back and legs ache, you'll know why. I'm going to go sit with the heating pad on my back for awhile...

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Still recovering

I am still trying to completely shake this stupid stomach bug. I have not been able to eat meat yet. Or rather, I tried a turkey sandwhich tonight, with all of three deli-thin slices of turkey and a piece of cheese, and it did not end well. I wish I had thrown up, as I probably would have felt better.

So, I spent all of the evening, from dinner until 10:15, curled up on my bed, trying not to move. I still don't feel all that great, but I ate some pretzels, and feel a bit better.

This is a problem, obviously. I have been eating mostly bread, and pastry-type foods, and I did eat homemade cheese pizza last night. I had bought steak for dinner tonight, but I decided to start out small, and thought a sandwich would be easier on my stomach.

I am sick of feeling crappy. I have things to do. I wish I had gotten this earlier, so I could gotten over it earlier, and at least have been more productive this week.

But, such is life...

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

A Twin Arrives

I went back to work today, even though I still felt crappy. I managed to get quite a bit done, and I feel a lot better about the start of classes of Monday.

Yesterday afternoon, in the haze of being sick, the phone rang. My dressform arrived early!!!! I picked it up after work, and assembled it when I got it home. Despite the fact that I feel like I am going to knock it over just looking at it, it seems like it will work okay.

However, I got a bit depressed when I measured myself in order to set the form. At this point, I am wondering if anything I made for this fall still fits. Ug.

I see a massive diet in my future...

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

ug

I had a dream last night that the ambulance had to come and get me, and take me to the hospital. As they were picking me up out of my bed, I was trying to show them that I really wasn't dehydrated, by doing that pinch thing on the back of my hand. Of course, I was, so it defeated the purpose, and they loaded me up anyway.

I woke up when the alarm went off, and still felt pretty crappy. The sharp lump that was at the back of my throat has mostly gone away. It kept me up past 3 am.

What I hate most about the stomach flu is that there is no warning whatsoever. Well, and the fact that you get hungry, but can't keep anything down. I had three sips of water last night, and it didn't work any of those times.

This sucks.

I think I ruptured something...

Stomach flu...

Warning: Too much information ahead!

There is nothing left in my stomach, and I feel like there is something stuck at the base of my throat. I have just had a couple of sips of water, because I don't want it to come back up. Please don't let me have what my niece had. Please don't let me have what my niece had. Please don't let me have what my niece had.

Great. Just great. Classes start in less than a week, and I have the stomach flu.

I guess I'll have to see how I feel tomorrow morning, to see if I can make it in to work long enough to at least grab the lab monitor schedules, so I can get the ad for new lab monitors posted by Wednesday. I knew I shouldn't have taken so much time off...

:(

Yuck.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Back to work

Last day of vacation...

I took my son to the movies today. We went to see Eragon. Both of us really liked the book, and as far as the movie goes, it's not much like the book.

We were discussing this after the movie, and here were the main points that we had problems with (caution: spoilers ahead. Deal with it, or skip this post).

1. The plot is almost unrecognizable from the book.

2. The casting person was almost certainly a very poor one, or picked actors while high. Don't get me wrong, there were some very good choices, namely Eragon, Brom, Arya, and Galbatorix, and the Shade. Some fine actors whose talents are underused. The rest might as well have been picked up off of the street and stuck into their costumes, but that's okay, because we never see any of these characters more than once, even if they are very important characters in the book.

3. No wait, it's not okay. I've see much better acting at a Renaissance Faire. In fact, pick some of us out, and we'd do a better job, and get the accent right. Two characters who are surely the relatives of the producers: Angela and Murtaugh. God, they suck.

4. This movie should have been about an hour longer. Seriously. This is one of the few movies I can say this about. This is important, and will be explained in the next few points.

5. Main characters whose names are only spoken once, if at all. The King of the Varda, we hear his name once. His daughter introduces herself, and that's it. The dwarf king is never introduced, nor does anyone mention that there are dwarves there at all. No conversation whatsoever to let you know who these people are, and why we should give a crap if they die. Murtaugh, name mentioned once. No one sticks around long enough for you to care about them. Angela is important in the book (not to mention about 20 years older, and a bit sweet on Brom, and not creepy at all), and we never see her again outside of the fishing village with about three huts in the movie. Which leads me to the next point.

6. Obviously, they didn't have a lot of money to spend on computer graphics or models. No Teirm. And the Varden lived in an underground city built by Dwarves, and was splendid and huge. Yes, special effects are quite good, and they really focused on key aspects and did them well. Saphira is very well done. This is more a situation where you can tell by the things that are missing, than any technical and artistic lack.

7. The costumes are quite nice, but why does Arya have native american symbols on her banners? From the rest of her garments and armor, she should have been more Celtic or Irish. This was at a scene at the end, and it just stuck out as being weird. (Note to self: check to see if Narnia had any of the same people working on it... just a suspicion...)

8. One weird note: we see exactly one woman in Eragon's village. And the village is actually relatively untouched by Galbatorix in the book. It is peaceful enough that they still have fairs and trading, and a romance between Eragon's cousin and the butcher's daughter. I kept thinking to myself, where are the women and children? I mean, there are no children in this movie at all...

Okay, enough griping. There are other problems I had with this movie, but these are the main ones. To sum things up: The screenplay just ripped the book to shreds, and is more Cliff's Notes than screenplay. You just never get to see enough of any character to really care about them.

And from listening to people as they left, I wasn't the only one disappointed.

Okay, I need to quit thinking about this, or it's going to tick me off even further. TG we went to the early matinee, so at least I didn't waste too much money on it...