Ripping out thousands of tiny stitches

It took about 45 minutes to rip out all of the stitches to remove the sleeves and side seams of my smock. I was very careful to mark what should be the right sleeve, and the right side of the smock, so that I don't make the same mistake twice.

And that is how I am ending my work day.

This week was incredibly stressful and chaotic. Between the weather, and events going on at work, I have never been so busy, and yet felt like I accomplished so little.

Every night, I have come home from work barely able to move. I have been up and down so many stairs, walked so many places, and moved lots of heavy stuff. Constantly aching legs and back.

For the rest of tonight, I am going to concentrate on things I enjoy. I am going to sew trim together. I am going to work on more pearl quadrilles for my bodice. I am going to watch funny movies. And as soon as 10 pm hits, I am going to sleep for a luxurious 10 hours. When I wake up, I'm making waffles for breakfast. I may even have ice cream with caramel on top of the waffles instead of syrup.

Sometimes the most simple things in life are the most appreciated.

I am getting so old...

I fell asleep on the couch at a little after 8:00 pm. It was such a stressful and busy day today that I just couldn't keep my eyes open. I wouldn't be awake right now, except for the fact that I needed to check to see if my son's school is cancelled tomorrow (yes). I got up to check the kcci site, as I kept dozing off while trying to watch the ticker at the bottom of the TV screen. There are about 255 cancellations for tonight and tomorrow, so you can imagine how long it takes to get through them all.

Very sleepy... I'm going to go back to bed...

Once again, staring out my window...

and having my whole post disappear!!!!!!

Dang it!!!!!

Okay - lots of snow, 7 to 12 more inches on the way, it sucks, and I wish i didn't have to go anywhere tomorrow.

And just how did I manage to sew the sleeves to the wrong sides?

Well, there's this little matter of the pattern piece not being marked as to which sleeve goes on which side of the smock.

Yes, my sleeves are on backwards. And I can tell - very weird fitting.

I am going to have to just deal with it for the weekend, then rip it apart and sew them on again. I am just going to zigzag the bottom, rather than hemming it, so it will be easier to take apart the sides and sleeves later. It's not like anyone is going to see the smock, except for the ruffled cuffs and the collar and smock above the low neck of my bodice.

Very pretty otherwise. It just fits awkwardly, because the instructions were not as clear as they should have been, and I couldn't tell anything was really wrong until I put it on.

What a pain...

Upgraded

Blizzard warning in effect from 6 am Thursday to 6 pm cst friday, Winter weather advisory is cancelled.
The NWS in des moines has issued a blizzard warning, which is in effect from 6 am Thursday to 6 pm cst friday. The winter weather advisory has been canceled. The blizzard watch is no longer in effect.
Temperatures will gradually warm through the early evening hours. While a mix of light rain and freezing drizzle is possible this evening it would be brief and will not warrant a winter weather advisory. As a result the winter weather advisory has been canceled. Although the winter weather threat has lessened for tonight, showers and even some thunderstorms are possible overnight into Thursday morning. Hail up to the size of nickels is possible over the far southern portions of the warning area. The precipitation will transition to snow during the morning hours and there may even be periods of thunderstorms with snow early. 4 to 7 inches is expected by late Thursday. In addition to the snow, a northwest wind will increase to 25 to 40 mph with gusts around 50 mph. The wind is expected to produce blizzard conditions through friday when the wind is finally expected to diminish.
A blizzard warning means severe winter weather conditions are expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong winds and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to whiteout conditions, making travel extremely dangerous. Do not travel. If you must, have a winter survival kit with you. If you get stranded, stay with your vehicle.

Loads of fun ahead, just loads.

More exciting than a brand new WWdN post...

Winter Storm Watch:

Issued at: 3:29 PM CST 2/27/07, expires at: 11:30 PM CST 2/27/07
Winter storm watch in effect from Wednesday morning through friday morning,
The NWS in des moines has issued a winter storm watch, which is in effect from Wednesday morning through friday morning.
Snow will likely develop across the region Wednesday morning, and mix with or change to freezing rain and sleet south of highway 3 by afternoon. There is the potential for ice accumulations of one quarter to one third inch near and south of highway 3 through wednesday evening. Snowfall through Wednesday evening will range between 1 and 4 inches, with the greatest amounts close to the minnesota border.
There will be a brief break in the precipitation Wednesday night before snow, heavy at times, and increasing wind develop across the region Thursday morning. It is very possible that much of northern iowa will experience near blizzard conditions Thursday afternoon and evening with west to northwest winds 15 to 25 mph and frequent gusts over 35 mph, causing near zero visibility and blowing and drifting snow. Preliminary storm total snowfall by Friday morning is 6 to 12 inches with locally higher amounts.
Although the snowfall will be lighter on Friday, continued strong west to northwest winds will cause considerable blowing and drifting snow.
A winter storm watch means there is a potential for significant snow, sleet, or ice accumulations that may impact travel. With the potential hazards of heavy ice and snow accumulations, compounded by increasing winds, additional power outages as the result of downed trees and power lines is a distinct possibility. Details of the storm will be refined over the next 24 to 48 hours. Continue to monitor the latest forecasts.

It would be very nice to not have this happen, but I am realistic.

More fun on the way...

Aches, pains, and a heck of a lot of work to do tonight.

My son did not have school today. Due to the precarious weather situation, he had to go to work with me today.

I got up at around 6, and hopped into the shower. I woke him up around 6:25, got breakfast, and finished getting ready. By 6:55 am, we were outside with the broom, trying to get the 10 inches of snow off of the car. Luckily, the doors opened reasonably well, except for the fact that the driver's side door will not open from the outside. I think it is well and truly broken.

By 7:20, we had the car cleared off, and the ice scraped. I am glad that I went out on Saturday and cleared the worst of the ice off, or we'd have had to have been out there even earlier. As it was, I started backing out, only to realize that, yes, the people who plowed the parking lot blocked everyone in. I was kicking snow and ice chunks, and was finally able to get the car out.

We went out for lunch, and the main roads were starting to get snow tracked back onto them from the side roads. By after work, the bottom of my car was hitting snow on Lincoln Way, which had been clear earlier in the day. We saw one car in the ditch near Hy-Vee, and another car nearly get stuck on the other side of the street.

Tonight, on the way to our meeting, as we were sitting at our stop sign, a car turned onto our street, went about 10 feet, and got stuck right in the street. Big mess. Lots of cars getting stuck in driveways and the side street intersections. Things just keep getting worse tonight.

Tons of tree limbs down, and some look like they could go any minute. There is part of an evergreen tree draped over a power line near the Wells Fargo right next to HyVee.

Work was very physical today, on top of the early morning snow moving. I barely sat down all day, and my back and legs are on fire. I have more sewing to do than I can believe, but the good news is that the telethon on Saturday doesn't start until around 9pm. That means I have five days and several hours to lose 9 pounds in order to fit more comfortably in my dress.

Oh, and guess who is going to also be at the telethon, besides the Sheriff Norbert Sookup?

Superman, Brandon Rouch. If he were several years older, my poor little heart wouldn't be able to take it...

Sigh.... time to get back to work... and time to run around the apartment building after all of the ice cream that I ate at the meeting tonight...

Woah.

Nothing like seeing a row of toppled high-voltage power towers.

Well, except maybe hearing the news that the line of toppled towers is over 20 miles long.

Seriously bad in the rural areas, in addition to towns.

This evening, as we were watching the last 15 minutes of Battlestar Galactica, my son turns to me and says, "Wouldn't you be pissed off if we lost power right now?" After choking on my margerita, and reminding him to not use that word, I agreed that yes, I would be upset, but I would get over it.

There are worse things than not getting to watch a favorite television show. If we lost power, the last thing on my mind would be TV. I'd be worried about keeping warm enough, and about the groceries in the refrigerator going bad, and wondering if the water would go off, too.

Thankfully, we've been lucky. I keep saying that, but if you were here, and saw how bad it is, you'd understand. Worst storm in close to twenty years.

Someone mentioned round two may be coming next weekend...

Still here

I'm actually quite surprised that we still have electricity. I was surprised that I got all of the laundry done, and we still had electricity. I fixed lunch, and we still had it. I took a nap, and we still had it.

After I woke up from my two-hour luxury nap, I checked out the KCCI site, and found out that nearly 300,000 customers in Iowa were without electricity. They are setting up emergency shelters, as it could be days before some people get power back. Poles snapped, trees on power lines, big, huge mess.

I keep saying: "We are lucky!"

Let's hope the luck holds out...

Can't sleep, lots of snow.

Sort of dozed off on the couch, then heard a big commotion outside. Some neighbors trying to get their cars into their garages. Took them awhile, and by the time they finished, I was awake.

Here is why they were having such problems:



Like I said earlier, this is supposed to go on through noon tomorrow.

Ice

I took this photo earlier, before the snow started. I tried to take another just a bit ago, but the screen door to my deck is now frozen shut.

The white stuff in this image is not snow - it is ice.



Interesting weather we are having...

Double-whew!

The ceremony I was supposed to go to tonight was cancelled.

This is good, as the snow is coming down in huge clumps right now, and is not supposed to stop until tomorrow. We are supposed to get a total of 7-13 inches.

Now I can relax with a good book, plan a nice dinner, and do absolutely nothing else (except sew), the rest of the day.

yay!

'Cross-town Trek

At around 11 am, I decided that I really had to get out of the house, and get two errands done. I needed quarters, and i needed to get a neckerchief and slide for a new scout (his ceremony is supposed to be tonight).

So, I put on my old coat (no use getting my good wool coat soaked), and slid out to the car to chip off the ice. I could see that the roads actually weren't bad, from the amount of traffic. It didn't take long to clear off the car, and get into it. The driver's door was frozen shut, so I had to crawl over the passenger seat.

Once on the road, it really wasn't bad yet. I've driven on worse.

I was able to get my errands done, and managed to not fall on the ice that coated all of downtown. I am home safe, and am just hoping that this ceremony gets postponed, because it is only going to get worse as the day goes on.

I'll post pictures of the ice later, if we still have internet and electricity.

Whew.

What the heck? This post disappeared. It was just a " TG I got my high-speed back!" post, but jeesh.

Oh, and the internet keeps dropping. It was out for over an hour, and just came back.

Lots of ice, lots of wind. Fun.

Weather update

Late last night, I saw that everything on the deck was covered in ice. I set the alarm on my battery powered alarm clock, so that I didn't oversleep this morning.

When I woke up this morning, things were worse, and reports were that traffic on the Interstate is down to a crawl, 10 mph. When I heard that, my first thought was, of course, "Oh Shit." My second thought was, "I forgot to get quarters for the laundry." Then, when I turned on my computer, I discovered that my high-speed internet was not working. Couldn't get an IP number. I am thinking that either the attenna on the roof is ice covered (probable, although it worked late last night), or the DHCP server at ICS needs a swift kick, or else they have no power. Luckily, I still have my work dail-up account (we are only charged if we use it, so it can sit idle until there is a need for it).

So, the power may go out. There is a part of me that is panicking that I can't do my laundry, even though we have enough clothes and towels. I also feel the need to start cooking a lot of food that we can eat cold later, if need be. My son, of course, thinks this is a huge holiday. I was just going through internet withdrawel, until I remembered this dail-up account.

It is raining now. I am hoping that it gets warm enough to melt some of that ice, so that I can get to the car wash for quarters. I can see traffic on the main road, now, and it seems almost normal. I may try to brave it here in a bit, providing I can even get into my car. I would at least like the option of doing laundry, and since we are supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow, we may be stuck here for awhile if I don't get out early today.

What a mess...

Busy day

After work, I went to pick up my son. We had to go to the grocery store, as the weather is supposed to get nasty tomorrow. I figured I'd save myself a trip, and get some kid-help while I was at it.

While we were in the store, it lightninged and hailed more. Everyone was talking about it. I was more concerned at that point with getting groceries, and my son was very occupied by the free samples. He discovered, after years of refusing even the smallest bite, that he likes apple pie (I was more adventurous, and tried the pineapple upside-down-pie - Heaven!). We did not buy any, however, as I have a dress to fit into a week from tomorrow.

Yes, a week from tomorrow. Variety Club telethon. Full-court dress.

After resting on the couch after dinner, I suddenly realized that this thing was only a week away, and I still hadn't finished the high-necked smock I needed to wear with my gown, nor had I stitched a single piece of trim to the bodice.

I worked an hour and forty-five minutes on the smock tonight. I managed to sew the underarm gores to the sleeves, the inner seam of the sleeves, and the gathering stitches for the wrists. I ironed the seam allowance on the cuff facing, and narrow-hemmed one of the cuff ruffles (TG for narrow-hem feet for sewing machines). This doesn't sound like much, but for the narrow hem, I had to press each edge to be hemmed 1/4 inch, then fold that in half and press 1/8 inch. This let me feed that edge through the narrow-hem foot. It took forever.

While I was working on the narrow hem, I realized that I was getting very, very sleepy. So, once I finished that one, I put my sewing stuff away, unplugged the iron, and decided to take a break.

(And it just hailed a little more...)

I am going to have to work really, really hard this weekend to get everything done around the house, and still be able to finish the smock, and get most of the work done on my gown. I have no wish to be up until past midnight every night this week.

How did I do this last summer? I worked a full day, five days a week, came home, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, then worked from 6:30 to midnight or later. Every day. Weekends, I did laundry Saturday morning, and spent the rest of the weekend sewing. Never slept past 8 am, never went to bed before midnight. Took breaks only to made meals and do chores.

Here I am tonight, having sewn for less than two hours, and I am exhausted. Happy, but exhausted.

Okay, it is lightning again. Time to unplug.

What a weird day...

Um... okay...

Folks, it is thundering, lightning, and it just hailed enough to get people out of their offices and classrooms to witness this nearly unknown February event.

Sometimes, I annoy even myself.

I just had another, "Oh Crap!" moment. I was supposed to send out a time-sensitive email. I forgot to do it until just a little bit ago.

I am trying to not forget stuff like this, but since I have been forgetting to do things while in the middle of doing them, it is no surprise that it happened.

To combat this forgetfullness, I have been trying to do most things immediately once I know I need to do them. I had fully intended to send out this email Monday night when we got home. Instead, I made and ate dinner, because I had felt sick to my stomach after work, and hadn't eaten since lunch. After dinner, all thoughts of this email had fled in the food-induced coma.

It is going to be an early night tonight...

What do you call a friend who gets a song stuck in your head?

E-Vil. Pure and simple E-Vil.

Okay, so it's not really evil, because I can't help smiling when I think about it, because of all of the good memories it brings back.

All for me grog

You can listen to it by clicking on the LoFi link on this site.

I can't believe that my son knows some of these lyrics, and will probably know more before the summer is over.

Now that my faire-nostalgia is at a peak (and yes, the smile is still on my face), I will leave you with this photo taken by a co-worker. I don't think I have shared this yet.

Pain

Work was very physical today. Yesterday, i was already feeling a bit of back and muscle pain. Tonight, my legs are on fire, and I can barely move.

This morning, we replaced backdrops in our photostudio. Lots of ladder climbing, and over-the-head lifting. Things weren't that heavy, just awkward. I also found out exactly how quickly a paper backdrop can unroll fully when the screws aren't tight enough. Whoops. I am sure that the look on my face was priceless. I managed to keep from swearing, but only barely. We carefully used the motor to gently roll up the backdrop. It did not tear or wrinkle much, so all is well. This, of course, was fixed after I climbed up the big ladder and tightened the screw better, and double-checked the others.

Lots of laser cutter training today. Lots of up-and-down stairs. And when I got home, I made a really nice dinner, standing mostly. Then I cleaned up dinner, and played Donkey Kong Country 3 on the super nintendo. After that, I worked on my smock from about 7:40 to about 9:00.

I should have been on the couch with a heating pad, obviously, as now I hurt worse than ever.

Did I get a lot done today? Yep. Will I be able to do as much tomorrow? Probably not.

I must be really, really out of shape, as opposed to just mildly out of shape. I have a long way to go before May...

Strained muscles

Somehow I strained my back, side, and shoulder muscles, particularly the ones under my right arm. It hurts.

Right when I got home tonight, I wasn't feeling particulary well, due to something I ate. I skipped dinner, and curled up in my bed until it was time to get ready to go to my meeting. My son grabbed a double-decker peanut butter sandwich for supper. I felt better after the meeting, so we used some of the leftover handburger buns to make mini-pizzas, since we were both pretty hungry.

Today was a headache day. Too much going on, not enough time to do it all. Story of my life.

Definitely early bedtime tonight.

Progress Report

I am still trying to dig out from being sick. It really has taken me until today to feel somewhat normal. I did not want to take a nap today! Yay! Instead, I ended up getting a lot done.

1. Woke up at 8:45 am. Late, I know, but I needed it.
2. Had breakfast. Strawberry Frosted Mini-wheats.
3. Wrote out the menus for the week, and the grocery list.
4. Bubble-bath.
5. Realized that I had a prescription that I needed to refill. Called it in, wouldn't be ready until after 2pm. Revised the plan to go get groceries before lunch.
6. Ate lunch early.
7. Read.
8. Played the Super Nintendo for a bit. No particular reason, really, just bored.
9. Started working on the collar part of my high-necked smock.
10. After sewing for an hour, realized it was 2, and time to go to the store.
11. Bought groceries, and actually kept to the list.
12. Washed the car, and got quarters for laundry.
13. Worked on smock until 5:30 pm
14. Made cheeseburgers and french fries for supper.*
15. cleaned up the mess.
16. Sorted laundry.
17. Did three loads of laundry, from wash to put away.
18. finished hand sewing the collar facing to the smock neck.
19. Watched BSG.

So, yes, boring day, but I actually got a lot accomplished. Washing the car was a major milestone, as it hasn't been warm enough to do that for weeks. Felt great!

Okay, time to try to get some sleep.

----

* This is officially the last week we are eating like this. I am going to have to go back to the severe low-sodium diet, as my blood pressure meds don't seem to be working as well lately. Yes, there was a change in the brand of my meds, but the dosage is the same, so it just has to be the sodium I am eating. Good-bye canned soup, and pretty much all pre-packaged foods. This is going to be very, very hard, but I can't let this get out of control. It is not as high as it was before I started the meds, but it is higher than I am used to. I am cutting my sodium intake to half of the daily recommended allowance. I am going to keep it under 1200 mg. For perspective: 1 serving of campbell's chicken noodle has 890mg of sodium. Canned veggies: green beans = 330 mg. 2 tbsp BBQ sauce = 240 mg. Bread... well, bread = 150 mg per slice. This is going to suck, but I will feel better. I am trying to ease into this, with our favorite foods for the first part of the week, tapering off into the low sodium foods later this week. This diet will mean that we will be eating mostly grilled foods, frozen veggies, and baked potatoes (my son's favorite). No fast food. Nothing tomato-based. Lots of bananas, for the potassium. I just have to focus on how good I am going to feel in a couple of weeks after the excess gets out of my system.

Sometime, even reading the instructions four times...

fails to stop me from making mistakes.

The collar to the high-necked smock was tricky. I ended up sewing the ruffle to the wrong piece of the collar, in addition to sewing it to the wrong SIDE of the collar. Funny, huh? Well, I also sewed the ties to the wrong side of the collar, and had to actually remove them. I was just going to sew them to the outside of the collar, but then decided, since there was on small area at the front inside of the collar that failed to match up exactly, that I will sew a ribbon around the base of the collar on the inside, leaving the edges long for a tie.

Whew.

And gathering the neck to attach it to the collar was another adventure.

Less than two weeks to go until the Variety Club thing, and it is a costumed event. Got to get this smock done, and finish the trim and beading of the red bodice.

Okay, BSG time, gotta run!

And why in the heck did Brit shave her head???

Definitely a "What was she thinking?" moment.

First Rehearsal

You have got to be kidding me. I just wrote out my entire character study, hit the Publish button, and it is GONE.

The ONE time I don't do a quick copy/paste for something I don't want to lose. Urg.

First Rehearsal

Snow Again

More snow this afternoon. It was enough to cover the windows in the short amount of time it took us to run into Hy-Vee, grab a $5 Friday Pizza, bread, new peanut butter, and diet Pepsi.

About the peanut butter...

Yes, we ended up having a half-eaten jar of the peanut putter that was recalled. Peter Pan is the brand. Yesterday morning, I grabbed the loaf of bread and the jar of peanut butter, so that I didn't have to leave work to get lunch (and it just sounded good).

So, I bring up a news site yesterday morning, and I see the lovely news that peanut butter was recalled. I grabbed the jar, and sure enough, I see the 2111 code. I threw it away, and then found out this morning that I could have brought it in for a refund. Oh well.

Tonight, when we went to the peanut butter section in the store, in place of the Peter Pan was the store brand peanut butter. Since I don't like the store brand, we bought a different type that we had tried when it was on sale. We don't like it as well as the Peter Pan (which I could eat straight from the jar), but it will do until they can get more. Obviously, their entire stock had to be returned to the company, and who knows when they will get more.

Quick Update

Just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive, and still personally contributing to the deforestation of the rainforest with my flagrant use of kleenex.

Sorry about that.

Still hanging on

Lots of tissue use, still. I am exhausted. I felt really sleepy all day today, and I had a headache. At work, I couldn't get warm. I basically was ready to go back to bed by noon.

Instead, I worked until quitting time, went home, made dinner, cleaned up the mess, then parked on the couch with a book. The plan was to rest awhile, then get up and work on the high-necked smock I have been trying to sew for over a week. Instead, I decided that I was too tired to work on it, since it requires very close attention to detail.

Early bedtime tonight. I obviously still need rest.

(gad, am I a broken record, or what?)

One down, four to go

Start of the work-week went okay, despite copious amounts of Puffs Plus with Lotion making its way to the wastepaper basket. I honestly do not know why there is anything left to get rid of, because you would think that four complete boxes of tissue since Thursday noon would be quite sufficient to help rid me of this phlegm (gross!).

I felt relatively decent today, despite the non-stop nose action, and the fact that I felt really wobbly for most of the day. Just kind of shaky, "off", if you will. I think it's because I spent so much time on the couch, unable to do much of anything.

Things accomplished today:

1. Groceries after work (snowstorm on the way, need bread and real food)
2. Made dinner
3. Cleaned up dinner
4. Did one load of laundry (jeans, with a few shirts thrown in)
5. Picked up misc. kleenex and stuff from the car floor
6. Went to a meeting

Snow on the way, but not started yet. Just a few days until Friday.

Waste of a Day

I am still feeling pretty wiped out, but my sinuses are feeling a lot better. Still have a headache, though.

As I am starting to feel better, I am also starting to feel worse because I can see from the state of the house that it does not look as good as I thought it did. I thought I did a pretty good job at keeping up with things, except for the laundry.

Nope. The kitchen counter was cleared off quite nicely, until I spent most of the day in bed. Beware of thirteen-year-olds and an unattended kitchen. I also have to see if we have any food left...

I was tired enough today that I propped myself up in bed and watched DVDs on my computer, starting at around 10. After lunch, I fell asleep, and just woke up at around 3:15. I do feel loads better than I did even when I first woke up this morning. Rest is really important if I am going to be able to get through tomorrow, and the rest of the week. We are really, really busy every night this week, so there will not be a lot of opportunities to just relax in the evenings. Unfortunatly, we really can't miss these events.

Which brings me to another point. I am going to have to reevaluate what we spend time on in the future. I am not the type of person who has to be doing things every night of the week in order to feel important, or worthy, or happy. I know a lot of people compete to see who has less free time, who never eats at home, whose kids are involved in more activities. Not me. I don't really care if we are home more evenings and weekends than not.

Unfortunately, life has a way of pushing me into things I maybe should have said "No" to, and then suddenly, we are out of the house four evenings out of the week, or more. This wouldn't be such as issue if there were another adult around the house to take care of those things that need to be taken care of. But, there isn't. It's all done by me, the big stuff on the weekends.

Normally, I don't whine about the things that any adult needs to do to take care of a home. It just has to be done. Laundry, cleaning out the refrigerator, paying bills, vacuuming, dusting, periodically shoveling out what needs to go. Things weren't perfect, just done. Now I am looking down at the end result of being sick for most of last week, and it doesn't look pretty.

List of things to do to get the house back to normal:

1. Clean out the refrigerator - partially done
2. Laundry
3. Empty dishwasher
4. Reload dishwasher
5. Sort laundry
6. Dust
7. Clean bathroom (just did on Thursday)
8. Take out garbage (this is what kids are for)
9. Straighten up end tables, coffee table, and everywhere else my son has dumped stuff when I wasn't watching this week.
10. check vacuum for blockages
11. try to vacuum, or else get out that nearly useless carpet flick thing that I bought in a moment of weakness. The vacuum is sort of working better, but is is still having problems picking up lint from my red blanket. I will have to get a new lint roller, and see if I can get that to work, or else crawl around on my hands and knees and pick it all up by myself. Yuck.

Not the worst list, I suppose. Okay, time to get to work. I am going to set my timer and take care of the dishwasher first. I can get the kitchen into shape fairly quickly, and go from there.

Okay, yet another post today. Gad, will she ever shut up?

I still feel like crap. I just watched Miss Congeniality 2, which at least made me laugh. Laughter is the key to feeling better. Mentally better, anyway. I can stand light a little better today, so at least I wasn't as bored today as I was yesterday.

Three doses of antibiotics out of the way, seventeen more to go. Tomorrow is going to have to be a complete rest day. I am exhausted.

Tell me again how you ended up learning to sword fight this afternoon?

I registered my son for a stage combat class that was held this afternoon. I fully inteded to just drop him off, go get some movies, do errands, etc. But, some of my friends were there from DMRF, so you know how that goes.

Then, I intended to just stay and watch, but they made me get up and do the exercises, and then the next thing I knew, I was learning stage combat. Go figure. Not easy to do when your sinuses are still swollen, and your head hurts.

I actually didn't feel too terribly bad for about the first hour. The last hour and a half were not great. Right now, I feel pretty damn bad, and am regretting participating. Even if it was fun. And I got to play Benvolio in a scene in Romeo and Juliet, but didn't get to fight. I love Shakespeare, but I always forget that until I am actually reading it aloud. Beautiful!

And my son rocked it, totally. He's good with a line, and decent with a sword.

We'll get him on a stage yet.

Further proof that the Intarweb is smaller than you think...

AtTheFaire.com

11:23 PM - TRON GUY lives... (posted by JohnPaul )
Years ago, I met Jay Maynard via renfest circles. He's helped bring show guides down from a printer in Minnesota to events in Iowa, and he, and friend Valentine Payne, have been great supporters of regional renaissance events such as the Siouxland Renaissance Festival in South Dakota.

A few years ago, Jay put together a TRON costume for a computer/sci-fi convention contest. He won, and by posting pictures of his costume creation process, he became one of those "internet phenomenoms" that pop up from time to time.

I had a comment left by a "Jay" on my Tron Guy post, which I wrote while giggling at the new PC/Mac/Linux pic WWdN posted yesterday, sinus pressure and all. This commentor told me to ask that Pirate Comedy Show guy about him. So, I clicky-ed (sorry, still sick, so I am going to be clicky-ing and otherwhat-ing all over the place) his post name to get the profile, and got a "not public profile" thingy, so therefore was in a muddle as to who this person was who wanted me to ask JP, who I won't see for at least another few weeks, providing he is also doing this telethony thingy. There are Jays who worked at the DMRF, but since I came in so late, I mostly just knew people as Phileeeeeep!, Little John, or ScurvyLocks, unless they were on the court (yeah, I know, weird, but 'tis the way it is).

Now, there are some thingy's going on for the Des Moines Ren-faire people next month (telethony thingy), and i was wondering if there was an update thingy on the atthefaire site, so I clicky-ed over there, and saw that there was a video montage thingy posted from the 16th. Sweet!

Then I scrolled down, and Jay became - hey Tron Guy posted at my site! Sweet! And he knows JP! Sweet! And he does Rennie things! Sweet! It all becomes clear now...

---Okay, I watched the Video Montage, and it brought a tear to my eye - not just because of the sinus infection... I can't wait for faire season!!!!!!



(I'm the Lady in the Big Red Dress.)

Morning

This morning I was rudely awakened by the phone. Wrong number. It was 8:45 am.

I tossed and turned all night last night. I slept on the couch, because I could elevate my head more. The sudafed did not even make a dent in how miserable I was (I keep using that word, but there really is no other word to describe sinus infection). Light hurt. Not just bright lights, but the light from the television, the light from the computer screen, room lights, even the light from my son's room, which was mostly blocked by the back of the couch, and by being around the corner and down a hall. Morning is better so far.

Driving last night was fun, that's for sure.

I know what you are saying: why did you go anywhere when you were feeling this miserable?

Well, yesterday evening, I had to pick my son up from school at 5. I also had a prescription to fill, and groceries to buy. I haven't done anything this week, because I've felt so crappy, so we were out of milk, food other than soup (If I ever see another bowl of soup again... ug), and paper towels. So, I struggled through that errand, then went and picked up my son.

I waited a few minutes for him to come out of the school. He was excited. "There's a party at school tonight at 6, can I go?" I couldn't say, "no, you have to stay at home because I really just want to take some sudafed and go to bed right now." So, at 5 minutes to 6, I dropped him off, and went home to rest until it was time to pick him up at 9, sudafed free.

He had a great time. Apparently, while he was watching a movie (they had movies, DDR, which he sucked at so bad because he kept laughing because he sucked so bad, Some Tony Hawk game that he rocked at - his words, and of couse, dancing, which only the eighth-graders actually did). Okay, as I was saying, while he was watching the movie, two girls came and sat by him, giggled and said, "Hi, ----." He has no idea who they are, or how they knew his name, but they sat by him during the movie.

And no, he did not dance. Maybe next year.

Okay, my sinuses are getting too painful to do this much longer. I am so bored from not being able to read, watch TV, or wander aimlessly online. I hope that the antibiotics start working really soon... It's another clear, very cold, beautiful day.

My laugh for the day (non-hysterical, that is)

PC/Mac/Linux

Note: For those of you who are unfamiliar with the guy in the white Tron costume, a.k.a. Tron Guy. This page explains how he put the costume together, and it's really pretty cool. Just keep scrolling....

Went to the doctor and the doctor said...

Sinus Infection.

Great.

I went to work this morning, but at around 8:30, I knew I was not going to last. I stuck it out until
around 10:30, the realized I was so miserable that I was babbling.

When I got home, I took off my mittens, put my keys on the kitchen counter,
and burst into tears. That is how glad I was to be home.

My doctor doesn't work on Fridays, so I had to get an appointment with a
doctor I didn't know. Couldn't get in until 3:10. I tried to sleep, but
I had to be awake between 1 and 2, because the apartment manager was
dropping off new keys for the security door (the locks are being
changed).

So, can't sleep, can't watch TV, can't handle any light.

Doc confirmed what I thought - definitely a sinus infection.

Antibiotics, hallelujah.

But it still sucks.

Magic Pill

I am serious, folks. If you know of anything that will fix this, please let me know (key is that I have high blood pressure, so cannot take most OTC cold remedies, except in small doses. As in ONE-half a dose of sudafed severe cold formula ONCE a day).

Let's get out the list of symptoms, in the order of appearance:

Sunday:

1. Scratchy throat
2. Fatigue

Monday:

3. Throat is worse
4. Congested
5. just a cold, stuffy nose

Tuesday:

6. Woke up with a severely sore throat
7. Check back of throat for bleeding, it hurts so bad
8. slight fever
9. headache
10. dry cough
11. Did I mention that my throat hurt?

Wednesday:

12. Still sore throat
13. still headache
14. started sneezing
15. Okay, runny nose, but feel overall much better. Fever is gone by noon.
16. By bed time, very tired and sleepy, have used a large amount of kleenex
17. Sinus problems.

Thursday:

16. Woke up after decent night's sleep
17. Went to work cheerfully, with a third of a box of kleenex
18. Realize I may have made a mistake going in to work when box of kleenex is gone before 11 am.
19. Massive sinus pain
20. Nose is raw
21. Head still hurts
22. Another half a box of kleenex is now gone
23. Sudafed is not helping
24. How much longer is this going to last?
25. Still coughing, too, btw

So, yeah. Feeling pretty crappy. I really should have stayed home again today. If I can just get through tomorrow...

The line between misery and not-so-miserable

I think I hit it, finally. I barely slept again last night, but at least the number of hours of sleep I got before waking up was greater than on Monday night (I woke up at 3:30am, and my throat was absolutely on fire).

I dozed a bit until the alarm went off, then took my temperature. It was still a bit higher than normal, so I ended up staying at home again. My throat was the same as yesterday (awful). I caught another hour of sleep, as today was a late-start day for my son.

And then, a little before 10, I was looking at the school calendar, and thinking that i really needed to get my calendar set up, as I have a bunch of things going on in the next month. So, I fired up iCal, printed out a calendar through the end of the year, and sat down with the school calendar to get the important dates written down.

About halfway through, I realized that I was actually able to concentrate, despite the fact that the sneezing had started. I finished the calendar, then cleared the coffee table of the mountain of kleenex and magazines. Small accomplishments, but a good pick-me-up.

So, despite the headache, slight fever, and sore throat that are still holding on, I am actually feeling like I might have turned the corner. And that's a good thing, because honestly, one more day of daytime programming... ugh.

Don't underestimate the power of Wild Cherry Luden's Throat Drops

Too bad I can't just eat them one right after the other.

My son had a band concert tonight. I knew this, it tickled at the back of my mind all day. These concerts are mandatory, and he had no ride other than me, so I had to suck it up, and go. Luckily, I sat next to friends, and hid behind a handkerchief all evening. Unluckily, the concert was an hour and a half long, and we had to be there 45 minutes before it started. I nearly emptied my Luden's box. Oh, and no food or drink in the auditorium.

By the time we got home, after a quick run to the store for cereal, bread, soft things for me to eat, and more Luden's it was after 9.

I am wiped out. I woke up this morning at 1:00 am! Could not get fully back to sleep at all. I also could not nap today, thanks to the Sudafed (if you don't try to go to sleep right away after taking the severe cold formula, you get wired). I had to force myself to stay on the couch, and couldn't even focus enough to read. So today really, really sucked, and now I am exhausted. Hopefully, I will be able to sleep tonight, and by tomorrow, maybe the pain in my throat will be better.

Cross your fingers. Good night!

Okay

Add fever and headache to the mix...

Sore throat, no voice, more snow

Staying home today. My throat is sore enough that it is physically hard to swallow, and my voice, what is left of it, sounds like Chef, from South Park. I also didn't sleep much past 1 am.

Yuck.

Oh, and it's snowing.

Adding Insult to Injury

Bad: Having this cold.

Worse: The Bears are behind, and playing a crappy game.

Please, please, let the Bears rally!

Superbowl!!!

Get thee to thy couch to watch the game!

If I could rouse my poor, sick self to watch this, you can too!

Commerical update will follow, if I am conscious enough afterwards. Sucks being sick, because I had bought Jose Cuervo Margaritas just for this...

Progress halted

I woke up early this morning (well, early for the weekend: 7:50), and was looking forward to an entire day of sewing, reading, and watching movies in the comfort of my apartment.

It wasn't too long before I realized that my throat was scratchy. Oh well, I thought, not too bad, feel great otherwise.

I started feeling really woozy while tracing off the pattern for the high-necked smock (which will have needle-lace on the collar and cuffs - early version of a ruff). So, I ate lunch, thinking I just needed food. After lunch, I finished tracing off the last two pieces of the pattern.

I am now very tired, achy, and this cold is really bad. I am ditching my plans to cut out this pattern today. I feel very crappy, and I don't want to risk ruining my fabric, since I need to get two smocks out of the ten yards that I have (very fine white cotton - big score: $1/yard). So, I am going to curl up, and try to read a bit, and wait for the sudafed to kick in. It'll probably knock me out for awhile, and there goes my Sunday.

Consequences of Cold Weather

Yesterday, I had to venture out into the cold. My son was invited to a friend's house, and I decided that I would go to the library to get movies and books so I could better enjoy this weekend. As we were just about to leave the house, I got a call from work about the lasercutter lens, so a stop at work ws also necessary.

The clock on the bank near the library also shows the current temperature. It was -2°F. I ran like crazy to get from the parking lot to the library, because it was so cold that it hurt to breathe. Same for work. Just too cold to linger, despite the sun.

This morning, my throat is scratchy, and my cold is worse. We are definitely not going anywhere today. I've got sewing to do, and a stack of movies and books from the library. My son has a million games to play, and on Sundays, Cartoon Network shows movies in the morning. And there is that whole Superbowl thing...

I think today is going to be pretty fun...

Boggles the mind

Wind Chill Advisory:

Issued at: 12:17 PM CST 2/3/07, expires at: 4:30 PM CST 2/3/07
Wind chill advisory remains in effect until 12 pm cst Monday.
Highs are expected to be no warmer than just above zero through early Monday. In many instances they will even remain sub-zero with highs only in the single digits below zero. This bitter cold in combination with varied speeds of west to northwest winds will keep wind chill indices in the 20 to 30 below zero range for an extended period, likely through Sunday night into early Monday morning. Wind chills may vary from 30 to 40 below zero at times closer to the Minnesota border.
A wind chill advisory means that very cold air and strong winds will combine to generate low wind chills. This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken. If you must venture outdoors, make sure you cover as much exposed skin as possible with multiple layers of clothing best to stay warm. Frostbite on exposed skin can occur in as few as 30 minutes when wind chills dip to under 20 below zero, and in 10 minutes when they reach 35 below or less.

And yes, folks, I saw people on campus today with just a sweatshirt, no hat, no gloves.

More cold. Get over it. It's Iowa.

This afternoon, I received a message that our outdoor activity for the weekend had been cancelled, due to the forecast for extremely cold and dangerous windchills.

I am not ashamed to admit that my spirits lifted enormously at the news, as I was dreading this weekend due to the expected temps. You might even say that I broke into a little dance, not because I didn't want to go camping. I just didn't want to go this weekend, if it was going to be so cold. Now it's a non-issue (except for calling very early tomorrow morning to cancel our cabin reservation, and make a new one, as they are only in the office between 7-8am).

Our high for Saturday is supposed to be 1°F. Our low, -4°F. By Sunday, our low will be -12°F. These are actual temperatures, not just wind chills. By tomorrow morning, our windchills will be in the -20's°F. By Saturday, they expect them to be between -25 and -35°F. In other words: Bad. Dangerous. All of next week will be pretty much the same, lots of negative numbers...

Okay, time to crawl into my nice, comfy bed, and get some sleep. I am just hoping this is not one of my bad nights. Thinking nice, peaceful, warm thoughts...

Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'

This morning, I realized that I had left my iBook in the truck of my car since leaving work yesterday. The temps were well below freezing last night.

I am writing this post on that same little iBook, after letting it acclimate to room temperature all morning. Still working, and we'll see how the battery holds up this afternoon.

This is one of the original white iBooks, released in May 2001. I bought it in October of 2001, after it had served it's early life as a floor model at our computer sales department. It has been through a lot, and just refuses to give up.

It's slid off of the car seat when I had a sudden stop, while it was on, BTW. No problem.

Dropping it about a foot onto the corner where the power jack is located merely broke something in the tray-load DVD drive, so that it won't stay shut without tape. Still works, though. Scary moment.

Somehow, though, the ethernet port decided to die. So it appears that this is the beginning of the end for this little workhorse. Well, it hasn't been my workhorse machine for a couple of years, but it holds my music and pictures very well, and is extremely useful when I have to go to the labs or studios to work on machines, or to hunt down rogue wireless base stations.

I love this little iBook, and hope it continues to work well for at least another couple of years.

And I promise I will try very hard not to leave it in the car overnight again...

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.

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.

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. :)

Cold

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!

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

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... :)

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.

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...

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...

More reasons to f---ing hate Windows

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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... :)

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...