Happy Halloween

Halloween on a Tuesday is kinda odd.  I know it can't always be on a weekend or Friday but I don't feel very ready.   Nobody at work is dressed up, I'm glad I brought my costume in a bag.  I didn't go all out at all, just hospital scrubs and a mask but they are still in the bag because I'm not going to be the only one.   Tonight I might dress up, might just wear a wig.  I have my bags and candles for luminaries and I bought two long lighters because I hate trying to light these with matches and if I depend on one lighter it is sure to break.   We got two bags of candy, hopefully that is enough.  Our area is pretty small and I don't think there are more then 20 kids under 15 living in our development so unless they drive in two bags should be enough.  

 

The bread last night was tasty.  Lars and I ate one of the little loaves and Lars said it wasn't sour enough to be called sour dough bread but I could taste it.   I need to get more regular sized bread pans if I intended on keeping up with this.  I also have to call Dad for his recipes...   Last night I got a lot of little things done but we didn't get grocery shopping so we are out of just about everything and I didn't get my homework done so between trick-or-treaters I'll be reading business law.

 

Anyone else dress up?

bread

Pre and Post oven

Pictures

I owe a few pictures, here are my Monkey curtans made from fabric my mom found. Isn't this awesome fabric.

fun afternoon

Today for an hour I got to test three different ATV's for comfort.  These are brand new and very nice and since it is 65 degrees and sunny out it was a great way to pass the time.  I'll end up doing a bit of work at home but that's ok.

 

Yesterday I started my first yeast bread, I went home at lunch to do step two and three and hopefully tonight I can cook it and it will taste like bread.   In the efforts of eating healthier stuff, fresh bread chemical free should be better for us.  Unless I messed it up, then store bought bread might be safer.   My first problem is I could not get the 4^th cup of flour to mix in so it has about 3.3 cups.  My second problem is finding a place that is warm for rising... we have vent heat so no handy radiator for it to sit on.   So from the bread makers, is sun good or bad for dough?  How about starter, does it need light?  I don't want to poison us with mold.

 

Ok, time to go home and get going on home projects.  I'll alert the media if I make passing fair bread.

Weekend Review

I had a wonderful no plans, no travel weekend.  We started out with our regular trip to T&K's where we saw their cute kids and the baby is at least twice the size she started and still looks a lot like T.   Saturday we slept in until 8 and then I played a mindless computer game, cake mania for hours.  I started out with the trial version from Pogo but you can only play that for an hour before you have to buy the game for $20.   I looked around the internet and found that shockwave, for a small fee, lets you play cake mania plus a ton of other silly yet fun mindless games for unlimited time.   So I was frivolous with that for awhile while I was doing laundry.  Lars and I went out shopping in Maplewood and we got some stuff at Jo-Anns for Halloween, Lars picked out a big rubber ugly rat.   After that we went to appliancesmart to look at refrigerators for when ours eventually dies.  We have decided we want a white one, with the freezer on the bottom, no door icemaker (because we seldom use ice and it takes up a ton of room), and we want the type that has two refrigerator doors.   They run in the $900 range so we can be ready to buy when this one dies.  After that we went to the regular mall to pick up a few things and we ended up at Games By James with a new game.   We went over to the neighbors and played until way to late and celebrated daylight savings time with them.

 

Sunday I did Halloween decorations and cleaned a bunch and then went to G2 to go to SR Harris.   I got a great piece of white leather I'm going to make into a wrack for Lars and I got everything I need for Ambrose's gift.  This week I need to start sewing and since I've finished all the miscellaneous winterizing tasks like plasticing the windows and turning off the outside faucets I can get going on inside stuff.   I, as always, have homework to do and cake mania is calling my name....

 

Work promises to be fun again this week, I'll be running around all tomorrow and in training most of Wednesday so nothing better go wrong.

Sorry I'm late

I'm falling down on my posts, I almost missed today, Mule Day.

 

Work was/is crazy.  I had an 8am design review followed almost immediately by a conference call and then another meeting right after lunch.   I finally have time now to get a look at my e-mail and I am very behind on my weekly maintenance stuff because of the big stupid project that fell in our lap that took all extra time.

 

Thanks for the weekend updates, it is really fun to get comments J  I'm still undecided on weekend plans but they will include a trip to SR Harris with G2 and decorating for Halloween.  

 

I have nothing fun to say about Mule Day other then I can't believe Mules' get their own holiday.   I don't think I have ever seen a real mule but I did wear mule shoes yesterday. 

 

Tonight I am going up to T&K as usual, I'm hoping that before I go I can take a run or something.   The weather here is so nice, sunny, 65 and clear.  I'll probably end up just finishing the leaf mulching, the last tree finally dropped it's leaves yesterday, but it will be nice to be outside enjoying the day.   Yesterday we got cable and I spent an hour plus canceling our direct TV.  I am very glad to be rid of them, hopefully now we can watch tv when it rains.   The only bad thing is our TiVo only records one channel at a time and that sucks since we are very used to the dual tuner.  It does have all the other nice tivo features and this one can burn dvd's so we could save things if we want to.   I'll have to read the manual this weekend sometime.

 

Tomorrow is an actual 'national' day, it is Navy day so I'm sending an E-card to my Navy friend in England.   I bet they do all sorts of fun stuff to celebrate. 

Good test results

In class last night the teacher said that he was intending to put a curve on the exam but (as always) someone was a curve buster.   He only graded half the tests because he had technical difficulties...  He was not there last week and he had asked the university to collect the exams and photocopy them and send them to his office.   They agreed but when they sent them he only got the fronts of the paper so anyone who wrote on both sides of the paper the other side was just missing.   I e-mailed mine in so he had it but I understand that it is kinda hard to make a curve when you can't grade all the tests.  Anyway, he said that for the essays he only wrote a grade down if you got a 10, otherwise he was still thinking, and there was one person, the curve wrecker, that got all 10's on the essays.   He handed back the tests and I didn't even look at the essays because I was distracted by the questions I got wrong because there are 3 I need to argue about but when I did look at the essays there were 5 +10's so I guess I got the A.   I did work hard and study and come prepared so I'm glad he liked my answers.  There was one guy who finished the exam a whole hour early, I am very nosy about what his grade is because he obviously didn't get all 10s on his essays but he is a smart guy so I'm sure he did fine.   The teacher was slightly miffed that anyone finished an hour early so I don't know how that will color his grading.  I finished about 2 min before the end and I was worried about the last essay because I had to cut it a little short.

 

Lars got sushi for us for dinner, and fancy raspberry desserts.  We watched fun tv and I fell asleep half way through battlestar but he didn't delete it so I'll watch tonight.   Today we are getting cable so we don't have to worry about when it rains or is too misty out or whatever makes the dish randomly not work.  The downside is that the Tivo (real brand name Tivo) won't be in today so I'm not positive the direct tv tivo knockoff will still work for the week between.   We might have to watch TV on a regular schedule with no pausing!  We will survive I'm sure.

 

No firm weekend plans yet but November looks busy.  Anyone else have good weekend plans?

We went to fight practice last night.  We go every few weeks and last time I went there was nobody to talk to. This time I decided I would bring my homework and there are tons of people to talk to!   I only got 1 chapter out of 3 read so I guess I know what I'm doing at lunch today.  Today I am trying to solve the work problems of yesterday... I am at the offsite office so I won't be bothered too much and I'll have time to make lists etc.   I have plenty of other work too but this is serious enough (and nobody else is doing it) that I'll give it a try.

 

Plans for this weekend are in flux.  Personally I was going to decorate for Halloween, do some house stuff, and maybe start a new dress for me.   Lars is thinking about an event but I'm not sure what one.  I might stay home and let the guys go alone, I need an SCA break for a week.   I am also making a cool outfit for Ambrose who helped us out a ton, I need to go find fabric for that so there is likely a trip to SR  - anyone want to come?   While I'm there I want to pick up fabric for curtains for the down down stairs doorways that have no doors.  My long term plan was Shoji screens but that hasn't happened and I can make drapes in about an hour.

Happy UN Day

An hour left of work and I have had an emotional roller coaster day.  Mostly shades of anger and disbelief at stupidity displayed.   There was a few nice wins so it balances out. 

 

So Model UN.  Our international studies class got invited my Junior year in college and we were assigned to represent Canada.  The conference was held in NYC at a cool old hotel and we were broken up into UN subcommittees and I ended up on the Nuclear technology group.   We had to make resolutions and follow all the UN procedure and I met students from all over the US and a bunch of international universities too.  The US was represented by a German school and a very short black guy from South Africa was the Honorable Representative from Sweden.  I think the organizers had a sense of humor.  The first day we sat in on a UN meeting and toured the facility and later in the day we met with the delegation from the country we were representing.   Canada was not exactly exciting but know a lot about Canadian economics and nuclear ideology has helped me out later in life.  It was an intense seminar, we all stayed up too late drafting resolutions and negotiating back and forth but it was very memorable.     I kept in touch with a few of the other kids for a while but not that long.

 

The more interesting side of the story was how much I absolutely hated the teacher in charge of this class.   She was very Afrocentric and for a class entitled American international affairs, she basically taught that the US was evil and did nothing but harm the rest of the world.  True or not, she did not even touch the fundamentals that we were supposed to be learning.  Her opinions were so liberal it hurt and she would not listen to any other opinion or even facts.   We were hostages twice a week....  She got it in her head that we should do this model UN and she actually harassed the administration to give us the money to do it.   The school paid for our fees, travel up there, hotel and we had to pay for food.  I drove up myself but apparently on the bus trip she slipped and fell and re-injured her hip.   By the time she got up to NYC she decided she had to go to the hospital.  At the hospital they decided she had a massive infection that had been there for a long time.   In the end, she never came back to school and died later that year.  The rest of the class was taught by my favorite teacher and he was amazed at what we had not been taught yet.   Ended quite well for me and very badly for her. 

 

So that is what UN day reminds me of;  a cool seminar, a bunch of smart people I met, and the demise of my least favorite teacher (yes, I even hated her more then Mrs Matulia)

Tuesday

I am torn between writing two different things.

 

#1. It is UN Day, and I really like the UN and I had a great time in college doing the model UN (we represented Canada) and I could write a nice cheerful post all about it

 

#2.  I'm in a bad work mood.  Someone did something dumb that creates a ton of work for very little gain and the best part is that this person hid it from all of us and so it was a fun surprise yesterday afternoon.   The mood carried to this morning when they tried to defend the decision (poorly).

 

For the first thing you may be amused but I'm really in too mad a mood to do the fun UN trip justice.   For the second, if I wrote more then this it might get me in trouble and it wouldn't help anything.

 

I think I'm going to do my other work and maybe get a nice big chocolate coffee (24 oz cup; 1 package of hot chocolate, apx 2 tablespoons of nondairy creamer, 1 tbs sugar, half the cup coffee, other half decaf, and a splash of water)

 

I can update on the shrink wrap the house project.  I am down to the down down stairs patio door and the windows in the spare bedrooms.   All other windows and doors are done.  I didn't get to make my draft dodgers because I left the huge bag of rice in the car Lars took to practice.   Yesterday I also cleaned our room, and the closet room, and the livingroom, and did the dishes.  Tonight I need to do homework and hopefully finish winterizing the house.   Patio furniture needs to come in and hoses need to be turned off and the last pile of leaves needs to be munched.  I feel better for ignoring the work problem, maybe there will be a UN post later today....

Weekend in Review

No posts this weekend, I was a dervish of activity.

 

Friday night we both went to see T&K and out to eat at the German place with other friends.   German food was ok, the restaurant itself was impressive with a very realistic beer hall look – rough stone, handmade door with ancient looking iron work.  The real oddity is that it had a light plumb ceiling (almost mauve) and since I have never seen a real beer hall I don't know if that is right or not.   The only bad part was that we didn't get there until 9ish so I was not really too hungry since I ate a yogurt and a chunk of cinnamon bread before we left.   We had a good time all in all and got home at 12:30 and I forced myself to sleep so I could get up super early to go to the even.

 

The event was good enough.  I would have been 100% board if G2 and other fun people weren't there to talk to.   Dinner (off site) was the best part because it was a fun social time and the drive home was nice and short for an event and we rolled in about 10.  Sunday I used the leaf blower/mulcher and I finished the front yard Lars started and did 90% of the back yard.  The machine was very useful and not quite as quick as I hoped but the annoying thing was that it's bag got full too quickly.   About ¼ of the time out there was emptying and reattaching the bag.  I'm not sure how to be more efficient at it but it took all the daylight.   Once it was getting dark I started doing the window coverings.  I got the upstairs done and this afternoon I should be able to finish the other floors.   I also want to make a draft catcher for the big patio doors.  I looked at them in the store and the best price I found was $10 for a standard door so I spent $5 on a huge bag of cheap rice and I know I have enough fabric and I think I am capable of making long tubes to put rice in for the 3 French doors.   I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow and now it is Monday.

I had a really strange dream.  I dreamt that I had three kids but my oldest was 13ish and the youngest was 2 but I was exactly the same as I am now and just woke up to a bunch of kids needing to get ready for school.   Lars was helping and kept looking at me like I was crazy because I had no idea what was going on.  I'm pretty glad I woke up because it was like the move Family Man and fairly disturbing.

 

I was still sorta out of it but got ready for work and was ahead of schedule and I opened the door and saw our neighbor's dog sleeping in their driveway.   This dog is not allowed to roam and her paws were all muddy so she must have been out all night.  I called the neighbors but they usually don't wake up until about 9 so I spent about 10 min first wondering what I should do, then calling and then ringing the bell.   I was about to go look for their garage code when the neighbor opened the door and looked very surprised to find the dog outside with me. I don't know if I really should have put so much effort into getting her back into the house but I thought the neighbors would be upset if they couldn't find her and as soon as she saw me she ran across the street so I had no grantee she would not start chasing cars for fun.   So my weird morning got more weird but now it is just about an average Friday. ( I have 7 hours to go and I'm not super motivated but I'm sure I'll get something done.   )

 

As always, I have a very long list of household chores to do.  Nothing actually got done over the past two days...   Top of the list at this point is to take all the straws off the lawn, they have caused enough trouble J  I am hoping to do all the windows on Sunday and to burn a bunch of cardboard from our patio furniture box and generally get the garage ready to park cars in again.   Oh yeah, and we need to call someone about the garage door opener, I think it's been almost a year now....  Event tomorrow but it is local so I might even get some stuff done Sat night.

cats

I am not a big fan of posting links to funny stuff but this is great;

http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/cats/cats.htm

I realy wanted to put it in Renal Failure  but he only allows friends to post....  8K, maybe you can pass it on.

The Test is Done

I think my teacher played a mean trick on me.  He has quite the sense of humor and I can see him thinking this would be funny...   About a month before the class I e-mailed him to ask what book he was using and when he told me I went to Amazon and bought it.  Two weeks later he said that the book he told me was not unavailable to the bookstore so he was going to use the new addition but he didn't think much could be different.   In the end, about half the cases in the text are different ...  So fast forward to the night we are talking about the test and I ask if the cases will be on it.   He says "the cases we spent so much time on?  What do you think?"  So I asked if there was a list of the cases and he let me borrow his book for the week.   Now doesn't that say study the cases to you???  Yesterday on the test there were ZERO questions about any case.   In the 5 essay questions I threw in an applicable case because I would not be denied.  I suppose it was a good exercise in the end.  I took the whole 3 hours, there were 60 T/F or multiple choices and they took me exactly an hour and the other two hours were divided between 5 essays.   I left feeing confident that I had caught most of his traps but I'm sure I didn't get 100.

 

I got home and ate a tasty sandwich and Lars and I watched the season finale of Project Runway.   I am so glad the spoiler I read was wrong because the designer we both liked best won.  There was drama and everything.  They implied in the last show they were going to kick off one of the final designers for having help on his final collection and it was very cool that they did not (and it also made good tv).  

 

Tonight I'm going over to G2 to talk reign stuff and Friday night I'm either going to T&K or out to eat with other friends and Saturday I am back on the event circuit J  So much for taking it easy.

 

Today is reflect on your life day and I might participate, might not, definitely not in this post.

So,  anyone want to know about contract law?  I'm not an expert but I've briefed 33 cases so far and defined 161 words/concepts.  I've been doing this for 10 hours over the past two evenings and I'm going to sink 2 more today into the last two chapters.   It is interesting so I'm not really complaining but it really does eat up a lot of time. The only perk to studying is that Lars will do most things I ask because I'm buried under the laptop, three text books, and a notebook.   Last night he brought dinner, milk, 2 glasses of water, and a small bowel of ice-cream.  He also took most of the dishes away too J  I appreciate his help, he even turned the sound down on his game and when I quit for the night at 11 he came and watched tv with me.

 

Speaking of tv, a lot of shows we liked last year seem to be gone.  Anyone know the fate of Medium?   Or Joey?  The Apprentice?  I think there are others but they are not coming to mind.   It might just be my direct tv box, it is inferior to Tivo.  It can't figure out alternate channels or times for things and it also won't tape a 2 hour premier, it cuts off after the standard show length.  It is also much much slower to move between screens when programming and it is really hard to FF and stop on time.  On the list of things to do is change from direct tv to cable and get a real Tivo.

 

Back to work and at lunch I'm studying so this might be it for today...

365+ reasons to party

I found a fun  website today; http://holidayinsights.com .  I don't think I'll be celebrating all of these but what a fun list!  I can't believe I missed world egg day, eggs are my favorite.... meat?   I'm not even positive what food stuff an egg counts as but since the date has passed I am not going to spend too much time looking into it.  My favorite egg dish is Eggs Benedict, very good tasting (but not good for you).  Poached eggs are awesome especially if you put vinager in your boiling water they taste tangy.  I am going to add these to my google calendar so feel free to celebrate with me J

13 World Egg Day

14 Be Bald and Free Day

14 National Dessert Day - take an extra helping

15 Cane Safety Day

16 Bosses Day

16 Dictionary Day

17 Wear Something Gaudy Day

18 No Beard Day    

19 Evaluate Your Life Day

20 Brandied Fruit Day    

21 Count Your Buttons Day

22 National Nut Day

21  Sweetest Day Third Saturday of month

22  Mother-In-Law Day - fourth Sunday in October

23 National Mole Day

23 Tv Talk Show Host Day

24 United Nations Day    
     National Bologna Day

25 Punk for a Day Day

25 World Pasta Day

26 Mule Day

27 National Tell a Story Day - in Scotland and the U.K.

27 Navy Day

28 Plush Animal Lover's Day    

29 Hermit Day

28 Make a Difference Day -  fourth Saturday of the month, an opportunity for neighbors to help neighbors.

29 National Frankenstein Day

30 National Candy Corn Day

30 Mischief Night

31 Carve a Pumpkin Day - no surprise here

31 Halloween

31 Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

Mouse incident

A long time ago I got over the fact that our cats insist on leaving dead mice for us.  Usually Lars takes care of the remains and sometime MR Pink (the cat) takes care of 99% of the remains and just leaves us some tiny organs.  I would prefer to not ever see it but at least we are confident a mouse will never live in our house.   Last night was on the warm side but it was drizzling and when I heard a loud insistent meow to be let in by Pink I decided not to make him wait and went down and opened the door.   He dropped a mouse on the doorstep and sauntered over to his cat food.  Doocie, the kitten, noticed that the mouse was not dead so she ran past me and promptly picked it up and brought it in.   It was a good thing the mouse was pretty stunned because I really did not want a mouse hunt thought the house.  I picked it up by the tail and threw it out the back door.   Poor thing hit the rail of the deck and was still alive.  The cats were after it again so I had to touch the mouse (again!) and throw it out into the yard.   It was a pretty cute fat little mouse with a lot of fur, I feel bad my cats hunt such cute things.  Anyway, Mr. Pink finishes his snack and goes to look for his mouse and give me a dirty look for messing with it.   He then stayed out until about midnight, probably terrorizing the mouse community.

 

Other then that I outlined 5 chapters and have 6 to go

Places I have visited

I need to get going on the Western half of the US...



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

small joys

In my months off from blogging I would compose posts in my head sometimes.  One is about the great feeling of a clean bathroom I did not have to clean.   We have way more men then women at the workplace but we have an equal number of bathrooms.  It is so nice to walk in and the automatic lights go on, meaning nobody has been in there for atleast ½ an hour, then to see all the toilets with the seats up, meaning they are freshly cleaned and nobody has used them yet.   Not exactly a big thing in the world but it is still a bright spot for me somedays.

LAL (laugh at Lars)

Lars just called and asked if I saw all the straws on our lawn and how did they get there.  He followed up with "what are crocuses?"   I promise, I have told him about this, he was with me when I bought the bulbs, he even came outside multiple times yesterday while I was planting.   I suppose not noticing for 24 hours isn't too bad.  I will bet anyone that when the bloom he will either not notice them or ask how they got there.  

Monday

I woke up for my normal 7am conference call to be the only one for the first 10 min.   Eventually someone else from the workplace called in too but without the supplier it really did not do much good.  On the positive side my normally 3 hour staff meeting was cut to one hour because of a schedule conflict for our director so I have more actual work time today.  

 

Apparently gardening is exercise because a whole bunch of muscles feel worked out.  Nothing actually hurts but I'm glad I didn't waste time on a traditional workout yesterday.  Last night/this morning it poured rain so my grubs should be extra dead and the bone meal I sprinkled in there will be dispersed nicely.   The rain is a setback in my leaf clearing task.  I bought a leaf vacuum that mulches on sale at Menards and I was hoping to use it this afternoon but I don't think wet leaves would mulch too well.   We only have two tiny trees on our property but our neighbor to the left lives in a forest and due to some unfavorable winds, all their dead leaves are in our backyard.   For a while I thought about throwing them all over the fence again but I think that would take as much efforts as removing and disposing of them properly. 

 

I also bought all the plastic for windows so that is now a project for this week.  Maybe I'll study one chapter, plastic one window, study next chapter etc.  It is an open resource exam, the only things we can't do is call a real lawyer or talk to each other so studying will mostly mean making concise reference cards so I can access the info fast.   We can also type our test so that is way easier then having good handwriting for three hours or avoiding words I don't know how to spell. 

 

Last, another SCA person died suddenly, Baron Sir Tristen (east).  He was never my favorite person but he was always a good guy to Lars and Bloodguard and I think he did his best.   I still feel worse and more connected to Wolf but this is sad and sudden too.

Garden good news bad news

I'm digging up my flower bed because someone told me to divide my tulips.

Good news, almost every bulb had 2-3 babies :)
Bad news, I've found 4 bulbs full of grubs and tons of grubs in the soil.

I'm pulling out all the good bulbs and I'm going to treat the ground with grub killer and then replanted them all. I also got all my crocus planted, I used drinking straws to mark where they are so I could make a 'random' pattern. I tried to just toss them out and plant them where they fell but they are tiny and the same color as leaves so I would toss then have to play find the bulb. Some lucky squirrel will get a few that I could not find... I even planted a dozen in my across the street neighbors flower bed so she will get a little surprise in the spring.

8K writes

This is fiction and it is really good. http://photofiction.blogspot.com/

Get going on the next section you lazy girl!!!

Good Crown News

It was a not so bad 4 hour drive there and back yesterday. The event site had a big snow storm the night before so I'm glad we missed that but all the streetsigns were covered in snow from the direction we were driving so I sat backward (I wasn't driving) to read signs as we passed them.

The site was a good size, the changing rooms were locker rooms so that was good too. All my friends were nervous and I got some second hand nerves from them too. Finally at the end of the 3 hour (felt like 10) tournment Hroder won for Giulia!!! People kept asking if it was my turn to be her chamberlain, since she was mine, but nope - Sb is doing it and I am company and friend. I'm sure I'll be pitching in plenty since Sb needs to finish constructing her house soon.

Today the weather is nice so I am off to plant tulips and crocus and trim some trees. Then I will be studying for a midterm.

Exciting Thursday night

I did just about nothing yesterday.  I went home all ready to do stuff and ended up not doing much at all.   I got the laundry done, I tidied the kitchen, and I made dinner.  Dinner was good despite taking forever to thaw the chicken.   Our favorite butcher usually packs the meat in little bundles that are meal size for two, one double chicken breast, 1 pound of ground beef, two t-bone steaks, etc.  For some reason this time they went for 2 double chicken breast in one package that we froze without noticing, so to defrost takes 14 min rather then 6 and I had to cook the other half anyway because it was already thawed out.   It delayed dinner about 15 min but who wants raw chicken...  I ended up falling asleep in the middle of Battle Star Glactica so hopefully Lars kept that one (even though it was old).

 

This weekend is stress free crown J  We are not fighting, just watching, so I need to pack but nobody will care what we wear.   I'm going to bring our nice chairs since we will have room because we won't have thrones in the car.  I don't think I'm going to bother with a rug or anything else, just munchies, garb, and chairs.   We are leaving at 5:30 am to get there and hope to leave either right before or right after court (depending on who wins).  I finished the Who's Who yesterday and I'm running off 25 copies at a time.   This year there is a crossword puzzle and the answers are all the names of the combatants and consorts so hopefully people like it.  I didn't have space to make the list tree so I printed it on a separate piece and it will be an insert.   Hope to get it all folded and inserts inserted tonight at T&K's.  I'm only making 100 this year because I doubt I will sell more and I'm tired of having too many leftover like other years.   If anyone wants one after they are sold out I'll email it to them.

 

I hear the weather is supposed to be nicer this weekend so I am going to plant bulbs and get the house winterized on Sunday.  

Busy busy day yesterday.  I had to both work at work and do homework so I didn't even get to read any blogs much less write one yesterday.   I got the homework done and the work done but it was like a 40 mile sprint.  I should have had my homework done the day before but I got home from looking at appliances and visiting a friend and eating dinner and I was so tired I fell asleep at 10pm.   Last night I got home at 10 and was not tired right away but by 11 I was sleeping.  Today I need to do the Who's who for crown, it will be a quick job and I'll run off 100 copies at work.   I'm going to try and do a crossword puzzle too with everyone's names if I have a chance.

 

Today or tomorrow of Sunday Lars and I need to winterize the house.  Bring in patio furniture, put up plastic on windows, and fix the garage door opener.   The opener has been broken for almost a year and we tried to fix it but we made it worse.  Last winter we just manually opened and shut the door and all summer we parked in the driveway but I think we need to just get it fixed already.   This morning I had to scrape lots of frost off my windows and it was not fun.

 

Nothing else interesting going on, didn't even eat anything fun or see any crazy drivers in the past few days.   I think people are going into hibernation.... 

Three cats in the car
Zero cats like the car

Took one cat at a time into vet to avoid creating scared mean cats and it seemed to work. Everyone got their shots just fine and they were declared in perfect health and perfect weights. Doocie actually ignored the vet while getting her shots and Pink decided to play possum and just sat frozen. All cats are home again and none seem too upset by the experience.

We also called a repair guy on the refrigerator and he says one of the springs that holds the compressor is shot and it isn't worth replacing so we are pricing new ones and will wait for either failure or sale to replace.:

Fun x3

Is it easier to take three cats to the vet in one trip? or three trips to the vet with one cat at a time?  Today we are going to see how 3 cats in one car work, we are both going so it will be 3v3 (counting the vet).  Hope for the best.

 

After we are going to go look at refrigerators, ours still makes a large suspicious sound so we want to be prepared for its eventual demise.

10/10

Short week for me since I 'didn't work' yesterday so I'm playing catch up.  Funny thing is I worked on Friday and Monday and if I had not I would not be able to catch up by next week with all the issues going on.  

 

The wedding was nice.  The best part was seeing a friend actually get married, I felt like I was watching the season finale on a tv show.   Seeing everyone all together was nice too although if I had visited on a non wedding weekend it would have been less busy and stressful but on the other hand I saw people I would not normal see when I visit so you win some you loose some.   This was also the first wedding that I have attended that I was not a part of in some way;  Sister 2 had an at home wedding and all hands on deck and I was the witness, friends B&L in Pa I was in the wedding, helped plan with her since I lived close, I did the bouquets and on the day of I did all the little things she needed because her MoH was her sister who was taking care of parents and family.   H&K's wedding I was less involved but I listened and helped where I could plus I was in the wedding as MoH and the team of brides maids kept the schedule going that day so we were all really involved.   The other weddings that have happened that I was not involved with I didn't go to...  so anyway, this was a new experience and it was definitely different then any of the others.

 

After the wedding I got bad news that a good SCA friend suddenly died.  He has been around since I was very little and always treated us like adults.   The entire situation is not good, mostly because it is so sudden and he left a lot of loose ends.  I feel bad for the people he left behind but he was one that would not have wanted to degrade over time but I'm sure he thought explosions would have been part of his final demise...

 

The rest of the week is the normal amount of busy.  Homework, Class, SCA event on Sat that I think we are leaving early early Sat for so hopefully work will not overflow too badly into real life and I can do what I need to do plus exercise and possibly laundry this week.

 

Only plans for this week in household work is planting bulbs, we had our first hard frost.

In NY

This is an official apology to anyone in the NY NJ area that I did not visit or call when in the area. I came for a wedding but the bigger reason was to see family and friends in Sayville and to possibly get away from work for a long weekend.

My two cute little nephews are in town too so I have had plenty of quality time. I have see little B eat/attempt to eat; napkins, magazine, catfood, Styrofoam and a PC. Nothing got eaten other then food but he likes to try everything. T's favorite word is "no". He doesn't even mean it most of the time but he says it a lot. We are all part time moms for the weekend and it has been fun.

Since 90% of the people who read this are in the same house as me, there is not too much reason to write more.... but for posterity sake, the best phrase of the weekend is "Please don't touch my food, I don't know where you have been"

10/7 Late

Mood: late
Weather: crisp
Gas: $ 2.12

Darn... I had a good streak going there. Oh well, missed a day...

Work has taken over my life with a major problem that includes lots of work at home. It was a great night yesterday because I got to skip the call for class and class is fun this semester so I usually get home in a good mood. The problem is semi undercontrol but I would not call it solved and I'm leaving for NY in the morning (EARLY morning). I am packed and double checked the newest carry on regulations and I am in compliance. Mom, I need to borrow contact solution because they only let you take 3 oz and my travel bottle is 5 oz. I also need to buy deodorant there, you are only allowed one sandwich bag of liquids/gels and I needed to fit my face cream and makeup stuff so the deodorant was the easiest to replace. I suppose the minor inconvenience is worth some added safety.

Thoughts about stuff

This is an exercise in thinking about what stuff you have.  I remember being told that “this pan is older then you”... If I have a baby, pretty much everything in the house will be older then it but then at some point the stuff gets old and you get new stuff and the baby is no longer the youngest thing in the house.

 

Periodically over the past 7 years I have contemplated what stuff I had before x date.  First it was what stuff did I have before Lars?  At the time it was mostly clothing and a few things my parents gave me.  Then each move we got new stuff and old stuff left old stuff go and occasionally I still mentally keep track of what we have from what era.  My parents I’m sure have dates like that, pre US, pre Kids, pre fire etc.  I think the fire put a major dent in the collections from before that point.  I suppose this is how heirlooms are created, they are things that keep making it through various stages of life.  I wonder if it is because the original owner really liked the thing or if it was just something that didn’t break therefore it made it. 

 

 I have never gotten around to actually listing what I have from when, it is more just a thing to think about.

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The 15 min is back!

Mood: Hopeful
Weather: gray but warm, been in the 80's
Gas: $ 2.20
Reading: law stuff

Lars and I both cleaned the whole house for the party and we didn’t just shove things in closets or in the garage, we really threw out stuff or really put it away in the right spot. After the party, clean up was not so bad and Sunday we just were lazy (but not too messy). Yesterday, the house was looking a little untidy again so I said “how about 15 min tonight?” meaning we both clean for 15 min together. We tried this a few months ago and it worked most days but then Lars changed jobs and got too busy/stressed but now he is used to it and having a nice clean house is nice. You would be amazed what 15 x 2 people really can get done. By the third day, you are almost looking for things to do so extra things get done like windows or vacuuming. 15 min a day usually means I don’t need to spend 3 hours on a weekend catching up... Lets hope this one lasts :)

Welcome to October!

The Eighth month in the Roman calendar
This month contains Columbus day (Oct 9), Oktoberfest (all month), Leif Eriksson day (Oct 9th), Webster’s Birthday (Oct 16), the anniversary of the UN (10/24/1945), the anniversary of Alaska as a state (10/18/1867), St Francis’s feast day (10/4) and the end of daylight savings time.

Take a minute to think of any October birthdays or anniversaries that you should get a card for... that and do Oct bills are my to-do this week.

Halloween is my favorite October holiday but next on the agenda I will be celebrating my friends wedding for Columbus Day in NY so this week is a short week. I took Friday and Monday off so I can see family more. I don’t know if we are even doing anything for Halloween, I’ll still decorate some and have the candy, but we are not going out with any kids nor are we invited to any parties.

Work is being extra fun today... will post more later

The uninvited guests

I forgot to mention the rude gross party crashers that snuck in about half way through and annoyed everyone.

I killed them.

They were bees, flys, and Asian lady bugs - about 20 or 30 found their way in. I amused the three guests who stayed late with me hunting bugs with the vacuum but the flys are the hardest to catch and one is still bussing around me now.

His days are numbered

Party

Mood: good
Weather: still nice

The party, I believe, was a great success. We got the house and yard in reasonable order and I was out of the shower before the first guest arrived (just). The only funny problem was probably that I spilled soft scrub (with bleach) on my pants that are made of some sort of non natural swishy fabric so I figured they were saveable so I just threw them in the shower to rinse off the bleach but I ended up leaving them in the tub to drip a bit and then my first guest arrived and they were forgotten. Until... 9 at night when Lars mentioned them, after he and at least 2 other guest showered with them (they had sweaty practice before so this was semi planned shower). Oh well, if pants in the tub were the worst thing I think that is ok.

We had apx 2x the amount of food needed, almost exactly, so good thing we like chicken, burgers and hotdogs. The half a sheet cake is slightly worrying, how long will that keep? The extra crackers and stuff that were out I dumped but all the extra sausage and cheeses got into the fridge in time to be fine. Our goal now is to keep the house fairly neat, maybe it will last :)

I gave away about half of the stuff I wanted to give away. The rest will get packed up for next time, or future gifts, or future reigns, or if someone I like wins crown...

Today I have very little I have to do. I have to get a gift for a baby shower on Monday but other then that I'm free. I want to take a bike ride since the weather is awesome, sunny, crisp, clear and maybe the last of the season. I'm adding to the to-do list plant bulbs but I need to check if we have had our frost yet. I bought the bulbs last week and they are in the garage. I got 150 crocuses for in the yard and about 60 more tulips for the flower bed. I should do something about adding nutrition or something to the flower bed too but there are flowers there at the moment. Last year I think I did bulb planting in November... I should also read my homework chapters but that isn't bad.

Next week I'm in NY for a wedding but mostly to see my parents, friends, and nephews.