Cold continues: I still have the cold, partially because I've only rested one day. My sore throat on Friday was probably from my sinuses draining (note, this is the first time that I've had sinus problems in 30+ years). Nonetheless, I packed Friday night & went to Steve & Anitra's early Saturday morning.
I spent some time with Carry Saturday morning, learning how to use a knitting loom. I used that thread that I bought to attempt tatting; white string with multicolor thread wrapping it, in segments. Since it didn't have a smooth enough twist to slide the knots, that experiment failed. It worked well enough on the knitting loom. I was asked multiple times if it was beaded, that should give a clue about how the multicolor thread wrapped.
When I boothsat for her at dinner & supper, I continued to work on it. We didn't use the entire loom; just a half-dozen pegs or so. It made a somewhat narrow scarf, made narrower by the fact that it curled.
By Saturday night I was so miserable. I had the full-blow cold symptoms; my back ached from shoulders to hips; clogged head & less than full faculties.
I felt better the next morning, especially after taking some alka-seltzer cold remedy. So I worked with Anitra again. Since it rained off & on all day, it was a very slow day. Nonetheless, we kept busy & I finished my scarf. It's almost 6' long; I plan to give it to mom. After Anitra paid me, I went shopping. I bought some stars for my co-workers & some origami cranes for some other folks at work; stuff like that.
Monday, I dragged around & read a couple books. Then Anitra & I found the Hold Your Own in Cameron Village & picked up a couple items. I found a folder to hold my spell templates for D&D plus a 'pocket' that clips onto the vent in my car; to hold my cellphone where I can reach & find it.
I called Chris to cancel gaming, because after all, I'm still sick. Then I called in sick on Tuesday. I went to work on Wednesday, despite still being ill because I had stuff that had to get done.
Get to work; my boss is pissed because I hadn't done the org chart the way that he wanted. I had asked Craig for help because I didn't have anything that could format the way he wanted it. Craig NEVER got back to me, not even a 'I don't have time to help you with this'. So I didn't do it. So my boss did, which pissed him off. The funny thing is; per the way he had it; it was already in OrgPlus that way.
Plus, a funding change disappeared. I know I did it, in mid to late June to early July. But there's no sign of it. The server had some hiccups about that point & I wonder if it got eaten. But my boss is pissed because in the meantime; it's been wrong since July 1. What a welcome back. Of course, this is the same boss who has said thank you about 5 times in the last 5 years. He's not real good with the positive reinforcement.
I cried a bit, because frankly, the way I felt I just didn't need that on top of it. Then I couldn't find my request for the weekend (Thursday through Monday) off. I thought that I had copied the email to my supervisor but no sign of it. I finally found it about 4 pm. Whee.
I got everything done except for getting some action confirmations & let my supervisor know what to expect Thursday, etc. I was sooo glad to get out of there; it's not even funny.
I washed clothes Wednesday night & managed to stain a number of items pink. The first load was white & delicates; including that red silk shirt with the bleach spots. I'll have to check once it dries & see if it dyed the bleached spots. The ultra-soft Japanese print tee that I bought in 'Japan' at Disney World is now pink instead of white; at least it's even.
Thursday morning I packed, my crate of books & PC notebooks plus the drink bag before Chris left so he could take them with him. After my laundry was done I packed my clothes & other stuff. Managing to forget my laundry bag, my tote bag & diddy bag. Luckily, our room & the con are in the same hotel so I won't have to haul around too much. At worst, it's around a couple corners & up a flight of stairs.
I rushed around & got to Rosemary's at 12:30. She & Chris worked til noon & I was first to arrive. We managed to leave her house about 2pm. We got to our hotel, Holiday Inn, about 12:30 am. We missed the last turn & ended up 16 miles (round trip) out of our way.
Books: a couple at S&A's; one was a 'Bad Boy' anthology & I'm not sure about the other one. I read all day Tuesday & don't remember many details; except
Smoke Thief &
Bad Boys Over Easy (anthology). I also read
I Brake for Bad Boys & a Dick Francis novel,
Knockdown I think, on the way to PA.
Tatting: I started a snowflake from Vida Sunderman's Tatted Snowflakes, the 2nd one, & finished it this morning. I also put tatted 'flags' on my D&D spell templates. Only two or three pieces lack anything & I might finish them during gaming.
Clothes: at the Village I wore my ~Colonial outfit all weekend (yay washing machines). Monday I wore jeans & some tee, I don't remember which one, plus the Salem Mass sweatshirt mom found; the black one with the cat eyes. Tuesday I schlepped around in leggings, UNC CAP tee & a chambray shirt, plus slippers.
Wednesday it was black slacks, black knit shirt (long sleeves), Celtic knot jewelry & loose hair. Thursday it was SheVa Con (2005 I think) tee, greyish blue jeans, chambray shirt & white tennis shoes. I wore the Celtic knot jewelry & kept my hair loose so it would dry.
Today it's my long-sleeved grey 'Evolution of the Bull's Head' tee, black jeans & tennies, moonstone ring, earrings & trimoon pendant; plus rope band & flower band.
The connection here at the hotel is pretty bad. So I'm going to try one more time to enter my blog. If it doesn't work; I'll wait until Monday..or later. Okay, I got this posted but I'll add the links later.
Labels: Bad Boys Over Easy, Carry, emotions, I Brake for Bad Boys, knitting, Knockdown, laundry, sick, Smoke Thief, State Fair, tatting, work
Whole lot of 'nothing' I feel much better today, despite only getting 6 hours of sleep last night. I just sat on the couch & tried to nap when I got home. I didn't do anything constructive until 5:30 when I put a small load of laundry into the machine.
Chris's D&D game was last night, plus we gave John his birthday presents (a copy of Spell Compendium & a book by John Matthews). We had to stop in the middle of the fight, it was 10:30 pm. We've taken out all the small fry, that leaves the giant, two lizardmen & the spellcasters. Luckily I think we still have most of our spells.
Today I went to the Star Heels Kick Off (Star Heels is a peer recognition program). I met a few people & talked a little. First, I went to the wrong building & met someone else, Greg from Sports Medicine, who thought the same thing. As a result, we were about 15 minutes late. C'est la vie.
today's outfit: black loafers (the ones that I really need to throw away before they literally disintegrate), black slacks (faded to charcoal grey), black knit top with black & white embroidery plus paste jewels (the black embroidery fills the top 3rd with a lozenge of white in the top center; the paste jewels are 3 above & 5 below the white lozenge with a diamond shape of the 5 within the lozenge, 1 bigger central one); black & grey bead bracelet, silver disc ring, silver dome ring, labdourite pendant (small enough that it doesn't clash with the stuff on the shirt), & the onyx & silver earrings. My hair is braided, again for lack of any better hair style.
I almost missed the bus this morning because I couldn't find my keys. I'd taken them off my bag yesterday and not put them back.
Books: I read Fruit of the Poisoned Tree by Jim & Joyce Lavene. It's the sequal to Pretty Poison. I've also read the first two volumes of Shaolin Sisters, a manga.
Labels: Chris's game, Fruit of the Poisoned Tree, manga, presents, Pretty Poison, Shaolin Sisters, work
Ugh, I stayed up late last night to read Thud by Terry Pratchett. I've read it before. I knew who did it. But I was enjoying it so much and I'd had an otherwise crappy evening.
I caught the next to last bus home so at least I wasn't walking home in the dark but I still like to get home a little earlier than I did. I'd ended up staying at work just long enough to miss the first possible bus and somehow missed the 2nd bus, too. I was packing up to leave when my phone rang. I could have ignored it but something told me to answer it, despite the fact that I'd already turned off my computer. Frankly, if it had been a call to someone else in the office I would have transferred the call & just counted myself as being off work at 5pm. But I had to sit down because it was a call for me to handle (which I did this morning). However, if I'd let the guy go to voice mail I'd be so frustrated this morning. He has a good command of the English language but a thick accent and talking to him, being able to ask him to repeat key portions was massively helpful.
When I got home I found some unexpected fall-out to my roommate's loss of checkbook. He hadn't paid the power bill. So they'd cut the power. Luckily, there was still some light & I have a flashlight on my keys. Plus, Mom gave me a really fabulous flashlight for Christmas (wind up & LED). So I called my roommate, got his credit card number & called the power company to get it switched back on. Did you know that they do not post their phone numer on the disconnect notice? It's very annoying. Once the bill was paid & the connect fee the voice said 'your power will be connected by midnight.' Oh frabjous joy. That blows my evening.
So I went to get some supper & by the time I got back it was dark. I pulled out a couple candles & the flashlights to read & eat supper. They actually got the power back at about 8pm, just before my Mom called. Luckily we have an old-fashioned phone with a cord because the cordless was out of juice. We made plans to meet, in November probably. My month of October is tied up already.
Today's outfit: braided hair (I didn't feel like doing anything else with it), green amber post earrings (lost the back to one this morning), matching green amber necklace (5 cabochons), matching ring, same flat silver rope band, black & green Harrington Steading polo (acid washed black overdyed green), black jeans, 'nude' kneehighs (another cold start & hot finish day), black flats with sequins & beads.
Tatting News: all things considered I got very little done on Linda's necklace yesterday, just a couple rings before work. Nor did I finish the bracelet or get started on blocking. Guess what I hope to accomplish tonight?
Books: Re-read Stephanie Laurens's The Truth About Love yesterday then, of course, read Thud, as I said. Now I'm reading The Hero Strikes Back, by Moira J. Moore. It's a sequel to Resenting the Hero. The cover art is very different between the two books. Resenting looks more Renaissance while Hero looks later, maybe as late as 18th century.
Speaking of books; some authors have gotten together & started a charity help other authors with emergency assistance. They've started auctions on eBay to seed the charity. That way if an author gets hit with a disaster, or long-term illness, there's a fund to help see them through it. This is intended to be a longer term assistance than the usual short-term (like the assistance web comic artists are compiling for Lea Hernandez). Not to dismiss the value of such assistance by no means, but having funds in place for long-term problems is also a good thing.
Addendum to today's outfit: I'm also wearing an owl pin in my collar. I picked it up, & two others, on Saturday at a discount store. It's an enamel pin & pretty good quality.
Labels: Lea Hernandez, Sleep, tatting, The Hero Strikes Back, The Truth About Love, work
Okay, either the bus has been running late all week or it was definitely early this morning. Result? I missed it. Since I had a spare 20-30 minutes before the next one, I decided to walk to the next bus stop. By the way, people notice if you aren't at your regular stop. At least two people, one of whom is a 'bus acquaintance' asked me about it. Since the next stop was only 7 minutes away I was going to walk to the one after that but when the sidewalk crossed the road (ie instead of on both sides of the road it was only on 1), I decided to turn back. Turns out the next stop is at the shopping center. Now I know.
Today's Tatting: I screwed up the Mary Konior cross. I tried 'adjust' it to eliminate the thread ends & ended up with something very odd. It will take some examination to fix & since I'm on a little time crunch, I put it aside & started over. I'm still waiting for Karey to reply to my question about my UFO. Hey, some people don't check their email every, single, day.
today's outfit: plaited hair (black elastic); dark green Geoff polo, black jeans, black trouser socks (it's cool enough), black fabric flats (as yesterday), black stone ring & my one really good set of jewelry. The emerald & gold earring/necklace set that Chris gave me. Okay, the emeralds are really small; but they are visible.
Looks like I'll be working on Saturday. It will be overtime at least. I need to clean up my office/desk area and face it, during the week there are too many interruptions.
I finished cards to all of my maternal aunts, I need to address envelopes & mail them. My problem is that I have the wrong address for one, since her last card bounced. I need to fix it before I mail the next one (enclosing the bounced one).
Labels: bus, letter, tatting, work
Firday, TGIF! Plus, it's payday. Not that it does me much good. I've already spent most of it. Love those bills 8-P
Today's outfit: black loafers, gauze broomstick skirt w/ teal as main color, teal net shirt over pale blue tank, spoon ring, dragon ring, dragon pendant, pink/teal 'stained glass' earrings, & teal hair sticks holding my hair in half-bun.
Finished the data entry & the highlighting & the FBMO 90's. Yeah. Lots to do at home still.
Labels: work
Today's outfit: pale grey 'Dendarii Free Mercenaries' polo, white/green/blue plaid gauze skirt (ankle length+), black loafers, spoon ring, silver twisted band, silver hoops earrings, moon & star MoP pendant and loose hair (I washed it this morning & I hesitate to put it up until it's at least mostly dry). Unfortunately this skirt doesn't have pockets, (what gauze skirt does?) so I can't wear my pocket watch.
I managed to get most of the personnel stuff done yesterday. Now I'm catching up on Leave records. I've learned that I only have about 5 minutes AWL to make up (that 's Adverse Weather Leave). Since Ashley is sick she's not here today or tomorrow. I'll just leave a note on the door and take a 55 minute lunch today. Then tomorrow I'll decide if I'm going to use slightly less vacation by taking a short lunch.
I finished re-reading
Star Princess yesterday. It's not a great book, the world building is, ahem, not scientifically sound. Salt is rare throughout the galaxy except on earth? I just can't see sodium chloride as rare. But it's still an entertaining story.
Labels: Star Princess, work
Today's outfit: rose turtleneck, black slacks & half-boots, black vest decorated with paint appliqued calico roses (shades of pink, rose, grey & green), watch chain across the vest, spoon ring (not silver, the coating is starting to wear through on the band), silver band, silver & black dangling earrings, Mucha inspired silver pendant on black leather cord (present from Germany), & my hair is loose.
It's been a confusing day. I planned to leave at quarter til today, but I wanted to wait until the person I'd contacted about her lost keys came by to get them. She got them & now I'm going to leave. Good night, Gracie.
Labels: work
It was great talking to Heather last night. We talked for an hour & a half & then spent another half hour looking at books. I'm so glad that I saw her on Friday.
Today's outfit: navy slack, navy turtleneck, brown half boots, oxblood belt, dragon earrings, pendant & ring, spoon ring & hair in a ponytail. I was wearing a cream sweater but it's a little too warm in my office.
I did a bunch of crosswords at lunch. Got 3 of them done. Got another done while the network was down this afternoon. The spare office is cleared out now, except for the 2 boxes that the accounting people need to take care of. Hopefully we can get the desk moved in tomorrow.
I'm going to get some more typing on my project. Then it will be off for home.
Labels: Heather, work
Today's outfit: black half-boots, purple slacks (just a hint too loose), dark purple tank with connected purple long-sleeved blouse (striped satin & chiffon & thin gold), celtic knot pendant on chain, knot earrings, knot ring, grey agate ring, silver band & fem ring. My hair is in a knot/ponytail held with hair pin with bells.
I'm handling a long phone call with a guy asking about the new job posting. Most of the questions, I can't answer. It's been at least a 20 minute call at this point.
Labels: work
I'm almost caught up. But I still have a lot to do.
Today's outfit: same brown half-boots & same brown belt, different navy slacks, navy scoop neck knit shirt, brown shirt with open neck trimmed in geometrically embroidered ribbon (I made the shirt), braided hair by blue elastic, silver band with 4 greenish pieces of turquoise, silver spoon ring engraved with an 'M', 3 ages of woman pendant & turquoise & coral earrings. The brown shirt is long & I'm wearing it out so it covers me to my hips.
I finished the 2nd book of the
The Seven Brothers by Curt Benjamin yesterday. The first book was
The Prince of Shadows, 2nd one is
The Prince of Dreams & the 3rd will be
The Gates of Heaven. I'm really looking forward to reading it. Alas, it will not be soon. I thought that the protagonist, Llesho would find one brother in each book but he's already found 4 of his 6 brothers. Of course, although he thinks his sister Ping is dead I'm pretty certain that she's actually alive. I do wonder what happened to their mother, though.
Labels: Prince of Dreams, Prince of Shadows, Seven Brothers, work
Network went out yesterday afternoon so today I am playing catch up. Whee!
Today's outfit: navy turtleneck (another unseasonably cool/cold day), tapestry vest, navy slacks, brown half-boots, brown belt, silver flower band, fem figure ring, flower stamp earrings, & braided hair (blue elastic). Nothing exciting or interesting today, except the maybe the vest. Oh & today I remembered my watch, so the watch chain is showing from my right pants pocket to where it's clipped to a belt loop.
Time to go check the mail & go attend to my ever-growing list.
Labels: work
Yesterday was very Monday. 1) A lot, to all, of Woodcroft lost power sometime early in the morning. So no alarm clock, get dressed by candlelight (yeah, it
is black & not navy), dare not open the fridge 'just in case' so can't pack a lunch, and get to work only a little late, with no coherent idea what kind of weather to expect for the day.
2) Jammed the 'supply' drawer where I keep the stamps & the mail key. 3) Broke my necklace while trying to open it. 4) Overate at lunch (all you can eat, Top of Lenoir). 5) endured a nasty headache all afternoon - bordering on migraine as I drove home
On the bright side: drank @6 glasses of water, walked for 15 minutes, finished catching up on
Queen of Wands and there was power when I got home. We cancelled gaming, just in case. Chris made hamburgers (outdoor grill or indoor stove depending in conditions).
The weekend was great. Saturday, the weather was beautiful and I played 2 RPGA Living Greyhawk games on Saturday, walked Rosemary's dogs & had a great lunch & supper w/ Chris & Rosemary & other gamers. Lunch was with Lyman G., Joe J, & Mike M. Supper we had with people whose names I don't know really well. Lyman is a ova-lacto vegetarian (ethical-based) on the Atkins diet. He eats lots of vegetables he says. Greek food for lunch & Japanese food for supper. Yum. Earl was very nice to me, partially because I gave up my seat in the second slot to let a complete newcomer play. I admit, it was nice of me, but someone at some point has done something similar for me. Just because I don't remember it, doesn't mean that I shouldn't repay that debt to someone else.
Sunday I ran Diane Y, Steve F., Chris, Rosemary & Doug W in the LG game "When Orcs Attack", or as Steve called it 'When Orcs Get Sodomized." The big bad foes in the game were Diane's character's favored enemy; Keelin's a ranger. So she wiped them from the board before they even managed to close to melee range. Everyone had fun & did some great roleplaying.
Yesterday's outfit: black slacks, black half-boots, black bateau neck summer sweater, Celtic knot pendant on long chain (now broken, literally split 2 links), knot ring & knot earrings, plus bronze rose hair clip (the larger one) holding my hair in a knot. I also wore my black leather UNC baseball cap & the tan trenchcoat that mom gave me.
Today's outift: plum slacks, black loafers, white shawl collar blouse (collar drapes over my shoulders), tri-moon rainbow moonstone pendant, rainbow moonstone earrings, moonstone ring, 'M' spoon ring, silver flower band, Fem power ring, & the same hair clip holding my hair in a fall. Lately I've been wearing the pocket watch that I ordered from publishers clearing house. It's a watch that my skin will not eat the chrome backing.
Labels: Chris, Diane Y, Doug W, Earl, headache, Living Greyhawk, Lyman, Mike M. Joe J., power outage, Queen of Wands, Rosemary, Steve F, When Orcs Attack, work
Remember what I last posted about having 3 hours to get my work done is a bit scant? I'm still a little behind but I'm better than I was. Linda did the check requests so that's one less but I had to do the meal plan reports because my student assistant feels that going to grad school is a good thing & maybe she should, um, actually go to the auditions (she's a singer) to get in. So I spent most of 3 hours after class the last 2 days just getting those done, plus whatever else popped up.
I found Chris's Valentine Day present. And since I had to stay late last night getting my confidential email address, to handle HR stuff, etc, I can leave early today to try & get it. Yay me! And yay cranky computer.
I still have lots to do so it's back to work.
Labels: Chris's present, work
Class from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, plus travel time = 5 hours away from desk. That leaves 3 hours to get my work done. I'm a little bit behind as a result. Leave records are done. Check requests are not. My supervisor did the copying on the FBMO's so that's one less task for me.
Found checkbook last night. Mailed car insurance & TV Guide renewal today. Good thing!
Entertaining game last night but fell asleep. Falling asleep better than having a hissy fit & screaming at two of the other players.
My bf works late tonight, we may have supper together tonight, if he picks something up. Or I may eat on my own & he gets something for himself.
Still haven't done my homework for tomorrow's class. Guess I get a long lunch coming to me on Friday, as I work more than 8 hours today. Wheee!
Labels: gaming, work
I was so miserable at 9 am that all I wanted to do was to leave work early. But first I had to take care of HR stuff & then do accounting stuff. I finished the accounting stuff at 4pm. Now, I realize that I feel human & have for a little while now. My throat doesn't hurt, much, & I can breathe through my nose.
Yay!
I sent out the sympathy card to my Great-Aunt Martha today. She might get it as early as tomorrow. When I talked to Mom last night, to get Aunt Martha's address, Mom said that she had just received her card & I sent that Wednesday.
Tomorrow Chris & I are hosting an RPGA:Living Greyhawk game. It's a special mission for Just Phelps to regain his human species & regain his place among the Knights of the Watch. He was Watcher Phelps, so when he lost his place, temporarily, he became known as Just Phelps. I'm not playing, it's APL 10 & my character is only 7th level. I have other characters, but they are even lower.
Sunday is Rosemary's Forgotten Realms game. That should be entertaining. We've all gone shopping for new goodies & now we start the next module. We won't get experience from this one until the very end. We may jump a couple levels when that happens.
I've written a letter to my Aunt Jeri & Uncle Warren, in Illinois. I finished it too late for it to go into today's mail, so I'll send it tomorrow.
Labels: Forgotten Realms, Great-Aunt Martha, Living Greyhawk, work
As it turns out, I did make one mistake on the financial reports. I entered the wrong number on one line, which changed the results of another report. Still, it was the best I've done yet so I remain proud. I paid the price for that concentration though. When I left work at 2pm to go get my car my brain shut down. I literally had trouble thinking. That is an extremely uncomfortable state for me.
I have my car back & it is shiny. A good wash will do that to a car. They also vacuumed it. There are some leaves in the trunk & that is all. I drove it yesterday & the odometer still doesn't work properly. I took the bus today as I will refrain from driving the car as much as I can until I get that fixed. The new odometer will cost $480, with the labor being about $150. If I can locate a used odometer, Saturn will install, they just want guarantee it. That's up to my part source. * why is 'a used anything' & not 'an used anything'?
I stopped by Rose's last night & bought the frame for the picture of myself. Mom complained that she doesn't have any recent pictures of me. This photo will change that. I posed & James took the picture while I was in Charlotte. I suppose that I should write that information on the back of the photo in archival ink. Not that the glass or the backing are archival quality. I wonder if Mom meant that she wanted a photo for her wallet?
Did I mention that I have a new nephew? My step-brother had a son on January 1st. My dad sent me Stephen's website where the proud father has posted pictures of the little guy.
Labels: car damage, nephew, self-portrait, work
Today is full of good things. I finished the monthly financial reports & I only had 2 questions. One was a reminder on how to handle something & one was a question about a couple accounts that did not get printed. Either way, I didn't spend half an hour searching for an answer & checking my math & my data entry. This is a red letter day.
Labels: work
Since the activities for the Students for the Advancement of Race Relations week in the Pit were rained out, the assorted a cappella groups performed in Lenoir instead. They sang just upstairs from the Ram Cafe. Since I ate lunch 11:40 to 12:40 I got to hear about 4 groups. Very nice but some of them need to either learn for the back up to sing quieter or the front singer to sing louder.
I'm finished with FBMO 90's for another month (yeah!). Actually, I'm finished for more than a month. Someone else is learning to do them next month so I don't have to do them.
I got a lot done at work today. It just feels like I didn't. I only have to look at my reminder page to know that I accomplished quite a bit. My reminder page is a sheet of scrap paper that I use to do things like take phone messages, until I'm ready to copy them neatly onto phone message slips; write reminders of tasks; write out thoughts about the tasks I need to do; & so on. If nothing else, it's a good use of faxed spam.
OneCard IT brought me Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I don't know where they got them but now there is only 1 left out of the 10 that they brought this morning. I love Krispy Kreme, but I'm glad that other people came & ate them too. I do not need to eat 10 doughnuts all by myself.
I had sushi again for lunch today. I just wasn't in the mood for the frozen dinner that I brought. It's rainy/misty/drizzly & I'm going to head home.
Labels: Krispy Kreme, work, World of Music
